Discoveries from United Kingdom World Cinema

A folklorist researching an 'urban legend' becomes caught up in his task. The film tells its fictional story in documentary style, featuring interviews with real folklore scholars.

The story of an apartment in Paris and the various people that occupy it over the years.

Sir Charles Hare, a young Irish baronet, gambles his all on one of his horses at Ascot. But the horse is 'pulled', and Sir Charles is forced to sell his Irish estate. His aunt, however, has some surprises in store for him.

Documentary following the Queen and members of the British Royal Family.

A dramatized speculation of what happened in November 1983 when Micky McAvoy and some of his mates planned a heist and were surprised when they discovered they'd stumbled across a large stash of gold. But getting the gold away without getting caught is only the beginning of their troubles. Realizing the riches the gold represents is difficult, and honor among thieves may only be a myth.

A man working home slowly discovers that a computer enhancement Is controlling him and all his loved ones.

This is a theatrical / movie adaptation of the TV Miniseries. Its chapters do not align with the episodes directly, so it necessarily must be held separate from the TV Miniseries.

After one of the hottest years on record, Sir David Attenborough looks at the science of climate change and potential solutions to this global threat. Interviews with some of the world’s leading climate scientists explore recent extreme weather conditions such as unprecedented storms and catastrophic wildfires. They also reveal what dangerous levels of climate change could mean for both human populations and the natural world in the future.

This is the time of year when friends and family gather round the television to exchange the traditional greeting -“Don’t bother, there’s nothing on”. Well this Christmas join Victoria Wood for her ‘Mid Life Christmas’ featuring highlights from the Mid Life Olympics 2009, with the most unlikely sporting events and a dance number that brings together the killer combo of midriff bulge. Victoria then dons a bonnet and corset, for the popular costume drama Lark Pies to Cranchesterford, and revel in the further adventures of soap star Bo Beaumont played by long term collaborator Julie Walters. DVD extras include the searing in-depth documentary (!) ‘What larks!’

Brendan Cobbs, a famous novelist, is sent to a remote cottage in rural England to find inspiration for his next novel. He believes he found his next subject when he encounters Alfred, a child size doll who can come to life.

A social gathering is rocked to its core when Jack accuses his best friend's wife of infidelity. But as the allegations start flying, it soon emerges that a far more sinister game may be at play...

In 1970s America, three African-American siblings on the run from the police take refuge at an abandoned Tennessee Ranch, unaware their hideout is on the hunting grounds of a cannibalistic Ku Klux Klan cult. Trapped and tortured, the three must fight tooth and nail to escape alive and take down the bloodthirsty Klan.

Two young children are brought to Janet Hinton, a social worker in the Scottish Highlands. When both she and an independent expert become convinced that the children are part of a ritual child abuse network, the small community is thrown into disarray.

From double BAFTA nominated Writer and Director John Walsh. Monarch is part fact, part fiction and unfolds around one night when the injured ruler arrives at a manor house closed for the season.

At his brother's wedding, the best man attempts to deliver his speech after an encounter in the hotel bathroom with the father of the bride.

Adaptation of the play by Henrik Ibsen.

When the daughter of a minister gets kidnapped, Christy is called upon to rescue her. Although he manages to save her, he himself gets embroiled in the kidnapper's murder.

A profile of the actress from a strict Quaker upbringing in Yorkshire, through her staunch determination to make it as a thespian. There's also a look at her work in TV favourites such as A Fine Romance and As Time Goes By, where Judi's performances won her four BAFTA awards, and her tenure in the James Bond franchise.

Though very polite and British, this feature-length documentary about German filmmaker Wim Wenders offers the most penetrating insights and the best overall critique of his work that I have encountered anywhere. Paul Joyce, who directed it, has also made documentaries about Nicolas Roeg, David Cronenberg, Nagisa Oshima, and Dennis Hopper, and he knows the conventional format well enough to get the most out of it. There are good clips and interesting commentaries from the interviewed subjects, who include Wenders himself, cinematographer Robby Muller, filmmaker Sam Fuller, novelist Patricia Highsmith, musician Ry Cooder, actors Harry Dean Stanton, Peter Falk, and Hanns Zischler, and critic Kraft Wetzel, who is especially provocative. A must-see for Wenders fans, highly recommended for everyone else. –Jonathan Rosenbaum, 1989

Catherine Tate returns with one of her most beloved characters in a half-hour special following the life and hilarious antics of a potty-mouthed granny. When Nan's kitchen tap breaks, she visits the council to arrange to get it fixed. Whilst there, she causes mayhem and upset.

After leaving a dinner party with his loved up friends, a single man has a chance encounter with a mystery woman that changes his view of love forever...

