Prospero's Books

Jean Cocteau’s ravishingly restored 1946 film is a cinematic classic. “Five stars. [This] magical exploration of the fairytale is a compelling and bizarre masterpiece” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Francisca Alegría brings together family trauma and ecology into a poetic journey of rebirth. A mysterious and poetic tale on our collapsing ecosystem and finding balance.

Dadaist Hans Richter attempts to bring the European avant-garde to the masses, with this story about a man who discovers he has the power to create dreams, and sets up a business selling them to others.

Electrifying genre-bending horror about a gang of marauding vigilantes who target women they deem to be sinful.

Peter Firth stars as a musician haunted by visions of a mystical nemesis, in this bold and poetic horror with stunning visuals.

As he prepares to join the army, having given up his studies and left his girlfriend, Polish student Andrzej spends his last day re-examining his life.

Peter Greenaway became a director of international status with this witty, stylised, erotic country house murder mystery.

An apparently miraculous birth is exploited by the authorities in medieval France in Greenaway's disturbing film about corruption, starring Julia Ormond and Ralph Fiennes.

The splendour of Rome is the setting for Greenaway’s richly symbolic work, with Brian Dennehy as the American architect.

Sex, death, number counting and game playing co-exist in Greenaway’s morbidly humorous and quite brilliant work.

A son tries to help his grief-stricken father by creating a harem at their spacious home in Peter Greenaway's Palme d'Or-nominated film.

Ewan McGregor followed Trainspotting with this bewitching fusion of flesh and text for Peter Greenaway, a visually erotic delight co-starring Vivian Wu.

Peter Greenaway became a director of international status with this witty, stylised, erotic country house murder mystery.

Following a fatal car crash involving a swan outside a zoo, twin-brother zoologists Oliver and Oswald become fascinated by the processes of decay.

An artist stages a series of erotic dramatisations illustrating sexual taboos from the Old Testament, in this startling and shocking return from director Peter Greenaway.

Jean Cocteau’s ravishingly restored 1946 film is a cinematic classic. “Five stars. [This] magical exploration of the fairytale is a compelling and bizarre masterpiece” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

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

A life-size blow-up doll comes to life and falls in love with a video store clerk in Kore-eda Hirokazu’s haunting, melancholy meditation on urban alienation.

Hailed as ‘Poland’s first LGBT film’, Tomasz Wasilewski’s striking drama follows a champion swimmer whose gay relationship causes ripples.

A shameless woman finds her new lover’s son wants to divide them in this cringe comic drama starring Maggie O’Neill.

Godard's playful tribute to the Hollywood pulp crime movies of the 1940s, executed with typically Gallic cool.