REMEMBER THE NIGHT

 A classic and yet one most people have never even heard of, "Remember the Night" was a Mitchell Leisen movie with an original screenplay by Preston Sturges and stared Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, (before they got all hot and bothered in "Double Indemnity"), so what more proof do you need that it's a classic and a very funny one, too.

Stanwyck is the jewel thief and MacMurray the District Attorney determined to put her in jail for stealing a diamond bracelet over Christmas but in typical screwball fashion MacMurray ends up taking her home for the holidays to meet the folks. The inevitable happens. Both leads are superb and there are great supporting turns from Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, Sterling Holloway and Willard Robertson as the defence attorney whose opening speech to the jury is worth the price of admission. It may not be "The Lady Eve" but it's certainly the next best thing.

MADAME CURIE

 One of the better biopics with that paragon of virtue Greer Garson as Marie Curie and Walter Pidgeon as husband Pierre. "Madame Curie" was just one of several such films to have come out around this time, a history lesson dressed up as a somewhat sumptuous entertainment with a first-rate cast of character players giving the stars all the support they need. Garson is really very good in the title role and Pidgeon, one of the most underrated of actors, is superb while Paul Osborn and Hans Rameau provide a surprisingly intelligent screenplay with a little uncredited help from Aldous Huxley and Walter Reisch. Mervyn LeRoy was the director and while he wasn't the most inspired filmmaker Hollywood ever turned out he could usually be relied upon to deliver the goods and this remains one of his more enjoyable pictures.

ALI & AVA

 Once upon a time this would have been called 'ktichen-sink' but for now let's just call it British realism but whatever "Ali & Ava" is, it's a feather in the cap or maybe even a jewel in the crown of British cinema. It's a Clio Barnard movie which is really all you need to know. She may not be a household name and in America is probably not known at all but she's one of the best directors working in cinema and this hard-hitting, but deeply affectionate film is a joy from start to finish.

Set in Bradford it's a middle-aged romance between two people from very differnt backgrounds. Ali, (a terrific Adeel Akhtar), comes from an Indian immigrant family and earns his living as a 'landlord' and Ava, (an equally good Claire Rushbrook), is a classroom assistant from an Irish background who fall into a relationship almost by accident despite the racist oppositon of Ava's son.

They are united by a love of music and a need for company and they are two of the sweetest people to grace a movie in a very long time; you really want them to make it but you know this is a Clio Barnard film and Barnard never takes the easy option so ... It's also Barnard's most accessible film to date, funny and very moving in equal measure. How BAFTA came to pick "Belfast" over this as last year's Best British Film should be a mark of unending shame.