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La Règle Du Jeu

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Banned in 1939 by a pre-War French government, for being 'demoralising', Jean Renoir's transparently allegorical film is set in a decadent chateau during a hunting weekend when pointed badinage, back-stabbing and partner-swapping suddenly erupt in an act of murder. Watch out for the ominous 'shooting party' scene, with heavily armed toffs turning a rabbit-hunt into a bloody massacre/metaphor.

Banned in 1939 by a pre-War French government, for being ‘demoralising’, Jean Renoir’s transparently allegorical film is set in a decadent chateau during a hunting weekend when pointed badinage, back-stabbing and partner-swapping suddenly erupt in an act of murder. Watch out for the ominous ‘shooting party’ scene, with heavily armed toffs turning a rabbit-hunt into a bloody massacre/metaphor.

Versus

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Non-stop Yakuza-v-zombie action shouldn't be this boring. Director Ryuhei Kitamura knows how to stage a flesh-munching, sword-flashing set piece, but simply stringing a bunch of them together doesn't make a movie. Something to watch when you're in a stoned stupor, perhaps.

Non-stop Yakuza-v-zombie action shouldn’t be this boring. Director Ryuhei Kitamura knows how to stage a flesh-munching, sword-flashing set piece, but simply stringing a bunch of them together doesn’t make a movie. Something to watch when you’re in a stoned stupor, perhaps.

Serial Mom

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Kathleen Turner stars as peachy suburban housewife Beverly Sutphin, who merrily murders most of her annoying neighbours (and anyone else foolish enough to offend her). Turner's fabulous, and John Waters' black comedy is like a blend of Disney and David Lynch. An utter delight.

Kathleen Turner stars as peachy suburban housewife Beverly Sutphin, who merrily murders most of her annoying neighbours (and anyone else foolish enough to offend her). Turner’s fabulous, and John Waters’ black comedy is like a blend of Disney and David Lynch. An utter delight.

Ghost Ship

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Gabriel Byrne and Julianna Margulies head up a nautical salvage crew who discover a derelict ocean liner that's been missing since 1962. On board is a fortune in gold bullion?and several hundred ghosts. Pure formula?occasionally bizarre and gory, but in the main outrageously schlocky, with Margulies in plucky heroine mode?and comfortingly reliable.

Gabriel Byrne and Julianna Margulies head up a nautical salvage crew who discover a derelict ocean liner that’s been missing since 1962. On board is a fortune in gold bullion?and several hundred ghosts. Pure formula?occasionally bizarre and gory, but in the main outrageously schlocky, with Margulies in plucky heroine mode?and comfortingly reliable.

A Kick Up The ’90s

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Asked what makes a good band great, Liam Gallagher characteristically cuts through the crap in one of his regrettably scarce contributions to this record of Britpop in the '90s?"Just 'avin' it," he grins. Liam's pithy views on politics, his brother's visit to Downing St, Oasis' albums and his alleged androgyny come as highlights in this, one of the essential documentaries of recent years, which charts the rise of young, homegrown music against a background of political dissatisfaction and deep-hewn social division. With clips and interviews from many of the major players, Live Forever also puts Britpop into a wider cultural context which includes supermodels, Loaded, cocaine, Trainspotting, Damien Hirst's art and the Diana phenomenon. Jarvis Cocker looks back with mixed feelings, while Noel Gallagher is more hilariously forthright than ever as he discusses one of Britpop's key moments?the 1995 Oasis/Blur chart (and class) battle?and wins this latest round hands down, since Damon Albarn refuses to discuss it. Damon, however, comes into his own, backed by Jarvis and Louise Wener, when he lifts the lid on Cool Britannia, Blair's electoral triumph and the New Labour "con" which found the Party anxious to manipulate the musicians who'd helped it to power. Extraordinarily, the film wanders beyond its territory to an unconvincing conclusion, linking the death of Britpop to the surge of pre-pubescent hero-worship and playing out to the unlikely strains of S Club 7.

