27 February 2026
EPIC – ELVIS PRESLEY IN CONCERT ****
This is one exciting ride! Here’s the fantastic re-living of the concerts Elvis gave during his seven-year Las Vegas residency at the height of his career in the 1970s, plus intimate interviews with him and flashbacks to his beginnings, his family and his loves.
This documentary is the perfect fit between its director Baz Luhrmann and Elvis – both wonderfully into bling bling, but only on the surface, for their actual talents were and are immense. There was Elvis, the King of rock and roll, with his costumes, his jewelry, his cars, his Graceland, and then Baz with his bombastic films such as his modernised “Romeo + Juliet”, “Moulin Rouge!”, “The Great Gatsby” and his brilliant 2022 “Elvis” – all huge hits.
In the IMAX theatre you’ll have a far better seat than in the actual performances Elvis gave nightly so long ago. Seeing him give his all for the love of the music, whether rock, blues or gospel, is both exhilarating and incredibly moving. He was a natural, and every shot brings out his incredible beauty, his grace, his signature movements, his innate charisma and humour. And of course his superb voice.
Baz has given Elvis’s fans the ultimate gift – a true close-up of the King. This is an epic tribute not to miss!
RUE MALAGA *** (vo Spanish and Arabic)
Maria, a Spanish widow in her late 70s lives alone in Tangier, Morocco, where she feels completely at home. In the warm light and colourful hues of this Mediterranean city she knows all the neighbours and shopkeepers on her bustling street. She is happy in her cozy apartment in which she has all her baubles and memories of her life there with her long-gone husband and a daughter who now lives in Madrid.
Then one day the daughter shows up, needing to sell her mother’s apartment. Maria is in shock, doesn’t know where to turn as she feels her life being drained away, having to leave her wonderful rue Malaga. But she is a woman who can’t be pushed around so easily, and that is when this tender and surprising film takes off, as she comes up with all sorts of plans to hold on to her apartment. And not only her apartment, but a whole new life as she finds companionship and love along the way.
This delightful fairytale, with the charming, versatile Carmen Maura (one of Almodovar’s favourite actresses) as the dauntless Maria, is the work of the accomplished Moroccan director Maryam Touzani who has already enchanted us with “Adam” and “Le bleu du caftan”. This latest film won the Public Award at the Venice Film Festival.
CHER PARENTS *** (vo French)
Voilà an amusing and intelligent French comedy that shows how money can perturb the closest of families. The premise is simple – the parents, living in their lovely southern home, invite their three grown children over to tell them they’ve won in the lottery.
‘Telling them’ is a bit overstated, as the fact comes out in bits and pieces, and it creates absolute havoc. For the parents are not quite clear about the sum they’ve won, nor how much they’re willing to share. We’ve all dreamt at one time about winning the big jackpot, well here’s your chance to see what may happen.
Wonderful acting all around, with a clever script and some psychological highs and lows make for a film to savour in its humour, clarity of human foibles and painful moments. The veteran French stars, André Dussollier and Miou-Miou are absolutely masterly as the parents.
IS THIS THING ON? **1/2
More American than this, you cannot get! This film, directed by the multi award-winning Bradley Cooper (“A Star is Born” and “Maestro”), is about the unraveling of a couple and how the husband finds solace in performing stand-up comedy. A strange premise, and somehow both depressing and disturbing in its flippant view of a life lived together.
This is very different from what Cooper has done in the past, more bitter in its supposed realism. Wanting to be so cool, it’s a far lesser “The Big Chill” or “Marriage Story”. I found it a cynical downer.
WOMAN AND CHILD ** (vo Farsi)
A woman is jilted by her fiancé, a terrible thing happens to a precocious child, sisters become rivals, plus some court cases and constant accusations of guilt, with no one taking a look at their own faults.
By Saeed Roustayi, this is a mangled soap opera trying to be as accomplished as an Asghar Farhadi film (“A Separation”, “The Salesman”). Despite showing modern-day Iran and its social blemishes, it doesn’t have the discretion or the depth – a pity.
Superb **** Very Good *** Good ** Mediocre * Miserable – no stars
By Neptune
Neptune Ravar Ingwersen reviews film extensively for publications in Switzerland. She views 4 to 8 films a week and her aim is to sort the wheat from the chaff for readers.
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