ALL THAT JAZZ **

"All that Jazz" shared the Palme d'Or at Cannes with "Kagemusha" and went on to win 4 Oscars yet it's not an easy film nor a particularly likeable one. It is, perhaps, the most shamelessly autobiographical musical ever made but whereas most directors would probably paint 'themselves' in a good light Bob Fosse's alter-ego, Joe Gideon, is a hard-drinking, pill-popping, womanising chauvinist. Roy Scheider is superb in the part but he isn't someone who engenders our sympathy.

Fundamentally this is a 'putting-on-a-show' musical but it's not like any other 'putting-on-a-show' musical you've ever seen. The life of Scheider's Gideon/Fosse is played out in what looks like a giant dressing room presided over by Jessica Lange's Angel of Death and Fosse leaves us in no doubt that the guy up on screen is meant to be him; as he rehearses his new show we see him editing his movie "Lenny" but with Cliff Gorman, Broadway's Lenny, rather than the real movie's Dustin Hoffman.



Of course, it's self-indulgent and there isn't that many musical numbers though the few we do get are brilliantly directed and choreographed, (the 'erotic ballet' is a stunner). It's probably closer to Fellini than to anything else Fosse did, (Fosse's 8 1/2?), so newcomers to the picture may be inclined to think of "Nine" while they're watching it. It's certainly well made but it's a sour and self-critical movie, perhaps too much in love with its own sense of style. As if prefiguring his own early demise Fosse kills off his central character but his death becomes just another production number, (Bye Bye Life). Nothing, it seems, is to be taken seriously. This is a pity because as it stands "All that jazz" feels strangely smart and soulless at one and the same time.

OUT OF THE FURNACE ***

A few weeks ago Christian Bale was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for "American Hustle". The nomination was richly deserved in a very good year for actors yet after seeing "Out of the Furnace" I can't help thinking the nomination should have been for this movie since this is the best performance Bale has given to date. He's Russell Baze, a steel-worker in an economically impoverished American small-town and he's a thoroughly decent human being. Casey Affleck is his younger brother, Rodney, a somewhat disturbed Iraq veteran with a gambling habit who takes up bare-knuckle boxing in an attempt to pay off his debts. Things go seriously wrong for the brothers when Rodney falls foul of Woody Harrelson's truly scary redneck drug-dealer.

This terrific movie is something like a cross between "The Deer Hunter" minus the Vietnam scenes, (there's even a deer hunt in this one, too) and "Hard Times", (not to be confused with the Christian Bale movie"Harsh Times" but the Charles Bronson movie about bare-knuckle boxing that came out in 1975). It's a film that takes its time; we get to know the characters gradually and it's not just Bale and Affleck and Harrelson who are brilliant here. Willem Dafoe, Forrest Whittaker, Sam Shepard and Tom Bower are all totally comfortable in their roles. This is a slow burner of a movie and it's brilliantly directed by Scott Cooper and superbly photographed by Masanobu Takayangi. It's also a powerful and depressing picture of the current state of the American economy where the good guys can no longer hold it together and where the bad guys always seem to have the upper hand.

THE VIOLENT MEN *

Despite a terrific cast and some excellent location work Rudolph Mate's "The Violent Men" isn't much of a western. It's another range-war picture with all the inevitable cliches. It's partly redeemed, as so many films were, by the performances of Edward G as a greedy cattle-baron and Barbara Stanwyck as his scheming wife. Glenn Ford is the hero and he adds a few much needed shades of grey to the part. The two credited DoP's were Burnett Guffey and W. Howard Greene. Perhaps if someone other than Mate had directed it might have felt fresher; maybe it needed someone like Delmer Daves. It's not a total failure, though; this kind of western is basically critic-proof, building as it does to a suitably operatic climax with some decent action scenes along the way.

