Radio Times Five Star Film Guide selection [LG23]

A SMALL SELECT ON OF OUIR

FABULOU FIVE-STA S REVIEWSR

A BOY’S LIFE

Ellar Coltrane grows up on camera

DRAMA

Boyhood

2014 j

DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater STARRING: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke The coming of age of a boy called Mason, whose personal journey is linked to milestones in America’s history.

As his Before trilogy perfectly illustrated, Richard Linklater is a film-maker obsessed with time — both its passing and the difficulty of ever truly capturing it on film. With the extraordinary Boyhood, the story of a young American every-boy (Ellar Coltrane), shot at intervals over 12 years with the same cast, the director comes closer than ever to achieving the impossible.

Tracking Coltrane up to the age of 18, the film is told not through births, marriages and deaths but the moments in between, casually punctuated by cultural milestones like midnight Harry Potter book launches and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Elevated by fantastic performances all round — especially from Patricia Arquette as the boy’s quietly heroic single mother — and told with Linklater’s trademark generosity and lightness of touch, Boyhood is an epic of the everyday, as uplifting as it is universal. SOPHIE IVAN DID YOU KNOW? After three years of filming, Linklater’s daughter Lorelei got bored and asked him to kill off her character — he refused.

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS Everyday (2012)

PARTY QUEEN

Audrey Hepburn holds court as Holly Golightly

ROMANTIC DRAMA

Breakfast at Tiffany’s DIRECTOR: Blake Edwards STARRING: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Mickey Rooney A young writer finds himself falling for his new neighbour, the volatile and extravagant Holly Golightly. But her ambition is to marry a millionaire.

Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly has passed into cinematic folklore. Director Blake Edwards’s hymn to New York high style and high living, with its charming heroine and those wonderful Johnny Mercer Moon River lyrics, has hardly dated since its release.

Originally a creation of writer Truman Capote, Holly, as written for the screen by George Axelrod and portrayed by Hepburn, is quite

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enchanting, even though period censorship makes it rather unclear what she does for a living. Despite the presence of handsome George Peppard and Patricia Neal, this is Hepburn’s movie, her black dress and long cigarette holder ready to start a fashion revolution. Only Mickey Rooney’s excruciating caricature of a Japanese gent seems out of kilter in what is otherwise a thoroughly entertaining movie. TONY SLOMAN DID YOU KNOW? One of three black Givenchy dresses worn by Audrey Hepburn in the movie was sold at Christie’s in 2006 for £467,200.

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS Roman Holiday (1953)

COMEDY

Bridesmaids DIRECTOR: Paul Feig STARRING: Kristen Wiig, Rose Byrne, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd When Lillian announces her engagement, she asks her lifelong pal Annie to be her maid of honour. However, Annie’s life is in a mess, and she soon finds herself losing control over the bachelorette party.

Boasting an incredible ensemble cast, this is a heady, hilarious romp through female tribal-bridal culture. Loser singleton Kristen Wiig is asked by lifelong pal Maya Rudolph to be maid of honour at her upcoming wedding. But their friendship is torn asunder by Rudolph’s new friend, icky perfectionist Rose Byrne, who undermines and

BRIDAL SHOWER

Planning the perfect wedding becomes a game of oneupmanship for Kristen Wiig and Rose Byrne (pictured either side of bride Maya Rudolph)

2011 j upstages Wiig at every turn.

The script (co-written by Wiig) and direction (from Paul Feig) are brilliant, and the film is produced by gross-out genius Judd Apatow.

Bridesmaids is spiked with outrageous scenes that show off Wiig’s lightning-quick comedy timing, while credit should also go to Chris O’Dowd as her love interest and Melissa McCarthy as the awkward but lovable oddball in the party. KAREN KRIZANOVICH DID YOU KNOW? After appearing in the movie as housemates, Matt Lucas and Rebel Wilson decided to live together for real in a house in LA. IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021)

MAKING HEADLINES

Orson Welles plays a press baron with political ambitions

SATIRICAL DRAMA

Citizen Kane DIRECTOR: Orson Welles STARRING: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead A reporter investigates the life of newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane, and hears five differing accounts of the man, his work and his marriages.

