Donald Clarkeand Michael Dwyerreview the latest releases
LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE
Directed by Jean Cocteau. Starring Josette Day, Jean Marais, Mila Parély, Nane Germon, Michel Auclair PG cert *****
Few DVD distributors produce packages as attractive and useful as those assembled by the British Film Institute. The organisation delivers yet another essential purchase with this digitally restored version of the first full-length feature by uncategorisable French polymath Jean Cocteau.
In an upcoming book on 1,000 notable films, David Thomson, the distinguished English critic, argues strongly for La Belle et la Bête, first released in 1946, to be considered as a film for children. That makes sense. After all, Disney eventually produced its own adaptation of this story of a young woman's relationship with a besotted ogre and, though notably less glossy than that animated version, Cocteau's film still displays its roots in a traditional fairy tale.
Still, there is something insidiously disconcerting about The Beast's hairy longings and Belle's eventual compliance. Maybe, we suspect, the hidden message has less to do with overcoming initial prejudice than with acknowledging certain deeply buried, unmentionable desires. At any rate, the disc comes with a reliably fascinating commentary by Sir Christopher Frayling and a fine essay by fellow writer Marina Warner.
TERROR'S ADVOCATE
Directed by Barbet Schroeder 15 cert ****
This gripping documentary following the peculiar career of Jacques Vergès, a French lawyer long associated with the hard left, who has defended such unlovely clients as Slobodan Miloseviç and Carlos the Jackal. Schroeder's skilfully edited film tells a complex story with admirable lucidity.
THE LAST MISTRESS/UNE VIEILLE MAÎTRESSE
Directed by Catherine Breillat. Starring Asia Argento, Roxane Mesquida, Fu'ad Ait Aattou, Claude Sarraute, Michel Londsale, Anne Parillaud 15 cert ***
In Breillat's first period picture, set in 19th-century Paris, a virtuous heiress (Mesquida) is about to marry a dissolute young man (Aattou) who's involved in an adulterous affair with a Spanish courtesan (Argento). The film takes on a contemporary relevance in its conjunction of sex, power and money.
THE BAND'S VISIT/BIKUR HA-TIZMORET
Directed by Eran Kolirin. Starring Ronit Elkabetz, Sasson Gabai, Uri Gavriel, Imad Jabarin, Ahuva Keren, Rubi Moskovitz 12 cert ***
An Egyptian police band gets lost on the way to a concert and ends up spending the night in a remote Israeli settlement. One can imagine worse things than a Middle- Eastern version of Local Hero. That's what Eran Kolirin has delivered here and, though the film is slight and a tad naive, it's never less than charming.
NIM'S ISLAND
Directed by Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett. Starring Jodie Foster, Abigail Breslin, Gerard Butler, Alphonso McAuley, Michael Carman PG cert **
This strange family movie finds Breslin living on a remote island in the Pacific with her naturalist father (Butler). When he gets lost at sea, Foster, an agoraphobic novelist, is forced to come to the rescue. The plot makes no sense and Jodie makes a hash of the physical comedy. Nice scenery, though.
AWAKE
Directed by Joby Harold. Starring Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba, Lena Olin 15 cert *
Hilariously useless thriller focusing on the rare - that is to say, made up - phenomenon that sees patients waking up under general anaesthetic. Christensen is the posh bloke who comes to while having a heart transplant. Hayden Christensen under heavy sedation? You can make up your own gag. DC
STILL LIFE/SANXIA HAOREN
Directed by Jia Zhang-ke PG cert **
Jia's film deals with the dislocation of poor people when a Sichuan village on the Yangtze is flooded for a dam project. The title is appropriate, given that nothing much ever happens in this ponderous, dramatically inert film. MD
IRINA PALM
Directed by Sam Garbarski. Starring Marianne Faithfull, Miki Manojlovic, Jenny Agutter 15 cert *
Stunningly misconceived drama, starring a comatose Faithful as a middle-class woman who begins offering manual relief in a Soho sex shop to help pay for her grandson's operation. This clumsy Europudding thinks itself dangerous, but it's really just Calendar Girls with added lubricant.