BOY'S TOWN no stars

Another biopic and another Oscar winner for Best Actor. This time it was the turn of Spencer Tracy as the legendary Father Flanagan, who founded "Boy's Town", a camp for homeless boys. I'm sure everyone's heart was in the right place but it's still sick-makingly sentimental, the kind of pious claptrap that Hollywood was expert in making back in the day. This was Tracy's second Best Actor Oscar in a row and he's the best thing about the film, even if neither Oscar-winning performance represented anything like his best work. A young Mickey Rooney pulls out all the stops as one of the boys who comes his way and proves to be a tough nut to crack. He also picked up a Special Juvenile Oscar that year and he probably cries more than any other male in the history of movies; I wonder what Taroug did to the kid this time round? Tell him he massacred his whole family? Watch it if you must but only if you are in desperate need of a sugar rush.

BERSERK! no stars

Yes, it's dreadful but then you seriously didn't think it would be anything else? "Berserk" was Joan Crawford's penultimate cinema release and at least she gets her name above the credits. She's the owner of a circus where the performers are dropping like flies and she made the film in the UK so the cast includes the likes of Diana Dors, Michael Gough, Robert Hardy and Judy Geeson. The male lead is a mostly shirtless Ty Hardin who probably needed the money to pay for his alimony. Indeed, this may well be a camp classic; it's certainly impossible to watch it with anything like a straight face and while Joan may be stiffer than a poker, at least you can't take your eyes off her.

ACROSS THE BRIDGE **

Of all the films made from the novels and stories of Graham Greene, "Across the Bridge" is probably the least known and least appreciated which is a pity as it's actually very good, (it's much, much better than John Ford's "The Fugitive", his feeble attempt to film "The Power and the Glory"). Of course, with a better director than Ken Annakin and a better supporting cast it might have been perfect. As it is, it's entirely reliant on its plot, which is gripping, and a sterling performance from Rod Steiger, to hold our interest.

He's Carl Schaffner, a crooked businessman who, in an attempt to escape justice, assumes the identity of the man he thinks he's killed and who just happens to be a murderer. It's a plot not dissimilar to that of Antonioni's later "The Passenger" and if this film is never in that class, neither does it deserve to be overlooked. Worth seeking out.

LURED no stars

Very strange; Douglas Sirk's "Lured" is a serial killer thriller, somewhat lacking in thrills but full of little eccentricities of plot that, at least, marks it out as different. It's set in a foggy London where New York showgirl Lucille Ball finds herself working for the police trying to track down a killer who meets his victims by putting ads in the personal column. Ball is surprisingly good and the first-rate cast also includes George Sanders, Boris Karloff, Charles Coburn, (as a very unlikely policeman), George Zucco, (as another very unlikely policeman), Cedric Hardwicke, Joseph Calleia and Alan Mowbray. Unfortunately, they are mostly just coasting along given the lackluster script. Almost everyone, except Coburn and Zucco, are suspects and there are more red herrings on display than in Billingsgate Fish Market. It's not very good, (in fact, it's pretty terrible), and you should be able to pick out the killer quite early on but it's certainly weird.

THE ROVER ***

David Michod's remarkable "The Rover" is like an episode from the 'Mad Max' franchise shorn of about 90% of the action. We are back in another futuristic post-apocalyptic Australia where cars and guns seem to be more valued than human life. One must assume Guy Pearce is the rover of the title who gets very pissed off when is car is stolen by a wounded Scoot McNairy and his associates. He certainly doesn't take it lying down, setting off in pursuit and picking up McNairy's brother, Robert Pattinson, on the way.

In Michod's world, life is short and brutal, (he also made "Animal Kingdom"), and while there are long stretches in which nothing happens, when something does you can rest assured it will be violent and often unexpected. If the premiss isn't particularly original, (most post-apocalyptic pictures tend to go down similar roads), Michod ensures that, even in its quietest moments, our interest never flags.
Both Pearce and Pattinson, acting for the most part without benefit of either dialogue or established character, are outstanding, (even if Pattinson seems to have seen too many Earl Holliman pictures), while DoP Natasha Braier makes the vast landscapes both beautiful and menacing. With this and "Animal Kingdom" under his belt Michod is now a name to look out for.

RAMBO no stars

"Rambo" is actually the first Rambo' film I've seen and it will probably be the last. This is an appallingly and sickeningly violent movie, pure pornography, in fact, that exploits the dreadful events that happened in Burma in the name of 'entertainment'. It may be very well made and the action sequences are certainly very realistic with severed heads and limbs flying every which way but it serves no purpose and leaves a very bad taste in the mouth. Stallone not only reprises his role as Rambo but also co-wrote the film and directed as well. He should be ashamed of himself.

