Ralph Thomas's very watchable adaptation of Dickens's tale of revolutionary France. Bogarde plays the melancholy, self-pitying lawyer Sidney Carton, who finds his metier in the daring rescue of a French nobleman. Bogarde's laconic delivery makes the film. Excellent. find out more...

Winner of four Oscars, this film is shot with the most beautifully scenic backgrounds and with great attention to costume detail. An Irish adventurer, Barry Lyndon, crosses Europe from woman to job, but in the end returns to Britain seeking a wealthy marriage. find out more...

Energetic, stylish and often witty BBC dramatisation that alternates between the gripping love triangle involving the young Casanova, Henriette and her husband Grimani, and the swan song of the world's most notorious lothario. Written by Russell T. Davies, creator of 'Queer As Folk' and the scribe behind the new 'Doctor Who'. find out more...

In a relentless battle of intrigue the Marquise and her ex-lover the Vicomte set up a web of seduction and counter-seduction to exercise their rivalry. Their obsessive powerplay inevitably creates both pleasure and pain. Well adapted and beautifully set and shot, this is absorbing and disturbing. find out more...

A sumptuous swashbuckler, with romance, swordfights and a slyly subtle wit. It's 1699, and dashing young blade Lagardere (Daniel Auteil) becomes the best friend of the fabulously wealthy Duc de Nevers (Vincent Perez) who must produce a legitimate heir. Loitering with intent is Nevers's treacherous cousin, Count Gonzague, who rather fancies a bite of the cherry, and is prepared to do anything to get it. An excellent, highly entertaining adaptation of Paul Feval's novel. find out more...

Set during the height of the French aristocracy, Le Bossu is a classic swashbuckling romp, thick with skulduggery, revenge and some fantastic swordsmanship. A rip roaring period adventure. find out more...

Max Ophuls's penultimate film, this adaptation of the Louise de Vilmorin novel 'Madame de...' is a beautifully paced melodrama. The story concerns an 18th Century Countess and her doomed love affair with a Baron. A pair of diamond earrings function as a pivotal plot device, initially given to the Countess by her husband, they pass through a number of owners before ending up back with the Countess, allowing a satirical take on the superficiality and greed of the times. Ophuls' characteristic movi find out more...

A truly remarkable adaptation of Woolf's novel. Tilda Swanton is enthralling as the androgenous and ageless Orlando seeking love in a 400 year odyssey; from the finery of Elizabeth the First's court, through the Civil War, the early colonial period, the literary salons of 1750, by which time Orlando is a woman, the Victorian era of property, and finally to the present day. Potter's direction adds a marvellous period feel. Superb, this is a magical story . find out more...

18th Century France and the calculating and malicious Madame de Merteuil wishes revenge on her lover, who is set to marry the virginal and childish Cecile. To do this she enlists her old friend the playboy Valmont and in doing so makes a bet over his ability to bed the straight-laced Madame de Tourvel. However when Valmont sets out on his task the unexpected happens, he finds a heart, and this threatens de Merteuil's plans. Overshadowed by the simultaneous release of Stephen Frears' 'Dangerous L find out more...

Melodrama as high art: some of the critics reckoned it was better than the original book! It's certainly more gothic and the passions are more torrid. Ms Bronte might not have approved, but this is a powerful little number. Heathcliffe and Cathy get on down........ find out more...