Subgenre Sampler

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Ken Loach at the BBC (2011): Dir. Ken Loach; A six–disc box–set of the television plays that Ken Loach wrote and directed for the BBC between 1964 and 1977. A valuable collection of…
Jpod (TV Series) (2008): Feat. David Kopp, Steph Song, Benjamin Ayres…; Smart adaptation of cult author Douglas Coupland's novel chronicling the misadventures of the staff of an eccentric video game design studio.…
Comfort of Strangers, The (1991): Dir. Paul Schrader
Feat. Rupert Everett, Natasha Richardson, Christopher Walken…; Genuinely unsettling, if not ultimately coherent, tale of an English couple (Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson) in Venice who become the…
Long Walk Home, The (1991): Dir. Richard Pearce
Feat. Sissy Spacek, Whoopi Goldberg; Set in 1955 Alabama during the civil rights bus boycott, this portrays the impact of change on two families, with Sissy Spacek as an uppercrust…
Bonfire of the Vanities (1990): Dir. Brian De Palma
Feat. Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith…; Hanks, Willis and Griffith stumble through Tom Wolfe's novel about a hot–shot stockbroker who is scandalised through misdemeanor. A famous…
Come See the Paradise (1990): Dir. Alan Parker
Feat. Dennis Quaid; An epic romance about a hot–headed unionist whose love affair with a Japanese American is torn apart when the state interns 100,000 Japanese…
Crossing, The (1990): Dir. George Ogilvie
Feat. Russell Crowe, Danielle Spencer; A fresh–faced Russell Crowe plays an art student in the sixites who up–and–leaves for the Big City, much to the dismay of his then…
Henry and June (1990): Dir. Philip Kaufman
Feat. Maria de Medeiros, Fred Ward, Uma Thurman; From the diaries of French author Anais Nin, her steamy and stormy adventures with American writer Henry Miller and his wife are lensed to perfection.
Lord of the Flies (1990): Dir. Harry Hook
Feat. Balthazar Getty, Chris Furrh, James Badge Dale; Updated film version of William Golding's novel about stranded military school cadets whose instinct for survival reverts to barbarism.
Mister Johnson (1990): Dir. Bruce Beresford
Feat. Pierce Brosnan, Edward Woodward; Handsome drama set in '20s Africa about a native clerk who tries to ingratiate himself into the ruling white colonialist society.
Return Home (1990): Dir. Ray Argall
Feat. Ben Mendelsohn, Dennis Coard; Male–healing drama finds bitterly divorced Noel (Dennis Coard) returning home in search of direction, finding solace in his brother Steve and…
Reversal of Fortune (1990): Dir. Barbet Schroeder
Feat. Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Ron Silver; In his best performance, Jeremy Irons won an Oscar for portraying Claus Von Bulow, a European émigré who was accused of trying to poison his wife…
Sheltering Sky, The (1990): Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
Feat. John Malkovich, Debra Winger, Campbell Scott…; John Malkovich and Debra Winger play a troubled, upper–class American couple who discover 'themselves' while on trek through the North African…
Texasville (1990): Dir. Peter Bogdanovich
Feat. Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Annie Potts…; The director reassembles the youthful cast from his THE LAST PICTURE SHOW to illustrate the effect that thirty years has had on a group of school…
A Dry White Season (1989): Dir. Euzhan Palcy
Feat. Donald Sutherland, Susan Sarandon, Marlon Brando…; Enraged by the brutal, senseless murder of his black gardener’s son by a racist ‘special policeman’, a South African schoolteacher (Sutherland)…
Always (1989): Dir. Steven Spielberg
Feat. Richard Dreyfuss, John Goodman, Holly Hunter; Heartwarming fantasy about a deceased pilot whose spirit returns to help his best friend pursue the same career and lady.
Blaze (1989): Dir. Ron Shelton
Feat. Paul Newman, Lolita Davidovich, Richard Jenkins; Paul Newman plays flamboyant Southern governor Earl Long, who was scandalized over a love affair with an exotic dancer (Lolita Davidovich, in a…
Dad (1989): Dir. Gary David Goldberg
Feat. Ted Danson, Jack Lemmon, Ethan Hawke…; Ted Danson returns home to find his father (Jack Lemmon) has physically and emotionally deteriorated.
Dead Poet's Society (1989): Dir. Peter Weir
Feat. Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke…; Robin Williams is perfect as an a maverick English teacher at a private high–school for boys, where his passion for poetry profoundly…
Delinquents, The (1989): Dir. Chris Thomson
Feat. Kylie Minogue, Charlie Schlatter, Bruno Lawrence…; Minogue graduated from her TV soap–opera days with this attempt at a serious period drama, with her and Schlatter playing lovestruck teen…
Driving Miss Daisy (1989): Dir. Bruce Beresford
Feat. Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman, Dan Aykroyd; Oscar–winning adaptation of Albert Uhry's stage play charting the 25–year relationship between a crotchety Southern woman and her black…
Eight Men Out (1989): Dir. John Sayles
Feat. John Cusack, Michael Rooker, Christopher Lloyd…; True story of the Chicago White Sox baseball team who conspired with gamblers to lose the World Series in 1919. Finely detailed topical drama with an…
Fabulous Baker Boys, The (1989): Dir. Steve Cloves
Feat. Michelle Pfeiffer, Jeff Bridges, Beau Bridges…; The fabulous Bridges brothers play two sibling cocktail musicians who employ sexy vocalist Michelle Pfeiffer to spice up their routine act.
In Country (1989): Dir. Norman Jewison
Feat. Bruce Willis, Emily Lloyd, Joan Allen; Drama about a High School graduate from Kentucky who throws herself into a rigorous investigation of the life of her father, who died in the Vietnam…
Jeweller's Shop, The (1989): Dir. Michael Anderson
Feat. Burt Lancaster, Olivia Hussey, Ben Cross; Charming, low–key adaptation of a play by Pope John Paul the Second. Burt Lancaster in his last film role plays a jeweller in 1930's Poland…
Lean On Me (1989): Dir. John G. Avildsen
Feat. Morgan Freeman, Robert Guillaume; Principal Morgan Freeman whips the pupils of a troubled high–school into shape in this formulaic but likeable example of the genre.
My Name is Bill W. (1989): Dir. Daniel Petrie
Feat. James Woods, JoBeth Williams, James Garner; James Woods plays Bill Wilson, the famed co–founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, in this tele–movie charting his descent from 1920's business…
Romero (1989): Dir. John Duigan
Feat. Raul Julia, Richard Jordan; Provocative political drama details the story of Salvadorian Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated in 1980 by representatives of an…
Shadow Makers (Fat Man and Little Boy) (1989): Dir. Roland Joffe
Feat. Paul Newman, Dwight Schultz, Bonnie Bedelia…; An informative (if only really adequate) dramatisation of the Manhattan Project, which produced the A–Bomb in the New Mexico desert during WW2.…
Sweetie (1989): Dir. Jane Campion
Feat. Genevieve Lemon, Karen Colston, Tom Lycos; An unsettling account of a young woman's uncomfortable relationship with her boyfriend and disturbed sister who makes an unexpected visit. Askewed…
Welcome Home (1989): Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner
Feat. Kris Kristofferson, JoBeth Williams, Sam Waterston…; Fairly tepid post–Vietnam War drama has Kris Kristofferson play a pilot shot down over Cambodia and was rescued by a Khmer Rouge woman, whom he…
1969 (1988): Dir. Ernest Thompson
Feat. Kiefer Sutherland, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jnr.…; Keifer Sutherland and Winona Ryder lead a brat–pack of sensitive anti–war youths in the summer of '69.
Accidental Tourist, The (1988): Dir. Lawrence Kasdan
Feat. William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Geena Davis…; A travel author faces problems with the two eccentric women in his life. A dry leisure.
Accused, The (1988): Dir. Jonathan Kaplan
Feat. Jodie Foster, Kelly McGillis; Jodie Foster won an Academy Award for her portrayal of a rape victim who suffered the additional ordeal of prosecuting her attackers in the face of…
Another Woman (1988): Dir. Woody Allen
Feat. Gena Rowlands, Gene Hackman, Ian Holm…; Gena Rowlands heads a cast of Woody Allen regulars in this absorbing Bergman–esque portrait of a successful professor who is forced to reflect…
Bagdad Cafe (1988): Dir. Percy Adlon
Feat. Marianne Sagebrecht, Jack Palance, C.C.H. Pounder; Marianne Sagebrecht plays an aloof German tourist who meets a group of equally lovable eccentrics at a remote desert inn. A quirky, expressive and…
Beaches (1988): Dir. Garry Marshall
Feat. Bette Midler, Barbara Hershey, John Heard…; Bette Midler's tour–de–force about the lifetimes of two childhood friends pulls the heart strings in all the right places.
Bird (1988): Dir. Clint Eastwood
Feat. Forest Whitaker, Diane Venora, Keith David; Eastwood's biopic tribute to legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie 'Bird' Parker. His turbulent and extraordinary life is sympathetically characterised…
Boost, The (1988): Dir. Harold Becker
Feat. James Woods, Sean Young; An explicit cautionary tale about the effect of cocaine on the careers and private lives of an affluent L.A. couple. Superb, explosive drama.
Celia (1988): Dir. Ann Turner
Feat. Rebecca Smart, Nicholas Eadie; Fans of Jane Campion should enjoy this eerie antipodean tale of a 9–year–old girl who surrenders to her nightmarish fantasies when her…
Clean and Sober (1988): Dir. Glenn Gordon Caron
Feat. Michael Keaton, Kathy Baker, Morgan Freeman…; Unflinching, powerful drama with Michael Keaton utterly convincing as a real estate broker who decides to lay low at a drug rehabilitation facility…
Cocktail (1988): Dir. Roger Donaldson
Feat. Tom Cruise, Bryan Brown; Tom Cruise receives behind–the–bar cocktail tips from Bryan Brown. Slick comedy was an early box–office for kiwi dir. Donaldson.
Crossing Delancey (1988): Dir. Joan Micklin Silver
Feat. Amy Irving, Peter Riegert; Liberal New Yorker Amy Irving juggles her passion for literature around two (in)eligible bachelors – a handsome academic and a humble pickle…
Da (1988): Dir. Matt Clark
Feat. Martin Sheen; Martin Sheen returns to his native Ireland for his father's funeral and finds his ghost alive and well and willing to discuss the past.
Dangerous Liaisons (1988): Dir. Stephen Frears
Feat. Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer; Classic tale of an unscrupulous French countess who creates royal havoc by challenging her former lover to the sexual conquest of a virginal…
Dominick and Eugene (1988): Dir. Robert M Young
Feat. Ray Liotta, Tom Hulce, Jamie Lee Curtis; Ray Liotta cares for his autistic twin brother Tom Hulce in this affecting drama.
Evil Angels (A Cry in the Dark) (1988): Dir. Fred Schepisi
Feat. Meryl Streep, Sam Neill; Jack–of–all–accents, Meryl Streep, does wonders as Lindy Chamberlain, the woman accused of murdering her child in the Australian…
Four Minute Mile, The (1988): Dir. James Goddard
Feat. Richard Huw, Nique Needles, Michael York; Set in the post–WW2 era of middle–distance athletics when for a period of eight years it seemed that no one would break the…
Gorillas in the Mist (1988): Dir. Michael Apted
Feat. Sigourney Weaver, Bryan Brown, Julie Harris; Impressive biopic of American primatologist Dian Fossey (Sigourney Weaver), who ventured to the volitile African jungle to study the…
Homeboy (1988): Dir. Michael Seresin
Feat. Mickey Rourke; Grim tale with Mickey Rourke as an alcoholic boxer who struggles both in and outside the ring. Directed by Alan Parker's NZ–born cameraman…
Last Temptation of Christ, The (1988): Dir. Martin Scorsese
Feat. Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey…; Brave, earnest film controversial for its assumption that Christ suffered from mortal doubt when chosen to carry God's message. Willem Dafoe plays…
Milagro Beanfield War (1988): Dir. Robert Redford
Feat. Ruben Blades, Richard Bradford, Sonia Braga…; A New Mexican farmer triggers a feud with corporate developers keen to exploit his land. A spirited, simple fable – Redford lovingly directs a…
Moderns, The (1988): Dir. Alan Rudolph
Feat. Keith Carradine, Linda Fiorentino, John Lone…; A witty and exquisite recreation of Paris in the 1920s, complete with the ‘lost generation’ of Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and F Scott…
Patty Hearst (1988): Dir. Paul Schrader
Feat. Natasha Richardson, William Forsythe, Ving Rhames…; Intense depiction of Patty Hearst's kidnapping, confinement and brain–washing by 'urban guerillas' the SLA, from that specialist in American…
Rain Man (1988): Dir. Barry Levinson
Feat. Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino; Oscar–winning road drama featuring Dustin Hoffman's virtuoso performance as the idiot savant brother of Tom Cruise, who does equally well in a…
Running On Empty (1988): Dir. Sidney Lumet
Feat. Judd Hirsch, River Phoenix, Christine Lahti…; A married couple, on the run for activist crimes in the 1960s, come to terms with their childrens' right to be free. A moving story, handled with…
Shame (1988): Dir. Steve Jodrell
Feat. Tony Barry, Deborra-Lee Furness; Stranded in an outback town, a female lawyer defends a young rape victim when her plight is met with nonchalance by the townsfolk.
Stand and Deliver (1988): Dir. Ramon Menendez
Feat. Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips, Andy Garcia; Rousing true story about a no–nonsense Math teacher in a tough L.A. school and his struggles to motivate his dispirited and troubled students.
Talk Radio (1988): Dir. Oliver Stone
Feat. Eric Bogosian, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Greene; Eric Bogosian adapts his biting stageplay for Oliver Stone's camera, and the result is devastating. He portrays a radio talkshow host with an opinion…
Unbearable Lightness of Being, The (1988): Dir. Philip Kaufman
Feat. Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, Stellan Skarsgard; In war–torn Czechoslovakia 1968, a young doctor is caught between two lovers and the political struggle of his homeland. Daniel Day–Lewis…
Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train (1988): Dir. Bob Ellis
Feat. Wendy Hughes, Colin Friels, Norman Kaye; A Catholic schoolteacher moonlights as a prostitute to fund her disabled brother’s morphine dependence, later falling under the influence of a…
Barfly (1987): Dir. Barbet Schroeder
Feat. Mickey Rourke, Faye Dunaway, Alice Krige; Mickey Rourke relishes his role as an alcoholic low–life with a gift for poetry. Loosely based on one Charles Bukowski, who wrote the script.
Broadcast News (1987): Dir. James L. Brooks
Feat. Holly Hunter, William Hurt, Albert Brooks…; Superb TV newsroom dramedy in which vacuous newsreader Hurt and neurotic reporter Brooks compete for the attentions of Holly Hunter.
Five Corners (1987): Dir. Tony Bill
Feat. Jodie Foster, Tim Robbins, Todd Graff…; Ambitious, although ultimately chaotic, drama set in the Bronx in 1964, where a young Jodie Foster is stalked by her former boyfriend (Turturro), who…
Harp in the South, The (TV Mini Series) (1987): Dir. George Whaley
Feat. Martyn Sanderson, Anne Phelan, Anna Hruby…; A TV mini–series about an Irish family who migrate to Australia in the post WW2 years to find their hopes of prosperity dashed on the streets…
High Tide (1987): Dir. Gillian Armstrong
Feat. Judy Davis, Claudia Karvan, Colin Friels; The director of MY BRILLIANT CAREER encores with Judy Davis for this bittersweet exploration of mother–daughter relations at a bleak coastal…
Housekeeping (1987): Dir. Bill Forsyth
Feat. Christine Lahti, Sara Walker; A sombre but wonderful tale of a free–spirited woman in 1950s Idaho who voluteers to take care of her two orphaned nieces despite her being an…
Less Than Zero (1987): Dir. Marek Kanievska
Feat. Andrew McCarthy, Robert Downey Jnr., Jami Gertz…; A slick, rather thin adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ cult–novel set among the bored, coke–snorting youth of 1980s upper–crust…
Nuts (1987): Dir. Martin Ritt
Feat. Barbra Streisand, Richard Dreyfuss, Maureen Stapleton…; Barbra Streisand must prove her sanity in order to stand trial for manslaughter. Richard Dreyfuss helps out with some heavy duty courtroom banter.
Radio Days (1987): Dir. Woody Allen
Feat. Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Julie Kavner; Woody Allen revisits his childhood days in the golden era of radio.
Wall Street (1987): Dir. Oliver Stone
Feat. Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah…; Quintessential 1980s drama is a compelling morality tale with Michael Douglas in an Oscar–winning turn as a carnivorous corporate raider.…
About Last Night (1986): Dir. Edward Zwick
Feat. Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, James Belushi…; Hollywood adaptation of David Mamet's play "Sexual Perversity in Chicago".
Children of a Lesser God (1986): Dir. Randa Haines
Feat. William Hurt, Marlee Matlin, Piper Laurie; Powerful drama in which teacher–for–the–deaf William Hurt falls in love with Marlee Matlin.
Color of Money, The (1986): Dir. Martin Scorsese
Feat. Tom Cruise, Paul Newman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio…; 25 years on from the THE HUSTLER, Paul Newman is the tainted ex–pool shark who passes his baton on to rookie Tom Cruise. Unremarkable Scorsese,…
Crimes of the Heart (1986): Dir. Bruce Beresford
Feat. Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek…; Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek play the Magrath sisters, who reunite in their family home in Mississippi to regroup and settle their…
Crossroads (1986): Dir. Walter Hill
Feat. Ralph Macchio, Jami Gertz, Joe Seneca…; Great Ry Cooder music peps this light drama in which Ralph Macchio seeks lost blues tunes in the Deep South.
Fringe Dwellers, The (1986): Dir. Bruce Beresford
Feat. Donald McAlpine, Ernie Dingo; Quietly dramatic race drama, has an Aboriginal woman move into the mainstream white suburbs with her mother, but finds her extended family have…
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986): Dir. Woody Allen
Feat. Woody Allen, Michael Caine, Dianne Wiest…; Spot–on romantic comedy from Woody Allen, aligning another witty and perceptive script with a stellar cast.
Heartburn (1986): Dir. Mike Nichols
Feat. Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson; Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson undergo some engaging marital strife.
Hoosiers (1986): Dir. David Anspaugh
Feat. Gene Hackman, Dennis Hopper, Barbara Hershey; Superior sports drama, with Hackman coaching a high–school basketball team out of their slump. Feelgood message is combined with a bit of…
Kangaroo (1986): Dir. Tim Burstall
Feat. Judy Davis, Colin Friels; Thinly veiled autobiographical account of novelist D.H. Lawrence features Colin Friels as 'a British writer' in Australia who gets unintentionally…
Paradise Postponed (TV Series) (1986): Feat. Sir Michael Hordern, Richard Vernon, Peter Egan…; Ambitious series following various characters in a small British village across three post–war decades. Written by John Mortimer, who adapted…
Round Midnight (1986): Dir. Bertrand Tavernier
Feat. Dexter Gordon, Francois Cluzet; In 1950s Paris, a decadent American saxophonist develops a friendship with an appreciative French fan who shows him the virtues of clean living. A…
Seize the Day (1986): Dir. Fielder Cook
Feat. Robin Williams, Joseph Wiseman, Jerry Stiller…; Under–valued drama, whose title ironically represents the quest of 40–something 'loser' Robin Williams to find some form of redemption…
Space Camp (1986): Dir. Harry Winer
Feat. Kate Capshaw, Kelly Preston, Larry B. Scott…; Good natured 80's adolescent romp in which a group of young attendees of a space camp find themselves in space for real when their shuttle is…
Travelling North (1986): Dir. Carl Schultz
Feat. Leo McKern, Julia Blake; Screen adaptation of David Williamson's play about a cantankerous retiree who finds love at last, but then discovers his imminent mortality.
Umbrella Woman, The (1986): Dir. Ken Cameron
Feat. Rachel Ward, Sam Neill, Bryan Brown; Smalltown adultery in 30s Australia, with Rachel Ward and Sam Neill.
Agnes of God (1985): Dir. Norman Jewison
Feat. Jane Fonda, Meg Tilly, Anne Bancroft; Jane Fonda investigates, in this intriguing murder–mystery set in a nunnery.
American Flyers (1985): Dir. John Badham
Feat. Kevin Costner, Rae Dawn Chong, David Marshall Grant…; Cross–country cycle drama about a couple of brothers striving to complete a race across the Rocky Mountains by summoning all their physical and…
An Indecent Obsession (1985): Dir. Les Marinos
Feat. Wendy Hughes, Bruno Lawrence, Gary Sweet…; Set in a humid Asiatic mental hospital after the Japanese surrender in WW2, this moderately torrid psychodrama features a devout nun (Hughes) develop…
Bliss (1985): Dir. Ray Lawrence
Feat. Barry Otto; Peter Carey's cult novel maintains its distinctive off–beat flavour in this screen adaptation, about a middle–aged ad–man who…
Color Purple, The (The Colour Purple) (1985): Dir. Steven Spielberg
Feat. Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover…; Striking interpretation of Alice Walker's novel about a black girl's life and hard times in the South, spanning forty years. Whoopi Goldberg's screen…
Death of a Salesman (1985): Dir. Volker Schlondorff
Feat. Dustin Hoffman, John Malkovich, Charles Durning; An excellent adaptation of Arthur Miller’s most famous play, with Dustin Hoffman bringing pathos, seediness and tragedy to the central…
Eleni (1985): Dir. Peter Yates
Feat. John Malkovich, Kate Nelligan, Linda Hunt; John Malkovich plays a U.S. reporter in Greece trying to find the long–lost truth about his mother's political execution.
Equalizer, The (TV Series) (1985-1989): Feat. Edward Woodward, Keith Szarabajka; Classic '80's show noted for its mix of espionage, crime drama, and the private eye genres rolled into a classy film noir package. Woodward excels…
Fool for Love (1985): Dir. Robert Altman
Feat. Sam Shepard, Kim Basinger, Harry Dean Stanton…; One of dir. Altman's ambitious stageplay adaptations, this largely succeeds in bringing Sam Shepard's brand of 'surreal Americana' to life. This…
Fortunate Life, A (Mini-series) (1985): Feat. Dominic Sweeney; At the turn of the 20th century, a motherless child faces hard labour, the trauma of Gallipoli, and the unforgiving outback in this life affirming…
Kane And Abel (Mini-series) (1985): Dir. Buzz Kulik
Feat. Sam Neill, Peter Strauss, Ron Silver; Based on the epic best selling novel by Jeffrey Archer, about two ambitious men born on the same day on either side of the Atlantic, one to a…
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985): Dir. Hector Babenco
Feat. Raul Julia, William Hurt; Evocative drama posits a political activist and a gay window dresser in a South American prison cell, where fantasy becomes their only tool for…
Mask (1985): Dir. Peter Bogdanovich
Feat. Eric Stoltz, Cher, Sam Elliott; Highly watchable tearjerker skillfully steers a facially–deformed teenager through the trials of adolescence, dodging most of the cliches and…
Mussolini and I (1985): Dir. Alberto Negrin
Feat. Bob Hoskins, Anthony Hopkins, Susan Sarandon…; The last days of Il Duce as embodied by Bob Hoskins in this strong Italian miniseries.
Naked Country, The (1985): Dir. Tim Burstall
Feat. John Stanton, Tommy Lewis, Rebecca Gilling; Confrontational outback western pits a gritty Queensland rancher against an antagonised tribe of aborigines in 50s Australia.
Out of Africa (1985): Dir. Sydney Pollack
Feat. Meryl Streep, Robert Redford; Epic, elegant retelling of Karen Blixen's African memoirs. Winner of seven Oscars including Best Picture.
Perfect (1985): Dir. James Bridges
Feat. John Travolta, Jamie Lee Curtis; John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis get physical in this under–rated slice of 80s sizzle: he plays a Rolling Stone journalist investigating the…
Plenty (1985): Dir. Fred Schepisi
Feat. Meryl Streep, John Gielgud, Sam Neill…; Meryl Streep plays a hero of WWII, who finds the rest of her life an anticlimax.
Summer Lovers (1985): Dir. Randal Kleiser
Feat. Peter Gallagher, Daryl Hannah, Valerie Quennessen…; Daffy drama set on a Greek isle with Gallagher and Hannah as a holidaying couple, trouble ensues when Gallagher meets a sexy archaeologist.
Sweet Dreams (1985): Dir. Carol Rice
Feat. Jessica Lange, Ed Harris, Ann Wedgeworth…; Sterling biopic of country singer Patsy Cline.
That Was Then, This Is Now (1985): Dir. Christopher Cain
Feat. Emilio Estevez, Craig Sheffer; Emilio Estevez plays juvenile delinquent, in this version of the S E Hinton book.
Trip to Bountiful, The (1985): Dir. Peter Masterson
Feat. Geraldine Page, Rebecca De Mornay, John Heard; Geraldine Page won an Oscar for her portrait of a widow who finally embarks on one final journey to her Texas birthplace.
Trouble in Mind (1985): Dir. Alan Rudolph
Feat. Kris Kristofferson, Keith Caradine, Lori Singer; Fans of the obscure should enjoy this rollicking film noir. Set in the near future, an ex–convict returns to his favourite cafe to rekindle a…
Wetherby (1985): Dir. David Hare
Feat. Vanessa Redgrave, Ian Holm, Judi Dench…; Haunting psychodrama with Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench as guests at a dinner party that is overshadowed by a repressed tragedy which threatens to…
A Soldier's Story (1984): Dir. Norman Jewison
Feat. Howard Jr. Rollins, Adolph Caesar, Art Evans…; In charge of an inquiry into the murder of a black sergeant on an army base in 1944, investigator Howard E Rollins Jnr uncovers a knot of racial…
A Year of the Quiet Sun (1984): Dir. Krzysztof Zanussi
Feat. Maja Komorowska, Scott Wilson; Realistic and poignant drama that depicts the tentative yet soulful romance that blooms between a Polish woman and an American soldier who is…
Amadeus (1984): Dir. Milos Forman
Feat. Tom Hulce, F. Murray Abraham; Academy–award winning biopic of Mozart's illustrious but brief existence that spawned much of the greatest music ever written. A humourous yet…
Annie's Coming Out (A Test of Love) (1984): Dir. Gil Brealey
Feat. Angela Punch McGregor, Drew Forsythe, Liddy Clark…; A therapist learns to communicate with cerebral palsy patient Annie using an alphabet board and comes to believe that although physically disabled,…
Birdy (1984): Dir. Alan Parker
Feat. Matthew Modine, Nicolas Cage; Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage star in this complex yet compelling tale of a disturbed war veteran's descent into believing he is a bird. A bold and…
Bodyline (TV Mini-series) (1984): Feat. Gary Sweet, Hugo Weaving; A classy TV drama which follows the infamous 1932–33 cricket tour of Australia by the English team led by Douglas Jardine (Weaving). The…
Choose Me (1984): Dir. Alan Rudolph
Feat. Genevieve Bujold, Keith Carradine, Lesley-Anne Down; A sultry, out–of–the–ordinary comedy/drama centred around a luminous late–night L.A. bar, this cemented Robert Altman protege…
Coolangatta Gold, The (1984): Dir. Igor Auzins
Feat. Joss McWilliam, Nick Tate, Colin Friels…; Fair dinkum sports drama in which a father pushes his son to become a champion of the nascent Iron Man competition on the southern Queensland…
Cotton Club, The (1984): Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
Feat. Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Gregory Hines…; Richard Gere heads the ensemble for Coppola's glossy musical melodrama set in the thick of New York's glitzy gangster culture of the 1930s.
Falling in Love (1984): Dir. Ulu Grosbard
Feat. Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep; Star–combination of Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep, as train–commuters having an affair which puts a wee glow back into their fairly…
Harry and Son (1984): Dir. Paul Newman
Feat. Paul Newman, Robby Benson, Ellen Barkin…; Earnest drama concerning cantankerous working stiff Newman and his struggling author son. Those allergic to overt symbolism may want to give this one…
Highway to Heaven (TV Series) (1984): Feat. Michael Landon, Victor French; Feelgood, down–to–earth fantasy series for the whole family, starring Michael Landon (Little House on the Prairie) as a "probational"…
Hotel New Hampshire (1984): Dir. Tony Richardson
Feat. Jodie Foster, Rob Lowe, Nastassja Kinski; Jodie Foster falls in love with brother Rob Lowe. From the John Irving novel.