YOUNG ADULT ***

"Young Adult"is the category of book that Mavis Gary writes for mainly teenage girls but the title could just as easily apply to Mavis herself, a late thirties-something blonde still suffering some kind of arrested development, leading the life of a slob and drinking a little too much. She is also totally amoral and feels no guilt at all in coming back to the town she loathes so well and trying to break up the obviously happy marriage of former boyfriend Patrick Wilson. As you can guess, this is no ordinary rom-com but a sad/funny and bitter comedy of dysfunction superbly directed by Jason Reitman and with a cracker script, which pulls no punches, by Diablo Cody who wrote JUNO, (this is better). As Mavis, Charlize Theron may give what is a career-best performance. Unlike Aileen Wuornos, Mavis may not actually kill people but she's no less a monster for all that and yet as Patton Oswalt's loser and kindred spirit says 'Guys like me were born to love women like you'. We may never quite find Mavis' heart but it's a testament to the film's genius that we love her all the same.

MONEY MONSTER **

At the beginning of "Money Monster" an extremely pissed off Jack O'Connell walks into a television studio, heavily armed, and takes George Clooney's TV host hostage. The guards on the door don't even blink except for one of them saying, 'Who's the new guy?'. It's the ease with which he does it that's the point. "Money Monster" may be a movie of high ambitions and missed opportunities but if it tells us anything it's that the potential lunatics and terrorists aren't in Iran or Iraq but on home turf and are walking the streets with impunity.

It starts brilliantly. As the smug TV host George Clooney is superb, as are Jack O'Connell and Julia Roberts as Clooney's director but it slips into satire much too soon and the comedy is pretty feeble, even if the initial premiss is sound, (O'Connell and millions of other investors have lost everything thanks to Clooney's on-air advice). It's at its best when sticking to the hostage situation and the relationship that develops between the hostage and hostage-taker and while it stays in thriller territory it is genuinely exciting, Director Jodie Foster gives it all she's got and with a better script you can see just what this might have been. Still, it's certainly no dog and as multiplex fare goes it's probably as good as it gets.

KELLY + VICTOR *

"Kelly + Victor" is the story of a sadomasochistic relationship between a young couple who meet in a nightclub then go back to hers for sex. It's a thin little story tarted up with shots of nature and landscape between the bouts of not very pleasant passion. It's a film that shows real promise, (director Kieran Evans won a BAFTA for it), but is too concerned with softening the blow by making this into an 'art' movie complete with visit to an art gallery. I think it would have been a better picture had a more direct approach been taken. Julian Morris is outstanding as Victor; he is a naturally physical performer who throws himself completely into the role. If Antonia Campbell-Huges is less impressive as Kelly it may be because her character never feels real. Her addiction to kinky sex feels to me like a scriptwriter's affectation. It's a bleak, grim little picture, very 21st century kitchen-sink and it made me long for the less explicit but more dramatically satisfying British films of the early 1960's.

THE DEMONS **

Not a great deal happens, (unless you count child abuse and suicide), in this languid tale of childhood and adolescent sexuality yet there is something deeply disturbing and unpleasantly erotic in the way first-time feature director Philippe Lesage handles the material. The central character is Felix, a young boy trying to come to terms with his own sexual feelings and his unrequited 'love' for the much older Rebecca. As he does so he finds sex of one kind or another all around him.

It is a difficult role and Edouard Tremblay-Grenier plays him beautifully. Apart from a teacher and a couple of parents adults are mostly absent and Lesage draws very fine performances from his young cast and shoots it superbly. often in long takes and on wide screen. Ultimately this isn't just a work of great promise but a highly sensitive and intelligent look at adolescence.

PREVENGE **

We all know that pregnant women are supposed to get strange cravings. Most of the time these are usually nothing more than for the odd toastie in the middle of the night with perhaps a disgusting filling or two. Ruth's cravings, on the other hand, are a good deal darker. Egged on by the voice of her unborn baby girl Ruth gets a craving to kill people and it would seem with justification since all of her victims were, in some way, responsible for the death of her baby's father.

