Belleville Rendez-Vous (2003)

France/Belgium/Canada/UK
Animated Feature Film
Original Title: Les triplettes de Belleville
Writer/Director/Animator: Sylvain Chomet
Composer: Benoît Charest
Cast: Béatrice Bonifassi, Lina Boudreau, Michèle Caucheteux, Jean-Claude Donda, Mari-Lou Gauthier, Charles Prévost Linton, Michel Robin, Monica Viegas

Members of Le French Mafia kidnap three ailing participants of the Tour de France and take them back to Belleville for the amusement of a gambling syndicate, but the gang’s diminutive head Mafioso didn’t bank on the interference of the dogged mother of one of the cyclists, who follows them across the ocean in a fish-drawn pedalo, desperate to save her beloved son, in Chomet’s hugely inventive and divertingly entertaining if decidedly lightweight animated film. Iain.Stott

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

UK/USA
Feature Film
Director: Charles Crichton
Writers: John Cleese, Charles Crichton
Cinematographer: Alan Hume
Composer: John Du Prez
Cast: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, Maria Aitken, Tom Georgeson, Patricia Hayes

A pair of American jewel thieves, after stealing several million pounds worth of diamonds, attempt to do the dirty on their British partners, but stuttering hit-men, dog-loving old ladies, jealous lovers, and a great deal of bad luck and stupidity ensure that their plans do not run smoothly, in this trouser-soilingly funny comedy, filled with excellent performances and memorable dialogue. Iain.Stott

CFB's Top 20 Obscure Films of 1997 (2010)

  1. Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control (1997)
  2. The River (1997)
  3. The Castle (1997)
  4. Xiao Wu (1997)
  5. Christmas (1997)
  6. Mermaid (1997)
  7. 4 Little Girls (1997)
  8. Martin (1997)
  9. Marius and Jeannette (1997)
  10. Orphans (1997)
  11. Choo-choo (1997)
    Destiny (1997)
  12. The Thief (1997)
  13. The Hanging Garden (1997)
  14. The Mirror (1997)
  15. Regeneration (1997)
  16. Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997)
  17. The Second Civil War (1997)
  18. Wild Man Blues (1997)
  19. Secrets of the Heart (1997)
    Public Housing (1997)

CFB's Top 25 Films of 1997 (2010)

  1. L.A. Confidential (1997)
  2. Boogie Nights (1997)
  3. The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
  4. Princess Mononoke (1997)
  5. The Ice Storm (1997)
  6. Jackie Brown (1997)
  7. Taste of Cherry (1997)
  8. Funny Games (1997)
  9. Titanic (1997)
  10. Lost Highway (1997)
  11. Gattaca (1997)
  12. Happy Together (1997)
  13. Ma Vie en Rose (1997)
  14. Live Flesh (1997)
  15. Open Your Eyes (1997)
  16. Mother and Son (1997)
  17. Deconstructing Harry (1997)
  18. Starship Troopers (1997)
  19. Children of Heaven (1997)
  20. Hana-Bi (1997)
  21. Insomnia (1997)
  22. Good Will Hunting (1997)
  23. In The Company of Men (1997)
  24. Donnie Brasco (1997)
  25. Nil By Mouth (1997)

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

USA
Feature Film
Director: Clint Eastwood
Writers: Iris Yamashita, Paul Haggis, Kuribayashi Tadamichi, Yoshido Tsuyoko
Cinematographer: Tom Stern
Composers: Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens
Cast: Watanabe Ken, Ninomiya Kazunari, Ihara Tsuyoshi, Kase Ryo, Nakamura Shido, Watanabe Hiroshi, Bando Takumi, Matsuzaki Yuki

A young conscript, wrenched away from his pregnant bride, finds himself on the island of Iwo Jima awaiting the imminent arrival of the Americans, but it’s not just the enemy that he must worry about but also the rampant, repugnant patriotism, imperialism, and “honour” of his fellow countrymen, however a kindly general’s surprising actions offer him a glimmer of hope, in Eastwood’s beautifully crafted but unrelentingly bleak companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers (2006). Iain.Stott

I'm All Right Jack (1959)

UK
Feature Film
Director: John Boulting
Writers: John Boulting, Alan Hackney, Frank Harvey
Cinematographer: Max Greene
Composer: Ken Hare
Cast: Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, Margaret Rutherford, Irene Handl, Liz Fraser, Miles Malleson, Marne Maitland

A naïve Oxford graduate from a penniless branch of an upper class family decides to pursue a career in industry, but he struggles to find the executive position that he strives for, so when his uncle suggests that he take an unskilled position at a munitions factory, upon the board of which he is a member, he blunders his way into it, unknowingly playing a key role in his uncle’s nefarious moneymaking scheme, in the Boulting brothers’ madcap satirical farce, which takes well-aimed pot-shots at the underhanded machinations of both the bosses and the workers, damningly and hilariously portraying all walks of society as essentially corrupt and self-serving. Iain.Stott

Maradona by Kusturica (2008)

France/Spain
Feature Documentary
Original Title: Maradona par Kusturica
Writer/Director: Emir Kusturica
Cinematographer: Rolo Pulpeiro
Featuring: Diego Maradona, Emir Kusturica

Kusturica’s lively, fascinating, and irreverently amusing documentary follows Diego Maradona - recovering drug addict, outspoken leftist, god, and the world’s greatest ever footballer - over a period of two years, entertainingly capturing his Latin American machismo, working class pride, rampant paranoia, and (most importantly) his footballing genius. Iain.Stott

Lola Montes (1955)

