François Truffaut is the most accessible of the nouvelle-vague directors. His films have an optimistic buoyancy of spirit and moments of exuberant, whimsical joy that are unfailingly attractive. Yet he was still a subversive innovator. Jules et Jim (1962), for example, seems a crisp, black-and-white period drama, a homage to Jean Renoir, perhaps. It bowls along at such a lick, it is easy to overlook how challenging it is morally (two men share Jeanne Moreau) and cinematically. The camera swoops and sweeps; scenes freeze momentarily; the screen shrinks to a corner. Jules et Jim and 400 Blows (Truffaut’s 1959 debut, about a harsh childhood in 1950s Paris) are the essential films; choosing any others from the remaining 20 or so is arbitrary, because there is not a bad one (except possibly Fahrenheit 451). This set has La Peau Douce (1964), in which everything goes wrong for a timid intellectual adulterer, and The Last Metro (1980), a story of theatricals in occupied Paris, starring Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve. The extras are good, including interviews with Truffaut, audio commentaries from Moreau and Depardieu, and the 1958 short Les Mistons, which anticipated 400 Blows. Five stars
David Mills
The Essential Bergman Collection
Tartan, 15, 350 mins; £49.99 (4 discs)
The Seventh Seal, the critic David Thomson noted, made Ingmar Bergman “the central figure in the growth of art-house cinema”. Its success marked a turning point, allowing him more freedom of choice to go with his greater assurance of technique. Subsequent work centred on self-analysis — The Seventh Seal is haunted by Bergman’s “monumental fear of death”. Its story of the loss of faith of a returning crusader knight reflected his own transformation from “childhood piety” to “harsh rationalism”. The cold, unloving parents of Wild Strawberries, Persona and Autumn Sonata are the director’s attempt to understand his own parents’ behaviour, certain he had been an unwanted child. The intellectual nature of these films’ subject matter, and the unflinching manner of their portrayal, led to a reputation for dourness. On reaquaintance, it is their humanity, their breadth of tone (the closing scene of Wild Strawberries is the antithesis of this reputation) and the sheer artistry of their telling that sears your memory. Essential indeed. Five stars
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Jeff Potter
It Happened Here
Film First, PG, 97 mins; £12.99
“It” is the Nazi invasion of England, in a 1964 rewritten history by Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo. Following the British retreat from Dunkirk, the Germans have crossed the Channel. The story follows a nurse (Pauline Murray) as she works — and therefore collaborates — in London. Remarkably, no stock footage was used; everything was immaculately (re)constructed. Some awkwardness in the filming and acting (many of the participants were not professional actors) only reinforces the naturalistic impression. A Nazi rally in Trafalgar Square seems eerily real, and an extended version of it is the best thing provided in the extras, along with photos of occupied Paris that provided the main inspiration. No screaming Hitler here: just the shock of everyday evil, as the banality and the violence of the occupation is transposed onto British soil. Civilians are massacred in sleepy Cotswolds villages; neighbours inform on each other in Holland Park’s neat terraces; Victorian mansions turn out to be concentration camps. In this context, the poor nurse’s justification of her work for the sinister Immediate Action Organisation — that it is a bid to “try to get back to normal” — is scuppered by the horror of what that Nazi normality is. Relentless and riveting. Four stars
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Louis Wise
The Secret Lives of Dentists
Tartan, 15, 104 mins; £19.99
Let’s give it a chance, despite the title. The film follows dentist David Hurst (Campbell Scott) as he suspects, then vividly imagines, the adultery of his wife, Dana, portrayed by Hope Davis (yes, Dave and Dana, both dentists, to boot — some people actually deserve suburban ennui). The dentistry aspect turns out to be rather unnecessary, only throwing up such observations as teeth being “impossible. Like marriage. But there they are”. Excellent performances are offered by the leads (Denis Leary features as a disgruntled patient-cum-fantasy guardian angel — it’s that kind of film), and the family life of the couple is intelligently rendered. But the whole is hampered by an obviously small budget and a soundtrack that can only be described as debilitating. It all begins to feel like an extended episode of a mid-1990s TV drama. Meagre extras (namely a gag reel, the trailer and a few cut scenes) barely compensate. Two stars
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Louis Wise