Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Writer Nadia M Oliva tracks the development of the melodrama genre and how it plays out across film, TV and online.

Exuberant adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel, about a group of beautiful, wealthy and self-absorbed students tearing it up at college.

A homeless addict (Denis Lavant) and a young painter (Juliette Binoche) with failing eyesight forge a bond on the streets of Paris.

Buried passions boil over in a buttoned-up postwar Britain in Terence Davies acclaimed adaptation of Rattigan's play, starring Rachel Weisz.

Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or-winner, about an octogenarian couple trying to cope when a stroke leaves the wife partly paralysed and speechless.

A cash-strapped student becomes an escort exposing the stark realities of economic exploitation in this uncompromising gritty French drama.

Life begins at 70 for Mahin, who decides to shake her life up in this charming, quietly subversive tale from Iran.

A troubled young sheep farmer falls for a hired hand in this stunning debut from Francis Lee.

Bullied for her sexuality, Dublin schoolgirl Lily turns to her gay best friend for support in this vibrant coming-out, coming-of-age drama.

Akerman’s debut feature, with its 10-minute lesbian sex scene, revealed its maker to be a radical and uncompromising force in cinema.

Co-written with Céline Sciamma, Noémie Merlant’s bold film follows three friends as they dispose of the body of an abuser they’ve accidentally killed.

A young London-based writer begins a double life as a sex worker to research his debut novel, in this gripping psychological drama.

Hilarious, uplifting tale of an Irish son juggling four very different mothers over one chaotic weekend in Dublin.

Co-written with Céline Sciamma, Noémie Merlant’s bold film follows three friends as they dispose of the body of an abuser they’ve accidentally killed.

Frederick Wiseman’s gastronomic dream of a film captures daily life in one of the world’s most prestigious restaurants.

Frederick Wiseman’s unflinching debut shows life inside an institution for the criminally insane, voted one of the greatest documentaries of all time.

A compassionate portrait of students at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, directed by Frederick Wiseman.

An immersive journey into the New York Public Library with great documentarian Frederick Wiseman.

Frederick Wiseman’s remarkable glimpse into the Kafkaesque nature of New York’s welfare system.

A fascinating portrait of the comings and goings, and the people involved in maintaining Manhattan’s iconic green space.