Recommendations include works from this diverse group: John Waters, Akira Kurosawa, Brian DePalma

BIRD

Director Clint Eastwood and his collaborators take a hard story-the short, sad life of jazz revolutionary Charlie Parker-and neither flinch from the dark nor ignore the light. The 1988 portrayal of Parker’s interracial liaison with his last, common-law wife Chan (Diane Venora) is typical of “Bird’s” film noir romanticism and a gutty acceptance of life as it is. Forest Whitaker makes the part of the dazzling and contradictory Parker his own.

Wednesday at 11 p.m. HBO