Parky at the Pictures (DVD 18/1/2018)

But, with the restoration of the monarchy and the rise of the Madrileña movements in music and comedy and the `pasota' or `I don't care' ethos amongst the young, Saura was increasingly seen as a yesteryear figure, whose dance films were lauded for their dynamic beauty, but whose ventures into period drama and social realism were deemed overly formal and old-fashioned. Yet, while he has been eclipsed in some arthouse circles by the likes of Pedro Almodóvar, Saura remains an auteur of incalculable importance and the BFIs decision to issue Cria Cuervos/Raise Ravens (1976) on disc should help restore some of his lost lustre.

Filmed as Francisco Franco was dying and premiered in Madrid four decades after the outbreak of the Civil War, Cria Cuervos took its title from the proverb `Raise ravens and they'll peck out your eyes' and exposed the legacy of violence that had been passed on by adults seeking to suppress guilty memories to their uncomprehending children. However, it is also a feminist treatise challenging the roles imposed upon women by a society rendered stiflingly conservative by a coalition of church, state, military and bourgeoisie and a tentative espousal of hope that time can heal the deepest scars and bitterest memories.

Following a credit sequence montage of family photographs, eight year-old Ana Torrent creeps down the stairs in her night clothes and sees married Mirta Miller hurriedly leaving Héctor Alterio's room. Torrent calmly enters and finds her father dead on the bed and removes a glass of milk from a sideboard and methodically washes it in the kitchen before stealing a piece of lettuce from the refrigerator for her guinea pig, Roni. As she turns to head back upstairs, she is stopped by her gently chiding mother, Geraldine Chaplin, and they embrace.

But not everything is as it seems. Chaplin died several months before from excruciating cancer and, while Torrent is sure that she has murdered Alterio for letting her beloved mother suffer, the white powder she believes to be poison is nothing more than bicarbonate of soda. Thus, the scene is set for a study in misconception, non-communication and corrupted innocence, in which the steelily impassive Torrent consoles herself with ghosts from the past in her confused bid to make sense of a detested present.

The middle child of three, Torrent lives in a sprawling compound in the centre of Madrid with sisters Conchita Pérez and Maite Sánchez, their mute and wheelchair-bound grandmother Josefina Díaz and their earthy maid Florinda Chico. However, the new head of the household is Chaplin's spinster sister, Mónica Randall, and Torrent decides to resist her authority after she tries to force her to kiss the uniformed Alterio as he lies in his coffin for soldier colleagues like Germán Cobos (who is married to Miller, but besotted with Randall) to pay their respects.

Randall wants the girls to tidy up the house and Chico resents both the implication that she has been slack in her work and the exhortation not to discuss her former employers in front of the children. Her enforced silence is echoed by that of the increasingly forgetful Díaz, who spends her days smiling sadly in front of a pinboard of mementoes that now form part of the family mythology that Torrent defends by playing Díaz a recording of 1930s chanteuse Imperio Argentina's `¡Hay, Maricruz!' and asking Chaplin (who gave up her chance of becoming a concert pianist to marry Alterio) to play Catalan composer Federico Mompou's `Canción y Danzas N.6'.

Yet, she also challenges this cosy domesticity by repeatedly playing `Porque te vas', a contemporary pop song about loss that was performed by Jeanette, an English-born singer whose accent catches Chaplin's own in playing Torrent's much-missed mother. (However, Saura also cast Chaplin as the grown-up Torrent looking back on events from 1995 and he had her lines dubbed by Spanish actress Julieta Serrano to emphasise the growing distinction between mother and daughter, despite their outward similarity.) A further sense that she half-appreciated that all was not sweetness and light comes when Torrent and Pérez don their parents' clothes and put on make-up to recreate one of their arguments. Even more disturbingly, the pair later get into an argument with Randall about the ownership of a rifle and a pistol that they insist Alterio had bequeathed them.

Having briefly contemplated her own suicide by jumping off a roof and buried her deceased pet, Torrent offers to relieve Díaz's silent suffering by using the powder that she had kept hidden in the basement after Chaplin had asked her to throw it out, as it could kill an elephant. But the old woman realises it is harmless and changes her mind about taking her leave. However, she cannot tell Torrent the truth and, consequently, the child is dismayed to discover the failure of her bid to finish off Randall with a doctored glass of milk when her aunt breezes into the bedroom to pack the trio off to school on the first day of a new term.

This new beginning leaves many questions unanswered - including the fate of Randall's romance with Cobos, which was interrupted by the firearms incident and seems much more genuine than Alterio's lustful advances towards Chico and Miller, which Torrent had respectively witnessed without comprehension in her father's study and at Cobos's country estate. But Saura was in no position at a time of such seismic transition to speculate about the future and takes care to exclude hindsight from Chaplin's Proustian monologues as the older Torrent.

However, his dissection of the trauma and guilt ravaging Spain in the mid-1970s is as incisive and unflinching as the shifts between reality and fantasy are astute and audacious. Saura's use of Teo Escamilla's camera is also accomplished, as he invites the audience to share Torrent's unique perspective and the tight shot-reverse-shot sequences that reveal her intimacy with Chaplin. Yet he employs static long shots to emphasise her detachment from Miller and forbidding top shots that stress the family's gloomy isolation from the bustling city and the imminent transformation it represents.

The performances are uniformly superb, as the cast responds to the claustrophobic atmosphere and stately pace. But, in only her second features (after excelling two years earlier in Victor Erice's The Spirit of the Beehive), Ana Torrent is mesmerising as the sad-dark-eyed dreamer who sees much but understands little and whose unwillingness to let her mother go manages to keep alive the memory of those who perished in resisting tyranny. Moreover, by repeatedly fixing her gaze directly on the lens, she also implicates viewers in the hypocrisy that had underpinned the political, social and sexual repression in which they had acquiesced.

