New titles, December, 'Gainsbourg', 'Senna', 'The Guard'

First-time writer-director Joann Sfar, known for his popular comic ‘The Rabbi’s Cat’, tries to get under the skin of his subject, French pop crooner Serge Gainsbourg, rather than detail his every scandalous misadventure.

To a certain extent he succeeds, leaving us in no doubt of the lasting impression made on young Lucien Ginsburg by being forced to wear a yellow star in wartime Paris, where Nazi propaganda covered the streets with anti-Semitic grotesquerie. The film’s most daring move is to have one of these caricatures step down off the wall and become a life-size marionette which follows Gainsbourg around. However, instead of eating away at his confidence, ‘La Gueule’ (‘The Mug’) becomes a Tyler Durden-esque alter-ego prompting showbiz-aspirant Serge to further deeds of daring naughtiness. Yes, my boy, you shall shag Salvador Dalí’s girlfriend on the artist’s sofa!

With chic animated interludes adding to the appeal, it’s clear there’s an element of visual brio not found in every musical biopic, as this self-styled ‘Vie Héroïque’ happily encompasses sundry winning female performances (Anna Mouglalis as a slinky Ms Greco, Laetitia Casta as a voluptuous Bardot, the late Lucy Gordon as a gamine Miss Birkin) while happily spotlighting lookalike Eric Elmosnino's convincingly addled incarnation of the title role.

In the end the film suffers, as did 'Walk The Line' and a host of other music-star biopics, from following the lifestory too literally rather than taking a fictional whizz on the idea. Come back Ken Russell, all is forgiven.

Other new stuff this month...

5 DAYS OF WAR (2011)

CONAN THE BARBARIAN (2011)

GUARD, THE (2011)

CATCH .44 (2011)

GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD, THE (2011)

GANTZ (2010)

JANE EYRE (2011)

SENNA (2011)

SENNA (2011) BLU-RAY

COWBOYS & ALIENS (2011)

COWBOYS & ALIENS (2011) BLU-RAY

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2011)

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2011) BLU-RAY

GREEN LANTERN (2011)

LARRY CROWNE (2011)

BEAUTIFUL LIES (2010)

WU XIA (2011)

WICKER MAN, THE (1973)

CONAN THE BARBARIAN (2011) BLU-RAY

TREE OF LIFE, THE (2011)

TROLL HUNTER (2010)

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS (2011)

CARLOS (2010) CRITERION

EVIL DEAD, THE (1981) BLU-RAY

EVIL DEAD 2 (1987) BLU-RAY

AO: THE LAST NEANDERTHAL (2010)

JOHNNY THE GIANT KILLER (1950)

STAR SPANGLED GIRL (1971)

FUTURAMA SEASON 5 (2009-2010)

A MAN VANISHES (1967)

R (2010)

30ROCK SEASON 4 (2009)

A BING CROSBY CHRISTMAS (1998)

THE COMPLETE HUMPHREY JENNINGS (1934-1940) BLU-RAY

THE COMPLETE HUMPHREY JENNINGS (1934-1940)

ORPHEUS (1950) CRITERION

GAINSBOURG (2010)

STRIP-TEASE (1963)

LE BEAU SERGE (1958) CRITERION

KURONEKO (1968) CRITERION

JUMPING JACK FLASH (1986)

CONTACT (2000)

Ken Russell (1927-2011)

The great British director has died, aged 84; his most notorious film 'The Devils' will be released by the BFI this coming March.

In May this year, Ken Russell came to the first UK screening of one of his most notorious films, The Devils, in a newly restored form. He was frail and unable to make it down the steep steps of the Barbican’s main cinema screen, so sat at the back, but managed to participate in the on-stage Q&A thanks to a roving mike. Precise recall wasn’t always within his power, but a lot of the old fire was undimmed, as he recounted his battles with Warner Brothers over the cuts they demanded, and his pride at getting to see something close to the original assembly – thanks to the detective work of Mark Kermode, among others – with a sold-out audience.

Having caught only the tail end of the film on late-night Channel 4 in my teens, it was pretty thrilling to experience it fully and for the first time in the company of Russell himself. It’ll come to be seen as the defining film of a great hellraising career: one in which hell was sometimes almost literally raised, as at the castle of Lord Byron in his 1986 literary fantasia, Gothic.

Russell’s reputation for outlandishness – he was certainly one of the maddest imagists British cinema has ever spawned – should never be taken as the whole story, though. He could work within the establishment as well as outside it, and it’s interesting how many of his films launched themselves into mania from the springboard of seemingly respectable genres, such as literary adaptation (he returned committedly to DH Lawrence) or biopics of classical composers. An Oscar nominee for his direction of 1969’s Women in Love, which won Best Actress for Glenda Jackson, he even dipped his toe into Hollywood waters with the inimitably bonkers one-two of Altered States (1980) and Crimes of Passion (1984): a bit like slapping your host on one cheek, then the other, and wondering if you’ll be asked back.

