Round-up of the week's new films - The Sun

Quartet

(12) 98mins

FILMS about people growing old and struggling with life usually have far too much sentimentality attached.

Not so Quartet, which is skilfully performed by its all-star cast and terrifically directed by Dustin Hoffman.

Beecham House is a care home for retired operatic performers and the time has come for its annual gala in honour of Verdi's birthday.

But the arrival of the once great Jean Horton (Maggie Smith) causes ructions among her three old friends Wilf (Billy Connolly), Reg (Tom Courtenay) and Cissy (Pauline Collins).

With the home struggling to raise funds and facing closure, the plan is for this quartet to reunite and perform once more. Quartet could so easily have fallen foul of that overused theme "Isn't the world confusing when you get old..." but luckily it avoids such stereotypes.

Despite the sensitive subject of senility being ever present (Pauline Collins is particularly moving as she gradually loses her grip on reality), you feel as though you're watching something celebratory.

All the cast are outstanding, particularly Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay who are struggling to come to terms with past mistakes and a repressed romance.

And you don't need to be an opera buff to enjoy it.

RATING: FOUR STARS OUT OF FIVE

McCullin

(15) 95mins

By GRANT ROLLINGS

DON McCULLIN is a war photographer who became famous thanks to his images of conflicts in Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Lebanon, The Congo, Biafra and Cambodia.

So this documentary about him is as much a look back on the wars of the 1960s and 1970s as it is a biography.

From the shell-shocked US soldier on the frontline in Vietnam to starving children in the Nigeria-Biafra War, his iconic photographs have a devastating impact.

McCullin always goes that extra few clicks to show the world what they wouldn't normally see – something he enjoys a bit too much.

This once working-class boy from East London is honest enough to admit in archive footage: "I wouldn't like to go through a year without a war."

Perhaps the claims that he is portraying the "truth" are somewhat overstated.

Because this is very much McCullin's version of events, told from one side.

RATING: THREE STARS OUT OF FIVE

Hors Satan

(15) 110mins

By GRANT ROLLINGS

THIS French drama is one of those films where you have to make up your own mind on what it's all about.

Few words are spoken to give us any explanation for the sporadic action.

Although at least that means the subtitles are limited.

And it is hard to be certain who the characters are, where they come from and how they know each other.

It's all rather typical, then, of director Bruno Dumont's work.

It's set in a village, where a confident man played by David Dewaele saves Alexandra Lemâtre's messed-up girl from her abusive stepfather.

At first, Dewaele's ultra-moody and violent character seems to be the Satan of this film's title.

But with the name of the movie translating as Outside Satan, later developments suggest the opposite.

To be frank, it's not really worth sitting through the film to find out the answer.

RATING: TWO STARS OUT OF FIVE