Reviews

Russian study of an intense family relationship

The issue of Basque separatism simmers unresolved in Spain, where Julio Medem's documentary has aroused controversy for its alleged one-sidedness. The director's technique is unsubtle. He's rounded up countless talking heads, sat them in chairs in front of attractive Basque scenery, and got them to talk to camera about the complicated political, historical and social issues involved. The result is somewhat tedious and confusing.

A landmark in the development of the doomed anti-hero, Julien Duvivier's timeless 1936 proto-noir made an icon of Jean Gabin, playing Pépé, the legendary French gangster exiled to the baroque, shadow-strewn purgatory of the Algerian casbah. Falling for a female tourist, he decides the time's come to break for home, but the cops are waiting. Still surprising, tough and casual, it sashays the line between cynicism and romance like few others.

Childish may well be a "genius" (just ask Jack White), but this DVD doesn't really do the Bard Of Chatham justice since it contains just two old gigs filmed on video. Admittedly, Thee Milkshakes twang up an impressive storm in 1984, but watching Thee Headcoats rock a crowd of about 10 in 1989 is much less gripping, even with cameos from Holly Golightly's Headcoatees. Shame.

36-track masterclass in larger-than-life rock

Roundup of Texan troubadour's seminal recordings

Multi-skilled Belgian brothers are not gonna work it out

Dark, brooding venture featuring Uncut photographer Steve Gullick and Gallon Drunk's James Johnston

Monochrome minimalists go Technicolor, with startling results Anyone familiar with 2002's Everybody Makes Mistakes could be forgiven for thinking they'd stumbled on the wrong band here. If that album was austere—a kind of aural porcelain—then Shearwater's third is a riot of movement and colour. They remain, in parts, as sombre-still as American Music Club, but now add more than a dash of Spirit Of Eden-Talk Talk and a whole heap of '70s FM pop. Soft-rock chamber music, if you will.

Powerful observations on the Irish condition from the new Christy Moore