The Lesson

I haven’t seen so many beavers on screen since Naked Attraction’s Christmas Special. As lessons go this was one of crushing predictability and supreme irrelevance. Alice Troughton’s debut feature didn’t miss a single pedestrian beat. Who can we get to play celebrity author Sinclair, irascibly failing to cope with waning literary powers? Richard E Grant…

A Haunting in Venice

As traditional Agatha Christie whodunnits go – this was a bit of a mess. The mix of conventional sleuthing with a super natural element felt awkward and forced. But it had me fooled. I was convinced that it was the parrot what done it. Mysteriously apples seemed to be everywhere. They cropped up so often,…

Klokkenliuder

Which apparently is Dutch for “whistleblower” and confused me because the film is set in Belgium. So if you liked In Bruges because of its darkness, absurdity and the charm of its cast, you’ll probably like Klokkenliuder too – just not quite as much. The humour is there but it lands only intermittently. The situation…

Passages

Thomas Freiburg (Franz Rogowski) is a snake. In case we don’t fully get it, costume designer Kadija Zeggai underlines this by kitting him out, in one scene, in a skin tight snakeskin jacket. Whether he’s the poisonous kind or one that just squeezes the life out of you is a moot point. It’s a terrific…

Maigret

Jules Amedee Francois Maigret has been delighting audiences for 73 years and coincidentally this version of him is played by Gerard Depardieu who also happens to be 73. We probably all have our own favourite Maigret. I go back to Rupert Davis in the 1960’s TV series (Currently screening on Talking Pictures) with his characteristic…