Nymphomaniac is the wild and poetic story of a woman's journey from birth to the age of 50 as told by the main character, the self-diagnosed nymphomaniac, Joe.

On a cold winter's evening the old, charming bachelor, Seligman, finds Joe beaten up in an alley. He brings her home to his flat where he cares for her wounds while asking her about her life. He listens intently as Joe over the next 8 chapters recounts the lusty, branched-out and multifaceted story of her life, rich in associations and interjecting incidents.

The new film from Lars von Trier, Nymphomaniac contains all the shock and controversy you would expect from the unrivalled enfant terrible of contemporary cinema. But don't let that put you off, because underneath the surface is a richly complex, fearlessly intelligent and frequently hilarious work that will provoke thoughts you never knew you had.

PLEASE BE AWARE: This is a mainstream movie, but with an artistic element, and the scenes depicted are of an extremely graphic nature.

Lars von Trier directs this sci-fi drama about the effects of depression on two sisters, Justine and Claire.

Played out in two acts, the film opens with the wedding of Justine and Michael: a sumptuous affair paid for by Claire and her husband John. However, when Justine notices a strange star in the sky, she starts behaving oddly and the wedding is ruined.

The film's second act follows Justine, now extremely weak and ill, after she goes to live with her sister. As Claire and John struggle to deal with Justine's condition, astronomy buff Claire becomes increasingly concerned about a large blue planet that is threatening to collide with the earth.

Based on one of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, The Kite Runner is a profoundly emotional tale of friendship, family, devastating mistakes and redeeming love.

In a divided country on the verge of war, two childhood friends, Amir and Hassan, are about to be torn apart forever. It's a glorious afternoon in Kabul and the skies are bursting with the exhilarating joy of a kite-fighting tournament. But in the aftermath of the day's victory, one boy's fearful act of betrayal will mark their lives forever and set in motion an epic quest for redemption.

Now, after 20 years of living in America, Amir returns to a perilous Afghanistan under the Taliban's iron-fisted rule to face the secrets that still haunt him and take one last daring chance to set things right...

Ken Loach is one of Britain’s most respected film directors with a career spanning over 40 years.

From his pioneering days with the BBC, scripting and directing Cathy Come Home in 1966, to the Palme D’Or winning The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Ken Loach has stayed to his film making style and socially conscious subject matter.

This 8-disc digi-pack slipcase set includes a bonus DVD containing a documentary profiling the life and work of the film maker, including the theatrical trailer of his latest film, It’s a Free World and a 16 page companion booklet.

A hilarious comedy from the director of Life is a Miracle, Emir Kusturica’s Black Cat White Cat is a riotous mix of farce, romance and crime.

Set within a community of gypsies, it tells a story of dodgy deals, family ties, young love and magical occurences.

Zare is a young man in love with the beautiful Ida, but his crooked father, having botched up a black market deal, intends to marry him off to the sister of a powerful gangster - a woman so tiny that her nickname is Ladybird.

Set on the banks of the Danube, this colourful comedy is crammed with spectacle, incident and the music of Emir Kusturica’s famous travelling gypsy band.

In Serbo-Croat with English subtitles.

Isabelle Huppert gives a performance of astounding emotional intensity as Erika Kohut, a repressed woman in her late thirties who teaches piano at the Vienna Conservatory and lives with her tyrannical mother, with whom she has a volatile love-hate relationship.

But when one of Erika's students, the handsome and assured Walter Klemmer, attempts to seduce her, the barriers that she has carefully erected around her claustrophobic world are shattered, unleashing a previously inhibited extreme and uncontrollable desire.

In French with English subtitles.

Writer/director Gabriel Axel's Oscar-winning film is set in 19th-century Denmark. Babette (Stéphane Audran), a chef and refugee from France's civil war, finds herself in a remote Danish hamlet working for two sisters who preside over its inhabitants. The sisters were brought up under the strict regime of their devout father who preached salvation through self-denial and have kept his teachings going even after his death. But Babette's arrival is set to change the status quo when she cooks a sumptuous meal for the sisters and their friends.

La Pointe Courte (1954)
In Agnès Varda's directorial debut she faithfully portrays the complicated relationship between a married couple (exceptionally played by Silvia Monfort & Philippe Noiret), set against the backdrop of a small Mediterranean fishing town.

Cleo from 5 to 7 (1961)
Agnès Varda manages to successfully capture Paris at the height of the sixties, in this intriguing tale expertly presented in real time about a singer (played to perfection by Corinne Marchand) whose life is in turmoil as she awaits a test result from a biopsy.

Le Bonheur (1964)
In one of Agnès Varda's more provocative films, she presents us with the dilemma faced by husband and father Francois (Jean-Claude Drouot) who finds himself falling in love with an attractive postal worker.

