This film is currently unavailable
A Hard Day's Night
The Beatles’ freewheeling film debut remains the pinnacle of rock-n-roll cinema; still deliriously entertaining 50 years on.
Director: Richard Lester
Overview
The Beatles’ freewheeling film debut remains deliriously entertaining 50 years on, anarchically revelling in the Fab Four’s slapstick, sardonic personas and adopting a kinetic visual style – influenced by the French New Wave - that would inspire the modern music video.
Made at the peak of Beatlemania, it chronicles a couple of days in the life of the band as they try and escape the attentions of hysterical fans, clueless hacks, uncool toffs, a perpetually fretful manager and the regrettable presence of Paul’s ‘clean’ but meddling grandfather. Alun Owen’s witty, Oscar®-nominated script ensures that the film endures as a scintillating blend of marvellous music and gently satirical comedy, and John, Paul, George and Ringo ooze youthful irreverence and utterly unforced charm. The cinematography, at times imaginatively witty, at others almost documentary-like, was by the great Gilbert Taylor.
Contains mild languageRelated
The Wayward Cloud The Wayward Cloud
Comedy 2004 114 mins Director: Tsai Ming-liang
Ming-Liang Tsai's outrageous blend of sex, comedy, musical and drama is a daring, controversial and hilarious smorgasbord from one of Taiwan's most acclaimed directors.
Battleship Potemkin Battleship Potemkin
Historical drama 1925 69 mins Silent Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein
A fixture in the critical canon almost since its premiere, Eisenstein’s film about a 1905 naval mutiny was revolutionary in both form and content.
Vampyr Vampyr
Horror 1932 73 mins Director: Carl Th. Dreyer
The first sound-film by one of the greatest of all filmmakers, Carl Theodor Dreyer, is akin to a waking-dream; guiding the viewer on a trance-like journey between reality and the supernatural.
Steamboat Bill, Jr. Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Comedy 1928 71 mins Director: Charles F. Riesner
Waterway hi jinks abound in this Buster Keaton classic, in which he plays the reluctant heir to his father's paddle steamer business.
The Old Dark House The Old Dark House
Comedy 1932 72 mins Director: James Whale
A group of weary travellers arrive at a spooky mansion with a madman on the loose, in this classic horror-comedy from James Whale (Bride of Frankenstein)
A Bagful of Fleas A Bagful of Fleas
Documentary 1962 43 mins Director: Věra Chytilová
Věra Chytilová's 'fictionalised documentary' uses non-actors to portray girls' lives in the cotton mills of Náchod.
Bait Bait
Drama 2019 89 mins Director: Mark Jenkin
Simmering tensions between locals and newcomers in a modern-day Cornish fishing village reach boiling point in this hugely acclaimed British independent film.
Hundreds of Beavers Hundreds of Beavers
Comedy 2024 109 mins Director: Mike Cheslik
Stranded in a surreal winter landscape, a drunken applejack salesman must become North America's greatest fur trapper in Mike Cheslik’s gloriously anarchic slapstick comedy.
Cronos Cronos
Horror 1992 93 mins Director: Guillermo del Toro
Guillermo del Toro’s Cannes prize-winning directorial debut offers a unique take on the classic vampire story.
Alma's Rainbow Alma's Rainbow
Comedy 1993 89 mins Director: Ayoka Chenzira
Ayoka Chenzira’s vital coming-of-age comedy about three Black women living in Brooklyn learning to embrace life and exercise their agency.
Welcome II the Terrordome Welcome II the Terrordome
Drama 1995 94 mins Director: Ngozi Onwurah
A ferocious dystopian nightmare, this was the first film directed by a Black British woman to receive a UK theatrical release.
Losing Ground Losing Ground
Drama 1982 86 mins Director: Kathleen Collins
A philosophy professor and an artist reach a crisis point in their marriage, in Kathleen Collins’ groundbreaking masterpiece.
Naked Acts Naked Acts
Drama 1996 88 mins Director: Bridgett M. Davis
Bridgett M. Davis’s comedy about an aspiring young Black actress who lands her first major role, but there’s a big problem: it requires a nude scene.
