The Way Ahead (1944)

Recommended

UK

Feature Film
Director: Carol Reed
Writers: Eric Ambler, Peter Ustinov
Cinematographer: Guy Green
Composer: William Alwyn
Cast: David Niven, Stanley Holloway, James Donald, John Laurie, Leslie Dwyer, Hugh Burden, Jimmie Hanley, Billy Hartnell, John Ruddock, Bromley Davenport, Renee Asherson, Peter Ustinov

Let down somewhat by the rather dull action sequences that litter the second half of the movie, this otherwise entertaining look at the lives of a group of new recruits at the beginning of the Second World War, from call-up through basic training to their first battle, is a nicely paced, credible, and exceedingly human film. Iain.Stott

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Zatoichi (2003)

Recommended

Japan

Feature Film
Original Title: 座頭市
Directror: Kitano Takeshi

Writers: Kitano Takeshi, Shimozawa Kan

Cinematography: Yanagishima Katsumi

Composer: Suzuki Keiichi

Cast: Beat Takeshi, Asano Tadanobu, Okusu Michiyo, Natsukawa Yui, Taka Guadalcanal, Tachibana Daigiro, Daike Yuko, Kishibe Ittoku, Ishikura Saburo, Emoto Akira

A thoroughly bonkers and irreverent film from Kitano, filled with blood-gushingly absurd black-humour, enjoyable anachronisms, and whimsical plotting and characterisation, Zatoichi follows a preternaturally gifted, blind killer/masseur as he wanders into a small village and systematically cleans it up (and not with a broom). Iain.Stott

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Broadcast News (1987)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director: James L. Brooks
Cinematographer: Michael Ballhaus
Composer: Bill Conti
Cast: Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks, William Hurt, Robert Prosky, Lois Chiles, Joan Cusack, Jack Nicholson

This winsomely satirical, behind-the-scenes look at the running of a television newsroom, replete with cliché-free, beautifully drawn characters, fleshed out wonderfully by a delightful cast, is a touching, funny, unpredictable, and thoroughly human comedy-drama. Iain.Stott

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What Darwin Didn't Know (2009)

UK
Television Documentary
Director: Tim Lambert
Writer/Presenter: Armand Marie Leroi
Cinematographers: Gordon Hiles, Lawrence Gardner

A fascinating, enthralling, and thoroughly entertaining look at the evolution of the theory of evolution, from Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1859) up until today’s computer enhanced wonders. Iain.Stott

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Night Train to Munich (1940)

Cautiously Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Carol Reed
Writers: Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder, Gordon Wellesley
Cinematographer: Otto Kanturek
Composer: Louis Levy
Cast: Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Paul von Hernried, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, James Harcourt, Felix Aylmer

This mildly entertaining if vaguely forgettable thriller, a convoluted tale of Nazi spies, selfless do-goodery, and unlikely romance, is, thanks in the main to the comic relief supplied by the ever-wonderful Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, a never less than watchable film. Iain.Stott

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Robert Burns: The People's Poet (2009)

Recommended

UK
Television Documentary
Director: Colin Murray
Cinematographers: Brian Jobson, Alistair McCormick
Featuring: Andrew O'Hagan

An entertaining, human, and personal look at the life of renowned Scots poet, songwriter, womaniser, and political radical, Robert Burns, presented well by fellow Scots writer, O’Hagan, who doesn’t let his great admiration for his writing hero get in the way of the often confounding truth. Iain.Stott

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TIFF's Best Films of the '90s

