Technicolor films go way back. The process was the world’s second color process when it was invented in 1916, after Kinemacolor had first hit England back in 1908.

From its introduction to the mid-fifties, Technicolor was the most widely used color process in Hollywood although the first three incarnations of the process, from 1916 to 1932, were based on a two color system only, until the fourth incarnation of the process (i.e. “Three-Strip” Technicolor, the first full-color variant) was introduced by a Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony called Flowers & Trees in 1932.

Seeing the enormous potential, Disney immediately negotiated an exclusive deal with Technicolor, which meant that from 1932 to 1935 they were the only studio allowed to use the new “three-strip” process, resulting in an explosion of Technicolor animated shorts during these years.

By 1935, the first full-color full-feature length film which used the process was released (RKO’s Becky Sharp) and when Walt Disney’s full-length animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became the highest grossing film of 1938, Technicolor started its true rise to dominance in the color film industry and would remain there until the late fifties when competing systems like Eastmancolor by Kodak made color stock easier to develop and process.

The films on this list focus only on the fourth “Three-Strip” process, known for its eye-popping and heavily saturated colors. Whilst many films were produced using this process, the list focuses on either on genuine cinematic masterpieces or films which simply stand out due to their exceptional use of color and the process.

Whilst both Victor Fleming and Stanley Donen appear twice on the list (as these entries were not exclusively directed by them but are accredited to either various directors or co-directing duties), I have tried to avoid including various entries from the same filmmakers.

Whilst certain people really showed a knack at using Technicolor’s amazing palette and produced more than one stunning example in the process , I decided to highlight only one of their films when this was the case and to simply add the other titles as further recommendations to the description of that film. Apart from that, the films are simply ranked chronologically.

1. Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)

The third and most famous adaptation of the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz is directed by Victor Fleming (although parts are also credited to four other directors including George Cukor and King Vidor as Fleming was taken off set to take over the troubled production of Gone With The Wind that same year) and features a star-making and career-defining performance by Judy Garland.

Dorothy (Garland) and her dog Toto live on a Kansas farm with her aunt and uncle at the start of the twentieth century. When her evil neighbour wants to put down her dog, Dorothy decides to run away from home and meets the fake fortune teller Professor Marvel. He informs her that her aunt has fallen ill and as Dorothy and Toto rush back home they are caught in a freak tornado, which scoops them up and magically delivers them to the colorful and fantastical land of Oz.

Once there, Dorothy must find her way back home to Kansas by travelling to meet the great Wizard of Oz. On her way through the magic land, she meets and befriends the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion, all of whom join her on her quest as they all need the great Wizard to help them out too.

A flop upon its initial release, Wizard of Oz has over the years come to be regarded as one greatest Hollywood musicals and indeed films to have ever been made. With its winning soundtrack, production and costume design, star-making turn by Judy Garland, who proved she could also act and not just sing and dance, its colorful characters and its goundbreaking use of Technicolor as the movie transitions from sepia-toned Kansas to full-blown Technicolor Oz, the film slowly turned into the classic.

it is considered today as it was rediscovered on television in the 1950s despite the fact that it had been met with critical acclaim ever since its initial release in 1939. The Wizard of Oz was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning two for Best Score and Song (Somewhere Over The Rainbow), and was even in the running for the Palme d’Or at Cannes. An absolute Hollywood masterpiece, even though it took the general public a good ten years to catch on.

2. Gone With The Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)

Adapted from the 1936 novel of the same name by Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind is an epic romance/drama set against the backdrop of the American Civil War directed by Victor Fleming (although he replaced George Cukor fairly early in the production and was himself also briefly replaced by Sam Wood as Fleming suffered from exhaustion, having just come off directing The Wizard of Oz the very same year) and starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable.

The year is 1861 and Scarlett O’Hara (Leigh) is a self-centred and manipulative woman living on Tara, the cotton plantation owned by her family. Scarlett has been in love with Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) but when she learns that he is about to marry Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland), she tries to plead with him to choose her instead, even though her father and servant both warn her not to interfere.

Ashley is non receptive to her plea but the conversation she has with him is overheard by Rhett Butler (Gable), who instantly falls her. But when the Civil War breaks out, all the men are enlisted in the Confederate Army and as the war rages Scarlett must fight for her estate’s survival whilst remaining in love with Ashley, marrying and being widowed twice and always being pursued by Rhett. They eventually marry although her love for Ashley, self-centred behaviour and further tragedy ensure that their union also isn’t meant to last.

At the time of its release Gone with the Wind was the most expensive production ever made and when adjusted for inflation, it, to this day, remains the world’s highest grossing movie ever with the most tickets sold in the United States in the history of cinema.

Epic in the truest sense of the word, the film had the highest production budget up until that time, a running time of four hours, highly detailed costume and set design which were brought to life in truly lush Technicolor and some grand-scale setpieces like the Burning of Atlanta.

Gone with the Wind went on receive thirteen Academy Award nominations, winning ten for Best Film, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actress and Supporting Actress (for Hattie McDaniel, making her the first African-American to ever win an Oscar), Cinematography, Editing and Art Direction, in addition to two honorary awards.

One of Hollywood’s all-time greatest films from a year which is often considered the pinnacle of classical Hollywood cinema (as other all-time classics The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Ninotchka were also released that year), Gone with the Wind remains the film to which all other Hollywood period epics will be compared.

3. Fantasia (Various Directors, 1940)

What started as the animated short “Silly Symphony” The Sorcerer’s Apprentice soon grew into Walt Disney’s undisputed masterpiece and third full length animated feature: Fantasia. Released in 1940, the film features eight individual segments, all set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, has no clear narrative, virtually no dialogue and, to this day, remains an unique entry within the studio’s animated filmography (although a disappointing sequel called Fantasia 2000 was released in 1999).

The film consists of seven pieces of classical music set to varied styles of animation and also includes an “Intermission”, in which an animation explains how sound is added to film.

The seven segments consist of:

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, in which the music is accompanied by abstract animation. The Nutcracker Suite by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, in which a variety of objects dance as they highlight the four seasons. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas, in which Mickey Mouse makes trouble as the young apprentice of a sorcerer. Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, in which the history of the earth and the rise and extinction of the dinosaurs are represented.

The Pastoral Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, which features various creatures from Greco-Roman mythology. Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli, which features a ballet performed by Ostriches, Hippos, Elephants and Alligators. Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky and Ave Maria by Franz Schubert, in which a demon summons dead spirits to the mountain during the night whilst the morning sees monks chant as they make their way through the forest underneath.

Another flop upon its initial release, as audiences did not know what to make of an animated feature film which only featured classical music and no dialogue nor straight narrative throughout the film, Fantasia took its studio decades to recoup its costs. But by the time the psychedelic sixties hit, young audiences rediscovered the film and slowly but surely the movie was re-evaluated until it became the true masterpiece it is considered today.

Shot in stunning Technicolor, featuring various animations methods, all of which have their own distinct flavour and are all of very high quality, and a unique concept for a feature animated film, Fantasia arguably remains Walt Disney’s greatest achievement in film and an undisputed tour de force of animation. The film received two honorary Academy Awards for the use of sound in film and for widening the scope of cinema, whilst it also won a Special Award from the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.

Other noteworthy feature animated films by Walt Disney in Technicolor: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Alice in Wonderland.

4. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1948)

Written, directed and produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also know as “The Archers”, The Red Shoes is a romantic musical tragedy starring Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook and Marius Goring.

Julian Craster (Goring) is a brilliant young student composer who is surprised to hear his own compositions when he attends a new piece by the Lermontov Ballet Company, which are attributed to his teacher who, in fact, has obviously stolen his work. When he goes to Boris Lermontov (Walbrook) to complain about this, he is offered a job at the company. The very same day, Vicky Page (Shearer), a young ballerina, is also hired by Lermontov, after having met her at a party.

As Victoria is a very talented dancer, she is soon offered the lead ballerina role after the previous ballerina decides to leave the company. With the talents of Vicky and Julian, the company experiences a revival, especially after the success of The Red Shoes, composed by Craster. But when Julian and Vicky fall in love, Boris, himself also in love with Victoria, fires Julian in a fit of jealousy, which causes Vicky to leave with him.

Owning the rights to The Red Shoes, Boris refuses to stage the show any longer and when years later he convinces Vicky to return to her star-making role, tragedy ensues.

Obviously shot is lush Technicolor and with a stunning 15-minute performance of The Red Shoes ballet as the film’s centrepiece, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s tragedy became one of the most successful British films to have ever been released in the United States.

Whilst the film might be a bit on the melodramatic side for some, it’s the musical score, art direction, costumes and stunning cinematography and use of color which really make it stand out, whilst Anton Walbrook is fiendishly great in his performance as the ruthless and snobbish company director. The Red Shoes was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two for Best Art Direction and Music, whilst it was nominated for the Grand International Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Other noteworthy films by the Archers in Technicolor: The Thief of Baghdad, Black Narcissus and A Matter of Life and Death (a.k.a. Stairway to Heaven).

5. Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952)

Choreographed and directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, Singin’ in the Rain is often considered one of the best musicals to ever come out of Hollywood, and even simply one of the greatest American films ever made. Starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds, Singin’ in the Rain is without a doubt the most famous of all MGM musicals under the guidance of the highly successful Arthur Freed unit at the studio, which was created after he did uncredited work on The Wizard of Oz, found earlier on this list.

Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) are both huge stars during Hollywood’s silent era and the two have made many a romantic hit film together. Whilst Don is a charming fellow with some real talent, Lina is nothing but an egocentric shrew who actually believes the two are an item in real life. But when Don meets chorus girl Kathy Selden (Reynolds), the two start falling in love, just as sound hits the Hollywood film industry by storm. 

When Don and Lina’s latest vehicle, The Duelling Cavalier, turns out to be a disaster during a test screening, after having been quickly transformed from a silent film into a “talkie”, Don, Kathy and Don’s best friend, Cosmo, come up with the idea to turn the movie into a musical called The Dancing Cavalier instead and start working on their own adaptation.

The only problem remains Lina’s terrible voice and the friends decide to have her dubbed by Kathy in order to circumvent the issue. But the jealous Lina refuses to give Kathy any credit when the film is finally released until she is put on the spot just after the film’s premiere when she’s asked to sing in front of a live audience.

Whilst Singin’ in the Rain was only a minor hit when it was first released in 1951, it has since come to be regarded as one of the greatest films to have ever come out of Hollywood’s Golden Era. All three leads are delightful (as is Jean Hagen as the very unlikeable and annoying Lia Lamont), the production values are top-notch and presented in vivid Technicolor and the film’s song and dance routines are of course of the highest quality.

The film’s title song remains one of the most recognised songs and scenes of the era whilst most other songs included in the soundtrack are also highly memorable and have stood the test of time very well. Lastly, the fact that this is a musical which pokes fun at Hollywood and the film making process itself, only adds further to the enjoyment.

The film won Best Written American Musical from the Writers Guild of America, a Golden Globe for Best Actor for Donald O’Connor and was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress and Musical Score. Perhaps the most famous musical ever made, Singin’ in the Rain is the true definition of a golden age Hollywood classic.

6. Niagara (Henry Hathaway, 1953)

1953 was without a doubt the year of Marilyn Monroe. It’s the year she finally became a full blown star and Niagara was the first film out of three to be released that year to do it. Giving her first billing for the first time in her life, Niagara is a tense film noir uncharacteristically shot in fully saturated Technicolor. It is the closest Monroe has ever been to a Hitchcock-like thriller in her career and also proved to be one of 20th Century Fox’s biggest box-office draws that year.

The film tells the story of two couples. Polly (Jean Peters) and Ray Cutler (Casey Adams) are on their honeymoon and arrive at Niagara Falls, only to find their cottage occupied by another couple, George Loomis (Joseph Cotten) and his wife Rose (Monroe). Soon enough Polly finds out that Rose is having an affair with Patrick (Richard Allan) and that she seems to flaunt her sexuality constantly, causing her husband to have violent episodes.

It’s all part of the plan though as Rose and Patrick intend to kill George and want people to consequently think that his violent temper might have been the cause of some sort of accident. But things don’t go as planned as George outwits the lovers and ends up killing Patrick instead.

