Three films

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is an immensely moving film. Thought provoking and fascinating, with a submersive, documentary-like style and hints of Amelie, you'll come away from it realising how important and under-appreciated every day, hour and moment really is. Directed by Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls), the film follows post-stroke, comatose Jean Dominique Bauby, the once dashing, successful editor of "Elle" fashion magazine. Unable to communicate by speech, Bauby, played by Mathieu Amalric, manages to write his autobiography using a system of blinks. The film is ultimately one of hope, but also impresses upon the viewer that at any time something unexpected and disastrous could occur, so it is best to live each day as though it is the only one you have (....and off to England!)

We all need to be reminded of this once in a while. Go look at the stars.

The Class, about a tough, inner-Paris neighborhood high school, is a universal story about teacher and student relationships, discipline, and hardship. Featuring students who have never acted professionally, the film is gripping, even though 80% of it takes place in one location. Bursting with more energy than a normal classroom, there is no stagnancy, no pause, in the dialogue.

If you want to see an example of incredible animation, see Waltz with Bashir. If humans are ever going to pack it in and stop warring, they need to know what war does. The horrors of it seem to be a taboo subject on the news ("better not show those awful pictures, or we may just have an uprising on our hands"). Said Waltz's director Ari Folman, "War is like a very bad acid trip among other things" and something like "I don't like how Hollywood has movies about war, in which the message is 'war is terrible' and then there are soldiers whom kids look at and say 'I want to be that person.' No one looks at the men in my movie and says 'I want to be like them.'" If I can change the mind of one teenager about going to war, making this movie will have been worth it." Waltz with Bashir won best Foreign Language film at the Golden Globe Awards.