DVD/Blu-ray: Sauvage

★★★★ DVD: SAUVAGE Raw authenticity & visceral performance give French debut indelible power

Raw authenticity and a visceral performance from Félix Maritaud give this French debut indelible power

Anyone who saw Félix Maritaud playing the angry activist Max in Robin Campillo’s Paris ACT UP drama 120 BPM will certainly remember him (main picture).

Franco Zeffirelli: 'I had this feeling that I was special'

FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI 1923-2019 Recalling a two-day audience at the home of the great maestro

Recalling a two-day audience at the home of the great maestro, who has died aged 96

"I am amazed to be still alive. Two hours of medieval torment.” Franco Zeffirelli - who has died at the age of 96 - had spent the day having a lumbar injection to treat a sciatic nerve. You could hear the bafflement in his heavily accented English.

Blu-ray: My Brilliant Career

Classic Australian coming-of-age drama revels in Victoriana with a twist of feminism

Revisiting Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career for the first time since I saw it in its year of release, 1979, is a mixed experience. I was close in age to its heroine and it was one of the first mainstream feature films I’d ever seen directed by a woman.

Blu-ray: Track 29

The Dennis Potter-Nicolas Roeg collaboration that tapped Gary Oldman's early genius

A chronic recycler, Dennis Potter fashioned five feature films from his earlier TV dramas and another from one of his novels. The best of them are 1985’s Dreamchild (from the BBC's Alice, 1965) and Track 29 (1987), which he adapted from the BBC's Schmoedipus (1974).

Too Late To Die Young review - an absorbing, Chilean coming-of-age

★★★ TOO LATE TO DIE YOUNG Beautifully crafted Chilean coming-of-age story

The idealism of a green community holds little allure for a teen on the brink of adulthood

Chilean Dominga Sotomayor’s third feature is a beautifully crafted example of the kind of Latin drama that is slow-burn and sensorial, conveying emotion through gestures and looks rather than dialogue or action. Nothing much seems to be happening, but before you know it you’ve been completed sucked in.  

Cannes 2019: Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood review - sun-soaked black comedy

★★★★★ CANNES 2019: ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD Sun-soaked black comedy

25 years after Pulp Fiction's Cannes premiere, Tarantino wrestles with one of Hollywood's most notorious moments

Moments before Quentin Tarantino’s blistering, outrageous work screened at Cannes, a message was delivered on behalf of the director, asking reviewers to avoid spoilers. It’s easy to see why. There’s a lot of pleasure in the film’s initial shock value, So yes, let’s avoid spoilers. But the surprises aren’t what make this film so good. Tarantino has form when it comes to handling ensemble pieces, but not since Pulp Fiction has it been so richly rendered.

Cannes 2019: Week One - a genre-heavy opening

The 72nd film festival showcases ghouls, the gig economy, and gun-wielding avengers

Every year the Cannes Film Festival is a swirl of chaos, excitement, and controversy. Last year, the festival had a markedly different feel. Gone were the big starry names. Replacing them were less glitzy films that were given a chance to shine.

DVD/Blu-ray: Maurice

★★★★★ DVD/BLU-RAY: MAURICE EM Forster adaptation hits home with new maturity

Merchant Ivory's celebrated EM Forster adaptation hits home with new maturity

“Publishable, but worth it?” EM Forster’s hesitations about the value of Maurice, his novel of Edwardian homosexuality – written in 1913-14, it was published only posthumously, in 1971 – were certainly redeemed by James Ivory’s 1987 film of the book.