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One of the many amazing documentaries charting the rise & fall of the satellites in the Warhol constellation ("Edie", "Nico Icon" etc.)This creepily voyeuristic - yet fascinating - film charts Berlin from overweight, unhappy, heiress to spaced-out Warhol "superstar" to aged, compulsive dieter. Blessed (or cursed) with a photographic memory, she relishes the compulsively non-stop retelling of her life as a kind of sordid cleansing (her monologues were used verbatim for the Warhol book "A to B & Back Again" -but really written by Bob Colacello. Be amazed as this elegant New York lady displays her famous "Cock Book" , relives her "tit paintings", opens her cupboards & drawers (where EVERYTHING is labelled !!) & watch her descend into sin by eating Key Lime Pie! (her dream food - her pie in the sky)Food has now replaced drugs as her ultimate taboo. The emotional roller-coaster she goes through is devastating to watch. Warhol often made "friends" with these wounded heiresses, while shamelessly exploiting their eccentricities and vanities for his films and personal entertainment. In the end this is a strangely triumphant story, as she struggles to maintain her personal equilibrium. A must-see.

A fascinating film - and remarkably even-handed for a World War II epic. Pearl Harbour is shown as an American debacle, and a terrible Japanese mistake. Having read a number of books on the subject ("Day of Infamy", "At Dawn We Slept" etc.) I believe this is the most accurate depiction of the events. There is an incredible tension in watching fallible human beings - not plastic heroes - cope with momentous events. In some ways it reminded me of "13 Days"(2000), but without it's successful conclusion. Richard Fleischer has had a spotty career but this is one of his best, combining his documentary-realistic style (as in "The Boston Strangler"(1968), "Compulsion"(1959), "10 Rillington Place" (1971))and his taste for spectacle (as in "The Vikings" (1958)). Fukasaku"s work I am not so familiar with, but it can be compared to sympathetic treatments of the Imperial Army by other Japanese directors- Ichikawa's "Harp of Burma"(1956) and Kobayashi's "The Human Condition"(1959). There are a number of British and American war films that attempt to show the Japanese troops as more than "Tojo and his band of bug-eyed monkeys" (a quote from a John Wayne film), such as Lean's "Bridge on the River Kwai"(1957), John Boorman's "Hell in the Pacific"(1968), and Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun"(1987).Just as "TTT" was criticised for it's even-handed approach, so too were these films. Here in Australia, the Pacific War also causes much angry debate, mainly due to the Australian POW's who died in Japanese captivity, & the Japanese bombing of Darwin (our Pearl Harbour). I think "TTT" was unpopular at the time for another important reason. "TTT" was a film about an unprepared world power - the USA - being defeated by an underestimated and implacable Asian foe in a daring sneak attack. "TTT" was released 2 years after the Tet Offensive (1968) in the Vietman War, and must have seemed uncomfortably close to home. Hollywood in the late 1960'& early 1970's, shied away from films depicting the Vietnam War (too divisive, too downbeat, too controversial etc.), but were OK on films set in another time tackling similar themes and questions. Films that are obvious metaphors for Vietnam include: Altman's "MASH"(1970)(Korean War as Vietnam War); Penn's "Little Big Man"(1970)(Washita River as My Lai, Little Big Horn as the Tet Offensive); Robert Wise'"Sand Pebbles"(1966)(1920's China as Vietnam); Ralph Nelson's "Soldier Blue"(1970)(Indian Wars as Vietnam) and even British films like Tony Richardson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade"(1968)(Crimean War as Vietnam). I guess people can only watch so much defeat, which is why "Patton"(1970) was welcomed. Even though it begins with an American catastrophe (Kasserine Pass), it ends in victory.

A stylish, romantic epic based on the lives of the notorious Barrow Gang, this is Arthur Penn at his best. The period detail is immaculate, from the bluegrass soundtrack to the U.S. Farm Administration photographs in the opening credits. Yet this is no staid period piece. It's romanticisation of the main characters - violent psycopaths - prefigures other controversial films such as "The Wild Bunch", "A Clockwork Orange", "Natural Born Killers", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Brilliant and fast-paced, with great acting from Beatty, Dunaway, Hackman etc. Yet it curiously sanitises the real Bonnie & Clyde's bisexuality (C.W. Moss was the sexual partner of Bonnie and Clyde). I guess the late 60's was ready for graphic violence but not gender ambivalence.

Films like "Andrei Rubylov" (1969) make you realise why film-making is the most vital art of the 20th. century. A highly demanding and often gruelling film, which does not flinch from the horrors or the intense beauty of Mediaeval Russia. The scenes evolve slowly, in real time, each building on the other to reveal an almost alien world - as strange as the worlds of "Solaris" or "Stalker". Like the great Russian writers such as Gogol, Tolstoy or Dostoievsky; Tarkovsky examines the role of religious faith and belief in a cruel and irrational world. It must be seen (if possible), on the wide screen, in order to appreciate the brilliant black and white cinematography. "Andei Rubylov" is in my top 10 favourite films.

This is a ravishing, yet spare adaption of Thomas Mann's novelette of the same title. Dirk Bogarde gives his finest screen performance - he himself believed so. The dialogue is minimal, so his face must register the nuances of his anguished character - a composer (a writer in the novelette - the only major alteration) who travels to Venice in 1910. Visconti revels in the portrayal of beauty, it's passing, and the whiff of decay beneath.Trained as an opera director, Visconti blends Mahler's music and imagery seamlessly in his finest film since "The Leopard" (another stunning film, which greatly influenced Coppola's Sicily in the "Godfather").

"Get Carter" has just been re-released on the big screen in Australia, and what a terrific and grimly funny film it is. Many British (and Australian) films have borrowed from this cult-classic of down-beat noir: "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"; "The Krays", "The Long Good Friday", "Chopper". Michael Caine is at his anti-hero best, helped by a great support cast (including English playright John Osbourne as the slimy Cyril Kinnear, and Peter Sellers' ex - Britt Eckland - who participates in the first phone sex on British film!). I can't imagine how the bleak Newcastle-On-Tyne locations will transfer to Las Vegas and other U.S. locations in the new version (In the original there is a run-down club called the "Las Vegas"), nor can I imagine Stallone in Michael Caine's role. See the original first !