I just love Catherine Zeta-Jones and am always willing to support Guy Pearce after being a long-time Neighbours fan. Plus I just love the glamour and sophistication of the 1920s, so it was with quite a bit of excitement that I watched Death-Defying Acts.

In the film, famous illusionist Houdini (Pearce) is seeking to find out his mother's last words. He offers a reward of $10,000 to any psychic who can enlighten him. Mary McGarvie, (Zeta-Jones) is determined to win. Featuring in a psychic act with her daughter, Benji (Ronan), she goes about trying to win this prize. A romance between the two commences.

Some reviews say the film was compelling, but unfortunately I can't say the same. Perhaps my expectations were too high - either way, I didn't find the film gripping. On the positive side, the Houdini story line is interesting, and the glamour of the film is evident. I do recommend you seeing it. Great visuals and a great performance by the main actors make it worthwhile viewing.

This is an account of the short and dramatic life of Cuban writer and trouble-makertroublemaker Reinaldo Arenas, and it is named after his autobiography. He was initially supportive of Fidel Castro's revolution, but soon became disillusioned with it, and then rebelled against it, ultimately to his considerable cost.

The story is told in episodes, covering his childhood; his early support for the revolution; his homosexual relationships and; his critical writings, that which were both protests against the communist government, and alsoand the cause of his fall from grace, arrest, and imprisonment; and the aftermath.

Arenas summed up his motivation to write in one word: revenge. That said, the film also conveys a strong element of irresponsibility, of mischief-making, of deliberate provocation. In that respect he's probably a bit like Bob Ellis: some justice, maybe some inaccuracies, but always a stirrer. Which is no bad thing: we need our stirrers.

This is one of those excellent films which somehow we never quite got around to screening before. Now is the time: members who saw the director's next film after this one (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) when we screened it last semester will recognise the same quality of vivid fantasy that turns its subject into something much greater than you couldwould, on the face of it, expect. Both films offer us an inside perspective otherwise hard to get - in this case, the inside perspective of an outsider; a colourful view of a colourless Cuba under Castro.