Eureka

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, Kwaidan features four nightmarish tales adapted from Lafcadio Hearn s classic Japanese ghost stories about mortals caught up in forces beyond their comprehension when the supernatural world intervenes in their lives: “The Black Hair”, “The Woman of the Snow”, “Hoichi the Earless”, and “In a Cup of […]

On an unforgiving, snow-swept frontier, a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters, led by the vicious Loco (Klaus Kinski) prey on a band of persecuted outlaws who have taken to the hills. Only a mute gunslinger named Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant) stands between the innocent refugees and the corrupt killers. But, in this harsh, brutal world, the […]

Perhaps the greatest rock documentary ever made, Martin Scorsese s The Last Waltz captures what was advertised as legendary rock group The Band s final farewell concert appearance. Joined on stage by more than a dozen special guests, including Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Muddy Waters and Joni Mitchell, The Last Waltz started as […]

One of the most visually striking of all the later silent films, The Man Who Laughs reunites German Expressionism director Paul Leni and cinematographer Gilbert Warrenton from their horror hit the previous year, The Cat and the Canary (1927). Both films are often considered to be among the earliest works of legendary horror classics from […]

The acclaimed, best-selling novel by John le Carré, about a Cold War spy on one final dangerous mission in East Germany, is transmuted by director Martin Ritt (Hud, Norma Rae) into a film every bit as precise and ruthless as the book. Academy Award-nominated Richard Burton (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Becket,1984) is superb as Alec Leamas, whose […]

The notoriously difficult to please John Ford regarded The Sun Shines Bright as his favourite film. Based on material from Irvin S. Cobb’s “Judge Priest”short stories, Ford had previously directed the 1934 film Judge Priest starring Will Rogers, but was unsatisfied with the handling of the film by 20th Century Fox – specifically their decision to cut a vital […]

After enjoying fantastic success with Fritz Lang s two-part “Indian Epic” in 1959, German producer Artur Brauner signed the great director to direct one more film. The result would be the picture that, in closing the saga he began nearly forty years earlier, brought Lang s career full-circle, and would come to represent his final […]

One of Hollywood’s classic hard-boiled thrillers and a favorite of suspense film lovers, this picture marked the first hit pairing of tough guy Alan Ladd, in the role that made him an instant star, and sultry blonde bombshell Veronica Lake. Adapted from a novel by Graham Greene, This Gun For Hire is the edgy story […]

Bernardo Bertolucci’s epic masterpiece of friendship and betrayal starring Robert De Niro and Gérard Depardieu After the international firestorm of Last Tango in Paris, Bernardo Bertolucci went on to create one of the grandest and most legendary epics in modern cinema. A stunning five-hour saga following the intertwined fates of two childhood friends born on the same day […]

Ranked as one of the finest British films of all time, director Fred Zinnemann (High Noon, From Here to Eternity, Day of the Jackal) A Man for All Seasons was lavished with awards and critical praise upon release for its opulent mise en scene and the incredible performances from its cast. Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield), Englands Roman Catholic […]

Widely regarded as the greatest martial arts epic of all time, A Touch of Zen won awards worldwide (including at Cannes), smashed box-office records and had an incalculable influence on the genre as a whole. An unambitious painter named Gu (Shih Jun) lives with his mother in the vicinity of an abandoned mansion rumoured to be haunted. […]

Often acknowledged as one of the best prison films ever made, Birdman of Alcatraz was director John Frankenheimer s first huge success and received rave reviews for its performances, cinematography (by the great Burnett Guffey; From Here to Eternity, Bonnie and Clyde) and Frankenheimer s directing. Burt Lancaster stars as the notorious prisoner, Robert Stroud, […]

An action-packed mystery western based on the best-selling novel by Alistair MacLean ( The Guns of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra, Where Eagles Dare), Breakheart Pass throws open the throttle for runaway excitement! At the height of the frontier era, a locomotive races through the Rocky Mountains on a classified mission to a remote Army post. […]

A virtuoso World War II espionage thriller directed by Fritz Lang as his follow-up to the noir classic Scarlet Street (and not long after the war itself had ended), Cloak and Dagger is an underrated entry in Lang’s oeuvre, a crackerjack spy saga with a commanding Gary Cooper performance and a wealth of masterful Langian […]

One of the most influential and revered figures in all of cinema, Friedrich Wilheim Murnau came to prominence in the first half of the 1920s with a diverse string of productions ranging from buoyant satire to swirling psychological drama. Five key works are presented here: Schloß Vogelöd, Phantom, Die Finanzen des Großherzogs (The Grand Duke’s Finances), Der Letzte Mann (The Last […]

Peter Watkins’ critically acclaimed biopic about the expressionist painter of ”The Scream” Described by Ingmar Bergman as ”a work of genius”, Peter Watkins’ multi-faceted masterwork is more than just a biopic of the iconic Norwegian Expressionist painter; it is one of the best films ever made about the artistic process. Focusing initially on Munch’s formative years […]

A glorious mixture of the riotously morbid and joyously life-affirming, Hal Ashby s Harold and Maude was an instant counter-culture favourite on its release in 1971…..

