Joe Maddison's War (2010)

RecommendedUKTelevision FilmDirector: Patrick CollertonWriter: Alan PlaterCinematographer: Chris SeagerComposer: Kevin SargentCast: Kevin Whately, Robson Green, Melanie Hill, Sammy Dobson, James Atherton, Angela Lonsdale, James Baxter, Trevor Fox, Derek JacobiWhen his wife leaves him (suddenly and without warning), middle-aged Tyneside ship builder Joe Maddison, a veteran of The First World War, joins The Home Guard, finds love anew, doesn’t become...

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Excluded (2010)

RecommendedUKShort Television FilmDirector: Misha Manson-SmithWriters: Ben Bickerton, Brian FillisCinematographer: Ashley RoweCast: Bryan Dick, George Whitehead, Craig Parkinson, Monica Dolan, Nicholas Sidi, Juliet Cowan, Perry Benson, Karl Collins, Brendan MackeyHaving just given up a well paid but unfulfilling job, Ian Bateley, an idealistic, newly qualified teacher, starts work teaching maths at an inner-city comprehensive school, which the principal...

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This Is England '86 (2010)

RecommendedUKTelevision Mini-SeriesDirectors: Tom Harper, Shane MeadowsWriters: Shane Meadows, Jack ThorneCinematographer: Danny CohenComposer: Ludovico EinaudiCast: Thomas Turgoose, Vicky McClure, Joseph Gilgun, Andrew Shim, Rosamund Hanson, Chanel Cresswell, Danielle Watson, Andrew Ellis, Michael Socha, Perry Benson, George Newton, Stephen Graham, Katherine Dow Blyton, Kriss Dosanjh, Hannah WaltersThough the humour is sometimes perhaps a little...

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This Is England (2006)

Highly RecommendedUKFeature FilmWriter/Director: Shane MeadowsCinematographer: Danny CohenComposer: Ludovico EinaudiCast: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley, Andrew Shim, Vicky McClure, Joe Gilgun, Rosamund Hanson, Andrew Ellis, Perry BensonA lonely, bullied twelve-year-old boy, whose father had recently died in the Falklands war, joins a friendly gang of skinheads, which is torn apart when a former member is released from prison, freshly...

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First Light (2010)

RecommendedUKTelevision DocudramaDirector: Matthew WhitemanWriter: Caleb Ranson, Geoffrey WellumCinematographer: Mark WolfComposer: Gabriel CurringtonNarrator: Geoffrey WellumCast: Sam Heughan, Gary Lewis, Ben Aldridge, Alex Robertson, Paul Kynman, Paul Tinto, Jordan Bernarde, Alex Waldmann, Tuppence Middleton, Richard WalshThis affecting, lovingly crafted BBC docudrama, adapted from Geoffrey Wellum’s memoirs, who also narrates proceedings, details...

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Me and Orson Welles (2008)

RecommendedUK/USAFeature FilmDirector: Richard LinklaterWriters: Holly Gent Palmo, Vincent Palmo Jr., Robert KaplowCinematographer: Dick PopeComposer: Michael J. McEvoyCast: Zac Efron, Claire Danes, Christian McKay, Ben Chaplin, Zoe Kazan, Eddie Marsan, Kelly Reilly, James Tupper, Leo BillA 17-year-old aspiring actor with a passion for the arts manages to finagle a part in Orson Welles's 1937 Mercury Theatre production of William Shakespeare’s Julius...

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[•REC]² (2009)

Not RecommendedSpainFeature FilmDirectors: Jaume Balagueró, Paco PlazaWriters: Jaume Balagueró, Manu Díez, Paco PlazaCinematographer: Pablo RossoCast: Jonathan Mellor, Oscar Sánchez Zafra, Ariel Casas, Alejandro Casaseca, Pablo Rosso, Pep Molina, Andrea Ros, Àlex Batllori, Pau Poch, Manuela VelascoWith more cameras and a great big unwelcome dollop of supernatural nonsense, this mildly diverting if relatively disappointing follow up to Balagueró and...

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La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet (2009)

RecommendedFrance/USAFeature DocumentaryOriginal Title: La danse: Le ballet de l'Opéra de ParisDirector: Frederick WisemanCinematographers: John Davey, Dick PopeVeteran documentarian Wiseman’s fascinating leisurely-paced observational documentary compellingly paints a portrait of the Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris, documenting rehearsals, management meetings, costuming, and even building maintenance, as it slowly builds up a picture of life...

