Once
Rental and retail: A subtle, very offhand look at how music is made, how friendship can start and how the two may be intimately connected
The Conformist
Peter Bradshaw: Bernardo Bertolucci's gripping 1970 classic
The Edge of Heaven
Philip French: The use of coincidence need not cheapen drama, as this extraordinary, moving tale of two doomed affairs triumphantly proves
The Edge of Heaven
Peter Bradshaw: A bold and exhilarating film about immigrants finding their way in postwar Germany
Italian cinema’s sweet success
Federico Fellini's groundbreaking 1960 satire La Dolce Vita put Italian cinema firmly on the world stage with its tale of hedonistic excess. It thrilled critics but was condemned by the Vatican. Here Philip French explains why it is a European classic - and next week you can judge it yourself when The Observer gives the film away to readers
Derek Jarman was buried by cinema’s shifting sands
He once inspired devotion, but the changing cinematic landscape since his death has put paid to that
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly review – Julian Schnabel’s part magic lantern, part hallucinatory fuzz
Schnabel’s very moving and deeply satisfying movie is about a fashion magazine editor paralysed by a stroke
Asterix at the Olympic Games
Philip French: Spasmodically funny, though rarely when Gérard Depardieu is in view
Still Life
Peter Bradshaw: A poignant record of a hidden sorrow in modern, powerhouse China
The Italian
Peter Bradshaw: Russian heart-tweaker about an orphan's search for his mother
‘Un-congratulations, you’re pregnant’
Hollywood should acknowledge that many women faced with an unwanted pregnancy will consider abortion
4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
Philip French: A troubling tale of life under the Ceausecu regime
4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days – review
Peter Bradshaw: Fierce, horrifying and brutal - this story of an illegal abortion in communist Romania is a masterpiece
El Violin
Philip French: The feature debut of documentarist Francisco Vargas includes a majestic performance by 84-year-old musician Don Angel Tavira