Warm and witty crime caper set amongst the fading grandeur of a seaside resort. Ageing crook Lou has a Walter Mitty memory, boasting of a life spent working for the likes of Al Capone, but his fertile imagination is tested when he meets a young hippy in trouble with the mob. A modern classic. find out more...

In a Catholic boarding school during the Nazi occupation of France, Julien Quietin, played by Gaspard Manesse as the character based around Malle, is no ordinary student, he is intelligent and different from the others. A new student arrives at the school one day and becomes a sort of intellectual rival to Julien, but, after some early hostilities, the boys begin to connect and eventually become good friends. Malle does not rely on overly dramatic sequences where not necessary as a way to build 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...

Altman's highly acclaimed and superbly directed mish-mash of Raymond Carver's short stories. We flit between numerous characters and their strange, confusing, moving and emotive daily lives. The range of emotions, and the incredibly cynical humorous touches brilliantly deconstruct American life. find out more...

The first part of Kieslowski's acclaimed allegorical delve into the French psyche. Binoche plays a woman with a tortured soul, her husband and daughter having died in a tragic car accident. Beautifully directed, with an incredibly lyrical and melancholy feel, Binoche's performance is outstanding. find out more...

Vera Drake, is one of the kindest, most selfless individuals any right thinking person could hope to meet, the mother of two grown up children, the wife of a loving husband, she works as a cleaner and is the epitome of a warm hearted decency. Vera is not just devoted to her family however, in the little spare time available to her she helps young girls terminate unwanted pregnancies and, though she takes no payment, this is 1950s Britain and the consequences for her actions, should she be discov find out more...