From there on in things go from bad to worse as George also wants to kill his wife in revenge for her cheating and conniving ways. But before he is able to do so, Polly runs into him, discovering that he is still very much alive and informing the police of what’s going on.

Niagara wasn’t a critical darling at the time but that didn’t stop the audience from turning up in droves. The film is also noteworthy as it allowed Marilyn got to extend her acting chops a bit since her role here required her to be a scheming femme fatale instead of the vulnerable dumb blonde she had basically always been asked to play before.

Unfortunately for her, the critics didn’t praise her for her performance and the audience ultimately did not come to see her act. They just came to see the gorgeous natural beauty in the film in full color, both Niagara’s and Monroe’s.

Having featured in more than one hundred films in a career spanning over sixty years, Christopher Walken has made a prolific and eclectic career out of playing intense and often slightly off-kilter or plain oddball characters.

Born Ronald Walken on March 31st 1943, Walken started his rise to fame as a child actor, appearing in various television productions, before first ending up in the circus and then studying as a dancer in the sixties.

By the time the early seventies hit, Walken started to appear in more frequently in films, both in bit parts, amongst which small roles in films of Sidney Lumet and Woody Allen, and the occasional starring role before breaking through to the mainstream as Nick in Michael Cimino’s 1978’s The Deer Hunter, a role which earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

With the ability to be quirky as well as menacing, Walken has since carved himself a nice niche in the industry, often playing edgy characters, suitable to his sensibilities as an actor. And it’s those eccentric performances, in which he excels, as well as the best films he has featured in that this list focuses on. This explains why some movies, which starred Walken in leading roles, have nonetheless been omitted in favour of smaller yet more memorable and typical Walken parts.

10. The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader, 1990)

Based on the novel of the same name by Ian McEwan and adapted for the screen by Harold Pinter, The Comfort of Strangers is directed by Paul Schrader and stars Natasha Richardson and Rupert Everett as a young couple who get seduced by an elder couple, played by Christopher Walken and Helen Mirren.

Colin (Everett) and Mary (Richardson) are a young English couple who have come to Venice on holidays to work out some issues in their relationship. Whilst there, they meet the mysterious Robert (Walken), the owner of a local bar, who entertains them one night by telling them stories from his youth about his domineering father and the cruel tricks his sisters would play upon him. By the time Colin and Mary leave, they are drunk and get lost in the maze-like streets of Venice.

The following morning, after having wondered through the city all night, they meet Robert again, who realises that they got lost as he got them drunk and didn’t show them the way home. Embarrassed, he invites the couple to his villa, where they meet his emotionally unstable wife (Mirren), and as the day progresses they get drawn into the older couple’s bizarre games.

The Comfort of Strangers is an acquired taste and certainly not one of Paul Schrader’s best but the main reason it’s on this list is the magnificent monologue by Walken midway the movie.

A completely compelling and surreal tale about his abuse at the hands of his family, the monologue pre-dates other more famous Walken monologues found later on this list but easily holds it own and foreshadowed what was to come later on. Sinister and bizarre, it’s an absolute highlight of the movie and reason enough to make this top ten.

9. Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton, 1999)

Arguably the last film directed by Tim Burton which is still worth a damn, although it also suffers from lack of characterisation and plot whilst being visually spectacular, a common fault in the director’s oeuvre, Sleepy Hollow is a Gothic supernatural detective film starring Burton’s go-to lead Johnny Depp whilst giving Christopher Walken the chance to ham it up as a headless horseman seemingly terrorising the village of Sleepy Hollow.

The town of Sleepy Hollow has subject to a series of murders in which the victim’s heads have all been removed and townsfolk believe an undead Hessian mercenary, referred to as the Headless Horseman, is to blame. Ichabod Crane (Depp) is a New York detective, renowned for his modern investigative techniques, who decides to look into the mystery, fully believing that there’s a rational explanation to be found for the murders.

As he arrives in town, he finds boarding at the Van Tassel family, next of kin of some of the victims, and promptly falls head over heels for the Van Tassel daughter, Katrina (Christina Ricci), much to the dismay of her suitor Brom van Brunt (Casper Van Dien). But as Crane gets deeper involved in the mystery, it appears that there might in fact be some genuine supernatural powers at work whilst it also becomes apparent that all of the victims seem to be connected to the newly drawn-up will of Peter Van Garrett (Martin Landau), the horseman’s first victim.

Visually sumptuous with stunning production and costume design as well as beautiful cinematography, Sleepy Hollow is a true feast for the eyes. With a muted colour palate, apart from the intense tones of red in the film’s various bloody scenes, Sleepy Hollow is part dark Gothic fairytale, part homage to the old English Hammer horror films and part ode to the visual splendour of Mario Bava’s 1960s horror and fantasy output. Whilst central to the story,

Walken’s part as the horseman is rather small, especially since most of the film he rides around without an actual head, but when he does he appear on screen he’s more than suitably macabre and unhinged to make his small part very memorable. Sleepy Hollow won an Academy Award for Best Production Design, two BAFTA Awards for Production and Costume Design and a whole slate of other awards, primarily in those categories and cinematography, from various other film festivals and award ceremonies.

8. Seven Psychopaths (Martin McDonagh, 2012)

Martin McDonagh’s follow-up to his fantastic directorial debut feature In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths is another darkly comedic crime film with a twisted sense of the absurd. The first entry on this list in which Walken has a starring part, albeit in a large ensemble cast which also features Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson in the other leads, Seven Psychopaths is the exact kind of quirky and slightly twisted tale to suit Walken’s sensibilities as an actor.

Marty (Farrell) is a down on his luck script writer in Los Angeles who has had a great screenplay called Seven Psychopaths floating in his head for some time. Unfortunately he has not been able to make a lot of progress on it. His best friend Billy (Rockwell), a struggling actor, also has plenty of creative input when he’s not too busy working on his dog kidnapping scheme with his partner Hans (Walken) in which they take dogs only to return them later for the owner’s offered rewards.

But when Billy and Hans end up kidnapping the beloved Shih Tzu from a psychotic local gangster, Charlie Costello (Harrelson), the trio gets themselves involved head over heels with plenty of seedy thugs whilst it also becomes apparent that Billy and Hans themselves are far from your regular con artists.

Pulpy, darkly comedic and off-kilter, Seven Psychopaths seems to be one of those movies where the screenplay was written with a character like Christopher Walken in mind. Surrounded by an impressive ensemble cast, which also further includes Tom Waits, Abbie Cornish, Olga Kurylenko and Harry Dean Stanton, the film revels in its own morbid oddball tone as it veers from bloody violent to humorous to poignant whilst the snappy dialogue and character interactions further contribute greatly to the overall tone.

A perfect fit for Walken’s trademark odd demeanour, Seven Psychopaths is another memorable entry in McDonagh’s unique brand of violent comedy.

7. The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg, 1983)

Based on the same name novel by Stephen King, The Dead Zone is a supernatural horror/thriller directed by David Cronenberg and probably ranks amongst the director’s most accessible and mainstream films.

When Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) awakens from a five-year coma, he discovers that he has brought back the psychic ability to foretell someone’s future merely by touching their hand. His doctor (Herbert Lom) becomes convinced that he not only has the ability to see their futures but is also able to change them. But when Johnny gets a vision of a nuclear holocaust when he shakes the hand of a politician (Martin Sheen), his ability is tested to the limit and slowly starts taking a serious toll on him.

One of the better adaptations of Stephen King’s horror works and one of David Cronenberg’s most straight-forward horror films, The Dead Zone benefits from a great cast, including a great lead performance by Walken. The film was even followed up by a spin-off TV series in the early 2000s. Also of note is the fact that Walken spoofed his character from this movie with hilarious results when he appeared on one of his many Saturday Night Live guest appearances.

6. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)

Arguably the quintessential American movie of the nineties and certainly one of its most influential ones, Pulp Fiction was the film that broke Quentin Tarantino into the mainstream as his second feature film became a huge critical as well as financial success. Featuring an all-star cast, Christopher Walken only has one scene in the entire film but his monologue is unforgettable and rightfully deserves a spot in this top ten.

Intertwining various stories in a non-linear fashion, Pulp Fiction became the modernised version of the hard-boiled crime film, filled with pop-culture and cinema references.

There’s the story of the aging boxer who agrees to throw the match but then decides against it, the gangster who has to look after the boss’ wife and gets himself into trouble by doing so, the other gangster who has an epiphany and decides to go straight, the diner stick-up, the MacGuffin which needs to be retrieved for the local crime lord and the body that needs to be disposed of prudently. All these stories are somehow interconnected and whilst the film mixes up the chronology, it never leaves the viewer confused.

An eclectic love letter to film and pop culture if ever there was one, Pulp Fiction wears its many influences on its sleeve and there are many many reasons to love this film. But the reason it made it onto this list is the midway monologue by Christopher Walken as Captain Koons who arrives at the house of a young Bruce Willis to hand him his father’s watch, which Koons has been hiding where the sun don’t shine whilst being a POW in a Vietnamese POW camp.

As I assume that everybody has seen Pulp Fiction, I also assume we all understand why this one scene alone deserves such a high spot on this list. Pulp Fiction went on to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards (out of seven nominations), Best Screenplay at the Golden Globes (out of six nominations) and Best Screenplay and Supporting Actor at the BAFTA Awards (out of eight nominations), in addition to a myriad of other awards and prizes at various international film festivals and award ceremonies.

Who doesn’t love The Twilight Zone? Whilst not the first of its type, The Twilight Zone television series, which consisted of unrelated stories from various genres like science fiction, horror, mystery, fantasy, suspense and thrillers, remains the most popular amongst these types of anthology series.

Starting with the original television series, which ran from 1959 to 1964, the show has had enormous success and was followed by two more television shows in the eighties and noughties, a feature film adaptation from 1983 with contributions by Steven Spielberg, George Landis, Joe Dante and George Miller, as well as a radio show and various comics, books and magazines, which all took their inspiration from the show.

The films listed here, however, are not directly related to The Twilight Zone franchise at all but certainly have the same spirit and probably owe more than a bit of inspiration to many of The Twilight Zone’s classic episodes. I have tried to stick to smaller independent features for two main reasons.

First of all, it increases the chances that you’ll come across a suggestion which you might not know yet. Secondly, smaller productions seem to have more in common with the spirit of the source material, as part of the charm of the television series were the smaller television budgets, which forced the makers to focus on original story lines and twists as well as creative and limited use of visuals effects and production value.

All the films listed here have some sort of fantastical element to them without the use of large scale set pieces an expensive special effects. Most of them are set in basically one location, often to stay within budget restrictions. And all of them explore their fantastical premise through quality screen writing, characterisation, dialogue and clever plot twists.

Whilst applying the term Twilight Zone-like to non-Twilight Zone properties might be fairly subjective, we hope that fans of the series will find some smaller unknown gems here to quench their appetite for further trips down the dimension of imagination.

11. Ruby Sparks (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, 2012)

A fantasy comedy-drama from Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who previously directed Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks was written by Zoe Kazan who also plays the titular character alongside Paul Dano as the writer who creates her.

Ruby Sparks tells the story of author Calvin (Dano), whose earlier success in the literary scene has made way for self-doubt. Spurred on by his therapist (Elliot Gould), he creates a new character, Ruby (Kazan), which he bases on his idea of the perfect girl, and from the moment he does so, Calvin starts to feel inspired again.

But when a week later Ruby actually materialises in his apartment, Calvin initially thinks he has gone mad until he realises the girl somehow is the real deal and that he can control her every move by just writing about her. At first Calvin thinks he has hit the jackpot, but he soon comes to realise how hard it is to actually be in full control over somebody else’s fate.

Ruby Sparks benefits greatly from its impressive cast. Dano is solid as ever and complimented nicely by Zoe Kazan as Ruby (who also wrote the screenplay) whilst also being supported by Elliott Gould, Annette Bening and Antonio Banderas as his therapist, mum and her boyfriend respectively.

Well written, witty and with plenty of charm, Ruby Sparks is worth checking out if you liked Little Miss Sunshine, any of the great cast or just a nice little romantic comedy with some fantastical elements. The film won Zoe Kazan a Breakthrough Artist Award from the Detroit Film Critic Society and she also received a nomination for Best Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards for her work.

