What movies can you watch on SBS On Demand tonight? We’ve put together a list of the best movies from around the world streaming on SBS On Demand right now
THE TRUTH
Why you should watch: With Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche attached, this is must for French cinema lovers. Deneuve is Fabienne, a star of French cinema. She reigns amongst men who love and admire her. When she publishes her memoirs, her daughter Lumir (Binoche) returns from New York to Paris with her husband and young child. The reunion between mother and daughter will quickly turn to confrontation: truths will be told, accounts settled, loves and resentments confessed. Mothers and daughters, it’s a complicated relationship. There is a lot of conversation here. If you’re in a hurry, it’s not for you. A thoughtful film with stellar performances. This is Koreeda’s first film set outside Japan and his first film not in his native language.
Director: HIROKAZU KOREEDA
Cast: CATHERINE DENEUVE, JULIETTE BINOCHE, ETHAN HAWKE, CLEMENTINE GRENIER, MANON CLAVEL, LUC GARBOIS
LIMBO
Why you should watch: This is one of those wonderful films that just ambles along at its own pace. It’s a thoughtful, poignant observation of the refugee experience. A group of new arrivals await the results of their asylum claims on a remote Scottish island. Amir El-Masry stars as Omar, a young Syrian musician who is burdened by his grandfather’s oud, the king of Arabic music instruments, which he has carried all the way from his homeland. Such a beautiful film written and directed by Ben Sharrock who studied Arabic and lived in Damascus until the break-out of civil war in 2011. The stark, haunting landscape is that of North Uist, Western Isles, Scotland.
Director: BEN SHARROCK
Cast: AMIR EL-MASRY, VIKASH BHAI, SIDSE BABETT KNUDSEN, KENNETH COLLARD, CAMERON FULTON, KAIS NASHIF, OLA OREBIYI
THE FATHER
Why you should watch: This beautiful, heartbreaking film from Florian Zeller won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, and deservedly so. The performances from Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman are remarkable. Anthony, an ailing, octogenarian Londoner gradually succumbing to dementia, feels abandoned when Anne, his daughter, tells him she’s moving to Paris. Confused and upset, against the backdrop of a warped perspective and his rapid, heart-rending mental decline, Anthony is starting to lose his grip on reality, struggling to navigate the opaque landscape of present and past. Many know too well how much Alzheimer’s and dementia can take from loved ones. To quote Anthony, “I feel as if I’m losing my all leaves.” Yes, it’s a sad, confronting film, but well worth watching.
Director: FLORIAN ZELLER
Cast: ANTHONY HOPKINS, OLIVIA COLMAN, MARK GATISS, OLIVIA WILLIAMS, IMOGEN POOTS, RUFUS SEWELL, AYERSHA DHARKER
JEAN DE FLORETTE
Why you should watch: This film and the next are best watched consecutively to obtain the full experience of this wonderful story from Claude Berri, based on the novel by Marcel Pagnol. This is a story of how some will go to any lengths to achieve what they want. Yves Montand stars as greedy landowner Cesar who, with his grandson Ugolin, conspire to block the only water source for an adjoining property in order to bankrupt the owner and force him to sell. When their initial attempt to buy the land fails, they must contend with Jean de Florette, who arrives with his family to turn it into a profitable farm. It’s a big call, but it’s one of the best French films on this viewer’s list, together with its sequel. Brilliant.
Director: CLAUDE BERRI
Cast: YVES MONTAND, DANIEL AUTEUIL, GERARD DEPARDIEU, ELISABETH DEPARDIEU, ERNESTINE MAZUROWNA, PIERRE-JEAN RIPPERT
MANON DES SOURCES
Why you should watch: In this sequal to Jean de Florette, after the death of Jean Cadoret, his daughter Manon has grown up and become a lonely shepherdess. Ugolin is now a thirty-year-old, wealthy bachelor, planting carnations. His grandfather Cesar Soubeyran presses him to get married to carry the name of their family since he is the last man alive. When Ugolin sees Manon in the fields, he falls in love with her. Manon then plots revenge against Ugolin and Cesar and the whole town is in despair. Emmanuelle Beart is superb as the beautiful Manon. Another wonderful film on my all-time best ever French list.
