Film4 makes 39 more classic films available to download

1 August 2016

 

39 titles from Film4’s library will be launched to buy or rent on iTunes and Amazon on August 1st, 2016. The collection includes classics and award-winners which will be available for digital download for the first time, bringing these culturally significant films to a new generation of cineastes.

 

The collection also illustrates Film4’s role in supporting the British film industry and nurturing new talent, as evidenced by the number of debut films in the collection, and the number of careers on both sides of the camera that these films have launched. Including films from as far back as 1983, the collection demonstrates Film4’s 34 year history of taking creative risks in order to champion bold, distinctive voices.

 

Highlights of the collection include:

 

• All 39 titles will be available for digital download for the first time.
• 17 titles will be available for the first time in HD (these titles are marked with an asterisk*)
• Films from seminal British and Irish filmmakers including Neil Jordan, Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Asif Kapadia, Bill Forsyth and Terence Davies, including in some cases the films that launched their careers.
• Early or first films from actors who’ve gone on to become household names including Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Ewan McGregor, Daniel Craig, Kenneth Branagh, Robert Carlyle, Clive Owen, Peter Capaldi and Mark Rylance.
• International filmmakers including Gus Van Sant, Lars von Trier, Danny DeVito, Thomas Vinterberg, Jan Svankmajer and Claude Chabrol, and in front of the camera performances by Joaquin Phoenix, Catherine Deneuve, Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, Jon Stewart, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Björk, Claire Danes, Sean Penn, Burt Lancaster and Samuel L. Jackson.
• Four films from this year’s Palme d’Or winning director Ken Loach, including his first collaboration with screenwriter Paul Laverty.
• Films and filmmakers that notable directors have cited as influences, including Christopher Nolan and Terry Gilliam (the Brothers Quay), the Duplass brothers, Lynn Shelton and Lena Dunham (Andrew Bujalski) and Charlie Kaufman (Jan Svankmajer).
• Numerous award winners including a Palme d’Or (Dancer in the Dark), a Venice Golden Lion (Monsoon Wedding), an Oscar (The Red Violin), many BAFTAs, BIFAs, EFAs and more.
• Early films from British filmmakers who’ve gone on to greater glory, including Paul McGuigan, Michael Winterbottom, Jez Butterworth, Peter Chelsom and Stephen Poliakoff.

 

 

FULL LIST OF TITLES:

THE ACID HOUSE (1999)*

Director: Paul McGuigan

Cast: Ewen Bremner, Martin Clunes, Jemma Redgrave

Combining a vicious sense of humour with hard-talking drama, this adaptation of Irvine Welsh's short stories reaches into the hearts and minds of the chemical generation, casting a dark and unholy light into the hidden corners of the human psyche.

 

Described as “a blasphemy and a gross offence” by Mary Whitehouse, and making “Trainspotting look like Howards End” by The Scotsman, this film marked the feature debut of McGuigan, who went on to direct Gangster No.1, Lucky Number Slevin, Victor Frankenstein and multiple episodes of Benedict Cumberbatch’s incarnation of Sherlock. The film was the second adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s work following Trainspotting, the sequel of which T2 is currently shooting for release in 2017.

 

ALICE (1998)

Director: Jan Svankmajer

Jan Svankmajer's dark and original story was inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Alice is sitting in her room full of toys reading Lewis Carroll's story, during which she too is carried off to Wonderland. As she follows the elusive White Rabbit so begins this dream expedition into the landscape of childhood, through many dangerous adventures, and ultimately to her trial before the King and Queen of Hearts.

 

Svankmajer’s feature debut Alice was recently cited as an influence on Anomalisa by Charlie Kaufman. The Czech filmmaker recently announced plans for his final film, Insects. The Quay Brothers, Henry Selick, Aardman’s Peter Lord and Neil Gaiman are amongst those to have supported its crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.

 

ANGEL (1984)

Director: Neil Jordan

Cast: Stephen Rea

Saxophonist Danny witnesses the murder of his band manager and a deaf-mute girl after a gig. Questioned by the police, he remembers only the orthopedic shoes of the killers' leader. So begins his quest to avenge her. He seeks an answer to the simple question 'Why?' but finds only more, and deeper, questions which resonate with the wider context of 'the Troubles', the inter-communal strife gripping the modern-day Northern Ireland which is the film's setting.

