Rumpole and the Right to Privacy (2007)

UK

Radio Play
Series: The Afternoon Play
Writer: John Mortimer
Director: Marilyn Imrie
Cast: Timothy West, Prunella Scales, David Shaw-Parker, Nigel Anthony, Elaine Claxton, Anton Rodgers, Stephen Critchlow, Kim Durham, Joanna David

An entertaining and typically humorous radio play, that highlights the often hypocritical relationship that public figures have with the media. Iain.Stott

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Rumpole and the Teenage Werewolf (2006)

UK
Radio Play
Series: The Afternoon Play
Writer: John Mortimer
Director: Marilyn Imrie
Cast: Timothy West, Prunella Scales, Felicity Montague, Nicholas Le Prevost, Philip Jackson, Matt Smith, Karl Johnson, Sean Baker, Ellie Beaven

A quite hilarious if rather predictable radio play, with the verbose Rumpole defending a teenage boy accused of sending offensive e-mails to a school mate; the twist can be seen a mile away, but it’s hugely entertaining none the less. Iain.Stott

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Monsieur Monde Vanishes (2009)

UK
Radio Play
Series: The Afternoon Play
Writers: Ronald Frame, Georges Simenon
Cast: Richard Greenwood, Claire Knight, Emma Currie, Eliza Langland, Crawford Logan, Nick Underwood

A mildly diverting if disappointingly uninvolving adaptation of Simenon’s tale of existential crisis and provincial debauchery, with Greenwood’s titular performance being particularly bland. Iain.Stott

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The Machine That Made Us (2008)

UK

Short Television Documentary
Director: Patrick McGrady
Cinematographer: Jeremy Irving
Presenter: Stephen Fry

An entertaining if rather speculative look at the invention and construction of the world’s first printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 15th century Germany. Iain.Stott

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How Reading Made Us Modern (2009)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Director: Sarah Howitt
Presenter: Professor John Mullan

A well-enough-made if rather uninspired and not particularly insightful look at the growth in popularity of reading since the late 17th century, exploring the social significance of increased accessibility to literature for the average person. Iain.Stott

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Disco Pigs (2001)

Not Recommended

Ireland
Feature Film
Director: Kirsten Sheridan
Writer: Enda Walsh
Cinematographer: Igor Jadue-Lillo, Peter Robertson
Composer: Gavin Friday, Maurice Seezer
Cast: Elaine Cassidy, Cillian Murphy, Brian F. O'Byrne, Eleanor Methven, Geraldine O'Rawe, Darren Healy, Sarah Gallagher, Charles Bark, Tara Lynne O'Neill

Cassidy and Murphy are stunning and it’s beautifully photographed, but despite the film’s various pleasures, this violent, twisted fairy tale of a film, an examination of obsessive love and mental illness, is a really rather unpleasant and hard to watch experience. Iain.Stott

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Red Rock West (1992)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film
Director: John Dahl
Writers: John Dahl, Rick Dahl
Cinematographer: Marc Reshovsky
Composer: William Olvis
Cast: Nicolas Cage, J.T. Walsh, Lara Flynn Boyle, Dennis Hopper, Timothy Carhart

Though it never reaches the heights of his subsequent The Last Seduction or the Coens’ Blood Simple, which it resembles more than a little, Dahl’s seedily entertaining thriller, following Cage’s cash-strapped drifter as he becomes perilously involved with various low-lifes in the small town of Red Rock, is a nevertheless squalidly piquant experience. Iain.Stott

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Breakdown (1997)

Cautiously Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Writers: Sam Montgomery, Jonathan Mostow
Cinematographer: Doug Milsome
Composer: Basil Poledouris
Cast: Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh, Kathleen Quinlan, M.C. Gainey, Jack Noseworthy, Rex Linn, Ritch Brinkley

This entertainingly silly thriller, which sees Russell’s polo-shirt-sporting action-man go up against some unwashed, baseball-cap-wearing ruffians in order to rescue his kidnapped wife, either exploits or is indicative of bourgeois paranoia about uncouth provincial types - either way, it’s a harmlessly thrilling ride. Iain.Stott

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The Need for Nonsense (2009)

UK
Radio Play
Series: The Afternoon Play
Writer: Julia Blackburn
Director: Mary Ward-Lowery
Cast: Andrew Sachs, Alexi Kaye-Campbell, Mark Meadows, Ross Mackendrick, James Rastall, Kim Hicks

