Venice Film Festival — A–Z of films

The Beast explores what Henry James diagnosed so devastatingly. The chill of egotism and the feverish dance around the void are so desperately relevant today that it leaves one breathless.

Cannibal Holocaust is perhaps the ultimate example of a film that eats itself; it will be debated and misunderstood for years to come.

Purev-Ochir gives a sense of the pressures the younger generation are under through their experience in the classroom, with a tacit implication that Ze’s struggles are reflecting a spirit of a nation.

How it feels to take credit for something you haven’t done is one of the questions Coup! invites us to contemplate.

At 12, Regan was a helpless child in 1973; in today's world we instinctively grant her more agency so the territory between self and demon becomes more obscure.

The car racing scenes are the best in the history of cinema.

Philémon is a very sympathetic character, and Hammond brings a real sense of vulnerability to the role.

Whatever structuring the directors are doing is achieved with the lightest of touches, so that we feel as though we’re just along for the ride with these guys.

Peyrot’s documentary becomes increasingly absorbing - so that we want to see this original film as much as they do.

Essential, urgent and damning.

Hesitation Wound is a melancholy piece of cinema but such an accomplished one that it is a delight to watch.

Hoard goes further, creeps around, becomes something you can start to smell, to taste.

For all the apparent chaos, this is a tightly controlled piece of work which fully delivers on the promise of Stolevski’s earlier films.

While Louis-Seize’s treatment of the night is atmospheric, the emphasis here is firmly on comedy rather on gore.

An impressively self-sufficient horror film with a dash of socio-political commentary.

With plenty of meat for its fine cast to chew on, the film is often intense but never loses its nuance.

First-timer Sarr - who is a musician - is a remarkable lead and matched by the support from fellow novice Fall.

There's a disassociation between the original's ennui and what might be the consequences of sleep deprivation. There's also a rebalancing of its violence, and it might be that which most discomfits.

Takes a team approach to the material, using a group of documentary participants as a collective.

Maestro is a starry affair on all fronts.

Jacob Oostra's work in sound design is part of an overwhelming naturalism, an intimacy of sensation and a sense of intimacy.

There’s a still photographic quality to the cinematography from Lorenzo Casadio Vannucci, with the studious, fixed framing matching the meter of the film and allowing time for us to appreciate the texture, not just of the lives of these characters but the spaces they inhabit.

The performances are generally solid, the soundtrack and visuals wonderful and the ambition is vaulting, but it is ultimately a failed experiment.

[DuVernay is] not here to tell people what to think – rather, she’s presenting them with the tools to start thinking for themselves and making their own discoveries.

With a background in documentary, director Mika Gustafson captures something that, though not always coherent, feels fresh and raw and real.

Lanthimos skillfully transforms this lustful carnival into a coming-of-age drama, emphasising the protagonist's mastery of sexuality as a connotation of her mental evolution.

Coppola paints pictures of mid-century Americana and the codes and moral shortcomings that go with it.

There is a redemption arc here, but it’s not the whole of the story, and Arcel uses it to highlight the deep inequities so normalised at the time as to be almost invisible, even the most desperate characters tending to take them for granted.

An unusually intimate, exploratory film underscored by dry humour, Sky Peals has an atmosphere that you won’t find anywhere else.

The impact of the plane crash near the start of this retelling of the remarkable true survival story is shown in visceral detail with a sound design that slams right through you.

Tejpal’s debut may be uneven but it's certainly not short of momentum.

With a lesser canine star, the film would not have worked, but Nala is sensational.

It’s not the first time a film has scrutinised what it means to be “a good victim” but Girard’s general restraint, coupled with a controlled central performance from Alaoui bring it home.

An immensely dark, macabre and unsettling work.

For fans of Dahl or the director, this is unmissable.

If some of the story is predictable that is mainly down to the tight focus of the script from Casale, which means narrative has a tendency to play second fiddle to atmosphere.