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Essential British Cinema

The Red Shoes (1948)
Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell · 48 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, YouTube Free · Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
A fledgling ballerina falls in love with a brilliant composer, but the jealous head of the ballet company plots to drive them apart.
The Third Man (1949)
Carol Reed · 45 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Plex, Plex Channel · Streaming on Kanopy, BFI Player Amazon Channel, IndieFlix
In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he has died. Martins develops a conspiracy theory after learning of a "third man" present at the time of Harry's death, running into interference from British officer Major Calloway, and falling head-over-heels for Harry's grief-stricken lover, Anna.
A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger · 42 critic votes
Free on YouTube Free · Streaming on Artiflix
A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.
Don't Look Now (1973)
Nicolas Roeg · 40 critic votes
Free on YouTube Free · Streaming on Kanopy
While grieving a terrible loss, a married couple meet two mysterious sisters, one of whom gives them a message sent from the afterlife.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
David Lean · 33 critic votes
Streaming on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads, Philo
During World War I, English officer Thomas Edward 'T.E.' Lawrence sets out to unite and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes to fight the Turks.
Black Narcissus (1947)
Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell · 19 critic votes
Free on Darkroom, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel · Streaming on fuboTV, Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
A group of Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh, are sent to a mountain in the Himalayas. The climate in the region is hostile and the nuns are housed in an odd old palace. They work to establish a school and a hospital, but slowly their focus shifts. Sister Ruth falls for a government worker, Mr. Dean, and begins to question her vow of celibacy. As Sister Ruth obsesses over Mr. Dean, Sister Clodagh becomes immersed in her own memories of love.
Orlando (1992)
Sally Potter · 19 critic votes
Free on YouTube Free
England, 1600. Queen Elizabeth I promises Orlando, a young nobleman obsessed with poetry, that she will grant him land and fortune if he agrees to satisfy a very particular request.
Under the Skin (2013)
Jonathan Glazer · 19 critic votes
Free on Fandango at Home Free, Xumo Play · Streaming on Netflix, Kanopy, Hoopla
A seductive stranger prowls the streets of Glasgow in search of prey: unsuspecting men who fall under her spell.
Blowup (1966)
Michelangelo Antonioni · 18 critic votes
A successful mod photographer in London whose world is bounded by fashion, pop music, marijuana, and easy sex, feels his life is boring and despairing. But in the course of a single day he unknowingly captures a death on film.
Morvern Callar (2002)
Lynne Ramsay · 18 critic votes
Free on The Roku Channel, Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads, Amazon MX Player · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
After her boyfriend commits suicide, a young woman attempts to use the unpublished manuscript of a novel and a sum of money he left behind to reinvent her life.
Brief Encounter (1945)
David Lean · 17 critic votes
Free on The Roku Channel, YouTube Free, Pluto TV · Streaming on Criterion Channel, FlixFling, HBO Max Amazon Channel
Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.
Blue (1993)
Derek Jarman · 17 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Plex, Plex Channel · Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla
Against a plain, unchanging blue screen, a densely interwoven soundtrack of voices, sound effects and music attempt to convey a portrait of Derek Jarman's experiences with AIDS, both literally and allegorically, together with an exploration of the meanings associated with the colour blue.
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger · 16 critic votes
Free on Darkroom, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel · Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
General Candy, who's overseeing an English squad in 1943, is a veteran leader who doesn't have the respect of the men he's training and is considered out-of-touch with what's needed to win the war. But it wasn't always this way. Flashing back to his early career in the Boer War and World War I, we see a dashing young officer whose life has been shaped by three different women, and by a lasting friendship with a German soldier.
I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger · 16 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free, Pluto TV · Streaming on Criterion Channel
Plucky Englishwoman Joan Webster travels to the remote islands of the Scottish Hebrides in order to marry a wealthy industrialist. Trapped by inclement weather on the Isle of Mull and unable to continue to her destination, Joan finds herself charmed by the straightforward, no-nonsense islanders around her, and becomes increasingly attracted to naval officer Torquil MacNeil, who holds a secret that may change her life forever.
Kes (1969)
Ken Loach · 15 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, MGM Plus, fuboTV
Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.
Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988)
Terence Davies · 14 critic votes
Free on The Roku Channel · Streaming on BFI Player Amazon Channel
Siblings Maisie and Tony, along with their mother, gather for their sister Eileen's wedding. It is a joyous occasion, but through flashbacks, it becomes clear that the family was not always happy. Their father was physically abusive to his wife and left the children emotionally traumatized. As a result, the children have grown into unhappy adults, looking for love they didn't receive when they were young.
Performance (1970)
Donald Cammell, Nicolas Roeg · 13 critic votes
In underworld terms, Chas Devlin is a 'performer,' a gangster with a talent for violence and intimidation. Turner is a reclusive rock superstar. When Chas and Turner meet, their worlds collide—and the impact is both exotic and explosive.
Ratcatcher (1999)
Lynne Ramsay · 13 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
James Gillespie is 12 years old. The world he knew is changing. Haunted by a secret, he has become a stranger in his own family. He is drawn to the canal where he creates a world of his own. He finds an awkward tenderness with Margaret Anne, a vulnerable 14 year old expressing a need for love in all the wrong ways, and befriends Kenny, who possesses an unusual innocence in spite of the harsh surroundings.
A Canterbury Tale (1944)
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger · 12 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, YouTube Free · Streaming on fuboTV, Criterion Channel
Three modern-day pilgrims investigate a bizarre crime in a small town while on their way to Canterbury.
The Long Day Closes (1992)
Terence Davies · 12 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Bud is a lonely and quiet boy whose moments of solace occur when he sits in rapture at the local cinema, watching towering and iconic figures on the movie screen. The movies give Bud the strength to get through another day as he deals with his oppressive school environment and his burgeoning homosexuality.
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Robert Hamer · 10 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Kanopy, BFI Player Amazon Channel
When his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her aristocratic family. After the family refuses to let her be buried in the family mausoleum, Louis avenges his mother's death by attempting to murder every family member who stands between himself and the family fortune. But when he finds himself torn between his longtime love and the widow of one of his victims, his plans go awry.
The Wicker Man (1973)
Robin Hardy · 10 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads, Amazon MX Player · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, BFI Player Amazon Channel
Police sergeant Neil Howie is called to an island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. The investigation is further complicated as Howie’s religious views clash with those of the island’s residents.
Handsworth Songs (1986)
John Akomfrah · 10 critic votes
The Black Audio Film Collective’s acclaimed essay film, 'Handsworth Songs', examines the 1985 race riots in Handsworth and London. Interweaving archival photographs, newsreel clips, and home movie footage, the film is both an exploration of documentary aesthetics and a broad meditation social and cultural oppression through Britain’s intertwined narratives of racism and economic decline.
The Innocents (1961)
Jack Clayton · 9 critic votes
In a mid-19th century Essex country house, a young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted by ghosts and that the children are being possessed.
If.... (1968)
Lindsay Anderson · 9 critic votes
Free on Mometu
In an English boys' boarding school, social hierarchy reigns supreme and power remains in the hands of distanced and ineffectual teachers and callously vicious prefects in the Upper Sixth. Three Lower Sixth students, Wallace, Johnny and leader Mick Travis decide on a shocking course of action to redress the balance of privilege once and for all.
Brazil (1985)
Terry Gilliam · 9 critic votes
Free on YouTube Free
Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.
Naked (1993)
Mike Leigh · 9 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
An unemployed Brit vents his rage on unsuspecting strangers as he embarks on a nocturnal London odyssey.
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Mike Leigh · 9 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to Cynthia, a working class white woman.
Children of Men (2006)
Alfonso Cuarón · 9 critic votes
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.
Withnail and I (1987)
Bruce Robinson · 8 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, TCM, HBO Max Amazon Channel
Two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail -- spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.
Fish Tank (2009)
Andrea Arnold · 8 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Plex, Xumo Play · Streaming on Kanopy, fuboTV, Philo
Fifteen-year-old Mia is in a constant state of war with her family and the world around her. When she meets her party-girl mother’s charming new boyfriend Connor, she is amazed to find he returns her attention, and believes he might help her start to make sense of her life.
American Honey (2016)
Andrea Arnold · 8 critic votes
Free on Plex Channel
A restless teenager escapes her troubled home and joins a traveling crew of young drifters selling magazines across the American Midwest. Immersed in a world of reckless partying, risky hustles, and fleeting romances, she searches for freedom and belonging on the open road.
Lovers Rock (2020)
Steve McQueen · 8 critic votes
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Hoopla, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
During a house party in 1980s West London, a group of young West Indian friends find romance, joy, and tension unfolding over the course of one night set to the rhythms of reggae.
A Portrait of Ga (1952)
Margaret Tait · 7 critic votes
Another early experiment in portraiture from Tait. In filming her mother she asks the wider question of how much the camera can reveal of the person.
The Servant (1963)
Joseph Losey · 7 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on BFI Player Amazon Channel
Indolent aristocrat Tony employs competent Barrett as his manservant and all seems to be going well until Barrett persuades Tony to hire his sister as a live-in maid.
You Were Never Really Here (2018)
Lynne Ramsay · 7 critic votes
Free on Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads, Amazon MX Player · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A traumatized veteran, unafraid of violence, tracks down missing girls for a living. When a job spins out of control, Joe's nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered—leading to what may be his death trip or his awakening.
A Colour Box (1935)
Len Lye · 6 critic votes
Animated shapes dance to Cuban music. This was one of the first animations to be painted directly onto the film.
The Devils (1971)
Ken Russell · 6 critic votes
A charismatic 17th-century French priest becomes the target of a sexually obsessed nun’s witchcraft accusations, which corrupt church and state officials are all too happy to exploit.
Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
Terry Jones · 6 critic votes
Free on The CW, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, fuboTV
Brian Cohen is an average young Jewish man, but through a series of ridiculous events, he gains a reputation as the Messiah. When he's not dodging his followers or being scolded by his shrill mother, the hapless Brian has to contend with the pompous Pontius Pilate and acronym-obsessed members of a separatist movement. Rife with Monty Python's signature absurdity, the tale finds Brian's life paralleling Biblical lore, albeit with many more laughs.
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989)
Peter Greenaway · 6 critic votes
When churlish mobster Albert Spica acquires an upscale French restaurant in London, he dines there nightly, effectively scaring off the clientele with his bad manners. His wife, Georgina, is especially disgusted by him, and soon begins an affair with regular guest Michael. Despite their best efforts to keep it secret, Spica learns about their trysts, and he plots a terrible revenge.
Hunger (2008)
Steve McQueen · 6 critic votes
Streaming on Sundance Now, Criterion Channel, AMC+
The story of Bobby Sands, the IRA member who led the 1981 hunger strike during The Troubles in which Irish Republican prisoners tried to win political status.
The Arbor (2010)
Clio Barnard · 6 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, DocAlliance Films, Strand Releasing Amazon Channel
The lives of the late Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar and Lorraine, one of her daughters, and the community of Bradford, in the 30 years since the 18-year-old Andrea penned a play about growing up in the community titled "The Arbor".
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Steve McQueen · 6 critic votes
In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty as well as unexpected kindnesses Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life.
Listen to Britain (1942)
Humphrey Jennings, Stewart McAllister · 5 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, OVID
A depiction of life in wartime Britain during the Second World War. Director Humphrey Jennings visits many aspects of civilian life and of the turmoil and privation caused by the war, all without narration.
Peeping Tom (1960)
Michael Powell · 5 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Kanopy, BFI Player Amazon Channel, Cultpix
Loner Mark Lewis works at a film studio during the day and, at night, takes racy photographs of women. Also he's making a documentary on fear, which involves recording the reactions of victims as he murders them. He befriends Helen, the daughter of the family living in the apartment below his, and he tells her vaguely about the movie he is making.
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Richard Lester · 5 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, Cinemax Amazon Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
Capturing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in their electrifying element, 'A Hard Day's Night' is a wildly irreverent journey through this pastiche of a day in the life of The Beatles during 1964. The band have to use all their guile and wit to avoid the pursuing fans and press to reach their scheduled television performance, in spite of Paul's troublemaking grandfather and Ringo's arrest.
Walkabout (1971)
Nicolas Roeg · 5 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, Cinemax Amazon Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
Under the pretense of having a picnic, a geologist takes his teenage daughter and 6-year-old son into the Australian outback and attempts to shoot them. When he fails, he turns the gun on himself, and the two city-bred children must contend with harsh wilderness alone. They are saved by a chance encounter with an Aboriginal boy who shows them how to survive, and in the process underscores the disharmony between nature and modern life.
The Girl Chewing Gum (1976)
John Smith · 5 critic votes
Streaming on DocAlliance Films
At Stamford Road in Dalston Junction of east London, the camera follows pedestrians, cars and birds while a narrator, who appears to be the director behind the camera, seems to instruct the objects.
The Souvenir (2019)
Joanna Hogg · 5 critic votes
Free on Plex Channel
A shy but ambitious film student falls into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship with a charismatic but untrustworthy older man.
Night Mail (1936)
Harry Watt, Basil Wright · 4 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, BFI Player Amazon Channel, OVID
This documentary short examines the special train on which mail is sorted, dropped and collected on the run, and delivered in Scotland on the overnight run from Euston, London to Glasgow.
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Alfred Hitchcock · 4 critic votes
Free on Public Domain Movies, FlixHouse, JustWatch TV · Streaming on Fandor, Fandor Amazon Channel, Hoopla
On a train headed for England a group of travelers is delayed by an avalanche. Holed up in a hotel in a fictional European country, young Iris befriends elderly Miss Froy. When the train resumes, Iris suffers a bout of unconsciousness and wakes to find the old woman has disappeared. The other passengers ominously deny Miss Froy ever existed, so Iris begins to investigate with another traveler and, as the pair sleuth, romantic sparks fly.
Went the Day Well? (1942)
Alberto Cavalcanti · 4 critic votes
Free on Darkroom · Streaming on Hoopla, BFI Player Amazon Channel
The quiet village of Bramley End is taken over by German troops posing as Royal Engineers. Their task is to disrupt England's radar network in preparation for a full scale German invasion. Once the villagers discover the true identity of the troops, they do whatever they can to thwart the Nazis plans.
A Diary for Timothy (1945)
Humphrey Jennings · 4 critic votes
Streaming on OVID
A narrator recounts the state of Great Britain near the end of WWII via a visual diary for the titular baby boy born in September 1944.
Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out (1947)
Carol Reed · 4 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free, Pluto TV · Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.
Gone to Earth (1950)
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger · 4 critic votes
Hazel Woods, a beautiful and young Welsh girl, lives a wild, rustic life and loves animals — in particular, her pet fox. She is hotly desired by Jack Reddin, a fox hunting squire who vies for her affection and pursues her, despite the purer amorous intentions of the local pastor.
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
David Lean · 4 critic votes
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.
Deep End (1970)
Jerzy Skolimowski · 4 critic votes
Free on Plex, Plex Channel, Mometu · Streaming on FlixFling
London, England. Mike, a fifteen-year-old boy, gets a job in a bathhouse, where he meets Susan, an attractive young woman who works there as an attendant.