Sachs and Kaye-Campbell are quite wonderful in this charmingly funny and gently touching portrait of the eccentric and irreverent relationship between the nonsense poet, Edward Lear, and his Greek manservant, Giorgio. Iain.Stott

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Why Do We Dream? (2009)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Series Title: Horizon (1964-)
Director: Charles Colville

A dreamily and beautifully shot documentary, exploring the many and varied theories behind the significance of dreams and nightmares, and an entertainingly thought-provoking one at that. Iain.Stott

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Heavy Load (2008)

Recommended

UK
Short Television Documentary
Director: Jerry Rothwell
Cinematographer: Stephanie Hardt
Composer: Max de Wardener
Featuring: Simon Barker, Jimmy Nichols, Paul Richards, Michael White, Mick Williams

Rothwell's documentary provides a simple, human, and life-affirmingly entertaining portrait of the thrash-punk band Heavy Load, a band comprising of members with and without learning difficulties, specialising in joyously uncompromising covers of iconic pop and rock songs. Iain.Stott

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Orchestra Seats (2006)

Recommended

France
Feature Film
Original Title: Fauteuils d'orchestre
Director: Danièle Thompson
Writers: Christopher Thompson, Danièle Thompson
Cinematographer: Jean-Marc Fabre
Composer: Nicola Piovani
Cast: Valérie Lemercier, Cécile De France, Albert Dupontel, Claude Brasseur, Christopher Thompson, Dani, Laura Morante, Suzanne Flon, Sydney Pollack, François Rollin, Guillaume Gallienne, Annelise Hesme, Françoise Lépine, Michel Vuillermoz

Thompson’s delightful, Altmanesque, ensemble comedy-drama, a gently human look at a number of disparate lives at a point of reformation, regeneration, and transformation, is a wondrously acted, beautifully written, and thoroughly entertaining film. Iain.Stott

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Why Reading Matters (2009)

UK
Short Television Documentary

Series Title: Horizon (1964-)
Director: Chris Hale
Presenter: Rita Carter

A fascinating and enlightening if occasionally rhetorical examination of the effects of reading on the brain, and one that, despite listing the many and varied benefits of reading, never really lives up to its title and convinces us of reading’s indispensability. Iain.Stott

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Beautiful City (2004)

Highly Recommended

Iran
Feature Film
Original Title: شهر زیبا
Writer/Director: Asghar Farhadi
Cinematographer: Ali Loqmani
Composer: Hamidreza Sadri
Cast: Taraneh Alidoosti, Babak Ansari, Faramarz Gharibian, Ahu Kheradmand, Hossein Farzi-Zadeh

Farhadi’s complex yet subtle tale, exploring the moral ambiguities of corporal punishment, is a film that provokes us to ask difficult questions about difficult issues, questions that the film never really answers, as born out by the enigmatically unresolved ending, but he so beautifully paints a picture of a world that contains so many sympathetic yet conflicting characters, that a satisfactory resolution would simply not be possible. Iain.Stott

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Children of Heaven (1997)

Highly Recommended

Iran
Feature Film
Original Title: بچه های آسمان
Writer/Director: Majid Majidi
Cinematographer: Parviz Malekzaade
Composer: Keivan Jahanshahi
Cast: Mir Farrokh Hashemian, Bahare Seddiqi, Amir Naji, Fereshte Sarabandi, Nafise Jafar-Mohammadi

Majidi’s heart-warming film, encompassing cute children, dire poverty, lost shoes, and some rather improbable and nonsensical plotting, somehow manages to avoid the sentimentality that such a tale would normally embrace, and instead comes across as an ode to love, kindness, and determination that, against all the odds, is beautifully moving rather than painfully corny. Iain.Stott

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Rageh Inside Iran (2007)

Cautiously Recommended

UK

Television Documentary
Director: Paul Sapin
Cinematographer: John Sayers
Presenter: Rageh Omaar

A generally fascinating and revealing documentary, exploring the everyday lives of a diverse cross-section of Tehranians, that points up the universalities of the human condition and the cultural specificities of Iranian life; but, unfortunately, much of it feels staged, and in fact some of it quite clearly is so, although, I should think, for artistic rather than journalistic reasons. Iain.Stott

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On the Ceiling (2009)

UK
Radio Play
Series Title: The Saturday Play
Writer: Nigel Planer
Director: Mary Peate
Composer: Adam Cork
Cast: Phil Daniels, Bryan Dick, Gary Waldhorn, Roger Lloyd Pack

