Stewart is superb as the young Wisconsin senator put up to the job, who then exposes the corruption in the Senate and upholds true American values. Popular wish fulfilment served up with such fast talking comic panache that you don't have time to question its cornball idealism. A great film! find out more...

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs might be Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse's finest hour, a delicate, devastating study of a woman, Keiko, played heartbreakingly by Hideko Takamine, who works as a bar hostess in Tokyo's very modern post-war Ginza district. Sly, resourceful, but trapped, Keiko comes to embody the conflicts and struggles of a woman trying to establish her independence in a male-dominated society. A profoundly moving masterpiece. find out more...