SALON KITTY no stars

 Of course, it's all done in the worst possible taste. Tinto Brass' "Salon Kitty" is soft, verging on hard, core Eurotrash set in Nazi Germany with something to offend everyone, cineastes probably most of all, particularly if you're not a fan of bad dubbing, (it's said to be in English and is like a porno version of "Cabaret"). Ingrid Thulin is Kitty who runs the salon of the title, Helmut Berger is a typically degenerate German officer and there's a large multi-national cast that includes none other than John Ireland, (did they really think he could sell it to the American market?).

Of course, if this is your bag you won't be disappointed and whatever it lacks in taste it makes up for in design. This is a very good-looking 'dirty' picture, the ultimate dirty-mac movie with copious amounts of male and female nudity with both sexes obviously chosen for their physiques and not their acting chops. For explicitness it puts Visconti's "The Damned" in the shade and if it leaves you feeling very queasy then I guess you can say it's done it's (really rather appalling) job.

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 ****

 Of course it's brilliant, funny and hugely entertaining; just what you would expect when you see the name Aaron Sorkin, who this time has also directed, as well as written, "The Trial of the Chicago 7" which may not have been 'the trial of the century' but was certainly one of the most important 'political' trials ever held in America. It was, for want of a better word, a show-trial ordered by Attorney General John Mitchell to discredit the organizers of the protests held during the 1968 Democratic Convention. The trial was presided over by one, Judge Julius Hoffman who, from the moment he put his ass on the bench, was clearly on the side of the prosecution, though in view of what he had to put up with from the likes of Abbie Hoffman and others, you might even say he was provoked.

This is a classy production with an all-star cast that includes a couple of Oscar-winners. They are all outstanding with Frank Langella, (the judge), Mark Rylance, (the defence attorney), and, perhaps most surprising of all, Sacha Baron Cohen, (Abbie Hoffman) walking away with the picture and if Oscars are handed out this year surely Langella has to be a front-runner. If Sorkin portrays events in a crazy and seemingly haphazard way then I think it's safe to assume that's exactly what they were. As for the trial itself, you couldn't make this stuff up. This is a brilliantly written, directed and acted tragi-comedy about a terrible time in recent American history, though watching it you might think you are seeing newsreel shot on the streets of America only a few days ago.

BY THE GRACE OF GOD ****

 If you're used to the clever Hitchcockian thrillers Francois Ozon usually gives us, then "By the Grace of God" will almost certainly come as something of a shock and not just because he's dealing with a profoundly serious subject, (paedophilia within the Catholic Church), but also because of the style he's adopted. We are introduced to the subject from the outset but through a series of letters, e-mails and face-to-face meetings divided into three chapters, each linked by a victim of one abusing priest. This is drama done almost like a fly-on-the-wall documentary and is all the more moving for it with performances by all concerned so naturalistic as to go beyond mere 'acting', (Swann Arlaud won a Cesar for his performance).

We are told at the beginning that this is a work of fiction but based on facts and it happens in the recent past, during the papacy of Pope Francis, which is telling; has the Church's attitudes changed that much or is this institution still protecting its own. Ozon, who knows how to make a good thriller, makes a brilliant thriller here without betraying his subject in any way; some scenes I found almost unbearably moving. Perhaps, indeed, this is the kind of film Hitchcock could have or should have made in another time and place but, of course, these things were never talked about then, allowing this culture of abuse to flourish. This very important film may well be the best thing Ozon has done to date.

TWILIGHT OF HONOR no stars

 It's superbly photographed in black and white Panavision by Philip Lathrop which is about the only thing you can say in favour of this turgid courtroom melodrama. "Twilight of Honor", which came out in 1963, was poorly written, poorly directed and poorly acted with Richard Chamberlain as the inexperienced young lawyer roped into defending Nick Adams on a murder charge, knowing the case is strongly rigged against him. He gets a former old pro lawyer, (Claude Rains, in his penultimate movie), to help him, leading to every cliche in the book.