An irreverent yet insightful and absolutely hilarious look at the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, seen through the eyes of two of his assistants, providing us with a stream of evocative imagery: from Michelangelo’s description by Pope Julius and Cardinal Alidosi as ‘obsessive, compulsive, and a bit smelly’ to numerous conversations about buttocks and the merits and failings of various great artists. Iain.Stott

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Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life (2009)

Recommended

UK
Short Television Documentary
Writer/Presenter: David Attenborough

Attenborough’s concise but thorough documentary, a beautifully enthusiastic look at the evolution of life on earth, devoting rather less time to Darwin than the title would suggest, is a nigh indispensable work of television, and further evidence of the BBC’s continuing level of excellence of production of accessibly informative factual programming. Iain.Stott

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...Around (2008)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film
Writer/Director: David Spaltro
Cinematographer: David A. Barkan
Composer: Vita Tanga
Cast: Rob Evans, Molly Ryman, Marcel Torres, Berenice Mosca, Ron Brice, Veronica Heffron, David Joseph Boyd, Erin Sullivan, Ali Tobia, Amy Hoerler, Julie Tran

Spaltro’s ultra-low budget, self-financed, quickly shot debut, a semi-autobiographical tale of a young film student’s failure to make ends meet in New York City, where he end up living on the streets, is, particularly in the light-hearted and breathlessly paced first couple of acts, rather rough and ready, but as the film progresses and the pace slackens and the tone becomes more dramatic, allowing the complicated characters more room to breathe, the film ends up, thanks in no small part to Evans’s wholehearted performance, becoming a thoroughly rewarding and really rather moving experience. Iain.Stott

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Shirley Valentine (1989)

Highly Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Writer: Willy Russell
Cinematographer: Alan Hume
Composer: Willy Russell
Cast: Pauline Collins, Tom Conti, Alison Steadman, Julia McKenzie, Joanna Lumley, Bernard Hill, Gillian Kearney, Tracie Bennett

Collins is outstanding as the titular housewife in this funny, touching, and melancholic adaptation of Russell’s acclaimed play; an insightful look at the politics of sex and marriage, and a beautiful lament to forgotten hopes and dashed dreams. Iain.Stott

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The Devil's Whore (2008)

Recommended

UK

Television Mini-Series
Director: Marc Munden
Writer: Peter Flannery
Cinematographer: Julian Court
Composer: Murray Gold
Cast: Andrea Riseborough, John Simm, Dominic West, Peter Capaldi, Michael Fassbender, Tom Goodman-Hill, Maxine Peake

The ridiculously gorgeous Riseborough’s wonderful performance as the eponymous lady, Angelica Fanshawe, forms the heart of this entertaining mini-series, that takes a not-entirely-historically-accurate look at events of the English Civil War (1642–51); it garners acclaim for its bloody and unromantic depiction of death, violence, and war, but loses as much for its unrelentingly quick pacing, that gives the viewer little chance to breathe. Iain.Stott

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Three Came Home (1950)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Jean Negulesco
Writers: Nunnally Johnson, Agnes Newton Keith
Cinematographer: Milton Krasner
Composer: Hugo Friedhofer
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Patric Knowles, Florence Desmond, Sessue Hayakawa, Sylvia Andrew, Mark Keuning, Phyllis Morris, Howard Chuman

With Hayakawa’s heartbreakingly beautiful performance, this surprisingly even-handed (for Hollywood, at least) account of the true story of an American writer’s time in an internment camp during the Second World War, is a really rather moving look at the cruelty, compassion, humour, and resilience of human experience. Iain.Stott

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My New Best Friend (2008)

Recommended

UK
Television Documentary Mini-Series
Directors: Jo Abel, Sasa Maja Djurkovic

A touching look at a number of ethnically, culturally, geographically, and economically diverse eleven-year-olds from across the UK as they make the often traumatic transfer from primary to secondary school, highlighting the similarities, differences, universalities, and specificities of the process of making new friends and keeping old ones. Iain.Stott

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Phumzile (2009)

UK
Radio Play
Series Title: The Afternoon Play
Writer: Matthew Hurt
Director: Claire Grove
Cast: Nadine Marshall, Syan Blake, Matt Addis, Stephen Hogan, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett

A heartfelt look at the complicated relationships between African poverty & AIDS and European attitudes, and one that asks some awkward questions about some important issues, issues which unfortunately tend to be highlighted at the expense of interesting, rounded characters; a noble effort nonetheless. Iain.Stott

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Monkeyface (2006)

