Russia, 1936: revolutionary hero Colonel Kotov is spending an idyllic summer in his dacha with his young wife and six-year-old daughter Nadia and other assorted family and friends. Things change dramatically with the unheralded arrival of Cousin Dmitri from Moscow, who charms the women and little Nadia with his games and pianistic bravura. For most of its running time, the film seems to follow suit: it's a placid, languorous country-house comedy far removed from the realities of the Stalinist te find out more...

A landmark in the history of the cinema; it was ranked Number 1 in the American Film Institute's 100 greatest films of all time in two polls (1998 and 2007) of more than 1,500 film industry movers and shakers and again by UK directors in a BFI poll. "Citizen Kane" narrates the rise and fall of a newspaper tycoon driven by a childhood obssession and is loosely based round the life of William Randolph Hurst, who tried to have it banned, but incorporates elements from the lives of other fat cats il find out more...

Grace is on the run, and in the small backwater town of Dogville it would seem she has found some safety. But the town's inhabitants are not so understanding when the Mob turn up looking for the errant outsider and as Grace's former saviours begin to turn against her she sets in motion a string of events that may leave the townsfolk of Dogville rueing the day she ever entered their lives. Dogville is the latest from the master of mainstream experimental, Lars Von Trier, a dark, hypnotic, visuall find out more...

An actor most famous for his portrayl of Mephisto, the man who sold his soul to the devil, sells out to the Nazi regime. His ambition over-rides all other concerns as he climbs his way to the top. A brilliantly made study of ruthless egotism. find out more...

In 1930s North China, a young girl is given to a 50-year-old leper in exchange for a mule, but as she's carried to him through the wilderness she is saved from bandits by a handsome young peasant. Later the leper mysteriously dies and the peasant returns and the pair settle down to make the traditional red sorghum wine. The film shifts from fable to realism when Japanese troops invade the area, destroying the fields with forced labour from the vineyard until the workers revolt against them. find out more...

One of the all-time classic film noirs. Sultry Lana Turner is hypnotic as the bored, beautiful wife whose dreary life takes a dramatic turn when enigmatic drifter Frank walks into the diner she runs. Only her good-natured husband stands in the way of the pair's deadly passion. Superb stuff. find out more...

Admirably sumptuous film version of Gunter Grass's epic surreal novel. Depicting German history through the eyes of three year old Oskar who decides, through sheer will-power, never to grow up. Bizarre, amusing and frequently grotesque this is deservedly acclaimed as a milestone in modern cinema. find out more...