We've just posted a great podcast about Kevin Macdonald's latest movie, "State of Play," a Washington-based thriller about two journalists who uncover a corruption and murder in politics.

It contains a plethora of clips from the movie which stars the perenially classy Helen Mirren and features Russell Crowe plays old hack Cal McCafferty and young upstart blogger Rachel McAdams talking about the film, as well as footage of Macdonald.

You can watch the podcast by going to The Screening Room homepage, or click  here to subscribe to it.

Veteran director Stephen Frears' latest film is  "Cheri," starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates and Rupert Friend.

Set in Belle Epoque-era Paris, in those last fragile years of excess before the outbreak of WW1, it's a sumptuous affair and Michelle Pfeiffer dazzles as a wealthy, retired courtesan who starts an affair with a rival's son.

Frears, who has been working in the movies for over 40 years sat down with me on a drab Monday morning in an office in Soho in London for a chat about his career. Chugging on an illicit cigarette, he talked about women, how important it is to follow your gut instincts, the art of directing and his fear that one day he will wake up and not be able to create the worlds he does.

Click here to read the feature or here to have a look through a picture gallery of stills from the film.

Play-acting on the pitch is usually frowned upon by fans of the game, but as Eric Cantona's upcoming role as himself in Ken Loach's "Looking For Eric," which is in competition at next month's Cannes Film Festival shows, that hasn’t stopped some of the world’s best players from combining the beautiful game with the big screen.

Cantona is no stranger to the movie world - the enigmatic Frenchman shocked the football by announcing his intention to launch a serious film career on his retirement from the game. A cameo role in the Oscar-nominated 1998 historical drama, "Elizabeth" was an atypically low key debut for the legendary striker, but Cantona has since amassed a substantial filmography of both English and French films.

Now Cantona takes on arguably his biggest role to date - that of himself. "Looking For Eric" is the story of a Manchester United-supporting milkman who experiences visions of Cantona as he attempts to escape a mid-life crisis. The film, directed by Ken Loach, has been tipped for success at the Cannes Film Festival next month.

The beautiful game’s universal appeal has captivated many a film-maker for generations, from Wim Wenders’ psychological take in "The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty" (1972), to Loach’s manic PE teacher in "Kes" (1969).

But it was 1981’s "Escape to Victory" that really kicked off the football film revolution. Pele and Bobby Moore’s star turns were never likely to be up for Oscar nominations, but seeing them share the screen with Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine popularized the idea that footballers themselves could appear on celluloid.

Former Wimbledon and Chelsea hardman Vinnie Jones is one of the more unlikely players to embark on an acting career, enjoying success playing a gangster in Guy Ritchie’s "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch." He subsequently got back into his football kit to appear in "Mean Machine" (2001), a soccer-based remake of the American football film "The Longest Yard."

The most famous player of them all, David Beckham, went one better and had a film named after him - "Bend It Like Beckham" (2002) - although his only "appearance" in the film was actually a lookalike posing as the free kick specialist. However, since his move to Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007, Beckham has been no stranger to the Hollywood lifestyle, and indeed did have a cameo in the first of the "Goal!" trilogy, alongside then Real Madrid team-mate Zinedine Zidane.

Zidane, a former World Player of the Year, was the sole star of a 2001 documentary, "Zidane: A Twentieth Century Portrait," in which his movement was closely tracked by a team of cameramen during the course of a Spanish Liga game.

And it seems that even the lure of merely appearing in your own movie isn’t enough to sate the footballing appetite for cinema, with some players starting to work behind the camera.

French international Vikash Dhorasoo released his video diary of the 2006 World Cup, "Substitute" (2007), to acclaim at the IDFA Documentary Festival in Amsterdam, documenting his frustration at being consigned to the bench during France’s run to the World Cup Final on Super-8 film.

As both the subject and director of the documentary, Dhorasoo stripped away the glamour of international tournaments, showing the boredom - and even depression - that permeates the lives of the perennial bench-warmer.

Of course, not every footballer after a film career has to make a film about football. England defenders Ashley Cole and Rio Ferdinand may currently have Chelsea and Manchester United’s Champions’ League campaigns to contend with, but both have signed up as executive producers on 50 Cent’s next film, "Dead Man Running," a gangster flick also starring "The Football Factory’s" Danny Dyer.

Which football movies hit the target for you? Which ones leave you as sick as a parrot?

Whatever your opinion of journalists, the inner political workings of the newsroom have been the basis of some classic films.

Russell Crowe plays Washington Globe reporter Cal McAffrey.

With its warts-and-all exposé of the intrigue and corruption at the heart of Washington politics, "State of Play" is the latest journalism thriller in the spirit of movies such as 1976 Watergate scandal movie, "All the President’s Men," and George Clooney's 2005 indictment of McCarthyism in the early 1950s, "Good Night and Good Luck."

