A successful actress employs a woman in exchange for her flattery, only to find her employee is scheming her way to the top at her own expense. An intelligent, bitchy script complements the fine acting, making this one of Time Out's top 100 films of all time. Won Best Picture at 1950 Academy Awards.

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At the peak of her international career, Maria Enders is asked to perform in a revival of the play that made her famous twenty years ago. But back then she played the role of Sigrid, an alluring young girl who disarms and eventually drives her boss Helena to suicide. Now she is being asked to step into the other role, that of the older Helena. She departs with her assistant to rehearse in Sils Maria; a remote region of the Alps. A young Hollywood starlet with a penchant for scandal is to take find out more...

Part 2, and surely the greatest, of Wajda's trilogy describes the last days of the failed 1944 Warsaw uprising against the Nazis. The imagery of the sewers, to which the Polish fighters retreat, is superbly used to represent both their desperation and their new Soviet prison. Made in 1956 despite Stalinist censorship. find out more...

The catalyst is the mystery disappearance of a young girl on holiday, but the film concentrates on the burgeoning romance between the missing girl's lover and her best friend as the pair embark on a distinctly half-hearted search. Set against a desolate Sicilian landscape, this highly stylised drama was once considered the be all and end all of art house poseur, it's reputation has sunk but it's still a must see film classic. find out more...

Vittoria has just suffered the break-up of an imperfect relationship with a staunch intellectual when a brash young stockbroker makes his first tentative romantic advances, but the couple's innermost fears prevent their relationship from becoming a pure expression of their love. The winner of a Special Jury prize at Cannes, this exquisitely performed and photographed drama defines Antonioni's thematic preoccupation with the difficulties of communication and the impossibility of love; completing find out more...

Two womens' lives have become rituals around an absent man, one is the man's bedridden mother, who believes her imprisoned son is hitting the big time in America, and the other his wife, carefully sustaining the illusion in the old lady. find out more...

In the 17th Century a group of nuns claimed to be possessed by the devil with Joan, the convent head, leading the possession stakes with at least 8 demons on her slate. An innocent young priest, the latest in a long line sent to investigate, is going to have to go to hell and back to save her soul. Chronologically the film acts as a sequel to Ken Russell's 1971 shocker 'The Devils', and if you've seen that you'll know what a lying bitch Joan is. Superb black and white photography gives an expres find out more...

Bergman's fascinating and acclaimed allegorical search for a meaning for human existance. A disillusioned soldier returns from the Crusades to find plague ravaging Europe. Death arrives in person to take his soul, but by beating him at chess he earns a reprieve. Repressive, dark, medieval and superb! find out more...

Concentrating on the trial and torture of the young French warrior who provoked such fear in the church and state, a zealot in the eyes of those in power and one whose fate was sealed as soon as her capture was assured. Using historical records as the basis for the film, Bresson's The Trial Of Joan Of Arc has the feeling of a docu-drama and is reminiscent of the claustrophobic intensity of Arthur Miller's ‘The Crucible'. An emotionally harrowing and rewarding observation of untouchable faith and find out more...

"Josephine Decker has created a new style of thriller that employs allegory, incorporates touches of David Lynch as well as Magritte -esque imagery. Decker's setting of a remote farm feels like a metaphor for what turns out to be hell. The raw and emotional (and yes, sometimes funny) dialog tells a story that can seem familiar at points but really is meant to keep you guessing and off balance. I really enjoyed how the undertones of this film came to life through her very deft contrast of the find out more...