Who's Who (1979)

RecommendedUKTelevision FilmSeries Title: Play for Today (1970-1984)Writer/Director: Mike LeighCinematographer: John ElseCast: Richard Kane, Adam Norton, Simon Chandler, Catherine Hall, Felicity Dean, Graham Seed, Jeffrey Wickham, David Neville, Richenda Carey, Phil Davis, Joolia Cappleman, Sam Kelly, Geraldine JamesClick for revi...

Read More

The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968)

RecommendedWest Germany/ItalyFeature FilmOriginal Title: Chronik der Anna Magdalena BachDirectors: Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie StraubWriters: Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, Anna Magdalena BachCinematographer: Ugo PicconeCast: Gustav Leonhardt, Christiane LangHuillet and Straub’s excellent Johann Sebastian Bach biopic, based on the diaries of his second wife Anna Magdalena Bach, captures – in a series of static, extended musical sequences – the...

Read More

True Blood: Season 1 (2008)

USATelevision SeriesCreator: Alan BallCast: Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Chris Bauer, Nelsan Ellis, William Sanderson, Jim Parrack, Carrie Preston, Alexander Skarsgård, Todd Lowe, Adina Porter, Michael Raymond-James, Michael McMillian, Lois Smith, Lizzy Caplan, Lynn CollinsPart vampire thriller, part cross-cultural romance, part serial killer murder mystery, Alan Ball’s small town Louisiana set series, although...

Read More

From the Life of the Marionettes (1980)

RecommendedWest Germany/Austria/UKTelevision FilmOriginal Title: Aus dem Leben der MarionettenWriter/Director: Ingmar BergmanCinematographer: Sven NykvistComposer: Rolf WilhelmCast: Robert Atzorn, Christine Buchegger, Rita Russek, Martin Benrath, Heinz Bennent, Lola Müthel, Walter SchmidingerAfter murdering a prostitute, a man, his wife, his doctor, his mother, and his wife’s homosexual friend attempt to paint a picture of his fragile mental state...

Read More

The Singer (2006)

Cautiously RecommendedFranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: Quand j'étais chanteurWriter/Director: Xavier GiannoliCinematographer: Yorick Le SauxComposer: Alexandre DesplatCast: Gérard Depardieu, Cécile De France, Mathieu Amalric, Christine CittiA middle-aged, overweight night club singer with an eye for attractive divorcées falls for an enigmatic, statuesque young blonde, and precedes to pursue her, using her role of estate agent as an excuse to get...

Read More

Mad Men: Season 2 (2008)

USATelevision SeriesCreator: Matthew WeinerCast: Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, January Jones, Aaron Staton, Michael Gladis, Rich Sommer, John Slattery, Robert Morse, Bryan Batt, Alison Brie, Mark Moses, Joel Murray, Peyton ListSet against The Cuban Missile Crisis and the death of Marilyn Monroe, the second season of Matthew Weiner’s immaculately crafted early ‘60s set drama is decidedly more conventional than...

Read More

Mad Men: Season 1 (2007)

USATelevision SeriesCreator: Matthew WeinerCast: Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, January Jones, Aaron Staton, Michael Gladis, Rich Sommer, John Slattery, Robert Morse, Bryan Batt, Alison Brie, Maggie Siff, Anne Dudek, Rosemarie DeWittWith a strange sense of quiet desperation and melancholia barely kept beneath the surface, Matthew Weiner’s booze soaked, nicotine stained, and quite brilliant series follows the exploits...

Read More

CFB's Top 25 Obscure Films of 1940 (2010)

Our Town (1940) Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) A Wild Hare (1940) Strange Cargo (1940) Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940) Dots (1940) A Night in June (1940) Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) Swinging the Lambeth Walk (1940) A Plumbing We Will Go (1940) Beyond Tomorrow (1940) Black Friday (1940) From Mayerling to Sarajevo (1940) The Stars Look Down (1939) The Return of Frank James (1940) Contraband (1940) Murder Over New York (1940)...

