Top films to watch on TV this week
WEDNESDAY
Carmen Jones (1954) BBC2, 2.50p.m. An updated version of Bizet’s opera Carmen, telling the story of a seductive girl who raises the temperature at the military base where she works making parachutes.
Although she could have her choice of the soldiers, the one Carmen really wants is upstanding pilot Joe, who happens to already have a sweet fiancee. However, he finds it hard to resist Carmen’s sultry charms and they embark on a passionate affair that looks set to have tragic consequences.
As if rewriting a classic opera wasn’t daring enough, this musical also features an all-black cast - a rarity for a mainstream film of the time. However, it’s a risk that paid off handsomely, as Harry Belafonte and the Oscar-nominated Dorothy Dandridge do a great job of capturing the passion of the tale.
And Munster rugby fans will surely recognise the ‘Stand up and fight’ tune, based on the Toreador Song in Bizet’s opera
FRIDAY
The Gay Divorcee (1934) BBC2, 2.45p.m.
An unhappily married American woman Mimi Glossop (Ginger Rogers) travels to a British seaside resort to get away. But her meddling Aunt Hortense (Alice Brady) has set her up with another man, hoping it will lead to divorce.
Sure enough, a dashing performer (Fred Astaire) turns up and begins to follow her around, leading to many a song and dance - and also much confusion when it turns out he is not the man hired by her aunt.
This joyful musical comedy was the second on-screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and won three Academy Award nominations, as well as the first
Oscar for Best Song - The Continental. Co-starring Edward Everett Horton and Betty Grable.
SATURDAY
Life of Pi (2012) Channel 4, 6.55p.m. Director Ang Lee’s visually stunning take on Yann Martel’s novel features an inquisitive writer (Rafe Spall), who turns up at the door of Pi Patel (Irrfan Khan), having been told the stranger’s life story deserves to be immortalised in print.
In flashback, Pi recounts his youth as the son of a circus owner (Adil Hussain), who decided to sell the business in Pondicherry and emigrate to Canada with his family.
A raging storm causes the freighter to overturn and young Pi (Suraj Sharma) escapes in a lifeboat along with a zebra, orang-utan, hyena and a tiger called Richard Parker. The rest of the clan, including Pi’s older brother Ravi ( Vibish Sivakumar), perish at sea.
As the days pass, the predators prevail until just Richard Parker and Pi remain, trapped together in a vast expanse of water.
SUNDAY
Joy (2015) Channel 4, 11.15p.m. With Jennifer Lawrence in the titular role and narration by Joy’s benevolent grandmother Mimi (Diane Ladd), David O Russell’s fragmented celebration of womanhood meets the title character following her divorce from her singer husband, Tony. They remain good friends and still live together with their children and her estranged parents.
When Joy cleans up shattered glasses filled with red wine using a traditional mop, the idea for the Miracle Mop is born. Weathering scorn from her embittered sister Peggy, Joy takes her prototype to an executive at a home shopping channel, who provides her with a platform to realise her dreams.
Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro reteam with Russell and Lawrence following their success with Silver Linings Playbook.
MONDAY
True Lies (1994) Film4, 9p.m. Suave superspy Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) spends his days battling international terrorism, but his bored wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) is under the impression he’s a computer salesman.
She decides to spice up her life but gets more than she bargained for when she ends up in the clutches of a gang who have stolen a nuclear weapon. It’s up to her husband to save her and, if he gets time, the rest of the world.
The first two Terminator films proved that Schwarzenegger and director James Cameron are something of a dream team, and this movie is almost as good.
The slender plot is little more than an excuse for a string of outrageous action set pieces, but they are so entertaining you really won’t care, especially as Curtis makes such a great foil for Schwarzenegger.