Smells Like Unsung Heroism

Director: Jean-Paul Salomé
Main Cast: Sophie Marceau, Julie Depardieu, Marie Gillain, Déborah François, Maya Sansa, Moritz Bleibtrau, Julien Boisselier

Anyone expecting a propaganda film about the rights and wrongs of war had best look elsewhere. With so many films dedicated to the male experience it is entirely refreshing to see a work devoted to female participation and sacrifice in World War II.  Female Agents is about redressing a sadly neglected aspect of the war against Hitler: that of female resistance. History has largely written out this vital story in a post-war attempt to bolster the traumatized generation of men returning from the front line.

Cinema Release Date: 27th June 2008

Smells Like a Bull's Ex-Dinner to Me

Director: Chris Waitt

So here's the premise: unknown young British documentary filmmaker Chris Waitt keeps getting dumped by his girlfriends. He gets a shit-load of funding from new-ish UK indie filmmaking outfit Warp X to drive around the country mercilessly doorstepping each of them in turn to ask they why (oh why..) did it go wrong? Can they help him finally sort his love life out by answering the awkward question - what didn't they like about him?

Cue incessant but cathartic and ultimately enlightening squirm-a-thon for the next 90 mins. Only... and here's the big question... is this so-called documentary for real?

Cinema Release Date: 27th June 2008

Smells Like an Accidental Triumph

Director: Sandrine Bonnaire

This documentary - made by the French actress Sandrine Bonnaire - tackles the difficult and profoundly moving subject of her younger sister’s misdiagnosed psychoinfantile disorder with autistic tendencies and the tragic consequences of her institutionalisation in a psychiatric hospital.

However, this film isn’t simply a critique of inadequate funding and the misguided treatment of mental illness; but rather, it depicts an entire society that cannot deal with people that fail to conform to a productive, functioning “norm”: a society whose questionable humanitarianism purports to understand and treat, when in reality, still relies upon a regime of heavy medication and incarceration.

Cinema Release Date: 20th June 2008

Smells Like Prisoner Cell Block Eton

Director: Richard Wyatt
Main Cast: Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Damian Lewis, Dominic Cooper, Seu Jorge, Steve Macintosh, Liam Cunningham

The conventions of prison break dramas are turned on their head in this action packed summer luvie fest, with an A–list of the best of British clamouring to get a look in: Damian Lewis, Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes and Steven Macintosh are amongst the players in this homage to the prison dramas of yesteryear. Managing to combine elements ranging from OZ to Prisoner Cell Block H with American prison features like The Shawshank Redemption, this could end up being the Brit flick of the summer.

Cinema Release Date: 20th June 2008