Brits with digital: Aren't we supposed to have free FilmFour now?

it is replacing/has replaced funky more4 + 1 on freeview.

i hope they do things like play random oop foreign films late at night.

Which prob does mean the sub-tarintino i spose, though prob the odd foreign one for keeping up appearences purposes...

http://www.channel4.com/film/listings/f4-listings.jsp?channel=F4&offset=17

6 o'clock slot seems to be identical to the 4 o'clock slot on more 4 at the moment (This Happy Breed, The Way Ahead, Spy In Black, good matinee fodder repeatedly endlessly).

first night, for instance, is Lost In Translation, Sexy Beast and Internal Affairs. second is (um, has just started giving errors), third (from my cache) is Topaz, Horse Feathers, Explorers, Elizabeth, Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, Voyage To Italy...

Sunday 23 Jul FilmFour (Filmfour +1 an hour later) FilmFour Weekly
18:00 Lost In Translation (21:00)
20:00 Sexy Beast (23:00)
22:00 Infernal Affairs (00:40)
00:00
02:00

Monday 24 Jul FilmFour (Filmfour +1 an hour later) FilmFour Weekly
18:00 This Happy Breed (15:00)
20:00 Music Behind The Scenes - Love (17:00)
22:00 Duck Soup (18:00)
00:00 Strictly Ballroom (19:15)
02:00 The Fifth Element (21:00)
23:25 Ghost World
01:30 The Mambo Kings
Tuesday 25 Jul FilmFour (Filmfour +1 an hour later) FilmFour Weekly
18:00 Topaz (15:00)
20:00 Horse Feathers (17:40)
22:00 Explorers (18:55)
00:00 Elizabeth (21:00)
02:00 Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (23:20)
01:20 Voyage to Italy
Wednesday 26 Jul FilmFour (Filmfour +1 an hour later) FilmFour Weekly
18:00 The Way Ahead (15:00)
20:00 Monkey Business (17:25)
22:00 The Madness of King George (19:00)
00:00 Zoolander (21:00)
02:00 Festival (23:00)
01:05 Calvaire
Thursday 27 Jul FilmFour (Filmfour +1 an hour later) FilmFour Weekly
18:00 The Spy In Black (15:00)
20:00 Double Indemnity (16:55)
22:00 The African Queen (19:00)
00:00 Road To Perdition (21:00)
02:00 Infernal Affairs (23:10)
01:05 Ghost Dog - The Way Of The Samurai
Friday 28 Jul FilmFour (Filmfour +1 an hour later) FilmFour Weekly
18:00 This Happy Breed (15:00)
20:00 A Countess From Hong Kong (17:10)
22:00 Strictly Ballroom (19:10)
00:00 Lost In Translation (21:00)
02:00 Apocalypse Now (23:00)
01:50 Live Flesh

(At first I thought it was "When the film actually starts, really" but it makes no sense now, it did for the pre-28th film schedules)

Lucy Liu in aviatrix gear=YES CHANNEL 4, I'LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT.

I hope to watch nothing but this channel from now on. Unfortuantely they repeat films over and over, so I may have to take the odd break.

Explorers
Thirteen conversations about one thing
Voyage to Italy
Calvaire
The spy in black
A countess from Hong Kong

Haven't seen Festival, but iirc it's the Annie Griffin (book group) film set at the Edinburgh festival.

xpost

i like 'the spy in black'.

b&w british thriller (is on Ch4 matinees about twice a year). german u-boat comes ashore in scotland to rendevous with the local school mistress who is really a german agent... great little film with a twist i forget everytime i see it.

> miyazaki films every day for a week!

specifically:
Fri 04 16:45 Castle Of Cagliostro
Sat 05 16:45 Kiki's Delivery Service
Sun 06 16:30 Princess Mononoke
Mon 07 16:55 Laputa: Castle In The Sky
Tue 08 17:10 My Neighbour Totoro
Wed 09 16:45 Nausicaa Of The Valley Of Wind
Thu 10 17:15 Porco Rosso
Fri 11 16:45 Princess Mononoke
Sat 12 17:05 My Neighbour Totoro
Sun 13 16:55 Laputa: Castle In The Sky
Mon 14 17:05 Kiki's Deliver Service
Tue 15 16:45 Nausicaa Of The Valley Of Wind
Wed 16 16:45 Porco Rosso
Thu 17 17:10 Castle Of Cagliostro

(couldn't find a dedicated miyasaki thread to post this to)

(yes to Explorers question btw)

So what time? what's the time in brackets?

