Rashomon (1950)

Essential ViewingJapanFeature FilmOriginal Title: 羅生門Director: Kurosawa AkiraWriters: Hashimoto Shinobu, Kurosawa Akira, Akutagawa RyunosukeCinematographer: Miyagawa KazuoComposer: Hayasaka FumioCast: Mifune Toshirō, Kyō Machiko, Mori Masayuki, Shimura Takashi, Chiaki Minoru, Ueda Kichijirō, Honma Fumiko, Katō DaisukeAdapted from a pair of Akutagawa short stories, Kurosawa’s magisterial film (his first masterpiece) explores a 12th century murder...

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Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008)

RecommendedUSAFeature DocumentaryDirector: Sacha GervasiCinematographer: Christopher SoosComposer: David NorlandFeaturing: Steve 'Lips' Kudlow, Robb ReinerGervasi’s entertaining and affecting Spinal Tap like documentary paints a portrait of the Canadian rockers Anvil – a heavy metal band started by its singer and drummer as 14-year-olds, some 30 plus years earlier – as they embark on a laughably shambolic European tour and attempt to record their...

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Ivan the Terrible, Part Two (1946)

RecommendedSoviet UnionFeature FilmOriginal Title: Иван Грозный IIWriter/Director: Sergei EisensteinCinematographers: Andrei Moskvin, Eduard TisseComposer: Nikolai Cherkasov, Serafima Birman, Pavel Kadochnikov, Mikhail Zharov, Amvrosi Buchma, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Mikhail KuznetsovFollowing on from (and greatly improving upon) Part One (1944), Eisenstein’s detailing of the boyars’ plot to replace the titular monarch as tsar of Russia with his rather...

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Miss Marie Lloyd: Queen of the Music Hall (2007)

Best AvoidedUKTelevision FilmDirector: James HawesWriter: Martyn HesfordCinematographer: David KatznelsonComposer: Rob LaneCast: Jessie Wallace, Richard Armitage, Shaun Parkes, Lee Williams, Amanda Root, Matthew Marsh, Angus Barnett, Tom PayneThis typically handsome BBC production, painting a portrait of cockney music hall star Marie Lloyd, inelegantly whizzes from one barely sketched scene to the next, scarcely introducing one husband before replacing...

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Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1944)

Cautiously RecommendedSoviet UnionFeature FilmOriginal Title: Иван Грозный IWriter/Director: Sergei EisensteinCinematographers: Andrei Moskvin, Eduard TisseComposer: Sergei ProkofievCast: Nikolai Cherkasov, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, Serafima Birman, Mikhail Nazvanov, Mikhail Zharov, Amvrosi Buchma, Mikhail Kuznetsov, Pavel Kadochnikov, Andrei AbrikosovWhilst the newly crowned Tsar Ivan IV strives to spread the Russian empire through a series of wars,...

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Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story (2008)

RecommendedUKTelevision FilmDirector: Andy DeEmmonyWriters: Amanda Coe, Patrick ReamsCinematographer: David OddComposers: Nick Green, Tristin NorwellCast: Julie Walters, Alun Armstrong, Hugh Bonneville, Georgie Glen, Timothy DaviesThough this BBC portrait of Mary Whitehouse, the suburban art teacher turned moral crusader, who was intent upon forcing her own peculiar brand of unnatural, puritanical protestant morality onto the rest of the nation through...

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My Neighbour Totoro (1988)

Cautiously RecommendedJapanAnimated Feature FilmOriginal Title: となりのトトロWriter/Director: Miyazaki HayaoComposer: Hisaishi JōCast: Hidaka Noriko, Sakamoto Chika, Itoi Shigesato, Shimamoto Sumi, Kitabayashi Tanie, Takagi Hitoshi, Maruyama YūkoSetsuki and Mei, two young sisters who have recently moved with their father to the country to be nearer to their hospitalised mother, discover and make friends with magical, fairy creatures, who live in the neighbouring...

