CENSOR

 Horror movies about horror movies are nothing new. You could say the "Scream" franchise really started a trend for self-referential horror films while here in Britain we had "Berberian Sound Studio". Now we have first-timer Prano Bailey-Bond's "Censor" which is again a film about horror cinema, or in this case 'video nasties', as it delves into the mind of '80's film censor Enid, (an excellent Niamh Algar), who becomes a target for abuse when she passes a picture that is linked to a violent crime but just when you think this might be a film about a girl being menaced by some right-wing slasher it veers off in an altogether different direction.

You see, Enid had a young sister who disappeared, and is presumed dead, some years before and one day she thinks she recognizes her in one of the video nasties she's watching. This may not be a particularly original idea but Bailey-Bond handles it superbly, teasing us with just the right amount of gory schlock-horror while at the same time making us question why we watch films like "Censor" in the first place.

Of course, the question we have to ask ourselves is whether the girl in the film is the missing sister or has Enid been watching too many horror films, (Polanski's "Repulsion" is another point of reference and there is a killer moment just over half way through that sets the tone for most of what follows). It's hardly subtle but it certainly does what it says on the tin, disturbing us and chastising us at the same time. I think Miss Bailey-Bond is definitely a name to watch.

SMOOTH TALK

 An 18 year old Laura Dern is astonishingly good as a precocious over-sexed teenager who falls victim to a much older, predatory male, (a terrific Treat Williams), in Joyce Chopra's indie classic "Smooth Talk" though I have a feeling the film's 'classic' status may be based primarily on Dern's performance since the film itself meanders along rather slowly for a good deal of its running time.

This is a film that requires you pay close attention to its various nuances and it's certainly one of the best films ever on what it's like to be a teenage girl, (there's great work, too, from the undervalued Elizabeth Berridge as Dern's sister)

Midway through it moves into chiller territory as Williams' handsome stranger arrives at Dern's screendoor when her family are out with intentions that sound a little more than creepy and even if Laura seems like a girl who can take care of herself, Treat's intrusion into her life means she has to grow up fast. Based on a short story by Joyce Carol Oates, this still remains one of the best Independent American movies of the eighties.

I FIDANZATI

 Giovanni is an engineer who leaves his fiancee in the North of Italy for promotion in Sicily but once there finds it very different from what he expected. Like "Il Posto" before it, Ermanno Olmi's masterpiece "I Fidanzati" uses mostly non-professional actors and a documentary-style approach to chronicle the everyday life of ordinary people in, for Giovanni at least, an alien environment. Sicily may as well be the surface of the moon though it does have its own rarefied atmosphere.

Olmi's genius has always been for focusing his gaze on the simple things of life. There are no great dramas going on; some may even find "I Fidanzati" boring and yet there is more truthfulness and beauty here than most films can only dream of. I could watch Giovanni drift through his less than exciting life until the cows come home and Carlo Cabrini's 'non-performance' as Giovanni is quietly magnificent, perfectly in keeping with Olmi's vision of the man. Not as highly thought of as "Il Posto" but just as fine, "I Fidanzati" is one of the greatest of Italian films and, sadly, one of the most underrated.

GRAND SLAM

 This Italian heist movie was released in English with about 90% of the cast dubbed though it was clearly sold on the casting of Edward G. Robinson as the elderly professor who plans the heist and Janet Leigh as the girl who just happens to get her name at the head of the cast. As heist movies go, "Grand Slam" is hardly memorable but, despite the not totally convincing dubbing, is still a lot of fun with director Giuliano Montaldo making excellent use of his locations while, even in such a small part, it's always a pleasure watching Robinson steal a movie from under the noses of his co-stars.

The largely international cast also includes Klaus Kinski, again fun to watch in any language, Robert Hoffman and Adolfo Celi and the plot has to do with a diamond robbery worth over ten million dollars but, of course, no matter how well thought out nothing seems to go quite according to plan and naturally, as a homage to "Rififi", the robbery has to be performed in complete silence. This is certainly not in the same class as Dassin's masterpiece but it's a very serviceable guilty pleasure nevertheless.

FELLINI'S CASANOVA

 Carry on Casanova; like a series of dirty postcards painted by a Titian or a Carravaggio and with a (badly) dubbed Donald Sutherland as the great lover, "Fellini's Casanova" is another magnum opus from the maestro that takes him further and further away from reality into an admittedly beautifully heightened series of tableux to tell Casanova's story while another gallery of gorgeously costumed giants, dwarfs and eccentrics hover around him. It certainly looks the part but is impossible to take seriously and at over two and half hours seems to go on forever making you long for the Fellini of old; "La Dolce Vita" has a lot to answer for.