My Childhood (1972)
Bill Douglas · 4 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, BFI Player Amazon Channel
The first part of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape - he paid for it with the money he made from returning empty jam jars - and this escape is reflected most closely at this time of his life as an eight-year-old living on the breadline with his half-brother and sick grandmother in a poor mining village.
O Lucky Man! (1973)
Lindsay Anderson · 4 critic votes
An ambitious coffee salesman has a series of improbable and ironic adventures seemingly designed to challenge his naive idealism.
Riddles of the Sphinx (1977)
Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen · 4 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, BFI Player Amazon Channel, OVID
In this avant-garde classic, protagonist Louise deals with a change in her lifestyle in which she must learn to negotiate domestic life and motherhood.
Street of Crocodiles (1986)
Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay · 4 critic votes
A puppet, newly released from his strings, explores the sinister room in which he finds himself.
Man of Aran (1934)
Robert J. Flaherty · 3 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free, Plex · Streaming on Criterion Channel
A documentary on the life of the people of the Aran Islands, who were believed to contain the essence of the ancient Irish life, represented by a pure uncorrupted peasant existence centred around the struggle between man and his hostile but magnificent surroundings. A blend of documentary and fictional narrative, the film captures the everyday trials of life on Ireland's unforgiving Aran Islands.
Great Expectations (1946)
David Lean · 3 critic votes
Free on Artiflix, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel · Streaming on fuboTV, Criterion Channel, FlixFling
In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger · 3 critic votes
Free on Plex, Plex Channel
A melancholy poet reflects on three women he loved and lost in the past: a mechanical performing doll, a Venetian courtesan, and the consumptive daughter of a celebrated composer.
Dracula (1958)
Terence Fisher · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Hoopla
After Jonathan Harker attacks Dracula at his castle, the vampire travels to a nearby city, where he preys on the family of Harker's fiancée. The only one who may be able to protect them is Dr. van Helsing, Harker's friend and fellow-student of vampires, who is determined to destroy Dracula, whatever the cost.
Cul-de-sac (1966)
Roman Polanski · 3 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free, Plex · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, MGM Plus, fuboTV
On the run and in search of help, two wounded gangsters find refuge in the secluded castle of a feeble man and his wife; however, under the point of a gun, nothing is what it seems.
Two for the Road (1967)
Stanley Donen · 3 critic votes
Architect Mark Wallace and his wife, Joanna, travel to France to meet with an affluent client. While there, they reflect on their first decade of marriage -- memories of when they first met, of courtship, and of road trips through the French countryside. As flirtation and playful quarreling turn to boredom with the banality of married life, the Wallaces struggle to rekindle their passion, while mutual infidelity threatens to tear them apart.
Petulia (1968)
Richard Lester · 3 critic votes
Dr. Archie Bollen is having a midlife crisis. He's just divorced his wife and is establishing a new life for himself. One night, he catches the eye of Petulia Danner, a charming, free-spirited young woman. Petulia's vibrant personality hides her fear of her abusive husband, David, whose father is a powerful society figure. As Petulia and Archie's feelings for each other grow, they must decide what it is they truly want.
Ryan's Daughter (1970)
David Lean · 3 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Plex, Plex Channel
In the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising, a married schoolteacher in a small Irish village has an affair with a troubled British officer.
Frenzy (1972)
Alfred Hitchcock · 3 critic votes
London is terrorized by a vicious sex killer known as The Necktie Murderer. Following the brutal slaying of his ex-wife, down-on-his-luck Richard Blaney is suspected by the police of being the killer. He goes on the run, determined to prove his innocence.
Bad Timing (1980)
Nicolas Roeg · 3 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free, Pluto TV · Streaming on Criterion Channel, Night Flight Plus, Fawesome
Alex Linden is a psychiatrist living in Vienna who meets Milena Flaherty though a mutual friend. Though Alex is quite a bit older than Milena, he's attracted to her young, carefree spirit. Despite the fact that Milena is already married, their friendship quickly turns into a deeply passionate love affair that threatens to overtake them both. When Milena ends up in the hospital from an overdose, Alex is taken into custody by Inspector Netusil.
Local Hero (1983)
Bill Forsyth · 3 critic votes
Free on YouTube Free · Streaming on Howdy Amazon Channel
An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery. But things don't go as expected.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)
Nagisa Ōshima · 3 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free, Shout! Factory TV · Streaming on Criterion Channel, YouTube TV
Island of Java, 1942, during World War II. British Major Jack Celliers arrives at a Japanese prison camp, run by the strict Captain Yonoi. Colonel John Lawrence, who has a profound knowledge of Japanese culture, and Sergeant Hara, brutal and simpleton, will witness the struggle of wills between two men from very different backgrounds who are tragically destined to clash.
When the Wind Blows (1986)
Jimmy Murakami · 3 critic votes
Free on Darkroom, Bloodstream, Tubi TV · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Night Flight Plus, Midnight Pulp
With the help of government-issued pamphlets, an elderly British couple build a shelter and prepare for an impending nuclear attack, unaware that times and the nature of war have changed from their romantic memories of World War II.
Hellraiser (1987)
Clive Barker · 3 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, The CW, Plex · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A hedonistic man finds a mysterious puzzle box that summons a group of gruesome beings known as the Cenobites. These otherworldly entities open the doors to a dominion where pain and pleasure are indivisible.
Howards End (1992)
James Ivory · 3 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Kanopy, Cohen Media Amazon Channel, Fawesome
A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel, who, along with her sister Helen, becomes involved with two couples: wealthy, conservative industrialist Henry Wilcox and his wife Ruth, and the downwardly mobile working-class Leonard Bast and his mistress Jackie.
The Wrong Trousers (1993)
Nick Park · 3 critic votes
Wallace rents out Gromit's former bedroom to a penguin, who takes up an interest in the techno trousers created by Wallace. However, Gromit later learns that the penguin is a wanted criminal.
Welcome II the Terrordome (1993)
Ngozi Onwurah · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
In a dystopian near-future ghetto known as the Terrordome, a Black community erupts after a child's death triggers state violence and cycles of revenge.
Wasp (2003)
Andrea Arnold · 3 critic votes
Zoë is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford. She is poor and can't afford to buy food. One day her old flame drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. Scared that he doesn't want to go out with her, she lies and tells him that she is just babysitting the kids. This will be her first date in years.
Red Road (2006)
Andrea Arnold · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy
Jackie is a CCTV operator. One day, a man shows his face on her monitor, a man she hoped never to see again. Now she has no choice and is compelled to confront him.
Paddington (2014)
Paul King · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Britbox Apple TV channel, Angel Studios, Lionsgate+ Amazon Channels
A young Peruvian bear travels to London in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone at Paddington Station, he meets the kindly Brown family, who offer him a temporary haven.
Paddington 2 (2017)
Paul King · 3 critic votes
Streaming on HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
Paddington, now happily settled with the Browns, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy, but it is stolen.
Rocks (2019)
Sarah Gavron · 3 critic votes
15-year-old Rocks fears that she and her little brother Emmanuel will be taken into care and forced apart if anyone finds out that their mother has left them. Against all odds, and with the help of her loyal friends, she evades the authorities and navigates the most defining days of her young life.
Poor Things (2023)
Yorgos Lanthimos · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Hulu
Brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, a young woman runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
The Zone of Interest (2023)
Jonathan Glazer · 3 critic votes
Free on The Roku Channel
The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.
Hard Truths (2024)
Mike Leigh · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, fuboTV
Pansy is a woman so full of rage that every interaction she has devolves into lashing out, whether at her utterly cowed husband and son, or random strangers who have the temerity to address her. In contrast, her younger sister Chantelle lives with her two vivacious daughters and plies a successful trade as a hairdresser, putting clients at their ease all day long. Yet beneath Pansy’s abrasive exterior are hints of a more fragile psyche, one motivated by fear and damaged by repressed pain.
The Battle of the Somme (1916)
Geoffrey H. Malins · 2 critic votes
A documentary and propaganda film which shows the British Army's preparations for, and the early stages of, the battle of the Somme.
The 39 Steps (1935)
Alfred Hitchcock · 2 critic votes
Free on FlixHouse, JustWatch TV, Tubi TV · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Hoopla, Criterion Channel
Richard Hanney has a rude awakening when a glamorous female spy falls into his bed - with a knife in her back. Having a bit of trouble explaining it all to Scotland Yard, he heads for the hills of Scotland to try to clear his name by locating the spy ring known as The 39 Steps.
Spare Time (1939)
Humphrey Jennings · 2 critic votes
Spare Time is a 1939 British film directed by Humphrey Jennings for the GPO Film Unit, and made for the 1939 New York World's Fair. It is 15 minutes long and documents the leisure activities of workers in the coal, steel, and cotton industries in Sheffield, Bolton, Manchester and Pontypridd. Commentary is provided by Laurie Lee.
The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950)
Frank Launder · 2 critic votes
Streaming on BFI Player Amazon Channel
Nutbourne College, an old established, all-boys, boarding school is told that another school is to be billeted with due to wartime restrictions. The shock is that it's an all-girls school that has been sent. The two head teachers are soon battling for the upper hand with each other and the Ministry. But a crisis (or two) forces them to work together.
Night of the Demon (1957)
Jacques Tourneur · 2 critic votes
Free on Fandor, Tubi TV, YouTube Free · Streaming on Fandor Amazon Channel, Screambox Amazon Channel, Night Flight Plus
American professor John Holden arrives in London for a conference on parapsychology only to discover that the colleague he was supposed to meet was killed in a freak accident the day before. It turns out that the deceased had been investigating a cult lead by Dr. Julian Karswell. Though a skeptic, Holden is suspicious of the devil-worshiping Karswell. Following a trail of mysterious manuscripts, Holden enters a world that makes him question his faith in science.
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
David Lean · 2 critic votes
Free on YouTube Free · Streaming on Sony Pictures Core Amazon Channel
The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.
A Taste of Honey (1961)
Tony Richardson · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
While out to avoid spending time with her narcissistic and promiscuous mother, sixteen-year-old Jo has a brief affair that leaves her pregnant and abandoned. When her mother remarries, Jo's only support becomes her friend Geoffrey, a homosexual.
Whistle down the Wind (1961)
Bryan Forbes · 2 critic votes
When an injured wife-murderer takes refuge on a remote Lancashire farm, the farmer’s three children mistakenly believe him to be the Second Coming of Christ.
All Night Long (1962)
Basil Dearden · 2 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free, Shout! Factory TV · Streaming on Criterion Channel
Over the course of one eventful evening, the anniversary celebration of the musical and romantic partners Aurelius Rex and Delia Lane, a jealous, ambitious drummer, Johnny Cousin, attempts to tear the interracial couple apart.
Goldfinger (1964)
Guy Hamilton · 2 critic votes
Special agent 007 comes face to face with one of the most notorious villains of all time, and now he must outwit and outgun the powerful tycoon to prevent him from cashing in on a devious scheme to raid Fort Knox -- and obliterate the world's economy.
Repulsion (1965)
Roman Polanski · 2 critic votes
Free on JustWatch TV, Cineverse · Streaming on fuboTV, Midnight Pulp, Brew
Beautiful young manicurist Carole suffers from androphobia (the pathological fear of interaction with men). When her sister and roommate, Helen, leaves their London flat to go on an Italian holiday with her married boyfriend, Carole withdraws into her apartment. She begins to experience frightful hallucinations, her fear gradually mutating into madness.
Mademoiselle (1966)
Tony Richardson · 2 critic votes
Streaming on MGM Plus, fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel
A sexually repressed school teacher releases her pent up passions in a series of shocking crimes.
The War Game (1966)
Peter Watkins · 2 critic votes
A docudrama depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain. After backing the film's development, the BBC refused to air it, publicly stating "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting." It debuted in theaters in 1966 and went on to great acclaim, but remained unseen on British television until 1985.
Poor Cow (1967)
Ken Loach · 2 critic votes
A young woman lives a life filled with bad choices. At a young age she marries and has a child--with an abusive thief who quickly ends up in prison. Left alone, she takes up with the guy's mate, another thief, who seems to give her some happiness but who also ends up locked up. She then takes up with a series of seedy types who offer nothing but momentary pleasure--if that.
Witchfinder General (1968)
Michael Reeves · 2 critic votes
Free on YOW.tv, Tubi TV, YouTube Free · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, MGM Plus, fuboTV
England, 1645. The cruel civil war between Royalists and Parliamentarians that is ravaging the country causes an era of chaos and legal arbitrariness that allows unscrupulous men to profit by exploiting the absurd superstitions of the peasants; like Matthew Hopkins, a monster disguised as a man who wanders from town to town offering his services as a witch hunter.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Peter R. Hunt · 2 critic votes
With the help of Marc-Ange Draco, head of the Unione Corse crime syndicate, and Draco's troubled daughter Tracy, James Bond tracks his archnemesis, Ernst Stravro Blofeld, to a mountaintop retreat in the Swiss Alps, where he is training an army of beautiful, lethal women.
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
Billy Wilder · 2 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free, Xumo Play · Streaming on MGM Plus, Hoopla, fuboTV
When a bored Sherlock eagerly takes the case of Gabrielle Valladon following an attempt on her life, the search for her missing husband leads to Loch Ness and the legendary monster.
Straw Dogs (1971)
Sam Peckinpah · 2 critic votes
David Sumner, a mild-mannered academic from the United States, marries Amy, an Englishwoman. In order to escape a hectic stateside lifestyle, David and his wife relocate to the small town in rural Cornwall where Amy was raised. There, David is ostracized by the brutish men of the village, including Amy's old flame, Charlie. Eventually the taunts escalate.
Aerial (1974)
Margaret Tait · 2 critic votes
"Touches on elemental images; air, water, (and snow), earth and fire (and smoke) all come into it." - MT
Penda's Fen (1974)
Alan John Clarke · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Britbox Apple TV channel
Through a series of real and imagined encounters with angels, demons, and England's pagan past, a pastor's son begins to question his religion and politics, and comes to terms with his sexuality.
Light Music (1975)
Lis Rhodes · 2 critic votes
Light Music is a classic work of expanded cinema. Formed from two projections facing one another on opposite screens, Light Music is Rhodes’ response to what she perceived as the lack of attention paid to women composers in European music. She composed a ‘score’ comprised of drawings that form abstract patterns of black and white lines onscreen. The drawings are printed onto the optical edge of the filmstrip. As the bands of light and dark pass through the 16mm projector they are ‘read’ as audio, creating an intense soundtrack that proposes a direct relationship between the sonic and the visual. What you hear is equivalent to what you see.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones · 2 critic votes
Free on The CW, The Roku Channel, YouTube Free · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, BritBox Amazon Channel
King Arthur, accompanied by his squire, recruits his Knights of the Round Table, including Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot and Sir Galahad the Pure. On the way, Arthur battles the Black Knight who, despite having had all his limbs chopped off, insists he can still fight. They reach Camelot, but Arthur decides not to enter, as "it is a silly place".
