The Man From London

The latest offering from Hungarian director Bela Tarr is a formal and emotionally distant piece of work - but something spectacular, nonetheless. Essentially a film noir, it moves slowly and dwells on unexpected details: fog, the hull of a ship, the way light falls across a waterfront.

Amid all this is the story (told in English and French) of Maloin (Miroslav Krobot), a railway worker who one day trips over a suitcase filled with money, and must then decide what to do with it.

The tale (based on a Simenon novel) is not hugely original, nor even especially robust, but it provides a structure upon which Tarr may hang a variety of visually experimental - and entirely gorgeous - scenes. There are moments in which a certain passion flares - namely the scenes between Maloin and his wife (Tilda Swinton) - but in truth they feel more like animated photographs than an attempt to invite sympathy for any of the characters. A curious work, then; but one of great beauty and lingering intrigue.  ·