A very strange little number which was released, then immediately withdrawn in 1932 to remain banned for over fifty years. Still pretty disturbing today, despite the triumph of the various aesthetically-challenged "freaks" over their so-called normal tormenters, showing the revenge taken by a group of circus freaks on a beautiful trapeze artist and her strongman lover after they have tried to kill a midget for his fortune.
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OF MICE AND MEN (1939)
CertificationU Our Rating
Set in 1930s California, this adaptation of Steinbeck's novel ‘Of Mice and Men' paints a bold, vivid picture of life in the depression era and tells the tragic tale of George and Lenny two itinerant farm hands searching for a safe haven from the cruelties of the world.
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RED ANGEL (1966)
Certification15 Our Rating
Set in the Sino-Japanese war, Yasuzo Masumura's black-and-white anti-war film tells of an army nurse who sexually services an amputee and falls in love with a drug-addicted surgeon. This can't be recommended to the squeamish, but neither can its nuanced eroticism nor its passionate, unpredictable moral focus, be easily shaken off. Comparable with Altman's MASH, it suggests a less comic treatment of the same theme, how to preserve one's humanity in impossible circumstances, but its ethics are con
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THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM (1955)
Certification15 Our Rating
Originally banned by both the American and British censors, this has an Oscar nominated Frank Sinatra as you've never seen him before - as a strung-out junkie dealing with heroin addiction, a penchant for gambling at poker and a crippled wife, but trying to start a new life as a jazz drummer. A controversial film with an excellent jazz soundtrack.
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WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE (1962)
Certification18 Our Rating
Ex-child star Jane is a has-been losing her looks, who lives in a decaying Hollywood mansion with her younger sister, who had previously surplanted her as a movie star. An absolutely brilliant study of sibling rivalry, shattered dreams and power dynamics within relationships. Davis and Crawford at their best in this adaptation of a classic Henry Farrell novel.
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WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS (1960)
CertificationPG Our Rating
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.
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