Atom Egoyan has created a world within a world, shifting between the contemporary and, through the making of a film about the events, the tragic genocidal slaughter of the Armenians in turn of the 20th Century Turkey. Ararat is a thoughtful and thought provoking drama of the highest order. find out more...

Robert Downey Jnr demonstrates his prowess by giving a riveting performance as the little master. The cast delivers despite a disjointed narrative, and Chaplin's fall from grace, brought down by McCarthyism is very moving. Kevin Kline is excellent as the flamboyant Fairbanks Jnr. find out more...

A landmark in the history of the cinema; it was ranked Number 1 in the American Film Institute's 100 greatest films of all time in two polls (1998 and 2007) of more than 1,500 film industry movers and shakers and again by UK directors in a BFI poll. "Citizen Kane" narrates the rise and fall of a newspaper tycoon driven by a childhood obssession and is loosely based round the life of William Randolph Hurst, who tried to have it banned, but incorporates elements from the lives of other fat cats il find out more...

 

Movie Mole says: Hugo allows an adult audience to experience the sheer childlike joy of solving a mystery, of keeping of a great big secret and, most importantly, of seeing a film for the very first time; the movie is filled to the brim wi find out more...

Britain's silent film history is finally emerging after an era of neglect. As Matthew Sweet, writer and presenter of the programme, says, the silent era "was one of the most creative, extravagant, sensational and pleasurable periods of film production in this country". A fascinating documentary profiling in detail British film from 1859 to 1929, a nearly forgotten slice of cultural history, featuring archive footage and interviews with historians and survivors from the period. find out more...

This truly exhaustive journey from the dawn of the medium through to the late sixties documents the rise and rise of Hollywood. Martin Scorsese guides us through his personal favourites and a vast selection of cult classics and recognised masterpieces. find out more...

Released in 1951, it was a project of the Festival of Britain. Adapted by Eric Ambler from the controversial biography by Ray Allister, it gave a biographic account of William Friese-Greene, who first designed and patented a working cinematic camera. This claim is subject to some controversy, but evidence now tends to support it. The film was notable for its cast: many well-known British film actors appeared in cameos. It was completed and shown just before the end of the Festival, but the gener find out more...