FILMS OF THE WEEK

THE BIG MOVIE

Life Of Pi (2012) PG Saturday, 8pm, Ch4 Adapting Yann Martel’s Booker Prizewinning novel from 2001 was an ideal opportunity to showcase the leaps and bounds made by visual effects technology. Described as ‘unfilmable’, Martel’s spiritual tale is steeped in fantastical, impossible events. A story of faith and survival, it follows the dramatic sinking of a Noah’s Ark freighter transporting zoo animals from Pondicherry in India to Canada. Sixteen-year-old Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma, above) is the only human survivor of the wreck, and is stranded at sea in a small lifeboat with a maneating tiger. The animals created with CGI are breathtakingly real, especially Richard Parker, the tiger, and the drift into yet more magical territory at a mid-ocean oasis is stunning. The film was showered with awards, among them the Best Visual Effects Oscar.

CLASSIC FILM CHOICE

The Charge Of The Light Brigade (1968) PG Friday, 4.35pm, Film4 The Crimean War encounter of October 25, 1854 is one of the most notorious defeats of British forces in history. The bravery of the men who fought and died is undisputed, but the actions of the officers who sent the cavalry into the ‘valley of death’ – as Tennyson described it in his famous poem – have been repeatedly questioned. Tony Richardson’s film, the second of two features about the infamous battle, is roundly critical of the officers, Lord Cardigan and Lord Raglan, played by Trevor Howard and John Gielgud (above, with Jill Bennett), who are seen to take duty towards their soldiers too lightly. The film is a product of the 1960s, pitching soldiers as casualties of class and privilege, and Western intervention overseas as unwelcome. A powerful film that was, in many ways, ahead of its time.