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Jazz on a Summer's Day (1960)

Essential ViewingUSA/UKFeature DocumentaryDirector: Bert SternWriters: Albert D'Annibale, Arnold PerlCinematographers: Mike Cuesta, Courtney Hafela, Ray Phealon, Jack Schatz, Bert SternFeaturing: Thelonious Monk, Anita O'Day, Dinah Washington, Chuck Berry, Chico Hamilton, Louis Armstrong, Mahalia JacksonPhotographer Bert Stern’s sole directing effort is perhaps the definitive concert film; it chronicles the 1958 Newport Jazz festival, mixing footage...

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Sorry, Thanks (2009)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Dia SokolWriters: Dia Sokol, Lauren VeloskiCinematographer: Matthias GrunskyCast: Wiley Wiggins, Kenya Miles, Andrew Bujalski, Donovan Baddley, Ia Hernandez, Jonathon WallaceMumblecore producer Sokol’s accomplished and very promising directorial debut follows a pair of San Franciscans, who share a one night stand, over a period of a few days, slowly building up a picture of their lives, affectingly detailing the...

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Monsters (2010)

RecommendedUKFeature FilmWriter/Director/Cinematographer: Gareth EdwardsComposer: Jon HopkinsCast: Scoot McNairy, Whitney AbleSix years after a NASA probe carrying samples of extra-terrestrial life back to earth crashed in Mexico, which subsequently took hold, leaving much of the north of the country a no-go area, Andrew, an earthy photographer, and Samantha, his boss’s daughter, set off on foot across the infected zone towards the US border and,...

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Smiley Face (2007)

Cautiously RecommendedUSA/GermanyFeature FilmDirector: Gregg ArakiWriter: Dylan HaggertyCinematographer: Shawn KimComposer: David KitayCast: Anna Faris, John Krasinski, Danny Masterson, Adam Brody, John Cho, Danny Trejo, Jane Lynch, Michael Hitchcock, Marion RossIn Araki’s unevenly entertaining picaresque comedy, a perma-stoned struggling actress, played credibly by Faris, eats her roommate’s cupcakes in a fit of the munchies, not knowing that they...

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Dick (1999)

RecommendedUSA/FranceFeature FilmDirector: Andrew FlemingWriters: Andrew Fleming, Sheryl LonginCinematographer: Alexander GruszynskiComposer: John DebneyCast: Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Williams, Dan Hedaya, Will Ferrell, Bruce McCulloch, Teri Garr, Dave Foley, Jim Breuer, Ana Gasteyer, Harry Shearer, Saul RubinekA pair of ditzy 15-year-old girls (one of whom lives in The Watergate) inadvertently bring down Richard ‘Dick’ Nixon, when their scatterbrained...

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Le Bonheur (1965)

RecommendedFranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: Le bonheurWriter/Director: Agnès VardaCinematographers: Claude Beausoleil, Jean RabierComposer: Jean-Michel DefayeCast: Jean-Claude Drouot, Claire Drouot, Marie-France BoyerIn Varda’s unsettlingly jaunty, irony drenched film, François, a handsome, happily married young joiner with two small children, attempts to have his cake and eat it too, when he begins an affair with a pretty young post office worker,...

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The Ghost (2010)

Not RecommendedFrance/Germany/UKFeature FilmOriginal Title: The Ghost WriterDirector: Roman PolanskiWriters: Robert Harris, Roman PolanskiCinematographer: Pawel EdelmanComposer: Alexandre DesplatCast: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams, Kim Cattrall, Tom Wilkinson, Robert Pugh, Timothy Hutton, Jon BernthalA ghost writer takes a last minute job, re-writing the former Prime Minister Adam Lang’s memoirs, and soon finds himself stumbling...

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7th Heaven (1927)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Frank BorzageWriters: Benjamin Glazer, H.H. Caldwell, Katherine Hilliker, Austin StrongCinematographers: Ernest Palmer, Joseph A. ValentineCast: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Ben Bard, Albert Gran, David Butler, Marie Mosquini, Emile ChautardChico, a cocky sewer worker who aspires to be a street cleaner, against his better judgement, takes pity on an abused waif, taking her into his home, and – again against his...

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The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)

RecommendedFranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: La chute de la maison UsherDirector: Jean EpsteinWriters: Jean Epstein, Luis Buñuel, Edgar Allan PoeCinematographers: Georges Lucas, Jean LucasCast: Jean Debucourt, Marguerite Gance, Charles Lamy, Fournez-GoffardRoderick, the last in the line of Ushers, obsessively works on a painting of his ailing wife, who becomes ever weaker the more vibrant her portrait becomes, until she finally dies, at which point...