Read More

CFB's Top 25 Films of 1940 (2010)

Rebecca (1940) The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Pinocchio (1940) The Shop around the Corner (1940) His Girl Friday (1940) Foreign Correspondent (1940) Fantasia (1940) The Philadelphia Story (1940) The Thief of Bagdad (1940) The Letter (1940) The Great Dictator (1940) Christmas in July (1940) The Sea Hawk (1940) The Bank Dick (1940) The Mortal Storm (1940) Waterloo Bridge (1940) They Drive By Night (1940) The Westerner (1940) Remember...

Read More

Tropical Malady (2004)

Essential ViewingThailand/France/Italy/GermanyFeature FilmOriginal Title: สัตว์ประหลาดWriter/Director: Apichatpong WeerasethakulCinematographers: Jarin Pengpanitch, Vichit Tanapanitch, Jean-Louis VialardCast: Banlop Lomnoi, Sakda Kaewbuadee, Huai Dessom, Sirivech Jareonchon, Udom PrommaWeerasethakul’s intensely sensual and very unconventional film joyfully depicts an ever so tentative romance between a young soldier and an illiterate farmhand that...

Read More

Chocolat (1988)

Highly RecommendedFrance/West GermanyFeature FilmDirector: Claire DenisWriters: Claire Denis, Jean-Pol FargeauCinematographer: Robert AlazrakiComposer: Abdullah IbrahimCast: Isaach De Bankolé, Giulia Boschi, François Cluzet, Cécile Ducasse, Jean-Claude Adelin, Kenneth Cranham, Mireille Perrier, Emmet Judson WilliamsonMemories from her childhood living on a remote northern estate in colonial Cameroon come flooding back to her when a young white woman...

Read More

The Queen of Spades (1949)

Cautiously RecommendedUKFeature FilmDirector: Thorold DickinsonWriters: Rodney Ackland, Arthur Boys, Alexander PushkinCinematographer: Otto HellerComposer: Georges AuricCast: Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans, Yvonne Mitchell, Ronald Howard, Mary Jerrold, Anthony Dawson, Miles Malleson, Michael Medwin, Athene Seyler, Ivor BarnardAn army captain, who believes that he could do great things if only he had money, begins to woo the granddaughter of an aged...

Read More

The Other Side of the Underneath (1972)

RecommendedUKFeature FilmWriter/Director: Jane ArdenCinematographers: Jack Bond, Aubrey DewarComposers: Sally Minford, The ContinuumCast: Sheila Allen, Susanka Fraey, Liz Danciger, Ann Lynn, Penny Slinger, Jane Arden, Sally Minford, Jenny Moss, Liz Kustow, Rosie Marcham, Elaine Donovan, Bill DeaseyJane Arden and the rest of The Holocaust Theatre Company’s adaptation of their play The Holocaust (1970) is an incredibly visceral, feminist primal scream...

Read More

Content (2010)

RecommendedUK/GermanyFeature DocumentaryDirector: Chris PetitWriters: Ian Penman, Chris PetitCinematographers: Chris Petit, Christopher RothComposer: Antye Greie aka AGFNarrator: Chris PetitFeaturing: Hanns Zischler, Matthew Evans, Mai Iun-Xue, Laurin Berreshein, Agathe Wiesner, Till Bönninhausen, Lizia Schleip, Louis PetitPetit’s “ambient road movie” – a rather non-specific journey from here to there and back again, wherever they may be – provides...

Read More

Sugarhouse (2007)

Cautiously RecommendedUKFeature FilmDirector: Gary LoveWriter: Dominic LeytonCinematographer: Daniel BronksComposer: Michael PriceCast: Steven Mackintosh, Ashley Walters, Andy Serkis, Adam Deacon, Ted Nygh, Tolga Safer, Ade, Tracy WhitwellA wealthy, besuited gent, distraught over the break-up of his marriage, finds himself in a disused warehouse, bordering a high-rise estate, attempting to buy a gun from a jittery crack-head, D; but when the true...