Despite its accusatory allegory, Cria Cuervos was the sixth most successful picture at the Spanish box office in 1976. It also landed the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. However, its full worth has been somewhat overlooked in the intervening 35 years and it's to be hoped that this reissue will re-establish it as one of the most important Spanish films ever made and Torrent's performance as one of the most powerful and poignant given by any child in screen history.

Icelandic director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson has earned quite a reputation with his short films. Between them, Þröng sýn (2005), Jeffrey & Beth (2000), Whale Valley (2013) and Ártún (2014) have won over 50 awards at festivals around the world. In making his feature bow with Heartstone, however, Guðmundsson appears to have forgotten any lessons learned about brevity being the soul of wit, as he allows his vaguely autobiographical coming out saga to sprawl, to the detriment of its delicately poised storyline.

Fourteen year-olds Thor (Baldur Einarsson) and Christian (Blær Hinriksson) are best pals in a remote Icelandic coastal community. While lazing down by the jetty with Mangi (Theodór Pálsson) and Guðjón (Sveinn Sigurbjörnsson), they see a shoal of fish swimming beneath their feet and dash the brains of the unfortunate creatures against the mooring posts in a frenzy of mindless violence. Thor tramples on a bullroot simply because it's ugly and is peeved when his mother, Hulda (Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir), isn't more grateful when he brings home a box of battered fish. However, he is even more put out when older sisters Rakel (Jónína Þórdís Karlsdóttir) and Hafdis (Rán Ragnarsdóttir) taunt him about being Christian's boyfriend and try to steal his towel and lock him outside after he has been using hair from their brushes to give himself a merkin.

Embarrassed at seeing his father, Sigurður (Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson), in a drunken stupor on the street, Christian takes Thor to the graveyard for abandoned vehicles, where they enjoy smashing windows and kicking panelwork. They also climb into the cab of a lorry and threaten to touch each other before they are forced to hide from Ginger (Daniel Hans Erlendsson) and his pals, who have come to shoot seabirds with a rifle. Walking back to town, they discuss the rumour that Ginger has slept with Beth (Diljá Valsdóttir) and they try to act cool when she comes to the local café with her friend, Hanna (Katla Njálsdóttir). However, the owner, Ásgeir (Gunnar Jónsson), likes to keep in with Ginger and his cronies and is about to tell them about Thor being caught without his towel when they draw attention to the pornography he is watching behind the counter.

Angry with Rakel for snooping while he masturbates in their shared bedroom, Thor tries to strike up a conversation with Hafdis. However, she is busy painting and he decides to call for Christian. They mooch around with Mangi and Guðjón, whose father has been in a fight with Sigurður. When Beth and Hanna tell them that the water is nice at the local heated pool, the four friends go for a swim. However, Christian has to protect Thor when the others try to pull down his trunks to expose the fact he has no pubic hair.

Over supper, Hafdis gets upset when Rakel mocks the sombre poem she has written and Hulda tries to keep order, even though she finds her daughter's artistic intensity a little odd. Thor avoids helping with the dishes to hang out with Christian and he gets embarrassed when they play a kissing game with Beth and Hanna on the football pitch. Christian starts to conduct a sham marriage ceremony and Beth admits that she might be open to dating Thor if he made some money. The girls invite the pair back to Beth's house for a secret sleepover and they wait nervously as Beth and Hanna put on some make-up. They play a truth or dare game and, having been made to French kiss, the girls insist that Thor and Christian do the same. The former is happy to give the latter a peck on the lips. But Christian is uncomfortable and sulks on the other side of the room.

Ashamed to have wet the bed in the night, Thor leaves early and stomps home in the rain. Hulda orders him to throw away the box of rotting fish and he hurls it into the river, along with his stained underpants. Christian is left to take the blame and he hisses his annoyance when he calls round that evening. As usual, Thor is being teased by Rakel and Hafdis and the latter persuades the boys to let her paint their faces and pose them topless for a drawing. Rakel looks on with scornful amusement, as Christian's hand begins to tremble because of its proximity to Thor's chest. As soon as Hafdis has finished sketching, they rush out into the rain and joke about how pretty they look. But Christian goes home to look at himself in the mirror and is turned on by what he sees.

The following morning, Rakel and Hafdis make known their displeasure that Hulda has been out on a date. Hafdis reads a scathing poem, while Rakel gets into a skirmish with her mother and pulls her hair because she is embarrassing them. However, Hulda feels she has a right to a life of her own, especially as their father left them for a lover half his age. Meanwhile, Christian's mother, Thordis (Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir), chides Sigurður for the homophobic baiting that has prompted Guðjón's father to move to the city. He tells her to mind her own business and takes a beer from the fridge. So, she asks Christian to take on the farm chores he had been hired to do because they need the money. Thor lends a hand, as they load hay bales and help Sven (Søren Malling) with his sheep. However, his flock has been attacked by a ravenous dog and he has to shoot the animals that have been bitten. He asks Thor about Hulda and hands him a necklace to give to her and the boy blushes with humiliation.

He gives the necklace to Beth and she invites him to go camping near the lake. They take two of Sven's horses (without permission) and Thor clings on to Beth as the ride across the rocky countryside. The boys steal fence posts to build a bonfire and Beth and Thor go for a walk, leaving Hanna and Christian to kiss in the tent. He is hesitant, however, and is relieved when the others return. But, when he hears Thor and Beth kissing, he coughs with disapproval and they giggle and settle down to sleep.