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Modern Romance (1981)

Highly RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Albert BrooksWriters: Albert Brooks, Monica Mcgowan JohnsonCinematographer: Eric SaarinenCast: Albert Brooks, Kathryn Harrold, Bruno Kirby, James L. Brooks, George KennedyRobert, a neurotic, narcissistic Hollywood film editor, breaks up with his long-term girlfriend, Mary, despite still being in love with her, and spends the next 24 hours trying to forget her (aided by drugs, jogging equipment, and a blind...

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A City of Sadness (1989)

Highly RecommendedTaiwan/Hong KongFeature FilmOriginal Title: 悲情城市Director: Hou Hsiao-hsienWriters: Chu T'ien-wen, Wu Nien-JenCinematographer: Chen Huai-enComposers: S.E.N.S.Cast: Li Tianlu, Chen Sung Young, Gao Chieh, Tony Leung, Wu I-fang, Xin Shufen, Chen Shu-fang, Ko Su-yun, Lin Li-ching, Ho, Ai-yun, Kenny Cheung, Yang Chang-chiengHou’s leisurely paced, Golden Lion winning film takes a sprawling and epic yet intimate look at the liberation of...

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Le Plaisir (1952)

Cautiously RecommendedFranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: Le plaisirDirector: Max OphülsWriters: Jacques Natanson, Max Ophüls, Guy de MaupassantCinematographers: Philippe Agostini, Christian MatrasComposer: Joe HajosCast: Claude Dauphin, Gaby Morlay, Jean Galland, Madeleine Renaud, Danielle Darrieux, Jean Gabin, Jean Servais, Daniel Gélin, Simone SimonOphüls’s evocatively photographed and stylishly if occasionally flashily directed film consists of...

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Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988)

Essential ViewingUKFeature FilmWriter/Director: Terence DaviesCinematographers: William Diver, Patrick DuvalCast: Freda Dowie, Pete Postlethwaite, Angela Walsh, Dean Williams, Lorraine Ashbourne, Debi Jones, Michael Starke, Vincent Maguire, Antonia MallenDavies’s sensual, impressionistic magnum opus presents a visually ravishing, gently funny, and decidedly heartbreaking yet surprisingly warm look at the upbringing of his elder siblings in a working...

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Love Streams (1984)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: John CassavetesWriters: Ted Allan, John CassavetesCinematographer: Al RubanComposer: Bo HarwoodCast: Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes, Diahnne Abbott, Seymour Cassel, Margaret Abbott, Jakob Shaw, Risa BlewittAdapted from Ted Allan’s play, Cassavetes’s visceral, plotless, bravely acted character study follows the misfortunes of a pair of mentally unbalanced, middle-aged siblings, who fill their empty, loveless lives...

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The Tarnished Angels (1957)

Cautiously RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Douglas SirkWriters: George Zuckerman, William FaulknerCinematographer: Irving GlassbergComposer: Frank SkinnerCast: Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, Jack Carson, Robert Middleton, Alan Reed, Alexander Lockwood, Chris OlsenDuring the New Orleans Mardi Gras of 1932, an oft drunk newspaperman falls in with a single-minded daredevil pilot, his beautiful wife, his long-suffering engineer, and his...

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Bouquet of Barbed Wire (2010)

Cautiously RecommendedUKTelevision Mini-SeriesDirector: Ashley PearceWriters: Guy Andrews, Andrea NewmanCinematographer: Mike SpraggComposer: Ruth BarrettCast: Trevor Eve, Hermione Norris, Imogen Poots, Tom Riley, Jemima Rooper, Pierro Niel-Mee, Nicholas FarrellA haute bourgeois family is slowly torn apart when its teenaged daughter falls pregnant to and marries her English teacher, who is ten years her senior, which gradually brings to light long...

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The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)

Not RecommendedUKFeature FilmDirectors: Michael Powell, Emeric PressburgerWriters: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, Dennis Arundell, Jules BarbierCinematographer: Christopher ChallisCast: Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann, Léonide Massine, Robert Rounseville, Pamela Brown, Ludmilla Tchérina, Ann AyarsAlthough it features resplendent production design, lustrous photography, and some spellbindingly beautiful dancing from Moira Shearer, this adaptation...