UK
Radio Play
Series: The Afternoon Play
Writer: Linda Marshall Griffiths
Director: Nadia Molinari
Cast: Aidan Parsons, Rachel Brogan, Siobhan Finneran, Craig Cheetham, Charlie Ryan

A stunning, impressionistic portrait of the harsh childhoods of two fatherless Manchester siblings, rather reminiscent of the films of Terence Davies, it manages to be simultaneously bleakly depressing and achingly beautiful as its heartbreaking tale unfolds. Iain.Stott

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Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)

Cautiously Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Jean-François Richet
Writers: James DeMonaco, John Carpenter
Cinematographer: Robert Gantz
Composer: Graeme Revell
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Byrne, Maria Bello, Drea de Matteo, John Leguizamo, Brian Dennehy, Jeffrey 'Ja Rule' Atkins, Currie Graham

This mildly entertaining remake of Carpenter’s film suffers in comparison to the original by taking itself rather too seriously, but it’s well enough made with some decent performances, Hawke’s being typically eye-catching, but Fishburne’s turn is restrained to the point of paralysis. Iain.Stott

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Monk: Season 6 (2007-2008)

USA
Television Series
Creator: Andy Breckman
Cast: Tony Shalhoub, Traylor Howard, Ted Levine, Jason Gray-Stanford, Stanley Kamel, Emmy Clarke

Despite a couple of episodes early on in the season that border on self-parody, the sixth season of this imaginatively entertaining detective show is, with its usual mix of sharp writing and excellent comic performances, just as ingenious, funny, and addictive as ever. Iain.Stott

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Old Joy (2006)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Writers: Jonathan Raymond, Kelly Reichardt
Cinematographer: Peter Sillen
Composer: Yo La Tengo
Cast: Daniel London, Will Oldham

Reichardt’s elegiac film – a gentle exploration of a dying friendship, set against the backdrop of a flailing country, with gorgeous cinematography and a hypnotic natural soundtrack – proves to be an enigmatically moving experience. Iain.Stott

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One False Move (1992)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Carl Franklin
Writers: Tom Epperson, Billy Bob Thornton
Cinematographer: James L. Carter
Composers: Peter Haycock, Derek Holt
Cast: Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Beach, Jim Metzler, Earl Billings, Natalie Canerday, Robert Ginnaven, Kevin Hunter

A beautifully nuanced, even-handed, and non-judgemental exploration of cultural and racial differences, as well as suspense-filled crime thriller from Franklin, that follows a small town police chief and two Los Angeles officers as they await the arrival of three suspected murderers in a small Arkansas town. Iain.Stott

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Cannabis: The Evil Weed? (2009)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Series: Horizon (1964-)
Writer/Director: Annabel Gillings
Cinematography: Tim Cragg
Featuring: Dr. John Marsden

A fascinating, even-handed, and well-made (despite the occasional ostentatious close-up) documentary, examining the origins, benefits, dangers, and highs & lows of Cannabis and its various uses, that comes to a conclusion that will not go down well with the Daily Mail reading members of the populace. Iain.Stott

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Darwin's Struggle: The Evolution of the Origin of Species (2009)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Writer/Producer: Jeremy Bristow
Composer: Max Richter
Narrator: Deborah MacLaren

A thoroughly compelling and deeply human documentary, examining the brave, tentative steps that Charles Darwin took towards publishing The Origin of Species, a book and theory that would change the face and path of scientific theory and social history. Iain.Stott

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The Dish (2000)

Cautiously Recommended

Australia
Feature Film
Director: Rob Sitch
Writers: Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy, Rob Sitch
Cinematographer: Graeme Wood
Composer: Edmund Choi
Cast: Sam Neill, Patrick Warburton, Roy Billing, Kevin Harrington, Genevieve Mooy, Taylor Kane, Billie Browne, Anderw S Gilbert, Eliza Szonert

A professional if slightly uninspired and rather Hollywoodised account (the Hollywood-like score is particularly ghastly) of Australia’s part in the televising of the first moon landings in 1969, but a fairly entertaining one never the less, and the no-worries Aussie kookiness that infuses much of it is often quite amusing. Iain.Stott

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Rab C. Nesbitt: Fitba (1991)

UK
Television Series Special
Writer: Ian Pattison
Cast: Gregor Fisher, Tony Roper, Eric Cullen, Stanley Baxter

An often laugh-out-loud funny one-off special, following the ever-sozzled, philosophising Glaswegian, Rab C. Nesbitt, to Italia ’90, in the company of a dying ex-footballer, in search of fitba and pizza. Iain.Stott