"Prevenge", in case you hadn't guessed it, is a comedy and a very black one. It was written and directed by the multi-talented Alice Lowe who, up until now, was better known as the female half of the team that brought you "Sightseers". She also plays Ruth, and plays her superbly, and her victims are made up of a host of outstanding British character players, including the monstrously underused Kate Dickie. Naturally, this isn't a film that will appeal to everyone, (I think pregnant mothers should stay well clear), but if you have the same very sick sense of humour that I do then seek it out; you certainly won't regret it.

THE STRUCTURE OF CRYSTALS ***

After a decade making shorts and films for television Krzysztof Zanussi finally made his feature debut with the short and slightly chilly art-house entry "The Structure of Crystals". It's about two old college friends, both scientists, who are reunited years later at the snowbound outpost where one of them lives and works. It's basically a chamber piece dealing with the very human issues of friendship and possible resentment and Zanussi imbues it with a dark humour. In dramatic terms nothing really happens but in spite of its setting and its subject it's anything but boring; it even alludes at one point to Chekov as if to say that boredom in itself need not be boring. It's also gorgeously shot in black and white by Stefan Matyjaszkiewicz; indeed, the whole film has the mark of a major talent.

MARY POPPINS RETURNS no stars

Oh dear, have I really turned into the sourest of old pusses or am I finally able to recognize a turd when I smell one? I am speaking, of course, about the abominable "Mary Poppins Returns", the most shameless example of the money-grabbing exploitation of small children and their gullible parents since Uncle Walt was a wee Disney or Mickey, a very small mouse. Like most of the rest of the world, I loved the original, a fairytale musical of the first rank, full of great songs, sprightly dances and, of course, Julie Andrews, who chirped her way into our hearts and walked off with an Oscar; a fair lady, indeed. Not content to leave well enough alone they turned it into a stage show but left the plot, songs and dances mostly intact. Now those dorks at Disney, (I notice Walt's name is no longer on the credits), have decided to cash in and resurrect the old girl, (no, they had the decency not to cast an 84 year old Julie Andrews as an ancient Mary), giving us instead a game but less than memorable Emily Blunt, who can't really sing, (but given the dreadful songs is that really a problem), and instead of an American-Cockney chimney-sweep we get an American-Cockney lamp-lighter or 'learie', (the gifted Lin-Manuel Miranda, totally wasted).

Almost everything else is as it was but without the charm. The Banks children have grown up into a dull-as-dishwater Ben Whishaw and a good-natured Emily Mortimer and they are about to have their house repossessed by nasty Colin Firth at the bank. Ben's a widower so Mary comes to save him, the house and Ben's three children. Business as usual then. It's still a musical but there isn't a good song to be heard. Instead, we get 'guest appearances'. Is Meryl so down on her uppers that she has to appear in such drivel as this? Finally, a 93 year old Dick Van Dyke reappears, now cast as the nice man in charge of the bank. Either Dick is the fittest 93 year old on the planet or his legs are the year's best special effects. Oh yes, and finally finally a 93 year old Angela Lansbury pops up, not to sing a reprise of 'Feed the Birds' but as a singing balloon lady. Very small children, (particularly if they haven't seen the original), might enjoy it but everyone else should avoid it like the plague. P.L. Travers must be revolving in her grave.

WHAT'S NEW, PUSSYCAT? **

"What's New, Pussycat?"was Woody Allen's first screen credit so you might say it was his earliest funny one. Directing duties, however, were in the hands of Clive Donner who seemed to take a back seat and just let everyone get on with it. Maybe he just didn't get Allen's  "Hellzapoppin"-scatological quick-fire gags. Whatever the reason, the film's sloppy but it's also very funny. Allen himself pops up in a typical early Allen role, (the sex-obsessed nerd), while the leading roles go to Peter O'Toole, (handling an early comic performance with considerable aplomb), and Peter Sellers who looks like he could have wandered in from "The Goons". It is, of course, a sex comedy and the terrific looking women O'Toole, Sellers and Allen lust after include Romy Schneider, Capucine, (who showed she could be a surprisingly sharp comedienne), Paula Prentiss and Ursula Andress. Burt Bacharach wrote the splendidly jaunty score and the splendid credits were courtesy of Richard Williams.