The next morning, Christian goes for a swim in the lake and plunges under the water, as he tries to work out what he feels for Thor and why he isn't attracted to Hanna. He fetches the girls, who are splashing him when Sven and Sigurður come looking for them. Sven reassures Thor that he is not bothered about them borrowing the horses, but Sigurður lays into Christian and he bawls at Hanna to stop touching him when he runs to the tent sobbing. On returning home, he is beaten and has to listen to Thordis being abused for defending him. But he is powerless to protect her and paces his bedroom in furious frustration.

By means of punishment, Sven makes Thor and Christian muck out the stables. Thor mentions that Beth has invited him to the town dance and Christian is dubious when he suggests that they get some alcohol. They tussle in the mud and Christian rolls on top of Thor and kisses him. He insists he was joking, but his friend isn't entirely convinced. The plan is for Thor to sneak in and let the other three in through the back door. But he is so horrified to see his mother dancing with Sven that he pretends he couldn't sneak them in. Instead, they return home, where Rakel and Hafdis are throwing a party for their friends. Ginger finds the painting that Hafdis has done of Thor and Christian wearing make-up and a fight breaks out before Rakel orders everyone to leave.

The following morning, Rakel and Hafdis take Hulda to task for bringing Sven home and inform her that she is regarded as a whore for having anything to do with the ageing Dane. She promises to make him leave before anyone can see him and Thor beats a retreat to the beach. Christian comes to find him and vows vengeance on Ginger for showing everyone the painting. Sigurður wants them to help his collect eggs from the nests perched on the cliff face and he reassures Thor that he will be safe. As he climbs back up, however, the rope slips and he slips down the rock and clings to Christian when he is hauled back over the top. But, while feeling relief at being in his friend's embrace, Thor is also discomfited by it and he tells Christian that they can only remain pals if he stops acting so weirdly.

Thor goes to see Beth and they experiment under the covers. He feels good about himself and flops on to the long grass on the way home. However, Christian has fled another parental squabble and Hafdis invites him in to wait for Thor. She shows him her sketchbook and intimates that she would have no problem with him if he turned out to be gay. Affronted and afraid, Christian rushes out and howls with pain in Sven's stables at the thought of becoming a pariah without Thor to support him. A shot rings out and Sven goes to investigate.

Snow has fallen overnight and Thor and his sisters are excited. However, news comes that Christian has tried to kill himself and Thor takes to his bed, as he blames himself for his friend's unhappiness. Eventually, Hulda forces him to go outside and he insults Beth when she asks him if Christian is gay. Consequently, she asks Hanna to return the necklace when Thor goes to the café and he uses it to slash Ginger across the face when he struts in and begins making homophobic remarks. They fight before Ásgeir separates them and Thor sprints across the fields to see Christian, who has just returned from hospital. However, Thordis refuses to let him in and he storms home to smash up the bathroom and weep bitter and confused tears.

Impressed by the way Thor had stood up to Ginger, Beth reassures him that they are still friends. She has heard that Christian is moving to Reykjavik because his parents are getting divorced and she agrees to distract Thordis so that Thor can climb through Christian's window. He sits on the bed and they clasp hands, as Thor asks if Christian is really leaving. But, while he nods, he refuses to explain what happened on the night of his `accident', and Thor only has time to kiss him on the forehead before Thordis comes knocking at the bedroom door. He goes to the jetty and sees a boy catch a bullrout while fishing. As it's such an ugly fish, the kid throws it back and Thor knows how it feels, as it sinks into the murky cold water.

Bringing the same feel for the Icelandic countryside that illuminated Grímur Hákonarson's Rams (2015), Norwegian cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen makes a magnificent job of photographing the forbiddingly beautiful scenery that plays such a crucial role in this affecting rite of passage. However, Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson fails to generate a sufficiently strong sense of place to background the fear and loathing that seeps into the story. Apart from a couple of establishing shots, we get little idea of how the community functions socially or economically. Moreover, apart from the odd snippet of gossip, we learn little about the make-up of a population that seems so insular that xenophobia and homophobia are about as commonplace as alcoholism and domestic violence.

Nevertheless, Guðmundsson clearly knows the milieu and the attitudes it fosters. Consequently, this retains its ring of authenticity, even as the rush of events compiled by editors Anne Østerud and Janus Billeskov Jansen and accompanied by Kristian Selin Eidnes Andersen's swelling score threatens to tip proceedings into melodrama in the final reel. This is primarily due to the admirably restrained performances of Baldur Einarsson and Blær Hinriksson as Thor and Christian, whose physical contrasts reinforce their odd couple status among their peers. Yet, by having the focus increasingly fall on the former's crisis of manhood, Guðmundsson's sells the latter short and takes the edge off his drastic cry for help. More might have also been made of the part that the girls play in this circle, especially as both Jónína Þórdís Karlsdóttir and Rán Ragnarsdóttir and Diljá Valsdóttir and Katla Njálsdóttir demonstrate a maturity that is noticeably lacking among the boys. It also seems odd to watch a teenpic without any school scenes, as these might have helped fill in some of the environmental gaps in the plot. But, while his scene-setting, characterisation and pacing could do with refining, Guðmundsson judges the emotional tone so well that this always feels more convincing than Jakob M. Erwa's recent adaptation of Andreas Steinhofel's similarly themed YA novel, Centre of My World.

An equally unflattering picture of New York emerges in Eliza Hittman's Beach Rats, which takes us to Brooklyn for a tale of teenage self-discovery that demonstrates the same keen ear for adolescent argot that made It Felt Like Love (2013) so unsettling. Once again, the story centres on a confused kid exploring their sexual boundaries by placing themselves in potentially dangerous situations. But, while the setting is captured with typical authenticity and flair by French cinematographer Hélène Louvart and the leads are admirable, some of the secondary characters ring a little hollow.

