Three Days of the Condor

A gripping and well-made Italian film that never quite gets around to answering the biggest of the questions it raises

Four Days in September by the Brazilian director Bruno Barreto has about it the sepia tones of an old photograph. How strange people were in those far off days of 1969, and what strange things they did. Much credit is due to Barreto, himself a former leftist, for the skill and artistic restraint involved in…

Kissed by the young Canadian, Lynne Stopkewich, is one of those made-on-a-shoestring, parents-helping-out, credit-cards-maxed-out sort of films which are so often touted in the press these days. Ms Stopkewich’s parents, at least, can be proud of their daughter’s commercial savvy, since they are certain to get their money back. Visa, too, can breathe a sigh…

Near the end of The Mod Squad one of the three drop-dead hip teen cops, Pete Cochran (Giovanni Ribisi), says to another, Julie Barnes (Claire Danes): “Dirty cops, drops at the airport: I feel like one of us should say, ‘We’re getting too old for this s***’.” Julie replies: “At least it’s not going down…

Almost Famous begins in 1969 with a literary discussion about Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird between a precocious eleven year-old, William Miller (Michael Angarano), and his widowed mother, Elaine (Frances McDormand). A college professor in San Diego, Elaine has obviously invested a great deal of hope in her son, whom she intends to be…

The most romantic film-maker still to be found in la douce France turns his camera on an unlikely event, the defeat of 1940, with enjoyable results.