Pressure (1975)
Horace Ové · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, BFI Player Amazon Channel
A British-born younger son of an immigrant family from Trinidad finds himself adrift between two cultures.
Nuts in May (1976)
Mike Leigh · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, Britbox Apple TV channel
A middle-class couple go camping in Dorset, but peace and quiet elude them.
Radio On (1979)
Chris Petit · 2 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Plex · Streaming on Fandor Amazon Channel, Hoopla, BFI Player Amazon Channel
A London radio DJ receives news of his brother's suicide and travels west to Bristol to find out more.
Babylon (1980)
Franco Rosso · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy
Drama telling the story of Blue, a young man of Jamaican descent living in Brixton in 1980, as he hangs out with his friends, fronts a dub sound system, loses his job, struggles with family problems and has his friendships tested by racism.
The Falls (1980)
Peter Greenaway · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy
Told in the form of a mock documentary in 92 short parts, nineteen million people are left obsessed with birds and flight following a strange occurrence. A documentarian analyses the lives of all the survivors whose surnames begin with FALL to uncover the truth behind the event.
Burning an Illusion (1981)
Menelik Shabazz · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, BFI Player Amazon Channel
A young black woman in England becomes increasingly frustrated with her life with her lazy, demanding boyfriend, and with the help of friends seeks something better.
Eureka (1983)
Nicolas Roeg · 2 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on MGM Plus, fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel
After striking it rich on a large gold strike, a prospector retires to the quiet life on a Caribbean island but ends up coping with an alcoholic wife, a headstrong daughter, and Miami mobsters who want to build a casino.
The Gold Diggers (1983)
Sally Potter · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, BFI Player Amazon Channel
An avant-garde examination of the relationship between women and money in society. Mixing musical, silent melodrama, and philosophical treatise into a post-punk, heady brew.
Threads (1984)
Mick Jackson · 2 critic votes
Free on FlixHouse, Darkroom, Bloodstream · Streaming on Kanopy, Fandor Amazon Channel, Hoopla
Documentary style account of a nuclear holocaust and its effect on the working class city of Sheffield, England; and the eventual long run effects of nuclear war on civilization.
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Stephen Frears · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Hoopla
A young Pakistani Briton manages a rundown laundrette with his lover while dealing with tension in his family, the local Pakistani community, and a persistent mob of skinheads.
Christine (1987)
Alan Clarke · 2 critic votes
Christine is a pasty-faced teen in a windbreaker and ill-fitting striped shirt who walks endlessly from one friend's house to another, delivering heroin while their parents are absent.
Comrades (1987)
Bill Douglas · 2 critic votes
The story of "The Tolpuddle Martyrs". A group of 19th century English farm labourers who formed one of the first trade unions and started a campaign to receive fair wages.
Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987)
Alan John Clarke · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
On a run-down Bradford council estate, teenagers Rita and Sue both share a job babysitting for Bob and Michelle's children. On the way home one night, Bob takes Rita and Sue up to a deserted, countryside landscape. Knowing what he has in mind, the girls are only too happy to oblige and both have a sexual encounter with him that becomes a regular occurrence.
Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies (1988)
Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay, Weiser Quay · 2 critic votes
Stop-motion animated short film in which, among other things, a man made of wire looks malevolent.
The Body Beautiful (1991)
Ngozi Onwurah · 2 critic votes
Free on The Roku Channel · Streaming on BFI Player Amazon Channel
This bold, stunning exploration of a white mother who undergoes a radical mastectomy and her Black daughter who embarks on a modeling career reveals the profound effects of body image and the strain of racial and sexual identity on their charged, intensely loving bond. At the heart of Onwurah’s brave excursion into her mother’s scorned sexuality is a provocative interweaving of memory and fantasy. The filmmaker plumbs the depths of maternal strength and daughterly devotion in an unforgettable tribute starring her real-life mother, Madge Onwurah.
Blue Black Permanent (1992)
Margaret Tait · 2 critic votes
Streaming on BFI Player Amazon Channel, OVID
In 1990s Edinburgh, Barbara Thorburn reflects on memories of her poet mother, Greta, and her tragic death.
Fatima's Letter (1992)
Alia Syed · 2 critic votes
A woman remembers her past by faces she sees while travelling on the London Underground. She begins to believe that these people, like her, have all taken part in the same event. She composes a letter to her friend Fatima – a personal documentary around journeys, memories and watching. The story is spoken in Urdu with sub-titles in English, although the subtitles do not always appear in conjunction with what is spoken.
Land and Freedom (1995)
Ken Loach · 2 critic votes
Free on The Roku Channel · Streaming on Fawesome
David Carr is a British Communist who is unemployed. In 1936, when the Spanish Civil War begins, he decides to fight for the Republican side, a coalition of liberals, communists and anarchists, so he joins the POUM militia and witnesses firsthand the betrayal of the Spanish revolution by Stalin's followers and Moscow's orders.
Gallivant (1996)
Andrew Kötting · 2 critic votes
Streaming on BFI Player Amazon Channel, Eternal Family
Part home movie, part road movie, Kötting's riveting and eccentric film stars his 85-year-old grandmother Gladys - opinionated, bursting with anecdotes and contradictory reminiscences – and Eden, his eight-year-old daughter with Joubert syndrome, as they take a zig-zagging 6,000 mile trip in their campervan around Britain's coastline.
The Pillow Book (1996)
Peter Greenaway · 2 critic votes
Free on Plex, Plex Channel · Streaming on Hoopla, Fawesome
Nagito has a fetish for calligraphy on the human body and meets her ideal soulmate Jerome, an English translator sent to Japan. However, once Nagiko's father's gay publisher rejoins the scene, the story is overtaken by treachery and bloodlust.
Trainspotting (1996)
Danny Boyle · 2 critic votes
Heroin addict Mark Renton stumbles through bad ideas and sobriety attempts with his unreliable friends --Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. He also has an underage girlfriend, Diane, along for the ride. After cleaning up and moving from Edinburgh to London, Mark finds he can't escape the life he left behind as Begbie and Sick Boy come knocking.
Wonderland (1999)
Michael Winterbottom · 2 critic votes
There's little wonder in the working-class lives of Bill, Eileen, and their three grown daughters. They're lonely Londoners. Nadia, a cafe waitress, places personal ads, looking for love; Debbie, a single mom, entertains men at the hair salon after hours; her son spends part of the weekend with her ex, a man with a hair-trigger temper. Molly is expecting her first baby and its father acts as if the responsibility is too much for him.
Bodysong (2003)
Simon Pummell · 2 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Shout! Factory TV
Documentary footage from various sources, set to music. Showing the whole of human life, from birth to death and beyond.
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Edgar Wright · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus
Shaun lives a supremely uneventful life, which revolves around his girlfriend, his mother, and, above all, his local pub. This gentle routine is threatened when the dead return to life and make strenuous attempts to snack on ordinary Londoners.
This is England (2006)
Shane Meadows · 2 critic votes
Streaming on AMC+ Amazon Channel, Philo
A story about a troubled boy growing up in England, set in 1983. He comes across a few skinheads on his way home from school, after a fight. They become his new best friends, even like family. Based on experiences of director Shane Meadows.
Archipelago (2010)
Joanna Hogg · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Kino Film Collection
Deep fractures within a family dynamic begin to surface during a getaway to the Isles of Scilly.
Weekend (2011)
Andrew Haigh · 2 critic votes
Free on Pluto TV, Xumo Play · Streaming on Sundance Now, Kanopy, AMC+
After a drunken house party with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a gay club. Just before closing time he picks up Glen but what's expected to be just a one-night stand becomes something else, something special.
The Woolworths Choir of 1979 (2012)
Elisabeth Price · 2 critic votes
Concerned with processes of assembly, CHOIR brings together disparate bodies of material and archival technologies into dissonant concert. It is a work of several parts. Part one constructs an auditorium in which an action will be staged. Part two assembles the chorus to narrate the action. Part three supplies the action.
Sleep Has Her House (2017)
Scott Barley · 2 critic votes
The shadows of screams climb beyond the hills. It has happened before. But this will be the last time. The last few sense it, withdrawing deep into the forest. They cry out into the black, as the shadows pass away, into the ground.
Belfast (2021)
Kenneth Branagh · 2 critic votes
Free on Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads, Amazon MX Player
Buddy is a young boy on the cusp of adolescence, whose life is filled with familial love, childhood hijinks, and a blossoming romance. Yet, with his beloved hometown caught up in increasing turmoil, his family faces a momentous choice: hope the conflict will pass or leave everything they know behind for a new life.
Cow (2021)
Andrea Arnold · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Sundance Now, Kanopy, AMC+
A close-up portrait of the daily lives of a pair of cows: told by way of some narrative-free, intimate POV photography, with plenty of close shot images, we follow the daily routine of these animals as they live what can only be described as mundane, boring lives - all with an ultimate purpose within the human food chain.
The Big Swallow (1901)
James Williamson · 1 critic vote
A man, objecting to being filmed, comes closer and closer to the camera lens until his mouth is all we see. Then he opens wide and swallows camera and cinematographer. He steps back, chews, and grins.
The '?' Motorist (1906)
Walter R. Booth · 1 critic vote
A magical glowing white motorcar ignores policemen, drives up buildings, flies through outer space, and can transform into a horse and carriage.
Burnham Beeches (1909)
Cecil M. Hepworth · 1 critic vote
First film of Burnham Beeches, the famous beauty spot and ultimate film location.
Shooting Stars (1927)
Anthony Asquith, A.V. Bramble · 1 critic vote
The husband and wife acting team of Mae Feather and Julian Gordon is torn apart when he discovers she is having an affair with the screen comedian Andy Wilks.
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
Alfred Hitchcock · 1 critic vote
Free on FlixHouse, JustWatch TV, Darkroom · Streaming on Hoopla, Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blond women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the Bunting family and rents a room.
The Building of the New Tyne Bridge from Newcastle to Gateshead (1928)
· 1 critic vote
There are some breathtaking shots of workers constructing Newcastle's iconic Tyne Bridge, designed by Mott, Hay and Anderson, in this detailed and informative film, showing the men erecting the arches at dizzying heights. From BFI collection "This Working Life: Steel".
Underground (1928)
Anthony Asquith · 1 critic vote
Free on Darkroom
A working-class love story set in and around the London Underground of the 1920s. Two men – gentle Bill and brash Bert – meet and are attracted to the same woman on the same day at the same Underground station. But the lady chooses Bill, and Bert isn't the type to take rejection lightly...
A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929)
Anthony Asquith · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV
A jealous barber's assistant becomes enraged by the attentions the manicurist he's obsessed with and a repeat customer pay to one another.
Blackmail (1929)
Alfred Hitchcock · 1 critic vote
Free on FlixHouse, JustWatch TV, Darkroom · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
London, 1929. Frank Webber, a very busy Scotland Yard detective, seems to be more interested in his work than in Alice White, his girlfriend. Feeling herself ignored, Alice agrees to go out with an elegant and well-mannered artist who invites her to visit his fancy apartment.
Magic Myxies (1931)
Mary Field, F. Percy Smith · 1 critic vote
Short film showing (with limited accuracy) the life-cycle of myxomycetes.
Open all Night (1934)
George William Pearson · 1 critic vote
Anton is an exiled Russian Grand-duke but works in a hotel as a night manager with tragic consequences.
The Song of Ceylon (1934)
Basil Wright · 1 critic vote
Streaming on OVID
Ambitious documentary chronicling the cultural life and religious customs of the Sinhalese and the effects of advanced industrialism on such customs.
Coal Face (1935)
Alberto Cavalcanti · 1 critic vote
1935 documentary about the hard working life of Welsh coal miners.
Sabotage (1936)
Alfred Hitchcock · 1 critic vote
Free on Public Domain Movies, FlixHouse, JustWatch TV · Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Criterion Channel
Karl Anton Verloc and his wife own a small cinema in a quiet London suburb where they live seemingly happily. But Mrs. Verloc does not know that her husband has a secret that will affect their relationship and threaten her teenage brother's life.
The Robber Symphony (1936)
Friedrich Feher · 1 critic vote
A bag of loot is stashed in a piano that belongs to a family of traveling entertainers. A gang of robbers tries to get the loot back, and though they kddnap two members of the troop, the third, a young boy, has run off with the piano.
Trade Tattoo (1937)
Len Lye · 1 critic vote
Trade Tattoo went even further than Rainbow Dance in its manipulation of the Gasparcolor process. The original black and white footage consisted of outtakes from GPO Film Unit documentaries such as Night Mail. Lye transformed this footage in what has been described as the most intricate job of film printing and color grading ever attempted. Animated words and patterns combine with the live-action footage to create images as complex and multi-layered as a Cubist painting. Music was provided by the Cuban Lecuona Band. With its dynamic rhythms, the film seeks (in Lye’s words) to convey “a romanticism about the work of the everyday in all walks of life."
Young and Innocent (1937)
Alfred Hitchcock · 1 critic vote
Free on Public Domain Movies, Darkroom, Tubi TV · Streaming on Criterion Channel, IndieFlix Shorts Amazon Channel, Fawesome
When a young writer is falsely accused of murdering a famous actress, he escapes custody and joins forces with the daughter of a police constable to prove his innocence.
Ask a Policeman (1939)
Marcel Varnel · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads, Amazon MX Player · Streaming on Fawesome, Artiflix
The mirthful adventures of Police-Sergeant Samuel Dudfoot and his two constables, Albert Brown and Jeremias Harbottle, who stage a fabricated crime-wave to save their jobs---and then find themselves involved in the real thing.
Gaslight (1940)
Thorold Dickinson · 1 critic vote
Free on JustWatch TV, The Roku Channel · Streaming on fuboTV
Twenty years removed from Alice Barlow's murder by a thief looking for her jewels, newlyweds Paul and Bella Mallen move into the very house where the crime was committed. Retired detective B.G. Rough, who worked on the Barlow case, is still in the area and grows suspicious of Paul, who he feels bears a striking resemblance to one of Barlow's relatives. Rough must find the truth before the killer can strike again and reclaim his bounty.
Millions like Us (1943)
Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, YouTube Free · Streaming on TCM, YouTube TV
When Celia Crowson is called up for war service, she hopes for a glamorous job in one of the services, but as a single girl, she is directed into a factory making aircraft parts. Here she meets other girls from all different walks of life and begins a relationship with a young airman.
Henry V (1944)
Laurence Olivier · 1 critic vote
Free on Darkroom, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel · Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
In 1415, in the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France.
The Halfway House (1944)
Basil Dearden · 1 critic vote
A group of travellers, each with a personal problem that they want to hide, arrive at a mysterious Welsh country inn. There is a certain strangeness in the air as they are greeted by the innkeeper and his daughter. Why are all the newspapers a year old? And why doesn't Gwyneth seem to cast a shadow?
