Caesar Must Die is a stylish Italian blend of theatre and cinema, fed through a lens of lush, rich and creamy black and white.  It is a surprising film in many ways.  The controversial winner of this year’s Golden Bear, the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, this is the latest film by the Taviani brothers, Paolo and Vittorio, winners of the Palme D’Or at Cannes for their 1977 film Padre padrone.

This film is a surprisingly intense affair.  Set in a high security prison, the premise revolves around the annual play performed by the prisoners to a public audience.  Visiting director Fabio Cavalli selects Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, a tale of honour and deceit among politicians.  Having chosen their cast, the inmates begin assiduously rehearsing their characters, taking their respective ancient Romans back into their cells and deeper within their lives and psyches.

The great surprise of Caesar Must Die is that it was filmed entirely almost as a stylised documentary.  These are real prisoners performing a real play for a real audience, behind bars for crimes that involve everything from murder to Mafiosi connections.  This is explained toward the beginning of the film, but only becomes explicit at the very end.  This is surprising because Caesar Must Die is a thrilling drama, with excellent comedy moments, which is due in large part to both the confident directing and the phenomenal cast.  Undoubtedly one of the most unexpectedly moving films of the year, it shows tonight as part of the BFI London Film Festival.

Caesar Must Die screens tonight at Vue West End, and tomorrow, Friday 19 October, at BFI Southbank.

Families put under artificial strain seems to be becoming the leitmotif of French-Swiss film director Ursula Meier (not to be confused with renowned Austrian film artist Ursula Mayer).  Maier (not Mayer)’s debut, Home, took an ordinary and lovely French family led by Isabelle Huppert and placed a motorway beside their house.  Her latest film, L’enfant d’en haut (Sister), which screens today as part of this year’s BFI London Film Festival, is a far more complex affair set in the snowy hills of Verbier.

Simon is twelve years old.  He lives in a tower block at the foothills of the French mountains with his sister Louise and supports them both by stealing from the wealthy visitors to the local ski resort.  Soon, Simon is caught by seasonal worker Mike and befriends the holidaying Kristin and her two young sons.  Louise’s latest on-off boyfriend becomes a friend and confidante of the small family. Unfortunately, none of this can be maintained because, ultimately, there is a thin veneer of deception upon which is built the ‘reality’ of what Simon and Louise present to the world.

Maier’s sophomore feature is a difficult film, both for audiences and presumably also for the director to have made.  She is wonderfully supported by a dedicated cast who turn in equally strong performances.  Considering this is a film that is carried by a fourteen year old (in only his third film) it is a revelation.  Léa Seydoux, playing Louise, is our reluctantly illusory antagonist, and there are surprise turns from British actors Martin Compston and Gillian Anderson as two of the town’s seasonal visitors.  L’enfant d’en haut has been receiving rave reviews and is Switzerland’s submission to the 2012 Oscars.  You heard it here first.

L’enfant d’en haut (Sister) screens tonight at Vue West End as part of the 2012 BFI London Film Festival.

A super-stylised body horror crammed with a cast of startlingly good looking young people, exploring the concept of corporeal desire, leading to these pretty young things doing and thinking almost unspeakable acts of fetishism, directed by Cronenberg.

Videodrome?  No.

Crash?  No.

Antiviral is the first feature film by Brandon Cronenberg, son of David (who, with Cosmopolis and A Dangerous Mind, has recently been accepted in to Hollywood legend).  Set in a very near and recognisable future, Syd March works for a company that harvests illness and disease taken from celebrities and sold on to their willing and paying clients.  Hannah Geist is the celebrity du jour.  Every injection he sells supposedly brings these desperate fans one step closer to emulating their idols.  Corruption of the mind leads to Syd getting far closer to fanaticism than is comfortable – for him and for all around him.  When Hannah Geist dies in mysterious circumstances, with Syd surreptitiously carrying her supposed fatal malady, he is dragged into an underworld of fetishism.

It’s an incredibly assured debut by Cronenberg, his camera is polished, formal and sophisticated.  At times uncomfortable, the director has admitted that he trimmed almost six minutes from the film’s premiere in the Un Certain Regard award strand at this year’s Cannes Film Festival to make it more palatable.  The revised film is showing as part of this year’s BFI London Film Festival.  It screens tonight at Screen on the Green, Islington.

A word to the wise, have dinner first.

Antiviral plays at the Screen on the Green, Islington, tonight at 2100.