Killing Fields, The (1984): Dir. Roland Joffe
Feat. Sam Waterston, Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich…; Devastating and award–winning account of Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia.
Last Bastion, The (1984): Dir. Chris Thomson
Feat. Bill Hunter, Ray Barrett, Robert Vaughn…; Australia's involvement in World War II is explored from behind closed doors in this dramatisation of the decisions made by politicians and generals…
Maria's Lovers (1984): Dir. Andrei Konchalovsky
Feat. Nastassja Kinski, John Savage, Robert Mitchum…; An embittered war veteran (Savage) experiences girl trouble upon returning from Vietnam. With a steamy Nastassja Kinski as the film's obscure object…
Mistral's Daughter (Mini-series) (1984): Feat. Stefanie Powers, Robert Urich, Lee Remick…; Blubbery, melodramatic saga of three generations of women by way of artist Julien Mistral. Based on a novel by Judith Krantz.
Mrs. Soffel (1984): Dir. Gillian Armstrong
Feat. Diane Keaton, Mel Gibson, Matthew Modine…; Sombre though interesting drama set in 1901 Pittsburgh about a woman who helps one of the inmates of her prison warden husband.
Places in the Heart (1984): Dir. Robert Benton
Feat. Sally Field, Danny Glover, John Malkovich; Moving period drama with Sally Field's Oscar–winning performance as a widowed cotton–farmer in Depression era Texas.
Pope of Greenwich Village, The (1984): Dir. Stuart Rosenberg
Feat. Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke; Perennial no–hoper Eric Roberts cons pal Mickey Rourke into a final heist, but stealing from the Mob proves to be a bad idea.…
Racing with the Moon (1984): Dir. Richard Benjamin
Feat. Sean Penn, Elizabeth McGovern, Nicolas Cage…; A well–observed and resonant drama, about the last few days of boyhood for a couple of inductees into the US Marines in 1942. The cast all…
River, The (1984): Dir. Mark Rydell
Feat. Sissy Spacek, Mel Gibson, Scott Glenn; A handsomely–shot epic set around a struggling Midwest farming couple who must battle the elements and local land barons to survive on their…
Samson and Delilah (1984): Dir. Lee Philips
Feat. Antony Hamilton, Belinda Bauer, Max von Sydow…; Made–for–TV Old Testament epic centred on the classic Biblical tale of power, persuasion, and love between a Hebrew strongman and a…
Secret Honor (1984): Dir. Robert Altman
Feat. Philip Baker Hall; A fictionalized monologue adapted from the stage by playwrights Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone, with the great Philip Baker Hall as former…
Where the Green Ants Dream (1984): Dir. Werner Herzog
Feat. Bruce Spence, Ray Barrett; Dir. Herzog’s usually compelling obsessions – myths, nature, primitive experience – come a cropper in this uneven depiction of a land rights…
All The Right Moves (1983): Dir. Michael Chapman
Feat. Tom Cruise, Craig T. Nelson, Lea Thompson…; Stirring though conventional sports drama has a talented high–school football player (Cruise), weigh up his life priorities in the face of a…
Big Chill, The (1983): Dir. Lawrence Kasdan
Feat. Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, William Hurt…; Old college friends gather together for a weekend after the funeral of one of their peers, where they reconcile their current lives in the 1980's…
Careful, He Might Hear You (1983): Dir. Carl Schultz
Feat. Wendy Hughes, Robyn Nevin; Rewarding period drama about a young orphan who becomes the object of a bitter dispute between his late mother's sisters.
Eddie and the Cruisers (1983): Dir. Martin Davidson
Feat. Michael Pare, Ellen Barkin, Joe Pantoliano…; Unusual drama, only partially realised, based around a legendary presumed–dead 60s rock’n’roller (Michael Pare) whose life is investigated…
Exposed (1983): Dir. James Toback
Feat. Nastassja Kinski, Harvey Keitel, Rudolph Nureyev…; Typically unrestrained effort from cult director Toback has Nastassja Kinski in fine form as a midwestern girl seeking fame in New York CIty. If…
Kennedy (TV Mini-Series) (1983): Dir. Jim Goddard
Feat. Martin Sheen, Blair Brown, John Shea…; Absorbing, detailed biography of the doomed president covering the key events of his brief reign and providing subtle insights into his private life.
Outsiders, The (1983): Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
Feat. Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio…; Based on the gritty novel by S. E. Hinton (THAT WAS THEN THIS IS NOW), this ‘realistic’ depiction of teenage outsiders in 50s America is…
Phar Lap (1983): Dir. Simon Wincer
Feat. Tom Burlinson; Legendary racehorse reared in New Zealand (though Australian makes claims), who died under mysterious circumstances in America. Good period piece,…
Rumble Fish (1983): Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
Feat. Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Dennis Hopper…; Coppola's cult fave is a highly stylised treatment of a teen delinquency drama may not be entirely appropriate, but it sure looks impressive. Equally…
Silkwood (1983): Dir. Mike Nichols
Feat. Meryl Streep, Cher, Kurt Russell; Fact–based account of a Southern nuclear factory–worker who died mysteriously before exposing unsound trade secrets. Meryl Streep is on a…
Skin Deep (1983): Dir. Mark Joffe
Feat. Briony Behets, Nicole Kidman; Big shoulder pads and even bigger hairdos compete in this trash 80s soap opera set in the world of Australian fashion. Nicole Kidman, in an early…
Terms of Endearment (1983): Dir. James L. Brooks
Feat. Shirley Maclaine, Jack Nicholson, Debra Winger…; Classic family saga of loss and reconciliation with Shirley Maclaine and Jack Nicholson, who both won Oscars, as did the film.
Year of Living Dangerously, The (1983): Dir. Peter Weir
Feat. Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt…; Multi–layered, vivid yarn posits Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver as foreign officials in 1965 Indonesia at the time of the communist coup.…
An Officer and a Gentleman (1982): Dir. Taylor Hackford
Feat. Richard Gere, Debra Winger, Louis Jr. Gossett; Irresistible formula romance between prospective army officer Richard Gere and Debra Winger.
Diner (1982): Dir. Barry Levinson
Feat. Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Kevin Bacon…; Endearing, and enduring, tale of college friends growing up in the 1950s Baltimore was a box–office flop but soon found an enthusiastic…
Gandhi (1982): Dir. Richard Attenborough
Feat. Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox…; Epic retelling of the life of the inspirational Indian leader with Ben Kingsley as 'The Mahatma'. Won eight Academy Awards including Best Picture.
King of Comedy, The (1982): Dir. Martin Scorsese
Feat. Jerry Lewis, Robert De Niro; Deliciously creepy story of a loser/nerd, who acts out his life ambition; to appear on a TV comedy show with Jerry Lewis. Lewis plays it straight,…
Making Love (1982): Dir. Arthur Hiller
Feat. Kate Jackson, Harry Hamlin, Michael Ontkean; A glossy but under–rated love triangle drama starring former "Charlie's Angel" Kate Jackson that was the first mainstream Hollywood film to…
Monkey Grip (1982): Dir. Ken Cameron
Feat. Colin Friels, Noni Hazlehurst, Alice Garner…; Serious–minded drama set in the bohemian environs of 1980s Melbourne. Focused chiefly on a struggles of a divorcee to free herself from the…
One from the Heart (1982): Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
Feat. Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Raul Julia; A lavishly mounted curiosity loosely following the romantic plight of an estranged couple, set against an impressively stylised backdrop of Las…
Portrait Of A Showgirl (1982): Dir. Steven Hilliard Stern
Feat. Lesley Ann Warren, Tony Curtis, Rita Moreno…; Chintz melodrama concerning three Las Vegas showgirls involved in a Caesar's Palace revue. Possibly the drabbest portrait of Sin City imaginable…
Return of the Solider, The (1982): Dir. Alan Bridges
Feat. Julie Christie, Glenda Jackson, Ann-Margret…; Alan Bates stars as a returning WWI soldier rendered catatonic by the horrors of the battlefield, with no memory of his wife. Somewhat overwrought…
Sophie's Choice (1982): Dir. Alan J. Pakula
Feat. Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline; Master of many accents Meryl Streep won an Oscar for her role as a European refugee of the Nazi death–camps whose uneasy relationship with…
Tender Mercies (1982): Dir. Bruce Beresford
Feat. Robert Duvall; Robert Duvall gives an Oscar winning performance as a down–out–his–luck country singer who paves the slow road back to sobriety.…
Verdict, The (1982): Dir. Sidney Lumet
Feat. Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, James Mason…; Sombre dramatic death–march, with Paul Newman playing a convincingly booze–soaked lawyer, whose last chance in the courtroom sees him…
White Dog (1982): Dir. Samuel Fuller
Feat. Kristy McNichol, Paul Winfield, Burl Ives…; A little–seen but widely heralded drama from cult director Samuel Fuller about the struggle of an African–American dog trainer to retrain…
Woman Called Golda, A (1982): Dir. Alan Gibson
Feat. Ingrid Bergman, Ned Beatty, Judy Davis…; Much–praised biopic in which Ingrid Bergman gives her final performance as Israeli Prime Minister and so–called "mother of Israel', Golda…
World According to Garp, The (1982): Dir. George Roy Hill
Feat. Robin Williams, Glenn Close, John Lithgow…; Dazzling adaptation of John Irving's novel about an eccentric's often ill–fated journey through life. Robin Williams is brilliant as Garp, with…
Duet for Four (1981): Dir. Tim Burstall
Feat. Michael Pate, Wendy Hughes, Diane Cilento…; Wry Aussie dramatic comedy centres on wealthy toy manufacturer in the midst of a mid–life crisis, both his and his wife's infidelities and his…
Endless Love (1981): Dir. Franco Zeffirelli
Feat. Brooke Shields; Brooke Shields is the saving grace of this fiasco made of Scott Spencer's acclaimed novel about an obsessive teenage romance.
Hill Street Blues (TV Series) (1981): Feat. Daniel J. Travanti, Michael Conrad, Veronica Hamel…; Steven Bochco's progressive eighties policier found dramatic substance and acclaim in its realistic and ethnically diverse portrayal of the lives of…
Lonely Hearts (1981): Dir. Paul Cox
Feat. Wendy Hughes, Norman Kaye, Jon Finlayson; An off–beat gem about an awkward agency–linked romance between a middle–aged piano tuner and a shy office clerk.
My Dinner with Andre (1981): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Wallace Shawn, Andre Gregory; An honest exchange of philosophy transpires over dinner between an out–of–work playwright and a theatre director. Remarkably compelling…
On Golden Pond (1981): Dir. Mark Rydell
Feat. Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Katharine Hepburn; A warm–fuzzy Oscar winner, a fitting swansong for Henry Fonda, filled with poignant moments with his daughter Jane and Katharine Hepburn.
Puberty Blues (1981): Dir. Bruce Beresford
Feat. Nell Schofield, Jad Capelja; Affecting teenage odyssey with Nell Schofield and Jad Capelja as surfing–groupies, learning to fit into a sex’n’drugs beach–scene.
Ragtime (1981): Dir. Milos Forman
Feat. James Cagney, Brad Dourif, Moses Gunn…; 8–time Oscar nominated adaptation of E. L. Doctorow's novel which recreates a real–life murder mystery in ragtime–era America…
Reds (1981): Dir. Warren Beatty
Feat. Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson; A provocative political saga about an American journalist's involvement with communism, the Russian revolution and the love of a like–minded…
Rich and Famous (1981): Dir. George Cukor
Feat. Jacqueline Bisset, Candice Bergen, Meg Ryan; Seasoned 'women's' director George Cukor remakes OLD ACQUAINTANCES in his final film, about two close friends turned literary rivals. A far cry from…
S.O.B. (1981): Dir. Blake Edwards
Feat. Julie Andrews, William Holden, Richard Mulligan…; Blake Edwards' satire of the film industry and Hollywood society in which a movie producer who made a huge flop tries to salvage his career by…
True Confessions (1981): Dir. Ulu Grosbard
Feat. Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall; Roberts' De Niro and Duvall act their socks off as cop and priest who happen to be brothers. Conflicting loyalties come to a head through a…
Winter of Our Dreams (1981): Dir. John Duigan
Feat. Judy Davis, Bryan Brown, Baz Luhrmann; A fiercely acted Australian drama, with Judy David as a drug–addicted prostitute looking for solace in a former 60s radical (Bryan Brown).
A Change of Seasons (1980): Dir. Richard Lang
Feat. Shirley Maclaine, Anthony Hopkins, Bo Derek; Comedy of tangled relationships and mid–life crises, following a forty–something woman who begins a relationship with a young,…
A Christmas Without Snow (1980): Dir. John Korty
Feat. Michael Learned, John Houseman, James Cromwell…; A divorced mother moves to San Francisco and joins the choir of a local church, lead by a curmudgeonly old gentleman who will accept nothing but…
American Gigolo (1980): Dir. Paul Schrader
Feat. Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton, Hector Elizondo; Low–key but effective drama. Richard Gere is suspected in a Hollywood murder.
Blue Lagoon, The (1980): Dir. Randal Kleiser
Feat. Brooke Shields, Christopher Atkins; Pubescent curiosity in which a young Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins take biology lessons from Mother Nature after they are stranded on a…
Club, The (1980): Dir. Bruce Beresford
Feat. Jack Thompson, Graham Kennedy, Frank Wilson; Doing for Australian Rules football what DON'S PARTY did for Australian politics, this examines in brawling, bawdy detail the behind–scenes…
Coal Miner's Daughter (1980): Dir. Michael Apted
Feat. Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones; Biopic of country legend Loretta Lynn.
Formula, The (1980): Dir. John G. Avildsen
Feat. Marlon Brando, George C. Scott, Marthe Keller…; Muddled thriller with Scott as a detective caught up in a conspiracy to manipulate world fuel prices. Brando –only in three scenes– does…
Foxes (1980): Dir. Adrian Lyne
Feat. Jodie Foster, Scott Baio, Sally Kellerman…; Four teenage loose cannons speed towards self–destruction in this frank, impressionistic portrait of L.A. teen culture. A young Jodie Foster…
Germany, Pale Mother (Deutschland bleiche Mutter) (1980): Dir. Helma Sanders-Brahms
Feat. Eva Mattes, Ernst Jacobi; Bleak WWII drama that follows the tragic fate of a couple who marry the day before the war breaks out when he is drafted to the Eastern front only to…
Hamlet (1980): Dir. Rodney Bennett
Feat. Derek Jacobi, Claire Bloom, Patrick Stewart…; Part of the BBC's excellent series of Shakespeare productions, filmed in a 'theatrical' TV environment utilising the best of English acting talent.
Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980): Dir. James Ivory
Feat. Anne Baxter, Robert Powell, MIchael Wager…; Delightful Merchant Ivory production has two rival theatre companies dueling over the right to produce a recently discovered Jane Austen manuscript.…
Jayne Mansfield Story, The (1980): Dir. Dick Lowry
Feat. Loni Anderson, Arnold Schwarzenegger; Loni Anderson plays the titular blonde bombshell in this tacky biopic of one of the Hollywood's most likeable sex kittens. Arnie co–stars as…
Scruples (Mini-series) (1980): Dir. Robert Day
Feat. Lindsay Wagner, Barry Bostwick, Kim Cattrall…; Trashy, high–society soap opera, with Lindsay Wagner overcoming privilege and class to rise beyond the upper echelons of the L.A. fashion…
Staying On (1980): Dir. Silvio Narizzano
Feat. Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Saeed Jaffrey; Drama based on the award–winning novel by Paul Scott (The Jewel in the Crown), and reuniting BRIEF ENCOUNTER actors Celia Johnson and Trevor…
Alexandria... Why? (1979): Dir. Youssef Chahine; An autobiographical film about the early life of director Youssef Chahine, set in Alexandria. Winner of the Silver Bear at the 29th Berlin…
Champ, The (1979): Dir. Franco Zeffirelli
Feat. Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway, Rick Schroder…; Franco Zeffirelli's sentimental remake of the 1931 Academy Award–winning film stars Jon Voight as a debt–ridden Florida…
Chapter Two (1979): Dir. Robert Moore
Feat. James Caan, Marsha Mason, Valerie Harper; Neil SImon's hit play is competently adapted for the big screen. James Caan in a rare romantic role plays a man recently widowed who falls for a…
Chilly Scenes of Winter (Head Over Heels) (1979): Dir. Joan Micklin Silver
Feat. John Heard, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter Riegert…; A celebrated early rom–com from writer–director Joan Micklin Silver (CROSSING DELANCEY) with a likable John Heard playing a hopeless…
Days of Heaven (1979): Dir. Terrence Malick
Feat. Sam Shepard, Richard Gere, Brooke Adams…; The mid–western wheat–fields provide a magnificent backdrop for this poignant tale of two disparate bachelors who vie for the same woman.…
Design For Living / Mrs. Capper's Birthday / What Mad Pursuit (The Noel Coward Collection - Disc 3) (1979-1985): Dir. Philip Saville, Mike Ockrent
Feat. Dandy Nichols, Patricia Hayes, Hugh Laurie…; –Design For Living (79') Contrived comedy set in a Paris apartment where a woman and the two men she loves all live together in an awkward…
Elvis (1979): Dir. John Carpenter
Feat. Kurt Russell, Shelley Winters, Bing Russell…; Made just two years after Elvis's death, the king of rock 'n' roll's life is traced from dirt poor beginnings to becoming the most loved entertainer…
Europeans, The (1979): Dir. James Ivory
Feat. Lee Remick, Wesley Addy, Lisa Eichhorn; Possibly the best of the early Merchant–Ivory productions develops Henry James' novel of 19th century New England into a subtle study of family…
Hardcore (1979): Dir. Paul Schrader
Feat. George C. Scott, Peter Boyle; Paul Schrader, rehashing his script of TAXI DRIVER, pits a Catholic mid–westerner against the seedy, amoral underworld of California's adult…
Henry V (1979): Dir. David Giles
Feat. David Gwillim, Alec McCowen, David Buck; Part of the BBC's excellent series of Shakespeare productions, filmed in a 'theatrical' TV environment utilising the best of English acting talent.
Henry VIII (1979): Dir. Kevin Billington
Feat. Timothy West, Claire Bloom, Ronald Pickup…; Part of the BBC's excellent series of Shakespeare productions, filmed in a 'theatrical' TV environment utilising the best of English acting talent.
Junoon (1979): Dir. Shyam Benegal
Feat. Shashi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah…; Indian drama set during the 1857 War of Independence, where a feudal chieftain falls for an Anglo–Indian woman and encounters bitter opposition…
Manhattan (1979): Dir. Woody Allen
Feat. Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway; This classy introspective comedy from Woody Allen tributes his beloved city while his neurotic alter–ego searches for romantic and intellectual…
More American Graffiti (1979): Dir. Bill L. Norton
Feat. Ron Howard, Bo Hopkins, Candy Clark…; College graduates deal with Vietnam and other issues of the late '60s in this creaky sequel to the coming–of–age hit.
My Brilliant Career (1979): Dir. Gillian Armstrong
Feat. Judy Davis, Sam Neill; Landmark Australian film, with Judy Davis as a determinedly independent femme in the late 19th century. From the novel by Miles Franklin.
North Dallas Forty (1979): Dir. Ted Kotcheff
Feat. Nick Nolte, Bo Svenson, Steve Forrest; A sports film set in late 1970s Texas, following American Football player Phil Elliott (Nolte), whose independent attitude and lifestyle of…
Prisoner (TV Series) (Prisoner Cell Block H) (1979-1986): Feat. Sheila Florance; The classic Australian women's prison series, which still sets the standard for its tough–as–nails cast, pithy dialogue and unglamorous…
Running (1979): Dir. Steven Hilliard Stern
Feat. Michael Douglas, Susan Anspach, Eugene Levy; Michael Douglas stars in this sports drama about a fictional American marathon runner's struggle to compete in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
Testament of Youth (Mini-series) (1979): Dir. Moira Armstrong
Feat. Cheryl Campbell, Peter Woodward, Emrys James…; Sterling adaptation of Vera Brittain's memoir recounts her early years and lost loves admidst the turmoil of the first world war.
Tim (1979): Dir. Michael Pate
Feat. Mel Gibson, Piper Laurie; Mel Gibson and Piper Laurie are the young simpleton and older woman drawn together in this adaptation of Colleen McCullough's first novel.
When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? (1979): Dir. Milton Katselas
Feat. Candy Clark, Marjoe Gortner; A confrontational yet riveting psychodrama centering on a Vietnam vet–turned–drug dealer who terrorizes the patrons of a diner in a small…
Alan Bennett at the BBC (1978-1992): Dir. Stuart Burge, John Schlesinger, Richard Eyre
Feat. James Fox, Alan Bates, Prunella Scales…; An exceptional anthology of previously unreleased BBC productions from revered playwright Alan Bennett. Collection includes: – A Day Out…
An Englishman's Castle (TV Mini-series) (1978): Dir. Paul Ciappessoni
Feat. Kenneth More, Isla Blair, Kathleen Byron…; TV miniseries set in an alternative history where Germany won WWII and England is ruled by a fascist government. Kenneth More plays a writer for a…
An Unmarried Woman (1978): Dir. Paul Mazursky
Feat. Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates, Michael Murphy…; Jill Clayburgh endeared herself to a generation of women with this well–loved character study of a divorced New Yorker navigating the single…
BBC Shakespeare Collection: Series 4 (Othello, Troilus and Cressida, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) (1978): The fourth in a series of boxed–sets compiling the BBC's comprehensive Shakespeare adaptations for television. This set includes: Othello:…
Disraeli (TV Mini-series) (1978): Dir. Claude Whatham
Feat. Ian McShane, Rosemary Leach, Mary Peach…; Detailed biopic of the remarkable life of the author turned British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. Talky and visually limited this is more than a…
End, The (1978): Dir. Burt Reynolds
Feat. Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise; Black comedy directed by and starring Burt Reynolds, who plays a real–estate agent who decides to kill himself when he is diagnosed with a…
F.I.S.T. (Fist) (1978): Dir. Norman Jewison
Feat. Sylvester Stallone, Rod Steiger, Peter Boyle…; Earnest union drama with Stallone as a Jimmy Hoffa type union leader whose idealism is gradually corrupted. Curious misfire is worth a watch with a…
Fedora (1978): Dir. Billy Wilder
Feat. William Holden, Marthe Keller, Jose Ferrer…; Fascinating later work from dir. Wilder, in which an impoverished film producer travels to the Greek islands to track down an elusive European star…
Holocaust (TV Mini-series) (1978): Dir. Marvin J. Chomsky
Feat. Meryl Streep, James Woods, Michael Moriaty…; Captivating saga of a Jewish family shattered by the rise of the Nazis. One of the top–rating and best quality mini–series of the 1970s.
Hullabaloo over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1978): Dir. James Ivory
Feat. Peggy Ashcroft, Saeed Jaffrey, Victor Banerjee; Television film from Merchant Ivory productions, about an attempted theft of valuable paintings from an Indian palace. The thieves include a museum…
Irishman, The (1978): Dir. Donald Crombie
Feat. Michael Craig, Robyn Nevin, Simon Burke…; Rousing tale of hard living Irish teamster Paddy Doolan whose refusal to acquiesce to fashionable new technology pushes his family close to ruin in…
King of the Gypsies (1978): Dir. Frank Pierson
Feat. Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields, Sterling Hayden…; A credible and fascinating depiction of Gypsy culture through the smog of modern day America. Eric Roberts makes his screen debut as a New Yorker who…
Law And Order (TV Mini-Series) (1978): Dir. Les Blair
Feat. Peter Dean, Derek Martin; Discerning Brit crime series focusing on three men involved in a bungled armed robbery – the Criminal, the Inspector and the Lawyer and played…
Oliver's Story (1978): Dir. John Korty
Feat. Ryan O'Neal, Candice Bergen, Nicola Pagett…; Ryan O'Neal returns as Oliver Barrett IV in this tender sequel to LOVE STORY.
Richard II (1978): Dir. David Giles
Feat. Derek Jacobi, John Gielgud, Jon Finch…; Part of the BBC's excellent series of Shakespeare productions, filmed in a 'theatrical' TV environment utilising the best of English acting talent.
Wise Blood (1978): Dir. John Huston
Feat. Brad Dourif; Brad Dourif plays the obsessed leader of the 'Church Without Christ' in this marvellous satire on contemporary evangelism in the American South. From…
Another Bouquet (TV Mini-Series) (1977): Dir. John Frankau
Feat. Frank Finlay, James Aubrey, Deborah Grant…; So–so follow up to Andrea Newman's painful chronicle of incestual desire is set six months later, and the repercussions are still being felt.
