My Cultural Life - London

‘You, the Living’ is not so much a comedy as a ‘glumedy,’ that is a film which primarily sets out to be funny but invests its laughs with a pervading sense of doom and gloom. The film, written and directed by Roy Andersson, is from Sweden and has a very Scandinavian sensibility about it. Whether it is down to the long nights or the high price of alcohol, Scandinavia tends to be especially good at making light of misery.

'The Edge of Heaven' begins among the Turkish community in Bremen, Germany, before following its characters as they journey to Turkey itself. This is familiar territory for the director Fatih Akin as he is German born to Turkish parentage. He clearly admires the landscape of Turkey which comes across as beautiful and enticing when it appears on film but he is not blind to the country's far from perfect record on human rights. This awareness imbues an engrossing film with an extra gritty edge.

Larger-than-life stories of the great and the good, the famous and the infamous have long provided cinema with a rich vein of source material. Sometimes, though, it is the small people of the world, those lost and lonely souls, who provide the best narratives.

London through the Lens: Withnail & I

The first in a series on films with London at their heart, by Alan Diment

On its initial release more than twenty years ago, ‘Withnail and I’ was considered something of a commercial flop. Hard to believe now considering the adoring fans that have since gathered in its wake.

This tale of two unemployed actors living in a squalid flat in Sixties Camden has gone from being coolly received to being regarded as super-cool. Each new generation takes the film to their hearts with many a student able to quote large chunks of its dialogue verbatim whilst taking part in a liver hammering drinking game created in its honour.

What can explain this enduring popularity? Firstly, the film is damn funny and becomes more amusing with each new viewing. It also captures perfectly a feeling of despair that strikes a chord with many viewers. The London scenes which bookend the admittedly slim plot show an aspect of city life that is still rarely portrayed in popular culture - that of abject failure...

Saverio Constanzo's atmospheric second feature explores one man's relationship with his God and the very nature of spirituality and faith in Italy.

Catherine Breillat's film of the decadence and manipulative social game-play of 19th century France is like gorging oneself on an expensive box of chocolates, finds Alan Diment.

‘Grace is Gone’ is one of a number of films centred around the war in Iraq which will be arriving on British cinema screens in the next few months.

‘Saturno Contro’ centres on a group of affluent and attractive friends living in Rome who meet up for regular dinner parties, go on holiday together and freely interfere in one another’s private lives. They gravitate around each other like the planets in an orrery with the sun at the centre being David, a successful writer of fairy tales.

'The Assassination of Jesse James...' is the latest movie attempting to explore the truth behind a legend. It is a lengthy and noble attempt to tell the story of the death of a man who has been celebrated in print and song for well over a century and who first appeared as a movie subject in 1921.

The film follows the Apollo programme from its early disasters, including the deaths of four of the astronauts in a launch-pad fire, to the triumphant first lunar landing as watched by a worldwide television audience of nearly 700 million people.