There was mischief, insult and daring in Russell’s vision, and a playfulness that made him unique – his favourite game was to exploit the starchy norms of British prestige cinema and then abruptly throw an orgy, or blow loud raspberries in the direction of the church. In this sense he followed the rudely provocative tradition of Fellini or Buñuel , but fused that with an antic spirit of thoroughly British eccentricity. His idea of a costume drama was pretty much the antithesis of what Merchant-Ivory said it should be: one where everyone ran around giggling, things exploded and wigs went flying. Only with Mahler’s 5th playing instead of the Benny Hill theme tune. (Daily Telegraph)

Rent Ken Russell at Video Dogs - Women In Love, Lady Chatterley, The Rainbow, The Lair of the White Worm, Gothic, Mahler, Elgar, Delius, Lisztomania, Tommy, Altered States, Whore, and Billion Dollar Brain. Plus, Ken Russell at the BBC. Coming soon, 'The Boyfriend' & 'Music Lovers'

November, New Titles, 'Point Blank', 'George Harrison'

Samuel Pierret (Gilles Lellouche) is a nurse who saves the wrong guy -- a thief (Roschdy Zem) whose henchmen take Samuel's pregnant wife (Elena Anaya) hostage to force him to spring their boss from the hospital. A race through the subways and streets of Paris ensues, and the body count rises. Can Samuel evade the cops and the criminal underground and deliver his beloved to safety?

The experience of watching it evokes visions of the inevitable US refit (‘Anything for Her’ was remade by Paul Haggis as ‘The Next Three Days’). Instead, we have Gilles Lellouche (pictured) as Samuel, a brawny but benevolent trainee nurse whose wife is on the cusp of dropping a sprog. In a standard wrong time/wrong place set-up, Samuel is coerced into smuggling Roschdy Zem's wounded crim out of hospital, only to be roped into carrying out more depraved deeds when he finds out his wife has been taken hostage.

It’s hardly what you’d call high art, but Cavayé knows how to push buttons when it comes to straight-up, palm-sweating spectacle. It’s dumb and manipulative, such as the scene in which the bad guys almost dispose of the pregnant spouse by tossing her out of a window. But it’s also brisk and unpretentious, with no hint that we’re meant to take anything more away from this than a cheap but effective thrill.

Other New Titles in November

GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD

BEASTLY (2011)

HARLAN ELLISON: DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH (2008)

NURSE JACKIE - SEASON ONE (2010)

NURSE JACKIE - SEASON TWO (2011)

MORGIANA (1972)

MICHAEL CACOYANNIS TRILOGY (1977)

POINT BLANK (2010)

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (2010)

AVANT-GARDE 3: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA 1922-1954

BEN-HUR (1959) BLU-RAY

INTIMIDATION (1960) CRITERION

BLACK SUN (1964) CRITERION

I HATE BUT LOVE (1962) CRITERION

THIRST FOR LOVE (1966) CRITERION

WARPED ONES, THE (1960) CRITERION

TWIN PEAKS DEFINITIVE GOLD BOX EDITION

SCREAM 4 (2011)

SENNA (2011)

MY FORBIDDEN PAST (1951)

BLOOD ON THE MOON (1948)

BULLET TO BEIJING (1996)

MIDNIGHT IN ST PETERSBURG (1997)

MADAME ROSA (1977)

KILLING, THE(1957) CRITERION

SZINDBAD (1971)

13 ASSASSINS (2011)

CUL-DE-SAC (1966) CRITERION

FATHER (1966)

TAKING OFF (1971)

KILLING BONO (2011)

TREACLE JR. (2010)

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES (2011)

POPE JOAN (2009)

HONEY 2 (2011)

WRECKED (2010)

RITE, THE (2011)

LITTLE WHITE LIES (2010)

SLITHER (1973)

MICKEY ONE (1965)

HICKEY AND BOGGS (1972)

BAL (2010)

October, New Titles, 'The films of Pierre Etaix'

Long overdue, the films of French comedian, Pierre Etaix, have finally come to DVD after a long legal wrangle over the rights to the films themselves was won by Etaix and his supporters.

Pierre Etaix built his career principally around comedy. In 1954, he moved from his native Roanne to Paris where he would make a living as an illustrator and eventually as a solo performer in cabaret and variety venues. He would also work as a circus clown in partnership with Nino Fabbri.

In 1954, he met Jacques Tati for whom he worked for 4 years as a draughtsman and gagman in the preparation ansd shooting of Tati's film, My Uncle, and as an assistant-director during the shooting, also playing a small, uncredited role in that film. In 1961, he performed his own “number” in Tati's music-hall production. Jour de Fête à I'Olympia.

