New FTA Sat Channel - World Movies
Most of the good UK TV film rights are sold to high cost subscription services like Sky and Virgin so it is refreshing to see a new FTA movie channel on satellite. World Movies at 837 (Update: moved to 334) on the Sky EPG specialises in unhollywood-like international films aired currently from about 4pm to 4am. If you subscribed to Film4 before they went FTA and slipped into showing mainly old Hollywood films that have done the rounds everywhere else, you will be familiar with the international genre and it is great to see it back. The films currently showing in the original language with subtitles are mostly European and Japanese with a few others from the Eastern block, Middle East and other regions that still maintain good independent film industries.
World Movies appears to be the brainchild of film and television producer Charles Denton who started out as a documentary filmmaker for the BBC in 1963. It launched quietly last week on Sky with an EPG slot hidden away inappropriately in the international section rather than the film section. Let's hope that does not spoil its chances of success in the increasingly competitive TV market where advertising revenue is spread all too thinly. (Update: Happily it moved to 334 in the Movies section) Their programming fills a popular niche for discerning film fans that has been all too empty recently. If they can get a better position on Freesat and some coverage in the TV guides then they should be here to stay, we reckon.
To save you a trek through the Sky EPG, Here is a selection of films currently showing:
"After Life" - A Japanese fantasy film about recently deceased people who are helped to recreate their best memories for all eternity (Japanese, 1998, PG)
"A Perfect Day" - A young man suffering from sleep disorder is obsessed by thoughts of his girlfrield (Arabic, 2005, PG)
"Parting Shot" - A complex French drama about a teenage rebel and a nurse who try to tame each other (French, 2007, 12)
"Can't Live" - A young girl on a bus ride finds her fellow passengers are acting strangely, soon she will see why (Japanese, 1998, 18)
"The Wedding" - A beautiful model returns to her home town in Russia to marry her poor childhood sweetheart, but what are her true intentions? (Russian, 2000, 18)
"Family Law" - A Spanish comic drama about a man who is similar yet so different to his own father (Spanish, 2006, 15)
"The Promise" - A 15 year old boy is in conflict with his father after a tragedy involving illegal immigrants (French, 1996, PG)
"The perfume of the Lady in Black" - Horror Thriller about a chemist suffering from disturbing visions (Italian, 1974, PG)
"Seventeen years" - A girl who killed her stepsister is released from prison after seventeen years to confront her aging parents (Mandarin, 1999, PG)
"Clara and I" - Lesbian drama when a young single mum falls in love with a woman who has HIV (French, 2004, PG)
"You and Me" - A romance writer and fantasist imagines the life of herself and her younger sister (French, 2006, PG)
"La Repetition" - An obsessive love story of two childhood friends (French, 2001, PG)
"A Curtain Raiser" - Bruno's girlfriend is always late for their dates (French, 2006, 15)
"The Way I Celebrated the End of the World" - About a seven year old boy that saved the Romanian people from dictatorship. (Romanian, 2006, PG)
"Just Sex and Nothing Else" - Hungarian Bridget Jones style romcom (Hungarian, 2005, 15)
"Little Jerusalem" - Drama about two Jewish sisters living in Paris (French, 2005, 15)
"Producing Adults" - A wry comedy about a couple who come to an impasse over having a baby (Finnish, 2004, 12)
"A Friend of the Deceased" - In post Soviet Ukraine Tolla takes out a contract on himself but then changes his mind (Russian, 1997, 18 with nudity, sex and violence)
"Girls Can't Swim" - The friendship of two 15 year old girls (French, 2001, 18 with nudity and sex)
"17 Rue Bleue" - A mother comes to France and an illegal alien from Algeria (French, 2001, 15)