Revered by critics and film-makers alike, Citizen Kane was a remarkable feature

1941 y debut for the 25-year-old Orson Welles. His experience up to that point lay in theatre and radio (most of the actors in Kane were colleagues from his Mercury Theatre company), and he claimed that his sole preparation was to watch John Ford’s Stagecoach 40 times. In fact, Welles considered a movie studio (his contract at the time was with RKO) to be the biggest train set a boy ever had.

Unhindered by preconceptions,

he proceeded to experiment with sound, camera angles and movement, and deep focus, in a way few had even conceived of. Aided by cinematographer Gregg Toland, Welles brings visual drama to every shot, brilliantly disguising the picture’s shoestring budget.

In addition, he turns in a magnificent performance as Charles Foster Kane, the press baron whose torrid life was so similar to that of real-life

newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst that the latter broke the film at the box office through negative publicity.

DAVID PARKINSON

DID YOU KNOW? To make the opening newsreel look grainy, editor Robert Wise dragged the footage across the floor and rubbed it with a sand-filled cloth.

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS Mank (2020)

PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

The Conversation DIRECTOR: Francis Ford Coppola STARRING: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford Lonely private eye Harry Caul becomes obsessed with the mystery of a young couple he has been asked to surveil, and grows increasingly embroiled in their plight.

In this low-key masterpiece from director Francis Ford Coppola, Gene Hackman gives a superb performance as the lonely surveillance expert tracking the movements and voices of Frederic Forrest and Cindy Williams, only

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to find that the marital infidelity he supposes he is observing could be part of a murder plot.

Coppola tweaks the idea to surreal effect, while editor Walter Murch orchestrates the eavesdropping to produce a uniquely baffling wall of sound. Made two years after Coppola’s The Godfather, this haunting thriller skilfully taps into post-Watergate paranoia, resulting in an intensely fascinating study of a perpetrator turned victim of the surveillance society. TOM HUTCHINSON

LISTENING IN

Gene Hackman and the tools of his trade

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS Blow Out (1981)

LADY OF THE BLADE

Michelle Yeoh pursues a stolen sword

MARTIAL ARTS

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

2000 h

DIRECTOR: Ang Lee STARRING: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen, Cheng Pei Pei Master swordsman Li Mu Bai entrusts the care of his sword Green Destiny to a friend, but when it is stolen by Jen, a young aristocrat, Li and fellow warrior Yu Shu Lien give chase.

After success in his native Taiwan (with Eat Drink Man Woman) and Hollywood (Sense and Sensibility — see p141), director Ang Lee had a worldwide hit with this poetic, romantic martial arts adventure that turned the “wire-fu” action of Hong Kong action movies into a gravitydefying ballet. Three women — warrior Yu Shu Lien (played

by Michelle Yeoh), thieving noblewoman Jen (Zhang Ziyi) and bandit Jade Fox (Cheng Pei Pei) — fight over a weapon, the Sword of Green Destiny, that master swordsman Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) has relinquished to the safekeeping of a friend. The action plays out in a succession of increasingly ravishing set pieces, from moonlit rooftops to the whispering fronds of a bamboo forest. As Yu and Li battle together to regain the sword, they allow their unspoken love for each other to grow, while headstrong Jen’s romance with an outlaw in the mountainous desert makes an equally passionate statement. Lee surrounds himself with top technical talent, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma and The Matrix action choreographer Yuen Wo-Ping. The movie broke box-office records in America, becoming one of a select group of foreign films to win four Oscars, and remains a feast for the eyes and the soul. TOM FOLLEY DID YOU KNOW? Zhang Ziyi came on board after Qi Shu left the production to make a soft drink advert — she sacked her agent soon afterwards.

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS A Touch of Zen (1969)

GOING LOCO

Buster Keaton is in hot pursuit of the two loves of his life

SILENT COMEDY

The General 1927 y

REALITY TREK

Actors on a sci-fi TV show embark on a real space voyage

SCI-FI SPOOF

Galaxy Quest

1999 g

DIRECTOR: Dean Parisot STARRING: Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell The cast of a cancelled TV sci-fi series encounters a strange group of fans at a convention who turn out to be real-life aliens in dire need of help.

