1. Tulpan: Remarkable romantic comedy set among a nomadic tribe in Kazakhstan.
2. An Education: Nick Hornby's sensitive adaptation of journlaist Lynn Barber's excellent memoir of her first boyfriend.
3. The White Ribbon: Michael Hameke's Palme d'Or winner at Cannes is set in a German village just before the start of the First World War.
4. 2012: Roland Emmerich's thrilling apocalypse movie with John Cusack as the hero.
5. Fantastic Mr Fox: Wes Anderson’s take on Roald Dahl is full of quirky magic — with a sly George Clooney voicing Mr Fox.

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quote Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor quote

Alexandra Burke

Lifetime gong for Lynch at Venice Film Festival

By This is London 07.09.06

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Director David Lynch received a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival - as his latest movie premiered to baffled audiences. Inland Empire is the eccentric film-maker's most obscure picture yet.

Starring Laura Dern and Jeremy Irons, the mysterious tale of "a woman in love and in danger" features a series of hallucinatory scenes and a talking rabbit voiced by Naomi Watts.

It prompted one confused critic to ask Lynch: "Is it supposed to make sense?"

"It's supposed to make perfect sense," the director replied.

Venice organisers gave Lynch, 60, the lifetime achievement Golden Lion for a career which has included Eraserhead, the Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart, Mulholland Drive and cult TV series Twin Peaks.

The director did not present his actors with a script for Inland Empire. Instead, he handed them a few pages of dialogue each morning as they turned up to shoot their scenes. The process took two-and-a-half years.

Dern, who worked with Lynch on Wild At Heart, admitted even she was not sure what the film was about.

"My experience on this film was very unique to say the least, even after working with David for a long time.

"Each day was a different direction, each day was a different idea because we didn't have a script we were following. Each day he would tell me what to say and do, and I would repeat it.

"The truth is I didn't know who I was playing - and I still don't know. I'm looking forward to seeing the film tonight to learn more." Lynch tried to explain his movie-making vision.

"It's important to be able to experiment," he said. "They say Hitchcock was the master of suspense and mystery. Mystery and the unknown are something I love. I love it when the lights go down and the curtains open and you go into a new world. I love not knowing what's coming."

The director said he had no plans for a return to TV despite the huge global success of Twin Peaks in the 1990s.

"I don't understand things. There is no real logical reason why it was a success all around the world, but it just turned out to be that way. It's interesting, but I have zero desire to go back into TV," he said.