CHRISTOPHER WATTS

Palme D'Or winner and probable Foreign Language Film of the Year 2023/24, catch this while you can. At first, a slow-paced but engrossing dissection of a troubled marriage, then a death in unexplained circumstances, all leading to a riveting courtroom drama. The French legal system - inquisitorial - laid bare like never before! Did you know that in France, if a defendant is not French then real time translation is available to ensure everyone from defendant through to judge, jury and counsel can hear proceedings in their language of choice via a headset? Positively innovative & refreshing. Anyway, Sandra (Sandra Hullier) a German national and her French husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) are writers, both intellectual, living with their young visually impaired son Daniel in a chalet high up in the picturesque French Alps near Grenoble. Samuel, poor chap, flits into and out of bouts of depression accentuated by remorse over missed opportunities earlier in life and now by writers' block, Sandra is taking lovers (of both sexes). One day, Samuel is found dead at the bottom of the chalet with a nasty head wound. Did he fall from an upstairs window, hitting his head on a bunker at the bottom of the chalet or was this something more sinister? Police are dissatisfied with Sandra's explanations and she ends up in the dock. She has an unfortunate tendency not to tell the whole truth which, of course, compromises her. The court must decide was this some form of culpable homicide (even murder), was it suicide or just plain accident? For the final third of the film we're in court. Terrific courtroom scenes with twists and turns keeping you guessing to the end. Vincent (Swann Arlaud) leads Sandra's defence (he may even be a former lover) and, simply towering above proceedings, L'Avocat General Antoine Reinartz prosecutes with a condescending sneer "they pay me because I'm so good at uncovering the truth". Director Justine Triet runs a tight ship throughout, her sumptuous outdoors cinematography - with the French Alps in all their splendour - reminds of Anthony Mann in the 1950s

This merits 2 stars for the epic spectacle. As you expect from director Ridley Scott, fantastic cinematography, with several scenes enhanced by CGI. The script alas might have been written by Ai, with some of the lines by the protagonists coming across as absurd. "What language do you speak, I speak them all" asks slave trader Macrinus of our hero Lucius. Ridley Scott has long been my favourite film director, a latter-day John Ford. He's given us some terrific movies like 'Alien' (1979) showing how extraterrestrials could be anything but cute & cuddly (as imagined by Spielberg in 'ET') but nasty and anthropophagous! Scott's 'Black Hawk Down' (2001) based on actual events at the Battle of Mogadishu in 1994 was possibly the apogee of modern war films in the post-World War 2 conflict era. But in 'Gladiator II' - unlike its Russell Crowe prequel - Scott has substituted spectacle and action for storyline and meaningful dialogue. May be that's what modern cinema audiences want. Writers Peter Craig and David Scarpa lack finesse and sureness of touch to craft, from the materials they were working with, a dialogue nuanced to support the action and live in the memory. You yearn for script writers from yesteryear like Karl Tunberg ('Ben-Hur' 1959), Robert Bolt ('Lawrence of Arabia 1962) or Philip Yordan ('El Cid' 1961) - all large-scale epic films with plenty of action but with meaningful dialogue too. "Based on true events" say the opening title credits, the film is historically awry in so many places it is impossible to list them all. Modern scholars of the late Roman Empire tell us that Macrinus, the slave trader who became emperor of Rome, did not kill the sibling emperors Geta and Caracalla by his own hand nor meet his own end as shown here. And whilst Roman impresarios certainly recreated famous naval battles like Salamis in nearby lakes, it would be impossible to stage them in the Coliseum as depicted here, let alone transport sharks - presumably from the nearby Med - to the Coliseum to add dramatic effect! As for gladiators riding rhinos, well..... A stellar cast led by Paul Mescal (as Lucius, the young son of Russell Crowe's Maximus from the earlier film, now grown to manhood) all biceps and brawn, Pedro Pascal (as a fictitious general called Marcus Acacius), the always good Denzel Washington (Macrimus) does its best, and Connie Nielsen as Lucius's mother Lucilla is regal. But they can't save this sinking ship. In short, a lavish turkey (in time for Christmas)