Read More

Family Nest (1979)

Highly RecommendedHungaryFeature FilmOriginal Title: Családi tüzfészekWriter/Director: Tarr BélaCinematography: Pap FerencComposers: Móricz Mihály, Szörényi Szabolcs, Tolcsvay LászlóCast: Horváth Lászlóné, Horváth László, Kun Gábor, Ifj. Kun Gábor, Kún Gáborné, Szekeres Jánosné, Korn József, Irén Rácz, Oláh Jánosné, Horváth Krisztina, Kádár AdriennTarr’s scintillatingly scarifying debut, an impassioned polemic (that never feels polemical), brilliantly...

Read More

Reaper: Season 2 (2008-2009)

USATelevision SeriesCreators: Tara Butters, Michele FazekasCast: Bret Harrison, Tyler Labine, Rick Gonzalez, Missy Peregrym, Ray Wise, Jenny Wade, Andrew Airlie, Donavon Stinson, Christine Willes, Ken Marino, Eriko Tamura, Michael Ian Black, Armie Hammer, Sean Patrick ThomasThe second (and final) season of this oft inspired and frequently thoroughly entertaining series is much less formulaic than the first, but it is also generally sillier and more...

Read More

Blood (1989)

Highly RecommendedPortugalFeature FilmOriginal Title: O SangueWriter/Director: Pedro CostaCinematographer: Martin SchäferCast: Pedro Hestnes, Nuno Ferreira, Inês Medeiros, Luís Miguel Cintra, Canto e Castro, Isabel de Castro, Henrique Viana, Luís SantosExquisitely photographed in stunning high contrast black & white, Costa’s highly stylised and pleasingly enigmatic film noir indelibly paints a portrait of Vicente, who may or may not have killed...

Read More

A Visit from Miss Protheroe (1978)

RecommendedUKShort Television FilmSeries Title: BBC2 Play of the Week (1977-1979)Director: Stephen FrearsWriter: Alan BennettCinematographer: Clive ThomasComposer: George FentonCast: Hugh Lloyd, Patricia Routledge, Alan BennettThis biting, slow burn verbal sparring match of a short film, Bennett’s first collaboration with the incomparable Routledge, depicts a seemingly innocent and friendly visit by a middle-aged secretary cum passive aggressive...

Read More

Sunset Across the Bay (1975)

Highly RecommendedUKTelevision FilmSeries Title: Play for Today (1970-1984)Director: Stephen FrearsWriter: Alan BennettCinematographer: Brian TufanoComposer: William DaviesCast: Harry Markham, Gabrielle Daye, Bob Peck, Jill SummersFrears and Bennett’s first film for the BBC’s Play for Today series, a beautifully understated yet thoroughly moving examination of the disappointments of old age, follows a newly retired Leeds couple, whose only son now...

Read More

The Kiss of Death (1977)

RecommendedUKTelevision FilmSeries Title: Play for Today (1970-1984)Writer/Director: Mike LeighCinematographer: John KenwayComposer: Carl DavisCast: David Threlfall, John Wheatley, Kay Adshead, Angela Curran, Clifford Kershaw, Pamela Austin, Elizabeth Ann OgdenClick for revi...

Read More

Daisies (1966)

RecommendedCzechoslovakiaFeature FilmOriginal Title: SedmikráskyDirector: Vera ChytilováWriters: Vera Chytilová, Pavel Jurácek, Ester KrumbachováCinematographer: Jaroslav KuceraComposers: Jirí Slitr, Jirí SustCast: Jitka Cerhová, Ivana KarbanováFormally playful, contextually dense, and often quite delightful, Chytilová’s psychedelic avant-garde experiment-cum-socio-political satire follows the exploits of two disaffected young women who, when realising...

Read More

Reaper: Season 1 (2007-2008)

USATelevision SeriesCreators: Tara Butters, Michele FazekasCast: Bret Harrison, Tyler Labine, Rick Gonzalez, Missy Peregrym, Ray Wise, Andrew Airlie, Donavon Stinson, Valarie Rae Miller, Christine Willes, Ken Marino, Michael Ian Black, Allison Hossack, Jessica Stroup, Colby JohannsonOn his twenty-first birthday, Sam, a middle-class underachiever who works at a DIY superstore, discovers that his parents sold his soul to the devil before his birth...

