BELLEVILLE RENDEZ-VOUS (ITVX). Sylvain Choumet’s brilliant, surreal 2003 animated Frech cartoon is strongly recommended to anybody who wants to see a great comic cartoon. A young cyclist, participating in the Tour de France, is kidnapped by the French Mafia. He is rescued by his Granny (accompanied by her barking dog) and three very aged cabaret singers who were famous in the 1930s. The artwork is wonderful.
THE KIDNAPPERS (BBC iPlayer). Philip Leacock directs this modest 1953 British film, which is set in a small Dutch/Scottish community in Nova Scotia in 1904. It’s a little classic, which deserves to be better known. Two orphans of the Boer War (Jon Whitely and Vincent Winter) come to live with their grandparents. The eldest boy is accused of kidnapping a baby. Duncan Macrae is perfect casting for the puritanical grandad. Jean Anderson is beautifully understated goodness as his wife.
THE GOOD LIAR (BBC iPlayer) is a psychological revenge thriller. In a battle of wits between a highly successful con-man and a vulnerable rich widow, it is easy to guess who will win. He persuades her to put all her savings into a joint account with him. Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren are very watchable. It’s only when the film goes into flashback and shows what happened years ago in Nazi Germany, and McKellen and Mirren are no longer on screen, that it loses its grip.
THE PRIVATE AFFAIRS OF BEL AMI (BBC iPlayer). Albert Lewin’s stagy period piece is an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s 1885 novel. George Sanders is the cynical and ambitious Parisian scoundrel/philanderer/social climber, who has a contempt for the women he sexually and financially exploits and discards. The film is much better than its reputation. The leading ladies are Ann Dvorak and a very young Angela Lansbury.
THE SHIP THAT DIED OF SHAME (StudioCanal). A motor gun ship had a brave and honourable career during World War II. Come peacetime, its veteran commanders, unable to get a decent job, use it for smuggling and the boat loses its soul. Nicholas Monsarrat’s novella is unconvincingly directed by Basil Dearden and miscast. Richard Attenborough overacts. George Baker underacts so much he brings nothing to the film.
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