This latest from Christopher Nolan promised much. Great story, glittering cast, sumptuous cinematography. And it delivers on many fronts. The actors' wardrobe is 'to die for' (men's shirts, ties, suits, tie clips). Alas, the history presented throughout, whilst accurate, is perfunctory and we end up with something akin to a 3 hour damp squib. Given the director's 'Dunkirk' (2017)' and his penchant for action, I was rather hoping his next historical project - a natural successor to 'Dunkirk' - might be Overlord. About time we had a new cinematic take on D-Day with "The Longest Day" (1962) now a relic. Quite why Nolan chose this subject - development of the atomic bomb - is curious. Its appeal will lie mainly with US audiences. "The Manhattan Project" - despite the international make-up of its protagonists - was a US affair. This film ignores utterly the simultaneous work in Britain, by a separate group of scientists, towards creating nuclear fission. CP Snow's novel "The New Men" deals with this. The problem with historical epics dealing with events within living memory - albeit only of older generations - is that we know what happened. So, we know the Americans developed the bomb and used it against Japan to bring the War in the Far East to a quicker end, less costly in Allied lives, than a sea & air invasion of the Japanese home islands. The arguments for & against using the bomb are presented here perfunctorily at best. We know too that chief scientist Oppenheimer was a complex man with deep reservations about the morality of WMD. And we know that after the War, with the US gripped by paranoia over communist infiltration as the Cold War gathered pace, Oppenheimer (and many others) were subjected to unpleasant hearings by kangaroo courts - replete with self-serving counsel - delving into what company they kept and their motivation. As a director, Nolan relishes presenting parallel dimensions in time as if they are "the present" (he did that in 'Dunkirk' and 'Interstellar'). No surprise then that the post War Inquiry by the Atomic Energy Commission into Oppenheimer's security clearance, and a later Senate hearing to ratify Admiral Strauss (Oppenheimer's wartime boss) for a top Cabinet post, are handled deftly and probably the most memorable parts of this film. Great cast led by Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jnr, Matt Damon and Florence Pugh. Good cameo by Tom Conti as Albert Einstein, rather comical one by Gary Oldman as President Truman (looking more like Winston Churchill than Truman)

Overlong (by about an hour) and rambling but a visual treat. The story of the Osage (Indian) Tribe killings in Oklahoma in the early 1920s. The discovery of oil on Osage native American reservation land in Oklahoma had bestowed sudden great wealth on members of the tribe. Alas, this proved as much achilles heel as blessing as non-native Americans, white chancers and other 'bad sorts', began killing them in droves - often with the connivance of local police and medical profession - to inherit their wealth following dubious lifetime legal settlements or sham marriages (white chancers and Indian maidens). Leonardo Di Caprio is a versatile actor and here he excels as a dimwitted ex-doughboy, home from France post WW1 and goaded by his scoundrel uncle (lRobert de Niro) - the local bigwig - into marrying a newly prosperous Indian maiden. This is the film's weak spot, because it's baffling how / why a stunning female like Molly (Lily Gladstone) should fall for let alone wed someone like Di Caprio's Ernest Burkhart. The killing spree is protracted and often stomach-wrenching. Meanwhile, in the Burkhart family home, diabetic Molly is prescribed insulin which house-husband Ernest administers along with injections of whatever else to hasten her demise and his inheritance. Well, to the film's credit, that's one interpretation. The fellow is such a dimwit it's just possible that, whilst his long-term plan may be dishonourable, he could actually believe he's doing his best for his wife. Or, maybe, he knows he's doing evil but is just in it too deep. Now they say that America's worst President was Calvin Coolidge. This film shows Coolidge in a good light. Sick and emaciated, Molly travels to Washington DC with tribal elders for an audience with Coolidge. "Mr President, my people are being killed, we don't know by whom, please can you help us?" Now, after meandering somewhat, the film really takes off. Into Oklahoma's troubled tribal land comes former Texas ranger Tom White (Jesse Plemons) leading a team from a nascent federal law agency called the Bureau of Investigation. "I'm here about the killings, see who's doin em". Sit back now for the final hour and a bit of this film, savour the birth of the FBI. Well directed by veteran Martin Scorsesse, breathtaking cinematography and authenticity of everything from actors' wardrobes to the cars. Enjoyable, if at times - especially in early scenes - plodding

