Godard's bleak sci-fi noir, with the stony-faced gumshoe Lemmy Caution turning inter-galactic agent to re-enact the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice in conquering Alpha 60, the strange automated city where such emotions as love and tenderness are banished. A brilliantly realised and stylish satire on the dehumanising nature of technology. find out more...

Returning to themes he had touched upon in his earlier films Polanski develops the idea of Pinter's "two people in a room and then a third enters" with a couple on a remote island invaded by two on-the-run gangsters. Gradually the power positions shift... underlined with great black humour. find out more...

The middle part of Pasolini's trilogy of Life is a suitably bawdy adaption of Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales', a series of stories that pretty much wanders through all the 'Seven Sins' and, in particular, the cast of characters sexual peccadillos. Lush and enjoyable. 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...

This story of a man as he reflects upon his life and begins to perceive his mortality. As he travels to Lund to receive an honorary award after 50 years of medical practice, a professor finds himself repeatedly affected by intrusive dreams and hallucinations that expose his darkest fears. He slowly comes to realize that the choices he has made in the past created a cold and empty life, devoid of real meaning or value. Finally, he achieves redemption and reintegration through forgiveness and the find out more...