1560, Peru. In a beautiful poetic opening scene the conquistadors cross an Andes pass, situated between the peaks and the valleys, between conquered land and unexplored forests, between 'heaven' and 'earth', shrouded in mists, they make their way down a narrow path. Aguirre's meglomania grows as around him his comrades mutiny and die in his search for the lost city of El Dorado. Herzog's best film, an unforgetable tour de force. Made before the director himself gave in to meglomania on a later t find out more...

The greatest movie ever made? A soldier is sent into the Heart of Darkness to retrieve a commander gone AWOL in an insane reality of tin-pot power, paranoia and inglorious killing. The horror of war is stripped naked in a surreal twilight world. The crew nearly went mad making it, Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack and Coppola flew so far beyond budget that the word 'bankrupt' was nearly redefined. See "Heart of Darkness"... find out more...

The definitive 'Apocalypse Now' (as if the original wasn't pretty definitive) this has nearly an hour of extra footage fleshing out the surreal journey of our central protagonists and, though it brings the film to a whisker short of three and a half hours, much of it explains what happens to the eclectic characters we meet. The cut version of 'Apocalypse Now' stands as one of the most awesome films of modern cinema, anyone who has seen it will inevitably see it again, it's just that now you have find out more...

Mind those steps! Perhaps the most famous movie scene in the history of cinema. The documentary style story of mutiny aboard the Potemkin as the sailors fight oppression and fire on Tzarist troops attempting to quell rebellion in the city of Oddessa. Almost every shot is so beautiful it could work as a still. find out more...

One of the best suspense thrillers ever made - often imitated and rarely bettered. It's of the intrepid city adventurers up against in-bred redneck natives mould and the rednecks have the natural advantage, being both horribly cruel and at home in the woods. For anyone who enjoyed "Southern Comfort". find out more...

Herzog's epic movie about a man's obsessive attempt to bring opera to the Indians living deep in the Peruvian jungle. To do this he must take a steamship/tub way up the Amazon river system, a monumental task, at one point involving transporting it over a not unconsiderable hill, with the help of a system of pulleys and massed Indian labour. A surreal comment on madness, power and vision. There is also a documentary, Burden of Dreams, about the notoriously fraught making of the film. find out more...

An indie thriller so dark and dangerously involving that the subtitles are completely unobtrusive. An inoffensive middle-class family set off to their secluded lakeside holiday home for a restful retreat. However the arrival of Peter and Paul puts paid to that as the pair embark on a truly chilling campaign of terror, intermittently turning to camera to consult the viewer as to what should happen next, cleverly implicating their audience in the unfolding horror. Superbly unsettling. find out more...

Hiller is the headstrong young girl who travels to Scotland to marry a rich old man but falls for a seemingly poor young naval rating. Lyrically shot in monochrome it beautifully combines romance, comedy, suspense and a sense of the supernatural. Powell and Pressburger's most eloquent paean to the Brit landscape. find out more...

Polanski's first, and arguably his finest, feature film is an economically brilliant exercise in tension. Sparse of cast and props, the atmosphere grows painfully taut as a young couple on a yachting trip and the hitcher they've picked up engage in ever more dangerous emotional games. find out more...

A young Russian mother and her son arrive in the UK where they plan to start a new life with her British fiancé. When he fails to show up they claim political asylum and are detained in a hellish holding centre in a desolate seaside resort. When it seems that all is lost, the family find hope in the unlikely form of amusement arcade manager, Alfie. Visually brilliant with an outstanding cast, Last Resort offers a stark look at life in exile. find out more...