THE HEADLESS WOMAN ****

The closest equivalent to Lucrecia Martel's "The Headless Woman" that I can think of is Michaelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-Up". On the surface, of course, they are very different films but thematically they share a similar conundrum and density. An affluent Argentinian woman, (she's a dentist), is driving home when she hits something or someone on the road. She stops momentarily and, without getting out off the car, drives on. Over the following days she becomes convinced she has killed someone but then, as she tries to retrace the events of that weekend, it becomes less and less clear to her and to us, what might have occurred. Is this a film about guilt? Is Vero, the woman in question, aware of what she has done and is she repressing it or are all her suppositions simply the result of a head injury sustained in the accident and are nothing more than a kind of dream or nightmare? Yes, this is a difficult film and requires a good deal of effort but the pace is deliberately slow giving us time to think about what is happening. The film may not provide us with the answers we might want but then I don't believe providing us with answers is what cinema should necessarily be about so long as it gives us the questions. There are questions galore in "The Headless Woman" and it simply shouldn't be missed.

THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR ***

This classic screwball comedy marked Billy Wilder's directorial debut and in the Wilder canon it's largely been neglected but it remains a joy from start to finish with a great comic performance from that greatest of comediennes Ginger Rogers. She's a hard-boiled Hannah who has to pass for a 12 year old in order to get a half fare rail ticket, (you see, she doesn't have the money to buy an adult ticket). It's utterly ridiculous which is why it's so funny; that and the fact that it's graced with a great Wilder and Brackett script. Ray Milland is also superb as the Major of the title that she latches onto and naturally falls for and there's a terrific supporting cast that includes Robert Benchley, Diana Lynn and the underrated Rita Johnson. Of course, it lacks the cynicism of Wilder's later work which in this case is all for the best.

RISEN *

With virtually every other take on the story of Christ having been exhausted the producers of "Risen" aim for originality by making it a kind of biblical detective story and by concentrating on aspects of the tale most biblical pictures don't even touch on and, by and large, they succeed. It begins with the crucifixion and Christ's burial in the tomb. When his body 'mysteriously' disappears, Joseph Fiennes' tribune is given the job of finding out what happened to it, working on the assumption that it has been stolen. Of course, two thousand plus years of Christianity means you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to guess where any of this is going, so while the film may not be particularly radical at least it's intelligent, turning most of the cliches usually associated with biblical pictures on their head. Not all of them, of course; the writers still can't escape the 'God is Love' sensibility of most of the other stories of Christ while Bartholemew looks and acts like a hippy from a touring production of "Godspell". No "King of Kings" then but no disgrace either. It certainly won't convert non-believers but Christians won't find anything here at which to take offence.

THE SUNCHASER ***

Michael Cimino's final film "The Sunchaser" bombed but I suppose after "Heaven's Gate" Cimino was lucky to get any kind of gig. Consequently, the film virtually disappeared without trace and is, of course, now ripe for rediscovery. It's no masterpiece, (unlike "Heaven's Gate" which I firmly believe is a masterpiece), but it's no turkey either and is sufficiently 'strange' to be of more than passing interest.

It's a kind of road movie/buddy movie in which a 16 year old prisoner, (26 year old Jon Seda, excellent), who happens to be dying of cancer, escapes taking his doctor, (a miscast Woody Harrelson), hostage. It veers wildly between black comedy and some high flautin' philosophising, bypassing the conventions of the thriller on the way. It's an ambitious picture that makes you wonder what audience Cimino had in mind, (did we really need the dotty Anne Bancroft episode), and you could say it's certainly the work of a maverick director, being closer in tone to the American films of the seventies than what was being turned out in the nineties and for all its faults you can tell it's the work of a major filmmaker, one whose real potential was never fully realised. Seek this one out.

THE THIRD MAN ****

"The Third Man" isn't just the greatest thriller ever made but one of cinema's great masterpieces. There isn't a single redundant shot or moment in the entire picture which has become one of the most 'quoted' of all time. If you've seen it you will already know the brilliance of its relatively simple plot; if you haven't then I envy you the luxury of experiencing it for the first time. Everyone connected with it, both in front of and behind the camera, was working at the top of their form. Graham Greene concocted it and it's one of the great scripts, (even if the 'cuckoo clock' speech is reputed to have been written by Orson Welles).