Gleaners And I (2000)
In 2000 Agnès Varda travelled the French countryside to study the world of foragers and scavengers called The Gleaners. Varda admits to being a gleaner herself, which gives her a special connection with her subjects in this honest and intriguing documentary.

Rick is a screenwriter living in Los Angeles trying to make sense of the strange events around him. While successful in his career, his life feels empty.

Haunted by the death of one brother and the dire circumstances of the other, he finds temporary solace in the decadent Hollywood excess that defines his existence. Women provide a distraction to the daily pain he must endure, and every encounter that comes his way brings him closer to finding his place in the world.

From Terrence Malick, the visionary director of The Tree of Life and To The Wonder, and featuring a star-studded cast, comes a stunning meditation on love, fate and fame.

Song For Marion is a heartwarming comedic drama following shy, grumpy pensioner Arthur as he is reluctantly inspired by his beloved wife Marion to join a highly unconventional local choir.

At odds with his son James, it is left to charismatic choir director Elizabeth to try and persuade Arthur that he can learn to embrace life.

London-set, the story follows Arthur as he embarks on a hilarious, life-affirming journey of musical self-discovery.

Jean-Luc Godard's homage to Hollywood pulp fiction movies of the 1940s which also gave its name in the 1990s to Quentin Tarantino's production company. Franz (Sami Frey) and Arthur (Claude Brasseur), a couple of Parisian streetwise kids team up with the shy Odile (Anna Karina) to plan a robbery. The trio's over-developed fantasies come together whilst visiting the Louvre, cafes and even play-acting shoot-outs and it soon becomes apparent that the robbery is definitely not going to go according to plan.

Starring iconic actress Isabelle Huppert in a career-defining role, Elle is already one of the most acclaimed films of the year and earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress as well as an Oscar nomination.

Huppert is Michèle LeBlanc; founder and CEO of a successful video game company, who is attacked and raped in her own home. She shrugs off the terrifying incident, locks the door after her attacker leaves and refuses to tell the police. Upending our expectations, Michèle begins to track down her assailant, and soon they are both drawn into a curious and thrilling game, one that at any moment may spiral out of control. From legendary filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, Elle is a gripping psychological noir thriller. Exhilarating and multi-layered, the film recalls the ambience of Hitchcock, De Palma and Polanski, with a thrilling cerebral edge.

(Academy Award nomination for: Best Actress)

Cold War is a passionate love story between a man and a woman who meet in the ruins of post-war Poland. With vastly different backgrounds and temperaments, they are fatefully mismatched and yet condemned to each other.

Set against the background of the Cold War in 1950s Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia and Paris, it’s the tale of a couple separated by politics, character flaws and unfortunate twists of fate — an impossible love story in impossible times.

(Academy Award nominations for: Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography)

Xolani, a lonely factory worker, joins the men of his community in the mountains of the Eastern Cape to initiate a group of teenage boys into manhood.

In addition to serving as a mentor to the boys undergoing the ceremony, Xolani looks forward to the annual tradition due to the fact that it provides him the opportunity to reestablish his sexual and romantic relationship with Vija.

But when a defiant initiate from the city discovers his best kept secret, Xolani’s entire existence begins to unravel.

Sebastián Lelio returns with a groundbreaking, deeply humane and Academy Award-winning story about a transgender woman’s fight for acceptance. Anchored by a powerhouse central performance from rising star Daniela Vega, this Oscar-winning film is an urgent call for compassion towards a community that faces bigotry and hostility on a daily basis.

Vega plays Marina Vidal, a young singer whose life is thrown into turmoil following the sudden death of her partner, Orlando. Met with suspicion from the police and contempt from her lover’s relatives, Marina finds herself placed under intense scrutiny, with no regard for her privacy, or her grief. As tensions rise between Marina and Orlando’s family, she is evicted from their shared home and banned from attending his funeral. But faced with the threat of losing everything, Marina finds the strength to fight back.

From the producers of Jackie, Spotlight and Toni Erdmann, A Fantastic Woman is an outstanding, timely work that recalls the very best films of Pedro Almodóvar. Soaked in luminous visuals and elevated by elegant flights of surrealism, it is a courageous, audacious and defiant declaration of Marina’s status as a woman – and a fantastic one, at that.

(Academy Award winner for: Best Foreign Language Film)

From visionary director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy and Stoker) comes The Handmaiden, a sumptuous and exhilarating period thriller inspired by Sarah Waters’ best-selling novel Fingersmith.

Set during the Japanese occupation of Korea in the 1930s, a young handmaiden named Sookee is hired by Lady Hideko, a reclusive heiress who lives in a sprawling mansion under the watchful eye of her domineering Uncle Kouzuki. But Sookee harbours a secret: she has been recruited by Fujiwara, a scheming con artist posing as a Japanese Count, to trick Hideko into entrusting him with her fortune. However, when Sookee and Hideko begin to develop unexpected emotions for each other, they start putting together a plan of their own.

