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Three very different twenty / thirty something girls - an actress (Élise), a writer (Nicole) and webcam model (Ruby) - try to chill in their Marseilles flats and their balconies during a heatwave. Attracted to the man in the flat across the road they go over for drinks. One stays over and the next day she is found hysterical and covered in blood. The three return to the man's flat to find the man impaled and missing part of his genitals - they determine to cover things up.

Apparently a feminist dark comedy, the amusing elements soon fade morphing into a rather scattergun, somewhat surreal tale of violence to women by rather stereotypical unpleasant men and its impact including Nicole seeing the ghosts of those killed. It's darkly humorous in places but because the characters of the leads never really develop and because every feller here is a complete twerp, it's hard to entirely care too much, sweet though they are. Ultimately different, stylish and with lots of ideas some of which are quite inspired but most just don't really land. - certainly art for art's sake.

Con man Sam Longwood (Lee Marvin), his partner Billy (Strother Martin) and his old partner Joe Knox (Oliver Reed) find their old partner Jack Colby (Robert Culp) running for governor. He took all of Longwood and Knox's gold 15 years earlier and they're now looking for $60,000 recompense. Heading off with a prostitute dubbed Thursday (Kay Lenz) they decide to kidnap Colby's wife and Longwood's ex, Nancy Sue (Elizabeth Ashley) and demand a $60,000 random.

Whilst Marvin and Reed (strange bit of casting) chew the scenery for all it's worth and the story and script are a tad flimsy, this is still rather good fun with a beguiling mixture of caper, slapstick and plain silly, with a few decent one liners thrown in. The serious undercurrent around the old guys no longer able to cope with the new world is also fairly well handled. Nice support also from Strother Martin, doing Strother Martin, a foul mouthed Elizabeth Ashley, a sweet & saucy Kay Lenz and especially a very good slimy Robert Culp. Decent undemanding fun and actually really quite sweet.

For my money, still Spielberg's best film and the one that changed cinema in terms of thrillers and blockbuster screen entertainment. There have over the years been a number of documentaries, mostly pretty good, charting how this came into being, the difficulties in making it and of course it's phenomenal success. I think there are a number of new things not said before here:

1. It shines much more of a light on Benchley and his family and how the book happened.

2. It is clearer the role shark whizzes Ron and Valerie Taylor played and their value to Spielberg.

3. The role played by, and the impact its creation had on, the Martha's Vineyard community - I had no idea how many locals took part including starring in the film.

4. A more detailed and thoughtful look at its legacy, including Robert Shaw's son's play.

The only elements I wasn't sure of were the John Williams section - fine, but nothing new and what Emily Blunt, bless her, was doing there - assume this was done in between filming Spielberg's new film in which she stars. Crucially though, the main interest is Spielberg's candour. Obviously he's a great director etc etc, but he rarely really opens up - he tends to make a lot of considered observations about all the great guys in Hollywood. Here he does and indeed from watching him talk and the mental anguish it gave him, it was a miracle the thing got made, particularly given the grief he was given by Universal executives and THAT one actor, whoever they are - you need to watch the film!

Overall then I can't say it's a ground breaking documentary, but it is interesting and has some good new stuff in it and after all it is one of the greatest films ever made and therefore richly deserving of the accolade.