"You can’t make a film in Washington, D.C. about journalism without referring to 'All The President’s Men,' whether its consciously or unconsciously,” says director Kevin McDonald who is known for helming 2006's "The Last King of Scotland" about Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin.

"When I first started making this film, I went through my mind of all the great journalism movies –- like "Sweet Smell of Success," "The Front Page," "His Girl Friday," all of which I love –- and thought there’s something about journalists as protagonists. They’re literate, and smart, and witty, but they’re also colourful - they make great movie characters."

Australian actor Russell Crowe, who stars as Washington Globe reporter Cal McAffrey, has a well-documented mistrust of journalists in real life, but McDonald says he won his leading man over by the time filming finished.

"He told me he hated journalists," McDonald recalls. "He’s suffered at the hands of modern journalists, who play a bit loose with the facts, and he feels a lot of journalists don’t realize the importance of what they’re doing. He felt they weren’t very heroic."

"But he saw he was playing a slightly schizoid character - someone who does realize the weight and importance of what he does, but will bend the rules. So, he managed to have his cake and eat it, he portrayed the kind of journalist he wished existed."

McDonald, who began his film career as a documentary maker, has a warm regard for journalism, as clearly evidenced in "State of Play’s" sympathy for the plight of the ailing newspaper industry.

"I always wanted to be a journalist, I just couldn’t get a job on a paper,” McDonald admits.

"I got into documentaries because I always loved that adrenaline rush of chasing a story, but I love newspapers. There’s something about the feel of them in your hands - the smell of newsprint - that’s very evocative. I feel like we’re watching the last rites of newspapers."

While McDonald hopes he has made a film that entertains, he also believes it has a message.

"This is an entertaining thriller –- hopefully the kind of thriller you can take your girlfriend, or your mum and dad to, and everyone can have a good entertaining time. But I also hope you can come away with a respect for newspapers, and feel like it’s going to be a sad thing when they go.”

What is the best journalism movie? Who are your favourite on-screen journalists? Do newsrooms make good film settings?

LONDON, England - What is it about the car chase? This action staple is almost as old as cinema itself, and the incredible success of “Fast & Furious” the latest high-octane joyride to hit cinema screens shows the almost supernatural allure the prospect of a quality chase exerts on a certain kind of movie-goer.

'Fast and Furious' is the latest high octane joyride to hit cinema screens.

Although they date back to silent film series like the “Keystone Cops" in 1912, most agree the modern car chase was born with “Bullitt” in 1968, which features Steve McQueen as the titular hard-nosed cop detailed to protect a star witness.

In this endlessly imitated sequence, Bullitt screeches up and down the hilly streets of San Francisco at the wheel of a Ford Mustang GT, hitting speeds of up to 185km/hour (115 miles/hour). An expert automobile and motorcycle racer in real life, the sequence is all the more impressive when you find out McQueen did almost all his own stunt driving.

William Friedkin upped the realism in “The French Connection” (1971), which stars a fresh-faced Gene Hackman as New York City police detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle who wrestles an increasingly battered-looking 1971 Pontiac LeMans around the road underneath an elevated train he is chasing in Brooklyn.

Many of the scenes in this chase are real, including the car crash, which was unplanned and caused when a local man drove onto the set not realizing what was happening. The producers later paid for repairs.

Other honorable mentions include: “Cannonball Run” (1981) for the spectacular cars including a Ferrari 308 GTS and Aston Martin DB5, “The Italian Job” (1969) for an incredibly hip car chase featuring red, white and blue Minis that  personify swinging 60s London, Steven Spielberg’s 1971 TV movie “Duel,” which is really just one extended chase scene.

Car chases have gotten progressively more complicated since the 70s, with computer graphics (CGI) allowing filmmakers to conjure up scenes that would have been unthinkable using only stuntmen - just think of the impossibly violent crashes in the main chase scene in last year’s “The Dark Knight.”

Some critics say all this CGI tomfoolery makes chase scenes look fake; that they don’t require the same amount of skill from stuntmen. The dodgy CGI chase scene in Luc Besson’s otherwise brilliant “The Fifth Element” (1997) could be held up as an example of this - although quite how they would have made taxis really hover 12 stories up is another question entirely.

One of the most famous proponents of this view is Quentin Tarantino, who put his money where his mouth is with “Death Proof” (2007) which features a long, climactic chase scene featuring stripped down 1969 Dodge Charger and a heavily modified 1970 Dodge Challenger complete with a girl clinging precariously to the hood - and absolutely no CGI.

Other contemporary chase scenes that deserve an honorable mention include the BMW vs. Peugeot car chase through the streets of Paris and, nerve-wrackingly, the wrong way up an autoroute in espionage caper “Ronin” (1998) and Paul Greengrass' "Bourne" trilogy.

