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Spanish spring: cinema after FrancoThe end of Franco’s dictatorship spawned a remarkable flowering of Spanish cinema at the end of the 1970s. With the revival of Carlos Saura’s Cría cuervos, Paul Julian Smith looks back at key films of the era
A love-hate relationship: French cinema and boulevard theatreDirector François Ozon’s Potiche turns a 30-year-old farce into a riot of 1970s kitsch. Ginette Vincendeau looks back over the love-hate relationship between French cinema and boulevard theatre
Lost and found: AllonsanfànOnce arthouse darlings, the Taviani brothers are now shunned by UK distributors. Michael Brooke resurrects their 1974 film Allonsanfàn, a picaresque yarn about ineffectual insurrectionists in post-Napoleonic Italy
Red skies: Soviet science fictionFrom heroic propagandist tales of space exploration to post-apocalyptic dystopias of the Chernobyl era, the history of Soviet sci-fi from the 1920s to the 1980s mirrors the rise and fall of the USSR. James Blackford probes the lost world unveiled in a new BFI season
The revolution of inaction: This Is Not a FilmMade under house arrest, Jafar Panahi’s In Film Nist (This Is Not a Film) breaks all the rules, says Amy Taubin
Terrence Malick’s first film in six years, The Tree of Life lived up to expectations at Cannes, winning the Palme d’Or – a first for the legendarily reclusive director. Nick James unravels the film’s mysteries
PLUS Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki on his unique three-film collaboration with Malick
Recurring themes of apocalypse and sexual abuse made Cannes 2011 a sobering but ultimately inspiring experience for Nick James
PLUS Jonathan Romney is mesmerised by Lars von Trier’s Melancholia
PLUS Amy Taubin applauds a ‘non-film’ from imprisoned Iranian director Jafar Panahi
PLUS Geoff Andrew on the pick of the non-competition films
Viewing Iran’s social problems through the prism of a troubled marriage, director Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. He talks to James Bell
With trademark iconoclasm, director François Ozon has turned a 30-year-old farce into a riot of 1970s kitsch – with very contemporary political resonance. Ginette Vincendeau savours Potiche, and looks back over the love-hate relationship between French cinema and boulevard theatre
From propagandist tales of space exploration to post-apocalyptic dystopias of the Chernobyl era, the history of Soviet science fiction mirrors that of the USSR itself, says James Blackford
Buried on its original release in 1981, Cutter’s Way now looks like the last blast of the American New Wave of the 1970s. Michael Atkinson welcomes its rerelease
Film of the month: IncendiesFrench-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve views the internecine conflicts of the Middle East through the prism of a family tragedy of Greek proportions. By Roger Clarke
DVD: Jacques Tourneur's westernsJacques Tourneur is known for noir and horror. But, argues Tim Lucas, his westerns were every bit as extraordinary
Film review: KaboomGorgeous bed-hopping teens head off the apocalypse in between lessons on giving head. Just another day at the office for Gregg Araki, says Ryan Gilbey
Film review: The BeaverMel Gibson’s fallen alpha male channels himself via a beaver glove-puppet in this poker-faced family discord drama from director Jodie Foster. Nicolas Rapold wonders if it’s a deadpan parody