Gerard Depardieu had just reconciled with son Guillaume when they appeared together in this beautiful labour-of-love of a film about sorrow, loss and the melancholy of an artist summoning the presence of a beloved lost family member through the solace of work. How was Depardieu to know that soon this would also be his own fate?

You will find no coherent objective or connective philosophy in this collection of “essays” about Dylan’s favourite songs. It as if he chose cut-and-paste rambles from a pointy hat while blindfolded at Michel Foucault’s Halloween party. One critic called it 'a lazy, half-written dog’s dinner'. Personally, I’d be a lot kinder to my dog

Without Consent Hiding in shadow, huddled near the Saint, at […]

It is pretty clear why A.J Quinnell couldn’t recognise his book in the 1987 film. But I’m sure he was seduced, as were the rest of us, by director Tony Scott’s dramatic and action-packed direction of the 2004 remake, even though that one also diverged from the original story. The money Quinnell received from the film’s huge success wouldn’t have hurt

This remarkable, if slightly flawed, ticking-timebomb of movie by John Frankenheimer, one of Hollywood’s finest old-school directors and a pioneer of the modern-day political thriller, wasn't well received when released in 1977. At a distance of decades, and especially after the 9/11 massacres, its prescience in foreseeing a painstakingly orchestrated terror attack on American soil is, like the film itself, much easier to appreciate

In the world of competitive chess, the rising strength of computerised programs with almost infinite memory capacity is changing the perception of the game. As detailed in a number of fine and fascinating films, documentaries and series, the hard-won title of Sommelier isn't likely to be snatched away, not now or ever, by some silicon-crusted cyber tasting tongue

From The Cavafy Villanelles Fifty-nine Retired Fifty-nine retired he hated […]

The jaw-dropping demand that I needed permission to sing my own song in an indigenous dialect saw me sorely tempted to announce 'I apologise for performing on Latje Latje and Yerre Yerre land and would now like to acknowledge the traditional owners of Mildura ... the dinosaurs of 40 million years ago'. Only good manners stayed my tongue

The story begins in 1941 in the Egyptian desert, where David Stirling is beside himself with frustration that efforts to relieve Tobruk are coming to nought. He proposes an elite group of well-trained malcontents to attack from the desert interior and destroy Rommel’s airfields and supply convoys. All of that is true, as is most of the very well done six-part series Stirling & Co inspired