List of films available to us
(Click here for an explanation of film certificates)

TITLE CERT RUN TIME TITLE CERT RUN TIME
10 18 118 LAST ORDERS 15 105
102 DALMATIONS U 100 LAST PICTURE SHOW, THE 15 118
21 GRAMS 15 124 LAST SAMURAI 15 154
25TH HOUR 15 135 LAST TANGO IN PARIS 18 136
3000 MILES FROM GRACELAND 18 120 LATE NIGHT SHOPPING 15 91
7 BRIDES FOR 7 BROTHERS PG 103 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA PG 206
8 MM 18 118 LAWS OF ATTRACTION 12A 90
8 WOMEN 15 103 LE GOUT DES AUTRES 15 108
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE 18 137 LEAVING LAS VEGAS 18 106
A FISH CALLED WANDA 15 108 LEGALLY BLONDE 12 92
A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT 15 134 LEGALLY BLONDE 2 PG 94
A VIEW TO A KILL PG 125 LES MISERABLES 12 128
ABOUT SCHMIDT 15 125 LETHAL WEAPON 18 109
AE FOND KISS 15 104 LETHAL WEAPON 2 15 113
AFTER THE SUNSET 12A 97 LETHAL WEAPON 3 15 117
AI: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 12 145 LETHAL WEAPON 4 15 129
AIRFORCE ONE 15 124 L'HOMME DU TRAIN 12 86
ALEXANDER 15 160 LICENCE TO KILL 15 126
ALI 15 150 LIFE IS BEAUTFIUL PG 116
ALIEN VS. PREDATOR 15 101 LILO & STITCH U 82
ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER 15 101 LILYA 4-EVER 18 105
ALL OR NOTHING 18 128 LITTLE BLACK BOOK 12A 97
ALMOST FAMOUS 15 118 LITTLE POLAR BEAR U 77
AMANDLA! 12A 118 LITTLE PRINCESS U 97
AMERICAN HISTORY X 18 114 LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS PG 90
AMERICAN PSYCHO 18 98 LITTLE VOICE 15 97
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON 18 93 LIVE AND LET DIE PG 116
ANALYSE THAT 15 95 LIVING DAYLIGHTS PG 125
ANALYSE THIS 15 104 LOONEY TUNES ALL STARS Vol. 1 U 98
ANGEL EYES 15 120 LOONEY TUNES ALL STARS Vol. 2 U 95
ANGER MANAGEMENT 15 144 LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN COLLECTION U  
ANIMATRIX 15 102 LORD OF THE RINGS PG 171
ANITA & ME 12A 93 LORD OF THE RINGS 2 12 172
ANNIE  U 122 LORD OF THE RINGS 3 12A 200
ANNIE HALL 15 89 LOVE LABOURS LOST U 94
ANTI-TRUST 12 104 LOW DOWN, THE 18 92
ANY GIVEN SUNDAY 15 146 LUCKY BREAK 15 108
APOCALYPSE NOW: REDUX 15 195 LUZHIN DEFENCE 12 104
ARISTOCATS U 78 MA FEMME EST UNE ACTRICE 15 93
ARMAGEDDON 12 151 MADNESS OF KING GEORGE PG 110
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (04) PG 120 MAGIC ROUNDABOUT, THE U 85
ARSENIC AND LACE PG 114 MAGIC SWORD U 88
AS GOOD AS IT GETS 15 133 MAGNIFICENT SEVEN PG 128
ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 15 109 MAGNUM FORCE 18 117
ATLANTIS U 92 MALENA 15 92
AUSTIN POWERS 15 91 MAN ON FIRE (2004) 18 146
AUSTIN POWERS 2 12 95 MAN WHO WASN'T THERE, THE 15 116
AUSTIN POWERS 3: GOLDMEMBER 12 90 MAN WHO WOULD BE KING PG 128
AVIATOR 12 170 MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, THE PG 119
AWAKENINGS 12 116 MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE 15 121
BABETTE'S FEAST U 99 MANHATTAN 15 96
BAMBOOZLED 15 136 MANON DE SOURCES PG -
BARBERSHOP 12A 102 MANSFIELD PARK 15 91
BATMAN 12 126 MARIA FULL OF GRACE 15 101
BATMAN AND ROBIN PG 130 MARY POPPINS U 140
BATMAN BEGINS 12A 141 MARY REILLY 15 109
BATMAN FOREVER 12 122 MASK PG 97
BATMAN RETURNS 12 127 MASK OF ZORRO PG 132
BATTLE OF BRITAIN PG 131 MASTER AND COMMANDER 12A 138
BEHIND THE SUN 12 91 MATILDA PG 94
BELIEVER, THE 15 98 MATRIX 15 137
BEN HUR PG 212 MATRIX RELOADED 15 133
BEST IN SHOW 12 90 MATRIX REVOLUTIONS 15 129
BIG FISH PG 125 MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS U 113
BIG SLEEP PG 110 MELINDA AND MELINDA 12A 100
BIG TEASE 15 87 MEMENTO 15 113
BLAIR WITCH PROJECT 15 78 MEMPHIS BELLE PG 101
BLAZING SADDLES 15 93 MEN IN BLACK PG 98
BLIND SPOT:  HITLERS SECRETARY PG 87 MEN IN BLACK 2 PG 88
BLOW UP 15 106 MERCHANT OF VENICE PG 127
BLUE STREAK 12 94 MIDNIGHT EXPRESS 18 116
BONNIE AND CLYDE 18 111 MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF  GOOD & EVIL 15 149
BREAD & ROSES 15 110 MILLION DOLLAR BABY 12A 132
BRIEF ENCOUNTER  (45) U 88 MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL 15 112
BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS 15 102 MISFITS, THE PG 120
BROTHER BEAR U 85 MISS CONGENIALITY 12A 115
BROWN SUGAR 12A 109 MISS CONGENIALITY 2 12A 115
BRUCE ALMIGHTY 12A 101 MONSOON WEDDING 15 114
BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB U 100 MONSTERS BALL 15 111
BUFFALO '66 15 110 MONSTERS INC. U 96
BUGS LIFE - A U 94 MOONRAKER PG 121
BUGSY 18 131 MORTAL KOMBAT 15 91
BULLETS OVER BROADWAY 15 98 MOTORCYCLE DIARIES 15 128
BULLY 18 112 MRS BROWN PG 103
BUTTERFLY'S TONGUE 15 93 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING PG 111
CALAMITY JANE U 97 MUPPET MOVIE, THE U 97
CALENDAR GIRLS 12A 108 MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTEN U 94
CANADIAN BACON PG 92 MURDER BY NUMBERS 15 120
CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN 15 124 MURIEL'S WEDDING 15 105
CASABLANCA U 102 MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935) PG 133
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF 18 108 MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING 12 105
CATS & DOGS PG 90 MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING PG 95
CHARLIE'S ANGELS 15 98 MYSTIC RIVER 15 138
CHARLIE'S ANGELS 2 : FULL THROTTLE 12A 110 NEGOTIATOR 15 140
CHICAGO 12 109 NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN PG 128
CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG U 144 NEW BEST FRIEND 15 87
CHOCOLAT 12 117 NICHOLAS NICKLEBY PG 133
CHORUS, THE 12 92 NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, THE 15 107
CIDER HOUSE RULES 12 125 NIGHTMARE B`FORE CHRISTMAS PG 76
CITY OF ANGELS 12 114 NORTH BY NORTHWEST PG 133
CITY OF GOD 18 124 NOT ONE LESS PG 112
CLAIM, THE 15 120 NOTE BOOK, THE 12A 100
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE 3RD KIND PG 133 NURSE BETTY 18 110
CLOSER 15 104 OCEAN'S 12 12A 125
CLUB DREAD 15 97 OCEAN'S ELEVEN (1960) PG 122
COFFY 18 91 OCEAN'S ELEVEN (2001) 12 116
COLD MOUNTAIN 15 147 OCTOPUSSY PG 125
COLLATERAL 15 119 OHMSS (ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE) PG 127
COLOUR PURPLE - THE 15 154 OLIVER U 153
COMME UNE IMAGE 12A 110 OLIVER TWIST U 116
COMMENT J'AI TUE MON PERE 15 98 ON THE WATERFRONT 15 103
CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND 15 113 ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE MIDLANDS 15 104
CONSPIRACY THEORY 15 140 ONE, THE 15 87
CONSTANTINE 15 121 OPEN HEARTS 15 114
CONTACT PG 150 ORGAZMO 18 91
CONTENDER - THE 15 121 OSMOSIS JONES PG 91
CORPORATION, THE PG 114 OTHERS, THE 12 104
COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO PG 131 OUTLAW JOSEY WALES 15 135
COYOTE UGLY 12 100 PANIC ROOM 15 111
CRAZY SIX 18 94 PARTY, THE 12 100
CRIME DEL PADRE AMARO 15 118 PASSION OF THE CHRIST, THE 18 126
CROUCHING TIGER 12 115 PATHS OF GLORY PG 87
CROUPIER 15 90 PAULINE & PAULETTE PG 80
CRUEL INTENTIONS 15 97 PAY IT FORWARD 12 120
CUBE U 87 PAYBACK 18 102
CYPHER 15 91 PEARL HARBOUR 12 76
DAMNED, THE 18 155 PERDITA DURANGO 18 118
DANCER IN THE DARK 15 134 PERFECT STORM 12 127
DANGEROUS LIASONS 15 120 PETER PAN U 74
DARK BLUE WORLD 12 119 PIANO 15 115
DARK CITY 15 97 PIECES OF APRIL 12A 80
DAWN OF THE DEAD 18 100 PIGLET'S BIG MOVIE U 75
DEAD POETS SOCIETY PG 128 PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN, THE U 103
DEAD POOL, THE 18 90 PINOCCHIO U 88
DEATH IN VENICE 15 130 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 12A 143
DEEP BLUE SEA 15 101 PLATOON 15 120
DEER HUNTER, THE 18 175 PLEASANTVILLE 12 120
DELIVERANCE 18 107 POKEMON PG 74
DEVILS ADVOCATE 18 143 POKEMON 3 U 88
DIABOLIQUE 18 102 POLLOCK 18 123
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER PG 114 POOH HEFFALUMP MOVIE U 68
DIE ANOTHER DAY 12A 136 POSSESSION 12A 98
DIE HARD WITH A VENGENACE 15 128 POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE PG 108
DINNER RUSH 15 98 PRETTY WOMAN 15 132
DINOSAUR PG 82 PRINCE & THE SHOWGIRL, THE PG 115
DIRTY HARRY 15 117 PRINCESS DIARIES 2 15 80
DIRTY PRETTY THINGS 15 105 PRINCIPLES OF LUST, THE 18 108
DODGEBALL 12A 92 PROOF OF LIFE 15 153
DOG DAY AFTERNOON 15 119 PULP FICTION 18 94
DOG SOLDIERS 15 105 PUNCH DRUNK LOVE 15 91
DOGMA 15 123 PUNISHER, THE 18 123
DOGTOWN AND Z BOYS 15 90 PURLEY BELTER 15 134
DONNIE BRASCO 18 120 QUIET AMERICAN (2002) 15 118
DONNIE DARKO (DIRECTORS CUT) 15 133 RABBIT PROOF FENCE PG 89
DOWN TO YOU 12 88 RADIO DAYS PG 89
DR. NO PG 105 RANDOM HEARTS 15 102
DR. STRANGELOVE PG 90 READ MY LIPS 15 119
DR. ZHIVAGO PG 193 REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE PG 107
DRACULA 18 123 RECKONING, THE    
DREAMERS, THE 18 115 RED PLANET 12 121
DROP DEAD GORGEOUS 15 98 RED VIOLIN 15 118
DUMB AND DUMBER 12 102 REPLACEMENTS 12 100
DUNGEON AND DRAGONS 12 108 RESIDENT EVIL 15 100
EL MARIACHI / DESPERADO 18 100 RESIDENT EVIL:APOCALYPSE 15 94
ELEKTRA 12A 92 RETURN OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN PG 95
ELF PG 95 RETURN, THE 12A 106
ELLA ENCHANTED PG 96 REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER PG 100
EMMA U 120 RICHARD III 15 192
EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE U 78 RIDING GIANTS 12A 105
END OF THE AFFAIR 18 108 RIO BRAVO U 112
ENDURING LOVE 15 100 RIPLEY'S GAME 15 110
ENEMY AT THE GATES 15 131 ROAD HOME, THE U 86
ENEMY OF THE STATE 15 128 ROBOCOP ( 1 2 & 3 ) - -
ENFORCER, THE 18 92 ROBOTS U 91
ENGLISH PATIENT 15 162 ROCKY PG 119
ENTER THE DRAGON 18 95 ROMA 15 128
ENVY 12A 99 ROMEO MUST DIE 15 77
ERIN BROKOVICH 15 133 ROYAL TENNENBAUMS 15 110
EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU 12 101 RULES OF ATTRACTION 18 106
EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK 18 84 RUSH HOUR 12 104
EXIT WOUNDS 18 98 RUSHMORE 15 89
EXORCIST 18 121 S.W.A.T 12 117
EXPERIMENT, THE 18 115 SALAAM BOMBAY! 15 109
EYES OF LAURA MARS 15 103 SALTON SEA 18 99
EYES WIDE SHUT 18 159 SANCTUARY 18 111
FACE OFF 18 133 SATYRICON (FELLINI) 18 138
FAME 15 128 SAVED 12A 92
FAMILY MAN 12 120 SAW 18 100
FANTASIA U 75 SCOOBY DOO   PG 86
FAR FROM HEAVEN 12A 107 SCOOBY DOO - CYBER CHASE U 70
FARGO 18 94 SCREAM 18 120
FELICIAS JOURNEY 12 116 SCREAM 2 18 118
FEW GOOD MEN, A 15 138 SCREAM 3 18 114
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF U 181 SEABISCUIT PG 140
FIFTH ELEMENT, THE PG 121 SEARCHERS U 115
FILTH AND THE FURY 15 103 SECRET GARDEN (1993) U 92
FINAL FANTASY PG 102 SEE SPOT RUN PG 94
FINDING FORRESTER 12 136 SENSE AND SENSIBILITY U 136
FINDING NEMO U 104 SEVEN 18 122
FINDING NEVERLAND PG 101 SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE 18 100
FIRST DAUGHTER PG 106 SEXY BEAST 18 88
FLIGHT OF THE PHEONIX 12A 113 SHADOW BUILDER 18 101
FLUBBER U 93 SHAFT IN AFRICA 18 108
FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE 15 120 SHAFTS BIG SCORE 15 101
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY PG 122 SHALL WE DANCE 12A 106
FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL 15 117 SHANGHAI NOON 12 110
FOXY BROWN 18 94 SHINE 12 102
FRANKENSTEIN (BRANNAGH) 15 120 SHINING, THE 18 119
FREAKY FRIDAY PG 97 SHIPPING NEWS, THE 15 117
FREE WILLY U 111 SHREK U 90
FRENCH LIEUTENANTS WOMAN 15 121 SIDEWAYS 15 123
FRIDA  15 123 SIGNS 12 106
FRIDAY 13TH 18 92 SIMONE PG 117
FRIENDS (SERIES 1 - 7) PG / 12 - SINGING IN THE RAIN U 98
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 18 107 SISTER ACT PG 100
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE PG 110 SIX DAYS & SEVEN NIGHTS 12 101
FUGITIVE PG 86 SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION 15 111
FULL METAL JACKET 18 116 SIXTH SENSE 15 107
GANDHI PG 188 SLEEPER PG 83
GANGS OF NEW YORK 18 165 SLEEPY HOLLOW 15 106
GANGSTER NO 1 18 99 SNATCH 18 98
GET CARTER 18 112 SOME LIKE IT HOT PG 117
GET SHORTY 15 105 SOME VOICES 15 97
GETAWAY  - THE (1972) PG 117 SON OF THE BRIDE 15 123
GHOST DOG: WAY OF THE SAMURAI 15 111 SON OF THE MASK PG 94
GHOST WORLD 15 107 SOUTH PARK 15 81
GIANT PG 197 SPACE COWBOYS PG 126
GILDA PG 106 SPACE JAM U 87
GIRL INTERRUPTED 15 127 SPANGLISH 12A 131
GIRL ON A BRIDGE 15 88 SPELLBOUND U 92
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING 12A 96 SPIDERMAN 12A 121
GODZILLA PG 133 SPIDERMAN 2 12A 127
GOLDENEYE 12 124 SPY KIDS U 84
GOLDFINGER PG 105 SPY KIDS 2 U 100
GONE WITH THE WIND PG 234 SPY KIDS 3 U 100
GOOD WILL HUNTING 15 126 SPY WHO LOVED ME, THE PG 120
GOODBYE LENIN 15 121 STARSHIP TROOPERS 15 129
GOODBYE MR. CHIPS (1939) U 113 STARSKY AND HUTCH 15 96
GOODFELLAS 18 145 STATION AGENT, THE 15 88
GOSFORD PARK 15 131 STILL CRAZY 15 95
GOSSIP 15 90 STOLEN HEARTS 15 92
GREAT ESCAPE PG 170 STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL U 90
GREAT EXPECTATIONS  (46) PG 113 STORY OF US 15 95
GREAT MUPPET CAPER U 95 STRAIGHT STORY U 107
GREENFINGERS 15 91 STUART LITTLE U 84
GREGORYS 2 GIRLS 15 111 STUART LITTLE 2 U 78
GROUNDHOG DAY PG 101 SUDDEN IMPACT 18 112
GUESS WHO 12A 106 SUNSHINE STATE 15 140
GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER PG 104 SUZIE GOLD 15 94
GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN PG 105 SWEET HOME ALABAMA 12A 108
HALLOWEEN   18 92 SWIMMING POOL 15 105
HALLOWEEN H20 18 85 SWINGERS 15 96
HAMLET (2000) 12 108 SWORDFISH 15 105
HAMLET (48) U 155 TALE OF TWO CITIES  (58) U 112
HARD DAY'S NIGHT, A U 87 TALENTED MR RIPLEY 15 139
HAROLD AND KUMAR GET THE MUNCHIES 15 85 TALK TO HER 15 112
HARRY POTTER & THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE PG 152 TAPE 92 86
HARRY POTTER 2: THE CHAMBER OFSECRETS PG 160 TAXI 15 85
HAUNTED MANSION PG 87 TAXI (2004) 12A 97
HAUNTING (1963) 12 107 TAXI 2 15 82
HEART OF ME 15 96 TAXI DRIVER 18 109
HEAVEN 15 95 TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER 18 97
HEIST, THE (2001) 15 105 TERMINATOR 18 108
HELLBOY 12A 122 TERMINATOR 3 12A 109
HERO 12A 99 THELMA AND LOUISE 15 118
HIDE AND SEEK 15 101 THEM PG 94
HIGH FIDELITY 15 113 THIRTEEN DAYS 12 145
HIGH SOCIETY U 107 THIRTY NINE STEPS  (35) U 82
HIGHWAYMEN 18 80 THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1968) PG 102
HITCH 12A 118 THREE KINGS 15 115
HOLES PG 117 THREE TO TANGO 12 98
HOLY SMOKE 18 110 THUNDERBALL PG 124
HOOK PG 130 THX1138 15 86
HORSE WHISPERER PG 169 TIME MACHINE ((2002) PG 95
HOSTAGE 15 113 TIME MACHINE (1960) PG 99
HOTEL RWANDA 12A 121 TOGETHER 15 106
HOURS, THE 12A 114 TOKYO GODFATHERS 12 88
HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS 15 119 TOM & JERRY: A Classic Collection Vol. 1 U 93
HOUSE OF MIRTH PG 154 TOM & JERRY: A Classic Collection Vol. 2 U 95
HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG 15 121 TOMORROW NEVER DIES 12 114
HUMAN TRAFFIC 18 98 TOPSY TURVY 12 160
I HEART HUCKABEES 15 106 TORTILLA SOUP PG 103
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUM.. 15 97 TOUCHING THE VOID 15 101
I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID… 18 97 TOUCHING THE VOID 15 106
I, ROBOT 12A 115 TOWN LIKE ALICE PG 112
IGBY GOES DOWN 15 97 TOY STORY PG 81
IL POSTINO 15 108 TOY STORY 2 U 95
IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST (02) U 90 TRAFFIC 18 147
IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST (52) U 93 TRAIL OF THE PINK PANTHER PG 96
IN GOOD COMPANY PG 109 TRAINING DAY 15 118
IN THE BEDROOM 15 130 TREASURE PLANET U 91
IN THE CUT 18 120 TRUE CRIME 15 122
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT 12 109 TRUE ROMANCE 18 119
INCREDIBLES U 115 TWO WEEKS NOTICE 12 97
INHERITORS 15 95 U TURN 18 125
INSIDER, THE 15 157 U-571 12 109
INSOMNIA 15 113 UNBREAKABLE 12 103
INSPECTOR GADGET U 104 UNDER TUSCAN SUN 12 113
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE 18 122 UNDERWORLD 15 120
INTIMACY 18 115 UNFORGIVEN 15 124
INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS PG 112 US MARSHALLS 15 133
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS 15 111 USUAL SUSPECTS 18 102
IRIS 15 90 VALENTIN PG 104
IRON GIANT U 86 VALENTINE 15 100
ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS 15 102 VALLEY OF GWANGI U 95
IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD U 154 VERONICA GUERIN 18 94
JACK FROST (HORROR) 18 84 VERTICAl LIMIT 12 119
JACK FROST (KIDS) PG 102 VILLAGE 12A 108
JACKIE BROWN 15 151 VODKA LEMON PG 89
JAMES & THE GIANT PEACH U 79 WAR ZONE 18 95
JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK 18 104 WARRIOR, THE 12 86
JEAN DE FLORETTE PG 120 WATERLOO U 132
JERRY MAGUIRE 15 140 WEDDING SINGER 12 97
JOAN OF ARC 15 160 WEST BEIRUT 15 105
JUDGEMENT DAY 18 86 WEST SIDE STORY PG 145
JUNGLE BOOK 2 U 69 WHALE RIDER PG 96
KANGAROO JACK PG 89 WHALE RIDER PG 105
KATE & LEOPOLD 12 118 WHEN HARRY MET SALLY 15 96
KEEPING THE FAITH 12 124 WILD BUNCH 18 145
KES PG 106 WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY U 100
KEVIN AND PERRY GO LARGE 15 82 WIND IN THE WILLOWS U 88
KEY LARGO PG 101 WINGED MIGRATION U 87
KILL BILL VOL 2 18 96 WIZARD OF OZ U 98
KILL BILL Volume 1 18 106 WOODSTOCK - DIRECTORS CUT 15 216
KING IS ALIVE, THE 15 105 WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, THE 12 122
KINSEY 15 118 XXX 12A 121
L.A. CONFIDENTIAL 18 140 Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN 18 105
LADIES IN LAVENDER 12A 103 YELLOW SUBMARINE U 90
LADY AND THE DUKE, THE PG 123 YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE PG 112
LAGAAN PG 215 YOU'VE  GOT MAIL PG 120
LAST DETAIL, THE 18 103      

