Newsnight Review 17 June, 2005

On Newsnight Review this week Kirsty Wark is joined by guests John Harris, Sarah Churchwell and Michael Gove to review:

THE UN INSPECTOR

WE DON'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE

THE PEOPLE'S ACT OF LOVE

THE GIRL IN THE CAFE

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The UN Inspector
The National Theatre

The UN Inspector is playing at the National Theatre

David Farr's The UN Inspector at the National Theatre is an adaptation of Nikolai Gogol's Government Inspector.

The original is a political satire and classic impostor story in which a group of people mistake someone completely unimportant for someone very important.

David Farr has kept the narrative and comedic structure but transplanted the action to a modern-day former Soviet Republic. The government inspector of the original now comes from the UN.

THE UN INSPECTOR runs at the National Theatre until 5 October

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We Don't Live Here Anymore
Directed by John Curran

Naomi Watts and Peter Krause with director John Curran on set

Based on two works by Andre Dubus, this is a provocative drama about married life and its discontents.

It charts the affair of a married man with his best friend's wife and how their liaison upsets the delicate balance of relationships, culminating in a fling between their spouses.

Unfolding from four alternating viewpoints, the story captures the paradoxical actions of loving parents determined to save marriages they secretly long to escape, as the couples struggle through their emotional and sexual entanglement.

Starring MARK RUFFALO, LAURA DERN, PETER KRAUSE, NAOMI WATTS

WE DON'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE opens on 17 June 2005

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The People's Act of Love
By James Meek

1919 Siberia.

James Meek

In the outer reaches of a country recently torn apart by civil war lies a small Christian sect and its enigmatic leader, Balashov. Stationed in their midst is a company of Czech soldiers, on the losing side of the recent conflict and desperate to get home.

Into this isolated community trudges Samarin, an escapee from Russia's northernmost prison. His arrival intrigues many of the locals, including Anna Petrovna, a beautiful young war widow, but when the local shaman is found dead, suspicion and terror engulf the little town...

THE PEOPLE'S ACT OF LOVE is published in hardback by Canongate Books on 14 July

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The Girl in the Cafe
By Richard Curtis

Bill Nighy as Lawrence and Kelly Macdonald as Gina

Commissioned as part of a range of programmes the BBC is making to celebrate Africa in 2005, THE GIRL IN THE CAFÉ is a love story written by Richard Curtis.

It follows the story of a very hard-working, shy civil servant Lawrence, and his life-changing relationship with a mysterious girl whom he meets in a café opposite Downing Street. He takes her on a romantic mini-break - to the G8 Summit meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, where Lawrence is one of the British delegation.

The film follows both the growing love story and the progress of the summit, until the two become dramatically, comically and inevitably entwined.

THE GIRL IN THE CAFE will be shown at 8pm on Saturday 25 June on BBC1

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Newsnight Review is broadcast after Newsnight every Friday at 11pm on BBC Two.