TV program: “The mule”, “Birth”… the films to see and the turnips to avoid this week

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Monday, June 6, Arte, 8:50 p.m.

In 1945, in a mansion on the island of Jersey, lives a reclusive mother and her two children. And no doubt also a few ghosts… Combining a classic horror film and an intrigue with a final twist, this great film by Alejandro Amenabar manages to combine formal success and scriptwriting skill. Conclusion: we have the trouillometer at zero!

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Four weddings and a funeral

Tuesday, June 7, 6ter, 9:05 p.m.

It’s a little candy of nostalgia so british and if 90s that offers us in this film by Mike Newell (director of Donnie Brasco and Love in the Time of Cholera), feature film which also marks the debut of Kristin Scott Thomas on the screen. Through the sentimental adventures of a thirty-year-old and his band of friends (ex, families, long-time acquaintances) and their difficult transition to adulthood, it is also a questioning of love that Four weddings… : who is the “right person”? Are we really sure of our choices when we commit to marriage? And if you can’t find the perfect match, like this intergenerational gay couple (a rarity at the time in mainstream film), is it really worth it? To (re) see, if only for all those nostalgic for the Hugh Grant first period.

Gravity

Wednesday June 8, Canal + Cinema, 8:55 p.m.

On a mission in space, two researchers drift through the cosmos after a storm of debris. The film was terribly strong at the cinema, it remains high-flying on the small screen. If some regret the thinness of the scenario, the fact remains that the staging of Alfonso Cuaron transcribes with formidable efficiency the claustrophobia and the overwhelming loneliness of the heroine interpreted by Sandra Bullock.

Shrek

Friday, June 10, Gulli, 9:05 p.m.

A film for children… intended for adults. The first scene, which sees the ogre Shrek wiping his behind with a page of fairy tales, sets the tone. All the stories of our childhood are happily blown up like a puzzle in this fiercely humorous comedy and its gallery of cult characters (the talking donkey, simply called “the Donkey”, dubbed by actor Eddie Murphy). Since then, the vein has been exploited and worn to the bone, giving rise to no less than four films and even a spin-off on the character of Puss in Boots, but if you had to see only one, this would definitely be this first opus.

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The mule

Sunday June 12, TF1 Series Films, 9 p.m.

Octogenarian and broke, Earl Stone accepts a small job as a driver and finds himself a drug courier, at the heart of a traffic undermined by violence and settling of accounts. One of Clint Eastwood’s most recent films, which landed the lead role, is also one of his best. If we could fear the monotony of these round trips, we let ourselves be taken by the growing tension of the plot (will the old man end up being jailed?) but also the emotion, largely fueled by the sensitivity of the casting (the constant Bradley Cooper in particular).

Absolutely avoid

Birthday

Wednesday, June 8, 8:55 p.m., Arte

Ten years after the death of her husband, a bourgeois New Yorker (Nicole Kidman, more expressionless than ever), sees a young boy appear who claims to be the reincarnation of his deceased beloved. It is the starting point of an interminable pensum which takes the spectator nowhere, until a final revelation which will complete disappointment.

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Son

Wednesday, June 8, 9:05 p.m., 6TER

The nice marketing coup – bringing together on screen the two stars of humor that are Kev Adams and Franck Dubosc – ended in a flop at the box office. Probably because the funniest lines are all in the trailer. This flirting story taught by a boomer to a young wolf lacking in self-confidence, lacks a sense of rhythm and runs out of ideas very quickly. Remains the only pleasure to see again the actress Valérie Benguigui, disappeared in 2013 at the age of 52 years.

Troy

Friday June 10, 9 p.m., TF1 Series Films

Greek mythology treated way blockbuster Hollywood or the zero degree of cinema. Poor Homer who must be turning in his grave seeing his epic the Iliad trashed that way. Of course, we don’t get bored, the fight scenes are there to take the viewer out of his torpor. But many 1950s peplums did the job better than this purge, despite its 5-star cast (Brad Pittt, Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana…) Even the eminently homoerotic romance between Achille (Brad Pitt) and Patroclus is passed over in silence . In short, avoid.

Sixteen years or so

Friday, June 10, 9:05 p.m., TFX.

A well-born, successful Parisian lawyer wakes up one fine morning with a pimple on his face. The beginning of an irrepressible regression towards adolescent age. The initial idea was funny and the cast very well found. But despite some funny scenes and the twisting acting (as always) of Laurent Lafitte in the main role, the inspiration runs out and the rhythm softens faster than the pimply thrust of the protagonist.