 

Latest films:

BE COOL - Cert 12A
Starring an unbelievably hip all-star cast, including John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Andre 3000, Steven Tyler and The Rock, and bursting with the hottest music in the biz, Be Cool is the wildly hilarious tale about a gangster turned music mogul...and what it takes to be number one wth a bullet. When Chili Palmer (Travolta) decides to try his hand in the music industry, he romances the sultry widow (Thurman) of a recently whacked music exec, poaches a hot young singer (Chiristina Milian) from a rival label and discovers that the record industry is packin' a whole lot more that a tune!

www.becoolmovie.com/

 

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY - Cert PG
Acclaimed director Tim Burton brings his vividly imaginative style to the beloved Roald Dahl classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, about eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka (JOHNNY DEPP) and Charlie Bucket (FREDDIE HIGHMORE), a good-hearted boy from a poor family who lives in the shadow of Wonka's extraordinary factory.
Most nights in the Bucket home, dinner is a watered-down bowl of cabbage soup, which young Charlie gladly shares with his mother (HELENA BONHAM CARTER) and father (NOAH TAYLOR) and both pairs of grandparents. Theirs is a tiny, tumbledown, drafty old house but it is filled with love. Every night, the last thing Charlie sees from his window is the great factory, and he drifts off to sleep dreaming about what might be inside. One day Willy Wonka makes a momentous announcement. He will open his famous factory and reveal "all of its secrets and magic" to five lucky children who find golden tickets hidden inside five randomly selected Wonka chocolate bars. Charlie finds some money on the snowy street and takes it to the nearest store for a Wonka Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight, thinking only of how hungry he is and how good it will taste. There, under the wrapper is a flash of gold. It's the last ticket. Charlie is going to the factory! Long isolated from his own family, Wonka feels it is time to find an heir to his candy empire, someone he can trust to carry on with his life's work and so he devised this elaborate contest to select that one special child. What he never expects is that his act of immeasurable generosity might bring him an even more valuable gift in return.

chocolatefactorymovie.warnerbros.com/

 

HERBIE: FULLY LOADED - Cert U
Start your engines! Herbie, the most beloved car star of them all, is back and Lindsay Lohan's got him in Disney's all new revved-up comedy adventure, 'Herbie: Fully Loaded.' Lohan stars as Maggie Peyton, the new owner of Number 53-the free wheelin' Volkswagen bug with a mind of its own-who puts the car through its paces on the oad to becoming a NASCAR competitor. Herbie's got some new tricks under his hood as he takes audiences for an action-packed spin in this high-speed comedy. With an all-star cast along for a wild ride, this comedy puts Herbie to the test-on-road, off-road, on the track and into the record books.

As a third-generation member of a NASCAR family, racing is in Maggie Peyton's blood, but she is forbidden from pursuing her dream by her overprotective father, Ray Peyton,Sr.(Keaton). When Ray Sr. offers Maggie a car as a college graduation present, he takes her to a junkyard to choose one from an assortment of very used cars. Maggie has her eye on an old Nissan, but a certain rusty, banged up 63'VW Bug seems to be clamoring for her attention. To her surprise, Maggie leaves the lot with Herbie. As she prepartes to leave town for a postiion with ESPN News, Maggie discovers that Herbie has a mind of his own...and an alternative route for her future.
disney.go.com/disneypictures/herbie/

 

 

BEAUTY SHOP - Cert 12A
Queen Latifah heads an 'excellent ensemble' cast in this 'warm, funny, empowering' (New York Post) comedy from the producers of Babershop and the producer of Bringing Down the House! Co-starring Alicia Silverstone Andi MacDowell, Alfre Woodard, Mena Suvari and Djimon Hounsou-and featuring Kevin Bacon in a hilarious performance-Beauty Shop 'will slap a smile on your face and keep it there' (Premiere)! When Jorge (Bacon), the egotistical boss at a posh salon, pushes his star stylist Gina (Latifah), a hair too far, Gina leaves and opens a beauty shop of her own. Inheriting and opinionated group of stylists, a colorul clientele and a sexy upstairs neighbor, Gina proves that you can't keep a good woman down-and you can't keep a shopful of outrageous women from speaking their minds!

www.beautyshopthemovie.net/#

 

THE DESCENT - Cert 18
On a daredevil caving holiday the six girls are trapped underground when an unexpected rock fall blocks their exit. Searching the maze of tunnels for a way out, they find themselves hunted by a race of fearless, hungry predators, once humanoid but now monstrously adapted to live in the dark... As the others battle for their lives, Sarah (Macdonald), still recovering from a mental collapse brought on by the recent deaths of her family, is fighting for her sanity. When old secrets are revealed, the group implodes as friends turn on one another. Betrayed and desperate, Sarah realises that to make it back to the surface, she must become as savage as the creatures themselves. The Descent stars Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, Nora-Jane Noone and MyAnna Buring and was filmed on location in Scotland and at Pinewood Studios.

www.thedescentthemovie.co.uk/

 

IMAGINARY HEROES - Cert 18
Imaginary Heroes is a look at one long year in the lives of an ostensibly typical, upper-middle-class suburban family. It tells a tale of a family in crisis with wit, warmth and a very contemporary sardonic spin. Following a sobering family tragedy, the Travises go to pieces. Teenaged son Tim, the black sheep of the family, walks through his life like it's a bad ream. His father Ben begins treating his wife and children like strangers and completely disengages from the world around him, while his mother Sandy takes to smoking pot and letting loose with all the considerable sarcasm she can muster. Meanwhile, she wages a bitter feud with the next-door neighbour over carefully concealed secrets that threaten to tear the family apart. With elements of Pathos, salty humour and self-discovery, Imaginary Heroes is ultimately about what it means to be part of a family - the good, the bad, and everything in between.

www.sonyclassics.com/imaginary/site.html

 

KUNG FU HUSTLE - Cert 15
Set amid the chaos of pre-revolutionary China, small time thief, Sing, aspires to be one of the sophisticated and ruthless Axe Gang whose underworld activities overshadow the city. Stumbling across a crowded apartment complex aptly known as 'Pig Sty Alley,' Sing attempts to extort money from one of the ordinary locals, but the neighours are not what they appear. Sing's comical attempts at intimidation inadvertently atract the Axe Gang into the fray, setting off a chain of events that brings the two disparate worlds face-to-face. As the inhabitants of the Pig Sty fight for their lives, the ensuing clash of Kung Fu Titans unearths some legendary martial arts masters. Sing, despite his futile attempts, lacks the soul of a killer, and must face his own mortality in order to discover the true nature of the Kung Fu Master.

www.kungfuhustle.co.uk/

 

ONLY HUMAN - Cert 15
Leni arrives home to introduce her fiancé Rafi to her Jewish family for the first time. Everything
goes wonderfully until the lovers reveal that Rafi is Palestinian. With his future mother-in-law
unhinged by the news, Rafi offers to take over in the kitchen. The problem is he accidentally drops a frozen soup out of the 7th floor window, hitting a pedestrian below. As if the evening's not going
badly enough, it turns out the pedestrian may be Leni's father...Reminiscent of Billy Wilder and early Almodovar, Only Human is an optimistic and very funny film that explores relationships between lovers, families, Arabs and Jews.

www.vervepics.com/onlyhuman.shtml

 

 

RIDING GIANTS - Cert 12A
Riding Giants takes us along surfing's timeline from it's early Polynesian roots, to its rebirth in the early 20th Century, to the development of a fledgling surf culture along the coast of Southern California in the 1940s highlighting the group of extraordinary adventurers that emerged: surfers who, not satisfied with the mere recreational and social aspects of the sport, began searching for bigger and bigger waves, pushing the boundaries of performance to expolore the 'unridden realm.' Riding Giants is the story of these big wave riders, of where and how their quest began, of the classic characters who throughout the eras chased their dreams out into the blue water, and of the surfers who still do today, riding 50, 60 and even 70 foot waves in a manner once considered the realm of fantasy. Riding Giants is driven by the same sense of freedom, the same love of nature, the similar discovery of self that all surfers seek-that all of us seek, in one form or another.

Experience the breathless moments of quiet grace that, for these extraordinary adventurers, are to be acheived within their elementally violent world.
www.sonyclassics.com/ridinggiants/

MERCHANT OF VENICE - Cert PG

Starring Oscar winners Al Pachino and Jeremy Irons, with BAFTA nominee Joseph Fiennes, comes this enthralling tale of greed, corruption, love and betrayal. Set in beautiful 16th century Venice, one of Shakespeare's finest plays is brought magically to life in this 'sumptuous production' which is garanteed to capture your imagination from beginning to end. 'Pachino delivers a nuanced, powerful performance' as Shylock, the extraordinary Merchant Of Venice

www.mgm.com/uk/merchantofvenice/

 

PRIVATE - Cert 15
Inspired by real events, documentary filmmaker Saverio Costanzo's feature debut is a minimalist psychological drama about a Palestinian family of seven suddenly confronted with a volatile situation in their home that in many ways reflects the larger ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel.
Mohammad, his wife and their five children live in a large, isolated house located halfway between a Palestinian village and an Israeli settlement. The house, in the crossfire of the two sides, is a strategic lookout point that the Israeli army decides to seize, confining the family to a few downstairs rooms in daytime and a single room at night. Mohammad refuses to leave his home and, reinforced by his principles against violence, decides to find a way to keep his family together in the house until the Israeli soldiers move on. Winner of a Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival, PRIVATE is convincingly shot in a documentary style with a hand-held camera and a quick pace. Director Costanzo has created a unique occasion for both Israeli and Palestinian actors to work together, and being an outsider himself, he has worked to maintain a neutral standpoint while dramatizing the conflict.

www.privatethefilm.com/

 

 

>2046
> ANATOMY OF HELL
> ANGEL ON THE RIGHT
> BRIGHT FUTURE
> COFFEE AND CIGARETTES
> COOLER, THE
> ERRANCE
> EYE 2
> HILLSIDE STRANGLER
> IN MY SKIN (DANS MA PEAU)
> LAST HORROR MOVIE
> MILWAUKEE MINNESOTA
> OLDBOY
> RAMONES: END OF THE CENTURY
> SARABAND
> SECRET THINGS (Choise Secretes)
> SWORD IN THE MOON
> TIRESIA
> TORREMELINOS '73
> TULSE LUPER SUITCASES: MOAB STORY
> TWENTYNINE PALMS
> WAR
> WHEN THE LAST SWORD IS DRAWN
> WHO KILLED BAMBI?
> YES MEN


