A wonderfully adapted film based round the exploits of Cicero, aka Elyesa Bazna, the Albanian born valet (Mason at his best) of the British ambassador to Turkey, who sold secrets to the Germans during 1944. The valet's gentlemanly pretensions are put to the test in this tale of espionage and romantic intrigue. Ace.

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The last of Wajda's famous trilogy, the one that signifies despair, has Cybulski, the 'Polish James Dean', as a young fighter no longer killing Germans but instructed to assassinate a recently appointed communist official. His deepening love affair with a hotel barmaid has him starting to question the value of his struggle. Superb. find out more...

In the middle of the Second World War teenage Alyosha is commended for destroying two German tanks, but, rather than take a medal, he requests a four day pass to visit his mother. Ballad of a Soldier is about this journey and the life enhancing encounters therein. Nominated at the 1962 Academy Awards for Best Screenplay, this classic of post-war Soviet Realism won many international film awards on its release, most notably a BAFTA Award for Best Film. find out more...

During the German Occupation a young trainee railway guard at a remote country station desperately tries to lose his virginity. He finally succeeds with the station master's wife. Satiric, anti-heroic, humorous and balanced tragi-comedy. Generally considered the finest Czech new wave film. find out more...

Told partially in flashback we learn of a married Japanese man, Kengo, who is sent to manage forests in Indochina, during WW2. Here he meets a young typist, Yukiko, who falls hopelessly in love with him. Despite his promises when he returns to Tokyo it is to his wife that does so and he continues having heartless affairs, while Yukiko is forced to become the mistress of a GI and then a rich businessman, anything to survive. find out more...

A true classic in every sense of the word! The story of men at war, with Clift as the private who refuses to box, Sinatra as the chirpy Italian and Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr romping adulterously in the surf. It won 8 Oscars including Best Picture, in 1953. Still absolutely superb. find out more...

Texan rancher Bick Benedict visits a Maryland farm to buy a prize horse. Whilst there he meets and falls in love with the owner's daughter Leslie, they are married immediately and return to his ranch. The story of their family and its rivalry with cowboy and (later oil tycoon) Jett Rink unfolds across two generations. James Dean earned his second Oscar nomination in this tale of frustration and revenge, wealth and racial oppression in Texas. find out more...

The story of a French actress and a Japanese man's brief affair in Hiroshima, stirring up painful memories for them both, for her wartime 'collaboration' and, for him, the bomb which quite literally destroyed everything he had known. Resnais's film is now seen as revolutionary for its time an a must for film study courses. Sadly haunting. find out more...

An epic retelling of the attack on Pearl Harbor and its immediate aftermath which focuses on the effects the attack has on the lives of individuals caught up in the ensuing chaos and brings the emotional issues of its characters into sharp relief. John Wayne delivers an excellent performance as a Captain nearing the end of his career who, faced with redundancy in action, looks to improving other areas of his life, particularly his relationship with his son. Kirk Douglas sees the event as a chanc find out more...

The post-WW2 struggles of four fading Japanese beauties for whom the glamor of youth has passed; Kin has become a calculating cold-hearted money-lender, and even her best friends, fellow ex-Geishas Tomi, Nobu and Tamae, are in hock to her. She also has two former lovers pursuing her; one she wants to see and the other she doesn't, but when the former turns up he proves to be a great disappointment. Tomi and Tamae have children, but their relationships with them are troubled. Meanwhile Nobu and h find out more...