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Martin Scorsese's 15 Most Influential Gangster Films

"Here are 15 gangster pictures that had a profound effect on me and the way I thought about crime and how to portray it on film. They excited me, provoked me, and in one way or another, they had the ring of truth. I stopped before the ‘70s because we’re talking about influence here, and I was looking at movies in a different way after I started making my own pictures. There are many gangster films I’ve admired in the last 40 years—Performance, the Godfather saga, Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America, The Long Good Friday, Sexy Beast, John Woo’s...

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Shallow Grave (1994)

RecommendedUKFeature FilmDirector: Danny BoyleWriter: John HodgeCinematographer: Brian TufanoComposer: Simon BoswellCast: Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor, Ken Stott, Keith Allen, Colin McCredie, Peter MullanWhen their suave new flatmate dies, presumably from a drug overdose, leaving behind a suitcase full of money, Juliet, Alex, and David, three vaguely obnoxious yuppie types, decide to dispose of the body and keep the money for themselves;...

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Two Years Later (2002)

RecommendedFranceFeature DocumentaryOriginal Title: Deux ans après (2002)Writer/Director/Narrator: Agnès VardaCinematographers: Stéphane Krausz, Agnès VardaComposers: Joanna Bruzdowicz, Isabelle Olivier, François WertheimerTwo years after The Gleaners & I (2000), veteran film-maker Varda examines its aftermath, revisiting some of the people we encountered in the earlier film, most notably the homeless volunteer French teacher with a masters degree,...

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The Gleaners & I (2000)

Highly RecommendedFranceFeature DocumentaryOriginal Title: Les glaneurs et la glaneuseWriter/Director/Narrator: Agnès VardaCinematographers: Didier Doussin, Stéphane Krausz, Didier Rouget, Pascal Sautelet, Agnès VardaComposers: Joanna Bruzdowicz, Isabelle OlivierVarda’s eye-opening and thoughtful yet (pleasingly) whimsical and personal documentary examines the hidden world of modern day gleaning, taking in both the traditional post-harvest rural...

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I Capture the Castle (2003)

Cautiously RecommendedUKFeature FilmDirector: Tim FywellWriters: Heidi Thomas, Dodie SmithCinematographer: Richard GreatrexComposer: Dario MarianelliCast: Romola Garai, Rose Byrne, Marc Blucas, Henry Thomas, Bill Nighy, Tara Fitzgerald, Henry Cavill, Joe Sowerbutts, Sinead CusackA 17-year-old aspiring writer, who lives with her eccentric family in a derelict castle in rural 1930s England, struggles to understand the nature of love, which she believes...

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Pleasantville (1998)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmWriter/Director: Gary RossCinematographer: John LindleyComposer: Randy NewmanCast: Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, J.T. Walsh, Don Knotts, Marley Shelton, Giuseppe AndrewsA nerdy teenaged boy and his sex-mad twin sister find themselves magically transported into the black and white world of the 1950s sitcom Pleasantville, and with them they bring a certain hint of colour, which...

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The Red and the White (1967)

RecommendedHungary/Soviet UnionFeature FilmOriginal Title: Csillagosok katonákDirector: Jancsó MiklósWriters: Hernádi Gyula, Jancsó Miklós, Karall Luca, Valeri Karen, Giorgi MdivaniCinematographer: Somló TamásCast: Madaras József, Molnár Tibor, Kozák András, Juhász Jácint, Anatoli Yabbarov, Sergey Nikonenko, Mikhail Kozakov, Bolot Bejshenaliyev, Tatiana Koniukova, Krystyna MikolajewskaAfter the Marxist revolution of 1917, Russian and Hungarian communists...

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The Road to Coronation Street (2010)

Cautiously RecommendedUKTelevision FilmDirector: Charles SturridgeWriter: Daran LittleCinematographer: Tim PalmerComposer: Adrian JohnstonCast: David Dawson, Christian McKay, Shaun Dooley, Jane Horrocks, Sophia Di Martino, Steven Berkoff, Michelle Holmes, Jessie Wallace, Celia Imrie, Lynda Baron, James Roach, John ThomsonTony Warren, a cocky, precocious young writer, and Harry Elton, a Canadian producer, fight against Granada executives to get Florizel...