10. Cheap Thrills (E.L. Katz, 2013)

E.L. Katz, who started his career in the film industry as a writer, producer and collaborator of acclaimed horror director Adam Wingard, delivered his own directorial debut with Cheap Thrills, a darkly comedic thriller which saw its premiere at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival in Austin Texas in 2013 although the film didn’t get an official release until the following year.

Cheap Thrills tells the story of two old friends, Vince and Craig (Ethan Embry and Pat Healy), who by chance meet each other in a bar one night. Craig has just lost his job as a mechanic and when the two are approached by a rich couple, Colin and Violet (David Koechner and Sara Paxton), to participate in some dares for money to provide entertainment for Violet’s birthday , they can’t resist the money on offer.

What starts off as a simply dare to see who can drink their drink fastest, quickly escalates into more dangerous and outrageous challenges as Colin keeps increasing the offered payout. Soon the two old friends find themselves at the rich couple’s home and tensions rise as they try outdo each other for the ever increasing amounts of money on offer and the ever increasingly sick dares.

That is until Vince tells Craig that he has seen a large sum of money in the house and the two start scheming to rob the couple blind, which of course only gets them into deeper trouble.

With a fun and clever screenplay written by David Chirchirillo and Trent Haaga (who wrote the even more disturbing Deadgirl a few years earlier), Cheap Thrills is a seriously misanthropic thrill ride which gets the viewer drawn in from the very start and constantly keeps them guessing where this increasingly escalating twisted game is heading.

The cast is uniformly good, with David Koechner seemingly having a great time portraying his character, and if you like your entertainment dark and humorous, Cheap Thrills should be right up your alley. The film won the Audience Award for Best Midnight Film at SXSW and a bunch of other awards (mainly for Best Film and Director) at a variety of International Fantastic Film Festivals, including Fantasia, CinEuphoria and the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Fest.

9. Sound of My Voice (Zal Batmanglij, 2011)

The first great indie flick co-written by as well as starring Brit Marling on this list is Sound of My Voice. And just like the other entry on this list, which we’ll get to later, Sound of My Voice also was a feature film directorial debut for its director, in this case Zal Batmanglij.

Peter and Lorna are two wannabe documentary filmmakers who have gone to great lengths to infiltrate a cult headed by a woman called Maggie (Marling) who claims to have travelled back in time from the year 2054. The two want to expose the cult and its leader as dangerous frauds but as time goes by and as they are more exposed to Maggie, Peter starts to get seduced by the enigmatic leader, causing tension between him and Lorna.

When Peter, who is a teacher during the day, is asked to bring one of his students into the cult by Maggie and is willing to grant this request, Lorna believes he has gotten himself in way too deep. She starts co-operating with the authorities, who have been trying to arrest Maggie as they claim she is wanted for a series of felonies in various states.

Sound of My Voice’s greatest strength is its ambiguity. The film walks a very fine line, where it doesn’t give any more information than it has to, and manages to always keep the viewer guessing on whether Maggie is a fraud or actually the real deal.

Zal Batmanglij manages to get a lot out of very little, infusing the whole film with an extremely unsettling atmosphere, and also manages to coach some great performances from his cast, especially from lead Brit Marling, who co-wrote the screenplay with him.

Sound of My Voice won its director the Directors to Watch Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and was nominated for Best First Feature and Best Supporting Female at the Independent Spirit Awards.

8. The One I Love (Charlie McDowell, 2014)

A mix between comedy, drama, romance and a healthy dose of science-fiction, The One I Love is the 2014 feature length directorial debut of Charlie McDowell and stars Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss as the two/four leads.

Ethan (Duplass) and Sophie (Moss) have been in a rut and it looks like their marriage might be falling apart. Trying to salvage the situation, they have decided to go into therapy and at the recommendation of their therapist (Ted Danson), the couple decides to go away for the weekend and rent a luxurious villa in the country.

Initially everything seems fine but very soon after their arrival odds things start happening and it doesn’t take long for the couple to figure out that slightly more relaxed and fun copies of themselves seem to live in the guest house, which is part of the property. And what was supposed to be a relaxing getaway in order to resolve their issues, instead becomes a bizarre conundrum, leading to far more complex relationship issues.

The One I Love’s greatest asset is once again its screenplay, which effortlessly balances comedic, dramatic, romantic and science fiction elements without ever feeling forced or unnatural.

Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss are the only two actors in the film (apart from a brief appearance from Ted Danson at the very start of the movie as their therapist) and they are completely convincing as both their initial selves as well as their more upbeat and hip copies, thereby making it easy for the viewer to suspend their disbelief and just go with this outrageous concept whilst also making some insightful observations about love and relationships.

Credit should also go to director Charlie McDowell, who delivers a really assured debut feature. Elisabeth Moss received an Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival for her work on the film.

7. Predestination (The Spierig Brothers, 2014)

Based on the short story All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein, Predestination is an Australian science fiction film directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, aka The Spierig Brothers. The two had already made two previous features together, but Predestination marks the point where they really start getting into their own and actually provide a fresh and original take on the time travel genre.

The whole point of the narrative is its intricate web of time travel conundrums. Suffice to say that the film deals with an organisation known as The Temporal Bureau which sends its “temporal agents” through time to prevent crimes before they occur.

The bureau is headed by Mr. Robertson (Noah Taylor) who sends one of its agents (Ethan Hawke) on his last mission before he will be decommissioned, just after he has returned from a semi-successful assignment, which saw him prevent a bombing by the “Fizzle Bomber”, the only criminal to constantly elude the bureau throughout time.

This time the agent is sent to 1970 where he meets a man, who writes a column for a magazine under the guise of being a woman. The two get to talking and the man bets the agent that he can tell him the most incredible story and that if he does, he’ll be owed a bottle of whiskey.

So starts the story of Jane (Sarah Snook), an orphaned girl who grows up to be recruited for the Space Corps, until medical tests discover an anomaly, which disqualifies her and sets in motion a series of events which will have everything to do with the Fizzle Bomber, the Agent and even the Temporal Bureau itself.

Another film where a lot is achieved with relatively little, although at times the budget restrains do show, Predestination is an extremely intricate yet fresh take on the time travel concept. Without giving anything away, the film thrives on the conundrums and paradoxes of time travel and even goes out of its way to actually overcomplicate them.

Whilst that might sound as a criticism, it actually works in the film’s favour and is what makes it feel as an original take on some ideas you have seen before. Whilst it isn’t perfect movie, it’s a major step forward for the Spierig Brothers and it will be very interesting to see where they go from here.

Predestination won Best Sci-Fi Film and Best Screenplay at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, where it also received Second Prize for Best Film from the Audience Awards.

Travelling back in time to change fate has always been the dreams of mankind. Early in 1888, the great H. G. Wells wrote a short story about time travelling, it’s called The Chronic Argonauts. It predates his more famous time travelling novel The Time Machine by 7 years.

The first notable film in this genre was the silent movie version of Mark Twain’s 1889 novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The first time travel movie that got wide attentions was the 1960 classic The Time Machine, it was adapted from H.G. Wells’ novel and won an Oscar for best visual effects.

Two of the most famous time travel movies were born in the 1980s, namely The Terminator and Back to the Future. Since then, time travel movie have become the most beloved sub-genre of the sci-fi genre. This trend turns more obvious in the 21st century, beginning with the cult classic Donnie Darko. With 3 great 2014 releases on the list, the genre seems to get more and more exciting as time passes. Here are 20 great time travel movies that are definitely worth your time.

20. The Time Machine (George Pal, 1960)

Let’s start off with what might well be considered the granddaddy of all time travel movies: The Time Machine. Based on the novel of the same name by H.G. Wells, the 1960 adaptation of The Time Machine by George Pal was the first and best out of three as the story was adapted again for television in 1978 and remade once more in 2002, both with lesser results.

H. George Wells (Rod Taylor) is a gentleman and scientist from Victorian era England, who is obsessed with the notion of time travel. After building a steam-punk time machine (before that term even existed), George sets out on his first travel on December 31st 1899. He first goes forward 17 years in time and is shocked to find the world in the midst of World War I.

As bad luck would have it, he next goes to 1940, once again finding the world engulfed in war and when he fast forwards to 1966 things go from bad to worse as a nuclear holocaust is taking place at that stage. George manages to barely escape but due to a malfunction caused by the blast and an erupting volcano, he is forced to travel very far into the future, 802701 A.D. to be exact.

To his surprise he finds an idyllic society filled with gentle folk, who call themselves Eloi, but soon discovers that mankind has lost all its previously gained knowledge and that an mutated form of humanity, called Morlocks, lives underground and preys on the passive people above.

Whilst The Time Machine sure looks and feels dated by today’s standards, the real stand-out at the time were the inventive special effects, using stop-motion, inventive production design and an effective and evocative soundtrack to create a spectacular science fiction spectacular.

Rod Sterling is great in the lead role of author H.G.Wells himself and Yvette Mimieux is nicely seductive as his futuristic love-interest. The Time Machine rightfully won the 1961 Academy Award for Best Special Effects and was also nominated for Best Dramatic Presentation at the Hugo Awards that year.

19. Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam, 1981)

The first of two entries directed by Terry Gilliam found on this list, Time Bandits is one of the director’s earlier directorial efforts in which he still seems to be somewhat caught in his Monty-Python roots. Gilliam also produced and co-wrote the film (with Michael Palin, which might also explain the lingering Pythonesque humour in this feature) and the film features an all-star British cast including Sean Connery, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Ian Holm, Ralph Richardson and David Warner.

Kevin is an eleven-year-old boy living with his dreadfully dull and gadget-addicted parents in England. He seeks his escape in books and seems far more interested in history than anyone else in the household. Then one night, when he’s laying in bed, a knight on horseback storms out of his cupboard and disappears in the woods, which soon also disappear as a stunned Kevin finds himself in his bedroom again.

Unable to explain it, he can’t wait to go to bed the following night and see what happens. This time around, however, six dwarves, who have stolen a map from the Supreme Being appear from the cupboard.

They intend to use some “gaps” left in creation to just from era to era and steal treasure in each and before he knows what’s going on, Kevin finds himself part of their adventures, which leads him from the Napoleonic Wars to Robin Hood in Medieval England to King Agamemnon in ancient Greece. All this time the group is chased by the Supreme Being, who wants his map back, and Evil itself, who wants it for world domination.

Whilst Time Bandits is more successful when judged on its individual segments than as a coherent narrative, the film is an early example of Gilliam’s wild imagination and ability to get very much out of relatively little. The film is the first part of what is considered Gilliam’s Trilogy of the Imagination, followed by the more successful Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and his first non-Python film to gain global recognition.

Time Bandits was nominated for five Saturn Awards from the Academy of Science-Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, whilst receiving the President’s Award there, and also received Best Fantasy Film nominations at both Fantasporto and the Hugo Awards.

18. Primer (Shane Carruth, 2004)

The directorial debut of Shane Carruth, who also wrote the screenplay and produced, edited, scored as well as starred in the film, Primer is a pretty divisive film. Some will tell you this one of of the most brilliant time travel films ever made whilst others will have no idea what’s going on and tend to find the whole experience rather boring. But there is no denying that Primer caused a splash, is a unique piece of work and an utterly assured debut by Carruth.

Aaron (Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan) have boring technology day jobs and spend their nights creating and selling error-checking systems from Aaron’s garage. When they pursue a new project, a device to reduce the weight of objects, Abe discovers an amazing side-effect: the device seems to alter time, allowing an object to be temporarily doubled.

As a consequence, Abe decides to build a larger version of the device, which a person can enter. By setting a timer and leaving the device before it starts to work and then enter it at a later stage, a person’s double will appear at the time the device was turned on and for the time between the turning on of the device and the person going into it at a later stage, both the original person and their double co-exist until the original disappears when entering the box and the double takes over. Sound complicated? It is, and that is supposed to be a clear summary without the technical jargon and elliptical narrative.

Apparently made for only $7000, Primer is a victory of independent filmmaking and if anything and enormously confident and original debut for Shane Carruth, a mathematics student and former engineer. Deciding not to “dumb things down”, Carruth did not simplify any of the technical jargon and purposefully keeps things oblique, causing the audience to always just sort of understand what is going on, which strangely enough becomes the exact thing that keeps this film intriguing.

Certainly not a film for everybody, Primer is a one of a kind experience and a worthy addition to the canon of time travel movies. The film won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, was nominated for Best Feature at Stiges, Fantasporto and the Gotham Awards whilst also picking up four nominations at the Independent Spirit Awards.

17. Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001)

The feature film directorial debut of Richard Kelly, who also wrote the screenplay, is an unsettling and melancholy mixture of teen movie, horror, science fiction and supernatural drama. The film was a mild success upon its initial release but quickly gained a large cult following, which in turn led to the release of a twenty minute longer director’s cut in 2004.

Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a troubled teenager who is often visited by the most scary looking 6-foot bunny-like creature called Frank. As the movie begins, Donnie is woken up by Frank, led outside the house and told the world will come to an end in four weeks. Moments after this revelation an jet plane engine crashes through Donnie’s roof, demolishing his bedroom.

Seeing this as a sign that the prophecy might be true, Donnie continues his bizarre home and school life whilst committing some disturbing acts under the influence of Frank. When Frank one day brings up time travel, Donnie goes to speak to his science teacher about it and is given the book The Philosophy of Time Travel, written by a former teacher at his school.

Meanwhile he starts dating the new girl at school (Jena Malone), talks to his psychotherapist (Katharine Ross) about his strange visions and burns down the house of a creepy motivational speaker (Patrick Swayze), only to expose a collection of child pornography, which leads to his arrest. By the time Halloween hits, the four weeks are up, and Donnie goes to visit the writer of the time travel book as a strange storm brews over Donnie’s house.

If the above description doesn’t make much sense, it’s because Donnie Darko isn’t very concerned with a straight-forward narrative. An oblique mood-piece, the film is an incredible exercise in style, combining various genres whilst evoking an ominous tone throughout, firmly set in 80’s nostalgia.

Whilst there isn’t a lot of time travel going on in Donnie Darko, it’s ultimately central to the film. That combined with the film’s undisputed cult status made it an essential addition to this list although one’s appreciation for the film might be dependent on one’s tolerance for weirdness.

The film won Best Screenplay at Stiges, where is was also nominated for Best Film, a Special Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films for Young Filmmakers and three nominations at the Independent Spirit Awards for Best First Feature, Screenplay and Actor.

16. Safety Not Guaranteed (Colin Trevorrow, 2012)

Inspired by a real-life Backwoods Home magazine classified ad, which was actually written as a joke by one of the magazine’s employees as pure filler, Safety Not Guaranteed is an indie comedy with romantic, sci-fi and dramatic undertones, directed by Colin Trevorrow and starring Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass.

After Seattle Magazine writer Jeff (Jake Johnson) comes across a classified ad which reads: “WANTED: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 91 Ocean View, WA 99393. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.”, he pitches the story to his boss and is sent off with two colleagues, Darius (Plaza) and Arnau (Karan Soni), to do a piece on the person behind the odd ad.

It turns out to be a grocery store clerk named Kenneth (Duplass), a paranoid lonely soul. Darius poses as someone who is answering his ad and over time she comes to like and even care for the clearly wounded Kenneth. Kenneth reveals to Darius that his mission is to safe his girlfriend who died when a car drove into her house, whilst Darius tells him she’s there to prevent the untimely death of her mother.

But when it turns out that Kenneth’s old girlfriend is still alive and that it was in fact Kenneth that drove his car into her boyfriend’s house, Darius goes to confront Kenneth, who simply takes it as proof that his previous time travel trip worked, and starts to have her doubts about how to proceed with the story as his mental state is clearly in question.

Whilst time travel is central to the storyline of Safety Not Guaranteed, the film’s main themes are regret and coming to terms with one’s past mistakes. The film is filled with great dialogue, equal measures of comedy and heartfelt drama, and strong central performances from Plaza and especially Duplass, who makes for a fully believable kind-hearted damaged soul.

Safety Not Guaranteed won Best Screenplay Awards at Sundance, where it was also in the running for the Grand Jury Prize, as well as the Independent Spirit Awards, where it also picked up a prize for Best First Feature. The film received Best Film nominations at Stiges and the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.

15. Predestination (Michael & Peter Spierig, 2014)

Based on the short story All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein, Predestination is an Australian science fiction film directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, aka The Spierig Brothers. The two had already made two previous features together, but Predestination marks the point where they really start getting into their own and actually provide a fresh and original take on the time travel genre.

The whole point of the narrative is its intricate web of time travel conundrums. Suffice to say that the film deals with an organisation known as The Temporal Bureau which sends its “temporal agents” through time to prevent crimes before they occur.

The bureau is headed by Mr. Robertson (Noah Taylor) who sends one of its agents (Ethan Hawke) on his last mission before he will be decommissioned, just after he has returned from a semi-successful assignment, which saw him prevent a bombing by the “Fizzle Bomber”, the only criminal to constantly elude the bureau throughout time.

The agent is sent to 1970 where he meets a man, who writes column for a magazine under the guise of being a woman. The get to talking and the man bets the agent that he can tell him the most incredible story and that if he does, he’ll be owed a bottle of whiskey.

And so starts the story of Jane (Sarah Snook), an orphaned girl who grows up to be recruited for the Space Corps, until medical tests discover an anomaly, which disqualifies her and sets in motion a series of events which will have everything to do with the Fizzle Bomber, the Agent and Temporal Bureau.

Another film where a lot is achieved with relatively little, although at times the budget restrains do show, Predestination is an extremely intricate yet fresh take on the time travel concept. Without giving anything away, the film thrives on the conundrums and paradoxes of time travel and even goes out of its way to overcomplicate them. Whilst that might sound as a criticism, it actually works in the film’s favour and is what makes it feel as an original take on some ideas you have seen before.

Whilst it isn’t perfect, it’s a major step forward for the Spierig Brothers and it will be very interesting to see where they go from here. Predestination won Best Sci-Fi film and Best Screenplay at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, where it also received Second Prize for Best Film from the Audience Awards.

There is no way that this list will be complete. Quite frankly, there are many, many great films that have been made about troubled childhoods and as a result plenty of good films dealing with the topic have not been included.

Some of the movies that came to mind but were not included are Slumdog Millionaire, Precious (the lead character just seemed a little too old and mature to be included) and maybe most noteworthy Bicycle Thieves (as two other Vittorio De Sica films, which focus more exclusively on the children than Bicycle Thieves, a film that is as much about the father as it is about the child, did make the cut).

But one thing is for sure: with the twenty films listed here, you can’t really go wrong. All of them are great and some of them are certified masterpieces of world cinema. We tried to make the selection rather eclectic, choosing films from a variety of nations and eras. Hopefully you’ll find a good suggestion or two.

20. My Life as a Dog (Lasse Hallström, 1985)

Based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by Reidar Jönsson, My Life as a Dog was the international breakthrough for Swedish director Lasse Hallström, who would soon after make the move to the United States and start directing films in Hollywood.

Set in 1959 in Sweden, the film follows Ingemar (Anton Glanzelius), a 12-year-old boy who lives with his mother and older brother. His mother is terminally ill, although Ingemar is not aware of the severity of her condition, and in order to give her some much needed rest he and his brother are separated and sent to different family members. Ingemar ends up with his uncle and aunt, who clearly love him dearly and provide a stable environment for the boy.

Whilst there, Ingemar starts to come out of his shell and even has his first sexual awakening as he finds himself drawn to a local tomboy, who enjoys having him as her opponent in a make-shift boxing-ring the local kids have set up in barn. After a while, Ingemar and his brother are taken back to their mother but her health deteriorates quickly and when she passes away the boys are sent back to their families. But whilst life is still tough for young Ingemar, he know finds himself better equipped to deal with its hardships.

Whilst My Life as a Dog deals with difficult themes like poverty, neglect and loss as experienced by a child, the film nonetheless strikes a nostalgic and somewhat light tone. Tragic yet unsentimental, the film succeeds brilliantly at depicting how a harsh life can be filtered through the innocence of the eyes of a child.

The film was a huge art house success and propelled its Swedish director into the international limelight. My Life as a Dog was nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Director and Adapted Screenplay) and won Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes, the Independent Spirit Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle.

19. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009)

Whilst the lead character of Fish Tank might be verging on young adulthood, I decided to still include it. The protagonist is 15-years-old and lives at home with her mother and her little sister is also still part of the household. Apart from that, Fish Tank is simply a great film and it simply deserved a spot on this list.

Fish Tank tells the story of Mia (Katie Jarvis), an isolated and rebellious 15-year-old girl who lives on an East London council estate with her single mother, Joanne, and younger sister, Tyler. Her behaviour has seen her suspended from school and she spends most of her time drinking and dancing in an empty flat in her apartment block. When her mother brings home her latest boyfriend, Connor (Michael Fassbender), Mia is immediately charmed by him and over time the two grow closer.

Connor takes the family on a day trip to the country, escaping their usual surroundings, and encourages her to enter a dance competition thereby giving Mia the kind attention and encouragement which she is so sorely missing. But as the two get closer, Mia interferes with her mother and Connor’s relationship and things get out of hand as she soon turns into her mother’s rival.

Whilst director Andrea Arnold manages to get impressive performances out of the entire cast, it’s Katie Jarvis with her pitch perfect portrayal of the foul-mouthed and rebellious Mia, in her only feature film performance ever, and Michael Fassbender, who would soon shoot to stardom after this flawless portrayal as Connor, who completely steal the show.

The movie won the Jury Prize at Cannes and a BAFTA Award for Best British Film. A bleak but thoroughly rewarding experience and great addition to the long list of stunning kitchen-sink dramas that have been produced in the UK.

18. The Misfortunates (Felix van Groeningen, 2009)

Adapted from the book “De Helaasheid der Dingen” (The Unfortunateness of Things) by Dimitri Verhulst, The Misfortunates is a Belgian comedy-drama directed by Felix van Groeningen.

The film takes place during two different times, both following the main character Gunther Strobbe. In the present Gunther is a struggling author with a pregnant girlfriend who looks back at the times when he was growing up as a 13-year-old boy in a small Belgian village with his grandmother and her four lowlife white trash sons, who all still live at home and sponge of her pension.

His father is an alcoholic and his three uncles don’t amount too much either except winning beer drinking competitions, chasing skirts and being generally belligerent. As a result Gunther isn’t doing all that well in school and his chances of making something of himself in this life seem slim to say the least. But despite all this, there’s one thing that Gunther loves doing: writing. And it’s this passion that might set him apart from his other family members although their influence is hard to escape.

At times hilarious and at times tragic, The Misfortunates seems to effortlessly balance between the two. Whilst the film might sometimes be hard to watch, ultimately there’s a beautiful story underneath all the depravity and the entire cast does an admirable job.

Special mention should go out to Kenneth Vanbaeden who gives an impressive performance playing the 13-year-old Gunther. The film won a special award at Cannes and Best Film at the Istanbul Film Festival, was nominated for three CinEuphoria Awards (Best Film, Director and Editing) and was the official Belgian entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.

17. Chop Shop (Ramin Bahrani, 2007)

The third feature directed by Ramin Bahrani, who also co-wrote and edited the film, is another naturalistic slice of life with clear neorealist influences. Especially of note is the performance by 12-year-old Alejandro Polanco, who, in his feature film debut, carries the film and is virtually on screen for every minute of its running time.

Chop Shop tells the story of Ale, a twelve year old street-smart orphan who lives and works in an auto-body repair shop in Willets Point, which is an area in Queens, New York, filled with automobile repair shops, scrapyards and garbage dumps. Mature before his time, he is trying to make a better life for himself as well as his sixteen-year-old sister, who works in a food truck, by selling whatever he can get his hands.

Saving every penny he makes, Ale intends to buy a truck which he wants to convert to their own food truck so that he and his sister can run their own business. But doing so in such a harsh environment for such a young boy is no small task.

Using mostly non-actors and shot on location at Willets Point in New York, Chop Shop is a realistic drama with all-round naturalistic performances. A coming of age story set in New York’s underbelly, Chop Shop won Ramin Bahrani the “Someone to Watch Award” at the Independent Spirit Awards and the Jury Awards at both the Philadelphia Film Festival and the Riga International Film Forum in 2008.

16. Samson and Delilah (Warwick Thornton, 2009)

Written and directed by Warwick Thornton, Samson and Delilah is an Australian romantic drama starring Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson, both in their first and only acting roles thus far.