1. The Quince Tree Sun (1992)
2. And Life Goes On... (1991)
   Through the Olive Trees (1994)
3. Drifting Clouds (1996)
4. Close-Up (1990)
   Breaking the Waves (1996)
5. Sátántangó (1994)
6. Flowers of Shanghai (1998)
   Taste of Cherry (1997)
7. Chungking Express (1994)
   Hana-Bi (1997)
   The Thin Red Line (1998)
8. Histoire(s) du Cinema (1989-1998)
   A Brighter Summer Day (1991)
9. A Moment of Innocence (1996)
10. Goodfellas (1990)
    L'Eau Froide (1994)
11. Mother and Son (1997)
12. Vive l'Amour (1994)
    Nouvelle Vague (1990)
13. Abraham Valley (1993)
    Safe (1995)
    Dead Man (1995)
14. The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
    Unforgiven (1992)
    Exotica (1994)
15. Sonatine (1993)
16. Maborosi (1995)
    Naked (1993)
17. La Vie de Jésus (1997)
    Fargo (1996)
18. Pulp Fiction (1994)
19. La Belle Noiseuse (1991)
    Van Gogh (1991)
    Three Colours: Red (1994)
20. The Last Bolshevik (1993)
21. Caro Diario (1993)
22. Crumb (1994)
23. The Puppetmaster (1993)
    Goodbye, South, Goodbye (1996)
24. Sicilia! (1999)

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The Railway Children (1970)

Cautiously Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Lionel Jeffries
Writers: Lionel Jeffries, E. Nesbit
Cinematographer: Arthur Ibbetson
Composer: Johnny Douglas
Cast: Jenny Agutter, Dinah Sheridan, Bernard Cribbins, Sally Thomsett, Gary Warren, William Mervyn, Peter Bromilow, Ann Lancaster, Gordon Whiting

An episodic and sentimental but nevertheless heart-warming and often funny adaptation of Nesbit’s 1906 novel, depicting the travails and adventures of three formerly wealthy children relocated to Yorkshire following the imprisonment of their father. Iain.Stott

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Six Degrees of Separation (1993)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Fred Schepisi
Writer: John Guare
Cinematographer: Ian Baker
Composer: Jerry Goldsmith
Cast: Will Smith, Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland, Ian McKellen, Anthony Michael Hall, Heather Graham, Eric Thal

This compelling, insightful, and quite unpredictable film, an entertaining and excellently performed adaptation of Guare’s play, depicting the effect that a charming and intelligent young man, who may or may not be a conman, has upon the wealthy people’s lives that he walks into, is an oft surprising delight. Iain.Stott

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People's Century: 1929 Breadline (1995)

UK/USA

Short Television Documentary
Director: Archie Baron
Composer: Jonathan Dove
Featuring: Sean Barrett

An interesting and entertaining if not particularly in depth account of the Great Depression, covering events from the great stock market crash of 1929 up to the onset of the Second World War, with testimony from those that lived through it. Iain.Stott

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1929: The Great Crash (2009)

UK

Short Television Documentary
Director: Joanna Bartholomew
Featuring: Bill Paterson, John Sessions

A typically professional and competent BBC documentary, taking a look at the great stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent birth of the great depression and fascism, and a sobering insight into what today’s worrying financial climate may be heading towards. Iain.Stott

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I, Pierre Rivière (1976)

Highly Recommended

France
Feature Film
Original Title: Moi, Pierre Rivière, ayant égorgé ma mère, ma soeur et mon frère...
Director: René Allio
Writers: Pascal Bonitzer, Jean Jourdheuil, Serge Toubiana, Michel Foucault
Cinematographer: Nurit Aviv
Cast: Claude Hébert, Jacqueline Millière, Joseph Leportier, Annick Géhan, Nicole Géhan, Emilie Lihou, Antoine Bourseiller, Michel Amphoux, Jacques Debary, Chilpéric de Boiscuillé, Léon Jeangirard

A tempered and unsensational recreation of an horrific triple murder that occurred in northern France in 1835, slavishly following court records and witness testimony to produce an invaluable portrait of a time & place and of its customs and morals, as well as a thoroughly credible portrait of a young man in the throes of mental illness. Iain.Stott

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The Crazies (1973)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: George A. Romero

Writers: George A. Romero, Paul McCollough

Cinematographer: S. William Hinzman

Composer: Bruce Roberts

Cast: Lane Carroll, W.G. McMillan, Harold Wayne Jones, Lloyd Hollar, Lynn Lowry, Richard Liberty, Richard France, Harry Spillman, Will Disney

Romero’s cynical, allegorical tale – an indictment of Nixon/Kissinger-era American politics, depicting a small town under martial law following the accidental release of a biological weapon that leaves its victims in the throes of madness – is a bleakly entertaining and thought-provoking film, though it suffers in comparison to his Dead films. Iain.Stott

Remade as The Crazies (2010).