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Freaks (1932)

Cautiously RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Tod BrowningWriter: Tod RobbinsCinematographer: Merritt B. GerstadCast: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Roscoe Ates, Henry Victor, Harry Earles, Daisy Earles, Rose Dione, Daisy Hilton, Violet HiltonA circus dwarf falls for a hideously manipulative trapeze artist, who toys with him mercilessly until she finds out about his recent inheritance, at which point she contrives to marry and subsequently...

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Shanghai, 2010

Golden GobletKiss Me Again (2010)Jury Grand PrizeDeep in the Clouds (2010)Best DirectorLiu Jie, Deep in the Clouds (2010)Best ScreenplayGabriele Muccino, Kiss Me Again (2010)Best ActressVittoria Puccini, Kiss Me Again (2010)Best ActorChristian Ulmen, Wedding Fever in Campobello (2010)Best CinematographyChristopher Doyle, Ondine (2010)Best MusicGiong LIM, Deep In The Clouds (2010)In CompetitionCircuit (2010)Czukor Show (2010)Deep in the Clouds (2010)Detour (2010)The First Beautiful Thing (2010)Kiss Me Again (2010)The Last Escape (2010)Ocean Heaven...

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What the Butler Saw (1987)

Highly RecommendedUKTelevision FilmSeries Title: Theatre Night (1985-1990)Director: Barry DavisWriter: Joe OrtonCinematographer: Derek SleeComposer: Jim ParkerCast: Dinsdale Landen, Prunella Scales, Tessa Peake-Jones, Timothy West, Tyler Butterworth, Bryan PringleWhite golliwogs, cross-dressing coppers, bellboy rapists, insanity, incest, and Winston Churchill’s giant member all play their part in this trouser-soilingly funny BBC production of Joe...

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Hallelujah! (1929)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: King VidorWriters: King Vidor, Wanda Tuchock, Ransom Rideout, Richard SchayerCinematographer: Gordon AvilCast: Daniel L. Haynes, Nina Mae McKinney, William Fountaine, Harry Gray, Fanny Belle DeKnight, Everett McGarrity, Victoria SpiveyVidor’s arrestingly photographed and oft brilliant if occasionally vaguely camp though never less than thoroughly entertaining film follows the ups and downs of Zeke, a cotton farmer...

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Lennon Naked (2010)

RecommendedUKTelevision FilmDirector: Edmund CoulthardWriter: Robert JonesCinematographer: Matt GrayComposer: Dickon HinchcliffeCast: Christopher Eccleston, Christopher Fairbank, Allan Corduner, Andrew Scott, Naoko Mori, Michael Colgan, Craig Cheetham, Jack Morgan, Claudie Blakely, Roroy Kinnear, Adrian BowerThis excellent BBC production – with a painfully authentic feeling and very affecting central performance from Eccleston – paints a portrait...

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Heartbeat Detector (2007)

Highly RecommendedFranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: La question humaineDirector: Nicolas KlotzWriters: François Emmanuel, Elisabeth PercevalCinematographer: Josée DeshaiesComposer: Syd MattersCast: Mathieu Amalric, Michael Lonsdale, Edith Scob, Lou Castel, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Valérie Dréville, Laetitia Spigarelli, Delphine Chuillot, Nicolas Maury, Rémy CarpentierKlotz’s remarkable film – a sensual, disquieting, and haunting meditation on the dehumanising...

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The Girl Cut in Two (2007)

Not RecommendedFrance/GermanyFeature FilmOriginal Title: La fille coupée en deuxDirector: Claude ChabrolWriters: Claude Chabrol, Cécile MaistreCinematographer: Eduardo SerraComposer: Matthieu ChabrolCast: Ludivine Sagnier, Benoît Magimel, François Berléand, Mathilda May, Caroline Silhol, Marie BunelChabrol’s well-made but risibly and fatally unconvincing film – based on the infamous 1906 White-Nesbit-Thaw crime passionnel – sees an attractive and...