In this enormously entertaining send-up of the Star Trek universe, a bunch of actors from a cult sci-fi TV show are mistaken for the real thing and recruited to defend a dying alien race. It’s an inspired premise, fired into orbit by a fantastic script, sublime visual effects and an absolutely perfect cast, including Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman, who’s hysterical as a grumpy British actor who hates his half-reptilian character, Dr Lazarus. The story is so cleverly executed and the characters so beautifully fleshed-out that it not only succeeds as a Trek spoof, a satire on the acting profession and a parody of science-fiction fans, but also as an engaging, original space saga in its own right.

DIRECTORS: Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman STARRING: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Charles Smith, Frank Barnes, Glen Cavender At the onset of the American Civil War, a humble railroad engineer tries to enlist but is rejected. His sweetheart, however, won’t see him until he becomes a soldier.

As well as being Buster Keaton’s greatest movie, some would argue this is the finest silent screen comedy ever made. Stone-faced engineer Johnnie Gray (Keaton) loves his vast steam locomotive “The

ACTION EPIC

Gladiator 2000 j

General” almost as much as his girlfriend Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack). When he is rejected by the Confederate Army, Mack brands him a coward and breaks off the engagement. Later, he risks all to pursue the train with her on board when it’s stolen

by Yankee spies. The humour ranges from the gentle to the exhilarating, while the drama of the railroad chase has a visual beauty that puts this comedy into the category of true classic.

Keaton’s genius lay not just in the nuts and bolts of invention, but in the creation of an endearing character.

DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott STARRING: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed

monstrous son, Commodus.

The fictional hero, General Maximus, is Caesar’s adopted heir, whom Commodus turns into an exile after killing his family. Becoming a gladiator, Maximus fights to avenge his loved ones and save the soul of Rome. The film’s strengths are a fine script, which doesn’t stint on the politics, and excellent performances from Richard Harris as Aurelius and Oliver Reed, in his final film, as a gladiator trainer. Also superb is Joaquin Phoenix as the paranoid Commodus, while Russell Crowe utterly convinces as the Spartacus-like hero.

As always with Scott, the visuals are fabulous: the CGI vision of ancient Rome is simply staggering, with the Colosseum a living, breathing character in its own right. For those old enough to remember the 70mm epics of yesteryear, this is a nostalgic synthesis of all of them. For those who haven’t seen those earlier movies, Scott will open their eyes to a “brand new” old world. ADRIAN TURNER

Dying Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius chooses his beloved general Maximus Decimus Meridius as his successor, prompting a bitter power struggle with Aurelius’s son, Commodus.

Ridley Scott revived the sword-and-sandal genre for the new millennium with this virtual remake of 1964’s The Fall of the Roman Empire, which deals with the transition of power from the sage-like Marcus Aurelius to his

JASON CARO

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ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

Russell Crowe puts on a great show

TOM HUTCHINSON

DID YOU KNOW? The steam engine The Texas plunging off a collapsing bridge was the most expensive single shot filmed during the silent era.

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS Our Hospitality (1923)

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

GANGSTER DRAMA

The Godfather

1972 j

DIRECTOR: Francis Ford Coppola STARRING: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall Following the Second World War, an attempt on the life of Don Vito Corleone sparks a war between the “Five Families” that rule New York’s criminal underworld.

HE’S THE DON

Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) commands respect

This elegiac organised-crime saga from the young Francis Ford Coppola is one of the all-time high-water marks of American cinema, rich with subtle acting and blessed with stunning cinematography from Gordon Willis. It proves that an intelligent, sometimes slow-moving drama with impeccable artistic credentials can become a mainstream hit.

Taken with its 1974 sequel, it manages to define the age in which it was made, while remaining a period piece. Beginning in 1945, it traces the handover of power within the Corleone family, from the old world values of Don Vito (a heavily disguised but stately Marlon Brando) to his son, the “white sheep” Michael (Al Pacino, proving that his risky casting was inspired). The Mafia is never mentioned by name, but underneath all the slayings and sinister “offers you can’t refuse” this is an immigrant family drama about assimilation, blood loyalty and honour.