France/West Germany
Feature Film
Director: Max Ophüls
Writers: Max Ophüls, Annette Wademant, Jacques Natanson, Cécil Saint-Laurent
Cinematographer: Christian Matras
Composer: Georges Auric
Cast: Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov, Anton Walbrook, Henri Guisol, Lise Delamare, Paulette Dubost, Oskar Werner, Jean Galland, Will Quadflieg

Infamously butchered on its original release, this 2008 restoration of Ophüls’s biopic of the Countess of Landsfeld brings about a return to the director’s original vision, brilliantly showcasing his dynamic direction and the film’s excellent production values, but unfortunately it is also often rather emotionally uninvolving and even quite tedious in spots. Iain.Stott

Café Lumière (2003)

Japan
Feature Film
Original Title: 珈琲時光
Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien
Writers: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chu T'ien-wen
Cinematographer: Lee Pin Bing
Cast: Yo Hitoto, Asano Tadanobu, Hagiwara Masato, Yo Kimiko, Kobayashi Kenji

Hou’s touching, beautifully drawn tribute to Ozu Yasujiro, produced to celebrate the centenary of the great Japanese master’s birth, follows the movements of a young writer from Tokyo (who is researching the life of a Taiwanese composer who made his name in Japan) over the course of a few days, following her to her parents’ home to tell them of her pregnancy and her decision not to marry her Thailand based Taiwanese boyfriend, as well as detailing her tender interactions with an attractively geeky train enthusiast friend. Iain.Stott

Thirst (2009)

South Korea/USA
Feature Film
Original Title: 박쥐
Director: Park Chan-wook
Writers: Jeong Seo-Gyeong, Park Chan-wook, Émile Zola
Cinematographer: Chung Chung-hoon
Composer: Cho Young-ook
Cast: Song Kang-ho, Kim Ok-bin, Kim Hae-sook, Shin Ha-kyun, Park In-hwan, Oh Dal-su, Song Young-chang, Mercedes Cabral, Eriq Ebouaney

A catholic priest, whilst working as a missionary in Africa, receives a blood transfusion that turn him into a vampire, leaving him, when he returns to Korea, craving not only blood but also the lithe flesh of the wife of a childhood friend, a manipulative vamp who soon comes to dictate his life, in Park’s sexy, unpredictable, and darkly comic take on familiar material. Iain.Stott

The Headless Woman (2008)

Argentina/Spain/Italy/France
Feature Film
Original Title: La mujer sin cabeza
Writer/Director: Lucrecia Martel
Cinematographer: Bárbara Álvarez
Cast: María Onetto, Claudia Cantero, César Bordón, Daniel Genoud, Guillermo Arengo, Inés Efron

Martel’s beautifully observed and vaguely disquieting allegorical examination of guilt and responsibility presents a portrait of a wealthy middle-aged woman who, after hitting something with her car whilst not paying due attention to the road, attempts to carry on with her life as normal, which she does to a degree only in something of a daze, but soon the realisation of what she might have done begins to hit her. Iain.Stott

The White Ribbon (2009)

Austria/Germany/France/Italy
Feature Film
Original Title: Das weisse Band: Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte
Writer/Director: Michael Haneke
Cinematographer: Christian Berger
Cast: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur, Ursina Lardi, Fion Mutert, Burghart Klaußner, Steffi Kühnert, Maria-Victoria, Leonard Proxauf, Josef Bierbichler, Gabriela Maria Schmeide, Janina Fautz, Enno Trebs, Theo Trebs, Rainer Bock, Roxane Duran, Susanne Lothar

A former teacher recounts his time working in a small German village just prior to the outbreak of the First World War, describing a strict, patriarchal society in which brutality and a fear of it kept everyone in their place, at least until a series of mysterious, violent incidents threatened to destroy the status quo, in Haneke’s disquieting, allegorical examination of fear, repression, and violence. Iain.Stott

La Niña Santa (2004)

Argentina/Italy/Spain/The Netherlands
Feature Film
Director: Lucrecia Martel
Writers: Juan Pablo Domenech, Lucrecia Martel
Cinematographer: Félix Monti
Composer: Andres Gerszenzon
Cast: Mercedes Morán, Carlos Belloso, Alejandro Urdapilleta, María Alche, Julieta Zylberberg, Mía Maestro, Marta Lubos

When a middle-aged doctor, who’s in town for a medical conference, presses his groin against her provocatively in a small crowd, Amalia, a teenage girl and the daughter of the proprietress of the hotel in which the doctor is staying, determines, feeling that she has been given a calling, to save his soul, in Martel’s intriguing, sensual, and beautifully drawn examination of the ambiguities of sexual attraction. Iain.Stott

Mrs Mandela (2010)

UK
Television Film
Writer/Director: Michael Samuels
Cinematographer: Wojciech Szepel
Composer: Daniel Giorgetti
Cast: Sophie Okonedo, David Harewood, David Morrissey, Vusi Kunene, David Dennis, Jacques Gombault, Rika Sennet

Michael Samuels’s beautifully crafted, impressionistic biopic, featuring an excellent central performance from Okonedo, depicts the life of Winnie Mandela from the early days of her courtship with Nelson until his release from prison some 30-odd-years later, detailing her growth as a woman, activist, and revolutionary as well as some of her more unsavoury traits, including the torture and murder of a 14-year-old boy, a suspected informer. Iain.Stott

Cowboys in India (2009)

UK
Feature Documentary
Director/Cinematographer: Simon Chambers
Composer: Evan Jolly

Documentarian Simon Chambers travels to Orissa, one of the poorest regions of India, to examine the effect, whether it be positive or negative, that a British mining company has had on the area’s people, but decrepitude, incompetence, timidity, and fear ensure that all he really manages to document, besides a cursory glance at local poverty, is his own comic nightmare, in this entertaining if rather frustrating documentary. Iain.Stott
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