Cronos

This is a tale of an ancient precison instrument that inexorably tick-tocks its way into the soul of its owner. Del Torro's film is pieced together like clockwork using imagery familiar to those who have seen Hellraiser.

The story telling machinery is constructed with two key elements: Firstly, witholding information to create suspense and secondly, keeping family life and routine intact in order to suspend our disbelief in the supernatural. In the final scenes, however, the incongruous actions of the main character occur outside this framework. The viewer is left puzzled and bemused. It would have been preferable if, as in Nosferatu, our leading man rode out into the night leaving his ex-framework actions to the imagination.

Watch now if you are not squeamish. When the plot no longer seems to make any sense there is no need to carry on watching. 3 Stars.

Fitzcarraldo

Get our of bed, sail 600 miles down the Amazon, go to the opera, sail back, go to bed, wake up the following morning, buy a vast area of virgin jungle in Peru that can only be reached by taking a steam ship over a mountain, then take said ship over mountain and sail back to pay your creditors. Sometimes life can be hectic, but Fitzcarraldo manages to do all that at a hypnotizing, relaxing pace.

Make sure that you leave enough time to watch the whole film as it is (satisfyingly) long. Get it now.

PS It was all filmed with a real steam ship during a war between Peru and Ecuador!

Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht

Claus Kinski (the Count of Dracula) will repulse you in this cold tale of blood sucking, festering bubonic rats and shadows. The feverish Isabelle Adjani (Mrs Lucy Harker) will wake in terror sweats as you follow Bruno Ganz (Mr Jonathan Harker) in his hopeless journey towards sadness.

As with Fitzcaraldo, the mood and pace are that of a broken dream but this film quickly loses its optimism; there are no plucky new world pioneers, instead each character dances with death. You may need something to cheer you up afterwards. Watch this film when you have the chance. 4 Stars.

The Thin Blue Line

The Thin Blue Line by today's standards is a rather ordinary documentary about a miscarriage of justice in Texas. Contrary to many reviews which argue that the film uses suspense to great effect, in fact it makes everything all too clear in the opening half hour of the film. It is a film which has lost its hard hitting impact over time and, judging by the boorish laughs in NFT theatre 4, now only serves to encourage those who fetishize an assumption that Americans are stupid and that Texans are even worse.

The film is certainly worth a watch on television, after all it is an important early example of the crime genre - one of the first to use drama in order to add emotion to the often dry personal testimony of those interviewed. It is not worth a trip to your local arthouse cinema but you may wish to give it half an hour of your time if it crops up on TV. 3 Stars.