Samson (McNamara) is a 14-year-old Aboriginal boy living in an Aboriginal community near Alice Springs in central Australia. He spends most of his days sniffing petrol and being up to no good. Delilah is a 14-year-old Aboriginal girl, living in the same community with her grandmother. Samson is interested in Delilah and tries to get her attention but although she initially doesn’t want a bar of him, his constant following her around starts to wear down her guard.

After her grandmother encourages her to give in to him, the two start dating but when Delilah’s grandmother dies and she is blamed by the elderly women in their community for her death, who accuse her of neglect, the two decide to take off to Alice Springs. Living under a bridge there, the two young lovers encounter horrible violence and adversity and their futures look grimmer than ever before.

The first feature film by writer and director Warwick Thornton, Samson and Delilah is an very bleak and confronting look at some of the extreme conditions experienced by Aboriginal communities in Central Australia. With stunning cinematography, the film contrasts the beauty of the sun-scorched landscape with the grim lives of its protagonists.

The film has very little dialogue (Samson speaks exactly one word in the entire movie) but Thornton manages to coax some very impressive performances from both of his young and inexperienced leads.

Samson and Delilah was nominated for twelve awards by the Australian Film Institute, winning six including Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography and a joined award for its two leads whilst also winning Best Film and Best Director from both the Australian Writers’ Guild as well as the Film Critics Circle of Australia. Warwick Thornton also won the Golden Camera at Cannes in addition to many other international prizes.

15. The Children are Watching Us (Vittorio De Sica, 1944)

A clear precursor to his soon-to-follow neorealist works, The Children Are Watching Us is a minor masterpiece by Vittorio De Sica, which was shot in 1942 but not released until 1944.

The film tells the story of Prico (Luciano de Ambrosis), a young boy from a middle-class Italian family. After she’s been carrying on an affair for some time, his mother Nina (Isa Pola) walks out on the family, leaving Prico and his father Andrea (Emilio Cigoli) to fend for themselves. Prico is initially placed with family members but when this doesn’t work out, he goes back home, followed by his mother who agrees to return for his sake.

To distance themselves from the situation and to try to heal the wounds, the family decides to take a beach holiday. At first all is fine but when Andrea goes home alone to return to work and Nina’s lover shows up at the resort, Prico tries to run away and things start going from bad to worse.

A beautiful work about the effects of a family break-up on a young child and the responsibility of parenthood, The Children Are Watching Us clearly pre-empts De Sica’s neorealist works and his talent of working with children. Luciano de Ambrosis, who was five years old when the movie was shot, gives a wonderful performance and, whilst sentimental, the film treats its subject matter and characters as real without ever being maudlin.

An important work for De Sica, who had only directed a few comedies before this, as well as for the emergence of Italian neorealism, The Children Are Watching Us is a must-see film for lovers of Italian cinema.

I’m not into sport. I don’t participate in any sports nor do I tend watch it live or on television. But the beauty of the documentaries listed below is that there is no need to be interested in the sports they cover (although having a specific interest in them probably adds even more to one’s appreciation of them).

These films can be enjoyed by aficionados and outsiders alike as all of them are simply well-made pieces of entertainment. Some of the documentaries here are mainly biographical, others focus primarily on specific events or recreations thereof whilst some try to give an overview of a entire sport or just a specific aspect of it. But what they all have in common is that all of them are great viewing, no matter how much you know about the subject going into them. I hope you enjoy the selection.

12. Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos (2006)

Directed by John Dower and Paul Crowder, with the latter starting out as an editor of various documentaries, including two which are part of this list, Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos is the story of the first soccer league to gain widespread popularity in the United States and in particular the New York Cosmos, its most famous team.

Soccer has had a hard time finding an audience in the United States but in 1968 the original North American Soccer League was the first league to find success on a national level. Part of its success was generated by one team: the New York Cosmos, which was the brainchild of football fans Steve Ross, a high-ranking executive at Warner Communications, as well as Ahmet and Nesuki Ertegun, who had founded Atlantic Records together and which had been taken over by Warner.

The start of the team was a true rags to riches story as its beginnings were shabby at best. But once management succeeded in signing various world famous football players, who were past their prime and primarily attracted to the huge paychecks, the New York Cosmos became hot property and its players high rolling stars.

Amongst them none other than Brazilian champion Pelé (still widely considered the greatest football player of all time), German legend Franz Beckenbauer and Dutch master Johann Cruyff. And whilst its fortunes began to wane by the early eighties, the success of the New York Cosmos and the original North American Soccer League laid the foundations for the current leagues still operating in the United States today.

Narrated by Matt Dillon, Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos truly shines in its first act, where the very humble beginnings of the league and team are laid out and how they both rose in fame and stature as the first big name players were being signed.

Filled with interviews with these star-players (although Pelé unfortunately declined to participate) and footage from the team’s glory days, the documentary is a highly entertaining look at the beginnings of soccer in the United States and has a great soundtrack to boot. Once in a Lifetime received a nomination for the Best Documentary Screenplay Award from the Writers Guild of America.

11. Pulling John (2009)

Directed by Vassiliki Khonsari and Sevan Matossian, Pulling John is a fantastic little underseen documentary about arm-wrestling, focusing on the sport’s greatest and longest lasting champion, John Brzenk.

John Brzenk has been the undisputed king of arm-wrestlers for the last twenty-five years, taking out many much bigger opponents and thereby earning himself the nickname of “monster slayer”. As this documentary starts following him, John has passed the age of forty and he is torn on how much longer he can go on. Should he stop now, whilst he’s still on top, or wait until people start defeating him?

During the four years the filmmakers followed John around, two competitors are especially eager to take his title: Travis Bagent, an hungry and overconfident young American, and Alexey Voevoda, a giant Russian hulk of man from a long line of military men. Will John be able to stay on top as he’s going on forty-five or will the young blood finally take his place?

A wonderful look into a subculture unbeknownst to most of us, Pulling John is filled with colorful characters. Most amazing is John Brzenk himself, a kind and unassuming guy who has somehow been able to dominate the sport for a quarter of a century.

It also helps greatly that we are presented with two formidable opponents as Travis Bagent is John’s polar opposite whilst Alexey Voevoda is an almost superhuman Russian muscle machine, who tends to take a far calmer and even philosophical approach. Combining old stock footage, the filmmakers recent footage whilst following the opponents all over the world and even a lovely little animation sequence as Alexey spins a Taoist fable, Pulling John is a small revelation.

10. Beyond The Mat (1999)

Directed by Barry W. Blaustein, a screenwriter of light comedies like the Police Academy sequels and various Eddie Murphy vehicles, and who also happens to be a lifelong wrestling fan, Beyond the Mat is an inside look at the difficult private lives of some of the sport’s stars.

The film basically follows three wrestlers at very different stages of their careers. First there is Mick Foley, who is at the top of his game. Mick is a gentle father and family man and the polar opposite of his stage persona, Mankind, who is a maniac in the ring.

Blaustein primarily focuses on the difficulties his wife and young daughters experience as a result of watching Foley get beat up in the ring time after time. Then there is Terry Funk, a legend of the sport who has reached the age of 53 at the time of filming and seems to be unable to retire, despite the fact that the years of abuse in the ring have taken a heavy toll on his body.

And lastly , there’s Jake “The Snake” Roberts, a man who was at the top of his game in the eighties but has since become the victim of drug abuse and who is now wrestling at sub-par events in small town venues. World Wrestling Federation mogul Vince McMahon, who initially supported the documentary, is also interviewed on various occasions, even though he later tried to block its release when he realised the film focused more on the seedy underbelly of the sport than on its spectacle.

Despite the fact that Blaustein is a lifelong wrestling fan who never necessarily portrays the sport itself in a bad light, Beyond the Mat is a very downbeat and depressing affair as it focuses on the, more often than not, negative effects it has on those who create its spectacle. And despite fully acknowledging that the outcomes are all set and that wrestling is a form of staged entertainment, the film also emphasises how the hard work, action and physical strain are all very real.

Beyond the Mat won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the SXSW Film Festival as well as two separate Best Documentary Awards at the Cinequest Film Festival. It was also nominated for Best Documentary by the Directors Guild of America as well as the Las Vegas Film Critics Society.

9. Pumping Iron (1977)

Directed by George Butler and Robert Fiore, Pumping Iron remains the ultimate bodybuilding documentary to this very day, inspiring no less than three sequels of sorts throughout the years. Following the competitors of the 1975 Mr. Olympia competition, the filmmakers actually ran out of money and as a result the film wasn’t released until 1977 when Arnold Schwarzenegger and other bodybuilders appearing in the film helped raise the funds for its completion.

Following various bodybuilders for 100 days leading up to the 1975 Mr. Olympia competition, Pumping Iron primarily focuses on a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had won the competition five years straight, and his main rival Lou Ferrigno before he got signed to play the Hulk on television.

The documentary was an enormous success and is even credited to help kick-start the eighties fitness craze when the number of gyms in the United States skyrocketed after its release. The success of the film can clearly be contributed to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s presence. Whilst he previously had a few small roles in some Hollywood films, the documentary served as a perfect showcase for him and clearly illustrated his already present star quality.

Schwarzenegger comes across as smart, funny, cocky and at the top of his game (he had won five times previously), constantly pushing Lou Ferrigno’s buttons and clearly waging psychological warfare on the newcomer. It’s no surprise that after the 1975 competition Schwarzenegger announced his retirement from bodybuilding and started to focus on his soon to be highly successful acting career.

Pumping Iron was followed up by George Butler’s own sequel Pumping Iron: The Women in 1985, Raw Iron in 2002, which focused on the making of the original documentary and the effects it had on those who participated in it, and 2013’s Generation Iron, which followed a contemporary set of bodybuilders preparing and competing for the Mr. Olympia title. Pumping Iron was awarded Best Documentary at the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards in 1977.

8. Riding Giants (2004)

Directed and narrated by Stacy Peralta, who had burst onto the scene three years earlier when he made Dogtown and Z-Boys about the group of skateboarders he himself grew up with in the seventies, Riding Giants turned its eye on the history of surfing, and in particular big wave surfing, which in itself had an enormous influence of Peralta and skateboarding in general.

Starting with a historical overview of the sport’s Hawaiian beginnings, Riding Giants chronicles some of the major events and figures of big wave surfing.

Peralta starts by focusing on Greg Noll, a pioneer of the sport, who braved the big waves at Waimea Bay in Hawaii in the late fifties and early sixties. He then moves on to Jeff Clark, who claims to have discovered the now infamous and dangerous surf spot called Mavericks in Northern California in the early seventies and surfed it alone for a period of fifteen years.

Lastly, Peralta places the spotlight on to Laird Hamilton, one of the co-inventor of tow-in surfing, where the waves are so big that a jet ski is needed to tow the surfer into the approaching walls of water. This technique made it possible to surf waves which were previously thought of as impossible to master.

Just like he did with Dogtown and Z-Boys, Stacy Peralta delivered another highly entertaining documentary about a subject close to his heart. Whilst Riding Giants lacks the focus of the aforementioned documentary, it is a fantastic overview of big wave surfing culture, filled with classic footage and highly entertaining interviews with some of its most prominent figures.

Although it didn’t make the same splash as his previous effort, Riding Giants is still a great overview of a truly thrilling sport. The film won an award for Best Edited Documentary Film from the Society of American Cinema Editors.

7. Undefeated (2011)

Directed by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin, Undefeated is an inspiring documentary about a North American High School football team and their coach, determined to turn their fortune around in what has been a less than stellar track record.

The filmmakers follow the Manassas High School football team for one season in 2009. Situated in a poor area of Memphis, the team has had a terrible run in its 100 year history. During this time, they have never been able to win a single play-off game and are consequently perceived by other schools as an easy win for their own progression.

In comes Bill Courtney, a wealthy white businessman and life-long football fan with a true passion for the sport and turning things around for the Manassas team. After six years of volunteering he has become the head coach and the movie focuses on his efforts and three of the team’s players: O.C., one of the team’s best players, Money, a small linesman who through sheer willpower manages to beat bigger players and Chavis, a young man with serious anger management issues who has just returned from a stint in a youth detention center.

What makes Undefeated stand out is not its focus on the sport itself but on some of the people giving it their all. Bill Courtney, a rich white businessman in a poor primarily black team from a community plagued by poverty and crime, seems an unlikely candidate to coach these young men but his passion for the sport and the kids is clearly genuine and touching.