In 1961, he became a filmmaker, realising two shorts - Rupture (FIPRESCI prize in Mannheim 1961) and Happy Birthday (Oscar in Hollywood 1962) - both co-written with Jean-Claude Carrière. Between 1962 and 1970, he realised five features: The Suitor (Prix LOUIS DELLUC 1963; the Comic Film Prize of the Moscow International Film Festival, 1963), Yoyo (Grand Prize - OCIC International Festival in Venice 1965), So Long as You're Healthy (Silver Siren at the International Festival of Sorrento), The Great Love (Grand Prize of French Cinema 1969) and The Land of Milk & Honey(Pays de cocagne, 1970).

The box set includes all five features, which are available separately at the store as individual feature disks.

October, New Titles, 'Jane Eyre', 'Bridesmaids', 'Win Win'

A mousy governess who softens the heart of her employer soon discovers that he's hiding a terrible secret. The latest adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's great novel about sexual harassment in the workplace. Jane's growing love for her employer, Mr Rochester, leads to some touching, but his inappropriate behaviour is punished with loss of sight. This like the last adaptation of the novel (BBC, 2006) was also filmed at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, but for all the gloom and mood lacks the earlier film's sexual tension.

FORKS OVER KNIVES (2010)

A new documentary examines the profound claim that most, if not all of the so-called "diseases of affluence" that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods.

OTHER NEW TITLES

THOR (2011)
SHADOWS OF PROGRESS (1951-1977)
THOR (2011) BLU-RAY
BRIDESMAIDS (2011)
BRIDESMAIDS (2011) BLU-RAY
JANE EYRE (2011) BLU-RAY
SCREAM 4 (2011)
LAST NIGHT (2010)
LION KING, THE (1994)
LION KING, THE (1994) BLU-RAY
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS (2011)
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS (2011) BLU-RAY
AMERICAN BREAKDOWN (2008)
WIN WIN (2011)
FORKS OVER KNIVES (2011)
EVERYTHING MUST GO (2010)
CONSPIRATOR, THE (2010)
POETRY (2010)

September, New titles, 'Snowtown', 'Insidious', 'Hesher'

Australia's worst serial killer, John Bunting, and the accomplices who fell under his spell are profiled in "Snowtown." An extremely bleak psychological horror-thriller with arty trimmings, the movie compels for a couple of reels before muddled plotting sets in and audiences are left with no one to connect with when the central character transforms from innocent bystander to participant in Bunting's crimes. Debut helmer Justin Kurzel guides a predominantly non-professional cast with distinction, but this descent into unremittingly depressing territory will require careful marketing and positive critical notices to attract viewers. (Variety)

INSIDIOUS

From the co-creators of ‘Saw’ (James Wan and Leigh Whannell, here director and writer) and the director of ‘Paranormal Activity’ (Oren Peli, producing) comes a project featuring nothing that was original, distinctive or scary about either earlier film. It starts like a haunted-house movie: spooked by something nasty in the loft of his parents’ new house, Dalton (Ty Simpkins) lapses into a coma. His mother, Renai (Rose Byrne), hires loopy medium Elise (Lin Shaye), who declares: ‘Your son is not in a coma. It’s not the house that’s haunted, it’s him.’ Renai’s sceptical husband (Patrick Wilson) is equally unimpressed when Elise calls in a pair of bickering, nerdy ghostbusters (Angus Sampson and Whannell), who arrive with tons of Heath Robinson gear. Suddenly, we swerve into a preposterous supernatural mystery – seemingly grabbed from the waste baskets of M Night Shyamalan and Sam Raimi – as Dalton is besieged by evil spirits and the medium spouts half-baked guff about astral planes. Not so much insidious as inexcusable. (Time Out Film)

HESHER

Loud music. Pornography. Burning shit to the ground. These are a few of Hesher’s favorite things. And they are what Hesher brings into the lives of TJ and his father, Paul when he takes up residence in their garage uninvited. Grief-stricken by the loss of TJ’s mother in a car accident, Paul can’t muster the strength to evict the strange squatter, and soon the long-haired, tattooed Hesher becomes a fixture in the household. Like a force of nature, Hesher’s anarchy shakes the family out of their grief and helps them embrace life once more. (Wrekin Hill Entertainment)

OTHER NEW STUFF THIS WEEK

HEARTBEATS (2010)

PROSTITUTE (1980)

MAMMUTH (2010)

LOST THING, THE (2011)

4.3.2.1 (2011)

CAIRO TIME (2011)

PATTON (1970)

STRANGE WORLD OF GURNEY SLADE, THE (2011)

JOANNA (1968)

PINTER'S PROGRESS & THE HOMECOMING (2010)

WARD, THE (2010)

TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT (2011)

CEREMONY (2010)

SOMETHING UNKNOWN (2009)

BURKE AND HARE (2010)

September, New Titles, 'Valhalla Rising', 'Super', 'Enter The Void'

