Charu lives a lonely and idle life in 1870s India. Although her husband devotes more time to his newspaper than to their marriage, he sees her loneliness and asks his brother-in-law, Umapeda, a would-be writer, to keep her company. At this point Bhupati's cousin, Amal, visits and spends a long vacation and, after several months, Charu and Amal's feelings for each other move beyond friendship and toward tragedy. A classic piece of early drama from the great Satyajit Ray. find out more...

Winner of the Best Actress award at Cannes, 1967, and possibly the prettiest film of the sixties. A high-ranking Swedish soldier sacrifices his wife, career and social standing for the love of a young circus girl, but their idyllic liaison is soon tainted by the realities of life. Romantic tragedy. find out more...

An all-knowing interlocutor guides us through a series of affairs in turn of the century Vienna, a soldier meets an eager young lady of the evening, later he has an affair with a young lady, who becomes a maid and does similarly with the young man of the house. The young man seduces a married woman and on and on spins on the gay carousel of life. Elegantly constructed and witty fantasy about the vagaries of romantic attraction. Sumptuous sets and sparkling dialogue accompany the characters and, find out more...

This masterpiece is understandably on many people's all time favourite list. The lives of six Parisians are intertwined against the backdrop of the early-19th Century popular theatre and underworld, with the film a multi-layered meditation on the nature of performance. Flawlessly executed and cast. find out more...

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After Renoir's reluctant addition of a couple of titles to satisfy the producers desire to expand to feature length, this masterpiece was finally released in 1946. On an idyllic country picnic, a young girl briefly leaves her family and fiance and succumbs to an all-too-brief romance. The careful reconstruction of period (around 1860) is enhanced by a typically touching generosity towards the characters and an aching, poignant sense of love lost, but never forgotten. And, as always in Renoir, find out more...

The first of Visconti's series of films exploring the mechanisms of class and family in the context of historical change. Set during the 1860s Austrian occupation of Italy, Alida Valli plays Countess Lidia, a married Venetian aristocrat who falls in love with a young Austrian officer, Franz. Lidia sacrifices everything for love, but the narcissistic materialism of Franz becomes apparent, sadistically exploiting his own looks and her masochism, submitting her to one humiliation after another and, find out more...

A chillingly awesome film, one of Clint's best. A dark sexual brooding drama set during the American Civil War. A wounded soldier is taken in by a crumbling girls' school and proceeds, through their sexual confusion and frustration, to manipulate the women. Their retribution is blood curdling. find out more...