One of director Alfred Hitchcock's less celebrated films but very good. At the time (1953) leading actor Montgomery Clift seemed to specialise in playing conflicted characters or people 'with issues' ('A Place in the Sun' / 'From Here to Eternity' and later 'Judgement at Nuremberg') and here he's in his element as a Roman Catholic priest in Quebec (Father Michael) just after World War 2. One day, in the confessional, he hears the confession of a murderer - a sinister German refugee - who happens to be the handyman / housekeeper at the parish priests' residence and someone therefore known to Father Michael. So this isn't a murder mystery, we know who the killer is from the outset. The killer dressed in priest's garb when committing the crime and was seen from afar by witnesses. So, what happens when circumstantial evidence builds implicating Father Michael himself and he becomes prime suspect? He is, of course, bound by his priestly oath of confidentiality in the confessional even at the cost of arraignment for murder and opprobrium in the eyes of local community and press. And all of this playing out against a relationship with Ruth (Anne Baxter) - the wife as it happens of the city's chief prosecutor - a flame from the past when Father Michael was a soldier before taking Holy Orders. Wonderful black & white cinematography and location shots show Quebec at its finest, almost an advertisement for Visit Quebec. Superb performances by a stellar cast of Clift, Baxter, OE Hasse (as the killer) and Karl Malden's definitive portrayal of the investigating detective putting two & two together, coming up with five and barking up the wrong tree

Superb war film! The latest adaptation for screen, by German director Edward Berger, of Erich Maria Remarque's quintessential anti-war novel. This SHOULD be Best Foreign Film at 2023's Oscars. Made for Netflix, the sheer spectacle and cinematography makes this best watched in the cinema on a big screen. The last week of World War 1 in all its horror, seen through the eyes of a newly arrived company of young German soldiers at the front - all buddies from the same university sent off to war with ringing tribute by their Vice Chancellor that they're the country's finest generation - coming to terms with Armageddon. That there was no let up in the fighting in that last week of war is historical fact, despite High Commands on both sides knowing peace negotiations had begun. Battle scenes here to make the gore and carnage of Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" (1998, Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore) look like one of Granny's tea parties. True, many scenes here are enhanced by modern CGI tech - which the original film by Lewis Milestone in 1930 was not - but all the better for it. Superb performances. Felix Kammerer as main protagonist Paul Baumer. His personal journey - from frightened late-teen bent only on survival to killing his first poilu with dagger - is the heart of the story. And a long way away, in a railway carriage at Compiegne, Daniel Bruhl - as Matthias Erzberger - leads Germany's peace delegation whilst a stony-faced Marechal Foch plays hard ball. In the later world war, US general George S Patton said that man reaches his apotheosis in war. What he probably meant was man's endurance. This film captures wonderfully how all the blood, savagery and inhumanity makes man rise to levels of endurance (as well as brutality) unthinkable in peace. Which is about the best reason for not having wars. Terrific

Possibly the best film of all time on a theme of war. There's a subtle difference here with 'war film'. Castigated on first release in the 'fifties, mainly by veterans who had lived through real events on which the film is loosely based, the film has lasted spectacularly well and its message about the futility of war is as relevant today as on first release. Unforgettable scenery, cinematography and outstanding performances, all orchestrated by director David Lean behind the lens. Alec Guinness in his most memorable role. Is he a buffoon 'Colonel Blimp' who can't see that he's aiding the enemy by building them a better bridge than they can build themselves (tantamount to treason) or an honourable man who sees a soldier's duty in captivity is to triumph over adversity? The whole cast is superb. William Holden, in possibly his apotheosis role, is Shears the definitive reluctant hero. 1920s Japanese matinee idol Sessue Hayakawa is POW camp commandant Col Saito, a wannabe Samurai warrior whose initial contempt and brutality towards his white prisoners morphs (too late) into a grudging respect. James Donald, too, very good as British POW doctor Maj Clipton, the voice of scepticism about collaboration with the enemy. The film is never better though than in scenes at (an imagined) British Special Forces HQ in Colombo, as commando leader Maj Warden (Jack Hawkins) and his boss Col Green (eccentric Andre Morrell) plot their raid on the bridge, creating in the process a memorable pastiche on life in special forces where bonhomie and joviality mask the dangers they know lurk close. This is a film everyone really ought to watch twice a year. No matter how many times you watch, like with all great films, you will notice new things on each viewing. Enjoy