A brutal, mesmerising film from Dane Nicolas Winding Refn (‘Pusher’, ‘Bronson’), dominated by Mads Mikkelsen as a mute fighter, whose journey from twelfth-century Scotland to a strange New World is an odyssey of self-realisation. Enslaved by a pagan Scottish clan chieftain, the nameless warrior is chained and forced to fight to the death in hand-to-hand bouts staged for amusement and betting. Escaping with the help of a young boy, who names him One-Eye, the warrior learns to use weapons and joins a band of Vikings, but these are Christian converts bound for Jerusalem to reclaim the city for their faith. Their ship, however, is enveloped by a mysterious mist, which finally lifts to reveal an unknown land. Lost, hungry and under attack from the natives, the Viking converts lose their faith and lose their minds, turning on one another – but the enigmatic One-Eye discovers his destiny and embraces his essential self.

There are shades here of Terrence Malick’s elemental feel for landscape, the doomed colonial enterprise of Werner Herzog’s ‘Aguirre, Wrath of God’ and Vincent Ward’s visionary ‘The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey’, yet Refn makes this hypnotic, dreamlike film entirely his own.

Other New Stuff This Week

SUPER (2011)

VALHALLA RISING (2009)

POTICHE (2010)

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID 2: RODRICK RULES (2011)

ENTER THE VOID (2009)

HOLY WATER (2009)

MIDDLE MEN (2009)

MAD BASTARDS (2011)

MISFITS, THE (2011) SEASON 1 + 2

MAMMUTH (2010)

SOURCE CODE Blu-ray

Criterion CUL-DE-SAC

Criterion SECRET SUNSHINE

August, New Titles, 'Meek's Cutoff', 'Source Code', 'Battle Los Angeles'

Kelly Reichardt's glorious slow-burn western, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, is finally on DVD.

Two equally cool, contemplative and plot-neutral films – ‘Meek’s Cutoff’ and Sofia Coppola’s ‘Somewhere’ – competed for the Golden Lion. One was universally lauded and touted as the surefire winner. The other was dismissed as shallow, self-regarding and meaningless. And the wrong film won.

The sheer gulf of quality and intention between these two superficially similar films couldn’t be wider. The ‘cinema of nothing’ that both Reichardt and Coppola practice may be currently in vogue, but their approaches to it differ wildly: where Coppola uses the camera to reflect her own celebrity-centric interests, Reichardt’s gaze is firmly fixed on the outside world, and particularly on those poor souls who have lost their place within it.

‘Meek’s Cutoff’ is a western, but it’s like no horse opera you’ve ever seen. Michelle Williams plays Emily, one of a small band of settlers wagon-training west, keeping their eyes peeled for Indian raiders. But with supplies dwindling and tough-talking guide Meek (Bruce Greenwood) looking increasingly out of his depth, the group reluctantly turn to a captured Cayuse warrior (Rod Rondeaux) for guidance.

OTHER NEW STUFF THIS WEEK

PAUL (2011) BLU-RAY
PAUL (2011)
SUCKER PUNCH (2011) BLU-RAY
SUCKER PUNCH (2011)
SOURCE CODE (2011) BLU-RAY
SOURCE CODE (2011)
SOURCE CODE (2011) BLU-RAY
SOURCE CODE (2011)
UP PERISCOPE! (1959)
YOUR HIGHNESS (2011)
BATTLE: LOS ANGELES (2011) BLU-RAY
MEEK'S CUTOFF (2011)
LOU (2011)
PLEASURE GIRLS, THE (1965)
PLEASURE GIRLS, THE
BATTLE: LOS ANGELES (2011)
REEF, THE (2010)
HEDGEHOG, THE (2009)
SCARFACE (1983) BLU-RAY
A CAT IN PARIS (2010)
EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADELE BLAC-SEC (2010)
HOUSEMAID, THE (2010)
TOMBSTONE (1993)
AMADEUS (1984) BLU-RAY
BOURNE IDENTITY, THE (2002) BLU-RAY
BOURNE SUPREMACY, THE (2004)
BOURNE ULTIMATUM. THE (2007)
ALIEN (1979) BLU-RAY
ALIENS (1986) BLU-RAY
ALIEN 3 (1992) BLU-RAY
ALIEN RESURRECTION (1997) BLU-RAY
MAKING THE ALIEN ANTHOLOGY (2010)
MUSIC ROOM, THE (1958) CRITERION

New Stuff, August, 'Submarine', 'Paul', 'Fast Furious 5'

This is a spirited and warm film debut from TV comic Richard Ayoade, best known as an actor on ‘The IT Crowd’ and a little less as a one-time writer and director of ‘Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace’ for Channel 4 – as well as a maker of music videos for the likes of the Arctic Monkeys. Ayoade’s background is in telly, but his film is proudly cinematic – so much so that its big-screen influences are almost its defining characteristics.

