English Cinema

Directed by Paul Harrison et al.
50-minute episodes; released 1996.
A young priest serving in the small Irish village of Ballykissangel discovers the town poses many more challenges than he expected.

Directed by Gillies MacKinnon.
96 minutes; released 1997.
A WWI soldier is sent to an asylum for publishing an anti-war tract. There he is treated by a doctor whose dealings with shell-shocked soldiers have left him an emotional mess. Starring Jonathan Pryce.

Directed by Ken Loach.
110 minutes; released 2000.
A group of Latino immigrants working as janitors in Los Angeles take a stand against the million dollar corporations who employ them. Starring Adrien Brody.

Directed by Peter Yates.
100 minutes; released 1979.
In this Academy Award winning comedy, an idealistic young man and his friends pursue jobs, bicycling glory, and a purpose to life in their hometown of Bloomington, Indiana.

Directed by David Lean.
86 minutes; released 1945.
A married man and a suburban housewife have an affair in 1945 Britain. Based on Noel Coward's play Still Life.

Directed by David Lean.
162 minutes; released 1957.
British soldiers captured by the Japanese during World War II are forced to construct a strategic railroad bridge which a commando team is instructed by the British High Command to destroy. Starring Alec Guinness, William Holden and Jack Hawkins.

Directed by Anthony Asquith.
89 minutes; released 1951.
An embittered, middle-aged schoolmaster--despised and feared by colleagues and pupils alike--reexamines his life when a young student shows him unexpected kindness. Starring Michael Redgrave.

Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
124 minutes; released 1944.
Adapted from Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th-Century tales, this film centres on three modern-day incarnations of Chaucer's pilgrims: a plainspoken American Army sergeant, a resourceful British sergeant, and a melancholy landgirl. While enroute to Canterbury, they are waylaid and forced to solve a bizarre village crime.

Directed by Ken Loach.
127 minutes; released 1996.
George, a Glasgow bus driver, risks his job by giving a free ride to a Nicaraguan woman with no money. Infatuated, he finds her somewhere to live, learns her boyfriend may be in danger, and eventually accompanies her to Nicaragua to help her learn what really happened to him. Starring Robert Carlyle, Scott Glenn and Oyanka Cabezas.

Directed by Hugh Hudson.
124 minutes; released 1981.
In this true story of two British runners competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics, a fervent Scottish missionary runs to serve God while the other runner, a Jewish student at Cambridge, sprints to seek glory and fight prejudice. Starring Ben Cross, Nigel Havers, Ian Charleson, Nicholas Farrell, Ian Holm and John Gielgud.

Directed by John Schlesinger.
105 minutes; released 1995.
A recently-orphaned young woman ignores the sage advice of her friend and mentor and moves to the country to live on a decrepit farm with her eccentric relatives, where she finds ample material for the novel she wishes to write. Starring Kate Beckinsale and Joanna Lumley.

Directed by Peter Watkins.
345 minutes; released 2000.
This film explores the brief, tragic period when poor working-class Parisians rose up against the bourgeois French national government in March 1871. In French with English subtitles.

Directed by Jack Gold.
80 minutes; released 1973.
A priest is sent from Rome to reform a traditional monastery in Ireland. Based on the novel by Brian Moore. Starring Martin Sheen and Michael Gambon.

Directed by David Lean.
200 minutes; released 1965.
Based on the novel by Boris Pasternak, this film depicts Russia on the brink of revolution as seen through the eyes of a young doctor and poet. Starring Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin and Alec Guinness.

Directed by Damien O'Donnell.
96 minutes; released 1999.
The conflict between two generations of a Pakistani family living in northern England in the 1970s. Based on the play by Ayub Khan-Din.

Directed by Tom Hooper.
211 minutes; released 2005.
This film explores the intersection of the private and public life of Elizabeth I in the latter half of her reign, offering a personal look at her allies, her enemies, and her suitors as she struggles to survive in a male-dominated world. Starring Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons.

Directed by Carol Reed.
95 minutes; released 1948.
A young boy's image of the butler he idolizes changes when he suspects him of murder.

Directed by Charles Sturridge.
114 minutes; released 1988.
A wealthy 1930s couple and their son live an idyllic life until the chance arrival of a penniless scrounger irrevocably shatters it. Based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh. Starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Rupert Graves, James Wilby and Alec Guinness.

Directed by Stephen Daldry.
114 minutes; released 2002.
The story of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway as told from the perspectives of the author, a lonely '50s housewife reading the book, and a New York hostess who is a modern-day interpretation of the book's lead character. Based on the novel by Michael Cunningham. Starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Ed Harris.

Directed by James Ivory.
142 minutes; released 1992.
Two free-spirited sisters in Edwardian Britain become acquainted with a prosperous but conservative family while also befriending a passionate but poverty-stricken clerk. Based on the novel by E.M. Forster. Starring Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonham-Carter.

Directed by Lindsay Anderson.
112 minutes; released 1968.
A group of rebellious students turn on the administration at a repressive English boarding school.

