Renoir Cinema in London 's Brunswick Square will host a memorial service at 12 noon on Wednesday March 7, 2007, to celebrate the life and achievements of Andi Engel, who died aged 68 in Lubeck, Germany on December 26 last year.

With his wife Pam, Engel founded Artificial Eye, the UK 's leading distributor of arthouse and foreign-language films, releasing works by arthouse legends including Krzysztof Kiewslowski, Andrei Tarkovsky and Robert Bresson. He was also a film critic and directed the 1989 drama Melancholia.

Artificial Eye was recently acquired by Act Entertainment Group and Knatchbull Communications Group, who took charge of its 200-title library and two London cinemas.