Adapted from Joe Dunthorne’s 2008 novel, ‘Submarine’ is a retro coming-of-age tale about a teenage boy shell-shocked by everyday life in 1980s Wales. This is the story of Oliver Tate, a schoolboy whose life is a movie in his head, which explains why his parents, played brilliantly by Noah Taylor and Sally Hawkins, are such impenetrable but telling caricatures, weighed down by the hang-ups and deficiencies Oliver affords them.

IRONCLAD (2010)
MADEMOISELLE CHAMBON
BARNEY'S VERSION
COEUR FIDELE (1923) BLU-RAY
COEUR FIDELE (1923)
ROBINSON IN RUINS (2010) BLU-RAY
ROBINSON IN RUINS (2010)
A DAY IN THE LIFE (1953-1964) BLU-RAY
A DAY IN THE LIFE (1953-1964)
REQUIEM FOR A VILLAGE (1975) BLU-RAY
HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (2011)
THEY MET IN THE DARK (1943)
SMALL TIME (1996)
BEDWAYS (2010)
LOVE LIKE POISON (2010)
SUSPICIONS OF MR WHICHER, THE (2011)
WARD NO. 6 (2009)
CAUSE CELEBRE (1987)
BETTY'S BATH (1928)
NAKED KISS (1964) CRITERION
BLACK MOON (1975) CRITERION
ZAZIE DANS LE METRO (1960) CRITERION
RED SHOES, THE (1948) CRITERION
CHAINS (1949) CRITERION
TORMENTO (1950) CRITERION
NOBODY'S CHILDREN (1952) CRITERION
WHITE ANGEL, THE (1955) CRITERION
DIABOLIQUE (1955) CRITERION
PEOPLE ON SUNDAY (1930) CRITERION
PATHS OF GLORY (1957) CRITERION
FAST AND FURIOUS 5 (2011) BLU-RAY
FAST AND FURIOUS 5 (2011)
ARTHUR (2011)
BRIGHTON ROCK (2010)
IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY (2010)
EASTBOUND AND DOWN (2010) SEASON 2
TROUBADORS (2011)
SONS OF ANARCHY (2008) SEASON 1
GRAN TORINO (2008) BLU-RAY
KREMLIN LETTER, THE (1970)
GREAT WHITE SILENCE, THE (1924) BLU-RAY
GREAT WHITE SILENCE, THE (1924)
CARMEN (1984)
LATE AUTUMN & A MOTHER SHOULD BE LOVED (1960) BLU
LATE AUTUMN & A MOTHER SHOULD BE LOVED (1960)
REQUIEM FOR A VILLAGE (1975) BLU-RAY
STRAVINSKY (1982)
LE BOSSU (1959)

New Titles, July, 'Norwegian Wood', 'My Dog Tulip', 'The Trip'

Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung has a distinct curiosity about the significance of music, both in everyday life and in cinema. A recurring scene from his gorgeous 2000 film ‘At the Height of Summer’ saw a young couple waking each morning to the strains of the Velvet Underground’s ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ and engaging in a ritualised early-morning ballet of stretches and ablutions. At a pivotal moment in his wistful and agonisingly poignant new work – a thoughtfully abridged adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s lilting 1987 chronicle of late-teen neurosis in 1960s Tokyo – a young woman, Naoko, who’s still traumatised by the suicide of a schoolyard sweetheart, breaks down when a friend casually strums through a rendition of The Beatles’ torch song ‘Norwegian Wood’. The idea that something as ephemeral as a pop song could release a storm cloud of sorrows encapsulates the objectives of this film. It asks: how can we ever really be sure of love without understanding the hidden impulses of others? And what’s the point of love if death’s cruel hand can swipe at any moment?

My Dog Tulip

This gently episodic film by Paul and Sandra Fierlinger manages to say more about man’s relationship with dogs in a single, lush frame than ‘Marley and Me’ would if it were to run on a loop until the end of time.

It’s attentively adapted from a memoir by the late British wit JR Ackerley, which offers – in infinitesimal detail – the mucus-slathered trials of life with his fusty Alsatian bitch, Tulip, in 1950s Putney. Ackerley’s bone-dry prose is the epitome of self-flagellating, post-war Englishness, recalling at once the instructional irony of George Orwell’s essays and the arch, self-effacing out-loud-thoughts of Alan Bennett.

Other New Stuff

Limitless

Way Back, The

Made In Romania

The Trip

Archipelago

L'Amour Fou

Company Men

Macbeth (2010)

July, New Titles, 'Carlos The Jackal', 'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest'

Continuing a pattern of switching between subdued ensemble dramas (‘Summer Hours’, ‘Late August, Early September’) and balls-out ‘global’ techno-thrillers (‘Demonlover’, ‘Boarding Gate’), French director Olivier Assayas returns with a hulking, seething, intermittently sublime, five-and-a-half hour film in which he manages to draw together elements from both of these distinct styles.