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When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960)

Essential ViewingJapanFeature FilmOriginal Title: 女が階段を上る時Director: Naruse MikioWriter: Kikushima RyūzōCinematographer: Tamai MasaoComposer: Mayuzumi ToshirōCast: Takamine Hideko, Mori Masayuki, Dan Reiko, Nakadai Tatsuya, Katō Daisuke, Nakamura Ganjiro, Ozawa Eitarō, Awaji KeikoKeiko (Takamine, exquisite), a popular yet principled bar hostess who has reached a certain age, finds that she must decide whether to open a bar of her own, move into alternative...

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The Bridges of Madison County (1995)

Cautiously RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Clint EastwoodWriters: Richard LaGravenese, Robert James WallerCinematographer: Jack N. GreenComposer: Lennie NiehausCast: Clint Eastwood, Meryl Streep, Annie Corley, Victor SlezakWhen their mother dies, Carolyn and Michael discover that she wasn’t merely the quiet little housewife that they had thought, uncovering a tender but all too brief affair that she had had with a travelling photographer in 1965,...

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I Am Love (2009)

Essential ViewingItalyFeature FilmOriginal Title: Io sono l'amoreDirector: Luca GuadagninoWriters: Barbara Alberti, Ivan Cotroneo, Walter Fasano, Luca GuadagninoCinematographer: Yorick Le SauxComposer: John AdamsCast: Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Pippo Delbono, Diane Fleri, Maria PaiatoWith adventurous mise en scène and an uncommonly bold use of music, Guadagnino’s affectingly acted film follows the progress...

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A Hard Day's Night (1964)

RecommendedUK/USAFeature FilmDirector: Richard LesterWriter: Alun OwenCinematographer: Gilbert TaylorCast: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Wilfrid Brambell, Norman Rossington, John Junkin, Victor SpinettiJohn, Paul, George, and Ringo travel down to London with Paul’s grandfather, a very clean but decidedly mischievous old man, to appear on a television show, and get into various scrapes along the way, in Richard Lester’s...

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Sexy Beast (2000)

RecommendedUK/SpainFeature FilmDirector: Jonathan GlazerWriters: Louis Mellis, David ScintoCinematographer: Ivan BirdComposer: Roque BañosCast: Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman, James Fox, Cavan Kendall, Julianne White, Álvaro MonjeGal, a retired criminal finds his idyllic Spanish retirement threatened when an old colleague, Don Logan (Kingsley, hilarious), an unbalanced little man with a fearsome reputation, comes to visit...

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Threads (1984)

Highly RecommendedUKTelevision FilmDirector: Mick JacksonWriter: Barry HinesCinematographers: Andrew Dunn, Paul MorrisNarrator: Paul VaughanCast: Karen Meagher, Reece Dinsdale, David Brierley, Rita May, Nicholas Lane, Jane Hazlegrove, Henry Moxon, June Broughton, Sylvia Stoker, Harry BeetyBarry “Kes” Hines’s remarkable, authoritative, and upsettingly believable docu-drama follows the progress of two Sheffield families and the city’s chief executive...

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Albert's Memorial (2009)

Not RecommendedUKTelevision FilmDirector: David RichardsWriter: Thomas ElliceCinematographer: Tony ColdwellComposer: Hal LindesCast: David Jason, David Warner, Judith Hoersch, Michael Jaston, Nick Bennett, Scott Harrison, Adam FlynnOn his death bed, Albert, due to be cremated by his wife, makes two old army chums promise to steal his body and take it to Germany, the scene of some momentous wartime incident that they don’t talk about, and bury it,...

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The Squid and the Whale (2005)

Highly RecommendedUSAFeature FilmWriter/Director: Noah BaumbachCinematographer: Robert D. YeomanComposers: Britta Phillips, Dean WarehamCast: Jesse Eisenberg, Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Owen Kline, Anna Paquin, Halley Feiffer, William BaldwinA teenaged boy slowly comes to realise what a pretentious, superior nitwit his writer father is, whom he had always worshipped, as he and his younger brother are shipped back and forth between their parents’...

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Hancock & Joan (2008)

Highly RecommendedUKTelevision FilmSeries Title: The Curse of Comedy (2008)Director: Richard LaxtonWriters: Richard Cottan, Joan Le Mesurier, Edward JoffeCinematographer: James WellandComposer: Ruth BarrettCast: Ken Stott, Maxine Peake, Alex JenningsIn the midst of his second divorce, comedy superstar Tony Hancock (Stott, outstanding) falls in love with his best friend John Le Mesurier’s new young wife, and begins a torrid affair with her, which...

