Jiří Trnka: A Long Lost Friend

Louis Kahn's Tiger City

April 2019 •English

Art historian and filmmaker Sundaram Tagore travels in the footsteps of Louis Kahn to discover how the famed American architect built a daringly modern and monumental parliamentary complex in war-torn Bangladesh.

Ava Gardner: Life Is Bigger Than the Movies

June 2017 •French

A barefoot contessa, a screwed-up princess, an exquisite drunk, a bawdy aristocrat, a nightmare for puritanical America and the moguls of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Ava Gardner never stopped loving those she loved. She turned women green and made men sweat. And rejected with all her force the bulwark of normality.

Somebody Up There Likes Me

July 1956 •English

The story of boxer Rocky Graziano's rise from juvenile delinquent to world champ.

Filmmakers of Our Time: François Truffaut or the Critical Spirit

December 1965 •French

My Name Is Lenny

June 2017 •English

The life story of one of Britain's most notorious bare-knuckle fighters, Lenny McLean, also known as "The Guv'nor".

Lust for Life

September 1956 •English

An intense and imaginative artist, revered Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh possesses undeniable talent, but he is plagued by mental problems and frustrations with failure. Supported by his brother, Theo, the tormented Van Gogh eventually leaves Holland for France, where he meets volatile fellow painter Paul Gauguin and struggles to find greater inspiration.

One Hundred Steps

September 2000 •Italian

Peppino Impastato is a quick-witted lad growing up in 1970s Sicily. Despite hailing from a family with Mafia ties and living just one hundred steps from the house of local boss Tano Badalamenti, Peppino decides to expose the Mafia by using a pirate radio station to broadcast his political pronouncements in the form of ironic humour.

Armando's Tale of Charles Dickens

January 2012 •English

Armando Iannucci presents a personal argument in praise of the genius of Charles Dickens. Through the prism of the author's most autobiographical novel, David Copperfield, Armando looks beyond Dickens - the national institution - and instead explores the qualities of Dickens's work that still make him one of the best British writers. While Dickens is often celebrated for his powerful depictions of Victorian England and his role as a social reformer, this programme foregrounds the elements of his writing which make him worth reading, as much for what he tells us about ourselves in the twenty-first century as our ancestors in the nineteenth. Armando argues that Dickens's remarkable use of language and his extraordinary gift for creating characters make him a startlingly experimental and psychologically penetrating writer who demands not just to be adapted for television but to be read and read again.

Heart of a Champion: The Ray Mancini Story

May 1985 •English

The film details the life of Ray Mancini, a World Boxing Association world lightweight champion boxer from 1982 to 1984, Hollywood actor and a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

My Dinner with Hervé

October 2018 •English

An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.

Klimt

March 2006 •German

A portrait of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt whose lavish, sexual paintings came to symbolize the art nouveau style of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Alain Delon, la beauté du diable et les femmes...

May 2019 •French

Taking Woodstock

August 2009 •English

The story of Elliot Tiber and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the famed Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happening that it was. When Elliot hears that a neighboring town has pulled the permit on a hippie music festival, he calls the producers thinking he could drum up some much-needed business for his parents' run-down motel. Three weeks later, half a million people are on their way to his neighbor’s farm in White Lake, New York, and Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life–and American culture–forever.

Friz on Film

November 2006 •English

This documentary celebrates the art and life of one of animations great pioneers and legends, Friz Freleng

Shania A Life in Eight Albums

November 2005 •English

Biopic of Canadian music sensation Shania Twain, exploring her childhood as a member of a poverty-stricken family, her teenage years spent performing in bars, and her eventual emergence as an award-winning country singer.

The Divine Garbo

December 1990 •English

Profile of actress Greta Garbo, narrated by Glenn Close

Bethune: The Making of a Hero

September 1993 •English

True story of Norman Bethune, a medical doctor who fought for justice in China during Mao's rise to power.

As Long as There’s Life in Me

September 1965 •German

This is part one of a two-part biopic about Karl Liebknecht. In 1914, Germany is arming itself for war. Karl Liebknecht, left-wing revolutionary Social Democrat, workers’ leader and a virulent antimilitarist, is one among 110 SPD members of Parliament who vote against approving war loans. From then on, he is considered un-German and a traitor to the fatherland, and his own party’s leadership turns against him. Despite threats, Liebknecht speaks up against the war and writes the manifesto “The Main Enemy Is at Home.” Even when he is arrested and charged with treason, he does not surrender.

The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel

October 1951 •English

The life and career of Erwin Rommel and his involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler.

The Accidental Prime Minister

January 2019 •Hindi

Based on the memoir by Indian policy analyst Sanjaya Baru, The Accidental Prime Minister explores Manmohan Singh's tenure as the Prime Minister of India, and the kind of control he had over his cabinet and the country.