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The Puffy Chair (2005)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Jay Duplass
Writers: Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass
Cast: Mark Duplass, Kathryn Aselton, Rhett Wilkins, Julie Fischer, Larry Duplass

The Duplass brothers’ feature debut, a rambling road movie, following an impractical young man, his gorgeous girlfriend, and his spaced-out brother on a quest to buy the titular piece of furniture for his father’s birthday, has a real authenticity about it that is by turns funny, annoying, insightful, and eventually really rather moving. Iain.Stott

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Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1986)

Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Alan Clarke
Writer: Andrea Dunbar
Cinematographer: Ivan Strasburg
Composer: Michael Kamen
Cast: Siobhan Finneran, Siobhan Finneran, George Costigan, Lesley Sharp, Kulvinder Ghir, Willie Ross, Patti Nicholls

Adapted by Dunbar from her own socially satirical play, this ridiculously funny sex farce, following the sexual misadventures of two teenaged babysitters, which admittedly on paper sounds like a product of Hustler’s Barely Legal, is in fact a nuanced, incisive, and insightful if somewhat bawdy little gem. Iain.Stott

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The Way Ahead (1944)

Recommended

UK

Feature Film
Director: Carol Reed
Writers: Eric Ambler, Peter Ustinov
Cinematographer: Guy Green
Composer: William Alwyn
Cast: David Niven, Stanley Holloway, James Donald, John Laurie, Leslie Dwyer, Hugh Burden, Jimmie Hanley, Billy Hartnell, John Ruddock, Bromley Davenport, Renee Asherson, Peter Ustinov

Let down somewhat by the rather dull action sequences that litter the second half of the movie, this otherwise entertaining look at the lives of a group of new recruits at the beginning of the Second World War, from call-up through basic training to their first battle, is a nicely paced, credible, and exceedingly human film. Iain.Stott

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Zatoichi (2003)

Recommended

Japan

Feature Film
Original Title: 座頭市
Directror: Kitano Takeshi

Writers: Kitano Takeshi, Shimozawa Kan

Cinematography: Yanagishima Katsumi

Composer: Suzuki Keiichi

Cast: Beat Takeshi, Asano Tadanobu, Okusu Michiyo, Natsukawa Yui, Taka Guadalcanal, Tachibana Daigiro, Daike Yuko, Kishibe Ittoku, Ishikura Saburo, Emoto Akira

A thoroughly bonkers and irreverent film from Kitano, filled with blood-gushingly absurd black-humour, enjoyable anachronisms, and whimsical plotting and characterisation, Zatoichi follows a preternaturally gifted, blind killer/masseur as he wanders into a small village and systematically cleans it up (and not with a broom). Iain.Stott

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Broadcast News (1987)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director: James L. Brooks
Cinematographer: Michael Ballhaus
Composer: Bill Conti
Cast: Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks, William Hurt, Robert Prosky, Lois Chiles, Joan Cusack, Jack Nicholson

This winsomely satirical, behind-the-scenes look at the running of a television newsroom, replete with cliché-free, beautifully drawn characters, fleshed out wonderfully by a delightful cast, is a touching, funny, unpredictable, and thoroughly human comedy-drama. Iain.Stott

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What Darwin Didn't Know (2009)

UK
Television Documentary
Director: Tim Lambert
Writer/Presenter: Armand Marie Leroi
Cinematographers: Gordon Hiles, Lawrence Gardner

A fascinating, enthralling, and thoroughly entertaining look at the evolution of the theory of evolution, from Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1859) up until today’s computer enhanced wonders. Iain.Stott

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Night Train to Munich (1940)

Cautiously Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Carol Reed
Writers: Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder, Gordon Wellesley
Cinematographer: Otto Kanturek
Composer: Louis Levy
Cast: Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Paul von Hernried, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, James Harcourt, Felix Aylmer

This mildly entertaining if vaguely forgettable thriller, a convoluted tale of Nazi spies, selfless do-goodery, and unlikely romance, is, thanks in the main to the comic relief supplied by the ever-wonderful Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, a never less than watchable film. Iain.Stott

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Robert Burns: The People's Poet (2009)

Recommended

UK
Television Documentary
Director: Colin Murray
Cinematographers: Brian Jobson, Alistair McCormick
Featuring: Andrew O'Hagan

An entertaining, human, and personal look at the life of renowned Scots poet, songwriter, womaniser, and political radical, Robert Burns, presented well by fellow Scots writer, O’Hagan, who doesn’t let his great admiration for his writing hero get in the way of the often confounding truth. Iain.Stott

