20th Century Flicks, Bristol

1560, Peru. In a beautiful poetic opening scene the conquistadors cross an Andes pass, situated between the peaks and the valleys, between conquered land and unexplored forests, between 'heaven' and 'earth', shrouded in mists, they make their way down a narrow path. Aguirre's meglomania grows as around him his comrades mutiny and die in his search for the lost city of El Dorado. Herzog's best film, an unforgetable tour de force. Made before the director himself gave in to meglomania on a later t find out more...

BEING THERE (1980)

Certification15 Our Rating

Sellers' last film is his masterpiece. A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington DC house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television. After a run in with a limousine, he ends up a guest of Eve and her husband Ben, an influential but sickly businessman. Now called Chauncey Gardner, Chance becomes friend and confidante to Ben, and an unlikely political insider. It's find out more...

BETTY BLUE (1986)

Certification18 Our Rating

Betty Blue is irresistable: she is a "femme fatale", an emotional H-bomb just waiting to go off. When she falls for a guy who is content with his lot as a handyman, looking after beach side chalets, reads his novel, unpublished, decides he has talent and drags him off to Paris, well...! find out more...

BIG WEDNESDAY (1978)

CertificationPG Our Rating

Set between 1962 and 1974 this traces the story of three buddies from adolescent surfing champs to post-Vietnam trauma. As the times change they find their youth is lost until one vital Wednesday in 1974 when there is a Big Swell and they hit the waves again, superb. find out more...

No Image for BLADE RUNNER (DIRECTOR'S CUT)

BLADE RUNNER (DIRECTOR'S CUT) (1982)

Certification15 Our Rating

A stunning visual account of man's struggle for survival in the 21st Century, a time when replicant life forms are beginning to surpass humans not just in intelligence but emotions, raising questions about our concepts of self. A post-modern sci-fi classic, THE great Hollywood movie of the '80s, the last great pre-computer film done with smoke-and-mirrors SFX and the definitive cult arthouse Sci-Fi film. This is the second version re-edited by Ridley Scott; all the good bits remain, with the onl find out more...

BLADE RUNNER (ORIGINAL) (1982)

Certification15 Our Rating

A stunning visual account of man's struggle for survival in the 21st Century, a time when replicant life forms are beginning to surpass humans not just in intelligence but emotions, raising questions about our concepts of self. A post-modern sci-fi classic, THE great Hollywood movie of the '80s, the last great pre-computer film done with smoke-and-mirrors SFX and the definitive cult arthouse Sci-Fi film. This is the originally released version with no unicorns in a dream, a voiceover to keep y find out more...

BLOW-UP (1966)

Certification15 Our Rating

A succesful photograper in swinging sixties London leads an aimless existence. Then one day he apparently witnesses a murder in the park. A slow moving thriller, Antonioni's film is also a meditation on the relationship of film to reality and the relationship of the individual to society. find out more...

BLUE VELVET (1986)

Certification18 Our Rating

It's sick, it's weird, it's spooky, but it's compulsive viewing. Forget Brat Packs and Rambo, this is the dark side to America. Beneath the squeaky clean surface lurk neuroses and perversions, degradation and despair. Brilliantly done, this film will haunt you. find out more...

BULLET FOR THE GENERAL (1966)

Certification18 Our Rating

The first and best of the Italian "Mexi-Westerns", on a par with Leone's and with a haunting soundtrack. An American mercenary teams up with a bandit on the fringes of the revolutionaries in order to assinate their leader. A violent political film from the same pen as The Battle Of Algiers. find out more...

CATCH-22 (1970)

Certification15 Our Rating

Adapted from the classic, absurdist, anti-war novel by Joseph Heller. "Catch-22" is the story of Yossarian, a pilot who trys to opt out of flying bombing missions by being declared insane, the catch being that anyone trying to avoid bombing missions by being insane must be sane. This dark classic catches much of the flavour of the book, the insanity, the corruption and the absurdity of war. Think MASH, but non-linear - flawed but awesome. find out more...