ANDREW COLLINS

DID YOU KNOW? The name of the traditional flat cap worn by Michael Corleone’s bodyguards in Sicily is the “coppola”.

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS The Godfather Part II (1974)

SCI-FI ACTION THRILLER

The Matrix

1999 j

DIRECTORS: The Wachowskis STARRING: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving When computer hacker Neo is sought out by a notorious subversive, he learns that the world is not as it seems, and that he must join the fight to free humanity from the all-powerful Matrix.

Keanu Reeves reaffirmed his action-hero status with this super-smart sci-fi adventure set across two dimensions. Thematically complex, yet intelligently integrating eastern philosophy, Lewis Carroll and ancient mysticism, The Matrix casts Reeves as Neo, a reclusive computer hacker who may be able to save the world from the evils of cyberspace slavery. Taking a quantum leap beyond anything the fantasy sensation-seeker had seen before in the special-effects department, the Wachowskis mix cool visuals, vertigo-inducing kung fu and a deliciously paranoid scenario for an adrenaline-pumping rollercoaster ride of extraordinary vision and astounding power. The result is a genre milestone that spawned three sequels and pushed the boundaries of imagination and digital-effects technology further than ever before. ALAN JONES IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS The Matrix Reloaded (2002)

FIGHT OR FLIGHT?

Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) face off

ROMANTIC FANTASY

A Matter of Life and Death DIRECTORS: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger STARRING: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Robert Coote, Marius Goring With his plane ablaze, Squadron Leader Peter Carter holds a last radio conversation with June, an American servicewoman, before baling out. Amazingly, he survives, and later meets June and falls in love. But, in heaven, a mistake is discovered.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s dazzling movie opens with servicewoman Kim Hunter picking up RAF pilot David Niven’s mayday call as his plane is going down. Niven miraculously survives, and he and Hunter fall in love.

However, Niven is then told he was meant to die and must defend himself in heaven.

Although the film was intended to celebrate the Anglo-American alliance that had prevailed in the Second

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World War, it delivered a barbed allegory that called into question the strength of the ties between the Allies and Britain’s status as a world power. Its visual audacity (the scenes on Earth are in colour, and those in heaven are in black and white), political outspokenness and mannered playing now make it one of the most fondly recalled British movies. DAVID PARKINSON IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS Orphée (1950)

SISTER ACT

Margaret O’Brien and Judy Garland put on a show

MUSICAL

Meet Me in St Louis

1944 y

DIRECTOR: Vincente Minnelli STARRING: Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer The adventures and romantic entanglements of the Smith family in early 20th-century Mississippi.

This portrayal of a perfect American family — including Mary Astor as the mom and Judy Garland as one of four daughters — was too sugary for some critical tastes

PETER FREEDMAN

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS The Clock (1945)

TATTOO CLUES

THRILLER

Memento

on its release, but it can be viewed today as a vintage MGM musical.

Whatever the film’s minor flaws, they are more than made up for by some dazzling musical numbers — including Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, The Trolley Song and Skip to My Lou — enhanced by the masterly direction of Vincente Minnelli at the top of his game. Providing a romanticised but still uplifting depiction of life in St Louis at the beginning of the 20th century, this may be a tale that only works against the backdrop of a more innocent age, but it’s still delightful.

2000 j

Guy Pearce inks himself to remember

DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan STARRING: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano

BETWEEN WORLDS

David Niven and Kim Hunter

Leonard Shelby is determined to avenge the rape and murder of his wife. Hampered by short-term memory loss, he details his investigation using copious notes, Polaroid photographs and tattoos.

This dazzling, highly original film starts with a murder, then moves backwards through the events that led up to it. Matters are complicated by the fact that the protagonist of the story (Guy Pearce) suffers from a rare form of amnesia, leaving him with no short-term memory. The mystery requires a lot of concentration, but the stunning final scene is ample reward.