Ascent, The (Voskhozhdeniye) (1977): Dir. Larisa Shepitko
Feat. Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Anatoli Solonitsyn; A Soviet WWII classic shot in appalling winter conditions in which two partisans on a mission to gather food contend with the winter cold, the…
Joseph Andrews (1977): Dir. Tony Richardson
Feat. Ann-Margret, Peter Firth, Beryl Reid…; Bawdy picaresque revolves around the romantic misadventures of switched–at–birth servant. Chief amongst his concerns are the unwelcome…
Julia (1977): Dir. Fred Zinnemann
Feat. Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards Jr.…; Dramatising the 1930s memories of playwright Lillian Hellman (THE LITTLE FOXES), this Oscar–winning classic centres on the relationship between…
Last Wave, The (1977): Dir. Peter Weir
Feat. Richard Chamberlain, David Gulpilil; A provocative and eerie tale of prophecy and doom sees attorney Richard Chamberlain plagued by horrific visions when assigned to defend a group of…
Roseland (1977): Dir. James Ivory
Feat. Teresa Wright, Lou Jacobi, Geraldine Chaplin…; Three separate but interlocking stories set in New York's famed dance palace, about people trying to essentially, 'find the right dance partner'.…
Secret Army (TV Series) (1977): Feat. Bernard Hepton; This gripping – and unlike its comedy spoof successor ALLO' ALLO!, deadly serious – BBC dramatic series focused on the exploits of a…
Turning Point, The (1977): Dir. Herbert Ross
Feat. Shirley Maclaine, Anne Bancroft, Mikhail Baryshnikov…; Rarely are ballet films quite so dramatically satisfying – if still laden with a few cliches – than this tale of two friends reuniting,…
Washington: Behind Closed Doors (Mini-Series) (1977): Feat. Cliff Robertson, Jason Robards Jr., Stefanie Powers…; Sharply written mini–series inspired by the Nixon administration tells the story of a power–hungry U.S. President, and the men he…
Alfie Darling (1976): Dir. Ken Hughes
Feat. Alan Price, Jill Townsend, Joan Collins…; Alan Price is a poor substitute for Michael Caine in this limp sequel. This time round Alfie is driving lorries round Europe and back to his…
Bound for Glory (1976): Dir. Hal Ashby
Feat. David Carradine, Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon…; Superbly made biopic of folksinger Woody Guthrie, set during the tail–end of the Great Depression as Guthrie makes his way across dustbowl…
Bouquet of Barbed Wire (TV Mini-Series) (1976): Dir. Tony Wharmby
Feat. Frank Finlay, Susan Penhaligon, James Aubrey…; Quease–inducing drama of a middle–class family being torn apart by a father's obsessive love for his manipulative daughter. Shocking for…
Boy in the Plastic Bubble, The (1976): Dir. Randal Kleiser
Feat. John Travolta, Glynnis O'Connor, Robert Reed; A cult telemovie starring John Travolta as an immune–deficient youngster with potentially fatal allergies, who has to exist in a sealed…
Break Of Day (1976): Dir. Ken Hannam
Feat. Andrew MacFarlane; Quiet Australian drama focused on a young soldier's struggle to adjust to his previous life after returning home post–WW1, and his pursuit of…
Caddie (1976): Dir. Donald Crombie
Feat. Helen Morse, Drew Forsythe, Jack Thompson…; Key film of the Australian cinema renaissance with Helen Morse exceptional as a young solo mother struggling to get by in a male dominated…
Captains and the Kings (TV Mini-Series) (1976): Feat. Patty Duke, Jane Seymour, Perry King…; Rich inter–generational saga chronicling the life of an Irish immigrant who arrives penniless in America in the mid–19th century.…
Lindbergh Kidnapping Case, The (1976): Dir. Buzz Kulik
Feat. Anthony Hopkins, Martin Balsam, Cliff DeYoung…; A TV film dramatising the events of the Lindbergh kidnapping, in which the son of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh was abducted…
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (TV Series) (1976-1977): Feat. Louise Lasser, Greg Mullavey; Adventurous satirical soap opera from the 70's following a small–town housewife who encounters various complex and compounding…
Moneychangers, The (TV Series) (1976): Feat. Kirk Douglas, Christopher Plummer, Anne Baxter…; Kirk Douglas and Christopher Plummer play executives battling to claim the presidency of one of America's largest banks in this meaty financial…
Rich Man, Poor Man (Mini-series) (1976): Feat. Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte, Susan Blakely…; Popular TV Mini–Series with a superb ensemble cast based on the best–selling Irwin Shaw novel following the fate of two immigrant…
Seven Percent Solution, The (1976): Dir. Nicholas Meyer
Feat. Alan Arkin, Vanessa Redgrave, Robert Duvall…; Intriguing re–imagining of the Sherlock Holmes legend has the master sleuth fighting his own drug addiction under the guidance of Sigmund…
Victory at Entebbe (1976): Dir. Marvin J. Chomsky
Feat. Helmut Berger, Linda Blair, Burt Lancaster…; A made–for–television film first broadcast on ABC, depicting the raid on Entebbe Airport in Uganda and the freeing of Israeli hostages…
When The Boat Comes In (TV Series) (1976): Feat. James Bolam, James Garbutt, Jean Heywood; 'Northern' drama series set in a post–WW1 Britain, where Ex–Sergeant Jack Ford (Bolam) and his family must deal with the aftermath…
American Film Theatre - Galileo (1975): Dir. Joseph Losey
Feat. Topol, John Gielgud, Patrick Magee…; A generally satisfactory version of Bertolt Brecht's stageplay concerning the ethical dilemmas of the scientist Galileo, who among other things…
American Film Theatre - In Celebration (1975): Dir. Lindsay Anderson
Feat. Alan Bates, Brian Cox, Gabrielle Daye…; A tightly framed screen adaptation of David Storey's autobiographical play set around the reunion of a Nottinghamshire mining family, in which cast…
American Film Theatre - Philadelphia, Here I Come (1975): Dir. John Quested
Feat. Donal McCann, Des Cave, Siobhan McKenna; A young Irishman agonises over whether to leave his stifling Irish existence and join relatives in America, in one of the more subdued American Film…
Autobiography of a Princess (1975): Dir. James Ivory
Feat. Madhur Jaffrey, James Mason; Merchant Ivory production about an Indian princess (Madhur Jaffrey) who has left her homeland and lives in contemporary London. On the anniversary of…
Conduct Unbecoming (1975): Dir. Michael Anderson
Feat. Michael York, Richard Attenborough, Trevor Howard; Well–made, though somewhat old–fashioned version of Barry England's play about misbehaviour among the British Army in India. The stars…
Edward VII (TV Series) (1975): Dir. John Gorrie
Feat. Timothy West, John Gielgud, Robert Hardy…; Superb period drama covers the complicated 'Royal' Edward VII, who was almost an old man by the time he finally became King of England in the early…
Lucky Lady (1975): Dir. Stanley Donen
Feat. Gene Hackman, Liza Minnelli, Burt Reynolds…; Shapeless caper with three rum–runners set during the prohibition whose lives are complicated by the personal relationships. A notorious…
Mahogany (1975): Dir. Berry Gordy
Feat. Diana Ross, Anthony Perkins, Billy Dee Williams…; Deliciously overripe melodrama with Diana Ross as an aspiring designer falling under the spell of jet–setting Anthony Perkins. Ross and…
Poldark (TV Series) (1975): Dir. Philip Dudley
Feat. Ralph Bates, Robin Ellis, Jill Townsend; Highly successful British TV series based on the series of novels by Winston Graham about the life of an 18th–century Cornish nobleman (Ellis)…
Raffles (TV Series) (1975-1977): Feat. Anthony Valentine, Christopher Strauli; Known by day as A.J. Raffles, gentleman of leisure and top–rate cricketer, at night Raffles becomes "the amateur Cracksman", an expert jewel…
Winstanley (1975): Dir. Kevin Brownlow, Andrew Mollo
Feat. Miles Halliwell, Jerome Willis, Terry Higgins; The dramatized history of a Reformation–era religious sect called the Diggers. A nonviolent aggregation, the Diggers are devoted to tilling the…
Affairs of the Heart (TV Series) (1974): Dir. Derek Bennett, Michael Ferguson
Feat. Diana Rigg, Ian Ogilvy, Anna Calder-Marshall…; Seven tales from the fiction of Henry James are adapted to television with varying degrees of success and a wide range of actors. Plenty of…
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, The (1974): Dir. John Korty
Feat. Cicely Tyson, Richard Dysart, Michael Murphy; Notable classic tele–drama based on the novel of the same name by Ernest J. Gaines, set in the early 1960's, where a woman born into slavery in…
Between Wars (1974): Dir. Michael Thornhill
Feat. Corin Redgrave, Judy Morris, Arthur Dignam…; Insightful portrait traces the career of famed Australian psychiatrist Dr Edward Trenbow, as he embarks on his groundbreaking research of…
Brief Encounter (1974): Dir. Alan Bridges
Feat. Richard Burton, Sophia Loren, Jack Hedley…; The BBC revisit David Lean's classic unrequited romance, with Richard Burton and Sophia Loren excellent as would–be lovers who meet on a train…
California Split (1974): Dir. Robert Altman
Feat. George Segal, Elliott Gould, Gwen Welles; A terrific gambling lark–come–cautionary tale from director Robert Altman, starring George Segal as a casual gambler who befriends a…
Daisy Miller (1974): Dir. Peter Bogdanovich
Feat. Cybill Shepherd, Barry Brown, Mildred Natwick…; A thoughtful if slightly 'out of tune' version of Henry James' early novel, in which the titular American tours Europe in the late 1800s. Nicely…
Gambler, The (1974): Dir. Karel Reisz
Feat. James Caan, Paul Sorvino, Lauren Hutton…; A typically gritty 70s crime drama, adapted from a story by Dostoevsky, that boasts a fine performance by James Caan as a well–respected…
Harry & Tonto (Harry and Tonto) (1974): Dir. Paul Mazursky
Feat. Art Carney, Ellen Burstyn, Rene Enriquez…; Art Carney won the Oscar for his performance as a retiree embarking on a cross country odyssey with his beloved cat Tonto.
Onedin Line, The (TV Series) (1974-1980): Feat. Peter Gilmore, Howard Lang, Brian Rawlinson…; A sterling soap–opera of the 1970s, this immensely popular TV saga followed the empire–building and family fortunes of gruff 19th Century…
Pallisers, The (TV Series) (1974): Dir. Hugh David
Feat. Phillip Latham, Barbara Murray, Susan Hampshire…; Substantial saga of wealth, passion, power, and scandal set in the palatial country houses and grand Mayfair salons of mid–Victorian England,…
Policewoman (TV Series) (1974): Feat. Angie Dickinson, Earl Holliman; Angie Dickinson stars in this classic police drama – the first cop show to feature a woman as the lead character– as Sergeant "Pepper"…
QB VII (TV Mini-Series) (1974): Dir. Tom Gries
Feat. Ben Gazzara, Anthony Hopkins, Leslie Caron…; A multiple Emmy–winning adaptation of the novel by Leon Uris (best known for "Exodus") detailing the gripping court battle between a…
Rockford Files, The (TV Series) (1974-1975): Feat. James Garner, Noah Jr. Beery, Joe Santos…; In the spirit of 'Cold Case' this detective thriller series stars James Garner as an easy going plaid jacket attired investigator pursuing unsolved…
Steppenwolf (1974): Feat. Max von Sydow, Dominique Sanda, Pierre Clementi; A strange yet spiritually faithful adaptation of Hermann Hesse's novel about a solitary intellectual in 1920's Germany who is a half–human,…
Treasure of Abbot Thomas, The (1974): Dir. Lawrence Gordon Clark
Feat. Frank Mills, Sheila Dunn, Anne Blake; Short TV movie based on the ghost story by M. R. James. Michael Bryant stars as a scholar of Medieval history who finds the clue to hidden treasure…
Voyage, The (Il Viaggio) (1974): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Sophia Loren, Richard Burton, Ian Bannen; Melodrama from Italian master De Sica sees an incurably ill Sophia Loren torn between the love of two brothers (Richard Burton and Ian Bannen, both…
A Doll's House (1973): Dir. Patrick Garland
Feat. Anthony Hopkins, Claire Bloom, Ralph Richardson…; A stagey, though strongly acted version of Henrik Ibsen's renowned proto–feminist stageplay set in a 19th century household beset by personal…
American Film Theatre - Iceman Cometh, The (1973): Dir. John Frankenheimer
Feat. Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Fredric March…; Masterly filmic adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's late stageplay set among the various seedy denizens of an early 20th century barroom, awaiting the…
Blockhouse, The (1973): Dir. Clive Rees
Feat. Peter Sellers, Charles Aznavour, Jeremy Kemp; A crafted, though minor serious role for Sellers as one of a number of slave–labourers at work on the Nazi's Normandy defence bunkers. On…
Last American Hero, The (1973): Dir. Lamont Johnson
Feat. Jeff Bridges, Valerie Perrine, Geraldine Fitzgerald…; Jeff Bridges' mix of redneck roughness and choirboy sweetness is just right for this 1973 true story of a country kid running moonshine and making…
Offence, The (1973): Dir. Sidney Lumet
Feat. Sean Connery, Trevor Howard, Vivien Merchant…; One of the better Lumet films. Sean Connery – in a rare impressive performance – as a British cop who loses control while interrogating a…
Paper Chase, The (1973): Dir. James Bridges
Feat. Timothy Bottoms, Lindsay Wagner, John Houseman…; Terrified Harvard Law students square off against the magnificent John Houseman (Oscar winner for his role as the professor from hell) in this well…
Picture Of Dorian Gray (1973): Dir. Glenn Jordan
Feat. Shane Briant, Nigel Davenport; Capable TV version of Oscar Wilde's classic novel in which young Dorian (Shane Briant) cashes in his soul, in a deal whereby his painted portrait…
Save the Tiger (1973): Dir. John G. Avildsen
Feat. Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, Harvey Jason…; Spotty meditation on moral conflict in 1970's America with Lemmon as a troubled business owner longing for the past. Wordy and overstuffed with…
Touki Bouki (1973): Dir. Djibril Diop Mambety
Feat. Magaye Niang, Mareme Niang; A Senegalese drama, recently restored, about a cowherd and a university student try to make money in order to go to Paris and leave their boring past…
A Gorgeous Girl Like Me (Une Belle Fille Comme Moi) (1972): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Bernadette Lafont, Andre Dussollier; Twisted French black comedy of a licentious, manipulative murderess recounting her sordid past to a green criminology student. Dripping in silly…
Edwardians, The (1972): Dir. John Howard Davies, James Cellan Jones, Alan Clarke
Feat. Anthony Hopkins, Timothy West, Robert Powell…; Superb examination of eight famous Edwardians who helped shape the early 20th century. Impeccably presented and directed by some of the BBC's finest…
Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972): Dir. Waris Hussein
Feat. Keith Michell, Charlotte Rampling, Michael Gough…; Spin–off from the BBC series, accounts the antics of England's most notorious monarch reign.
Lady Caroline Lamb (1972): Dir. Robert Bolt
Feat. Sarah Miles, Jon Finch, Richard Chamberlain…; Playwright Robert Bolt (A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS) debuts as dir. with this intelligent account of the titular Englishwoman. Managing to rock early 19th…
MASH (TV Series) (M*A*S*H) (1972-1983): Feat. Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers, Loretta Swit; Long running and much loved TV Series loosely based on Robert Altman’s 1969 film set in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in the Korean…
Pete 'n' Tillie (1972): Dir. Martin Ritt
Feat. Walter Matthau, Carol Burnett, Geraldine Page…; Bittersweet character story of a smarmy rogue and an aging virgin who get married despite fundamental differences which remain unaltered nine years…
Tout Va Bien (Everything’s All Right) (1972): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin
Feat. Yves Montand, Jane Fonda, Anita Caprioli; Radical political drama from Nouvelle Vague luminary Jean Luc–Godard and frequent collaborator Jean–Pierre Gorin, set during a wildcat…
Visitors, The (1972): Dir. Elia Kazan
Feat. Patrick McVey, Patricia Joyce, James Woods…; Tense chamber piece has Woods as a returned Vietnam Vet holidaying with his wife and son when two fellow ex–soldiers turn up unannounced.…
Waltons, The (TV Series) (1972-1981): Feat. Richard Thomas, Ralph Waite, Michael Learned…; One of the most iconic TV Series of all time depicted the life of an extended family in Depression–era Virginia. Claimed as a repository for…
Carnal Knowledge (1971): Dir. Mike Nichols
Feat. Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret…; Classic from the early 70s 'zeitgeist', this funny yet sobering film chronicles the sex lives of two disparate men from high–school to…
Family Life (Wednesday's Child) (1971): Dir. Ken Loach
Feat. Sandy Ratcliff, Bill Dean, Grace Cave; Grating realist cinema from ‘kitchen sink’ original Ken Loach, about a troubled young girl whose domineering parents drive her to a nervous…
Fat City (1971): Dir. John Huston
Feat. Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, Susan Tyrrell; One of dir. Huston's later accomplishments, this gritty, yet warmly toned drama inhabits a neighbourhood of boxing gyms, lowrent bars and amiable…
Friends (1971): Dir. Lewis Gilbert
Feat. Sean Bury, Anicee Alvina; Sentimental, page–turning romance blossoms an enternal love between two idealistic French teens head over heels. Hit soundtrack by Elton John…
Go-Between, The (1971): Dir. Joseph Losey
Feat. Julie Christie, Alan Bates; A young boy acts as a secret messenger for class–divided lovers Julie Christie and Alan Bates during a hot Norfolk summer in Edwardian England.…
Home (1971): Dir. Lindsay Anderson
Feat. John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Dandy Nichols…; Worthy TV adaptation of the stageplay by David Storey (THIS SPORTING LIFE), set amid the twilight psychodramas of residents at an old peoples' rest…
Hospital, The (1971): Dir. Arthur Hiller
Feat. George C. Scott, Diana Rigg, Barnard Hughes…; Gallows humour permeates this caustic comedy of medical ineptitude and indifference. Scott plays a suicidal surgeon contending with multiple patient…
Long Day's Journey into Night (1971): Dir. Michael Blakemore
Feat. Laurence Olivier; A made–for–television National Theatre production of Eugene O'Neill's classic play, which won Laurence Olivier an Emmy for best actor.
Love Story (1971): Dir. Arthur Hiller
Feat. Ali MacGraw, Ryan O'Neal, Ray Milland; Romance on a New England campus between Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal. A huge hit. Oscar–winning theme–tune by Francis Lai.
Mary, Queen of Scots (1971): Dir. Charles Jarrott
Feat. Vanessa Redgrave, Glenda Jackson, Patrick McGoohan…; Historical epic the maps the power struggle between the last Catholic ruler of Scotland and her cousin, the Queen of England.
Nicholas and Alexandra (1971): Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner
Feat. Laurence Olivier, Michael Jayston, Janet Suzman…; The last Czars of Russia get an appropriately lavish send–off in this wagon–load of Hollywood corn. With Tom Baker (as Rasputin) and…
Panic in Needle Park, The (1971): Dir. Jerry Schatzberg
Feat. Al Pacino, Kitty Winn, Alan Vint…; Grungy drug pic with Pacino in his breakthrough role as a charismatic junkie pulling Kitty Winn into his destructive orbit. Screenplay written by…
Private Road (1971): Dir. Barney Platts-Mills
Feat. Susan Penhaligon, Bruce Robinson, Michael Feast…; The other lost gem from British independent film–maker Barney Platts–Mills, who follows up “Bronco Bullfrog” (1970) with a…
Secrets (1971): Dir. Philip Saville
Feat. Jacqueline Bisset, Per Oscarsson, Robert Powell; British erotic drama taking place over a single day in the life of a housewife (Jacqueline Bisset) who is having an affair, while her husband (Robert…
T.R. Baskin (1971): Dir. Herbert Ross
Feat. Candice Bergen, Peter Boyle, James Caan; Candice Bergen plays a naive but enthusiastic young woman who runs away to Chicago in the hopes of finding a fulfilling romantic life and career, but…
Under Milkwood (1971): Dir. Andrew Sinclair
Feat. Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O'Toole…; Celebrated radio play by Dylan Thomas gets a surprisingly successful visual rendering, though some will always prefer the original format for Thomas'…
Angel Levine, The (1970): Dir. Jan Kadar
Feat. Zero Mostel, Harry Belafonte, Ida Kaminska…; In order to earn his wings Belafonte must convince the embittered Mostel that life still has value. Gentle yarn gets by chiefly on the charm of the…
Baby Maker, The (1970): Dir. James Bridges
Feat. Barbara Hershey, Sam Groom, Scott Glenn; Somewhat ahead of its time, this portrays a middle–class American couple who pay a hippy woman to be a surrogate mother for a child.…
Bombay Talkie (1970): Dir. James Ivory
Feat. Shashi Kapoor, Zia Mohyeddin; Probably the most visually distinguished Merchant–Ivory film, this semi–satiric swirl through the 'Bollywood' film industry works as both…
Deep End (1970): Dir. Jerzy Skolimowski
Feat. Jane Asher, John Moulder-Brown, Diana Dors; Remarkable, darkly comic story of 15–year–old Mike who takes a job at the local swimming baths and becomes obsessed with a beautiful…
Ear, The (Ucho) (1970): Dir. Karel Kachyna
Feat. Jirina Bohdalova, Radoslav Brzobohaty, Jiri Cisler; Set over the course of an evening this is a searing look at life under an oppressive totalitarian system and an equally harsh examination of a…
Games, The (1970): Dir. Michael Winner
Feat. Michael Crawford, Ryan O'Neal, Charles Aznavour…; British sports drama about four marathon runners from very different backgrounds (one British, one American, one Czechoslovakian and one Aboriginal…
Hawaiians, The (1970): Dir. Tom Gries
Feat. Charlton Heston, Tina Chen, Geraldine Chaplin…; Brotherly relations are strained when the black sheep returns home, plantation building and pineapple stealing ensues. Bloated sequel to HAWAII…
I Never Sang For My Father (1970): Dir. Gilbert Cates
Feat. Melvyn Douglas, Gene Hackman, Dorothy Stickney…; Gene Hackman plays a widowed college professor in New York wanting to get out from under the thumb of his aging father yet guilty about his plans to…
Jane Eyre (1970): Dir. Delbert Mann
Feat. George C. Scott, Susannah York, Ian Bannen…; Susannah York and George C. Scott headline this fine adaptation of the Bronte classic.
Joe (1970): Dir. John G. Avildsen
Feat. Susan Sarandon, Peter Boyle, Dennis Patrick; A 'cause celebre' in its day, this pungent drama unrolls after a wealthy executive (Patrick) murders the drug–dealing boyfriend of his daughter…
Lola (Twinky, London Affair) (1970): Dir. Richard Donner
Feat. Charles Bronson, Susan George; Comedy drama following the relationship between a 38 year old American man who writes pornographic novels and the 16 year old girl he falls in love…
Lovers and Other Strangers (1970): Dir. Cy Howard
Feat. Beatrice Arthur, Bonnie Bedelia, Michael Brandon…; Smart ensemble comedy about preparations for a young couple's wedding and how this stirs up the lives of those around them. Full of many delightful…
Molly Maguires, The (1970): Dir. Martin Ritt
Feat. Sean Connery, Richard Harris, Samantha Eggar…; An ambitious drama set in the squalor of the 1870s Pennsylvania coalmine towns, and the underground group of Irish saboteurs 'The Molly Maguires' who…
Only Game in Town, The (1970): Dir. George Stevens
Feat. Warren Beatty, Elizabeth Taylor; An aging showgirl stumbles into a clandestine affair with a brash young gambler. Based on a stage play by Pulitzer Prize winner Frank D. Gilroy.
Rabbit Run (1970): Dir. Jack Smight
Feat. James Caan, Carrie Snodgrass, Anjanette Comer…; James Caan stars in this adaptation of John Updike's acclaimed 1960 novel about a has–been basketball star who impulsively abandones his life…
Ryan's Daughter (1970): Dir. David Lean
Feat. Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles; The love triangle is given a sweeping, old–fashioned spin by David Lean, set on the rugged Irish coast during WW1.
Six Wives of Henry VIII, The (TV Mini-Series) (1970): Feat. Keith Michell, Rosalie Crutchley, Jane Seymour; Accurate BAFTA–winning TV series chronicling the life of the notorious Henry VIII by way of six plays, featuring a notable cast and immaculate…
Sometimes a Great Notion (1970): Dir. Paul Newman
Feat. Paul Newman, Henry Fonda, Lee Remick…; Sweaty account of a family of fiercely–independent Oregon loggers struggling to keep the family business alive amidst changing times. Based on…
All the Right Noises (1969): Dir. Gerry O'Hara
Feat. Olivia Hussey, Tom Bell, John Standing…; The story of a young married man who has an affair with a teenage girl, this forms part of a peculiarly 1960s British wave of films exploring such…
Anne of the Thousand Days (1969): Dir. Charles Jarrott
Feat. Richard Burton, Genevieve Bujold, Irene Papas…; Opulent recounting of the doomed romance between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn with a gallery of fine performances and stunning costume design.
Arrangement, The (1969): Dir. Elia Kazan
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Faye Dunaway; Advertising exec Kirk Douglas follows a mid–life suicide attempt with some desperate hi–jinks and a cry of rage at his hollow life.…
Bronco Bullfrog (1969): Dir. Barney Platts-Mills
Feat. Del Walker, Anne Gooding, Sam Shepherd; Del and his friends agree to take part in a robbery with a boy fresh from the borstal. When Del falls in love with Irene they decide to run away from…
Change of Habit (1969): Dir. William A. Graham
Feat. Elvis Presley, Mary Tyler Moore, Barbara McNair…; Elvis Presley's final acting role was this musical drama in which he plays a doctor who falls in love with Mary Tyler Moore, playing one of three…
Downhill Racer (1969): Dir. Michael Ritchie
Feat. Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Camilla Sparv; A pre–HOOSIERS Gene Hackman dons the coach's whistle in this Winter Olympics drama, with Robert Redford providing the film’s clash of…
John and Mary (1969): Dir. Peter Yates
Feat. Dustin Hoffman, Mia Farrow, Michael Tolan; Archetypal late–sixties timepiece has Hoffman and Farrow wandering New York after a one–night stand. Yates's direction is equally…
Ma Nuit Chez Maud (My Night at Maud's / My Night with Maud) (1969): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Jean-Louis Trintignant, Francoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault; Rohmer's fourth moral tale again presents the idea of a man's romantic dilemma with more than one woman in his life. The wordy philosophising is…
Marcus Welby MD (TV Series) (1969): Feat. Robert Young, James Brolin; Long–running medical drama, with Robert Young as the beloved General Practioner whose unorthodox care of patients riled his much younger,…
Me, Natalie (1969): Dir. Fred Coe
Feat. Patty Duke, James Farentino, Salome Jens…; Thoughtful, though occasionally mawkish coming–of–age tale with Patty Duke as a young woman struggling with low self esteem and fighting…
Model Shop (1969): Dir. Jacques Demy
Feat. Anouk Aimee, Gary Lockwood, Alexandra Hay; A mesmerizing, shamefully neglected stateside film from French New Wave director Jacques Demy that follows an aimless, unemployed architect who ends…
Oh! What a Lovely War (1969): Dir. Richard Attenborough
Feat. John Rae, Corin Redgrave, Maurice Roeves…; Powerful anti–war musical adapted from the play by Charles Chilton, which depicts the mass blunder of WWI through the experiences of the poor…
Paul Temple (TV Series) (1969): Feat. Francis Matthews, Ros Drinkwater; Forgotten 70s crime series follows the fortunes of a globetrotting novelist–cum–amateur sleuth and his dishy wife. Something of an…
Slogan (1969): Dir. Pierre Grimblat
Feat. Jane Birkin, Serge Gainsbourg; Vivacious French romance about a reckless advertising director who throws caution to the wind and abandons his preggers wife to embark on a worldwide…
Staircase (1969): Dir. Stanley Donen
Feat. Rex Harrison, Richard Burton, Cathleen Nesbitt; Sitting somewhere between farce and melancholy, a pair of aging barbers bicker over the possibility of ending their loving but often volatile…
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969): Dir. Abraham Polonsky
Feat. Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Robert Blake…; This Western comeback from blacklisted director Polonsky (FORCE OF EVIL) focuses (rather ironically) on the manhunt of Robert Blake, who here plays…
That Cold Day in the Park (1969): Dir. Robert Altman
Feat. Sandy Dennis; Containing various embryonic Altman trademarks, this early work portrays a neurotic spinster (Sandy Dennis) who ensnares a young man in her…
Virgin Soldiers, The (1969): Dir. Norman Cohen
Feat. Lynn Redgrave, Hywel Bennett, Nigel Davenport…; Comdey–drama following a squad of naive young British soldiers in 1950's Singapore who fall for the daughter of the Regimental Sergeant Major.
Vortex, The / Hay Fever (The Noel Coward Collection - Disc 1) (1969-1984): Dir. Philip Dudley
Feat. Margaret Leighton, Richard Warwick, Penelope Keith…; –The Vortex (69') Dark and disturbing drama centred on a family torn apart by drug abuse and sordid affairs. This deeply shocking play, that…
Winning (1969): Dir. James Goldstone
Feat. Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Robert Wagner…; Paul Newman challenges for Joanne Woodward on and off the track in this high–speed racing melodrama, shot spectacularly amongst the competitive…
Women in Love (1969): Dir. Ken Russell
Feat. Alan Bates, Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson; Ken Russell's esteemed version of D.H. Lawrence's finest novel about a macho entrepreneur, his philosophically and sexually dubious friend and their…
A Lovely Way to Die (1968): Dir. David Lowell Rich
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Eli Wallach, Sylva Koscina; Dramatic suspense in which a retired vigilante NYC cop hired to look after a potential murderess ends up unprofessionally mixing business and…
Age of Consent (1968): Dir. Michael Powell
Feat. James Mason, Helen Mirren; Dir. Michael Powell's (PEEPING TOM) last feature, based on Aussie artist Norman Lindsay (who also inspired SIRENS). Here, a cranky James Mason goes…
Birthday Party, The (1968): Dir. William Friedkin
Feat. Robert Shaw, Patrick Magee, Dandy Nichols; A lodger at a boarding house is menaced by two sinister visitors, in this version of Harold Pinter's Kafka–esque first play. Flashes of black…
Boom! (1968): Dir. Joseph Losey
Feat. Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Sir Noel Coward…; Thud: Only film buffs who admire Losey's very original directorial style are likely to appreciate fuzzy adaptation of Tennessee Williams' The Milk…
Charly (1968): Dir. Ralph Nelson
Feat. Cliff Robertson, Claire Bloom, Lilia Skala…; Child–minded Cliff Robertson has experimental brain–surgery, but his resulting super–intellect proves a mixed blessing. Credible,…
Damned, The (1968): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Berger; Italian dir. Luchino Visconti casts a languorous eye over the decline of a German industrialist family during the Nazi era. Heavyweight cast includes…
Hellfighters (1968): Dir. Andrew McLagen
Feat. John Wayne, Katharine Ross, Bruce Cabot…; A John Wayne–led action melodrama about a group of Houston–based oil well firefighters who are sent down to Venezuela to deal with a…
Immortal Story, The (1968): Dir. Orson Welles
Feat. Orson Welles, Jeanne Moreau; Orson Welles directs and stars in this little–seen French TV production, playing a European merchant who lures a sailor into seducing his fake…
Isadora (1968): Dir. Karel Reisz
Feat. Vanessa Redgrave, John Fraser, James Fox…; Vanessa Redgrave is memorable as Isadora Duncan in this watchable biopic of the iconic free–style dancer's flamboyant youth and radical…
Lion in Winter, The (1968): Dir. Anthony Harvey
Feat. Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn; An acting feast for Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn (who won an Oscar) as tempestuous King Henry II and his estranged wife who fiercely…
Mandabi (The Money Order) (1968): Dir. Ousmane Sembene; The first significant film to be made in an African language (Wolof), directed by the 'father of African cinema', Ousmane Sembène. The title…
Milky Way, The (1968): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Paul Frankeur, Laurent Terzieff, Alain Cuny…; Bunuel experiments with narrative in relating theories of traditional Catholicism to the encounters of two wandering vagrants.