Fresh from chatting to an older man in a gay chatroom, 19 year-old Harris Dickinson meets up with pals David Ivanov, Anton Selyaninov and Frank Hakaj and takes the train to the Coney Island boardwalk. While smoking a joint and watching the fireworks, Dickinson catches the eye of Madeline Weinstein, who flirts with him, even though he dismisses her contention that the display is romantic. She follows him to fairground, where the boys test their strength on a punching machine. When they move on to the dodgem cars, Weinstein slips in beside Dickinson, as his ride starts. Moreover, when they all meet up again, she tells his mates that he is going to be busy for the rest of the night and sends them packing.

They travel back to the house he shares with mother Kate Hodge, younger sister Nicole Flyus and father Neal Huff, who is slowly dying of cancer. Sneaking into the basement, they exchange glances as Dickinson prepares some cocaine. Weinstein declines, but strips to her underwear and asks if he thinks she is pretty. He avoids the question and apologises for not being up to the task. She fishes for another compliment and gets upset when Dickinson puts on her bra and impersonates her voice. Dressing in a huff, Weinstein storms out, leaving Dickinson high and unconcerned.

Nexr morning, Dickinsons is sent to fetch Huff's prescription. But he dawdles back via a dope den and even steals a couple of pills for later. He watches the nurse operate the bed to medicate his comatose father before skulking off to join the gang at the beach. They play handball for a while before lounging on the beach. Dickinson spots Weinstein with her friends and sidles over to apologise for being so boorish. He explains about his domestic issues and tells her she's pretty. She's sceptical about his sincerity, but has a crush on him and agrees to let him walk her to work. That night, however, he is back online, looking at the live feeds through his fingers.

A short while later, Huff dies after a touching family farewell. Flyus speaks at the funeral and Dickinson stares at a picture of the crucified Christ before turning to see Weinstein sitting a few rows behind wearing a pair of heart-shaped sunglasses. He makes it through the wake with the help of some purloined pills and takes out his frustration on a handball in the pouring rain. Nevertheless, he returns to the chatroom and arranges to meet older man Douglas Everett Davis near the beach. He is nervous and admits to not knowing what he likes when it comes to sex. But he undresses and surrenders to his urges before skinny-dipping in the sea.

When Hodge asks why he was out so late, Dickinson lies that he was with Weinstein and asks her out in gratitude for her coming to the funeral. He gets a haircut with his pals and she is slightly taken aback by how short his hair is. She is also surprised that he wants to hang out near home rather than going into the city and makes the most of an evening of hot dogs and arcade games before finally getting her man into bed. Dickinson needs a line before he can perform, but Weinstein is satisfied and poses them for numerous selfies before venturing out to meet Hodge and Flyus for breakfast. The latter spots her navel piercing and asks if she can have one. However, Weinstein warns her that hers got infected and Hodge is please to discover that they met on the boardwalk, as that was where she first saw Huff.

As he sees her off at the station, Weinstein tells Dickinson not to mess things up and he smiles. However, he arranges another hook-up with Erik Potempa and they check into a motel. Dickinson strips and they roll on to the bed and kiss. Potempa asks Dickinson if he is really gay and he admits to having a girlfriend. But Potempa notices that Dickinson's index finger is longer than his ring finger and he teases him that this is a sure sign of homosexuality. He blushes, but feels comfortable and stays after sex to smoke, while Potempa sleeps.

Determined to keep his two worlds apart, Dickinson goes swimming with his mates at the beach. They creep into the house to steal a pair of Hodge's earrings to pawn and tease Flyus when they catch her with her boyfriend. Meeting up with Weinstein, they go to a disco on board a boat and Dickinson is mortified when he spots Potempa in a sailor uniform behind the bar. He remains discreet, however, and gives them their drinks free because Weinstein is so pretty. She is delighted with the compliment and fails to notice the look of dread on her boyfriend's face, as he tries to pay because he doesn't want any favours. But he freaks when Potempa sends a bottle to the table and begins to feel woozy on the dance floor. Yet, while walking home to clear his head, he has an encounter in the bushes with a stranger and Hodge is so concerned when he barges into his room that she asks if he is on drugs and he admits to using the best and loving the sensation. However, she detects the bitter irony in his voice and urges him not to toss his life away.

Hoping to put things right with Weinstein, Dickinson goes to the shop where she works. But she breaks up with him and he resorts to the dope den when he discovers that Hodge has thrown away Huff's pills. Trawling online, he arranges a meeting with Harrison Sheehan and is heading to the rendezvous when he bumps into Ivanov, Selyaninov and Hakaj. He tells them that he sometimes pretends to be gay in order to score weed from people he meets online and they seem more accepting of his explanation that Weinstein had been, as she thinks it's hot when girls get together and weird when men do.

When Sheehan shows up in his car, however, he is unnerved by the sight of three working-class palookas in vests and drives away. They go back to Dickinson's place to search for another prospect, but Hodge doesn't like the look of the company her son is keeping and she orders him to leave. A message pops up from Sheehan and Dickinson agrees to another meet. But he has also told the others to hide in the dunes and they pounce on Sheehan to steal his stash. Dickinson looks on in anguish, as Sheehan tries to run away and gets pinned down on the tideline and punched.

He gets home in a daze to find Hodge waiting for him. She demands to know what he is doing, but he remains silent. Erasing incriminating evidence from his computer, Dickinson wanders in a daze before taking the train to Coney Island. As people have fun around him, he tries to get his head together and stares up into the sky, as the fireworks explode around him.

