Chinatown
Thriller, One, Wednesday, 9:45 p.m
It is always said that three things are needed for a good film: a good screenplay, then a good screenplay and finally a good screenplay. Robert Towne won the Oscar for this detective story, and director Roman Polanski made one of his best films on the basis of it. Jack Nicholson plays a private investigator who is being duped by all sorts of people, including a woman (Faye Dunaway) whose husband he is originally supposed to be stalking – but on behalf of another woman who is posing as his wife. At this point at the latest, things get confusing for the snooper, and a supposedly small case grows threatening. However, the film itself never loses its elegance, its drive, its nonchalance – and Nicholson never loses his feeling for his brilliant character.
Stephen King’s It
Horror, Kabel 1, Thursday, 11:15 p.m
Every generation seems to be affected: children are dying again in a small New England town – just like 27 years ago. Some adults remember what happened then, remember an evil clown visible only to children. And now we want to break the curse. Part two of the two-part film adaptation of the horror classic will run directly afterwards (night to Friday, 1:10 a.m.). Far more cheerful is the confrontation with the past that Marty (Michael J. Fox) has to manage – even if it is very stressful for him because it threatens his existence. Because catapulted back to the year 1955, Marty has to set his parents up – otherwise he wouldn’t exist. on Back to the Future (ZDF Neo, Thursday, 8:15 p.m.) to follow Back to the future II and III (10pm and 11.40pm).
love and lies
Psychothriller, Arte, Wednesday, 8:15 p.m
Max, played by the then thirty-year-old Vincent Cassel, can’t decide – not between three rings, one of which should be the wedding ring. Above all, and this is much more serious, he cannot decide between a few women. Basically, marriage to his boss’s daughter is a done deal, but then Max meets his former girlfriend Lisa again. Before he can speak to her, however, he loses sight of her again. But he is hooked, looks for her, finally has an address – but another woman with the same name lives there. Max also gets involved with her and gets more and more entangled in a network of relationships and opportunities – seized and missed. It becomes increasingly clear that Max cannot escape his past.
Monsieur Claude and his daughters
Comedy, Kabel 1, Wednesday, 8:15 p.m
In this culture clash comedy by Philippe de Chauveron, Christian Clavier plays a Frenchman who has certainly chosen Chirac and Sarkozy and maybe even Le Pen. He is tormented that an Arab, a Jew and a Chinese are his sons-in-law. The Catholic, whom the youngest now wants to marry, is no consolation for him either – because he is African. The trick of the film is that the young men are just as racist as the old man. For Tom Baker (Steve Baker), on the other hand, it doesn’t even take sons-in-law to bring him to the brink of a nervous breakdown – and beyond. He and his wife have twelve children together, which are exhausting enough on their own. Especially when Tom has to take care of them alone: Cheaper in dozens (Cable 1, Wednesday 10:25 p.m.).