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The Long Day Closes (1992)

Essential Viewing

UK

Feature Film
Writer/Director: Terence Davies
Cinematographer: Michael Coulter
Composers: Bob Last, Robert Lockhart
Cast: Leigh McCormack, Marjorie Yates, Anthony Watson, Nicholas Lamont, Ayse Owens, Tina Malone, Jimmy Wilde

Davies‘s stunningly photographed, heartbreakingly performed, and achingly beautiful autobiographical film, an impressionistic look at the life of a quiet, 11-year-old Liverpudlian, contrasting the glamour of Hollywood cinema with the bleak, grey world of 1950s Liverpool, is nothing less than a masterpiece. Iain.Stott

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Desperate Man Blues (2003)

Recommended

Australia
Short Documentary
Director: Edward Gillan
Cinematographer: Ray Argall
Featuring: Joe Bussard

Desperate Man Blues is a hugely enjoyable portrait of the infectiously enthusiastic and passionate Joe Bussard, a sixty-odd-year-old collector of Bluegrass, Hillbilly, Country, Blues, and Jazz 78s from the ‘20s and ‘30s, and one that highlights the importance, excitement, and fragility of cultural history. Iain.Stott

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America Unchained (2007)

Recommended

UK
Feature Documentary
Directors: Andy Devonshire, Stef Wagstaffe
Writer: Dave Gorman
Composer: Dru Masters
Featuring: Dave Gorman

Gorman’s entertaining documentary, depicting his coast-to-coast road trip across the United States in search of The Real America, a trip he is attempting to make without giving any money to The Man, avoiding all chain gas-stations, restaurants, and hotels, provides a gentle and funny though slightly depressing look at a dying way of life. Iain.Stott

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War of the Worlds (2005)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Josh Friedman, David Koepp, H.G. Wells
Cinematographer: Janusz Kaminski
Composer: John Williams
Cast: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Tim Robbins, Miranda Otto

An entertaining alien-invasion movie from Spielberg that benefits from excellent production values, spirited performances, and some atypically, for the genre at least, well drawn characters, and one that keeps us perched so attentively on the edge of our seats that we can forgive its plot holes and the horribly sentimental and rather silly final scene. Iain.Stott

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Stockwell (2009)

Cautiously Recommended

UK
Short Television Documentary
Director: Jonathan Rudd
Writers: James Reid, Jonathan Rudd, Steve Walsh
Cast: Jano Moskorz, Marva Alexander, Drew Edwards, Eamon Geoghegan, Gerard Ban-Lavery, James Sutherland, Rupert Baker

This recreation of the tragic and disgraceful balls-up that lead to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, a mistakenly suspected terrorist, on a London tube-train in July 2005, insensitively and distastefully structured like a thriller, quickening score, on-screen countdown, and all, is an otherwise effectively and competently made documentary. Iain.Stott

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President Hollywood (2008)

UK

Short Television Documentary
Director: Janette Ballard
Featuring: Jonathan Freedland, Eli Attie, Tad Devine, Ken Duberstein, Geoff Garin, Wynton Hall, Mary Jordan, Rod Lurie, Stryker Maguire, Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., Jennifer Palmieri, Joe Queenan, David Schwartz, Jimmy Smits

A fairly interesting documentary looking at the relationship between Hollywood and the office of President of the United States of America, highlighting the similarities and differences between fact and fiction, and examining the effect that they have upon each other. Iain.Stott

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Beau Brummell: This Charming Man (2006)

Cautiously Recommended

UK
Television Film
Director: Philippa Lowthorpe
Writer: Simon Bent
Cinematographer: Graham Smith
Composer: Peter Salem
Cast: James Purefoy, Hugh Bonneville, Phil Davis, Zoe Telford, Matthew Rhys, Nicholas Rowe, Ian Kelly, Elliot Levey

An enjoyable, contemporary feeling look at a brief period from the life of the notorious, fast living, and troubled titular fashion icon, which makes the most of spirited performances and a delightful score, but as entertaining as it often is, one can’t help but wish for a little more depth to the decidedly light-weight proceedings. Iain.Stott