Whether this pyrotechnic reference is consciously linked to Kenneth Anger's 1947 landmark, Fireworks, it certainly helps put Hittman's film in its Queer context. However, by depicting Dickinson as a little boy lost, she also brings to mind Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin's classic kidpic, Little Fugitive (1953), which sees a much younger Brooklynite wander around Coney Island after being bullied by his older brother. Dickinson may not be quite so innocent, but he certainly lacks experience and his awkwardness with everyone other than his inarticulate friends implies that his social skills have been warped by the amount of time he spends online in quaintly antiquated chatrooms.

But, while Hittman channels Larry Clark, Claire Denis and Lynne Ramsay in drawing attention to her anti-hero's reluctance or inability to communicate (particularly with women), this is more a study of millennial ennui, as Dickinson shows no signs of wanting to grow up, let alone start thinking about his future. The English actor acquits himself well in an alien environment, as he struggles with both his social and sexual identity and a crippling sense of denial. But he has the advantage of playing the only fully fleshed character, as, even though Hodge, Weinstein and Nicole flyus make the most of their deftly sketched roles, none of the other males are more than ciphers. Evoking the naturalist style favoured by John Cassavetes, Louvart's 16mm camerawork is effectively energetic or languid, depending on Dickinson's mood, and this air of listlessness is well sustained by editors Scott Cummings and Joe Murphy. Chris Foster's sound mix similarly reinforces the sense of place established by production designer Grace Yun, while Nicholas Leon's electronic score keeps things simmering. But it's Hittman's refusal to resort to empathetic melodramatics, coy romantics or grandstanding set-pieces that makes this so credible, as Dickinson proves to be just another guy on the IRT rather than a LGBT poster boy.

A century ago, the cinema was dominated by the slapstick clowns who did their bit to keep spirits high during the dark days of the Great War. Nowadays, knockabout is regarded as antiquated and lacking in sophistication. But the silents produced with art, grace and impeccable timing by the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Max Linder, Buster Keaton remain a source of endless pleasure. As do the films of the husband-and-wife team of Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon, whose latest confection, Lost in Paris, is now on disc.

As in the case of L'Iceberg (2005), Rumba (2008) and The Fairy (2011), the emphasis is firmly on the kind of gentle knockabout perfected by Jacques Tati that allows sight gags to emerge at their own pace from a storyline pitching an innocent into a mean-spirited world. Played with a combination of burlesque beauty and deadpan insouciance and, in its own subtle way, bitingly satirical, this is, quite simply, an unmissable delight.

Forty-eight years after Martha (Emmanuelle Riva) told her young niece Fiona (Emmy Boissard Paumelle) that she was leaving their small Canadian community to live in Paris, a letter arrives from Monsieur Martin (Philippe Martz) informing Fiona (Fiona Gordon) that he find a letter addressed to her in a rubbish bin. Now working as a librarian, Fiona has to endure a howling gale and a flurry of snow as the postwoman (Céline Laurentie) braves the elements to make her delivery. She lingers as Fiona reads that Aunt Martha needs her help, as she doesn't want to be put in a home when she is perfectly capable of looking after herself. That said, a cutaway reveals that the 88 year-old walked right past the postbox to deposit the letter in a waste bin and Fiona feels she has no option but to fly to Europe.

Carrying a large red rucksack topped with a Canadian flag in the Métro, Fiona bumps into Bob (Frédéric Meert) and discovers that he is a Mountie on an exchange programme, as she struggles up the stairs while he glides along on an escalator. They wave across the empty platforms before Fiona catches the train to visit her aunt. There is no reply at her apartment, however, and Fiona manages to fall off a bridge while a jogger (Guillaume Delvingt) takes her picture beside the Eiffel Tower. She is fished out of the Seine by the crew of a bateau mouche and sails down river oblivious to the fact that the jogger is running along the bank in an effort to return her phone.

Back at Martha's place, Fiona learns from Martin that her aunt has been behaving oddly of late and had twice kissed him on the staircase in order to hide from her carer, Madame Gentil (Françoise Lauwerie). But he has no idea of her whereabouts and regrets that most of Martha's friends have passed away. Meanwhile, on the banks of the river beside the Statue of Liberty, a homeless man named Dom (Dominique Abel) wakes from a nice snooze in her tent. He urinates off the embankment and is photographed by tourists on the boat carrying Fiona into the city. Smoking a discarded cigarette butt, he goes searching for food in the wheelie bin outside a floating restaurant and is about to enjoy a roasted pepper when it is whisked out of his hand by an angler casting his line. Snipping the line with scissors, Dom follows the floating pepper downstream and almost become entangled with the various people minding their own business in his path.

At journey's end, Dom spots Fiona's haversack and fishes it out of the water, just as she is reporting the loss of her passport and belongings to an official at the Canadian Embassy (Olivier Parenty). He offers her a meal voucher and she uses it at the same péniche where the newly spruced Dom is spending the money he found inside her handbag. The portier (Fabrice Milich) makes him wear a tie on top of the yellow sweater he found in Fiona's luggage, while the waiter seats him at a table next to the toilet door. It is also positioned beside the sound system speakers and the DJ (Jean Loison) has to scramble over Dom in order to run a wire to his deck.