An unforgettable mixture of bubblegum teen melodrama and grisly phantasmagoria, Nobuhiko Obayashis deranged fairy tale House is one of Japanese cinema s wildest supernatural ventures and a truly startling debut feature. Upset by her widowed father s plans to remarry, Angel sets off with six of her schoolgirl friends in tow for a summer getaway at her aunt s isolated […]

Described by Steven Spielberg as one of our great filmmakers, not just for the art and passion he put on screen, but for the impact he has made on the conscience of the world , the films of producer and director Stanley Kramer ( The Defiant Ones, Guess Who s Coming to Dinner) frequently confronted […]

The best film ever made – Jarvis Cocker One of the most beloved and iconic British films of all time (voted in the top 10 of all time by the British Film Institute), Ken Loach’s breakthrough cinematic feature Kes is a cornerstone of naturalistic filmmaking whose influence is felt up to the present day. Portraying with remarkable detail and […]

Based on Herman Bang s 1902 novel of the same name, Dreyer’s film is a fascinating fin-de-siècle study of a decadent elderly artist (Benjamin Christensen) driven to despair by his relationship with his young protégé and former model, Michael (Walter Slezak). With suffocatingly sumptuous production design by renowned architect Hugo Häring (his only film work), […]

A milestone in American cinema and of the key films of the 1970s, Robert Altman s Nashville is one of the most influential and dazzling films ever made. Weaving together the stories…..

Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s intense drama about racial tensions starring Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier… A pivotal early film in the wave of racially progressive dramas of the 1950s and 60s, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s No Way Out is an electrifying film-noir about a doctor whose ethics are put to the test when he comes into conflict […]

From Luchino Visconti — the master director of such classics as La terra trema, Bellissima, and The Leopard — comes this epic study of family, sex, and betrayal. Alongside Fellini’s La dolce vita and Antonioni’s L’avventura, Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers [Rocco e i suoi fratelli] ushered Italian cinema into a new era, one unafraid […]

In this second of Francis Ford Coppola’s back-to-back screen adaptations of novels by S. E. Hinton, the grand romanticism of The Outsiders was flipped to create an expressionist, monochrome vision of youthful passion and melancholy, and became one of Coppola’s most personal and dazzling works. Against a run-down, industrial Tulsa, Oklahoma, Coppola presents a vivid portrait of […]

A harrowing drama set during the Salvadoran Civil War, Salvador is a one of director Oliver Stone’lauras most underrated films, a thrilling and violent look at the chaos of war as seen through the lens of an amoral photojournalist. In 1980, young men, women and children are being brutally killed in a bloody civil war […]

Sidney Lumet’s 1973 crime drama Serpico remains one of the most influential cop movies – alongside Al Pacino’s nuanced performance in a disturbing portrait of corruption and morality in the city that never sleeps. A plainclothes street patrolman, Frank Serpico (Pacino) might be the best cop in New York, but his unwillingness to play dirty […]

How far will a 32 year-old virgin go to possess a 19 year-old boy? Just prior to his career breakthrough M*A*S*H, Robert Altman made this memorably unsettling psychological thriller, which originally premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Frances Austen, a young, wealthy spinster, invites a mute teenager into her apartment after finding him freezing in the park next […]

An underrated masterpiece and one of the finest Sherlock Holmes films ever made… Considered by many Holmesians to be the best Sherlock Holmes movie ever made, Billy Wilder’s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is both an affectionate parody, and a brilliant, melancholy celebration of Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective. Sherlock Holmes (Robert Stephens) and Dr. Watson (Colin Blakely), […]

Redford plays a reader for U.S. intelligence who becomes a hunted man after he is not among the victims of a mass murder of his colleagues. Faye Dunaway does solid work as……

Based on the hit play by Agatha Christie, Billy Wilders Witness for the Prosecution was nominated for six Academy Awards and was reportedly praised by Christie herself as the best adaptation of her work she had seen. When a wealthy widow is found murdered, her married suitor, Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power), is accused of the […]