 

Neil Jordan’s debut feature, and first collaboration with Stephen Rea, with whom he went on to make the Oscar-winning The Crying Game.

 

ANOTHER COUNTRY (1984)

Director: Marek Kanievska

Cast: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Cary Elwes

Based on the award-winning play by Julian Mitchell and inspired by the life of Guy Burgess (better known as one of the Cambridge Spies), the film explores the effect of public school life in the 1930s on Guy Bennett, as his homosexuality and unwillingness to "play the game" turn him eastwards towards Communist Russia.

 

Colin Firth’s first film and the film that brought Rupert Everett to widespread attention. Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won two BAFTAs – Outstanding Newcomer to Film (Everett) and Adapted Screenplay.

 

BIRTHDAY GIRL (2001)

Director: Jez Butterworth

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Ben Chaplin, Vincent Cassel

An idiosyncratic and savage rib-tickler which boasts Nicole Kidman as a Russian mail-order bride doing S&M, and a host of British comedy stalwarts.

 

First original screenplay from Jez Butterworth, who went on to pen Spectre, Black Mass and Edge of Tomorrow, and whose stage play Jerusalem won numerous plaudits and awards in London and on Broadway.

 

BLUE JUICE (1995)*

Director: Carl Prechezer

Cast: Sean Pertwee, Catherine Zeta Jones, Ewan McGregor

Surf's up for Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sean Pertwee and Ewan McGregor in this buoyant coming-of-age comedy drama set amongst the vibrant Cornish surfing community. JC has enjoyed the adulation of the in-crowd ever since he surfed the infamous 'Boneyard'. But that was when he was twenty, when life was just one long ride. Now he's staring thirty hard in the face. His girlfriend wants a commitment, his former best friends are an embarrassment and he was to wear a girdle. And, the big waves are coming...

 

The film Ewan McGregor made between Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, also one of Catherine Zeta Jones’ first big screen appearances.

 

BUFFALO SOLDIERS (2002)*

Director: Gregor Jordan

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Anna Paquin, Elizabeth McGovern

Subversive black comedy in the vein of M*A*S*H and Catch-22 that unveils a criminal subculture operating on an American army base in Germany in 1989, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

 

CARLA’S SONG (1997)*

Director: Ken Loach

Cast: Robert Carlyle, Scott Glenn

In 1987 a Glasgow bus driver meets an emotionally scarred Nicaraguan dancer and helps her confront her traumatic past and the war continuing in her homeland. Romantic drama from Ken Loach based on a true story.

 

Loach’s first film with frequent collaborator, screenwriter Paul Laverty. Robert Carlyle won Best Actor at Evening Standard British Film Awards and London Critics Circle Film Awards.

 

CLOSE MY EYES (1991)*

Director: Stephen Poliakoff

Cast: Alan Rickman, Clive Owen, Saskia Reeves

Incest, architecture and messing about on the river in Stephen Poliakoff's frank, challenging and taboo-flaunting London drama.

 

An early big screen appearance for Clive Owen, the film won Best Film and Best Actor (Alan Rickman) at the Evening Standard Awards and ALFS Award for British Actor of the Year (Rickman) at the London Critics Circle Film Awards.

 

COMRADES (1986)

Director: Bill Douglas

Cast: Keith Allen, Dave Atkins, Stephen Bateman, Phil Davis, James Fox, Vanessa Redgrave

The tale of The Tolpuddle Martyrs, the 19th century English farm labourers whose campaign for fair wages marked the birth of trade unionism.

Last film from the late Scottish director Bill Douglas, this winner of the Sutherland Trophy at the BFI Awards still has political resonance today.

 

CRUSH (2001)*

Director: John McKay

Cast: Andie MacDowell, Imelda Staunton, Anna Chancellor

The close-knit world of three 40-something friends is turned upside down when one of them falls in love with a much younger man. CRUSH is an emotive comedy of bad behaviour and female friendship.

