How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)

Highly Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Bruce Robinson
Cinematographer: Peter Hannan
Composers: David Dundas, Rick Wentworth
Cast: Richard E. Grant, Rachel Ward, Richard Wilson, Jacqueline Tong, John Shrapnel, Susan Wooldridge, Hugh Armstrong, Mick Ford, Jacqueline Pearce

Robinson’s follow-up to the "cult classic" Withnail & I (1987), an unrelenting satire of the evils of advertising, in which Grant’s successful ad-agent literally grows a second head in order to separate his malignant, professional side from his inner human being, is a blackly comic delight that will never allow you look at the world in the same way again. Iain.Stott

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White Zombie (1932)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Victor Halperin
Writer: Garnett Weston
Cinematographer: Arthur Martinelli
Composer: Xavier Cugat
Cast: Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy, Joseph Cawthorn, Robert Frazer, John Harron, Brandon Hurst

Despite some frankly rather naff dialogue that’s often delivered with all the panache and skill of a cardboard box, this brief horror flick, detailing the nefarious acts of Lugosi’s Haiti based zombie-master, is, thanks mainly to the finesse and ingenuity with which Halperin and Martinelli fill the screen, a creepily memorable little film. Iain.Stott

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Shall We Dance (1937)

Essential Viewing

USA
Feature Film
Director: Mark Sandrich
Writers: Allan Scott, Ernest Pagano, P.J. Wolfson, Harold Buchman, Lee Loeb
Cinematographer: David Abel
Composers: George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, Jerome Cowan, Ketti Gallian, William Brisbane

This Astaire-Rogers vehicle, a musical farce with songs by the Gershwins, chronicling two dancers and their managers’ attempts to variously prove and disprove a rumoured marriage aboard an ocean liner, is, with a number of unforgettable song-and-dance numbers and a couple of trouser-soilingly funny comic asides, a delight from beginning to end. Iain.Stott

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The Father, the Son and the Housekeeper (2009)

Recommended

UK/Ireland
Short Television Documentary
Director: Alison Millar
Cinematographers: Seamas McCracken, Michael Quinn
Composers: Danny Todd, Jeremy Vass
Featuring: Father Michael Cleary, Ross Hamilton

Despite a couple of questionable soundtrack choices, Millar’s documentary - a delicate depiction of superstar priest, Father Michael Cleary (coming across like a lost character from Father Ted), and his illegitimate son, Ross Hamilton (a tragically beautiful figure), which also manages to be a damning portrait of the system that forced these two people to live such disparate lives - is a revealing and moving experience. Iain.Stott

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Burn After Reading (2008)

Recommended

USA/UK/France
Feature Film
Writer/Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cinematographer: Emmanuel Lubezki
Composer: Carter Burwell
Cast: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, Elizabeth Marvel, David Rasche, J.K. Simmons

Coming across like one of the Coens’ typical morality tales, only without the moral (a trend continued from No Country for Old Men), this cynical farce, chronicling the path-crossing misadventures of several middle-aged CIA operatives and gym workers, is a cracking little film, and the brothers’ funniest effort for quite some time. Iain.Stott

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The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1940)

Not Recommended

UK

Feature Film
Director: Thorold Dickinson
Writers: Donald Bull, Patrick Kirwan, Thorold Dickinson, Alan Hyman, Leonard Reginald Gribble
Cinematographer: Desmond Dickinson
Cast: Leslie Banks, Greta Gynt, Ian McLean, Liane Linden, Anthony Bushell, Esmond Knight, Brian Worth, Richard Norris, Wyndham Goldie, Alastair MacIntyre, George Allison

Despite the fantastic title, Dickinson’s mildly diverting murder mystery - chronicling an eccentric police inspector’s investigation of the murder of a famous amateur footballer, killed in the midst of a match against league champions Arsenal - is fairly forgettable, with Banks’s spirited performance and the casting of a number of famous footballers its only real plus points. Iain.Stott

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Les Amants (1958)

Highly Recommended

France
Feature Film

Original Title: Les amants
Director: Louis Malle
Writers: Louise de Vilmorin, Dominique Vivant
Cinematographer: Henri Decaë
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Marc Bory, Judith Magre, José Villalonga, Alain Cuny

With an extraordinary performance from Moreau, exquisite photography from Decaë, and a delightful soundtrack of Brahms, Malle’s second feature, the depiction of a love story simultaneously as alluring and repulsive as its central, titular protagonists, provides both a damning portrait of the idle rich and a beautiful, sensual apologia for their transgressions. Iain.Stott

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