7 October 2026 DIGGER **** This is a love-it or hate-it movie. Tom Cruise has gone out on a limb this time, for he’s not playing his usual big hero, movie-star role, but rather digging into a character-actor part and doing it with great panache. He’s done it before, in such films as “Rainman”, “The […]

2 October 2026 ZURICH FILM FESTIVAL 2026 (24 September – 4 October) Once again, I jumped over the Röstigraben this autumn…from Geneva to Zurich, and it’s a delightful and liberating move. Pity that many of my Suisse Romande colleagues don’t attend, due to that cultural chasm between the French and German-speaking parts of this country. […]

25 September 2026 This week you have two completely different films to choose from. One for the guys and one for the girls. Or isn’t one supposed to imply that in the WOKE era? But then the guy film stars Brad Pitt, so there will be women lining up for that one too. Ah, the […]

18 September 2026 THE INVITE **1/2 Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite” is not as sharp or illuminating as its French predecessor, “Et Plus Si Affinités” from 2024, itself based on the Spanish film, “Sentimental” from 2020. This oft-remade tale has gone through various international transformations as an amusing and daring look at two neighbouring couples who […]

11 September 2026 PRESSURE **** It’s just weeks before D-Day in June 1944, and we are in England, privy to the intensive plans and preparations for that crucial day. That is the incredible pressure, but there is also another pressure – that of the weather. For this film is about the important calculations involved in […]

4 September 2026 UN MONDE FRAGILE ET MERVEILLEUX **** (vo Arabic) This Lebanese film by Cyril Aris is a moving and charming love story about a couple who were meant to be together from the day they were born in the same hospital in Beirut. Tender, sad, amusing and beautifully shot, the film shows the […]

28 August 2026 LATE FAME ***1/2 An old post office employee in NYC has the same routine every day. Dull work sorting the mail, same drink and meal after work in the corner bar, the same old pals there who just shoot the breeze, and then back to his lonely flat. But once upon a […]

21 August 2026 FJORD ***1/2 (vo Norwegian, English, Romanian) The question is: was this film worthy of its Palme d’Or at Cannes this year? It’s been released this week, so let’s take a look at what it’s all about. A loving, quite religious family – Romanian father, Norwegian mother, four school-age children and a baby […]

14 August 2026 LOCARNO, 2026! LOCARNO’s competition and certain Piazza films were somewhat mediocre this year. This festival is unfortunately squeezed in between two prestigious festival giants – Cannes and Venice – and other heavyweights such as Toronto and San Sebastián. So it tends to venture into experimental cinema from emerging countries. But it still […]