John Powers

Critic at large John Powers has just returned from the Cannes film festival. The top prize winner at Cannes was director Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley, a film about the Irish rebellion against British rule and the country's subsequent civil war.

One of the most acclaimed films of the 1970s was Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger, starring Jack Nicholson. On a new DVD release, home viewers can now see it in the original wide screen and with six additional minutes not shown in the American theatrical release. It's a personal favorite of critic John Powers, who says that it's not an easy film, but a good one.

Four films by French director Louis Malle, who died in 1995, have been released on DVD by Criterion. They include Elevator to the Gallows, his first feature, and a new boxed set with Murmur of the Heart, Lacombe, Lucien and Au Revoir Les Enfants. Our critic at large says that watching these films years after their release made him see Malle in a different way.