Cinema 1 The Substance © Mubi The ageing film star Elisabeth Sparkle receives a mysterious offer to clone a younger version of herself. All she has to do is inject herself with an ominous substance and live alternately as a clone and as herself for a week at a time.

Oscar Wilde's "Picture of Dorian Grey" was the inspiration for this Hollywood satire starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley as old and young Elisabeth. Directed by Coralie Fargeat, "The Substance" is an artful mixture of psychological thriller and body horror that won the prize for best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Demi Moore
Hardly any US actress could have played the lead role in "The Substance" better than Demi Moore. born in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1962, Moore became a superstar in the 1990s with films such as "Ghost" (1990) and "Revelations" (1994) and made a name for herself as one of the most erotic women in Hollywood. She proved the latter in 1991 when she was photographed naked and heavily pregnant (with the second of Bruce Willis' three daughters) for Vanity Fair magazine. From 2000 onwards, Moore's star declined rapidly due to longer breaks between shoots and moderately good role choices.

Cinema 2 The Photographer © Arthaus She was the woman who photographed herself bathing in Hitler's bathtub: Lee Miller. As part of the Allied escort, she took photos in liberated Paris, the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps, of German civilians and American GIs.

"The Photographer" tells Lee's story from New York model to French art photographer to war reporter for Vogue. It's not just Kate Winslet's acting that impresses, from carefree twentysomething to serious photojournalist, but also the images with which director Ellen Kuras documents this path.

Ellen Kuras
It is probably no coincidence that Ellen Kuras is making her debut as the director of a feature-length film with "The Photographer". Born in New Jersey in 1959, Kuras studied photography and cinematography in New York, laying the foundations for a successful career as a cinematographer. Since the early 1990s, she has been behind the camera on documentaries and feature films, as well as music videos and commercials, for directors such as Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Mary Harron, Michel Gondry, Ted Demme and Rebecca Miller.

DVD Pedro Almodóvar © Arthaus In Germany, the love affair with Pedro Almodóvar began in 1988 with "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown". For anyone who wasn't completely overwhelmed by the shrill shades of colours, patterns, emotions, storylines, temperaments, cuts and nose shapes, a new, bright star was rising in the directorial firmament. And Pedro Almodóvar has never disappointed his audience in the three decades since. Ten of his best films, including "Live Flesh" (1997), "Volver" (2006), "Parallel Mothers" (2021) and the Oscar successes "All About My Mother" (1999) and "Talk to Her" (2002), are now available in a DVD box set to mark his 75th birthday on 25 September.

Game Botany Manor © Whitethorn Games Slow gaming is a small, quiet trend on the fringes of a fast, loud, flashy industry that is becoming increasingly popular. "Botany Manor", which was developed by Laura De Mey in idyllic Devon in the UK, is not only thematically appropriately slow, but also colourful and beautiful. The aim is to use point-and-click to unlock the secrets of magical plants in order to make them bloom. Previous knowledge of gardening is not a prerequisite, but it does help with one or two of the solutions.