Apr 12th   
True Confessions**    
(US 1981)
United Artists. 108m. 

A Los Angeles vice squad detective uncovers a series of brutal murders that implicate his Catholic priest brother.
Sensitively handled in its ecclesiastical element, and beautifully photographed in the manner of The Godfather (including two of its main actors), though as a murder plot containing the usual bouts of sex, violence and profanity that are supposedly good box office (based on the Black Dahlia murder case in the 1940s). A belated Easter tribute to the late Robert Duvall.

Written by: Joan Didion, John Gregory Dunne, from his novel. 
Producers: Robert Chartoff, Irwin Winkler.
Director: Ulu Grosbard.
Starring: Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Charles Durning, Burgess Meredith, Cyril Cusack, Kenneth McMillan, Ed Flanders, Dan Hedaya, Rose Gregario, Jeannette Nolan.
Photography: Owen Roizman.
Music: Georges Delerue.

Apr 11th  
The Magic Faraway Tree*  (U)      
(Century Clacton)        

(GB/US 2026)                       
Elysian/Ashland Hill Media. 110m. ws

A young father takes his dysfunctional family to their new woodland home where the children investigate a mysterious tree leading them to magical adventures.
Modernization of Enid Blyton's stories where the adults are more moving and engaging than the children, with the transition from fantasy to reality a little overstylised in design and performance (with a belated brief villain), and lacking the whimsy of the original.

Written by: Simon Farnaby.
Producers: Pippa Harris, Nicholas Brown, Danny Perkins, Jane Hooks.
Director: Ben Gregor.
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Billie Gadson, Phoenix Laroche, Nicola Coughlan, Nonso Anozie, Mark Heap, Lenny Henry, Michael Palin, Simon Russell Beale, Jennifer Saunders, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Farnaby.
Photography: Zac Nicholson.
Music: Isabella Summers.

Apr 1st   
Three Fugitives**   
(US 1989)       
Touchstone. 96m.

A serial bank robber is released from prison but has the misfortune to be taken hostage by an incompetent thief trying to raise funds for his mute daughter.   
Practically a scene-for-scene remake of Veber's own comedy Les Fugitifs from 1986, and just as funny with the American cast and settings giving it the right amount of comic energy.

Written and Directed by: Francis Veber.
Producer: Lauren Shuler Donner.
Starring: Nick Nolte, Martin Short, Sarah Rowland Doroff, James Earl Jones, Kenneth McMillan, Alan Ruck, Bruce McGill.
Photography: Haskell Wexler, David McHugh.

THREE FUGITIVES. The poster, for once, is not an exaggeration: there is a scene in the film where Nick Nolte literally carries both Martin Short and Sarah Rowland Doroff up a flight of stairs!