MY OCTOPUS TEACHER ***

 If "My Octopus Teacher" does win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature as predicted, (it's already won the BAFTA), I don't think I'll be complaining even if I think "Collective" the better film and the more worthy winner but that's only because "Collective" tells the more important story and is the more radical film. "My Octopus Teacher" is fairly radical, too, and as documentary filmmaking goes it's a beautiful job of work with some of the finest 'natural' cinematography I've ever seen, ("Blue Planet" eat your heart out).

It even has a plot of sorts and two leading players. One is Craig Foster, an explorer and cinematographer whose daily dives to a kelp forest in the seas off South Africa leads him to the films second character, a female octopus that Foster becomes very attached to and who, it would appear, becomes very attached to him, literally at times. Octopuses, it turns out, are highly intelligent creatures and Foster's octopus seems more intelligent than most, an 'alien' creature that can recognize an individual human being and want to be with that human, albeit in her own natural environment.

Of course, the octopus is also a wild animal in a wild, natural environment and much as he might want to Foster knows he can do nothing to change that; as we say, he has to let nature take its course while at the same time allowing himself to be 'taught' by the octopus, taught not just to care about the octopus itself but creatures in general and, strange as it may seem, interacting with this creature brought Foster closer to his own son. Superbly photographed and edited, its only fault lies in Foster's rather deadpan narration. He may be a nice guy but is somewhat dull in his delivery; luckily his camera speaks volumes.

NIJINSKY no stars

 Before becoming a film director with the musical remake of "Goodbye, Mr Chips", Herbert Ross had been both a dancer and a choreographer so if anyone was going to make a big screen biopic of ' the greatest ballet dancer who ever lived', aka Vaslav Nijinsky, who better then than Ross who already had his biggest screen success with "The Turning Point", a movie about two ageing, bitching ballet queens but while "The Turning Point" had proved popular with both critics and the public was that not down to leading ladies Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine? "Nijinsky", however, was a different kettle of fish entirely. The bitching ballet queens here were of the male variety and would audiences really buy a picture about a long dead male ballet dancer that many people might not have even heard of? But then, who can say what movies succeed and what fail. "Nijinsky" could potentially be an 'Amadeus' or a 'Heaven's Gate'.

In the end it was neither but a pretty, decorous scroll through Nijinsky's greatest hits with enough of his private life thrown in to keep the punters happy, (nothing like a little bit of scandal, be it gay or straight, to liven up an otherwise dull ballet picture). As Nijinsky, dancer George de la Pena is easy on the eye and certainly light on his feet, whenever Ross permits us to see his feet, but he wasn't much of an actor. As Diaghilev, Alan Bates is unusually stuffy while a supporting cast of mostly British thespians, (Alan Badel, Colin Blakely, Ronald Pickup, Jeremy Irons and Janet Suzman) do exactly what's expected of them while the talented Leslie Brown is utterly wasted as the dancer's missus. The film itself trundles along like the war horse it is and while it's never dull neither is it in any way memorable.

THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL **

 This contemporaneous Gothic thriller is courtesy of Robert Wise who knew a thing or two about this kind of yarn, (he did make "Curse of the Cat People" and "The Body Snatcher", not to mention "The Haunting"). This also has a nice Hitchcockian flair with a touch of the 'Rebecca's' about it as well as "Suspicion". Valentina Cortese is the concentration camp survivor who steals a dead friend's identity so she can come to America only to find when she gets there that her friend's young son has inherited a fortune. Of course, she is only posing as his mother and in no time at all is married to the boy's guardian, (Richard Basehart). There's also a sexy Mrs. Danvers character, played by Fay Baker, who's being looking after the boy, so you know things aren't going to end well for somebody.

Overtaken in many people's affections by several of Wise's later films this is still an excellent and underrated suspense movie. Of course, you don't have to be Agatha Christie to figure out which way the plot's heading, particularly when a handsome former soldier from Valentina's past enters the picture so originality isn't the film's strong suit but Wise keeps it ticking along very nicely while the titular "House on Telegraph Hill" is both attractive and sinister in equal measure.

THE EGYPTIAN *

 A look at the talent involved both in front of as well as behind the camera might lead you to think "The Egyptian" has the makings of 'The Greatest Epic Ever Made' but while most of the epic tropes are here in abundance this early Cinemascope movie flopped both commercially and critically. Edmund Purdom, (never an actor to begin with), is the Egyptian of the title, a physician in ancient Egypt and while Purdom isn't up to the task he's surrounded by those who are; Jean Simmons, Peter Ustinov, Gene Tierney not to mention old Samson himself, Victor Mature as well as Michael Wilding and newcomer Bella Darvi who steals the film and won a Golden Globe doing so.

