'I have watched director Alex Ranarivelo's film at least a dozen times and it always brings me to tears. It is one of the finest fighting films ever made. Not only does it look unflinchingly into the worlds of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and the early history of mixed martial arts fighting, it is also a bitter-sweet love story, almost a Greek tragedy'

When I get the chance, I like to take them […]

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?

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

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

The English critic Frank Howes once observed that Edward Elgar reflected 'the last blaze of opulence, expansiveness and full-blooded life before World War I swept so much away'. Director Paul Yule's Elgar’s Tenth Muse is an account of the composer's quest to reignite the fires of inspiration after his wife's death. Underpinned by his gorgeous music, it is a film to be watched many times

Asked to be a part of a documentary exploring their working relationship and its much-lauded fruits, celebrated biographer Robert Caro and his editor of 50 years, Robert Gottlieb, both initially said no, believing 'the work between a writer and an editor is too private for anyone else to see'. That each eventually relented is something to be celebrated, as the resulting film is a fascinating delight

The BBC six-part thriller focuses on the abuse and manipulation of cutting-edge deep-fake CCTV footage for personal and political ends. Yes, it's fiction, but only just. During the recent lockdowns, New South Wales and Victoria trialled facial recognition software to help enforce movement-restriction laws, while in Western Australia monitored almost 100,000 people to assure compliance with COVID edicts