A new film about controversial director Roman Polanski will be "opinion changing" and allow audiences to hear about his turbulent life in his own words, its director said today.

Geoffrey Macnab reports on a new film that will show the troubled director in a remarkable new light

Starring: Ray Winstone, Jaime Winstone

Chris Huhne was never the centre of a show quite like this in his years as a fast-rising politician. Cameras, lights, celebrity lawyers, piped music and a nutcase in fancy dress were all there to enliven up a short and very routine court hearing.

If you have visited the cinema recently, you will be familiar with the scenario of Carnage, even if you have not actually seen the film; the promotional clips have been aired endlessly.

Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, John Hawkes, Hugh Dancy / Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C Reill

Go no more a Roman

On screen Sigourney Weaveris fearless and Amazonian. Arifa Akbar finds out how the off-screen version measures up

On screen the actor is fearless and Amazonian. Arifa Akbar finds out how the off-screen version measures up

He gave depth to the characters that was often missing in other productions by Hammer

The singer Violetta Villas, who has died aged 73, was a coloratura soprano who spurned opera for popular music, a Polish singer who became a caberet star in Las Vegas and who was trapped for years behind the Iron Curtain when she flew home to tend to her dying mother.

The European Film Awards is seemingly becoming the award of rehabilitation. Two years in a row directors of the film picking up the top prize Best European Film have refused to attend the award ceremony for fear of landing themselves in trouble.

Roman Polanski likes confined spaces. Knife in the Water, Cul-de-Sac, Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby all had a determinedly claustrophobic feel. So does Carnage (a world premiere in Venice.) The difference here is that this is a comedy, albeit a barbed and vicious one. Adapted from Yasmina Reza's play, it is a chamber piece, lasting barely 80 minutes. Thanks to the coruscating dialogue and four tremendous central performances, the film transcends its stage origins. Not since Richard Burton and Liz Taylor tore strips off each other in the movie version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? has there been a film that has probed so pitilessly into the lives of middle-class couples.