FILM / Best of the Reps

CAMBRIDGE The 18th Cambridge Film Festival This year's festival offers plenty of chances to plump for something unusual: Michel Blanc's comedy Gross Fatigue (17 July); 'First Take 1994' (17 July), a package of shorts by young directors; Rolf de Heer's brilliant shock-comedy Bad Boy Bubby (21 July); the innovative Aids sci-fi musical Zero Patience (23 July) and Ildiko Szabo's austere and compassionate Child Murders (29 July). If you're playing safe, there's Svankmajer's Faust (16/17 July), Susan Sarandon in the latest John Grisham adaptation The Client (16 July), the Andy Garcia / Meg Ryan alcoholism drama When a Man Loves a Woman (17 July), Richard Slacker Linklater's Dazed and Confused (22/23 July), Zhang Yimou's To Live (23 July), the star-packed Naked in New York (24 July) and the vicious Fun (25/26 July). The festival closes with the Coen Brothers' clinical but hugely enjoyable comedy The Hudsucker Proxy (31 July), and there's an exhaustive retrospective of Krzysztof Kieslowski (17-30 July) which boasts rare early-Seventies work plus the entire magnificent 10-hour Decalogue (25-30 July) and the British premiere of the much- celebrated Red (24/29 July), the final part of his Three Colours trilogy. Directors just confirmed to appear include Bernard-Henri Levy for Bosna] (tonight), Jan Svankmajer for Faust (16/17 Jul), Cedric Kahn for Too Much Happiness (18 July), Hans-Ulrich Schlumpf for The Congress of Penguins (18/19 July) and Bob Quinn for The Bishop's Story (20 July). Arts Cinema, 8 Market Passage, CB2 (0223 462666/352001)

LANCASTER Low Budget, High Fliers Three days of screenings, discussions and video-making workshops, headed by a preview of the new British horror-comedy The Funny Man, starring Christopher Lee (tonight). There's also a chance to see Beyond Bedlam (16/17 July), currently stranded in purgatory after being denied a video certificate. Its director Vadim Jean will be on hand to introduce it, and there's a panel discussion on independent cinema led by Nigel Floyd. 15-17 July, The Dukes, Moor Lane LA1 (0524 66645)

LONDON

Assault on the Senses The brilliant John Carpenter, creator of some of the most inventive movies of the late Seventies and early Eighties, is celebrated in this long-overdue season. This week's treat is The Thing (tonight), though we could all live without Starman (16 July) and Big Trouble in Little China (19 July). NFT, South Bank, SE1 (071- 928 3232)

One More for The Road To coincide with the release of Faraway, So Close, the NFT is running an exhaustive month-long season of films by Wim Wenders. Prime cuts include documentaries on Nicholas Ray (Lightning Over Water, 16 July) and Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Ga, 18 July), plus Alice in the Cities (20 July) and The American Friend (22 July). Coming soon: The Early Short Films of Wim Wenders (24 July). NFT, as above

Women on the Verge of Technology This week's programme in the season of experimental film and video by women is titled 'Hyper Truths and Customised Communication' and features shorts by Marion Reicherdt, Kathleen Rogers and Vera Frenkel. Tonight, London Film-Makers Co- op, 42 Gloucester Ave, NW1 (071-586 8516)

MANCHESTER

City Symphonies This season of films exploring cinema's most resonant love affairs continues with Chris Marker's Sans Soleil (15 July), Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera (17/18 July) and Patrick Keiller's highly acclaimed London (20-22 July), the last screening of which will be introduced by Keiller himself. Cornerhouse, 70 Oxford St, M1 (061-228 2463)

Piano Forte A season of films to tinkle your ivories: Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving in the schmaltzy The Competition (19 July), Roy Rowland's superbly imaginative and otherworldly The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T (23 July). Coming soon: the recommended jazz documentary Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (26 July) and Harvey Keitel in James Toback's Fingers (27 July). Cornerhouse, as above

NEWCASTLE The Look A season dedicated to cinema's most fashionable flicks. This week: the much-missed Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's, plus Dietrich in Morocco (17 July), Trop Belle Pour Toi (25 July), Fellini's luscious La Dolce Vita (28 July) and the immaculately-dressed Gilda with the leather-clad The Wild One (31 July). Tyneside Cinema, 10 Pilgrim St, NE1 (091-232 8289)