FILMS OF THE WEEK

THE BIG MOVIE

A Little Chaos (2014) 12 Saturday, 9.30pm, BBC2 In France during the reign of Louis

XIV, the gardens of the palace of Versailles are being constructed by the King’s landscape architect, Andre Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts), who hires Sabine De Barra (Kate Winslet, above) to build an outside ballroom with fountains. Andre is a celebrated man, but also a lonely, melancholy soul, while Sabine is a commoner, haunted by a tragic past, who quickly becomes a novelty at court. The film, directed by Alan Rickman (who also stars as Louis XIV), is a work of fiction, grounded in real characters and real achievements – the gardens, for example, still stand today. But for all the talk of earth and muck, of chaos and innovation, the film is tidy and pristine, with a comforting sense of the familiar in its period drama style and structure.

CLASSIC FILM CHOICE

The Rake’s Progress (1945) U Sunday, 6.10pm, Talking Pictures TV Inspired by William Hogarth’s series of descriptive paintings (1732-34), this comedy follows the life of an out-and-out cad, a man with few redeeming qualities, who thrives on his boundless charm (and his father’s not entirely limitless money). Rex Harrison (above, with his real-life wife, Lilli Palmer) is just the right balance of delightful and awful as Vivian Kenway, boldly pleasing himself and leaving a trail of destruction and broken hearts in his wake. In Hogarth’s original paintings, the rake’s progress was strictly downhill, but for the British filmmaking powerhouse of Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder – who wrote the story with screenwriter Val Valentine – this wouldn’t do. Vivian is given the opportunity to redeem himself and atone for his life of reckless abandon.