The Only Son (1936)

Highly Recommended

Japan

Feature Film
Original Title: ひとり息子
Director: Ozu Yasujirō
Writers: Ozu Yasujirō, Arata Masao, Ikeda Tadao
Cinematographer: Sugimoto Shojiro
Composer: Itō Senji
Cast: Iida Chouko, Himori Shinichi, Hayama Masao, Tsubouchi Yoshiko, Yoshikawa Mitsuko, Ryū Chishū

An ageing woman (the outstanding Iida) goes to Tokyo to visit her only son (the doleful Himori), bringing with her great expectations, in this, Ozu’s first sound film, an exquisitely beautiful and achingly moving examination of nobility, sacrifice, disappointment, and broken dreams, which boasts one of cinema’s most devastating final scenes. Iain.Stott

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Partie de Campagne (1936)

Recommended

France

Short Feature Film

Original Title: Partie de campagne
Director: Jean Renoir
Writers: Jean Renoir, Guy de Maupassant
Cinematography: Claude Renoir
Composer: Joseph Kosma
Cast: Sylvia Bataille, Georges Saint-Saens, Jeanne Marken, André Gabriello, Jacques Borel, Paul Temps

The attractive daughter of a Parisian family, spending an idyllic day in the country, enjoys a brief romantic encounter with a moustachioed local, in Renoir’s much loved, beautifully shot, and tenderly acted though rather cheesily scored and erratically paced short feature. Iain.Stott

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L'Atalante (1934)

Recommended

France
Feature Film

Original Title: L'atalante
Director: Jean Vigo
Writers: Albert Riéra, Jean Vigo, Jean Guinée
Cinematographers: Jean-Paul Alphen, Louis Berger, Boris Kaufman
Composer: Maurice Jaubert
Cast: Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, Michel Simon, Gilles Margaritis, Louis Lefebvre

A just-married barge skipper struggles to juggle professional with personal commitments as he takes a working honeymoon, traversing the canals of northern France with his new wife and, problematically, his crew in tow, in this comic, elegantly shot, and much admired film. Iain.Stott

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Through the Olive Trees (1994)

Essential Viewing

Iran/France

Feature Film
Original Title: زیر درختان زیتون
Writer/Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Cinematographers: Hossein Djafarian, Farhad Saba
Cast: Mohamad Ali Keshavarz, Farhad Kheradmand, Zarifeh Shiva, Hossein Rezai, Tahereh Ladanian

Kiarostami, further blurring the line between fact and fiction, directs his fictional alter ego, Keshavarz, directing his fictional alter ego, Kheradmand, on the set of And Life Goes on... (1991), in this final part of the Koker Trilogy, in which the making of a small, seemingly insignificant scene is documented in all its humanity-infused and surprisingly romantic detail – a brilliant masterpiece, boasting (perhaps) the greatest final scene in cinema history. Iain.Stott

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And Life Goes On... (1991)

Highly Recommended

Iran
Feature Film
Original Title: Zendegi va digar hich
Writer/Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Cinematographer: Homayun Payvar
Cast: Farhad Kheradmand, Buba Bayour

A film-maker (Kiarostami, played by Kheradmand) returns with his son to Koker, the site of his 1987 film Where Is My Friend's House?, following a devastating earthquake in the region, in search of the two young brothers who starred in the earlier film, in this oft brilliant work, which is one of Kiarostami’s more formally playful and intellectually stimulating pieces, though far from his most emotionally engaging. Iain.Stott

Followed by Through the Olive Trees (1994).

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Where Is My Friend's House? (1987)

Essential Viewing

Iran

Feature Film
Original Title: خانه دوست کجاست؟
Writer/Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Cinematographer: Farhad Saba
Composer: Amine Allah Hessine
Cast: Babek Ahmadpour, Ahmad Ahmadpour, Kheda Barech Defai, Rafia Difai, Akbar Mouradi, Kadiret Kaoiyen Poor, Nader Ghoulami

A young boy (the remarkable Babek Ahmedpour) mistakenly takes his school chum’s exercise book home with him, and, knowing that said friend is on the brink of expulsion, goes to the neighbouring village in search of his house, the address of which he doesn’t know, in Kiarostami’s simple, heart-warming, and soul-strokingly beautiful masterpiece. Iain.Stott

Followed by And Life Goes On... (1991).