I don't mind adverts anymore cause I can just press the "skip 30 secs" button six or so times on my Humax magic box and that's the end of them. Except when I go back to watch the Frosties advert.

My remote doesn't have a slidy pulldown bit. I'm only slightly sad about that.

Voyage to Italy - I'm going to stick my N. oout here and say it is the best film ever. It's so good, I have it on DVD and have no intention of selling it. I was going to seel it, buyt then I realsied it is How I Feel About Life, so I kept it. Shere Khan is in it.

Wow, will definitely record this then.

this one has LM's commentary

That's Shere Kahn on the right. He committed suicide in a hotel overlooking where I used to live. I was very impressed.

It cost £200 and it's brilliant. Everyone should get one, just for the pully-down thing.

I can't wait for Journey To Italy.

If you press it enough times you get the winning Lotto numbers!

Thirteen conversations about one thing

I've not seen this since it was released in America (oooh, what, five years ago?), but I remember really enjoying it. Of course, I was in my big indie phase at the time (Sitting around and talking is the new Will Smith blows shit up in a spaceship!), so it could just be a big old pile of wank. Worth checking out, though.

Judi Dench was also dressed as a crab or a lobster or something. I can't recall what indignity they inflicted upon Willem Defoe. It was the Film4 ad campaign - various film stars kitted out like students during Rag Week, handing out flyers for the channel relaunch. I'm sure someone can link to a billboard image.

http://channel4.com/film/media/pf/faqs-main.jpg

trailer here: http://channel4.com/film/ffchannel/index.html

so far i have taped but not watched Infernal Affairs and have set the video for Cavliare (which is about a haunted vauxhall cavalier. or something). oh, and Ghost World.

I think this channel is finally going to do away with the "need" for DVDs. After all, I don't really care what's on, as long as it's not Britain's Next Big Belly or something. Plus, the fact that I've seen most of the films means that I can quite happily switch on for the last half hour of, say, The Motorocycle Diaries, without the usual overwhelming sense of futility.

It doesn't help that I work on the damn things, and know how shittily they are put together.

(Relax - I mean Terry and June box sets.)

The problem with digital is I feel guilty when I watch BBC2. Especially if it is a repeat of BBC4 progs on BBC2 (Lefties last night).

watched zoolander for the first time last night, not too bad.

film4 is definitely filling some kind of void in my life, or stealing precious time. one or the other. meh.

The baddie is watching THE ITALIAN JOB on his big telly!

I don't blame him.

Film Four is now just a load of repeats. It has ceased to be of interest.

Surely it will flop. All that money on promotion and nothing to promote.

I need to se that "Do you want ADEZ?" advert again, because I recognised everywhere on it, but I've forgotten where it was. Barcelona, I suppose. It usually is.

That last paragraph was a sideline, referring to a real life convesation of sorts at LAMBETH VEGETABLE ANIMAL SHOW 2006.

who has the time to watch more than one new film a day anyway?

also, repeats are good things, gives the tivo some leaway to avoid clashes with other things. that said, the film four logo they use on the tivo is a mess and really distracting compared to the sober bbc ones.

I would sooner watch CBeebies than Mayasaki. That is me being controversial, via the medium of fibs.

She thinks Eric Rohmer is "cack".

Watching Ed Norton getting beat up is always fun as well.

Lazy Town = what it is like to be on crack.

Mind you, I think it is a nostalgia thing, like Carry On films. They are never as good when you watch them as a cynical adult, as opposed to as an impressionable child.

Nevertheless, I think the original Italina Job hinges on some basic psychological truths, which are absent from the new version. I mean things like balancing on the cliff edge.

I was thinking about this, you see. I may have to think some more. I draw the line at actually watching either of them again.

Rabbit Proof Fence was on last night - are the other channels competing with Film 4?

My wife set out on quite an entertaining rant about ex-gymnasts ending up on Lazy Town yesterday. I should have taped it and turned it into a podcast.