> 16 YEARS OF ALCOHOL
> A MA SOEUR
> APRILE
> AUDITION
> AUTUMN SONATA
> BAD GUY
> BANGKOK DANGEROUS
> BASQUE BALL
> BATTLE ROYALE
> BATTLE ROYALE II
> BEIJING BICYCLE
> BELLEVILLE RENDEZ-VOUS
> BLACK AND WHITE
> BUNDY
> CARNAGES
> CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS
> CHAOS
> CONFESSIONS OF A TRICK BABY
> CRIES AND WHISPERS
> CRISIS
> CRUSH
> DARK WATER
> DARKNESS IN TALLIN
> DEAD MAN'S CURVE
> DEAD OR ALIVE
> DEAD OR ALIVE 2
> DOBERMANN
> DOG DAYS
> DRACULA: NOTES FROM A VIRGIN'S DIARY
> ED GEIN
> ETRE ET AVOIR (TO BE AND TO HAVE)
> EVA
> EYE, THE
> FALCONS
> FAITHLESS
> FROM THE LIFE OF THE MARIONETTES
> FULLTIME KILLER
> FUNNY GAMES
> GOLDEN BALLS
> GOZU
> HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS
> HARD BOILED
> HIRED HAND (re-issue)
> HOOVER STREET REVIVAL
> HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES
> THE IDIOTS
> IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
> INTO THE MIRROR
> INFERNAL AFFAIRS
> INFERNAL AFFAIRS 2
> IRREVERSIBLE
> THE ISLE
> IVANSXTC
> JAMON JAMON
> JAPANESE STORY
> JOY OF MADNESS
> JULIEN DONKEY BOY
> KISSED
> L.I.E.
> THE LAST SEPTEMBER
> LIQUID SKY
> LOVERS OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
> MAGICIAN, THE (aka THE FACE)
> MAN BITES DOG
> MY ARCHITECT
> MY KINGDOM
> NIGHTSHIFT
> NOWHERE TO HIDE
> OF FREAKS AND MEN
> ONE FOR THE ROAD
> PAINTED HEART
> PERSONA
> PERSONS UNKNOWN
> PHONE
> POLISSONS ET GALIPETTES (GOOD OLD NAUGHTY DAYS)
> PONETTE
> THE PORNOGRAPHER
> PORT OF CALL
> PRISONER OF THE MOUNTAINS
> PUBLIC ENEMY
> THE RED SQUIRREL
> RESPIRO
> REVENGERS TRAGEDY
> SAFE
> SAVE THE GREEN PLANET
> SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE
> SECRETARY
> SEVENTH SEAL, THE
> SEX AND LUCIA
> SHIRI
> SIBERIA
> SILENCE, THE
> LE SOUFFLE
> SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT
> SNAKE OF JUNE, A
> LA SPAGNOLA
> SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER > ...>
> STONEWALL (+ IT'S NOT UNUSUAL)
> SUDDENLY (TAN DE REPENTE)
> SUMMER INTERLUDE
> SUMMER WITH MONICA
> SUPERSIZE ME
> SUSPICIOUS RIVER
> SYMPATHY FOR MR.VENGEANCE
> TALE OF TWO SISTERS, A
> TATTOO
> THE TERRORIST
> TESIS
> THREE STRANGE LOVES (aka THIRST)
> THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
> TIERRA
> TO DIE FOR
> TO JOY
> TOKYO STORY (RE)
> TORMENT (aka FRENZY)
> TRILOGY #3: AFTER LIFE
> TRILOGY #2: AN AMAZING COUPLE
> TRILOGY #1: ON THE RUN
> TROUBLE EVERY DAY
> TWILIGHT SAMURAI
> UN AIR DE FAMILLE
> VENDREDI SOIR
> VIRGIN SPRING
> WARM WATER UNDER A RED BRIDGE
> WILDSIDE
> WILD STRAWBERRIES
> WINTER LIGHT
> WONDERLAND

11'09"01 - September 11
(2002 / 135 mins (each episode runs 11 mins 9 secs) / English subtitles / Cert 12A)
· 11 directors from different countries and cultures (Samira Makhmalbaf, Claude Lelouch, Youssef Chahine, Danis Tanovic, Idrissa Ouedraogo, Ken Loach, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Amos Gittai, Mira Nair, Sean Penn, Shohei Inamura)
· 11 visions of the tragic events which occurred in New York City on September 11, 2001
· 11 points of view engaging their individual conscience
· Complete freedom of expression

A is for Autism
(Tim Webb / GB / 1994 / 11 mins / col)
This award-winning short animation documents the experience of autism through a dazzling montage of words, drawings, music and sequences contributed by people with the condition. The man who advised and trained Dustin Hoffman for Rain Man is interviewed in this piece.

An Actor's Revenge
(Kon Ichikawa / Jp / 1962 / 108 minutes / col / Japanese with subtitles / Cert PG)
The wildly melodramatic tale of a Kabuki female impersonator who uses his theatrical skills to deceive and destroy the men who drove his parents to suicide. "A film of phenomenal all-round accomplishment" Time Out

The Adventures of Prince Achmed
(Lotte Reiniger / Ge / 1926 / 66 mins / silent with subtitles & voiceover / tinted & toned / Cert PG)
Lotte Reiniger's astonishing labour of love took three years and 300,000 camera shots to complete. Based on tales from The Arabian Nights, this still stands as one of the great classics of animation - witty, lively, delicate, inventive, stirring and romantic.

Affliction
(Paul Schrader / US / 1997 / 113 mins / col / Cert 15)
Nick Nolte is excellent as Wade Whitehouse, sheriff of a small and dreary New Hampshire town. Divorced with an eight-year old daughter who wants as little to do with him as possible, with a bullying father (a grizzled James Coburn) and a worsening drink problem, Wade's life has never amounted to much. But when a fatal hunting accident occurs, Wade sees this as his chance to play an important role in uncovering a murder.

Aimee and Jaguar
(Max Farberbock / Ge / 1998 / 125 mins / col / German with subtitles / Cert 15)
An atmospheric WWII drama, the true story of a lesbian relationship between a married mother of four children and a Jewish member of an underground resistance organisation in Berlin in 1943/4.

Alice et Martin
(André Téchiné / Fr / 1998 / 121 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
Oscar winning Juliette Binoche re-unites with esteemed director André Téchiné in this compelling love story between two people both scarred by tragic events in their past. "A characteristically intelligent, sensitive performance from Juliette Binoche. It packs a powerful punch" THE GUARDIAN

Amores Perros
(Alejandro Iñárritu / Mx / 2000 / 147 mins / col / Spanish with subtitles / Cert 18)
Three relationships and the fates of two dogs become inextricably entangled in the heart of an ever-changing, ever violent Mexico City; a groundbreaking and influential Latino Pulp Fiction.

Andrei Rublev
(Andrei Tarkovsky / USSR / 1966 / 182 mins / col & b/w / Russian with subtitles / Cert 15)
Simply one of the most astonishing films ever made and a landmark of Russian cinema, the film charts the life of the icon painter Andrei Rublev through a turbulent period in 15th Century Russia. "Towering… one of world cinema's most enthralling films" Geoff Brown, THE TIMES
(Other available films by Tarkovsky: Ivan's Childhood; Mirror; Nostalgia; Sacrifice; Solaris and Stalker)

An Angel at my Table
(Jane Campion / NZ / 1990 / 151 mins / col / Cert 15)
Oscar-winning director (The Piano) Jane Campion's second film is an extraordinarily moving celebration of the life of Janet Frame, New Zealand's most distinguished author, based on her autobiographical trilogy.

L' Appartement
(Gilles Mimouni / Fr / 1995 / 112 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
A stylish and sexy combination of love story and thriller in which one man is caught up in the passion driven fates of three beautiful women. Mimouni's ingeniously constructed film effortlessly unravels an intricate plot and makes the most of its deliriously romantic Paris setting.

The Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray
Pather Panchali
(Ray / In / 1955 / 125 mins / b&w / Bengali with optional English subtitles / Cert U)
The World of Apu
(Ray / In / 1956 / 108 mins / b&w / Bengali with optional English subtitles / Cert U)
Aparajito
(Ray / In / 100 mins / b&w / Bengali with optional English subtitles / Cert U)
The Apu trilogy is the most celebrated work of Satyajit Ray, the greatest filmmaker ever to have emerged from Indian cinema. The three films - each a masterpiece in its own right - are enormously touching in their simplicity, emotional sweep and visual beauty and established Ray in the pantheon of the world's finest directors. Pather Panchali, Ray's extraordinarily accomplished debut feature, begins the story of Apu, a young boy born into a poor but loving family in rural Bengal, and continues in Aparajito, when adolescence and his growing independence bring both joy and sorrow. The World of Apu, the final and most profoundly moving chapter in the trilogy, encompasses the extremes of joy and despair, ultimately reaching a conclusion that is among the most uplifting and life-affirming in cinema.

Arabian Nights
(Pier Paolo Pasolini / It, Fr / 1974 / 125 mins / col / Italian with subtitles / Cert 18)
The final part of Pasolini's Trilogy of Life series, following The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales, was two years in the making. The locations - Yemen, Ethiopia, Iran and Nepal - form a rich, exotic backdrop to these tales of slaves and kings, potions, betrayals, demons and, most of all, love and lovemaking in all its myriad forms.

At the Height of Summer
(Trän Anh Hûng / Fr, Ge, Vn / 2000 / 112 mins / col / Vietnamese with subtitles / Cert PG)
This tale of three sisters whose lives threaten to unravel following the anniversary celebration of their mother's death is a gently knowing look at tradition, ritual, loyalty, and gender roles in contemporary Vietnamese society, with first-rate performances from the cast.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
(Dai Sijie / Fr, Ch / 2002 / 111 mins / col / Mandarin with subtitles / Cert 12A)
Teenage best friends, Luo and Ma, sons of 'reactionary intellectuals' are sent to a far-flung outpost for Maoist re-education during China's Cultural Revolution in the 1970s. To keep their spirits up after their arduous work in the fields, they play Ma's violin - which they save from destruction by re-inventing Mozart lieder as songs of the revolution.

Bande à part
(Jean-Luc Godard / Fr / 1964 / 95 mins / b&w / French with subtitles / Cert PG)
Gleefully putting into practice D W Griffith's maxim that 'all you need to make a film is a girl and a gun', Bande à part is Godard's playful tribute to the Hollywood pulp crime movies of the Forties, executed with typically Gallic cool.

Beau Travail
(Clare Denis / Fr / 1998 / 90 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
Set in the eerily beautiful African desert and featuring an eclectic soundtrack boasting music by Neil Young and Benjamin Britten, Beau Travail is Denis' extraordinarily beautiful adaptation of Herman Melville's Billy Budd, exploring the exclusively masculine world of the near-mythical French Foreign Legion.
"One of the most spellbinding films I have ever seen" THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

La Belle et la bête
(Jean Cocteau / Fr / 1946 / 90 mins / b&w / French with subtitles / Cert PG)
Cocteau addresses his version of Mme Leprince de Beaumont's eighteenth century fairy tale to 'what remains of the child in all of us' and proceeds to take us into a realm of enchantment where nothing - not even the candelabra or the decorative carvings in the Beast's castle - is quite what it seems.

La Belle noiseuse
(Jacques Rivette / Fr / 1991 / 129 mins + 100 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
Rivette's award winning, critically acclaimed film stars Michel Piccoli in one of his finest performances as an artist who, ten years previously, abandoned his masterpiece, a painting of his wife (Jane Birkin). When he encounters the beautiful and fascinating Marianne (Emmanuelle Béart), he is inspired to return to the unfinished canvas, using her as his new model.

Betty Fisher and Other Stories
(Claude Miller / Fr, Can / 2001 / 102 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
This adaptation of Ruth Rendell's novel tells of novelist Betty's relationship with her cantankerous mother; the 'other stories' continue the theme of cruelty to children in this horribly fascinating and classy drama.

Biggie and Tupac
(Nick Broomfield / GB / 2002 / 108 mins / col / Cert 15)
This is a story of two great friends (American rappers Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur) who had a misunderstanding, a falling out and who became deadly enemies. Their murders were long explained as being the result of the rivalry that had grown up between them but award-winning documentary maker Nick Broomfield reveals startling evidence to suggest the blame lay elsewhere.

Blackboards
(Mohsen Makhmalbaf / Ir, It / 2000 / 82 mins / col / Kurdish with subtitles / Cert PG)
Set in the brutal mountains on the Iran/Iraq border, Makhmalbaf elicits strong performances from a non-professional cast and creates a visually powerful and insightful depiction of a people on the edge of a country and a society. "Stunning… An almost sacred talent" THE INDEPENDENT

Blind Chance
(Krzysztof Kieslowski / Po / 1981 / 124 mins / col / Polish with subtitles / Cert 18)
Poland, in the politically turbulent late 1970's: Witek is running to catch a train.
From this banal event, Krzysztof Kieslowski, the director of 'Dekalog' and the 'Three Colours' trilogy, imagines three different possible outcomes in the young man's life: joining the Communist party, involvement in the political underground and an apolitical, happily married life as a doctor.

El Bonaerense
(Pablo Trapero / Ar, Fr, Nl, Cl / 2002 / 102 mins / col / Spanish with subtitles / Cert 15)
Thirty-five year-old Zapa is a hard-working locksmith living in rural Argentina. When his boss asks him to crack a safe for some special clients, he has no choice. To escape prison he is forced to leave for Buenos Aires, where he signs up as a police cadet. In time he becomes a member of the Bonaerense: a member of Argentina's most brutal and corrupt police force. Now he has the power to make the rules...

Camera Buff
(Krzysztof Kieslowski / Po / 1979 / 106 mins / col / Polish with subtitles / Cert PG)
Filip, a clerk in a small Polish town, buys an 8mm camera to film the baby his wife is expecting. His bosses take an interest in it and commission him to film the company's 25th anniversary celebrations. When the result wins a prize at an amateur film festival, Filip, encouraged by his success, becomes consumed by his new found passion. But as he develops his creative skills, Filip soon discovers that his devotion to making films has unexpected consequences as tensions arise in his marriage, his managers impose censorship upon him and his films inadvertently lead to the sacking of a colleague…

Campfire Films by Bavo Defurne
(Bavo Defurne / Be / 1995-2000 / 56 mins / b&w & col / English and Dutch with English subtitles / Cert 12)
Bavo Defurne's rich and beautiful short films examine gay love and loss and mark the emergence of one of Europe's most exciting young filmmakers.

The Canterbury Tales
(Pier Paolo Pasolini, It, Fr / 1972 / 107 mins / col / Italian with subtitles / Cert 15)
A free-flowing Breugelesque adaptation based on the 14th century stories of Geoffrey Chaucer, the film is also an exploration of the kind of folk tales and peasant motifs that were always close to Pasolini's heart. From this rich source of ribald material, the director displays his utopian vision of a peasantry free from guilt and moral inhibition.

The Captive
(Chantal Akerman / Fr, Be / 2000 / 112 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
Taking inspiration from Marcel Proust's epic masterwork A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, The Captive tells the story of Ariane, who lives in a grandiose Parisian apartment with her lover Simon. Convinced she leads a double life, Simon obsessively keeps her under constant surveillance but Ariane remains detached and elusive, ensuring Simon's obsession becomes dangerously consuming…

The Caretaker
(Clive Donner / GB / 1963 / b&w / 100 minutes / Cert PG)
Starring Donald Pleasence, Alan Bates and Robert Shaw, Clive Donner's sensitive adaptation of Harold Pinter's most famous play becomes a study of shared illusion, tragic dispossession and a fraternal bond of unspoken love, combining mesmerising performances and the magic of Pinter's dialogue to create a spellbinding film.

Carmen Jones
(Otto Preminger / US / 1954 / col / 103 mins / Cert U)
This sizzling screen version of Bizet's opera Carmen, updated for an all-black cast, stars Dorothy Dandridge, whose vibrant performance resulted in the first Oscar nomination for a black actress. She stars in the title role as a passionate, sexy creature who lures handsome GI Joe (Harry Belafonte) away from his sweetheart.

The Carriers are Waiting
(Benoît Maraige / Be, Fr, Sw / 1999 / 90 mins / b&w / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
Dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, Roger resolves to make history by breaking a world record - any record - and settles upon surpassing the previous achievement for door opening: 40,000 times in 24 hours. Wildly original and very funny, the film wryly satirises our achievement-obsessed society and contains a most memorable comic creation in the maniacally driven Roger.

Le Cercle rouge
(Jean-Pierre Melville / Fr / 1970 / 140 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert PG)
The godfather of the Nouvelle Vague, Jean-Pierre Melville inspired directors from Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut to Quentin Tarantino, John Woo and Wong Kar-Wai. Melville admired American culture as epitomised by Hollywood movies of the 30s and 40s and certainly crime has never looked cooler in this definitive heist movie. With superb support from Yves Montand, Gian-Maria Volonté and French comedy legend Bourvil, it is cold-eyed Alain Delon who excels as the quintessential Melville anti-hero.
(Other Melville titles available: Le Doulos; Léon Morin, prêtre)

Charge of the Light Brigade
(Tony Richardson / GB / 1968 / 132 mins / col / Cert PG)
The events leading up to British involvement in the Crimean War are subjected to revisionist 60s satire. Stunning battle sequences, a prestigious cast (Vanessa Redgrave, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard et al), and inventive animated sequences by Richard Williams throughout still command respect.