He might be their coach but he takes on a much bigger role as their teacher and is the first to admit that there is much more at stake than just football. As the film progresses, it’s beautiful to see how his hard work pays off as he gets through to some of these kids. Undefeated won the Academy Award for Best Documentary feature as well as the Audience Award at the Chicago International Film Festival in 2012.

There is no doubt that comic book movies, and superhero comic book movies in particular, are reigning supreme in Hollywood right now. It’s almost hard to imagine that there was a time when these types of films were uncommon and successful comic book movies were virtually non-existent.

Before the millennium, the two exceptions were were Richard Donner’s Superman from 1978, Tim Burton’s Batman from 1989 and their sequels although both series had really already completely ran out of steam by the time the third entry hit the theatres. Most other superhero comic book films produced before the mid-nineties were all pretty sad affairs and didn’t seem to draw in anyone over the age of twelve.

But towards the end of the nineties, things started to change. 1998’s Blade was a clear precursor but it wasn’t until X-Men was released in 2000 that superhero films found large mainstream success. Ever since, all bets have been off and the popularity of the genre seems to have reached a fever pitch, with no end in near sight. This year alone, four Marvel properties were produced, which currently all rank within the top six most profitable films of the year.

Part of this surge has a lot to do with Marvel Studios, who, after having seen other studios been highly successful with their properties, started producing their own content and even surpassed the success of those other studios when they started creating the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). They first established separate superhero movies and then had them all come together in 2012’s The Avengers, which became the third highest grossing movie at the box-office ever.

With Warner Brothers ambitious plans to imitate Marvel’s model of a shared universe with their DC properties (they also announced no less then ten interconnected films for the next five years), Fox riding high on the success of their various X-Men movies and with a Fantastic Four reboot in the works and Marvel about to close their second phase of movies with next year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron and another ten movies scheduled for the next four years, it looks like superheros are going to reign supreme in the foreseeable future.

But before Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theatres May next year, let’s have a look back at the ten films that Marvel Studios has so far released in their MCU. So far, they are the only studio to have successfully pulled off anything on this scale, a fact which is even more impressive as its first in-house production was released in 2008 when they burst onto the screen with the first Iron Man.

Roughly speaking, half of the Marvel Studios’ movies so far have been great creative and high quality successes whilst the other half varies from not so good to passable fun entertainment. Let’s have a look.

10. The Incredible Hulk (Louis Leterrier, 2008)

By far the worst film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far, The Incredible Hulk was in itself a reboot of the 2003 Ang Lee effort, simply named “Hulk”. Whilst that first movie was produced by Universal and considered a critical as well as a bit of a financial flop, Marvel’s own reboot for their MCU didn’t do much better.

Both movies might have made their money back but neither broke the box-office and both films were panned by critics. The biggest problem with The Incredible Hulk was its director. Louis Leterrier has never made a good movie in his career and when compared to the other directors of Marvel’s phase one films, this becomes particularly apparent.

The film felt more like a building block in a franchise than a stand-alone entry and suffered greatly from a weak screenplay. All surface gloss and very little body and soul, The Incredible Hulk is without a doubt Marvel’s weakest entry so far and even though Edward Norton was fine in the role, it didn’t come as a major surprise that he was the only actor to be replaced when the character reappeared in The Avengers four years later.

9. Iron Man 3 (Shane Black, 2013)

Iron Man 3 might have been a giant financial success, becoming Marvel Studios’ second biggest film as well as the sixth most successful film of all time with its 1.2+ billion dollar box-office revenue, but it’s also one of Marvel’s worst movies so far. It’s success can be contributed to the fact that Iron Man, as played by Robert Downey Jr., is still Marvel’s most popular character and that the movie was the first film to be released after the giant success of The Avengers, which left the audience begging for more.

Once again the director is probably mostly to blame here. Directed by Shane Balck, Iron Man 3 felt like a re-tread of his eighties action movies, complete with a Christmas setting and an underwhelming climax on a freighter, which seemed to be a copy of the finale of Lethal Weapon 2.

On top of that, we saw Iron Man hang out with a kid and it certainly didn’t help that (spoiler ahead) the film’s iconic and seriously threatening villain was suddenly reduced to a goofy English actor, only to be replaced by a bunch of fire-breathing second-rate villains.

It’s not because I am a purist that I didn’t like what Black did to the Mandarin (in fact, Ben Kingsley is pretty damn funny in the role and it was a genuine surprise) but it simply left the movie without a worthy villain and if there’s one thing a good superhero movie needs, it’s a worthy adversary. A financial success but ultimately an extremely disappointing entry into the MCU, Iron Man 3 actually managed to be worse than the already disappointing Iron Man 2.

8. Thor: The Dark World (Alan Taylor, 2013)

The sequel to Thor is not a bad film, it just is very average. It’s greatest assets are Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston, who both perfectly capture their respective roles and have rightfully become fan favourites (Loki is still the best villain we have seen in any Marvel film so far).

Apart from that, the entire supporting cast is in fine form too and it’s only Natalie Portman who lets the team down. Not only does she fail to bring anything interesting to her character, her chemistry with Chris Hemsworth is also severely lacking, which is quite problematic since it’s supposed to be so central to the story arc.

The film did feel bigger than Iron Man 3, which was released a few months earlier, and exploring the different realms made for some interesting changes of scenery but an underdeveloped villain in the form of Malekith and a sometimes overly generic storyline and pretty silly plotting kept this one from reaching its full potential.

Basically pretty similar to the sequel to Iron Man, in that it’s sort of fun but nothing special, Thor: The Dark World is fun while it lasts but ultimately quite forgettable. The film does get special bonus points for that inspired Captain America cameo though. That was amazing and arguably the highlight of the entire movie.

7. Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010)

Just like the sequel to Thor, Iron Man 2 felt like Marvel playing it safe. And whilst they amped up the action, introduced both War Machine and Black Widow and opened up their universe, the overall effect of the movie felt less fresh than its predecessor and more like a set-up movie for The Avengers.

Robert Downey Jr. is the film’s strongest asset and director Favreau actually gave the movie a far more comic book-like feel than its predecessor but an unnecessary convoluted plot and an underdeveloped villain (even though Mickey Rourke is an imposing adversary) kept this one down.

Once again not as bad as the first two entries on this list but just overly safe and therefore just way too average, Iron Man 2 is fun enough for fans but a disappointment when compared to the first Iron Man film, which had kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe in style.

6. Thor (Kenneth Branagh, 2011)

The first Thor movie is a bit of a frustrating affair. It lands higher than the previous entries on this list as the first half of the movie is pretty damn great. Director Kenneth Branagh uses his Shakespearean background to great effect when setting up the story and introducing us to the world of Asgard. Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston and Anthony Hopkins all shine as the Nordic gods inhabiting this other world, the designs were grand and the first major action set piece, where Thor and his buddies take on the Frost Giants, is fantastic.

On top of that the rivalry between Thor and Loki is very well handled and placed front and centre whilst the film is also infused with a healthy dose of humour. It’s just such a shame that the second half of the movie, when the action moves to earth, is such a disappointing affair.

Set in a little desert town in New Mexico and with a completely underwhelming climax, the movie completely fizzles out as the stakes never seem all that high. It’s so bad that the second half of the movie almost makes one forget about the great stuff that came before it. A real missed opportunity, Thor nonetheless managed to deliver a solid origin story and introduced the audience to the third major Avenger.

Named greatest male star in the history of American cinema by the American Film Institute in 1999, Humphrey Bogart is without a doubt one of the biggest stars of the silver screen and of Hollywood’s golden era.

In a career that spawned almost three decades, he appeared in about 75 feature films (85 credits in total if one includes television appearances and shorts), thereby averaging a staggering 2 1/2 films per year for nearly thirty years. During this time, Bogart became the quintessential hard-boiled cynical though guy, a true screen legend and ultimately a genuine cultural icon.

Born on December 25th 1899 as Humphrey DeForest Bogart, “Bogie” started acting in plays in 1921, only to appear in his first movie in 1928. After having been in about twelve films, his first breakthrough came with The Petrified Forest from 1936, in which he played a famous gangster on the run from the law.

As a result of this role, Bogart began being typecast in gangster roles for the next five years until he became a genuine star when The Maltese Falcon, one of the quintessential film noirs, turned out to be a huge hit. From there on in, success followed upon success and his marriage with actress Lauren Bacall, who was 25 years his junior and who he met on the set of 1944’s To Have And To Have Not, only made the public more obsessed with the already extremely popular star. The couple would make four films together, all of which were very successful and three of which made it onto this list of greatest Bogart films.

A life-long heavy drinker and smoker, Bogart started to develop serious health issues in the mid-fifties. His last film was The Harder They Fall, before he was diagnosed with cancer in January 1956. After a year of battling the disease, Bogart died on January 14th 1957. His funeral was attended by some of the greatest names in the industry and John Huston, with whom he had made some of his greatest films, concluded his eulogy by stating that “There will never be another one like him”. He was quite right.

10. The African Queen (John Huston, 1951)

Adapted from the same name novel by C. S. Forester, The African Queen is a near perfect romantic adventure, which teamed up Humphrey Bogart and John Huston for the fifth time in their careers and did so with great success once again.

Rose Sayer (Katharine Hepburn) is a missionary in East Africa with her brother Samuel (Robert Morley) at the start of World War I. Their mail and supplies get delivered by Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) on his boat the African Queen. When Samuel gets killed during the German invasion, Charlie offers to take Rose back to civilisation.

Their personalities couldn’t be more different but during the course of their adventurous journey down the river, the two end up falling for each other. In the process Rose convinces Charlie that they might be able to use his boat as a torpedo to sink a strategically placed German gunship.

Action-packed, funny and romantic, The African Queen is undisputed classic which benefits tremendously from the great performances of its two leads and the chemistry between them. The film is also noteworthy for mostly having been shot on location in Uganda and the Congo, something which in those days was quite rare.

The African Queen was nominated for four Oscars (Best Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay) but ultimately only Bogart got his statue, which would turn out to be the only one in his career. A great Hollywood adventure classic.

9. The Caine Mutiny (Edward Dmytryk, 1954)

Based on the novel of the same name by Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny was directed by Edward Dmytryk, produced by Stanley Kramer and stars, in addition to Humphrey Bogart, Robert Francis, José Ferrer, Fred MacMurray and Van Johnson.

Willis Keith (Francis) is a green young ensign, assigned to the Caine, an old minesweeper. As he gets familiar with the ways on board the ship, it becomes apparent that there is hardly any discipline on board, which has a lot to do with its captain, Commander William H. DeVriess (Tom Tully).

When Keith himself forgets to pass on a message to DeVriess, the captain himself suffers the consequences and is replaced with a new one, Commander Phillip Queeg (Bogart). Queeg is obsessed with discipline and starts making some severe changes on board but as time goes by, it becomes apparent that their new captain is displaying some disturbing behaviour and the men on board the Caine start having serious doubts about his state of mind.

When after a few incidents, the Caine gets caught in a typhoon and Commander Queeg seems to act irrationally, Lieutenant Stephen Maryk (Johnson) relieves him from command, supported by Keith and Lieutenant Thomas Keefer (MacMurray), who has been most suspect about Queeg’s mental well-being all along. the ship makes it safely through the storm but back on shore, the men face a court-martial for mutiny.

Made on a very tight budget, The Caine Mutiny overcame those odds and turned out to be a fantastic war drama which concludes in a courtroom drama finale. Bogart’s central performance is pitch-perfect as his captain Queeg is a neurotic man, filled with fear and contradictions, and might in fact be the greatest work of his late-career.

Robert Francis, José Ferrer, Fred MacMurray, Van Johnson and Tom Tully all put in great supporting work and director Dmytryk keeps things rolling along at a nice pace with a great typhoon sequence (although the effects have of course dated a bit and the ship does look like a model when seen nowadays) and a satisfying courtroom finale.

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Film, Screenplay and Actor for Bogart, whilst Dmytryk was nominated for Best Director at the Director’s Guild Awards and the film itself was in the running for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

8. Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1954)

Adapted for the screen from Samuel A. Taylor’s play Sabrina Fair, Sabrina is a classic romantic comedy directed by Billy Wilder and starring Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and William Holden.

