Film Reviews by RhysH

From the opening sequence of Gonzalo (Matias Quer) meticulously dressing for school in his pristine uniform to the first sight of the shanty-town kid, Pedro (Ariel Mateluna) with the hole in his jumper that he wears throughout the film, it is obvious that although the two worlds represented by these children will collide in friendship their relationship will not last, such is the huge gap in their social standing.

Set against the background of the Pinochet military coup of 1973 the friendship between the boys is a poignant reminder that there is only one winner in such conflicts, those who already have wealth and power.

Excellent performances from Matias Quer and Ariel Mateluna, they can only stare with wide-eyed knowing innocence as the horrific events unfold. Silvana (another excellent performance from Manuela Martelli) a little older and streetwise shows them the realities of life and introduces them to the delights of kissing with condensed milk lips.

Despite the awfulness of the situation it is a charming film and not without humour.

It is widely reported that Henri-Georges Clouzot (director) beat Hitchcock to the rights of the novel "Celle qui n'etait plus" by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. The rights were in good hands, Clouzot racks up the tension in a cleverly understated way.

Paul Meurisse as the autocratic headteacher of a rather rundown Paris school shows evil in every breath. He abuses his wife Christina, played by Vera Clouzot, she is the rabbit caught in the headlights, a nervously sustained performance. Simone Signoret plays Nicole another teacher at the school openly having an affair with the head. A steady, confident performance. How either of them stuck with this thoroughly nasty man is an enigma but then there would be no plot and no scary ending.

The two female leads look as if they belong in different movies; rather, different centuries, their clothes, hairstyles, voices and even mannerisms.

A stylish film and Hitchcock turned his attention to Psycho.

Shot in black and white or rather grey and grey. It is not just the choice of filmic colour that transmits the cold, the whole tenor of the film exudes the bleak Polish winter. A strange choice of framing from Pawlikowski in which, many times, faces are seen right at the bottom edge of a shot. Strange but it does allow the eye to wander and take in the whole setting, rather like walking down the street and looking at the tops of buildings.

Ida played by Agata Trezbuchowska is a beautifully nuanced performance and the alcoholic aunt is tremendously played by Agata Kulesza.

Directed by Martha Fiennes with music by Magnus Fiennes the eponymous hero played by Ralph Fiennes and others of the extended family in the cast. Based on the Pushkin verse novel it is beautifully shot, not an image out of place.

Ralph Fiennes plays Onegin with languid insouciance and Liv Tyler plays on her Pre-Raphaelite beauty with hardly a twitch of facial muscle. In the final scene between the two, although again visually stunning, Fiennes is very creepy, more stalker than would be lover.

Two excellent cameos, first from Alun Armstrong as Zavetsky, a central figure leading up to the duel, played with venom. Was there more of this character left on the cutting room floor? Then Simon McBurney as the foppish aristo who believes French is the only language for the cultural elite.

A visual feast.

Food and shelter are the prerequisites for a decent life but if the shelter is substandard housing and the food comes from a food bank there is nothing decent about the life. Once more Ken Loach tells it like it is, no punches pulled. Daniel Blake collides head on with the Kafkaesque bureaucracy that stalls his every effort towards dignity. Despite the dreadful plight he is in, Dave Jones plays Blake with a lightness of touch although you are very aware of the seething anger just below the surface.

A great street cameo from Malcolm Shields.

Not so much a film noir as a road movie with fights. Some great dialogue between Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer in which her character (Jan) is given as many cutting lines as his (Duke). She also handles a car at speed as well as him, much to Duke's male chagrin.

William Bendix gives some great Bendix scowls that just stay clear of the comic.

The Mexican setting is good to look at but the Mexican characters are rather stereotyped. If you are an American detective all you have to do is shout at everybody and they are bound to understand!

This starts out with an amazing pedigree, directed by Jean Renoir with a score by Hans Eisler. It is, however, the Eisler score that dominates,every kiss is underscored by climactic orchestration. The performances by Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan and Charles Bickford are excellent if somewhat weakened by a nebulous script.

The opening credits give the impression that this is going to be the worst sort of French sit-com, a soap opera sans excellence. The first few scenes seem to confirm this and then despite the superficial levity a depth begins to emerge. It becomes a truthful look at the tribulations of family life. There remains some humorous, almost silly, episodes but the underlying angst remains. It is a charming film with excellent performances from the whole cast.

A beautifully restrained, enigmatic film. There are no dramatic moments no intense emotions just a steady trickle of thought and reflection. Beautifully shot, light, shade, reserved colour. Some lovely moments between mother and daughter and father and daughter, in particular at the celebration of the daughter's first communion.

I cannot remember a film in which the opening credits received such a gloriously over the top score. It sets the mood for the film you are about to see and yet during the most dramatic scene, the thirty minute burglary, there is no background score and indeed any dialogue.

The performances are excellent, in particular Jean Servais the ex-con with the tortured deadpan face.

There is violence aplenty but not in the graphic way of modern films. The deaths are made more poignant without the gory details

Francoise Sagan's novel was described as scandalous but this 1958 film version directed by Otto Preminger takes the edge off the scandal and ends up as something rather shallow. Tired dialogue and clichéd performances.

David Niven plays David Niven and Jean Seberg looks lovely.

How did Plein Soleil become Purple Noon? I like the Minghella film of the Highsmith's 1955 novel and this one directed by René Clément is also pretty true to the mood of the story just coming at it from a slightly different angle.

Alain Delon plays Tom Ripley with just the right amount of restrained menace, he looks great.

Lots of close-ups of eyes, everybody watching everybody else, in particular the lovely green eyes of Marie Laforêt.

A rather clichéd plot with clichéd characters. The American sailors on the town, the French "hostesses" with hearts of gold, the hapless drifter unlucky in love and work, the errant father returning with cigar and open top car.

It is worth watching for Anouk Aimée, a delightful performance. She has a mobile face which she uses to great effect.

A film that documents what Parisians are very good at, talking about themselves. A cross section of Paris society from factory workers to African students. It has all the ingredients for a "watching paint dry" movie but is strangely engaging. There is, of course, no plot but one becomes involved with the characters and in their development as the film progresses.

A defining moment is when the two young black students are asked about the tattooed number on Marceline's (one of the interviewers) arm and then follows her reflections on her family and her father's death in Auschwitz. This filmed as she walks through the Place de la Concorde is the apogee of cinema vérité.

The plot has a charming ingenuity but its execution is somewhat stultified and inconsistent. Although it centres on revenge murders it really is not "noir" enough. Cinema Paradiso place it in the Romantic Dramas genre so maybe I am missing the point of the style of the film. It does have an amusing air but wears it very thinly.

Jeanne Moreau is very watchable as Julie Kohler the killer, she plays out each murder with an air of studied insouciance.