(although that's not the solution i'd heard (via Mark Kermode))

hurrah!

"A great deal of the chase sequence was used in the MacGyver episode "The Thief of Budapest", as one might expect set in Budapest rather than Turin."

hahaha i remember this ep.

(i alwyas thought showing Blue on tv in widescreen so there were bars above and below was funny. in a bad way)

The setting is a world with three suns,

IMPOSSIBLE!

where a tri-solar eclipse

IMPOSSIBLE!

allows screeching, flesh-hungry creatures to emerge from underground.

IMPOSSIBLE!

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Extrasolar-Planet-In-Trinary-Star-System-Discovered-4792.shtml

xpost

taped Spy In Black Yesterday only to find they'd tacked a short on the end of it to pad it to two hours. nice idea (apart from the waste of tape / disk space) but would be more useful if they were listed somewhere.

dunno, haven't watched it, just flicked through it whilst checking the end of the recording. was a contemporary ch4-funded thing, i think, like the one with Ewen McGregor that they sometime show ('Solid Geometry' perhaps? 'Anno Domini'?)

um, http://www.channel4.com/film/shortsandclips/shorts.html

am having a bit of a P&P week by accident - Blimp on saturday, Canterbury on sunday, Silver Fleet yesterday... all taped over the last 2 months but only gotten around to since daily NYPD Blue finished on More4.

(wasn't there a more Ghibli thread somewhere? last time i searched it claimed to not find the word 'miyasaki' so i gave up and posted here)

"we are showing both the dubbed and subtitled versions of each film in the forthcoming Studio Ghibli season, beginning this Friday with The Castle of Cagliostro - the first time a film plays it will be in the dubbed version, and then its second play will be the subtitled version."

English - Dubbed
Fri 04th Aug - The Castle Of Cagliostro (4.55pm)
Sat 05th Aug - Kiki's Delivery Service (4.55pm)
Sun 06th Aug - Princess Mononoke (4.30pm)
Mon 07th Aug - Laputa Castle In The Sky (4.55pm)
Tue 08th Aug - My Neighbour Totoro (5.10pm)
Wed 09th Aug - Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Winds (4.45pm)
Thu 10th Aug - Porco Rosso (5.15pm)

Japanese - Subtitled
Fri 11th Aug - Princess Mononoke (4.45pm)
Sat 12th Aug - My Neighbour Totoro (5.05pm)
Sun 13th Aug - Laputa Castle In The Sky (4.55pm)
Mon 14th Aug - Kiki's Delivery Service (5.05pm)
Tue 15th Aug - Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Winds (4.45pm)
Wed 16th Aug - Porco Rosso (4.45pm)
Thu 17th Aug - The Castle Of Cagliostro (5.10pm)

PJM: "Very Much".

am taping The Trouble With Harry this afternoon - Shirley with her cute Fran Kubelik hair. am not taping Above Us The Waves but only because i've seen it in the last 12 months.

(must watch italian job at least once... not seen it yet.)

Next up : The Blake Witch Project. Very very frightening me!

BBC1 - Lake Placid - a Big Crocodile film

Tomorrow on Film 4 - The Motorcycle Diaries

Don't sya I neve give you no viewing tips

I think that was about three minutes longer than I lasted the time I tried to watch "The Hole".

The "other" channels have films on tonight, quite "good" ones, but I have forgotten them.

now have about 10 F4 things yet to watch, mostly foreign. i can see this becoming a problem...

(thought Wolfman was an odd choice for 3pm given that it is kinda creepy despite being ages old)

'Rome, Open City' gonna be shown at 1am, just like when it was aired on BBC 4.

Horray!

(I don't know why I'm so excited about this since I own the films on dvd already...)

Have already missed yesterday's showing of the first ep of 'I, Claudius'

:-(

watching 'gimme shelter' later.

If you can't get into him, it's probably one of the better ones to watch, as it's a good deal less obtuse than say Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke.

Me too, it's my new second favourite ghibli film (after totoro...which is on tomorrow! Although that's the one that I have on DVD already, so I might skip it).

first one i saw, stumbled across it one saturday afternoon on itv in late 80s and was immediately enthralled. not seen the newly voiced version though.

> The "other" channels have films on tonight, quite "good" ones, but I have forgotten them.

