A-Z of movie vanishings

The theme of disappearance produces great films. Even at medium-best, it guarantees chewed nails or quickened hearts. Nigel Andrews offers a list stacked up through the years

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Dark days and glittering prosperity

The fine, sickening ‘Panorama’ report by Alison Holt on Baby P, the infant who died after being tortured, leaves viewers helpless in a nationally shared rage, writes John Lloyd

Japan’s adopted talking heads

The country’s countless quiz and variety shows invariably feauture token foreigners who are famous nowhere else, writes Jonathan Soble – who recently joined their ranks

Impaired vision and blind panic

Against the odds, Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles has somehow turned ‘Blindness’, a masterly horror fable by Portuguese author José Saramago, into rhubarbed melodrama, writes Nigel Andrews

Talkin’ to Mister De Niro? ’Fraid not

‘Why don’t you make great movies any more,’ Peter Aspden wanted to ask one of the most important actors of our time. But that risked a cutting answer that will make anyone regret bringing up the subject

French filmmaker goes from local to global

Raymond Depardon, whose work highlights the struggles of indigenous populations, discusses his masterly documentary trilogy about French rural life with Tobias Grey

Battle-scarred in the name of conscience

Through the televised obsequies on remembrance week, the message came through that the death toll of all wars has been a terrible waste, writes John Lloyd

Alarming bad taste broadcasts

Scandals are not just covered by television; they are television – an ironic tribute to the role the medium plays in people’s lives, write John Lloyd and Bertrand Benoit