FILM: FIVE BEST REVIVALS

1

Les Diaboliques (NFT, Mon)

Henri-Georges Clouzot really knew how to torture an audience, which may not sound like much fun, but you'd be surprised. This 954 thriller is his best film - a dark and demented tale of two women whose plan to visit revenge on a man backfires most disturbingly.

2

Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (Riverside, Mon)

The Riverside Cinema (08-237 ) screens Leos Carax's wild and wonderful Parisian romance. Not a very engaging film, but hard to beat for sheer spectacle and ambition. Showing with the fine L'Appartement.

3

Psycho (5)

What was Hitchcock's most perfectly conceived and executed work? Psycho is in the running: 38 years on, it is still blackly funny, effortlessly chilling and a pretty succinct encapsulation of the joys of cinema.

4

Le Mepris (Cambridge Arts Cinema, Mon-Tues)

Godard's searing 963 drama is about a marriage and a film, both of which are falling apart. Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli are the warring husband and wife; Jack Palance and Fritz Lang also appear.

5

The Birthday Party (NFT, Tues)

Not a terrific film, but one that you don't get the chance to see very often. William Friedkin (who had yet to make either The Exorcist or The French Connection) summons up the requisite Pinter menace.