In a Catholic boarding school during the Nazi occupation of France, Julien Quietin, played by Gaspard Manesse as the character based around Malle, is no ordinary student, he is intelligent and different from the others. A new student arrives at the school one day and becomes a sort of intellectual rival to Julien, but, after some early hostilities, the boys begin to connect and eventually become good friends. Malle does not rely on overly dramatic sequences where not necessary as a way to build find out more...

Elem Klimov's powerful, mesmerising and dynamic award winning feature has been deservedly hailed as one of the greatest war films ever produced. find out more...

Skint black ex-GI Easy Rawlins is asked to track down a mysterious missing woman with an illicit taste for black men. But two murders later he realises he's way out of his depth and, even worse, he himself has become the hunted. Sultry, smokey thriller set in an authentically recreated 1940's LA. Everything - the performances, Tak Fujimoto's elegant camerawork, the jazz and blues soundtrack, the snappy script - slots neatly into Franklin's overall design. A superbly stylish movie. find out more...

Phyllis Dietrichson is trapped in a loveless marriage to a man who inspires in her nothing but contempt, but rather than leave him Phyllis decides to kill him and collect on the insurance policy she's had set up with the help of her lover, and naive partner in crime, insurance salesman Walter Neff. The only flaws in their plan are the company's reluctance to pay out so much, the diligence of Neff's increasingly suspicious colleague, (and his 'little man'), and the exemplary ruthlessness of Ph find out more...

A carefully constructed epic telling the story of a rich young English boy whose privileged life is upturned by the Japanese invasion of Shanghai. Separated from his parents he is eventually captured and taken to Soo Chow confinement camp next to a captured Chinese airfield. As he and the other civilians are gradually starved, he turns from a child to an adolescent while learning the art of survival. When the war ends, the boy attempts to find his parents. Based on JG Ballard's autobiographical find out more...

John Boorman's semi-autobiographical story of London during the Blitz, as seen by the nine-year-old son of an ordinary suburban family. Air raid shelters, shrapnel, and GIs "stealing our women"; a clever blend of tragedy and irony make this a superb film, head and shoulders above average. find out more...

Christy Brown was an Irish cerebal palsy victim who overcame his severe handicap to become a talented painter and author with just the use of his left foot. Daniel Day Lewis is totally and utterly convincing as Brown - using method acting he became Brown and his thoroughness makes the film a great one. find out more...

Cracking little comedy which captures perfectly those painful, prepubescent feelings we all remember so well. "QuackQuack" Duckworth has two passions in life - cricket and the cute girl in his class. Sadly, he stands little chance of success with either of them. You'll laugh till you cry! find out more...

Guillermo Del Toro's blockbusting tale of a young girl struggling to make sense of the violent world around her was a big 2006 arthouse hit. Continuing his exploration of the impact of the Spanish Civil War on his generation (it was also the backdrop for his excellent ghost story, The Devil's Backbone) Del Toro's fantasy mixes strong horror with fairytale-style aesthetics to great effect, making Ofelia's escape into an imaginary realm a poignant response to the cruel realities of her existence. find out more...

Sweeping romantic drama of epic proportions. Fiennes's WWII pilot lays badly burned and in the care of an army nurse. As the unnamed, stiff-upper-lipped "English Patient" begins to recover, memories emerge of a past life as an archaeologist/cartographer in the Sahara, and a passionate affair with a married woman, Katharine. Though Anthony Minghella's adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's novel simplifies, jettisons and changes certain elements of the original story, it remains a rich, complex, entran find out more...