1560, Peru. In a beautiful poetic opening scene the conquistadors cross an Andes pass, situated between the peaks and the valleys, between conquered land and unexplored forests, between 'heaven' and 'earth', shrouded in mists, they make their way down a narrow path. Aguirre's meglomania grows as around him his comrades mutiny and die in his search for the lost city of El Dorado. Herzog's best film, an unforgetable tour de force. Made before the director himself gave in to meglomania on a later t find out more...

The greatest movie ever made? A soldier is sent into the Heart of Darkness to retrieve a commander gone AWOL in an insane reality of tin-pot power, paranoia and inglorious killing. The horror of war is stripped naked in a surreal twilight world. The crew nearly went mad making it, Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack and Coppola flew so far beyond budget that the word 'bankrupt' was nearly redefined. See "Heart of Darkness"... find out more...

The definitive 'Apocalypse Now' (as if the original wasn't pretty definitive) this has nearly an hour of extra footage fleshing out the surreal journey of our central protagonists and, though it brings the film to a whisker short of three and a half hours, much of it explains what happens to the eclectic characters we meet. The cut version of 'Apocalypse Now' stands as one of the most awesome films of modern cinema, anyone who has seen it will inevitably see it again, it's just that now you have find out more...

Having already swum the full lengths of the Danube, Mississippi and Yangzte, the extraordinary manic obsessive Slovene Martin Strel, makes a 70 day attempt to repeat the effort in the Amazon. If what you expect is a super-athlete that's not what you get, this overweight 50-year-old eats horseburgers, drink drives and wires batteries to his head! What he is though is a hero, a man dedicated to and succeeding in extraordinary non-rational tasks. Fascinating stuff - more Herzogian than Aguirre or find out more...

In October 1968, Donald Crowhurst, a 35-year-old engineer and father of four, embarked on one of the last great adventures of the 20th Century. He was one of nine men who set out from the English coast that autumn as part of the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, chasing to be either the ?rst or the fastest man to circumnavigate the globe single-handed and non-stop. But for Donald the dream turned into a nig find out more...

While the Americans were trying to reach the moon the economically and politically suffering British had found a new sort of hero, long distance yachters. The Sunday Times put up a prize for the person who could make the fastest non-stop solo circumnavigation of the globe, a feat thought beyond the endurance of man or machine and so it proved for all but one of the Kiplingesque adventurers who stepped into the breech. This remarkable documentary, from the team that brought us Touching The Voi find out more...

Herzog's epic movie about a man's obsessive attempt to bring opera to the Indians living deep in the Peruvian jungle. To do this he must take a steamship/tub way up the Amazon river system, a monumental task, at one point involving transporting it over a not unconsiderable hill, with the help of a system of pulleys and massed Indian labour. A surreal comment on madness, power and vision. There is also a documentary, Burden of Dreams, about the notoriously fraught making of the film. find out more...

Melville's wild and brilliant gothic tale is electrically adapted by John Huston. Peck's performance, as Ahab with his gradual descent into madness, make a powerful centrepiece, whilst the deliberate sepia feel, the narration, and the fine supporting cast (including Orson Welles) all add depth. find out more...

Good Ole Southern Boy Tom goes to New York after his twin sister's suicide attempt and finds himself getting involved with her shrink both as lover and analyst. As the opposing characters learn mutual respect, Tom's traumatic childhood slowly emerges. Oscar-worthy acting from Nolte, superb drama. find out more...

Academy Award winner Colin Firth (The Kings Speech, Kingsman: The Secret Service) portrays the incredible true story of Donald Crowhurst, an amateur sailor who competed in the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in the hop of becoming the first person in history to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe without stopping. With an unfinished boat and his business and house on the line, Donald leaves his wife, Clare (Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz, My Cousin Rachel, The Lobster) and their c find out more...