The Independent Recommends

Film Ryan Gilbey

THE STEADY stream of re-releases can gladden the hearts of thumb-twiddling audiences and gnarled film critics alike. In John Boorman's 1967 thriller Point Blank (left), Lee Marvin stalks a sparse, forbidding LA, searching for the partner who betrayed him and the cash bounty that is rightfully his. The expressionistic mise en scene creates a world that is more sinister than the gangsters who inhabit it could ever hope to be.

On selected release

Try and make room in your life for Jean Eustache's 1973 intimate epic La Maman et La Putain. Jean-Pierre Leaud, who you'll remember as the lad from Truffaut's The 400 Blows, is the intense cafe-dweller who spends his days picking apart the fabric of life. Five minutes in and this remarkable film has got you. It's no picnic, but it's quite a feast.

Glasgow Film Theatre (0141-332 8128) 6.30pm

Theatre Dominic Cavendish

WATCHING A Dutch company present a double-bill containing Ashes to Ashes, Pinter's strained dialogue in which a man and a woman talk about her violent lover, in Dutch (with surtitles), might sound about as much fun as being cremated. But critics are heaping praise on Toneelgroep Amsterdam. As they are hilariously targeted in the filthy satire Buff, which rounds off the evening, they'd look foolish not to.

Riverside Studios, London W6 (0181-237 1111) 8pm

The Gift offered by Angela de Castro (right) is more of a stocking-filler than something to treasure forever. On the slight tale of a man waiting interminably for his date to arrive, the Brazilian clown - former sidekick to the legendary Slava Polunin - hangs many a moment of exquisite buffoonery.

The Pit, London EC2 (0171-638 8891) 7.45pm

Comedy James Rampton

ANYONE WHO can cope with Eddie Izzard on stage is not to be sniffed at. Suki Webster has had many a fine live duel with the Izzard king, notably in their successful West End show, One Word Improv. Also soon to be seen in a movie called Comic Act (I kid you not), she struts her off-the-cuff stuff tonight in the company of Lee Tearell and John Voce.

Artezium, Bute St, Luton (01582 707 100) 8pm

Fred MacAulay (right) has been cropping up an awful lot on TV panel- games such as The Best Show in the World... Probably. But don't hold that against him. He remains a sharp stand-up and MC. He comperes a bill tonight featuring Sean Meo, Terry Alderton, Ricky Grover, and Matthew Hardy.

The Comedy Store, London SW1 (0171-344 4444) 8pm

Poetry Judith Palmer

STAND-UP meets agit-prop when cuddly dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah (right) steps out at the Bradford Festival. The Birmingham-born vegan is sure to dig up eco-warrior classics like "Give peas a chance", playful digressions on cyber-sex, and rapid-fire rants like "every hippie carries nits and every Englishman loves tits, I love Page Three and other bits, I stare into The Sun". His targets can be predictable, but Zephaniah always more than compensates for this with fizzily witty wordplay, on-the-spot topical additions, ebullient delivery and a gap-toothed grin to warm the hardest heart.

Central Library, Princes Way, Bradford (01274 753600) 8pm