This is one of the least believable of all courtroom movies. Adams was inexplicably nominated for an Oscar for his performance and it's hard to believe the appallingly wooden Chamberlain actually had a career after this. Still, a lot of people think quite highly of the picture which perhaps only goes to show that courtroom movies are exceedingly popular even when they aren't any good. This is one of the worst.

MATTHIAS & MAXIME no stars

 Xavier Dolan, one-time enfant terrible of French-Canadian cinema, hasn't so much mellowed as become conventional. If the plot of his latest film, "Matthias & Maxime" is a little off-the-wall, the treatment is alarmingly predictable. Two male friends agree to take part in a girlfriend's student film in a scene where they have to kiss or indeed 'make out'. Dolan, for some reason, cuts away from the kiss itself and builds his film around the impact their actions has on their lives and their friendship.

It's beautifully filmed and well acted by both Dolan and Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas in the title roles as well as by a handful of people you would hardly want to spend time with normally and therein lies the rub; there's no-one to empathize with and nothing happens to make us care very much about Matthias & Maxime and their hang-ups. I'm not disputing Dolan's very obvious talent and it's still hard to believe he's only thirty-one, (he made his first feature aged only twenty), but these male-orientated and family-orientated psychodramas are starting to get a little dull. This might first look like he's branching out but there's nothing here we haven't seen before.

BAXTER, VERA BAXTER no stars

 Although a major player in the French New Wave, the films of Marguerite Duras are, in general, not that widely known and "Baxter, Vera Baxter" is one that disappeared from view quicker than most. She wrote and directed it in 1977 with her usual collaborator Delphine Seyrig and a little-seen Gerard Depardieu heading a largely unknown cast and it plods along in typical metronomic fashion as we are introduced to our titular heroine, (Claudine Gabay), by Depardieu who, it appears, is her current lover before meeting Vera herself as she languishes in some expensive villa regaling anyone who listens with tales of her sorry love life; Seyrig is one of the listeners.

This is the kind of art-house movie that gives art-house movies a bad name. Ponderous, pretentious and, although only ninety minutes long, feeling like an eternity in hell. It's the kind of rubbish you can see the Monty Python team sending up with dialogue so precious you may feel like switching the subtitles off altogether but even then you would still have to listen to the God-awful music. To be avoided like the worst case of Covid.

THE BLUE FLOWER OF NOVALIS *

 "The Blue Flower of Novalis" opens and closes with a shot of its protagonist's anus so you may well think you know what you're in for...or maybe not, since this documentary look into the life of gay poet Marcelo Diorio isn't quite like other films or documentaries. It's fundamentally a conversation piece between Diorio and an unseen interviewer and your tolerance for it will depend very much on how well you relate to Diorio or films of this kind which moves from a straightforward interview into staged memory and fantasy scenes that are surely purely scripted. Is Diorio always acting or is he just being himself and is there any reason for us to care one way or the other about someone so clearly egotistical and then, of course, there's the question as to why co-directors Rodrigo Carneiro and Gustavo Vinagre would have wanted to make this in the first place, (we are also privy to Diorio having fairly graphic sex). Boring and fascinating in equal measure and aimed at a very niche, and probably exclusively gay, market.

3 IDIOTS ****

 The title may conjure up images of the 3 Stooges and the crude humour of the opening might suggest a Hindi "Porky's" but with a running time of almost three hours "3 Idiots" clearly has its mind on higher things. It's a Bollywood buddy-movie devised as an epic and determined to outdo all the competition and being a Bollywood movie is full of large-scale musical numbers as well as a lot of very broad and very funny comedy.

The 3 idiots of the title meet as engineering students, become life-long friends but are separated by that old fickle finger of fate. It's also bold enough to deal with such issues as suicide and poverty and, of course, the caste system and is lifted onto an altogether higher plain by a terrific performance from Aamir Khan as 'the idiot' the other two worship and who, naturally, isn't an idiot at all but the sharpest tool in the box and he's brilliantly supported by Sharman Joshi as his potentially suicidal friend and Omi Vaidya as his number one rival. Brilliantly directed by Rajkumar Hirani this is the kind of film Hollywood could learn a lot from and which, had it been a Hollywood film, might well have swept the boards come Oscar time.

