Reviews

Paul Newman, all Texan swagger and mesmerising Marlboro sneers, completely redefines the concept of 'iconic' as the eponymous heavy-drinking, skirt-chasing, joy-riding cattleman and self-declared "cold-blooded bastard" in Martin Ritt's 1962 classic. Able support comes from sultry Patricia Neal, suitably green Brandon DeWilde (Shane) and James Wong Howe's perfect black-and-white cinematography.

An object lesson in filming a gig, this, as Patrick Daughters (director of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' stunning "Maps" promo) captures The Rapture's nervous energies in long, unfussy, elegant shots. Recorded last Christmas, the quartet still resemble—happily—enthusiastic grad students who've stumbled on the ideal disco/punk hybrid. But Daughters exploits this, making them—especially soulful-eyed frontman Luke Jenner—look at once gawky and iconic.

Oddly disappointing offering from ex-Mercury Music prize-winner

Brat-rap superstars return after six-year sabbatical to cover 'serious issues'

Unhinged glam/punk/electro-rock hybrid

Early, lunatic work by Japanese gods

Twenty-four songs which inspired the stoned psychedelic meanderings of Spacemen 3

Aussie fish-out-of-water romance with a difference

Luchino Visconti's kitsch allegorical melodrama is set in Germany in 1933 and describes the corruption of the wealthy Von Essenbeck family in the face of the Nazi menace. And so, within a few short scenes, they go from fireside home recitals to transvestitism, rape, murder, same-sex orgies, massacres and motherfucking (literally). Made in 1969, it's clearly very political. But that's no excuse.

A single indiscretion with a besotted servant (a young Toshirô Mifune) starts an inexorable downward spiral for young noblewoman O-Haru. Disgraced, she and her parents are sent into exile, but it soon becomes clear that a woman with a tarnished reputation has very little chance of making good in 17th-century feudal Japan. With ravishing black-and-white cinematography and an austere formality in the direction, Kenji Mizoguchi's 1952 masterpiece is a beautifully crafted example of a past era in Japanese film-making.