Luc Besson once said he that would only direct ten films and he hits his quota with Angel-A, a glorious throwback to his cinma du look past. Riffing on Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Wim Wenders's Wings of Desire (1988), the story centres on maverick angel Rie Rasmussen's bid to break serial schmuck Jamel Debbouze's losing streak. But while their banter is crisply cut and full of slick, fortune-cookie philosophy, there's nothing particularly interesting about her efforts to kickstart his life or deliver him from the clutches of sinister gangster, Gilbert Melki even though her methods could never be called conventional.

Nevertheless, Thierry Arbogast's monochrome photography is absolutely sublime and consistently recalls the Pariscapes achieved by Raoul Coutard during the nouvelle vague. Moreover, it turns an enjoyable romp into a truly memorable visual treat.

A very different France emerges in Raymond Depardon's Profils Paysans 2: Le Quotidian (or Profiles of Farmers 2: Daily Life), which is currently screening at the ICA in London, as part of its tribute to the acclaimed photographer and documentarist. Essentially, this is a progress report on the characters featured in Profils Paysans: L'Approche (2002), which explored the social and economic problems facing French farmers in the low mountain valleys of the Lozre, Ardche and Haute-Loire. Sadly, a number of those crusty characters have since died. But this enables Depardon to focus on the newcomers determined to make a life on the land, including the terrifyingly optimistic 22-year-old Amandine Gagnaire, whose inexperience prompts the old lags to tut louder than at a deputation of EU suits.

While not quite of the calibre of Georges Rouquier's neglected classic Farrebique (1947), this is still a compelling corrective that will dispel some of the myths surrounding French agriculture. But, while Depardon's origins as a farmer's son are obvious in his eye for the landscape, this is anything but a polemic and eschews the cosy sentiment that spoilt Christian Carion's The Girl from Paris (2001).

Scott Coffey attempts to confound a few preconceptions in the Tinseltown comedy, Ellie Parker. A splendid performance by Naomi Watts holds together this acerbic and astutely restrained insight into life in the thespian basement. The action expands upon a quartet of shorts that Watts made with writer-director Coffey around the time she found fame in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001).

But while her encounters with casting directors, agents and wannabe friends are consistently amusing, Watts really comes into her own during the sequences in her car, which is the epicentre of her haphazard universe. Whether rehearsing accents, making business calls or changing for her next audition (while negotiating the downtown LA traffic), Watts achieves a blend of doubt, despair and determination that not only makes Ellie irresistibly appealing, but also showcases her own comic instincts.

Finally, the Thai actioner Warrior King offers a complete change of tack. Asiaphiles won't be disappointed by mauy thai star Tony Jaa's follow-up to his cult hit Ong-Bak. But, while the fight sequences are outstanding, the plotline is disappointingly slender and Jaa lacks the charisma of his martial arts counterparts from Hong Kong. Fortunately, transsexual Jin Xing contributes some scene-stealing support, as the Sydney-based former Shanghai Ballet star, who seems to be behind the theft of the Thai country boy's prized elephants. However, most fight aficianados will be unconcerned by the dirth of characterisation and will revel instead in the striking set-pieces, which include a slickly edited speedboat chase, a bravura single-take steadicam confrontation in a high-rise brothel and the climactic showdown with 50 black-suited bodyguards.