Her tragedy should have inspired great works, says Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

You know where you are with werewolves. Zombies have only two speeds: stumble and sprint. Vampires, though, are a more versatile monster. Neil Jordan’s Byzantium, which comes out on DVD tomorrow, gives its vamps retractable thumbnail-daggers, and reams of romantic mythology, but it’s positively mainstream compared to some of the, well, batty cult films which preceded it.

Here is an idea I borrowed from Richard Kelly's book of alternative movie lists, called 'Ten Bad Dates with De Niro', which includes 'Ten so-called turkeys that are actually terrific'. As he says: 'The game is best played with movies that remain generally dismissed as piss-poor.' Several of these are from his list, but others are new…

Vivien Leigh was a fragile superstar who always struggled with her most famous role, says Geoffrey Macnab

Bad boy Bieito's back to tackle Beethoven

Bret McKenzie, one half of the Kiwi comedy duo, is doing a Darcy in a new rom-com written and directed by Mormons, he tells Gill Pringle

Tinseltown Insider

Thursday

The Olivier Award-winning star of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is heading to Los Angeles to prepare for secret new project

Many films have set out to probe the fashion industry. The latest is yet another glossy cover-up, says Alexander Fury

Fernando Trueba’s new black-and-white drama, now out in cinemas, is The Artist and the Model, an affectionate study of a crotchety sculptor (Jean Rochefort) who hopes to complete one last work worthy of his reputation. Unfortunately, he’s being distracted by the Second World War and the pesky demands of other human beings, but his creative block may be lifted by his refreshingly unlecherous friendship with the curvaceous refugee who poses for him. It’s a sparkling gem of a film, but big-screen relationships between artists and their muses aren’t always so heart-warming.

The buck-toothed, pudgy, lank-haired geek is gone, transformed into a tall,  lust-worthy hunk about to take his first big (but top-secret) lead with the BBC. Susie Mesure meets Matthew Lewis

Kevin Macdonald is a British film director. His How I Live Now is out on 4 October. He shares with Charlotte Cripps his current reading, watching and surfing...

Sex! Drugs! Dragons! It's all grist to the mill for Aidan Gillen. But though the Irish actor has been in three of the most talked-about shows of the past 15 years, he's none too enamoured with big-budget spectaculars – and even less so with the life they offer

Abigail Breslin made her name playing a quirky beauty pageant wannabe. Now she's starring in sci-fi films, kidnap dramas and family sagas with Meryl Streep. James Mottram meets her