Hippies, vampires and the spirit of David Lynch loom large

Writer-director Peter Strickland cites a viewing of David Lynch's nightmarish Eraserhead ("this strange, beautiful piece of atmosphere"), followed by years of triple bills at the King's Cross Scala ("New York underground, sleazy European art porn, creepy Italian horror"), as his cinematic inspiration. It's easy to imagine the creator of Katalin Varga (2009, Artificial Eye, 15) gorging himself on such exotica. From the brooding, amorphous guilt of Lynch's industrial noisescapes to the emotive violence of so much "exploitation" fare, Strickland clearly appreciates the strange mysteries of cinema's most dark and troubling dreams.

His eye-opening first feature is a gothic-inflected Romanian tragedy in which the vampiric spectre of Transylvania's prince of darkness is replaced by an altogether more human monster. Hilda Péter is mesmerising as the innocent outcast, banished from her village when her husband discovers that he is not the father of her son. With horse, cart and nine-year-old in tow, Katalin sets off across the haunting vistas of the Carpathians, hellbent on revenge, the landscape almost singing to her as she goes – an eerie murder ballad. But when she finds the beast who brutally scarred her years ago, will she be able to plunge a stake into his heart? Does revenge or redemption cast the longer shadow? Brooding, sensual and brilliantly unsettling, Strickland's film moves seamlessly between horror and wonderment, a visually enrapturing modern myth with its head in the darkening clouds and its feet firmly planted in the soil of a spine-tingling soundtrack.

While it may be hard to imagine a "good Megan Fox movie", Jennifer's Body (2009, 20th Century Fox, 15) comes close to being just that. Admittedly, Fox herself is the least of this satirical high-school slasher's virtues, its main strength being a spunkily genre-literate script from Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody. Likable Amanda Seyfried takes centre stage as "Needy", the allegedly dowdy teen (clearly Cody's cipher) whose best/worst friend turns out to be a man-eater, in every sense.

Like all the best teen-terror romps (from Carrie to Ginger Snaps), the supernatural elements are based upon down-to-earth adolescent anxieties. There's real recognisable bite in the spectre of Jennifer's dawning vampirism ("she's evil… and I don't just mean high school evil"), and the best moments combine sarky humour and creeping horror with post-Mean Girls aplomb. Sadly, it doesn't quite sustain the initial promise as prom night looms and subtextual meat gives way to more formulaic softcore scares. Yet there's plenty here to entertain young-at-heart horror fans (both male and female), who will appreciate Cody's evident love of the genre and hopefully respond with appropriate good cheer.

The cover for the mirthless dirge-fest The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009, Pathé, 15) cites a review which proclaims that this is "as funny as any Will Ferrell or Judd Apatow film". Talk about damning with faint praise. What scant laughs are on offer here are in fact duly stolen by co-producer Ferrell, who drops in for a supportive cameo involving skydiving, Abe Lincoln and dildos (readers are invited to insert their own cheap knob gag here). Elsewhere it's a chuckle-free zone as Jeremy Piven and co attempt to do for cowboy car salesmanship what Blades of Glory did for figure skating: make it seem funny, ballsy, quirky, comic but ultimately (and not entirely ironically) uplifting. Sadly, it is none of these things, at least not on the evidence of The Goods.

It's hard to know what exactly attracted Ang Lee to the hippy-dippy comedy of Taking Woodstock (2009, Universal, 15), a tale of peace, love and understanding which is somewhat hobbled by being quite so benign. Everyone involved seems absolutely lovely – from the quaint Catskills townsfolk whose rural idyll is overrun by vagrant longhairs, to the cops, the TV squares, the bread-head promoters, the security guards (Liev Schreiber in scene-stealing drag) and, of course, the sauntering druggy peaceniks themselves, who are peculiarly polite and well-behaved throughout. OK, so Imelda Staunton's marauding mum starts out screechy and shrieky, but even she mellows under the tide of niceness and a large plate of hash brownies. In knowing counterpoint to Mike Wadleigh's Woodstock, we never actually get to see the festival itself, Lee's focus being on the crowd which seems to exist in a bubble of Brigadoon-like bliss. Only a heavy-handed closing reference to the impending catastrophe of Altamont (which gave birth to the Maysles's terrifying Gimme Shelter) strikes a note of doom – otherwise it's nostalgic sunshine and light all the way.