In a revealing documentary, Mike Leigh, director of Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake and Abigail's Party among many others, talks to Alan Yentob about a unique body of work and a lifelong struggle to make films on his own terms. On day one of a Mike Leigh film, there is no script, no story and the actors do not know if they will even be in the final film. It is a process that has yielded some of cinema's most celebrated performances, and Leigh's new film Mr Turner is already winning critical acclaim. Actors including Jim Broadbent, Eddie Marsan, Sally Hawkins, Lesley Manville and James Corden give fascinating insights into the director and his distinctive method of working.

When hard partying and volatile neighbours move in next door, a quiet woman's life begins to spiral, pushing her to the edge and triggering a slow, unnerving descent into obsession and revenge.

In India, Toomai, a young mahout, helps lead the British on a large expedition to round up wild elephants.

In a near-future society where grief is erased by law, Noah wakes up with fragments of an unknown woman after a near-fatal accident. Drawn into therapy and reassured by a trusted friend, he begins to piece together the unbearable truth. His search for her, and for himself, becomes an act of defiance against a world that values compliance over love. Haunted by memory and hunted by the system, Noah is forced to confront the cost of remembering, and the deeper cost of letting go.

Young Col is not enjoying his Cornish holiday and wishes his father would not join the family. Events make him grow up rather fast.

A documentary about 'The Magnificent Seven'.

Colonel Mortimer returns to his family after a long spell in India to find his young son in bed ill, and tormented by a wailing voice... but is it in the boy's imagination or not?

The search for their missing son leads a mother and father to a tech company, and a digital gatekeeper who seems to have all the answers.

A feature documentary about the people and the planes that helped win World War War II. Through people personally connected to the events, the film investigates the story of how the Spitfire, its stable-mate, the Hawker Hurricane and its great adversary, the Messerschmitt 109 came into being during the huge advances in aviation in the interwar period—and then how the pilots fared in combat, three miles up in the skies over Europe, Africa and Asia.

A luncheon party gathers to celebrate a wealthy unmarried man's birthday; his sister hopes he'll marry Sonya, the daughter of a selfish gout-ridden old professor who makes life Hell for his son George and his young wife, Helen. At the luncheon is Khrushchov, a passionate environmentalist, called "the Wood Demon" by all, in love with Sonya and she with him, but neither will say it. Two weeks later there's a family meeting at the professor's estate; two weeks after that, a supper at the cabin of Dyadin, who's cheerful to all. George, Helen, Sonya, and Khrushchov are each suffocating. Can any of them take action?

A fiction writer begins working on a biography of a pilot who went down during the test flight of a new plane and finds himself soon involved in a series of murders.

An 1897 travelogue of a bullock turning a cog to work a water pump in Egypt. Director/Cinematographer - Henry Short. Made as part of a follow-up series of travelogue films following a collection made for R.W. Paul in 1896.

The professional recording of the 1952 original London production at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

Nineteen popular children's nursery rhymes, signed, sung and spoken by Dave Benson Phillips of BBC Playdays fame. Funded by a grand from the BBC Children in Need Appeal 1990/91 and originally release on VHS in 1992. The Makaton signs in this video are derived from British Sign Language (BSL) with some finger spelling.

Two childhood sweethearts haven't spoken in ten years - now in their thirties, they decide to take a second chance at love.

The military have captured and imprisoned a supernatural entity. And now it wants to play.

Norman is working in the stock room of a large London department store, but he has ambition (doesn't he always !!), he wants to be a window dresser making up the public displays. Whilst trying to fulfill his ambition, he falls in love (doesn't he always !!), with one of the shopgirls. Together they discover a plot to rob the store and, somehow, manage to foil the robbers.

In the riotous, vibrant cities of 18th Century London and Dublin, the drink-sodden and cantankerous composer, George Frideric Handel, is a forgotten man to all but his faithful, whip-smart valet Peter. Worse still, Handel has lost his inspiration to compose. But when he overhears the singing of famous actress Susannah Cibber, Handel is moved to once again write some of the greatest music ever heard. King George II tasks him to create an oratorio to celebrate the new Irish Viceroy in chaotic Dublin.

Jack Brewster is a pennyless English lad who learns that he has inherited 6 million pounds sterling from a recently deceased relative. But soon learns that he must spend 500,000 pounds in 60 days to inherit the rest of the money, or forfeit the entire inheritance.

A scientist experimenting with suspended animation decides to use himself as a test subject. Before he is frozen, his wife is killed, and he is suspected of her murder. a murder suspect.

