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Most Popular Films of 2019

The classics that cut through in 2019 – here are the year’s most popular subscription titles.

Highlights include titles from some of the BFI's big 2019 seasons - Nineties (Festen), Musicals! (Once), Antonioni (La Notte) and Weimar (The Blue Angel) - while our annual focus on women filmmakers also provides a few entries, including the #1 spot.

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Appropriate Behaviour Appropriate Behaviour

Comedy 2015 86 mins Director: Desiree Akhavan

Desiree Akhavan directs and stars in this clever, razor-sharp and fearless comedy following the sexual misadventures of a Brooklynite.

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Caravaggio Caravaggio

Biopic 1986 93 mins Director: Derek Jarman

Derek Jarman’s unique biopic of the 17th century Italian artist Michelangelo da Caravaggio is a powerful meditation on sexuality, criminality and art.

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Viva Viva

Sex comedy 2008 116 mins Director: Anna Biller

Anna Biller's outrageous sexploitation satire follows bored housewife Barbi as she searches for adventure in predatory 1970s Los Angeles.

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Obsession Obsession

Romance 1976 98 mins Director: Brian De Palma

High melodrama, creeping insanity and barely contained delirium abound in this dizzying tribute to the high tension thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock from director Brian De Palma.

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L'avventura L'avventura

Drama 1960 137 mins Director: Michelangelo Antonioni

Antonioni’s masterpiece of modern alienation, with Monica Vitti as the young woman searching for her friend who's inexplicably disappeared.

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Pulse Pulse

Horror 2001 119 mins Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's dark and apocalyptic J-Horror foretells how technology serves to isolate us as it grows more important to our lives.

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Salon Kitty Salon Kitty

Drama 1976 133 mins Director: Tinto Brass

Before Caligula, Italian provocateur Tinto Brass directed this controversial and transgressive drama, inspired by the true story of a Nazi-run brothel in 30s Berlin.

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Evolution Evolution

Drama 2015 82 mins Director: Lucile Hadzihalilovic

The long-awaited second feature from Lucile Hadžihalilović (Innocence) is a gorgeously surreal coming-of-age tale laced with bizarre body-horror.

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Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon

Biopic 1998 87 mins Director: John Maybury

Derek Jacobi and Daniel Craig star as artist Francis Bacon and his muse George Dyer in John Maybury’s darkly exquisite biopic.

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Fidelio, Alice's Journey Fidelio, Alice's Journey

Drama 2015 97 mins Director: Lucie Borleteau

When Alice takes a job as a ship’s engineer her fidelity towards her shore-bound fiancé is tested when she discovers a former lover is the ship’s captain.

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The Blue Angel The Blue Angel

Drama 1930 103 mins Director: Josef von Sternberg

Marlene Dietrich is sensational in her breakthrough role as Lola Lola, star attraction of The Blue Angel beer hall.

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Hyena Hyena

Crime 2015 112 mins Director: Gerard Johnson

In this stylish, dark crime thriller, a policeman’s complex web of underworld relationships is threatened by an internal affairs investigator.

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Kiss of the Damned Kiss of the Damned

Drama 2012 95 mins Director: Xan Cassavetes

A cool and contemporary take on the vampire myth, steeped in atmosphere and brooding contemplation.

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La notte La notte

Drama 1961 122 mins Director: Michelangelo Antonioni

Michelangelo Antonioni's masterpiece stars Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau as a couple re-examining their emotional bonds.

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The Proposition The Proposition

Western 2006 104 mins Director: John Hillcoat

John Hillcoat and Nick Cave's brilliant, brutal bushranger western, with Guy Pearce as the outlaw tasked with tracking down his psychopathic elder brother (Danny Huston).

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Mysterious Skin Mysterious Skin

Drama 2004 105 mins Director: Gregg Araki

Gregg Araki's provocative story of two boys haunted by disturbing events one summer when they were eight years old, adapted from Scott Heim's cult indie novel.

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Once Once

Musical 2007 87 mins Director: John Carney

The unique, charming musical about the whirlwind romance between an Irish street musician and a Czech immigrant; winner of an Oscar® and a major prize at Sundance Film Festival.

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Festen Festen

Drama 1998 101 mins Director: Thomas Vinterberg

A family reunion turns both incredibly dark and unexpectedly hilarious, in the infamous first film of the Dogme 95 movement initiated by director Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von Trier.

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Orphée Orphée

Drama 1950 96 mins Director: Jean Cocteau

Magical retelling of the Orpheus myth by poet, playwright, artist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau.

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Somersault Somersault

Drama 2004 102 mins Director: Cate Shortland

This intoxicating drama about an adolescent girl's sexual awakening launched the careers of both its star Abbie Cornish and director Cate Shortland.

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La dolce vita La dolce vita

Drama 1960 175 mins Director: Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini’s masterpiece depicting seven hedonistic days in the life of a tabloid journalist (Marcello Mastroianni) as he searches for the sweet life.