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Paul Howlett Will Hodgkinson www.theguardian.com
<p><strong> Le Colonel Chabert</strong>  </p>
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the Guardian
Le Colonel Chabert

(Yves Angelo, 1994)

6pm, FilmFour

Rather sombre but thoroughly involving historical drama based on a Balzac story. It stars an extremely restrained Gerard Depardieu as the eponymous hero who returns from fighting inthe Napoleonic wars after wandering the country as an amnesiac for years. His wife, Fanny Ardant, has remarried; Chabert's estate now belongs to ambitious Count Ferraud (André Dussollier). Intelligent, and handsomely mounted by Angelo, with Depardieu a picture of utter, weary anguish.

The Abyss

(James Cameron, 1989)

9pm, Sci-Fi

This could be viewed as Cameron's exploratory voyage for Titanic: both ocean-going adventures with onboard affairs of the heart, and headed for the bottom of the sea. Ed Harris stars as Bud Brigman, who with estranged wife Lindsey (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) encounters strange beings while searching for a sunken sub. But once we know the aliens are friendly, the film sinks with all hands.

Short Cuts

(Robert Altman, 1993)

10.45pm, Carlton Cinema

What Altman did for Nashville he does here for Los Angeles, a masterful interweaving of loosely connected lives and events that melds into a fully realised whole. The source is Raymond Carver's short stories, opened up by the fluid, fly-on-the-wall camerawork, perfectly edited; the outstanding ensemble cast includes Jack Lemmon, Andie MacDowell, Tim Robbins, Lily Tomlin and Julianne Moore.

White Zombie

(Victor Halperin, 1932 )

2am, Carlton Cinema

This early zombie shocker is far more frightening than the myriad imitations that came in its wake. A young couple arrive in Haiti to get married, and discover that the men who approach them with wild staring eyes and stiff gaits are not intoxicated but dead. Or rather, stripped of their souls by evil master of the black arts Bela Lugosi. Lugosi soon works his malevolent spell on the young bride for the benefit of an island man who has fallen for her. A darkly beautiful, eerie and atmospheric film.