Welles plays Harry Lime and he is one of cinema's most iconic characters; he may be in only three scenes but he dominates the picture. Joseph Cotten is his friend, Holly Martin, an American writer determined to find out what happened to Lime. Trevor Howard is the British major out to expose him and Alida Valli is the actress in love with Lime. Robert Krasker's expressionistic black and white cinematography is among the most luminous in all of film; he shot it mostly in the ruins of Vienna and won a richly deserved Oscar while Anton Karas' zither music is justly famous. The director was Carol Reed who out-Hichcock's Hitchcock in his handling of the material. It was once voted the best British film ever made; who am I to disagree?

EX MACHINA ***

As mad scientists and their robot movies go, Alex Garland's "Ex Machina" is, as Jean Brodie would say, the creme de la creme. Before this, Garland wrote "The Beach" and "28 Days Later" both of which left me seriously underwhelmed, (I wonder if Danny Boyle's flaccid direction had anything to do with that), but here he's in command and how... "Ex Machina"
is visually superb, highly intelligent and beautifully played by a never better Oscar Isaac, the consistently brilliant Domhnall Gleeson and a terrific Alicia Vikandar. Perhaps Garland's greatest achievement lies in taking an over-worked formula and making it feel so original. It's also the scariest robot picture since 2001... creating a real sense of unease rather than simply giving us a series of shocks. Consequently this is the year's best horror film as well as the most entertaining.

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN RIDE! no stars

Atrocious and proof, if proof were needed, why movie franchises aren't always a good thing; indeed, if this is anything to go by, sequels and franchises of any kind are mostly to be avoided. In fact, the only resemblance "The Magnificent Seven Ride!" has to Sturges' classic is in having seven so-called 'heroes' fighting some Mexican bandits and in stealing the title. Otherwise this is truly inept.

Lee Van Cleef is now the leader but apart from Michael Callan you can forget trying to recall the names of the others. The dialogue is woeful, (or is it just Van Cleef's line readings?), the revenge element unpleasant and the 'direction' of one, George McCowan, virtually non-existent. This is a travesty which should be avoided at all
costs.

SAVING MR BANKS ***

Of course "Saving Mr Banks" is sentimental, that's only to be expected; this is Disney, after all, in every sense of the word but John Lee Hancock's wonderful film is also deeply moving and hugely entertaining. Indeed I don't think I've enjoyed a film quite as much this year. The story, or rather the stories, for there are two of them, for anyone not familiar with the plot, involves the making of the film "Mary Poppins" or rather how the author of the original books, P L Travers, came to relinquish the rights to one, Walt Disney. The other story is about how a young girl in Australia in the early years of the last century came to acknowledge that the father she loved above all else had feet of clay but was neither angel or devil but simply an ordinary, flawed individual. That little girl, of course, grows up to be P L Travers and that father, in need of saving, becomes her Mr Banks.

So this is a serious film as well as a sentimental film and it deals with very real and very deep emotions but it does so in a way that is light, funny and universally appealing. It is beautifully written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith and superbly directed by Hancock. It's also brilliantly played by a first-rate ensemble cast. Tom Hanks makes Uncle Walt something of a hugely likeable rogue who will use the most subtle kind of emotional blackmail to get what he wants. It's a grandstanding performance, to be sure, and if he doesn't win an Oscar for "Captain Phillips"

then surely his performance here should make him something of a front-runner. There's lovely work, too, from Paul Giametti as Travers' driver during her time in Hollywood and, somewhat surprisingly, from Colin Farrell as the father who becomes the real-life inspiration for Mr Banks. But ultimately this is Emma Thompson's show; as the starchy author Thompson turns in a career-best performance that again must surely make her a front-runner in the Best Actress stakes. What's most remarkable is just how close Thompson comes to the real-life Travers as can be evidenced from listening to the tapes we hear over the closing credits. Yes, this movie is a total delight and I loved every supercalifragilisticexpialidocious minute of it.

CLASSE TOUS RISQUES ****

Both Bresson and Melville are reputed to be big fans of "Classe Tous Risques" and it's easy to see why; either man could have directed this classic French gangster picture. The actual director was Claude Sautet and it's one of the greatest second films in movie history, (in the 15 year period between 1956 and 1970 Sautet made only 4 films). He made this one in 1960 around the time of the New Wave and while it's more traditional than something Godard or Truffaut might have done, nevertheless Sautet brings to it a freshness of approach that other gangster pictures of the period seem to lack. From the absolutely stunning opening sequence it's clear that this film will be infused with a good dose of existential angst as well as the requisite thrills that a really good gangster movie needs.