THE GYPSY MOTHS ***

Frankenheimer when he was still at the top of his game. He made "The Gypsy Moths" in 1969 and if it isn't quite in the same class of his earlier sixties work it is still a very fine and underrated film. The Gypsy Moths of the title are three daredevil skydivers, (Burt Lancaster, Gene Hackman and Scott Wilson), who land, literally, in a small mid-western town one 4th of July weekend where their presence disrupts the lives of a few of its female citizens, chief of whom is Deborah Kerr as the unhappily married aunt of the Wilson character and who has a brief tryst with Lancaster.


Although the film deals with an activity that has all the potential for excitement its main concern is the relationships that develop between the characters. It's a beautifully written and acted picture, (Kerr, Lancaster, Hackman and Wilson do some of their best work here), and Frankenheimer conjures up the atmosphere of a small town sweltering in the summer heat superbly. Today the film is seldom revived which is a pity as it remains one of the best American
films of its period.

BEIJING BICYCLE ****

"Beijing Bicycle" has been described as a Chinese "Bicycle Thieves". This kind of plot is easy to poach if not always that easy to bring off but Xiaoshuai Wang manages it beautifully helped by a couple of wonderfully naturalistic performances from Lin Cui as the young courier whose bicycle is stolen and from Bin Li as the young thief, as well as by the superb cinematography of Jie Liu. This time the plot is less predictable and handled with a touch more humor than you might expect. It's also a great 'city' film with Wang handling the milieu of a large, and to Western eyes, a virtually unknown metropolis with all the brio of a Lumet but also with a freshness of approach and, like Lumet, he manages to balance the comic and the tragic in equally brilliant measure. This is a truly terrific film that simply shouldn't be missed.

THE LOVELESS **

"The Loveless" was Kathryn Bigelow's feature film debut, (she co-wrote and co-directed it with Monty Montgomery). It's a very self-conscious homage to both "The Wild One", with Willem Dafoe in the Brando role, (it also marked Dafoe's 'official' debut), and Kenneth Anger's "Scorpio Rising" shot in the garish colors of the kind of fifties' melodramas that Douglas Sirk might have made. It's got a very rough and ready feel to it and the script and the acting leave a lot to be desired but it looks great, (Bigelow was a painter before going into movies), and it has a great soundtrack.  Hardly anything happens and it might have worked better as a short but at 82 minutes it never outstays its welcome and is worth catching.

ELENA ***

"Elena" is another slow, sombre drama from Russia, (I'm sure they must make comedies but they are few and far between). This one hails from director Andrey Zygagintsev and it's beautifully filmed with a superb central performance from Nadezhda Markina in the title role. The picture of modern Russia it paints is, of course, typically grim. Shit happens everywhere and the poverty depicted here is universal. But Elena is not poor; Elena has married an affluent man and lives in a modern house. Elena wants for nothing, except perhaps a life she might call her own. It is her son and his family who are poor and who live in a run-down high-rise apartment block and it's her son who needs money.

An American or a British film might have turned this into a kind of slam-dunk thriller but not Zygagintsev who opts instead for a very slow burner without dissipating any of the tension. It's when shit finally does happen to Elena and her family that the film ups its ante and does become a fairly riveting thriller. Nevertheless, it still moves at a measured pace and it's the small details that are telling, (Elena asking at a church to which saint she should light a candle). It's also darkly unsentimental; one might even call it cold. There isn't much in the way of emotion on display here and you get a chilly feeling from it. None of the characters, including Elena herself, are sympathetically drawn but it's a film that never quite conforms to our expectations and for that alone we should be grateful.

THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR no stars

Another of Warner Brothers' famous biopics and a 'prestige' production, (it won 3 Oscars, including Best Actor for Paul Muni's performance in the title role), but it's deadly dull, despite the best efforts of director William Dieterle to make it 'cinematic'. "The Story of Louis Pasteur" is more of a civics lesson than a proper motion picture; it just grinds on and on through this cure and that but for a mercifully short 86 minutes. Did a Saturday night audience really get fired up by all these microbes? I mean, where was the sex, (and let's not count the romance of Donald Wood's eager young doctor and Anita Louise as Pasteur's daughter)? Nevertheless, it was a hit and for a time people thought Muni the greatest actor in the movies. I suppose the best that can be said for it is that it tried to stick to the 'basic' facts; I just wish the facts were more interesting.

DR. CRIPPEN **

Poor "Dr. Crippen". As the character himself says, he's gone down in history as some kind of monster, not that far removed from Jack the Ripper. Robert Lynn's simple, sober film sets out to redress the balance. painting Crippen as more sinned against than sinner. Yes, he killed his wife and dismembered her corpse but did she drive him to it and was the killing itself an accident as he ultimately claims? There is no doubt as to which side Lynn's film is on.

It's an intelligent little picture if, in the end, not a particularly exciting one and it's very well played by Donald Pleasence, (Crippen), Samantha Eggar, (Ethel Le Neve, his uncomprehending mistress) and Coral Browne, (his shrew of a wife). The fine black and white cinematography is by Nicholas Roeg.

DARKEST HOUR *

When Meryl Streep won her third Oscar for playing Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady" it was as much for her make-up as it was for her acting, (it's actually one of her least interesting performances; more mimicry than anything else). The same can't be said of Gary Oldman's turn as Winston Churchill in Joe Wright's "Darkest Hour". It's a phenomenal performance that demolishes all previous Churchills. Yes, he looks the part thanks again to his hugely talented make-up artists and he has the voice off pat, but more importantly he gets inside Churchill's heart and head which is, perhaps, something of a surprise considering the material he's been given to work with is really rather third-rate.

Wright's film, which simply covers the month of May 1940 when Churchill was elected Prime Minister and saw the evacuation at Dunkirk has every cliche in the book including a disastrous scene when Winston decides to ride the Underground for the first time in order to gauge public opinion. This sequence is positively embarrassing though Oldman just about manages to carry it off. Elsewhere the film is very unevenly acted. The men have the best of it with both Ben Mendelsohn and Ronald Pickup impressing as the King and Neville Chamberlin respectively. On the other hand, Kristin Scott Thomas isn't given enough to do as a rather genteel Clemmie and Lily James makes for a very dull secretary. So then, very much a hit and miss affair worth seeing for Oldman's Oscar-winning performance, (they may as well put his name on it now), providing you are prepared for another lame history movie and Wright's poorest picture to date.

IRMA LA DOUCE **

When "Irma La Douce" first came out it was critically mauled and it hasn't fared much better since, (it's generally regarded as Wilder's worst film though that's a distinction I've reserved for his version of "The Front Page"), and while I agree it's no masterpiece it's much better than its critical reputation might suggest. It's funny in a very naive kind of way and it's a lot less cynical than we might expect from Wilder; you may even say it has an innocent charm. It's based on a play by Alexandre Breffort that in turn became a Broadway musical. Wilder's version leaves out the songs though Andre Previn's score keeps the themes.

Irma is a Parisian prostitute and Lemmon is the policeman who, after losing his job (for being too honest) becomes her pimp. They are played, excellently, by Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon, less frenetic here than usual, and there's a lovely supporting performance from Lou Jacobi as the owner of a local bar. Unfortunately it's a very artificial looking movie which takes away from the overall effect and the plot, (Lemmon gets jealous of Irma's success in her profession and disguises himself as a rich English lord so he can be her only 'suitor'), isn't up to much, ('reality' isn't the film's strongest point), but it's a hard movie to dislike. It's unlikely it will ever make anyone's list of ten best Wilder movies but maybe it is time it was reassessed.

OCCIDENTAL no stars

"Grand Hotel" this most certainly isn't. Set in an expensive if rather seedy looking Parisian hotel on a night when student riots are taking place in the streets outside it's a kind of metaphysical thriller whose air of mystery is portentous to say the least but perhaps that is only down to a lack of coherence in the script. The cast mope about as if in a trance, (possibly they were), and nothing of any significance happens. It's less than 80 minutes long but it feels interminable and if I see anything as bad in the next eleven months I may abandon cinema altogether.

