David Lean's epic romance set against the turbulant backdrop of the Russian revolution. One man's struggle for moral political and personal survival amidst the complex web of intrigue and tangled loyalties that accompanied the fall of the Tsar.

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The life of comedienne Fannie Brice, from her early days in the Jewish slums of the Lower East Side, when only her mother believed Fanny could make it in show business, to her hilarious debut as a rollerskating chorus-girl and on to the height of her career as a star with the Ziegfeld Follies. Unfortunately she fell in love, and married, the wrong man; handsome, urbane but inept gambler Nick. Streisand won the best actress Oscar in this classic musical. find out more...

Texan rancher Bick Benedict visits a Maryland farm to buy a prize horse. Whilst there he meets and falls in love with the owner's daughter Leslie, they are married immediately and return to his ranch. The story of their family and its rivalry with cowboy and (later oil tycoon) Jett Rink unfolds across two generations. James Dean earned his second Oscar nomination in this tale of frustration and revenge, wealth and racial oppression in Texas. find out more...

Donat is perfectly cast as the lovable teacher, in this classic British drama, reminiscing about his career and personal life over the decades, his rise from lowly Latin master to headmaster of a public school and the joys and tragedies which moulded his transformation. The film won a staggering seven Academy Awards. Hugely enjoyable. find out more...

Truffaut's much-admired portrait of a twenty year menage a trois that has Moreau playing the enchanting Catherine in one of her finest film roles. She holds her two boyfriends in thrall, as their relationship develops over the years. Worth watching for the inimitable style and panache alone! find out more...

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...

An epic family drama spanning three generations of a Jewish family, who moved from a rural village to the city, became wealthy, respected, bourgeois and/or radicalised and Hungarianised, set against a backdrop of the final days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, World War 1, the rise of fascism, the Holocaust and the Communist era. A tour-de-force performance by Ralph Fiennes in various reincarnations, especially as the character who won a fencing gold medal for Hungary in the 1936 Olympics, in th find out more...

Marcel Proust (1871-1922) is on his deathbed; looking at photographs brings memories of his childhood, his youth, his lovers and the way the Great War put an end to a stratum of society. His memories are in no particular order, they move back and forth in time. Marcel at various ages interacts with Odette, with the beautiful Gilberte and her doomed husband, with the pleasure seeking Baron de Charlus, with Marcel's lover Albertine, and with others; present also in memory are Marcel's beloved moth find out more...

Back in 1914 the young Ida Dalsar fell in love with an ardent young socialist, the future Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. She sold her shop to finance his career, possibly married him, had his child, got dumped, but kept coming back for more before being incarcerated in a mental institution. In other words this is the story of a girl who fell for the wrong man (and a country that fell for the wrong politics).
Particularly well received in France this was considered a serious contender fo find out more...