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A Voyage Round My Father (1982)

Cautiously Recommended

UK

Television Film
Director: Alvin Rakoff
Writer: John Mortimer
Cinematographer: Tony Pierce-Roberts
Composer: Marc Wilkinson
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates, Jane Asher, Elizabeth Sellars

Olivier’s superb performance enlivens an otherwise pedestrian but nevertheless heartfelt television film, based on Mortimer’s autobiographical play, which explored his relationship with his blind, cantankerous father from childhood till the father’s death, but the film does have some rather touching moments not the least of which is the aforementioned death scene. Iain.Stott

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John Mortimer: A Life in Words (2008)

UK

Short Television Documentary
Director: Lawrence Elman
Featuring: John Mortimer

A reverent and unremarkable if nevertheless enjoyable portrait of barrister-turned-writer John Mortimer, a charming, incomparable, and politically active leftist, and the man behind Rumpole of the Bailey. Iain.Stott

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The Road (2006)

USA

Novel
Author: Cormac McCarthy

McCarthy's beautifully bleak, post-apocalyptic novel, following a father and son as they head south in search of food, shelter, warmer climes, and "The Good Guys", is a no frills, almost artless, and rather moving examination of love and survival during the dark, final days of mankind. Iain.Stott

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Rumpole of the Bailey (1975)

Highly Recommended

UK
Short Television Film
Series Title: Play for Today (1970-1984)

Director: John Gorrie
Writer: John Mortimer
Cast: Leo McKern, Joyce Heron, Noel Willman, David Yelland, Herbert Norville, Artro Morris, George Sweeney, John Byron, Vernon Dobtcheff, Edwin Brown, Paul Greenhalgh

This short television film, part of the BBC's Play for Today series, the screen's first outing for the incomparable McKern as the titular barrister, depicting an unpredictable and racially sensitive case, is, with McKern's brilliantly nuanced performance and the entirely credible and insightful scripting, a touching and humorous delight. Iain.Stott

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The Saddest Music in the World (2003)

Highly Recommended

Canada

Feature Film
Director: Guy Maddin
Writers: Guy Maddin, George Toles, Kazuo Ishiguro
Cinematographer: Luc Montpellier
Composer: Christopher Dedrick
Cast: Mark McKinney, Isabella Rossellini, Maria de Medeiros, David Fox, Ross McMillan

From the man that turned pastiche into an art form, the incomparable and quite unique Guy Maddin, comes this visually arresting, hilarious, inventive, and surprisingly rather moving tale of a contest in 1933 Winnipeg to find the world's saddest music, thrown by a literally legless beer baroness. Iain.Stott

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I'm Not Scared (2003)

Recommended

Italy/Spain/UK
Feature Film
Original Title: Io non ho paura
Director: Director: Gabriele Salvatores
Cinematographer: Italo Petriccione
Composers: Ezio Bosso, Pepo Scherman
Cast: Giuseppe Cristiano, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Giulia Matturro, Mattia Di Pierro, Stefano Biase, Diego Abatantuono

With its gorgeous cinematography, delightfully playful mise en scène, unobtrusively complimentary score, and stunning juvenile performance from Cristiano, this entertaining adaptation of Ammaniti's prize-winning novel, depicting an unusual friendship that develops between a kidnapped child and the kidnapper's son, provides a sensual and enthralling portrait of the death of innocence. Iain.Stott

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Funny Games U.S. (2007)

Highly Recommended

France/UK/Austria/Germany/Italy
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Michael Haneke
Cinematographer: Darius Khondji
Cast: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet, Devon Gearhart

Haneke’s shot-for-shot remake of his 1997 masterpiece, a disturbing cinematic treatise on the relationship between on-screen violence and the viewer, is just (but for its familiarity) as effective as the original; titillating suspense followed by harrowing, painful, and almost impossible to watch scenes of devastation make us feel suitably guilty and stimulate a moral thought process that is atypical of the cinema that it satirises and mimics. Iain.Stott

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Porterhouse Blue (1974)

UK

Novel
Author: Tom Sharpe

Sharpe’s novel (improved upon by Malcolm Bradbury’s television adaptation?) - a cynical and satirical look at life in a fictional Cambridge college (a rather nice metaphor for the state of Britain itself) - is an intelligent, insightful, and often laugh-out-loud funny piece of writing. Iain.Stott

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Films of the Decade

Based on various critics' top tens, etc.