 

DANCER IN THE DARK (2000)

Director: Lars von Trier

Cast: Björk, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse

Typically innovative Cannes Palme d'Or-winning musical from Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier. Björk stars as a Czech immigrant joined by her young son in 60s America who, expecting life to be like a Hollywood film, has a tendency to retreat into musical fantasy.

 

Lars von Trier’s only Palme d’Or winner, the film also won the Best Actress prize at Cannes (Björk), was nominated for Oscar, Golden Globe and Brit Awards, won four European Film Awards, an Independent Spirit Award, a Goya (Spain), a National Board of Review Award, a Satellite Award, and further prizes in Italy, Estonia, Brazil, Russia, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Japan and USA.

 

DEATH TO SMOOCHY (2004)

Director: Danny DeVito

Cast: Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, Danny DeVito, Jon Stewart

A twisted fable set in the cutthroat world of children's television. Rainbow Randolph, the corrupt, costumed star of a popular children's TV show, is fired over a bribery scandal and replaced by squeaky-clean Smoochy, a puffy fuschia rhinoceros. As Smoochy catapults to fame - scoring hit ratings and the affections of a jaded network executive Randolph makes the unsuspecting rhino the target of his numerous outrageous attempts to exact revenge and reclaim his status as America's sweetheart.

 

“Bold and deeply messed-up, this is a great lost gem unjustly overlooked at the box office. Rediscover it – 4 stars” (Empire)

 

DOCTOR M (1990)

Director: Claude Chabrol

Cast: Alan Bates

A thriller inspired by Lang's 1931 classic M. In the not-too-distant future, Berlin is shocked by a series of spectacular suicides; a policeman's investigations lead him to a beautiful, enigmatic woman and the revelation of a sinister plot to manipulate the population through mass hypnosis.

 

FUNNY HA HA (2007)

Director: Andrew Bujalski

Cast: Kate Dollenmeyer, Andrew Bujalski

Marnie just graduated from college, drinks likes she's still in school, and is looking for a temporary job but a permanent boyfriend. Love, work and the lack thereof are the basis for this micro-budget post-campus comedy from 'mumblecore' director Andrew Bujalski.

 

Debut film from “the Godfather of Mumblecore” (The Independent) and “the new Woody Allen” (The Times), this Independent Spirit Award winner was described as “like Bridget Jones directed by John Cassavetes” (The Observer), “a great American indie movie… a welcome throwback to the scene’s 80s heyday” (The Guardian), and “a Slacker for the 21st century” (Filmmaker Magazine).

 

GERRY (2003)*

Director: Gus Van Sant

Cast: Matt Damon, Casey Affleck

Friendship is put to the test when two men find themselves lost in the American wilderness without water in Gus Van Sant's enthralling, hypnotic and uncompromising drama.

This mid-career gem from one of the stalwarts of American independent cinema attracted some of the highest praise of his career: “a visually compelling road movie… contains some of the most beautifully realised images in American cinema of the past two decades… luminous, deeply personal and poetic,” (Screen International); “a spellbinding work, open to surprise, possibility and wonder… striking presence, authority and spectacular imagination… awesomely beautiful… one of the most abstractly beautiful movies an American filmmaker has ever attempted” (indiewire); “Van Sant’s visual wit is extraordinary” (The Hollywood Reporter).

 

HEAR MY SONG (1992)*

Director: Peter Chelsom

Cast: Adrian Dunbar, Tara Fitzgerald, Ned Beatty

Peter Chelsom's much praised and riotously funny musical comedy about the search for the real Josef Locke (Ned Beatty), the Irish tenor on the run from the tax man and the only man who can save Adrian Dunbar's job as a music hall manager, and his romance with Tara Fitzgerald.

 

Debut film for both Chelsom and Fitzgerald, and a first lead role for Dunbar, this underrated film was nominated for a Golden Globe and two BAFTAs, and won a British Comedy Award, an Evening Standard British Film Award and a London Critics Circle Film Award.