Sabrina (Hepburn) is the daughter of a chauffeur and lives together with her dad on the estate of the wealthy Larrabee family. The Larrabee patriarch has two sons: one, Linus, a serious workaholic business man (Bogart), the other, David, a younger debonair playboy (Holden).

Sabrina only has eyes for David but he doesn’t take her seriously. That is until she returns as a sophisticated lady from schooling in Paris but by that time David is engaged to the daughter from a very wealthy family. Sabrina still wants to get her hands on David and he seems quite responsive but Linus steps in as the marriage is of the utmost importance to the Larrabee’s family business. In order to do so he tries to charm Sabrina himself and in the process actually falls in love with her although he is initially unwilling to admit this.

Lighter and not as cutting edge as some of Wilder’s other comedies, Sabrina is nonetheless a lovely romantic comedy which is miles ahead of most other films in the genre. The outstanding cast contribute to this fact greatly and all three leads seem to be enjoying themselves in their respective parts. Whilst some argue that Bogart was miscast in his role, which was originality intended for Cary Grant, he still holds his whilst being cast against character.

The movie was nominated for five Academy Awards but ultimately only won one (Costume Design). The film was also remade in 1995 with Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, and Greg Kinnear but didn’t come close to capturing the charm of the original.

7. Key Largo (John Huston, 1948)

After having gone their own way for a few years, John Huston and Humphrey Bogart got back together again in a big way in 1948 when they collaborated on no less than two movies, both of which have made it onto this list. Key Largo was their second collaboration that year and a return to the type of film which had put them both on the map: the film noir. And with Key Largo they delivered another classic of the genre, just as they had done with their first collaboration, which we’ll get to later.

The film tells the story of Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart) who arrives at the hotel of his deceased war buddy’s father (Lionel Barrymore) to meet up with him and his widowed daughter-in-law Nora (Lauren Bacall). Once there, he finds out that some of the people inside the hotel are hoodlums led by a hard-as-nails gangster called Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson) and soon everybody in the hotel finds themselves taken hostage by the group.

Rocco is at the hotel to make a deal with a contact from Miami but has to wait for the approaching hurricane to subside. As everybody is holed up in the hotel and police arrives looking for some native Americans who had escaped their custody, the situation worsens and Frank needs to decide whether he will stand up to Rocco or not.

Key Largo was the fourth collaboration between Huston and Bogart as well as the fourth and final film husband-and-wife team Bogart and Bacall made together. With its stark black and white photography, classic cast and great screenplay by John Huston and Richard Brooks, the film ranks amongst the all-time classic film noirs of the forties. The film won one Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Gaye Dawn, who played the mistreated love interest of Johnny Rocco.

6. To Have And Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944)

A clear re-interpretation of many of the elements which had made Casablanca a resounding success two years earlier, To Have And Have Not was the first of two highly successful collaborations between Howard Hawks ad Humphrey Bogart, both of which have bee included on this list.

Harry Morgan (Bogart) is the captain of a fishing boat in Martinique in 1940, shortly after France has fallen to the Germans. Harry is requested by activist “Frenchy” (Marcel Dialo) to assist members of the French resistance but not wanting to get involved, Harry initially refuses. But after the French police arrest a client who owed him a lot of money and he gets involved with a beautiful pickpocket, Marie “Slim” Browning (Lauren Bacall), who needs to get back to the United States.

When he picks up the resistance members, Helene (Dolores Moran) and Paul de Bursac (Walter Surovy), his boat is spotted by a patrol boat. Harry manages to get away from them but not before de Bursac is wounded. Back on shore, the police arrest Harry’s right-hand man is Eddie (Walter Brennan) and hold him hostage in order to make him give up the resistance members, forcing Harry to take further action.

Although in some ways this is definitely a rehash of the extremely popular Casablanca, this Bogart movie is an absolute classic for a myriad of reasons. It was directed by Hollywood heavyweight Howard Hawks, who bought the rights to Hemingway’s book from Howard Hughes. He however considered it to be his worst work and proceeded to work on the story with the author himself, changing the story dramatically and turning it into a Casablanca-type film.

William Faulkner than further worked on the screenplay. This is also the film that first time Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall shared the screen, fell in love and soon after got married. Lastly, the film even has a piano player, just like in Casablanca, played by jazz legend Hoagy Carmichael. 1940’s Hollywood doesn’t get much better than this and the “You know how to whistle, don’t you?” scene by Bacall has become the stuff of legend.

Courtroom dramas have been popular for a long time. Starting off as radio shows in the 1930’s, television soon followed suit in the late 1940s, when the medium overtook radio as the most popular at home past-time. It wasn’t long before the genre was also well established on the silver screen, with the late 1950s and early 1960s being particularly fruitful. In fact, half of the entries on this list are from that period, including four of the top five ones.

Some of the films listed here are purely fictional, whilst others are based on real-life trials. Some even blend fact and fiction to great effect and there can be no denying that a well-made courtroom drama, despite its static environment due to its often one location limitation, can be true edge-of-your-seat stuff. Below, we have tried to compile twelve of the genre’s most lasting and gripping examples.

12. Reversal of Fortune (Barbet Schroeder, 1990)

Adapted from the 1985 book Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case by law professor Alan Dershowitz, Reversal of Fortune is a darkly humorous murder mystery based on the real-life court case of Claus von Bülow, who was accused of trying to murder his wife.

The film is narrated by Sunny von Bülow (Glenn Close), who remains in coma after she has been injected with insulin, and told partly in flashbacks expanding on the lead-up and the initial trial of her accused murderer and husband Claus (Jeremy Irons) and partly directly following the appeal proceedings following that first trail.

Whilst everybody believes that Claus is guilty, as his marriage to Sunny had been strained and as he has a lot to gain if his wife dies, Harvard Law professor Dershowitz (Ron Silver) agrees to handle the appeal and works tirelessly with a group of his students to reverse the judgement.

With a splendid screenplay, top-notch direction by Schroeder (both screenplay and director were nominated for Oscars) and delightful performances from all three leads (although Irons completely steals the show with his Oscar winning performance as the strange, snobbish and mysterious von Bülow), Reversal of Fortune is a highly original take on the legal drama by never providing any clear answers and a biting satire of the moral corruption of the upper classes.

11. JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)

The first and most successful of three films about American presidents directed by Oliver Stone, JFK was a highly controversial mix of fact and fiction surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the various theories and conspiracies which followed in its wake. The movie was primarily based on the books On The Trail Of The Assassins by Jim Garrison (played in the movie by Kevin Costner) and Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs.

The movie centres around New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Costner) whose initial investigation into the assassination is shut down but later re-opened when he reads the infamous Warren Report about the lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman) and comes to the conclusion it is severely flawed. He is further spurred on when a high-level figure from Washington, who identifies himself as “X” (Donald Sutherland), meets up with him as a result of his investigation and tells him the rabbit hole might be much deeper than Garrison initially suspected, potentially involving the vice-president, the CIA, the FBI, the military-industrial complex as well as the Mafia.

The film is constructed from archival footage, reconstructions and lengthy courtroom sequences in which Garrison focuses on New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones), who might have had ties with the CIA. And whilst Garrison knows that he is more than likely fighting a losing battle and that his career will be destroyed by his efforts, he continues the trial, knowing that all the presented evidence will become part of the public record, thereby exposing the inconsistencies surrounding the official reports.

Whilst Stone took some major liberties with the presented “facts”, JFK struck a chord with the audience and became a sizeable hit. The courtroom scenes, which constitute about half of the film, might actually be the weaker link in comparison with the reconstructions of the assassination and the investigation by Garrison before the trial but all elements are edited together so compellingly that the whole just works splendidly as a political thriller and, as described by Stone himself, as a “counter-myth” to the official conclusions of the Warren Report, which he described as a “fictional myth”.

So much so that the government, in the wake of the movie’s popularity, decided to make public many previously classified documents surrounding the case as well as forming the Assassination Records Review Board , a body which was required to ensure all related evidence was collected, reviewed and made available to the public. JFK ended up being nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning two for Best Editing and Cinematography.

10. Fury (Fritz Lang, 1936)

Adapted from the story Mob Rule by Norman Krasna and loosely based on the real-life events surrounding the Brooke Hart murder, Fury is a hard-hitting crime drama, a predecessor to film noir, the first film directed by Fritz Lang in the United States and its second half a riveting courtroom drama.

The film begins as Katherine (Sylvia Sidney) leaves her fiancée Joe Wilson (Spencer Tracy) to get a better job in another city. Her main motivation is that she’ll be able to save for their marriage and they agree to see each other again in a year. Joe also does well during the year apart as he buys a gas station with his brothers, which becomes a money maker when a racecourse is built next to it.

After the year passes, Joe gets into his car to finally see and marry Katherine but before he arrives he is stopped by a deputy sheriff of a small town and due to some circumstantial evidence he becomes the suspect of a recent kidnapping in the area. When the people in town hear about his arrest, things gets out of hand and they form a lynch mob to exact their own revenge and justice on the innocent Joe.

A powerful drama and indictment of mob law, Fritz Lang’s first American film pre-empts certain elements of later film noirs whilst being closely associated with social issue films of the times. Spencer Tracy is fantastic as Joe Wilson and unafraid to play up both his wholesome and darker sides and the second half of the film, where it turns into a courtroom drama, is just as powerful as the events that precede it. The film was a great success at the time and was nominated for one Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

9. Breaker Morant (Bruce Beresford, 1980)

Adapted from the play Breaker Morant: A Play in Two Acts by Kenneth G. Ross about the real-life 1902 court-martial of Lieutenant Harry “Breaker” Morant and five other officers during the Boer War in South Africa, Breaker Morant is a great courtroom war drama directed by Bruce Beresford.

Lt. Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant (Edward Woodward) is serving in a special unit, the Bushveldt Carbineers, which is comprised primarily of Australian soldiers during the Boer wars between the English Empire and the Boers, descendants of Dutch colonists. After one of their officers is brutally killed by the Boers, Breaker Morant and some of his men pursue the killers, which ultimately results in the execution of various Boer prisoners.

Morant, Lt. Peter Handcock (Bryan Brown) and Capt. Alfred Taylor (John Waters) are consequently put on trial, primarily because they are also suspected of having killed a German reverend in addition to the Boer prisoners, which might give the German government the perfect excuse to join the war on the side of the Boers with whom they are sympathetic.

From the very start of the trial, it becomes obvious that the English need a conviction in order to appease the Germans, even when it is pretty clear that the men were simply following orders. And so the trial becomes a battle of wills between Lt. Col. Denny (Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell), who wants to see the men convicted as soon as possible, and Maj. J.F. Thomas (Jack Thompson), an inexperienced defence lawyer who gets assigned to defend the men.

One of the greatest films to ever come out of Australia and the one that gave director Bruce Beresford his first international recognition, Breaker Morant is maybe easiest described as the Australian version of Paths of Glory, in which a corrupt military system is more then willing to sacrifice some of its soldiers in a sham trial.

Featuring great period recreation, a superb screenplay and great performances all round, Breaker Morant is a stunning anti-war film and a critical indictment of British imperialism. The film was nominated for thirteen Australian Film Institute Awards, taken home ten, including Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Actor, Supporting Actor and Cinematography whilst also being nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes and a receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

8. Inherit The Wind (Stanley Kramer, 1960)

Adapted from the play of the same name by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, Inherit the Wind is the first courtroom drama directed by Stanley Kramer to make it onto this list and stars Spencer Tracy, Fredric March and Gene Kelly.

Bertram Cates (Dick York) is a teacher who teaches Darwin’s theory of evolution to his high school students in the small town of Hillsboro in Tennessee. Doing so however is actually against Tennessee state law and Bertram is arrested. The trial becomes a national cause when former presidential candidate and biblical scholar Matthew Harrison Brady (March) becomes the state prosecutor, whilst famous journalist of the Baltimore Herald, E.K. Hornbeck (Kelly) hires renowned legal mind Henry Drummond (Tracey) as Cates’ defence lawyer.

With the people of Hillsboro rallied into a fanatical religious frenzy by Reverend Brown (Claude Akins), Drummond has his work cut out for him, especially when it’s ruled that he can not introduce some great scientific minds as witnesses in support of his defence.