LION **

"Lion" is the kind of inspirational movie I normally shy away from but first-time director Garth Davis treats the material with a harder edge than I expected. The potential for sentimentality is, of course, high in this true story of a five year old Indian boy separated from his family by 1600 kilometers when the train he is sleeping in 'accidentally' takes him to Calcutta forcing him to live on the streets until a kindly Australian couple, (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham), adopt him and raise him to adulthood in Tasmania.

As a child he is played by the remarkable Sunny Pawar and as an adult by the equally remarkable Dev Patel in a film full of fine performances. The tragedy of the early scenes are that they will immediately remind you of Dickensian London, (complete with a Fagin and a Nancy), though mercifully these children encounter as much goodness as they do evil. This is, after all, a film about hope

.
Of course, one of the risks involved when Western filmmakers make movies in such 'exotic' locations as India is the temptation to prettify them out of all recognition. This is fine in a movie like "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" but a movie like this needs to look at least more 'realistic' and Greig Fraser's excellent cinematography does go some way to rectifying the problem; there is a darkness here, literally and metaphorically. Ultimately this is a moving and intelligent picture that could easily have been so much less; a film in which even the obligatory romantic entanglements, (here involving a fine Rooney Mara), work. Hardly Best Picture material but worth seeing nevertheless.

THE MOLLY MAGUIRES **

Martin Ritt's movie "The Molly Maguires"is about Irish immigrant coal-miners in Pennsylvania in the 1870's and it doesn't have the same reputation as the movies he made with Paul Newman, yet it's a solid job of work nevertheless, if not totally convincing. The Molly Maguires of the title are an underground (bad pun) 'terrorist' organization sabotaging the mines as a means of improving conditions. Walter Bernstein's script never really explains why they believe their actions will improve their working conditions; rather it becomes a tale of an agent provocateur planted in the organization to ferret out the leaders. He is Richard Harris and the main leader of the Maguires is Sean Connery and they are both very good, (Harris, particularly so), but again Bernstein never really fleshes out their characters which remain resolutely one-dimensional. The obligatory woman, (whom Harris falls for), is Samantha Eggar who is also very good, though again in a part that is never fully developed. The most one-dimensional character of all, however, is Frank Finlay's crude caricature of a policeman who is much too obviously a sadist. The real star of the film is James Wong Howe whose images convey something of that terrible beauty we have all heard about and yet even these images look too clean-cut and manufactured; black and white might have suited the film better. Enjoyable then, but Ritt has done better.

ELLE ***

A woman is raped in her home by a masked intruder. She doesn't report it to the police but decides to deal with it in her own way. She also happens to be the daughter of a psychopath now in prison for slaughtering 27 people. The director is Paul Verhoeven, now 78 but just as keen to court controversy as he ever was and "Elle" may be his masterpiece.

It's also as far from your conventional rape revenge fantasy as you can imagine. For starters, it's often very funny albeit in the blackest possible way while working as a genuinely thrilling whodunit; the initial attack is only the beginning. It's also a disturbingly frank study of a warped psychology; in the end are the victim and the perpetrator that much different?

It helps, of course, that the woman is Isabelle Huppert, perhaps the only actress fearless enough to take on the role. She's magnificent but then when isn't she magnificent. I don't think there is anyone working in mainstream cinema today who can touch her. And with Huppert in the lead you may be reminded of Michael Haneke's "The Piano Teacher", another classic study of a dysfunctional sexual relationship. Will it win her the Oscar? Almost certainly not; the Academy seldom embraces anything this dark but when they do pass her over the loss will be as much theirs as it is Huppert's.

PHAEDRA no stars

High camp. Jules Dassin's updating of the Greek tragedy "Hippolytus", now called simply "Phaedra" after the central character, to modern times works only intermittently. It's mostly a shallow picture about shallow people and for that reason you never really care what happens to them; watching rich people suffer isn't much of a past-time although when it's done as badly as it is here it can be fun. On a more positive note, it looks good and the leads offer good, if hysterical, value. Mercouri is ... well, Mercouri. Like Magnani she was more a force of nature than an actress and she's all over the shop here. Unfortunately Anthony Perkins could never shake off the shackles of Norman Bates and he's a very unconvincing lover for stepmom Melina. He throws so many tantrums you begin to worry in case any of the cast decide to take a shower. Even if you are unfamiliar with the original you know it's all going to end in tears, or in this case in a lot of weeping and wailing.