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TIFF's Best Films of the '90s

1. The Quince Tree Sun (1992)
2. And Life Goes On... (1991)
   Through the Olive Trees (1994)
3. Drifting Clouds (1996)
4. Close-Up (1990)
   Breaking the Waves (1996)
5. Sátántangó (1994)
6. Flowers of Shanghai (1998)
   Taste of Cherry (1997)
7. Chungking Express (1994)
   Hana-Bi (1997)
   The Thin Red Line (1998)
8. Histoire(s) du Cinema (1989-1998)
   A Brighter Summer Day (1991)
9. A Moment of Innocence (1996)
10. Goodfellas (1990)
    L'Eau Froide (1994)
11. Mother and Son (1997)
12. Vive l'Amour (1994)
    Nouvelle Vague (1990)
13. Abraham Valley (1993)
    Safe (1995)
    Dead Man (1995)
14. The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
    Unforgiven (1992)
    Exotica (1994)
15. Sonatine (1993)
16. Maborosi (1995)
    Naked (1993)
17. La Vie de Jésus (1997)
    Fargo (1996)
18. Pulp Fiction (1994)
19. La Belle Noiseuse (1991)
    Van Gogh (1991)
    Three Colours: Red (1994)
20. The Last Bolshevik (1993)
21. Caro Diario (1993)
22. Crumb (1994)
23. The Puppetmaster (1993)
    Goodbye, South, Goodbye (1996)
24. Sicilia! (1999)

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The Railway Children (1970)

Cautiously Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Lionel Jeffries
Writers: Lionel Jeffries, E. Nesbit
Cinematographer: Arthur Ibbetson
Composer: Johnny Douglas
Cast: Jenny Agutter, Dinah Sheridan, Bernard Cribbins, Sally Thomsett, Gary Warren, William Mervyn, Peter Bromilow, Ann Lancaster, Gordon Whiting

An episodic and sentimental but nevertheless heart-warming and often funny adaptation of Nesbit’s 1906 novel, depicting the travails and adventures of three formerly wealthy children relocated to Yorkshire following the imprisonment of their father. Iain.Stott

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Six Degrees of Separation (1993)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Fred Schepisi
Writer: John Guare
Cinematographer: Ian Baker
Composer: Jerry Goldsmith
Cast: Will Smith, Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland, Ian McKellen, Anthony Michael Hall, Heather Graham, Eric Thal

This compelling, insightful, and quite unpredictable film, an entertaining and excellently performed adaptation of Guare’s play, depicting the effect that a charming and intelligent young man, who may or may not be a conman, has upon the wealthy people’s lives that he walks into, is an oft surprising delight. Iain.Stott

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People's Century: 1929 Breadline (1995)

UK/USA

Short Television Documentary
Director: Archie Baron
Composer: Jonathan Dove
Featuring: Sean Barrett

An interesting and entertaining if not particularly in depth account of the Great Depression, covering events from the great stock market crash of 1929 up to the onset of the Second World War, with testimony from those that lived through it. Iain.Stott

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1929: The Great Crash (2009)

UK

Short Television Documentary
Director: Joanna Bartholomew
Featuring: Bill Paterson, John Sessions

A typically professional and competent BBC documentary, taking a look at the great stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent birth of the great depression and fascism, and a sobering insight into what today’s worrying financial climate may be heading towards. Iain.Stott

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I, Pierre Rivière (1976)

Highly Recommended

France
Feature Film
Original Title: Moi, Pierre Rivière, ayant égorgé ma mère, ma soeur et mon frère...
Director: René Allio
Writers: Pascal Bonitzer, Jean Jourdheuil, Serge Toubiana, Michel Foucault
Cinematographer: Nurit Aviv
Cast: Claude Hébert, Jacqueline Millière, Joseph Leportier, Annick Géhan, Nicole Géhan, Emilie Lihou, Antoine Bourseiller, Michel Amphoux, Jacques Debary, Chilpéric de Boiscuillé, Léon Jeangirard

A tempered and unsensational recreation of an horrific triple murder that occurred in northern France in 1835, slavishly following court records and witness testimony to produce an invaluable portrait of a time & place and of its customs and morals, as well as a thoroughly credible portrait of a young man in the throes of mental illness. Iain.Stott

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The Crazies (1973)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: George A. Romero

Writers: George A. Romero, Paul McCollough

Cinematographer: S. William Hinzman

Composer: Bruce Roberts

Cast: Lane Carroll, W.G. McMillan, Harold Wayne Jones, Lloyd Hollar, Lynn Lowry, Richard Liberty, Richard France, Harry Spillman, Will Disney

Romero’s cynical, allegorical tale – an indictment of Nixon/Kissinger-era American politics, depicting a small town under martial law following the accidental release of a biological weapon that leaves its victims in the throes of madness – is a bleakly entertaining and thought-provoking film, though it suffers in comparison to his Dead films. Iain.Stott

Remade as The Crazies (2010).

