Resnais's controversial attempt at collaboration with avant garde author Alain Robbe-Grillet. The film sets up a puzzle that is never resolved, a man meets a woman in a rambling hotel and believes he may have had an affair with her the previous year at Marienbad - or did he? Or was it somewhere else? Deliberately scrambling chronology to the point where past, present and future become meaningless, Resnais creates a vaguely unsettling mood by means of stylish composition, long, smooth tracking sh find out more...

Originally reviled, Renoir's bleak masterpiece has endured to become a true classic of French cinema. Black and funny, it is the story of a lavish weekend party given by the local Marquis. Renoir manages to capture in intricate detail the antics and drama of a society and class on the brink of extinction. 'We are dancing on the rim of a volcano' said Jean at the time. The Danse Macabre scene is breathtaking and dark. Superb. find out more...

A young Russian mother and her son arrive in the UK where they plan to start a new life with her British fiancé. When he fails to show up they claim political asylum and are detained in a hellish holding centre in a desolate seaside resort. When it seems that all is lost, the family find hope in the unlikely form of amusement arcade manager, Alfie. Visually brilliant with an outstanding cast, Last Resort offers a stark look at life in exile. find out more...

This masterpiece is understandably on many people's all time favourite list. The lives of six Parisians are intertwined against the backdrop of the early-19th Century popular theatre and underworld, with the film a multi-layered meditation on the nature of performance. Flawlessly executed and cast. find out more...

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Suberb performances both from the leads and the assembled extras on yet another Altman masterpiece. Here he subverts the excepted modes of the Western genre with Beatty as the non-heroic McCabe and Christie as third-rate Madam. Life in the West probably was like this, but never is in the films. find out more...

Finally! A popular 'indie' movie written and directed by a woman! This film shines with wit and warmth and brains, interesting people, beautiful dialogue and dark, dark humour. find out more...

A quirky, clever and charming movie from rookie director Anderson, who flies in the face of convention by making the hero of this high school-based comedy a slightly geeky academic who's anything but the all-American kid. Max Fischer is a brilliant but mixed-up scholarship kid at the Rushmore Academy, with a frenzied timetable and an uncanny knack of baffling both students and teachers alike. He attracts the attention of Blume (the superb Bill Murray), a rich, bored, middle-aged parent, apparen find out more...

In an unnamed European town, in an unspecified era, live Cynthia and Evelyn. Every day Evelyn cycles to Cynthia’s chateau to work as a lowly maid and every day the cruel, vindictive Cynthia inflicts countless sad find out more...

A superb and involving drama, exquisitely filmed, set in 50s Saigon. We follow the silently beautiful Mui in her capacity as servant girl to a rich family. The family's financial difficulties mean she must leave the only life she knows but the change brings love. Achingly, painfully beautiful. find out more...