Today is all about the chickens, and French cinema.
TV
Seraphine
NB: The TV1 listings in the November 12 issue of the Listener say “To Be Advised” at 4.55pm every weekday, and at 7.30pm on Tuesday and Thursday because, at the time we went to press, TVNZ had not made a decision about the programmes that would screen in those timeslots. However, TVNZ has since announced it is screening Coronation Street at 7.30pm on Thursdays and Fridays. Ellen will screen at 5.00pm every weekday. TVNZ’s full TV guide is here.
Miss World 2011 (TV2, noon). Really? Really?!
Sunday (TV1, 7.30pm). A report about battery farming of chickens – Sunday has footage filmed inside some battery farms, and describes the conditions as “appalling”. Ian Sinclair reports. Also, a story about Dr Conrad Murray and the chain of events that lead to Michael Jackson’s death, and Ian Sinclair (he gets about) talks with Bic Runga, whose new album, Belle, has been four years in the making.
60 Minutes (TV3, 7.30pm). Tonight: 60 Minutes also has chickens. Curious. A report about animal activists Open Rescue, a group that raids chicken farms as part of their campaign against battery farming; reporter Sarah Hall goes fishing with Graham and Raewyn Henry and has a chat about the state of the world economy. Just kidding; and 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown meets a South London woman with an extreme case of dissociative identity disorder. Kim Noble is thought to have more than 20 different personalities.
aimRenderAd(300, 250, '300X250','ContentRect','/POS=POS2'); if(!$.browser.msie){ ContentRect_frame = $("#ContentRect")[0]; ContentRect_frame.src = ContentRect_frame.src; }Campaign 2011 (Sky News, Sky 090, 8.30pm and Prime, 10.40pm). Mr Tea, John Key, is in with the Sope this week; on the panel are Audrey Young, Vernon Small, and Alex Tarrant. More info here.
The Missing Piece (TV1, 10.30pm). The well-known New Zealander digging into their genealogy tonight is comedian Mike King, who discovers an illustrious ancestry indeed – a connection to Te Rauparaha.
FILM
Get Smart (TV2, 8.30pm). To say this modernised version of the 60s TV show could have been worse is damning it with faint praise, but … well. It’s difficult to dislike Steve Carell, who is probably the only comedian who could play the Don Adams role, and Anne Hathaway, as Agent 99, shows she has comedy timing to spare. Director Peter Segal (50 First Dates) doesn’t try to be too clever-clever with references to the original (there is a shoe phone; fair enough) and the movie has a lighthearted feel. (2008) 6
Funny People (TV3, 8.30pm). Judd Apatow is now a genre all by himself, and Funny People is another in his stable of growing-up/life-changing-events dramas. Apatow bases the movie on his own early experiences as a stand-up, although he never had a mentor like Adam Sandler, who plays a sadder version of himself who discovers he’s dying. Sandler employs struggling comedian Seth Rogan to write jokes for him and life-changing events ensue. Sandler, for once, is not annoying or boring, and as an insider’s look at the way the comedy industry works, it’s pretty funny. The only bum note is Eric Bana, who overdoes it as the intimidating husband of Sandler’s ex. (2009) 8
Hardball (Four, 8.30pm). Oh, not another American fact-based sports drama. Oh, yes. This one’s got baseball and Keanu Reeves. (2001) 5 – Diana Balham
Séraphine (Maori, 8.30pm). Yolande Moreau will break your heart as a dowdy cleaning lady turned primitivist painter in this biopic about Séraphine Louis, who was “discovered” by a German art collector just before the outbreak of World War I. Quiet, gentle, beautiful and ultimately sad – just what you expect from a French art house movie. It won seven César awards (the French equivalent of the Oscars), including best film, best director (Martin Provost) and best actress. (2008) 8 – Diana Balham
Shoot the Piano Player (Rialto, Sky 025, 8.30pm). Rialto is having a Francois Truffaut showcase, and tonight features possibly one of his most experimental films made very early in his career. Truffaut – who devised the “auteur” theory and ushered in the French New Wave – used jump cuts and random dialogue in his most playful film. The singer Charles Aznavour is the titular piano player, who is pulled back into a criminal underworld from which he is trying to get away by playing piano in a low-rent Parisian bar. The waitress who is falling for him is Marie Dubois. (Here’s a Criterion Collection essay about the film.) (1960)
RADIO
Spectrum (Radio New Zealand National, 12.15pm). A group of Wellington College students were well-rewarded for pounding around the Basin Reserve to raise funds for Tanzanian villagers when they got to see exactly where the money went. They visited the East African nation and saw schools, dams and reticulation systems built with the $600,000+ amassed over 13 years during the college’s annual 40-hour runathon. Jack Perkins meets some of the students to find out what the project meant to them. – Diana Balham
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