‘Carlos’ is the lightly fictionalised biopic of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, known to the world – but not in this film! – as Carlos the Jackal, and it comes across as the mother of all New Yorker profiles writ loud and large on the screen. Central to the film is a passionate, technically complex (he’s fluent in half a dozen languages) performance from Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez who feels like the perfect, paunchy mouthpiece for Carlos’s fervent, if flawed, gunboat Marxism.

Covering the period between his joining the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1970 and his capture in Sudan in 1994 (as he was being treated for a varicose vein on one of his testicles), the film works best when it presents information visually rather than with swathes of ideological discourse. The highlight is a masterly rendering of Carlos’s raid on an OPEC meeting in Vienna in 1975 for which Assayas orchestrates detail in such a way that it speaks about the politics, fears, tactics and ambitions of all involved. Elsewhere, small episodes – such as the gun-toting capture of Baader-Meinhof wildcat Gabriele Kröcher-Tiedemann – feel like they’ve been included purely for the sake of thoroughness.

Assayas doesn’t try to reflect too audaciously on Carlos ‘the man’, though he does paint him as someone whose single-minded focus on political goals was partly fuelled by raging sexual desire. (NB: The film is also screening in a more compact 158-minute version.)

Other New Stuff This Week

GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST, THE (2009)

MECHANIC, THE (2011)

HALL PASS (2011)

OTHER GUYS, THE (2010)

BARNEY'S VERSION (2010)

KING'S SPEECH, THE (2010)

WAITING FOR SUPERMAN (2011)

WARRIOR'S WAY, THE (2010)

I SAW THE DEVIL (2010)

YOUNG AT HEART (1954)

MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE (1964)

INSIGNIFICANCE (1985) CRITERION

MAKIOKA SISTERS, THE (1983) CRITERION

SUDDEN FEAR (1952)

HIS KIND OF WOMAN (1951)

TOPPER RETURNS (1941)

Coming Soon

Steve Coogan's THE TRIP

NORWEGIAN WOOD

ARCHIPELAGO

Anton Chekhov's THE DUEL

Tony Gatlif's KORKORO

KISS ME DEADLY Criterion

ZAZIE DANS LE METRO Criterion

THE MUSIC ROOM Criterion

BLACK MOON Criterion

PEOPLE ON SUNDAY Criterion

DIABOLIQUE Criterion

NAKED KISS Criterion

RED SHOES Criterion

PATHS OF GLORY Criterion

LE BOSSU (1960)

BETT'S BATH & OTHER STORIES

TINTIN & THE MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN FLAME

CHEKHOV COMEDY SHORTS

ON TOUR

LUNCH HOUR (BFI)

THE MUSIC LOVERS

SET THE PIANO STOOL ON FIRE

WARD NO. 6

DEEP END (BFI)

July, New Titles, 'Farewell', '127 Hours', 'Biutiful'

Farewell

The Farewell affair was an espionage plot that unfolded in the USSR, France and the USA between 1981 and 1983.

Sergei Gregoriev (Emir Kusterica), a KGB operative hungry for change, begins feeding secrets to Pierre Froment, a French engineer in Moscow, who in turn takes them to François Mitterrand (Philippe Magnan), who passes them to Ronald Reagan.

While in Moscow, the households of Gregoriev and Froment come under increasing strain from their secret professional – and personal – lives. ‘Farewell’ boasts a strong cast – Willem Dafoe pops up as a CIA chief and Niels Arestrup plays his French counterpart – and is strong on life in Soviet Moscow. That rare thing nowadays, a Cold War thriller, reminiscent of 'Gorky Park'.

127 Hours

There’s little more gruesome and extreme than the story of Aron Ralston, an American outdoors nut who in 2003 went canyoning alone in Utah without telling anyone where he was going. James Franco plays the frenetic 27 year old as an experience junkie and sociable loner. He bombs through the desert on a mountain bike leaving a trail of dust behind him. He meets girls in the wilderness, makes them laugh and leaps into underground lakes with them before saying goodbye. He bounds over gulleys. Then he misses his footing, slips into a canyon and a boulder follows him down, pinning his arm to the wall just as he lands on his feet. He’s trapped, and the film’s kineticism turns in on itself: like Ralston, its energy is stuck in a hole.

Biutiful

Bardem plays Uxbal, a grafter who shuttles between corrupt police, Chinese sweatshop owners and illegal African street hawkers. He brings comfort to the bereaved by passing on messages from the deceased, while at the same time coping with his estranged wife’s bipolar disorder and facing the shadow of serious illness himself.

