MOVIE WATCH

[email protected] Innocent Moves Pearl, 9.35pm The first feature film from director Steven Zaillian, who wrote Schindler's List, is based on the trials and triumphs of a young chess prodigy. Max Pomeranc, a top 100 player himself, plays the seven-year-old in question, Josh Waitzkin. The pressures are piled on by Joe Mantegna (above, with Pomeranc) as his pushy dad, and Ben Kingsley, his chess hustler tutor. As with so many prodigies, the child's success reflects the unfulfilled dreams of adults, rather than his own ambitions. But in this case it is the men who have something to learn from the boy - that you don't have to be mean and tough to be good, and nor do you have to be as dysfunctional as the great chess player Bobby Fischer. Some may have seen this film under a different name, Searching For Bobby Fischer. Zaillian, who also wrote the script, won the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival for his intelligent, sensitive direction. The film was also nominated for a best cinematography Academy Award. (1993) Quentin Durward TCM, 10.40pm The novels of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), including Ivanhoe, The Talisman and Rob Roy, have provided great inspiration for movie-makers. Also among them was Quentin Durward, which has spawned at least three adaptations. Richard Thorpe directs the first, with Robert Taylor playing the dashing cavalier who is sent by his elderly uncle to woo a French lady (Kay Kendall) on his behalf, but falls in love with her himself. Robert Morley offers a fine supporting performance as the cunning and outrageous Louis XI. Kendall's career was cut tragically short four years later, when she died of leukaemia at the age of 32. (1955) Rotten Ralph World, 5.30pm Ralph, created by Florida author and illustrator Nicole Ruben, is a cat that many a child will identify with. He breaks things and constantly gets into trouble. But underneath that monster exterior, he is like the rest of them, not all bad. He just acts before he thinks. A little girl called Sarah is the one who understands him. This is the latest in fresh new programming for children on World.