Director: CLAUDE BERRI
Cast: YVES MONTANT, EMMANUELLE BEART, DANIEL AUTEUIL, HIPPOLYTE GIRARDOT, MARGARITA LOZANO, ELISABETH DEPARDIEU
FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLE STOP CAFE
Why you should watch: A wonderful film based on the novel from Fannie Flagg. It’s always a must to visit the Whistle Stop Café every few years. There is a superb female cast attached to this one with Kathy Bates starring as Evelyn Couch, who is having trouble in her marriage, and no one seems to take her seriously. While visiting relatives at a nursing home, she meets Ninny Threadgoode, an outgoing old woman, who tells her the story of Idgie Threadgoode, a young woman in 1920’s Alabama. Through Idgie’s inspiring life, Evelyn learns to be more assertive and builds a lasting friendship of her own with Ninny. A beautiful story set in the deep South. A joy to watch every time.
Director: JON AVNET
Cast: KATHY BATES, JESSICA TANDY, MARY STUART MASTERSON, MARY-LOUISE PARKER, CICELY TYSON, CHRIS O’DONNELL, LOIS SMITH
THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL
Why you should watch: There is a superb cast attached to this excellent film where Steve Guttenberg stars as Barry Kohler, a young Nazi hunter, who tracks down a group of former SS officers meeting in Paraguay in the late 1970s. The Nazis, led by Dr Mengele are planning something. Old Nazi hunter, Ezra Lieberman is at first uninterested in Kohler’s findings. But when he is told something of their plan, he is eager to find out more. Lieberman visits several homes in Europe and the U.S. in order to uncover the Nazi plot. It is at one of these houses he notices something strange, which turns out to be a horrible discovery. Great viewing from the SBS vault.
Director: FRANKLIN J. SCHAFFNER
Cast: GREGORY PECK, LAURENCE OLIVIER, JAMES MASON, LILLI PALMER, UTA HAGEN, STEVE GUTTENBERG, DENHOLM ELLIOTT, ANNE MEARA
THE LAST WAVE
Why you should watch: A superb film from the talented Peter Weir where a Sydney lawyer has more to worry about than higher-than-average rainfall when he is called upon to defend five Aboriginals in court. Determined to break their silence and discover the truth behind the hidden society he suspects lives in his city, the Lawyer is drawn further, and more intimately, into a prophesy that threatens a new Armageddon. This is a fascinating film featuring the late David Gulpilil.
Director: PETER WEIR
Cast: RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN, OLIVIA HAMNETT, DAVID GULJPILIL, NANDJIWARRA AMAGULA, FREDERICK PARSLOW, ROY BARA
SUPER MARIO BROS.
Why you should watch: This film and the next are for the kids and parents who have had to watch them countless times over the years, and for new parents beginning their journey. Mario Mario and Luigi Mario, two hard working plumbers find themselves in an alternate universe where evolved dinosaurs live in medium hi-tech squalor. They find themselves the only hope to save the Earth from invasion. Bob Hoskins didn’t know that the film was based on a game until his son showed him on his Nintendo.
Director: ANNABEL JANKEL, ROCKY MORTON
Cast: BOB HOSKINS, JOHN LEGUIZAMO, DENNIS HOPPER, SAMANTHA MATHIS, FISHER STEVENS, RICHARD EDSON, FIONA SHAW
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
Why you should watch: Many moons ago I took my children to Europe and patiently showed them that Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello and Michaelangelo were not just Ninja turtles. Such a thoughtful mother, who just ended up confusing two little boys who just wanted to eat pizza. So, the story goes that through contact with a mysterious ooze, four turtles in the sewers of New York mutate into intelligent pizza-loving humanoids and are mentored in the art of ninja combat by the wise rat Splinter. When the evil Shredder attempts to take over the world, the turtles set out to stop him. Countless viewings over many years, and The Shredder is still mum’s favourite.
Director: STEVE BARRON
Cast: ELIAS KOTEAS, JUDITH HOAG, JOSH PAIS, BRIAN TOCHI, LEIF TILDEN, COREY FELDMAN, MICHELAN SISTI, KEVIN CLASH
Eclectic selection! Thanks, enjoying so far 🙂
This is a comment about the TV Guide itself. It is an excellent Guide but, although you can see what’s on TV days, even weeks in advance, you cannot go back to the day (date) before. This would be very useful to be able to do in order to see what programs you have missed so you could stream them. We recently missed out on watching a program that we knew we wanted to watch, but couldn’t remember what it was called. There was no way I could look this up after a few hours. So perhaps you could adjust the Guide to enable this. (It would be good to be able to go back further too.)
Totally agree with previous comment, sometimes I’m telling someone about a program I watched the day before, then can’t remember which station, and so it would be handy to go back over the same week.
excellent!
Also keep an eye out for the Bolivian/US feature Tu Me Manques. Without doubt one of the last decade’s greatest and most engaging films, and it pops up on SBS World Movies from time to time.
There’s some great series on SBS also and I’d like TV Guide reviews of some of those, please