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Xan Brooks

Columnist

Xan Brooks is a journalist, author and broadcaster. His latest novel is ‘The Catchers’

<p>Aubry Dullin and Zoey Deutch as Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in Richard Linklater’s ‘Nouvelle Vague’</p>
Features

The Breathless tribute that (unsurprisingly) charmed Cannes

<p>Lily Collias in 'Good One'</p>
Features

Cinema’s new trend? The frustrated descendants of the American western

<p>The man, the myth: Nicolas Cage in ‘The Surfer’</p>
Features

Nicolas Cage has spent years playing himself – but the best actors do

<p>Leni Riefenstahl shrinks from the camera in a startling new documentary from Andres Veiel</p>
Features

Riefenstahl proves that the best documentary subjects are monsters

<p>I feel fine: Observers prepare to be pancaked by asteroid debris in the 1998 blockbuster ‘Deep Impact’</p>
Features

Why do we love to repeatedly watch ourselves die on screen?

<p>Filming on the set of ‘Dr Strangelove’ in the 1960s</p>
Culture

Why we love movies about the end of the world

<p>Treasure hunters: John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson and George Clooney in Joel and Ethan Coen’s ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’</p>
Features

How O Brother, Where Art Thou got upstaged by its own soundtrack

<p>Divisive Dane: Lars von Trier’s work has attracted as many boos and walkouts as it has awards and adulation</p>
Features

Lars von Trier’s Parkinson’s diagnosis spells doom for cinema

<p>Walter Salles directs Fernanda Torres on the set of the Oscar-nominated ‘I’m Still Here’</p>
Features

An Oscar frontrunner is based on a true story – but whose truth is it?

<p>Footloose, carefree youth: Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in ‘Before Sunrise’</p>
Features

Before Sunrise is back in cinemas – and far sadder than it used to be

<p>Unlikely Oscar frontrunner: Adrien Brody in Brady Corbet’s ‘The Brutalist’ </p>
Features

The 215-minute epic that could save Hollywood – if we let it

<p>Worlds apart: Nicole Kidman in the erotic thriller ‘Babygirl’, and Angelina Jolie in the sombre biopic ‘Maria’</p>
Features

Angelina Jolie is in dire need of Nicole Kidman’s fearlessness

<p>Lily-Rose Depp in ‘Nosferatu’ – Robert Eggers’s alternative Christmas film </p>
Features

Nosferatu is unexpectedly the perfect comfort blanket for Christmas

Features

Nosferatu is unexpectedly the perfect comfort blanket for Christmas

<p>Lily-Rose Depp in ‘Nosferatu’ – Robert Eggers’s alternative Christmas film </p>
<p>‘Tucked away in the margins, perpetually bubbling under’: Tom Waits in the 1989 film ‘Cold Feet’</p>
Features

How Tom Waits became cinema’s great unsung character actor

<p>Silver surfers: Daniel Craig and George Clooney premiering their respective movies at this week’s Venice Film Festival</p>
Features

George Clooney ought to listen to Daniel Craig about ageing on screen

<p>Don’t call it a comeback: Mel Gibson in ‘The Beaver’, Johnny Depp in ‘Jeanne du Barry’ and Lindsay Lohan in ‘The Canyons’ </p>
Features

Johnny Depp and the rich history of the shambolic comeback film

<p>A tottering meat puppet who finds desire and agency: Emma Stone in Yorgos Lanthimos’s ‘Poor Things’</p>
Features

Poor Things gets that nothing scares men like female sexual liberation

<p>A tottering meat puppet who finds desire and agency: Emma Stone in Yorgos Lanthimos’s ‘Poor Things’</p>
Features

Poor Things gets that nothing scares men like female sexual liberation

<p>Taking notes: Rosamund Pike in Emerald Fennell’s ‘Saltburn’, and Natalie Portman in Todd Haynes’s ‘May December’ </p>
Features

Most new films aren’t original – why won’t their directors admit it?

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