Read More

Sex, the City and Me (2007)

Cautiously RecommendedUKTelevision FilmDirector: Philippa LowthorpeWriters: Simon Bent, Philippa LowthorpeCinematographer: Graham SmithComposer: Peter SalemCast: Sarah Parish, Ben Miles, Daniel Lapaine, Shaun Dingwall, Burn Gorman, Raza Jaffrey, Corey Johnson, Sandra Bee, Sarah Lancashire, Abigail Cruttenden, Camilla ArfwedsonJess Turner, a rather unpleasant investment banker (is there any other kind?), after falling pregnant, is forced out of her...

Read More

Les Diables (2002)

Cautiously RecommendedFrance/SpainFeature FilmOriginal Title: Les diablesDirector: Christophe RuggiaWriters: Olivier Lorelle, Christophe RuggiaCinematographer: Eric GuichardComposer: Fowzi GuerdjouCast: Adele Haenel, Vincent Rottiers, Rochdy Labidi, Jacques Bonnaffé, Aurélia PetitJoseph, an angry young adolescent, and his severely autistic sister Chloé have grown-up in a series of care homes, from all of which they have escaped in the hope of finding...

Read More

Moving to Mars (2009)

RecommendedUKFeature DocumentaryDirector: Mat WhitecrossCinematographer: Annemarie Lean-VercoeComposer: Adrian JohnstonWhitecross’s unobtrusive and touchingly human documentary depicts the emigration of two Karen Burmese refugee families from the Mae La Camp in Thailand to Sheffield, capturing their final days of jungle living, their alien journey halfway round the world, and their fumbling attempts to acclimatise to an exciting and confusing new...

Read More

I Love You, Man (2009)

Cautiously RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: John HamburgWriters: John Hamburg, Larry LevinCinematographer: Lawrence SherComposer: Theodore ShapiroCast: Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Jaime Pressly, Sarah Burns, Jane Curtin, Andy Samberg, J.K. Simmons, Jon Favreau, Rob Huebel, Aziz Ansari, Nick Kroll, Mather Zickel, Thomas Lennon, Lou FerrignoWhen he becomes engaged to his girlfriend of eight months, Peter, a mild mannered estate agent,...

Read More

Lemon Tree (2008)

RecommendedIsrael/Germany/FranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: עץ לימו Lemon Tree شجره الليمونDirector: Eran RiklisWriters: Suha Arraf, Eran RiklisCinematographer: Rainer KlausmannComposer: Habib ShadahCast: Hiam Abbass, Doron Tavory, Ali Suliman, Rona Lipaz-Michael, Tarik Kopty, Amos Lavie, Amnon Wolf, Smadar Yaaron, Danny Leshman, Hili YalonWhen the Israeli Defence Minister moves into a new home next door to a middle-aged Palestinian widow, who runs...

Read More

Last White Man Standing (2010)

RecommendedUK/USA/DenmarkShort Television DocumentaryDirector: Justin WebsterCinematographer: Kim HattesenComposer: Murray AndersonNarrator: Judy KibingeFeaturing: Tom Cholmondeley, Eric Shimoli, Peter Gichuhi, Joseph Kamau, Graham Vetch, Lord Delamere, Lady Delamere, Sally Dudmesh, Geoffrey Mwangi, Martha Karua, Fred Ojiambo, Sarah Njoya, Carl “Flash” Tundo, Keriako Tobiko, Lynn Tundo, Fred Tundo, Tabina Cole, Lord Enniskillen, Lady EnniskillenWebster’s...

Read More

Storage (2009)

RecommendedAustraliaFeature FilmWriter/Director: Michael CraftCinematographer: Tony LuuComposers: Garry McDonald, Laurie StoneCast: Matthew Scully, Damien Garvey, Saskia Burmeister, Robert MammoneFollowing the murder of his father, which he helplessly witnessed, Jimmy goes to live and work with his uncle, who owns an underground storage facility, units in which he rents out to some decidedly unsavoury characters, whose nefarious habits dangerously...