With Julien Temple's wonderfully gritty Oil City Confidential playing in cinemas and duly raising the bar of the contemporary "rock doc", it's tempting to be snotty and scornful about Michael Jackson's This is It (2009, Sony, PG), a hagiographic montage of rehearsal footage from Jacko's unfulfilled final tour. Yet despite never being intended for public viewing, the resultant patchwork is a peculiarly charming and occasionally poignant affair. Jackson was clearly pacing himself and rarely hits his moonwalking stride, gesturing towards dance steps rather than throwing himself into them, and occasionally talking rather than actually singing the songs. Yet anyone who felt a morbid tingle at the posthumous release of Elvis's "Twelfth of Never" rehearsal tapes will be similarly intrigued by the apparent intimacy of these "non-performances". Of course the real showman here is Kenny Ortega, heroic helmsman of the High School Musical series and the guiding hand behind this ambitious enterprise which somehow weaves a silk purse out of a potential sow's arse. Go Kenny!

• DVD and video reviews

Mark Kermode
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While she was head of English at Cardinal Griffin school, Poplar, in east London, in the 1950s, my grandmother Maria Kerigan, who has died aged 95, developed an interest in drama and broadcasting. When she retired from teaching in 1968, she decided to volunteer for Mary Whitehouse's National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, and in 1970 became its first national secretary. However, her approach to censorship and broadcasting standards was quite different from Whitehouse's.

Films such as Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange were then testing the limits of the British Board of Film Censors (later Classification, BBFC). While denouncing Kubrick's most controversial work, Maria was careful to differentiate between a film depicting violence for its own sake and one where it could be contextualised. Where Whitehouse's approach was absolute, Maria believed instead in providing information to viewers and listeners. Indeed, she felt that the violence in films such as The Godfather (which became one of her favourites) could be fully justified by the story.

Whitehouse regularly appeared on television, arguing for taste and decency. Maria, however, quietly operated the machinery of the association, engaging in effective diplomacy with figures in the BBFC, BBC and government, and making the case for greater provision of information and education about film and television productions.

Her pragmatism may have produced an unspoken tension with Whitehouse. They parted company as campaigners shortly after The Romans in Britain trial of 1982. Whitehouse's autobiography, Quite Contrary (1993), omitted all mention of Maria, despite her years as a dedicated volunteer.

Born near Leigh, in Lancashire, Maria won a scholarship to Mount St Joseph grammar school in Bolton, then read English at Manchester University, and became headteacher at St Edmund's primary school in Little Hulton, aged 26. She and her husband, Carl, moved to London in 1952, where Maria joined Cardinal Griffin school. After her retirement, she continued to coach children in English. She was involved with the Catholic church and was a fundraiser for the aid agency Cafod.

Carl died in 1998. Maria is survived by their two sons, Anthony and Shaun, two daughters, Pat and Cecelia, 10 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

• Censorship
• Stanley Kubrick

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Showtime has lined up another feature film supplier.

All-new footage from the third chapter in Stephenie Meyer's hugely popular vampire romance series finally arrives.

Take a look at this poster image for Sylvester Stallone's latest film.

The Infernal Comedy, based on true story of Austrian serial killer, among highlights of Barbican's plans for coming year

It might not be the cheeriest night out, watching John Malkovich as a resurrected Austrian serial killer on stage with a baroque orchestra and two sopranos singing arias about murder and abandonment, but it will, the Barbican's artistic director cheerfully suggests, be one of his personal highlights.

"It's a kind of 21st-century version of an 18th-century melodrama," said Graham Sheffield. "Absolutely brilliant and completely unique."

The Malkovich piece, The Infernal Comedy – part drama, part concert – is based on the true story of Jack Unterweger, who killed at least 11 prostitutes. "Probably not a thing to take a person on a first date," Sheffield conceded.

The show was announced today as part of the Barbican's plans for the coming year, along with the return of big-name regulars such as Peter Brook, with The Magic Flute; Michael Clark, with the next instalment of his production come, been and gone; and Robert Lepage, with a new multimedia production called Blue Dragon.

The centre's managing director, Sir Nicholas Kenyon, painted a rosy picture of the Barbican's last 12 months. "We are building on success because last year the Barbican had its best year ever with 1.2m tickets sold and attendances 13% up, and that is continuing this year. People are buying tickets through the recession. We are in a period of remarkable success across the arts."

