It was only when we watched Faces, Places that I learned that we’d never watched a single film by Agnès Varda, a significant force in the French New Wave movement. Her death earlier this year only reminded me of the need again and so here is one of her most famous works. This one is certainly more approachable and less cryptic than many of the other French New Wave films we’ve seen plus it does put women in its centre in a way that those films do not.

Along with The Lion King, this is one of the Disney animated films from the 1990s that made the strongest impression on my generation, purely as a consequence of when it was released. Nostalgia is indeed a powerful thing and so even I confess to feeling a frisson of anticipation when the teaser for this opened with just the image of a rose and the opening notes of its famous main theme. Inevitably no modern remake can ever live up to childhood memories but this one at least makes no major missteps and is probably as good an effort as can be expected.

Ever since I watched One Wonderful Sunday, I felt that I liked it more than any of Akira Kurosawa’s more well known samurai films. Ikiru falls into precisely the same category, a drama film set in post-war Japan about the travails of everyday life. This one belabors its points a touch too heavily and could stand to be edited down a bit. But it is nonetheless wonderful and far more intelligent than I initially gave it credit for.

The cultural impact of this film has been like a wrecking ball, making waves among critics and pundits long before its release date. Fans have been hyping it up as one of the rare superhero-related films that has actual artistic merit while detractors have worried over whether it would inspire acts of terror in the real world. I waited for a while to make sure all of the buzz around it isn’t just the result of overenthusiastic marketing but there was little doubt that I would want to catch this one in the cinemas.

Resuming our run through of the Disney live action remakes, I was surprised that this was also directed by Jon Favreau. No wonder he was chosen for the later and higher profile The Lion King. I believe that The Jungle Book is the only one of the classic Disney animated features that I’d never watched and I’ve never read the Rudyard Kipling book it was based on either. Naturally it’s easy to guess at some of what it’s about through cultural sublimation but the details here were all new to me.

Robert Pattinson is much derided for his role in the Twilight films but he continues to prove again and again that he really is a good actor. This was directed by the pair of brothers, Joshua and Benjamin Safdie, who seem to have some fame as independent filmmakers though I haven’t come across any of their work before this. Benjamin himself acts in this film as the mentally handicapped brother and does a great job at it too. Unfortunately while the film seems very promising at first, it doesn’t go where I thought it would and I’m mystified as to why the brothers chose to take it in that direction.

This is another Chinese film that I’m sure I picked up from Western sources as I don’t think it made too many waves within China itself. This is as far as I know the closest thing China currently has to a #MeToo film. It was directed by a woman Vivian Qu who is not very well known, having previously worked only as a producer. Indeed it’s straightforward and a little lacking in artistry but it does all the right things and sends the right message.