 

HIGH HOPES (1988)

Director: Mike Leigh

Cast: Phil Davis, Ruth Sheen, Edna Doré

Mike Leigh's slice-of-life look at a sweet working-class couple in London, Shirley and Cyril, his mother, who's aging quickly and becoming forgetful, mum's ghastly upper-middle-class neighbours, and Cyril's pretentious sister and philandering husband. Shirley wants a baby, but Cyril, who reads Marx and wants the world to be perfect, is reluctant. Cyril's mum locks herself out and must ask her snooty neighbours for help. Then Cyril's sister Valerie stages a surprise party for mum's 70th birthday, a disaster from start to finish. Shirley holds things together, and she and Cyril may put aside her Dutch cap after all.

 

Mike Leigh’s return to film after more than 15 years working in television, High Hopes won three European Film Awards and the Peter Sellers Award for Comedy at the Evening Standard British Film Awards, and marked the feature debut of Ruth Sheen and the first big screen lead role for Phil Davis, both of whom have gone on to collaborate with Leigh multiple times.

 

INSTITUTE BENJAMENTA (1995)

Directors: Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay

Cast: Mark Rylance, Alice Krige, Gottfried John, Daniel Smith, Joseph Alessi, Jonathan Stone

For their first full-length film, Stephen and Timothy Quay serve up a beautifully framed, mystifying tale set in a suffocatingly conformist training institute for domestic servants. Full of bizarre symbolism and surreal dialogue, the film is a truly original vision.

 

Feature debut of the Brothers Quay, and an early big screen appearance and first cinema lead role for this year’s Oscar-winner Rylance, the film won awards at Fantasporto, Sitges, Locarno and Stockholm Film Festivals, was cited as an inspiration by Chris Nolan (who also directed a short doc about the brothers and curated a tour of their shorts), and was called “the most visually beautiful and hauntingly humorous film I have seen in the last 300 years” by Terry Gilliam.

 

IT’S ALL ABOUT LOVE (2003)

Director: Thomas Vinterberg

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Clare Danes, Sean Penn, Douglas Henshall

Two lovers struggle to save their relationship in a world on the brink of cosmic collapse in this near-future love story from the director of The Hunt and Far From the Madding Crowd.

 

Vinterberg’s follow-up to his much lauded Festen, this film is both his first in the English language, and also his first after rejecting the rules of dogme, which he described as “career suicide”.

 

LADYBIRD, LADYBIRD (1994)*

Director: Ken Loach

Cast: Crissy Rock, Ray Winstone

Inspired by real events, Ladybird, Ladybird follows a woman’s fight to keep her family and her relationship intact. Maggie has had four children removed by Social Services because of a previous violent relationship. When she meets Jorge, she gradually sees her chance for happiness, but her history still haunts her. Ladybird, Ladybird is an emotional and challenging love story.

A mid-90s Loach examination of the state vs the individual, this docudrama won Best Actress prize at the Berlin and Chicago Film Festivals and at the London Critics Circle Film Awards.

 

LITTLE OTIK (2001)

Director: Jan Svankmajer

Cast: Veronika Zilkova, Jan Hartl, Jaroslava Kretshmerova

A dark comedy that wanders between fairy tale and horror from the Czech master of the macabre. When a childless couple learn that they cannot have children, it causes great distress. To ease his wife's pain, the man finds a piece of root in the backyard, chops it and varnishes it into the shape of a child. However the woman takes the root as her baby and starts to pretend that it is real. When the root takes life they seem to have gained a child; but its appetite is much greater than a normal child.

 

LOCAL HERO (1983)

Director: Bill Forsyth

Cast: Burt Lancaster, Peter Riegert, Denis Lawson, Peter Capaldi

A cynical, yuppy oil-firm executive (Peter Riegert) is dispatched to a small Scottish coastal town by his greedy boss (Burt Lancaster), with the aim of buying up land for commercial exploitation, so destroying an area that includes a stretch of environmentally sensitive coastland. Almost at once the place, with all its quirky inhabitants and stark beauty, begins to work its magic on not only the young man but also his boss when he in turn shows up in town.

