Films on TV round-up: the WTF edition

I like to think of this weekly feature as a fairly broad church. In this spirit I bring you a film I've never seen, and another that I have, but in which I didn't have the faintest fucking clue what was going on.

Commencing: Monday 19th March 2012

Love Exposure (2008) Friday, Film4, 11.05pm



I've been meaning to watch Love Exposure for a while. As with most Japanese cultural output that features schoolgirl characters (ie about 98% of it), the fact that I want to see it makes me feel like some sort of ageing, sexually unfulfilled upskirt fetishist. Now, I enjoy violent, exploitative pornography that simulates sexual assaults on public transport as much as the next guy, but the Japanese? They're a weird bunch. There, I've said it.

Come on, they're a bunch of mentalists. I mean, look at this trailer, for crying out loud.

Tapped, the lot of them. But it looks kind of interesting at least, no? The stylised editing, the self-consciousness weirdness? You're in, right? Good.

Oh, it's four hours long, by the way. Sorry, did I forget to mention that bit?
Synecdoche, New York (2008) Saturday, BBC2, 11.40pm



As a man of letters, I actually know what a synechdoche is, if not how to pronounce it. It's when a part of something is used to describe the whole thing, such as when calling Ashton Kutcher a cock.

This didn't help me much when watching Synechdoche, New York, however, because I didn't have the foggiest idea what was happening throughout most of it. It's undoubtedly very clever, and refreshingly free of the sense that it wants you to know how clever it is, but as for actively enjoying it - well, it could have done with a few more killer robots for my money.

Written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, it shows us Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theatre director who gets a McArthur Fellowship and uses it to create a never-ending play of his own life, staged within a warehouse in which is gradually being built a full-scale replica of New York City, as he himself begins to succumb to death and various personal crises.

No, me neither. Interesting, though, right? In terms of examining the concept of the self whilst simultaneously showing it being eroded and all that?

Fuck, I hope Con Air's on next week.
Also on this week

The Devil's Advocate Monday, ITV2, 9pm (also Friday, 10pm)
The Fifth Element Monday, 5*, 9pm
A Clockwork Orange Monday, ITV4, 10pm
Tightrope Tuesday, ITV4, 9pm
The Last of the Mohicans Tuesday, 5USA, 9pm (also Saturday, 9pm)
The Last House on the Left (2009) Tuesday, ITV4, 11.20pm
Star Trek: Insurrection Wednesday, E4, 8pm
Live and Let Die Wednesday, ITV4, 9pm (also Thursday, 4.20pm)
Aliens Wednesday, E4, 10pm
The Butterfly Effect Wednesday, Film4, 11.10pm
Conan the Destroyer Wednesday, ITV4, 11.30pm
Field of Dreams Thursday, ITV4, 6.50pm
Senna Thursday, Sky Atlantic, 9pm (also Saturday, 11.05pm)
The Man with the Golden Gun Thursday, ITV4, 9pm (also Friday, 4.30pm)
Cleaner Thursday, C5, 10pm
Smokin' Aces Thursday, ITV4, 11.30pm
The Towering Inferno Friday, ITV3, 11.10pm
The Others Friday, Film4, 9pm
The Spy Who Loved Me Friday, ITV4, 9pm (also Saturday, 4.25pm)
Taxi Driver Saturday, Dave, 9pm
Independence Day Saturday, E4, 9pm
Dogma Saturday, Film4, 9pm
Moonraker Saturday, ITV4, 9pm
Bug Saturday, Film4, 11.25pm