In this column last month I promised an Orson Welles retrospective and here it is, duly delivered. Othello and Chimes at Midnight have eluded us, but apart from that it’s looking pretty good... A particular highlight is Welles’ version of ‘The Scottish Play’, which will screen from a ‘restored’ print held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, in which the original Scottish ‘brogue’ used by the actors, and subsequently removed by the studio, has been restored. Och aye, the noo...!

Jane Campion, that erstwhile doyenne of ‘arthouse’ film directors, won’t remain erstwhile for too much longer after the release of her sumptuous latest, the story of the romance between 19th century romantic poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), Bright Star. Starsuckers is a marvellously entertaining doc from Chris Atkins, the man who brought us the Blair-baiting Taking Liberties a few years back – this time our fascination with fame and the famous comes under his illuminating spotlight; Tales From The Golden Age is a wryly amusing compendium of shorts from the leading young directors of present day Romania, poking fun at the Ceaucescu era; and Michael Haneke’s Palme d’or winner, the brilliant The White Ribbon, tells the story of the sinister goings-on in a village in pre-WWI Germany. The ever-watchable Vincent Lindon stars as a swimming coach who gets involved training a would-be illegal immigrant to Britain to swim the Channel, in the authentic, powerful and moving French hit of earlier in the year, Welcome.

And Welcome is just the tip of the French iceberg this month: featuring a stunning central performance by César-winning Yolande Moreau, Séraphine beautifully tells the story of ‘naive’ artist Séraphine de Senlis; the dazzling new documentary Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno opens a window on the great man’s unfinished film, L’Enfer, and it’s enough to make you mourn for this masterpiece that never was; and the French Film Festival is back, in its 17th edition! All the best new titles from the land of the Gauls PLUS a Jacques Tati retrospective AND a rare-as-anything Jean Eustache retrospective. Zut alors!

And if anyone is sad/old (or both) enough to remember who is being paraphrased by the six words at the top of the page, email the name to competitions@filmhousecinema.com and if you’re first out of the hat (on Monday 2 November) you can come see all our Orson Welles films for absolutely nothing!

As Orson himself once nearly said: “Probably... the best cinema... in the world.”