Other highlights announced today include screening the latest Nasa outer space footage for the Houston Symphony's performance of The Planets; the Dutch theatre group Toneelgroep Amsterdam restaging three Antonioni films; a new version of Peter Pan from the National Theatre of Scotland; and Peter Sellars directing his version of György Kurtág's Kafka Fragments.

The Barbican's move into east London will continue: for example, when the jazz legend Wynton Marsalis arrives with the Jazz at Lincoln Centre orchestra from New York there will be jam sessions at Dalston's Vortex and a family concert in Hackney.

"We are creating a new model for the future of what an arts centre can be," said Kenyon. "It depends on the interaction of excellent names with as diverse an audience as possible."

In visual arts, the Barbican art gallery's big summer show will be an exploration of the relationship between surrealism and architecture, with the architects Carmody Groarke designing a "house" in which there will be the work of artists from Man Ray to Dalí to Louise Bourgeois. Then in the autumn the gallery will host the first European exhibition devoted to avant-garde Japanese fashion from the early 1900s to the present.

The Barbican's main resident orchestra, the London Symphony orchestra, will see the principal conductor, Valery Gergiev, take on Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich as well as a less familiar name, the living Russian composer Rodion Schedrin.

Sir Colin Davis will continue his series of Nielsen symphonies, Bernard Haitink will conduct Schumann, André Previn will conduct Strauss and Vaughan Williams and Sir Simon Rattle will conduct the LSO for the first time since 2000.

• Theatre
• Classical music
• John Malkovich
• Art
• London

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Take a look at this new poster that will be seen at the South by Southwest Film Festival.

Take a look at this new one-sheet with all of your favorite toys from the first two films.

Schools must devise new ways to teach children the importance of intellectual property, says the FDA president

The Oscar-winning head of the body which distributes films in the UK today called for new methods to be employed in the battle to defeat internet piracy.

During a keynote speech as president of the Film Distributors' Association, Lord Puttnam said young people needed to be educated at an early age that it was wrong to illegally download copyrighted material.

"The concept of intellectual property and its value needs to be embedded inextricably into the school curriculum," he said. "We need to establish beyond doubt that if people want films on offer in a variety of ways and formats, as we hope and believe they do, then they are required to pay a fair price."

Puttnam, who won an Oscar for best film in 1982 as a producer on Chariots of Fire, highlighted a recent FDA project aimed at the vital "tween" generation of 8 to 11-year-olds, a teaching resource designed to stimulate classroom debate about why copyright existed.

"Today, it's encouraging to report that this resource has been supplied, free upon request, to almost one in five primary schools in the UK – that's 4,000 out of a little over 20,000 schools," he said.

Speaking afterwards to the Guardian, Puttnam said the film industry itself also needed to adopt new ideas, if internet downloading was to be defeated. In particular, it should follow the example of the music industry and make limited content such as film clips free to viewers, he said.

During his speech, Puttnam challenged TV producers to come up with a successful show to capture the imagination of the British moviegoing public, which he said had powered the UK and Ireland box office to an all-time high of £1.06bn last year, up 11% year-on-year despite a 4.8% shrinking of the European economy over the same period. He said broadcasters should not be put off by "the well-rehearsed arguments regarding clip clearances", when there was a genuine opportunity to capitalise on the UK's current love affair with movies.

"Where on earth are the edgy magazine shows or the contemporary panel shows or the audience participation shows themed to the movies?" Puttnam asked. "The mass public interest in films – enjoyed by millions of people every week – is all but ignored in the current output of our national broadcasters. Here's a gap crying out to be filled with a smart, modern format."

"When TV producers are having to negotiate a fee for the clips they want to show – that's barmy," Puttnam said, after his speech. "Either accept that there's not going to be a programme of this kind on TV, or give them the bloody clips and be thrilled that they're being seen by millions of people."

He agreed that the industry needed to follow the example of the music industry, which routinely makes some content free to bloggers and online audiences in order to attract music lovers to check out new acts."These are the nonsenses that this industry has always been susceptible to," he added. "You are building the next generation of audiences and they should be all over it like a rash. It's this inability to see the big picture, this narrowness of thinking, which has for many many years muddled matters."

Puttnam suggested that the government's new digital economy bill, which is partly aimed at reducing internet piracy, might not be capable of bringing a halt to illegal downloading in its present form.