Asked what makes a good band great, Liam Gallagher characteristically cuts through the crap in one of his regrettably scarce contributions to this record of Britpop in the ’90s?”Just ‘avin’ it,” he grins. Liam’s pithy views on politics, his brother’s visit to Downing St, Oasis’ albums and his alleged androgyny come as highlights in this, one of the essential documentaries of recent years, which charts the rise of young, homegrown music against a background of political dissatisfaction and deep-hewn social division.

With clips and interviews from many of the major players, Live Forever also puts Britpop into a wider cultural context which includes supermodels, Loaded, cocaine, Trainspotting, Damien Hirst’s art and the Diana phenomenon. Jarvis Cocker looks back with mixed feelings, while Noel Gallagher is more hilariously forthright than ever as he discusses one of Britpop’s key moments?the 1995 Oasis/Blur chart (and class) battle?and wins this latest round hands down, since Damon Albarn refuses to discuss it.

Damon, however, comes into his own, backed by Jarvis and Louise Wener, when he lifts the lid on Cool Britannia, Blair’s electoral triumph and the New Labour “con” which found the Party anxious to manipulate the musicians who’d helped it to power. Extraordinarily, the film wanders beyond its territory to an unconvincing conclusion, linking the death of Britpop to the surge of pre-pubescent hero-worship and playing out to the unlikely strains of S Club 7.

The Unbearable Lightness Of Being

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Philip Kaufman's letter-perfect realisation of Milan Kundera's student classic describes the spiritual transformation of Czech doctor Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis, mercifully playing a 'real person') from pseudo-existentialist to moral being thanks to the loving idealism of waitress-turned-photographer Tereza (Juliette Binoche). Along the way there's a Russian invasion, an escape to Geneva, and plenty of sex with Lena Olin in a bowler hat.

Philip Kaufman’s letter-perfect realisation of Milan Kundera’s student classic describes the spiritual transformation of Czech doctor Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis, mercifully playing a ‘real person’) from pseudo-existentialist to moral being thanks to the loving idealism of waitress-turned-photographer Tereza (Juliette Binoche). Along the way there’s a Russian invasion, an escape to Geneva, and plenty of sex with Lena Olin in a bowler hat.

The Nanny – The Blue Lamp

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The Nanny and The Blue Lamp? Just what these two anomalies are doing sandwiched together on DVD is anyone's guess. The former is a campy 1965 Hammer chiller about a bonkers nanny, played by Bette Davis in familiar kabuki make-up. The latter is a breathtakingly obsequious 1950 Ealing Studios tribute to the Metropolitan Police Force, which introduced the world to Dixon Of Dock Green.

The Nanny and The Blue Lamp? Just what these two anomalies are doing sandwiched together on DVD is anyone’s guess. The former is a campy 1965 Hammer chiller about a bonkers nanny, played by Bette Davis in familiar kabuki make-up. The latter is a breathtakingly obsequious 1950 Ealing Studios tribute to the Metropolitan Police Force, which introduced the world to Dixon Of Dock Green.

L’Enfer

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Reworked by Claude Chabrol after the death of screenwriter Henri-Georges Clouzot (The Wages Of Fear, Diabolique), L'Enfer sees poor Fran...

Reworked by Claude Chabrol after the death of screenwriter Henri-Georges Clouzot (The Wages Of Fear, Diabolique), L’Enfer sees poor Fran

The L-Shaped Room – Darling

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The L-Shaped Room is a stagy 1962 adaptation of a Lynne Reid Banks novel about pregnant French socialite Leslie Caron in a London bedsit, and is famous only to Smiths obsessives due to it being the source of the opening sample from The Queen Is Dead. John Schlesinger's 1965 Darling is a key text from the Swinging London canon, breezily and brilliantly skewering vacuous underwear model Diana Scott (Julie Christie) as she seduces her way into wealthy despair.

The L-Shaped Room is a stagy 1962 adaptation of a Lynne Reid Banks novel about pregnant French socialite Leslie Caron in a London bedsit, and is famous only to Smiths obsessives due to it being the source of the opening sample from The Queen Is Dead. John Schlesinger’s 1965 Darling is a key text from the Swinging London canon, breezily and brilliantly skewering vacuous underwear model Diana Scott (Julie Christie) as she seduces her way into wealthy despair.