Western Approaches (1944)
Pat Jackson · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, Pluto TV, Fandango at Home Free
A World War II drama-documentary showing the struggles of Merchant Navy seamen following an attack by a U-Boat. Western Approaches is a vast area of ocean control covering thousands of square miles of the Atlantic. In these waters is set this single incident in the fiercest and longest sea battle in history. The players are not professional actors but serving officers and men of Allied Navies and Merchant Fleets. This film is dedicated to them and their comrades who made the Allied victory possible.
Blithe Spirit (1945)
David Lean · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, YouTube Free · Streaming on fuboTV, Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
While holding a séance for skeptical novelist Charles Condomine, self-proclaimed 'spiritualist medium' Madame Arcati inadvertently summons the spirit of his deceased first wife Elvira, leading to an increasingly complex love triangle with Ruth, his current wife of five years.
Great Day (1945)
Lance Comfort · 1 critic vote
An impending V.I.P. visit causes bustle in an English village, while the Ellis family struggles with private problems.
Hue and Cry (1947)
Charles Crichton · 1 critic vote
A gang of street boys foil a master crook who sends commands for robberies by cunningly altering a comic strip's wording each week, unknown to writer and printer. The first of the Ealing comedies.
Oliver Twist (1948)
David Lean · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, YouTube Free · Streaming on fuboTV, Criterion Channel, FlixFling
When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin known as the Artful Dodger and his criminal mentor, Fagin. When kindly Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes plots to kidnap the boy.
The Fallen Idol (1948)
Carol Reed · 1 critic vote
Free on Darkroom, Plex, Plex Channel · Streaming on Kanopy, BFI Player Amazon Channel, FlixFling
Phillipe, the son of an ambassador in London, hero-worships his father's butler Baines. His perception of the man changes when he accidentally discovers the secret that Baines keeps and witnesses the consequences that adults' lies can cause.
Passport to Pimlico (1949)
Henry Cornelius · 1 critic vote
Free on JustWatch TV, Tubi TV, Plex · Streaming on BFI Player Amazon Channel, Fawesome, Artiflix
When an unexploded WWII bomb is accidentally detonated in Pimlico, it reveals a treasure trove and documents proving that the region is in fact part of Burgundy, France and thus foreign territory. The British government attempts to regain control by setting up border controls and cutting off services to the area.
The Passionate Friends (1949)
David Lean · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free, Plex · Streaming on Criterion Channel
A woman is torn between the love of her life, who's married to someone else, and her older husband.
Under Capricorn (1949)
Alfred Hitchcock · 1 critic vote
Free on Plex, Plex Channel, Mometu · Streaming on IndieFlix, IndieFlix Shorts Amazon Channel, Fawesome
A British ex-convict in colonial Australia and his fragile wife, haunted by the past crime that binds them, struggle to rebuild their lives when a young newcomer stirs long-buried passions and secrets.
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
Charles Crichton · 1 critic vote
Free on Mometu · Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, FlixFling
A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipments of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country.
Animal Farm (1954)
John Halas, Joy Batchelor · 1 critic vote
Free on JustWatch TV, Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads, Amazon MX Player · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Hoopla, FlixFling
Animals on a farm lead a revolution against the farmers to put their destiny in their own hands. However this revolution eats their own children and they cannot avoid corruption.
The Ladykillers (1955)
Alexander Mackendrick · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy
Five oddball criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.
Quatermass 2 (1957)
Val Guest · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, Plex, Plex Channel · Streaming on Fawesome, Artiflix
In England, a group of space scientists led by Bernard Quatermass, who have developed plans for the first Moon colony, learn that a secret, ostensibly government-run, complex of identical design has been built in a remote part of England and is the focus of periodic falls of small, hollow "meteorites" originating in outer space. Quatermass determines to investigate and uncovers a terrifying extraterrestrial life form which has already begun action to take over the Earth.
The Passionate Stranger (1957)
Muriel Box · 1 critic vote
Judith Wynter is a happily married novelist whose romantic works are eagerly devoured by scores of female readers. When Carlo, a handsome young Italian chauffeur, arrives to work for Judith and her husband, a professor currently recovering from an attack of paralysis, he causes quite a flutter; when he then reads the manuscript of Judith's latest novel, he jumps to a rather unfortunate conclusion... and life in the Wynter household becomes very complicated indeed!
The Prince and the Showgirl (1957)
Laurence Olivier · 1 critic vote
An American showgirl becomes entangled in political intrigue when the Prince Regent of a foreign country attempts to seduce her.
The Smallest Show on Earth (1957)
Basil Dearden · 1 critic vote
Free on Plex, Plex Channel, Mometu · Streaming on FlixFling, Fawesome, Artiflix
Jean and Bill are a married couple trying to scrape a living. Out of the blue they receive a telegram informing them Bill's long-lost uncle has died and left them his business—a cinema in the town of Sloughborough. Unfortunately they can't sell it for the fortune they hoped as they discover it is falling down and almost worthless.
Men of Consett (1959)
Tom Stobart · 1 critic vote
Directed by Thomas Stobart.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Terence Fisher · 1 critic vote
Free on The Roku Channel, YouTube Free, Xumo Play · Streaming on ScreenPix Apple TV channel, ScreenPix Amazon Channel , Fawesome
When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.
We Are the Lambeth Boys (1959)
Karel Reisz · 1 critic vote
Streaming on BFI Player Amazon Channel, OVID
Seminal piece of documentary filmmaking by New Wave director Karel Reisz following the daily activities of members of the Lambeth Youth club in late-1950s London.
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
Karel Reisz · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A 22-year-old factory worker lets loose on the weekends: drinking, brawling, and dating two women, one of whom is older and married.
The Brides of Dracula (1960)
Terence Fisher · 1 critic vote
A young teacher on her way to a position in Transylvania helps a young man escape the shackles his mother has put on him. In so doing she innocently unleashes the horrors of the undead once again on the populace, including those at her school for ladies. Luckily for some, Dr. Van Helsing is already on his way.
The Criminal (1960)
Joseph Losey · 1 critic vote
When a robbery at a racetrack goes wrong ex-con Johnny Bannion is caught and sent back to prison. He won't tell the rest of the gang where he has stashed the loot leading to violent consequences.
The L-shaped Room (1962)
Bryan Forbes · 1 critic vote
Jane is young, French, pregnant and unmarried. Bucking convention, she is uninterested in settling with her baby's father or getting an abortion. After renting a room in a dingy London boarding house, Jane befriends the odd group of inhabitants and starts an affair with one boarder, Toby. As Jane's pregnancy threatens her new relationship, and the reality of single motherhood approaches, she is forced to decide what to do about both her baby and her budding romance.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Tony Richardson · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Hoopla, TCM, Fawesome
A rebellious youth, sentenced to a boy’s reformatory for robbing a bakery, rises through the ranks of the institution by impressing its Governor through his prowess as a long distance runner. He is encouraged to compete in an upcoming race, but faces ridicule from his peers.
Billy Liar (1963)
John Schlesinger · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Kanopy
A young Englishman dreams of escaping from his working class family and dead-end job as an undertaker's assistant. A number of indiscretions cause him to lie in order to avoid the penalties. His life turns into a mess and he has an opportunity to run away and leave it all behind.
From Russia with Love (1963)
Terence Young · 1 critic vote
Agent 007 is back in the second installment of the James Bond series, this time battling a secret crime organization known as SPECTRE. Russians Rosa Klebb and Kronsteen are out to snatch a decoding device known as the Lektor, using the ravishing Tatiana to lure Bond into helping them. Bond willingly travels to meet Tatiana in Istanbul, where he must rely on his wits to escape with his life in a series of deadly encounters with the enemy.
Lord of the Flies (1963)
Peter Brook · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel, Cinemax Amazon Channel
Following a plane crash a group of schoolboys find themselves on a deserted island. They appoint a leader and attempt to create an organized society for the sake of their survival. Democracy and order soon begin to crumble when a breakaway faction regresses to savagery with horrifying consequences.
Summer Holiday (1963)
Peter Yates · 1 critic vote
Free on Mometu
1960s musical showcasing Cliff Richard. Four bus mechanics working for London Transport strike up a deal with the company: they do up a one of the company's legendary red double decker buses and take it to southern Europe as a mobile hotel. If it succeeds, they will be put in charge of a whole fleet. While on the road in France they pick up three young British ladies whose car breaks down and offer to take them to their next singing job in Athens. They also pick up a stowaway, who hides the fact that she's a famous American pop star on the run, chased by the media and her parents.
The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963)
Ken Hughes · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Fawesome
Soho strip club compère Sammy Lee struggles to stay one step ahead of the notorious bookie, to whom he owes £300.
The V.I.P.S (1963)
Anthony Asquith · 1 critic vote
Wealthy passengers fogged in at London's Heathrow Airport fight to survive a variety of personal trials.
This Sporting Life (1963)
Lindsay Anderson · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free, Shout! Factory TV · Streaming on Criterion Channel
In Northern England in the early 1960s, Frank Machin is mean, tough and ambitious enough to become an immediate star in the rugby league team run by local employer Weaver.
Tom Jones (1963)
Tony Richardson · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
Tom loves Sophie and Sophie loves Tom. But Tom and Sophie are of differering classes. Can they find a way through the mayhem to be true to love?
Seven Up! (1964)
Paul Almond · 1 critic vote
A group of British children aged 7 from widely ranging backgrounds are interviewed about a range of subjects. The filmmakers plan to re-interview them at 7 year intervals to track how their lives and attitudes change as they age.
The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
Jack Clayton · 1 critic vote
Streaming on TCM
Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful but promiscuous screenwriter. Though they are physically and emotionally compatible, they are slowly torn apart.
Darling (1965)
John Schlesinger · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Kanopy, BFI Player Amazon Channel
Diana, a beautiful but shallow and easily distracted model and failed actress, toys with the affections of several men while attempting to gain fame and fortune in Swinging London.
The Knack ...And How to Get It (1965)
Richard Lester · 1 critic vote
Free on YouTube Free, Mometu · Streaming on MGM Plus, fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel
A nebbish schoolteacher begs his smooth (and misogynistic) pal to teach him 'the knack' – how to score with women. Serendipitously, the men meet up with a new girl in town, as well as a friendly lunatic who can’t help but paint things white.
Up the Junction (1965)
Ken Loach · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
The lives and loves of three young working class women, set in the pubs, terraced houses and factories of Battersea, South London.
Young Cassidy (1965)
Jack Cardiff · 1 critic vote
In Dublin circa 1911, John Cassidy (Rod Taylor), an impoverished idealist, whose ambitions are restricted by the demands of looking after his family, journeys through the social injustices of Dublin life, involving himself with the rowdy tramway-men strike, dawdling with prostitute Daisy Battles (Julie Christie), and seeking a better life. He falls in love with bookshop assistant Nora (Dame Maggie Smith) who encourages him toward a life of writing. Finding success at the Abbey Theatre, his unorthodox views estrange him from family, friends, and his own past.
A Man for All Seasons (1966)
Fred Zinnemann · 1 critic vote
Free on The Roku Channel, YouTube Free
A depiction of the conflict between King Henry VIII of England and his Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, who refuses to swear the Oath of Supremacy declaring Henry Supreme Head of the Church in England.
Cathy Come Home (1966)
Ken Loach · 1 critic vote
Cathy and Reg are a couple with three young children, who find their life spiralling into poverty when Reg loses his well-paid job. Gripping and emotional, Cathy Come Home remains a truly ground-breaking piece of dramatic fiction, engaging viewers with social issues, such as homelessness, unemployment and the rights of mothers to keep their own children.
A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
Charlie Chaplin · 1 critic vote
A Russian countess stows away in the stateroom of a married U.S. diplomat bound for New York.
Accident (1967)
Joseph Losey · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, BFI Player Amazon Channel
Stephen is a professor at Oxford University who is caught in a rut and feels trapped by his life in both academia and marriage. One of his students, William, is engaged to the beautiful Anna, and Stephen becomes enamored of the younger woman. These three people become linked together by a horrible car crash, with flashbacks providing details into the lives of each person and their connection to the others in this brooding English drama.
Marvo Movie (1967)
Jeff Keen · 1 critic vote
Four minutes of heavily cut-up sound and vision with collage, animation and multiple exposures throughout.
Something Nice to Eat (1967)
Sarah Erulkar · 1 critic vote
Cooking is a kind of loving, features Jean Shrimpton
The Cut-ups (1967)
Antony Balch · 1 critic vote
Essentially a dizzying montage of quirky shots of legendary Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs and noted surrealist artist Brion Gysin, this nearly 20 minute avant-garde short features repeated articulations of such random things as "Hello," "Where are we now?," and "Look at that picture" instead of music or standard dialogue. The narrative is decidedly nonlinear and perplexing, with no discernible plot whatsoever as we see images of Gysin working on his paintings and calligraphic designs and Burroughs rummaging through draws, packing a suitcase, giving a young man a physical, making a call in a phone booth, and waiting on a platform for a subway train.
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Franco Zeffirelli · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Hoopla
Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall in love against the wishes of their feuding families. Driven by their passion, the young lovers defy their destiny and elope, only to suffer the ultimate tragedy.
The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968)
Tony Richardson · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on MGM Plus, fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel
During the Crimean War between Britain and Russia in the 1850s, a British cavalry division, led by the overbearing Lord Cardigan, engages in an infamously reckless strategic debacle against a Russian artillery battery.
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
Terence Fisher · 1 critic vote
The powers of good are pitted against the forces of evil as the Duc de Richelieu wrestles with the charming but deadly Satanist, Mocata, for the soul of his friend. Mocata has the knowledge and the power to summon the forces of darkness and, as the Duc de Richelieu and his friends remain within the protected pentacle, they are subjected to ever-increasing horror until thundering hooves herald the arrival of the Angel of Death.
Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968)
Jonathan Miller · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Shudder, AMC+ Roku Premium Channel
A university professor, confident that everything which occurs in life has a rational explanation, finds his beliefs severely challenged when, during a vacation to a remote coastal village in Norfolk, he blows through an ancient whistle discovered on a beach, awakening horrors beyond human understanding.
Yellow Submarine (1968)
George Dunning · 1 critic vote
The wicked Blue Meanies take over Pepperland, eliminating all color and music. As the only survivor, the Lord Admiral escapes in the yellow submarine and journeys to Liverpool to enlist the help of the Beatles.
Women in Love (1969)
Ken Russell · 1 critic vote
Growing up in the sheltered confines of a 1920s English coal-mining community, free-spirited sisters Gudrun and Ursula explore erotic love with a wealthy playboy and a philosophical educator, with cataclysmic results for all four.
Att vara zigenare (1970)
Peter Nestler · 1 critic vote
Roma and Sinti people talk about their experiences in the Third Reich and the Federal Republic of Germany, inspired by Otto Pankok’s paintings of Romani theme and subject in the 1930s, declared degenerate art by the Nazis. These are moving narratives of persecution, discrimination, marginalisation, of life as second-class human beings, all of which lasts, incredibly enough, right up to the allegedly democratic present day of the film, since they live in inhumane conditions in barracks at the margins of cities and society and are not officially recognised as Nazi victims. Long, nearly uncut sequences open space for the people and their stories. That’s all it takes for one of Peter and Zsóka Nestler’s most important works.
