Jean-Pierre Jeunet could scarcely have been thinking about his potential international audience when he gave his marvellously inventive and highly entertaining new film its somewhat enigmatic title – Micmacs à tire-larigot. Much desk research has ensued in this office as to what the best English translation might be of this French colloquialism. ‘Micmac’ appears to mean ‘trouble’, or ‘foul play’, and ‘à tire-larigot’ – which some commentators suggest was first used with reference to French flautists in the 16th century (?!) – means something along the lines of ‘in abundance’, or ‘in large quantities’. If this were the 1920s and the film starred Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton I think I’d plump for ‘Bother Aplenty’, and given that the film is chock-full of brilliant sight-gag invention it’s maybe not the worst suggestion I’ve ever made... and I’ve made some bad ones. [No comment. - Ed.] But, for the purposes of filling this column only (as it is being released in this country as simply Micmacs), and bearing in mind this is a family publication, I think I’ll go for ‘A Truckload of Trouble’. Anyone got any better ideas?

Morgan Freeman takes on the role of Nelson Mandela in Clint Eastwood’s rousing Invictus, the story of the fledgling post-apartheid leader’s attempts to unite his country using the nation’s hosting of the Rugby World Cup – stirring stuff and no mistake. Colin Firth and Julianne Moore shine in Tom Ford’s beautiful, striking debut, A Single Man; and Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer (and James McAvoy for that matter) won’t be far away come awards time for their blistering roles (as Sofya and Leo Tolstoy) in Michael Hoffman’s grandly entertaining historical drama, The Last Station.

Food, Inc. is a shocking indictment of the industrialisation and corporatisation of the food industry; John Malkovich gives a mesmerising performance as an, erm, disgraced lecturer in post-apartheid South Africa in Steve Jacob’s excellent and extremely faithful adaptation of JM Coetzee’s Booker Prize-winner, Disgrace. From Korea, Treeless Mountain brilliantly and simply tells the story of two young sisters abandoned to their less than sympathetic aunt by their mother; and from Japan, Still Walking is Hirokazu (After Life) Koreeda’s latest – an Ozu-reminiscent family drama par excellence.
Season-wise, there’s part two of our retrospective of the work of the marvellous Yasujiro Ozu, and this year’s Middle Eastern Film Festival, with a special focus on the cinema of Egypt.

And finally, we got a great letter the other day from a regular patron who wrote to us on the occasion of having seen his 500th film at Filmhouse! 500! He's been coming since 1982 and is pleased to report that he considers only 28 of the 500 not wroth the adminssion price.  That’s a 94.4% success rate, which you’d have to agree is pretty impressive. If there’s anyone out there with any other tales of such impressive dedication to the Filmhouse cause we’d love to hear them.