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The Long Day Closes (1992)

Essential Viewing

UK

Feature Film
Writer/Director: Terence Davies
Cinematographer: Michael Coulter
Composers: Bob Last, Robert Lockhart
Cast: Leigh McCormack, Marjorie Yates, Anthony Watson, Nicholas Lamont, Ayse Owens, Tina Malone, Jimmy Wilde

Davies‘s stunningly photographed, heartbreakingly performed, and achingly beautiful autobiographical film, an impressionistic look at the life of a quiet, 11-year-old Liverpudlian, contrasting the glamour of Hollywood cinema with the bleak, grey world of 1950s Liverpool, is nothing less than a masterpiece. Iain.Stott

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Desperate Man Blues (2003)

Recommended

Australia
Short Documentary
Director: Edward Gillan
Cinematographer: Ray Argall
Featuring: Joe Bussard

Desperate Man Blues is a hugely enjoyable portrait of the infectiously enthusiastic and passionate Joe Bussard, a sixty-odd-year-old collector of Bluegrass, Hillbilly, Country, Blues, and Jazz 78s from the ‘20s and ‘30s, and one that highlights the importance, excitement, and fragility of cultural history. Iain.Stott

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America Unchained (2007)

Recommended

UK
Feature Documentary
Directors: Andy Devonshire, Stef Wagstaffe
Writer: Dave Gorman
Composer: Dru Masters
Featuring: Dave Gorman

Gorman’s entertaining documentary, depicting his coast-to-coast road trip across the United States in search of The Real America, a trip he is attempting to make without giving any money to The Man, avoiding all chain gas-stations, restaurants, and hotels, provides a gentle and funny though slightly depressing look at a dying way of life. Iain.Stott

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War of the Worlds (2005)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Josh Friedman, David Koepp, H.G. Wells
Cinematographer: Janusz Kaminski
Composer: John Williams
Cast: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Tim Robbins, Miranda Otto

An entertaining alien-invasion movie from Spielberg that benefits from excellent production values, spirited performances, and some atypically, for the genre at least, well drawn characters, and one that keeps us perched so attentively on the edge of our seats that we can forgive its plot holes and the horribly sentimental and rather silly final scene. Iain.Stott

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Stockwell (2009)

Cautiously Recommended

UK
Short Television Documentary
Director: Jonathan Rudd
Writers: James Reid, Jonathan Rudd, Steve Walsh
Cast: Jano Moskorz, Marva Alexander, Drew Edwards, Eamon Geoghegan, Gerard Ban-Lavery, James Sutherland, Rupert Baker

This recreation of the tragic and disgraceful balls-up that lead to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, a mistakenly suspected terrorist, on a London tube-train in July 2005, insensitively and distastefully structured like a thriller, quickening score, on-screen countdown, and all, is an otherwise effectively and competently made documentary. Iain.Stott

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President Hollywood (2008)

UK

Short Television Documentary
Director: Janette Ballard
Featuring: Jonathan Freedland, Eli Attie, Tad Devine, Ken Duberstein, Geoff Garin, Wynton Hall, Mary Jordan, Rod Lurie, Stryker Maguire, Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., Jennifer Palmieri, Joe Queenan, David Schwartz, Jimmy Smits

A fairly interesting documentary looking at the relationship between Hollywood and the office of President of the United States of America, highlighting the similarities and differences between fact and fiction, and examining the effect that they have upon each other. Iain.Stott

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Beau Brummell: This Charming Man (2006)

Cautiously Recommended

UK
Television Film
Director: Philippa Lowthorpe
Writer: Simon Bent
Cinematographer: Graham Smith
Composer: Peter Salem
Cast: James Purefoy, Hugh Bonneville, Phil Davis, Zoe Telford, Matthew Rhys, Nicholas Rowe, Ian Kelly, Elliot Levey

An enjoyable, contemporary feeling look at a brief period from the life of the notorious, fast living, and troubled titular fashion icon, which makes the most of spirited performances and a delightful score, but as entertaining as it often is, one can’t help but wish for a little more depth to the decidedly light-weight proceedings. Iain.Stott