1920s (and earlier)
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s

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Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)

Highly Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Max Ophüls
Writers: Howard Koch, Stefan Zweig
Cinematographer: Frank Planer
Composer: Daniele Amfitheatrof
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan, Mady Christians, Marcel Journet, Art Smith, Carol Yorke, Howard Freeman, John Good, Leo B. Pessin

Fontaine, transforming from ugly duckling to beautiful swan before our eyes, is quite outstanding in this excellent adaptation of Zweig’s oft filmed novel, a tragic tale of unrequited love in turn-of-the-century Vienna, and one of the finest films of Ophüls’s career. Iain.Stott

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All in a Night's Work (1961)

Cautiously Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Joseph Anthony
Writers: Edmund Beloin, Maurice Richlin, Sidney Sheldon, Margit Veszi, Owen Elford
Cinematographer: Joseph LaShelle
Composer: André Previn
Cast: Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Cliff Robertson, Charlie Ruggles, Mabel Albertson, Norma Crane, Jack Weston, John Hudson, Jerome Cowan, Gale Gordon

Soufflé light and really rather silly, this slightly camp and wilfully artificial farce, depicting the misunderstandings that led to and resulted from a young woman’s half naked appearance in her dead millionaire boss’s hotel room, is, despite all logical reasoning, actually rather entertaining, mainly due to MacLaine’s bubbly performance, but, nevertheless, is quite forgettable. Iain.Stott

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4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)

Highly Recommended

Romania

Feature Film
Original Title: 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile
Writer/Director: Cristian Mungiu
Cinematographer: Oleg Mutu
Cast: Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, Vlad Ivanov, Alex Potocean, Luminita Gheorghiu, Ioan Sapdaru

Mungiu’s remarkable, critically acclaimed film, a candid, unflinching, and beautifully paced depiction of a young student’s illegal abortion during the final days of Communist rule in Romania, and one that, with its excellent, naturalistic performances and photography, is really rather moving and quite unforgettable. Iain.Stott

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Duel (1971)

Recommended

USA

Television Film
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Richard Matheson
Cinematographer: Jack A. Marta
Composer: Billy Goldenberg
Cast: Dennis Weaver

This intense, suspenseful, and expertly constructed television film from a young Spielberg – a cat-and-mouse chase thriller, following a man on a business trip as he is hounded mercilessly by a homicidal truck driver – easily manages to hold the attention despite being essentially a one-man play with very little in the way of dialogue. Iain.Stott

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Porco Rosso (1992)

Cautiously Recommended

Japan
Animated Feature Film
Original Title: 紅の豚
Writer/Director: Miyazaki Hayao

Composer: Hisaishi Jō

Cast: Michael Keaton, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Susan Egan, Cary Elwes, David Ogden Stiers, Brad Garrett

An Italian war hero, turned into a pig following a particularly devastating dogfight in which he was the only survivor, makes a living as a bounty hunter, tracking down and capturing sea-plane pirates, until a run-in with a brash American leaves him without his precious plane in this entertaining if slight Studio Ghibli effort from Miyazaki. Iain.Stott

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Volver (2006)

Highly Recommended

Spain
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cinematographer: José Luis Alcaine
Composer: Alberto Iglesias
Cast: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, Chus Lampreave

Almodóvar’s delightful film, a seemingly light-hearted look at murder, abuse, guilt, and redemption, with its gorgeous photography and exemplary performances, is an oft funny, surprising, and original black comedy. Iain.Stott

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Penny Serenade (1941)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: George Stevens
Writers: Morrie Ryskind, Martha Cheavens
Cinematographer: Joseph Walker
Composer: W. Franke Harling
Cast: Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Edgar Buchanan, Beulah Bondi, Eva Lee Kuney, Baby Biffle, Wallis Clark

Stevens’s formally adventurous film, an episodic look at a romance from tentative courtship to marriage and beyond, is, despite a couple of rather sentimental sequences, with Dunne and Grant’s excellent performances, an often funny, brave, and very moving tearjerker. Iain.Stott

