November 2008 is, I’ll just say it, a somewhat uneven month in terms of the main channels that I normally feature in this list, so I’ve decided to return (in a few instances) to the annals of programming from the wonderful Ovation Network, despite its more limited distribution than some other channels. Again, I’ve stuck to my guns as far as the rules: the items featured in this list cannot be found on DVD, VHS, laserdisc, hi-def, blu-ray, or any other format in NTSC-bound North America. So these airings may provide your only chances to see these particular films for a long, long time - at least, until the networks see fit to bring them ’round again. Also: for the sake of brevity, this month’s list will exclude a ‘held over’ section. Again, I’ve maintained a very high standard of quality and avoided potboilers. All of these titles are ones to seek out and hold in high regard. So happy viewing as we approach the end of autumn and winter comes rolling in.

1. Philip Johnson: Diary of an Eccentric Architect (Barbara Wolf, USA, 1996) – Nathan’s #1 Pick of the Month. I almost leaped out of my chair when I saw this in the Ovation TV listings after years of trying to find a copy. It’s still quite astounding that with all of the junk that gets regularly and indiscriminately dumped onto DVD in North America, one of the finest architectural documentaries of the past 15 years is still nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, architecture fans have to continue suffering through inept concoctions like Beat Kuert’s ludicrous Architects Herzog and de Meuron: Alchemy of Building. No more. Ovation subscribers, get your DVRs ready, because this 55-minute portrait of the late architect Philip Johnson, from 1996, is second to none – not merely as an architectural profile, but as a profile of the creative process per se. On display are such genius creations as Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut and a guest home that abounds with graceful light despite an absence of windows; the late Johnson also expostulates at length about his persistent attempts to design a building with no straight lines. Don’t miss this one! Airs on Ovation, Saturday November 15th at 3pm.

2. Kill Gil, Vol. II (Gil Rossellini, Switzerland/Italy, 2006) – Nathan’s #2 Pick of the Month. The recent death of producer/director Gil Rossellini (the son of Roberto Rossellini and Sonali SenRoy Das Gupta) makes the appearance of this film on Sundance a poignant event indeed. The prequel, 2005’s Kill Gil, Vol. I, rested on a shattering and devastating tragedy: while in Scandinavia for a film festival, Rossellini (then at the top of his game, with the whole world at his feet) suddenly caught an aggressive strain of staphylococcus through a nick in his neck, fell into a coma in his hotel room, and awoke three weeks later – almost completely incapacitated, with the flesh-eating bacteria devouring large patches of his skin and leaving enormous, gaping wounds all over his body. Determined to fight it, he took his camera and began documenting his Herculean effort to claw his way back to survival. Vol. II represents a sequel to the original video diary, which ended on an optimistic note, with Rossellini assuming the worst was over. As this film reveals, such wasn’t the case. It finds the director confronting such obstacles as excruciatingly painful tendon operations, permanent paralysis below the waist, and deforming scars. Given Rossellini’s passing, we know the outcome going in, but the film remains a first-person testament to courage and the triumph of the human spirit. Not to be missed, it airs on Sundance, Wednesday November 5th at 5am.

3. The Guv’nor (Milton Rosmer, UK, 1935) Most people today have probably never heard of the English stage comic George Arliss; thus, the news that Charlie Chaplin wasn’t the only tramp on the silver screen to delight audiences during the ’30s will probably come as a bit of a surprise. This particular vehicle rests on the irony that English bum Spike (Arliss), despite his rags and tatters, has keener financial insight than most of those in the local house of financiers. This is really a shaggy dog story at heart: through a series of errors in calculation, he lands in the House of Rothschild and gets named bank director – and it falls on his shoulders to save the British Empire from financial catastrophe. Charming, extremely droll, and very much a product of its time (I mean, can one imagine this story being told in, say, the late ’60s?), with its graceful and witty class commentary, the film anticipates such efforts as My Man Godfrey, made about a year later. The Guv’nor was released under the title “Mr. Hobo” in the States. Airs on Turner Classic Movies, Thursday 11/6 at 1:15pm.

4. A Yank at Oxford (Jack Conway, USA, 1938) – A first-rate A-list cast, including Robert Taylor, Lionel “Mr. Potter” Barrymore, and Vivien Leigh (one year before her star-making turn at the hands of Selznick) headlines this gentle, thoroughly effective drama from MGM’s sister outfit, Elstree Studios; it is also known as the movie that restored down-and-outer Taylor’s then flagging stardom. He plays the thoroughly snotty and conceited son of a newspaper publisher (Barrymore) who manages to get into Oxford thanks to a dean’s efforts, and plans to shove his feelings of American superiority onto the British – little realizing that they will knock him down several notches. He also falls for a lovely co-ed played by none other than Maureen O’Sullivan, otherwise known as the future mother of Mia Farrow. Curiously, F. Scott Fitzgerald did extensive work on the screenplay but received no credit. Forget about the godawful remake with Rob Lowe, Oxford Blues (1984), and seek this one out instead. Airs on Turner Classic Movies, Thursday 11/6 at 4am.

