The moody 28-year-old Mifune is the violent gangster whom boozy doctor Shimura diagnoses as suffering from TB ('a hole in the heart,' says the sour 'angel', ruefully). The movie breathes the polluted air of post-war pessimism, dissipation and poetic fatalism, symbolised in the shots of the oily, malaria-ridden swamp of a Tokyo dockside, but it is dramatically qualified by Mifune's suggested redeemability and Shimura's stoical humanism. Fascinating, highly enjoyable and filled with great scenes - find out more...

A strange, beautiful film. We watch mother and son as they go about their peculiar daily routine, and we see a dead child in the ocean. It's unnerving and, somehow, everything seems eerily sexual, too. Then we are invited to go underwater where we get a closer look at the strange story science and earth have to tell. There are only mothers and sons in this coastal town. There is routine and control - but who is in control and what happens if someone starts to ask que find out more...

Bill is a young writer who follows strangers around London in order to research his book, but what had begun as a legitimate concept is quickly replaced by voyeuristic obsession, a fixation that spirals out of his control when one of those he has followed confronts him. Following is a dark and complex thriller/drama written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who went on to make the highly acclaimed Memento. 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...

Adapted from Zola's novel, this powerful tale concerns a triangle of love and murder in which a train driver becomes passionately involved with a femme fatale. With its images of trains and railways as symbols of human destiny this is a visually arresting film; Gallic and tragic. 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...

The studied peace of a small provincial town is slowly unravelled when a series of poison pen letters signed "The Raven" begin to circulate amongst the residents. What began as an uncomfortable embarrassment for the more prominent members of society begins to take on ever-darker tones as the mysterious revelations begin to tear the town apart. Banned upon its release, in 1943, Clouzot's dark thriller is a gripping study of fear and suspicion, and also a fascinating observation of a battered, une find out more...

Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean, an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, when acts of both revenge and kindness turn him into front-page news. Based on the novel by Pierre Mac Orlan, 'Quai Des Brumes' is a quintessential example of cinematic poetic realism/romantic crime thriller, starkly portraying an underworld of lonely souls wrestling with their own destinies. find out more...

Ronet is the disgruntled war vet who plots to kill his boss and elope with his wife. Meanwhile, other events implicate him in a murder elsewhere, whilst he remains stuck in an immobile lift. Tense, clever plot with cool, minimalist direction by Malle and a great Miles Davis score. find out more...

Albert has a talent, he can hear fish talking to each other, a dubious gift you might think but Albert is an ice fisherman, and thanks to his eavesdropping abilities he's the champion of his chosen profession. What Albert has little grasp of however is every day life, and when his mother is the victim of a hit-and-run, the vultures begin to circle, because Albert is so good at what he does that everyone is convinced he has a small fortune stashed away somewhere….and they want a share. Milwaukee find out more...