No Way to Treat a Lady (1968): Dir. Jack Smight
Feat. Rod Steiger, Lee Remick, George Segal…; Macabre cat–and–mouse thriller from the pen of suspense–master William Goldman (MARATHON MAN), about a psychotic master of disguise…
Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The (1968): Dir. Ronald Neame
Feat. Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin…; Schoolteacher at a private girls school, Maggie Smith grooms and instructs her pupils with a passionate sense of vocation, unfortunately making more…
Secret Ceremony (1968): Dir. Joseph Losey
Feat. Elizabeth Taylor, Mia Farrow, Robert Mitchum…; Farrow resembles Taylor's dead daughter, Taylor resembles Farrow's dead mother, and their meeting has strange results. Originally an excellent…
Shoes of the Fisherman, The (1968): Dir. Michael Anderson
Feat. Anthony Quinn, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud…; Anthony Quinn plays a Russian bishop who is elected Pope after twenty years in political asylum. Beautifully adorned best–seller adaptation.
Stolen Kisses (Baisers Voles) (1968): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud, Delphine Seyrig; Third film in the director's Antoine Doinel series (see also THE FOUR HUNDRED BLOWS) starring Jean–Pierre Leaud, here as a careless young man…
Theorem (Teorema) (1968): Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Feat. Terence Stamp, Silvana Mangano, Massimo Girotti…; A mysterious stranger seduces and corrupts each member of a bourgeois family. Pasolini stitches religious, social and political metaphors into his…
Up The Junction (1968): Dir. Peter Collinson
Feat. Dennis Waterman, Suzy Kendall, Maureen Lipman…; A compelling later example of the British kitchen sink drama that follows a bored rich London girl from Chelsea who decides to "slum it" in depressed…
Up Tight (1968): Dir. Jules Dassin
Feat. Raymond St. Jacques, Ruby Dee, Frank Silvera…; In this landmark collaboration between activist and actress Ruby Dee and director Jules Dassin, Black revolutionaries are betrayed by one of their…
With Six You Get Egg Roll (1968): Feat. Doris Day, Brian Keith; Doris Day's last film sees the archetypal girl–next–door a more mature "working mom", here a widower trying to integrate her three sons…
Accident (1967): Dir. Joseph Losey
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, Vivien Merchant, Michael York; The second classic Joseph Losey / Harold Pinter collaboration takes place in a deceptively placid Oxford University setting, that conceals…
Banning (1967): Dir. Ron Winston
Feat. Robert Wagner, Anjanette Comer, Jill St. John…; Biting critique of the country club set with Robert Wagner as a jaded ex–golfer who hustling his way into Los Angeles' high society.
Belle De Jour (Beauty of the Day) (1967): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli…; Cool and elegant comedy of manners about a virginal newlywed who works the day shift in a high class brothel. Bunuel's surrealist…
Charlie Bubbles (1967): Dir. Albert Finney
Feat. Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw, Liza Minnelli…; Albert Finney plays the titular character, an ennui–ridden author whose return to his hometown of Manchester is less than…
Cool Hand Luke (1967): Dir. Stuart Rosenberg
Feat. Paul Newman, George Kennedy; Sure–footed, entertaining chain–gang yarn with a famously repulsive egg–eating contest.
Counterpoint (1967): Dir. Ralph Nelson
Feat. Charlton Heston, Maximilian Schell, Leslie Nielsen; During World War II, a conductor (Charlton Heston) and his orchestra are captured by the Nazis while touring Europe. While held captive in a castle,…
Elvira Madigan (1967): Dir. Bo Widerberg
Feat. Pia Degermark, Thommy Berggren, Lennart Malmer…; Ultra–romantic story of an army officer and a tightrope dancer who sacrifice everything for each other. Filmed like a shampoo commercial, it…
Far from the Madding Crowd (1967): Dir. John Schlesinger
Feat. Julie Christie, Peter Finch, Terence Stamp…; Pastoral, moody epic set in 18th Century England follows the romantic intrigues of an independent woman farmer with three men. Photography by Nic…
Forsyte Saga, The (TV Series) (1967): Dir. David Giles, James Cellan Jones
Feat. Eric Porter, Ngaire Dawn Porter, Kenneth More…; The BBC's acclaimed version of John Galsworthy's series of novels known as "The Forsyte Saga", which cover the lives of five generations of a wealthy…
Graduate, The (1967): Dir. Mike Nichols
Feat. Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katherine Ross; An endearing Dustin Hoffman in his first leading role, is seduced by a middle–aged woman and then falls in love with her daughter. A brilliant…
Incident, The (1967): Dir. Larry Peerce
Feat. Martin Sheen, Tony Musante, Beau Bridges…; This stark, hard–hitting melodrama depicts two young thugs who drunkenly taunt and terrorize their fellow passengers on a New York subway…
Mouchette (1967): Dir. Robert Bresson
Feat. Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Maria Cardinal; An impoverished young girl in rural France bears the brunt of hard times in this perfectly formed study, taken from the novel by George Bernanos.…
Oedipus Rex (1967): Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Feat. Silvana Mangano, Franco Citti, Alida Valli; Striking visual achievement, filmed amidst the Moroccan desert and Bologna, describes the Oedipal tale of a tortured soul who murders his father and…
Poor Cow (1967): Dir. Ken Loach
Feat. Carol White, Terence Stamp, Malcolm McDowell; Striking the tone of much of his subsequent work, Ken Loach's debut film gives a semi–documentary edge to the story of 'poor cow' Carol White,…
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967): Dir. John Huston
Feat. Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Brian Keith…; Adaptation of Carson McCuller's novel. Taking place on a peacetime army base, a career officer finds his personal and professional life compromised…
Two of Us, The (Le Vieil Homme et l'Enfant) (1967): Dir. Claude Berri
Feat. Alain Cohen, Michel Simon; Touching wartime nostalgia, with Michel Simon as a grizzly anti–Semite who befriends a Jewish boy sent to countryside during occupied France.…
Ulysses (1967): Dir. Joseph Strick
Feat. Barbara Jefford, Milo O'Shea, Maurice Roeves…; A brave stab at filming James Joyce's sprawling novel, but it's better known for the stir it caused over its seminal use of the f–word and…
Woman Times Seven (1967): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Shirley Maclaine, Rossano Brazzi, Vittorio Gassman…; Shirley MacLaine inhabits seven different women in seven fanciful, star–studded mini–stories of adultery for Italian dir. Vittorio De…
Young Girls of Rochefort, The (Les Demoiselles de Rochefort) (1967): Dir. Jacques Demy
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Francois Dorleac, Gene Kelly; The carrot of love is dangled in Jacques Demy's positively radiant follow–up to UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG: an unbridled, colour–saturated…
10:30 PM Summer (1966): Dir. Jules Dassin
Feat. Melina Mercouri, Romy Schneider, Peter Finch; Tawdry, heavy–handed curiosity adapts Marguerite Duras’s New Wave novel into a sordid, albeit beautifully locationed spectacle. With a…
A Man Called Adam (1966): Dir. Leo Penn
Feat. Sammy Jr. Davis, Louis Armstrong, Cicely Tyson…; Sammy Davis Jr stars as a caustically charismatic jazz musician who questions his self–destructive lifestyle upon falling in love with a civil…
Andrei Rublev (1966): Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
Feat. Anatoli Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolai Grinko; Enthralling historical drama vividly portrays the 15th Century Russian painter who was encumbered by the political turbulence of the time.
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966): Dir. Robert Bresson
Feat. Anne Wiazemsky, Francois Lafarge, Philippe Asselin; Robert Bresson's immediately recognisable minimalist style is here lent to one of the few films whose central character is a donkey.
Before the Revolution (1966): Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
Feat. Adriana Asti, Francisco Barilli; Bertolucci's second film – made at the age of 22! – demonstrates his bravura visual style fully formed around this coming of age in the…
Black Girl (La Noire de...) (1966): Dir. Ousmane Sembene; A French–Senegalese drama film and the directorial debut of Ousmane Sembene, often considered to be the first Sub–Saharan African film by…
Cathy Come Home (1966): Dir. Ken Loach
Feat. Carol White; Dramatic critique of Britain's housing problems follows the progress of a young couple in London as they slip down the social and class ladder into…
Closely Observed Trains (1966): Dir. Jiri Menzel
Feat. Vaclav Neckar, Josef Somr, Vlastimil Brodsky; Oscar–winning Czech film about a lonely train guard's attempt to lose his virginity while his country copes with the German occupation. The…
Death of a Salesman (1966): Dir. Alex Segal
Feat. James Farentino, Mildred Dunnock, George Segal…; A 1966 teleplay adaptation of Arthur Miller's classic Pulitzer Prize–winning play, often thought one of the definitive versions. Lee J Cobb…
Family Way, The (1966): Dir. Roy Boulting
Feat. Hayley Mills, Hywel Bennett, John Mills…; This Boulting Brothers classic is a hilarious yet affecting portrait of the marital difficulties of a young newlywed couple (Hywel Bennett and Hayley…
Guerre Est Finie, La (1966): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Yves Montand, Ingrid Thulin, Genevieve Bujold…; (The War is Over). Deeply romantic film in which Spanish Civil War refugee Yves Montand tries in vain to keep alive the memory of his struggle.
Hawaii (1966): Dir. George Roy Hill
Feat. Julie Andrews, Max von Sydow, Richard Harris…; Lush epic of colonial expansion with Harris as an uptight missionary on a crusade to convert the natives of Hawaii, and Andrews his long suffering…
Madame X (1966): Dir. David Lowell Rich
Feat. Lana Turner, John Forsythe, Ricardo Montalban…; Sudsy melodrama with Turner as a woman with a past who's dalliance with a wealthy politician leads to murder. Superior weepie, lushly mounted and…
Man and a Woman, A (1966): Dir. Claude Lelouch
Feat. Anouk Aimee, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Pierre Barouh; Classic love story is one of the most popular foreign films of all time. Intelligent, sensitive script is ignited with exotic locations and Francis…
Masculin Feminin (1966): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud, Chantal Goya, Brigitte Bardot; Godard steers toward the political with this bittersweet social comment about the Parisian youth culture of '65 through a series of oddly connected…
Patriotism (Yûkoku) (1966): Dir. Yukio Mishima
Feat. Yukio Mishima, Yoshiko Tsuruoka; Short film directed by Japanese writer and revolutionary Yukio Mishima, based on his short story of the same name published in 1961. Set in February…
Persona (1966): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson; Perhaps dir. Bergman's most renowned and haunting work, a study of the psychological processes between a mute patient and her repressed nurse. Liv…
Sand Pebbles, The (1966): Dir. Robert Wise
Feat. Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Candice Bergen; An epic series of adventures on an American gunboat in the turbulent China of the 1920s, Steve McQueen giving a particularly underrated performance,…
This Property is Condemned (1966): Dir. Sydney Pollack
Feat. Robert Redford, Natalie Wood, Charles Bronson…; A splendid Tennessee William's adaptation, where Redford plays a Railroad company official sent to close down a yard in a Southern small town during…
To Sir with Love (1966): Dir. James Clavell
Feat. Sidney Poitier, Lulu; Sidney Poitier instructs a class of cheeky, wayward teenagers in this feel–good classic of British cinema.
War and Peace (1966): Dir. Sergei Bondarchuk
Feat. Lyudmila Savelyeva, Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Irina Gubanova; The definitive version of Leo Tolstoy's gargantuan novel, set during the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in the early 19th century. Nothing else quite…
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966): Dir. Mike Nichols
Feat. Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor; High powered melodrama with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in peak form as a married couple whose dinner party turns into a violent debacle.…
A Blonde in Love (1965): Dir. Milos Forman
Feat. Hana Brejchova, Vladimir Pucholt, Vladimir Mensik; This early film from the director of AMADEUS tells the simple story of a young girl's search for a pianist with whom she spent the night. Forman…
Alfie (1965): Dir. Lewis Gilbert
Feat. Michael Caine, Shelley Winters; The film that made Michael Caine a household name. His eponymous anti–hero is that of a likely lad who likes to 'ave a go wiv the birds. They…
Battle of Algiers, The (1965): Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo
Feat. Brahim Haggiag; Gripping account of the Muslim uprising which led to the withdrawal of France from Algeria was shot merely four years after the revolution, and as…
Chimes at Midnight (1965): Dir. Orson Welles
Feat. Orson Welles, Keith Baxter, John Gielgud…; Orson Welles' late–career masterpiece in which one of the Bard's great supporting characters Falstaff is given his due through a series of…
Cincinnati Kid, The (1965): Dir. Norman Jewison
Feat. Steve McQueen, Edward G. Robinson, Tuesday Weld…; Memorable visit to the shady world of card–sharking in Depression–era America, with some excellent character acting from a great cast.
Darling (1965): Dir. John Schlesinger
Feat. Julie Christie, Dirk Bogarde; Oscar–winning, watershed film of British sexual mores is a fashionably flashy and cynical moral fable. Julie Christie social climbs to a…
Fists in the Pocket (1965): Dir. Marco Bellochio
Feat. Lou Castel, Paola Pitagora, Marino Mase; A ferocious intensity pervades this bitter yet utterly startling tale of a family afflicted with epilepsy, blindness and frustration, unafforded the…
Harlow (1965): Dir. Gordon Douglas
Feat. Carroll Baker, Red Buttons, Raf Vallone…; Biopic loosely based on the life of 1930's star Jean Harlow, in the years leading up to her tragic death at the age of 26.
Hill, The (1965): Dir. Sidney Lumet
Feat. Sean Connery, Ian Bannen, Roy Kinnear; Intense military stockade drama, with Sean Connery doing gruelling punishment in the Sahara.
Inside Daisy Clover (1965): Dir. Robert Mulligan
Feat. Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, Ruth Gordon; Curious account of the rise and fall of a starlet in 30s Hollywood has improved with age thanks to off–kilter performances from Natalie Wood as…
Juliet of the Spirits (1965): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Giulietta Masina; Perhaps the female flipside of Fellini's 8 1/2, he again infuses stylised flashbacks and fantasies into the real world of a gregarious housewife who…
Life at the Top (1965): Dir. Ted Kotcheff
Feat. Laurence Harvey, Jean Simmons, Honor Blackman…; Laurence Harvey returns for this sequel to Room at the Top (1958). Thinking he's really made it by marrying the boss's daughter in his northern mill…
Patch of Blue, A (1965): Dir. Guy Green
Feat. Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters, Elizabeth Hartman; Near flawless film about the friendship between a blind, uneducated girl and a black man she meets in the park, who becomes determined to help her…
Pawnbroker, The (1965): Dir. Sidney Lumet
Feat. Rod Steiger; Rod Steiger gives a career–best performance as a Jewish pawnbroker whose new life in Spanish Harlem conjures haunting images of his Nazi prison…
Shakespeare Wallah (1965): Dir. James Ivory
Feat. Shashi Kapoor, Felicity Kendall, Madhur Jaffrey; The first major film from the Merchant–Ivory collaboration, this elegaic drama follows the progress of an English theatre troupe through India…
Ship of Fools (1965): Dir. Stanley Kramer
Feat. Vivien Leigh, Lee Marvin, Simone Signoret…; A gaggle of ocean liner passengers intermingle in this leaky melodrama, headlined by a top–notch cast. Vivien Leigh's last film.
Shop on High Street, The (The Shop on Main Street) (1965): Dir. Jan Kadar; A key film of the Czech film renaissance of the 1960s, that explores 'everyday fascism' through the story of a Jewish shopkeeper who mistakes her…
Those Calloways (1965): Dir. Norman Tokar
Feat. Brian Keith, Vera Miles, Walter Brennan…; Sincere and effective Disney drama about a smalltown eccentric (Keith) in New England, who, with the help of his family, decides to buy a lake and…
Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1965): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Joseph Gehrard, Marina Vlady, Anny Duperey; The life of a Parisian prostitute, analysing the likes of women, language, western society as well as cinema itself. Godard's cinematic essay broke…
Young Sinner, The (Like Father, Like Son) (1965): Dir. Tom Laughlin
Feat. Tom Laughlin, Stefanie Powers; The story of a small–town football player, told mostly in confessional flashbacks, who has to go against God and decent society to do naughty…
Americanization of Emily, The (1964): Dir. Arthur Hiller
Feat. James Garner, Julie Andrews, Melvyn Douglas…; Plucky black comedy with James Garner as the scapegoat for a wacky US admiral's grand plan to have a American naval officer be the first killed at…
Bande a Part (Band of Outsiders) (1964): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Anna Karina, Claude Brasseur, Sami Frey; One of the dir.’s more accessible films follows the carefree criminal adventures of Anna Karina, Claude Brasseur and Sami Frey, while still…
Beauty Jungle, The (Contest Girl) (1964): Dir. Val Guest
Feat. Ian Hendry, Janette Scott, Ronald Fraser…; Interesting early expose of the lurid, cut–throat world of beauty pageants has a fetching Bristol typist (Scott) teased into entering a local…
Becket (1964): Dir. Peter Glenville
Feat. Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, John Gielgud…; Stinging, fact–based epic turns the trusted relationship between King Henry II (O’Toole) and his best friend, the Archbishop of Canterbury…
Best Man, The (1964): Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner
Feat. Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Edie Adams…; Bitter political satire finds Fonda and Robertson competing against each other in a bid to win the presidency. The two foes soon find themselves…
Captain Newman, M.D. (1964): Dir. David Miller
Feat. Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson…; Drama/comedy set during World War II, starring Gregory Peck as a psychiatrist in a military hospital in Arizona. Based on a novel by Leo Rosten,…
Carpetbaggers, The (1964): Dir. Edward Dmytryk
Feat. George Peppard, Alan Ladd, Carroll Baker…; Drama based on the best–selling 1961 novel by Harold Robbins about a cheerfully vulgar business tycoon (perhaps modelled off Howard Hughes),…
Chalk Garden, The (1964): Dir. Ronald Neame
Feat. Deborah Kerr, Hayley Mills, John Mills…; British melodrama based on the eccentric stage play by Enid Bagnold, with Hayley Mills playing a rebellious teenager who meets her match in governess…
Diary of a Chambermaid (1964): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Jeanne Moreau, Georges Geret, Michel Piccoli; Maid Jeanne Moreau manipulates two blue–blooded households to ascend her status in pre–war France. Another shrewd political jape from the…
Gertrud (1964): Dir. Carl Dreyer; Exploring similar territory to fellow Scandinavian Ingmar Bergman, Dreyer's final film is an intense psychological study about a middle–aged…
Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964): Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Feat. Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, Susanna Pasolini; Acted entirely by non–professionals, this is a startlingly visual rendering of the biblical text, blending breath–taking photography with…
Hamlet (1964): Dir. Grigori Kozintsev
Feat. Innokenti Smoktunovsky; The legendary Russian version of Shakespeare's play, which visually at least, stands as the greatest yet. Staged amidst the massive battlements of…
Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964): Dir. Richard Wilson
Feat. Yul Brynner, Janice Rule, Brad Dexter…; Set in New Mexico in the wake of the Civil War, a small bigoted town is beset by racist prejudices despite being outwardly pro–Union. Yul…
Kitten with a Whip (1964): Dir. Douglas Heyes
Feat. Ann-Margret, John Forsythe, Peter Brown…; Ann–Margaret brings white–hot intensity to this cult classic about a teenage girl on the run from the law who blackmails a clueless…
Magnificent Showman, The (Circus World) (1964): Dir. Henry Hathaway
Feat. John Wayne, Claudia Cardinale, Rita Hayworth; Grandiose "Cinerama" spectacle (that flopped at the box office) starring John Wayne as a circus proprietor who decides to take his show on a…
Night of the Iguana, The (1964): Dir. John Huston
Feat. Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon…; Tennessee Williams–scripted brew of melodrama, old–style religion and sexual repression sees defrocked priest/alcoholic Richard Burton…
Onibaba (the Hole) (1964): Dir. Kaneto Shindo
Feat. Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura; An eerie, brazenly sensual medieval folk tale about a mother and daughter–in–law who kill just to survive and eventually turn on each…
Pumpkin Eater, The (1964): Dir. Jack Clayton
Feat. Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason…; Anne Bancroft is riveting as a woman of the verge of a nervous breakdown in this penetrating and vastly under–rated British melodrama. As…
Red Desert (il Deserto Rosso) (1964): Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni
Feat. Monica Vitti, Richard Harris; Housewife Monica Vitti embarks on a casual affair with Richard Harris following a nervous breakdown. Set amidst an oppressive industrial landscape,…
Soft Skin, The (La Peau Douce) (1964): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Francois Dorleac, Jean Desailly; Moving New Wave drama from Francois Truffaut tells the story of a scholar pursuing a torrid affair with a stewardess while attempting to juggle his…
Visit, The (1964): Dir. Bernhard Wicki
Feat. Ingrid Bergman, Anthony Quinn, Paolo Stoppa; Ms. Bergman is hypnotic as always in this revenge tale about a millionaire who returns to the village that drove her out as a pregnant teenager,…
Whistle Down the Wind (1964): Dir. Bryan Forbes
Feat. Alan Bates, Hayley Mills; Alan Bates plays an escaped convict who Hayley Mills meets and believes to be Jesus himself. Unsentimental yet moving account of childhood faith…
Woman of the Dunes (1964): Dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara
Feat. Eiji Okada, Kyoko Kishida; From a simple premise – a man becomes trapped in a valley of sand in which a solitary woman lives – the director is able to draw out…
Yellow Rolls-Royce, The (1964): Dir. Anthony Asquith
Feat. Ingrid Bergman, Rex Harrison, Omar Sharif…; Star–studded omnibus following three consecutive owners of a cute Rolls Royce Pantom II. An English aristocrat, a Chicago gangster and a…
Zorba the Greek (1964): Dir. Michael Cacoyannis
Feat. Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas; Keynote role for Anthony Quinn as the title–character of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel, a bawdy, womanising,…
An Actor's Revenge (1963): Dir. Kon Ichikawa
Feat. Kazuo Hasegawa, Fujiko Yamamoto; Unusual storyline concerns a Kabuki female impersonator, who seduces and arranges the destruction of three nobles responsible for his parents'…
Balcony, The (Le Balcon) (1963): Dir. Joseph Strick
Feat. Shelley Winters, Peter Falk, Lee Grant…; Fascinating adaptation of Jean Genet's play set in a fictional country, where Shelley Winters plays the Madam of a brothel that satisfies the erotic…
Cardinal, The (1963): Dir. Otto Preminger
Feat. Tom Tryon, Carol Lynley, John Saxon…; Otto Preminger draws out an epic crisis of faith in this examination of an ordained Catholic Priest’s struggle to reconcile family turmoil and his…
Caretaker, The (1963): Dir. Clive Donner
Feat. Donald Pleasence, Alan Bates, Robert Shaw; Praised film adaptation of Harold Pinter's breakthrough stageplay, in which two brothers invite a tramp into their London flat – an act of…
Child is Waiting, A (1963): Dir. John Cassavetes
Feat. Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland, Gena Rowlands; At a school for disabled children music therapist Judy Garland butts heads with the conservative superintendent Burt Lancaster. Film is of note as…
Empty Canvas, The (La Noia) (1963): Dir. Damiano Damiani
Feat. Bette Davis, Horst Buchholz, Catherine Spaak; Unsuccessful painter Buccholz falls for a young model who spurns his love and drives him to both ruin and his overbearing mother. Based on the novel…
Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni; Fellini's most revered film is a self–analytical exercise casting Marcello Mastroianni as a troubled director trapped by his own visions and…
Hands Over the City (Le mani sulla città) (1963): Dir. Francesco Rosi
Feat. Rod Steiger, Salvo Randone, Guido Alberti; An astute and ever–pertinent story of political corruption in post–World War II Italy starring Rod Steiger as a ruthless developer and…
Householder, The (1963): Dir. James Ivory
Feat. Shashi Kapoor, Leela Naidu, Durga Khote…; A young Indian newlywed is ill–prepared for marriage to his charming but independent wife and seeks advice from his tyrannical mother, a…
I Could Go on Singing (1963): Dir. Ronald Neame
Feat. Judy Garland, Dirk Bogarde, Jack Klugman…; A successful singer visits her estranged son while on tour in England. Teary melodrama was Garland's last film and featured arguably her best acting.