Le Chignon D'Olga
(Jérôme Bonnell / Fr / 2002 / 92 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
A tender romantic comedy-drama set in a provincial French town, it tells the story of brother and sister Julien and Emma, grieving after the recent loss of their mother. As the summer draws to a close, Julien aimlessly wanders the streets until one day he encounters Olga, a beautiful young woman who works in a bookshop. Bonnell's remarkably confident debut received widespread critical acclaim and favourable comparisons to the work of French filmmaking master Eric Rohmer.

The Circle
(Jafar Panahi / Ir, It / 2000 / 91 mins / col / Farsi with subtitles / Cert PG)
A harrowingly powerful film by Jafar Panahi, a Golden Lion winner at Venice, which tells of four women bullied and marginalised by a society in which men dominate. "Powerful... This is a compelling, humane and deeply serious film" THE GUARDIAN

Claire's Knee
(Eric Rohmer / Fr / 1970 / 106 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert PG)
The fifth and most accessible of Rohmer's six 'moral' tales, Claire's Knee is the story of the temptation of an affianced diplomat while on holiday, and its successful suppression. The film was rapturously received as a cinematic equivalent to Jane Austen, although a comparison to fellow director Joseph L Mankiewicz may be more apt.

The Closet
(Francis Veber / Fr / 2001 / 85 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
Pignon, chief accountant at a condom factory, pretends that he is gay in order to avoid redundancy. As a result, he becomes a colourful personality and gains a new confidence. This slick French comedy stars Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu.

The Cloud-capped Star (Meghe Dhake Tara)
(Ritwik Ghatak / In / 1960 / 120 mins / b&w / Bengali with subtitles / Cert PG)
A young woman struggles to support her refugee family in 1950s Calcutta; a bitter critique of the family-as-institution, as well as the harsh social and economic conditions arising from the Partition.

Code Unknown
(Michael Haneke / Fr / 2000 / 112 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
Winner of the Best Director prize at Cannes in 2001 for the highly acclaimed The Piano Teacher, Michael Haneke is one of contemporary cinema's most distinctive and ambitious directors. An altercation on a Paris street involving a white youth, a black music teacher, an actress, and a Romanian beggar woman is the incident which links these characters and that of those close to them. "A Masterpiece of modern European cinema…Profoundly moving" Geoff Andrew, TIME OUT

The Colour of Paradise (VHS only)
(Majid Majidi / Ir / 2000 / 86 mins / col / Cert PG)
The Colour of Paradise is a fable of a child's innocence and a complex look at faith and humanity. Visually magnificent and wrenchingly moving, the film tells of the story of a boy whose inability to see the world only enhances his ability to feel its powerful forces.

Comedie de l' Innocence
(Raoul Ruiz / Fr / 2000 / 99 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert PG)
Nine year old Camille announces to his mother Ariane (Isabelle Huppert) that he wants to go home to his 'real' mother. Ariane humours him but can only look on helplessly when he throws himself into a stranger's waiting arms… "A real treat for discerning cinemagoers who want a frisson of The Sixth Sense" Alexander Walker, EVENING STANDARD

Cool and Crazy
(Knut Erik Jensen / No, Se, Fi / 2001 / 105 mins / Norwegian with subtitles / Cert 15)
A thoroughly charming docu-musical, dubbed the 'Arctic Buena Vista Social Club' and a smash hit in its native Norway and around the world, Cool and Crazy is a warm and affecting portrait of Berlevåg male voice choir and its eccentric members. "Remarkably affecting… by the end I was in tears… stunning" TIME OUT

Damnation (part of 2 disc set with Werckmeister Harmonies)
(Béla Tarr / Hu / 1988 / 120 mins / b&w / Hungarian with subtitles / Cert 15)
Karrer, an intense, gloomy figure, is fixated on a singer, who wants to end an affair in which they have been involved. So he arranges for her husband to take part in a smuggling operation and then betrays him to the police . . . .

Dark Days
(Marc Singer / US / 2000 / 84 mins / col / Cert 15)
First-time filmmaker Marc Singer spent two years living with the `community' of underground dwellers in a cavernous railway tunnel situated beneath the streets of mid-town Manhattan, where some of the dwellers have lived in the tunnel for as long as 25 years.

The Day I Became a Woman
(Marzieh Meshkini / Ir / 2000 / 74 mins / col / Farsi with subtitles / Cert PG)
This compelling and poignant study of the elementary problems faced by women in Eastern societies looks at three different generations in a triptych of subtle, bittersweet and surreal episodes. "Dazzling… Extraordinary… a joyous inspirational piece of cinema" UNCUT

Decasia
(Bill Morrison / US / 2002 / 70 mins / b&w / Cert U)
Decasia is composed entirely of decaying, nitrate-based archival footage which appears to melt, burn, drip and deteriorate before our very eyes. But Decasia is no mere celebration of the psychedelic beauty of decay, for Morrison has deliberately chosen images which seem to push back against their own physical disintegration.

The Decameron
(Pier Paolo Pasolini / It, Fr, Ger / 1970 / 107 mins / col / Italian with subtitles / Cert 18)
In 1970 Pasolini embarked on 'The Trilogy of Life': a series of entertaining and highly erotic films based on medieval story cycles, beginning with an interpretation of Boccaccio's bawdy fourteenth-century Italian folk tales, The Decameron. Creating a stir on its original release for its frank and anarchic depiction of sexuality, The Decameron was the first of the Trilogy (followed by The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights) to celebrate the free and uninhibited sexual playfulness that characterises all three films. Set in fourteen-century Naples The Decameron captures both the bawdy spirit of the original and something of the director's joyful sense of himself as a jobbing painter and 'disciple of Giotto'

The Decline of the American Empire
(Denys Arcand / Ca / 1986 / 97 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 18)
Made 17 years before Arcand's award winning and just released The Barbarians at the Gates, this is a witty and provocative look at the battle of the sexes. Four men gather at a country retreat to prepare a gourmet supper, while in the city their female companions are working out at a health club. Both groups discuss their sex lives, affairs and seduction techniques and when they finally meet for dinner, the knives are out, revelations are made and an uncomfortable night is in store for all.

Dekalog
(Krzysztof Kieslowski / Pol / 1988 / 165 mins + 112 mins / col / Polish with subtitles / Cert 15)
Ten hour long films, loosely based on the Ten Commandments and set in the same Warsaw apartment block, focusing on the complexities of human relationships. "A work of classic stature… a master director at the peak of his powers" THE TIMES

The Devil's Backbone
(Guillermo Del Toro / Sp, Mx / 2001 / 106 mins / col / Cert 15 / Spanish with subtitles)
A truly terrifying spine-tingler combining state of the art special effects with towering performances, The Devil's Backbone tells the tale of a remote Spanish orphanage during the final days of The Spanish Civil War whose young inhabitants are brutally terrorised by Santi, a decomposing spirit who stalks the building's dark decaying hallways.

Divine Intervention
(Elia Suleiman / Fr, Pal / 2002 / 92 mins / col / Arabic and Hebrew with subtitles / Cert 15)
A succession of odd incidents occur in present-day Nazareth. "Sophisticated wit, filmic references, bold cinematic strokes...entertaining, good looking … Suleiman's acerbic study of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict laces whimsical comedy with increasing bitterness" VARIETY

Dolls
(Takeshi Kitano / Jp /2002 / 113 mins / col / Japanese with subtitles / Cert 12)
Matsumoto and Sawako were once a happy couple that seemed destined for marriage. But the age-old pressures of meddling parents and success forced the young man to make a tragic choice. She now wanders around in a mindless daze, bound safely to Matsumoto by a long red cord. To curious eyes, they roam aimlessly. But Matsumoto and Sawako are on a journey in search of something they have forgotten. A journey that will cover the four seasons...

Le Doulos
(Jean-Pierre Melville / Fr / 1963 / 108 mins / b&w / French with subtitles / Cert 12A)
Based on Pierre Lesou's excellent Série Noire novel, Le Doulos is a study in loyalty, betrayal and ambiguity (a 'doulos' is both a hat and an informer), boasting one of the most daring narrative twists in the history of cinema, Nicolas Hayer's superb noir photography and a jazz score by Paul Misraki and Jacques Loussier.
(Other Melville titles available: Le Cercle rouge; Léon Morin, prêtre)

The Draughtsman's Contract
(Peter Greenaway / GB / 1982 / 104 mins / col / Cert 15)
This witty, stylised, erotic country house murder mystery, set in an apparently idyllic 17th century Wiltshire, established Peter Greenaway as a director of international status. Extravagant costumes, a twisting plot, elegantly barbed dialogue and a mesmerising score by Michael Nyman make the film a treat for ear, eye and mind.

The Early Films of Peter Greenaway Vol 1
(Peter Greenaway / GB / 1969-78 / 87 mins / col + b&w / Cert PG)
Before the breakthrough of The Draughtsman's Contract (also available to hire, with A Zed and Two Noughts) Peter Greenaway had made a series of highly inventive films which established all the obsessions that run through his later work. In this highly innovative and witty collection of short films, the subject matter varies widely: the potted history of 37 people who have fallen to their deaths from windows (Windows), a sequence of 92 maps to guide a dead ornithologist on his way into the afterlife (A Walk Through It), but all the films are immensely playful and take pleasure in cataloguing the absurd.

The Early Films of Peter Greenaway Vol 2
(Peter Greenaway / GB / 1978-80 / 224 mins / col / Cert PG)
In Vertical Features Remake, a playful parody of avant-garde theorising, academics squabble over the filmic intentions of Tulse Luper, Greenaway's best-known fictional character. The Falls is divided into 92 biographies of people who have all been affected by the 'VUE', the Violent Unknown Event, a phenomenon in some way connected with birds and flying. Michael Nyman provided the score for both films.

The Edge of the World
(Michal Powell / GB / 1937 / 74 mins / b&w)
Shot over four months in the wild, windswept Shetland Islands, Michael Powell's first independent production establishes the daring techniques and experimentation that would later become his hallmark. The Edge of the World tells the moving story of a remote island and its inhabitants whose traditions and way of life are threatened by a rapidly industrialising world.

Eloge de l'amour
(Jean-LucGodard / Fr / 2001 / 94 mins / col + b&w / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
From possibly the most respected and influential European film director of all time comes Eloge de l'amour, an intelligent, visually ravishing, witty mediation on life, love and popular culture.

The End of Summer
(Yasujiro Ozu / Jp / 1961 / 103 mins / col / Japanese with subtitles / Cert U)
Ozu's penultimate film returns to the genre closest to his heart - the intimate portrayal of Japanese family life, exploring the breakdown of traditional family values in the face of post-war progress. The Kohayakawa family sets about running its sake business, arranging to marry off its youngest daughter Noriko, and exploring the possibility of helping their widowed daughter-in-law Akiko to remarry.

L' Ennui
(Cédric Kahn / Fr / 1998 / 117 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 18)
Martin is tired of teaching philosophy and is put out that his ex-wife is coping just fine without him. He initiates a highly-charged affair with the much younger Cecilia, confident that, as her intellectual superior, he can control the relationship's balance of power. But upon learning that Cecilia is also seeing a man her own age, Martin's desire becomes an uncontrollable obsession that threatens to consume him. "Beautifully crafted, superbly acted, darkly funny" SIGHT AND SOUND

Eureka
(Shinji Aoyama / Jp / 2000 / 210 mins / b&w & col / Japanese with subtitles / Cert 15)
Three survivors of a violent bus hijacking set off on a long journey around Japan which becomes a cathartic odyssey of spiritual self-discovery. "Superbly acted… a remarkable triumph" SIGHT AND SOUND

Europa Europa
(Agnieszka Holland / Fr, Ge / 1991 / 111 mins / col / German with subtitles / Cert 15)
A young Polish Jew escapes death during World War II by successfully posing as a loyal German Nazi; an unsettling film, based on a true story.

Fallen Angel
(Otto Preminger / US / 1945 / 98 mins / b&w / Cert PG)
In this murder mystery story, Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews), a press agent down on his luck, drifts into a small coastal town in California having been thrown off a bus. He meets June (Alice Faye), a wealthy but reclusive woman, and has his eye on Stella (Linda Darnell), a sultry gold-digging waitress. In love with Stella but broke, Eric decides to marry June, steal her fortune, and then divorce her in favour of Stella. However, when Stella is suddenly and mysteriously murdered, he becomes a suspect and things begin to go wrong…

Fanny and Alexander
(Ingmar Bergman / Sw, Fr, Ge / 1982 / 167 mins + 142 mins / col / Swedish with subtitles / Cert 15)
The Oscar winning Fanny & Alexander is the culmination of a lifetime's work by one of cinema's greatest artists, Ingmar Bergman. The story is a rich tapestry of one year in the life of a large and well-to-do theatrical family living in a Swedish provincial town at the turn of the century. This is the complete version of the film.

The Farewell; Brecht's Last Summer
(Jan Schütte / Ge / 2000 / 89 mins / col / German with subtitles / Cert 15)
At the end of an exceptionally hot summer, playwright Bertolt Brecht prepares to leave his tranquil lakeside house to return to Berlin for the forthcoming theatre season. Most of the many women in his life are there: his wife, daughter, old lovers and current flames. The serenity of the countryside stands in stark contrast to the deep, volatile emotions of the characters: love and hatred, jealousy and egomania, betrayal and dashed hopes. And all the while, Brecht, superbly played by Josef Bierbichler, struggles to make plans for the future that fate is about to cut short. "Affecting…touching…nothing short of genius" THE TIMES

Fausto 5.0
(Isidro Ortiz / Sp / 2001 / 94 mins / col / Spanish with subtitles / Cert 18)
A conflict between reason and instinct. Dr Faust, a well-known specialist in terminal medicine, is deeply depressed. While attending a conference, he meets a former patient, Santos, whom - eight years ago - he had diagnosed as having only months to live. Together they set off on a life or death journey in the depths of the city, where the buildings are suffering from a strange virus. Faust must struggle against death, his own desires, against Santos and himself.

Films of Phil Mulloy
(Phil Mulloy / GB / 1991-2001 / 153 mins / col & b&w / Cert 18)
The provocative work of multi-award-winning animator Phil Mulloy stands as a model of satiric grotesque unparalleled in British animation. The antidote to all that is kitsch and sentimental, these direct, witty and acerbic fables, drawn in brush and ink, perceptively comment on human nature and challenge contemporary values. Definitely not for the squeamish or prudish, this definitive compilation of 24 films contains sex, violence, and scenes calculated to outrage horses!

Floating Weeds
(Yasujiro Ozu / Jp / 1959 / col / 119 mins / Japanese with subtitles / Cert PG)
In one of Ozu's mature masterpieces, an ageing actor returns with his troupe to a provincial town. There he is reunited with his former lover and his illegitimate son, who believes that the actor is his uncle. The actor's desire to be with his long-lost family enrages his present mistress, who spins an elaborate web of deceit that leads to heartbreak for them all.

George Washington
(David Gordon Green / US / 2000 / 89 mins / col / Cert 12)
This is the captivating and beautifully shot story of a group of children on the verge of adulthood during one long, hot summer. Set in a rural town in North Carolina, the group of youngsters find themselves caught in a tragic lie after an innocent game goes wrong. David Gordon Green's debut, he won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2003 with All the Real Girls and is set to direct Miramax's adaptation of John Kennedy Toole's novel A Confederacy of Dunces.

The Girl from Paris
(Christian Carion / Fr / 2000 / 99 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
Fed up with city life, Sandrine decides to leave Paris and live out her dream of becoming a farmer, taking over a farmstead on the Vercors plateau from cantankerous farming veteran Adrien. Set against the backdrop of beautiful French countryside, and featuring sparkling performances The Girl from Paris tells the engaging tale of two mismatched opposites who gradually, and grudgingly, learn to appreciate one another.

Happy Together
(Wong Kar Wai / HK / 1997 / col & b&w / Cantonese, Mandarin and Spanish with subtitles / Cert 15)
Lai and Ho arrive in Argentina as lovers, but while driving south in search of adventures, something goes wrong and Ho leaves for Buenos Aires. Devastated, Lai finds work in a tango bar and attempts to carry on, but is consumed with the thought of being 'happy together' once again with Ho. A heady cocktail of sound and vision from the director of In the Mood for Love and Chungking Express.

Harry He's Here To Help
(Dominik Moll / Fr / 2000 / 112 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
A quirky comedy/thriller cum psychological study in which Michel, on holiday with his family, is followed by an old school mate whose motives soon appear less than friendly, and certainly not helpful! The magnetic performance of Sergi Lopez in the title role won him Best Actor accolade at the 2000 European Film Awards and César Awards 2000. "Fresh, funny and very stylish" Geoff Andrew, TIME OUT

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not…
(Laetitia Colombani / Fr / 2002 / 95 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 12)
A dark romantic thriller starring BAFTA and Cesar-nominated Audrey Tautou in her first major role after Amelie. Tautou stars as Angelique, a young girl in love with Loic, a married cardiologist and soon-to-be father. Although their relationship faces many obstacles, they are driven by passion and determination - though as the film plays out, we see that all is not as it first seems….