With breathtaking visuals, grandiose set design and frenzied humour, The Handmaiden is one of the year’s most anticipated films - an opulent and labyrinthine tale of deception, romance and triple-crossing that marks a career high for one of modern cinema’s most thrilling auteurs.

(Incudes both the theatrical and extended cuts of the film)

Asghar Farhadi writes and directs this Persian drama starring Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidoosti.

Iranian couple Emad (Hosseini) and Rana (Alidoosti) are performing together in a production of Arthur Miller's play 'Death of a Salesman' when they are forced to leave their crumbling, unsafe home in Tehran. They think they've gotten lucky when they find a new apartment nearby, unaware that the previous occupant worked as a prostitute. When Emad returns home one night to find Rana has been attacked in their new home by one of the previous occupant's clients, the violent incident causes cracks to appear in the couple's previously stable and happy marriage. Rana, shaken and afraid, pleads with Emad to go to the police but he would rather find the attacker himself and have his revenge.

The film won the Academy Award in 2017 for Best Foreign Language Film.

From acclaimed director Pawel Pawlikowski (Last Resort, My Summer of Love) comes Ida, a poignant and powerfully told drama about 18-year-old Anna, a sheltered orphan raised in a convent, who is preparing to become a nun when she discovers that her real name is Ida and her Jewish parents were murdered during the Nazi occupation.

This revelation triggers a heart-wrenching journey into the countryside, to the family house and into the secrets of the repressed past, evoking the haunting legacy of the Holocaust and the realities of postwar Communism.

Powerfully written and eloquently shot, Ida is a masterly evocation of a time, a dilemma, and a defining historical moment.

(2015 Oscar winner for: Best Foreign Language Film. Also nominated for Best Cinematography)

A devout 18-year-old Israeli is pressured to marry the husband of her late sister.

Declaring her independence is not an option in Tel Aviv's ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community, where religious law, tradition and the rabbi's word are absolute.

Jep Gambardella, a 65-year-old journalist and once promising novelist, spends his easy life among Rome's high society in a swirl of rooftop parties and late-night soirees.

But when he learns of the death of his friend's wife, a woman he loved as an 18-year-old, his life is thrown into perspective and he begins to see the world through new eyes.

A dazzling, dizzying, mesmerising and hypnotic cinematic tour-de-force that has drawn comparisons with Italian greats such as La Dolce Vita and La Notte.

(2014 Oscar winner for: Best Foreign Language Motion Picture)

The year is 1926. In the Landes region, free-spirited Thérèse Larroque, the daughter of a wealthy pinery owner and radical-socialist politician, marries Bernard Desqueyroux, another pinery owner. Although she does it half-heartedly, she thinks that marriage may help her to 'sort out all the ideas in her mind'.

But her disappointment is great. Her wedding night is all but fascinating and when she becomes pregnant she realizes the baby matters more to Bernard than herself.

Thérèse stifles in her husband's beautiful residence among stiff in-laws who do not think high of her, her avant-garde ideas clash with local conventions and her domineering husband, and in order to break free from the fate imposed upon her she will resort to tragically extreme measures.

Juliette Binoche stars in this French drama about female students who turn to prostitution to fund their university studies.

Anne is a professional journalist writing an article about student prostitution for Elle magazine. She finds herself drawn to two young women in particular: impoverished Polish student Alicja and Charlotte, who comes from one of the vast and anonymous housing estates on the outskirts of Paris.

As she learns more about the young women and their experiences, Anne begins to question her own firmly-held convictions about money, sex, marriage and motherhood.

Seven films by acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar.

Tie Me Up Tie Me Down
Recently released from a mental institution, Ricky (Antonio Banderas) sets in motion his grand plan. Hunting down the porn star with whom he once had sex, Ricky tries to convince her to be his wife. However, when she's somewhat reluctant to take up his offer of marriage, he vows to tie her down to endear himself to her...

Bad Education
Bad Education narrates the reunion of two young men in early 80s Madrid, as the city starts to breathe a new air of freedom. Fifteen years earlier, in the darkness of a Catholic school, the two young men had discovered sensuality and a common hatred of the priests from whom they received their ‘bad education’. Now, in the new and liberated Madrid, both men--a filmmaker and an aspiring actor--revisit their early years together. As they try to uncover the truth about themselves, each other and the other characters in their story, they realise that things and people are not as they first seem.

All About My Mother
Single mother Manuela (Cecilia Roth) takes her seventeen-year-old son, Esteban, to see a stage performance of 'A Streetcar Named Desire' as a birthday treat. Tragically, Esteban is killed when he chases after a taxi carrying his favourite actress, Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes). Consumed with guilt, Manuela decides to go in search of Esteban's father, whose identity she never revealed to her son. She finds out that he has had a sex change and is now called Lola the Pioneer, and along the way meets various characters, including transvestite La Agrado (Antonia San Juan) and AIDS-infected nun Sister Rosa (Penelope Cruz), who help her with a painful journey of self-discovery.

