During the German Occupation a young trainee railway guard at a remote country station desperately tries to lose his virginity. He finally succeeds with the station master's wife. Satiric, anti-heroic, humorous and balanced tragi-comedy. Generally considered the finest Czech new wave film. find out more...

Phyllis Dietrichson is trapped in a loveless marriage to a man who inspires in her nothing but contempt, but rather than leave him Phyllis decides to kill him and collect on the insurance policy she's had set up with the help of her lover, and naive partner in crime, insurance salesman Walter Neff. The only flaws in their plan are the company's reluctance to pay out so much, the diligence of Neff's increasingly suspicious colleague, (and his 'little man'), and the exemplary ruthlessness of Ph 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...

The story of a French actress and a Japanese man's brief affair in Hiroshima, stirring up painful memories for them both, for her wartime 'collaboration' and, for him, the bomb which quite literally destroyed everything he had known. Resnais's film is now seen as revolutionary for its time an a must for film study courses. Sadly haunting. find out more...

Lacombe is a young French peasant who wants to join the resistance but is considered too young, so instead he joins the Gestapo! He enjoys his power but soon falls in love with a Jewish girl. This can be seen as Malle's answer to the question who colloborates? The film maps the mechanics of compromise with precision and without histronics. Another superb film from the great French director. find out more...

This justifiably acclaimed epic tells the fascinating story of a well-heeled German Jewish family, Jettel, Walter and 5-year-old Regina, who fled the Nazis in the late 1930s and settled as farmers in Kenya. Here they, as German citizens, eventually face internment, separation, Walter joining the British army, and a detioration in their marriage. find out more...

Cracking little comedy which captures perfectly those painful, prepubescent feelings we all remember so well. "QuackQuack" Duckworth has two passions in life - cricket and the cute girl in his class. Sadly, he stands little chance of success with either of them. You'll laugh till you cry! find out more...

Set during WW2; Veronica is madly in love with her fiancé, Boris, who departs for the front to do his patriotic duty. The story unravels to depict a poignant portrayal of blameless individuals doing their best to survive the travails of tragedy and hardship in the face of such an all consuming conflict. The compelling narrative is complemented by stunning black and white cinematography and the film deservedly won the Cannes Palme d'Or in 1958, reintroducing Soviet cinema to the Western world. find out more...

Sweeping romantic drama of epic proportions. Fiennes's WWII pilot lays badly burned and in the care of an army nurse. As the unnamed, stiff-upper-lipped "English Patient" begins to recover, memories emerge of a past life as an archaeologist/cartographer in the Sahara, and a passionate affair with a married woman, Katharine. Though Anthony Minghella's adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's novel simplifies, jettisons and changes certain elements of the original story, it remains a rich, complex, entran find out more...

When a Jewish German theatre director is forced into hiding his wife takes over making sure that the show goes on despite the chaos of war. Depardieu, playing a smooth-talking young luvvie hired for the leading role, provides the lust interest. Romantic theatrical thriller set in the occupied Paris of 1942. find out more...