An unsurprising winner of the Berlinale’s Golden Bear, Jafar Panahi’s Taxi is a road movie come-societal commentary of the type that seems to now be a fixture in Iranian cinema. Following on from Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry (1997) and Ten (2002), Panahi...

An often bracing study of faces, Queen of Earth is a film that once again underlines the anachronistic influences of director Alex Ross Perry. Following on from last year’s wryly grim Listen Up Phillip, which channelled New Wave narrative conceits around insuf...

James Franco is beginning to resemble the Berlinale’s bad luck charm. After grimacing his way through Werner Herzog’s risibly melodramatic Queen of the Desert, he can now be found sleepwalking through Everything Will Be Fine, Wim Wenders’ bizarre 3D picture ce...

"Less is more" could serve as a motto for Andrew Haigh's latest film, 45 Years, screening in the Main Competition at the 65. Berlinale. Starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, and based on David Constantine's short story In Another Country, the film tel...

Of all the stories surrounding one of the last remaining maverick superstar directors, only one of Werner Herzog’s many legends involves a car accident. Several years ago, Herzog is said to have pulled a dazed and confused Joaquin Phoenix from the wreckage of ...

A lighthouse towers over a deserted landscape of rubble. There is a pause and then an explosion, its sound substituted for the chime of a small bell, that brings the solitary building crashing to the ground. The camera glides to the right to reveal a man stand...

Stellan Skarsgard might be one of the busiest - and most laid-back - actors of today. Recently seen in Lars Von Trier's controversial Nymphomaniac, with a role consisting of neverending lines of complex dialogue, this time the Scandinavian star has chosen acti...