THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE
Don't go and see this film if you're having a fat day or your idea of 
kinky sex is to leave the light on.  The Notorious Bettie Page tells the 
real-life story of the southern starlet who shocked the States by 
becoming a bondage pin-up (pun intended).  The film rests assuredly on 
the sculptured shoulders of the comely Gretchen Moll who invests Bettie 
with a delightful naivety and cheekiness (pun also intended) as a 
well brought up religious girl who just wanted to bring happiness to 
people by dressing up in silly costumes.  The story crisscrosses America 
in both style and cinematography from the apple-pie nostalgia of 
Tennessee, via the colourful flora and fauna of Florida to the staid 
black and white of 1950s New York and Washington (featuring a short 
appearance by Goodnight and Good Luck's David Strathairn on the other 
side of a senate hearing).  From a country still hung-up about nudity 
and sex, this film portrays an intriguing yet light-hearted slice of 
American history.

ATOMISED
Franka Potente and Moritz Bleibtreu have grown up.  In 1998's frenetic 
not-quite-crime caper Run Lola Run they epitomised the colourful 
grab-it-while-you-can attitude of carefree youth.  In Atomised, with 
hair returned to natural possibly-greying shades, they have asked 
their "what if's" and don't like the answers.  Bruno (Bleibtreu) is a 
washed-up, obnoxious, sex-obsessed teacher fired for coming onto a 
student.  His half-brother Michael (a restrained performance from 
Christian Ullmen) is a dedicated molecular biologist attempting to 
rekindle his relationship with childhood sweetheart Annabelle (Potente).  
The film follows the breakdown of both their bodies and families as they 
edge closer toward middle age.  Needless to say, the ending is not a 
particularly pretty one (although moderately less depressing than the 
book).  However, this subtitled German adaptation of the cult French 
novel once again shows that love, whether in sickness and health, is the 
universal language.

LITTLE WHITE LIES
Like the UK Dogme film Gypo which premiered earlier during the festival, 
the Welsh "comedy" Little White Lies is a twisted tale of racial 
tension intruding on family life in a seaside town (Margate and Swansea, 
respectively).  Husband Tony (Pobol Y Cwm star and lead vocalist of The 
Flying Pickets, Brian Hibbard) watches from his armchair as daughter 
Serena dates an Asian whilst son Steve dallies with the BNP party.  As 
in Gypo, where Pauline McLynn throws off the shackles of Father Ted's 
Mrs Doyle, Helen Griffin (also screenwriter of this adapted stage play) 
is a revelation as the stalwart housewife, a voice of reason amongst the 
warring factions.  This leads me to wonder whether men are truly more 
overtly racist, or merely portrayed that way on screen.  Stereotypes 
aside, Little White Lies is the more darkly comic of the two films and 
ultimately the more tragic.  Powerful stuff.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST
Choose piracy.  Choose rum.  Choose a sword.  Choose a crew.  Choose 
a big, swashbuckling ship, choose a compass, black sails, flags, and 
cannons.  Choose good health, high blood alcohol, and burial at sea.  
Choose buried treasure.  Choose a cabin.  Choose your enemies.  Choose a 
bandana and matching beard.  Choose battling the East India Company and 
wondering how they found you on a Sunday morning.  Choose standing on 
that fo'c's'le watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing dice games, 
stuffing sea turtles into your mouth.  Choose rotting away at the end of 
it all, pishing your last on a desert island, nothing more than an 
embarrassment to the first mate who mutinied to replace you.  Choose 
your future.  Choose piracy.

CO/MA
This is a strange mix of a film.  Mike Figgis cat-herds a collective of 
actors, writers and directors in a movie-making masterclass.  Part 
documentary, part mockumentary and part plain bad soap opera, it's 
difficult to tell where the art ends and the artifice begins.  It's 
certain Mike Figgis enjoys his mind games, but I'm not sure I'd 
recommend this to anyone less than a hardcore film buff.

POWERLESS
What happens when the power goes off?  How do you cope with the murder 
of a loved one?  National and family crises collide as grieving Sarah 
and siblings, having sought solace in rural Wales, fall victim to 
terrorist attack on the country's utilities.  Effectively played by 
real-life relatives, the family must learn to cope and communicate 
without the buffer of music stereos, computer games, microwaves and 
so on.  First-time director Matthew Daniels makes good use of the 
lo-budget location and natural lighting, whilst also featuring 
in a convincing performance as a family friend.  Veering into Eastenders 
(or, given the location, Pobol Y Cwm) territory towards the end, 
nevertheless Powerless is an entertaining drama which provides an 
intriguing insight into the disparacy between town and country.

BLOOD AND BONES
This film should be subtitled The Life And Times Of An Evil Fishcake 
Maker.  Takeshi Kitano, as always, is eminently watchable as the 
impoverished Korean immigrant who overcomes prejudice to make good, and 
then squanders his goodwill and fortune on domestic cruelty and a series 
of mistresses.  This is an ambitious, award-winning, decade-spanning, 
period piece with moments of violent humour, which if a tad long-winded 
is rescued by its central performances.

KRISANA
Would you prevent a stranger from jumping off a bridge?  Krisana's 
central character doesn't...and the result is this devastating story of 
guilt, redemption and librarians.  Almost dialogue-free, this mean and 
moody mystery unfolds in the Tarkovsy-esque black-and-white spaces of 
the Latvian capital Riga.  Isolated amidst the incidental sounds of the 
city, the lone librarian-tuned-investigator pieces together details of 
the victim's life and ultimately finds forgiveness.  Consider this 
compelling film a flip-side to Luc Besson's Angel-A.

BUSTER KEATON IN GO WEST
"A cow walks into a bar"...a visual twist on the well-known joke forms 
the basis of the ground-shaking finale of Buster Keaton's silent feature 
Go West.  Fleeing the commuter stampede of the big city, Keaton's 
character Friendless drops in on an Arizona cattle ranch and has a close 
encounter of the herd kind.  Cattle-wrangling and dairy farming provide 
a delicious substrate for Keaton's brand (pun intended) of comic action.  
Go West is twinned with the short film The Scarecrow, in which the 
household gadgets of Keaton's one-room house bring a wry smile to the 
face of homeowners resigned to Cambridge house prices.  Accompanied by 
a talented live pianist, these two classics demonstrate that the old 
ones are the best.

A SCANNER DARKLY
Keanu Reeves has always seemed a cartoonish figure.  In A Scanner 
Darkly, thanks to the stunning rotoscope technique by which animation 
is overlayed on film, he really is one.  This lends itself to the 
central concept of the 'scramble suit' by which Bob Arctor (Reeves) 
conducts undercover surveillance of his friends and fellow Substance D 
abusers.  Robert Downey Jr cuts close to the bone as a paranoid junkie, 
while Winona Ryder as Arcto's 'girl' is less annoying than in previous 
films.  Altogether, screenwriter and director Richard Linklater has 
convincingly distilled the classic Philip K Dick novel, complete with 
comic twists and poignant epilogue, into an unmissable brain-melting 
experience.

GOING GOING GONDRY
You've probably already seen much of this eccentric Frenchman's work and 
not realised it.  This hour-long trip along the light fantastic 
showcases a selection of his best music videos.  Visual techniques range 
from cloning Kylie Monigue via morphing The Rolling Stones to depicting 
The White Stripes in lego stop-motion animation.  Beware: it will hurt 
your brain.