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Away We Go (2009)

RecommendedUSA/UKFeature FilmDirector: Sam MendesWriters: Dave Eggers, Vendela VidaCinematographer: Ellen KurasComposer: Alexi MurdochCast: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Carmen Ejogo, Catherine O'Hara, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Josh Hamilton, Chris Messina, Melanie Lynskey, Paul SchneiderWith the birth of their first child just three months away, a young couple, with little in the way of local family or friends...

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She's Been Away (1989)

Cautiously RecommendedUKTelevision FilmSeries Title: Screen One (1989-1994)Director: Peter HallWriter: Stephen PoliakoffCinematographer: Philip Bonham-CarterComposers: Stephen Edwards, Richard HartleyCast: Peggy Ashcroft, Geraldine James, James Fox, Jackson Kyle, Rebecca Pidgeon, Rosalie Crutchley, Rachel Kempson, Hugh Lloyd, Donald Douglas, Brid BrennanPoliakoff’s uncomfortably funny and occasionally brilliant if often merely silly television play...

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They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?

The 1,000 Greatest FilmsJanuary, 2011January, 2010December, 2008December, 2007December, 2006The 250 Most Acclaimed Films of the 21st CenturyJanuary, 2011January, 2010January, 2009January, 2...

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The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister (2010)

Cautiously RecommendedUKTelevision FilmDirector: James KentWriter: Jane EnglishCinematographer: Lukas StrebelComposer: Avshalom CaspiCast: Maxine Peake, Anna Madeley, Susan Lynch, Christine Bottomley, Gemma Jones, Alan David, Richenda Carey, Michael Culkin, Dean Lennox Kelly, Tina O'BrienMaxine Peake is excellent in the eponymous role of the early 19th century wealthy Yorkshire land owner, industrialist, and diarist in this handsome BBC production,...

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CFB's Top 30 Obscure Films of 1942 (2010)

Les Visiteurs du Soir (1942) Mountain People (1942) Tales of Manhattan (1942) Son of Furry (1942) My Sister Eileen (1942) You Were Never Lovelier (1942) Aniki-Bobo (1942) Moontide (1942) Listen to Britain (1942) There Was a Father (1942) A Pilot Returns (1942) Tulips Shall Grow (1942) Eyes in the Night (1942) Horton Hatches the Egg (1942) Blitz Wolf (1942) The Fleet's In (1942) Pittsburgh (1942) Larceny, Inc. (1942) The Male Animal...

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CFB's Top 30 Films of 1942 (2010)

Casablanca (1942) The Palm Beach Story (1942) Cat People (1942) The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) Bambi (1942) Now, Voyager (1942) To Be or Not to Be (1942) Saboteur (1942) Mrs. Miniver (1942) Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) Kings Row (1942) Random Harvest (1942) The Major and the Minor (1942) This Gun for Hire (1942) In Which We Serve (1942) The Talk of the Town (1942) Went the Day Well? (1942) The Man Who Came To Dinner (1942) The...

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Standard Operating Procedure (2008)

RecommendedUSAFeature DocumentaryDirector: Errol MorrisCinematographers: Robert Chappell, Robert RichardsonComposer: Danny ElfmanMorris’s commendably even-handed and painfully fascinating if incongruously and uncomfortably decorative and stylised documentary explores, mostly in the violators own words, the stories behind the actions captured in the infamous, sickening Abu Ghraib abuse photographs, which came to light in 2004. Iain.St...

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Changeling (2008)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector/Composer: Clint EastwoodWriter: J. Michael StraczynskiCinematographer: Tom SternCast: Angelina Jolie, Jeffrey Donovan, John Malkovich, Jason Butler Harner, Colm Feore, Amy Ryan, Geoff PiersonIn Eastwood’s strikingly photographed, beautifully crafted, and affectingly acted true life mystery-cum-police corruption exposé, a single mother, whose 9-year-old son went missing several months earlier, raises the ire of a...

