Snowy travelling and yearning is to be found in Silk, a plodding adaptation of the European bestseller by Italian writer Alessandro Baricco. In a disastrous piece of casting, the American indie actor Michael Pitt plays young French silkworm merchant Herve Joncour who, despite being married to Keira Knightley, departs 19th-century France on a long journey for Japan. His mission is to find the purest worm eggs and smuggle them home but he becomes obsessed with the concubine of a local emperor.

There are lush images in Francois Girard's film and softcore nudity from Knightley and her Japanese counterpart Sei Ashina, but too much voiceover from Pitt and a dull score from Ryuichi Sakamoto. It's a film that never really starts, yet one you fear might never end.