Based on the Scopes Monkey Trial, which actually took place in Tennessee in 1925, Inherit the Wind deals with the Evolution vs. Creationism debate but was written in response and as a metaphor to the McCarthyism of the time and one’s right to think freely. Both Spencer Tracey and Frederic March stand out in their respective roles whilst Gene Kelly is delightfully smug as the big city atheist journalist and Claude Atkins particularly scary in his fanaticism as Reverend Brown.

One of Stanley Kramer’s best directorial achievements and a clear lead-up to the even greater courtroom film Judgement at Nuremberg, which he made the following year and is featured later on this list, Inherit the Wind is a faithful adaptation using many of the original court transcripts of the actual case.

Whilst critically acclaimed, the film did not do well financially upon its release despite its four Academy Award nominations (Best Actor for Tracey, Best Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography and Editing), two Golden Globes nominations (Best Film and Actor) and three BAFTA Awards nominations (Best Film and Best Actor for both Tracey and March).

7. Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder, 1957)

Fantastic courtroom drama by Billy Wilder based on the stage play by Agatha Christie (in turn based on her own short story), starring Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich.

Master barrister Sir Wilfred Robards (Laughton), who has just recovered from a heart attack and has been advised to stay away from all stress, takes on Leonard (Power), a man accused of murdering an old rich widow, as a client. Things complicate quickly as Leonard’s wife (Dietrich) suddenly announces that they really aren’t married at all and that she will act as a witness for the prosecution instead of for Leonard’s defence. This in turn, leads to all sorts of anxieties for Robards whose health could do without all the added stress.

Full of twists and turns and with a healthy dose of humour to boot, Witness for the Prosecution is an absolute classic in the courtroom film genre, directed by one of Hollywood’s greatest and with a fantastic cast to boot as all three leads seem to be having a wonderful time. It’s testament to the quality of the following entries that this one doesn’t end up higher in the list. A must-see for lovers of courtroom dramas, especially for those who like them with a bit of comedy thrown in.

Let’s start by quickly defining what a dystopian film constitutes. The term dystopia is the antonym of utopia. Whereas utopia refers to an imagined place or state where everything is perfect, dystopia refers to a state or place where everything has gone to hell. Per their very definition, films dealing with dystopian themes are therefore at the very least speculative and almost always to some extend part of the science fiction genre. The films often deal with totalitarian societies or ones that have degraded environmentally or socially.

Dystopian movies seem to be one of the current fads in film, or at least when it comes to the teenage market. The Hunger Games proved to be a great financial success and in its wake films like Divergent and more recently The Maze Runner have managed to do great business as well. None of those movies will be found on this list though. In fact, instead of being great examples of dystopian films, they might be proof that we are indeed living in a dystopian society ourselves.

On this list, you’ll find twenty of the greatest dystopian films to have ever hit the screen. As per usual, it isn’t a be-all and end-all summary of the best dystopian films ever and the list could easily have been expanded to thirty titles but I decided to stick to twenty in an attempt to keep the selected entries of the highest calibre.

Some of the films which did not end up making the cut but were considered are Escape From New York, Robocop, Strange Days, Alphaville, Silent Running and Code 46. Anyone with a serious passion for the genre should make sure to also watch these titles as well as plenty of others. That being said, the twenty titles listed here are all fantastic examples of the best the genre has got to offer.

20. Nineteen Eighty-Four (Michael Radford, 1984)

Let’s start with perhaps the most famous title associated with dystopian totalitarian fiction, 1984. Based on the infamous novel of the same name by George Orwell, which gave birth to the term “Big Brother”, this second adaptation for the screen, which release year clearly coincided with the year of its title (the first adaptation was produced in 1956), is directed by Michael Radford and stars John Hurt and Richard Burton, in his final screen appearance.

The film is set in London in 1984, which is the capital of the territory of Airstrip One (formerly Britain), which in itself is part of the larger totalitarian state of Oceania. Winston Smith (Hurt) is a bureaucrat working for the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to constantly rewrite history according to the Party and its omnipresent leader Big Brother. Whilst free thought is forbidden and everybody is under constant surveillance, Winston keeps a diary of his private thoughts.

Worse still is the fact that he meets Julia (Suzanna Hamilton), another worker within the Ministry of Truth, and that the two start a relationship, something which is also strictly forbidden by the Party. The relationship lasts for a few months but comes to a sudden end when they are caught by the Thought Police and Winston is taken into the Ministry of Love for interrogation and rehabilitation by his former friend O’Brien (Burton) who takes him to the feared Room 101, where people are tortured by being confronted by their worst secret fears.

Staying pretty much faithful to its source material, 1984 is a very bleak and grim affair. The future is made to look especially drab, washed-out and grey, perfectly conveying the lack of humanity as well as the omnipresence of the Party. So much so, that this adaptation actually suffers a bit from its all-encompassing grim mood, making it not the easiest film to sit through.

John Hurt is fantastic as Winston Smith, whose face perfectly conveys his long mental tortured existence and Burton also does an admirable job as the face of the Party, putting in a truly frightening performance. Hurt won a Best Actor award at the Fantasporto Film Festival whilst both actors walked away with the same prize at the Valladolid Festival.

19. Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000)

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Koushun Takami, Battle Royale is a Japanese futuristic action comedy with a healthy dose of black humour, set in a society gone mad.

As the economy has worsened and more people have lost their jobs, Japan is on the verge of chaos, especially as the country’s youth has responded by becoming more rebellious and delinquent. The government has therefore taken drastic measures and created the Millennial Reform School Act, a nationally televised game in which random high school classes are selected in their entirety and sent to a remote island to hunt each other down until only one remains standing.

The film focuses on the class of Kitano (Beat Takeshi), a twisted school teacher whose class has been selected, and Shuya Nanahara, one of the students in his class, whose father has committed suicide.

If you’re not into violent films, you might want to skip this one. Basically the Japanese exploitation version The Hunger Games (although Battle Royale came out a decade earlier), the kids here are fitted with explosive collars which decapitate them if they leave the designated playing area and an on-screen counter which keeps track of how many of the students are still alive.

But if this sounds like it might be your cup of tea, then chances are you are going to love this one with the added bonus that the film is also remarkably funny. A dark, disturbing and unique film, Battle Royale is part exploitation, part satire and 100% twisted.

18. City of Lost Children (Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro, 1995)

The second feature directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, after their debut breakthrough Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children is a dark science fiction/fantasy film starring Ron Perlman.

Krank (Daniel Emilfork) is a mad scientist who lives on an ocean rig and cannot dream. He has however devised a machine that can steal the dreams of others and in order to so, he kidnaps children from a nearby port town. But when he takes a little boy named Denree (Joseph Lucien), he hasn’t counted on his older brother, the giant One (Perlman) to come looking for him.

When One arrives at the the rig he teams up with a little orphaned girl named Miette (Judith Vittet), who is part of a guild of thieves which is completely made up of orphans. As they make their way towards Krank’s lair, they encounter a pair of Siamese twins, a talking brain in a fish bowl and a bunch of clones, all played by Jeunet regular, Dominique Pinon.

With their second feature, Jeunet and Caro created a visually distinct and inventive dystopian fantasy world with elements of steampunk (before the term was widely used and popular), freak-shows and dark fairy tales. The films production design, costumes, cinematography and boundless imagination are indeed its strongest points whilst their storytelling was critiqued by many a film critic at the time of the film’s release. The fact that Ron Perlman, who did not speak French, learned all his lines phonetically, probably didn’t add to his performance either.

The film did however almost immediately gain a cult following, which has only grown over the years due to its truly unique look and feel. The City of Lost Children was nominated for a Palme d’Or at Cannes and also received four nominations at the César Awards in France for Best Music, Cinematography, Costume Design and Production Design, only winning the last one.

17. Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer, 1973)

Loosely based upon the novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison, Soylent Green is a 1973 science fiction film set in a dystopian future directed by Richard Fleischer.

The year is 2022 and the world is suffering from overpopulation and horrible ecological conditions due to the greenhouse effect. Food is in very short supply and most nutrition is supplied by the Soylent Corporation who have just introduced their latest food source: “Soylent Green”. In this landscape, detective Frank Thorn (Charlton Heston) is assigned to investigate the murder of a wealthy industrialist who turns out to have been on the board of the Soylent Corporation.

Together with his friend and house mate “Sol” Roth (Edward G. Robinson), he starts unravelling the case but the Governor orders the case closed when too much of an underlying conspiracy is being unearthed. Nonetheless Thorn keeps investigating and his friend Roth makes a shocking discovery about the true nature of Soylent Green.

Whilst the visuals of Soylent Green have not withstood the test of time very well, the story itself still packs a punch and is a prime example of the many 1970’s science fiction films to contain strong social commentary.

The film also marked the last role for screen legend Edward G. Robinson, who died 12 days after shooting was completed, and his euthanasia scene in the movie is even more moving as a result. Whilst Soylent Green is a bit of an uneven film, it is an absolute must-see for science fiction lovers, especially if you like your science fiction laced with powerful social themes.

16. The Trial (Orson Welles, 1962)

Based on the novel of the same name by Franz Kafka, The Trial was adapted for the screen and directed by Orson Welles, in what is arguably the best cinematic adaptation of one of the author’s works.

Joseph K (Anthony Perkins) is woken one morning by some men, who refuse to identify themselves, and put under open arrest for a crime which goes unmentioned for the entire duration of the film. From there on in Josef K tries to seek explanations and justice in a seemingly endless and completely illogical bureaucracy.

During his travels and search for answers, he converses with his neighbour (Jeanne Moreau), a lawyer (Orson Welles), the lawyer’s mistress (Romy Schneider) and the wife of a courtroom guard (Elsa Martinelli) but all is to no avail as this whole world seems to be set up to drive one to the edge of insanity. Ultimately, Josef K is sentenced to death, without him ever knowing what it is he has actually been accused of.

Labyrinthian, maddeningly frustrating, psychologically brutal and truly Kafkaesque, The Trial’s strong points can also easily be seen as its weak points. A frustrating film to sit through, which can leave one wondering what the hell one just witnessed, this sort of seems to be the point as the viewer experiences the same frustration and despair as Josef K does.

Stunningly shot in black and white, the film’s sets and cinematography do a great job conveying its themes and Anthony Perkins is perfect as the man who doesn’t get anywhere no matter how hard he tries. Whilst the film was largely dismissed by critics at the time of its release, it did win the Critics Award for Best Film by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics and was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. The film later gained tremendously in status for some although others will still tell you its a style over substance head-scratcher. And whilst that may be correct, I think that’s sort of the point.

15. Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1995)

Inspired by one of the greatest short films ever made, La Jetée by Chris Marker (which did not make this list as it was recently included in my Post-Apocalyptic one), 12 Monkeys is directed by Terry Gilliam and stars Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe and Brad Pitt. The film is part of Gilliam’s dystopian trilogy, preceded by Brazil (also mentioned on this list) and recently concluded with The Zero Theorem.

The central premise of 12 Monkeys is time travel. In a future society a plague has wiped out most of the earth’s population and those who are still alive are forced to live in underground caves as the air outside is poisonous. In this world, James Cole (Willis) is a convicted criminal, who gets the chance to be pardoned if he agrees to undertake a dangerous mission by travelling back in time to obtain a sample of the virus and find out more about a terrorist organisation called The Army of the 12 Monkeys, which was involved with the outbreak of the virus.

He is first mistakenly sent back to 1990, where he ends up in a psychiatric ward and meets Dr. Railly (Stowe) and the crazy son of a virologist named Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt). After being brought back to 2035, he is sent off again, first arriving in WWI, before finally reaching 1996, the year he was always intended to end up and where he will have find out if Goines and his organisation are behind the outbreak of the virus.

Giving Terry Gilliam the greatest commercial success of his career, 12 Monkeys is an intricately scripted time-travel flick, taking place in various times and dealing with dreams, madness and a world which has gone to pieces. Gilliam manages to get some excellent performances from his cast, with Willis putting in one of his career’s highlights and Pitt arguably proving for the first time that he was far more than just a pretty face (along with Seven, which was released the same year).

Whilst falling short when compared to its brilliant source material, 12 Monkeys is a zany and fun sci-fi flick that seems to be bursting at the seams but ultimately still manages to keep things together. The film received two Academy Award nominations, including one for Brad Pitt as Best Supporting Actor. And whilst he did not win it, he managed to take home the same prize in the same category at the Golden Globes that year.