"Speed 2: Cruise Control"?

dear Film 4, you only show 5 or 6 things a day so why split them over two pages on your web listings? grrr. and why show a 'later' link when there isn't anything on later.

I don't think I've ever seen anything so bleak, in fact.

I am getting really, really tired of that "creators of da oscar-winning Spirited Away" trailer in EVERY BREAK.

Hope they show some non-Miyazaki films other than Grave Of The Fireflies. My Neighbours The Yamadas looks kind-of odd and un-Ghibli like.

I liked this disney dub a lot more than I expected to though. A few plot points were clarified quite nicely without seeming too patronising. Admittedly the film only has about 4 plot points in total, which is a big part of what makes it great, but I'd always found them to be quite vague ones. Having little things like "mai thinks the corn will make mum well again" actually specified instead of implied worked quite well, I think. It's aimed at kids, after all.

I'm a sucker for all the cutesy stuff too though, admittedly.

I like the way that the can be a great film without any need for bad/evil characters, and more about cuddly things. Cuddly huge animals spirits are great.

you sick bastards.

xpost

lolz @ emo accusation!

Ah fuck it, it's for little kids, I'm just being an old grouch. And it was certainly a subtler ending than anything Disney have ever done. You have won me over, it's a good film.

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/totoro/faq.html#mother

does the disney dub still have the father bathing with the children? (have only seen the Fox ntsc video version)

> but won't watch them cause of the dubs

subtitled versions on next week (film4, uk), see above.

Yep.

I agree. I never see Totoro as just a "cutsey" film, the sun-strewn idyll of the country life and the girl's cute, furry friends is always off-set with the underlying story of the hospitalised mother, potentially dying, with the possibuility of the girls becoming motherless. Yes, the end credits (and only the end credits) show the mother back at home, presumably well again, but throughout the film this grave possibility always hangs over the girls' happiness, giving the film a tense undercurrent.
There are other things too: the girls standing in the rain awaiting the return of their father - who then doesn't show when they expect him to. Helpless, the girls can only stand and wait, and hope. And the real sense of growing, gnawing panic over Mai's disappearance (the sandal in the pond, the gran's slump to the ground etc).
The sense that human tragedy and loss is potentially never far off and can intrude even the tweeist and seemingly perfect of environments gives Totoro a weight that the fantastical battles of, say, Mononoke - superb as they of course are - can't quite compete with.

no. am just curious about the possible differences between versions (am pretty sure mine has 'dust bunnies' in it) and remember some concern on the miyazaki mailing list back in the day about the bathtub scene.

any smutty pun is a product of your imagination 8)

> I'm going to stick my N. out here and say it is the best film ever.

i'm not sure i enjoyed it. was like a travelog, random bits of Italy and not much in way of plot. and the ending! very sudden change of mind. maybe the whole thing just struck a raw nerve but...

(will watch Infernal Affairs tonight i think. that said, the Dragons sink their teeth into an unusual picnic bag tonight so...)

has nobody watched anything interesting on FF recently?

Infernal Affairs was good, if confusing at times. wait, is he the undercover policeman or the criminal mole? does the one know about the other? oh, he didn't realise who it was because he could only see the back of his head...

R-Point less so. Korean army troop is dispatched to find the previous troop who mysteriously disapeared. wasn't really in the mood for 'spooky' at the time though so it kinda washed over me.

Germany: Year Zero was interesting from a 'this is what berlin looked like after the war' perspective (blown to pieces basically).

should watch Motorcycle Diaries. maybe.

The Cat Returns yesterday, more ghibli grist to the mill. repeated 3pm thursday btw.

La Belle Et La Bete tonight (or, in english, The Bell And The Bet, set in a racetrack, soundtrack by the cocteau twins, or something)

League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, History Of Mr Polly and Azumi also in my 'to watch' list.

Lots of interesting looking movies at about 1 am repeated at the same time.

plz never show any of the 'Godfather' trilogy or 'Apocalypse now' ever again k thx!

that Gangster No1 they keep showing is TERRIBLE. just in terms of the casting, at least, can anyone believe Malcolm Macdowell was Paul Bettany when younger? he's about a foot taller!

