David Parkinson

This is not just a treatise on post-colonialism and class. Sembène boldly uses his female characters to comment on Senegal's chauvinist patriarchy.

Whether viewed as a political allegory or a domestic drama, this is the most accessible film yet from one of Europe’s very finest filmmakers.

A joyous exploration of family life that will touch and surprise.

A bleak and moving drama with reflective performance from Jack Nicolson.

The father and son chemistry give this blackly-comic slice of social realism a dose of Ealing-lite wit.

This tale of Mexican poverty refuses to lapse into sensation or melodrama.

A very thin story stretched out for over two hours, this is a melange of the wonderful and the pompous.

It’s instilled with the bite and bark of Bilko’s capitalist fervour, and has a fun line in cool, snappy dialogue, although never intending to be quite so broadly a comedy.

Demonstrating that the greatest political evil is indifference, this appeal to a world on the verge of war has lost none of its relevance.

Winning Best Film at that year's Oscars, this John Huston film typically epic with a faithful screenplay to Richard Llewellyn's famous novel. Strong performances from Crisp and O'Hara although McDowall as the young lead, gives a particularly memorable performance while the setting shows Wales at its most beautiful.

Complemented by its black-and-white photography and a moody DJ Shadow score, this is a gritty yet often tender look at society's margins.

Well-served by a laudably authentic ensemble, the director explores both character and ethnicity with a canny wit.

A typically poignant lifestory illuminated by strong turns from Dussollier and Azéma, Alain Resnais' latest is one to stir the brain as well as the heart.

Tender and beautifully acted, it's a unflinchingly bleak glimpse of life on Australia's margins.

The formula of an innocent thrust into a nightmare would fascinate Hitch for decades to come, but here he packs the tale with strong characters and important details.

This MGM classic remains the most faithful and powerful adaptation of the great Dickens novel.

One of Woody's most aesthetically gorgeous films as well as his classic love-hate letter to the city of his soul.

Forman and screenwriter Michael Weller brought a sense of coherence to the original freewheeling structure and Twyla Tharp's choreography imparted an infectious dynamism. But, the profanity, nudity and disregard for the fourth wall that had made the stage show such a sensation were lost in the translation.

An unflinching and affecting depiction of the region’s tragic lunacies.

Interesting portrait of the shallow nature of fame but overall this fails to engage on an emotional level.

Humane and perceptive memoir from Allen, with a pleasant visual nostalgia and the usual slew of impressive performances.

Although time doesn't flatter the film much, it remains engaging and insightful.

Witty, moving and visually dazzling.

Lushly photographed by Andrei Zhegalov and impeccably played, it’s a long-overdue corrective to the kind of wildly patriotic war film produced in the Soviet era.

Powerful, personal, but bombastic.

Harrowing and complex, this study in terror is not for the faint of heart.

A must see.

Witty, warm and beautifully filmed by Franz Planer and Henri Alekan, it remains an unabashed romantic delight, with Hepburn particularly luminescent. [Review of re-release]