Set in Orange County, California, in an age where America has lost its ‘war on drugs', a reluctant undercover cop is ordered to start spying on his friends, the consequence of which is a paranoid journey into the absurd, where identities and loyalties are impossible to decode and even your own motives become unclear. Scanner Darkly is a cautionary tale of drug use based on the novel by Philip K Dick and born of his own experiences. Like a graphic novel come to life, the film uses live action pho find out more...

When a petty crook loses his switchblade on the underground the scene is set for an escalating catalogue of chaos, murder and mistaken identity. With a power-crazed policeman on the rampage and a mad killer on the loose, the body count rapidly begins to rise in this wickedly surreal comedy. find out more...

Noirish, black and white thriller, adapted by Kurosawa from a novel by Ed McBain. Wealthy tycoon Kingo Gondo is prepared to face financial ruin when his young son is kidnapped, but it soon emerges that the ruthless abductor has accidentally snatched the chauffeur's child instead. With the ransom demand still standing, Kingo faces a terrible moral dilemma, while wily policeman Inspector Tokuro employs ever more cunning methods in his hunt for the kidnapper. Tense and thought-provoking. find out more...

January 1966: in a Paris flat police discover the body of Georges Figon. A year earlier, tired of dodgy deals and petty scams, ex-con Georges Figon had gone in search of something big and, through his underworld connections, had got himself hired as producer for a documentary on de-colonialisation to be written by Marguerite Duras and directed by Georges Franju. The well-known Moroccan dissident Mehdi Ben Barka was to be the film's 'historical advisor', but the whole film project was an elaborat find out more...

Melville's masterful take on the American crime thriller perfectly combines the Hollywood gangster film with his uniquely French style. Alain Delon as a master thief, Yves Montand as an alcoholic ex-cop and Gian-Maria Volonte as an escaped criminal plot a daring heist of an upmarket Parisian jewellery store against impossible odds. find out more...

Let's all thank the Lord that Takashi Miike found work as a film director - cuz none of us would want a mind this twisted loose on the streets. MPD-Psycho (Multiple-Personality-Detective) are two episodes from the Manga by Otsuka Eiji and Tajima Sho-u that follow the fortunes of Amamiya (or is it Kobayshi?), a police detective with multiple personality syndrome. Missing wives, mysterious cults and some very sick individuals combine to make these films two of the most disturbing, surreal and fant find out more...

More weird and truly wonderful madness from Takashi Miike and his Multiple Personality Detective. In episodes 3 and 4 we learn a little bit more about Nishizono, the arch criminal who can transfer his soul/self into others with the slightest touch, the sinister cult of Lucy Monostone and the growing number of genetically altered bar-coders, and what all this has to do with Amamiya/Kobyashi, the troubled detective of the title . That said MPD-Psycho still remains elusive and resistive to explanat find out more...

At last all is revealed, although you'll probably still be none the wiser. Miike Takashi's live action Manga comes to a close with the mulitple-personality-detective finally getting to grips with Nishizono and the cult of Lucy Monostone. Weird, wonderful and utterly incomprehensible - genius! find out more...

Set within the vibrant dancehalls and low-life hang-outs of 1940s Paris, ambitious young actress Jenny, her covetous, piano-playing husband/manager Maurice Martineau and their devoted confidante Dora Monier attempt to cover one another's tracks when a sexually ogreish high-society business acquaintance is murdered. Enter Inspector Antoine whose seasoned instincts lead him down a circuitous path in this classic whodunit murder mystery. find out more...

We start with compulsive liar Roberto picking up a teenage girl in a disco and we follow his affair with her while he carries on robbing and murdering. A powerful adaptation of the real life serial killer that documents more than just his dark achievements but gives a wholly believable insight into the man's damaged world and the chaotic ineptitude of the society upon which he preys. Harsh but utterly hypnotic. find out more...