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Wall of Silence (2004)

Recommended

UK
Television Film
Director: Christopher Menaul
Writer: Neil McKay
Cinematographer: Lukas Strebel
Composer: John Lunn
Cast: James Nesbitt, Phil Davis, Ross Boatman, Jay Simpson, Stephanie Leonidas, Sophie Stanton, Calum Callaghan, Freddie Cunliffe, Matt Carpenter, Holly Weston, Mary Anne Parker, John Joseph, Barry McNicholl, Adam Deacon, Emory Ruegg, Luke Strain, Danny Young

Based on a real case, and avoiding any sign of sentimentality or sensationalism, it should come as no surprise that this ITV production, following a murder case from brutal death till emotional conviction, feels horribly authentic and viscerally credible, and, thanks in the main to some excellent performances, this often hard-to-watch television film is a humanity-drenched and vital experience. Iain.Stott

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Thank You for Smoking (2005)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film
Director: Jason Reitman
Writers: Jason Reitman, Christopher Buckley
Cinematographer: James Whitaker
Composer: Rolfe Kent
Cast: Aaron Eckhaart, J.K. Simmons, William H Macy, Cameron Bright, Maria Bello, David Koechner, Katie Holmes, Rob Lowe, Adam Brody, Todd Louiso, Kim Dickens

Reitman’s playful film, a cynical look at cynical people living in a cynical world, following the exploits of a morally ambiguous tobacco lobbyist, is, with its slightly over-the-top tone and a number of excellent comic performances, a thoroughly enjoyable and wheezingly funny satirical work. Iain.Stott

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Possession (2002)

Not Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Neil LaBute
Writers: David Henry Hwang, Laura Jones, Neil LaBute, A.S. Byatt
Cinematographer: Jean-Yves Escoffier
Composer: Gabriel Yared
Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam, Jennifer Ehle, Lena Headey, Holly Aird, Toby Stephens, Trevor Eve, Tom Hickey

This mildly diverting adaptation of Byatt’s acclaimed novel, following two too-attractive-by-half academics on the trail of a previously undiscovered affair between two Victorian poets, suffers from a somewhat intrusive, melodramatic score, some rather underdeveloped plotting, and a general lack of credibility, but it is handsomely shot and the performances are fine. Iain.Stott

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The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

Highly Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: John Huston
Writers: John Huston, Ben Maddow, W.R. Burnett
Cinematographer: Harold Rosson
Composer: Miklos Rozsa
Cast: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore, Sam Jaffe, John McIntire, Marc Lawrence, Barry Kelley, Anthony Caruso, Teresa Celli, Marilyn Monroe, Helene Stanley

The Asphalt Jungle is one of Hollywood's greatest crime films – an unflinching, systematic, and thoroughly credible examination of the preparation, execution, and aftermath of a botched heist, filled with the concerns, foibles, weaknesses, and sentimental notions of its criminals, whom here are refreshingly depicted without judgement. Iain.Stott

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Porterhouse Blue (1987)

Highly Recommended

UK
Television Mini-Series
Director: Robert Knights
Writers: Malcolm Bradbury, Tom Sharpe
Cinematographer: Dick Pope
Composer: Chris Gunning
Cast: David Jason, Ian Richardson, John Sessions, Charles Gray, Griff Rhys Jones, Paul Rogers, John Woodnutt, Harold Innocent

This cracking television adaptation of Sharpe’s novel - set in a traditional Cambridge college, an examination of the corrupt British system with its indulging, conscienceless upper-classes, complicit, enabling working-classes, and the timid and repressed middle-classes - is an hilarious, wonderfully acted, and deliciously cynical and misanthropic work. Iain.Stott

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The Stringer (1998)

Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Writers: Gennadi Ostrovsky, Pawel Pawlikowski
Cinematographer: Witold Stok
Composer: Zdzislaw Szostak
Cast: Sergei Bodrov Jr., Anna Friel, Vladimir Ilyin, Robert Knepper, Anna Kamenkova, Leonid Kuravlyov, Aleksei Khardikov, Anna Yanovskaya

