THE QUEEN, 2006
Thursday, 6 a.m., USA
BEIJING BICYCLE, 2001
Saturday, 10:45 p.m., PBS
THE MALTESE FALCON, 1941
Wednesday, 8 p.m., TCM
From Here to Eternity, 1953
Monday, 10:15 p.m., TCM
Eight Oscars went to this film about Pearl Harbor in the days before the attack, including Best Supporting Actor (Frank Sinatra), Supporting Actress (Donna Reed) and Picture. Ostensibly, it’s about the relationships between military personnel stationed there, and a private who is is cruelly punished for refusing to box for his company. But it’s much more. Not noted at the time are the homoerotic moments between Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift.
The Maltese F
alcon,
1941
Wednesday, 8 p.m., TCM
Although this John Huston masterpiece from the pen of Dashiell Hammett didn’t win any Oscars, it is one of the great film noir classics. Humphrey Bogart is Sam Spade, private eye, who is talked into taking a case by a beautiful woman (Mary Astor). The case is not what it appears, and before it’s over there are murders and mysteries including the hunt for a precious statuette of a falcon, a man with a gardenia-scented calling card and a giant fat guy.
The Que
en, 2006
Thursday, 6 a.m., USA
Helen Mirren won a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the movie about the royal family in the days after Princess Diana’s death. Although a film about a family making funeral arrangements wouldn’t seem interesting, what’s compelling is the portrait of an out-of-touch royal family headed by a queen too busy with her doggies to comfort a grieving nation.
Beijing Bicycle, 2001
Saturday, 10:45 p.m., PBS
International award-winning film by director Wang Xiaoshuai takes a hard look at a country in transition that focuses on a poor country boy who earns his living as a bicycle messenger whose new bicycle is stolen and ends up in the hands of an upper middle class student his age. Starring Lin Cui and Bin Li.