Other New Stuff in July

IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA SEASON 4 (2008)

BLOW OUT (1981) CRITERION

SOMETHING WILD (1986) CRITERION

PALE FLOWER (1964) CRITERION (REGION 1)

BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO (2011)

BIUTIFUL (2010)

METROPOLIS (1927) MADMAN RESTORATION

YOGI BEAR (2010)

WHITE MATERIAL (2009)

WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (2010)

CATFISH (2010)

TAMARA DREWE (2010)

HEART OF GLASS (1976)

TOM WAITS UNDER REVIEW 1971-1982 (2008)

RABBIT HOLE (2010)

127 HOURS (2010) BLU-RAY

127 HOURS (2010)

BLACK SWAN (2010)

GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, THE (1966)

STORY OF THE KELLY GANG, THE (1906)

TRASH HUMPERS (2009)

HOLY ROLLERS (2009)

BLUE VALENTINE (2010)

DISTRICT 13 ULTIMATUM (2010)

REIGN OF ASSASSINS (2010)

HOWL (2010)

ROUTE IRISH (2010)

SUSPIRIA (1977)

GNOMEO AND JULIET (2011)

SEASON OF THE WITCH (2011)

UNKNOWN (2011)

UNKNOWN (2011)

UNKNOWN (2011) BLU-RAY

ADJUSTMENT BUREAU, THE (2011)

HEREAFTER (2010)

HEREAFTER (2010) BLU-RAY

FAREWELL (2009)

INTERLUDE (1957) MADMAN DIRECTOR'S SUITE

DAY OF THE OUTLAW (1959)

PRINCESS OF MONTPENSIER, THE (2010)

AGE OF REASON, THE (2010)

SANCTUM (2011)

SANCTUM (2011) BLU-RAY

PIANOMANIA (2009)

TREE, THE (2010)

I AM NUMBER FOUR (2011)

RANGO (2011)

FASTER (2010)

INSIDE JOB (2010)

AND EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE FINE (2010)

LEAVING (2009)

June, New Titles, 'True Grit', 'Blue Valentine'

True Grit

The Coen brothers return, offering their own distinctive take on Charles Portis's revenge-western novel. Jeff Bridges assumes the role of the cycloptic avenger Rooster Cogburn which won John Wayne an Oscar in 1969.

Blue Valentine

The title of this mature and moving new US indie captures the tug of war between the excitement of new love and the misery of its slow, painful death. Young American filmmaker Derek Cianfrance bats us back and forth between all sorts of emotions and moods – hot and cold, hope and despair, energy and lethargy – as he shares with us the exciting beginning and dispiriting end of the five-year marriage.

Other new stuff

How Do You Know

Unstoppable

Marketing Of Madness

No Strings Attached

Glass Lips

Childrens Hospital season 1&2

June, New Titles, 'The Green Hornet', 'Next Three Days', 'Hit List'

This wonky but charming action caper documents the crime-thwarting travails of Britt Reid aka The Green Hornet (Seth Rogen doing Seth Rogen), a lingo-spouting party boy and publishing heir, and Kato (a film-stealing Jay Chou), his quiet Chinese expat mechanic-cum-sidekick who is happily saddled with most of the inventing and fighting duties. Their enemy is debonair crime kingpin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz, rolling out his Oscar-winning, hot-hot-hot-hot-COLD! Hans Landa turn), and with the aid of a slickly remodelled vintage Chrysler, some custom-moulded masks and a pair of silly hats, the pair set out to obliterate the criminal scourge of LA.

The Next Three Days

Fred Cavayé’s popular 2008 French prison-break melodrama ‘Anything for Her’ becomes a terse, overly serious, character-driven potboiler in the hands of Paul Haggis, the writer-director of ‘Crash’ and ‘In the Valley of Elah’. The plot – Russell Crowe’s browbeaten family man finds his life falling apart when his wife (Elizabeth Banks) is convicted of murder and decides to bust her out – promises high-stakes drama and high-octane action, so it’s a shame that it takes ‘The Next Three Days’ well over an hour to get going. When it does, the film is gripping, intense and highly enjoyable. But it’s a long, tough slog to get there.

Other New Stuff...

The Hit List (2011), Cuba Gooding Jr. in a twist on 'Strangers On A Train', as his wishlist of people he'd like dead start dying

Journey Of The ChildMen - Mighty Boosh on Tour

Wonders Of The Solar System

June, New Titles, 'Black Swan' 'Uncle BoonMee...' 'The Fighter'

It’s best to switch off the more sensible side of your mind, along with any idea that you’re going to experience a documentary-style portrait of the world of ballet, before encountering Darren Aronofsky's ‘Black Swan’. It’s a film that really only works if you let yourself be swirled up, like its main character, in a storm of hysteria, paranoia and tears: it’s too impulsive and emotional to be picked apart at the level of logic and too ludicrous to exist in a world other than its own. It’s huge fun, but only if you’re willing to swallow its more bonkers excesses.

