Reviews

Vincente Minnelli's heart-breaking, life-affirming 1944 musical. It's 1903, and as the World's Fair unfolds in their rosy little town, young Judy Garland's family face moving to the Big Apple. One of the great musicals; and as a movie about childhood, it's up there with The Night Of The Hunter and, as a lament for changing times, ranks alongside The Magnificent Ambersons and... The Wild Bunch. Kind of.

A stimulating and intriguing set of classic shorts from the directing Premier League. Early work from Godard, Von Trier, Moodysson, Kieslowski, Moretti and Leconte sits with maverick inspiration alongside Brits like Peter Mullan and one Chris Morris (the BAFTA-winning "My Wrongs"). Three hours plus in total, but each nugget boasts such energy that it flies by. Small is beautiful.

This 1976 adaptation of Jack Higgins' best-selling WWII novel was a fitting late-'70s swan song for John Sturges. Michael Caine leads a band of principled, Nazi-hating German commandos off to invade Blighty on the sly. Robert Duvall, Donald Sutherland, Jenny Agutter and Donald Pleasance join the action.

A potentially tasteless cash-in (given that the makers can't even get the date of his death right on the back jacket), surprisingly this turns out to be an immensely watchable documentary detailing Elvis' tragic demise. The usual suspects from the "Memphis Mafia" line up to share tearjerking anecdotes about junk food and drugs ("he jurst ferkin' lurved 'em!"). Morbidly fascinating.

Canadian eclectics find new directions from '80s pop and recent avant-dance

Sounding happier at 60 than many male rockers, she delivers third solo album

Second release from Californian dreamers

Debut album from Jeffrey Lee Pierce's twisted blues-punk quartet remains strikingly relevant

Sadly neglected, once massive, psychedelic soul pioneers

OPENS JUNE 4, CERT 12A, 117 MINS Considered outrageous in 1935, Jacques Feyder's intriguing satire is not just a worthy archive trophy but a true oddity. Even now, there's something bewitchingly bonkers about it. It holds its own logic, and, if a little long for a comedy of politics, it's brain food to show up a concept like The Stepford Wives. In fact Feyder and wife Françoise Rosay, who stars, simultaneously made a German version entitled The Clever Women. Said women come to the fore when Spanish soldiers invade Flanders in 1616. The Flemish men hide, the mayor plays possum.