Amantes is an excellent film noir with outstanding performances by Victoria Abril and Maribel Verdu. However this Italian version is heavily censored, removing almost all the nudity and sensuality from the original film. The censorship ruins the film, because it makes the protagonist's decision to abandon his fiancee in favour of his landlady seem incomprehensible.

There are many books about running, but this is one of the most useful that I have come across. Both the authors are experienced road runners, and Pfitzinger twice represented the USA in the Olympic Marathon: in 1984 he finished eleventh in 2 hours 13 minutes.
The book is divided into two parts, each comprising five chapters. The first part is entitled `The Physiology of Running', and contains the following chapters:
* A Multispeed Approach to Road Racing
* Training to Improve VO2 max and Speed
* Training to Improve Lactate Threshold and Pure Endurance
* Optimal Training
* Optimal Racing
The second part is entitled `Training for Peak Performance', and contains the following chapters:
* Training to Race 5K
* Training to Race 8K to 10K
* Training to Race 15K through Half-Marathon
* Training for the Marathon
* Training to Race Cross-Country
The first chapter sets out the authors' basic principles of training, and comments that there are five basic types of training session (or `workout'):
* Short speedwork to improve running technique
* Repetitions (eg 2-6 minutes at 3k-5k pace) to improve maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 max)
* Tempo runs at a fast steady pace (eg 10-mile race pace) to delay the onset of lactic acid
* Long runs to build endurance
* Easy recovery runs
The second part of the book includes a good variety of training schedules for races from 5km to the marathon, for runners of different abilities. For the 5km, the authors provide three basic schedules. One is for novice runners who run less than 20 miles per week; one is for intermediate runners who run between 20 and 40 miles per week; and one is for more advanced runners who run more than 40 miles per week.
The book finishes with a couple of appendices including a very useful pace chart, although some readers will be disappointed that it does not cater for anyone running at slower than a four-hour marathon pace.
The book explains its suggested schedules very clearly, explaining why runners should aim to do some training sessions at lactate threshold pace and at their VO2 max. I also particularly like the fact that the authors encourage runners to do regular speed/technique sessions of 100m and 200m reps in order to help reduce the risk of injury. Obviously, no book can replace the advice of an experienced coach who can scrutinise a runner's running style, be aware of the runner's lifestyle constraints, and give personalised individual advice. But this book is a very useful source of reference on the principles underlying training for different types of road and cross-country races.

This series gives a fascinating insight into Germany at the time of reunification. And it is also a good way of improving one's German. Nevertheless I was left feeling disappointed, and I have two specific criticisms:
Firstly, the running times of some of the episodes are much shorter than advertised. The Wikipedia article states "The cinema version consists of six episodes running to 11 hours 29 minutes, although controversially the version broadcast on the German ARD television network in December 2004 was edited to six ninety-minute episodes and it is this shortened version which was released on DVD." I suspect that the full cinema version is probably more coherent and easier to follow than this shortened version.
Secondly, I found myself becoming increasingly irritated by Reitz's frequent and arbitrary switches between colour and black and white. This may have been understandable in the two earlier series, where one could feel that one was watching archive footage from the periods in which the series were set. However it seems completely unnecessary in a series covering the period from 1989. I agree with a review in the Independent which described the switches from colour to monochrome as `seemingly at random'.
Finally, I would definitely recommend starting with the two earlier series before considering whether to purchase this one.

As most readers will know, The Devils was originally released in a censored version in the UK and in an even more censored version in the US. Some of the censored footage was subsequently discovered by the well-known film critic Mark Kermode, was included in a Channel 4 showing of the film, and was also included in a subsequent DVD release by EuroCult (which is also available on amazon but has at present attracted very few customer reviews). So it is disappointing that this DVD release does not include the `Kermode footage' (mainly scenes of the nuns misbehaving and sometimes referred to as the `rape of Christ'). Opinions differ about how important this footage is in the context of the film as a whole: Kermode himself described it as the centrepiece of the film, whereas Ian Armer has expressed the view that `it adds very little'. Personally I am inclined to agree with Mark Kermode rather than with Ian Armer: I think that the juxtaposition of scenes of Grandier calmly celebrating Mass with scenes of the nuns behaving blasphemously is an impressive piece of film-making and is central to an appreciation of the film.
As for the film as a whole, Oliver Reed gives an outstanding performance - in my view the best of his career - as Grandier, but in my view the film is marred by the ludicrously unhistorical portrayal of Louis XIII as an effeminate transvestite (a criticism which was originally made by the film critic Alexander Walker when the film was first released).

Ken Russell has directed some outstanding films. Sadly, this is not one of them: in fact it is the worst of his films which I have seen. There is a promising start with a sado-masochistic scene featuring Katharine Blake (better known as the lead vocalist with Miranda Sex Garden and the Mediaeval Baebes). Unfortunately, Blake's appearance is merely a cameo, and the film soon deteriorates into surrealistic slapstick. I felt sorry for Marie Findlay, another of the Mediaeval Baebes, who has a supporting role and deserves to be given a part in a better film.