Directed by Alexander Mackendrick.
91 minutes; released 1955.
In this Ealing Studios comedy, a gang of London bank robbers plot to murder an elderly widow when she starts interfering with their plans. Starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers.

Directed by Roland Joffé.
141 minutes; released 1984.
An American journalist covering the war in Cambodia finds himself trapped as the conflict worsens. Meanwhile, his Cambodian friend is exiled to labour camps in the countryside where he endures four years of starvation, torture and war before escaping to Thailand.

Directed by David Lean.
227 minutes; released 1962.
This film tells the story of T.E. Lawrence, a lieutenant in the British Army who united Arab tribes in a battle against the Ottoman Turks during the First World War. The film won 7 Academy Awards in 1962 including Best Picture. Starring Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins, Anthony Quayle and Omar Sharif.

Directed by Alexander Mackendrick.
92 minutes; released 1954.
When an American airline magnate needs to transport valuable building materials, he is tricked into giving the job to the wily Peter Mactaggart, skipper of 'The Maggie'.

Directed by Alexander Mackendrick.
85 minutes; released 1951.
When a nutty chemist (Alec Guiness) invents a miracle fabric that refuses to wear out or get dirty, he finds himself up against the trade unions and clothing manufacturers who wish to suppress his discovery.

Directed by Mike Leigh.
131 minutes; released 1993.
A charming but vicious drifter on the lam in London rejects those who would care for him and hurls himself into a nocturnal odyssey through the city, colliding with a succession of desperate and dispossessed people and hurting everyone in his path.

Directed by Henry Cornelius.
85 minutes; released 1949.
The residents of the London district of Pimlico declare their independence from Britain; however, their delight sours when they find themselves without food or water.

Directed by Roger Michell.
106 minutes; released 1995.
A young couple's second chance at love stands in danger of being ruined by the social conventions that destroyed it ten years before. Based on the novel by Jane Austen.

Directed by Stephen Quay and Timothy Quay.
261 minutes; released 2007.
Contains thirteen films by the identical twin Quay duo, who for over 30 years have been making strangely alluring shorts using puppetry and stop-motion animation.

Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
134 minutes; released 1948.
Winner of 2 Academy Awards in 1949, this film depicts a young ballerina's dilemma as chooses between the composer she loves and the dance manager who demands she sacrifice everything for her career. Based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

Directed by James Ivory.
134 minutes; released 1993.
The housekeeper at a large English estate falls in love with the butler who is devoted to his duty. Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. Starring Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins.

Directed by Charles Frend.
83 minutes; released 1949.
In this Ealing comedy, two Welsh miners who are unaccustomed to the ways of city life win a trip to London and are manipulated.

Directed by Mike Leigh.
142 minutes; released 1996.
After her adoptive parents die, a young black woman seeks out her birth mother only to discover her mother is white. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Picture.

Directed by Alan Bridges.
97 minutes; released 1985.
A group of English aristocrats gathering for a shooting party in 1913 sets the stage for the beginning of the end of the traditional values they represent.

Directed by Danny Boyle.
120 minutes; released 2008.
A young man from the slums of Mumbai is competing on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" But when he is one question away from winning 20-million rupees, the police suspect him of cheating. Winner of an Academy Award for Best Picture.

Directed by Ronald Wilson et al.
663 minutes; released 1980.
When a young Welshman returns from World War I disillusioned and shell-shocked, he hesitantly agrees to teach at an elite English boys' school. Luckily, the faith of the headmaster who hired him proves well-founded. Based on the novel by R.F. Delderfield.

Directed by Charles Crichton.
84 minutes; released 1953.
In this Ealing comedy, the residents of a small English village take on the operation of a railroad line to save it from closure. But fierce competition from an omnibus company threatens the project's success.

Directed by Danny Boyle.
94 minutes; released 1996.
An intimate look inside the subculture of heroin abuse in Scotland based on the novel by Irvine Welsh. Audio-track available in English or French. Starring Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller and Kelly Macdonald.

Directed by Michael Winterbottom.
94 minutes; released 2005.
A narrator, played by an actor in a film called Tristram Shandy, experiences constant interruptions while trying to tell his story. Based on the novel by Laurence Sterne. Starring Steve Coogan.

Directed by Mike Leigh.
125 minutes; released 2004.
A woman in 1950s England devoted to caring for her family secretly aids women who want to terminate unwanted pregnancies. When the authorities find her out, her world and family life rapidly unravel. Starring Imelda Staunton.

Directed by Charles Sturridge.
112 minutes; released 1991.
A widowed woman, desperate to escape her oppressive, upper-class in-laws, finds refuge in rural Italy and impulsively marries. But when a child is born, tragedy strikes, and her scandalized relatives plot to kidnap her baby. Based on the novel by E.M. Forster. Starring Helen Mirren, Helena Bonham-Carter and Rupert Graves.

Directed by Alexander Mackendrick.
82 minutes; released 1949.
A ship carrying 50,000 cases of whisky sinks near a small Scottish island which happens to be experiencing... a whisky drought! Their only obstacle is a meddlesome English customs officer whom they must outwit.