THE MAN across the table could be anybody. His face, with its pursed lips and hollow cheeks, is a mask of impassivity. In the austere opulence of a Paris hotel lounge, this slight, almost boyish figure, in his smart jeans and trainers, could be a wealthy tourist or a businessman relaxing after a day at the Bourse - or maybe a student blowing his stipend on an extravagant drink. He gives nothing away, perhaps used to interrogations more perilous than press interviews. He could be an artist or an artisan (we will find out that he has been both), a conformist or a revolutionary (that might depend which side you ask). He might also, if you want to know the truth, be the world's greatest film director.

'THIS STORY IS about my grandparents . . . It's still spoken of in these parts, even though it happened a long time ago. Some people believe it, some people don't' This beguiling voice-over heralds the first scene of Red Sorghum. In it, Gong Li is taken by sedan to a remote Sorghum winery, where, against her will, she is to marry its elderly and leprous owner.

THE WHIRLIGIG of time blows a fuse in Groundhog Day. Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, a TV-weatherman locked in time, destined to live the same day over and over again. Today, and today, and today, creeps in this petty pace to the last syllable of recorded time. It wouldn't be so bad if today were something special, but it's Groundhog Day, his direst assignment of the year: a folksy festival, in freezing February, when he has to join the burghers of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, in their dawn vigil for the Groundhog, presage of spring. His piece perfunctorily performed, he looks forward to going home the next day. But time that waits for no man, takes a nap.

AT A press conference today, the satellite channel TV Asia, catering for Asians in Europe, will announce plans to encrypt its signals so that it will be available only on subscription. Test transmissions on the Astra 1B satellite began on 8 July. They have been 'remarkably successful', says Faisal Sherjan, the channel's chief executive.