Hidden Fortress
(Akira Kurosawa / Jp / 1958 / 138 mins / b&w / Japanese with subtitles / Cert PG)
A story of rival clans, hidden gold and a princess in distress, The Hidden Fortress is a thrilling mix of fairy story and samurai action film which became Kurosawa's biggest box-office hit to date. Some twenty years on, the film's influence would have even greater impact on world box-offices, when George Lucas borrowed its plot for the first of his Star Wars series.

L' Humanité (VHS only)
(Bruno Dumont / Fr / 1999 / 143 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 18)
In a small, close-knit community in North East France, an 11 year old girl has been raped and murdered. On the hunt for the killer is Police detective De Winter, an awkward, shy introvert who maintains a close and voyeuristic relationship with his neighbour and her boyfriend. An almost child-like innocent, De Winter is appalled by not only the crime, but the monstrousness of human behaviour. "L' Humanité is one of the best films of the last ten years" Mark Cousins, Sight and Sound

I Could Read the Sky
(Nichola Bruce / GB, Ie, Fr / 1999 / 86 mins / col & b&w / Cert 15)
Adapted by Nichola Bruce from the acclaimed photographic novel by Timothy O'Grady and Steve Pyke, I COULD READ THE SKY is a haunting and lyrical film about identity, love, loss, and the isolation and loneliness of the immigrant. Dermot Healy movingly portrays a man reflecting upon his life, from his rural upbringing in the West Coast of Ireland to his journey to London and experiences in the vividly modern metropolis.

I'm Going Home
(Manoel de Oliveira / Po, Fr / 2001 / 90 mins / col / French with subtitles & English / Cert PG)
A film about an ageing actor, Gilbert Valence (Michel Piccoli), from the moment he learns his wife, their only child and her husband died in a car accident, to the moment he suddenly turns old. "This is a gem: a small but perfectly formed, perfectly poised and perfectly acted movie, " Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN

Ikiru
(Akira Kurosawa / Ja / 1952 / 137 mins / b&w / Japanese with subtitles / Cert 12)
A lowly civil servant discovers that he is dying of cancer. After bouts of self-pity, a spell of hedonism and a doomed attempt at a platonic relationship, he commits himself doggedly to the task of converting a city dump into a children's playground. Tough-minded and unsentimental throughout, this is one of Kurosawa's finest films and also offers a vivid and satirical portrait of post-war Tokyo.

Interstella 5555
(Kazuhisa Takenochi / Jp, Fr / 2003 / 68 mins / col / Cert PG)
Four musicians from another galaxy are kidnapped by an evil manager to become
the biggest band on Earth. A continuation of the story told in previous 'Daft Punk' music videos.

It all Starts Today
(Bertrand Tavernier / Fr / 1998 / 114 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 12)
Daniel Lefebvre is the director of a Kindergarten in an economically depressed area of northern France. Appalled by the deprivation that his pupils must endure, he determines to rise above the tough conditions and battle against the tough conditions and battle against a repressive social and educational system. "A beautifully written, beautifully photographed and exquisitely constructed treat" TOTAL FILM

Ivan's Childhood
(Andrei Tarkovsky / USSR /1962 / 96 mins / b&w / Russian with subtitles / Cert PG)
Tarkovsky's auspicious debut depicts the exploits of a young boy caught up in the horrors of war. After his family and village have been wiped out by the invading Nazis, 12 year old Ivan joins a Russian partisan regiment. His missions become increasingly perilous and it is decided that he must be removed from the action but Ivan determines to carry out one final, dangerous mission. "With one blow the film annuls a whole cinémathèque of the war films of all lands" SIGHT AND SOUND

Japón
(Carlos Reygadas / Me, Ge, Sp, Ne / 2002 / 147 mins / col / Spanish with subtitles)
A middle-aged painter who has retired to a secluded and primitive village to commit suicide befriends an old woman. A widely acclaimed, oblique and meditative film, much indebted to the influence of Andrei Tarkovsky. "Almost miraculous in its confidence and visionary calm." THE GUARDIAN

Journey to Italy
(Roberto Rossellini / It, Fr / 1953 / b&w / 80 mins / cert PG)
This deceptively simple tale of a bored English couple (George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman) travelling to Italy to find a buyer for a house inherited from an uncle is transformed by Roberto Rossellini into a passionate story of cruelty and cynicism as their marriage disintegrates around them. Now fifty years old, Journey to Italy is recognised not simply as one of Rossellini's greatest films, but as a key landmark in the development of modern cinema.

La Kermesse Heroique
(Jacques Feyder / Fr / 1935 / 109 mins / b&w / French with English subtitles / Cert 12A)
Sparkling satire set in the little Flemish town of Boom in 1616, during the twelve year truce between Flanders and Spain, about unexpected fraternisation between the Flemish and a visiting Spanish army. When the men suddenly disappear, the Mayor's wife organizes the townswomen to greet the invaders and preserve the peace with womanly wiles…

Kirikou and the Sorceress
(Michel Ocelot / Fr / 2000 / 74 mins / col animation / Cert U)
Kirikou and the Sorceress was joint winner (with Chicken Run) of the 2002 British Animation Award for Best European Animated Feature. Showing how tiny but brave Kirikou outwits a powerful sorceress, this enchanting adventure was inspired by the folk stories of Senegal. Writer-director Michel Ocelot's fresh vision of Africa is a world away from Disney's singing lions and features an authentic soundtrack by Youssou N'dour.

Laissez-passer
(Bertrand Tavernier / Fr, Ge, Sp / 2002 / 170 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 12A)
Set in Paris in 1942, Tavernier's film focuses on two Parisian filmmakers, impulsive Resistance fighter Jean Davaivre and womanising screenwriter Jean Aurenche, as they and their friends and colleagues face up to and come to terms with the German occupation.

The Last Resort
(Pawlikowski / GB / 2000 / 77 mins / col / Cert 15)
A Russian woman, Tanya, arrives in England with her young son hoping to see the English fiancé she met in Moscow. When he fails to turn up at the airport, Tanya and Artiom are virtually imprisoned in an asylum camp in a deserted seaside resort. Tanya gradually develops a relationship with an amusement arcade manager (Paddy Considine) who helps them escape. Fortified by great performances from the three lead characters, this is an amusing and fresh look at life on the fringe of modern British society.

Late August, Early September
(Olivier Assayas, Fr, 1999, 107 mins, col / Cert 15)
Directed by Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep) Late August, Early September is a perceptive and moving study of love and friendship among a group of young Parisians over the course of a year. "Immensely satisfying, superbly acted" WHAT'S ON

Lawless Heart
(Neil Hunter, Tom Hunsinger / GB, US / 2001 / 100 mins / col / Cert 15)
Lawless Heart is a sharp, modern British love story where lust, loyalty and courage are stretched to the limit. Shocked by the death of a friend, three men decide to take their lives in hand. But under the influence of three beguiling women, how far will they go? Seen from three angles, each view of events reveals the comic and subtle realities of modern relationships. "Hilarious, fresh and original. A delight of a movie." UNCUT

Léon Morin, prêtre
(Jean-Pierre Melville / Fr, It / 1961 / 114 mins / b&w / French with English subtitles / Cert PG)
For his second film about occupied France and his first mainstream venture, Jean-Pierre Melville turned to Beatrix Beck's autobiographical novel and two hot New Wave stars - Emmanuele Riva as Barny the atheist widow, and Jean-Paul Belmondo as Morin, the Catholic priest - charting their complex personal and religious relationship against troubled times. A box-office and critical hit, this is the nearest to a Melvillian 'woman's film', but the film belongs to Belmondo's erotically-charged performance.

Liam
(Stephen Frears / GB, Ge / 2000 / 91 mins / col / Cert 15)
Set in 1930s Liverpool, Liam tells the story of a family's struggle to keep things together amidst the ravages of the depression, vividly told from the viewpoint of a seven-year old boy. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Stephen Frears and written by the prolific TV and feature film writer Jimmy McGovern, this is a hard hitting, powerful drama that manages to convey humour and affection. "Intimate and touching" Alexander Walker, EVENING STANDARD

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
(Tony Richardson / GB / 1962 / 104 mins / b&w / Cert 12)
Tom Courtenay, in his debut role, plays Colin Smith, a juvenile delinquent sentenced to a Borstal for burglary. Sullen and antisocial, he finds freedom in the solitude of cross-country running. When his sporting prowess catches the eye of the smug governor (Michael Redgrave) he is coached to compete in a race against a local public school. The governor dreams of sporting glory, but Colin dreams of revenge…

Lost in La Mancha
(Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe / GB / 2002 / 93 mins / col / Cert 15)
In a genre that exists to hype films before their release, Lost In La Mancha presents an unexpected twist: it is the story of a film that does not exist. Instead of a sanitised glimpse behind the scenes, Lost In La Mancha offers a unique, in-depth look at the harsher realities of filmmaking. With drama that ranges from personal conflicts to epic storms, this is a record of a film (based on Don Quixote and directed by Terry Gilliam) disintegrating.

Maîtresse
(Barbet Schroeder / Fr / 1976 / 108 mins / col / French with subtitles / cert 18)
Based on an encounter with a real life dominatrix, Schroeder's controversial story of a Paris prostitute specialising in bondage and Sado-masochism is presented here uncut for the first time in the UK. Featuring a youthful Gerard Depardieu as the young innocent who falls for the mysterious maîtresse, and Bulle Ogier as the leather clad dominatrix, the film is both a conventional love story and a dark study of fetishism.

Man with a Movie Camera
(Dziga Vertov / USSR / 1929 / 138 mins / b&w / silent with music / Cert E)
This playful film is at once a documentary of a day in the life of the Soviet Union, a documentary of the filming of the documentary, and a depiction of an audience watching the film.

Merci pour le chocolat
(Claude Chabrol / Fr / 2000 / 97 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
Isabel Huppert is stunning as the duplicitous central character in this tense and intricate thriller from master French Filmmaker Claude Chabrol. "Intriguing, stylish, elegant" Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN

Minor Mishaps
(Annette K Olesen / Dk / 2002 / 109 mins / col / Danish with subtitles)
An enjoyable Danish film about a hospital porter close to retirement reacting, along with his workaholic son, two mixed-up daughters and his unhappily married brother, to the death of his wife of 46 years.

Mirror
(Andrei Tarkovsky / USSR / 1974 / 102 mins / col + b&w / Russian with subtitles / Cert U)
Celebrated Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky's Mirror is his most autobiographical work in which he reflects upon his childhood and the destiny of the Russian people, and particularly their experiences during Stalin's reign.
"A dazzlingly beautiful film, fascinating in its visual splendour… it is an experience which should not be missed" THE TIMES

Monday Morning
(Otar Iosseliani / Fr, It / 2002 / 122 minutes / col / French with subtitles / Cert PG)
Desperate to escape his monotonous routine of insular village and family life, and an unrewarding factory job, Vincent decides to travel to Venice and see what's missing from his life… "Possibly the loveliest film of the year... a wry comic parable out of this extended look at solitude, solidarity, everyday rituals and dreams of freedom." David Cox, i-D

More
(Barbet Schroeder / Lux, Fr / 1969 / 111 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 18)
This dark tale, based on a true story, follows the naïve Stefan (Klaus Grünberg) in his pursuit of off-beat American Estelle (Mimsy Farmer) to the island paradise of Ibiza. He leads a seemingly idyllic life with her by the sea - where the scenic beauties and delights of LSD and nude sunbathing are reflected by Nestor Almendros' stunning photography - before succumbing to the destructive trappings of heroin addiction. Famous for its subdued, moody Pink Floyd soundtrack.

Mrs Dalloway
(Marleen Gorris / GB / 1997 / 97 mins / col / Cert PG)
Vanessa Redgrave plays MP's wife Clarissa Dalloway, whose life is thrown into crisis when a lover she rejected 30 years ago makes an unexpected appearance at a party she is hosting at her elegant London home, prompting bittersweet memories of her youth. Beautifully filmed in period London and featuring an outstanding cast Oscar winner Marleen Gorris' film perfectly captures Virginia Woolf's concerns about choice, truth and destiny.

Name of a River
(Anup Singh / GB, In, Ba / 2003 / 90 mins / Bengali with subtitles / col)
The Name of a River is an ambitious, evocative epic/essay/biopic that explores the life and work of the great Indian filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak. The film covers an enormous wealth of visual, aural and intellectual ground within its 90 minutes, presenting its audience with a dreamlike odyssey through a history, a life and a work that we, the viewers, encounter in the shape of landscapes and music, lovers and gods, myths and memories, literature and cinema.

The Navigators
(Ken Loach / GB, Es, It, Fr / 2001 / 96 mins / col / Cert 15)
Ken Loach's film is the powerful story of a group of South Yorkshire railway track workers at the time of the privatisation of British Rail. As the profound effects of privatisation and the grave repercussions for the safety of the rail system become apparent, the solidarity of the men, previously unified by a sense of community and pride in a working tradition, begins to crumble.

Nine Queens
(Fabien Bielinsky / Ar / 2001 / 114 mins / col / Spanish with subtitles / Cert 15)
The highly praised debut from Argentinian director Fabian Bielinsky. Nine Queens is a heist caper, propelled by ingenious twists and turns, about two con artists who become involved in a plot to steal a set of priceless German stamps.

No End
(Krzysztof Kieslowski / Po / 1984 / 108 mins / col / Polish with subtitles / Cert 15)
The ghost of a young lawyer, Antek, observes the realm of the living in the Poland of 1982, during the country's period of martial law. Thanks to the help of his widow, Ulla, one of Antek's former clients - a worker accused of being an opposition activist - will now be defended by one of Antek's colleagues - an older, experienced lawyer. A highly original blend of ghost story, political drama and meditation on the nature of love.

Nosferatu
(F W Murnau / Ge / 1922 / 89 mins / b&w & tinted / silent with music / Cert PG)
Nosferatu is the original Dracula movie - and still, after eighty years, the scariest. F W Murnau's visionary direction and the chilling performance of Max Schreck in the title role make this an undeniable masterpiece.

Nostalgia
(Andrei Tarkovsky / It, USSR / 1983 / 120 mins / col & b&w / Italian with subtitles / Cert 15)
Tarkovsky's unforgettably haunting film, his first to be made outside Russia,
explores the melancholy of the expatriate through the film's protagonist, Gorchakov, a Russian poet researching in Italy. "Spectacular, astonishing... the nearest to poetry that cinema can ever aspire" FINANCIAL TIMES

The Officer's Ward
(Francois Dupeyron / Fr / 2001 / 135 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
Selected in competition for the Cannes Film Festival 2001, The Officer's Ward tells the dramatic story of Adrien, a young First World War officer recovering from his horrific injuries. Adapted from the hugely successful novel by Marc Dugain, it's an epic and extremely affecting affair. Highly recommended.

Ossessione
(Luchino Visconti / It / 1942 / 140 mins / b&w / Italian with subtitles / Cert PG)
The second unauthorised European version of The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M Cain's classic tale of love, murder and betrayal. Often cited as an the earliest example of neo-realism, Visconti's stunning debut nonetheless reveals his characteristic pictorial sense and considered use of music.

Pandaemonium
(Julien Temple / GB, US / 2000 / 124 mins / col / Cert 12)
A powerful look at the lives of two of the English language's greatest poets, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, Pandaemonium is one of those rare films that communicates the passions that drive great writers and intellects.

Partie de campagne
(Jean Renoir / Fr / 1936 / b&w / 39 mins / cert PG)
Renoir's masterly adaptation of a short story by Guy de Maupassant is perhaps his best-loved film. On a country picnic a young girl leaves her family and fiancé for a while and succumbs to a brief romance. Renoir's sensuous tribute to the countryside - and to the river - has seldom been surpassed.

A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies
(Martin Scorsese & Michael Wilson / GB, US / 1995 / 224 mins / col & b&w / Cert E)
A fascinating exploration of some of the landmarks of American cinema, as well as some of its lesser-known byways. Under chapter headings such as The Director's Dilemma or The Director as Iconoclast, Scorsese analyses the work of filmmakers as diverse as D W Griffith, F W Murnau, Sam Fuller and John Cassavetes. This is no academic history, but a declaration of passion for cinema from one of its most celebrated contemporary practitioners.

Petites Coupures
(Pascal Bonitzer / Fr / 2002 / 96 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
Bruno (Daniel Auteuil) is a communist newspaper journalist suffering a mid-life crisis. Torn between his wife Gaëlle (Emmanuel Devos) and his young girlfriend Nathalie (Ludivine Sagnier), his political beliefs battered by the wind of history, Bruno seems to have lost his bearings. After responding to a call for help from his uncle (Jean Yanne), who is fighting a losing battle for re-election as the communist mayor of a small town near Grenoble, Bruno gets lost in a dark forest. There he meets Béatrice (Kristin Scott Thomas), who does nothing to stop him getting even more lost...

