A glum, realist, existentialist take on street level film noir. The key idea is that, yes, poverty might drive people to crime but in some cases it's an open door because the criminal type really does believe himself above and apart from the rest of humanity. Michel is as pathetic as he is arrogant. The film takes flight when we see pickpocketing in action and hold our breath in suspense, hoping he'll succeed. The sequence where he's seduced by a…

Delicately poised between wacky odd couple romcom and neo-noir – or falling clumsily into the gap between the two, perhaps, depending on your point of view. It works for me, though, not least because it’s like sliding into a warm bath scented with Essence de Eighties. Jeff Goldblum is excellent as a dead-eyed salaryman who can’t sleep and is having an existential crisis. Only when he is forced to save a girl in trouble, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, does he…

The Nosferatu strand of the Dracula family tree is interesting because, despite being founded on an unlicensed knockoff of Stoker's novel, it somehow feels more authentic. Closer to the source of the vampire myth, geographically, than Whitby and London. Set earlier, conferring primary source qualities. And turning itself into a Grimm fairy tale or misty myth, rather than a modern adventure story full of telephones and Edison recorders. This version pulls in more of Stoker, alongside details and visual texture…