This rather curious feature debut from Pawlikowski, following the misadventures, dalliances, and bizarre encounters of a budding freelance news cameraman in Moscow, lacks the ethereal, lyrical beauty of his subsequent films, and quite what he is trying to say is never really clear, but that’s not to say that the film is a failure, on the contrary, there is much here to admire: Bodrov’s typically restrained performance, Ilyin’s joyously flamboyant performance, and some deliciously quirky black-humour, and of course the delectable miss Friel is never less than watchable. Iain.Stott

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The Wild Child (1970)

Recommended

France

Feature Film
Original Title: L'enfant sauvage
Director: François Truffaut
Writers: Jean Gruault, François Truffaut, Jean Itard
Cinematographer: Néstor Almendros
Cast: Jean-Pierre Cargol, François Truffaut, Françoise Seigner, Jean Dasté, Annie Miller, Claude Miller, Paul Villé

Truffaut’s delightful film, depicting Doctor Jean Itard’s attempts to civilise Victor the Wild Child of Aveyron, a feral boy found living alone in the woods in the south of France, is a delicate, respectful, and despite Truffaut’s (occasionally) slightly wooden performance, thoroughly compelling and acutely interesting account of a true story. Iain.Stott

For a longer piece, see here.

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The Wicker Man (1973)

Highly Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Robin Hardy
Writer: Anthony Shaffer
Cinematographer: Harry Waxman
Composer: Paul Giovanni
Cast: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Britt Ekland, Ingrid Pitt, Russell Waters, Irene Sunters, Geraldine Cowper

Hardy and Shaffer’s cult classic, a leisurely paced horror film that pits Woodward’s dour and devout Christian Police officer against Lee’s flamboyant pagan laird, and manages, with outstanding performances from the aforementioned stars and a shockingly brilliant and brilliantly shocking ending, to stick in the memory long after the final credits roll and the screen turns black. Iain.Stott

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The West Wing: Season 1 (1999-2000)

USA
Television Series
Creator: Aaron Sorkin
Cast: Allison Janney, Martin Sheen, John Spencer, Bradley Whitford, Janel Moloney, Richard Schiff, Dulé Hill, Rob Lowe

The first season of this consistently entertaining and intelligent series, following the ups & downs and crises & mundanities of the men and women behind the men and women - the democratic staff of the White House, expertly mixes drama and comedy with excellent performances and sharp writing. Iain.Stott

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The Weeping Women Hotel (2006)

UK

Novel

Author: Alexei Sayle

A bizarre, imaginative, laugh-out-loud funny, and feverishly unpredictable if slight novel from the oft brilliant Sayle that takes a jaundiced look at contemporary Britain and the oddballs that inhabit it. Iain.Stott

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P.S. (2004)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film
Director: Dylan Kidd
Writers: Dylan Kidd, Helen Schulman
Cinematographer: Joaquín Baca-Asay
Composer: Craig Wedren
Cast: Laura Linney, Topher Grace, Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden

The plot - a 39-year-old woman begins a sexual relationship with a young man who bares a uncannily strong resemblance, right down to his name, to her high school boyfriend who died 20 years previously - is really rather silly, but, thanks in the main to some beautifully drawn characters and wonderfully credible performances from Linney and Grace, the film is never less than compelling. Iain.Stott

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Eden Lake (2008)

Best Avoided

UK/Cayman Islands
Feature Film
Writer/Director: James Watkins
Cinematographer: Christopher Ross
Composer: David Julyan
Cast: Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender, Tara Ellis, Jack O'Connell, Finn Atkins, Jumayn Hunter, Thomas Turgoose, James Burrows

It would appear that Writer/Director James Watkins has bought in to the media hysteria surrounding ASBO-sporting, knife-wielding, hooded youths, and as a result has produced this politically loathsome horror film, which sees an attractive middle-class couple terrorised by a gang of working-class youths - abhorrent. Iain.Stott

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The Terence Davies Trilogy (1984)

Essential Viewing

UK

Short Film Trilogy
Writer/Director: Terence Davies
Cinematography: William Diver
Cast: Terry O’Sullivan, Wilfred Brambell, Phillip Mawdsley, Iain Munro, Robin Hooper, Val Lilley, Nick Stringer, Harry Wright, Phillip Joseph, Sheila Raynor, Paul Barber

