World Cinema Classics
Discover classics from world cinema that made their mark in Britain and beyond.
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Water Drops on Burning Rocks
Fassbinder wrote the script for his first full-length play when he was 19, the same age as Franz (Malik Zidi) when he is picked up by the worldly Léopold (Bernard Giraudeau), and seduced into a relationship that soon sours. As Franz’s naïve fiancée Anna and Léo’s former lover Véra turn up at thei...
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5x2
Five milestone scenes from a couple’s life – from that giddy first meeting through to marriage, birth, infidelity and annulment – are painfully played out in reverse chronological order in François Ozon’s keen examination of the theatrical nature of relationships. With the benefit of hindsight, t...
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Ran
Akira Kurosawa’s visually spectacular epic transplants Shakespeare’s King Lear from Celtic Britain to feudal Japan. In its epic scope and expert execution, Ran can be seen as a culmination of the great Japanese director’s filmmaking career; a late triumph which he planned and refined over several...
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Le Mépris
Based on Moravia’s novel, Jean-Luc Godard’s sardonic look at the world of filmmaking boasts superb performances by Michel Piccoli as a compromised writer, Brigitte Bardot as his bored wife, Jack Palance as a manipulative producer and Fritz Lang as himself, about to film Homer’s Odyssey in Cinecit...
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The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Luis Buñuel's Oscar-winning black comedy follows a group of wealthy friends who, for increasingly absurd and fanciful reasons, cannot manage to have a meal.
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Max mon amour
When British diplomat Peter Jones (Anthony Higgins) suspects his wife (Charlotte Rampling, playing it totally straight) of infidelity, he is stunned to discover that the ‘other man’ is a chimpanzee. On a whim, he invites his hairy rival to move into the luxurious family home – more out of curiosi...
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My Father, the Hero
Eager to reconnect with his teenage daughter, André (Depardieu) takes her on holiday to the tropics. But when a local boy catches her eye, Véronique attempts to pass off her father as her lover in a misguided effort to impress. André gamely cooperates in the charade, but the lies – and gossip – s...
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Merci la vie
When naïve teenager Camille (Charlotte Gainsbourg in one of her earliest roles) comes across Joëlle (Anouk Grinberg), a young woman who has just been unceremoniously dumped by her boyfriend, the two soon form a fast friendship. Guiding her new friend through the darker side of sex and men, Joëlle...
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Sitcom
When the father of a stereotypical middle-class French family brings home a pet rat, he triggers a surge of orgies, incest and murder within his prim and polished suburban home. François Ozon (Swimming Pool) displays hints of Luis Buñuel and John Waters in his anarchic takedown of the middle-clas...
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Fitzcarraldo
One of Werner Herzog's most acclaimed and audacious films, Fitzcarraldo tells the incredible story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (played by Herzog regular Klaus Kinski), an opera-loving fortune hunter who dreams of bringing opera (specifically Caruso) to a remote trading post on the heart of the Pe...
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Aguirre, Wrath of God
This early masterpiece from legendary German director Werner Herzog stars Klaus Kinski as a power-crazed explorer in sixteenth-century South America who leads a band of conquistadors through the Amazon in search of El Dorado.
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Amores perros
Gael García Bernal stars in the savagely brilliant debut feature from double-Oscar-winning director Alejandro González Inárritu (Birdman, The Revenant). Intertwining three intense storylines on the theme of animalistic desires, it follows the respective fates of a young man caught up in the worl...
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Battle Royale
In a world where teenagers have no respect and adults are losing control there can be only one solution: Battle Royale! Now, see what happens when you let a high school class loose on an island, arm them and then give them a simple choice... Kill your friends or have them kill you; with poison, c...
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Open Your Eyes
Alejandro Amenabar weaves together a complex sci-fi romance with this audacious drama. Cesar (Eduardo Noriega) is a handsome and successful man, but feels completely different once he meets Sofia (Penelope Cruz), who captivates him with her beauty and sensibility. However, just at the beginning o...
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My Sole Desire
This erotic drama stars Louise Chevillotte as Manon, the newcomer to a Parisian strip club where Mia (Zita Hanrot) also works. The two become friends then something more, as director and co-writer Lucie Borleteau (Fidelio - Alice's Story) explores female kinship and desire. Her drama goes more th...
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A Call Girl
Having grown up in small-town Slovenia, 23-year-old English student Alexandra moves to the capital, embracing all the excitement and anonymity the big city has to offer. She styles herself into a mid-level call girl, selling her soul in exchange for a view from above. But as her new life inside h...
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Lantana
Cynical detective Leon Zat is slowly coming to terms with the fact that his marriage is beginning to disintegrate. Called upon to investigate the disappearance of a leading psychiatrist, Zat finds himself in a very interesting position - not least because his wife is one of the psychiatrist's pat...
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Je t'aime, moi non plus
Two men are driving a refuse truck to a dump site and stop for a hamburger. Krassky (Dallesandro), one of the two, strikes an acquaintance with Johnny (Birkin) the girl who works in the restaurant. They swiftly become lovers. However, Krassky's fellow truck-driver, Padovan (Quester), is also his ...
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The Chorus
Unsuccessful in his music career, Clément Mathieu takes up a teaching job at a rehabilitation institution for minor boys, where a ruthless headmaster reigns. Witnessing his students’ defiance deriving from their distrust of adults, Mathieu forms a choir to inspire and connect with them through mu...
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Éternité
When Valentine (Audrey Tautou), a young woman from a wealthy family, marries Jules (Arnaud Valois), the 19th century is ending. As the years pass, she experiences both the joys of motherhood and the heartbreak of losing loved ones. Her daughter Mathilde (Melanie Laurent) and later her granddaught...
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Time of the Wolf
Following a global catastrophe, Anne (Isabelle Huppert) and her family seek refuge at their holiday home in the countryside, but they arrive to find the home is already occupied by other survivors. Their hopes for safety are dashed by a violent tragedy so, accompanied by a fierce young boy (Hakim...
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Diva
Stylish first feature from Jean-Jacques Beineix (Betty Blue) about a young Parisian postal worker (Frédéric Andréi) who secretly makes a bootleg recording of his favourite opera singer (Wilhelmenia Fernandez) performing. But the recording draws the attention of dangerous criminals as he becomes e...
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Elite Squad
Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura), a BOPE (Special Police Operation Battalion) officer, is tasked with clearing the drug gangs in the slums of Rio de Janeiro before a visit from the Pope. Meanwhile, desperate to take on a safer job so that he can be closer to his pregnant wife, he trains up two y...