Water Lilies (2007)

Cautiously Recommended

France
Feature Film
Original Title: Naissance des pieuvres
Writer/Director: Céline Sciamma
Cinematographer: Crystel Fournier
Composer: Para One
Cast: Pauline Acquart, Adele Haenel, Louise Blachère, Warren Jacquin

Although it pales in comparison to Lukas Moodysson’s similarly plotted Show Me Love (1998), and Sciamma’s talents seem to lay behind the camera rather than the typewriter, and some of the performances are a little uneven (although Acquart is fantastic), this tale of adolescent longing and sexual exploration, set amongst a group of synchronised swimmers, is, never the less, affecting. Iain.Stott

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The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)

Not Recommended

UK/USA/Canada
Feature Film
Director: Tony Richardson
Writers: Tony Richardson, John Irving
Cinematographer: David Watkin
Cast: Rob Lowe, Jodie Foster, Paul McCrane, Beau Bridges, Lisa Banes, Jennie Dundas, Seth Green, Wally Aspell, Nastassja Kinski, Joely Richardson, Wallace Shawn, Matthew Modine, Wilford Brimley, Cali Timmins, Dorsey Wright

Richardson’s brave/foolish adaptation of Irving’s meandering novel – a sprawling, idiosyncratic examination of an unconventional family’s various dalliances with hoteliery, in which gang rape, incest, and suicide, amongst other unpleasant things, are presented for comic effect – is a maddeningly self-indulgent and only occasionally mildly entertaining film. Iain.Stott

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Compulsion (2009)

Best Avoided

UK
Television Film
Director: Sarah Harding
Writers: Joshua St Johnston, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley
Composer: Jennie Muskett
Cast: Parminder Nagra, Ray Winstone, Ben Aldridge, James Floyd, Sargon Yelda, Bhasker Patel, Veena Sood, Emma Campbell-Webster

Nagra’s recent Cambridge graduate begins a torrid affair with her father’s odious chauffeur (Winstone), progressing from revulsion to compulsion and conspiracy to murder, in this rather disagreeable tale about unpleasant people doing unpleasant things unpleasantly, and, if that isn‘t enough, it is also really rather silly. Iain.Stott

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Endgame (2009)

Recommended

UK/USA

Television Film
Director: Pete Travis
Writer: Paula Milne
Cinematographer: David Odd
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, William Hurt, Jonny Lee Miller, Clarke Peters, Derek Jacobi, Mark Strong, Grant Swanby, Lihle Bangani, Mike Huff, Timothy West

Despite the incongruous visual style (all crash zooms, whip pans, and awkward cuts), this uncompromising drama - chronicling the secret UK based talks between representatives of the ANC and the South African Government that helped to lead to the abolition of Apartheid - is compelling viewing, and (and I don’t think I’m spoiling anything here) has perhaps the happiest of all endings. Iain.Stott

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The Gold Rush (1942)

Not Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director/Composer: Charles Chaplin
Cinematographer: Roland Totheroh
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Georgia Hale, Henry Bergman, Malcolm Waite

This 1942 re-release, complete with horribly literal and rather camp narration from Chaplin himself, is something of a disaster, and should really be avoided if at all possible, but is still a mildly entertaining experience, as there are some wonderful sequences that just about survive the pointless voice-over. Iain.Stott

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Alien (1979)

Recommended

UK/USA
Feature Film
Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett
Cinematographer: Derek Vanlint
Composer: Jerry Goldsmith
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto

With its elegant camera work, unhurried pacing, convincing effects, sumptuous sets, and impressive performances, this painfully suspenseful science-fiction/horror film, a tale of a killer alien let loose aboard a cargo ship in deep space, is something of a genre classic. Iain.Stott

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Amelie (2001)

Recommended

France/Germany
Feature Film

Original Title: Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Writers: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Guillaume Laurant
Cinematographer: Bruno Delbonnel
Composer: Yann Tiersen
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Lorella Cravotta, Serge Merlin, Jamel Debbouze, Clotilde Mollet, Claire Maurier, Isabelle Nanty, Dominique Pinon

Should you be in the right frame of mind, this whimsical, child’s-eye view of Parisian life, in which Tautou’s adorable ingénue acts as karmic angel to those around her, is likely to seem every bit as delightful and life-affirming as a lover’s kiss, but should you be in a more cynical mood, Jeunet’s distinctive work is more likely to prove interminable. Iain.Stott

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