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The Ghost Train (1941)

Highly Recommended

UK
Feature Film

Director: Walter Forde
Writers: Marriott Edgar, Val Guest, J.O.C. Orton, Arnold Ridley
Cinematographer: Jack Cox
Composer: Walter Goehr
Cast: Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch, Kathleen Harrison, Peter Murray-Hill, Carole Lynne, Morland Graham, Betty Jardine, Stuart Latham, Herbert Lomas, Raymond Huntley, Linden Travers, D.J. Williams

The diminutive Askey, Liverpool’s answer to Groucho Marx, was never better than in this trouser-soilingly, stitch-poppingly funny adaptation of Arnold “Private Godfrey” Ridley’s ever popular play, which unofficially was the inspiration for just about every Gainsborough comedy of the ‘30s and ‘40s. Iain.Stott

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Sunrise (1927)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: F.W. Murnau
Writers: Carl Mayer, H.H. Caldwell, Katherine Hilliker, Hermann Sudermann
Cinematographers: Charles Rosher, Karl Struss

Cast: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston

Murnau’s much lauded film bares more than a passing resemblance to Zola’s The Beast Within (1890), but it’s a comparison that does it no favours, and while Sunrise contains sequences of breathtaking beauty and poignancy, it lacks the depth of feeling and visceral punch that might have made it a masterpiece - that said, it’s still a cracking film. Iain.Stott

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David Holzman's Diary (1967)

Highly Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Jim McBride
Cinematographer: Michael Wadleigh
Cast: L.M. Kit Carson, Eileen Dietz, Lorenzo Mans, Louise Levine

McBride’s remarkable debut, a faux documentary, chronicling a young film-maker’s misguided attempt to capture his life on film, manages to be, with its uncannily naturalistic performances and striking imagery, both a thoughtful critique and a dazzling example of Cinema Vérité. Iain.Stott

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An Autumn Afternoon (1962)

Essential Viewing

Japan

Feature Film
Original Title: 秋刀魚の味
Director: Ozu Yasujirō
Writers: Noda Kōgo, Ozu Yasujirō
Cinematographer: Atsuta Yuuharu
Composer: Saitō Kojun
Cast: Ryū Chishū, Iwashita Shima, Sada Keiji, Okada Mariko, Yoshida Teruo, Maki Noriko, Mikami Shinichirō, Nakamura Nobuo, Tōno Eijirō

Ozu’s ominous, portentous mise en scène elegantly frames a simple story of an ageing widower who gradually comes to realise that he must, even at the risk of his own happiness, let his adult daughter fly the nest, in this subtle, poignant, and beautifully acted masterpiece. Iain.Stott

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Taste of Cherry (1997)

Essential Viewing

Iran

Feature Film
Original Title: طعم گيلاس
Writer/Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Cinematographer: Homayun Payvar
Cast: Homayoun Ershadi, Abdolrahman Bagheri, Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari, Safar Ali Moradi, Mir Hossein Noori, Ahmad Ansari

A man determined upon suicide drives around, attempting to find someone willing to bury him after the act, in Kiarostami’s minimalist, thought provoking, and beautifully moving portrait of composed desperation. Iain.Stott

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The Weather Man (2005)

Recommended

USA/Germany
Feature Film
Director: Gore Verbinski
Writer: Steve Conrad
Cinematographer: Phedon Papamichael
Composers: James Levine, Hans Zimmer
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, Hope Davis, Gemmenne De La Peña, Nicholas Hoult, Michael Rispoli, Gil Bellows

Cage is excellent in the title role of a television newsman whose bubbly, successful public persona hides a deeply disappointed and depressed private life, in Verbinski’s melancholically funny and beautifully observed film. Iain.Stott

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Gion Festival Music (1953)

Recommended

Japan
Feature Film
Original Title: 祇園囃子
Director: Mizoguchi Kenji

Writers: Kawaguchi Matsutarō, Yoda Yoshikata

Cinematographer: Miyagawa Kazuo

Composer: Saitō Ichirō

Cast: Kogure Michiyo, Wakao Ayako, Naniwa Chieko, Kawazu Seizaburō, Koshiba Kanji, Shindō Eitarō