Not just an indulgence, the ingenious structure makes the point that memory, although unreliable, is what we depend upon for our sense of reality. The film announced a brilliantly

individual talent in Christopher Nolan, who would further play with the concept of time in his subsequent films Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk and Tenet. DAVID MCGILLIVRAY DID YOU KNOW? Christopher Nolan’s idea for the quirky hotel Guy Pearce stays in was for it to feel as though designed by MC Escher.

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS Angel Heart (1987)

DESTROYER OF WORLDS

Cillian Murphy plays the father of the atom bomb

BIOPIC

Oppenheimer

2023 j

DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan STARRING: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett During the Second World War, American physicist J Robert Oppenheimer and fellow scientists race against time to develop an atomic bomb before the Nazis.

But, during the 1950s Red Scare, his name is dragged through the mud by US officials.

The physicist who oversaw America’s race to develop nuclear weaponry is the beating heart of director Christopher Nolan’s spectacular depiction of world-changing history. Cillian Murphy gives a stunning performance as J Robert Oppenheimer, dubbed “the father of the atomic bomb”, and he’s supported by an awesome array of talent, including Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh (as the women in his life), Robert Downey Jr and Matt Damon. The three-hour running time and scientific jargon demand patience, but Nolan’s marriage of visuals and sound design is often dazzling, not least during the tension-filled detonation of the prototype device. Oppenheimer’s postwar battle with authorities over his politics also features, and the fusion of these intersecting narratives delivers a dramatically explosive climax. But it’s Murphy’s haunting turn, often conveyed in unsparing close-up, that anchors this beautifully cinematic epic. JEREMY ASPINALL DID YOU KNOW? In an effort to place his actors inside the mind of Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan took the unusual step of writing the script in the first person.

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NO WAY OUT

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) finds himself in another tight spot

PERIOD ADVENTURE

Raiders of the Lost Ark DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg STARRING: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Denholm Elliott Indiana Jones travels the world and teams up with an old flame in an effort to recover the legendary Ark of the Covenant before it falls into the hands of the Nazis.

Executive producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg minted fresh excitement from the cliffhanger serials of their youth in this breathless extravaganza.

1981 g

Hold on tight, because it starts at full throttle and never lets up, as intrepid archaeologist Indiana Jones (a part that fits Harrison Ford like a glove) searches for the fabled Ark of the Covenant and finds himself up to his neck in booby-trapped caves, snake chambers, Nazi spies and even a spot of romance. The brilliantly evocative 1930s-set saga treats all the old clichés as if they’ve just been newly minted, and adds dazzling special effects to craft a wonderful yarn that rattles along with wit, invention and the raw spirit of true adventure. The

cast, including Karen Allen, Denholm Elliott, John Rhys-Davies and Paul Freeman (as the smoothest villain imaginable), doesn’t put a foot wrong, while storyteller Spielberg is at the height of his powers, delighting the imagination with terrific action set pieces, nail-biting tension and engaging characters. ALAN JONES DID YOU KNOW? To create the sound of the Ark being opened, sound designer Ben Burtt recorded himself moving the ceramic lid of his toilet cistern.

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

PLEASED TO EAT YOU

Dr Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) eyes up Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster)

PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

The Silence of the Lambs

1991 j

DIRECTOR: Jonathan Demme STARRING: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Anthony Heald In searching for a brutal killer, FBI rookie Clarice Starling seeks the help of another murderer: incarcerated ex-psychiatrist Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lecter.

Adapted from Thomas Harris’s bestseller, this movie was responsible for giving cinematic serial killers a better image, with Anthony Hopkins winning an Oscar for his portrayal of incarcerated cannibal Hannibal Lecter. Jodie Foster also bagged herself a statuette as FBI agent Clarice Starling, who is drawn into a disturbingly close relationship with Lecter as she hunts for serial killer “Buffalo Bill”, and it’s a testament to her abilities that she holds her own against her scene-stealing co-star. With a track record for directing quirky comedies (Something Wild, Married to the Mob), director Jonathan Demme made a seemingly effortless switch to terror, and here summons up a magnificent air of gothic gloom.

