20th Century Flicks, Bristol

A BLADE IN THE DARK (1983)

Certification18 Our Rating

A giallo blood-opera, which features some of the most gruelling sequences in the genres vast canon, A BLADE IN THE DARK holes up a talented composer in a spacious Tuscany retreat. Unfortunately, a maniac is prowling the immediate environment and no one, incuding our heroic musician, is safe from this hack-happy psychopath's collection of dangerously sharp weapons. Co-starring the legendary Michele find out more...

PINOCCHIO (2019)

CertificationPG Our Rating

Live-action adaptation of the classic story of a wooden puppet named Pinocchio who comes to life. This is a largely faithful, visually neat adaptation of Collodi's classic of children's literature. Talented director Matteo Garrone (Il Racconto dei Racconti, Dogman, L'Imbalsamatore) keeps the darker side of his imagination at bay and correctly puts his visual talent in service of the story. Performances ar find out more...

8 1/2 (1963)

Certification15 Our Rating

The story of a director, devoid of inspiration and on the verge of a nervous breakdown, trying to satisfy the anticipation surrounding his next project. Surreal, serio-comic mildly autobiographical and widely acclaimed as one of the great films about movie-making. Fellini's masterpiece. find out more...

A BAY OF BLOOD (1971)

Certification18 Our Rating

When a rich countess is murdered, her bayside estate becomes the subject of a violent inheritance battle involving her husband, her illegitimate son, a real estate agent and his lover. Throw into the mix a group of nubile partying teenagers, a suspicious entomologist, a murderer slowly picking everyone off one by one and a series of outlandish plot twists and reveals, and you have one of the great films by giallo master Mario Bava, a gleefully gory delight which proved hug find out more...

A BIGGER SPLASH (2015)

Certification15 Our Rating

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A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN (1971)

Certification18 Our Rating

The daughter of an English politician keeps having recurring "nightmares" in which she makes love to a bisexual nympho who lives downstairs and conducts all-night LSD orgies. When the dreams become more violent, the neighbour turns up dead, and Florinda is the main suspect. Did she actually commit the murder she dreamt about? Is she being framed by her philandering husband? The complex plot unfolds amidst red herrings, outlandishly druggy dream sequences and lesbian hanky panky, all taking place find out more...

A.C.A.B (2012)

Certification15 Our Rating

Three veteran Riot Squad cops have had enough of a society ruled by hatred, where no one follows the rules anymore. All they want to do is restore order, which they will, by any means necessary. A young rookie joins their team and is shown the ropes. He soon starts to question the cops’ brutally violent form of justice and begins to doubt find out more...

ACCATTONE (1961)

Certification15 Our Rating

Accattone is an unsuccessful and self-destructive pimp living in the slums of Rome. Awareness of his position within a class from which he cannot escape has deprived him of any hope and it is this harsh life that Pasolini portrays in this, his directorial debut, which contains many of the contradictions Pasolini struggled with in reconciling Marxism and Catholicism. find out more...

AFTER MIDNIGHT (1989)

Certification15 Our Rating

One fateful evening Martino, an avid cinephile and a museum's timid night watchman, comes to the aid of Amanda, an enchanting young fast-food cook on the run from the police after dousing her overbearing boss with hot oil. Martino's dreamy kingdom of silent movie characters becomes a sanctuary for Amanda, as she awaits rescue by her devilish car-jacking boyfriend Angel. find out more...

ALAMAR (2009)

CertificationPG Our Rating

Jorge and Roberta have been separated for several years. They simply come from opposite worlds: he likes an uncomplicated life in the jungle, while she prefers a more urban existence. He is Mexican and she is Italian, and she has decided to return to Rome with their five-year-old son, Natan. But before they leave, Jorge wishes to take young Natan on a trip, hoping to teach him about his Mayan origins in Mexico. So begins an affecting coming of age documentary with exquisite cinematography. find out more...

ALL LADIES DO IT (1992)

Certification18 Our Rating

Diane and Paul are happily married, mainly due to Diane's sexual adventures. She can't resist casual affairs and recounts them to her husband who finds them arousing. Yet, when Diane returns from a visit to Venice with bite marks on her, Paul's suppressed jealousy erupts. The closest porn gets to drama...or is that the other way around? find out more...

ALLEGRO NON TROPPO (1976)

CertificationPG Our Rating

Superb parody of Fantasia, with five separate and beautifully animated sequences, set to some very famous pieces of music. Wittily done with the interludes being a surreal mix of conductor, orchestra and animator (played by Maurizio Nichetti of 'Volere Volare' fame). Funny and entertaining. find out more...

AMARCORD (1973)

Certification15 Our Rating

Amarcord was conceived as a tribute to Fellini's childhood upbringing in the Italian resort town of Rimini. He captures a year in the life of a provincial seaside town in the 1930s through a series of nostalgic vignettes which reflect the bizarre mixture of characters and events that the town attracts: loopy teachers, strange foreigners, curvaceous women, a skinny nymphomaniac, a crazed solitary motorcyclist, hilarious family rows, a wedding and a funeral. Veering from delicate and painful emoti find out more...

AND THE SHIP SAILS ON (2007)

Certification15 Our Rating

Cinematic maestro Federico Fellini shows that, even in his mid-sixties, he had lost none of his power to shock, entertain and amaze with this `comedy of arias'. The film is set on the eve of the WWI, but this matters little find out more...

APRILE (1998)

Certification15 Our Rating

Nanni Moretti, the director of "Dear Diary", sticks with his favoured format of part fact, part fiction in this riotous comedy documentary. Torn between making a film about the imminent birth of his first child, or the state of Italian politics, or a Trotskyist pastry chef, Moretti extravagantly decides to combine all three! And why not? find out more...

BAARIA (2009)

Certification15 Our Rating

Giuseppe Tornatore directed this grand-scale portrait of life and love over several decades in the small town in Sicily where he was born. We see a number of important historical events through the eyes of young Peppino, watching the fortunes of his town and his family rise and fall. While open to accusations of nostalgia, superficiality and indulgence the film is something of a feast for the senses.
A rambunctious family saga the kind they don't, and probably shouldn't, make any more. find out more...

BEFORE THE REVOLUTION (1964)

Certification15 Our Rating

An early Bertolucci piece which relates the inner turmoil of a young middle-class man who is torn between Marxism and the comforts of his background. Full of poetic setpieces and indicative of the director's later style. Also an aid to an understanding of the 60s. find out more...

BICYCLE THIEVES (1948)

CertificationU Our Rating

Perhaps the most influential period in cinema history was the Italian neo-realism period of the late 40s and director Vittorio De Sica was one of the prime reasons for this important period of film-making. "The Bicycle Thieves" is a film about a poor man whose only means for a job is his bicycle, which gets stolen. The film follows him and his young boy throughout war-ravaged Rome in search of the stolen bike. The trip involves some of the most brilliant vignettes in film history; the church, th find out more...

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BOONDOCK SAINTS 2: ALL SAINTS DAY (2009)

Certification15 Our Rating

The MacManus boys have spent the last 8 years living in Ireland, but the murder of a priest back in Boston gets their gander up and so they're off, back to the good ole US of A to kick some scumbag ass.
For fans of the cult original, which, if you haven't seen, you should check out first. find out more...

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (2017)

Certification15 Our Rating

In early-1980s northern Italy, amid the lush Mediterranean landscapes of a serene and golden summer, 17-year-old, Elio, visits the family's summer villa to spend his vacation with his father and Greco-Roman culture professor, Mr Perlman, his translator mother, Annella, and the American doctoral student who works there as an intern, Oliver. But, little by little, over the co find out more...