movies
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday September 14, 2009
Janis and John(2003), SBS Two, 9.30pmPablo Sterni (Sergi Lopez), is a 42-year-old insurance agent and also-ran in the rat race. Married to Brigitte (Marie Trintignant) for 14 years and with an eight-year-old son, he's slowly succumbing to the desiccation of a marriage growing staler on the treadmill of grooming, perfection and suburban ritual. So Pablo doesn't hesitate when an elderly client seeks insurance for a valuable sports car he never drives. Believing the policy is in no danger of prompting a claim, he siphons the premiums into his own account. Then the car is stolen and pranged, resulting in a half-million-franc panel-beating bill. He doesn't have the money. But his eccentric cousin, Leon, who took a bad acid trip in 1973, inherited a million from his late father. Leon runs a time-warped record store specialising in collectables associated with Janis Joplin and John Lennon, the consequence of a hallucination in the lavatory of a London club. Leon firmly believes they will reincarnate. Surmising a "reappearance" might provide an opportunity to grab the half-million, Pablo hires a dropkick actor, Walter Kingkate, to play Lennon and dragoons his surly, listless spouse into impersonating Joplin. Leon hires a band and lays on plenty of dope to inspire "Janis" to cut a new record promoting global peace and harmony. The lethargic Brigitte responds favourably to the drugs and the opportunity for her inner rebel to emerge. Trintignant was murdered by her boyfriend a few weeks after the film's completion but is great in her final role €“ as is Donovan winding up Mickey Most's classic chart screamer, Atlantis (1968), during the pivotal stone freakout in the brasco.Jungle Book(1942) ABC1, 1.10am"More thrilling than the deeds of man ... more beautiful than the love of woman ... more wonderful than the dreams of children!" That's how the publicity unit saw this chestnut directed by Zoltan Korda and starring the legendary Sabu, a sort of feral Imran Khan who died aged only 39 in 1963. Here he's as cute as a kitten in corduroy darting about the jungle, thwarting bad guys and showing the animated model animals a thing or two about acting.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
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