Robert Altman and Magwitch

Honoured at last year’s Academy Awards for “a career that has repeatedly reinvented the art form and inspired filmmakers and audiences alike,” [in short, for not honouring him for M*A*S*H, Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts or Gosford Park], Robert Altman has a long and distinguished career as a filmmaker. Gosford Park (Sun 7 830P) is the pick of the week and stars an absolute who’s-who of British Casting Central Inc. : Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emily Watson, Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen and so it goes on.
Bad Eggs (Sat 9 915P) is a knock-about Aussie detective comedy starring Mick Molloy and directed by his mate Tony Martin, followed by Waking Ned Devine (Sat 9 1115P) which is a knock-about Irish comedy starring David Kelly, Ian Bannen and Fionnula Flanagan.
Great British film director, David Lean (Brief Encounter, Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago – to name just some) brings Dicken’s Great Expectations (Thu 2 1230A) alive, “one of the best British films of all time.” Stars a young John Mills and Jean Simmons (see Howl), Alec Guinness and Finlay Currie as Magwitch.
And for fans of Indian culture and life, Inside Australia : Wedding Sari Showdown (Wed SBS 730P) looks like an intriguing documentary on “love, tradition, cultural clashes and notions of femininity and identity.” It follows a couple as they marry three times. The first at a Melbourne registry office, “simply and secretly”; the second a Punjabi Sikh celebration in Melbourne with the groom’s family and then finally a “Bollywood-style extravaganza” in India with the bride’s family.