"For me it's a staging post," he said. "One of the mistakes made is allowing the ISPs to pretend they are not part of a retail chain. If you or I wanted to open a chemist shop we would have to pay attention to health and safety and the nature of the products that we sold. We couldn't just serve anyone, for instance. Somehow or other we've allowed the ISPs to drift into a mindset that's allowed them to think that they are somehow inured to the forces of the law. Government has failed to get that message across."

Puttnam said he felt that one of the best ways to encourage film fans to make legal purchases was to ask popular film-makers to join the education campaign. "You've got to get Ken Loach out there, Mike Leigh out there so that people understand that this is a cycle of finance," he said. "If you cut off their ability to raise money there aren't going to be any movies. There's a generation of film-makers who audiences have respect for, that have got to come out and make this clear."

During his speech, Puttnam suggested a rather more direct approach, in the shape of a change in the law to make the use of camcorders in cinemas specifically illegal. He also said film content must be available legally online "in ways consumers want, and at prices they can afford" if people were to be dissuaded from using illegal download sites.

"I don't believe for a second – and see no evidence – that today's young generation of consumers is inherently evil and has no intention of ever paying for anything," he said. "But multi-channel broadcasting and the web have brought a massive proliferation in viewing options and an explosion of choice, and as we've learned to our cost, content in a digital form is relatively easy to transfer and copy."

• Piracy
• Internet
• Children

Ben Child
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Take a look at this new series' return on the SyFy Network next month.

Danny Huston stars in another intelligent film transposing Tolstoy to LA. By Peter Bradshaw

British-born director Bernard Rose, known as a horror specialist for his 1992 shocker Candyman, is showing some stunning form with his modern adaptations of Tolstoy. After a conventional account of Anna Karenina, Rose brought off a brilliant version of The Death Of Ivan Ilych in 2000; set in modern Hollywood, and entitled Ivansxtc, it starred Danny Huston as Ivan, the agent and Tinseltown power-player, confronting the awful truth about his approaching death. Now Rose has adapted Tolstoy's novella The Kreutzer Sonata, again starring Huston, again set in contemporary Los Angeles. The result is bold, brilliant and exhilarating: an intimately horrible, sexually explicit and black-comic portrait of a toxic marriage that is closer to the spirit of the original than any number of costume dramas. It is not merely a study of jealousy and obsession, but a profoundly pessimistic and nihilistic rejection of romantic love and sex itself – which, in a world without God, is the ultimate blasphemy.

Huston plays Edgar, a very rich man in early middle age, whose worldly charm and sensuality attract a woman he meets at a party: this is Abby (Elizabeth Röhm), a beautiful and talented classical pianist, who is already in a relationship. Their passionate, clandestine affair leads years later to marriage, but Abby is discontented, having now given up music for children. To appease her, Edgar induces his private charitable foundation to host a benefit concert, so his wife will play Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata to a moneyed private audience, but she must therefore practise long hours with a handsome violinist: Aiden (Matthew Yang King).

Instantly, Edgar conceives a fanatical jealousy – after all, did Abby not once cheat on that former boyfriend to be with him? Yet he is neurotically compelled to let Abby be alone with the handsome newcomer, to prove to himself that he is not threatened, and so creates the scab he's picking at. Abby is entirely innocent, but exasperated and sexually disaffected with Edgar, and also insists on maintaining her affectionate friendship with Aiden, just to prove to herself that she is a free agent. And so this neurotic, poisoned situation metastises in Edgar's mind.

In his novella, Tolstoy has a line about the supposed joys of the honeymoon and conjugal bliss being like a fairground con-trick whose victims are too ashamed to admit they've been duped and so too ashamed to warn others – and thus the scam continues for eternity. In Rose's movie, it is monogamous intimacy itself that is vilified through Edgar's crazed worldview. His wife's essential unknowability – in fact, the unknowability and uncontrollability of everything outside his head – drives  him mad.

The despair and contempt also includes Beethoven and all classical music, which Edgar secretly loathes: the famous duet, so far from being a sublime meeting of spirits, is a clenched, ritualistic confrontation in tune with the violence and pornography of Edgar's private hell. Rose's Kreutzer Sonata looks a little like Haneke's The Piano Teacher, and bears comparison with Chantal Akerman's version of Proust's The Captive – but is freer and more uninhibited. My only reservation is with Rose's use of voiceover narration, which is, perhaps, a little pedantic. But it doesn't stop this from being a superbly creative adaptation.

Rating: 4/5

• Drama
• Leo Tolstoy

Peter Bradshaw
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