A young draughtsman is forced into a shotgun marriage. A landmark in English cinema in terms of social realism, dealing with the lives of ordinary people set against a grim Northern backdrop, it remains keenly observant in detail and rather moving in its very unpretentiousness. find out more...

Godard's bleak sci-fi noir, with the stony-faced gumshoe Lemmy Caution turning inter-galactic agent to re-enact the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice in conquering Alpha 60, the strange automated city where such emotions as love and tenderness are banished. A brilliantly realised and stylish satire on the dehumanising nature of technology. find out more...

Returning to themes he had touched upon in his earlier films Polanski develops the idea of Pinter's "two people in a room and then a third enters" with a couple on a remote island invaded by two on-the-run gangsters. Gradually the power positions shift... underlined with great black humour. find out more...

Set in the 1890s this adaptation of Harold Brighouse's working class comedy sees a tyrannical bootmaker brought to heel when his plain-speaking daughter marries his down-trodden simple-minded employee and sets up a successful rival business. Keen direction and fine performances make this a great comedy. find out more...

Fantastic Oscar winning film portraying the jury in what appears to be an open and shut murder case. Only Fonda expresses any doubt against the guilty verdict, and combined with the observations of an older man he begins to call the evidence, the witnesses, and the legal system into doubt. find out more...

A superbly tense and atmospheric thriller. Four desperate men agree to transport some highly volatile explosives across three hundred miles of South American wilderness. The incredably perilous nature of their journey brings out the true nature of the men, as they fight for their lives and sanity. 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...

This story of a man as he reflects upon his life and begins to perceive his mortality. As he travels to Lund to receive an honorary award after 50 years of medical practice, a professor finds himself repeatedly affected by intrusive dreams and hallucinations that expose his darkest fears. He slowly comes to realize that the choices he has made in the past created a cold and empty life, devoid of real meaning or value. Finally, he achieves redemption and reintegration through forgiveness and the find out more...