Bronco Bullfrog (1970)
Barney Platts-Mills · 1 critic vote
Del and his friends agree to take part in a robbery with a boy fresh from the borstal prison. When Del falls in love with Irene they decide to run away from their nagging parents - and the law.
The Railway Children (1970)
Lionel Jeffries · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy
At the dawn of the 20th century, following their father's arrest on suspicion of betraying state secrets, the three Waterbury children—Bobbie, Phyllis and Peter—move with their mother to Yorkshire, where they find themselves involved in unexpected dramas along the railway by their new home.
A Journey to Avebury (1971)
Derek Jarman · 1 critic vote
A silent short movie, is a literal journey that we can experience. We are being taken to Avebury and given the chance to admire it for 10 minutes. The shots are incredibly beautiful, as we see a huge stone or trees bathed in orange light of sunset.
Get Carter (1971)
Mike Hodges · 1 critic vote
Jack Carter is a small-time hood working in London. When word reaches him of his brother's death, he travels to Newcastle to attend the funeral. Refusing to accept the police report of suicide, Carter seeks out his brother’s friends and acquaintances to learn who murdered his sibling and why.
Hand Grenade (1971)
Gill Eatherley · 1 critic vote
Experimental animation, via multiple screens.
Horror Film 1 (1971)
Malcolm Le Grice · 1 critic vote
Film shadow performance. "First presented in 1971 using three 16mm projectors each with a short loop of changing colour. Projected onto the same screen – the centre image large and the two side images smaller and superimposed into the centre of the larger screen. The performing body casts complex colour shadow. The action begins touching the screen and - passing through the space of the audience – it ends at the projectors. The actions are timed to an audio tape of breathing. Though improvised in detail to fit the particular time and place, the action follows a consistent pattern that has changed little since the first performance.".
King Lear (1971)
Peter Brook · 1 critic vote
King Lear is a proud man who solicits praise from his three daughters in return for inheritance of the kingdom. Daughters Goneril and Regan profess their affection vehemently. Cordelia, who does not respect the process her father has chosen, does not humor him. Lear's perceived rejection from Cordelia leads to her banishment, thus splitting the kingdom between the other two. This hasty decision becomes his fatal error.
Macbeth (1971)
Roman Polanski · 1 critic vote
Scotland, 11th century. Driven by the twisted prophecy of three witches and the ruthless ambition of his wife, warlord Macbeth, bold and brave, but also weak and hesitant, betrays his good king and his brothers in arms and sinks into the bloody mud of a path with no return, sown with crime and suspicion.
Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971)
John Schlesinger · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, MGM Plus, fuboTV
Recently divorced career woman Alex Greville begins a romantic relationship with glamorous mod artist Bob Elkin, fully aware that he's also intimately involved with middle-aged doctor Daniel Hirsh. For both Alex and Daniel, the younger man represents a break with their repressive pasts, and though both know that Bob is seeing both of them, neither is willing to let go of the youth and vitality he brings to their otherwise stable lives.
The American Dreamer (1971)
L. M. Kit Carson, Lawrence Schiller · 1 critic vote
A documentary about actor/director Dennis Hopper, showing him at his home and studio putting together his film "The Last Movie."
The Go-Between (1971)
Joseph Losey · 1 critic vote
Free on YouTube Free
British teenager Leo Colston spends a summer in the countryside, where he develops a crush on the beautiful young aristocrat Marian. Eager to impress her, Leo becomes the "go-between" for Marian, delivering secret romantic letters to Ted Burgess, a handsome neighboring farmer.
The Moon and the Sledgehammer (1971)
Philip Trevelyan · 1 critic vote
The Page family lives without electricity or running water deep in the Sussex woods. Amidst ever-growing modernity and industrialization, the family carries out chores, hunts pheasants, builds steam engines, and postulates on man's trip to the moon. They demonstrate fine lateral thinking and, through their particular delivery, display fears and concerns about pollution, intensive farming, mechanization, and self-fulfillment during a time of technological advancement.
Asylum (1972)
Roy Ward Baker · 1 critic vote
Free on FlixHouse, Darkroom, Bloodstream · Streaming on Hoopla, Midnight Pulp, Philo
A young psychiatrist applies for a job at a mental asylum and must pass a test by interviewing four patients. He must figure out which of the patients, is in fact, the doctor that he would be replacing if hired.
The Other Side of the Underneath (1972)
Jane Arden · 1 critic vote
Free on Bloodstream, Tubi TV, Cineverse · Streaming on Midnight Pulp, Philo, Fawesome
A therapist looks into the mind of a woman diagnosed as schizophrenic and finds, not madness, but tortured sexual guilt created by the taboos of society.
Psychomania (1973)
Don Sharp · 1 critic vote
Free on FlixHouse, Bloodstream, Tubi TV · Streaming on Shudder, Fandor Amazon Channel, Screambox Amazon Channel
A gang of young people call themselves the Living Dead. They terrorize the population from their small town. After an agreement with the devil, if they kill themselves firmly believing in it, they will survive and gain eternal life. Following their leader, they commit suicide one after the other, but things don't necessarily turn out as expected...
Reel Time (1973)
Annabel Nicolson · 1 critic vote
A performance with sewing machine and projections.
Room Film 1973 (1973)
Peter Gidal · 1 critic vote
"This film is a consequent continuation and contraction of my film work, research which began with Room (1967). The film is not a translation of anything, it is not a representation of anything, not even of consciousness."
SOLIDARITY (1973)
Joyce Wieland · 1 critic vote
About a strike in which women are involved, but told in a very different way.
That'll Be the Day (1973)
Claude Whatham · 1 critic vote
Free on YouTube Free, Shout! Factory TV · Streaming on Shout! Factory Amazon Channel
Britain, 1958. Restless at school and bored with his life, Jim leaves home to take a series of low-level jobs at a seaside amusement park, where he discovers a world of cheap sex and petty crime. But when that world comes to a shockingly brutal end, Jim returns home. As the local music scene explodes, Jim must decide between a life of adult responsibility or a new phenomenon called rock & roll.
The Offence (1973)
Sidney Lumet · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel · Streaming on MGM Plus, fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel
A burned-out British police detective finally snaps while interrogating a suspected child molester.
Behindert (1974)
Stephen Dwoskin · 1 critic vote
A portrait of a relationship between a physically disabled man and an able-bodied woman.
Colour Poems (1974)
Margaret Tait · 1 critic vote
'Titles within the film are: Numen of the Boughs, Old Boots, Speed Bonny Boat, Lapping Water, Incense, Aha, Brave New World, Things, Terra Firma. A poem started in words is continued in images - Part of another poem as an addition to the picture - Some images formed by direct-on-film animation - Others 'found' by the camera" - MT
Launch (1974)
Murray Martin, Peter Roberts · 1 critic vote
Activities leading up to the launch of a large ship built at the Swan Hunter's Wallsend shipyard.
Long Film for Ambient Light (1975)
Anthony McCall · 1 critic vote
This experimental "film" consists of an empty room with a bare lightbulb, and windows covered with a translucent material, for a duration of 24 hours. It is not necessary for visitors to stay for the entire duration - they can come and go as they please. Created by Anthony McCall, it is based on the architectural framing of time and light. It came at the end of a series of works in which McCall was stripping back cinema to its absolute minimum - light, time, and human experience/perception.
Nightcleaners (1975)
Berwick Street Film Collective · 1 critic vote
“The Nightcleaners” is set in the context of the campaign (1970-1972) to unionize the women who cleaned office blocks at night and were being victimized and underpaid. Intending at the outset to make a campaign film, the Collective was forced to turn to new forms in order to represent the forces at work between the cleaners, the Cleaner's Action Group and the Unions - and the complex nature of the campaign itself.
The Naked Civil Servant (1975)
Jack Gold · 1 critic vote
Streaming on BritBox, BritBox Amazon Channel, Britbox Apple TV channel
Story of the life of Quentin Crisp, an Englishman who was brave enough to live his life according to his own style even in the hostile days of WW2.
Winstanley (1975)
Kevin Brownlow, Andrew Mollo · 1 critic vote
Gerrard Winstanley is the leader of a 17th Century religious group that believes the land should be owned communally. His convictions bring him into conflict with both the state and the church.
Bugsy Malone (1976)
Alan Parker · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy
New York, 1929, a war rages between two rival gangsters, Fat Sam and Dandy Dan. Dan is in possession of a new and deadly weapon, the dreaded "splurge gun". As the custard pies fly, Bugsy Malone, an all-round nice guy, falls for Blousey Brown, a singer at Fat Sam's speakeasy. His designs on her are disrupted by the seductive songstress Tallulah who wants Bugsy for herself.
Man With A Mirror (1976)
Guy Sherwin · 1 critic vote
The filmmaker's live interaction with his on-screen image which is projected onto a hand-held mirrored screen.The screen is white one side and mirrored the other, and is used by the performer to either 'catch' the projected image, or reflect it around the cinema space. The image on Film is of the same activity happening in a sunlit landscape. Visual echoes are set up between the live event and the recorded one.
Robin and Marian (1976)
Richard Lester · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Robin Hood, aging none too gracefully, returns exhausted from the Crusades to woo and win Maid Marian one last time.
Short Film Series (1976)
Guy Sherwin · 1 critic vote
Guy Sherwin's SHORT FILM SERIES was made between 1976 and 2014. Eventually he issued 34 films. Some are single studies of light, focused on the reflections in an eye shot in close-up. Others are domestic, as in the PORTRAIT WITH PARENTS or BREATHING .... Many deal with two rates of time measurement, as in CLOCK AND CANDLE, or construct visual paradoxes, as in the shuddering stasis of METRONOME - an illusion caused by the clash between the spring-wound mechanisms of the Bolex camera and of the metronome itself. In BARN DOOR the semi-strobe effect of light pulsations flattens the distant landscape. ... Interestingly, Sherwin has recently returned to the series after almost twenty years, with studies of animals and insects which in part recall the fascination with the 'invisible' side of nature felt by the surrealists, and seen in the scientific writing of Roger Caillois and the films of Jean Painleve during the 1930s.
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
Nicolas Roeg · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The CW, The Roku Channel · Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel, BFI Player Amazon Channel
Thomas Jerome Newton is an alien who has come to Earth in search of water to save his home planet. Aided by lawyer Oliver Farnsworth, Thomas uses his knowledge of advanced technology to create profitable inventions. While developing a method to transport water, Thomas meets Mary-Lou, a quiet hotel clerk, and begins to fall in love with her. Just as he is ready to leave Earth, Thomas is intercepted by the U.S. government, and his entire plan is threatened.
After Cease To Exist (1977)
COUM Transmissions · 1 critic vote
"A film dealing with the borderline between evidence, crime, fetish and dream..."
The Duellists (1977)
Ridley Scott · 1 critic vote
Streaming on MGM Plus, fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel
In 1800, as Napoleon Bonaparte rises to power in France, a rivalry erupts between Armand and Gabriel, two lieutenants in the French Army, over a perceived insult. For over a decade, they engage in a series of duels amidst larger conflicts, including the failed French invasion of Russia in 1812, and shifts in the political and social systems of Europe.
The Shetland Experience (1977)
Derek Williams · 1 critic vote
The environmental measures taken by the oil industry at the Sullom Voe terminal in the Shetlands.
The Shout (1978)
Jerzy Skolimowski · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, Shout! Factory TV, Plex · Streaming on Criterion Channel, AMC+ Amazon Channel, Fawesome
A traveller by the name of Crossley forces himself upon a musician and his wife in a lonely part of Devon, and uses the aboriginal magic he has learned to displace his host.
Watership Down (1978)
Martin Rosen, John Hubley · 1 critic vote
Free on YouTube Free, Shout! Factory TV, Plex · Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
When the warren belonging to a community of rabbits is threatened, a brave group led by Fiver, Bigwig, Blackberry and Hazel leave their homeland in a search of a safe new haven.
Light Reading (1979)
Lis Rhodes · 1 critic vote
The bloodstained bed suggest a crime..No answers are given, after the torrrent of words at the beginning of the film, all the film offers are closed images and more questions..Is it even blood on the bed, what fracture is there between seeing and certainty? If there has been a crime, 'she' might still be victim..How can a crime of such complexity and continuity be 'solved'? The voice searches for clues, sifting through them, reading and re-reading until the words and letters loom up nightmarishly, no longer hung on the structure of language.
The Tempest (1979)
Derek Jarman · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla
Prospero, a potent magician, lives on a desolate isle with his virginal daughter, Miranda. He's in exile, banished from his duchy by his usurping brother and the King of Naples. Providence brings these enemies near; aided by his vassal the spirit Ariel, Prospero conjures a tempest to wreck the Italian ship. The king's son, thinking all others lost, becomes Prospero's prisoner, falling in love with Miranda and she with him. Prospero's brother and the king wander the island, as do a drunken cook and sailor, who conspire with Caliban, Prospero's beastly slave, to murder Prospero. Prospero wants reason to triumph, Ariel wants his freedom, Miranda a husband; the sailors want to dance.
Amy! (1980)
Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen · 1 critic vote
Amy Johnson was the first woman to fly solo from Great Britain to Australia. Mulvey and Wollen’s experimental documentary combines newsreel footage of the aviator’s arrival, dramatic recreations of events from her life and contemporary discussions by feminist groups on the subject of heroism in this most unconventional biopic.
The Blood of Hussain (1980)
Jamil Dehlavi · 1 critic vote
A dramatic depiction of the life of Hussain, with allegorical references to the history of the Prophet Muhammad and his descendants. It is prophesied that Young Hussain will one day lead the impoverished masses to a better life. It is his brother, Hasan, however who gains in prominence and when the government is overthrown in a military coup, he tries to adapt. Hussain in the meanwhile gets married and leads a small band of rebels in an attempt to fight the military dictatorship.
In the Shadow of the Sun (1981)
Derek Jarman · 1 critic vote
'The Shadow of the Sun' draws upon Derek Jarman’s interest with alchemical processes as a metaphor for reprocessing Super-8 film. Jarman once described film’s union of light and matter as “an alchemical conjunction” and experimented throughout his career with creating dream symbolism through the superimposition of image and action. Originally called English Apocalypse, the film’s final title is derived from a 17th Century alchemical text that used the phrase as a synonym for the philosopher’s stone – the highly sought substance that turns base metals into gold and silver. The film was intended as a step toward the idea of an ambient video, that like its musical counterpart, was designed to enhance an environment.
Crystal Gazing (1982)
Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen · 1 critic vote
Experimental drama set in London during the Thatcher administration involving four characters: Neil, a science-fiction illustrator; Kim, a woman rock musician; Vermilion, an analyst of satellite photography; and Julian, an old friend of the illustrator who has just finished his Ph.D thesis on the fairy-tales of Charles Perrault. Their four lives are closely interlinked as events happen to each of them.