As the music begins to play, the bass resonates so deeply that it makes Dom bounce in his chair and he turns the speaker away so that a mother (Annabelle Cocollos), father (Bruno Romy) and daughter (Mika Romy Cocollos) dining at the next table begin to bounce too. Keen to dance, Dom goes from table to table seeking a partner and wakes the dozing Fiona, who is swept on to the floor for an eccentric tango that ends with Dom asking Fiona if she is a professional dancer. She tries to make her excuses to leave, but Dom orders three bottles of champagne and offers to walk her home. But, as he pays the bill, Fiona recognises her handbag and falls into the Seine again in trying to wrest it from Dom's grasp. The champagne bottles bob in the water, as Fiona dries off aboard Le Maxim's and makes another call to Martha's apartment. But there is no answer and she is forced to spend the night at a launderette, while Dom tears the photo out of her passport and realises he is in lover. Fiona's fortunes change slightly next morning, however, as her rucksack is handed in at the Embassy. But she is not best pleased to see Dom and he has to hide behind a newspaper (and peer through a hole in the page burned with his cigarette) in order to eavesdrop on an African dishwasher (Balla Gagny Diop) at a café near Martha's apartment breaking the bad news that she has died and that her funeral will take place later that morning at Père Lachaise. He gives her directions, but Dom helps guide her to the cemetery, even though she has ordered him to stop following her.

He steals a yellow flower to take to the chapel, where they are greeted by the woman officiating at the service (Brigitte Lucas). She asks Fiona to say a few words. But, while she declines, Dom comes to the microphone and launches into a tirade in which he brands Martha a penny-pinching racist who hated the homeless. Having not understood a word, Fiona applauds gently when he finishes speaking, while the deceased's agent, Cyril (Salifou Bangoura), expresses his shock at discovering this side of his client's personality. As they attend a small reception, however, it becomes clear that they are at the wrong funeral and the flustered Fiona knocks over a candlestick as she beats a retreat.

Her departure, however, coincides with the arrival of her aunt and we flashback to Martha lifting hand weights in the window of her apartment. When Madame Gentil calls, however, she fears she is going to try to put her in a nursing home and does a bunk. She dodges policemen in the street and wanders towards the river, where she encounters Dom searching through Fiona's bag. Martha trades a pair of heart-shaped earrings for a jar that reminds her of home and she polishes off the contents before throwing up behind a tree. Forgetting where she lives, she sleeps under a bridge, where she is found by the stray dog that has been following Dom around. On waking, she sees an article in the newspaper announcing the funeral of her friend, Marthe (Sarah Bensoussan) and she sets off for the cemetery, as Dom recognises Martha from the photograph that Fiona shows him at the reception.

While Dom finds a screwdriver to remove the lid of the casket before it descends to the furnace, Fiona tries to hold open the lift doors. However, they both end up stuck, as he gets his tie caught in the lid and she gets her face squashed by the closing doors. As they try to extricate themselves, Martha runs into her old friend Norman (Pierre Richard) and they sit on a bench to do a joyously improbable soft-shoe routine to `Little Man You've Had a Busy Day' before his carer from the nursing home tracks him down. Inside the chapel, Fiona is worried that Dom has been accidentally incinerated when Cyril hands her the urn containing Marthe's ashes and he confesses that no one has any idea where Dom has gone.

In fact, he had been rescued by Gabriel the cremator (Grégory Legeai) and Fiona slaps him for making her so worried. Guided by a blind man (Marc Le Gall), Fiona finds a police station, where Bob the Mountie is based. They gain access to Martha's apartment, just as Martin is collecting some clean clothes to take to his neighbour, who is hiding out in the launderette. Seeing the cops arrive, she scarpers and finds herself down by the Statue of Liberty, as Dom polishes off the champagne bottles he had found floating in the river. They chat about Fiona, who is looking through a photo album and piecing together how Martha, Marthe and Norman once danced together under the name Le Trio. As they sleep, the screen splits to show Fiona and Dom dreaming of each other. However, Marthe is lying beside Dom and when he kisses her thinking she is her niece, she responds with enthusiasm and the tent lifts off the ground as they canoodle. Creeping outside for a post-coital cigarette, Martha finds Fiona's phone in a dustbin and calls her apartment. Fiona answers and is surprised to hear that her aunt has been drinking champagne and making love with a handsome man. But they are cut off when a police patrol passes and Martha tosses the phone away.

Wearing only a nightdress, Fiona takes a taxi to the Île aux Cygnes and pays with the coins inside Martha's piggy bank. She is dismayed to discover that Dom has slept with her aunt, but realises he is her best hope of finding Martha and allows him to tear a strip off the nightie so that his canine companion can get the scent. The dog takes them to a ladder propped up against a tree and this leads to the lower levels of the Eiffel Tower. As they take the lift to the observation deck, Dom and Fiona kiss. But she apologises for her impulsive action and goes off in search of her aunt. However, she soon requires Dom's assistance again, when the ladder she is climbing comes away from its mooring and he catches her and teeters along a girder so that she can ascend to the aerial deck, where Martha is sleeping soundly.

They embrace and laugh when Martha finds a twig caught in her clothing. She tells Fiona that Dom is a nice man, but calls him Norman when they sit on a ledge and watch the sunrise over the city. However, this turns out to be Martha's last hurrah and it rains so hard when Dom, Fiona and Martin gather by the Statue of Liberty to scatter her ashes that the biodegradable urn turns to mush in Dom's hands and he tosses it unceremoniously into the Seine. Fiona turns to say goodbye and Dom kisses her on both cheeks. But she decides to stay a little longer so that he can teach her French.

Few films generate laughter with such regularity, ingenuity and whimsicality as those of this inspired duo. The Australian Gordon exploits her gawky elasticity to beguiling effect, while Abel tempers his Hulotian naiveté with a touch of Chaplinesque rascality. But their comedy is always rooted in character and milieu, even when the pratfalls seem gleefully contrived. They are also generous in portioning out the gags, with the peerless Emmanuelle Riva (in her penultimate picture) and fellow veteran Pierre Richard (in a role originally intended for Pierre Étaix) revelling in their gleeful bit of sedentary business at Père Lachaise.