Davies’s stunning, impressionistic semi-autobiographical short film trilogy, encompassing Children (1976), Madonna and Child (1980), and Death and Transfiguration (1983), depicts the difficulties that a young, depressed, Catholic homosexual suffers as he struggles to come to terms with who he is, whilst growing up in a troubled working class Liverpool family. Iain.Stott

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Death and Transfiguration (1983)

Essential Viewing

UK

Short Film
Writer/Director: Terence Davies
Cinematography: William Diver
Cast: Terry O’Sullivan, Wilfred Brambell, Iain Munro

Brambell’s brilliant, wordless, and decidedly hard-to-watch performance, some delightfully striking cinematography, and the stunning, impressionistic editing ensure that this final part of Davies’s semi autobiographical short film trilogy not only lives up to its predecessors, but also compliments and perhaps even surpasses them: yet another masterpiece. Iain.Stott

Follows Madonna and Child (1980).

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Madonna and Child (1980)

Essential Viewing

UK

Short Film
Writer/Director: Terence Davies
Cinematographer: William Diver
Cast: Terry O’Sullivan, Sheila Raynor, Paul Barber

Davies’s masterful, impressionistic second short film, a semi-autobiographical follow-up to Children (1976), which brilliantly juxtaposes the sacred with the profane, provides a devastatingly moving portrait of a middle-aged man whose homosexuality sits awkwardly with his Catholicism. Iain.Stott

Followed by Death and Transfiguration (1983).

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Children (1976)

Essential Viewing

UK

Short Film
Writer/Director: Terence Davies
Cinematographer: William Diver
Cast: Phillip Mawdsley, Robin Hooper, Val Lilley, Nick Stringer, Harry Wright, Phillip Joseph

Davies’s very moving and beautiful ultra-low-budget directorial debut – striking, uncompromising, audacious, and masterful – provides a semi-autobiographical look at a rather miserable childhood, filled with Catholicism, barely-suppressed homosexual longing, school bullying, and domestic violence. Iain.Stott

Followed by Madonna and Child (1980).

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CFB's Top 20 Films of 1991 (2008)

1. Only Yesterday (1991)
2. Europa (1991)
3. And Life Goes On… (1991)
4. La Belle Noiseuse (1991)
5. Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
6. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
7. JFK (1991)
8. Life Is Sweet (1991)
9. Hear My Song (1991)
10. Night on Earth (1991)
11. Barton Fink (1991)
12. A Scene at the Sea (1991)
13. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
14. Defending Your Life (1991)
15. Grand Canyon (1991)
16. Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991)
17. Naked Lunch (1991)
18. Boyz n the Hood (1991)
19. Prospero's Books (1991)
20. Delicatessen (1991)

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CFB's Top 20 Films of 1981 (2010)

1. My Dinner with Andre (1981)
2. Diva (1981)
3. Mephisto (1981)
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
5. Das Boot (1981)
6. Excalibur (1981)
7. Polyester (1981)
8. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
9. Mad Max 2 (1981)
10. Body Heat (1981)
11. Crac (1981)
12. Gallipoli (1981)
13. Coup de Torchon (1981)
14. The Woman Next Door (1981)
15. Escape from New York (1981)
16. Gregory's Girl (1981)
17. Pennies from Heaven (1981)
18. Blow Out (1981)
19. Cutter's Way (1981)
20. The Howling (1981)

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CFB's Top 20 Films of 1979 (2008)

1. Manhattan (1979)
2. Apocalypse Now (1979)
3. Stalker (1979)
4. Alien (1979)
5. Wise Blood (1979)
6. All That Jazz (1979)
7. The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
8. The Black Stallion (1979)
9. Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979)
10. My Brilliant Career (1979)
11. The China Syndrome (1979)
12. Life of Brian (1979)
13. Being There (1979)
14. Buffet Froid (1979)
15. Real Life (1979)
16. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
17. Breaking Away (1979)
18. The Rose (1979)
19. The Tin Drum (1979)
20. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

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