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CFB's Greatest Movies by Country, Chapter 24: Belgium

Ma Vie en Rose (1997) Jeanne Dielman (1975) The Son (2002) The Child (2005) Daens (1993) Innocence (2004) La Promesse (1996) Toto the Hero (1991) Rosetta (1999) Je, Tu, Il, Elle (1976) Dust (1985) Crazy Love (1987) Man Bites Dog (1992) One Night. . . a Train (1968) Une Liaison Pornographique (1999) Malpertuis (1971) Daughters of Darkness (1971) Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (1978) The Music Teacher (1988) The Eighth Day (1996)...

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Southland Tales (2006)

Not RecommendedUSA/France/GermanyFeature FilmWriter/Director: Richard KellyCinematographer: Steven PosterComposer: MobyCast: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake, Nora Dunn, John Larroquette, Miranda Richardson, Wallace Shawn, Bai LingWhilst the third world war rages on in the Middle East, and neo-cons and neo-Marxists do battle for what remains of post-nuke California, an amnesiac film star,...

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Duplicity (2009)

Cautiously RecommendedUSA/GermanyFeature FilmWriter/Director: Tony GilroyCinematographer: Robert ElswitComposer: James Newton HowardCast: Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti, Dan Daily, Lisa Roberts Gillan, David Shumbris, Rick Worthy, Oleg StefanIn Gilroy’s fun but slight caper movie, a pair of duplicitous former CIA and MI6 agents, despite not trusting each other, form a sexual, romantic, and financial partnership, putting their...

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Accident (2009)

RecommendedHong KongFeature FilmOriginal Title: 意外Director: Cheang Pou-SoiWriters: Szeto Kam-Yuen, Tang Lik-KeiCinematographer: Fung Yuen ManComposer: Xavier JamauxCast: Louis Koo, Richie Ren, Fung Shui-Fan, Michelle Ye, Lam SuetThe Brain, the head of a band of hitmen who stage their hits to look like accidents, becomes convinced that someone is out to get him when an “accident” almost befalls him, leading him to methodically examine and re-examine...

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Cannes, 2010

Palme d'OrUncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) Grand PrixOf Gods and Men (2010) Best DirectorMathieu Amalric, On Tour (2010) Best ScreenplayLee Chang-dong, Poetry (2010) Best ActressJuliette Binoche, Certified Copy (2010) Best ActorJavier Bardem, Biutiful (2010)Elio Germano, Our Life (2010) Jury PrizeA Screaming Man (2010) Un Certain Regard PrizeHahaha (2010) Jury Prize - Un Certain RegardOctober (2010) Un Certain Regard Award for Best ActressVictoria Raposo, Eva Bianco, & Adela Sanchez, The Lips (2010)Caméra d'orLeap...

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Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)

RecommendedUSAFeature DocumentaryWriter/Director/Narrator: Alex GibneyCinematographers: Maryse Alberti, Greg AndrackeComposer: Ivor GuestTaking the imprisonment and subsequent torture-induced death of an innocent Afghani taxi driver as its starting point, Gibney’s measured documentary paints a damning portrait of post-9/11 US POW policy, detailing stomach-turning examples of human rights violations and the rhetoric and word games that helped make...

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Frost/Nixon (2008)

RecommendedUSA/UK/FranceFeature FilmDirector: Ron HowardWriters Peter MorganCinematographer: Salvatore TotinoComposer: Hans ZimmerCast: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Sam Rockwell, Kevin Bacon, Matthew Macfadyen, Oliver Platt, Rebecca Hall, Toby JonesLangella’s excellent, pathos-laden performance forms the heart of Howard’s otherwise solidly constructed if mildly (relatively, considering the subject matter) disappointing surface deep adaptation of...

