Today was a mixed day with some of the best and worst cinema I have seen since arriving. Two big, but not particularly interesting premiers: Rendition (European premier) and Silk (world premier), are set for this evening. Despite the hype they both appear to be dead in the water.

With big Hollywood stars parading down the red carpet, trying to get anywhere near them was practically impossible. There is something about famous people that fills cameramen with the strength of ten, and as I seem to be at perfect elbow height for the majority of them, it was tough trying to see anything: Jake Gyllenhaal, Reece Witherspoon, Gavin Hood, Sei Ashina, and Michael Pitt all walked the carpet to the auditorium in the evening.

At the press meeting for Rendition I was also disappointed to see that Gyllenhaal is not half as good looking in real life as he is on screen - maybe it’s the beard, but the beautiful freak of Donnie Darko seemed to have none of the same mystique in person. But, Reese Witherspoon is as beautiful on stage as on screen, though she did seem so painfully bored throughout I almost felt bad for keeping her there.

Despite being directed by the Oscar-wining François Girard, the long-anticipated Silk turned out to be a disappointment, and not only because of my irrational hatred of Keira Knightly. An adaptation of the novel by Alessandro Baricco, the film narrates the story of Hervé Joncour (Michael Pitt), a French boy who returns from the army to fall in love with the local beauty Hélèn Fouquet (Keira Knightly). Hervé decides to take up the offer of local factory owner Baldabiou (Aldred Molina) and travel to Japan to find the world’s most highly valued silkworms.

After a treacherous journey, he reaches the mountains where he becomes enchanted by a beautiful nameless girl (Sei Ashina), consort of the dangerous leader of the Japanese mountain community. After many meaningful looks and sexually tense moments, he returns home, where his world slowly dissipates under the pressure of his latent obsession.

Cue self-indulgent sequences contrasting the English summer and the icy beauty of the Japanese mountains, accompanied by a score as facile as the screenplay was tedious. While the acting is not unconvincing, it does not create the intensity needed for audience involvement, and I simply wasn’t involved. Using the Orient to represent the darker side of Western consciousness is hardly new, and neither is the idea that essentially, home is where the heart is. The film had nothing particularly innovative or captivating to say. The overall is so uninspiring I can’t even think of anything else to say except that I would rather read the book.

After the boredom of Silk, I was worried I might fall asleep in the second installation of the day, And When Did You Last See Your Father? I am glad to say I was completely wrong. Maybe being English I am a little biased, but there is something particularly frank and understated about the best British films which I love, and this is some of the best.

The screening was also the first I attended in the Salacinema IKEA. It looked like an enormous showroom when I walked, the entrance covered with a range of stylish but surprisingly affordable lighting.

The storyline is very simple: Blake (Colin Firth) and his father Arthur (Jim Broadbent) have always had a strained relationship. Despite his success as a poet, Blake has never felt appreciated by his father. When he finds that Arthur is dying of cancer he journeys to his childhood home in the Yorkshire dales to stay with his father and mother, Kim (Juliet Stevenson). The film is largely flashbacks to his teenage years, featuring Matthew Beard as the young Blake, outlining the family’s difficulties and contrasting their past with the events of the present.

Adapted from the best-selling memoir by Blake Morrison, this is a small but brave and earnestly told narrative of a father/son relationship that will have universal applicability.

In the press interview Firth talked about the difficulties of translating the personal book onto the necessarily more impersonal screen. But the film’s unflinching rendition of all aspects of the relationship -- from Blake’s teenage masturbation to Arthur’s horrendous decline from cancer -- are moving and simply told. This film is about learning who your parents are and how they made you what you are. Because of that, the story will touch everyone in some fashion. It made me call home.