Two fugitives, (Lino Ventura and Stan Krol), have decided it's time to get out of Italy and back to France as the net closes in around them but they need money. They commit a foolhardy, though daring, daylight robbery and go on the run. This opening and the chase that follows is as good as anything in crime movies. The money they make, however, is hardly enough to sustain them, (Ventura has a wife and two sons to support), so they must rely on a network of friends and criminal associates and men on the run, already operating on the very edge, need all the friends they can get, however untrustworthy they may be and these guys friends prove to be very untrustworthy indeed but when tragedy strikes Ventura seems to have no option.


With the possible exceptions of Dassin's "Rififi" and several of Jean-Pierre Melville's classic gangster pictures this remains one of the greatest of genre films and is all the better for being, fundamentally, a low-key character piece. Ventura is perfect as the world-weary thief who would really rather just settle down and raise his family and he is matched by a young Jean-Paul Belmondo as the stranger who becomes his only real friend and ally. The brilliant black and white cinematography is by Ghislain Cloquet, (it was shot largely on location), and it is beautifully adapted by Sautet, Pascal Jardin and Jose Giovanni from Giovanni's novel.

WILD BILL ***

This slice of British realism marked the directorial debut of actor Dexter Fletcher and has all the propensity for sentimentality but Fletcher keeps things suitably tough and the highest compliment I can pay it is that it's as good as the best of British television. Fletcher also co-wrote the film, (with Danny King), and brings both a good deal of humour and tenderness to proceedings. He also draws excellent performances from his cast. In the title role, Charlie Creed-Miles is outstanding as the father, recently released from prison, trying to forge some kind of relationship with his two young sons, (Will Poulter and Sammy Williams, both first-rate). Worth seeking out.

SITTING BULL *

The critic Dilys Powell once said there were no bad westerns; there were great westerns, there were good westerns and there were westerns and I suppose you could say Sidney Salkow's film "Sitting Bull" falls into the last category. As you might guess from the title it culminates in the Battle of Little Bighorn which, given that this is fundamentally a B-Movie western, is actually quite spectacularly handled while the movie itself falls into that small group of films to offer a sympathetic view of the plight of the Native American.

J. Carrol Naish is Sitting Bull and Dale Robertson, the cavalry man who's on the side of the Indians. Its view of history may be a little off the wall but it's a perfectly accessible 'Cowboys & Indians' picture which makes you wish it were better written and acted; the on-again-off-again love affair between Robertson and Mary Murphy is frankly embarrassing. Not a great western, then and maybe not even a good western but as Dilys might say, not a bad one either

LES AMANTS ***

Louis Malle's follow-up to his debut "Lift to the Scaffold" was an elegant tale of adultery among the French upper-class, superbly photographed in widescreen black and white by the great Henri Decae. While "Les Amants"certainly broke new ground in its frank treatment of sexuality, (it is still one of the most erotic films ever made), it was also decidedly old-fashioned. The New Wave would have to wait another year for Truffaut and for Godard. Malle's movie belonged to a more  traditional time in French cinema, albeit with a more radical edge. Ophuls could have made it or Renoir, (Malle shares the same sense of wonder in and affection for the French countryside as Renoir did and has made a film as romantic as Ophuls might have done). The lovers are Jeanne Moreau, superb in one of her earlier roles, and Jean-Marc Bory and the husband is Alain Cuny. (An earlier lover is Jose Villalonga and they all spend time together at Cuny and Moreau's chateau; the French are so civilised about these things). Malle would, of course, make better and more profound films but this is still pretty remarkable.

GOD'S POCKET **

Philip Seymour Hoffman's last film was this very strange blue collar drama set in the New York district of the title. It's closer to being a darkly surreal comedy than a drama, though the jokes seem to have been removed. It centres around the events, spread over 3 days, following the death of young lowlife Leon. He is killed by a fellow worker, an elderly black man whom Leon liked to taunt, but his death is passed off as an accident. Nothing about the picture seems 'realistic' except, perhaps, the milieu in which it is set.

It's certainly well played by a very good cast but it also feels inconsequential. It was in part written by the actor John Slattery, who also directed, from a novel by Peter Dexter and is just too off-the-wall to be dismissed. It's a small picture that seems to want to be bigger and when it was over it left a somewhat acrid taste in my mouth.