What do you think are the greatest car chases in movie history?

“Why can’t the U.S. make films this good anymore?” lamented Jane about vampire flick “Let the Right One In” - and many of you seemed to agree if the huge response to my post from a few days ago, "Vampire movie sinks teeth into genre," was anything to go by.

Although many of you loved coming-of-age vamp movie, 'Let the Right One In,' it left some of you colder than a Stockholm December.

Despite its status as a relative newcomer in that grand old dame of genres, quite a few of you nominated “Let the Right One In” for best ever vamp flick.

“This movie was amazing!” raved Veronica from Toronto. Meta, said, “I loved this movie because it was so different.” It also wowed Mako: “Chilling, subtly brutal and near-perfect.”

And it got you thinking too: “There’s really nothing sweet about [the story],” corrected Robert Barry trashing the idea of childhood love. “…She has played this manipulation over and over. It is her modus operandi: She finds a young, week [sic], susceptible boy, manipulates them into caring for her …”

For my money, though, balefulregards nailed the film with his/her comment. “What this filmmaker has done - quite poetically - is translate a part of a print text onto the screen that says more about the agony of puberty than any other film.”

“See the movie. Read the book. I dare you to remember your own puberty afterwards as anything more than a very dangerous walk through dark woods.”

It also can’t be denied that some of you were left colder than a Stockholm December by Oskar and Eli.

“Am I the only one who thinks this movie is overrated?” asks femspotter. It was a “pure waste of time,” ranted Kim. “Holy cow!” said Glenn. “This movie just went on and on and on.”

Some helpful souls, like Ethan, mentioned some problems with the DVD and Blu-ray release in the U.S. I got in touch with the distributor. Please see separate post here.

Other vampire movies that you rate include, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 period number, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” – “Gary Oldman was fantastic,” said Pauly D - the “Blade” movies, F.W. Murnau’s 1929 chiller “Nosferatu” and Robert Rodriguez's surprising half road movie, half horror "From Dusk Til Dawn" – all of which kept coming up again and again.

Tom Holland’s 1985 gore-fest “Fright Night” is a “classic,” according to Nunu, while Arizona reckons “Near Dark” (1987) “really changed the way vampires were treated in movies.”

“I really thought “30 Days of Night” was a great movie … LOVED the concept of Alaskan townsfolk being trapped and consumed in 30 days of darkness!” Andrea said about her favorite vamp movie.

Neil Jordan’s 1995 “Interview with the Vampire” was also a popular choice. It is an “almost forgotten masterpiece,” according to Palaver. “A both grandiose and intimate study in the depressing horror of being forced to live forever.”

You also posted some good tips on lesser known flicks like noir-ish drama, “Dawn” (2003), which was suggested by Michael Talbot-Haynes. Mike Hawthorne proposed Roman Polanski romp, “The Fearless Vampire Killers” featuring his late wife Sharon Tate - “a brilliantly campy comedy/drama (along the veins of “Rocky Horror”).

You also had some strong opinions about great vampires. John Badham’s 1979 “Dracula” starring a young Frank Langella gets Sandy’s vote for sexiest vamp. “He can hang his cloak in my closet anytime.” While, Catherine Lover’s vote goes for French actress Catherine Deneuve in Tony Scott’s 1983 movie “The Hunger” –- “has there ever been a more seductive vampire?” “Christopher Lee used to scare the bejeesus out of me when I was 12,” remembers Epidi. “Bela Lugosi IS Dracula!” says Patty. “He was even buried in his black cape when he died.”

But looking back over the almost infinite array of twists on the vampire theme, I think Xander sums it up best when he says, “I don’t think the ‘best’ vampire movie has been made yet. I can’t wait to see it when it does finally hit the big screen."

So, what I want to know from you now is who is the coolest vampire ever? They can be the most terrifying, the most sexy, the most disgusting - whichever nightcrawler personifies vampires best for you.

Quite a few people have mentioned that the U.S. DVD and Blu-ray release of "Let the Right One In"  has a different English translation in the subtitles, which many have said loses the dark wit and character building of the cinema version.

I rang Magnolia Home Entertainment who released the DVD in the U.S. to ask them about this problems and  here's how they responded in an email statement:

"For the DVD and Blu-ray release of "Let The Right One In," Magnolia Home Entertainment incorporated a more literal translation of the Swedish dialogue than the one contained on the theatrical version.

Several fans have informed us that they would like to see a future manufacturing run containing the original theatrical subtitle file as an additional English language subtitle option on the disc, which we have agreed to do.

As the current disc contains a completely accurate, literal English translation of the film’s dialogue, we are not offering exchanges for the original discs."