THE FAREWELL *

 A comedy about dying but coming from the Chinese-American director Lulu Wang, less maudlin than it might have been. Nai Nai, (an excellent Shuzhen Zhao), is the Chinese grandmother with only three months to live, so her American family come up with an excuse to fly to China to visit her; they plan a wedding which gives them a reason to celebrate rather than to mourn, (and the wedding itself is superbly done).

This is a sweet-natured, sentimental film that still feels like it's strung out way beyond its expiry date and is ultimately redeemed by Zhao's performance. As the granddaughter who wants the family to tell Nai Nai the truth, the much vaunted Awkwafina is so laid back as to be almost horizontal, (she still won a Golden Globe), and yet a lot of people love this film, (maybe they're Chinese and 'get it'). It's at its best when it points up the differences between East and West but that's not enough to make a movie and ultimately this is less "The Farewell" as something of a long goodbye.

THE BIG OPERATOR *

 The title's something of a misnomer since "The Big Operator" in question is none other than the diminutive Mickey Rooney. This Albert Zugsmith movie, which he produced in 1959, is a gangster flic about a mob-ruled union with Rooney as 'Little Joe', a corrupt union leader and it has a better than average supporting cast headed by Steve Cochran, (in a rare good-guy role), Mamie Van Doren, (miscast but coping as Cochran's sweet, blonde wife), Mel Torme, (good in a rare dramatic role), as well as Ray Danton and Jim Backus.

The plot's nothing new and, to be honest, the script is fairly ridiculous but it's reasonably well directed by Charles Haas, nicely shot in Cinemascope by Walter Castle and makes for an entertaining 90 minutes. Rooney drifts through it and you would hardly call what he does 'acting' but he was a star, all five foot two inches of him, a punk Little Caesar and he dominates the picture. It's certainly no classic and it's certainly no "Touch of Evil" but it's a good, tawdry genre picture and perfect drive-in fodder.

MY FOOLISH HEART **

There isn't a great deal of J. D. Salinger's short story "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut" left in Mark Robson's supposed film version "My Foolish Heart" but it's a superior example of the 'woman's picture' nevertheless, thanks almost entirely to a superb Susan Hayward as the unhappily married woman recalling her first love, (Dana Andrews, always a good bet). The director was Mark Robson and it's one of his better pictures while the Epstein's (Julius J. and Philip G.) did the screenplay, again a good sign. Hayward was Oscar-nominated, as was the famous title song which, in its many incarnations, has outlived the film. No classic, then, but an intelligent and likeable picture that deserves to be better known.

THE SILENT PARTNER **

Daryl Duke's excellent and underrated thriller "The Silent Partner" is an ingenious heist movie with an over-active vicious streak and a couple of very good performances from Elliot Gould as the bank clerk who figures out his bank is going to be robbed and steals the money himself and from Christopher Plummer as the bad-to-the-bone crook out for his money and revenge. It's a simple enough plot but it's a tale well told, full of neat twists and Plummer is indeed splendidly nasty just as Gould is wonderfully duplicitous and there's good work, too, from Susannah York as the colleague Gould's in love with and who's not quite as innocent as she appears. Director Duke, who also made "Payday" and very little else for the big screen, does nothing to detract from the action and keeps it all bubbling along nicely. A sleeper that slipped under the radar and is now ripe for rediscovery.

I'M ALL RIGHT, JACK. ***

One of the great British satires. This time the Boulting Brothers' targets are the Trade Unions and, of course, the class system and the film is the brilliantly funny "I'm All Right, Jack", a very loose sequel to their earlier "Private's Progress" and it has a cast of some of the best comic actors ever gathered together in a British comedy. Ian Carmichael is that upper-class twit Stanley Windrush, Terry-Thomas is the galloping major and, best of all, Peter Sellers is Kite, that little Hitler of a shop steward. Then there's Dennis Price, Richard Attenborough, Margaret Rutherford and more British character actors than you can shake a union card at. A huge hit at the time, (Sellers won the BAFTA for Best British Actor), and it's still as funny today. Yes, it does sound crudely racist but then so was Britain back in 1959 and for once the jokes are on the racists, another sign of just how good the Boulting Brothers actually were.