Mizoguchi's beautifully crafted film introduces us to a world where east & west and traditional & modern make uncomfortable bedfellows, movingly chronicling the struggles of a geisha and her teenaged apprentice, as their noble world becomes horribly tainted by big business. Iain.Stott

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Factotum (2005)

Recommended

Norway/USA/Sweden/France/Germany
Feature Film
Director: Bent Hamer
Writers: Bent Hamer, Jim Stark, Charles Bukowski
Cinematographer: John Christian Rosenlund
Composer: Kristin Asbjørnsen
Cast: Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, Marisa Tomei

Hamer’s melancholically hilarious adaptation of Bukowski’s cult novel, a rambling, plotless, picaresque journey to nowhere in particular, in which Dillon’s aspiring writer drinks, loses several jobs, and drinks some more, is a (thankfully) unromantic depiction of a sozzledly different way of life. Iain.Stott

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All That Heaven Allows (1955)

Highly Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Douglas Sirk
Writers: Peg Fenwick, Edna Lee, Harry Lee
Cinematographer: Russell Metty
Composer: Frank Skinner
Cast: Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead, Conrad Nagel, Virginia Grey, Gloria Talbott, William Reynolds

Sirk’s damning portrait of small town, bourgeois discriminations and hypocrisies – a sumptuous, romantic melodrama, with beautiful, pregnant mise en scène and moving performances – is tarnished only by the (happy?) ending, which is perhaps something of a cop-out. Iain.Stott

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12 Angry Men (1957)

Highly Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Sidney Lumet
Writer: Reginald Rose
Cinematographer: Boris Kaufman
Composer: Kenyon Hopkins
Cast: Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Jack Warden, Henry Fonda, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec, Robert Webber

Liberal wet dream though the plot may be (one dissenting juror in a seemingly cut-and-dried murder case, slowly but surely breaks down the prejudices of his fellow jurors), the uniformly excellent performances, the expert pacing, and the sweatily ravishing photography, ensure that the film transcends its propaganda origins. Iain.Stott

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3 Women (1977)

Highly Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Robert Altman
Cinematographer: Chuck Rosher
Composer: Gerald Busby
Cast: Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Janice Rule, Robert Fortier

Altman’s most enigmatic film, the genesis of which famously came to him in a dream, is – with its nods to Buñuel, absolutely stunning performances from Duvall and Spacek, Busby’s distinctive score, and its disturbing portrait of a cold, uncaring society – one of the most memorable works of a incredible and varied career. Iain.Stott

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Teeth (2007)

Cautiously Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Mitchell Lichtenstein
Cinematographer: Wolfgang Held
Composer: Robert Miller
Cast: Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Josh Pais, Hale Appleman, Lenny von Dohlen, Vivienne Benesch, Ashley Springer, Julia Garro, Nicole Swahn

Let down somewhat by its relatively (for a light-hearted genre film) unwieldy length, Lichtenstein’s horror comedy, chronicling the rather painful sexual awakening of a young girl afflicted with vagina dentata, is, for the most part, with its wholehearted performances and hilariously incongruous score, good camp fun. Iain.Stott

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The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)

Recommended

Canada/France/USA
Feature Film
Director: Nicolas Gessner
Writer: Laird Koenig
Cinematographer: René Verzier
Composer: Christian Gaubert
Cast: Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Alexis Smith, Mort Shuman, Scott Jacoby

Foster is excellent as a 13-year-old girl who must fend off nosy landladies, lecherous perverts, dubious clerks, and questions about the whereabouts of her poet father in Gessner’s delicious, blackly comic, and quite unique film. Iain.Stott

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The Raid (1954)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Hugo Fregonese
Writers: Sydney Boehm, Francis Cockrell, Herbert Ravenal Sass
Cinematographer: Lucien Ballard
Composer: Roy Webb
Cast: Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Richard Boone, Lee Marvin, Tommy Rettig, Peter Graves

Fregonese’s fact based US Civil War film, chronicling a confederate soldier’s infiltration of a small town in Vermont as he prepares to sack it, complicated by his meeting of an attractive young widow, is, with its excellent performances and uncompromising scripting, a thrilling yet intelligent examination of the ambiguities of war and human relationships. Iain.Stott