This DVD, which is published by EuroCult and appears to derive from France, is a poor quality transfer but it is 111 minutes long and includes restored footage which I do not recall seeing before. The sleeve states that it 'restores all of the cut footage that was removed when the film was released including the never before seen "Rape of Christ" sentence'. (On that basis, it seems that this is a more complete version than the recent 2-disc reissue which I have not yet seen.)

This book gives a very good account of American film noir, ranging from black and white classics such as Double Indemnity to more recent films such as Body Heat, The Last Seduction and The Grifters. Unfortunately the book is let down by a lack of attention to countries other than the USA. There is one 28-page chapter entitled `The Dark Side of the Earth' which purports to cover everything outside the USA, but that chapter is notable for some bizarre and inexplicable omissions. From Argentina, the book includes Fabian Bielinsky's 2005 film `El Aura' but does not mention his earlier classic `Nueve Reinas'. There is no mention of the Chilean classic `Los Debutantes' which features a marvellous portrayal of a `femme fatale' by Antonella Rios. The only Spanish film mentioned is Almodovar's `Carne Tremula'; there is no mention of Aranda's classic `Amantes' which features an excellent performance by Victoria Abril, nor of the same director's historical film noir `Carmen' which features a memorable performance by Paz Vega in the title role. (Ironically, the book does include the American noir `Carmen Jones' which is based on the same Bizet original.) The five pages on France include the classics `Rififi' and `A Bout De Souffle' but does not mention `One Deadly Summer' which features a memorable performance by Isabelle Adjani.
Personally I would give this book four stars for its coverage of the USA, but only one star for its eccentric and appallingly incomplete coverage of the rest of the world.

Cindy Pickett gives an outstanding performance as a woman (Valerie) who was traumatised by being raped as a teenager, and retreats into sexual fantasy after a confrontation with her husband, who leaves her alone in their large house. Unfortunately this DVD is taken from a TV (ie censored) version and is several minutes shorter than the original cinema version which was released on VHS. There is still some nudity but some of Valerie's sexual fantasies have been removed.

This is a very readable book. It The text includes several brief interviews with elite athletes (mainly South African but including Paula Radcliffe). The chapter on `prevention is better than cure' contains seven pages of photographs showing how to stretch (demonstrated by a middle-distance runner, Tanya Peckham). The chapter on `the ten laws of running injuries' includes the reassuring observation that `only a minute fraction of true running injuries are not entirely curable by quite simple techniques'.
While I agree with most of what the authors write in the book, I do part company with them when they describe the treatment of chronic muscle tears. The authors state:
`The only treatment that works is a physiotherapeutic manoeuvre known as cross-frictions. A better term would be "crucifixions" because nothing, not even your toughest-ever race, is as painful as cross-frictions applied, however gently, to a chronic muscle tear! The key to the treatment of these injuries is that a chronic muscle tear will heal only if the cross-frictions are applied to the injury site - the tender knot in the muscle - and if they are applied sufficiently vigorously. If the cross-friction treatment does not reduce the injured athlete to tears, either the diagnosis is wrong, or the physiotherapist is being too kind.'
This seems to me to be an unfortunate example of hyperbole or of South African machismo (and possibly both). Most British physios and sports masseurs emphasise that it is important to try to keep the pain caused by the treatment just within the athlete's pain threshold, which varies very significantly between different runners.
I was particularly interested in the section on knee injuries. The authors describe the two most common injuries as peripatellar pain syndrome and iliotibial band friction syndrome. They comment that peripatellar pain syndrome is frequently caused by excessive ankle pronation. However, in my view their discussion of runners' knee injuries is significantly weaker than the discussion in the rather larger and more expensive book by the British physiotherapist Vivian Grisogono entitled `Running: Fitness and Injuries'. Grisogono devotes more attention to injuries resulting from an imbalance in the quadriceps muscles, where the outer quadriceps muscle (vastus lateralis) becomes much more powerful than the inner quadriceps muscle (vastus medialis). Grisogono observes that `the key muscle for kneecap control is the only one to hold the kneecap from its inner edge: the vastus medialis', which is only exercised and strengthened when the knee is fully extended, so that it is weakened when runners only do slow jogging without fully extending the knee. My personal experience is the same as Vivian Grisogono's, and I am puzzled as to why Noakes and Granger devote relatively little space to this common imbalance. I suspect that the most likely explanation is that Noakes and Granger spend most of their time treating elite runners who do regular speedwork, and are therefore less likely to suffer this particular injury than runners who do most or all of their running at a slow pace without fully extending the knee.

A reminder of a great day for English football. This DVD has a running time of 114 minutes whereas the match lasted for 120 minutes. It states that it is 'dead ball edited for the first 90 minutes'. It is certainly more complete than the BBC DVD which I had previously bought from Amazon. (But bearing in mind that the BBC produced a 1991 VHS with a running time of 130 minutes, containing the complete match, I am surprised that nobody has simply converted that version onto DVD.)