Beautiful, but spoiled, Fanny has married Jewish stockbroker Job to save crooked brother Trippy's arse and for his money, but she soon denies Job access to the marital bed. Trippy disappears to get himself killed in WW1 and Fanny eventually divorces Job, who also goes to Europe, with their daughter.
Years later; the daughter has returned to the USA but Job has been whisked off to a concentration camp, where he goes blind. Fanny catches diphtheria and loses her beauty while her daughter find out more...

Adapted from Bruce Chatwin's book and very much 'Thomas Hardy does Wales'. We follow four generations, in particular the intense relationship of two identical twin brothers, Ben and Lewis, of a Welsh hill-farming family. Visionary direction and ravishing scenery, our countryside at its very best. find out more...

Based on the Marquis de Sade's novel, 120 days of Sodom, and transposed to Fascist Italy circa 1944, this is Pasolini's most controversial work. Pasolini observes with unflinching gaze the systematic humiliation and torture of beautiful young boys and girls, herded into a palatial villa by various jaded, sadistic members of the wealthy upper classes. According to the director, the story was meant to be a metaphor for Fascism, but the revolting excesses shown on screen coupled with the fact that find out more...

The film version of Kurt Vonnegut Jr's famous anti-war sci-fi novel. Slipping back and forth along his own life line a suburban optometrist experiences the fire bombing of Dresden and captivity on the planet Trafalmardore. A powerful and seemingly unfilmable book that turned out to be a great movie. find out more...

Adapted from a John Irving novel we follow the young Homer Wells who has spent most of his life within the confines of St Clouds Orphanage. Homer is being groomed by the eccentric proprietor, Dr Larch, but he has the need to strike out on his own before his destiny is decided for him. "Cider House Rules" is an engaging and well performed film, and a worthy attempt on the original book. find out more...

Jack Hawkins gives perhaps his best performance as captain of a British corvette during the Second World War. Inexperienced young men face two enemies, the Atlantic and the U-boats, but the more deadly one is "The Cruel Sea". Adapted from Nicholas Montsarrat's novel and shot in a semi-documentary style. find out more...

Lengthy and emotionally riveting adaptation of Anne Frank's extraordinary diaries. Written in the sanctuary of an Amsterdam attic, as sirens wailed below, the thirteen year old Jewish refugee produced an incredibly moving account of the personal experiences of two families caught up in the nightmare of WW2. find out more...

Sierra Leone 1942; Trevor Howard gives perhaps his best performance as the humane deputy police commissioner in debt to a local trader and being blackmailed for having an affair outside his failed marriage. In the book, riddled with guilt, he kills himself, one of the deepest sins of his Catholic faith, but in the film his death is accidental. Nevertheless this tale of torment is an atmospheric and noteworthy adaptation of one of Greene's works and a superbly acted depictation of religious and m find out more...

During a life-saving operation young army surgeon Fujisaki contracts syphilis from a patient, a disease virtually incurable in 1940s Japan, and is forced to abandon his own true love. A rarely seen early masterpiece from the great Akira Kurosawa, adapted from Kazuo Nikuta's acclaimed play. find out more...

Superb adaptation of Graham Swift's novel about growing up in the poverty stricken, primitive, rural Fenland. Irons is peerless as the ageing and troubled history teacher, disillusioned as his students with dry facts and figures, taking them on a field trip though his personal history re-exploring his marriage to his childhood love and the often tragic experiences that befell them. Brilliant and moving. find out more...