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Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Douglas Sirk
Writers: Joseph Hoffman, Eleanor H. Porter
Cinematographer: Clifford Stine
Composers: Henry Mancini, Herman Stein
Cast: Piper Laurie, Rock Hudson, Charles Coburn, Gigi Perreau, Lynn Bari, Larry Gates, William Reynolds, Skip Homeier

Sirk’s subversively delightful comedy, in which the wonderful Coburn’s eccentric millionaire covertly descends upon the family of his one true love, the one that got away, examining them as potential heirs to his fortune, is a shamelessly enjoyable and wonderfully fun experience. Iain.Stott

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Sliding Doors (1998)

Not Recommended

UK/USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Peter Howitt
Cinematographer: Remi Adefarasin
Composer: David Hirschfelder
Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah, John Lynch, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Zara Turner, Douglas McFerran

Coming across like a rom-comised version of Kieslowski’s Blind Chance (1981), Howitt’s rather cheesy examination of matters metaphysical, a dual narrative tale of fate, infidelity, and love, is just about worth a watch despite the usually delightful Paltrow’s annoyingly nasal turn. Iain.Stott

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Who Do You Want Your Child to Be? (2009)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Series Title: Horizon (1964-)
Director: Nicola Stackley
Cinematographers: Tim Pollard, John Goodyer
Presenter: David Baddiel
Narrator: Josette Simon

An interesting and informative documentary in which comedian Baddiel guides us entertainingly through the world of childhood education, exploring the science behind various competing teaching theories. Iain.Stott

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Play for Today (1970-1984)

• Abigail's Party (1977)
• Another Flip for Dominick (1982)
• Brimstone and Treacle (1976)
• Dinner at The Sporting Club (1978)
• The Elephants' Graveyard (1976)
• The Flipside of Dominick Hide (1980)
• Hard Labour (1973)
• Home Sweet Home (1982)
• The Kiss of Death (1977)
• Nuts in May (1976)
• Rumpole of the Bailey (1975)
• Scum (1977)
• Sunset across the Bay (1975)
• Who's Who (1979)

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Blanche Fury (1948)

Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Marc Allégret
Writers: Audrey Erskine-Lindop, Cecil McGivern, Hugh Mills, Joseph Shearing
Cinematographer: Guy Green
Composer: Clifton Parker
Cast: Valerie Hobson, Stewart Granger, Michael Gough, Walter Fitzgerald, Suzanne Gibbs, Maurice Denham, Sybille Binder

Allégret and Green make the most of the sumptuous sets to provide us with some gorgeous images, beautifully framing the eyebrow-raisingly excellent Granger and the movingly tremendous Hobson, in this deliciously dark melodrama that lies somewhere between Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and Wuthering Heights. Iain.Stott

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"Crocodile" Dundee (1986)

Cautiously Recommended

Australia
Feature Film
Director: Peter Faiman
Writers: John Cornell, Paul Hogan, Ken Shadie
Cinematographer: Russell Boyd
Composer: Peter Best
Cast: Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski, John Meillon, Mark Blum, Reginald VelJohnson

A charming, funny, and romantic if occasionally rather cheesy culture clash comedy that sees Hogan’s outback dweller and Kozlowski’s New York journalist experience each other's worlds, highlighting, making, and breaking more clichés than one could ever imagine. Iain.Stott

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I, Samurai (2006)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Director: Patrick Dickinson
Cinematographer: Jim Ashcroft
Presenter: Andrew Graham-Dixon

Art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon travels to Japan to learn about samurai, exploring the art, religion, and culture of the former rulers of Japan in this mildly entertaining, throwaway BBC documentary. Iain.Stott

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Lonesome Jim (2005)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film
Director: Steve Buscemi
Writer: James C. Strouse
Cinematographer: Phil Parmet
Composer: Evan Lurie
Cast: Casey Affleck, Liv Tyler, Mary Kay Place, Mark Boone Junior, Kevin Corrigan, Seymour Cassel

Affleck’s touching performance enlivens Buscemi’s slightly familiar if accomplished, blackly funny tale of a 27-year-old man who is forced to return to the family home after failing to make it on his own in New York, where he must contend with his suicidal brother, blinkeredly optimistic mother, and flippant father, whilst attempting to woo a pretty, young nurse. Iain.Stott

