Roman Polanski

• Bicycle (1955)
• A Toothful Smile (1957)
• Break Up the Dance (1957)
• A Murderer (1957)
• Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958)
• The Lamp (1959)
• When Angels Fall (1959)
• The Fat and the Lean (1961)
• Mammals (1962)
• Knife in the Water (1962)
• La Rivière de Diamants (1964)
• Repulsion (1965)
• Cul-de-sac (1966)
• Dance of the Vampires (1967)
• Rosemary's Baby (1968)
• Macbeth (1971)
• What? (1972)
• Chinatown (1974)
• The Tenant (1976)
• Tess (1979)
• Pirates (1986)
• Frantic (1988)
• Bitter Moon (1992)
• Death and the Maiden (1994)
• The Ninth Gate (1999)
• The Pianist (2002)
• Oliver Twist (2005)
• Cinéma Erotique (2007)
• The Ghost (2010)

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Kwaidan (1964)

Highly Recommended

Japan

Feature Film

Original Title: 怪談

Director: Kobayashi Masaki

Writers: Mizuki Yōko, Lafcadio Hearn

Cinematographer: Miyajima Yoshio

Composer: Takemitsu Tōru

Cast: Mikuni Rentarō, Aratama Michiyo, Watanabe Misako, Nakadai Tatsuya, Kishi Keiko, Nakamura Katsuo, Tanba Tetsurō, Shimura Takashi , Nakamura Kanemon, Takizawa Osamu

With its incredibly bold use of colour, unsettlingly original use of sound and music, and wonderfully expressive production design, Kobayashi’s remarkable, painterly film – an anthology of ghost stories, encompassing tales of samurais and musicians, woodcutters and lords – is a work of great power and breathtakingly sensual beauty. Iain.Stott

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The PianoTuner of EarthQuakes (2005)

Not Recommended

UK/France/Germany

Feature Film

Directors: Quay Brothers

Writers: Alan Passes, Quay Brothers

Cinematographer: Nic Knowland

Composer: Christopher Slaski

Cast: César Sarachu, Amira Casar, Gottfried John, Assumpta Serna

This bizarre tale of an evil doctor’s obsession for a beautiful opera singer (the second feature film by the Quay brothers) is a work that will prove too obtuse for most; although it does contain numerous pleasures – mostly in the form of its distinctive, painterly visuals – but one must conclude, in the end, that there is little going on beneath its admittedly attractive surface. Iain.Stott

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In the City of Sylvia (2007)

Essential Viewing

Spain/France

Feature Film

Original Title: En la ciudad de Sylvia

Writer/Director: José Luis Guerín

Cinematographer: Natasha Braier

Cast: Xavier Lafitte, Pilar López de Ayala

Plotless and near enough dialogue free, Guerín’s remarkably sensual film – in which a handsome young man returns to Strasbourg in search of a woman, Sylvia, who he had a brief encounter with six years earlier – is a piece that relies more on random faces and the ambient noise of everyday life than on conventional filmic techniques to portray the inner-life of its enigmatic protagonist, and whilst that might scare off most potential viewers, those willing to submit to its gentle rhythms are likely to experience a work of considerable beauty. Iain.Stott

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Harold Lloyd

• Miss Fatty's Seaside Lovers (1915)
• A Submarine Pirate (1915)
• Luke's Movie Muddle (1916)
• Over the Fence (1917)
• By the Sad Sea Waves (1917)
• Bliss (1917)
• The Flirt (1917)
• All Aboard (1917)
• Move On (1917)
• Step Lively (1917)
• Hey There (1918)
• The Non-Stop Kid (1918)
• Two-Gun Gussie (1918)
• The City Slicker (1918)
• Are Crooks Dishonest? (1918)
• Ask Father (1919)
• On the Fire (1919)
• I'm on My Way (1919)
• Next Aisle Over (1919)
• A Sammy in Siberia (1919)
• Ring Up the Curtain (1919)
• Spring Fever (1919)
• Billy Blazes, Esq. (1919)
• Just Neighbors (1919)
• Never Touched Me (1919)
• A Jazzed Honeymoon (1919)
• Don't Shove (1919)
• Pay Your Dues (1919)
• Bumping Into Broadway (1919)
• Captain Kidd's Kids (1919)
• From Hand to Mouth (1919)
• His Royal Slyness (1920)
• Haunted Spooks (1920)
• An Eastern Westerner (1920)
• High and Dizzy (1920)
• Get Out and Get Under (1920)
• Number, Please? (1920)
• Now or Never (1921)
• Among Those Present (1921)
• I Do (1921)
• Never Weaken (1921)
• A Sailor-Made Man (1921)
• Grandma's Boy (1922)
• Dr. Jack (1922)
• Safety Last! (1923)
• Why Worry? (1923)
• Girl Shy (1924)
• Hot Water (1924)
• The Freshman (1925)
• For Heaven's Sake (1926)
• The Kid Brother (1927)
• Speedy (1928)
• Welcome Danger (1929)
• Feet First (1930)
• Movie Crazy (1932)
• The Cat's-Paw (1934)
• The Milky Way (1936)
• Professor Beware (1938)
• The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947)

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Pulse (2001)

Recommended

Japan

Feature Film

Original Title: 回路

Writer/Director: Kurosawa Kiyoshi

Cinematographer: Hayashi Junichirō

Composer: Haketa Takefumi

Cast: Katō Haruhiko, Aso Kumiko, Koyuki, Arisaka Kurume, Matsuo Masatoshi, Takeda Shinji

Although marketed as a horror film, Kurosawa’s enigmatic piece – in which members of the populace begin to commit suicide for no apparent reason – is designed more to stimulate the brain than the viscera; but whilst he clearly has something to say, quite what that is is never really clear, (but numerous scenes and images do stick in the mind). Iain.Stott

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Pedro Almodóvar

• Film Político (1974)
• Dos Putas, o Historia de Amor que Termina en Boda (1974)
• La Caída de Sódoma (1975)
• Homenaje (1975)
• El Sueño, o la Estrella (1975)
• Blancor (1975)
• Trailer of 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1976)
• Sea Caritativo (1976)
• Muerte en la Carretera (1976)
• Sexo Va, Sexo Viene (1977)
• Salomé (1978)
• Folle... Folle... Fólleme Tim! (1978)
• Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980)
• Labyrinth of Passion (1982)
• Dark Habits (1983)
• What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984)
• Tráiler para Amantes de lo Prohibido (1985)
• Matador (1986)
• Law of Desire (1987)
• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
• Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990)
• High Heels (1991)
• Kika (1993)
• The Flower of My Secret (1995)
• Live Flesh (1997)
• All About My Mother (1999)
• Talk to Her (2002)
• Bad Education (2004)
• Volver (2006)
• Broken Embraces (2009)
• The Skin I Live In (2011)

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