Le Feu Follet (The Fire Within) (1963): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Maurice Ronet, Jeanne Moreau, Alexandra Stewart; Brilliantly measured account of an alcoholic (Maurice Ronet) who makes a final social round to find reason why he should not take his own life. Rich…
Le Mepris (Contempt) (1963): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, Fritz Lang; An insecure screen–writer struggles with vulgar producers as well as his movie–star wife on the set of Homer's Odyssey. Brigitte Bardot,…
Leopard, The (Il Gattopardo) (1963): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale…; An Italian classic, concerning the decline of the 19th century Sicilian aristocracy – represented by Burt Lancaster– that fulfils its…
Lilies of the Field (1963): Dir. Ralph Nelson
Feat. Sidney Poitier; Helping to repair a chapel for a convent of German nuns and rewarded with an Oscar for Best Actor, this sees Sidney Poitier giving one of his quieter…
Live it Up! (Sing and Swing) (1963): Dir. Lance Comfort
Feat. David Hemmings; Low–budget, but historically fascinating musical wraps some great mid–60s pop music around its slender plot. Hemmings plays a…
Lord of the Flies (1963): Dir. Peter Brook
Feat. Tom Chapin, Hugh Edwards, Roger Elwin…; The chilling original screen adaptation of William Golding's novel about a gang of schoolboys stranded on a desert island, whose instinctive…
Martin Scorsese's Short Films (What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?; It’s Not Just You, Murray; The Big Shave; Italianamerican; American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince) (1963-78): Dir. Martin Scorsese; Four early short films and one documentary from the man widely regarded as the best living filmmaker. Includes: – What’s a Nice Girl Like…
Organizer, The (I Compagni) (1963): Dir. Mario Monicelli
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni, Renato Salvatori, Annie Girardot…; Engrossing, beautifully filmed Italian drama about working class solidarity, set amidst the rapid expansion of industrial society in 19th Century…
Servant, The (1963): Dir. Joseph Losey
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Sarah Miles; First collaboration between playwright Harold Pinter and dir. Losey is an elegant diagram of English class cruelties, with man–servant Dirk…
Silence, The (1963): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Ingrid Thulin, Gunnel Lindblom; Final part of Bergman's Faith Trilogy (begun with THROUGH THE GLASS DARKLY and WINTER LIGHT) is set in an anonymous war–torn country where…
Sparrows Can't Sing (1963): Dir. Joan Littlewood
Feat. James Booth, Barbara Windsor, Roy Kinnear…; A sprightly British kitchen sink comedy about a man who returns from two years at sea to find his house demolished and his wife living with a married…
That Kind of Girl (1963): Dir. Gerry O'Hara
Feat. Margaret Rose Keil, David Weston, Linda Marlowe; Another gem rescued from obscurity by the BFI's Flipside label, this one deals with the hush–hush topic of venereal disease against a backdrop…
This Sporting Life (Sporting Life, The) (1963): Dir. Lindsay Anderson
Feat. Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts; Richard Harris gives a star–making performance as a roguish rugby player with a no less gruelling personal life. Intense melodrama edifies the…
Toys in the Attic (1963): Dir. George Roy Hill
Feat. Dean Martin, Geraldine Page, Yvette Mimieux…; Raw melodrama adapted from the acclaimed play with Dean Martin returning home to his two spinster sisters. Chewy dialogue and gives flight to this…
Ugly American, The (1963): Dir. George Englund
Feat. Marlon Brando, Arthur Hiller, Sandra Church; Featuring one of Marlon Brando’s more interesting choices of roles, this political thriller dramatises the American–vs–Communist…
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni; A compendium of three stories starring Sophia Loren in her luscious prime in three very different roles. Together with Marcello Mastroianni, it…
A Kind of Loving (1962): Dir. John Schlesinger
Feat. June Ritchie, Alan Bates; A key film of the British New Wave, describing in unfussy black–and–white images the life of young couple June Ritchie and Alan Bates…
Advise and Consent (1962): Dir. Otto Preminger
Feat. Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Don Murray…; Political thriller–fable set in the corridors and committee rooms of Washington DC, where the fundamentally decent Senator, Henry Fonda, learns…
Barabbas (1962): Dir. Richard Fleischer
Feat. Anthony Quinn, Jack Palance, Arthur Kennedy…; Lavish, literate and thrilling by equal measure, this Hollywood Roman speculation follows the wanderings of the legendary thief (Quinn) who was saved…
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962): Dir. Agnes Varda
Feat. Corrine Marchand; One of the treasures of the French New Wave, dir. Varda’s debut is, Pauline Kael contends “one of the few films directed by a woman where the…
Days of Wine and Roses (1962): Dir. Blake Edwards
Feat. Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, Charles Bickford…; A bittersweet reprise of THE LOST WEEKEND, with PR–expert Jack Lemmon's never–ending round of cocktail parties dragging him and his wife…
Dr. Crippen (1962): Dir. Robert Lynn
Feat. Donald Pleasence, Coral Browne, Samantha Eggar; This well paced drama centered around Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen's murder of his wife was originally billed as a horror, but is actually a rather…
Exterminating Angel, The (1962): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Silvia Pinal; A psychic 'disaster movie', in which guests become trapped at a dinner party by a mysterious forcefield. As the days go by, dinner–table…
Freud (1962): Dir. John Huston
Feat. Montgomery Clift, Susannah York, Larry Parks…; John Huston once again proves his mastery of adaptation and biography, here depicting the famous psychoanalyst's clash with conservative Viennese…
Grim Reaper, The (La Commare Secca) (1962): Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
Feat. Carlotta Barilli, Lorenza Benedetti, Clorinda Celani; Dir. Bertolucci's first film – with trademark technical virtuosity already in evidence – is a whodunnit about a prostitute murdered in a…
Harakiri (Seppuku) (1962): Dir. Masaki Kobayashi
Feat. Tatsuya Nakadai, Shima Iwashita, Akira Ishihama…; Japanese jidaigeki (period drama) set at the beginning of the Edo period, following a masterless samurai (ronin) who wishes to commit suicide…
Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962): Dir. Martin Ritt
Feat. Richard Beymer, Diane Baker; Drama from director Martin Ritt (HUD), based on Ernest Hemingway's semi–autobiographical character Nick Adams, a restless young man who leaves…
Ivan's Childhood (1962): Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
Feat. Nikolai Burlyayev, Valentin Zubkov, Yevgeni Zharikov; A teenage spy works behind enemy lines in WW2 Germany. The Russian master's first feature is his least self–conscious and most efficient…
Ken Russell at the BBC (Elgar; Debussy; Always on Sunday; Isadora; Dante's Inferno; Song of Summer) (1962-1968): Dir. Ken Russell
Feat. Oliver Reed, Vladek Sheybal, Vernon Dobtcheff…; The engrossing early works of the controversial director comprises six of his famed artist portraits
L-Shaped Room, The (1962): Dir. Bryan Forbes
Feat. Leslie Caron; Defining slice of gritty Brit realism tackles the issue of pregnancy outside marriage with considerable pathos. French girl Leslie Caron crosses the…
Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962): Dir. Sidney Lumet
Feat. Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards Jr.…; Faithful and masterful adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's play about family life, love and losers drinking and tearing each other apart in leafy New…
Madame (1962): Dir. Christian-Jaque
Feat. Sophia Loren, Robert Hossein; Rags–to–riches tale set in Napoleonic France mirrors the real life of its Italian bomb–shell star, Sophia Loren.
Miracle Worker, The (1962): Dir. Arthur Penn
Feat. Patty Duke, Anne Bancroft; The classic telling of the Helen Keller story, in which blind, profoundly deaf Keller was coaxed into communication by her Irish governess Anne…
Pity Me Not! (Without Each Other) (1962): Dir. Saul Swimmer
Feat. Tony Anthony, Anne Hegiba, Saul Swimmer; A trapeze artist has the unfortunate duty of informing the wife of a fellow performer that her husband has been crushed by an elephant.
Salvatore Giuliano (1962): Dir. Francesco Rosi
Feat. Salvo Randone, Frank Wolff, Frederico Zardi; An epic Italian political drama, charting in a non–linear fashion the true story of Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano, a criminal and…
Sweet Bird of Youth (1962): Dir. Richard Brooks
Feat. Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight…; The South at its over–ripest, Tennessee Williams providing a repressive, smalltown setting for gigolo Paul Newman and faded movie–star…
Terence Rattigan Collection, The (1962-1994): Feat. Kenneth More, Ralph Richardson, Geraldine McEwan…; A boxed compendium of Terence Rattigan's finest work, a British playwright reknowned for his profound understanding of the human heart and his…
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962): Dir. Robert Mulligan
Feat. Gregory Peck, Mary Badham; Moving adaptation stars Gregory Peck in an Oscar–winning performance as the genial lawyer who defends an innocent Negro accused of rape in the…
Trial, The (1962): Dir. Orson Welles
Feat. Anthony Perkins; Orson Welles makes a visual and intellectual feast of Kafka's novel about a man accused of crimes that remain unexplained. Anthony Perkins is…
Two For The Seesaw (1962): Dir. Robert Wise
Feat. Robert Mitchum, Shirley Maclaine, Edmon Ryan…; 'Odd couple' comedy set in NYC, where a Nebraskan lawyer (Mitchum) moves to start life anew and hits the romantic playground in the company of kooky…
Walk on the Wild Side (1962): Dir. Edward Dmytryk
Feat. Laurence Harvey, Jane Fonda, Capucine…; A schlocky tease–fest with Laurence Harvey as a penniless cowboy who hitches to New Orleans with a drifter (Jane Fonda) searching for his…
Waltz of the Toreadors (1962): Dir. John Guillermin
Feat. Peter Sellers, Dany Robin, Margaret Leighton…; Bruising comedy with an elderly general struggling to come to terms with impending retirement and his ruinous personal life.
Winter Light (1962): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Gunnel Lindblom…; The second in Bergman's faith trilogy, in which a village priest finds himself drawn towards atheism after the death of his wife. Crisp, reflective…
Children's Hour, The (1961): Dir. William Wyler
Feat. Audrey Hepburn, Shirley Maclaine, James Garner…; Good performances from the two leads as lesbian school–teachers who are involved in smalltown scandal when a trouble–making student…
End of Summer, The (Kohayagawa-ke no aki) (1961): Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Feat. Ganjiro Nakamura, Setsuko Hara; Another intimate portrayal of Japanese family life from the dir. of TOKYO STORY that explores the breakdown of traditional family values in the face…
Fanny (1961): Dir. Joshua Logan
Feat. Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Charles Boyer…; Adored melodrama set in Marseilles, starring Leslie Caron as the titular character who falls in love with a young sailor (Buchholz) but must grapple…
Femme Est Une Femme, Une (A Woman is a Woman) (1961): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Anna Karina, Jean-Claude Brialy, Jean-Paul Belmondo…; Godard flirts with the Hollywood musical, and any other idea that takes his fancy to tell his buoyant tale of a free–spirited stripper who…
Francis Of Assisi (1961): Dir. Michael Curtiz
Feat. Bradford Dillman, Dolores Hart, Stuart Whitman; Cinema–scopic religious epic about the founder of the school of monks, with Bradford Dillman well suited as St. Francis, and Dolores Hart good…
Goodbye Again (Aimez-Vous Brahms) (1961): Dir. Anatole Litvak
Feat. Ingrid Bergman, Yves Montand, Anthony Perkins…; Elegant love triangle has Bergman falling in love with dashing young Anthony Perkins much to her philandering husband's chagrin. Overly familiar…
Hustler, The (1961): Dir. Robert Rossen
Feat. Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott…; Classic Paul Newman, playing a pool–shark with potential who gets into a match with the legendary Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason). George C…
Intruder, The (I Hate Your Guts) (1961): Dir. Roger Corman
Feat. William Shatner, Leo Gordon; The only Corman film ever to lose money is not surprisingly perhaps his best. William Shatner excels as a small–time drifter who preaches the…
Judgement at Nuremberg (1961): Dir. Stanley Kramer
Feat. Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Maximilian Schell…; Dramatisation of the trial of the Nazi judges at Nuremberg, facing the patient integrity of Judge Spencer Tracy. Epic, gripping courtroom drama, with…
Jules and Jim (Jules et Jim) (1961): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre…; Jeanne Moreau stars in this famous New Wave melodrama caught up in the spirit of its swinging times. A twenty–year love triangle, lightening…
Last Sunset, The (1961): Dir. Robert Aldrich
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Rock Hudson, Dorothy Malone…; Melodramatic Western set against the backdrop of the Texas/Mexico border stars Kirk Douglas as a fugitive hounded by Rock Hudson's sheriff, only to…
Last Year at Marienbad (L'Annee Dernier a Marienbad) (1961): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi; All the rules of film–making are broken in this notorious question mark of a film in which a past event plagues the occupants of a grand…
Misfits, The (1961): Dir. John Huston
Feat. Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe; Stark melodrama was to be the curtain call for both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. They are two of a group of cheerless souls roping wild mustangs…
No Love for Johnnie (1961): Dir. Ralph Thomas
Feat. Peter Finch, Stanley Holloway, Donald Pleasence…; Peter Finch excels as a British MP whose desire for career advancement threatens his personal life.
Notte, La (The Night) (1961): Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau, Monica Vitti; A compelling bout of urban alienation, with Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau as a despairing married couple coming slowly apart at the seams.…
Only Two Can Play (1961): Dir. Sidney Gilliat
Feat. Peter Sellers, Mai Zetterling, Richard Attenborough…; One of Peter Seller's earlier films sees him in rare semi–dramatic part, playing a librarian in a small Welsh town who has an affair. Dryly…
Paris Blues (1961): Dir. Martin Ritt
Feat. Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier, Joanne Woodward…; Undernourished romantic drama has Newman and Poitier as Jazz musicians on holiday in Paris forced to decide whether to stay or return to the U.S. for…
Raisin in the Sun (1961): Dir. Daniel Petrie
Feat. Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee…; Rounded drama about the struggles of black family living in Chicago in the 1940s, that was ground–breaking in its day and features several…
Singer Not the Song, The (1961): Dir. Roy Ward Baker
Feat. John Mills, Dirk Bogarde, Mylene Demongeot…; Philosophical western is an oddity amongst the Rank canon with Bogarde as a campy Mexican bandit terrorising a catholic priest Mills. Homoerotic…
Splendour in the Grass (1961): Dir. Elia Kazan
Feat. Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle…; Smitten teens work up considerable sexual frenzy when their respective families won't let them be together. Appropriately, it's the lurid scenes…
Taste of Honey, A (1961): Dir. Tony Richardson
Feat. Dora Bryan, Rita Tushingham, Robert Stephens…; Powerful and starkly realistic 'kitchen sink' drama in which a mollycoddled lonely girl (Rita Tushingham) leaves her loveless home to befriend a…
Through a Glass Darkly (1961): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Max von Sydow; Husband, father and brother must cope with the disintegrating mental health of a young woman on an island. The focus is on religion, madness and the…
Town Without Pity (1961): Dir. Gottfried Reinhardt
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Robert Blake, Richard Jaeckel…; Bitter legal drama with Kirk Douglas defending four American soldiers charged with the gang rape of a young German woman. Somewhat sluggish in its…
Two Women (1961): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Sophia Loren; Sophia Loren won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as a WW2 widow who endures turmoil with her 13–year–old daughter before they are…
Victim (1961): Dir. Basil Dearden
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Syms; As an English barrister blackmailed over his homosexual past, Dirk Bogarde gives a keynote performance, the first in what was to become a long line…
Viridiana (1961): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Silvia Pinal, Francisco Rabal, Fernando Rey; Bunuel purges his spiritual demons in this potent psychological study of a novice nun who loses her innocence when she visits her…
Young Savages, The (1961): Dir. John Frankenheimer
Feat. Burt Lancaster, Dina Merrill, Edward Andrews…; Arresting crime drama set on the segregated streets of East Harlem and focused on a district attorney investigating the murder of a blind Puerto…
Bad Sleep Well, The (1960): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune; A contemporary gangster saga that uses a Hamlet–esque narrative to indict corporate and political corruption. Government officials were not…
Bells are Ringing (1960): Dir. Vincente Minnelli
Feat. Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Fred Clark…; Winning musical rom–com from Vincente Minnelli (MEET ME IN ST LOUIS), with Judy Holliday playing a fictionalised version of real–life…
Butterfield 8 (La Venus au Vision) (1960): Dir. Daniel Mann
Feat. Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, Eddie Fisher…; A purring Elizabeth Taylor stars in this high–strung melodrama as a bed–hopping New York model, who questions her ways when she falls in…
Entertainer, The (1960): Dir. Tony Richardson
Feat. Laurence Olivier; Laurence Olivier portrays a faded comedian who reflects on his failure as an entertainer and as a man. Another fine example of moody British…
Esther and the King (1960): Dir. Raoul Walsh, Mario Bava
Feat. Joan Collins, Richard Egan, Denis O'Dea…; The Book of Esther is retold in this minor Biblical epic, with Joan Collins as a Jewish girl saves her people from a pogrom launched by the evil…
From the Terrace (1960): Dir. Mark Robson
Feat. Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Myrna Loy…; Adapted from the novel by John O’Hara, this slick drama tracks war veteran Paul Newman’s rise to the top. Ironic touches help the story, as do…
Inherit the Wind (1960): Dir. Stanley Kramer
Feat. Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly; The Evolutionist vs Creationist debate is encapsulated in this courtroom recreation of the Monkey Trial of the 1920s (a Tennessee schoolteacher was…
It Started in Naples (1960): Dir. Melville Shavelson
Feat. Clark Gable, Sophia Loren, Vittorio De Sica; Winning combination of Gable and Loren guided by director Shavelson (HOUSEBOAT) team up again for this romantic comedy drama set in Naples following…
L'Avventura (1960): Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni
Feat. Monica Vitti; The quintessential Euro–arthouse film of the 60s – a rambling yet elegant voyage through the sterile lives of the bourgeiousie, following…
La Dolce Vita (1960): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni; An episodic film following the very cool Marcello Mastroianni, a disillusioned journalist trapped in shallow, so called 'decadent' society. A…
Lola (1960): Dir. Jacques Demy
Feat. Anouk Aimee, Marc Michel; Irresistible 'New Wave' confection breezily spins its romantic tale around the alluring presence of Anouk Aimee, here a cheery cabaret–dancer…
Never Let Go (1960): Dir. John Guillermin
Feat. Richard Todd, Peter Sellers, Adam Faith…; Solid crime drama about a young salesman (Todd) who has his car inconveniently stolen – leaving him with a large debt – and then…
Platinum High School (1960): Dir. Charles Haas
Feat. Mickey Rooney, Terry Moore, Dan Duryea…; Mickey Rooney overheats in investigating his son's death at a military academy. Casting quirks includes singer Conway Twitty.
Psycho (1960): Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Feat. Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles…; Only Mr. Hitchcock could plunder B–movie conventions and turn in the biggest box–office success of his career. A plethora of…
Rocco and His Brothers (1960): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Alain Delon, Renato Salvatori, Annie Girardot…; An uncompromising, richly detailed portrait of an impoverished family who travel to Milan where they are beset by violent misfortune.
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960): Dir. Karel Reisz
Feat. Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field, Rachel Roberts; Possibly the finest film of the British New Wave, Albert Finney burns up the screen as an ‘angry young man’ who grasps at weekend freedom from…
Savage Innocents, The (1960): Dir. Nicholas Ray
Feat. Anthony Quinn, Peter O'Toole, Yoko Tani; Curiously compelling ethnological drama from dir. Ray in which an eskimo (Quinn) wages an ongoing battle for survival in the Arctic environment and…
Sons and Lovers (1960): Dir. Jack Cardiff
Feat. Dean Stockwell, Trevor Howard, Dame Wendy Hiller…; Richly photographed rendition of D.H. Lawrence's classic novel, in which the son of a coal–miner (Stockwell) struggles to find his path in the…
Strangers When We Meet (1960): Dir. Richard Quine
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Kim Novak, Ernie Kovacs…; Romantic drama adapted by Evan Hunter from his novel of the same name, about two married neighbours who have an affair. Kirk Douglas plays the…
Testament of Orpheus (Testament D'orphee) (1960): Dir. Jean Cocteau
Feat. Jean Cocteau, Yul Brynner, Jean-Pierre Leaud…; Cocteau's swansong is an intensely personal odyssey, with the director himself immersed in a world of his cumulative creation. Like a moving…
Tunes of Glory (1960): Dir. Ronald Neame
Feat. Alec Guinness, John Mills, Dennis Price…; Two colonels of a Scottish regiment – one convivial, one disciplinarian – face off in a battle of wills in this drama of peacetime…
Virgin Spring, The (1960): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Max von Sydow; Bergman won his first Oscar for this brooding yet gripping medieval tale about a peasant couple who avenge the savage murderers of their daughter.
Young One, The (La Joven; White Trash) (1960): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Zachary Scott, Bernie Hamilton; Bunuel’s English–language feature masterfully unfurls the quandary between a young girl and an itinerant black musician unjustly accused of…
400 Blows, The (1959): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Remy…; Truffaut's first film rocketed him to fame as some kind of New Wave radical, but at a second glance this story of a teenage delinquent thrown in and…
Adventures Of Antoine Doinel, The (400 Blows, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, Love on the Run) (1959-1979): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud; Francois Truffaut's most enduring cinematic creation, the irrepressible Antoine Doinel (played synonymously by Jean–Pierre Leaud) is…
Amants, Les (Lovers, The) (1959): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Jeanne Moreau, Alain Cuny; This helped push the envelope of frank sexuality in cinema and made a star of Jeanne Moreau, as the rich, bored housewife whose extra–marital…
Brand (1959): Dir. Michael Elliot
Feat. Patrick McGoohan; Spellbinding BBC version of Henrik Ibsen's great play, with Patrick McGoohan playing a young priest who idealistically adopts a doctrine that one…
Diary of Anne Frank, The (1959): Dir. George Stevens
Feat. Millie Perkins, Joseph Schildkraut, Shelley Winters…; Absorbing film version of the play based on the experience of a Jewish girl who was forced to live within the confines of a tiny attic, under…
Floating Weeds (Ukigusa) (1959): Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Feat. Ganjiro Nakamura; An aging actor who returns with his troupe to his provincial town, and becomes caught between his long–lost family and his jealous…
Fugitive Kind, The (1959): Dir. Sidney Lumet
Feat. Marlon Brando, Joanne Woodward, Anna Magnani…; A directionless, but quirky version of Tennesse Williams' play 'Orpheus Descending' with Brando playing a troublesome hobo who spreads romantic…
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada; Romance between a French actress and a Japanese architect rekindles their traumatic wartime experiences. The twin threads of despair and sensual love…
Human Condition, The (No Greater Love, Road to Eternity, A Soldier's Prayer) (1959-1961): Dir. Masaki Kobayashi
Feat. Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratana; An epic Japanese film trilogy following the life of a well–intentioned yet naïve pacifist and socialist as he tries to survive in the…
Imitation of Life (1959): Dir. Douglas Sirk
Feat. Lana Turner, John Gavin, Sandra Dee…; Douglas Sirk's famed melodrama of American ambition and racism is justly renowned for the surprisingly bitter commentary buried within its involving…
Last Train from Gun Hill (1959): Dir. John Sturges
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Carolyn Jones…; Underrated American Western telling the tale of a U.S. Marshal seeking revenge in the town of 'Gun Hill' after the racially charged rape and murder…
Les Cousins (1959): Dir. Claude Chabrol
Feat. Jean-Claude Brialy, Gerard Blain; Claude Chabrol continues his city / country theme from LE BEAU SERGE with this estranging drama following a country boy who ends up in a despicable…
On the Beach (1959): Dir. Stanley Kramer
Feat. Ava Gardner, Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire…; 50's cold war paranoia piece set in post–WW2 Melbourne, the only place in the world yet untouched by creeping radiation. Based on Nevil Shute's…
Operation Amsterdam (1959): Dir. Michael McCarthy
Feat. Peter Finch, Eva Bartok, Tony Britton; Gripping wartime drama tracking two gem specialists attempting to remove a valuable horde of diamonds from Amsterdam in 14 hours before the nasty…
Serious Charge (1959): Dir. Terence Young
Feat. Anthony Quayle, Cliff Richard, Sarah Churchill…; Cliff Richard's film debut is a slight melodrama about a parish priest attempting to tame a young petty criminal. Cliff sings "Living Doll" in a…
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959): Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Feat. Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift; A kitsch classic in which Elizabeth Taylor is in finest neurotic form as a young woman trying to fight her vindictive aunt's will to have her…
Umberto D. (1959): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Carlo Battisti, Maria-Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari; A pensioner struggles to make ends meet in post–war Italy. Gloomy neo–realist piece wrenches the heart through a compassionate lead…
World of Apu, The (1959): Dir. Satyajit Ray
Feat. Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Alok Chakravarty; Final installment of the 'Apu trilogy' sees the complexities of adulthood painfully and euphorically realised for Apu through ambition, marriage and…
Young Philadelphians, The (1959): Dir. Vincent Sherman
Feat. Paul Newman, Barbara Rush; Engaging drama with Paul Newman as an attorney of dubious background who defends an affluent friend in a murder trial while hussling his way into the…
A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958): Dir. Douglas Sirk
Feat. John Gavin, Jock Mahoney, Don DeFore…; Bittersweet WWII melodrama finds Douglas Sirk at his gravest; John Gavin plays a returning German solider who falls in love under the shadow of war.…
Another Time, Another Place (1958): Dir. Lewis Allen
Feat. Lana Turner, Barry Sullivan, Glynis Johns…; Though a vehicle for Lana Turner, this enjoyable romantic melodrama is remembered for introducing Sean Connery to a wider audience, as a married BBC…
Ballad of Narayama, The (Narayama bushiko) (1958): Dir. Keisuke Kinoshita
Feat. Kinuyo Tanaka; Sombre but stylised retelling of a Japanese legend, about a poverty–stricken village and its eldest resident who, in accordance with tradition,…
Bonjour Tristesse (1958): Dir. Otto Preminger
Feat. Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Jean Seberg; Ripe for rediscovery is this lush Francoise Sagan adaptation, centred around a tawdry love triangle between a father, daughter and…
Cat On a Hot Tin Roof (1958): Dir. Richard Brooks
Feat. Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman; Compelling melodrama based on Tennessee Williams' play of greed, lust and impotence in a wealthly Southern family. Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor…
Christine (1958): Dir. Pierre Gaspard-Huit
Feat. Romy Schneider, Alain Delon, Micheline Presle; Vienna set classic love triangle between an unfaithful man, his current love interest (played by darling French actress Romy Schneider) and an…
Dunkirk (1958): Dir. Leslie Norman
Feat. Richard Attenborough, John Mills, Bernard Lee…; British war film set during the 1940 evacuation of French and British troops from the beaches of Dunkirk, following the contrasting perspectives of a…
Elevator to the Gallows (Lift to the Scaffold, aka. Ascenseur Pour L'echafaud) (1958): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly…; A young Jeanne Moreau stars in this elegant thriller about a crime of passion that backfires when the murderer gets trapped in a lift. Ambience par…
Horse's Mouth, The (1958): Dir. Ronald Neame
Feat. Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, Renee Houston; This impressively subtle portrait of a tortured artist stars Alec Guinness as a deteriorating painter whose pursuit of creative perfection has him on…
Hunters, The (1958): Dir. Dick Powell
Feat. Robert Mitchum, Robert Wagner, Richard Egan; Robert Mitchum portrays an aging fighter pilot in the Korean War who falls for the wife of a fellow squadron member in this aviation–romance.
I Was Monty's Double (1958): Dir. John Guillermin
Feat. Clifton James, John Mills, Leslie Phillips…; Absorbing war drama based on the true story of a man hired to imitate General Montgomery in order to hoodwink the Germans before the North Africa…
Le Beau Serge (1958): Dir. Claude Chabrol
Feat. Jean-Claude Brialy, Gerard Blain; Accepted as the first film of the French New Wave, this Claude Chabrol drama tells the story of a man returning to his hometown only to discover his…
Long Hot Summer, The (1958): Dir. Martin Ritt
Feat. Orson Welles, Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman; The steam rises in this William Faulkner adaptation about sex and sin in the small–town South. With a tyrannical Orson Welles, and Joanne…
Look Back in Anger (1958): Dir. Tony Richardson
Feat. Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Mary Ure; Richard Burton plays the angry–young–man to the hilt in this grimly realistic slice of British life in the '50s. Based on John Osborne's…
Magician, The (The Face) (1958): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Max von Sydow; Bergman's allegorical self–portrait of a controversial travelling magician who exacts revenge on a cynical doctor, but becomes trapped in his…
Marjorie Morningstar (1958): Dir. Irving Capper
Feat. Gene Kelly, Natalie Wood; Would–be actress Natalie Wood gives up her Jewishness and independence to get ahead in this mild adaptation of Herbert Wouk's novel.
Night to Remember, A (1958): Dir. Roy Ward Baker
Feat. Kenneth More, Ronald Allen, Robert Ayres…; Vivid re–enactment of events that led to the sinking of the Titanic, with careful attention payed to the human drama. Kenneth More leads a…
Quiet American, The (1958): Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Feat. Michael Redgrave, Audie Murphy; This early screen adaptation of Graham Greene’s cautionary novel was the first major film to address to thorny issue of Vietnam, although loses…
Room at the Top (1958): Dir. Jack Clayton
Feat. Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret; Matters sexual are treated with rare maturity in this stunning, landmark British drama about an ambitious, working–class cad who falls in love…
Separate Tables (1958): Dir. Delbert Mann
Feat. Deborah Kerr, Rita Hayworth, David Niven…; Fascinating melodrama contrasts individuals in a tea house at an English seaside resort. Sharp script gives the A–list talent much to chew…
Some Came Running (1958): Dir. Vincente Minnelli
Feat. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley Maclaine…; Frank Sinatra gives an affecting, lowkey performance as soldier returning from WW2 to pick up his writing career again. Effective representation…
Tale of Two Cities, A (1958): Dir. Ralph Thomas
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, Christopher Lee, Donald Pleasence…; An intrepid Dirk Bogarde negotiates the rough and tumble of the French Revolution, in this, the version most faithful to the Charles Dickens novel.…
Tarnished Angels, The (1958): Dir. Douglas Sirk
Feat. Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone; WRITTEN ON THE WIND's tawdry trio (Stack, Malone, Hudson) reunite in this soaring melodrama about an exiled, enigmatic WWI pilot whose debonair…
Brothers Karamazov, The (1957): Dir. Richard Brooks
Feat. Yul Brynner, Maria Schell, Claire Bloom…; A sumptuous Hollywood version of Dostoyevsky's classic novel of Czarist Russia. Centred around Karamazov (Cobb) and his four disparate offspring,…
Cranes are Flying, The (Letyat Zhuravli) (1957): Dir. Mikhail Kalatozov
Feat. Tatyana Samojlova, Aleksei Batalov, Vasili Merkuryev; A Russian classic which conveys homefront anxieties during WW2 for a young bride whose original fiance has gone to the front. Pursued by his…
Delinquents, The (1957): Dir. Robert Altman
Feat. Tom Laughlin, Peter Miller, Dick Bakalyan; Future luminary Robert Altman's debut feature, an "expose" of juvenile delinquency in the rock'n'roll era. Filmed in Kansas City in a…
Face in the Crowd, A (1957): Dir. Elia Kazan
Feat. Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau…; Pungent social commentary on American mass culture outlays the rags–to–riches trajectory of a hick nobody (Griffith) whose rapid rise to…
Fire Down Below (1957): Dir. Robert Parrish
Feat. Rita Hayworth, Robert Mitchum, Jack Lemmon…; Adventure drama set in the Caribbean, with Jack Lemmon and Robert Mitchum playing U.S. expatriates who eke out a meager subsistence transporting…
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957): Dir. John Huston
Feat. Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr; Kerr and Mitchum play a nun and Marine sergeant respectively, who are stranded on a desert island during WWII – the island happens to also be…
Il Grido (The Outcry) (1957): Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni
Feat. Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, Betsy Blair; This lesser–known work from Antonioni provides a missing link between Italian neorealism and the director's later works like L'AVVENTURA,…
Interlude (1957): Dir. Douglas Sirk
Feat. June Allyson, Rossano Brazzi, Marianne Koch…; June Allyson falls for the charms of a married European conductor while being courted by a Munich doctor. One of Sirk's weaker melodramas, this was…
Love in the Afternoon (1957): Dir. Billy Wilder
Feat. Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier; Dark horse Audrey Hepburn classic sees dir. Billy Wilder riff Ernst Lubitsch by way of Gary Cooper and Maurice Chevalier (a wall fixture of…
Man of a Thousand Faces (1957): Dir. Joseph Pevney
Feat. James Cagney, Dorothy Malone, Jane Greer; James Cagney moulds his ‘dirty face’ into the many classic horror personas of actor Lon Chaney Jr, in this liberal biopic of the actor’s…
Nights of Cabiria (1957): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Giulietta Masina; Giulietta Masina is marvelous as a waifish prostitute dreaming of a rich, wonderful life but always finding sorrow. Tragicomic masterpiece won an…
Paths of Glory (1957): Dir. Stanley Kubrick
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou…; Kubrick's muscular drama deals frankly with the hypocrisy and inhumanity of military ethics, based on a true incident in WWI France. Following a…
Peyton Place (1957): Dir. Mark Robson
Feat. Lana Turner, Hope Lange, Lee Philips…; A cheesy classic based on the mega–seller, weaving almost any domestic scandal you can think of into a compelling melodrama. Followed by a TV…
Pride and the Passion, The (1957): Dir. Stanley Kramer
Feat. Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren…; A solemn epic set around Napoleon's campaign in Spain in the early 19th century – the cast doing their sincere best with a fairly passionless…
Raintree County (1957): Dir. Edward Dmytryk
Feat. Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Eva Marie Saint…; Civil War set romance has Montgomery Clift as a schoolteacher whojoins the Union Army as they march into Georgia in the hope of finding his estranged…
Robbery Under Arms (1957): Dir. Jack Lee
Feat. Peter Finch, Ronald Lewis, Laurence Naismith…; Seminal Aussie western with Peter Finch as charismatic outlaw Captain Starlight leading two brothers astray after they join his roving band of…
Saint Joan (1957): Dir. Otto Preminger
Feat. Jean Seberg, Richard Widmark, John Gielgud…; Colourized version of the Joan of Arc story with Jean Seberg in her acting debut.
