A landmark in the history of the cinema; it was ranked Number 1 in the American Film Institute's 100 greatest films of all time in two polls (1998 and 2007) of more than 1,500 film industry movers and shakers and again by UK directors in a BFI poll. "Citizen Kane" narrates the rise and fall of a newspaper tycoon driven by a childhood obssession and is loosely based round the life of William Randolph Hurst, who tried to have it banned, but incorporates elements from the lives of other fat cats il 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...

Set during the 1920s in West Virginia, Matewan is a small mining town whose workers have responded with a strike to the coal company's announcement of a wage cut. The bosses reply to this act of defiance but bringing black and Italian workers to take over their jobs. A lone stranger (a Union organiser) arrives in town to unite the locals against the tooled-up heavies and, as the tension escalates, a violent end to the standoff seems inevitable. Sayles' powerful gripping movie never compromises i find out more...

It's 1929 on America's East coast. In an unnamed city, Leo and his right hand man Tom run the show unchallenged, but their friendship is threatened when they fall for the same girl and a bloody struggle for power erupts among their fellow gangsters. Classy, witty, violent and utterly brilliant. find out more...

In 1930s North China, a young girl is given to a 50-year-old leper in exchange for a mule, but as she's carried to him through the wilderness she is saved from bandits by a handsome young peasant. Later the leper mysteriously dies and the peasant returns and the pair settle down to make the traditional red sorghum wine. The film shifts from fable to realism when Japanese troops invade the area, destroying the fields with forced labour from the vineyard until the workers revolt against them. find out more...

Admirably sumptuous film version of Gunter Grass's epic surreal novel. Depicting German history through the eyes of three year old Oskar who decides, through sheer will-power, never to grow up. Bizarre, amusing and frequently grotesque this is deservedly acclaimed as a milestone in modern cinema. 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...