The Atomic Cafe (1982)
Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, Pierce Rafferty · 1 critic vote
Free on Plex, Plex Channel · Streaming on Hoopla
A disturbing collection of 1940s and 1950s United States government-issued propaganda films designed to reassure Americans that the atomic bomb was not a threat to their safety.
The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)
Peter Greenaway · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Kino Film Collection
R. Neville, a brash young draftsman, is hired to make a dozen landscape illustrations at the estate of Mr Herbert and his wife Virginia. Aside from monetary compensation, the arrangement includes a sexual liaison offered to Neville by Virginia while her estranged husband is away. But when the murdered body of Mr Herbert is discovered at the estate, mysterious clues found in Neville's drawings point to the identity of the killer.
City of Pirates (1983)
Raúl Ruiz · 1 critic vote
A surreal odyssey in which a melancholic maidservant crosses paths with a homicidal little boy, travels to a tiny island of pirates and encounters a man with multiple personalities.
Give Us a Smile (1983)
Leeds Animation Workshop · 1 critic vote
Shows the effect of the harassment women live with every day, ranging from ‘street humour’ and media stereotyping to actual physical violence. The film was made by women who lived in Leeds during the 1970s and early 80s, when a series of murderous sexual attacks by the so-called Yorkshire Ripper led to a virtual ‘curfew on women’. In response, the many women’s groups already active in the area decided it was time to put their own point of view.
Meantime (1983)
Mike Leigh · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A working-class family in London's East End is struggling to stay afloat during the recession under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's premiership. Only the mother Mavis is working; father Frank and the couple's two sons Colin, a timid, chronically shy individual and Mark, an outspoken, headstrong young man, are on the dole. This situation is contrasted by the presence of Mavis's sister Barbara, and her husband John, whose financial and social loftiness appears to be a comfortable facade over the unspoken soreness of a lackluster marriage.
Mining Review 36th Year No. 5 (1983)
· 1 critic vote
A 1983 British documentary that serves as the final issue of the National Coal Board's (NCB) Mining Review newsreel series.
Every Picture Tells a Story (1984)
James Scott · 1 critic vote
James Scott's biopic of his father William Scott, his childhood and his origins as a painter.
Klipperty Klopp (1984)
Andrew Kötting · 1 critic vote
"A post punk piece of pagan sensibility, complete with beastiality buggery and boundless energy. Maniacal filmmaking at its best. He takes his horse with him everywhere." Andrew Kötting
The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)
Tony Richardson · 1 critic vote
Streaming on MGM Plus, fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel
Over the course of several years beginning in the 1950s, a man and his oddball family run hotels in New England and Vienna, as unexpected events change their lives forever.
The Killing Fields (1984)
Roland Joffé · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Plex · Streaming on Kanopy
New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. When the U.S. Army pulls out amid escalating violence, Schanberg makes exit arrangements for Pran and his family. Pran, however, tells Schanberg he intends to stay in Cambodia to help cover the unfolding story — a decision he may regret as the Khmer Rouge rebels move in.
Wetherby (1984)
David Hare · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Plex · Streaming on Shout! Factory Amazon Channel, Fawesome
The mysterious death of an enigmatic young man newly arrived in the suburb of Wetherby releases the long-repressed, dark passions of some of its residents.
The Angelic Conversation (1985)
Derek Jarman · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, BFI Player Amazon Channel
The Angelic Conversation is a lyrical, haunting film about a young man’s search for love in a dreamlike landscape. Its tone is set by the juxtaposition of slow moving homo-erotic images and opaque landscapes through which two men take a journey into their own desires. Offscreen, Dame Judi Dench recites a sequence of Shakespeare's sonnets that counterpoint the action. Jarman called it, “My most austere work, but also the closest to my heart.”
The Black Tower (1985)
John Smith · 1 critic vote
Streaming on DocAlliance Films
A man finds himself haunted by a mysterious black tower in London that appears to follow him wherever he goes.
A Room with a View (1986)
James Ivory · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free · Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, Britbox Apple TV channel
When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperon Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emersons could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?
Caravaggio (1986)
Derek Jarman · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, BFI Player Amazon Channel
A retelling of the life of the celebrated 17th-century Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio through his brilliant, nearly blasphemous paintings and his flirtations with the underworld.
For Memory (1986)
Marc Karlin · 1 critic vote
Charts a journey through various `memory' productions such as murals, monuments, TV histories, commemorations etc, and in so doing questions the role that historical memory plays in our society.
The People's Account (1986)
Milton Bryan · 1 critic vote
Ceddo Film and Video Workshop's documentary on the 1985 Broadwater Farm uprising, told through residents' testimony about policing; the broadcasting regulator kept it off Channel 4.
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (1986)
Derek Jarman, John Maybury, Richard Heslop, Christopher Hughes, Sally Yeadon · 1 critic vote
Three promotional films by The Smiths directed with an artistic and conceptual vision by the late director Derek Jarman. The result is the junction of the powerful lyrics and melodies by Morrissey and Marr combined with Jarman's expressive images. The music videos: 1) The Queen Is Dead 2) There Is a Light That Never Goes Out 3) Panic
A Cold Draft (1987)
Lis Rhodes · 1 critic vote
Shows the surveillance of a woman by overseers who have judged her to be mad. What is most provocative about this film is that it proposes multiple credible points of view even as the woman is being certified insane by the Censors. We voyage into the skull of a woman and peer out to a monumentally static cold waste with planetary slow motion. It is the bunker-eye view.
Friendship's Death (1987)
Peter Wollen · 1 critic vote
Streaming on BFI Player Amazon Channel, Eternal Family
A robot messenger is sent to earth to appeal to humans to live in peace. Originally designed to go to MIT, by mistake she ends up in Amman, Jordan during the Black September riots of 1970. Sullivan, a British journalist, comes to her aid when she is found wandering without papers following a bombing and grants her refuge in his hotel room. But there she tells him she is a robot, sent as a peace envoy from another planet. He is not sure whether to believe her story or not, but finds her unusual view of the world appealing. They examine the human condition in a series of incredibly insightful and entertaining conversations.
Maurice (1987)
James Ivory · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, Cineverse · Streaming on Kanopy, Fandor Amazon Channel, Cohen Media Amazon Channel
After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.
Road (1987)
Alan Clarke · 1 critic vote
A view of the inhabitants of a derelict road in Manchester, unsatisfied with their lives and routines. A young man locks himself away from the world. An older woman flirts with a soldier on leave. Two men invite two girls into an empty house.
The Last of England (1987)
Derek Jarman · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Kino Film Collection
The artist's personal commentary on the decline of his country in a language closer to poetry than prose. A dark meditation on London under Thatcher.
The Living Daylights (1987)
John Glen · 1 critic vote
After a defecting Russian general reveals a plot to assassinate foreign spies, James Bond is assigned a secret mission to dispatch the new head of the KGB to prevent an escalation of tensions between the Soviet Union and the West.
Dreaming Rivers (1988)
Martina Attille · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A bittersweet and nostalgic short drama illustrating the spirit of modern families touched by the experience of migration. Miss T., from the Caribbean, lives alone in her one-room apartment, her children and husband having left her to pursue new dreams. When she dies her family and friends gather at her wake. The tapestry of words that interweave the drama convey the fragments of a life lived, but only partly remembered.
Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)
Tony Randel · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The CW, Pluto TV · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Now confined to a mental hospital, young Kirsty insists her supposedly dead father is actually stuck in Hell following his wife’s betrayal. Few believe the young woman’s lurid stories aside from the thrill-seeking Dr. Channard. Kirsty is undeterred and, with the help of a fellow patient, heads to Hell for a rescue.
Measures of Distance (1988)
Mona Hatoum · 1 critic vote
In this video, the artist tries to overcome the effects of distance, and reflects on geography represented in exile due to war, and on the psychological distance represented in each one’s approach to her womanhood. The video beautifully weaves personal images and audio recordings of a very intimate nature, binding the personal with the political. Reading aloud from letters sent by her mother in Beirut, Hatoum creates a visual montage reflecting her feelings of separation and isolation from her Palestinian family. The personal and political are inextricably bound in a narrative that explores personal and family identity against a backdrop of traumatic social rupture, exile and displacement.
Paperhouse (1988)
Bernard Rose · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A young girl lost in the loneliness and boredom of reality finds solace in an ill boy, whom she can visit in a surreal dream world that she drew in her school composition book.
Testament (1988)
John Akomfrah · 1 critic vote
Focuses on the Kwame Nkrumah era in Ghanaian history and paints a portrait of a female African government minister forced into exile after a coup d'état in 1966. Two decades later, she returns to confront the country she left behind.
K (1989)
Jayne Parker · 1 critic vote
Looking for Langston (1989)
Isaac Julien · 1 critic vote
A black and white, fantasy-like recreation of high-society gay men during the Harlem Renaissance, with archival footage and photographs intercut with a story. A wake is going on, with mourners gathered around a coffin. Downstairs is an elegant bar where tuxedoed men dance and talk. One of them has a dream in which he comes upon Beauty, who seems to reject him, although when he awakes, Beauty is sleeping beside him. His story and his visits to the jazz and dance club are framed by voices reading from the poetry and essays of Hughes and others. The text is rarely explicit, but the freedom of gay Black men in the 1920s in Harlem is suggested and celebrated visually.
My Left Foot (1989)
Jim Sheridan · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla
No one expects much from Christy Brown, a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. Though Christy is a spastic quadriplegic and essentially paralyzed, a miraculous event occurs when, at the age of 5, he demonstrates control of his left foot by using chalk to scrawl a word on the floor. With the help of his steely mother — and no shortage of grit and determination — Christy overcomes his infirmity to become a painter, poet and author.
The Firm (1989)
Alan John Clarke · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy
Set in the 1980s, Dom is a teenager who finds himself drawn into the charismatic world of football 'casuals,influenced by the firm's top boy, Bex. Accepted by the gang for his fast mouth and sense of humor, Dom soon becomes one the boys. But as Bex and his gang clash with rival firms across the country and the violence spirals out of control, Dom realizes he wants out - until he learns it's not that easy to simply walk away.
Twilight City (1989)
Reece Auguiste · 1 critic vote
A fictional letter from a daughter, Olivia, to her mother in Dominica is the narrative thread connecting interviews from (predominantly) black and Asian cultural critics, historians and journalists. The choice of occupation for the daughter, a researcher, perhaps strains the narrative conceit too far. Nevertheless, for an avowedly political documentary the result is absorbing.
The Garden (1990)
Derek Jarman · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Kino Film Collection
A nearly wordless visual narrative intercuts two main stories and a couple of minor ones. A woman, perhaps the Madonna, brings forth her baby to a crowd of intrusive paparazzi; she tries to flee them. Two men who are lovers marry and are arrested by the powers that be. The men are mocked and pilloried, tarred, feathered, and beaten. Loose in this contemporary world of electrical-power transmission lines is also Jesus. The elements, particularly fire and water, content with political power, which is intolerant and murderous.
The Sheltering Sky (1990)
Bernardo Bertolucci · 1 critic vote
An American couple drift toward emptiness in postwar North Africa.
The Witches (1990)
Nicolas Roeg · 1 critic vote
While staying at a hotel in England with his grandmother, Helga, a young boy named Luke inadvertently spies on a convention of witches. The Grand High Witch reveals a plan to turn all children into mice via a magical formula. When they discover the eavesdropper, the witches test the formula on him. Now, with the help of Helga and hotel manager Mr Stringer, Luke the mouse must fight back against the witches.
Lady Lazarus (1991)
Sandra Lahire · 1 critic vote
A cinematographic response to Sylvia Plath’s Lady Lazarus with Plath’s own readings of her poetry. A carousel of images in windows, an atmosphere of constant metamorphosis; her poetry as cinema. Audo outtakes of Plath reading from "Cut," "Daddy," "Lady Lazarus," "Ariel," "Ouija," as well as excerpts from a 1962 interview. Mixing images of Plath's obsessions (ouija boards, horses, violent self-harm) with photographs of the poet and her work, the film delves deeply into an existence that Plath herself, in a voice-over interview, calls "living on air."
Riff-Raff (1991)
Ken Loach · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free, Shout! Factory TV · Streaming on Fandor, Fandor Amazon Channel, fuboTV
Stevie, fresh from prison in Scotland, finds a job on a London construction site. The working conditions are poor and most of the men are working under aliases, due to immigration status and to not conflict with their "signing on" for unemployment benefits. Some coworkers help Stevie secure housing, squatting in a council estate. Then Stevie meets Susan, from Ireland, who's struggling to be a professional singer.
Writing in the Sand (1991)
Amber Street Collective · 1 critic vote
A richly lyrical documentary celebration of the vibrant beach life in the North East of England, constructed entirely out of Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen's black & white photographs.
Young Soul Rebels (1991)
Isaac Julien · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Strand Releasing Amazon Channel
Two disc jockeys have a friend's murder to solve in the fringe-group melting pot of 1977 London.
Chaplin (1992)
Richard Attenborough · 1 critic vote
Free on YouTube Free · Streaming on MGM Plus, Kanopy, Hoopla
An aged Charlie Chaplin narrates his life to his autobiography's editor, including his rise to wealth and comedic fame from poverty, his turbulent personal life and his run-ins with the FBI.
The Baby of Mâcon (1992)
Peter Greenaway · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, Plex, Cineverse · Streaming on Fandor, Fandor Amazon Channel, Shout! Factory Amazon Channel
In 17th-century Tuscany, a church play is performed for the benefit of young aristocrat Cosimo. In the play, a grotesque old woman gives birth to a beautiful baby boy. The child's older sister is quick to exploit the situation, selling blessings from the baby, and even claiming she's the true mother by virgin birth. However, when she attempts to seduce the bishop's son, the Church exacts a terrible revenge.
24 Hour Psycho (1993)
Douglas Gordon · 1 critic vote
24 Hour Psycho is the title of an art installation created by artist Douglas Gordon in 1993. The work consists entirely of an appropriation of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 Psycho slowed down to approximately two frames a second, rather than the usual 24. As a result it lasts for exactly 24 hours, rather than the original 109 minutes. The film was an important work in Gordon's early career, and is said to introduce themes common to his work, such as "recognition and repetition, time and memory, complicity and duplicity, authorship and authenticity, darkness and light."
In the Name of the Father (1993)
Jim Sheridan · 1 critic vote
A small-time Belfast thief, Gerry Conlon, is wrongly convicted of an IRA bombing in London, along with his father and friends, and spends 15 years in prison fighting to prove his innocence.
Shadowlands (1993)
Richard Attenborough · 1 critic vote
C.S. Lewis, a world-renowned writer and professor, leads a passionless life until he meets spirited poet Joy Gresham.
The Remains of the Day (1993)
James Ivory · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.
Death of a Nation (1994)
David Munro · 1 critic vote
The sensational expose of the complicity of Britain, USA and Australia in the continuing genocide in East Timor.
