This film is part of Rentals
Blue Collar
Richard Pryor and Harvey Keitel star in Paul Schrader’s great, gritty 1970s drama, one of the rare Hollywood films to tackle American labour.
Industry sponsored film 1978 114 mins
Director: Paul Schrader
Overview
Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto play three Detroit car-factory workers disillusioned with both company exploitation and their union’s ineffectiveness. When they discover the union’s illegal ties to organised crime they hatch a plan to improve their lot, but discover that social mobility is never easily won.
Paul Schrader’s directorial debut is a notable film many ways, not least for being one of the few Hollywood films to tackle the issue of industrial relations. Schrader’s sense for the milieu makes it one of the great, gritty 1970s movies. But it’s Pryor’s lead performance that’s a revelation: in his first lead role he plays it relatively straight, carrying the dramatic story while also adding the occasional comic touch. It established Pryor as a bankable star who could deliver a credible performance and, crucially, carry a movie.
Contains strong sex, language and drug useRelated
Industry sponsored film
Wheels of Life
Advert 1929 8 mins
Bonkers bikes promo. They don't make 'em like this any more... or do they?
Black Star
Moonlight
Drama 2016 111 mins Director: Barry Jenkins
Winner of the 2017 Oscar for Best Picture (eventually!), Barry Jenkins’ intoxicating drama follows the furtive life of a gay black boy through 80s Miami.
20 Feet from Stardom
Documentary 2013 87 mins Director: Morgan Neville
This moving documentary shines a spotlight on the backing singers behind some of the great musical hits of the 21st century.
The Wiz
Fantasy 1978 134 mins Director: Sidney Lumet
NYC becomes Oz in the cult, urban reimagining of the family favourite, featuring an all-African American cast including Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.
Imitation of Life
Melodrama 1959 125 mins Director: Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk’s final Hollywood film is a masterpiece of melodrama, for which Juanita Moore became the fifth African-American Oscar-nominee.
Night of the Living Dead
Horror 1968 96 mins Director: George A. Romero
Landmark film from 'zombie godfather' Romero, whose makeshift heroes fight for their lives against a new and terrifying enemy.
Sidney's Chair
Drama 1995 21 mins Director: Roberto Bangura
What do you do when a Hollywood star makes a film in your neighbourhood? Nick his chair, of course!
Featuring Richard Pryor
Brewster's Millions
Comedy 1985 101 mins Director: Walter Hill
Richard Pryor plays the everyman who inherits a vast estate with a massive catch: he’ll have to spend $30million in 30 days in order to inherit it all.
The Wiz
Fantasy 1978 134 mins Director: Sidney Lumet
NYC becomes Oz in the cult, urban reimagining of the family favourite, featuring an all-African American cast including Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.
Bustin' Loose
Comedy 1981 93 mins Director: Oz Scott
Richard Pryor sets out on the road to redemption, as an ex-con ferrying a busload of troubled kids on a wild cross-country adventure.
Car Wash
Comedy 1976 96 mins Director: Michael Schultz
Richard Pryor, Bill Duke, Antonio Fargas are among the ensemble cast for the cult comedy set in a California car wash.
Featuring Harvey Keitel
Reservoir Dogs
Film noir 1991 99 mins Director: Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino explodes onto the screen with his debut feature following a jewellery heist gone horribly, violently wrong.
Pulp Fiction
Crime 1994 154 mins Director: Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino’s crackling crime classic still retains its swagger as one of the great American films of recent decades.
The Last Temptation of Christ
Drama 1988 163 mins Director: Martin Scorsese
Scorsese’s visually arresting interpretation of the life of Christ, featuring Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel and David Bowie.
Youth
Drama 2015 119 mins Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Michael Caine scintillates as a curmudgeonly composer in Paolo Sorrentino’s deliciously bittersweet drama.
The Congress
Drama 2013 123 mins Director: Ari Folman
Ari Folman’s follow up to Waltz with Bashir is a hallucinatory fable about an actress whose digital image is controlled by a Hollywood studio.
New
Mad to Be Normal
Drama 2016 105 mins Director: Robert Mullan
David Tennant is inspired as the renegade Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing, whose unorthodox therapeutic ideas chime with the radical spirit of 1960s counterculture.
Iceman
Thriller 2017 96 mins Director: Felix Randau
Revenge is served ice-cold in this visceral thriller, in which a neolithic hunter seeks vengeance against those who decimated his tribe.
Sicilian Ghost Story
Drama 2017 119 mins Director: Fabio Grassadonia
A gripping real-life story of a Mafia kidnapping in Italy is enthrallingly re-imagined as supernatural fantasy by the directors of the acclaimed Salvo.
Black
Drama 2015 90 mins Director: Bilall Fallah
Star-crossed lovers from rival street gangs conduct an illicit affair in this pulsating urban romance.
Discreet
Crime 2017 80 mins Director: Travis Mathews
From the director of Interior. Leather Bar. comes this eerie and powerful psychological thriller that offers a disturbing insight into the dark heart of Trump’s America.
Girls on Film 3: Goddesses
Anthology 2018 111 mins Director: Karishma Dev Dube
Eight more award-winning short films from around the world, exploring female desire, empowerment and the realities of being a woman, a lesbian and a feminist in the modern world.