The Piano Teacher
(Michael Haneke / Aus, Fr / 2001 / 129 mins / col / French with subtitles/ Cert 18)
Isabelle Huppert gives a performance of astounding emotional intensity as a piano teacher at the Vienna Conservatory whose carefully constructed insular world is shattered by a passionate affair with a student. Winner of the Grand Prix, Best Actress and Best Actor awards at Cannes 2001.

Piccadilly
(E A Dupont / GB / 1929 / 108 mins / b&w / Silent / Cert PG)
One of the pinnacles of British silent cinema, Piccadilly is a sumptuous showbiz melodrama seething with sexual and racial tension. Chinese-American screen goddess Anna May Wong stars as Shosho, a scullery maid in a fashionable London nightclub whose exotic dance routines catch the eye of suave club owner Valentine Wilmot. She rises to become the toast of London and the object of his erotic obsession - to the bitter jealousy of Mabel, his former lover and star dancer (played by Ziegfeld Follies star Gilda Gray). "It's a bold, beautifully crafted, completely modern picture - one of the truly great films of the silent era" Martin Scorsese, 2004.
Place Vendôme
(Nicole Garcia / Fr / 1998 / 113 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
Marianne (Catherine Deneuve) is at a terrible crossroads in her life, following her husband Vincent's apparent suicide and the revelation that his prestigious jewellery business is riddled with crippling debt. Resolving to put her alcoholism behind her and re-enter the jewellery business herself, Marianne unwittingly enters the shady underworld of the diamond trade, uncovering a sinister web of intrigue that will lead to a mysterious former lover and a dangerous struggle for her own survival.

Platform
(Jia Zhang Ke / Ch, Jp, Fr / 2000 / 150 mins / col / Mandarin with subtitles / Cert 15)
Jia Zhang Ke's ambitious film follows the lives of four friends over a turbulent
10 year period of Chinese history, from 1979 to 1989. Named after a hit 80s Chinese pop song, Platform gives a vivid insight into modern China and absorbingly documents the sweeping social changes experienced by its people. "Remarkable... the most impressive film to have come out of China in the past five years" THE TIMES

Playtime
(Jacques Tati / Fr / 1967 / 113 mins / col / French with English subtitles / Cert U)
Monsieur Hulot is on the prowl again, but the real star is the fabulously expensive city set that Tati constructed to reflect his vision of a future Paris. Shot on 70mm and in near monochrome steely grey, the highly formal and nearly plotless comedy is a strange vehicle for Tati's worries over dehumanisation.

Pola X (VHS only)
(Leos Carax / Fr / 1999 / 130 mins / col / French with subtitles / cert 18)
Pola X is an impassioned adaptation of Herman Melville's 'Pierre of the ambiguities' by Leos Carax, director of 'Les Amants du Pont Neuf' and one of French cinema's most daring and controversial directors. "Breathtaking... haunts the imagination" The New Yorker

The Polish Bride (VHS only)
(Kariam Traïdia / Nl / 1999 / 93 mins / col / Dutch with subtitles / Cert 15)
Hoping for a better future, Anna is lured from Poland to Holland under false pretences by two men who want her to work in a brothel. She manages to escape and is found beaten and bleeding by Henk, a taciturn farmer who shelters the weakened and terrified Anna until she recovers. Anna begins to put order into Henk's solitary life, while he attempts to instil in Anna his love for the countryside. Their blossoming relationship is threatened, however, when Anna's former 'employers' come looking for her. "From first to last shot... totally absorbing... a small piece of humanity" Evening Standard

Rashomon
(Akira Kurosawa / Jp / 1950 / 86 mins / b&w / Japanese with subtitles / Cert 12)
A woodcutter witnesses a horrific series of events - an ambush, rape and murder. In the telling of the tale, however, each of the four participants gives a different view of what actually happened - is anyone telling the truth? Kurosawa's masterly and influential film plays on the subjective nature of truth while unfurling a riveting tale of violence and greed.

Red Beard
(Akira Kurosawa / Jp / 1965 / 172 mins / b&w / Japanese with subtitles / Cert 15)
Toshiro Mifune stars in this 'intimate epic' as a doctor in a nineteenth century rural hospital desperately in need of modernization. An ambitious young intern, to his horror, finds himself posted to this backwater and is tutored by Mifune to appreciate that care for the poor is more important than a society practice.

Regeneration
(Gilles Mackinnon / GB, Ca / 1997 / 109 mins / col / Cert 15)
A highly praised adaptation of Pat Barker's Booker Prize-winning novel, Regeneration is a moving and powerful story of war and its devastating effects. Set in a military psychiatric hospital during World War 1, the film tells of a real life encounter between army psychologist Dr William Rivers (Jonathan Pryce) and the poet Siegfried Sassoon (James Wilby), institutionalised in an attempt to undermine his public disapproval of the war. "Intelligent and very moving... Superb performances from a marvellous cast" TIME OUT

La Regle du jeu
(Jean Renoir / Fr / 1939 / 110 mins / b&w / French with subtitles)
Jean Renoir's tale of romantic intrigues at a weekend shooting party in a country chateau is now widely recognised as one of the greatest films ever made. In this study of the corruption and decay within French society as it teeters on the brink of war, Renoir nonetheless suspends his judgement, with one character observing that 'Everyone has their reasons'.

A River called Titas (Titas Ekti Nadir Naam)
(Ritwik Ghatak / In / 1973 / 159 mins / b&w / Bengali with subtitles / Cert PG)
An epic depiction of the tragic lives of a small fishing community in Ritwik Ghatak's native Bengal, a raw and powerful tale of a drying river and with it a dying civilisation, a grim recognition of the inevitability of change and the terrible cyclical power of loss and resurrection.

Roberto Succo
(Cédric Kahn / Fr / 2001 / 120 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 18)
In 1986, Roberto Succo escaped from an Italian mental institution, where he had been incarcerated for the brutal murder of his parents, and fled to France where he left a trail of inexplicable murders, rapes and abductions. This gripping dramatisation of true events gives a terrifying insight into the disturbed mind of a serial killer and also follows the desperate attempts by the police to hunt down France's most wanted man.

Rosetta
(Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne / Be, Fr / 1999 / 90 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
Deserved winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1999, Rosetta is an extraordinary, unforgettable but vividly realistic portrait of a resourceful teenage girl struggling to find her way in a tough world. Written and directed with great skill and searing intensity by writer/director brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, the film also stars first time actor Emilie Dequenne who won the Cannes Best Actress award for her outstanding realisation of the title role.
"***** Luminous, compassionate... Nothing short of classic" THE GUARDIAN
(NB: the DVD comes with the Dardenne brothers' earlier film La Promesse)

Russian Ark
(Alexander Sokurov / Rus, Ge / 2002 / 96 mins / col / Russian with subtitles / Cert U)
Alexander Sokurov's extraordinary masterpiece, Russian Ark is a unique
journey through time and Russian history. Filmed entirely in the State Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg, Sokurov's breathtaking film recreates 300 years of history and culture and is the first entirely unedited, single take, full-length feature film.

Sacrifice
(Andrei Tarkovsky / Fr, Sw / 1986 / 142 mins + 97 mins / col / Swedish with subtitles / Cert PG)
Tarkovsky's final film, a visionary masterpiece, unfolds in the hours before
a nuclear holocaust. Alexander, a retired actor, is celebrating his birthday with family and friends when a crackly TV announcement warns of imminent nuclear catastrophe. Alexander makes a promise to God that he will sacrifice all he holds dear, if the disaster can be averted. The next day dawns and, as if in a dream, everything is restored to normality. But Alexander must now keep his vow...

Salò (120 giornate di Sodoma)
(Pier Paolo Pasolini / It, Fr / 1975 / 112 mins / col / Italian with subtitles / Cert 18)
Banned, censored and reviled the world over since its first release in 1975, Salò has rarely been shown in its complete form in Britain and did not receive BBFVC certification until late 2000, when it was passed uncut. The film Salò is based on the Marquis de Sade's novel 120 Days of Sodom, with the setting transposed to an empty Lake Garda mansion in Mussolini's miniature Fascist Republic of Salò, Italy in 1944. Four wealthy and powerful libertines gather in a palazzo to organise a gluttonous, theatrical series of sexual tortures to be inflicted upon a terrified collection of subjugated young men and women.

Saltwater
(Conor McPherson / Ire, UK / 2000 / 92 mins / col / Cert 15)
An engaging and immaculately acted comedy drama, Saltwater is the first feature film from Conor McPherson, playwright of the hugely successful 'The Weir'. For the Beneventi family, grieving the year long loss of their mother and struggling to make a living from their chip shop, the future in a depressed out of season resort seems particularly bleak. Father Joe (Brian Cox) is in debt to the local loan shark, youngest son Joe has fallen in with a bad lot, while daughter Carmel is dating a philandering philosophy lecturer. But when eldest son Frank robs the local betting shop, things begin to look a little better...

Sanjuro
(Akira Kurosawa / Jp / 1962 / 95 mins / b&w / Japanese with subtitles / Cert 12)
On the heels of the hugely successful Yojimbo, Kurosawa made his funniest and least serious excursion into the samurai genre. Reprising his role as 'the man with no name', Toshiro Mifune is a shambling, bedraggled character -half Robin Hood, half John Wayne in True Grit - who runs rings around nine would-be samurai and two genteel ladies, and deals with some civic corruption. The fight scene at the finale is breathtakingly swift and violent.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
(Karel Reisz / GB / 1960 / 89 mins / b&w / Cert PG)
The rebellious energy of post-war theatre's 'angry young man' erupted on screen in 1960 with Karel Reisz's radical drama Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Arthur Seaton (Albert Finney), first seen amid the noise of a Nottingham factory, is a young labourer who just wants to get through the week and raise hell at the weekend: "All I want is a good time. The rest is propaganda".

The Scar
(Krzysztof Kieslowski / Po / 1976 / 106 mins / col / Polish with subtitles / Cert 18)
In the impoverished Polish town of Olecko, Stefan Bendarz is put in charge of a large chemical plant, which is being built against the wishes of the local populace. Although it will improve the town's economic prospects and provide badly needed new jobs, the factory will also mean the destruction of many homes and adversely affect the environment. Despite his best efforts to convince the townspeople of the benefits, Bendarz has difficulty reconciling the gulf between his good intentions and reality.

Le Secret
(Virginie Wagon / Fr / 2000 / 109 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 18)
An erotic uplifting tale of a woman's self-discovery. Marie is thirty-five years old, has been married to Francois for 12 years and has a two-year old son. François would like another child but Marie is not sure she wants one, although she doesn't know why. She then meets the enigmatic Bill, a 50 year-old African American and a passionate affair develops…

Secret Ballot
(Babak Payami / Ir, It, Ca, Ne, Sw / 2001 / 105 mins / col / Farsi with subtitles / Cert U)
It is Election Day in a remote part of Iran. A young soldier escorts the female electoral officer, in charge of the mobile electoral seat and voting on the islands, as she obstinately collects votes from the island's polling stations. The two get to know each other while a series of absurd events occur during the day. "Secret Ballot is a funny, touching road movie… celebrates the beneficial possibilities of democracy." Philip French, THE OBSERVER

Seven Samurai
(Akira Kurosawa / Jp / 1954 / 190 mins / b&w / Japanese with subtitles / Cert PG)
Kurosawa's masterful eastern Western, set in seventeenth century Japan, brings together seven warriors to defend an unprotected village from bandits. Toshiro Mifune is memorable as the would-be samurai and Takashi Shimura is the ageing, charismatic samurai leader. As skilled in its delineation of character as in its brutal action sequences, the film has been recycled in many forms, most notably in The Magnificent Seven (1960).

Sex is Comedy
(Catherine Breillat / Fr / 2002 / 89 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 18)
Breillat investigates and attempts to under-stand what happens on a shoot when scenes involving physical intimacy arise. How can something as intimate as the sexual act be captured on film? How can psychological and logical reality, along with the 'show' aspect of the act, be set aside, so that one is just left with the body?

A Short Film about Killing
(Krzysztof Kieslowski / Po / 1988 / 83 mins / col / Polish with subtitles / Cert 15)
A disaffected young man murders a taxi driver and is put on trial by the state.
Though defended by an idealistic lawyer, he is finally sentenced to death by hanging for his crime. Disturbing, thought provoking and graphically filmed in harrowing detail, A Short Film about Killing won numerous awards including the Jury Price at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.

A Short Film About Love
(Krzysztof Kieslowski / Po / 1988 / 83 mins / col / Polish with subtitles / Cert 15)
A young man falls in love with an older woman who lives across the courtyard in the same Warsaw apartment block. He watches her and her succession of lovers until she becomes aware of his spying and confronts him with a sexual invitation. Featuring a superb score by Zbigniew Preisner, Kieslowski's interpretation of 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery' affectingly explores the themes of love and voyeurism.

Sick
(Kirby Dick / US / 1977 / 86 mins / col / Cert 18)
Bob Flanagan was an American performance artist, stand-up comic, poet, and a lifelong sufferer of cystic fibrosis. He was also a masochist, who found that his S/M experiences helped him manage the pain of his illness. Kirby Dick's internationally acclaimed, award-winning film follows Bob and wife Sheree through the last years of Flanagan's life. It is a deeply moving, often hilarious profile of a unique artist, giving an insight into Flanagan's warmth, courage, and especially his sense of humour. "If you see only one movie this year about a twisted, cuddly, courageous, fatally diseased, self-mutilating love slave, make sure that movie is SICK" Time Magazine

Solaris
(Andrei Tarkovsky / USSR / 1972 / 80 mins + 89 mins / col & b&w / Russian with subtitles / Cert PG)
One of the most distinguished Sci-Fi films ever made, Solaris is a moving and unsettling vision of memory and humanity which transcends the normal conventions of its genre. "An extraordinary film of great sensitivity and lyrical power… engrossing and gravely beautiful" NEWSWEEK

Solas
(Benito Zambrano / Sp / 1998 / 97 mins / col / Spanish with subtitles / Cert 15)
This moving, heartfelt drama about the uneasy relationship between a mother and daughter boasts superb performances and has won widespread critical acclaim and 14 international awards. "A little gem… this is, simply, a lovely film" UNCUT

Some Like it Hot
(Billy Wilder / US / 1959 / 120 mins / b&w)
Arguably the best and most popular comedy ever made, Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe star in Billy Wilder's rip-roaring, cross dressing comedy, newly available to hire on DVD.

The Son
(Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne / Be, Fr / 2002 / 104 mins / col / French with subtitles)
From the directors of the Palme d'Or winning Rosetta, a subtle and disquieting film about a working class man whose life has been devastated by tragedy, offering an enigmatic and morally complex study of human emotions.
"Among the finest, most important filmmakers around today… humane and profoundly moving" TIME OUT

South
(Frank Hurley / GB / 1919 / 80 mins / b&w & col / silent with original music by Neil Brand)
The gripping film record of Sir Ernest Shackleton's heroic but ill-starred attempt to cross Antarctica in 1914-16.

Springtime in a Small Town
(Tian Zhuangzhuang / Cn / 2002 / 114 mins / col / Mandarin with subtitles / Cert PG)
Springtime, 1946, less than a year since the Japanese withdrew from China. Yuwen is a young woman, bored and frustrated living in a small town. Her husband, Dai Liyan, has fallen ill with tubercolosis and they now sleep in separate rooms. One day, a college friend of her husband's, a doctor, Zhang Zhichen, visits them. Yuwen and Zhichen are mutually attracted, but Liyan tries to commit suicide when he recognises their feelings. Zhichen saves his life and leaves, but things have changed in the Dai household... "A great director's remake is a Chinese masterpiece… genius" THE TIMES

Stalker
(Andrei Tarkovsky / USSR / 1979 / Disc 1: 63 mins, Disc 2: 92 mins / b& w & col / Russian with subtitles / Cert PG)
Hauntingly exploring man's dreams and desires, and the consequences of realising them, Stalker has been described as one of the greatest science fiction films of all time. "Never less than epic… the most impressive of Tarkovsky's films" MONTHLY FILM BULETIN

Start Up.COM
(Chris Hegedus, Jehane Noujaim / US / 2001 / 100 mins / Cert 15)
A riveting behind-the-scenes look at the volatile internet industry, Start up.COM follows in painfully intimate detail the trials of partners Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman, best friends since childhood, as they progress from being rookies with just a business plan to assuming leadership of a nationally recognised organisation.

Stray Dog
(Akira Kurosawa / Jp / 1949 / 117 mins / b&w / Japanese with subtitles / Cert PG)
A masterful mix of film noir and police thriller set on the sweltering mean streets of Occupied Tokyo. When rookie detective Murakami (Toshiro Mifune) has his pistol stolen from his pocket while on a bus, his frantic attempts to track down the thief lead him to an illegal weapons market in the Tokyo underworld. But the gun has already passed from the pickpocket to a young gangster, and Murakami's gun is identified as the weapon in the shooting of a woman. Murakami, overwhelmed with remorse, turns for help to his older and more experienced senior, Sato (a superb performance by Takashi Shimura). The race is on to find the shooter before he can strike again …

Such a Long Journey (VHS only)
(Sturlar Gunnarson / Ca, GB / 1998 / 108 mins / Cert 15)
Such A Long Journey is an intricately layered, wryly humorous story set against the turbulence of Bombay on the eve of India's 1971 war with Pakistan. The film stars Roshan Seth as Gustad Noble, a dedicated bank clerk and devoted family man who sees his modest life unravelling when he agrees to do a favour for a mysterious old friend.

