Aug 24th
Cowboys and Aliens** (12A)
Odeon Colchester

A wanted criminal who has lost his memory rides into the town of Absolution, where an alien attack is about to take place...
Persuasive old fashioned Western which begins slowly but then loses its complexity in favour of a white knuckle sci-fi chase with an Independence Day-style finale. The stars give good value for money.

d: Jon Favreau
s: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, David Carradine

Aug 24th
La Bete Humaine***
(The Human Beast)

Fra 1938. Paris Films. 99m. bw

A train driver witnesses a stationmaster and his wife who have murdered her elderly lover. She persuades him into keeping his silence but is later compelled into committing murder himself.

Highly evocative French railway melodrama with only occasional moments of falseness (mainly in the plot), with Renoir concentrating on a beautifully down-to-earth and authentic railway setting, with some classic individual cinematic moments too. The early precursor of American film noir.

Written by: Jean Renoir, Denise Leblond, from the novel by Emile Zola.

Producers: Raymond Hakim, Robert Hakim.

Director: Jean Renoir.

Starring: Jean Gabin, Simone Simon, Fernand Ledoux, Julien Carette, Blanchette Brunoy, Jacques Berlioz, Jean Renoir.

Photography: Curt Courant.

Music: Joseph Kosma.

Aug 9th
Breakfast at Tiffany's**
US 1961. Paramount. 115m.

A young writer befriends New York callgirl Holly Golightly who shares her colourful life with a series of prospective husbands.
Charming romantic comedy much sanitised from its original source material, with some good cameos and a star who looks in perfect make-up even at six in the morning. A sentimental delight, for those in the right mood.

Written by: George Axelrod, from the story by Truman Capote.
Producers: Martin Jurow, Richard Shepherd.
Director: Blake Edwards.
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Mickey Rooney (a horrendously stereotypical Japanese), Alan Reed, John McGiver, Jose Luis de Vilallonga.
Photography: Franz Planer.
Music: Henry Mancini.

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S. The climactic romantic clench between George Peppard, Audrey Hepburn, and a cat who deserves some sort of feline Oscar.