 

Bill Forsyth’s follow up to Gregory’s Girl won him a BAFTA award for Best Director (among six other BAFTA nominations), and kick-started the British film industry’s revival in the mid-1980s. Featuring early big screen appearances from Lawson and Capaldi and a remarkable score by Mark Knopfler, the film has long been championed by Mark Kermode, who called it “one of my favourite movies of all time… a timeless masterpiece… one of the greatest movies ever made.”

 

THE LONG DAY CLOSES (1992)*

Director: Terence Davies

Cast: Leigh McCormack

Peerlessly evocative, family album cinema as Terence Davies recalls growing up in the magic and mire of post-war Liverpool. 11-year-old Bud lives in rain-drenched, lice-ridden impoverishment with his mother and hordes of siblings. Yet Davies' film is an ode to childhood bliss. It evokes the confused thrill of sexual awakening, the addictive buzz of a favourite pop tune, the warmth of a doting mother's embrace, the happiness of a family sing-song. And, most effectively, the wide-eyed wonder inspired by cinema itself as Bud bunks off church to worship Hollywood's idols at his local picture house.

 

The last of Davies’ autobiographical films exploring his childhood in Liverpool, the film was selected In Competition at the Cannes Film Festival and won Davies an Evening Standard British Film Award.

 

THE LOW DOWN (2001)*

Director: Jamie Thraves

Cast: Kate Ashfield, Aidan Gillen

Aidan Gillen stars as Frank, a restless young man in his late twenties whose indecision comes to a head when he becomes involved with Ruby (Kate Ashfield). Her optimistic and fresh approach to life and its problems begins to have a dramatic effect on him in this distinctive and award-winning film about twentysomething Londoners growing up and apart.

 

Thraves’ feature debut gave early big screen appearances to both its leads, played at film festivals around the world and won plaudits from British press for Thraves’ fresh new voice, including: “Challenging, audacious and very watchable” (The Guardian), “Thraves has defined the zeitgeist with one Sweep” (The Times) “funny and touching… skilfully written and authentic about London” (Daily Telegraph) and “does for British slackers what The Sopranos does for New Jersey hoods… unique among recent British film” (The Observer).

 

MONSOON WEDDING (2002)

Director: Mira Nair

Cast: Nasseerudin Shah, Lillete Dubey, Shefali Shetty

A stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage in India. Monsoon Wedding is a vivacious, sensual and ultimately moving ensemble piece about from the director of Salaam Bombay! and Kama Sutra.

 

Winner of the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival, as well as a BIFA and Independent Spirit Award.

 

A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY (1987)

Director: Pat O’Connor

Cast: Colin Firth, Kenneth Branagh, Natasha Richardson

Set in the summer of 1920, two war-weary young veterans (Firth and Branagh) have come to a peaceful Yorkshire town to escape the horrors that haunt their dreams. But their work at the village church takes an explosive turn as one ignites long-denied passion within the pastor's young wife which forces the other veteran to face his own darker, inner desires.

 

Debut film for Branagh and an early big screen appearance for Firth, who also plays a character with a stutter, over 20 years before his Oscar-winning turn in The King’s Speech.

 

MUTUAL APPRECIATION (2005)

Director: Andrew Bujalski

Cast: Justin Rice, Rachel Clift, Andrew Bujalksi, Seung-Min Lee

Alan (Justin Rice), an alt-rock singer-songwriter has come to Brooklyn after what appears to have been a break-up with his bandmates. He says he wants to start a solo career, but his music soon takes a backseat to various entanglements, mostly romantic - in particular, his growing attraction to Ellie (Rachel Clift), the live-in girlfriend of his buddy Lawrence (Andrew Bujalski).

“Bujalski is making what may prove to be the defining movies about a generation” (Scott Foundas, Cinemascope); “A master of the mixed message and a veritable sculptor of dead air” (The New York Times).

 

MY NAME IS JOE (1998)

Director: Ken Loach

Cast: Peter Mullan, Louise Goodall, Gary Lewis

Two thirtysomethings, unemployed former alcoholic Joe and community health worker Sarah, start a romantic relationship in one of Glasgow’s toughest neighbourhoods. A stirring social commentary and a moving drama boasting more gritty realism and gallows humour from director Ken Loach.