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3-Iron (2004)

Cautiously Recommended

South Korea
Feature Film
Original Title: 빈집
Writer/Director: Kim Ki-duk
Cinematographer: Jang Seong-back
Composer: Slvian
Cast: Lee Seung-yeon, Hee Jae, Kwon Hyuk-ho, Choi Jeong-ho

For the duration of its first half, Kim’s enigmatic film, a tale of a taciturn romance, set against the backdrop of courteous breaking and entering, is whimsically entertaining, but once the young lovers are discovered and separated, the film has nowhere to go, and merely fizzles away. Iain.Stott

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Red Riding (2009)

Recommended

UK
Television Mini-Series
Directors: Julian Jarrold, James Marsh, Anand Tucker
Writers: Tony Grisoni, David Pearce
Cinematographer: Rob Hardy, Igor Martinovic, David Higgs
Composers: Adrian Johnston, Barrington Pheloung
Cast: David Morrissey, Warren Clarke, Paddy Considine, Mark Addy, Andrew Garfield, Peter Mullan, Sean Bean, Robert Sheehan, Daniel Mays, Rebecca Hall, Gerard Kearns, Eddie Marsan, Maxine Peake

Uncompromisingly written, plotted, and paced, Channel 4’s much hyped mini-series, an adaptation of David Pearce’s acclaimed series of books, set in the 1970s, depicting a West Yorkshire police force rife with corruption, is, with its incredibly assembled cast and distinctive visuals, just about worth every line of its ad campaign. Iain.Stott

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The Land Girls (1998)

Not Recommended

UK/France
Director: David Leland
Writers: Keith Dewhurst, David Leland, Angela Huth
Cinematographer: Henry Braham
Composer: Brian Lock
Cast: Catherine McCormack, Rachel Weisz, Anna Friel, Steven Mackintosh, Tom Georgeson, Maureen O'Brien, Lucy Akhurst, Paul Bettany

Leland and Braham serve up some gorgeous images, and the performances are uniformly accomplished, with Friel’s feisty turn particularly eye-catching, but an episodically unconvincing screenplay and a horribly twee score ensure that this tale of the loves and losses of three land girls, working on a Dorset farm during the Second World War, is only just about watchable. Iain.Stott

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The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film
Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Billy Wilder, Wendell Mayes, Charles A. Lindbergh
Cinematographers: Robert Burks, J. Peverell Marley, Thomas Tutwiler
Cast: James Stewart, Murray Hamilton, Patricia Smith, Bartlett Robinson, Marc Connelly, Arthur Space, Charles Watts

Stewart is excellent if far too old for the difficult role of Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly non-stop across the Atlantic ocean, in Wilder’s by turns thrilling, funny, and suspenseful chronicling of the aforementioned historic flight; a minor work from wilder, but a hugely enjoyable one, never the less. Iain.Stott

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C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)

Recommended

Canada

Feature Film
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Writers: François Boulay, Jean-Marc Vallée
Cinematographer: Pierre Mignot
Cast: Marc-André Grondin, Michel Côté, Danielle Proulx, Émile Vallée, Pierre-Luc Brillant, Maxime Tremblay, Alex Gravel, Natasha Thompson, Johanne Lebrun, Mariloup Wolfe

Film-maker Vallée takes us on a breathlessly paced, witty, and touching journey through the troubled childhood and teenage years of a French Canadian boy struggling to come to terms with his sexuality, cope with familial relationships, and deal with his Catholicism in 1970s Canada. Iain.Stott

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The Departed (2006)

Recommended

USA/Hong Kong
Feature Film
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writers: William Monahan, Alan Mak, Felix Chong
Cinematographer: Michael Ballhaus
Composer: Howard Shore
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson, Alec Baldwin

Scorsese’s muscular remake of the excellent Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs (2002), chronicling the progress of two young South Boston men leading double lives in the milieu of Massachusetts organised crime, is, with its excellent performances and production values, every bit the equal, and perhaps even the superior, of its progenitor. Iain.Stott

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Conversations with Other Women (2005)