Such landmarks occur regularly, but there's nothing touristy about Claire Childeric and Jean-Christophe Leforestier's photography, as they follow the madcap antics with the discretion one associates with a Fred and Ginger dance number. Abel and Gordon once again prove themselves to be accomplished dancers, while their splendid choice of soundtrack music is encapsulated by the recurring use of Kate and Anna McGarrigle's version of `Swimming Song'. Let's hope we don't have to wait six more years for their next outing.

Since focusing on lost souls in Maborosi (1995), After Life (1998) and Distance (2001), Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda has followed in the shomin-geki footsteps of Yasujiro Ozu and Mikio Naruse in examining diverse aspects of modern family life in Nobody Knows (2004), Still Walking (2008), I Wish (2011), Like Father, Like Son (2013) and Our Little Sister (2015). But, while his stylistically conservative, but socio-politically acute dramedy After the Storm cleaves closely to the Kore-eda template, it also contains echoes of two lesser-known works: Hana (2006), an 18th-century samurai spin on Hamlet's existential dilemma, and Air Doll (2009), a disarmingly poignant parable about loneliness that revolves around a middle-aged salaryman's relationship with an inflatable sex toy.

Despite being married for over 50 years, Kirin Kiki is coping well with being a widow. Daughter Satomi Kobayashi comes to fuss over her in her tiny flat in a condominium estate on the outskirts of the Tokyo satellite city of Kiyose. Kiki insists she is too old to make new friends and wouldn't relish the prospect of all those funerals. But she has recently started listening to classical music and son Hiroshi Abe teases her about becoming cultured in her seventies. She gets her revenge, however, when she compares him to the tangerine tree he grew from a pip on the balcony, as it is good for feeding the caterpillars, while he has been struggling since winning a major literary prize 15 years ago. Indeed, he has come to visit in the hope of finding something valuable he can sell to fund his gambling addiction, as he doesn't earn enough working for Lily Franky's detective agency, even when he blackmails the people he is supposed to be tailing.

Stooping under the low ceiling, Abe insists he is researching a new novel. But Kiki knows about his issues, as he closely resembles his father, even though they didn't always get along. She asks him to help move the plants, as the 23rd typhoon of the season is due, but Kiki has to clean up when Abe accidentally breaks a window. He takes her recycling to the bin and they bump into neighbour Isao Hashizume, who runs the classical class and compliments Kiki on having such a brilliant son. As they wait at the bus stop, Kiki inquires after her 12 year-old grandson, Taiyo Yoshizawa, who lives with his careerist mother, Yoko Maki. Abe is pleased that the boy has taken up baseball and plans to buy him a glove so that they can play catch. But being a good dad is expensive.

En route for the city centre, Abe drops in on pawnbroker Mickey Curtis and learns that his father had beaten him to the decorative scroll he had been hoping to sell. But, even though cheating wife Izumi Matsuoka agrees to pay to keep her visit to a love hotel secret, Abe blows his bribe at the cycle track and young assistant Sosuke Ikematsu warns him that he needs to get his gambling under control or Franky will rumble him and give him the boot. However, Franky is quite prepared to chisel his own clients and secretary Yuri Nakamura tuts at them all, as they make fun of the crisis in Japanese masculinity. Nevertheless, Abe lingers in a doorway to watch Maki at her estate agency before returning to his cluttered apartment, where he scribbles a post-it about how he allowed his life to become such a mess before he crashes on his floor mattress.

When Ikematsu calls for Abe the next morning, they go to spy on Yoshizawa playing baseball. Abe takes exception to Maki sitting so close to boss and new boyfriend Yukiyoshi Ozawa and is dismayed to learn that he is very rich. Ozawa berates Yoshizawa for not getting a strike, but his father realises he was trying to draw a walk and this insight into his son's psyche deftly establishes their bond, as Abe follows the trio to a floating restaurant. He even sidles into the washroom to chat with his son at the urinal and urge him to find out if his mother has any plans to marry her beau. Unfazed, as he is used to his father's eccentricities, Yoshizawa returns to the table, where Maki is dismayed to hear Ozawa admit that he hadn't understood Abe's novel.

Abe is also frustrated when publisher Kanji Furutachi asks if he would like to concoct the storyline for a manga artist. So, he lies that he is close to completing his next book and goes to the restaurant where Kobayashi works to touch her for a loan. She taunts him that he is just as shifty as their father, whom she blames for keeping Kiki cooped up in a tiny flat for so long. Yet, if she had moved away, Kiki wouldn't have been able to attend Hashizume's music sessions, along with several other matrons seeking a little late-life companionship and a break from making ice treats for their grandchildren.

Back at the office, Ikematsu, Franky and Nakamura tease Abe about stalking Maki when he had barely mentioned her when they were still married. The latter dons a wig and a short dress to follow Matsuoka's treacherous spouse to a love hotel, where she takes photos as Abe tries to record the lovers through the wall of the neighbouring room. Matsuoka is delighted with the evidence that will enable her to fleece her husband and Ikematsu pleads with Abe not to blow this unexpected bonus. He insists he will use it to pay off his alimony arrears and buy Yoshizawa a pair of baseball cleats. However, Franky discovers he has been shaking down a high-school kid and orders Abe to hand over the cash. As they sit in a pachinko parlour, Ikematsu offers to tied him over. But, luckily, Abe had kept some of Matsuoka's payment separately and he buys the boots (albeit after scuffing the one on display to persuade the clerk into giving him a discount).