Talk To Her
Benigno (Javier Cámara) is a housebound nurse who falls in love with a young dancer, Alicia (Leonor Watling), he sees rehearsing through his window. Marco (Darío Grandinetti) is a journalist who falls in love with a bullfighter, Lydia (Rosario Flores), after being assigned to interview her. When Alicia and Lydia are involved in separate accidents which send them both into a comas, Benigno and Marco meet at the hospital and unpredictable consequences promptly ensue.

Volver
Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) and her sister Sole (Lola Dueñas) are visited by the apparition of their mother (Carmen Maura), who has returned to reconcile with her daughters and resolve an issue that has haunted the family since her death. In this family drama, the living and dead co-exist without discord creating a filmic experience which is at once hilarious and yet filled with a deep, genuine emotion.

Broken Embraces
Harry Caine is a successful writer but a man who writes, lives and loves in darkness. Fourteen years ago, Harry was in a brutal car crash on the island of Lanzarote, resulting in not only the loss of his sight, but of something much greater. However Harry Caine is a pseudonym and only a few people know Harry's real identity and of the life he led before the accident. Now Harry has decided to tell the moving and terrible story of his former self. A story of "amour fou", dominated by love, jealousy, treachery and fatality.

The Skin I Live In
Antonio Banderas stars as Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon whose attempts to cultivate a new form of human skin have led to years of experimentation on a live woman, Vera (Elena Anaya). But as the story of Vera's past emerges, it becomes clear that Robert has a questionable agenda of his own as he manipulates her face and body for his own purposes.

Eric Rohmer's reputation was established with his ambitious Moral Tales series of films, each based around a common theme - in his words: 'a man meeting a woman at the very moment when he is about to commit himself to someone else'.

The Girl At The Monceau Bakery (1962)
Barbet Schroeder plays a young man whose affections are divided between two beautiful girls - one he meets on the street and another who works in a local bakery - but finds himself faced with the dilemma of choosing between them.

Suzanne's Career (1963)
In Rohmer’s tale of adolescent naiveté, Bertrand, a shy and reserved student, finds himself consumed with jealousy and resentment as he observes his roguishly confident best friend Guillaume exploit the generosity of the sweetly seductive Suzanne.

La Collectionneuse (1967)
Left to his own devices when his fiancée goes to London, Adrien decides to spend his vacation experimenting with monastic life in the peace and quiet of a large house in St Tropez. However, the villa already has two occupants: his artist friend Daniel and Haydée, a woman he does not know. Haydée collects lovers and comes home at all hours of the night, disturbing Adrien’s ascetic pursuits, yet despite his resistance, Adrien finds himself beginning to surrender to her charms. The third in the Moral Tales series.

My Night At Maud's (1969)
The film that propelled Rohmer to international acclaim remains one of the finest achievements of his career. The fourth in the Moral Tales series, it tells the story of a chaste and conservative thirty-something who sees a woman that he believes will be his perfect match whilst attending church. But when he unwittingly spends the night at the apartment of the worldly and spirited divorcée Maud, he finds the moral certainties of his life are suddenly thrown into question.

Claire's Knee (1970)
The fifth in the Moral Tales series takes a witty look at a man's singular obsession with a much younger woman. Whilst minding a friend’s country estate, Jérôme, recently engaged to his long-term partner, encounters sixteen year-old Laura and a flirtation begins until Jerôme’s roving eye is completely taken by the arrival of her step-sister Claire, whose unaffected sensuality completely bewitches him.

Love In The Afternoon (1972)
In the last of Rohmer's Six Moral Tales we focus on business executive Frederic, who leads a happily married life with wife Helene and enjoys his job as a partner in a small Paris office. He spends his afternoons dreaming of other women, but that's all it ever is - dreaming. Until one day, a mistress of an old friend begins dropping by his office. They begin to meet quite irregularly during the afternoons, until she decides she wants to seduce him, which leaves Frederic with a serious moral dilemma...

In French with English subtitles.

The Beaches of Agnès (2008):
Autobiographical documentary on the life of acclaimed Nouvelle Vague director Agnès Varda.

Jacquot de Nantes (1991):
A heartwarming tale of a young boy in the late 1930's who is fascinated with theatre and the cinema. Based loosely on the childhood of Jacques Demy.

L'une Chante, L'autre Pas (1977):
Set against the backdrop of the women's movement in 1970's France, this film follows the lives of two women from differing backgrounds. One sings, the other doesn't.

Vagabond (1985):
The life of a young woman who is found frozen in a ditch, told through a series of flashbacks and interviews.