Sayonara (1957): Dir. Joshua Logan, Marlon Brando
Feat. Patricia Owens, Ricardo Montalban, Martha Scott…; An effective, well–acted version of James Michener's novel set during the Korean War, in which ace pilot Brando inconveniently falls in love…
Sea Wife (1957): Dir. Bob McNaught
Feat. Richard Burton, Joan Collins, Basil Sydney…; Melodramatic adventure tale with Burton and Collins adrift on a raft after their ship is sunk by the Japanese. Clunky, but oddly compelling, though…
Seventh Seal, The (1957): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Max von Sydow; The solemn Swede garnered world prominence with this stunning, poetic allegory set in the plague–ridden 16th Century, where a disillusioned…
Sweet Smell of Success (1957): Dir. Alexander Mackendrick
Feat. Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster; New York–style cynicism reaches its apogee in this bitter pill from the 50s, with press agent Tony Curtis playing self–degrading lapdog…
Three Faces of Eve (1957): Dir. Nunnally Johnson
Feat. Joanne Woodward, David Wayne, Lee J. Cobb; Joanne Woodward pulls out all the stops as a southern housewife who suffers multiple personality disorder, and won an Oscar for her portrayals of…
Time Without Pity (1957): Dir. Joseph Losey
Feat. Michael Redgrave, Leo McKern, Ann Todd…; Nervy noir has Michael Redgrave in top form as an alcoholic father racing against time to save his son from the gallows. Somewhat dated thriller…
Until They Sail (1957): Dir. Robert Wise
Feat. Jean Simmons, Joan Fontaine, Paul Newman…; 1950s Christchurch is the novelty star of this MGM prestige picture set entirely in Canterbury, New Zealand, with landmarks such as the Christchurch…
Wild Strawberries (1957): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Victor Sjostrom, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin; A classic film of one man's reminiscences and his dramatic search for the meaning of human existence. The bleakness is imbued with a quiet optimism.
Windom's Way (1957): Dir. Ronald Neame
Feat. Peter Finch, Mary Ure, Robert Flemyng…; Malayan–set drama with Finch as a doctor – who along with his estranged wife – finds himself caught up in political turmoil that…
And God Created Woman (1956): Dir. Roger Vadim
Feat. Brigitte Bardot, Curt Jurgens, Jean-Louis Trintignant; The Bardot movie, set in sleepy St. Tropez where Bridget is the misunderstood town hussy who impulsively marries the brother of a boyfriend. Works…
Aparajito (1956): Dir. Satyajit Ray
Feat. Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Pinaki Sengupta…; Sequel to PATHER PANCHALI sees Apu now as an adolescent who abandons his village and travels to Calcutta, where he is inevitably confused with his…
Baby Doll (1956): Dir. Elia Kazan
Feat. Karl Malden, Eli Wallach, Carroll Baker; After success with STREETCAR, Kazan tackled another squalid Tennessee Williams tale of sex, jealousy and obsession. Karl Malden, Eli Wallach and…
Backlash (1956): Dir. John Sturges
Feat. Richard Widmark, Donna Reed, William Campbell…; Richard Widmark and Donna Reed play the tough–talkin', rootin–tootin leads in this gritty horse opera, as they both seek vengeance for…
Benny Goodman Story, The (1956): Dir. Valentine Davies
Feat. Steve Allen, Donna Reed; Biopic of swing band leader Benny Goodman from age 10 (in 1919) to his landmark Carnegie Hall band concert in 1938. Not exactly historically…
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956): Dir. Fritz Lang
Feat. Dana Andrews, Joan Fontaine, Sidney Blackmer…; This bleak film noir from director Fritz Lang is a triumph of style and mood with a cynical take on fate and the human condition. An impeccably…
Bigger Than Life (1956): Dir. Nicholas Ray
Feat. James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau; Enormously potent, landmark melodrama is also a career high for James Mason: he plays a suburban family man struck down with a rare heart disease,…
Burmese Harp, The (Biruma no tategoto) (1956): Dir. Kon Ichikawa
Feat. Rentaro Mikuni; Another muted anti–war elegy conceived during Japan’s post–WWII recovery, this tells the journey of a Japanese private, who upon…
Bus Stop (1956): Dir. Joshua Logan
Feat. Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray; Marilyn Monroe excels in this comedy/drama as a distraught southern showgirl who becomes the object of desire and marriage for an obsessive and naive…
Eddy Duchin Story, The (1956): Dir. George Sidney
Feat. Tyrone Power, Kim Novak, James Whitmore; Tearjerking, CinemaScope biopic of the beloved but short–lived pianist and bandleader Eddy Duchin. Nominated for four Academy Awards.
Flowing (Nagareru ) (1956): Dir. Mikio Naruse
Feat. Kinuyo Tanaka, Hideko Takamine, Isuzu Yamada; Dir. Naruse’s compassionate portrait of the fading post–war geisha trade. Considered one of the director's best among his many films to…
Friendly Persuasion (1956): Dir. William Wyler
Feat. Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins…; Gary Cooper headlines this sentimental yet atmospheric and beautifuly crafted drama about a Quaker family in southern Indiana whose pacifist beliefs…
Giant (1956): Dir. George Stevens
Feat. James Dean, Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor; A beautifully conceived saga of life on a Texas cattle ranch told through two generations. James Dean's final performance.
Kanal (1956): Dir. Andrzej Wajda
Feat. Teresa Izewska, Tadeusz Janczar; The darkest chapter of dir. Wadja's WWII 'Trilogy', is an unremitting portrayal of the last gasps of the 1944 Warsaw uprising. With desperate…
Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, The (1956): Dir. Nunnally Johnson
Feat. Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, Fredric March…; Adapted from the novel by Sloan Wilson, this powerful drama evokes the multiple crises of an Madison Avenue advertising executive (Peck), whose…
Spanish Gardener, The (1956): Dir. Philip Leacock
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, Sir Michael Hordern, Cyril Cusack…; Curious father/son drama with Bogarde in the title role forming a close relationship with a young boy much to his father's envy. Narrative wise…
There's Always Tomorrow (1956): Dir. Douglas Sirk
Feat. Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Bennett; Resolute Sirk melodrama tugs at the heartstrings of a disenchanted family man whose chance encounter with an old–flame compels his children to…
Trapeze (1956): Dir. Carol Reed
Feat. Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida…; Surprisingly well–realised drama, which sets a love–triangle (Lancaster, Curtis, Lollobrigida) in the world of European circus…
Written On the Wind (1956): Dir. Douglas Sirk
Feat. Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack…; Douglas Sirk’s strident Texas oil–dynasty drama about a pair of spoiled and wayward heirs to the family fortune and the…
Yield to the Night (Blonde Sinner) (1956): Dir. J. Lee Thompson
Feat. Diana Dors, Yvonne Mitchell, Michael Craig; British crime drama film that features a celebrated performance by "blonde bombshell" Diana Dors. Bearing a coincidental resemblance to the Ruth…
All That Heaven Allows (1955): Dir. Douglas Sirk
Feat. Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead…; Middle–aged widow Jane Wyman fights for the respect of her family and upscale community when she conducts an affair with her ‘gardener’…
Big Knife, The (1955): Dir. Robert Aldrich
Feat. Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Rod Steiger…; Lurid expose of the Hollywood 'studio system' from the melodramatic pen of playwright Clifford Odets. Palance shows a rare vulnerability as a…
Blackboard Jungle, The (1955): Dir. Richard Brooks
Feat. Glenn Ford, Sidney Poitier, Vic Morrow; Famously controversial on release and first of the 'Rock–n–roll' films, this lifted the lid on the heated youth tensions in 50s America.…
East of Eden (1955): Dir. Elia Kazan
Feat. James Dean, Julie Harris, Raymond Massey; James Dean's acting debut electrifies the screen in this emotionally charged drama about two brother's rivalry for the love of their father. Based on…
Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955): Dir. Richard Fleischer
Feat. Joan Collins; Glossy account of a truelife scandal in early 20th century NYC.
I am a Camera (1955): Dir. Henry Cornelius
Feat. Julie Harris, Laurence Harvey, Shelley Winters…; Dreary drama is the original "Cabaret". Julie Harris gives a somewhat overheated portrayal of Sally Bowles, the bawdy nightclub entertainer in…
Jedda (1955): Dir. Charles Chauvel
Feat. Ngarla Kunoth, Robert Tudawali; An adopted Aboriginal girl is kidnapped by a 'wild black' in this beautifully shot Australian classic.
La Strada (The Road) (1955): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Anthony Quinn; Fellini hit his stride and won a Foreign Film Oscar with this gentle road odyssey about a simple–minded clown whose loyalty to her boorish…
Lola Montes (1955): Dir. Max Ophuls
Feat. Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov, Anton Walbrook; The life of the famous 19th century courtesan provides the basis for this sophisticated portrayal of the capriciousness of fate, which leads to the…
Long Gray Line, The (1955): Dir. John Ford
Feat. Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara, Donald Crisp; Engrossing true life tale of military instructors Marty Maher and his rise to the top of his profession.
Lust for Life (1955): Dir. Vincente Minnelli
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn; Kirk Douglas makes a stirring, enthusiastic Van Gogh in this biopic, choosing to echo the empassioned melancholia of his work rather than drawing…
Man Without A Star (1955): Dir. King Vidor
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Jeanne Crain, Claire Trevor; Character–driven Western sees Kirk Douglas plays a laconic gunslinger with a dark–side, who drifts from scrape to scrape while working…
Marty (1955): Dir. Delbert Mann
Feat. Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Karen Steele…; Sweeping the Oscars on its release, Paddy Chayefsky's (NETWORK) well–scripted vernacular lifted Ernest Borgnine to a career best in an…
Not As A Stranger (1955): Dir. Stanley Kramer
Feat. Robert Mitchum, Olivia de Havilland, Frank Sinatra…; Undemanding medical drama notable for being Kramer's directorial debut and for its abundance of big stars in small roles. Mitchum plays against…
Ordet (1955): Dir. Carl Dreyer; Hailed by many critics as dir. Dreyer's masterpiece, this deep exploration of the true meaning of Christianity, set in rural Denmark, will repay the…
Otto Preminger Director's Collection, The (The Man With the Golden Arm, The Cardinal, The Human Factor) (1955-1979): Dir. Otto Preminger; Further trifecta of Otto Preminger films.
Passage Home (1955): Dir. Roy Ward Baker
Feat. Peter Finch, Anthony Steel, Diane Cilento…; Torrid melodrama with the presence of a young woman on board a cargo ship causing tensions amongst the male crew.
Pather Panchali (1955): Dir. Satyajit Ray
Feat. Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Subir Bannerjee; The first film from Asia's most respected film–maker also initiates his 'Apu trilogy', three of most admired films in history. A lyrical…
Picnic (1955): Dir. Joshua Logan
Feat. Kim Novak, Cliff Robertson, William Holden…; Epitome of the 50s smalltown melodrama has the sultry Kim Novak relieved of boyfriend Cliff Robertson and the general Mid–West tedium, by…
Queen Bee (1955): Dir. Ranald MacDougall
Feat. Joan Crawford; Archetypal glamour–bitch Joan Crawford is deliciously hammy as a compulsive socialite who brings destruction to an blue–blooded Southern…
Rebel Without a Cause (1955): Dir. Nicholas Ray
Feat. James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo; James Dean's intense portayal of an alienated youth from a wealthy family opened the eyes of a generation and catapulted him to stardom. One of the…
Summertime (Summer Madness) (1955): Dir. David Lean
Feat. Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi, Isa Miranda; Katharine Hepburn, middle–aged spinster, flees to Venice on vacation, only for the romance of the city – and a dark, handsome Italian catch…
Beachcomber, The (1954): Dir. Muriel Box
Feat. Glynis Johns, Robert Newton, Donald Sinden…; Entertaining and deeply silly romantic yarn with prim missionary Johns falling for slovenly Newton as they team up to fight a cholera outbreak on a…
Carrington V.C. (Court Martial) (1954): Dir. Anthony Asquith
Feat. David Niven, Margaret Leighton, Allan Cuthbertson; Legal drama adapted from the stage play in which a court–martial attempts to find out why, and if, an officer embezzled his unit's funds.
Country Girl, The (1954): Dir. George Seaton
Feat. Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, William Holden; Bing Crosby sobers up to play an alcoholic has–been actor aided to make a comeback by wife Grace Kelly and pal William Holden.
Elephant Walk (1954): Dir. William Dieterle
Feat. Elizabeth Taylor, Dana Andrews, Peter Finch…; Love–triangle melodrama set on Ceylon tea plantation is a tad overblown, with thunder stolen from the good cast by a climactic elephant…
End of the Affair, The (1954): Dir. Edward Dmytryk
Feat. Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson, John Mills; Original screen adaptation of Graham Greene’s tale of unrequited wartime love, with Deborah Kerr and Van Johnson entangled in a brief but illicit…
Generation, A (Pokolenie) (1954): Dir. Andrzej Wajda
Feat. Roman Polanski; Fast–moving account of the Polish Resistance during WWII, as a scrappy young recruit falls in love with his unit leader. Depicts the spirited,…
Hell and High Water (1954): Dir. Samuel Fuller
Feat. Richard Widmark, Bella Darvi, Victor Francen…; Cold war thriller with Widmark helming a submarine in pursuit of a Red freighter. Unexceptional by Samuel Fuller's usual standards – he was…
Magnificent Obsession (1954): Dir. Douglas Sirk
Feat. Rock Hudson, Jane Wyman; Douglas Sirk's famously tumultuous melodrama, starring Rock Hudson in his first leading role as a guilt–ridden playboy indirectly responsible…
On the Waterfront (1954): Dir. Elia Kazan
Feat. Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb…; Brooding tour–de–force with Marlon Brando in his prime as the square–jawed misfit entangled in corrupt union politics. Winner of 8…
Purple Plain, The (1954): Dir. Robert Parrish
Feat. Gregory Peck, Win Min Than, Bernard Lee…; Strong psychological drama, shot in lush Technicolor, with Peck as a shell–shocked pilot stuck with wounded comrades behind enemy lines in the…
Salt of the Earth (1954): Dir. Herbert J. Biberman
Feat. Rosaura Revueltas, Will Geer; An incendiary tale of racial prejudice, big business greed and feminist uprising that pushed plenty of buttons in the fifties, making it first of its…
Sansho Dayu (Sansho the Bailiff) (1954): Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyoko Kagawa…; One of Mizoguchi's great classics, based on an 11th century Japanese folktale elaborated into a sprawling vision of a cruel, mysterious cosmos, where…
Sound of the Mountain (Yama No Oto) (1954): Dir. Mikio Naruse
Feat. Setsuko Hara, Ken Uehara, Soh Yamamura; Dir. Naruse reprises the disintegrating marriage (and cast) of his earlier film, REPAST, in this profoundly affecting tale of a young woman (Hara)…
Twenty-Four Eyes (24 Eyes/Nijushi no hitomi) (1954): Dir. Keisuke Kinoshita
Feat. Hideko Takamine, Chishu Ryu; An elegiac triumph of nostalgia for youth and wartime humanism, this cherished landmark of Japanese cinema gracefully chronicles the 20–years…
All I Desire (1953): Dir. Douglas Sirk
Feat. Barbara Stanwyck; Template Sirk melodrama features Barbara Stanwyck as an ambitious stage actress who abandons her husband and family for Broadway, only to return when…
Bigamist, The (1953): Dir. Ida Lupino
Feat. Edmond O'Brien, Joan Fontaine, Ida Lupino…; A San Francisco adoption agency, investigating salesman Edmond O'Brien and wife Joan Fontaine, discover he has a second life, and wife, in LA.…
Final Test, The (1953): Dir. Anthony Asquith
Feat. Jack Warner, Robert Morley, George Relph…; Gentle comedy of values has a famed cricketer making his way to the middle for one last innings. Meanwhile is son is torn between seeing dad bat one…
Gate of Hell (Jigokumon) (1953): Dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa
Feat. Machiko Kyo, Kazuo Hasegawa, Isao Yamagata; Tragic story of unrequited love set during the Heiji Rebellion in 1159, where a samurai warrior falls in love with a married…
Give a Girl a Break (1953): Dir. Stanley Donen
Feat. Debbie Reynolds, Marge Champion, Gower Champion…; Musical comedy about three unknown actresses who are all competing for Broadway stardom after a temperamental performer walks off the set of a major…
Heart of the Matter, The (1953): Dir. George More O'Ferrall
Feat. Trevor Howard, Elizabeth Allan, Maria Schell…; Solid adaptation of Graham Greene's bleak novel has Trevor Howard as a policeman in Sierra Leone tormented by his extra–marital affair.
Hobson's Choice (1953): Dir. David Lean
Feat. Charles Laughton; Hard to take one's eyes off the maniacal acting of Charles Laughton in this Dickensian comic–drama, as a vulgar cobbler whose rebellious eldest…
Houdini (1953): Dir. George Marshall
Feat. Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Torin Thatcher; Drama exploring the life of magician and illusionist Harry Houdini, with then husband–and–wife Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh playing…
I Vitelloni (1953): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Franco Interlenghi, Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi; This neo–realist Fellini combines humour and pathos for a truthful study of aimless youths either ill–equipped or unwilling to embrace…
Life of Oharu (1953): Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Kinuyo Tanaka, Toshiro Mifune; The prolific, though rarely seen dir. Mizoguchi came to attention with this chronicled downfall of a court–concubine in 17th century Japan,…
Little Fugitive (1953): Dir. Raymond Abrashkin
Feat. Richie Andrusco, Richard Brewster; A young boy runs away to Coney Island after fearing that he shot his older brother, who is only faking. An exquisitely naturalistic film with…
Madame De... (Earrings Of Madame De..., The) (1953): Dir. Max Ophuls
Feat. Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio De Sica, Charles Boyer; Widely considered one of the dir.'s peak achievements, this gracefully and ironically traces a doomed menage–a–trois in 18th century…
Otto Preminger Collection, The (The Moon is Blue, Saint Joan, Advise and Consent, Anatomy of a Filmmaker) (1953-1991): Dir. Otto Preminger; Attractively–packaged Preminger trifecta, with the added bonus ANATOMY OF A FILMMAKER, a thorough two–hour documentary on the…
Return to Paradise (1953): Dir. Mark Robson
Feat. Gary Cooper, Barry Jones, Roberta Haynes; Understated drama with Cooper as a carefree drifter content to live aimlessly in his Pacific Island paradise. His idyllic existence is threatened by…
Seminole (1953): Dir. Budd Boetticher
Feat. Rock Hudson, Barbara Hale, Anthony Quinn…; Superlative Western set against the backdrop of 1835 Florida, where Rock Hudson plays a West Pointer Lieutenant who, on the insistence of Richard…
Story of Gilbert and Sullivan, The (1953): Dir. Sidney Gilliat
Feat. Robert Morley, Maurice Evans, Eileen Herlie; Spirited biopic of the careers of W.S. Gilbert, a barrister turned–comic–writer, and Arthur Sullivan, a classic composer (converted…
Story of Three Loves, The (1953): Dir. Vincente Minnelli, Gottfried Reinhardt
Feat. Pier Angeli, Ethel Barrymore, Leslie Caron…; Romantic anthology film telling three separate stories in flashbacks experienced by three characters on board the same ocean liner. "The Jealous…
Tokyo Story (1953): Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Feat. Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara; The master of Japanese cinema, this is Ozu's masterpiece. An emotional tour–de–force is drawn from an elderly couple's ill–fated…
Ugetsu Monogatari (1953): Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyo, Kinuyo Tanaka; Stories by the 18th century writer Akinari Ueda are woven into an odyssey of civil–war misfortune, in which two peasant–potters and their…
Voyage to Italy (Journey to Italy/ Journey in Italy) (1953): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders; A meditative journey through the landscapes of Italy, accompanying Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders in the midst of a breakup. The ongoing drama of…
Bad and the Beautiful, The (1952): Dir. Vincente Minnelli
Feat. Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon…; Masterpiece of Hollywood navel–gazing, with charismatic producer Kirk Douglas clawing his way to success on a Freudian subtext, using and…
Card, The (1952): Dir. Ronald Neame
Feat. Alec Guinness, Glynis Johns, Valerie Hobson; Robust comedy with Alec Guinness playing an enthusiastic young man of lower–class origins who takes every opportunity to advance his station,…
Carrie (1952): Dir. William Wyler
Feat. Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Miriam Hopkins…; Tough–minded and unusual "male melodrama" follows middle aged restauranteer Olivier's descent from riches to rags when he falls for Jones'…
Come Back, Little Sheba (1952): Dir. Daniel Mann
Feat. Burt Lancaster, Shirley Booth, Terry Moore…; An affecting melodrama based on William Inge's stageplay, concerning a loveless marriage, alcoholism and the price of misplaced love. Burt…
Deadline U.S.A. (1952): Dir. Richard Brooks
Feat. Humphrey Bogart; Tightly scripted account of the newspaper business. Editor–in–Chief: Humphrey Bogart.
Douglas Sirk Boxset (1952-1959): Dir. Douglas Sirk; Lavish box–set highlighting nine classics from the 'King of Hollywood Melodrama'. Includes the previously unreleased 'No Room for the Groom'…
Gentle Gunman, The (1952): Dir. Basil Dearden
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, John Mills; Dirk Bogarde and John Mills are Irish brothers sent to London by the IRA during the Blitz, but one succumbs to pacifism.
Ikiru (1952): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Takashi Shimura, Shinichi Himori, Haruo Tanaka; A patient meditation on life and death about a sullen yet dutiful office clerk of 30 years whose terminal illness compels him to rediscover his…
Le Plaisir (House Of Pleasure) (1952): Dir. Max Ophuls
Feat. Jean Gabin, Danielle Darrieux, Simone Simon…; Three tales by Guy de Maupassant go into this visually elegant treatise on the changing moods of love, youth and memory. The most successful…
Mandy (1952): Dir. Alexander Mackendrick
Feat. Phyllis Calvert, Jack Hawkins, Terence Morgan; British drama about a girl who has been deaf and mute her whole life, and her family's attempts to help her with a unique education, which causes…
Moulin Rouge (1952): Dir. John Huston
Feat. Jose Ferrer, Colette Marchand, Suzanne Flon…; Opulently staged fictional biopic of Toulouse–Lautrec, highlighted by a dazzling can–can sequence. The pint–sized French painter is…
Othello (1952): Dir. Orson Welles
Feat. Orson Welles, Micheál Mac Liammóir, Suzanne Cloutier…; Dir. Welles filmed Shakespeare's great tragedy over four years in Europe and North Africa, and despite some patchy moments, turned in probably the…
Phone Call from a Stranger (1952): Dir. Jean Negulesco
Feat. Bette Davis; Fine acting, from Bette Davis among others, lifts story of aircrash survivors coming together.
Summer with Monika (1952): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Harriet Andersson; Early Bergman turns his lens on a pair of working class, teenage lovers. At first this rebellious holiday boat ride comes across as dreamy escapism…
Ace in the Hole (The Big Carnival) (1951): Dir. Billy Wilder
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Porter Hall; Cast in a hole until recently, this scathing editorial on media sensationalism and the human spectacle stars Kirk Douglas (never fiercer) as a…
Big Night, The (1951): Dir. Joseph Losey
Feat. John Jr. Barrymore, Preston Foster, Joan Lorring…; Tense melodrama has Barrymore traumatised by watching his father submit to a beating at the hands of a petty gangster. Setting out to avenge his…
Browning Version, The (1951): Dir. Anthony Asquith
Feat. Michael Redgrave, Jean Kent; Sterling adaptation of Terrence Rattigan’s play features an unforgettable performance from Michael Redgrave as the cuckolded,…
Cry, The Beloved Country (1951): Dir. Zoltan Korda
Feat. Sidney Poitier, Joyce Carey, Canada Lee…; Deeply felt racial drama has Rev. Sidney Poitier encountering South African–style bigotry as he searches for his son in Johannesburg.
David and Bathsheba (1951): Dir. Henry King
Feat. Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, Raymond Massey…; The Hollywood romance as Biblical epic, with Gregory Peck as an adulterous King David who falls for the foxy Bathsheba (Hayward) – nevermind…
Lady with the Lamp, The (1951): Dir. Herbert Wilcox
Feat. Dame Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Gladys Young…; Well–wrought biopic charts the dramatic life of Florence Nightingale, finely played by Dame Neagle, and her pioneering nursing career.
