Buena Vista Social Club
Director: Wim Wenders Germany, 1999 Ry Cooder visited Cuba in 1996 to record sessions for an intended Afro-Cuban collaboration. The Africans never made it out of Mali leaving Cooder and World Circuit’s Nick Gold high and dry. What followed was pure serendipity: within three days Juan de Marcos González managed to put together an extraordinary collective of [...] More about Buena Vista Social Club
The Good Shepherd
Director: Robert De Niro United States, 2006 Matt Damon’s got a tough job here. On the one hand he needs to play the absolute stoic, for whom life-changing decisions are met wordlessly with little more than a glassy stare. On the other, he needs us to empathise with him as his personal life falls apart because he [...] More about The Good Shepherd
The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Germany, 2006 Crass Hollywood remakes of European art film aren’t often successful. The big budgets, the bigger country and the biggest names tend to kill off every single cell of zeitgeist in the original. And I can see that happening here, when they get sad-jowled Nicolas Cage to emote all over this [...] More about The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)
Double Indemnity
Director: Billy Wilder United States, 1944 In some life insurance policies, where the policyholder dies in untypical circumstances, the policy pays out double. It’s called double indemnity, and when old Mr Dietrichson gets bumped off in revenge for the heinous crimes of being cranky and middle-aged, it’s made to look like he fell off a moving train. It [...] More about Double Indemnity
The Last King of Scotland
Director: Kevin Macdonald United Kingdom, 2007 James McAvoy’s turn as leading man here is a superb mix of naïveté, youthful exuberance and abject fear. It’s perhaps unfortunate then that Last King will always be remembered - pretty much to the exclusion of everyone and everything else - for Forest Whitaker’s career-defining performance. As General Idi Amin Dada, the [...] More about The Last King of Scotland
The Killers
Director: Robert Siodmak United States, 1946 Insurance investigator Jim Reardon uncovers dark dealings when assigned to the death of Ole ‘Swede’ Andersen. Told in flashback - with more than a pinch of nihilism - from interviews with associates, acquaintances and the police, The Killers is a murky but tense affair, based on a short story by Ernest [...] More about The Killers
Kika
Director: Pedro Almodóvar Spain, 1993 Déjà vu abounds in Kika, a brief return to the sort of hair-brained frivolity that characterised Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown. Parallels might also be drawn with Almodóvar’s ¡átame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!) (1990), another film in which the director treats a sexual attack on a woman [...] More about Kika
Gilda
Director: Charles Vidor United States, 1946 Despite being one of noir’s unlikelier icons, Rita Hayworth seems to have cornered the market in breezy gals with something to hide and in Gilda she does a roaring trade. For this is indeed a movie of contrasts: it’s a dark, claustrophobic tale played out in a lavish Buenos Aires gambling joint; [...] More about Gilda
Law of Desire (La Ley del Deseo)
Director: Pedro Almodóvar Spain, 1987 There’s much to like about the performances in Law of Desire. Eusebio Poncela plays a marvellously ambivalent, sexually ambiguous film director as his insouciance gives way to raw emotion while Carmen Maura takes well to her role as his gold-hearted, rough diamond sister. But the real turn here is delivered by Antonio Banderas [...] More about Law of Desire (La Ley del Deseo)
High Heels (Tacones Lejanos)
Director: Pedro Almodóvar Spain, 1991 The early 90s represent a busy, transitionary period for Almodóvar. And during that period, he takes on multiple muses having apparently fallen out with Carmen Maura. His two key players are Marisa Paredes and the delectable Victoria Abril, both of whom spring up here to lead this oddball of a movie. Abril is [...] More about High Heels (Tacones Lejanos)