On the plus side Leon Shamroy's cinematography ensures it looks the part while Philip Dunne and Casey Robinson's screenplay veers between being overly literate and totally banal. The director was Michael Curtiz and if he doesn't bring an auteur's hand to bear on the material at least he takes it seriously. Perhaps, too seriously? After a couple of hours of not much happening palace intrigue gets the better of everyone and it races to a not very satisfactory climax but while it's certainly not 'the greatest epic ever made' maybe it's not quite the turkey many people claim it to be either.

LOS CONDUCTOS *

 "Los Conductos" is not an easy watch and for the first fifteen minutes or so of this reasonably short film, (seventy minutes in total), you may be as much in the dark as the apparent protagonist literally is, particularly as he is the only character on screen, events, such as they are, happen in almost total darkness and there's no dialogue. A gun has been fired and he appears to be handling drugs so is this going to be a thriller? That doesn't seem likely, even after our protagonist begins his 'noirish' narration.

Shot in the Academy ratio on Kodak 16mm film, Camilo Restrepo's film begins like a political thriller but without the politics or the thrills, not quite avant-garde and not quite experimental but certainly not designed for mass consumption and bold enough to at least hold your attention as you try to figure out exactly what's happening. Restrepo's first feature is certainly original and it will be interesting to see where he goes from here. As it has already garnered prizes at the Berlin and Mar Del Plata festivals I don't think he has anything to worry about.

ON CHESIL BEACH *

 There's talent on display in abundance, (director Dominic Cooke, Ian McEwan adapting his own novel and a cast headed by the superb Saoirse Ronan, the excellent and up-and-coming Billy Howle, Emily Watson, Anne--Marie Duff, Samuel West etc.), so why is "On Chesil Beach" so dull? Could it be the source material itself was dull, (I haven't read the novel), but certainly this tale, set over the course of a young couple's wedding night with flashbacks to how they met, their courtship and so on, never really comes to life.

The time is 1962, before 'the sexual revolution', but McEwan's young couple, (Ronan and Howle), behave as if the birds and the bees were simply that and sex was an unutterable four-letter word, or perhaps just a three letter word that other people used but never them, despite Howle's brain-damaged mother, (Duff, excellent), taking her clothes off at every opportunity. There's no denying that this is a civilised and intelligent picture that builds up to one very beautifully written, directed and acted scene on the beach of the title, but otherwise I just couldn't really see the point of it. A major disappointment.

COLLECTIVE ****

 This magnificent documentary, (a nominee for Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature at this year's Oscars), is about as devastating as documentary films can get. In 2015 a fire destroyed the Bucharest club Colectiv; 27 people died at the scene and a further 37 died later in hospital, not from their burns but from infections picked up in the hospital. The reason? The disinfectants used in the hospital were diluted, sometimes up to ten times. Alexander Nanau's film sets out to explore the corruption endemic in the Romanian health system, (and the Government as a whole), by following the story, firstly as taken up by a team of journalists, and latterly by the newly appointed Health Minister who tried to reform the system, the existing Social Democratic Party having been forced to resign after a public outcry.

"Collective" is a film about investigative journalism that itself becomes a great piece of investigative journalism and it's a truly frightening expose of institutional corruption. As Nanau's camera moves between the journalists and the young Minister, he takes time to focus on one of the victims who, without bitterness, attempts to salvage her life in ways that might seem unimaginable. Otherwise he simply records events as they unfold. The heroes of the film clearly are Catalin Tolontan, the journalist who initiates the investigation, (and he was a sports writer) and Vlad Voiculescu, the Health Minister who goes up against the system from within. These are men who not only put their careers at risk but their lives; at one point it is suggested a leading figure may have been murdered to ensure his silence.

During the course of the film we learn that Romania had the worst record for hospital deaths in Europe and that almost certainly was down to the corrupt system in operation but watching this deeply disturbing film you might ask yourself could this happen elsewhere in supposedly civilised Europe. As one doctor in the film says, 'we are no longer human beings. We only think about money' and as the old saying goes, you couldn't make this up. "Collective" is the one essential film of the last twelve months.