BBC four during the autumn/winter seasons is currently does better than filmfour right now.xp

They are cheapened by this overkill approach.

xp

I suppose if I could video+ some of the late night ones I'd be more positive.

I shouldn't complain bcz hey ITS FREE!!

(why teh ire at Godfather etc when Four Weddings and a Funeral is on right now?)

This has always summed up Film Four. Doubtless this is why nobody ever paid for it.

Malcom McDowell is rubbish in Gangster No.1, but frankly any excuse to look at Paul Bettany amiritelaydeez?

I don't think I'm saying that correctly.

NOODLE VAGUE YOU MUST GET 1xDVD PLAYER SOMEDAY YEAH!!!

they do show 6 or 7 films a day so there are bound to be repeats. i like the repeats anyway, gives the tivo some leaway to deal with clashes. and if Four Weddings is on at 9 then fine, i'm busy watching other channels anyway.

I wish it was KNOTTY ASH instead of NOTTING HILL tonight.

I don't see why they can't swap the time slots around when dishing up repeats, unless it is because of scenes of a sexual nature and strong language from the outset. For instance, I would like MR POLLY to be on at 9 tonight, or even 7.10.

2046 on Friday, which is meant to be good. is on as a WKW double bill with that other thing that i've seen before that isn't Chung King Express (but kind of is).

thing i'm personally looking forward to seeing again is Bird With The Crystal Plumage, which is on next week sometime.

I saw a good discussion of some of the issues over at Ian Penman's blog.

I fell asleep anyway.

I would like to watch The League of Gentlemen film. I have never seen The League of Gentlemen.

dear PJM, get one video recorder. kthxbye.

xpost

Koogs i can't record digital unless the TV is kept on! don't know how video+ works with digital - plz let me know about all of this kthxbye.

wtf? with mine the box has to be on of course, and you can't watch another digital channel while taping. you could leave the tv on, on mute.

(LBELB also seemed to be entirely written in CSE Grade 2 French in that i understood a lot of it without the subtitles)

so that's where mark s is now.

(just realised i have 6 things capable of recording tv signals, only 5 of them work (the other is being used to make the bedroom tv high enough to see over my stomach) but still...)

xyzzzz, your digibox PROBABLY also has a timer feature that'll let you program it to turn to right channel at right time. read one manual 8) the tivo does this for me but is only 95% reliable and sometimes the digibox freezes up and needs resetting before it'll turn over at all (mostly freezes on bbc channels, somehow). yes, integration with video recorders is going to be trouble when the analogue signal is turned off.

(but ok, as mark says in comments there is a whole other stuff with licensing blah)(mark s is on LJ as well)

okay Koogs I will 'experiment' -- thinking about it i just recalled that there is a function where you can time the TV to automatically switch off at a certain point.

I managed about ten minutes of LOG film, but I found it all very predictable (can't quite remember what now) so I gave up. Also, it assumes a certain amount of prior knowledge.

I switched over to the Xmas one, but I didn't want to think about Xmas. Also it was a lot of shouting.

Ended up watching Desperate Housewives, which was much better.

Koogs, I have a video recorder, but it is in the cupboard! Besides, if I tape things, I never watch them, they just sit there mocking me.

What is tonight's film? I bet it is shit.

Is Rock Profiles good? It is £4.99 in Sainsbury's.

It is. FAR better than Little Britain in my opinion, mainly because it's not the same sodding jokes every week. The Bee Gees episode is brilliant.

(Tonight's film=the arthouse masterpiece Save the Last Dance)

I wonder what tonight's Film Before You Die is?

um, speaking of videoing things and never watching them, LA Confidential has been on (normal) tv about 4 times since that time i taped it and i've still not seen it...

c'est chouette.

If you aren't watching 'In the mood for love' don't worry about it cuz The times are giving the DVD with the paper tomorrow.

didn't watch LA Confidential because i stil have it on videotape, from christmas 2003...

Lady Vengeance Thursday Oct 5th
Oldboy Friday Oct 6th
A Tale of Two Sisters Oct 7th
R-Point Oct 8th
UK TV premiere of Brotherhood Oct 9th
UK TV premiere of Tell Me Something Oct 10th

really looking forward to Brotherhood, can totally recommend A Tale of Two Sisters, one of my favourite films of the last few years.

finally watched Laputa and ...Crystal Plumage at weekend.

