HIGHLIGHTS: The week ahead in TV and Radio 1 Edition

• Published in: The Australian (Canberra, A.C.T.)
• Main Author: Shane Danielsen, Kerrie Murphy, Iain Payten
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Canberra, A.C.T Nationwide News Pty Ltd 11.01.2001
• Subjects: Cobb, Ty
• ISSN: 1038-8761

A victim of the parallel projects syndrome (see also Dante's Peak and Volcano), this 1999 version of the tale, starring the precocious but slightly smug Leelee Sobieski as the Maid of Orleans, competed vainly for attention beside Luc Besson's flaky, overblown The Messenger (Joan as MTV riot-grrrl). Sobieski is better, admittedly, than that film's Milla Jovovich, but still unconvincing. Only Jacques Rivette, in his magisterial six-hour Jeanne la Pucelle, succeeded in rendering the legend believable -- by grounding the drama in strict historical realism and thereby treating Joan's visions, and their political consequences, as manifestations of a singular (and possibly hysterical) faith. This show turns out to be surprisingly addictive even if it goes in a little too hard in the important moral department. M.E.'s daughter Kelly is going through those difficult teenage years and M.E. is desperately trying to stop her from making the same mistakes she did. Rene thinks she's being a little hard on Kelly and things come to a head when Kelly gets in trouble with the law and turns to Rene for help. In the flashback to M.E. and Rene's childhood, the arrival of Rene's first period sets changes in motion. Portrait: Angelina Molina grows from a provincial schoolgirl into an urban sophisticate in Half of HeavenActing up: Kylie Minogue and [Jean-Claude Van Damme] in Street FighterPressured: [Demi Moore] in The JurorSmug: Leelee Sobieski as JoanMonster: [Tommy Lee Jones] is Ty CobbBall's in her court: Martina HingisDroll: Family Guy's [Peter] and BrianMourning has broken: Home and AwayPicture perfect: [Betty Grable]; Photo: Photo