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Moonfleet (1955)

Not RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Fritz LangWriters: Margaret Fitts, Jan Lustig, J. Meade FalknerCinematographer: Robert PlanckComposer: Miklós RózsaCast: Stewart Granger, Jon Whiteley, George Sanders, Joan Greenwood, Viveca Lindfors, Liliane Montevecchi, Melville Cooper, Sean McClory, Alan Napier, John HoytAfter the death of his mother, John Mohune, a 10-year-old Scots boy, who is descended from the pirate Redbeard, goes to live in his ancestral...

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Seven Chances (1925)

RecommendedUSAShort Feature FilmDirector: Buster KeatonWriters: Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez, Joseph Mitchell, Roi Cooper Megrue, David BelascoCinematographers: Byron Houck, Elgin LessleyComposer: Robert Israel (1995)Cast: Buster Keaton, T. Roy Barnes, Snitz Edwards, Ruth Dwyer, Frankie Raymond, Erwin Connelly, Jules CowlesWith his business in severe financial trouble, the news of a seven million dollar inheritance couldn’t come at a better time for...

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The Matrix (1999)

Not RecommendedUSAFeature FilmWriter/Directors: The Wachowski BrothersCinematographer: Bill PopeComposer: Don DavisCast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Gloria Foster, Joe Pantoliano, Marcus Chong, Julian Arahanga, Matt DoranA computer hacker learns that his life and those of everyone around him is a sham, with the world merely a computer simulation, set-up to keep human bodies, which are now little more than living...

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Regular Lovers (2005)

RecommendedFranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: Les amants réguliersDirector: Philippe GarrelWriters: Philippe Garrel, Marc Cholodenko, Arlette LangmannCinematographer: William LubtchanskyComposer: Jean-Claude VannierCast: Louis Garrel, Clotilde Hesme, Julien Lucas, Eric Rulliat, Nicolas Bridet, Mathieu GenetA young Parisian poet avoids military service, participates in the May ’68 riots, discovers opium, and falls in love with a beautiful sculptress,...

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Block-Heads (1938)

Highly RecommendedUSAShort Feature FilmDirector: John G. BlystoneWriters: Felix Adler, Arnold Belgard, Harry Langdon, James Parrott, Charley RogersCinematographer: Art LloydCast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Patricia Ellis, Minna Gombell, Billy Gilbert, James FinlaysonTwenty years after the end of the war, Stanley is still guarding his trench, completely oblivious to the fact that peace has broken out – a fact which surprises no one, least of all his...

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The Last Minute (2001)

RecommendedUKFeature FilmWriter/Director: Stephen NorringtonCinematographer: James WellandComposer: Paul RabjohnsCast: Max Beesley, Emily Corrie, Tom Bell, Ciarán McMenamin, Jason Isaacs, Kate AshfieldBilly Byrne, the next big thing, London’s most anticipated new artist, hops from one television interview to the next, and one party to another, until the hype bubble bursts and his life spirals dangerously out of control, leaving him living on the...

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Strange Planet (1999)

Not RecommendedAustraliaFeature FilmDirector: Emma-Kate CroghanWriters: Emma-Kate Croghan, Stavros KazantzidisCinematographer: Justin BrickleCast: Claudia Karvan, Naomi Watts, Alice Garner, Tom Long, Aaron Jeffery, Felix Williamson, Hugo WeavingOver the course of a year, three female friends and three male friends, all unlucky in love, strive but fail to find someone to grow old with; that is, until they meet each other, in Croghan’s charmingly acted...

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Where`s the Money Ronnie! (1996)

Not RecommendedUKShort Television FilmPublicity Title: Where's the Money, Ronnie?Series Title: First Cut (1994-2004)Writer/Director: Shane MeadowsCinematographer: Jimmy Hynd, Shane Meadows, Debbie TuckCast: Shane Meadows, James Hynd, Mat Hand, Paul Anderson, John Powell, Mick Pritchard, Mark RoperMeadows’s debut short, a black & white, typographically challenged, dryly-humorous comic tale, told in flashback, examines the aftermath of a number...

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Smalltime (1996)

RecommendedUKFeature FilmWriter/Director: Shane MeadowsCinematographer: Helene WhitehallComposer: Gavin ClarkeCast: Mat Hand, Dena Smiles, Shane Meadows, Gena Kawecka, Jimmy Hynd, Leon Hammond, Tim Cunningham, Dominic DillonWearing garish shell suits and silly wigs, Shane Meadows and pals bugger about for an hour, often hilariously, pretending to be an incompetent gang of small time hoods, who, whilst preparing for a big job – raiding The Rainbow...

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