Rudy Wurlitzer (1994)
Chris Petit · 1 critic vote
Some of Petit's works were made for television. In this session, the three films are about three major figures in the English universe: filmmaker Peter Whitehead, novelist and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer, and writer J. G. Ballard. In these cinematographic portraits, Petit explores the potentialities of the hybridization between fiction and documentary, building elaborate stories - supported in genres such as the police story - to better define the characters. In the biography of Ballard, we have a curious participation of David Cronenberg about to embark on the adaptation of Crash.
Trying to Kiss the Moon (1994)
Stephen Dwoskin · 1 critic vote
In this unique approach to the autobiographical film format, director Stephen Dwoskin pieces together home movies shot by his parents in New York City, a video letter recorded during the 1990 Gulf War by filmmaker Robert Kramer, and raw footage filmed by Dwoskin himself. A veteran of the New York independent film scene of the 1960s, Dwoskin constructs a film poem in which the strong sentiment of his personal story—he was stricken by polio and eventually confined to a wheelchair—never overwhelms the beauty of the film’s distinct form.
Alice in Russialand (1995)
Ken Russell · 1 critic vote
Documentary by Ken Russell that shows Alice traveling through a century of Russian's history, from the period of Tsarism, through Socialism and Glasnost. Alice's original characters embody ideological conflicts crossing politics, art and cultural movements.
Institute Benjamenta (1995)
Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay, Weiser Quay · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, Plex, Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Fandor Amazon Channel, Shout! Factory Amazon Channel
Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men, he studies under Lisa: absurd lessons of movement, drawing circles, and servility. He asks for a better room. No other students arrive and none leave for employment. Johannes is unhappy, imperious, and detached from the school's operation. Lisa is beautiful, at first tightly controlled, then on the verge of breakdown. There's a whiff of incest. Jakob is drawn to Lisa, and perhaps she to him. As winter sets in, she becomes catatonic. Things get worse; Johannes notes that all this has happened since Jakob came. Is there any cause and effect?
Beautiful Thing (1996)
Hettie MacDonald · 1 critic vote
During a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in Southeast London, three teenagers edge towards adulthood.
The Last Angel of History (1996)
John Akomfrah · 1 critic vote
Streaming on OVID
An examination of the hitherto unexplored relationships between Pan-African culture, science fiction, intergalactic travel, and rapidly progressing computer technology.
Deadpan (1997)
Steve McQueen · 1 critic vote
Deadpan is a four-minute installation film in which McQueen re-stages a death-defying Buster Keaton stunt. The side of a house is filmed toppling again and again from all angles onto an unflinching McQueen, who survives thanks to a carefully positioned window.
Under the Skin (1997)
Carine Adler · 1 critic vote
Free on The Roku Channel · Streaming on BFI Player Amazon Channel
Although married and pregnant Rose has always been mother's favorite, it is younger sister Iris whose life is shaken up by mother's death. Suffocating, Iris spirals out of control and copes by losing herself in sexual oblivion.
Babymother (1998)
Julian Henriques · 1 critic vote
A single mother determined to make it as a singer puts together an all-girl reggae group named Neeta, Sweeta, & Nastie with her friends. Living in a housing estate with little support, the odds are obviously against her. Emotionally she struggles too as she learns at her mother's death that her actual mother is the woman she had thought was her older sister. With the help of a female agent, the group starts to get some exposure and rises above their setting.
Garden Pieces (1998)
Margaret Tait · 1 critic vote
A set of three 'film poems' composed around the theme of the garden - the central one featuring hand scratched animated drawings. Margaret Tait described them as follows: 'Round the Garden' - right round and round again, 'Garden Fliers' - flighty cartoon and a stunner of a piano piece and 'Grove' - grave and sonorous.
Gasman (1998)
Lynne Ramsay · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A story of two children who react with naive simple emotion to a situation imposed upon them by their father's secret.
La Comtessa (1998)
David Lodge · 1 critic vote
A surrealistic nightmare inspired by an 1855 photographic portrait, in which the magic tricks of early cinema are used to eerie effect. Creepy and beautiful at the same time, it does not share platitudinous ways to frighten the audience with the vast majority of modern horrors. Countess di Castiglione is a really existed Italian courtesan famous for her beauty and wide acquaintanceship among the ruling elite of those times. She directed Pierre-Louis Pierson to help her create 700 different photographs in which she re-created the signature moments of her life for the camera. Robert de Montesquiou, a Symbolist poet, dandy, and avid art collector, was fascinated by the Countess di Castiglione. He spent thirteen years writing a biography, La Divine Comtesse, which appeared in 1913. After her death, he collected 433 of her photographs, all of which entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Guy Ritchie · 1 critic vote
A card shark and his unwillingly-enlisted friends need to make a lot of cash quick after losing a sketchy poker match. To do this they decide to pull a heist on a small-time gang who happen to be operating out of the flat next door.
Temenos (1998)
Nina Danino · 1 critic vote
Temenos means a sacred site or ritual precinct. Temenos, the film, explores the phenomenon of visionary experiences. In the film we see locations where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared, including Lourdes, Fatima and Medjugorje in Bosnia & Herzegovina where the visions continue. Nina Danino films the landscapes that have witnessed these transcendental appearances, imbuing them with a sense of the sacred.
Velvet Goldmine (1998)
Todd Haynes · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Almost a decade since larger-than-life glam-rock enigma Brian Slade disappeared from public eye, an investigative journalist is on assignment to uncover the truth behind his former idol.
Notting Hill (1999)
Roger Michell · 1 critic vote
London bookstore owner William Thacker's quiet life turns upside down when a chance encounter with famous actress Anna Scott sparks an unlikely romance challenged by their vastly different worlds.
The Loss of Sexual Innocence (1999)
Mike Figgis · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel
The story of the sexual development of a filmmaker through three stages of his life.
The Man with the Beautiful Eyes (1999)
Jonathan Hodgson · 1 critic vote
Free on Vimeo
A Charles Bukowski poem is put to animation. Four kids who are friends are drawn to a strange house that their parents tell them to avoid. One day they see a man of about 30 step outside, cigar and whiskey bottle in hand. He becomes a symbol for them of all that is strong, natural, and beautiful. What happens later to this man with the beautiful eyes introduces the boys to the gray and uptight world of adulthood that awaits them.
Topsy-Turvy (1999)
Mike Leigh · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
For nearly a decade, Gilbert and Sullivan’s collaborations have delighted the English people. But in 1884, as a London heat wave cuts into the theater trade, their latest work, "Princess Ida", receives lukewarm press. In an effort to reconcile their creative differences and drawing inspiration from Japanese culture, they went on to create the hit opera "The Mikado", one of the duo's greatest successes.
Asylum (2000)
Iain Sinclair, Chris Petit · 1 critic vote
Asylum is a film very much derived from chaos, expressing implicitly the ideas conjured up by its title. A strange mix of both documentary and fiction, where in the future a group of people are looking back at the twentieth century. A virus has wiped out most of the culture of the twentieth century, leaving just fragments of a project called 'The Perimeter Fence' to be pieced together. These fragments make up a documentary about an exiled group of disparate yet similar minds.
Sexy Beast (2000)
Jonathan Glazer · 1 critic vote
Ex-safecracker Gal Dove has served his time behind bars and is blissfully retired to a Spanish villa paradise with a wife he adores. The idyll is shattered by the arrival of his nemesis Don Logan, intent on persuading Gal to return to London for one last big job.
Gosford Park (2001)
Robert Altman · 1 critic vote
In 1930s England, a group of pretentious rich and famous gather together for a weekend of relaxation at a hunting resort. But when a murder occurs, each one of these interesting characters becomes a suspect.
28 Days Later (2002)
Danny Boyle · 1 critic vote
Twenty-eight days after a killer virus was accidentally unleashed from a British research facility, a small group of London survivors are caught in a desperate struggle to protect themselves from the infected. Carried by animals and humans, the virus turns those it infects into homicidal maniacs -- and it's absolutely impossible to contain.
Bend it Like Beckham (2002)
Gurinder Chadha · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Disney Plus
Jess Bhamra, the daughter of a strict Indian couple in London, is not permitted to play organized soccer, even though she is 18. When Jess is playing for fun one day, her impressive skills are seen by Jules Paxton, who then convinces Jess to play for her semi-pro team. Jess uses elaborate excuses to hide her matches from her family while also dealing with her romantic feelings for her coach, Joe.
Caribs' Leap/Western Deep (2002)
Steve McQueen · 1 critic vote
Caribs’ Leap / Western Deep comprises two complementary films that are shown together as a three-screen, synchronised colour video projection. The films were originally commissioned for the Documenta 11 exhibition in Kassel, Germany in 2002. They were then screened in London by Artangel in the former Lumiere Cinema on St Martins Lane in the autumn of that same year.
Dad's Dead (2002)
Chris Shepherd · 1 critic vote
Our narrator looks fondly back at his childhood in Liverpool and the antics of his best friend Johnno. Well known for being a showman and a keen one for joking and the like, Johnno starts to change for the worse after he announced that his father has died.
Risky Roadz Volume 1 Tha Roadz are Real (2004)
Roony Keefe · 1 critic vote
Grime DVD featuring interviews and freestyles with Dizzee Rascal, Ruff Sqwad and more
Black Sun (2005)
Gary Tarn · 1 critic vote
Free on JustWatch TV, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel · Streaming on Kanopy, fuboTV, DocCom Amazon Channel
Blurred images illustrate the narration of New York City-based artist Hugues de Montalembert, who was blinded in a vicious mugging some thirty years ago.
I for India (2005)
Sandhya Suri · 1 critic vote
Drawing from 40 years' worth of film footage and tape recordings her father sent to family members in India, filmmaker Sandhya Suri crafts a personal history that also explores the experiences of Indian expatriates. After moving to Great Britain in 1965, Yash Pal Suri chronicled his discoveries about his new home along with his feelings of alienation. The fruits of his labor appear in this film that received a Grand Jury Prize nod at Sundance.
Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine (2005)
Peter Tscherkassky · 1 critic vote
Streaming on MUBI, MUBI Amazon Channel, DocAlliance Films
An attempt to transform a Roman Western into a Greek tragedy. The hero of Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine is easy to identify. Walking down the street unknowingly, he suddenly realizes that he is not only subject to the gruesome moods of several spectators but also at the mercy of the filmmaker.
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Joe Wright · 1 critic vote
Free on BYUtv · Streaming on Britbox Apple TV channel
A story of love and life among the landed English gentry during the Georgian era. Mr. Bennet is a gentleman living in Hertfordshire with his overbearing wife and five daughters, but if he dies their house will be inherited by a distant cousin whom they have never met, so the family's future happiness and security is dependent on the daughters making good marriages.
The Constant Gardener (2005)
Fernando Meirelles · 1 critic vote
Justin Quayle is a low-level British diplomat who has always gone about his work very quietly, not causing any problems. But after his radical wife Tessa is killed he becomes determined to find out why, thrusting himself into the middle of a very dangerous conspiracy.
A Cock and Bull Story (2006)
Michael Winterbottom · 1 critic vote
Steve Coogan, an arrogant actor with low self-esteem and a complicated love life, is playing the eponymous role in an adaptation of "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" being filmed at a stately home. He constantly spars with actor Rob Brydon, who is playing Uncle Toby and believes his role to be of equal importance to Coogan's.
Borat (2006)
Larry Charles · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev travels to America to make a documentary. As he zigzags across the nation, Borat meets real people in real situations with hysterical consequences. His backwards behavior generates strong reactions around him exposing prejudices and hypocrisies in American culture.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
Ken Loach · 1 critic vote
Free on Plex, Plex Channel · Streaming on Acorn TV, Sundance Now, Kanopy
In 1920s Ireland young doctor Damien O'Donovan prepares to depart for a new job in a London hospital. As he says his goodbyes at a friend's farm, British Black and Tans arrive, and a young man is killed. Damien joins his brother Teddy in the Irish Republican Army, but political events are soon set in motion that tear the brothers apart.
Atonement (2007)
Joe Wright · 1 critic vote
A young girl irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
Unrelated (2007)
Joanna Hogg · 1 critic vote
Streaming on MUBI, Kanopy, MUBI Amazon Channel
A woman in an unhappy relationship takes refuge with a friend's family on holiday in Tuscany.
Man on Wire (2008)
James Marsh · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, YouTube Free · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, Hoopla
On August 7th 1974, French tightrope walker Philippe Petit stepped out on a high wire, illegally rigged between New York's World Trade Center twin towers, then the world's tallest buildings. After nearly an hour of performing on the wire, 1,350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan, he was arrested. This fun and spellbinding documentary chronicles Philippe Petit's "highest" achievement.
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan · 1 critic vote
A teenager reflects on his life after being accused of cheating on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?".
Bright Star (2009)
Jane Campion · 1 critic vote
In 1818, high-spirited young Fanny Brawne finds herself increasingly intrigued by the handsome but aloof poet John Keats, who lives next door to her family friends the Dilkes. After reading a book of his poetry, she finds herself even more drawn to the taciturn Keats. Although he agrees to teach her about poetry, Keats cannot act on his reciprocated feelings for Fanny, since as a struggling poet he has no money to support a wife.
She, A Chinese (2009)
Xiaolu Guo · 1 critic vote
This is the story of Mei, a young woman on a trip from East to West after her escape from her provincial Chinese village. Beginning in Chongqing and a disastrous factory job, Mei soon heads out for London and a marriage to an older man where her entrapment begins anew.
Another Year (2010)
Mike Leigh · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, YouTube Free · Streaming on Howdy Amazon Channel
During a year, a very content couple approaching retirement are visited by friends and family less happy with their lives.
Never Let Me Go (2010)
Mark Romanek · 1 critic vote
As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy spend their childhood at an idyllic and secluded English boarding school. As they grow into adults, they must come to terms with the complexity and strength of their love for one another while also preparing for the haunting reality awaiting them.
The Ghost Writer (2010)
Roman Polanski · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The CW, The Roku Channel · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, Hoopla
A writer stumbles upon a long-hidden secret when he agrees to help former British Prime Minister Adam Lang complete his memoirs on a remote island after the politician's assistant drowns in a mysterious accident.
The Nine Muses (2010)
John Akomfrah · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Fandor Amazon Channel, Hoopla, OVID
Part documentary, part personal essay, this experimental film combines archive imagery with the striking wintry landscapes of Alaska to tell the story of immigrant experience coming into the UK from 1960 onwards.
The War You Don't See (2010)
John Pilger · 1 critic vote
Free on Pluto TV · Streaming on Hoopla, DOCSVILLE
This film investigates how the media has reported war, from the First World War to the present day.
Attack the Block (2011)
Joe Cornish · 1 critic vote
Free on Xumo Play
A South London teen gang must team up with the other residents of their housing estate to protect the neighbourhood from a terrifying alien invasion.
Dreams of a Life (2011)
Carol Morley · 1 critic vote
A filmmaker sets out to discover the life of Joyce Vincent, who died in her bedsit in North London in 2003. Her body wasn't discovered for three years, and newspaper reports offered few details of her life - not even a photograph.