The Last Minute

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Belated DVD release for Stephen (Blade) Norrington's flaccid 2001 meditation on the nature of, wince, 'celebrity culture'. Max Beesley, ineffably irritating in Alfie mode, is Billy Byrne, a talentless wannabe whose driving desire for fame sends him on a Hellish Journey? through London's criminal drug-dealing S&M underworld. Hateful characters, no discernible narrative voice, and hackneyed visuals. A mistake.

Belated DVD release for Stephen (Blade) Norrington’s flaccid 2001 meditation on the nature of, wince, ‘celebrity culture’. Max Beesley, ineffably irritating in Alfie mode, is Billy Byrne, a talentless wannabe whose driving desire for fame sends him on a Hellish Journey? through London’s criminal drug-dealing S&M underworld. Hateful characters, no discernible narrative voice, and hackneyed visuals. A mistake.

The Mark Of Zorro

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One of the best swashbucklers ever made. Tyrone Power is Don Diego de Vega?the son of a nobleman out to save the peasants of Olde Californy (and Linda Darnell) from the villainous Basil Rathbone. Fantastic swordfights (Rathbone was an Olympic duellist), and Power shows exactly how derring-do should be done.

One of the best swashbucklers ever made. Tyrone Power is Don Diego de Vega?the son of a nobleman out to save the peasants of Olde Californy (and Linda Darnell) from the villainous Basil Rathbone. Fantastic swordfights (Rathbone was an Olympic duellist), and Power shows exactly how derring-do should be done.

The Family Way – Accident

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The Family Way sees squeaky-clean Hayley Mills as the perfect daughter to real-life dad John in this cautionary 1966 tale of a young married couple struggling with financial hardships and the apparently grim realities of married life. Accident, on the other hand, is a brooding psychodrama, written by Harold Pinter, directed by Joseph Losey and starring Dirk Bogarde as a tragic philosophy professor obsessed by Jacqueline Sassard's voluptuous student.

The Family Way sees squeaky-clean Hayley Mills as the perfect daughter to real-life dad John in this cautionary 1966 tale of a young married couple struggling with financial hardships and the apparently grim realities of married life. Accident, on the other hand, is a brooding psychodrama, written by Harold Pinter, directed by Joseph Losey and starring Dirk Bogarde as a tragic philosophy professor obsessed by Jacqueline Sassard’s voluptuous student.

Citizen Kane Special Edition

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The medium-defining shibboleth that induces paroxysms of adulation from film critics (but not filmgoers), Citizen Kane has become, in its inviolable immensity, the cinematic equivalent of its own overbearing protagonist, Charles Foster Kane. Yes, the 25-year-old Orson Welles' direction is astounding. Yes, Welles and Herman Mankiewicz's screenplay is a pointed satire of paper baron William Randolph Hearst. Yes, Gregg Toland's deep-focus cinematography is sumptuous. Yes, Bernard Herrmann's score is eerily ominous. And yes, the crane shots, the witty dissolves and the twist ending are all appropriately impressive for 1941. But looking beyond the technical bravura and the rhapsodic praise, and viewing the film in a guilt-free contemporary context, Kane quickly reveals just how cold and hollow a project it really is. Yes, it's a self-referential conundrum about the crushing emptiness of one man's life, but does that justify an empty movie, too?

The medium-defining shibboleth that induces paroxysms of adulation from film critics (but not filmgoers), Citizen Kane has become, in its inviolable immensity, the cinematic equivalent of its own overbearing protagonist, Charles Foster Kane. Yes, the 25-year-old Orson Welles’ direction is astounding. Yes, Welles and Herman Mankiewicz’s screenplay is a pointed satire of paper baron William Randolph Hearst. Yes, Gregg Toland’s deep-focus cinematography is sumptuous. Yes, Bernard Herrmann’s score is eerily ominous. And yes, the crane shots, the witty dissolves and the twist ending are all appropriately impressive for 1941. But looking beyond the technical bravura and the rhapsodic praise, and viewing the film in a guilt-free contemporary context, Kane quickly reveals just how cold and hollow a project it really is. Yes, it’s a self-referential conundrum about the crushing emptiness of one man’s life, but does that justify an empty movie, too?

Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea – Fantastic Voyage

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Not even the presence of Peter Lorre can save Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea from being shoddy, badly written B-movie dreck. Fantastic Voyage may be creaky, but it's still great fun. Gasp as doctors (including Raquel Welch) get miniaturised and injected into the bloodstream of a comatose scientist to operate on his brain. Worth it for the impressively psychedelic SFX alone.

Not even the presence of Peter Lorre can save Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea from being shoddy, badly written B-movie dreck. Fantastic Voyage may be creaky, but it’s still great fun. Gasp as doctors (including Raquel Welch) get miniaturised and injected into the bloodstream of a comatose scientist to operate on his brain. Worth it for the impressively psychedelic SFX alone.

Coffy

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Pam Grier is a nurse turned vigilante, on a mission to avenge her strung-out kid sister by taking out the pushers, bad cops and corrupt politicians feeding off her neighbourhood. Hustling along to Roy Ayres' soundtrack, Jack Hill's 1973 movie is often grisly but treats its sex and violence with a surprising, and refreshing, matter-of-factness.

Pam Grier is a nurse turned vigilante, on a mission to avenge her strung-out kid sister by taking out the pushers, bad cops and corrupt politicians feeding off her neighbourhood. Hustling along to Roy Ayres’ soundtrack, Jack Hill’s 1973 movie is often grisly but treats its sex and violence with a surprising, and refreshing, matter-of-factness.

Love Liza

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After a series of stunning cameo performances and a flamboyant turn opposite Robert De Niro in Flawless, Philip Seymour Hoffman makes full use of his first unopposed lead, running the gamut of grief as a successful techie crushed and drawn to petrol-sniffing by his wife's suicide. Fraught, funny, hysterical and truly touching.

After a series of stunning cameo performances and a flamboyant turn opposite Robert De Niro in Flawless, Philip Seymour Hoffman makes full use of his first unopposed lead, running the gamut of grief as a successful techie crushed and drawn to petrol-sniffing by his wife’s suicide. Fraught, funny, hysterical and truly touching.

Cat Ballou

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Beloved spoof western which follows Jane Fonda's eponymous heroine, a schoolmarm-turned-outlaw, as she hires Lee Marvin's washed-up drunken gunslinger to stand against the lethal, tinnosed varmint (Marvin again) who killed her father. Never quite as funny as it thinks, but Marvin is sharp as a razor.

Beloved spoof western which follows Jane Fonda’s eponymous heroine, a schoolmarm-turned-outlaw, as she hires Lee Marvin’s washed-up drunken gunslinger to stand against the lethal, tinnosed varmint (Marvin again) who killed her father. Never quite as funny as it thinks, but Marvin is sharp as a razor.

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A rock'n'roll movie without sex and drugs? Tom Hanks' directorial debut is an anachronism and proud of it. This tale of 1960s teen-pop sensation The Wonders (as in "one-hit") is breezy and good-natured, with Steve Zahn providing most of the laughs. The title tune by The Knack's Adam Schlesinger gets heavy rotation; thankfully it's a Beatle-esque beauty.

A rock’n’roll movie without sex and drugs? Tom Hanks’ directorial debut is an anachronism and proud of it. This tale of 1960s teen-pop sensation The Wonders (as in “one-hit”) is breezy and good-natured, with Steve Zahn providing most of the laughs. The title tune by The Knack’s Adam Schlesinger gets heavy rotation; thankfully it’s a Beatle-esque beauty.

Following

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Christopher Nolan's '98 DEBUT was made on a non-existent budget over a year of make-do weekend shoots, but introduced a shrewd talent with a unique knack for blow-to-the-solar-plexus storytelling. Its monochrome view of London's murkier nooks and crannies recalls Antonioni, but critics quickly tipped Nolan as the new Kubrick. And how he's delivered since. A lonely, bored wannabe writer semi-stalks random strangers (as 'research') but when a smooth-talking cat burglar turns the tables, he's seduced into a series of break-and-enter robberies. Falling for a girl whose flat he's been conned into turning over, he realises (in a device later gloriously developed in Memento) that all's not what it seems and he's way out of his depth. Twists, tension and a fresh tone of noir: this is Nolan in knock-out form, and a must for fans of his better-known biggies.