5. Carny – (Alison Murray , USA, 2008) – Not to be confused with Robert Kaylor’s awful youth picture of the same name from 1980, this finely-wrought documentary by the gifted Murray somehow bypassed most theaters despite a compelling subject and excellent handling. That may be because it seems better-suited for the small screen. Murray and co. carry their cameras behind the scenes of a traveling small-town carnival, to observe a rather wonderful irony: despite the fact that most of the folks hail from the wrong side of the tracks, they manage to find a sense of community in one another that (at least partially) redeems it all. Few films (documentary or fiction) have looked into itinerant lifestyles with such poignancy and wisdom. Airs on Sundance, Monday 11/17 at 9pm, and Thursday 11/27 at 10am.

6. A Curtain Raiser/Un Lever de Rideau (François Ozon , France, 2006) (short) – French cause-célébré Ozon followed his critically-acclaimed Time to Leave with this compelling court-métrage that stars Louis Garrel (Les Amants Reguliers) as a prissy and nitpicky playboy who grows aggravated and agitated by his girlfriend’s constant, pervasive inability to show up on time. Ozon demonstrates his trademark visual splendor, and coaches grade-A performances from his two leads over the course of the film’s brief 30-minute run time – demonstrating once again that he’s as adept with the unique form of the short film as he is with feature-length works such as Swimming Pool. Airs on Sundance Tuesday November 4 at 3:30AM, Saturday November 8 at 8:30PM, Sunday November 9 at 6PM and Thursday November 20 at 5:15PM.

7. The Spider and the Fly (Robert Hamer, UK, 1949) – Yet another example of a subgenre that has all but vanished – the British spy film. (I speak not of James Bond gimmickery and slickness, but of revisionist spy sagas such as Smiley’s People and The Deadly Affair). This one unfurls during the cataclysm of cataclysms – World War I – and casts Guy Rolfe as Phillipe de Ledocq, a safecracker relentlessly pursued by police chief Maubert (Eric Portman) – that is, until the government insists on releasing him and appoints him to use his burglary skills to pilfer wartime secrets from the Kaiser’s spies. Though every bit as suspenseful and atmospheric as it sounds, this only turns up on cable once in a blue moon. Airs on Turner Classic Movies, Thu. 11/20 at 4:45am – a time slot that will give it the night owl status and allure it so roundly deserves.

8. W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (John G. Avildsen, USA, 1975) – Burt Reynolds fans, take note: Jackie Gleason wasn’t the only nutcase sheriff to go chasing Reynolds around the south in the mid-late 1970s. Two years prior to Smokey I, yet another lawman turned up – this one played by Gleason’s old compatriot, Art Carney – as a nutty, Bible-toting, gun-slinging evangelical determined to bring gas station robber W.W. Bright (Reynolds) to justice once and for all. That’s the set-up for this insubstantial but utterly charming and genuinely funny, southern-flavored comedy that finds Bright hooking up with a country and western band. Reynolds co-stars Jerry Reed and Ned Beatty turn up; John Avildsen directed, two years after Save the Tiger and four years after Cry Uncle, and this really represented his last gasp of intelligence and ambition before he sank into the endless inspirational doggerel that began promisingly, with Rocky. Airs on the Fox Movie Channel, Monday 11/10 at 2pm.

9. Heartfield – John Heartfield (1861-1968) basically invented the artistic form of photomontage, but has received a rather paltry amount of documentary attention. This fine effort marks an exception, and traces the evolution of the artist’s career with a fixed eye on his role in founding the Dadaist movement. Airs on Ovation - Wed. 11/19 at 10pm, Thurs. 11/20 at 1am, Fri. 11/21 at 3am and Sunday 11/23 at 12pm and 7pm.

10. Mad About Monet (Nicky Pattison, UK, 1999) – The king of the Impressionists may have received countless documentary treatments before, but in this editor’s humble opinion, there can never be too many. This represents yet another welcome addition to the canon; it interpolates interviews with celebrity fans of the artist’s work, candid one-on-one discussions with Monet’s heirs, and a compelling account of the transport of over 80 Monet paintings from Boston, across the Atlantic to London. Airs on Ovation – Mon. 11/17 at 6pm.

AND – Nathan’s Pick of the Month that Is On Video:

Psych-Out (Richard Rush, USA, 1968) – Susan Strasberg, Jack Nicholson and Dean Stockwell (god love ‘im) co-star in this psychedelic head trip about a young woman intent on tracking her nutty, drug crazed brother down, amid San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. Question: what could possibly be better? Answer: the brother is played by Bruce Dern! Need I say more? Dick Clark (Dick Clark!) produced. Airs on Turner Classic Movies, Sat. 11/8 at 3:30am.