WAR AND PEACE (Sony). This magnificent, massive, Russian epic, directed by Sergei Bondarchuk over a seven year period in the 1960’s with a huge cast which includes 120,000 extras is, without any doubt whatsoever, the definitive film version of Tolstoy’s novel. The reconstruction of the Battle of Borodin, which feels like something out of a Delacroix painting, is one of the screen’s longest and greatest battle scenes. 

IVAN THE TERRIBLE Part 2 (Sony). The 16^th century Czar Ivan IV (1530-1584) was terrible in the Russian sense of awesome. Eisenstein’s highly stylized epic, with its powerful, opulent and symbolic images, with its huge close-ups of faces, and its over-the-top pantomimic acting, shot in black and white, with one burst of colour, is one of those films which once seen are never forgotten. Banned by Stalin it was not released until 1958, 10 years after Eisenstein’s death.

ONE DAY (Universal). A couple meet on the 15^th July every year over two decades. There is no chemistry between Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess and the end result is not only a very disappointing adaptation of David Nicholl’s novel but also a dreary romantic comedy in its own right.

THE DEBT (Universal). Spy thriller. Three Mossad secret agents in 1966 capture a Nazi war criminal in East Berlin, intending to take him back to Israel for trial; but things don’t go according to plan. The film is cast with two sets of actors playing their younger and older selves but, 

confusingly, they don’t look as if they are related; on top of 

that the roles are (with the exception of Jesper Christsen as the Nazi, a gynaecologist) not well enough acted. The story falls apart when the action jumps 30 years and introduces a rubbishy, implausible conclusion.

BLUEBEARD (Sony). The most notorious 15^th century French serial-killer and bloody paedophile, is presented as a gentle giant who doesn’t have sex with his virginal 14-year-old bride. The famous fairy tale gets a non-erotic and non-violent treatment from French director Catherine Breillat. The climax, the whole point of the story, is inexplicably rushed and botched.