Christopher Nolan’s ’98 DEBUT was made on a non-existent budget over a year of make-do weekend shoots, but introduced a shrewd talent with a unique knack for blow-to-the-solar-plexus storytelling. Its monochrome view of London’s murkier nooks and crannies recalls Antonioni, but critics quickly tipped Nolan as the new Kubrick. And how he’s delivered since.

A lonely, bored wannabe writer semi-stalks random strangers (as ‘research’) but when a smooth-talking cat burglar turns the tables, he’s seduced into a series of break-and-enter robberies. Falling for a girl whose flat he’s been conned into turning over, he realises (in a device later gloriously developed in Memento) that all’s not what it seems and he’s way out of his depth. Twists, tension and a fresh tone of noir: this is Nolan in knock-out form, and a must for fans of his better-known biggies.

Take It To The Street

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Gangs of New York is by no means the indisputable masterpiece Scorsese no doubt dearly believed it could have been. But this violent, seething, morally ambiguous, eventually muddled hymn to the troubled birth of New York is still frequently astonishing, with things you just don't see in anyone else's films. The look of the thing, for a start, is amazing, Scorsese's cameras hurtling around the elaborate facsimile of the city's Five Points district, a grim battleground ruled by the fearsome Bill The Butcher-played by Daniel Day-Lewis with a worrying intensity. Set principally in 1863, the American Civil War raging in the background, the movie's central narrative is pretty elementary. It's a patricidal revenge saga, basically, with Leonardo DiCaprio out to avenge the death of his father, the charismatic Priest Vallon, at the hands of the murderous Bill?Darth Vader in a stovepipe hat?who by now has adopted the scheming Leo as the son he never had (cue much teeth-gnashing and head-butting when DiCaprio's true intentions are revealed). Cameron Diaz is also at hand, in a barely-written role as the much tussled-over love interest. What really carries the film, however, is Day-Lewis' towering turn as Bill and the sheer ferocity of Scorsese's direction, the relentless momentum and unbelievable energy he packs into every teeming scene. The climax is disappointing?a muddled conflation of actual events and a misfiring showdown between DiCaprio and Day-Lewis?but much that has gone before is truly unforgettable. DVD EXTRAS: Scorsese commentary, featurettes on costume design, the sets, history of the Five Points, documentary, trailer, U2 music video. Rating Star

Gangs of New York is by no means the indisputable masterpiece Scorsese no doubt dearly believed it could have been. But this violent, seething, morally ambiguous, eventually muddled hymn to the troubled birth of New York is still frequently astonishing, with things you just don’t see in anyone else’s films. The look of the thing, for a start, is amazing, Scorsese’s cameras hurtling around the elaborate facsimile of the city’s Five Points district, a grim battleground ruled by the fearsome Bill The Butcher-played by Daniel Day-Lewis with a worrying intensity. Set principally in 1863, the American Civil War raging in the background, the movie’s central narrative is pretty elementary. It’s a patricidal revenge saga, basically, with Leonardo DiCaprio out to avenge the death of his father, the charismatic Priest Vallon, at the hands of the murderous Bill?Darth Vader in a stovepipe hat?who by now has adopted the scheming Leo as the son he never had (cue much teeth-gnashing and head-butting when DiCaprio’s true intentions are revealed). Cameron Diaz is also at hand, in a barely-written role as the much tussled-over love interest. What really carries the film, however, is Day-Lewis’ towering turn as Bill and the sheer ferocity of Scorsese’s direction, the relentless momentum and unbelievable energy he packs into every teeming scene. The climax is disappointing?a muddled conflation of actual events and a misfiring showdown between DiCaprio and Day-Lewis?but much that has gone before is truly unforgettable.

DVD EXTRAS: Scorsese commentary, featurettes on costume design, the sets, history of the Five Points, documentary, trailer, U2 music video. Rating Star

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