No Highway in the Sky (1951): Dir. Henry Koster
Feat. James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Johns…; Early disaster pic has Stewart as an aeronautical engineer convinced that a new model of airplane is doomed to disaster due to metal fatigue, and…
Outcast of the Islands (1951): Dir. Carol Reed
Feat. Trevor Howard, Ralph Richardson, Robert Morley…; Sturdy British adventure melodrama from the director of THE THIRD MAN and FALLEN IDOL based on Joseph Conrad's 1896 novel. A riveting Trevor Howard…
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951): Dir. Albert Lewin
Feat. Ava Gardner, James Mason, Nigel Patrick…; Ava Gardner stars as the ravishing siren of a small Spanish town who has never fallen for anyone until the arrival of the mysterious James Mason, the…
People Will Talk (1951): Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Feat. Cary Grant, Jeanne Crain, Hume Cronyn; Enjoyable and sophisticated allegory, disguised as a standard Hollywood romantic comedy, in which a humanitarian doctor (Grant) must contend with the…
Place in the Sun, A (1951): Dir. George Stevens
Feat. Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters…; Montgomery Clift excels as a penniless youth whose determination to win the heart of socialite Elizabeth Taylor (in her debut as an adult actress) is…
Rashomon (1951): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori…; The film that brought Kurosawa to the attention of the world, and an Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film. Four wildly varying perspectives on a…
Repast (Meshi) (1951): Dir. Mikio Naruse
Feat. Setsuko Hara, Ken Uehara; A perceptive study of a fading marriage, in which a housewife (Hara) confronts the tedium and unhappiness of her domestic life, brought into sharp…
River, The (1951): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Nora Swinburne, Arthur Shields; A sublime and serene drama set on the banks of India's holy Bengal River in the 1920s, where a trio of young English girls come under the spell of a…
Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951): Dir. Elia Kazan
Feat. Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter…; Marlon Brando gives the performance of his career as the savage brute who taunts his disturbed sister–in–law (Vivienne Leigh). Virtuoso…
Susana (The Devil and the Flesh) (1951): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Rosita Quintana; A sexually devious reform girl seeks refuge in a decent working class family, only to cause upheaval with her devilish ways. Early Bunuel…
Astonished Heart, The (1950): Dir. Terence Fisher, Antony Damborough
Feat. Sir Noel Coward, Celia Johnson, Margaret Leighton…; Noel Coward stars in this adaptation of his play; a drawing–room melodrama about a married psychiatrist who unhappily succumbs to the wiles of…
Damned Don't Cry, The (1950): Dir. Vincent Sherman
Feat. Joan Crawford, David Brian, Steve Cochran…; Loosely based on the relationship between Bugsy Siegel and Virginia Hill, this riveting film tells of a New York socialite's involvement with an…
Diary of a Country Priest (Journal D'Un Cure De Campagne) (1950): Dir. Robert Bresson
Feat. Claude Laydu; Compelling and uncompromising – this adaptation of Georges Bernanos' classic French novel is one of dir. Bresson's best examinations of the…
Francesco giullare di Dio (Francis, God's Jester; The Flowers of St Francis) (1950): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Aldo Fabrizi; Following after dir. Rossellini's more obviously left–wing films (ROME OPEN CITY, PAISA), this unusual biopic would prove a transition work to…
La Ronde (1950): Dir. Max Ophuls
Feat. Anton Walbrook, Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani…; A witty chronicle of circular love–affairs and seductions in 19th century Vienna. Lavish sets and extravagent spiralling camerawork complement…
Men, The (1950): Dir. Fred Zinnemann
Feat. Marlon Brando, Teresa Wright, Everett Sloane…; Famous as Marlon Brando's film debut, playing a paraplegic war veteran struggling to come to terms with post–war life. Brando's smouldering…
Miracle in Milan (1950): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Paolo Stoppa; Memorable foray into satirical fantasy for dir. de Sica, in which a hobo philanthropist is given the power to work miracles in the…
Odette (1950): Dir. Herbert Wilcox
Feat. Dame Anna Neagle, Trevor Howard, Marius Goring…; Drama based on the true story of Odette Sansom, the British Special Operations Executive agent in WWII who miraculously evaded death after being sent…
Outrage (1950): Dir. Ida Lupino
Feat. Mala Powers, Tod Andrews, Robert Clarke; One of the earliest post–Code Hollywood films to deal with the subject of rape, this black–and–white B–movie follows a young…
Scandal (Shubun) (1950): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Shirley Yamaguchi, Takashi Shimura…; This excellent early Kurosawa, has Mifune playing a painter who becomes acquainted with a pop–singer, and thus the target of a tabloid…
Stromboli (1950): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Ingrid Bergman; After his neo–realist masterpieces, this is one of the dir.'s best films, concerning a WW2 refugee who hastily marries an Italian fisherman and…
Summer Interlude (1950): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Maj-Britt Nilsson, Birger Malmsten, Alf Kjellin; Perhaps Bergman's first significant work, about an aging ballerina who reflects on a youthful romance with her now–deceased lover in moody…
Sunset Boulevard (1950): Dir. Billy Wilder
Feat. Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim…; Faded screen vamp Gloria Swanson and screenwriter William Holden exploit each other mercilessly in this searing dissection of Hollywood decadence,…
Three Secrets (1950): Dir. Robert Wise
Feat. Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, Ruth Roman; Three women exchange handkerchiefs and spill their secrets while awaiting news of their children after a plane crashes. You may need the tissues…
All the King's Men (1949): Dir. Robert Rossen
Feat. Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge; Broderick Crawford brilliantly plays a well intentioned but bullheaded Southern senator whose thirst for power sets him on the road to ruin. Fine…
Boys in Brown, The (1949): Dir. Montgomery Tully
Feat. Jack Warner, Richard Attenborough, Dirk Bogarde…; Soft youth rebellion drama with Jack Warner as warden of a borstal struggling to keep his tempestuous young charges in line. Mostly of note for its…
Eureka Stockade (Massacre Hill) (1949): Dir. Harry Watt
Feat. Chips Rafferty, Jane Barrett, Jack Lambert…; Stirring account of the Victorian gold miners rebellion against British colonial authority in the 1850's and it's violent result. Ealing Studio's…
First Films of Samuel Fuller, The (I Shot Jesse James, The Baron of Arizona, The Steel Helmet) (1949-1951): Dir. Samuel Fuller
Feat. John Ireland, Vincent Price, Gene Evans; Sam Fuller's directorial debut is I Shot Jesse James (1949), the tale of Robert Ford (John Ireland), a member of the James gang who shot their leader…
Fountainhead, The (1949): Dir. King Vidor
Feat. Gary Cooper, Raymond Massey, Patricia Neal; A touchstone movie for architects, idealists, and geniuses of any profession modelled on the career of architectural wunderkind Frank Lloyd Wright.…
Great Gatsby, The (1949): Dir. Elliott Nugent
Feat. Alan Ladd, Betty Field, Macdonald Carey…; The second adaptation of the literary classic has the miscast Alan Ladd as the mysterious Long Islander.
Heiress, The (1949): Dir. William Wyler
Feat. Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson…; A near perfect adaptation, this Henry James tale of a naive young girl, her abusive father and fortune–hunting suitor, is considered one of the…
History of Mr. Polly, The (1949): Dir. Anthony Pelissier
Feat. John Mills, Betty Ann Davies, Megs Jenkins…; Bracing comedy set in the Victorian era follows the various misfortunes of sensitive but ineffectual draper Mills as he sets out in search of…
Letter to Three Wives, A (1949): Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Feat. Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern…; Three women each hear from a friend that she is about to run off with one of their husbands. Replete with characteristically sharp dialogue from the…
Orpheus (Orphee) (1949): Dir. Jean Cocteau
Feat. Jean Marais, Maria Casares, Marie Dea…; Cocteau's surrealist retelling of the classical tragedy stars Jean Marais as Orphee, the writer who retrieves his wife Eurydice from the dead. A…
Passionate Friends, The (1949): Dir. David Lean
Feat. Ann Todd, Trevor Howard, Claude Rains; A wistful Ann Todd divides her loyalty between a secure, older husband (Rains) and a free–spirited toff (Howard) in this rich, unrequited…
Quartet (1949): Dir. Ken Annakin, Arthur Crabtree, Harold French
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, Basil Radford, Honor Blackman; Four W Somerset Maugham stories are given exemplary treatment by the best of British, incl. Dirk Bogarde, Basil Radford and Honor Blackman. Unlike…
Queen of Spades (1949): Dir. Thorold Dickinson
Feat. Anton Walbrook, Dame Edith Evans, Yvonne Mitchell…; Expressionistic ghost story in which an obsessive army officer in 18th Century Russia becomes convinced an elderly countess has gained the ability to…
Small Back Room, The (Hour of Glory, The) (1949): Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Feat. David Farrar, Kathleen Byron, Jack Hawkins…; .
Stray Dog (Nora Inu) (1949): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune; An early film noir from Japan’s best–known director tracks police detective Toshiro Mifune into the underbelly of Tokyo in search of a pistol…
Tulsa (1949): Dir. Stuart Heisler
Feat. Susan Hayward, Robert Preston, Pedro Armendariz…; Glossy melodrama with Hayward whose determination to save her ranch from a greedy oil baron sees her enter the cut throat world of prospecting.
Under Capricorn (1949): Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Feat. Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Michael Wilding…; An alcoholic woman (Bergman) is torn between her roguish husband and the governor of NSW in this Hitchcock oddity, a romantic melodrama set in…
We Were Strangers (1949): Dir. John Huston
Feat. Jennifer Jones, John Garfield, Pedro Armendariz…; Adventure drama with Jennifer Jones playing a woman who joins the Cuban Underground and helps devise a plot to bring down the country's corrupt…
Young Man With a Horn (Young Man of Music) (1949): Dir. Michael Curtiz
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Doris Day, Lauren Bacall…; Sharp biopic based on legendary jazz trumpeteer Bix Beiderbecke (played here by Kirk Douglas), who rose from obscurity to possess one of the most…
Anna Karenina (1948): Dir. Julien Duvivier
Feat. Vivien Leigh, Ralph Richardson, Kieron Moore; Transplanted French director Duvivier – one of the key figures of 1930s "poetic realism" movement – brings grit and thoughtfulness to a…
Bicycle Thieves (The Bicycle Thief, Ladri di biciclette) (1948): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell; A huge sentimental favourite about a man whose chance at meaningful labour is taken from him when his precious bicycle is stolen from him. Though not…
Drunken Angel (Yoidore tenshi) (1948): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura; The film that made Toshiro Mifune a star – playing a petty gangster with TB, who turns to an alcoholic doctor for help after a shoot–out.…
Fallen Idol, The (1948): Dir. Carol Reed
Feat. Ralph Richardson; Celebrated, tasteful British thriller about the muddled attempt of an 8–year–old ambassador's son to protect the embassy butler (Ralph…
Joan of Arc (1948): Dir. Victor Fleming
Feat. Ingrid Bergman, Jose Ferrer, Gene Lockhart…; Ingrid Bergman is radiant as the saintly Joan in Fleming's last film, and though perhaps unsuitably theatrical, has been greatly improved by…
Les Enfants Terribles (The Strange Ones) (1948): Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
Feat. Edouard Dermithe, Nicole Stephane; A poetic drama–fantasy from the pen of Jean Cocteau (who also directed several scenes), that centres round the narcissistic,…
Loves of Carmen, The (1948): Dir. Charles Vidor
Feat. Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford; Famous Spanish fable with Rita Hayworth making a fine sultry, conniving Gypsy whose love for a respectable corporal leads to murder. No music, though.
My Brother's Keeper (1948): Dir. Alfred Roome
Feat. Jack Warner, Jane Hylton, David Tomlinson…; Rickety chase film from Gainsborough Pictures with two prisoners chained together making a dash for freedom.
Red Shoes, The (1948): Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Feat. Anton Walbrook, Moira Shearer, Marius Goring…; Beloved dance classic is a strikingly realised story of a young ballerina who, in an echo of the Hans Christian Andersen story, becomes torn between…
Snake Pit, The (1948): Dir. Anatole Litvak
Feat. Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Celeste Holm; Hollywood melodrama that gives serious attention to the subject of mental illness with Olivia de Havilland (in a career–best performance) as a…
Daisy Kenyon (1947): Dir. Otto Preminger
Feat. Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews, Henry Fonda…; Joan Crawford gives one of her greatest performances in this surprisingly compelling soap opera, finding herself torn between Fonda and Andrews.…
Desert Fury (1947): Dir. Lewis Allen
Feat. Lizabeth Scott, John Hodiak, Burt Lancaster…; Small town Nevada desert set suspense focusing around a gambling empire obstinately led by a tough woman whose perfect monopoly is interrupted by her…
Dishonored Lady (1947): Dir. Robert Stevenson
Feat. Hedy Lamarr, Dennis O'Keefe, John Loder; Hedy Lamarr and then–husband John Loder star in this deliciously ludicrous, dated melodrama, with Lamarr as a fashion editor and lively party…
Gentleman's Agreement (1947): Dir. Elia Kazan
Feat. Gregory Peck; Gregory Peck stars in this Academy Award winning melodrama about a writer who, for the sake of research, pretends to be Jewish and becomes a victim…
Germany Year Zero (1947): Dir. Roberto Rossellini; A heart–breaking depiction of life in the post–WW2 ruins of Berlin, in which a boy struggles to help his family who are forced to live in…
Green Dolphin Street (1947): Dir. Victor Saville
Feat. Lana Turner, Van Heflin, Donna Reed…; One of the biggest box office hits of its time, this sweeping colonial melodrama of unrequited lovers who migrate to Aotearoa in the 1850s has dated…
It Always Rains on Sunday (1947): Dir. Robert Hamer
Feat. Googie Withers, John McCallum, Jack Warner; Overlooked masterpiece of British crime noir which blends kitchen sink realism with the poetic sensibilities of 30's French cinema. An escaped…
La Terra Trema (1947): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Luchino Visconti, Antonio Pietrangeli; Life–study of a poor Sicilian fishing village that is reverently neo–realist in its approach. Lovely B&W photography never distracts from…
Life with Father (1947): Dir. Michael Curtiz
Feat. William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor; Keen adaptation of the Broadway staple, with a starched–shirt father raising daughter Elizabeth Taylor in 19th century NYC.
Anna and the King of Siam (1946): Dir. John Cromwell
Feat. Irene Dunne, Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell…; The first version of the true story of an English governess (Dunne) who in the 1860s journeyed to South East Asia to look after the King of Siam's 62…
Belle Et La Bete, La (Beauty and the Beast) (1946): Dir. Jean Cocteau
Feat. Jean Marais, Josette Day; Cocteau brings a fine sense of fantasy to the old fable, creating a luxuriant atmosphere unique to his film–making. A true classic.
Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946): Dir. William Wyler
Feat. Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews…; Uncommonly accurate portrait of small–town America after WW2 focuses on three war veterans attempting to adjust to civilian life. Historically…
Black Narcissus (1946): Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Feat. Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar…; Visually stunning film about a group of nuns who try to establish a mission on a remote Himalayan outpost in the face of formidable conditions. One…
Gaiety George (Showtime) (1946): Dir. George King, Leontine Sagan
Feat. Richard Greene, Ann Todd, Peter Graves…; Victorian–era musical about Irishman George Howard, who moves to London and purchases a theatre, aiming to enhance the local entertainment…
Great Expectations (1946): Dir. David Lean
Feat. John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Bernard Miles…; Esteemed treatment of Charles Dickens' classic novel about a young orphan aided by a mysterious benefactor brought major international success to the…
Humoresque (1946): Dir. Jean Negulesco
Feat. Joan Crawford, John Garfield; Elegant drama features Joan Crawford in a towering performance as wealthy patron who falls in love with a gifted musician. A masterpiece of the…
Man I Love, The (1946): Dir. Raoul Walsh
Feat. Ida Lupino, Robert Alda, Bruce Bennett…; Romantic drama about a New York lounge singer who becomes homesick and decides to visit her siblings on the West Coast, where she unexpectedly falls…
Matter of Life and Death, A (1946): Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Feat. David Niven; By a miracle, RAF pilot David Niven escapes certain death, only to find he must argue for his right to live before a 'heavenly tribunal'. A…
Paisa (1946): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Carmela Sazio, Robert Van Loon, Benjamin Emmanuel; Six short films focusing on the minor victories and losses of ordinary folk during WW2. Pioneering the now–familiar use of documentary footage,…
Razor's Edge, The (1946): Dir. Edmund Goulding
Feat. Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Anne Baxter…; Engrossing adaptation of Somerset Maugham's philosophical novel about an affluent war veteran's worldly search for spiritual fulfillment.
Shoeshine (Sciuscia) (1946): Dir. Vittorio De Sica; Perhaps Vittorio De Sica's first acknowledged masterpiece, concerns two young boys struggling to survive on the streets of post–WWII Rome by…
Years Between, The (1946): Dir. Compton Bennett
Feat. Michael Redgrave, Valerie Hobson, Dame Flora Robson; Michael Redgrave plays a British MI6 officer who returns home after working for the French Resistance to find that his wife, who had presumed him…
A Bell For Adano (1945): Dir. Henry King
Feat. Gene Tierney, John Hodiak, William Bendix…; Hodiak plays an army major assigned to restore order in a small Italian town in this gentle–natured drama. The luminous –and blonde…
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945): Dir. Elia Kazan
Feat. Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn…; Dir. Kazan's restrained debut, adapting Betty Smith's novel about a family of immigrants making do in the Brooklyn tenements of the early 20th…
Caesar and Cleopatra (1945): Dir. Gabriel Pascal
Feat. Vivien Leigh, Stewart Granger, Claude Rains…; The oft–told tale of the First Roman Emperor and the Queen of Egpyt, here adapted from George Bernard Shaw's play. Stagey filming is offset by…
Clock, The (1945): Dir. Vincente Minnelli
Feat. Judy Garland, Robert Walker, James Gleason…; Judy Garland's first dramatic role (in which she did not sing) reunites her with director (and future husband) Vincente Minnelli from MEET ME IN ST.…
Diary of a Chambermaid (1945): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Paulette Goddard; Chambermaid Paulette Goddard upsets an aristocratic household brimming with secrets and intrigues. One of Renoir's early Hollywood pictures.
I'll Be Seeing You (1945): Dir. William Dieterle
Feat. Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotton, Shirley Temple…; Ginger Rogers picks up a rare dramatic role in this sincere, if at times clunky melodrama, playing a convict on Christmas leave who falls in love…
Les Dames Du Bois De Boulogne (1945): Dir. Robert Bresson
Feat. Maria Casares; Dir. Bresson and writer Jean Cocteau are strange bedfellows in this lush, stylish drama, well–removed from the director’s austere later…
Les Enfants Du Paradis (Children of Paradise) (1945): Dir. Marcel Carne
Feat. Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur…; This resplendent evocation of nineteeth century Paris street theatre follows the love of mime Jean–Louis Barrault for the highly–strung…
Lost Weekend, The (1945): Dir. Billy Wilder
Feat. Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Howard da Silva…; Would–be novelist Ray Milland's personal frustrations bring on a three day drinking binge of desperate, terrifying proportions. Laced with a…
Rome: Open City (1945): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Anna Magnani, Aldo Fabrizi; Neo–realist war drama about resistance fighters in fascist Italy places the action right inside the everyday and humanises the heroic.…
Seventh Veil, The (1945): Dir. Compton Bennett
Feat. James Mason, Ann Todd; Renowned film serves up psychiatry in bite sized chunks as a concert pianist is cured of her complexes by a shrink intent on fixing her up with the…
Song to Remember, A (1945): Dir. Charles Vidor
Feat. Paul Muni, Merle Oberon, Cornel Wilde; Biopic on the life of Polish pianist and composer Frederic Chopin, taking a few liberties here and there to follow the child prodigy through his…
Southerner, The (1945): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Betty Field, Zachary Scott, Beulah Bondi…; One of dir. Renoir's finest American films, follows the year–long trial of a young family who attempt to grow cotton on a derelict…
Way to the Stars, The (1945): Dir. Anthony Asquith
Feat. John Mills, Michael Redgrave, Douglas Montgomery…; An RAF airfield in WWII is the setting of this unassuming war–drama, set around the lives of the ‘flyers’ and the ground–crew. Given…
Canterbury Tale, A (1944): Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Feat. Eric Porter, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price; A typically uncategorisable Powell/Pressburger movie, that draws on British eccentricities to flesh out its simple story about three wartime…
Fighting Sullivans, The (1944): Dir. Lloyd Bacon
Feat. Anne Baxter, Edward Ryan; Early telling of the true story that inspired SAVING PRIVATE RYAN about five brothers who served in WWII (in reality, at Guadacanal).
Great Moment, The (1944): Dir. Preston Sturges
Feat. Joel McCrea, Betty Field, William Demarest…; An oddly serious drama for dir. Sturges, this biopic of WTG Morgan (who discovered the anaesthetic properties of ether in the 19th century), played…
Keys of the Kingdom, The (1944): Dir. John M. Stahl
Feat. Gregory Peck, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price…; Quietly powerful drama about a devout Catholic priest (played by a young Gregory Peck) who travels to China to establish a parish. Through…
Love Story (A Lady Surrenders) (1944): Dir. Leslie Arliss
Feat. Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger, Patricia Roc…; Classy tearjerker with dying pianist Lockwood falling in love with blind pilot Granger. Treacly but satisfying with the two leads performances…
Mr. Skeffington (1944): Dir. Vincent Sherman
Feat. Bette Davis, Claude Rains, Walter Abel; Unrepentant weepie of epic length with Bette Davis as a NYC 'society girl' who snags a devoted and rich Jewish husband (Rains). But after a tangle…
Passage to Marseille (1944): Dir. Michael Curtiz
Feat. Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre; Distinguished by the use of flashbacks within flashbacks, this WW2 propaganda piece re–unites the director with CASABLANCA alumnae.
Since You Went Away (1944): Dir. John Cromwell, Andre De Toth
Feat. Joseph Cotton, Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones…; While husband Joseph Cotton is away at WWII, Claudette Colbert must hold home and family together. A lengthy dose of home–front stoicism, that…
This Happy Breed (1944): Dir. David Lean
Feat. Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, John Mills; Another David Lean–Noel Coward collaboration, the pair who later made the fine BRIEF ENCOUNTER. Here they turn their sensibilities to the…
To Have and Have Not (1944): Dir. Howard Hawks
Feat. Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart; In the upper–bracket of Bogart films, this first time match–up with Lauren Bacall still sets the screen alight. Adapted from the…
Torment (Hets) (1944): Dir. Alf Sjoberg
Feat. Stig Jarrel, Alf Kjellin, Mai Zetterling…; Impressionistic study of authoritarian education and adolescent love was scripted by a young Ingmar Bergman, and its universe of cruel twists and…
Way Ahead, The (1944): Dir. Carol Reed
Feat. David Niven, Stanley Holloway, Trevor Howard…; A depleted battalion must scrub up and train a ragtag bunch of conscripts to re–fill the positions left by deceased soldiers in this morale…
White Cliffs of Dover, The (1944): Dir. Clarence Brown
Feat. Elizabeth Taylor, Roddy McDowall, Irene Dunne…; Patriotic sentiment up full–bore, this extended saga of English–American fraternising over both World Wars, has Irene Dunne and family…
Action in the North Atlantic (1943): Dir. Lloyd Bacon
Feat. Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale…; Dramatic battle scenes highlight this Oscar–nominated WW2 drama, in which Bogie portrays the first mate of a freighter travelling the…
Crash Dive (1943): Dir. Archie Mayo
Feat. Tyrone Power, Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews; A submarine lieutenant and his commander fall in love with the same girl in this thrilling propaganda piece that won the 1943 Oscar for best special…
Day of Wrath (1943): Dir. Carl Dreyer
Feat. Thorkild Roose, Lisbeth Movin, Sigrid Neiiendam; Witchcraft drama set in 17th century rural Denmark, where an innocent young woman is denounced following the death of her much older, harshly…
Flemish Farm, The (1943): Dir. Jeffrey Dell
Feat. Clive Brook, Clifford Evans, Jane Baxter; Low budget WW2 aviation drama focused on a regiment of Belgian pilots who use a Flemish farm as an airstrip with one of the injured men becoming…
Hard Way, The (1943): Dir. Vincent Sherman
Feat. Ida Lupino, Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie; Musical drama based on a story by Irwin Shaw, which was reportedly inspired by Ginger Rogers' first marriage to Jack Pepper. Joan Leslie plays a…
Ivan the Terrible Pts. 1 & 2 (1943): Dir. Sergei Eisenstein
Feat. Nikolai Cherkassov, Serafima Birman, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya; Spectacularly staged chronicle of the life of Czar Ivan IV, and his struggle to consolidate the Russian empire in the 16th Century. One of the…
Jane Eyre (1943): Dir. Robert Stevenson
Feat. Joan Fontaine, Orson Welles, Peggy Ann Garner…; Orphan Jane's (Joan Fontaine) harsh childhood and strange marriage are fuel for splendid gothic melodrama in this version of Charlotte Bronte's…
Le Corbeau (1943): Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot
Feat. Pierre Fresnay; Fascinating as a wartime allegory made under the German Occupation of France, a small town becomes a hot–bed of paranoia following a rash of…
Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The (1943): Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Feat. Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook; The numerous off–beat adventures of a British soldier are chronicled over a period of three wars, with Deborah Kerr playing all three of the…
Man in Grey, The (1943): Dir. Leslie Arliss
Feat. James Mason, Margaret Lockwood, Phyllis Calvert…; Stagy melodrama told largely in flashback centers on the story of two women one rich, one poor and the man with whom a love triangle develops with…
Millions Like Us (1943): Dir. Sidney Gilliat
Feat. Patricia Roc, Gordon Jackson, Anne Crawford…; Honest dramatization of the British "home front" during the second World War focuses on a factory worker struggling to overcome her grief after the…
Ox Bow Incident, The (Strange Incident) (1943): Dir. William A. Wellman
Feat. Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes…; Superlative moral drama in a Western setting, where three lynched cattle rustlers are later proven innocent by the upstanding Henry Ford. Although…
Silver Fleet, The (1943): Dir. Vernon Sewell
Feat. Ralph Richardson, Esmond Knight, Googie Withers…; A rousing WW2 maritime drama in which a Dutch shipping port owner decides to swindle the Nazis by agreeing to provide them with his submarines for…
Song of Bernadette, The (1943): Dir. Henry King
Feat. Jennifer Jones, Vincent Price, Charles Bickford…; Religious melodrama set in 19th century rural France, where Jones controversially has visions of the Virgin Mary. Over–lavish (and long), this…
Casablanca (1942): Dir. Michael Curtiz
Feat. Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman; The role that immortalised Bogart is that of Rick, the laconic cafe–owner who assists old flame Ingrid Bergman to escape the Nazis with her…
Eternel Retour, L' (1942): Dir. Jean Delannoy
Feat. Jean Marais, Madeleine Sologney, Yvonne de Bray…; (Love Eternal) A contemporary take on the legend of Tristan and Isolde, lovers united after death. Jean Cocteau's script is realised with the…
First of the Few (Spitfire) (1942): Dir. Leslie Howard
Feat. Leslie Howard, David Niven, Rosamund John…; Rousing true life tale of aircraft designer R.J. Mitchell and his streamlined monoplane that led to the devolpment of the spitfire. Released with…
Kings Row (1942): Dir. Sam Wood
Feat. Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan, Ann Sheridan…; Celebrated and infamous melodrama of the titular smalltown, a seemingly placid American community, around which insanity, poverty and sadism hover…
Les Visiteurs Du Soir (1942): Dir. Marcel Carne
Feat. Arletty, Marie Dea, Fernand Ledoux…; Two of the Devil's henchmen are dispatched to a fairytale–like 15th century castle with an eye to corrupting its inhabitants, especially a pair…
Magnificent Ambersons, The (1942): Dir. Orson Welles
Feat. Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Dolores Costello; Following up CITIZEN KANE, Orson Welles again drew a bead on the American rich, chronicling the dynastic squabbles of a…
Mrs. Miniver (1942): Dir. William Wyler
Feat. Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon; An unabashed patriotic war drama, so effective in that capacity it garnered political commendation as well as six Oscars, including Best Picture and…
Orchestra Wives (1942): Dir. Archie Mayo
Feat. Ann Rutherford, George Montgomery, Lynn Bari…; Swing–era musical featuring the Glenn Miller orchestra, with Miller himself playing the leader of a band. When the trumpet player…
Ossessione (1942): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Clara Calamai, Massimo Girotti, Dhia Cristiani; Visconti's awesome debut interprets James Cain's novel of lust, greed, murder and recrimination, The Postman Always Rings Twice. Its stark rendering…
Pittsburgh (1942): Dir. Lewis Seiler
Feat. Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott, John Wayne; Marlene Dietrich – striking as always – is courted by John Wayne and Randolph Scott as coalminers–turned–millionaires. A…
Random Harvest (1942): Dir. Mervyn LeRoy
Feat. Ronald Colman, Greer Garson; A shell–shocked WW1 officer marries and is contented until he remembers his past life in the aristocracy. Far–fetched but very enjoyable…
Roxie Hart (Chicago) (1942): Dir. William A. Wellman
Feat. Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, George Montgomery…; Comedy adapting the 1926 play Chicago by Maurine Dallas Watkins, which was the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical. Ginger Rogers plays the…
Tales of Manhattan (1942): Dir. Julien Duvivier
Feat. Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers…; A star–studded portmanteau of five tales of life in the Big Apple. Runs the gamut from film noir, to romantic comedy, to high melodrama.