Anyway, I am looking forward to Old Boy. I read an article recently in a Korean studies journal all about it, and so am curious.

'Scenes of a marriage' finished round 3.30.

Their Thur 11am slot might be the best thing they've ever done, apart from the odd Miyazaki -- 'Mirror', 'Rules of the Game', etc.

'L'Aventura' is on this week.

Good spot, didn't know about that slot. If you've Sky Arts there's a new series of independent/world cinema chosen and introduced by Mike Figgis http://www.skyarts.co.uk/film-docs/article/sky-arts-cinema-with-mike-figgis/ starting tonight with Irma Vep.

I don't but I quite like Mike Figgis' commentary on the DVD of Weekend.

Its nice, can't knock it but it is like old TV to me. Really welcome that this stuff is let out there on an unexpected slot.

I just hate hate hate hate how many ads there are.

apart from the odd Miyazaki

whaaaa?

Can't stand him.

The ads aren't any worse than ITV, and I bet that they have less ads than some of the Sky channels.

don't even have a video recorder these days so having "l'aventurra" on at 11am on a weekday is sort of a nice idea, but not

and yeah, then it has ads

u can probably d/l it p easily

or rent the dvd even

sort a think film4 should be for shitty/mediocre/seen-before movies that you don't need to see the whole of, but don't mind catching bits of

Ads and talking over the credits and shrinking them down to postage stamp size to tell you what's coming next

I think TV channels worry less about doing that sort of thing nowadays when there are half a dozen other ways of watching a movie without ads and wee tiny credits.

... which reminds me, I've noticed on BBC3 they now say "Next programme is.../ Coming next..." when they mean the programme AFTER the next programme!!!

Anybody who can sit thru 3 consecutive shows on BBC3 needs to gtf off the drugs

Do you guys just watch BBC?

Fine with DVDs but not joining Love film or whatever film club. My local library does not have any Italian films apart from more recent stuff.

Plus I like watching films on Television at a set hour. Would be nicer if they put L'Aventura before Countdown. xxxxp

I quite like watching films on TV, but you accept certain quirks of the medium that go along with that really. I don't like ad breaks in movies tho, they're often really badly judged and ham-fistedly cut.

i belong to lovefilm, totally worth it if you watch a lot of films

barely watch tv at all: family guy, HIMYM, the news... that's about it

idk im not fully employed but still can't really see myself taking the afternoon off to watch a film!

ads are fine if it's like 'top gun' (the last film i remember seeing on tv), 'l'aventurra' not so much

Is that Chris Petit/Ian Penman thing that was on Film4 recently worth tracking down?

read s.thing offputting about it, but might be dope

have it on dvd right here

Ads on TV seem to be very set: the first one is after 30 mins, then I think its one after 20-25 min chunks till the end, last part about 15-20 mins. Films aren't made to be cut in anyway are they?

I like it bcz it can introduce me to all sorts of random stuff I would never otherwise get the chance to see: not foreign films so much, more your B&W films.

Rarely around at morning/afternoon but when I am its worth a look. Caught Mirror on a two day break bcz of illness.

l'avventura, on a quick scan, looks about 100 times better than last week's (Rules Of The Game).

next week's is Diary Of A Chambermaid. am not sure which one, possibly the one featuring The Penguin.

(but the night before that, next wednesday, La Antena is on, and that's great)

Time Crimes on saturday looks good from the trailer. i notice one t cruise is already signed up for a remake...

It's pretty good, like a more linear Primer. But also a Primer that doesn't need multiple viewings to make sense of the story.

ooh, the next two 11 o'clock on a thursday morning foreign things are both Ozu films:

Late Spring (1949)
Good Morning (1959)

(tivo listings only go this far into the future, i'm hoping there'll be more (although the BFI probably isn't best pleased))

I managed to tape The Only Son (1936), broadcast last Thurs - good on Film4, Ozu's stuff is perfect afternoon fare actually.

They only seem to show interesting films while I'm at work or after my bedtime these days.

if only there was a device that could record video... a video recorder, if you will...

There is;

http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/icons_of_invention/img/IM.1194_el.jpg

does it get freeview?