Top five films: best of the big screen
LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (94 minutes) PG
In a chateau turned hotel, a man and woman (Giorgio Albertazzi and Delphine Seyrig) meet for the first time — or do they? This 1961 collaboration between director Alain Resnais and writer Alain Robbe-Grillet is a puzzle of a movie and proof of cinema's capacity to seduce by technique alone. Screens as part of the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival. Digitally projected. Palace Westgarth, Sun March 10, 4pm.
HEAVEN'S GATE (219 minutes) M
Michael Cimino's tragic anti-capitalist 1980 western is paced like an art film and choreographed like a musical. Kris Kristofferson is the upper-crust hero who sides with immigrants against cattle barons in 1890s Wyoming; the exceptional supporting cast includes Jeff Bridges, John Hurt, Christopher Walken and Isabelle Huppert. Digitally projected. Astor, Sun March 10, 7.15pm.
SPIRITED AWAY (122 minutes) PG
After her parents are transformed into pigs, a young girl finds a job in a magical bathhouse where strange spirits come to cleanse themselves. This 2001 fantasy from the great Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki displays an imagination as bold as David Cronenberg's under the cover of family-friendly whimsy. Digitally projected. Thornbury Picture House, Sun March 10, 2.30pm.
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT (148 minutes) M
Mission Impossible must qualify as the best Hollywood action series now going. The latest instalment, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, still doesn't tell us much about super-spy Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise. But there's no questioning Cruise's physical commitment and his ability to make it all look like fun. QV Outdoor Cinema, Sun March 10, 8.30pm.
LYGON STREET: SI PARLA ITALIANO (87 minutes) 18+
Melbourne food culture has come a long way since the 1950s, when the first wave of Italian migrants introduced locals to exotic phenomena such as salami and espresso machines. Shannon Swan and Angela Pricolo's documentary chronicle of Carlton's famed restaurant strip doubles as a pointed intervention into debates over immigration. Screens as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, with themed food and panel discussion. Cinema Nova, Sun March 10, 5.30pm.