 

Loach’s second collaboration with screenwriter Paul Laverty won the Best Actor Prize for Peter Mullan at the Cannes Film Festival and the Empire Awards, plus Best Newcomer at the London Critics Circle Film Awards, while the film also won three BIFAs.

 

THE PRINCIPLES OF LUST (2004)

Director: Penny Woolcock

Cast: Alec Newman, Marc Warren, Sienna Guillory

Crippled by his writer's block, Paul enters into a new, exciting relationship with risk-taking Billy and super-sexy Juliette. As it becomes increasingly tangled, however, he must choose one of them over the other.

 

Woolcock’s debut feature as writer/director features early roles for Mackenzie Crook, Julian Barratt and Marc Warren.

 

THE RED VIOLIN (1999)

Director: Francois Girard

Cast: Carlo Cecchi, Irene Grazioli, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Flemyng, Greta Scacchi

A prized red violin is passed from owner to owner for 300 years before ending up at an auction house in Montreal. We witness its journey, from its creation in 17th century Italy, through an 18th century Austrian monastery to the possession of a violinist in 19th century Oxford, then to China during the Cultural Revolution and back to Montreal, where a collector (Jackson) tries to establish its identity. A large, varied cast and rich cinematography make this a memorable, elegiac film.

 

Oscar winner for Best Score.

 

RIFF RAFF (1991)

Director: Ken Loach

Cast: Ricky Tomlinson, Robert Carlyle

Hard-edged comedy from Ken Loach in which Robert Carlyle plays a young Glaswegian who finds himself working on a demolition site in London where he encounters a disparate group of fellow workers - including Shem, Mo and Larry (Ricky Tomlinson) from Liverpool - and scant regard for health and safety.

 

Feature debut for Carlyle and Tomlinson’s first prominent big screen role, the film won European Film of the Year at the EFAs. An early depiction of London's gentrification (under Thatcher) - Loach insisted the cast have real building site experience to lend authenticity to the performances.

 

SOME VOICES (2000)*

Director: Simon Cellan Jones

Cast: Daniel Craig, Kelly Macdonald, David Morrissey

Some Voices is an enigmatic and unconventional love story set in West London about two people trying to make sense of the madness in their lives. Mysterious but likeable Ray (Daniel Craig) has recently been released from a psychiatric hospital into the care of his over-protective brother, restaurateur Pete (David Morrissey). Things start well, with Ray working for his brother and living his new life to the hilt. But when Ray falls head over heels in love with unpredictable Glaswegian Laura (Kelly Macdonald), and stops taking his medication, things start to spiral out of control…

 

Adapted from Joe Penhall’s Royal Court play, the feature debut of Cellan Jones (whose TV credits included Our Friends in the North and Cracker) gave audiences an early big screen glimpse of the future James Bond, and won Daniel Craig his first major award – BIFA’s Best Actor.

 

STRUMMER (aka JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN) (2007)*

Director: Julien Temple

Contributors: Bono, Johnny Depp, Steve Buscemi, Don Letts, Steve Jones, John Cusack, Mick Jones, John Cooper Clarke, Matt Dillon, Anthony Kiedis, Jim Jarmusch, Martin Scorsese

As the front man of The Clash from 1977 onwards, Joe Strummer changed people's lives forever. In The Future Is Unwritten, he is revealed not just as a legend or musician, but as a true communicator of our times. Drawing on both a shared punk history and the close personal friendship which developed over the last years of Joe's life, Julien Temple's film is a celebration of Joe Strummer - before, during and after The Clash, with an all-star cast of contributors.

 

5 stars from Time Out for this BIFA winner, which The Guardian called “a fittingly conscientious and absorbing tribute to Strummer’s complex, difficult personality.”

 

THOSE GLORY GLORY DAYS (1983)

Director: Philip Saville

Cast: Sara Sugarman

At the end of Julia's first day match reporting at Tottenham Hotspur in the early 80s she finds herself sharing a car with her former hero Danny Blanchflower (the ex-Spurs star in a cameo). Cue a series of flashbacks in which Julia recalls events from 1961 - the year when her life was inextricably bound up with the fortunes of Spurs and a quest for Cup Final tickets, and the year the team itself made soccer history by winning both the League and FA Cup.

