The Independent Recommends: Film

WATCHING HAMAM: The Turkish Bath is an experience akin to visiting one: languorous, hypnotic, ever so slightly soporific. An Italian-Turkish co-production, it's the story of Francesco (Alessandro Gassman), an uptight interior designer who travels from Rome to Istanbul to sort out his late aunt's estate, only to discover that he has been bequeathed a hamam. As the hamam works its spell on Francesco, so we succumb to the film's melancholy. Who would have thought that Istanbul could be so laid-back?

On general release

In his old age, director Alain Resnais has conceived a strange passion for English playwrights. On Connait la Chanson, a charming tribute to Dennis Potter (above), borrows the Pennies From Heaven trick of having characters miming along to songs which express their innermost emotions. The plot is a mere souffle, but the cast lip-synch their way through some wonderfully cheesey French ballads with panache.

Cine Lumiere (0171 838 2144), 7.30pm