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 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...

The term 'free cinema' was coined by critic and filmmaker Lindsay Anderson in early 1956 when he, Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson and Lorenza Mazzetti showed a programme of their short films at the National Film Theatre. Although the name was intended only for that screening, it proved so successful that five more programmes were shown under the same banner between 1956 and 1959. find out more...

The term 'free cinema' was coined by critic and filmmaker Lindsay Anderson in early 1956 when he, Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson and Lorenza Mazzetti showed a programme of their short films at the National Film Theatre. Although the name was intended only for that screening, it proved so successful that five more programmes were shown under the same banner between 1956 and 1959. find out more...

An aspiring playwright allows his artistic integrity to crumble and quickly sees his marriage go the same way. Fritz Lang plays the earnest film director at war with a producer who has more money than taste. Brigitte Bardot is magnetic as the contemptuous wife whose respect for Piccoli withers as he's seduced by Palance's financial clout. Tres chic. find out more...

W.C. Fields plays himself, having a typical day at his studio, Esoteric Pictures. Fields eats breakfast, spars with a sarcastic waitress and then pitches his fractured script to studio head Franklin Pangborn. The script reading becomes a film within a film, commencing with the hero of the tale leaping out of an airplane in hot pursuit of a flask of whiskey. He lands on the bed of an innocent young girl and tries to seduce her before her mom comes crashing in. Fields then escapes over a cliff in find out more...

Critically maligned on its release, this tale of a twisted lens-man who lures unsuspecting female victims to their grisly death is an interesting study in the voyeuristic implications of cinema. The killer is an eternal victim whose crimes are cries of rage against his father and stepmother and, at the same time, pathetic rehearsals for his own inevitable death. A Freudian script of notable maturity teases limitless implications from this premise, while maintaining a healthy sense of humour. find out more...

It's the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemoth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Life is stirred up, however, when the beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband, John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, the woman who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs Railton-Bell discovers that the kindly if rather doddering Major Pollock, played by David Niven, who won an Oscar for his performance, a retired officer who likes to find out more...

Just simply the best musical ever made. Witty, inventive, brilliant, wonderful and slightly surreal; it manages to parody Hollywood without ever quite descending into self-parody, always retaining its dignity (always dignity...) A must-watch every few years or so.

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This masterpiece by Preston Sturges is perhaps the finest movie-about-a-movie ever made. Hollywood director John Sullivan, tired of churning out lightweight comedies, decides to make "O, Brother, Where Art Thou?" - a serious, socially responsible film about human suffering. After his producers point out that he knows nothing of hardship, Joel hits the road as a hobo. While on his travels the director finds the lovely Veronica Lake, and more trouble than he ever imagined. Some truly inspired set find out more...