Ein Jahr (2011)
Renate Sami · 1 critic vote
A tree in front of a wall over the course of a year.
Perfect Sense (2011)
David Mackenzie · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Sundance Now, Kanopy, AMC+
In Glasgow, Scotland, while a mysterious pandemic begins to spread around the world, Susan, a brilliant epidemiologist, falls in love with Michael, a skillful cook.
Shame (2011)
Steve McQueen · 1 critic vote
Brandon, a thirty-something man living in New York, eludes intimacy with women but feeds his deepest desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his younger sister temporarily moves into his apartment, stirring up bitter memories of their shared painful past, Brandon's life, like his fragile mind, gets out of control.
We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011)
Lynne Ramsay · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, Pluto TV · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, Fandor Amazon Channel
After her son Kevin commits a horrific act, troubled mother Eva reflects on her complicated relationship with her disturbed son as he grew from a toddler into a teenager.
Marley (2012)
Kevin Macdonald · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, Fandango at Home Free, Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, Hoopla
Bob Marley's universal appeal, impact on music history and role as a social and political prophet is both unique and unparalleled. Directed by Academy Award-winning director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland), MARLEY is the definitive life story of the musician, revolutionary, and legend, from his early days to his rise to international superstardom. Made with the support of the Marley family, the film features rare footage, incredible performances and revelatory interviews with the people that knew him best.
Stud Life (2012)
Campbell X · 1 critic vote
Free on Cineverse · Streaming on Fandor Amazon Channel, Philo
Stud lesbian JJ works with her gay best friend Seb as wedding photographers. When JJ falls in love with a beautiful diva, JJ and Seb's friendship is tested, and she’s forced to chose between her hot new lover and her best friend.
All This Can Happen (2013)
Siobhan Davies, David Hinton · 1 critic vote
A flickering dance of intriguing imagery brings to light the possibilities of ordinary movements from the everyday which appear, evolve and freeze before your eyes. Made entirely from archive photographs and footage from the earliest days of moving image, All This Can Happen (2012) follows the footsteps of the protagonist from the short story 'The Walk' by Robert Walser. Juxtapositions, different speeds and split frame techniques convey the walker's state of mind as he encounters a world of hilarity, despair and ceaseless variety.
Exhibition (2013)
Joanna Hogg · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Kino Film Collection
An intimate examination of a contemporary artist couple, whose living and working patterns are threatened by the imminent sale of their home.
The Selfish Giant (2013)
Clio Barnard · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Plex · Streaming on Sundance Now, Kanopy, AMC+
A hyperactive boy and his best friend, a slow-witted youth with an affinity for horses, start collecting scrap metal for a shady dealer.
The Stuart Hall Project (2013)
John Akomfrah · 1 critic vote
A person’s culture is something that is often described as fixed or defined and rooted in a particular region, nation, or state. Stuart Hall, one of the most preeminent intellectuals on the Left in Britain, updates this definition as he eloquently theorizes that cultural identity is fluid—always morphing and stretching toward possibility but also constantly experiencing nostalgia for a past that can never be revisited.
German Concentration Camps Factual Survey (2014)
Sidney Bernstein, Baron Bernstein, Alfred Hitchcock · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Kanopy, Chai Flicks
On the 29th September 1945, the incomplete rough cut of a brilliant documentary about concentration camps was viewed at the MOI in London. For five months, Sidney Bernstein had led a small team – which included Stewart McAllister, Richard Crossman and Alfred Hitchcock – to complete the film from hours of shocking footage. Unfortunately, this ambitious Allied project to create a feature-length visual report that would damn the Nazi regime and shame the German people into acceptance of Allied occupation had missed its moment. Even in its incomplete form (available since 1984) the film was immensely powerful, generating an awed hush among audiences. But now, complete to six reels, this faithfully restored and definitive version produced by IWM, is being compared with Alain Resnais’ Night and Fog (1955).
Horse Money (2014)
Pedro Costa · 1 critic vote
Free on Cineverse · Streaming on Kanopy, Fandor Amazon Channel, Philo
While the young captains lead the revolution in the streets, the people of Fontainhas search for Ventura, lost in the woods.
The Duke of Burgundy (2014)
Peter Strickland · 1 critic vote
Free on The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Plex · Streaming on Sundance Now, Kanopy, Philo
Day in and day out, lovers Cynthia and Evelyn enact an elaborate sadomasochistic fantasy as mistress and maid. But as their ritual of domination and submission begins to turn stale, Cynthia yearns for something more conventional, while Evelyn tries to push their taboos even further.
45 Years (2015)
Andrew Haigh · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Sundance Now, Kanopy, AcornTV Amazon Channel
There is just one week until Kate Mercer's 45th wedding anniversary and the planning for the party is going well. But then a letter arrives for her husband. The body of his first love has been discovered, frozen and preserved in the icy glaciers of the Swiss Alps. By the time the party is upon them, five days later, there may not be a marriage left to celebrate.
Aaaaaaaah! (2015)
Steve Oram · 1 critic vote
Alpha Male Smith and his Beta, Keith, move to take over a local community. They hook up with restless Female, Denise, igniting a deadly feud in which emotions run high and deep-seated grudges resurface amongst the tribe. Are we not men? Or are we simply beasts?
Amy (2015)
Asif Kapadia · 1 critic vote
Streaming on HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
A documentary on the life of Amy Winehouse, the immensely talented yet doomed songstress. We see her from her teen years, where she already showed her singing abilities, to her finding success and then her downward spiral into alcoholism and drugs.
The Host (2015)
Miranda Pennell · 1 critic vote
Streaming on DocAlliance Films
While investigating her late parents’ involvement with the Anglo Iranian Oil Company (BP), the filmmaker comes across the letters of a petroleum geologist in Iran in the 1930s who was later to embark on a search for the origins of civilisation. The Host sets out on its own exploration, to decipher signs from the fragmented images buried in the BP archive. This journey through the past interweaves a number of stories drawn from both personal memory and the records of an imperial history, which builds a picture of a 20th-century colonial encounter. The Host is a personal essay film about the stories we tell about ourselves and others, the facts and fictions we live by, and their consequences. Followed by a discussion with Miranda Pennell.
CTRL (2016)
David Kaskel, Nigel Townsend · 1 critic vote
A young gamer becomes embroiled in an e-sports competition in the midst of a war at home.
Home: A VR Spacewalk (2016)
Kate Bartlett · 1 critic vote
Modelled on NASA astronaut training, the BBC's virtual-reality spacewalk sends the viewer outside the International Space Station, where a routine repair turns into an emergency.
Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness (2016)
Arnaud Colinart, Amaury La Burthe, Peter Middleton, James Spinney · 1 critic vote
A virtual-reality piece built from theologian John Hull's audio diaries of losing his sight, rendering his world in binaural sound and sparse, shifting 3D forms.
Dunkirk (2017)
Christopher Nolan · 1 critic vote
Streaming on fuboTV, Paramount+ Amazon Channel, Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel
The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.
God's Own Country (2017)
Francis Lee · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, AMC+ Amazon Channel
A young farmer in rural Yorkshire numbs his daily frustrations with binge drinking and casual sex, until the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker.
I Am Not a Witch (2017)
Rungano Nyoni · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV · Streaming on MUBI, Kanopy, MUBI Amazon Channel
Convicted of witchcraft, 8-year-old Shula is brought to live in a penal colony where witches do hard labour in service of the government.
Purple (2017)
John Akomfrah · 1 critic vote
Purple is a six-channel video installation addressing climate change, human communities and the wilderness. At a time when greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are at their highest levels in history, with people experiencing the significant impacts of climate change, including shifting weather patterns, rising sea levels, and more extreme weather events, Akomfrah’s Purple brings a multitude of ideas into conversation. These include animal extinctions, the memory of ice, the plastic ocean and global warming. Akomfrah has combined hundreds of hours of archival footage with newly shot film and a hypnotic sound score to produce the video installation.
Rebirth Is Necessary (2017)
Jenn Nkiru · 1 critic vote
Director Jenn Nkiru authors a personal and powerful exploration of blackness through piecing together dreamlike portraits with stunning archival footage that includes Afrofuturism pioneer Sun Ra and revolutionary organization the Black Panther Party.
Tigers are not Afraid (2017)
Issa López · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Shudder Amazon Channel, AMC+ Amazon Channel, Shudder Apple TV channel
When her mother suddenly disappears with no one to care for her, young Estrella ends up on the street and joins a gang of children, triggering a dangerous and tragic chain of events.
Farming (2018)
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Lionsgate+ Amazon Channels
Based on the writer/director's childhood, FARMING tells the story of a young Nigerian boy, 'farmed out' by his parents to a white British family in the hope of a better future. Instead, he becomes the feared leader of a white skinhead gang.
Ray & Liz (2018)
Richard Billingham · 1 critic vote
Free on Darkroom, Filmzie, Cineverse · Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, OVID
On the outskirts of Birmingham and the margins of society the Billingham family perform extreme rituals and break social taboos as they muddle through a life decided by factors beyond their control. At times shocking and laced with an unsettling humor, three episodes unfold as a powerful evocation of the experience of growing up in a Black Country council flat.
The Favourite (2018)
Yorgos Lanthimos · 1 critic vote
England, early 18th century. The close relationship between Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill is threatened by the arrival of Sarah's cousin, Abigail Hill, resulting in a bitter rivalry between the two cousins to be the Queen's favourite.
Under the Wire (2018)
Chris Martin · 1 critic vote
On 12 February 2012, two journalists entered war-ravaged Syria. One of them was celebrated Sunday Times war correspondent, Marie Colvin. The other was photographer, Paul Conroy. Their aim was to cover the plight of Syrian civilians trapped in Homs, a city under siege and relentless military attack from the Syrian army. Only one of them returned.
1917 (2019)
Sam Mendes · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.
Dark Trees (2019)
Malcolm Le Grice · 1 critic vote
Dark Trees starts with a view from a window in silhouette through which one sees a garden, tall trees, rooftops and the sea. This scene orientates the viewer, but we are quickly taken into an imaginary space offered by the trees, shot against a late evening sky. A floating camera and the dense superimposition of shots make for a scene that is now untethered. Towards the end we see the sun set over the sea; confirmation of the lyrical strain in much of Le Grice’s cinema.
Saint Maud (2019)
Rose Glass · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, MGM Plus, fuboTV
Having recently found God, self-effacing young nurse Maud arrives at a plush home to care for Amanda, a hedonistic dancer left frail from a chronic illness. When a chance encounter with a former colleague throws up hints of a dark past, it becomes clear there is more to sweet Maud than meets the eye.
The Tiger Who Came to Tea (2019)
Robin Shaw · 1 critic vote
On a rainy day, a mother and daughter forego a trip to the park to bake pastries and partake in a two-person tea party when an unexpected guest menacingly invites himself into the house and ransacks the food and drink in the house.
Those That, at a Distance, Resemble Another (2019)
Jessica Sarah Rinland · 1 critic vote
Streaming on DocAlliance Films
With an elephant’s tusk as the protagonist, the film meditates on the endless tactility of conservation.
the names have changed, including my own and the truths have been altered (2019)
Onyeka Igwe · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A film telling the same story in four different ways - using British colonial moving images to tell a folk story of two brothers, a VHS Nollywood TV series of the first published Igbo novel, a passed down story of a the family patriarch and the diary entries of the artist's first solo trip to her family's hometown.
Citadel (2020)
John Smith · 1 critic vote
Streaming on DocAlliance Films
Filmed from the artist’s window during the first English lockdown, ‘Citadel’ combines short fragments from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s speeches relating to coronavirus with views of the London skyline.
Mangrove (2020)
Steve McQueen · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Hoopla, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
The true story of The Mangrove Nine, who clashed with London police in 1970. The trial that followed was the first judicial acknowledgment of behaviour motivated by racial hatred within the Metropolitan Police.
The Souvenir Part II (2021)
Joanna Hogg · 1 critic vote
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.
ear for eye (2021)
Debbie Tucker Green · 1 critic vote
From front rooms, Black families, friends, students and older generations navigate British and American society today.
Lagareh - The Last Born (2022)
Alberta Whittle · 1 critic vote
‘Lagareh’ – which translates from the Mandinka language as ‘The Last Born’ – is a work anchored around theories of abolition, rebellion, ancestral knowledge and love. Shot in Scotland, England, Barbados, Sierra Leone and Italy, the film melds a collection of scenes that give focus to the strength of contemporary Black womxn, whose individual acts of resistance are bound together through the artist’s conceptual storytelling. The artist situates Black love in proximity with historical sites of trauma, re-inscribed with rage, hope and exhaustion. Gestures, rituals and moments of intimacy are poignantly underpinned by a deep reflection on grief, loss and mourning, a resolute reminder of the trauma inflicted upon the Black body and of white privilege and power.
Much Ado About Dying (2022)
Simon Chambers · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Dekkoo, Dekkoo Amazon Channel
Simon Chambers is shooting a film in India when his uncle David calls him with a message of doom: “I think I may be dying.” What the viewer doesn’t yet know is that David, an eccentric gay actor, is a total drama queen, and a Shakespeare-lover who has grown old on a diet of attention and applause. Chambers returns to London to look after his uncle and capture his final stages of life on camera.
europe 16 (2022)
Lucía Seles · 1 critic vote
After Time (2023)
Therese Henningsen · 1 critic vote
Throughout June 2022, Stanley Schtinter's The Lock-In — every scene set in EastEnders' Queen Vic, cut into one 96-hour film — played on the televisions of ten real East End pubs. Filmed at those screenings (as a work in progress, "(At) The Lock-In"), Therese Henningsen's documentary finds the people and pubs that survive there today.
All of Us Strangers (2023)
Andrew Haigh · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Hulu
One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbor, which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life.
How to Have Sex (2023)
Molly Manning Walker · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Netflix, MUBI, MUBI Amazon Channel
Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday—drinking, clubbing and hooking up, in what should be the best summer of their lives.
Kneecap (2024)
Rich Peppiatt · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Hulu, fuboTV, YouTube TV
When fate brings Belfast teacher JJ into the orbit of self-confessed "low life scum" Naoise and Liam Óg, the needle drops on a hip-hop act like no other. Rapping in their native Irish, they lead a movement to save their mother tongue.
Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
Rose Glass · 1 critic vote
Reclusive gym manager Lou falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Las Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024)
Rungano Nyoni · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Cinemax Amazon Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family.
Pillion (2025)
Harry Lighton · 1 critic vote
Streaming on HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
Colin, a timid gay man, is swept off his feet when Ray, an enigmatic and impossibly handsome biker, takes him on as his submissive in a crazy and erotic BDSM-focused relationship.
Rose of Nevada (2025)
Mark Jenkin · 1 critic vote
A mysterious boat returns to a village 30 years after vanishing. Two men join its crew hoping for better fortune. After one voyage, they find themselves transported back in time, mistaken for the original crew.

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