This film is part of Rentals

A Town Like Alice
An Englishwoman is captured by Japanese forces during WWII and befriends an Australian POW, in this gritty adaptation of Nevile Shute’s novel.
War 1956 116 mins
Director: Jack Lee
Overview
A rare British feature to cover the Pacific theatre of World War Two, this adaptation of Nevil Shute’s best-selling novel (in fact, just the book’s first half) relays the experiences of an Englishwoman who's captured by Japanese forces while building wells in Kuala Lumpur (Virginia McKenna). During her ordeal she falls for a fellow POW, an Australian soldier (Peter Finch), and the pair band together to help ease the suffering of their fellow prisoners.
Directed by Crown Film Unit veteran Jack Lee, A Town Like Alice works as both a touching love story and a gritty, tense war drama, notable for its strong ensemble of female actors (Marie Löhr, Renée Houston, Jean Anderson). Remarkably, it was almost entirely shot in and around Pinewood Studios, with the cold ponds of Burnham Beeches standing in for the humid swamps of Malaya. Both leads would be rewarded with Baftas for their committed performances, but the film itself was withdrawn from the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, lest it offend Japanese sensibilities.

Related
War

The Painted Bird The Painted Bird
Drama 2019 169 mins Director: Vaclav Marhoul
Based on Jerzy Kosiński’s 1965 novel and a long time in the making, Václav Marhoul’s extraordinary The Painted Bird finds a lone Jewish boy on a dark odyssey towards home during wartime.

Kanarie Kanarie
Drama 2018 124 mins Director: Christiaan Olwagen
A Boy George-obsessed smalltown boy joins the South African Defence Force army choir, in this quirky Apartheid-era musical drama.

Casablanca Casablanca
Romance 1942 103 mins Director: Michael Curtiz
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman star in the eternal story of love, loss and redemption; the ultimate testament to the brilliance of Golden Age Hollywood.

Full Metal Jacket Full Metal Jacket
War 1987 117 mins Director: Stanley Kubrick
Recruits move from the brutal US Marine training bootcamp – into the nightmare of war.

Journey's End Journey's End
Drama 2017 108 mins Director: Saul Dibb
Sam Claflin, Paul Bettany and Asa Butterfield bring R C Sherriff’s acclaimed First World War play to the screen, in this new adaptation from director Saul Dibb.

The Angel with the Trumpet The Angel with the Trumpet
Romance 1950 99 mins Director: Anthony Bushell
Anthony Bushell directs this 1950 British drama about the rise and fall of a family of Austrian piano-makers in Vienna.
Best of BAFTA

Beast Beast
Drama 2017 106 mins Director: Michael Pearce
The hunt for a Jersey serial killer sparks a dangerous awakening in a young woman in this astonishing psycho-sexual thriller, which sets all the senses aflame.

RBG RBG
Documentary 2018 99 mins Director: Julie Cohen
Revelatory documentary on an unexpected hero - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Wild Rose Wild Rose
Drama 2018 101 mins Director: Tom Harper
This delightful and infectiously joyous film finds a young woman balancing her dreams of being a country music star with the responsibilities of motherhood.

Maiden Maiden
Documentary 2018 94 mins Director: Alex Holmes
The incredible, against-all-odds story of sailor Tracy Edwards, who skippered the first all-female international crew in the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race.

Apollo 11 Apollo 11
Documentary 2019 93 mins Director: Todd Douglas Miller
Astonishing documentary about the 1969 lunar mission, crafted from a newly discovered trove of spectacular, pristine 65mm footage.

Judy Judy
Drama 2019 118 mins Director: Rupert Goold
Renée Zellweger pulls off a show-stopping performance with her BAFTA and Oscar®-winning portrayal of Judy Garland.
Featuring Peter Finch

Girl with Green Eyes Girl with Green Eyes
Drama 1963 92 mins Director: Desmond Davis
Rita Tushingham plays the shy, naive girl who catches the eye of Peter Finch's middle-aged writer, in this effervescent adaptation of Edna O’Brien's best-selling novel.

Far from the Madding Crowd Far from the Madding Crowd
Period drama 1967 165 mins Director: John Schlesinger
Terence Stamp and Julie Christie star in the classic adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s tale of tragedy and passion.
New

Are We Lost Forever Are We Lost Forever
Drama 2020 105 mins Director: David Färdmar
Adrian (Björn Elgerd) and Hampus (Jonathan Andersson) seem to be in the midst of a fairy tale romance, they seem destined to be together, but do all fairy tales have a happy end?

MLK/FBI MLK/FBI
Documentary 2020 106 mins Director: Sam Pollard
Sam Pollard's resonant exploration of the US government's surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Little Stranger The Little Stranger
Thriller 2018 111 mins Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Lenny Abrahamson (Room, Frank) directs this Gothic mystery, with Domhnall Gleeson as a doctor helping the heir of a haunted stately home (Ruth Wilson).

Where Hands Touch Where Hands Touch
Drama 2017 122 mins Director: Amma Asante
Amma Asante (Belle, A United Kingdom) presents this rites-of-passage story of a bi-racial teen struggling for survival in Nazi Germany.

And Then We Danced And Then We Danced
Drama 2019 113 mins Director: Levan Akin
Merab’s world is turned upside down by the arrival of a new dancer in this impassioned Cannes-nominated love story.

Patrick Patrick
Drama 2019 96 mins Director: Tim Mielants
Life on the nudist colony is fairly routine for handyman Patrick (Kevin Janssens), that is until the mystery of his missing hammer sets in motion a hilarious quest of self-discovery.