20th Century Flicks, Bristol

A wonderful tale revolving round the atheistic female mathematician, philosopher and all-round genius Hypatia, the lover she spurned and the slave who adored her; Roman authority is collapsing, the end is nigh and the Talibanesque Christians are preparing to both sack and burn the great library at Alexandria, destroying the collective scientific work of centuries, setting back science and maths a millennium, and massacre thousands (including, of course, the Jews). This is an ambitious and swe find out more...

AMADEUS (1984)

CertificationPG Our Rating

An award winning film full of baroque splendour. The talented composer Antonio Salieri found himself in competition with Mozart, a genius, and he couldn't understand why God favored such a vulgar creature to be his instrument. Salieri turned into a hate-filled monster, whose aim in life became to ruin his colleague, but he emerges as a tragic and sympathetic character. He alone could appreciate the perfection of Mozart's music and, perhaps, he speaks up for all of us whose talents fall short of find out more...

AMAZING GRACE (2006)

Certification15 Our Rating

Inside this conventionally structured biopic resides an extraordinary story of an extraordinary man. William Wilberforce was the parliamentary spokesman for a group of radicalised young Evangelists (and Quakers), who despised the money politics and corruption of late 18th Century UK politics and who fought for many reformist policies, the most notable of which was the one this film annotates, the abolition of slavery, a process that took years of political skulduggery and the slow passage of find out more...

BREAKING AWAY (1979)

Certification12 Our Rating

Peter Yates' Oscar-winner is a heart-warming coming-of-age story that has also taken its place as the greatest sports movie about cycling ever made. Four friends graduate from high-school and find themselves looking at an uncertain future in small-town America. Dave's passion is cycling and his dream is to be a world-class champion like the Italians he idolises. His passion for cycling takes on new meaning when he and his friends face a team from the local college in the town's annual bike ra find out more...

BRIGHT STAR (2009)

CertificationPG Our Rating

London, 1818; the young Romantic poet John Keats begins an unlikely three year romance with chic urbanite neighbour Fanny, an affair cut short by his premature illness and death. A superbly made interpretation of love and its rendition through poetry. find out more...

CAPOTE (2005)

Certification15 Our Rating

In 1959, Truman Capote, a popular writer for The New Yorker, learns about the horrific and senseless murder of a family of four in Halcomb, Kansas. Inspired by the story, Capote and his best friend, Harper Lee, travel to the town to research for an article. However, as Capote digs deeper into the gruesome tale, he is inspired to expand the project into what would be his greatest work, 'In Cold Blood'. Against Harper's advice Truman's visits with those responsible for the killings become increasi find out more...

CITIZEN KANE (1941)

CertificationU Our Rating

A landmark in the history of the cinema; it was ranked Number 1 in the American Film Institute's 100 greatest films of all time in two polls (1998 and 2007) of more than 1,500 film industry movers and shakers and again by UK directors in a BFI poll. "Citizen Kane" narrates the rise and fall of a newspaper tycoon driven by a childhood obssession and is loosely based round the life of William Randolph Hurst, who tried to have it banned, but incorporates elements from the lives of other fat cats il find out more...

CONTROL (IAN CURTIS) (2007)

Certification15 Our Rating

Detailing the turbulent life of the founder and former frontman of Joy Division, Ian Curtis, photographer Anton Corbin's debut feature Control is a tour-de-force of the rise and fall of one of the most iconic and influential bands in British musical history. A gritty un-romanticised depiction of a tortured soul with a blinding central performance from Sam Riley. find out more...

DANCE WITH A STRANGER (1985)

Certification15 Our Rating

One of the best films to come out of the British cinema for a long time. The story of the peroxided bar girl Ruth Ellis, who murdered her upper class lover and became the last woman to be hanged in the UK. A study not just of her personality and the tragic love affair which ended in this crime of passion, but of the seedy mood of repression and austerity in class ridden 50s Britain. Miranda Richardson is outstanding in this compelling movie. find out more...

DANTON (1982)

CertificationPG Our Rating

It's 1794 and Depardieu plays Danton the revolutionary, who returns to Paris from self-imposed exile confident in the peoples' support and that he can help bring peace to the revolutionary turmoil and stop The Terror. But first he must confront his former ally Robespierre, who is intent on victory and soon rounds up Danton and his followers, tries them before a revolutionary tribunal and dipatches them to the guillotine. Bye bye Danton. find out more...