Venice Film Festival — A–Z of films

His - and Johnson's - real triumph in Anomalisa comes in the smaller gestures and human moments

Emotionally, his film is fully loaded and he nimbly mixes the imagined horror of Mickey's situation with absurd humour and, on the rare moments there is time to draw breath, even a bit of pathos.

The art of Behemoth lies in the way it winds the viewer up in its quintessential narrative.

The result is a gripping, disturbing experience, though one which risks numbing as much as it informs or shocks viewers.

You have to care for these people to give a damn. That's hard.

It's true what they say about violence. Too much and you become immune.

Hasei's story may be simple but it is warm, unsentimental and has plenty to recommend it, particularly for older children.

After all, what’s so sinister about reading Aesop’s Fables? Everything and nothing, Corbet suggests.

The film is briskly paced, infused with energy and the backdrop remains interesting.

This is a story of artists and models, the common outsider's perception that art is about creating fantasies, the much more challenging reality that it's about drawing out truth.

A ragbag of cliches that owe a debt to everything from Romeo and Juliet to THX 1138.

The grandeur and beauty of the place is set against figures of climbers, like black ants, across a white wilderness

The physicality and fluidity of adolesence are brought to the fore by Anna Rose Holmer in her tightly directed debut feature that avoids the bear traps of American coming-of-age cliche to offer a classy, thoughtful character study.

The director has uncovered a wealth of archive material.

Like a Brazilian Angela Carter, writer/director Anita Rocha da Silveira tells the story of a young woman emerging from a sheltered suburban world to walk a dark path, discovering the wild creature inside herself.

Bertrand Tavernier has crafted a magnificent piece of work.

Director Celia Rowlson-Hall, a dancer and choreographer, is able to make visible through movement what harms the soul.

Mascaro is completely in control of his material.

This is Catholic working class life beyond the limits of restraint where the concept of social order collapses and acts of individual kindness come as a surprise.

Atom Egoyan's terrifically paced episodic thriller Remember is hard to forget.

Spotlight does not fall into the trap of explanatory flashbacks. We do not need to see the protagonists' past because we can tell so much from what they are wearing.

Tseden takes an austere approach to framing, from the crisp black and white lensing of cinematographer Lu Songye to his long, fixed camera takes, with Tharlo almost always present.

Despite Messina's efforts, there is much to recommend the film, especially its beautiful slow shots that give the actresses room to do their thing.

Morality and mayhem make uncomfortable bedfellows

This is a Jerry Bruckheimer approach to televising the revolution.