Highly Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Hans Canosa
Writer: Gabrielle Zevin
Cinematographer: Steve Yedlin
Composers: Jeff Eden Fair, Starr Parodi
Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Aaron Eckhart, Nora Zehetner, Erik Eidem

The dazzling use of split-screen, the brave, naturalistic performances of Bonham Carter and Eckhart, and Zevin’s surprising, insightful, and beautifully structured screenplay ensure that Canosa’s wonderful film, an unflinching examination of a brief encounter between a man and a woman at a wedding reception, is not only brilliant, but also really rather moving. Iain.Stott

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Zodiac (2007)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: David Fincher
Writers: James Vanderbilt, Robert Graysmith
Cinematographer: Harris Savides
Composer: David Shire
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Robert Downey Jr., Brian Cox, John Carroll Lynch, Chloë Sevigny, Candy Clark, Elias Koteas, Philip Baker Hall

The fabulously assembled cast is unsurprisingly excellent in this sumptuously made film, based on the investigations of journalists and police of the real life titular serial killer in San Francisco in the ’60s and ’70s, which mixes rather unpleasant murder scenes with far more interesting scenes of obsessional, frustrated investigation. Iain.Stott

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American Madness (1932)

Cautiously Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Frank Capra
Writer: Robert Riskin
Cinematographer: Joseph Walker
Cast: Walter Huston, Gavin Gordon, Pat O'Brien, Kay Johnson, Constance Cummings, Arthur Hoyt, Robert Emmett O'Connor

American Madness is an only mildly entertaining if gorgeously photographed film from Capra, in which Huston’s ridiculously civic minded bank president gives us an economic lesson in depression era banking, whilst attempting to survive a run on his bank. Iain.Stott

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I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (2006)

Recommended

South Korea

Feature Film
Original Title: 싸이보그지만 괜찮아
Director: Park Chan-Wook
Writers: Park Chan-Wook, Jeong Seo-gyeong
Cinematographer: Chung Chung-hoon
Composer: Jo Yeong-wook
Cast: Lim Su-Jeong, Jeong Ji-Hun, Choi Heui-Jin, Park Jun-myeon, Ju Heui

Something of a guilty pleasure, Park’s rather whimsical and mildly disrespectful treatment of mental illness, chronicling a tentative romance between a young woman who has stopped eating because she thinks she is a cyborg and a young man who believes that he can steel human characteristics, is a cartoonishly entertaining ride. Iain.Stott

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The Chorus (1982)

Highly Recommended

Iran
Short Film
Original Title: Hamsarayan
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Writers: Abbas Kiarostami, M. J. Kahnamui
Cinematographer: A.R. Zarindast
Cast: Yusef Moqaddam, Ali Asgari

The Chorus is a funny and heart-warming, allegorical short film from Kiarostami, which sees an elderly gent frequently remove his hearing-aid in order to shut out some of the less pleasant elements of the world around him, but in so doing he also almost manages to miss out on what truly matters. Iain.Stott

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Two Solutions for One Problem (1975)

Highly Recommended

Iran
Short Film
Original Title: دو راه حل برای يک مسئله
Writer/Director: Abbas Kiarostami

Kiarostami’s delightful, allegorical short film about friendship – presenting two alternative remedies to one problem: the first, an escalating, Laurel-and-Hardyesque series of reciprocal destruction, and the second, a rational, amicable discussion – is as beautiful and funny as it is brief and simple. Iain.Stott

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A Boy and His Dog (1975)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: L.Q. Jones
Writers: L.Q. Jones, Harlan Ellison
Cinematographer: John Arthur Morrill
Composer: Tim McIntire
Cast: Don Johnson, Susanne Benton, Jason Robards, Tim McIntire, Alvy Moore, Helene Winston, Charles McGraw, Hal Baylor

Jones’s cult film - a satirical, metaphor-laden, post-apocalyptic comedy, chronicling a young Don Johnson’s attempts, with the help of his super-intelligent, telepathic dog, to find a female to do - is a camp yet intelligent and often hilarious experience that boasts one of cinema’s greatest finales. Iain.Stott

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Eastern Promises (2007)

Recommended

UK/Canada/USA

Feature Film
Director: David Cronenberg
Writer: Steven Knight
Cinematographer: Peter Suschitzky
Composer: Howard Shore
Cast: Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sinead Cusack, Jerzy Skolimowski

