23 - 29 SEPTEMBER 2023

One of the many film books I have in my library is called Private Screenings. In 1995, to celebrate 100 years of cinema, the AFI asked 80 industry personnel, from Debbie Allen to Robert Zemeckis, to select a moment that had a special meaning for them. How on earth do we choose just one, though? And would it be a funny moment or a dramatic one? In my case, it is likely to be something I connected with on an emotional level. For Martin Brest (who directed Scent of a Woman), it occurs in City Lights (1931) when the Flower Girl, no longer blind, realises it was the Little Tramp (Chaplin) who had paid for her operation. The celebrated critic James Agee called it “the highest moment in movies” and, even today, it is hard to disagree. 
RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (1962) Saturday 23 September 2.05-4.10pm 5 Action (Ch 33)         
Sam Peckinpah’s second film is a superb western (fittingly, it was Randolph Scott’s last) that has two old timers protecting a gold shipment, and rescuing Mariette Hartley from an unsavoury set of brothers. MEMORABLE MOMENT: Joel McCrea’s sublime response that sums up all the taciturn cowboy heroes – “all I want is to enter my house justified”.
PSYCHO (1960) Sunday 24 September 11.30pm-1.15am BBC 2        
Also Thursday BBC 4 9.00-10.45pm; this showing is followed by a repeat of the Scene by Scene interview with Janet Leigh. Psycho remains a classic of terror and audience manipulation. It was a gamble by Hitchcock and cinemagoers were required to take their seats before the film started and asked not to divulge the ending. It all worked to perfection, of course. MEMORABLE MOMENT: it has to be the shower scene – brilliantly constructed and edited, hugely influential and, more recently, analysed in depth for its technical dexterity. 
THE KILLERS (1964) Tuesday 26 September 9.00-10.55pm Legend (Ch 41)        
Just a notch below Burt Lancaster’s 1946 debut classic, Don Siegel’s version was considered too violent for television, after JFK’s assassination, and so was released in cinemas (unusually, it still carries an 18 certificate). Two relentless hitmen are seeking out their next target; Lee Marvin is an immense presence and Ronald Reagan is on the wrong side of the law. MEMORABLE MOMENT: the opening sequence, as they go about their nasty business, sets the film’s unremitting tone so well that the director doesn’t need to show the sort of overt violence that is now commonplace. 
WILDFIRE (2020) Thursday 28 September 11.50pm-1.35am Film Four    P            
Members like Irish dramas, so it is a shame about the late start time. Two sisters try to re-engage after the death of their mother, but there relationship is a feisty one! If you cannot catch this one, then you still have The Quiet Girl to look forward to in October!