Maki is furious with Abe for failing to meet his payments, but allows him to take Yoshizawa out for the afternoon. Over lunch, Abe asks what they boy had found out about his mother's romance and is stung when he reveals that she has forgotten what it felt like to be in love with his father. They buy lottery tickets and Abe shows Yoshizawa some of his juvenile haunts after they catch a bus to visit Kiki. She is entertaining Kobayashi and her family and Abe accuses her of being dutiful solely in order to dupe Kiki into paying for her brattish daughter's figure skating lessons. They leave to beat the storm, just as Maki comes to collect Yoshizawa. However, Kiki talks her into staying for supper and then convinces her to spend the night rather than cross town in the downpour.

Abe is squeamish about eating a curry that Kiki had kept frozen for six months and both his mother and ex-wife deride him for being a failed nostalgic. But Yoshizawa enjoys helping out in the kitchen and talks his mother into playing Game of Life while Abe takes a bath. He just about squeezes into the tiny tub and emerges in a pair of old pyjamas to find Kiki laying three futons side by side so that they can sleep together as a family. Left alone, Abe asks Maki about her paramour and pries about their sex life. She admits to wanting more children, but takes exception to Abe touching her knee and accuses him of being in cahoots with Kiki in a reconciliation plot. Moreover, she informs him that she has lost patience with his failure to pay maintenance and that she is withdrawing his visitation privileges until the debt is cleared.

While everyone else sleeps, Abe snoops around the flat in search of something to sell. He finds an elaborately wrapped package that contains nothing but a note from Kobayashi delighting in beating him to the punch. However, he pockets an ink stone and begins searching through an incense pot for unburnt shards. Kiki wanders in to join him. She enjoys storms, but warns Abe that her time is running out and that he should make the most of her. When he asks if she is ill, she ticks him off for being so lost in the past and far-fetched dreams that he is unable to live in the present. A sentimental Teresa Teng song comes on the radio (whose lyrics include the film's Japanese title, `Even Deeper Than the Sea'), and Kiki reminds Abe that life is simple and that the secret of happiness is to spend each day seeking joy. She is pleased with her maxim and urges him to write it down and use it in his next book.

When Yoshizawa wakes up, Abe suggests they brave the rain and shelter in the pink fibre glass climbing frame where he had once hidden from the storm with his own father. They gather some snacks and sneak out, leaving Kiki and Maki to apologise affectionately to each other for the fact that Abe had not been husband material. Down in the playground, Yoshizawa asks Abe why he had fallen out with his grandfather and he shrugs before blaming the fact he had become a novelist. He smiles when Yoshizawa reveals that he wants to be a public servant when he grows up (as that had also been his childhood ambition) and promises that he will be proud of him providing he always tries to improve on his best.

Maki ventures out to join them and they watch Yoshizawa run out into the rain to buy drinks from a kiosk. Abe tries to apologise to Maki, but she insists things will be fine, even though there can be no going back. He swears he understands and they sit silently for a moment before Yoshizawa returns. However, he has dropped his lottery tickets and the three scour the sodden playground before returning for breakfast. Kiki offers Abe one of his father's shirts (despite claiming to have disposed of all of his belongings) and waves from the balcony, as they wander to the bus stop.

Abe takes a detour via Curtis's shop and discovers that the ink stone is worth 300,000 yen. He is also pleased when Curtis asks him to sign the first edition of The Empty Table that his father had given to all his friends because he was so proud that his son had been published. On the ride into the city, Abe tells Yoshizawa he can keep all of the lottery tickets and Maki smiles, even though she doesn't want him to pick up his father's bad habits. They part at the secondhand bookstall and arrange to meet again next month. Maki says it will depend on Abe paying his arrears. But he swears he will, as he watches them walk away before disappearing into the crowd.

Relying on sporting gambits, post-it pensées, cookery tips and geriatric ramblings to convey his key messages, Kore-eda manages to spin quotidian stuff into dramatic gold in this amusingly moving reflection on human inadequacy and life's infuriating refusal to go according to plan. Immature and irresponsible, the gangling Abe should be eminently resistible, as he dupes, deceives and disappoints everyone he knows. Yet, accompanied by an infectious Hanaregumi score full of acoustic strumming, brass riffs and insouciant whistling, his flailing efforts to get his life back on track appear so genuine that even those he has let down most egregiously keep giving him one last chance to make good.

Maki might be ready to move on, but she knows Ozawa is a poor consolation prize and she almost envies the indomitable streak that enabled Kiki to put up with her own spouse's flaws and foibles for half a century. But the magnificent Kiki is anything but a downtrodden victim, as she has learnt how to exploit people's remorse without them being any the wiser. The way in which she manipulates Maki into staying the night is delightfully funny, while her insights into her son's psyche are achingly poignant, as she worries that he will still not have grown up by the time she has to leave him. But, even though there are grounds for optimism in the teasingly ambiguous ending, it's unlikely that any of Abe's many epiphanies will convince him to mend his ways.

Some critics have suggested that this is a minor entry in the Kore-eda canon. But, set in the low-rent danchi where the director grew up, the Renoiresque script is as intricate and nuanced as Keiko Mitsumatsu's production design and Akiko Matsuba's exquisite set decoration, which are captured with unerring discretion by Yutaka Yamazakis mostly static camera. Abe may be at the centre of the lament for Japanese masculinity, but this is also a celebration of family forthrightness and female fortitude and this latter aspect tilts this lovely picture in the direction of the gendai-geki of another past master, Kenji Mizoguchi.