Although the plot might not stand up to much scrutiny in terms of credibility, and there are perhaps a few too many genre clichés, Cronenberg’s London-set Russian mob film, chronicling a midwife’s attempts to find the family of a 14-year-old Russian prostitute who died in childbirth, is, thanks in the main to some cracking set-pieces and a number of noteworthy performances, never less than gripping. Iain.Stott

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Black Widow (1987)

Cautiously Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Bob Rafelson
Writer: Ronald Bass
Cinematographer: Conrad L. Hall
Composer: Michael Small
Cast: Debra Winger, Theresa Russell, Sami Frey, Nicol Williamson, James Hong

Winger’s federal agent suspects Russell’s sexy widow of being a serial killer, and chases her to Hawaii in search of the truth, in Rafelson’s mildly entertaining if really rather silly thriller. Iain.Stott

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Let the Right One In (2008)

Recommended

Sweden
Feature Film
Original Title: Låt den rätte komma in
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Writer: John Ajvide Lindqvist
Cinematographer: Hoyte Van Hoytema
Composer: Johan Söderqvist
Cast: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl, Karin Bergquist, Ika Nord, Mikael Rahm, Karl Robert Lindgren, Anders Peedu, Paul Olofsson

Alfredson’s tender, delicate, beautifully paced vampire film, chronicling a budding friendship between a young, timid, bullied Stockholm boy and a mildly jaded vampire of apparently similar age, is, despite Söderqvist’s occasionally jarring score, a visually arresting and affectingly performed work. Iain.Stott

Remade as Let Me In (2010).

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The Miners' Strike (2004)

Highly Recommended

UK
Television Documentary
Director: Steven Condie
Cinematographers: Neville Kidd, Ian Kennedy, John Warwick
Narrator: Neil Dudgeon

A dazzling, poetically presented documentary, looking at the 1984-85 miners’ strike, concentrating on the Hatfield village colliery, mixing archive footage, reconstructions, and interviews with members from all sides of the conflict, to produce an unmissable portrait of a depressingly bloody time. Iain.Stott

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Mondovino (2004)

Recommended

France/Argentina
Feature Documentary
Cinematographer/Director: Jonathan Nossiter

A fascinating, fairly even-handed documentary, exploring the varied and opposing philosophies of the world’s various winemakers, Mondovino examines the battle between traditional and modern, big and small, and left and right, with its subject serving as a metaphor for modern society in general. Iain.Stott

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Doubt (2008)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film
Writer/Director: John Patrick Shanley
Cinematographer: Roger Deakins
Composer: Howard Shore
Cast: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis, Joseph Foster II, Mike Roukis

Streep, Hoffman, Adams, and Davis are all superb in Shanley’s adaptation of his own acclaimed, pleasingly ambiguous play, chronicling a nun’s attempts to prove that a priest had been abusing a young boy, but while Shanley the writer is successful, Shanley the director may well have watched one Garry Marshall film too many - gripping, never the less. Iain.Stott

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The Consequences of Love (2004)

Highly Recommended

Italy
Feature Film
Original Title: Le conseguenze dell'amore
Writer/Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Cinematographer: Luca Bigazzi
Composer: Pasquale Catalano
Cast: Toni Servillo, Olivia Magnani, Adriano Giannini, Antonio Ballerio, Enzo Vitagliano, Vittorio Di Prima, Nino D'Agata, Gaetano Bruno

With its playful mise en scène, lush palette of colours, gorgeous score, and cracking, subtle performances, Sorrentino’s patient, insightful crime film, chronicling the day-to-day life of a dour, disillusioned, middle-aged banker, virtually imprisoned by the Cosa Nostra in a Swiss hotel for eight years after losing over 200 billion dollars of Mafia money on the stock market, is a surprising, atypical gem that adds a level of poetry and humanity to a genre generally lacking such qualities. Iain.Stott

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I'm Not There. (2007)

Recommended

USA/Germany
Feature Film
Director: Todd Haynes
Writers: Todd Haynes, Oren Moverman
Cinematographer: Edward Lachman
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Ben Whishaw, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Marcus Carl Franklin, Heath Ledger, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood

Haynes’s dazzling sort-of biopic, painting a portrait of Bob Dylan by way of six different actors playing characters inspired by a number of elements of the singer’s personality and from varying stages of his career, is an intelligent, moving, funny, and beautiful reinterpretation of the man and, perhaps more importantly, or at least more interestingly, of the art form itself. Iain.Stott

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Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

Highly Recommended

UK/USA

Feature Film
Writer/Director: Mike Leigh
Cinematographer: Dick Pope
Composer: Gary Yershon
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Alexis Zegerman, Eddie Marsan, Kate O'Flynn, Samuel Roukin

Click for review.

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Bulletproof Salesman (2008)

USA
Short Documentary
Writer/Directors: Petra Epperlein, Michael Tucker
Featuring: Fidelis Cloer

Epperlein and Tucker's short documentary provides a diverting, low-key portrait of German armoured-car salesman (and perhaps the most even-tempered man in the world), Fidelis Cloer, chronicling his forays, over a number of years, into occupied Iraq in search of new customers. Iain.Stott

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La Antena (2007)

Highly Recommended

Argentina
Feature Film

Original Title: La antena
Writer/Director: Esteban Sapir
Cinematographer: Cristian Cottet
Composer: Leo Sujatovich
Cast: Rafael Ferro, Sol Moreno, Jonathan Sandor, Julieta Cardinali, Alejandro Urdapilleta, Florencia Raggi, Ricardo Merkin, Raúl Hochman

A tale of love and hope versus hate and television, Sapir’s sumptuous film, an absolute treat for the eyes, the ears, and the soul, coming across like the beautiful lovechild of Maddin, Jeunet, and Méliès, is an allegorical, symbolically rich, black-and-white fairy tale, depicting a city struck dumb by the fascistic Sr. TV. Iain.Stott

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What Doesn't Kill You (2008)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film
Director: Brian Goodman
Writers: Brian Goodman, Paul T. Murray, Donnie Wahlberg
Cinematographer: Chris Norr
Composer: Alex Wurman
Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Ethan Hawke, Amanda Peet, Will Lyman, Brian Goodman, Donnie Wahlberg, Eddie Lynch

Ruffalo’s typically excellent performance is the standout amongst a number of pleasingly accomplished performances in this slightly familiar tale of the troubled lives of two young south Boston men, but despite this familiarity, its depiction of the criminal life is never less than credible, and as a result the film is nigh impossible to look away from. Iain.Stott

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Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Danny Boyle
Writers: Simon Beaufoy, Vikas Swarup
Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle
Composer: A.R. Rahman
Cast: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Tanay Hemant Chheda, Rubiana Ali, Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, Ankur Vikal, Mahesh Manjrekar

Bizarrely labelled “feel good” – how much poverty-induced misery does it take for people to look past the happy ending, and is it really all that happy anyway? – Boyle’s engaging and romantic film proves to be an intelligent, well-made, and affectingly acted look at life in the slums of Mumbai. Iain.Stott

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Pineapple Express (2008)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film
Director: David Gordon Green
Writers: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow
Cinematographer: Tim Orr
Composer: Graeme Revell
Cast: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, Kevin Corrigan, Craig Robinson, Gary Cole, Rosie Perez, Amber Heard

Judd Apatow and David Gordon Green make quite the most unlikely collaborators, and the tone of the resulting film, a tale of two stoners on the run from a homicidal drug dealer, is just as odd as this surprising partnership, but certainly not in an unpleasant way, and although the film is often unnervingly unpredictable, it is never less than entertaining, and is frequently laugh-out-loud funny. Iain.Stott

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Blindness (2008)

Recommended

Brazil/Canada/Japan
Feature Film
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Writers: Don McKellar, José Saramago
Cinematographer: César Charlone
Composer: Uakti
Cast: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Alice Braga, Iseya Yusuke, Kimura Yoshino, Don McKellar, Maury Chaykin, Danny Glover, Gael García Bernal

A shit-smeared, metaphor-laden film from Meirelles, with excellent production values and convincing performances, Blindness chronicles a pandemic that leaves its victims without sight, and in the process paints a portrait of humanity in all its naked shame (and glory). Iain.Stott

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