Read More

Broken Embraces (2009)

Highly RecommendedSpain/USAFeature FilmOriginal Title: Los abrazos rotosWriter/Director: Pedro AlmodóvarCinematographer: Rodrigo PrietoComposer: Alberto IglesiasCast: Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo, José Luis Gómez, Rubén Ochandiano, Tamar NovasAfter he discovers that Ernesto Martel has died, Harry Caine, a blind film-maker, relays to his writing collaborator, the son of his agent, the story of how he came to know the millionaire 14...

Read More

I've Loved You So Long (2008)

RecommendedFrance/GermanyFeature FilmOriginal Title: Il y a longtemps que je t'aimeWriter/Director: Philippe ClaudelCinematographer: Jérôme AlmérasComposer: Jean-Louis AubertCast: Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, Serge Hazanavicius, Laurent Grévill, Frédéric Pierrot, Claire Johnston, Catherine Hosmalin, Jean-Claude Arnaud, Olivier Cruveiller, Lise SégurAfter serving fifteen years in prison for the murder of her six-year-old son, Juliette (Scott...

Read More

On Expenses (2010)

RecommendedUKShort Television FilmDirector: Simon Cellan JonesWriter: Tony SaintCinematographer: Ruairi O'BrienComposer: Adrian JohnstonCast: Anna Maxwell Martin, Brian Cox, Alex Jennings, Tim Pigott-Smith, David Calder, Christopher Good, Neil Pearson, Jeremy Swift, Raquel Cassidy, Steve John ShepherdThis witty and playful yet thoroughly credible and wonderfully acted (particularly by Cox and Martin) BBC film depicts the progress of American journalist...

Read More

Malice in Wonderland (2009)

RecommendedUK/USAFeature FilmDirector: Simon FellowsWriter: Jayson RothwellCinematographer: Christopher RossComposers: Christian Henson, Joe HensonCast: Maggie Grace, Danny Dyer, Matt King, Nathaniel Parker, Gary Beadle, Paul Kaye, Fiona O'Shaughnessy, Amanda BoxerWhilst en route to find her mother, Alice, the 19-year-old daughter of an American billionaire, gets struck by a taxi and taken on a strange odyssey through the seedy underworld of Southend...

Read More

Just Like Home (2007)

Cautiously RecommendedDenmarkFeature FilmOriginal Title: HjemveDirector: Lone ScherfigWriters: Niels Hausgaard, Lone ScherfigCinematographer: Anthony Dod MantleComposer: Kasper WindingCast: Lars Kaalund, Bodil Jørgensen, Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, Peter Gantzler, Peter Hesse Overgaard, Pernille Vallentin, Mia Lyhne, Ida Dwinger, Stina Ekblad, Steen Stig Lommer, Kristian Ibler, Henrik LykkegaardWhen rumours of a sighting of a streaker spread through...

Read More

Murder on the Lake (2010)

UKTelevision DocumentaryDirector: Henry SingerFeaturing: Alan Root, Sarah Higgins, Annabelle Thom, Dr. David M. Harper, Dee Raymer, David Chege, John Ndirangu, Issac Ouma, Andrew Enniskillen, Barry Gaymer, Andrew Omondi, Peter Szapary, John Sutton, Diana Bunny, Adrian Luckhurst, Nicholas Njangi, Julie Erskine, Brian FreemanHenry Singer’s fascinating and vaguely disquieting documentary, which quite possibly features interviews with one or more of...

Read More

Waltz with Bashir (2008)

Highly RecommendedIsrael/France/Germany/USA/Belgium/Australia/Switzerland/FinlandAnimated Feature DocumentaryOriginal Title: Vals Im BashirWriter/Director: Ari FolmanAnimators: Gali Edelbaum, Tal GadonComposer: Max RichterFeaturing: Ari Folman, Miki Leon, Ori Sivan, Yehezkel Lazarov, Ronny Dayag, Shmuel Frenkel, Zahava Solomon, Ron Ben-Yishai, Dror HaraziA friend’s recurring dream conjures up an enigmatic image from the night of The Sabra and Shatila...

