Sky UK TV Guide

06:00 Sky Movies Preview
Entertainment A preview of upcoming films on Sky.

07:00 Sky Movies Preview
Entertainment A preview of upcoming films on Sky.

08:00 Sky Movies Preview
Entertainment A preview of upcoming films on Sky.

09:00 The Page Turner
Film The influence of French master Claude Chabrol hangs heavy over this psychological suspense movie from writer/director Denis Dercourt, making for pleasurably tense and twisted viewing. As a child, butcher's daughter Mélanie Prouvost blows her audition for music school when famous pianist - and one of the judges - Ariane Fouchécourt (Catherine Frot) inadvertently ruins Mélanie's concentration. Ten years later, the adult Mélanie (played by Déborah François) gets a job first at the law firm of Ariane's husband, then at their home as an au pair and finally as the now-neurotic Ariane's page turner at concerts. Revenge is clearly the ruthless young woman's goal. There's something quintessentially French about the film's ambiguous attitude towards haute bourgeoisie culture, as it revels in the trappings of wealth and good taste even as the rich characters are made to suffer. But beneath the elegance this is a low-key but genuinely gripping thriller.

10:35 Tube Tales
Film A collection of nine short films set in and around the London Underground. Each tale captures a refreshingly unusual angle on life in an international city. Ranging from witty to erotic, the stories feature a woman who turns the tables on a lecherous man, a drug addict chased through the Underground, a musician fantasising about a woman he has never met, and a couple who think they have got away with a briefcase full of money.

12:10 The Escapist
Film In director Gillies MacKinnon's unconvincing thriller, the perfect life of pilot Denis (Jonny Lee Miller) is torn apart when psychopathic criminal Ricky Barnes (Andy Serkis, better known as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings) breaks into his home and murders his pregnant wife. Denis is unable to cope with either his grief or his responsibility as his thoughts turn to vengeance. After faking his death, he packs a life of crime into a few months, getting sent to higher and higher security prisons until he and Barnes meet again. Despite a highly charged plot and great use of locations, MacKinnon can't avoid stereotypical prison characters and revenge-movie clichés. And, while Miller's performance is undeniably strong, his understated acting style is not really a match for Serkis's on-screen intensity.

13:45 Pangea Day Highlights
Music and Arts The highlights of Pangea Day, a worldwide event celebrating a united global community. Visionary filmmakers, musicians and speakers transmitted from locations across the globe, while millions more tuned in via TV, web and mobile phone.

14:15 Schultze Gets the Blues
Film Schultze Gets the Blues - Shifting from the bleak insularity of a former East German mining town to the sunlit bayous of Louisiana, this is a charming late-life road movie that loses its way midway through but recovers to arrive at a predictably feel-good destination. Writer/director Michael Schorr clearly admires the deadpan humour of Aki Kaurismaki, as there's a downbeat drollery to portly accordionist Horst Krause's bid to get the locals to share his new-found enthusiasm for zydeco music. But the comedy becomes more forced as Krause struggles to fit in at a Texan folk festival, although the mix of gentle observation and cross-cultural taciturnity is never less than engaging. *** [105 words]

16:15 Tube Tales
Film A collection of nine short films set in and around the London Underground. Each tale captures a refreshingly unusual angle on life in an international city. Ranging from witty to erotic, the stories feature a woman who turns the tables on a lecherous man, a drug addict chased through the Underground, a musician fantasising about a woman he has never met, and a couple who think they have got away with a briefcase full of money.

17:55 35mm
Interests An indispensable guide to what's happening in the world of film, including new films coming to Sky Movies and a look at big-screen releases from the UK and US.

18:25 The Page Turner
Film The influence of French master Claude Chabrol hangs heavy over this psychological suspense movie from writer/director Denis Dercourt, making for pleasurably tense and twisted viewing. As a child, butcher's daughter Mélanie Prouvost blows her audition for music school when famous pianist - and one of the judges - Ariane Fouchécourt (Catherine Frot) inadvertently ruins Mélanie's concentration. Ten years later, the adult Mélanie (played by Déborah François) gets a job first at the law firm of Ariane's husband, then at their home as an au pair and finally as the now-neurotic Ariane's page turner at concerts. Revenge is clearly the ruthless young woman's goal. There's something quintessentially French about the film's ambiguous attitude towards haute bourgeoisie culture, as it revels in the trappings of wealth and good taste even as the rich characters are made to suffer. But beneath the elegance this is a low-key but genuinely gripping thriller.

20:00 Infamous
Film Coincidentally made at the same time as the Oscar-winning Capote, this rival project also focuses on the events surrounding the writing of In Cold Blood - Truman Capote's bestselling account of a shocking mass murder in a remote Kansas farmhouse in 1959. Where Capote went for understatement, however, Infamous turns up the volume. It boasts a terrific performance from Toby Jones in the lead (one part Deputy Dawg, two parts Oscar Wilde) and punctuates the drama with stylised talking heads from the likes of author Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock) and society maven Babe Paley (Sigourney Weaver). More bothersome, though, is the heavy-handed portrayal of Capote's relationship with killer Perry Smith (Daniel Craig) and the foregrounding of the homoerotic tension that underscores his prison visits. If Capote didn't exist this would be a fascinating failure, but next to it Infamous is mostly entertaining but somewhat superfluous.

22:00 Walker
Film Made only three years after his brilliant Repo Man, this highly stylised film from director Alex Cox shows him as only a shadow of that former self, with the stiffly told story of American mercenary William Walker who, backed by a tycoon, took over as President of Nicaragua in the mid-19th century. Toting slogans such as "One must act with severity or perish!", Walker was eventually hoist with his own petard when the locals decided they'd had enough of his "ordered discipline". Ed Harris is bombastically charismatic, though the anti-American rant, which may have been justified, proves too one-sided for real drama which may be why the film reached few British screens.

23:55 Z Channel: a Magnificent Obsession
Film Xan Cassavetes's affectionate and illuminating documentary celebrates the life of Jerry Harvey, head programmer at LA's Z Channel in the 1980s. An early rival to cable stations like HBO and Showtime, the channel became a showcase for eclectic film scheduling under the stewardship of this passionate cinephile. A friend and champion of film-makers such as Sam Peckinpah and Michael Cimino, Harvey built his reputation on a willingness to bring neglected - even reviled - works like Heaven's Gate, McCabe and Mrs Miller and The Wild Bunch to TV audiences. Robert Altman, Quentin Tarantino and Jacqueline Bisset join friends and former colleagues in recalling a man who refused to appeal to the lowest common denominator. The film also deals sensitively with Harvey's crippling depression, which led him to kill his second wife and himself in 1988. Packed with clips, it's both a tribute to the best that cinema has to offer and a sobering reminder of the laziness that now pervades TV programming.