Pitfall (1962)

Recommended

Japan

Feature Film

Original Title: おとし穴

Director: Teshigahara Hiroshi

Writer: Abe Kōbō

Cinematographer: Segawa Hiroshi

Composers: Ichiyanagi Toshi, Takahashi Yuji, Takemitsu Tōru

Cast: Igawa Hisashi, Sasaki Sumie, Yano Sen, Kanze Hideo, Tanaka Kunie, Satō Kei, Miyahara Kazuo

A recently employed miner is murdered in a deserted town by a mysterious stranger, raising the conspiratorial suspicions of his doppelganger, a local miners’ union secretary, in Teshigahara’s impeccably crafted allegorical gem – his first collaboration with renowned author Abe – which proves to be an enticing mix of socio-political commentary, ghost story, and murder mystery. Iain.Stott

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Russian Ark (2002)

Cautiously Recommended

Russia/Germany/France/Japan/Canada/Finland/Denmark

Feature Film

Original Title: Русский ковчег

Director: Aleksandr Sokurov

Writers: Anatoli Nikiforov, Aleksandr Sokurov, Boris Khaimsky, Svetlana Proskurina

Cinematographer: Tilman Büttner

Composer: Sergei Yevtushenko

Cast: Sergei Dreiden, Aleksandr Sokurov

Composed of one continuous steadycam shot, Sokurov’s spectacular film guides us through 33 rooms of the Russian State Hermitage Museum, introducing us to key figures from 300 years of Russian history, letting us briefly peruse great works of art alongside a mysterious stranger, but whilst the logistics of all this are truly stunning the film itself is not reverent enough to inform, irreverent enough to entertain, or human enough to touch the emotions. Iain.Stott

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16 Blocks (2006)

Not Recommended

USA/Germany

Feature Film

Director: Richard Donner

Writer: Richard Wenk

Cinematographer: Glen MacPherson

Composer: Klaus Badelt

Cast: Bruce Willis, Mos Def, David Morse, Jenna Stern, Casey Sander, Cylk Cozart, David Zayas, Robert Racki

A middle-aged, world-weary New York detective with a drinking problem is asked to escort a prisoner to the court house where he is set to appear as a witness in a big case, which he subsequently learns – when the bullets start to fly – is against a fellow police officer; now he must decide whether to roll over, like he has in the past, or to make it through those 16 blocks and reach some sort of personal redemption, in Donner’s action packed and diverting if rather implausible and slightly sentimental thriller. Iain.Stott

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La Vie en Rose (2007)

Highly Recommended

France/UK/Czech Republic

Feature Film

Original Title: La môme

Director: Olivier Dahan

Writers: Olivier Dahan, Isabelle Sobelman

Cinematographer: Nagata Tetsuo

Composer: Christopher Gunning

Cast: Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean-Paul Rouve, Gérard Depardieu, Clotilde Courau, Jean-Pierre Martins, Manon Chevallier, Pauline Burlet

Olivier Dahan’s beautifully constructed and achingly sad biopic of the troubled French Songstress Édith Piaf – composed of exquisite photography, sumptuous production design, and a truly wonderful central performance from Cotillard – impressionistically details the singer’s life from her impoverished, sickly childhood living in her grandmother’s brothel, through her years of street performing and eventual fame, to her inexorable descent towards an early grave (though not necessarily in that order). Iain.Stott

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Songs from the Second Floor (2000)

Essential Viewing

Sweden/Denmark/Norway/France/Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Sånger från andra våningen

Writer/Director: Roy Andersson

Cinematographers: István Borbás, Jesper Klevenas, Robert Komarek

Composer: Benny Andersson

Cast: Lars Nordh, Stefan Larsson, Bengt C.W. Carlsson, Torbjörn Fahlström, Sten Andersson, Rolando Núñez, Lucio Vucina, Per Jörnelius, Peter Roth, Klas-Gösta Olsson, Nils-Åke Eriksson, Hanna Eriksson, Tommy Johansson, Sture Olsson, Fredrik Sjögren

Songs from the Second Floor, Andersson’s soul-stompingly cynical attack against capitalism and other modern ills, brilliantly presents us with a blackly comic vision of a drab, grey, decaying northern European city, whose deathly pale inhabitants wander the streets in search of something to sell (with a couple of added zeros), marching inexorably and inexplicably towards their own doom. Iain.Stott

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Cage Fighting Women (2009)

Recommended

UK

Short Documentary

Director/Cinematographer: Nick Holt

Composer: Joe Henson

Featuring: Lisa Higo, Rosi Sexton, John C. Higo, Karl Tanswell

Nick Holt’s fascinating, non-judgemental documentary follows the progress of two female mixed martial artists (Lisa Higo, a petite and pretty but decidedly brutal mother of two from Leeds, and Rosi Sexton, a Manchester based university graduate and more than proficient musician) over a period of several months in the build up to, course of, and aftermath of a number of fights. Iain.Stott

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Vacancy (2007)

Not Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Nimród Antal

Writer: Mark L. Smith

Cinematographer: Andrzej Sekula

Composer: Paul Haslinger

Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, Frank Whaley, Ethan Embry, Scott G. Anderson

A married couple, in the midst of a divorce and full of grief and guilt for the death of their child, breakdown on a quiet country road and are forced to spend the night in a small dilapidated motel, but when they find some rather disturbing videotapes in their room they soon realise that they are about to become stars of a new snuff film and frantically try to find a means of escape, in Antal’s gripping and well-made if slightly familiar and implausible horror film, most notable for its subverting of a few clichés. Iain.Stott

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