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Thumbsucker (2005)

Cautiously RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Mike MillsWriters: Mike Mills, Walter KirnCinematographer: Joaquín Baca-AsayComposer: Tim DeLaughterCast: Lou Taylor Pucci, Tilda Swinton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kelli Garner, Keanu Reeves, Vince VaughnA directionless, oft confused 17-year-old, who still sucks his thumb in stressful situations, experiments with legal and illegal drugs, discovers sex, dabbles with success, and eventually finds himself, in...

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Glue (2006)

RecommendedArgentina/UKFeature FilmWriter/Director: Alexis Dos SantosCinematographer: Natasha BraierCast: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Nahuel Viale, Inés Efron, Verónica Llinás, Héctor Díaz, Florencia BraierAs rough & ready and alluringly dishevelled and awkward as its teenaged protagonists, and featuring a cracking Violent Femmes-centric soundtrack, Dos Santos’s debut feature paints an oft beautiful and occasionally ugly but never inauthentic-feeling...

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Air Doll (2009)

RecommendedJapanFeature FilmOriginal Title: 空気人形Director: Koreeda HirokazuWriters: Koreeda Hirokazu, Goda YoshiieCinematographer: Lee Pin BingComposers: World's End GirlfriendCast: Bae Doona, Arata, Itao Itsuji, Odagiri Jō, Fuji Sumiko, Takahashi Masaya, Terajima Susumu, Yo KimikoA life-sized inflatable sex doll develops a soul, acquires a job at a video rental store, and begins to interact with a number of lonely Tokyoans, all the while remaining...

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The Simpsons Movie (2007)

Cautiously RecommendedUSAAnimated Feature FilmDirector: David SilvermanWriters: James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, Joel Cohen, John Frink, Tim Long, Michael PriceComposer: Hans ZimmerCast: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Harry Shearer, Hank AzariaThough the Simpsons’ first big screen outing is...

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Signs (2002)

Not RecommendedUSAFeature FilmWriter/Director: M. Night ShyamalanCinematographer: Tak FujimotoComposer: James Newton HowardCast: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin, Cherry JonesA former preacher, who renounced his faith following the gruesome, accidental death of his wife, prepares for the imminent alien invasion with his two young children and screw-up younger brother at their remote rural home, in Shyamalan’s intriguingly...

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A Single Man (2009)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Tom FordWriters: Tom Ford, David Scearce, Christopher IsherwoodCinematographer: Eduard GrauComposer: Abel KorzeniowskiCast: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Goode, Jon KortajarenaFashion designer turned film-maker Ford’s affecting adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s groundbreaking 1964 novel – featuring a wonderful performance from Firth – beautifully follows a recently bereaved homosexual...

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VOTE, VOTE, VOTE for Nigel Barton (1965)

Highly RecommendedUKTelevision FilmSeries Title: The Wednesday Play (1964-1970)Director: Gareth DaviesWriter: Dennis PotterCinematographer: James BalfourComposer: Ronnie HazlehurstCast: Keith Barron, Valerie Gearon, John Bailey, Cyril LuckhamWhen the MP for a safe conservative seat dies in a fox hunting accident, his defeated labour opponent, Nigel Barton, previously seen in Stand Up, Nigel Barton (1965), begins to campaign for the bi-election; but,...

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Stand Up, Nigel Barton (1965)

Highly RecommendedUKTelevision FilmSeries Title: The Wednesday Play (1964-1970)Director: Gareth DaviesWriter: Dennis PotterCast: Keith Barron, Jack Woolgar, Katherine Parr, Vickery Turner, Robert Mill, Janet Henfrey, P.J. Kavanagh, Johnnie Wade, Godfrey JamesNigel Barton, an Oxford undergraduate son of a coalminer, as he divides his time between his provincial, working-class home village and his toff filled academic term time address, comes to realise...