Uncle BoonMee Who Can See His Past Lives

And if that isn't the right kind of bonkers for you, then try this Thai noodle. The film joins a dumpy, softly-spoken tamarind farmer (Boonmee) as he takes metaphysical stock of his time on earth while he slowly, gracefully succumbs to kidney disease. As the film rummages through his subconscious, we meet friendly apparitions of his late wife and his son, the latter of whom has been cross-bred with a monkey. We even get a glimpse of a past life when he inhabited the body of a horny catfish.

Other New Stuff for June

La Signora Senza Camelie (1953) Region 2

La Signora Senza Camelie (1953) Blu-Ray

Map Of The Sounds Of Tokyo (2009)

Of Gods And Men (2010) Region 2

Inside Job (2010)

Tamara Drewe (2010)

Restrepo (2010)

Canterbury Tales, The (1972) Region 2

Lemmy (2010)

Last Train Home (2009)

Dead Man (1994) Blu-Ray

Made In Dagenham (2010)

American: The Bill Hicks Story (2010)

Eden Is West (2009)

Two In The Wave (2009)

Morning Glory (2011)

Fighter, The (2010)

Black Swan (2010) Blu-Ray

Another Year (2010)

May, New Titles, 'Glenn Gould', 'The Tourist', 'Love And Other Drugs'

GENIUS WITHIN: The Inner Life Of Glenn Gould

It's an inescapable fact that Gould's singular musical insights – the way he brought out in Bach a mesmeric unity of sound – could only have arisen from a singular personality. An enigmatic musical poet — and the most documented classical musician of the last century — world-renowned pianist Glenn Gould continues to captivate international audiences twenty-six years after his untimely death. Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould humanizes the legend, weaving together an unprecedented array of unseen footage, private home recordings and diaries, as well as compelling interviews with Gould’s most intimate friends and lovers — all exploring the incongruities between Gould’s private reality and his wider image.

THE TOURIST

This is a remarkable film. Take the Oscar-winning director of the universally acclaimed ‘The Lives of Others’, and add not one, but two Oscar-winning screenwriters – Julian Fellowes (‘Gosford Park’) and Chris McQuarrie (‘The Usual Suspects’). Throw in Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, attractive locations in wintry Paris and Venice. Sounds like it can hardly miss, right? Well, ‘The Tourist’ is remarkable because its not inconsiderable talent pool has delivered a would-be ‘light-hearted international crime caper’ which runs the gamut from idiocy to tedium and back again, all the while exuding a smug sense of self-satisfaction which is frankly inexplicable. Long for the days of red London buses, Shirley MacLaine in oriental eye make-up, swishy dissolves and cocktail-hour music? Well, stick with the ’60s celluloid fluff of your choice because it certainly doesn’t get any better here.

(Time Out Film)

YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER

Woody Allen's latest continues his bumpy ride along the bottom. A shoddy, shallow, unfunny, medium-weight London ensemble drama upscaled to the big screen without a trace of Woody on it, save for the jaunty jazz soundtrack. Almost everyone is mis-cast. File alongside Stephen Frears' upcoming 'Tamara Drewe' for disappointing fare from formerly brilliant director now in the doldrums.

Oh, the story? Alfie leaves Helena to pursue his lost youth and a free-spirited call girl named Charmaine (Punch), Helena abandons rationality and surrenders her life to the loopy advice of a charlatan fortune teller. Unhappy in her marriage, Sally develops a crush on her handsome art gallery owner boss, Greg (Banderas), while Roy, a novelist nervously awaiting the response to his latest manuscript, becomes moonstruck over Dia. Zzzzz.

INSPECTOR BELLAMY (2008)

SOMEWHERE (2010)

BEHIND THE BURLY Q (2010)

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (2010)

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (2010) BLU-RAY

TANGLED (2010)

RUBBER (2010)

WAR YOU DON'T SEE, THE (2010)

I, DON GIOVANNI (2009)

LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS (2010)

LITTLE FOCKERS (2011)

LAST EXORCISM, THE (2010)

JACKBOOTS ON WHITEHALL (2010)

RED HILL (2009)

DILEMMA, THE (2010)

MORNING GLORY (2011)

May, New Titles, 'King's Speech'

Buttoned-down British royal suffers speech impediment and hires unconventional Aussie quack to conquer his fear of public oratory. So it’s thanks to the best efforts of writer David Seidler, director Tom Hooper and, especially, leads Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush that ‘The King’s Speech’ isn’t just an enlightening period drama, but a very entertaining, heartfelt and surprisingly funny crowd-pleaser with a glint of Oscar gold in its eye.

Other new stuff in May

BIGGER THAN LIFE (Criterion)

WHO IS HARRY NILSSON?

HIDEAWAY

CANNESMAN

THE DILEMMA

DILLINGER IS DEAD

MACGRUBER

GENIUS WITHIN: Glenn Gould

KES

FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN

SOMEWHERE

BEHIND THE BURLY Q

BROADCAST NEWS

INSPECTOR BELLAMY

YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER

A WOMAN, A GUN, AND A NOODLE SHOP