Rossellini's masterpiece of neo-realist cinema. Based on the life of a priest who serves in the Resistance movement, it's triumph is to show the Resistance against a backdrop of everyday wartime life in Rome. The realism is enhanced by the camerawork and locations. A truly remarkable film. find out more...

Arthur Seaton is a factory worker who lives for women and booze and doesn't give a damn for the consequences. He is two-timing with Doreen whilst Brenda is pregnant and forced to face his responsibilities without losing his fighting spirit. 'Don't let the bastards grind you down'. A classic early 1960s angry young men neo-realist drama.

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The first of Eisenstein's classic series of films. The story of a revolt in a factory and its murderous suppression contains all the elements that went into his later films - the crowd masses, the mosaic of detail, the caricatures, faces of love, breathless montage and ferocious images of cruelty. find out more...

Enigmatic, allusive (yes, folks! We're deep in art-house territory!) tale of a stranger, a mysterious Devil or Christ figure, who insinuates himself into a bourgeois family, seducing each member in turn thereby tearing away their protective and self-deluding facade. Sacred and profane imagery accompany this strange tale. find out more...

A highly acclaimed and influential account of Algeria's turbulent past made in psuedo-documentary style. The tense plot surrounds the rise of nationalist organisations in '54 and the French government's attempts to quell them. This film was the prototype for most political thrillers of the 1970s. find out more...

Considered by many critics to be his finest film, Bunuel is in superb surreal form with this bizarre tale of a gathering of well-heeled Mexicans who have a compulsion making it impossible for them to leave the premises after a dinner party. The bourgeoisie were never more indiscreet nor darkly satirised. Wonderful! find out more...

Made almost contemporaneously with the 1930s setting, this authentically portrays the poverty and repression of the migrant 'Okies', evicted from their dustbowl farms and treated like slaves in California. Adapted from Steinbeck's book, often called 'THE Great American Novel' and with outstanding performances coming from Henry Fonda (Tom Joad) and John Carradine (John Casey) a preacher with a fondess for vice, but a true heart... fantastic. find out more...

20 years before 'kitchen sink' came into vogue was this serious, committed film about life up north in a mining community. Based on AJ Cronin's novel this is a deeply affecting drama focusing on a small village's utterly reliance on the nearby coal pits and the consequences of their employer's amoral greed. The Stars Look Down is a heartfelt and influential film. find out more...

Retired civil servant Umberto struggles to survive on his rapidly dwindling pension in the harsh environment of post-World War II Rome, a city plagued by its society's total disregard for the plight of the elderly, the poor and the downtrodden. His only companions are his loyal dog, Flag, and a pregnant housemaid named Maria. Facing eviction from his humble home by his tyrannical landlady Umberto's desperate failed attempts to raise money lead him to contemplate suicide, but first he must find a 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...