A collaborative highpoint for director Wong Kar-Wai and cinematographer Chris Doyle. Happy Together's account of two gay Hong Kongers (Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung) adrift in Buenos Aires is one of the most visually striking films ever made, sadly only denied masterpiece status by the vagaries of Wong's leisurely narrative pacing.
Sally Potter's supremely vivid take on Virginia Woolf's tale of a 400-year search for love and freedom. Tilda Swinton switches centuries and sex with enormous serenity, while Quentin Crisp proves an inspired Virgin Queen A visual feast with few equals.
Satyajit Ray's superb 1955 debut Pather Panchali is released here as a three-disc package, including its sequels, Aparajito and The World Of Apu. Influenced by "new realist" European cinema, it tells the ongoing story of a poor, luckless Brahmin family in Bengal, following the fortunes of their youngest son, Apu. No Bollywood-style histrionics or musical interventions—this is beautifully shot, understated, quietly authentic, emotionally devastating cinema.
Retired actor Alexander (Erland Josephson) is celebrating his birthday with friends and family when an imminent nuclear catastrophe is announced on TV. So Alexander offers to make a deal with God to avert the disaster. Andrei Tarkovsky's final film is as powerful as you'd expect.