Suzhou River
(Lou Ye / Cn, Ge / 2000 / 83 mins / col / Mandarin with subtitles / Cert 15)
The Suzhou River is one of the main waterways in Shanghai and serves as the backdrop for this excellent drama about two complex relationships from one of China's top current filmmakers, paying homage to Hitchcock's Vertigo. "Beautifully acted and masterfully controlled..." Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

The Tango Lesson
(Sally Potter / GB, Fr, Ar, Ge, Jp / 1997 / 102 mins / English, French & Spanish language with some subtitles / col / Cert PG)
The director of the joyful Orlando here directs and stars in a breathtaking dance movie set in Paris, albeit with a perceptive insight into the nature of male-female relationships and the cultural differences between the characters. "Sally Potter has revived the Hollywood musical... Wonderfully uplifting... A delight" Alexander Walker, EVENING STANDARD

Taste of Cherry (VHS & 16mm only)
(Abbas Kiarostami / Ir / 1997 / 99 mins / col / Farsi with subtitles / Cert PG)
A prosperous fifty-year old man drives around Tehran trying to find someone who will kill him himself. Acclaimed Iranian director Kirostami invites us to witness an intimate and philosophical discourse on the moral and ethical issues of suicide. "A sublime spiritual parable about life's possibilities" New York Times

A Taste of Honey
(Tony Richardson / GB / 1961 / b&w / 96 minutes / Cert 15)
Rita Tushingham made her indelible screen debut as Jo, a young girl who falls pregnant after leaving home and her floozie of a mother - a revelatory performance by Dora Bryan. Jo befriends Geoff, a gentle, kind-hearted gay man and they move in together, for a while finding an innocent but fragile happiness. Tony Richardson, always skilled with actors, draws fine performances from his entire cast, and this remains an outstanding example of the British New Wave, shot by its star cinematographer Walter Lassally.

Temenos
(Nina Davino / GB / 1998 / 75 mins / col / Cert PG)
Temenos explores the phenomenon of visionary experience. The film visits locations where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared, including Lourdes, Fatima and Medjugorje in Croat-occupied Bosnia where the visions continue. Nina Danino films the landscapes that have witnessed these transcendental appearances, imbuing them with a sense of the sacred.

La Terra Trema
(Visconti / It / 1948 / 155 mins / b&w / Italian with subtitles / Cert U)
An epic account of a Sicilian fishing community and the disasters encountered by a family who lose their boat in a storm. Although acted by non-professionals and avowedly Marxist, Visconti's inherent romanticism wins through in the monumental beauty of the images and operatic handling of character.

This is not a Love Song (VHS only)
(Billie Elthringham / GB / 2002 / 91 mins / col / Cert 18)
Two friends, one an ex-con, finds themselves on the run across the Scottish moors after the accidental death of a farmer's daughter. A tragic yet engrossing story of loyalty in friendship.

Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train
(Patrice Chéreau / Fr / 1998 / 120 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
The dying wish of Parisian painter Jean-Baptiste Emmerich is to be buried in Limoges cemetary: "Those who love me can take the train". A motley collection of the people Emmerich has touched in his life - lovers, friends, relatives and casual acquaintances - is united in a sad, wild and marvellous journey. "An amazing feat of filmmaking" THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Three Colours Blue (also available on 16mm)
(Krzysztof Kieslowski / Fr, Sw / Pl / 1993 / 100 mins / col / Polish with subtitles / Cert 15)
First of the trilogy exploring the French Revolutionary ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity, Blue, starring Juliet Binoche, won the Golden Lion, Best Cinematography and Best Actress awards at the 1993 Venice Film Festival.

Three Colours White (also available on 16mm)
(Krzysztof Kieslowski / Fr, Sw, Pl / 1994 / 95 mins / col / Polish with subtitles / Cert 15)
The second in the Three Colours Trilogy, White is a very funny and ironic black comedy. "Compulsively watchable… it is outstanding" Mark Armory, The Observer

Three Colours Red (also available on 16mm)
(Krzysztof Kieslowski / Fr, Sw, Pl / 1994 / 95 mins / col / Polish with subtitles / Cert 15)
Final part of the trilogy, Red follows the friendship between a retired judge and a young model before eventually revealing the destinies of the characters from all three parts of the trilogy.

Throne of Blood
(Akira Kurosawa / Jp / 1957 / 104 mins / b&w / Japanese with subtitles / Cert PG)
Kurosawa's transposition of Shakespeare's Macbeth to sixteenth century Japan is immensely successful in capturing the spirit of the original. A truly remarkable film combining beauty and terror to produce a mood of haunting power, Throne of Blood also shows Kurosawa's familiar mastery of atmosphere, action, and the savagery of war. "...possibly the finest Shakespearean adaptation ever committed to the screen." THE GUARDIAN

Time Regained
(Raoul Ruiz / Fr / 1999 / 158 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 18)
Respected Chilean filmmaker Raoul Ruiz directs arguably the most successful and ambitious adaptation of Marcel Proust's literary masterpiece 'Remembrance of Things Past', which will entrance both those familiar and new to the novel. Nearing the end of his days, the bed-ridden Marcel reminisces about his life, recalling past experiences and encounters... "A great work... A cine-literary miracle" Alexander Walker, EVENING STANDARD

Under the Sand
(François Ozon / Fr / 2000 / 94 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 15)
In this absorbing and affecting drama, Charlotte Rampling gives one of the best performances of her career as Marie, whose husband Jean mysteriously disappears while the couple are on holiday. Returning to Paris she refuses to accept the fact that Jean has died, continuing to think of him in the present tense and resisting her friends' well-meaning attempts to interest her in other men. "A stunning central performance from Rampling and an impressive, mature work from Ozon" THE INDEPENDENT

Unknown Pleasures (part of 2 disc set with Ziao Wu)
(Jia Zhang-Ke / Ch, Jp, Fr / 2002 / 111 mins / col / Mandarin with subtitles / Cert 12)
Two 19 year old friends, Bin Bin & Xiao Ji, live in the provincial Chinese city of Datong. Disaffected and without jobs or ambition they pass their days wandering around town on their motorbikes, hanging out at the smoky pool hall, and dreaming of girls and escape. Around them China is changing; the television informs them of their nation's rapidly developing political and economic role in the world and the steady encroachment of globalisation.

Va savoir
(Jacques Rivette / Fr, It, Ge / 2001 / 148 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert PG)
Jacques Rivette's delightfully bittersweet and highly entertaining comedy follows the romantic escapades of actress Camille, who returns to Paris to star in a play directed by her Italian lover. "Thoroughly delightful metropolitan comedy… Don't miss it" THE GUARDIAN

La Ville est tranquille
(Robert Guédiguian / Fr / 2000 / 127 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 18)
Beautifully observed, uncompromisingly honest and always engrossing, Guédiguian, returning to his hometown Marseille, skilfully interweaves the stories of several different characters, following their everyday struggles to survive life in the teeming cultural melting pot of the city. "Engrossing… one of the finest French filmmakers around" THE TIMES

The Wages of Fear
(Henri-Georges Clouzot / Fr, It / 1953 / 147 mins / b&w / French with subtitles)
Four down and outs in French colonial Latin America decide to drive a load of nitro-glycerine through the jungle in order to raise some cash; the motive is greed and the results are as black a vision of human infidelity as any since Othello. Winner of the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival and an undisputed triumph of French Cinema, The Wages of Fear set Clouzot among the great French directors such as Truffaut and Godard.

Waiting for Happiness
(Abderrrahmane Sissako / Fr, Mauritainia / 2002 / 93 mins / col / French & Hasianya with subtitles / Cert U)
At the edge of the vast Mauritanian desert lies the small coastal town of Nouadhibou. There, seventeen year-old Abdallah is visiting his mother before emigrating to Europe. The melancholic young man finds himself a stranger in his own country; unable to speak the local language, he shies away from village customs and festivities and is less interested in traditional dress than the latest European fashions.

Water Drops on Burning Rocks
(Ozon / Fr / 2000 / 82 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 18)
This biting comedy focusing on the shifting power in sexual relationships is based on a previously unproduced play by revered German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Twenty-year old Franz is seduced by the much older Leopold and the two move in together. However, Leopold's bullying causes Franz to decide to return to his former girlfriend, a plan foiled when in turn Leopold seduces her too. With the unexpected arrival of Leopold's former lover Vera, a male to female transsexual who is still hopelessy bessotted with him, events begin to get out of control.

Werckmeister Harmonies (part of 2 disc set with Damnation)
(Béla Tarr / Hu, Ge , Fr, Sw / 2000 / 145 mins / b&w / Hungarian with subtitles / Cert 15)
A mysterious 'circus' comes to an impoverished, unnamed Eastern European town. The villagers flock from all over, drawn by a promised appearance by 'The Prince'.
At the moment however all that's on show is a life-sized stuffed whale. As the locals talk about revolution and leadership, tension grows among those who have braved the cold to watch the circus, sparking unrest amongst the discontented male villagers. The unfolding events are witnessed by János Valuska, who is unable to stem the tide of revolt. 'More magnificently dour austerity from the Hungarian master...a surreal epic' Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN (Ten to see in 2003)

Whatever (VHS only)
(Philippe Harel / Fr / 1999 / 115 mins / col / French with subtitles / Cert 18)
Our hero lives alone and is stuck in an unfulfilling job as a moderately successful and well paid computer programmer. He lives alone and has had celibacy imposed on him for two years. He and colleague Yisserand, a badly dressed but ever-optimistic virgin of 28, are sent around France to teach company personnel the latest software and they decide to spend their evenings finding an end to two years of celibacy. But after a particularly disastrous evening in a Rouen nightclub, the two decide that the time has come for the sexual underclass to fight back. Based on the recent French literary sensation by Michel Houellbecq. "Witty, sardonic, ultimately affecting" Evening Standard

Where the Sidewalk Ends
(Otto Preminger / US / 1950 / 91 mins / b&w / Cert 12)
Dana Andrews stars as Mark Dixon, a corrupt cop, in this gritty noir thriller shot on the rain-slicked streets of New York. Already in trouble for his brutal methods, alienated from his colleagues, he pursues a gang leader with vindictive zeal and accidentally kills a possible murder suspect. His guilt deepens when he falls in love with the dead man's wife (played with beguiling beauty by Gene Tierney) and her father, an innocent cab driver, finds himself accused of the murder. Dixon finds ultimate redemption - at a price.

Whirlpool
(Otto Preminger / US / 1949 / 93 mins / b&w / Cert PG)
In this intriguing blend of film noir and women's picture, Gene Tierney is the well-dressed wife of a successful psychoanalyst, played with chilling remoteness by Richard Conte. When arrested for shoplifting, she is saved from inevitable scandal by the intervention of a suave but slightly sinister hypnotist (José Ferrer). However, the salvation proves deceptive and she soon finds herself caught up in a web of blackmail and murder.

Yojimbo
(Akira Kurosawa / Jp / 1961 / 207 mins / b&w / Japanese with subtitles / Cert PG)
Social disorder seen as comedy. A masterless samurai strolls into town and gets half of the baddies to obliterate the other half. Exhilarating, surprising, kinetic, and very funny, the picture gives us a very human hero, who in Kurosawa's words is "different from us. He's able to stand squarely in the middle and stop the fight." "A masterful, beautifully composed, witty movie..." HALLIWELL'S FILM GUIDE

A Zed and Two Noughts
(Peter Greenaway / GB, Ne / 1985 / 112 mins / col / Cert 15)
An extraordinary tale of obsession in which the zoologist twin husbands of two women killed in a car crash start an affair with the amputee survivor. This provocative, funny and stylish film, with a score by Michael Nyman, is also a tribute to Vermeer and an exploration of the trauma of loss, man's relationship with animals and the attraction of lists.

Ziao Wu (part of 2 disc set with Unkown Pleasures)
(Jia Zhang-Ke / Ch, HK / 1998 / 108 mins / col / Mandarin with subtitles / Cert 12)
Jia's accutely observed debut feature follows the exploits of a petty thief, Xiao Wu, who operates as a pickpocket in a ramshackle provincial town. But in a rapidly changing China, Xiao wu finds he is out of step with the times and his inability to adapt marks the beginning of his downfall. 'One of the most impressive Chinese films of the 90's' SIGHT & SOUND

Foreign films

L'Age d'or & Un Chien andalou (double presentation)
L'Age d'or
(Luis Buñuel / Fr, Sp / 1930 / 63 mins / b&w / Cert 15)
A man's face covered with flies; a blind man being kicked; a woman suggestively sucking on the toe of a statue: L'Age d'or is scabrous, sinister and strangely poignant. Buñuel and Salvador Dali's second collaboration chronicles a couple's struggles to consummate their impulsive mutual desire in the face of an endless array of obstacles coming their way from the authorities, bourgeois society and the Church.

Un Chien andalou
(Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dali / Fr / 1928 / 17 mins / b&w / Cert 15)
Un Chien andalou begins with a close-up of a young girl's eye with a razor slicing slowly across it - a sensational opening which was designed to shock the spectator into a direct, uncensored response to the rest of the film. In the words of Buñuel: 'Our only rule was very simple: no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation would be accepted.' Nonetheless, this dreamlike cine-poem on sex, death and decay has prompted countless readings of its mysteries. (www.bfi.org.uk/bunuel)

American Splendor
(Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer-Bergman / US / 2003 / 97 mins / col / Cert 15)
From the producers of The Ice Storm and Happiness comes the true story of an obsessive-compulsive everyman who found love, family and a creative voice through comic books! Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Fipresci Award at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival and the Guardian New Directors Award at the Edinburgh Film Festival. Wildly unique and dryly comic, American Splendor is a true American original. "An elegant movie, with compassion and wit and excellent performances" Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN
The Apple
(Samira Makhmalbaf / Ir, Fr / 1997 / 84 mins / col / Farsi with English subtitles / Cert PG)
Based on a true incident and using the actual family involved in the case, this is the haunting first feature by Samira Makhmalbaf, the then 17 year-old daughter of Iranian filmmaker, Mohsen Makhmalbaf. In a run-down part of Tehran, two twin daughters live as virtual prisoners of their poor father and blind mother, locked behind bars for all of their 12 years. A social worker tries to persuade the girls' father to give them the freedom to explore the world beyond the gates of their home. "A dazzling piece of pure cinema... an incomparably moving experience" Gilbert Adair, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

At Five in the Afternoon
(Samira Makhmalbaf / Ir, Fr / 2003 / 102 mins / col / Farsi and Kurdish with English subtitles / Cert PG)
At Five in the Afternoon is Samira Makhmalbaf's third feature film, and the very first foreign film to be made in Kabul since the Taliban ruled. It focuses on the plight of Afghan women, and in particular Noqreh, trying to survive in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Frustrated by a strained relationship with a bigoted but loving father Noqreh dreams of becoming… President of the Republic! A bitter political statement, a harsh and cruel tale, but an exquisitely moving, often comic depiction of life after the Taliban.

The Barbarian Invasions
(Denys Arcand / Ca, Fr / 2003 / 99 mins / col / French with English subtitles / Cert 15)
Oscar and Double Cannes prize winner The Barbarian Invasions is an acerbic and sharply written masterpiece - a witty, tender and intelligent drama comedy concerning the universal themes of love, faith, family and mortality. In his younger days as a university professor Rémy was known for his love of women, words and lust for life. Now divorced and in his early fifties, he is confined to an over-crowded hospital in Montreal with a terminal illness. Remy's estranged son Sébastien - the acquisitive, non-intellectual antithesis of Remy - returns from London to support his parents and their friends in their poignant attempts to ease the darkness of Remy's last days.

Chungking Express
(Wong-Kar Wai / HK / 1994 / 100 mins / col / Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles / Cert 15)
Cult filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai's hugely influential breakthrough is a supremely stylish combination of love story and thriller, set in and around Hong Kong's infamous Chungking Mansions, a vast complex of shabby hostels, bars and clubs. The film tells the stories of two lovelorn cops and the women with whom they become involved: a mysterious drug dealer dressed in a blonde wig and sunglasses, and an impulsive young dreamer. Featuring a charismatic cast, cool pop soundtrack and stunning photography by Christopher Doyle, Chungking Express is an unconventional and dazzlingly original modern day noir.
The Cuckoo
(Aleksandr Rogozhkin / Ru / 2002 / col / Russian, Finnish and Lapp with English subtitles / Cert 12A)
Gently humorous and lyrical WWII drama from Russia. Two enemy soldiers develop a strange relationship with the local tribeswoman who saves them - despite none of them understanding what the other is saying. While the story may be set during WWII, it holds little of the tensions one would expect from a wartime drama. Instead, it depicts an unexpected culture clash, reflecting the two soldiers against both one another and the tribal life of their lusty saviour Anni.

Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne
(Robert Bresson / Fr / 1945 / 82 mins / b&w / French with English subtitles / Cert PG)
One of the most revered figures in French Cinema, Robert Bresson's second film, scripted by Jean Cocteau, is the renowned masterpiece of cinematic storytelling and psychological insight that established Bresson's unique, highly personal vision. Made during the last days of the Occupation and based on a story by the eighteenth century writer Denys Diderot, this intense study of erotic obsession and the redeeming power of true love combines the superficial glamour of Parisian high society with the seething passions and jealousies that cause a spurned femme fatale, Hélène, to seek her ex-lover's humiliation.

Dragonflies
(Marius Holst / No / 2001 / 109 mins / col / Norwegian with English subtitles / Cert 15)
Lyrical and poetic, Dragonflies is a modern chamber play, the story of a couple running away from their past in a desperate bid to put their criminal activities behind them. Eddie and Marie have met at a time in their lives when they both need someone to save them. Safe in their marital cocoon, Eddie and Marie's worst fear is that the past will catch up with them. Sure enough one day, Eddie's old friend Kullman arrives to shatter their calm. Recently released from a long prison sentence for a crime committed with Eddie, Kullman is determined to stay, turning Eddie and Marie's entire world upside down…

Les Enfants terribles
(Jean-Pierre Melville / Fr / 1950 / 102 mins / b&w / French with English subtitles / Cert 12)
In this compelling tale of incestuous obsession, a teenage brother and sister, Paul and Elisabeth, create an intense, private world in their untidy shared single room. However, when outsiders intrude into their intensely private realm, the scene is set for tragedy. A hauntingly atmospheric film of Jean Cocteau's 1929 claustrophobic hothouse novel, for which he also wrote the screenplay and provided the voice-over, Les Enfants terribles is dominated by a performance of fierce intensity by Nicole Stéphane as the scheming heroine Elisabeth. The music by Bach and Vivaldi forms the film's impassioned score.
Father and Son (available February 2005)
(Alexander Sokurov / Ru, Fr, Ge / 2003 / 84 mins / col / Russian with English subtitles / Cert PG)
From the director of the highly successful Russian Ark comes this tale of a close relationship between a father and son who have lived together for years, after the death of the mother, in a rooftop apartment where they have created their own private world, full of memories and daily rituals. "What's certain is the beauty of each giddy, painterly frame, and some fantastic rooftop scenes... Sokurov is a genius and I feel sure that Father and Son mystifying right now, will invade my dreams in weeks to come" Sukhdev Sandhu, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

The Jean Vigo Collection (available December 2005)
À Propos de Nice
(Fr / 1930 / 20 mins / b&w / Cert U)
À propos de Nice is a sardonically radical variation on the late-silent 'city symphony' films. Gathering the material shot on the streets of Nice over several months with Kaufman running the camera hidden in a cardboard box to catch people unawares, this is an irreverent representation of inter-war French Society.
L' Atalante
(Fr / 1934 / 86 mins / b&w / French with English subtitles / Cert PG)
L' Atalante is one of the great classics of the French cinema, a film of extraordinary lyricism and beauty that manages to combine wild comedy with romantic yearning. A young barge captain, Jean takes his peasant bride, Juliette to live afloat on the barge 'L'Atalante', which plies the Seine. The couple begin married life in the company of the eccentric crew and a large collection of cats. Conflict arises when Juliette is seduced by the bright lights of Paris… This new version was carefully restored according to the director's original intentions and includes previously missing footage, only recently rediscovered.
Jean Taris
(Fr / 1931 / 26 mins / b&w/ Cert E)
In this instructional film on swimming, Vigo enlisted the help of champion swimmer Jean Taris to demonstrate the basic strokes out of water. The film ends with a flourish as Taris leaves the water in Cocteauesque reverse motion, regains his clothing through a dissolve and then exits, stopping only to doff his cap at an overhead camera. Deliberately avant-garde in character, Taris is an anti-documentary with surrealist and anarchic elements.
Zéro de Conduite
(Fr / 1933 / 42 mins / b&w / French with English subtitles / Cert PG)
This rarely seen and celebrated film from the Golden Age of French Cinema is an ebullient and satirical tale of life in a repressive French boarding school. Four boys plan a revolt against their hated teachers that progresses from a dormitory riot, culminating in the famous pillow-fight scene, to a full-scale rebellion. In the years since it was made, this much-banned film has gained classic status and is renowned for its influence on the French New Wave directors, and for being the inspiration behind Lindsay Anderson's highly acclaimed 'If...'.

Jour de fête (available December 2004)
(Jacques Tati / Fr / 1948 / 77 mins / col / cert U)
Tati's debut feature tells the tale of a village postman's endeavours to streamline his service à l'américaine… "The timing and sheer cleverness of the gags is breathtaking. But, above all, this film is supremely good-natured. Perfectly managing to be neither acerbic nor sentimental, just gently and gloriously funny, Jour de fête is a delight." Edinburgh University Film Society film review (www.bfi.org.uk/tati)

Kiss of Life
(Emily Young / UK, Fr / 2003 / 84 mins / col / Cert 12)
Kiss of Life (the debut feature of exciting young British talent Emily Young) is a deeply moving journey into the heart of a family. Lithuanian actress Ingeborga Dapkunaite stars as Helen, a London housewife barely coping with her two children and with her ageing father (David Warner) while her husband, John (Peter Mullan), an aid-worker in Bosnia is away from home. Taking the children to school one morning, she is killed in a car accident. Many miles away, in war-torn Eastern Europe, John is unaware that his wife has died. Helen herself, caught in limbo between life and death, watches over her family who struggle to come to terms with the loss of their mother and the continuing absence of their father. John has to travel home through dangerous terrain whilst Helen journeys through the space between life and death, freed only when she and her husband are able to reconcile their differences and experience the full meaning of their love for one another.


The Lady of Musashino
(Kenji Mizoguchi / Ja / 1951 / 85 mins / b&w / Japanese with English subtitles / Cert PG)
The Lady of Musashino tells the story of Michiko (Kinuyo Tanaka), a disillusioned young wife, trapped in a loveless marriage to her translator husband. Starved of any real affection, Michiko turns to her cousin, only to become entangled in a destructive affair. Ultimately let down by both men, Michiko in her desperation decides to take her fate into her own hands... Legendary director Mizoguchi's serene visual style and meticulously detailed mise-en-scene captures the moral decadence and emotional brittleness of Japan's post war society. Exploring the divide between traditional values and a new-found personal liberation, Mizoguchi contrasts the pace of life in the countryside with the bustling suburbs of the encroaching city.





Last Life in the Universe (available January 2005)
(Pen-Ek Ratanaruang / Ja, Th / 2003 / 108 mins / col / Thai, Japanese & English with some English subtitles / Cert 15)
Mysterious Kenji, a lonely Japanese librarian's assistant and occasional suicide hobbyist, is quietly living - and hoping to die - in Bangkok. Hiding from an unknown past, the Mishima-identifying Kenji seems determined on a premature rendezvous with oblivion; if only Nid, the beautiful Thai woman Kenji spies between the shelves one day, hadn't managed to die first. And if only Nid's acid-tongued sister, Noi - who inadvertently begins seducing the suicidal loner back into the chaos of life - weren't leaving for Osaka on the Monday morning plane… Last Life in the Universe combines elements of Japanese yakuza films, an unpredictable succession of lush and intoxicating images, and a host of eccentric narrative tics from the cutting edge of Thai cinema.

The Leopard
(Luchino Visconti / It, Fr / 1963 / 188 mins / col / Italian with English subtitles / Cert PG)
Luchino Visconti's richest, most personal film, adapted from Giuseppe di Lampedusa's internationally acclaimed novel, The Leopard is set in 1860-62, during the turbulent period of Italian unification, and tells the story of an aristocratic Sicilian family threatened by the political upheavals. Burt Lancaster excels as the ageing Prince of Salina whose beloved nephew Tancredi (Alain Delon) goes off to fight with Garibaldi's revolutionary 'Thousand' and on his return falls in love with Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), the beautiful daughter of an up-and-coming merchant. This gorgeous evocation of an era, filmed on location in Sicily, is stunningly photographed, designed and costumed, with a rousing score by Nino Rota. The DVD features the restored and uncut release version of the film with fully restored picture and sound. "Visconti's masterpiece - beautiful, intelligent, deeply moving" Philip French, THE OBSERVER (www.bfi.org.uk/leopard)

The Life of O-Haru
(Kenji Mizoguchi / Ja / 1952 / 131 mins / b&w / Japanese with English subtitles / Cert PG)
Winner of the 1952 Venice Film Festival Silver Lion Award, Mizoguchi's compelling chronicle of female suffering is an exquisitely crafted tragedy. A portrait and criticism of feudal Japan as seen through the eyes of a woman, The Life of O-Haru tells the story of O-Haru, a beautiful courtesan in 17th century Japan, who falls in love with a commoner (Toshiro Mifune) and is punished for her lapse from social grace by being sent into exile. Mainly told in flashback, the film follows her subsequent decline and fall. Kinuyo Tanaka gives another outstanding performance, as O-Haru.



Mon Oncle (available December 2004)
(Jacques Tati / Fr / 1958/ 116 mins / col / Cert U)
An undisputed comic tour de force in which the simple domestic regime of Mr Hulot is contrasted to the gadget-laden, fully automated household of his sister and brother-in-law. Mon Oncle was Hulot's first encounter with architectural futurism and literally countless gags vie for our attention. "Unforgettably funny, wonderfully observed and always technically brilliant" TIME OUT (www.bfi.org.uk/tati)

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (available December 2004)
(Jacques Tati / Fr / 1953 / 86 mins / b&w / cert U)
Tati's warm-hearted caricature of the middle-class vacationing is a scrapbook of seaside snapshots and anecdotes. Monsieur Hulot, all lolloping limbs, pipe and hat, became one of cinema's best-loved characters. Throwing himself into everything from a tennis match to a fancy dress party, Hulot is an accident personified. Amiable and courteous, he is a gentle lunatic, unaware that his enthusiasms are forging a chain of disaster. "This sublime comedy leaves you breathless with laughter" ***** EMPIRE (www.bfi.org.uk/hulotsholiday)

Noi Albinoi
(Dagur Kári / Ic, Ge, De, UK / 2002 / 91 mins / col / Icelandic with English subtitles / Cert 15)
Heralding the arrival of an exciting new filmmaking talent, Icelandic director Dagur Kari's distinctive feature debut mixes art-house lyricism and striking photography with black humour and a youthful romanticism. Dagur Kari's portrait of a gifted teen, rebelling against the limits of life in a remote Icelandic town, is infused with beautiful scenic vistas, small observational details and a melancholic humour that engulfs his protagonist's actions. With his out-of-this-world looks and wide-eyed awkwardness, newcomer Tomas Lemarquis as Nói, makes the perfect outsider, adrift in an alienating environment.

Nowhere in Africa
(Caroline Link / Ge / 2001 / 141 mins / col / German with English subntitles / Cert U)
Nowhere in Africa, winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003, is an epic feature from Caroline Link, previously Oscar nominated for Beyond Silence. Based on the best-selling autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig, it is the extraordinary story of a Jewish family who fled Nazi Germany in 1938 to make a new life on a remote farm in Kenya. The film, with a particularly strong German cast, picked-up five Lolas at the German Film Awards.



OKAY
(Jesper W. Nielsen / Dk / 2002 / 97 mins / col / Danish with English subtitles / Cert 15)
Nete (dogma star Paprika Steen) is a tough career woman, who runs her job, husband Kristian, aspiring writer of 11 unfinished novels, and teenage daughter Trine, with a firm and efficient hand. When her father Johannes becomes terminally ill, she insists that he stays at their already crammed apartment for his remaining weeks. But Johannes is still alive and staying months later. Kristian seeks comfort outside of the home and her daughter begins to rebel, encouraged by Johannes. When Nete tries to engineer a conciliation between her father and Martin, her gay brother estranged from Johannes, things are bound to explode…

Orphée
(Jean Cocteau / Fr / 1950 / 91 mins / b&w / French with English subtitles / Cert PG)
The magic of cinema is fully realised in Jean Cocteau's Orphée - one of the finest films from one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century. A contemporary account of the Greek myth, set in post-war Paris, Orphée is a work of haunting beauty that follows the poetic logic of a dream. It tells of a famous poet's love affair with Death, a mysterious princess, as he follows her through a mirror into the underworld in search of inspiration. Strikingly visual and darkly enigmatic, Orphée features memorable performances from Cocteau's companion Jean Marais and Maria Casarès. (www.bfi.org.uk/orphee)

Playtime
(Jacques Tati / Fr / 1967 / 125 mins / col / French with some English subtitles / Cert U)
Jacques Tati's most ambitious film unfolds on a vast futuristic six-acre set where he pokes fun at contemporary architecture, package tourism and the overwhelming depersonalisation of modern life. Characters and inanimate objects move in an abstract ballet; dialogue as such hardly exists and is reduced to a multilingual chatter of noise. A financial disaster on its original release, Playtime can now be seen as the purest expression of Tati's comic vision. (www.bfi.org.uk/tati)

Pure
(Gillies MacKinnon / UK / 2002 / 93 mins / col / Cert 18)
MacKinnon makes a welcome return to the themes and styles of his earlier films with this hard-edged exploration of a ten year old boy's extraordinary struggle to save his mother from a destructive drug addiction. What makes the film so powerful is that the main story is told through the eyes of the boy, Paul - a standout performance from newcomer Harry Eden - who displays a mixture of vulnerability and innocence with a maturity beyond his tender years.

Spirited Away
(Haya Miyazaki / Ja / 2002 / 124 mins / col / Japanese with English subtitles / Cert PG)
In the middle of her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by witches and monsters, where humans are changed into animals. A visionary work, winner of the 2003 Animation Oscar and the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, Haya Miyazaki's stunning feature has become the biggest grossing film ever in its native Japan, where it earned over $230m. With its depth and complexity, Spirited Away enchants both adults and children alike. "Without doubt, one of the greatest animated films I've ever seen" Jonathan Ross, FILM 2003

Time of the Wolf (Le Temps de loup)
(Michael Haneke / Fr / 2002 / 111 mins / col / French with English subtitles / Cert 15)
Set in an unnamed European country at an undisclosed time, this dark and brutally compelling apocalyptic drama tells the story of a family: Georges, Anne (Isabelle Huppert) and their two children Eva and Ben. Fleeing the city, the family arrive at their country home, hoping to find refuge and security, only to discover that it is already occupied by strangers. In the ensuing confrontation their lives are changed forever. So begins a long and painful learning process and the discovery that nothing will ever be the same as they journey through a country devastated after a terrible disaster.

To Sleep with Anger
(Charles Burnett / US / 1990 / 98 mins / col / Cert 12)
Charles Burnett, one of America's most highly regarded independent filmmakers, wrote and directed this domestic drama about a black middle-class family living in South Central Los Angeles. Family tensions are already simmering when Harry (Danny Glover) arrives to visit his old friends. He exudes an easy charm, knows secrets past and present and is soon installed in the heart of the family. However, as his stay lengthens, so does he begin to case an ever more malevolent spell, provoking turmoil, setting son against son, reviving past hatreds, and inflicting a mysterious illness. (www.bfi.org.uk/anger)

Tristana (available December 2004)
(Luis Buñuel / Fr, It, Sp / 1970 / 95 mins / col / Spanish with English subtitles / Cert PG)
Tristana (Catherine Deneuve), an orphan, is left to the care of the elderly Don Lope (Fernando Rey). His paternal love soon turns into something more passionate and, to escape his possessiveness, Tristana runs away with a young painter. Later, she falls ill and returns to Don Lope and sets out to destroy him.


Uzak (available from November 2004)
(Nuri Bilge Ceylan / Tu / 2002 / 110 mins / col / Turkish with English subtitles / Cert 15)
Uzak (Distant) is about the encounter between a melancholic and obsessive middle-aged photographer - Mahmut, and his cousin an unemployed country boy - Yusuf, who comes to Istanbul to find a job on a ship. The taciturn, parasitic young man played by the director's usual actor Mehmet Emin Toprak, finds himself encroaching into the closed and colourless world of his cousin. Uzak was awarded both the Grand Prix and the Best Actor prize, which was shared between the two leads Muzaffer Ozdemir and Mehmet Emin Toprak.

Zatoichi
(Takeshi Kitano / Ja / 2003 / 111 mins / col / Japanese with English subtitles / Cert 18)
Zatoichi is a blind wanderer who makes a living by gambling and giving massages in 19th Century Japan. But behind his humble facade, Zatoichi is a master swordsman, gifted with a lightning-fast draw and strokes of breathtaking precision. In a gambling joint, Zatoichi and his trustworthy young friend Shinkichi meet up with a couple of geishas. As dangerous as they are beautiful, Okinu and her sister Osei have come to town to avenge their parents' murder. With his legendary cane sword at his side, Zatoichi's path is destined for many violent showdowns...