Read More

Don't Worry About Me (2009)

RecommendedUKFeature FilmDirector: David MorrisseyWriters: James Brough, Helen Elizabeth, David MorrisseyCinematographer: Stuart Nicholas WhiteCast: James Brough, Helen ElizabethA Jack-the-lad Londoner finds himself alone and penniless in Liverpool after an impulsive post one-night-stand bus journey up north; fortuitously, he meets a kindly bookie’s assistant, whom he convinces to phone-in-sick and give him a guided tour of the city’s sights, in...

Read More

Mo (2010)

Cautiously RecommendedUKTelevision FilmDirector: Philip MartinWriter: Neil McKayCinematographer: Julian CourtComposer: Nick HooperCast: Julie Walters, David Haig, Gary Lewis, Steven Mackintosh, Toby Jones, Adrian Dunbar, John Lynch, Eoin McCarthyWalters’s outstanding performance enlivens this otherwise rather uneven and unfocused biopic of the gregarious and uninhibited former politician Mo Mowlam, which covers the period of time from her being diagnosed...

Read More

Dead Snow (2009)

Cautiously RecommendedNorwayFeature FilmOriginal Title: Død snøDirector: Tommy WirkolaWriters: Stig Frode Henriksen, Tommy WirkolaCinematographer: Matthew Bradley WestonComposer: Christian WibeCast: Vegar Hoel, Stig Frode Henriksen, Charlotte Frogner, Lasse Valdal, Evy Kasseth Røsten, Jeppe Laursen, Jenny Skavlan, Ane Dahl Torp, Bjørn Sundquist, Ørjan GamstA group of medical students travel to a remote cabin in the snow covered mountains of Finnmark...

Read More

Pontypool (2008)

RecommendedCanadaFeature FilmDirector: Bruce McDonaldWriter: Tony BurgessCinematographer: Miroslaw BaszakComposer: Claude FoisyCast: Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly, Hrant Alianak, Rick RobertsA ramblingly mischievous radio presenter, who works on the breakfast show of a station in Pontypool, Canada (not Wales), begins to relay reports of increasingly violent and worrying incidences of apparent rioting flaring-up across the town, bringing...

Read More

Home (2008)

RecommendedSwitzerland/France/BelgiumFeature FilmDirector: Ursula MeierWriters: Antoine Jaccoud, Olivier Lorelle, Ursula Meier, Gilles Taurand, Raphaëlle Valbrune, Alice WinocourCinematographer: Agnès GodardCast: Isabelle Huppert, Olivier Gourmet, Adélaïde Leroux, Madeleine Budd, Kacey Mottet KleinA close-nit and very happy but decidedly insular family, who live rather improbably in an isolated house next to an as yet unused motorway, find their...

Read More

Whatever Works (2009)

Not RecommendedUSA/FranceFeature FilmWriter/Director: Woody AllenCinematographer: Harris SavidesCast: Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley Jr., Conleth Hill, Olek Krupa, John Gallagher Jr., Henry Cavill, Christopher Evan Welch, Jessica HechtOriginally written as a vehicle for Zero Mostel in the ’70s (but shelved after his 1977 death), Allen’s mildly diverting if decidedly uneven film follows, from start to finish and beyond,...

Read More

Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (2008)

RecommendedDenmark/Sweden/Norway/UK/USAFeature DocumentaryOriginal Title: Burma VJ: Reporter i et lukket landDirector: Anders ØstergaardWriters: Jan Krogsgaard, Anders ØstergaardCinematographer: Simon PlumComposer: Conny MalmqvistØstergaard’s nerve-shatteringly visceral documentary, composed mainly of footage shot by the guerrilla video journalists of the DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma, an illegal television station transmitted from Oslo, Norway),...

Read More