1962: Salvatore Giuliano

The nonlinearly told film starts with the death of the title character, a 1940s Sicilian outlaw, and tells the stories of people connected to him, as well as the history of Sicily during that era. It's a little hard to follow at times, but nicely contrasts the city with the countryside, Sicily with Rome, and darkness with light. (7)

1962: Birdman of Alcatraz

You shouldn't think a film about a prisoner in solitary confinement who becomes a bird expert is all that interesting, but it's pulled off in a very professional manner: a well-structured screenplay (Guy Trosper) and no-nonsense direction (John Frankenheimer). Old Hollywood: It did have something going for itself. (7)

2007: I'm Not There

Six actors playing six facets of Bob Dylan, with episodes from a variety of decades intercut with each other; in other words: this film makes a point of being nonlinear. In my view, it's taking that concept a bit far; despite knowing a bit about Dylan's life, I found it too fractured, but fully understand others disagreeing on that. Visually fine, good music (naturally), an abysmally bad performance by Ben Wishaw as one version of Dylan. (6.5)

1970: Patton

Never having read anything about the film's content, but having seen versions of the film's poster multiple times, I naturally had assumed that this was some anti-patriotic war comedy, sort of like M*A*S*H, but apparently, a man looking somewhat silly saluting in front of a giant national flag does not signify parody or satire in the USA.

No comedy then; rather, this is a biopic about an actual US general during WWII, co-written and well-made except for the fact that most of the indoors scenes look like having been shot in the studio. On the plus side: In the original (undubbed and mainly English) version of the film, all of the dialogue in German is delivered by native speakers, which is fairly unusual. (6.5)

1998: The General

Martin Cahill, the Irish gangster boss this John Boorman picture is about, is no Don Corleone, and The General is no Godfather. It is one of those colour-to-black-and-white jobs that usually go wrong, suffers from an awful soundtrack remindful of the early 1980s (saxophone!) and, like most biopics, lacks a decent narrative arc. Having said that, there's enough happening here to keep you decently entertained for two hours. (6)

2002: 24 Hour Party People

The story told of the Manchester music scene (with particular emphasis on Joy Division and the Happy Mondays) told as the biography of Tony Wilson, founder of both Factory records and The Haçienda. The film constantly violates the rules of traditional storytelling - such as Wilson turning to the camera to point out that some people insist the events just depicted never have happened - so you can call this postmodern if you like, but it is certainly an easily digested and fun ride through the years with a somewhat weird yet likable host and a visual style befitting the topic. (7.5)