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A Voyage Round My Father (1982)

Cautiously Recommended

UK

Television Film
Director: Alvin Rakoff
Writer: John Mortimer
Cinematographer: Tony Pierce-Roberts
Composer: Marc Wilkinson
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates, Jane Asher, Elizabeth Sellars

Olivier’s superb performance enlivens an otherwise pedestrian but nevertheless heartfelt television film, based on Mortimer’s autobiographical play, which explored his relationship with his blind, cantankerous father from childhood till the father’s death, but the film does have some rather touching moments not the least of which is the aforementioned death scene. Iain.Stott

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John Mortimer: A Life in Words (2008)

UK

Short Television Documentary
Director: Lawrence Elman
Featuring: John Mortimer

A reverent and unremarkable if nevertheless enjoyable portrait of barrister-turned-writer John Mortimer, a charming, incomparable, and politically active leftist, and the man behind Rumpole of the Bailey. Iain.Stott

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The Road (2006)

USA

Novel
Author: Cormac McCarthy

McCarthy's beautifully bleak, post-apocalyptic novel, following a father and son as they head south in search of food, shelter, warmer climes, and "The Good Guys", is a no frills, almost artless, and rather moving examination of love and survival during the dark, final days of mankind. Iain.Stott

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Rumpole of the Bailey (1975)

Highly Recommended

UK
Short Television Film
Series Title: Play for Today (1970-1984)

Director: John Gorrie
Writer: John Mortimer
Cast: Leo McKern, Joyce Heron, Noel Willman, David Yelland, Herbert Norville, Artro Morris, George Sweeney, John Byron, Vernon Dobtcheff, Edwin Brown, Paul Greenhalgh

This short television film, part of the BBC's Play for Today series, the screen's first outing for the incomparable McKern as the titular barrister, depicting an unpredictable and racially sensitive case, is, with McKern's brilliantly nuanced performance and the entirely credible and insightful scripting, a touching and humorous delight. Iain.Stott

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The Saddest Music in the World (2003)

Highly Recommended

Canada

Feature Film
Director: Guy Maddin
Writers: Guy Maddin, George Toles, Kazuo Ishiguro
Cinematographer: Luc Montpellier
Composer: Christopher Dedrick
Cast: Mark McKinney, Isabella Rossellini, Maria de Medeiros, David Fox, Ross McMillan

From the man that turned pastiche into an art form, the incomparable and quite unique Guy Maddin, comes this visually arresting, hilarious, inventive, and surprisingly rather moving tale of a contest in 1933 Winnipeg to find the world's saddest music, thrown by a literally legless beer baroness. Iain.Stott

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I'm Not Scared (2003)

Recommended

Italy/Spain/UK
Feature Film
Original Title: Io non ho paura
Director: Director: Gabriele Salvatores
Cinematographer: Italo Petriccione
Composers: Ezio Bosso, Pepo Scherman
Cast: Giuseppe Cristiano, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Giulia Matturro, Mattia Di Pierro, Stefano Biase, Diego Abatantuono

With its gorgeous cinematography, delightfully playful mise en scène, unobtrusively complimentary score, and stunning juvenile performance from Cristiano, this entertaining adaptation of Ammaniti's prize-winning novel, depicting an unusual friendship that develops between a kidnapped child and the kidnapper's son, provides a sensual and enthralling portrait of the death of innocence. Iain.Stott

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Funny Games U.S. (2007)

Highly Recommended

France/UK/Austria/Germany/Italy
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Michael Haneke
Cinematographer: Darius Khondji
Cast: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet, Devon Gearhart

Haneke’s shot-for-shot remake of his 1997 masterpiece, a disturbing cinematic treatise on the relationship between on-screen violence and the viewer, is just (but for its familiarity) as effective as the original; titillating suspense followed by harrowing, painful, and almost impossible to watch scenes of devastation make us feel suitably guilty and stimulate a moral thought process that is atypical of the cinema that it satirises and mimics. Iain.Stott

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Porterhouse Blue (1974)

UK

Novel
Author: Tom Sharpe

Sharpe’s novel (improved upon by Malcolm Bradbury’s television adaptation?) - a cynical and satirical look at life in a fictional Cambridge college (a rather nice metaphor for the state of Britain itself) - is an intelligent, insightful, and often laugh-out-loud funny piece of writing. Iain.Stott

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Films of the Decade

Based on various critics' top tens, etc.

1920s (and earlier)
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s

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