THE Italian film Cinema Paradiso (World, 9.30pm), Nuovo Cinema Paradiso in the vernacular, enjoyed a lengthy run in Hong Kong, I suspect because it pushes all the right buttons. Hong Kong audiences like to be told when to laugh and when to cry and there is not a moment in this film when they are left in any doubt.
Cinema Paradiso wallows in nostalgia for a mythical movie-going past. Yet underneath all the weepiness is a tough film trying to get out. Director Giuseppe Tornatore displays a fine eye for the rituals of small-town life and is particularly unsentimental in his depiction of a child's growth to maturity.
The drama takes place in extended flashback as a film director remembers his early life and his boyhood friendship with a projectionist at his local cinema. Philippe Noiret as the projectionist and the boy, Salvatore Cascio, are both splendid, but the scenes involving the local priest are some of the best. He doubles as village censor and invariably objects to the kissing scenes in films, which he snips out with scissors.
It is hard not to fall under this film's spell. The Italian wartime settings are stunning and the acting of a generally superior standard, even from the little boy, who gives one of the most memorable and least pestilential performances by a child actor in the history of cinema.
IF Cinema Paradiso is a film of great richness, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (Pearl, 9.30pm) is a straightforward thriller in which everything is channelled towards a fairly predictable climax. This does not stop it being enjoyable and it does at least cut out the guesswork. Rebecca de Mornay is the woman who, having seen her husband commit suicide and her baby miscarry, gets a job as nanny to the family she blames for her misfortunes. The film was a rabble-rousing hit - it is, it must be said, a notch or two above the norm.
WATCHING The Human Animal (Pearl, 8.30pm) one cannot help but think that Dr Desmond Morris is making a nice living, thank you very much, from stating the blindingly obvious. A public speaker wags his forefinger in the direction of his audience because he has a point to make; an interviewee crosses her arms in front of her body because she is rather nervous and on the defensive. It may be true - I would go as far as to say it is true - but the BBC should have realised it was going to be tough stretching the concept to fill a six-week documentary series.
