© Sony Pictures Germany It is only when he is diagnosed with terminal cancer that it dawns on Mr Williams that his life as a proper civil servant cannot have been everything.

A good 70 years ago, Japanese master director Akira Kurosawa told the story of the civil servant searching for meaning for the first time. "Living" is a reminiscence of him, penned by the multi-award-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro (including "What Remains of the Day"). It is a bittersweet experience to watch Bill Nighy shed the stiff corset of the British civil service of the 50s.

Bill Nighy

Most Germans have known Bill Nighy since his over-the-top performance as a rock star in the Christmas classic "Tatsächlich... Liebe" (2003). Fans of quirky Brit comedies were aware of his rock star behaviour five years earlier, in "Still Crazy". But Nighy, who was born in Surrey, England, in 1949, has nothing to do with music or airs and graces. He was well over 50 when - after decades on the stage - film fame hit him in the form of a Golden Globe for "In fact..." hits him. Now, at 72, he is nominated for an Oscar for the first time for "Living".

© MFA Not that much has changed on the outside between the Naples of today and the one Felice (Pierfrancesco Favino) fled 40 years ago. Only the people have grown older, Felice's mother is dying and the local priest looks after the young people so that they don't go astray.

Director Mario Martone and his cameraman Paolo Carnera find tenderly weathered images with bright corners in the darkness. Quite different from what we are used to in the mafia series "Gomorrah", for example. And yet it is precisely this sense of brutality that gives "Nostalgia" its very special appeal.

Mario Martone

The screenplay for "Nostalgia" was written by the Neapolitan Ermanno Rea. Director Mario Martone, who was born in Naples in 1959, prefers to adapt scripts by authors from his home city. This is also the case with "Il sindaco del Rione Sanità" (2019), which is about an unusually tattooed mayor and was written by Eduardo De Filippo. Martone won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for the film adaptation. His drama "L'amore molesto", incidentally written by the Neapolitan Elena Ferrante, was already screened in competition at Cannes in 1995.

© PLAION PICTURES Hairdresser Pat Pitsenbarger spends his uneventful twilight years in a retirement home. But then he has to make his former best customer Rita look really glamorous on her last journey. For Pat, it becomes a journey into the past.

Udo Kier, Hollywood's cologne veteran, dances with grace and grand gestures through the dust of small-town America. His scenes with Jennifer Coolidge (Golden Globe for "The White Lotus") as Pat's renegade apprentice Dee Dee resemble a viper-like battle of the giants. The fact that both want to help Linda Evans alias Rita regain her former "Denver Clan" beauty simply makes "Swan Song" a cult film.

© Open AI It comes in pictures, words, sounds and much more: artificial intelligence. Since word-based AI (artificial intelligence) has been available for free on the internet in the form of ChatGPT, there has been a lot of talk about it in the media and it is often exaggerated. What helps to keep the fear of AI at bay is to try it out for yourself and ask it questions. But be careful: ChatGPT's answers often sound more intelligent than they are. Still! AI is able to learn, because that's what makes it intelligent.