Stunningly filmed in black and white, this classic slice of surrealist cinema is both touching and terrifying. A doctor, tortured beyond sanity after disfiguring his only daughter, sets out to give her back what he has taken away, at the expense of a succession of suitable young donors. A darkly disturbing marvellous movie. find out more...

Noirish, black and white thriller, adapted by Kurosawa from a novel by Ed McBain. Wealthy tycoon Kingo Gondo is prepared to face financial ruin when his young son is kidnapped, but it soon emerges that the ruthless abductor has accidentally snatched the chauffeur's child instead. With the ransom demand still standing, Kingo faces a terrible moral dilemma, while wily policeman Inspector Tokuro employs ever more cunning methods in his hunt for the kidnapper. Tense and thought-provoking. find out more...

The last in Pasolini's trilogy, after 'The Decameron' and 'The Canterbury Tales', is a series of interlinked tales from the ancient Middle Eastern classic. 'Arabian Nights' is a truly lush and lusty version of the original folk stories revolving around slaves, kings, demons, love, betrayal, loss and appeasement. find out more...

Cocteau's version of the famous fairytale which, with its fantastic set design, set standards never bettered. The love story between woman and beast, in a fantasy world inside his enchanted castle, is both erotic and tragic, and this bewilderingly, beautiful and mystifying film is often seen as an allegory for a wounded France recovering from the Nazi occupation. Pure genius. find out more...

A chillingly awesome film, one of Clint's best. A dark sexual brooding drama set during the American Civil War. A wounded soldier is taken in by a crumbling girls' school and proceeds, through their sexual confusion and frustration, to manipulate the women. Their retribution is blood curdling. find out more...

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs might be Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse's finest hour, a delicate, devastating study of a woman, Keiko, played heartbreakingly by Hideko Takamine, who works as a bar hostess in Tokyo's very modern post-war Ginza district. Sly, resourceful, but trapped, Keiko comes to embody the conflicts and struggles of a woman trying to establish her independence in a male-dominated society. A profoundly moving masterpiece. find out more...