Historical fact flirts with macabre artistic licence (Photo: NICOLA DOVE) The Death of Stalin Sun, 9.30pm, BBC Two Felicity Jones mesmerises as his self-sacrificing wife, waging war against his motor neurone disease with steely resolve. The soaring piano of the late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson’s score tugs heartstrings almost as urgently as Eddie Redmayne’s Oscar-winning portrayal of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking in this elegant drama. The Theory of Everything Sun, 3.45pm, Sony Movies Christmas Eve, 4.10pm, Sony Movies A quietly articulated moment of shared grief in a musty attic delivers the knock-out emotional blow. Keep a family-sized box of tissues to hand to quietly sob through the latter stages of Sir Richard Attenborough’s masterful rendering of the love affair between CS Lewis (Anthony Hopkins) and American poet Joy Gresham (Debra Winger). Nine tour-de-force performances from Sir Alec Guinness as various members of the eccentric D’Ascoyne clan elevate the art of murder across the class divide to the giddy heights of a masterpiece. Too much of a good thing is poppycock when it comes to Robert Hamer’s lip-smacking Ealing comedy. Carrie Sat, 12.10am, Channel 4Ī tick-tock past the witching hour, there will be blood – of porcine extraction – when Sissy Spacey’s 16-year-old outcast wreaks telekinetic revenge on her overzealous mother and high school bullies in Brian De Palma’s exquisitely unsettling portrait of burgeoning womanhood, torn from the pages of Stephen King’s 1974 novel.Ĭhristmas TV guide 2020: The highlights of this year’s TV schedule, from Bridgerton to Doctor Who Kind Hearts and Coronets Sun, 1.15pm, Talking Pictures TV Galvanised by Sir Michael Caine’s portrayal of a cynical, booze-soaked professor, Educating Rita scores top marks for earthy humour and pathos. Julie Walters’ straight-talking Liverpudlian hairdresser takes an Open University course to expand her horizons and almost loses touch with her working-class roots in Willy Russell’s assured adaptation of his Olivier Award-winning play. The unerring optimism and naïveté of the eponymous autistic savant sweetens the bitter pills dispensed by Eric Roth’s poignant script. Since the crash of 1929, we have seen this happen again during the 2008 Financial Crisis, which led to banks feeling pressure to have more cash on hand in case of a dreaded bank run.Director Robert Zemeckis and actor Tom Hanks “go together like peas and carrots” in a picaresque trek through 20th-century US history, including the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. And the film begs the question of what can happen when a bank has too much leverage – when one loss could deflate an entire institution. Poor George Bailey has to use funds saved for his honeymoon to tide over his customers so he doesn't lose their business.īanks, no matter how large or small, can fail. This was a common occurrence during the Great Depression. So they try to withdraw all of their funds instantly. One of the film's famous scenes is when a horde of Bedford Falls residents makes a bank run on George Bailey's community bank, which is a real phenomenon where people fear that an institution won't be able to make good on a loan. A mob of people show up at your bank, wanting to take all their money out at once in a panic - as if all of their money is physically sitting in a safe in the back room. Here are a few facts about It's a Wonderful Life. The film was met with suspicion by the FBI, and failed at the box office during its initial release. The Frank Capra classic, starring screen icons Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, and Lionel Barrymore may be mandatory viewing for 20th century film curriculum now, but it wasn't always a roaring, beloved success. As Vox writer Emily VanDerWerff so eloquently states, "the film is a message in a bottle from 1946: Hold on, and don't give up." The film's message has resonated throughout generations. Its universal themes, and at times dark subject matter about a man struggling during one of America's bleakest eras, have become as common to the American experience as apple pie. It's on numerous Top 100 lists of the best films of all time, including ranked 11th on the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest American Movies and ranked 15th on the Directors Guild of America's 80 Best-Directed Films list. It has become a tradition for many families to watch the film annually over the holidays. It's a Wonderful Life is one of the most highly regarded, quintessential films in America's canon.
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