Fellini drew on his own circus background for this classic tale.  Set in a seedy travelling carnival, this symbolism-laden drama revolves around brutish strongman Zampano (Anthony Quinn), his simple and servile girlfriend Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina, Fellini’s wife), and clown Matto (Richard Basehart).  Appalled at Zampano’s insensitive treatment of Gelsomina, the gentle-natured Matto invites her to run off with him but Gelsomina, like a faithful pet, refuses to leave the strong man’s side.  Eventually Zampano’s volcanic temper erupts once too often, leading to tragic consequences.  Winner of the first official Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, awarded in 1956.

A lazy politician is forced to resign and has to adapt to a more humble life, finding old friends and pleasures.  A joyous satire, poetic and surreal by turns, from one of the world’s most individual film-makers.

It’s 1895 and the villainous British offer to remove a crippling tax if the local villagers can beat them at cricket.  The best film ever made about cricket with blazing song and dance numbers.  A Bollywood classic.

Davis and Bennett (played by odd couple Ed Gaughan and Andrew Buckley) are psychic cleaners.  They work for a company which visits homes in need of a purge – if marriage guidance, regression therapy or theta healing haven’t worked, you need these spiritual ghost-busters to rattle through the skeletons in your bedroom cupboard.  They possess antiquated-looking gadgets and dress more like Burke and Hare but their results are first rate, even if the secrets they reveal can leave couples in shock.

Spanish artist, Antonio López, tries to make a perfect painting of the quince tree in his garden, struggling to capture a perfect, fleeting moment of beauty on canvas, and the film meticulously chronicles his work. One of the best films about painting by a great film-maker.

Gripping action drama set on the Tibetan plateau as a journalist joins a group of local volunteers struggling against ruthless antelope poachers.  Shot with dazzling visual style to match the majestic scenery.

“I shall never forget the weekend Laura died …” begin’s Otto Preminger’s masterpiece of erotic obsession, jealousy, deceit and betrayal.  Hollywood noir at its best with Gene Tierney as the enigmatic Laura and Clifton Webb as the barbed Waldo Lydecker (“In my case, self-absorption is completely justified.  I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention.“)

A small group of police and prisoners search for a missing body during one long night on the remote Turkish steppe.  A subtle and atmospheric murder mystery from Turkey’s leading director.  Winner of Grand Prix Cannes 2011.

Affectionate, whimsical portrait of impoverished but generous folk of a run-down waterfront who take in a boy stowaway from Congo.  A love letter to France and French cinema from the Finnish master of deadpan humour. Kaurismäki envisions it as the first installment in a trilogy about life in port cities. His ambition is to make follow-ups set in Spain and Germany, shot in the local languages.

Upon the film’s December 1947 New York City release, critic Bosley Crowther called the film a “priceless fabric of subtle images … a fabric of gorgeous visual metaphors, of undulating movements and rhythmic pace, of hypnotic sounds and music, of casually congealing ideas.”  Cocteau’s fairy tale set standards in fantasy which few other film makers have reached.  The sequences set in the enchanted castle – complete with living statuary and dignified by a Beast at once ferocious, erotic and genuinely tragic – are pure magic.