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| Riefenstahl Photo: © Bayerische Staatsbibliothek/Bildarchiv; Inset photo below: © CBC |
Andres Veiel's portrait of Leni Riefenstahl, whose career will forever be linked to Adolf Hitler's Nazis, is a fascinating psychological dig into her mindset, featuring a wealth of interviews. A lesson in the nature of "selective memory", Riefenstahl's obsession with keeping up appearances, both physical and in terms of spinning her work, is absorbing and repulsive in equal measure. The film covers her start in the business through the Third Reich period and on into her late career work, which suggests her unpleasant beliefs didn't dim with age. While some questions remain unanswered, not least around her relationship with the much younger Horst Kettner, this is an engrossing watch. Veiel told us: "We had a lot of insight, and, of course, I knew from the beginning she was a manipulator."
The Piano, BBC2, 11pm, Monday, June 17 and 10pm, BBC4, Thursday
Jennie Kermode writes: The story of mute Scotswoman Ada (Holly Hunter), who is dispatched, along with her daughter (Anna Paquin), to the other side of the world as a mail-order bride, Jane Campion's assured and visually stunning drama made her the first woman to win the Palme d'Or and only the second to be nominated for a Best Director Oscar, while Paquin became the youngest ever winner of a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Robbed of her voice when her inconvenient instrument is sold to plantation owner George (Harvey Keitel), Ada seems to speak for thousands of women whose stories have been erased by history. She suffers constant verbal abuse and rejection by her new husband, but there's a formidable, resilient quality about her, and when she makes a deal with George, allowing her to gradually recover the piano, what begins as something ugly and exploitative unexpectedly blooms into romance. The female-centred erotic narrative shocked cinemagoers back in 1993 and made a significant contribution to the eventual shift in how women's experiences are represented onscreen. An uncharacteristically melodic score by Michael Nyman seals this film's classic status.
Moffie, 1.35am, Film4, Tuesday, June 17
This story of a teenager conscripted to the brutal regime of South African Defence Force in 1981 is a master of understatement, with director Oliver Hermanus carefully building the mood and putting us into the shoes and head of Nick (Kai Luke Brummer). The title - a highly derogatory term for a gay man in Afrikaans - hints at what is to come as Nick is packed off to the training camp with the good wishes of his mother and a raunchy Playboy style mag from his dad. Braam du Toit's score does a lot to set the scene, starting with anxiety-inducing plucked strings that escalate and mix with something altogether more industrial as Nick nears the camp. There, the recruits are steeped in toxic masculinity from the start - and though Nick, we realise, had an early lesson in how to mask his feelings, others aren't so lucky. Hermanus invites us under the skin of Nick, often letting the camera linger on him and the other recruits so that we can really feel the weight of their emotions.
The Contestant, BBC4, 10pm, Tuesday, June 17
Jennie Kermode writes: Invited to participate in a TV programme without know anything about it, then stripped naked, shut in a room, given pens and magazines and told that he could eat only what he won in competitions, then 23-year-old Tomoaki Hamatsu, better known as Nasubi, didn't even know that his predicament was being streamed live 24/7. It was all fun and games, viewers were assured, because he could leave at any time - but that was reckoning without the psychological factors involved, including the effects of what would become serious malnutrition. As the months wore on, he would become the most famous man in Japan and have no idea about it, struggling to hold onto his sanity in complete isolation. Clair Titley's documentary picks up the story a decade later, looking at the long term impact of his experience and the unexpected things he's done since. With a surprisingly open contribution from studio head Toshio Tsuchiya, it's an in-depth examination of a truly bizarre situation which 17 million people watched live without one of them attempting to intervene.
The Blue Caftan, 1.50am, Film4, Wednesday, June 18
Halim (Saleh Bakri) and Mina (Lubna Azabal, with a physically as well as emotionally committed performance) run a family tailors and find the fabric of their own life shifting when they take on an apprentice (Ayoub Missioui). Maryam Touzami's finely nuanced drama celebrates the tradition of caftan tailoring, while also exploring what it means to break with cultural expectations. As Touzani told us: "I do believe there are certain traditions that need to be questioned, that need to be changed, that need to be shaken up." In her carefully wrought film they are not so much shaken as gently stirred to strong effect.
Jaws, 9.05pm, ITV4, Friday, June 20
Sometimes stories built on simple ideas - in this case a deadly shark terrorising a seaside town - are the best. Forget sharks that arrive on tornados, tunnel through sand or ski over mountains - what you really want to know is, is it safe to go back in the water? Yes, the animatronic shark here may show signs of age, but Steven Spielberg's film is still a masterclass of tension underpinned by John Williams' iconic score and given its staying power by a raft of quotable lines and its well drawn trio of central characters, played with intensity by Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider and Matt Hooper.
How To Train Your Dragon, 2.40pm, ITV2, Sunday, June 22
With the “live action” remake out now in cinemas from Dean DeBlois, who directed the original (and was also responsible for the original Lilo & Stitch), here's a chance to catch up with the first instalment of the DreamWorks trilogy about a young viking who forges an unlikely friendship. Teenager Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) finds the forever war his viking settlement's adults are waging with dragons might not be the best way forward after discovering one of the creatures injured in the woods. There's plenty of smart observational comedy about what it means to be a teenager confronted with an adult world of recalcitrance in the script to lift above its more formulaic elements, while the dragon flight scenes deliver the adventurous goods.
Our short selection is taking a break but will return next week.
