In a Catholic boarding school during the Nazi occupation of France, Julien Quietin, played by Gaspard Manesse as the character based around Malle, is no ordinary student, he is intelligent and different from the others. A new student arrives at the school one day and becomes a sort of intellectual rival to Julien, but, after some early hostilities, the boys begin to connect and eventually become good friends. Malle does not rely on overly dramatic sequences where not necessary as a way to build find out more...

Gus Van Sant's take on the shooting at Columbine High School is a masterpiece. Using a cast of unprofessional actors, he has created a unique and highly affecting film, rich in atmosphere and style. The non-linear narrative follows the experiences of the key characters, giving a different perspective of events in the short time frame (most of the events shown in the film take place in about an hour). While the tension in the film obviously comes from the impending violence, the film's strongest find out more...

The 1960s and tradition is teetering on the edge, a group of minor public school boys can't hack it any more and rebellion brews. Discovering a cache of automatic weapons, they revolt bloodily against the establishment around them, from the rooftop they engage in a firefight with the teachers and other students, who are armed with the Army Cadet training rifles. A classic of the English cinema... rise up all teens. find out more...

When a burned-out, brilliant professor - one who believes in lessons from life rather than textbooks - takes a job at a small college, everyone there is abuzz. He becomes involved with a teacher as well as a precocious student, but it takes a dramatic, existential act to turn his life around and make him see the world through a much rosier and more positive perspective.

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A young working-class lad in a grim Northern mining town has no more ambition than to follow his dad down the pit. However he finds an injured young kestrel, which he nurses back to health and trains, an event which opens up a once bleak landscape for him. It's grim up there..... find out more...

Despite not living to his 30th birthday, Jean Vigo is still considered one of the great masters of French cinema. He only made 4 films and all of them are contained here, beautifully restored and with plenty of extras, including a feature length documentary on the director. L'Atlante tells the story of two newly weds living on board a barge on the Seine, Zero de Conduite contains a satirical tale of student revolt, A Propos de Nice is a documentary about the French coastal town, and Taris cinegr find out more...

Truffaut's first feature, the melancholy and revealing portrait (semi-autobiographical) of an adolescent boy growing up in Paris. We see the intense, destructive family background followed by an escape from reform school. Beautifully perceptive performances make this one of Truffaut's finest works. find out more...

One of two classic Lean adaptations of Charles Dickens. From the opening shot of Oliver's mother struggling through the snow to reach the workhouse. The film brilliantly recreates the feeling of poverty-stricken Victorian England. Look out in particular for Alec Guinness' superb performance as Fagin. find out more...

Winner of the Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes in 2004, Siddiq Barmak's extraordinary 'Osama' was the first feature film to be made in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban. Visually audacious and emotionally compelling, the film follows a girl who is forced to disguise herself as a boy in order to earn the money to feed her hungry all female family. The lead actress Marina Golbahari was, literally, chosen off the street by the director and gives an outstanding performance whi find out more...

Cracking little comedy which captures perfectly those painful, prepubescent feelings we all remember so well. "QuackQuack" Duckworth has two passions in life - cricket and the cute girl in his class. Sadly, he stands little chance of success with either of them. You'll laugh till you cry! find out more...