Tribune – Comment, news and reviews from Britain's democratic left

Land Girls
BBC 1

Tonight: We Know What’s In Your Bin
ITV 1

How best to celebrate the contribution of British women to the war effort on the 70th anniversary of the start of the Second World War? A lively, well-researched docudrama, perhaps, with recollections from survivors of the ATS, WAF, WRNS, munitions factories and the Women’s Land Army? A thoughtful look at attitudes to women in the forces, comparing then and now? Not a bit of it – not so far, anyway.

Funny People
Director: Judd Apatow
District 9
Director: Neill Blomkamp

Writer-director Judd Apatow has more finesse than he is given credit for. His first two movies, The 40 Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, were the decidedly tempered successors to the gross-out comedies of the 1970s, with a bite that bore little relation to their foul-talking bark. Funny People, a real achievement, is a movie with a heavyweight comedic cast, Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill, that looks with some insight into the world of stand-up comedy – albeit one conspicuously free of drugs and alcohol.

Broken Embraces
Director: Pedro Almodovar

The latest recipient of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, Penelope Cruz, who won for her Latina-spitfire turn in Woody Allen’s otherwise decidedly so-so Vicky Cristina Barcelona, returns to cinema screens in Broken Embraces, her fourth collaboration with writer-director Pedro Almodovar after Live Flesh (1997), All About My Mother (1999) and Volver (2006). However, whereas the latter two were genuine masterpieces and Live Flesh a more-than-diverting little thriller, Broken Embraces is a very rare dud from Spain’s leading auteur.

Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £30

Vera Brittain (1893-1970) was one of the greatest writers of the last century and, however familiar to you from previous readings, her Testament of Youth will always hit you where it hurts. Its power never diminishes.

When You’re a Boy
The Photographers’ Gallery, London

One of the more amazing images in When You’re a Boy: Men’s Fashion Styled by Simon Foxton, is of a man, his naked torso smeared with black paint and wearing an animal-like mask, compete with horns and thick ringlets of hair. Most surprising is that he appears to have three sets of arms, all intertwined and locked. The mouth of the mask is open as if screaming in agony. The combination of human and mythical creature is both disturbing and puzzling.

Quebec: The Story of Three Sieges
by Stephen Manning
Continuum, £25

When the French President, General Charles de Gaulle, committed a deliberate diplomatic faux pas by proclaiming “Vive le Québec libre” to an adoring crowd in Montreal more than 40 years ago, he summed up the tortured history of this much besieged city.

Calvin by Bruce Gordon
Yale University Press, £25

John Calvin was born five hundred years ago, in 1509, yet his influence remains in Protestant churches today. There is a sizeable Calvinist movement in the Anglican church, for example. A deeply Christian man, he inspired great loyalty among his friends and followers but attracted serious enemies, too. Bruce Gordon’s biography is one of a number published to mark the reformer’s birth. It concentrates on the story of Calvin’s life, mainly via his letters, through which we see his theology develop. As such it is a good way to understand the man and the world in which he lived.

Verdi – Macbeth: Giuseppe Altomare/Oltha Zhravel/Orchestra Filharmonica Marchigiana/Daniele Callegari
Naxos

This fast-moving performance of Macbeth was recorded live at the Sferisterio Festival, Marata 2007. The sense of occasion is enjoyable and the sound, unlike studio opera recordings, is not in your face. Verdi’s early masterpiece was first performed at Florence in 1847. The composer was 32 and had written 10 operas in eight years. It’s one of Verdi’s finest early operas, preceding the early masterpieces Trovatore, Rigoletto and Traviata.