四月最值得期待的4部新片
4 of the best films to watch this April

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

In the third of five planned Fantastic Beasts films, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) clash with the dark forces of Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen, taking over from Johnny Depp) in the 1930s. The previous instalment, The Crimes of Grindelwald, was the most over-complicated and underwhelming of the films set in JK Rowling's Wizarding World, but Steve Kloves, who wrote the Harry Potter scripts, has joined Rowling as co-screenwriter this time, and several scenes are set at Hogwarts, so maybe they can conjure up some of the old magic. They could even answer the series' most pressing question: when did Dumbledore swap the three-piece suits he wears in Fantastic Beasts for the floor-length robes he wears in Harry Potter?

Released on 8 April in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and 15 April in the US and Canada

Petite Maman

The heroine of Petite Maman is eight-year-old Nelly (Joséphine Sanz). After her grandmother's death, Nelly plays in the woods near her mother's childhood home, and meets Marion (Gabrielle Sanz, Joséphine's twin), a girl of her own age and with remarkably similar features. The pair play together every day, fast becoming close friends. Mark Kermode wrote in The Observer: "Whether you are six or 60, this astonishingly insightful and heartbreakingly hopeful cinematic poem will pierce your heart, broaden your mind and gladden your soul, even as you wipe away tears." And all in just 72 minutes.

Released on 22 April in the US

Downton Abbey: A New Era

BBC Culture's Caryn James enjoyed the "elegance and glittering production values" of the first Downton Abbey film, which was released in 2019. The sequel, once again scripted by Julian Fellowes, promises to be even more sumptuous and enticing. In a storyline, the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith) reveals that she has inherited a villa in the south of France, so the family heads down to the Riviera to investigate. Don't expect any hard-hitting social commentary, but do expect lashings of "glamour, manners and wealth".

Released on 29 April in the UK and Ireland and 20 May in the US and Canada

Operation Mincemeat

In 1943, as British forces were preparing to invade Sicily, a group of intelligence officers formulated an elaborate scheme to throw the enemy off the scent. This stranger-than-fiction film tells the story of the officers who drew up a set of fake plans for an invasion of Greece, planted the plans on a corpse dressed in a Royal Marines uniform, and then dumped the corpse off the coast of Spain, in the hope that it would eventually fall into German hands. If that sounds like the plot of a far-fetched espionage novel rather than a real-life story, it could be because one of the officers behind the ruse was Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming, later the author of the James Bond novels. In Operation Mincemeat, Fleming is played by Johnny Flynn, alongside Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald, Penelope Wilton and Jason Isaacs.

Released on 15 April in the UK and Ireland, 27 April in France and 11 May in the US