Based on the play by Bill Naughton, Lewis Gilbert's film broke new ground by interspersing its amorous anti-hero's sexual conquests with frank and witty confessionals delivered straight to camera.

A cheesy but good-humoured voiceover adds to the charm, while the events on-screen can often be exciting and fascinating to watch.

This eerie (and nowadays somewhat kitsch) spectacle aside, helmer Stanley J Furie opts for spycraft nitty-gritty over suspense. However, he doesn't skimp on style: with the action lensed from an array of low, skewed angles, even a trip to the supermarket rouses the retina.

A thrilling espionage adventure chock full of iconic characters, set pieces and one-liners.

Coming on like an art-house Dead Calm (on which it was clearly an influence) Polanski's drama is slow-moving to the point of inertia, but patient viewers will appreciate the creeping tensions and Oedipal undertow. Not easily accessible, but a film whose scenes and themes stick with you.

Dreams of the future merge with memories of the past as a fascinating array of imagery is conjured to the screen. The effect is sometimes confusing - but always beautiful - and eventually intertwines to a singular life-confirming realisation that cuts through the madness and embraces it.

This is a painfully moving story about uncompromising friendship and uncontrollable love - not so much unrequited as undeserving and unfulfilled.

Ozu's pared-down visual style facilitates our involvement with these 'ordinary' characters, who are struggling to reconcile their feelings of duty and desire, and to accept life's inevitable changes.

Woven into this heady romance is chic Hollywood comedy at it's finest, combined with evocative cinematography.

The thin, conventional storyline is swept along by the imaginative, urgent style with its then innovative jump cuts, overlapping dialogue and handheld camerawork. A landmark film, it forever changed perceptions of cinema.

A comic epic, Hidden Fortress focuses not on the high drama of the aristocrats' escape, but on the slapstick antics of the faint-hearted peasants as they whinge and moan their way through the countryside.

Don't get me wrong. Plan 9 from Outer Space is a terrible film. A dreadful film. An atrocious film. But it does have some elements that are halfway decent, and it's unlikely that it would have a cult following without them.

This is one of the truly outstanding works of post-war European cinema.

Full of haunting, iconic images and a touch of hopeful humanity, The Seventh Seal is cinema at its most artful, a philosophical meditation on the meaning(lessness) of this mortal coil.

With such a dramatic opening The Fly has a lot to live up to and what emerges is a sad story of considerable pathos despite the ridiculous plot.

It's a film that deserves recognition as one of this country's finest horror movies, a sexually charged Gothic nightmare featuring standout performances from Hammer stalwarts Lee and Peter Cushing, who stars as vampire hunter Van Helsing.

Watching the film now, almost half a century after its first screening, it's easy to see why it upset so many people "Cairo Station" is a pressure cooker of lust, jealousy, and psychosis.

The searing Paths Of Glory continues to impress with its striking blend of formal brilliance, economical storytelling and emotional directness.

Director David Lean achieves a fine balance of creating complex characters from a fine cast, while keeping the pace up throughout this long movie.

Branded by some as nothing more than a glorified soap opera, "An Affair to Remember" isn't afraid to employ some rather obvious dramatic devices, but it's hard not to become swept-up into a romance that seems doomed to failure.

After opening with a calypso tune from the inimitable Louis Armstrong, High Society really has nowhere to go but down, yet somehow director Charles Walters manages to keep this Technicolor musical sparkling through the next 100 minutes.

Originally shot in black and white, then switching to CinemaScope early in production, Rebel Without A Cause is a brilliant, iconic movie.

With some of the most famous tunes in all showbusiness, plenty of dancing cowboys, and an irrepressible feel good factor, expect a dose of good old-fashioned entertainment.

It's warm, sweet, and perfect for wasting a winter afternoon.

Widely regarded as the best excursion for Jacques Tati's alter ego Monsieur Hulot, this whimsical comedy builds on the work of American silent stars like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, to produce a French variation on the art of slapstick.

Wayne and O'Hara create a fine rapport, with good performances that build to a truly satisfying climax.

A true sci-fi classic.

The finest movie ever made about the narcissistic hellhole that is Hollywood.