Enjoyable, charming and essentially, old-fashioned cinema, of a type Ealing Studios used to do so well. The 1950s lovingly restored with the aid of CGI. London and Paris streets in all their glory, sans parking restrictions or traffic calming measures of any kind. Bliss! The story of amiable char-lady Mrs Harris, a war widow, coming into good fortune through a win on the Football Pools (remember them?) and enhanced War Widows' Pension, and beneficially touching the lives of all in her inner circle and those she encounters on a personal odyssey to buy a stunning dress from haute couture fashion house Christian Dior, Paris. A cross between William Wyler's 'Roman Holiday' (1953 Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn) and 'Mary Poppins' (1964 Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyck) and done well enough that minor blemishes like the bedside photo of Mrs H's lost love - who we know was RAF aircrew but in the photo wearing a distinctly Army tunic - never grate. A sterling cast, Lesley Manville (as Mrs Harris), Isabelle Huppert (as a rather stuck-up head at Christian Dior) and Lambert Wilson (best supporting actor of the year surely as sympathetic French Comte) does well with a finely written script. All that's missing are Stanley Holloway and Wilfred Hyde-White. Instant nostalgia. Enjoy

An early candidate for Film of the Year! Audiences will be lucky indeed for four more films this year to give this one competition. Kenneth Branagh, esteemed actor/director and now it would seem Dylan Thomas disciple. 'Belfast' is Branagh's paean to Thomas's autobiographical essay "Memories of Childhood". And what a childhood! Assuming, that is, that 6 year-old Buddy (newcomer Jude Hill) is indeed Branagh 1969. Was there a more perfect family in Britain in 1969 than young Buddy, elder brother Will, Ma (gorgeous Caitriona Balfe), Pa (Jamie Dornan), Granny (Dame Judi Dench) and Pop (Ciaran Hinds)? They have their problems, Pa needs to work in England much of the time leaving Ma to bring up the family, but they struggle through and thrive. Balfe and Dornan, here, the kind of people to make you wish they'd been your parents when you were 6! And with a nan and grandpa like Dench and Hinds, the film veers just slightly into the realms of sentimentality but saved by the depth of the characters. John Ford's schmaltzy "How Green was my Valley" (Oscar winner 1941) this is not, that set in the Welsh coalfields (or Hollywood's imagining of them) this in conservative Protestant Ulster. Awesome cinematography enhanced by being shot largely in black & white save for the beginning and ending showing the city of Belfast as it is today. The story is set in 1969 at the beginning of 'the Troubles', depicted here graphically and viscerally. A story largely of the triumph of ordinary working people over adversity, over events they can't control and the way they do that is by a love for their city and way of life, and retaining a stoic sense of humour. Wonderful line where, with rioting all around, a lady gives a group of people an impromptu rendition of the ditty 'Danny Boy' and a wag asks what she did with the money (for singing lessons)! This film though is never better than as an animadversion at the passing of the western from popular psyche. Those of a certain vintage will remember the staple diet of popular TV in 1969 were Hollywood westerns of the 1950s. There are tributes throughout to Fred Zinneman's 'High Noon' (1952) (Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly) and its iconic song "Do not forsake me, Oh my Darlin" (Branagh should have used the original sung by Tex Ritter, not a modern rendition). And passionate western buffs will appreciate the significance of characters in this film Billy Clanton, Frank & Tom McLowery - here they're violent and intimidating rioters - in history the Clanton Gang laid low by Marshal Wyatt Earp, his siblings and Doc Holliday at the O.K. Corral!! Go see, and enjoy a throughly entertaining cinematic experience