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Haze (2005)

Cautiously RecommendedJapanShort Feature FilmWriter/Director/Cinematographer: Tsukamoto ShinyaComposer: Ishikawa ChuCast: Tsukamoto Shinya, Fujii KaoriIn Tsukamoto’s intriguing and vaguely unpleasant if never entirely effective short, a man awakens in a dark and dirty cramped space with a significant stomach wound and no memory of how he came to be there; as he explores his inhospitable environment, he becomes ever more convinced of his own demise,...

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Father & Son (2009)

RecommendedIreland/UKTelevision Mini-SeriesDirector: Brian KirkWriter: Frank DeasyCinematographer: Ruairi O'BrienComposers: Harry Escott, Molly NymanCast: Dougray Scott, Reece Noi, Sophie Okonedo, Ian Hart, Terence Maynard, Stephen Rea, Wunmi Mosaku, John KavanaghIn Frank Deasy’s unpredictable and generally excellent final piece of writing – a family drama of regret, redemption, and sacrifice, first shown just a few months before he succumbed to...

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Silver City (2004)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmWriter/Director: John SaylesCinematographer: Haskell WexlerComposer: Mason DaringCast: Danny Huston, Chris Cooper, Richard Dreyfuss, Kris Kristofferson, Maria Bello, Mary Kay Place, David Clennon, Tim Roth, Michael Murphy, Daryl Hannah, Sal LopezA world weary journalist-turned-private-investigator (Huston, excellent), hired by a candidate for state governor’s election staff to find the identity of a Juan Doe, which popped-up...

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Bad Education (2004)

Highly RecommendedSpainFeature FilmOriginal Title: La mala educationWriter/Director: Pedro AlmodóvarCinematographer: José Luis AlcaineComposer: Alberto IglesiasCast: Gael García Bernal, Fele Martínez, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Lluís Homar, Francisco Maestre, Francisco Boira, Juan Fernández, Nacho Pérez, Raúl García ForneiroA promising young film-maker, adapting a semi-autobiographical story written by his first love, who was sexually abused by a priest...

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Mary and Max (2009)

Highly RecommendedAustraliaAnimated Feature FilmWriter/Director: Adam ElliotCinematographer: Gerald ThompsonComposer: Dale CorneliusNarrator: Barry HumphriesCast: Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana, Bethany Whitmore, Renée Geyer, Ian MeldrumMax, a lonely, anxious middle-aged New Yorker with Asperger's Syndrome, begins a generally sweet and decidedly honest epistolary relationship with Mary, an equally lonely Australian child, which...

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The House of Mirth (2000)

Highly RecommendedUK/France/Germany/USAFeature FilmDirector: Terence DaviesWriters: Terence Davies, Edith WhartonCinematographer: Remi AdefarasinCast: Gillian Anderson, Dan Aykroyd, Anthony LaPaglia, Laura Linney, Eric Stoltz, Terry Kinney, Eleanor Bron, Jodhi May, Elizabeth McGovernWith an affectingly nuanced performance from Anderson and a beautifully refined aesthetic, Davies’s elegant adaptation of Wharton’s bitingly satirical tragedy follows...

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Masculine, Feminine (1966)

RecommendedFrance/SwedenFeature FilmOriginal Title: Masculin féminin: 15 faits précisDirector: Jean-Luc GodardWriters: Jean-Luc Godard, Guy de MaupassantCinematographer: Willy KurantComposer: Jean-Jacques DeboutCast: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Chantal Goya, Marlène Jobert, Michel Debord, Catherine-Isabelle Duport, Eva-Britt Strandberg, Birger MalmstenIn Godard’s relatively reverent and accessible examination of the political views of The Children of Marx...

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The Palm Beach Story (1942)

Essential ViewingUSAFeature FilmWriter/Director: Preston SturgesCinematographer: Victor MilnerComposer: Victor YoungCast: Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee, Sig Arno, Robert DudleyAfter five years of marriage, a young woman travels to Palm Beach in order to get a divorce, find a rich husband, and perhaps acquire the funding for her soon to be ex hubby’s harebrained suspended airport scheme; he, on the other hand, has different...

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