The hunt for the killer is suspenseful, but Demme generates the real chill with the probing mind games between his two marvellous leads. Spare a thought, too, for the talented supporting players: Scott Glenn as Foster’s boss, Ted Levine as the tormented killer and Anthony Heald as the ill-fated hospital head, the butt of the movie’s flip end gag. JOHN FERGUSON IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS Hannibal (2001)

WHAT A GLORIOUS FEELING

Gene Kelly dances in the street, whatever the weather

MUSICAL COMEDY

Singin’ in the Rain

1952 y

DIRECTORS: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen STARRING: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Jean Hagen Silent film stars Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are the golden couple of 1920s Hollywood. However, their enviable position is threatened with the arrival of “talkies”.

Never, in the history of American cinema, has such a collection of talents come together at the peak of their abilities to generate such an enjoyable and clever movie. The story is an affectionate parody of the days when sound came to Hollywood in the wake of The Jazz Singer, and every incident wittily referred to in Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s screenplay actually happened. Gene Kelly, co-director (with Stanley Donen) and star, was responsible in his lifetime for providing enormous pleasure for movie audiences, and his joyous rendition of the title song stands as a lasting tribute. Singin’ in the Rain is a unique work of art crafted specifically for the screen and represents the MGM studio at its very best. TONY SLOMAN IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS The Band Wagon (1953)

BEDTIME STORY The dwarfs come home from a day in the mines to find a princess in their house

ANIMATED FANTASY

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs DIRECTOR: David Hand VOICES OF: Adriana Caselotti, Harry Stockwell, Lucille La Verne, Moroni Olsen, Billy Gilbert, Pinto Colvig When an evil queen learns that there is a rival to her beauty, she commands her huntsman to kill the fair and innocent Snow White.

Disney’s first animated feature pushed the art form in thrilling new directions, completely redrawing a much-loved fairy tale of bad stepmothers, forest glades and handsome princes that previously existed only on the printed page.

(Indeed, the film opens with a storybook, a respectful nod that has been oft-repeated.) In places, it’s cuter

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than the Brothers Grimm template — the adorable dwarfs with their pratfalls — but scenes with the wicked queen and the poisoned apple achieve a high level of terror. Its ability to invoke German expressionism on the one hand while keeping the gallery entertained with Dopey’s charming antics and Whistle While You Work on the other is why this beautifully painted classic has enduring appeal for all ages.

ANDREW COLLINS

DID YOU KNOW? Critics dubbed the film “Walt Disney’s Folly”, convinced it would be a flop. It became the most successful animated film ever.

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THIS Pinocchio (1940)

PERIOD ROMANCE

Atonement 2007 j DIRECTOR: Joe Wright STARRING: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Romola Garai, Brenda Blethyn, Saoirse Ronan At a country house in 1935, Cecilia Tallis is having an affair with housekeeper’s son Robbie Turner, only for the actions of her sister to separate the lovers.

Four years on, the onset of war changes their lives for ever.

The kind of collaboration that seems designed to produce the perfect British film, this adaptation of Ian McEwan’s bestseller from screenwriter Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons) and director Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice) actually pulls it off. Beginning in 1935, the drama pivots on the burgeoning love affair between privileged Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley) and servant’s son Robbie Turner (James McAvoy). An intercepted love letter, sibling jealousy and an assault combine to tear them apart. Their hopes of reunion are further complicated by the outbreak of war, Robbie’s conscription and the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk. A handsome, heart-thumping, character-based love story, this is impeccably acted — Keira Knightley blends cut-glass, Celia Johnson-like refinement and something altogether more passionate — and stylishly scored (by Dario Marianelli). Atonement transcends the expectations of its country-house setting, via the privations of war, to deliver a knockout twist that works better on the screen than it did on the page. ANDREW COLLINS

SEEING GREEN

Sibling jealousy threatens to spoil the love life of the wealthy Cecilia (Keira Knightley)

DID YOU KNOW? The sequence on the beach at Dunkirk was filmed at Redcar and captured as one long Steadicam shot. It took an entire day to rehearse and utilised 2,000 local extras.

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