Thunder Birds (Soldiers of the Air) (1942): Dir. William A. Wellman
Feat. Gene Tierney, Preston Foster, John Sutton…; Routine wartime love triangle with two fighter pilots falling for a radiant Gene Tierney, gorgeous Technicolor and ace aerial photography liven it up…
Thunder Rock (1942): Dir. Roy Boulting
Feat. Michael Redgrave, James Mason, Barbara Mullen…; Wonderfully cerebral first film from the great Boulting Brothers in which a disillusioned newspaperman living in self imposed exile in a Michigan…
Went the Day Well? (1942): Dir. Alberto Cavalcanti
Feat. Leslie Banks, Valerie Taylor, Marie Lohr; British pluck and courage is put to the test in this Graham Greene story, where a cosy English village is infiltrated during WWII by a truckload of…
Citizen Kane (1941): Dir. Orson Welles
Feat. Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead; Orson Welles ground–breaking work chronicles a publishing tycoon's rise to power, told through a reporter's efforts to discover the meaning of…
Devil and Daniel Webster, The (1941): Dir. William Dieterle
Feat. Edward Arnold, Walter Huston, James Craig…; Originally released in a heavily edited version as "All That Money Can Buy", this recently restored version can now be fully appreciated as a true…
Face Behind the Mask, The (1941): Dir. Robert Florey
Feat. Peter Lorre, Evelyn Keyes; Film noir following the descent of a kind watch maker whose face is disfigured in a fire shortly after immigrating to America, and despite being a…
How Green Was My Valley (1941): Dir. John Ford
Feat. Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara; Memories of childhood in a Welsh mining village are vividly portrayed in this highly emotive drama. Winner of 5 Oscars including Best Picture.
Jean Grémillon: During the Occupation (Remorques, Lumière d'été, Le Ciel Est à Vous) (1941-1944): Dir. Jean Gremillon
Feat. Jean Gabin, Madeleine Renaud; Three character–driven dramas from the heralded French film director who has been little represented outside of his home country: Remorques…
Loyal 47 Ronin, The (47 Ronin) (1941): Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Yoshizaburo Arashi; Sombre rendition of a famous Japanese legend that's both quietly dignified and overtly nationalistic, tooled as propaganda during the height of…
Lydia (Illusions) (1941): Dir. Julien Duvivier
Feat. Merle Oberon, Joseph Cotton, Alan Marshall…; Dreamy, melancholic melodrama follows the life and numerous loves of a society gal (Oberron) in New England over thirty odd years. Dir. Duvivier…
Meet John Doe (1941): Dir. Frank Capra
Feat. Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan…; Always partial to a ripe political parable, dir. Capra has Barbara Stanwyck leading hickster Gary Cooper around by the nose on a national goodwill…
Penny Serenade (1941): Dir. George Stevens
Feat. Cary Grant, Irene Dunne; Cary Grant and Irene Dunne adopt a infant, then lose it, in a brilliantly crafted tear–jerker.
Swamp Water (1941): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Walter Brennan, Walter Huston, Anne Baxter…; An interesting melodrama, dank with the regional atmosphere of the Florida Everglades, about the problems undergone by a youthful fur trapper…
Ziegfeld Girl (1941): Dir. Robert Z. Leonard
Feat. James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr…; A star–sudded MGM musical melodrama featuring musical numbers staged by Busby Berkeley, highlighted by "You Stepped Out of a Dream". Set in the…
Fighting 69th, The (1940): Dir. William Keighley
Feat. James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, George Brent; James Cagney plays a loudmouthed braggart who alienates his comrades and officers, but the regimental chaplain (Pat O'Brien) has faith that he'll…
Grapes of Wrath (1940): Dir. John Ford
Feat. Henry Fonda, John Carradine; Henry Fonda stars in this masterful humanist film about a group of destitute Oklahoma farmers that trek to California in hope of a better life. One…
Howards Of Virginia, The (1940): Dir. Frank Lloyd
Feat. Cary Grant, Martha Scott, Sir Cedric Hardwicke; Cary Grant rather bumbles through this melodrama set during the American Revolution, playing a rugged surveyor who marries aristocrat and royalist…
Letter, The (1940): Dir. William Wyler
Feat. Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson; Although not quite of the first rank, this sultry melodrama counts as one of Bette Davis' most interesting 1940s works. Set among the frustrated…
Little Men (1940): Dir. Norman Z. McLeod
Feat. Kay Francis, Jack Oakie, George Bancroft…; Based on the inferior follow–up to Louisa May Alcott's hugely successful Little Women, we find Jo March and her husband operating the Plumfield…
Long Voyage Home, The (1940): Dir. John Ford
Feat. John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter…; John Wayne is a Swedish sailor aboard a doom–ridden tramp steamer circa. WWII, in this portmanteau of four stories by Eugene O'Neill. An…
Northwest Passage (1940): Dir. King Vidor
Feat. Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan…; Rousing adventure yarn set during the French–Indian war with Tracy and team opening up trade routes and leading raids. Splendid Technicolour…
Our Town (1940): Dir. Sam Wood
Feat. Frank Craven, William Holden, Martha Scott; Affectionate study of small–town American life, set in New Hampshire over a twelve year period. Frank Craven narrates our tour of the community…
Rebecca (1940): Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Feat. Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders; A masterful gothic romance about a nobleman's second wife who becomes haunted by the image of his beloved first. Hitchcock's first American film was…
Remember the Night (1940): Dir. Mitchell Leisen
Feat. Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi…; Preston Sturges scripted this forgotten yuletide gem, about an assistant D.A. (MacMurray) who, feeling sorry for a glamorous jewel thief (Stanwyck),…
Tom Brown's School Days (1940): Dir. Robert Stevenson
Feat. Freddie Bartholomew, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Jimmy Lydon; Thomas Hughes' classic novel of life at the Victorian Boys public school of Rugby is given a generous, populist treatment. New boy Lydon finds…
Twenty One Days (21 Days Together) (1940): Dir. Basil Dean
Feat. Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Leslie Banks…; Laurence Olivier plays a playboy embroiled in the death of an attractive model's blackmailer in this curious pre–war melodrama, from the…
Dark Victory (1939): Dir. Edmund Goulding
Feat. Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart…; Sleekly upholstered melodrama, with Davis as a willful, party–going Long Island millionairess who discovers she is dying. Great performances…
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939): Dir. John Ford
Feat. Henry Fonda, Claudette Colbert, Edna May Oliver…; Minor Ford drama with Fonda and Colbert as newlyweds whose farming career gets stymied by the Revolutionary War and attacks from Native Americans.…
Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939): Dir. Sam Wood
Feat. Robert Donat, Greer Garson; Slow–moving, heartfelt story of a devoted schoolteacher. Robert Donat won an Oscar in the lead role.
Hunchback of Notre Dame, The (1939): Dir. William Dieterle
Feat. Charles Laughton; Charles Laughton is perfectly cast in this beautifully expressionistic version of the classic.
Jour Se Leve, Le (Daybreak) (1939): Dir. Marcel Carne
Feat. Jean Gabin, Arletty; A renowned example of 'poetic realism', Jean Gabin gives another consummate performance as a doomed anti–hero. His tragic story is told in…
La Regle Du Jeu (Rules of the Game) (1939): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Roland Toutain…; Considered one the greatest films in history, this downbeat yet incisive satire centres around weekend shooting party that results in a myriad of…
Of Mice and Men (1939): Dir. Lewis Milestone
Feat. Lon Jr. Chaney, Burgess Meredith, Betty Field…; A mentally–challenged giant and his level–headed guardian find work at a sadistic cowboy's ranch in this adaptation of John Steinbeck's…
Only Angels Have Wings (1939): Dir. Howard Hawks
Feat. Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth; Quintessential Hawks fare in which men are men and women have to be equally tough. At a South American outpost, mail pilot Cary Grant becomes…
Stars Look Down, The (1939): Dir. Carol Reed
Feat. Michael Redgrave, Margaret Lockwood, Emlyn Williams; Gritty account of life in a Northumberland coal mining village was dir. Reed's first notable film and still one of his most successful. Centred…
When Tomorrow Comes (1939): Dir. John M. Stahl
Feat. Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Barbara O'Neil; Overly sentimental romantic melodrama about an unhappily married concert pianist who casually falls for a restaurant waitress whom he takes back to…
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939): Dir. John Ford
Feat. Henry Fonda, Alice Brady, Marjorie Weaver…; A fresh–faced Henry Fonda gives credence to the formative years of Abraham Lincoln, seen here as a country boy–turned–lawyer…
Alexander Nevsky (1938): Dir. Sergei Eisenstein
Feat. Nikolai Cherkassov, Nikolai Okhlopkov; Eisenstein's first sound film is a patriotic epic about the 13th century hero who led his people against the Teutonic Knights. Monumental battle…
Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938): Dir. Henry King
Feat. Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche…; Irving Berlin contributes over two dozen songs as well as the screenplay for this rousing story of the history of (white) jazz music from ragtime to…
Algiers (1938): Dir. John Cromwell
Feat. Hedy Lamarr, Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie…; Remake of a PEPE LE MOKO, in which a dashing jewel thief who has been hiding out for two years in the mysterious, murky Casbah, falls madly in love…
Bank Holiday (Three on a Weekend) (1938): Dir. Carol Reed
Feat. Margaret Lockwood, John Lodge, Hugh Williams…; Minor drama with nurse Lockwood heading to the seaside for an illicit weekend only to have her enjoyment tempered by her job.
Beachcomber, The (Vessel of Wrath) (1938): Dir. Erich Pommer
Feat. Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester; Drama based on the short story by Somerset Maughamet, set in a remote tropical Dutch colony, where the sister of a missionary attempts to reform a…
Good Earth, The (1938): Dir. Sidney Franklin
Feat. Paul Muni, Luise Rainer; Pearl S. Buck's epic novel is given the proud, grand and serious treatment by Hollywood. The tale told is about greed and gain amongst Chinese…
Great Waltz, The (The Life of Johann Strauss) (1938): Dir. Julien Duvivier
Feat. Fernand Gravey, Luise Rainer, Lionel Atwill; The lIfe story of Johann Strauss is given a rich if somewhat corny treatment in this otherwise well–mounted musical biopic.
I Accuse (J'Accuse) (1938): Dir. Abel Gance
Feat. Victor Francen, Line Noro, Marie Lou; Dir. Gance’s own remake of his 1919 silent classic, in which a soldier traumatised by the slaughter of WWI attempts to prevent future…
Jezebel (1938): Dir. William Wyler
Feat. Bette Davis, Henry Fonda; A classic, Oscar–winning role for Bette Davis, as a southern belle who defies the arch conventions of 19th century New Orleans high society…
Marseillaise, La (1938): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Pierre Renoir, Lisa Delamare, Leon Larive…; Renoir's classic depicts events leading up to the French revolution in the 18th Century, electing to extract history from the heart of the common…
Angel (1937): Dir. Ernst Lubitsch
Feat. Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, Melvyn Douglas; Love triangle between a distracted husband, a neglected wife and an ardent suitor set amid the rigid social norms of the…
Camille (1937): Dir. George Cukor
Feat. Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore…; One of Greta Garbo’s finest roles, playing the courtesan heroine of Alexandre Dumas’ potboiler, navigating the treacheries of the French…
Edge of the World, The (1937): Dir. Michael Powell
Feat. John Laurie, Belle Chrystall, Eric Berry…; In what is considered his first major film, director Michael Powell depicts a majestic account of the depopulation of one of the isolated outer…
Fire Over England (1937): Dir. William K. Howard
Feat. Laurence Olivier, Dame Flora Robson, Raymond Massey…; The war between England and Spain in the late 16th century serves as the backdrop for this lavish drama. Laurence Olivier plays a British naval…
Grand Illusion (La Grande Illusion) (1937): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim…; The heroics and hypocrasies of war are illustrated through an imprisoned French squadron in WW1 and their cultured German commandant. A hailed…
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937): Dir. Leo McCarey
Feat. Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter…; Frankly, one of the most devastating movies ever made, this long neglected classic served as inspiration for Ozu's revered TOKYO STORY many years…
Stella Dallas (1937): Dir. King Vidor
Feat. Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles; Definitive family melodrama in which Barbara Stanwyck compels as the social–climbing Stella, ultimately driven to painful self–knowledge…
Uncivilised (1937): Dir. Charles Chauvel
Feat. Margot Rhys, Dennis Hoey, Ashton Jarry; Illogical Chauval epic with a white authoress, looking for a story in the outback, kidnapped by an Afghan slaver!
César (1936): Dir. Marcel Pagnol
Feat. Raimu, Orane Demazis, Pierre Fresnay…; Playwright Marcel Parcol takes over the director's reins himself for this concluding part of his Marseille trilogy, following 'Marius' and 'Fanny'.…
Dodsworth (1936): Dir. William Wyler
Feat. Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas…; While on a European holiday, businessman Walter Huston's marriage reaches crisis point. A mature, highly–rated studio pic with especially…
Fury (1936): Dir. Fritz Lang
Feat. Spencer Tracy, Sylvia Sidney; Blunt statement against the mob–mentality with Spencer Tracy as an innocent man set upon by vicious locals intent on lynching with extreme…
Mary of Scotland (1936): Dir. John Ford
Feat. Katharine Hepburn, Fredric March, John Carradine…; Katharine Hepburn stars as Mary, Queen of Scots who, after languishing in jail for 18 years at Elizabeth I's command, is offered a pardon if she will…
Prisoner of Shark Island, The (1936): Dir. John Ford
Feat. Warner Baxter, Gloria Stuart; Gripping John Ford–directed prison yarn is based on the ordeal of Dr. Samuel Mudd, a famous victim of circumstance who unknowingly cared for…
Trail of the Lonesome Pine, The (1936): Dir. Henry Hathaway
Feat. Fred MacMurray, Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda; This pioneering colour film is an engaging old–fashioned Western tale of loyalty, family and romance set against an age–old feud between…
Dangerous + Hell's House (1935/32): Dir. Alfred Green, Howard Higgin
Feat. Bette Davis; Bette Davis in two early roles – her lead performance as a star–turned–alcoholic in DANGEROUS fetching her the first of two Best…
David Copperfield (1935): Dir. George Cukor
Feat. W.C. Fields; Top–line Hollywood–ization of the Dickens classic.
Devil Is A Woman, The (1935): Dir. Josef von Sternberg
Feat. Marlene Dietrich, Lionel Atwill, Cesar Romero; Set during Carnival in turn on the century Seville where a temptress comes between a young revolutionary and his old friend.
Heritage (1935): Dir. Charles Chauvel
Feat. Frank Harvey, Margot Rhys, Franklyn Bennett; Epic Australian drama following three generations of the same family from their initial arrival to the outbreak of the first World War.
Informer, The (1935): Dir. John Ford
Feat. Victor McLaglen; Stunning character study unfolds when an IRA leader is sold out by his dim–witted friend for reward money. Full–blooded acting by all was…
Le Crime De Monsieur Lange (1935): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Rene Lefevre, Florelle , Jules Berry; One of the dir.’s early classics. Rene Leferve rises to newsprint fame as the author of the serial “Arizona Jim” after his boss, a…
Roberta (1935): Dir. William A. Seiter
Feat. Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers…; An unsuccessful American Football player inherits his Aunt's Parisian fashion house. One of the weaker Rogers/Astaire efforts.
Tale of Two Cities (1935): Dir. Jack Conway
Feat. Ronald Colman; A model screen adaptation of a classic novel. Script and spectacle are in perfect accord to tell Charles Dickens' story of courage and honour in 18th…
L'Atalante (1934): Dir. Jean Vigo
Feat. Michel Simon, Jean Daste; A recently restored master work from the French film archive combines lyrical romance with inspired touches of fantasy.
Of Human Bondage (1934): Dir. John Cromwell
Feat. Bette Davis, Leslie Howard; The film which propelled Bette Davis to stardom, with her vivid personification of a coy, but slutty Cockney waitress who becomes the object of…
Our Daily Bread (1934): Dir. King Vidor
Feat. Karen Morley, Tom Keene, Barbara Pepper…; Another fascinating sociological drama from director King Vidor about a struggling couple during the Great Depression who move to the country and…
Ecstasy (1933): Dir. Gustav Machety
Feat. Hedy Lamarr; Hedy Lamarr came to world attention in this 1932 film, playing a sexually–frustrated bride who goes on a fifteen minute nude romp in an alpine…
Liebelei (1933): Dir. Max Ophuls
Feat. Arthur Schnitzler; An early work from the German maestro of the tracking shot, whose tale of doomed romance between a young soldier and fraulein (taken from a play by…
Queen Christina (1933): Dir. Rouben Mamoulian
Feat. Greta Garbo, John Gilbert; Historical costume drama with Greta Garbo appropriately cast as the Swedish Queen.
American Madness (1932): Dir. Frank Capra
Feat. Walter Huston; Vivid parable in which Walter Huston portrays a bank president facing the threat of commercial failure during the Great Depression.
Bill of Divorcement, A (1932): Dir. George Cukor
Feat. John Barrymore, Katharine Hepburn, Billie Burke…; Shell–shocked war veteran John Barrymore returns to the world after 15 years in an asylum, to find that wife Katharine Hepburn (in her screen…
Bird of Paradise (1932): Dir. King Vidor
Feat. Dolores Del Rio, Joel McCrea, John Halliday…; Erotic adventure drama about a sailor who falls in love with a woman from an unnamed Pacific island where the film is set. Plenty of colonialist…
Blonde Venus (1932): Dir. Josef von Sternberg
Feat. Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, Herbert Marshall…; Director Josef von Sternberg reunites with muse Marlene Dietrich in this sweeping melodrama about a German chanteuse turned struggling housewife who…
Fanny (1932): Dir. Marc Allegret
Feat. Raimu, Orane Demazis, Pierre Fresnay…; Leisurely French romantic drama based on the play by Marcel Pagnol that marks the second part in the Marseille film trilogy that started with Marius…
Grand Hotel (1932): Dir. Edmund Goulding
Feat. Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, John Barrymore…; The granddaddy of extravagent soap–opera, this pre–eminent, Oscar–winning Hollywood affair glitters with stars. Weekend guests'…
I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932): Dir. Mervyn LeRoy
Feat. Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson…; Minor American classic unravels Paul Muni's plight an as innocent man subjected to the brutality of prison life. With fierce conviction, the film…
Rain (1932): Dir. Lewis Milestone
Feat. Joan Crawford, Walter Huston; A turbulent adaptation of Somerset Maugham's short story 'Miss Thompson' set on a Samoan island quarantine station during the rainy season. When a…
Shanghai Express (1932): Dir. Josef von Sternberg
Feat. Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Warner Oland; Hollywood's version of pre–revolutionary Shanghai is a lavish parallel universe of sin and oriental treachery with Marlene Dietrich (as…
Marius (1931): Dir. Alexander Korda
Feat. Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis…; Based on the play by revered French writer Marcel Pagnol, this is the first film in the Marseille Trilogy featuring the characters of Marius (Pierre…
Mata Hari (1931): Dir. George Fitzmaurice
Feat. Greta Garbo, Ramon Novarro, Lionel Barrymore…; Heavily fictionalized account of the life of Mata Hari, the exotic dancer who was accused of spying for Germany during World War I. Garbo is magnetic…
Miracle Woman, The (1931): Dir. Frank Capra
Feat. Barbara Stanwyck, David Manners, Sam Hardy; Barbara Stanwyck teams with dir. Frank Capra for this captivating pre–Code film about a preacher's daughter who becomes disillusioned by the…
Possessed (1931): Dir. Clarence Brown
Feat. Joan Crawford, Clark Gable; Vivid and detailed early drama about a rich NYC lawyer and his mistress, made when its lead performers were both on the verge of stardom. Centred…
Street Scene (1931): Dir. King Vidor
Feat. Sylvia Sidney, William Collier, Jr., Estelle Taylor…; Drama set over a single 24 hours on a city block in Hell's Kitchen, New York City. Describes a melting pot of gossip, jealousy, racism, adultery…
Tabu (1931): Dir. F.W. Murnau
Feat. Anna Chevalier; A beautifully filmed romantic tragedy based on a simple Pacific island folk tale. Poetry and sensuality is startlingly evoked through the play of…
Anna Christie (1930): Dir. Clarence Brown
Feat. Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford, Marie Dressler…; Ayoung woman reunites with her estranged father and falls in love with a sailor, but struggles to tell them about her dark past. Garbo's first…
Blood of a Poet (1930): Dir. Jean Cocteau
Feat. Lee Miller, Pauline Carton; Cocteau's first film is a surrealist gem that sewed the seeds of his style. The Dali/Bunuel influence is clear, but this goes one step further with…
Blue Angel, The (1930): Dir. Josef von Sternberg
Feat. Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings; A masterwork of the twenties German grotesquerie, this enjoyed great success and gave an early career boost to Marlene Dietrich.
City Girl (1930): Dir. F.W. Murnau
Feat. Charles Farrell, David Torrence; Murnau's lost pastoral beauty about a Minnesota boy who marries a tough city girl and brings her home at harvest time, where their love is…
Party Girl (Dangerous Business) (1930): Dir. Victor Halperin
Feat. Douglas Jr. Fairbanks; Tarty pre–code expose of ‘party girl’ rackets – or prostitution rings – with Douglas Fairbanks as a college cad looking for love in all…
Prix de Beaute (1930): Dir. Augusto Genina
Feat. Louise Brooks, Georges Charlia, Augusto Bandini; Louise Brooks is vivacious beyond compare in her first sound film, a jazz–age classic about a young office worker who enters a beauty…
Asphalt (1929): Dir. Joe May
Feat. Gustav Frohlich, Betty Amann; Bravura melodrama from the German Expressionist era wrangles with the divided loyalites of a love–struck police officer who falls for a sultry…
Diary of a Lost Girl (1929): Dir. G.W. Pabst
Feat. Louise Brooks; Exceptional follow–up to the eye–opening PANDORA’S BOX, with Louise Brooks again provoking disorder with her unrestrained vitality and…
Eternal Love (1929): Dir. Ernst Lubitsch
Feat. John Barrymore, Camilla Horn; Made during the last days of the silent era, the legendary Ernst Lubitsch directs John Barrymore and Camilla Horn as two lovers living in the Swiss…
Queen Kelly (1929): Dir. Erich von Stroheim
Feat. Gloria Swanson, Seena Owen, Walter Byron…; Star/producer Gloria Swanson fired her director before this picture was even half completed, but this 'shortened' epic about a sex scandal in…
Docks of New York, The (1928): Dir. Josef von Sternberg
Feat. George Bancroft, Betty Compson; George Bancroft plays a roughneck stoker who gets into all sorts of trouble during a brief shore leave when he falls hard for a wise and weary…
L'Argent (Money) (1928): Dir. Marcel L'Herbier
Feat. Pierre Alcover, Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel…; Classic of the late silent era from French filmmaker, writer and film theorist Marcel L'Herbier, based on the book of the same name by Émile…
Last Command, The (1928): Dir. Josef von Sternberg
Feat. Emil Jannings; Emil Jannings won the first best actor Academy Award for his performance as a sympathetic tyrant: an exiled Russian general turned Hollywood extra…
Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928): Dir. Herbert Brenon
Feat. Lon Chaney, Loretta Young, Nils Asther…; Profoundly moving melodrama with Lon Chaney playing a traveling circus clown who raises an abandoned child as his daughter, but falls into deep…
Man Who Laughs, The (1928): Dir. Paul Leni
Feat. Conrad Veidt, Mary Philbin, Olga Baclanova; One of the most spectacular (and sophisticated) of the silent epics adapts a historical story by Victor Hugo concerning the destiny of a disfigured…
Pandora's Box (1928): Dir. G.W. Pabst
Feat. Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer; Louise Brooks become a star and influenced a million haircuts as the voluptuous call–girl, Lulu, whose misdeeds meet with an appropriate fate.
Storm Over Asia (Potomok Chingis-Khana) (1928): Dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin; An epic of silent Russian cinema to rival Eisenstein, this is set around a young Mongol fur–trapper who is swindled by traders and develops a…
End of St. Petersburg, The (1927): Dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin
Feat. Vera Baranovskaya, Aleksandr Chistyakov; The tensions that exploded with the 'October Revolution' in Russia, 1917 are schematised here using understated characterisations (of workers and…
Sunrise (1927): Dir. F.W. Murnau
Feat. George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Bodil Rosing; The first American outing from the master of German Expressionism turned out to be perhaps his best film of all. He instils an electric charge on a…
Garbo Silents Collection, The (Flesh and the Devil, The Temptress, The Mysterious Lady) (1926-1928): Dir. Clarence Brown, Fred Niblo
Feat. Greta Garbo, John Gilbert; Three MGM classics that well represent the great Greta Garbo as the ultimate silent movie icon: Flesh and the Devil (1927, 112m.) A gorgeous high…
Gribiche (Mother of Mine) (1926): Dir. Jacques Feyder; A silent French film by Jacques Feyder. A 13–year–old working–class boy lives alone with his mother. While shopping in a Paris…
La Boheme (1926): Dir. King Vidor
Feat. Lillian Gish, John Gilbert, Renee Adoree…; Silent film adaptation of the 1896 opera by Giacomo Puccini, with Lillian Gish starring alongside John Gilbert as doomed lovers Mimi and Rodolphe, a…
Mother (1926): Dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin
Feat. Vera Baranovskaya, Nikolai Batalov; In one of the masterpieces of early Russian cinema, a fable of pre–revolutionary worker–resistance and Tsarist oppression is heightened…
Battleship Potemkin (1925): Dir. Sergei Eisenstein
Feat. Alexander Antonov, Vladimir Blasky, Grigori Alexandrov; This landmark Soviet propaganda film about the 1905 revolution is one of the greatest classics of all time. The smart use of visual metaphor and that…
Last Laugh, The (Letzte Mann, Der) (1925): Dir. F.W. Murnau
Feat. Emil Jannings; One of the classics of silent German cinema, this puts visual expressionism to use for a penetrating psychological study of a man's systematic…
Late Mathias Pascal, The (Feu Mathias Pascal) (1925): Dir. Marcel L'Herbier
Feat. Ivan Mosjoukine, Michel Simon; A French silent film, based on the novel by Luigi Pirandello. Russian actor Ivan Mosjoukine stars as Mathias, an assistant librarian from a…
Variety (1925): Dir. E.A. Dupont
Feat. Emil Jannings, Lya de Putti; A cautionary fable of romantic treachery set in the since–vanished vaudeville world, lent depth through its sophisticated visual style. Emil…
Kean (1924): Dir. Alexandre Volkoff
Feat. Ivan Mosjoukine; A French silent film depicting the life of Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean, played by Ivan Mosjoukine, focusing on his romance with countess Elena de…
A Woman of Paris (1923): Dir. Charles Chaplin
Feat. Edna Purviance, Adolphe Menjou, Charles Chaplin; Chaplin's early attempt at drama is a mostly successful tale of a woman, who despite serious intentions, ends up the mistress of a boozing lecher in…
Phantom Carriage, The (Körkarlen) (1921): Dir. Victor Sjostrom
Feat. Victor Sjostrom, Hilda Borgström, Tore Svennberg; Impeccable Swedish silent film following a ghostly carriage as it takes a man's soul on a journey following his death on New Year's Eve, forcing him…
Blind Husbands / The Great Gabbo (1919-1929): Dir. Erich von Stroheim, James Cruze
Feat. Erich von Stroheim, Gibson Gowland, Sam De Grasse…; Two feature films on one disc featuring visionary Austrian–American silent filmmaker and actor Erich von Stroheim. Blind Husbands (directed…
Broken Blossoms (1919): Dir. D.W. Griffith
Feat. Lillian Gish, Donald Crisp, Robert Barthelmess; D.W. Griffiths low–key lyric tragedy, set in 19th century London's docklands, with Lillian Gish at her most otherworldly. As the…
Sentimental Bloke, The (1919): Dir. Raymond Longford
Feat. Arthur Tauchert; Restored version of the iconic Australian silent drama, adapted from a series of poems by C.J. Dennis, telling the story of a typical bloke meeting…
True Heart Susie (1919): Dir. D.W. Griffith
Feat. Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Clarine Seymour…; Lillian Gish plays an innocent and big–hearted country girl who sacrifices everything for the clueless minister that breaks her heart. A…

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