 

A must have for Spurs fans, features a cameo by Spurs and Northern Ireland legend Danny Blanchflower.

 

THE WAR ZONE (1999)*

Director: Tim Roth

Cast: Ray Winstone, Lara Belmont, Freddie Cunliffe, Tilda Swinton

For 15-year old Tom, the war zone is at the heart of his seemingly happy middle-class family. After his family move from London to Devon, Tom finds his new life lonely and boring. But nothing can prepare him for the terrible secret that binds his father (Ray Winstone) and his 18 year old sister Jessie. Isolated, confused and consumed by adolescent anger, Tom is determined to reveal the truth.

 

One of Britain’s finest actors, with performances in films including Planet of the Apes, The Incredible Hulk, and Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and The Hateful Eight, Roth’s sole film as a director owes more to his earlier work in films like Meantime and Made in Britain. The film won awards at the BIFAs and EFAs, and won Best New British Feature at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

 

THE WARRIOR (2002)*

Director: Asif Kapadia

Cast: Irrfan Khan, Sheikh Annuddin, Puru Chhibber, Noor Mani, Anupam Shyam

In feudal India, Lafcadia (Irrfan Khan) renounces his role as the long-time enforcer for a sadistic local lord and becomes the prey in a murderous hunt through the Himalayan Mountains.

 

This year’s Best Documentary Oscar winner (for Amy) made his feature debut with this double BAFTA, BIFA and Evening Standard British Film Awards winner. (Interestingly THE WARRIOR was rejected as the UK entry for Best Foreign Language Oscar as Hindi is not an indigenous UK language). Described variously as “epic, profound and mature storytelling at its best” (The Scotsman) “a classic tale working on the same mythical plane as the best westerns” (Telegraph) and “bold, simple, mythic cinema” (Time Out). The film also introduced Western audiences to Irrfan Khan, who went on to star in Slumdog Millionaire, The Life of Pi and Jurassic World.

 

WISH YOU WERE HERE (1987)*

Director: David Leland

Cast: Emily Lloyd, Jesse Birdsall, Tom Bell

Lynda (Emily Lloyd), an exuberant 16 year old, lives with her father, the local gents’ hairdresser, and her young sister ("my boring bloody sister") in a small English coastal town in the 1950s. Starved of affection since the death of her mother, Lynda learns at an early age that she can attract attention by shocking those around her. This comical and poignant story follows her hazardous journey through adolescence and takes a nostalgic look at 1950s England.

 

Loosely based on the early life of notorious brothel keeper and party hostess Cynthia Payne, David Leland’s directorial debut, also Emily Lloyd’s first film, was a BAFTA, Evening Standard British Film Award and (US) National Society of Film Critics Award winner.

 

WITH OR WITHOUT YOU (1999)*

Director: Michael Winterbottom

Cast: Christopher Eccleston, Dervla Kirwan

Christopher Eccleston and Dervla Kirwan are an unhappily married Belfast couple in Michael Winterbottom's prickly domestic comedy-drama. Vincent and Rosie are already edgy because of their possible infertility when her childhood French penpal Benoit unexpectedly arrives to stay...

 

The following Film4 titles are already available for digital download:

 

• Bhaji on the Beach
• Brassed Off
• Career Girls
• Charlotte Gray
• Cypher (aka Company Man)
• Croupier
• Dancing at Lughnasa
• East Is East
• Fever Pitch
• The Filth and the Fury
• Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
• Hilary and Jackie
• The House of Mirth
• Late Night Shopping
• Life Is Sweet
• The Madness of King George Miranda
• The Motorcycle Diaries
• My Beautiful Launderette
• Once Upon a Time in the Midlands
• Proof
• Raining Stones
• Rita, Sue and Bob Too!
• A Room with a View
• Secrets and Lies
• Sexy Beast
• Shallow Grave
• Simon Magus Solomon and Gaenor  
• The Straight Story
• This Is England
• Touching the Void Trainspotting  
• Velvet Goldmine
• Welcome to Sarajevo
• When the Wind Blows