By Linda Marric Directed by Xiaogang Feng and staring Chinese superstar Feng Xiaogang, I am Not Madam Bovary is a film like no other film you’ve seen before. This beautifully crafted and unusually shot film is everything you’d want from a social commentary film. It touches on themes ranging from female empowerment, bureaucracy and state corruption, and it does this with a huge amount of humour and clever subtext. Shot partly in a circular frame, the film isn’t just technically...

Canada Water "mega-market" Hawker House has erected terraced seating for the Champions League final - and it looks pretty awesome. Juventus and Real Madrid clash in Cardiff on Saturday 3rd June in one of the year's most hotly anticipated games. Both clubs have won their respective leagues and come to the Welsh capital in rude form after a long season. Welsh star Gareth Bale returns to his home town for the fixture, with superstars such as Christiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema...

By Linda Marric What more is there to be said about The Beatles that hasn’t already been said before. In It Was 50 Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt Pepper and Beyond, which by all accounts has the clunkiest title for a documentary you could ever think of, director Alan G. Parker offers a rather disappointing, overly long, and altogether messy account of the band during the making of the eponymous album. The film also offers a look behind the...

A drowning man was saved in a dramatic rescue after lifeboat crew pulled him from the Thames - just five seconds away from death. Lifeboat crews rushed to his rescue after he was spotted struggling by the crew of a Thames Clipper boat. The Tower RNLI crew launched immediately and saved the life of the 36-year-old man, who had been pulled downstream by the fast-moving tide towards Blackfriars bridge. After pulling him from the river to safety just after 5am...

By Michael McNulty Luis Buñuel’s film Belle de Jour, released in 1967, took the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and stands in film history as one of the most, if not the most, erotic films of all time. Based on Joseph Kessel’s, a Russian who lived in Argentina and wrote in French, novel of the same name, Belle de Jour may not seem as salacious now as when it first appeared, both in print and on the silver...

Jamie Lenman Scala 2.5.17 Support: HCBP, Frauds Jamie Lenman may never escape the shadow that his hard-fought time in Reuben has cast, but he’s been giving it a damn good go. Almost four years on from the duplicitous fury and folk of his debut solo double album Muscle Memory new music has finally made its way out to the public, and so Jamie has found himself back in the fray, and he’s brought friends with him. First up are Frauds,...

By Linda Marric Considered by many as one of the most talented animators working in Europe at the moment, Michael Dudok de Wit hit the jackpot when he was approached out of the blue by Studio Ghibli to make a film with them. The result was one of the best received films at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and went on to win praise as well as prizes around the world. The Red Turtle came out of nowhere to steal...

Ever imagined living in a home with self-cleaning toilets, a television which chooses programmes for you and a robot that delivers breakfast in bed? Well, the home of the future may not be too far off. New research has unveiled Britain's wish list for the "smart home", including windows which tint automatically in the sunshine and a wardrobe that irons clothes while they are hanging up. Other inclusions are shower heads with in-built Bluetooth to enable us to answer calls whilst...

Opt only for the basic package You can save money while renting a car by purchasing the basic package. A big chunk of the total profit of car rentals comes from selling exorbitant add-ons to non-suspecting tourists. Turn a deaf ear when the attendant tries to lure you in purchasing their collision damage waiver (CDW for short) or so-called super CDW insurance that provides coverage to “excess”, which can run up to anything between €800 and €2,500, excluded in the...