THE SALT OF LIFE ****

Gianni Di Gregorio's "Mid-August Lunch" was one of my cinema-going delights of the past few years. It was a 'little' film in which very little happened. A middle-aged man, played by the director and living with his ancient mother, is tasked with looking after a few other old ladies for the night. Next day he makes them all lunch and that, as they say, is that but there was a joie de vivre to the film rare in movies today.

In "The Salt of Life" the director again plays a middle-aged man, also called Gianni, and again with mother problems, (the magnificent 97 year old actress, Valeria De Franciscis Bendoni, who played his mother in "Mid-August Lunch", is again his mother here), who decides to have a final fling with a younger woman. Of course, things don't go according to plan.

As a writer and director, (and indeed as an actor), Di Gregorio has a wonderful Tatiesque sense of the vagaries of life. There is a lot of comedy in the small everyday things he encounters, and virtually no dramas at all. He is the gentlest of movie-makers and one of the most affectionate. Life may frustrate Gianni but he never lets it disturb him. He makes movies designed to make you smile and I grinned like the Cheshire Cat all the way through "The Salt of Life".

HACKSAW RIDGE ***

To say that "Hacksaw Ridge" is Mel Gibson's best film so far may not be much of a stretch since Gibson has never really been in the front rank of international directors. However skilled he may be as a film-maker his choice of material has always remained suspect. Did he choose to make "The Passion of the Christ"and "Apocolypto" simply so he could dwell on the excessive onscreen violence or, in the case of "The Passion of the Christ", was he simply displaying an overt 'Christian' ethos bordering on Anti-Semitism?

"Hacksaw Ridge" isn't necessarily free of these charges either. His hero is Desmond Doss, a real-life conscientious objector who nevertheless went into battle and became the only man ever to win the Medal of Honour without firing a shot so it does, to a large degree, play to Gibson's Christian beliefs and by virtue of its being a war film is also extremely violent. However, it also has a strong narrative and feels, (if only marginally), less like torture porn than we might be used to from Gibson, (though if you pay close attention to those battle scenes you may be inclined to disagree with that last statement). These may be the most realistic battle scenes ever filmed or they may simply represent the best use of special effects.

As Doss, Andrew Garfield continues to show why he is considered one of the best young actors in movies today even if, on a psychological level, this role is a lot less demanding than his part in "Silence"
while technically the film is something of a marvel. Like Gibson or loathe him this is his show and his achievement here has its own grandeur. He may still not be able to handle scenes of simple domesticity but on the battlefield he is his own master. The events in this film may have actually happened. Whether or not they happened quite like they do here is entirely a different matter but on this occasion I am willing to allow Gibson his poetic licence.

THE LAST STATION ***

"The Last Station"is a wonderful film that never really received the critical attention it deserved. It's about Tolstoy, yes, the same one who wrote "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina", as an old man, (though in Christopher Plummer's brilliant and buoyant performance he's as sprightly as a young foal), caught in a battle of wills with his wife over the property they own and which he wants to give away and it's very funny in the way a good comedy should be, its humour stemming  directly from the plot, (it's full of references to the present day and how celebrities are hounded by the paparazzi), and it's very subtle; there are some scenes that may remind you of "The Cherry Orchard".
The director, Michael Hoffmann, keeps his own very fine script bouncing along, (it's based on the novel by Jay Parini), and has drawn first-rate performances from his cast. Plummer is, of course, wonderful as is Helen Mirren as the frustrated countess, (she treats the comedy in the material with the seriousness it deserves), and they were both nominated for the Oscar but there's lovely work, too, from James McAvoy as the wide-eyed innocent who became Tolstoy's secretary and especially from Paul Giametti as the schemer determined to separate Mirren from her inheritance. The luminous cinematography is by Sebastian Edschmid.