Lorna Blake, (Ursula Jeans) is a widow with two daughters. She augments her slender income by using her children to extort money - visiting the houses of the rich to tell a pathetic story and beg for help. And Lorna makes a rich capture when Sir Halmar Bernard, (Cecil Parker), proposes to her. She tells him that she has only one daughter, Molly (Jill Freud, credited as Jill Raymond). When her other daughter, Jay (Jean Simmons), is arrested for forging a cheque, she refuses to help her.

Christine, a new college student, pledges to a sinister sorority whose members major in vampirism, witchcraft and mind control.

In Marseille, Plongeurs are known for diving from extreme heights into the mediterranean sea. They are both applauded and vilified, regularly featuring in music videos, viral reels and local news; where journalists report romantic accounts of their exploits. Each summer, a death or severe accident occurs often leading the press to turn on the community, making them mascots for the city’s social ills. The film captures the story of these young men, as they navigate the uneasy transition from boyhood to adulthood; looking beyond adrenaline to reveal how this hazardous pastime helps them to articulate their complex identities and experiences.

A once-in-a-moment recording of the rock legends as they performed a surprise gig at the iconic Shepherd’s Bush Empire in June 1999. Announced only as they were preparing to play two nights at nearby behemoth Wembley Stadium that same month, it saw a small crowd of 1800 lucky fans treated to an intimate show in which the band eschewed their big hits in favour of rarely heard gems. This was a gig with many firsts; songs included Saint of Me, I Got the Blues and Brand New Car, while Melody was performed for the first time since 1977 and Moon Is Up brought to the stage for the only time in the band’s live career. Sheryl Crow, who opened the show, joined the band for a special rendition of Honky Tonk Women. As Mick Jagger shouted from the stage that night “If you want to see the hits, go to the big place down the road”. As promised, they didn’t disappoint.

Moving family drama of the life of a working-class Hackney couple over 40 years, inspired by the famous music hall song This moving family drama - with time for some laughs - portrays the life and hardships of a working class Hackney couple over a span of 40 years. Our intrepid couple (wonderfully played by Betty Balfour and Michael Hogan) have to face everything life throws at them with fortitude, from the Great War (a son in the RAF and zeppelin raids) to a raging oil fire during the Great Strike. The inimitable Gordon Harker provides sterling support. The film the couple watch at the cinema is the 1915 version of My Old Dutch, starring Albert Chevalier (writer of the original music hall song) and Florence Turner. As the complete silent film is now believed to be lost, this 1934 version contains the only surviving footage.

The true story of the notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, and how one family in Belfast, aided by journalist Chris Moore, uncovered the true extent of the clerical abuse scandal.

Inspired by the real events of the attempted heist at Heathrow Airport in 1952, a criminal tricks an old friend into giving away the location of a shipment of gold bullion so he and his gang can steal it.

From Nashville newcomer to international icon, singer Shania Twain transcends genres across borders amid triumphs and setbacks in this documentary.

On the eve of a catastrophic event which will wipe out the hearing population, we follow four deaf characters as they go about their daily lives.

Three postal workers and their dysfunctional families interact over cups of tea and Sunday dinner.

Comedy about a protective mother whose dull son seems to have become wayward with the local bottle blonde.

Elizabeth Sankey's deeply personal documentary examines the relationship between the cinematic portrayals of witches and the all-too-real experiences of postpartum depression by utilizing footage that spans the entirety of film history alongside heartrending personal testimony.

Go with the flow: to gentle but spellbinding effect this innovative natural history film glimpses marine life astride rising tides at Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae. Urchins, lugworm, weaver-fish and crabs are the shy-but-elegant stars coaxed onto the screen (with the assistance of Millport’s local research station) for this archetypal edition of Gaumont-British Instructional’s 1930s cinema series Secrets of Life.

Lucas Thompson is sentenced to community service, entailing him to deliver food parcels to the elderly where he finds himself on the doorstep of dementia sufferer; Arthur Miller.

This documentary contains dramatized episodes about the lives of Erika and Klaus Mann, the brilliant children of German writer Thomas Mann.

Set in modern upper-crust Manhattan, an exploration of love and commitment as seen through the eyes of a charming perpetual bachelor questioning his single state and his enthusiastically married, slightly envious friends.

The movie version of the stage musical about the life and career of Boy George. Features the original London cast.Boy George's hit musical Taboo is a glittering, funny and audacious spectacle celebrating the exotic fashions, the exuberant lifestyles and extraordinary characters of London's 1980's New Romantic movement in one of the most original and colourful musicals ever seen.

A festive tale about two lost toys searching for a new home.

When Matt Denant (Gerald de Maurier) finds himself wrongly imprisoned for manslaughter, he takes an opportunity to escape from jail during a foggy day and is forced to rely on the goodwill of local people to remain a fugitive of the law.