Dogs, dreams and all things brass crop up around every pallid corner in You, the Living, a surreal twist on human life in all its depressing glory from Swedish writer and director Roy Andersson. A series of nutty vignettes – all of which may or may not have something to do with the bass drummer and tuba player of the Louisiana Brass Band – uncovers the lighter side of neuroses and finds anxieties in everyday communication. The long, artfully composed shots and the spare dialogue mean You, the Living feels a little like a chain of comic sketches, but the catastrophic weather, fascist imagery, unwavering irony and impossibly wan faces ensure that the greasy, filthy core beneath never remains hidden for too long.

Hong Kong gun-ballet meets spaghetti Western in Johnnie To’s epic Exiled, bragging an all-star cast, a superb score, and set-pieces that are destined to become classics. With a three-way duel, a vengeful widow, an underground surgeon, a desert trek, a gold heist, and even a little Italian, it’s as if To dug up Sergio Leone when he conceived his quixotic tale of four hard-boiled antiheroes. When Boss Fay sends the shady Blaze (Anthony Wong) across to Macau to whack Wo (Nick Cheung), a renegade now on the lam, old bonds of camaraderie prevail over gang loyalties. With the Portuguese colony about to return to Chinese sovereignty, the Triads have a license to print money, but To’s posse of triggerhappy rebels shows there can be honour, as well as duty and friendship, among thieves. There’s a lot of humour – mainly slapstick or from the gallows – but for the most part To ratchets up the tension before releasing it in a preposterously beautiful volley of bullets that John Woo or Quentin Tarantino would be envious of. Incredible cinema indeed: highly recommended.

What seems like a rather coy title for a spy film begins to look like a pompous gesture – Santiago Amigorena’s A Few Days In September unravels a certain conspiracy in 2001 that will have shattering economic effects on stateside investments – but ultimately contributes to an interesting reflection on the different attitudes either side of the Atlantic. Juliette Binoche is outstanding as canny French spy Irène, a contact arranging for former colleague Elliot (Nick Nolte) to visit his two children: batting for the US is young David (Tom Riley), while the French side is represented by his stepsister Orlando (Sara Forestier). But it is the poetry-spouting polyglot assassin William Pound, played brilliantly by John Turturro, who steals the show: he speed-dials his Lacanian psychoanalyst before a hit and rationalises each murder as penis envy or standing up to father figures. (Could the awful part in Transformers have been written for him on the strength of this role?) You’d never know the Cold War was over watching these secret agents operate in a rather old-fashioned game of cat and mouse, but Amigorena’s exploration of family dynamics and willingness to innovate ensure that there’s more to A Few Days than the inspired performances from Binoche and Turturro. Forestier (cf. L’Esquive) continues to impress and the overbearing arrogance of Riley’s Yankie-tourist shtick will strike a chord with anyone who’s caught a train in Europe.—Joe Sheppard