So here’s another one that I haven’t seen. Some years ago, the film critic David Thomson wrote a piece in The Independent on Sunday Review section explaining why he loved this film so much. I tore out the article, but never read it, because the first line warned that I should watch the film first if I had never seen it. As I hadn’t, I didn’t read it.

Move forward a year or so, and I remembered the article, so one Friday after work I bought the video in HMV, Oxford Street. But it was a Friday evening, and I knew the prospect of me sitting down to watch a pre-war French film in black and white with subtitles was fairly remote.

I felt the guilt. Really I did. For a year or two more, the video sat forlornly in my bookcase, awaiting a play. This isn’t so unusual for me – I have a library’s worth of books that I’ve bought and not read. And there are more than a couple of videos and DVDs in the same position. There’s always something else to watch or read.

So move forward to yesterday, and revitalised by both the Sight and Sound list, and another David Thomson article, I put the video in on Sunday morning.

What a great film. I’m not going to try to describe the film, as others can do that better than I, but it has fabulous technique. There are so many key characters, and there is constant interaction between them all.

After watching the film, I went out to buy The Observer, and what do you know? Cameron Crowe had written a piece about why he thought it was so good.

One final question… Why is this not available on DVD?