This week’s film releases

Out this week in France is Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady (La Dame de Fer), whose star Meryl Streep already has a handful of awards in hand or pending (Bafta, Oscar, Golden Globe) for her exceptional performance as the “extraordinary and complex woman” Margaret Thatcher, the UK’s first and only female Prime Minister.

Also out is experimental film Howl from 2010 exploring the genesis and consequences of Allen Ginsberg’s famous poem, and starring James Franco as Ginsberg. The film is simultaneously a portrait of a renegade artist breaking down barriers to find love and redemption, and an imaginative ride through a prophetic masterpiece that rocked a generation.