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Controversial Classics
A collection of the bold and the banned; causes célèbre and succès de scandale to incite, provoke and arouse.
Any history of cinematic controversy in the UK is necessarily a history of our country’s censorship and the evolving vagaries of the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). Most of these films have fallen foul of the censors at some point, but thankfully they’re now all restored to their once incendiary glories.
Immoral TalesImmoral Tales
Anthology 1974 103 minsDirector: Walerian Borowczyk
Walerian Borowczyk presents four stories of sexual taboos throughout the ages, in his highly controversial classic of 1970s erotic cinema.
Amores perrosAmores perros
Drama 2000 148 minsDirector: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu's (Birdman, The Revenant) gripping debut feature is a savagely brilliant triptych around the theme of animalistic desires.
TheoremTheorem
Drama 1968 98 minsDirector: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pasolini’s classic about a handsome, enigmatic stranger (Terence Stamp) who arrives at a bourgeois household and seduces an entire family.
Peeping TomPeeping Tom
Drama 1960 101 minsDirector: Michael Powell
Michael Powell’s dark, disturbing, once controversial tale of a shy camera technician who films women as he kills them is now rightly deemed a classic.
The Life and Death of Colonel BlimpThe Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
War 1943 164 minsDirector: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Powell and Pressburger’s masterpiece follows the rise and fall of a career soldier, from dashing and brave young officer in the Boer War to a pompous and old-fashioned Colonel by the time of World War Two.
The BeyondThe Beyond
Horror 1981 84 minsDirector: Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci's Italian zombie-horror classic about a New Orleans hotel built upon one of the seven gateways to Hell.
City of the Living DeadCity of the Living Dead
Horror 1980 93 minsDirector: Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci’s sensationally gory zombie horror finds undead hordes overtaking a sleepy New England town, with only a reporter and a local psychic to stop them.
Of Good ReportOf Good Report
Drama 2013 110 minsDirector: Jahmil Xolani Thandikhaya Qubeka
Disturbing but deeply stylish South African drama about a teacher who becomes obsessed with an under-age pupil in his class, with tragic consequences.
MoreMore
Drama 1969 116 minsDirector: Barbet Schroeder
The first feature by Barbet Schroeder (Maîtresse, The Valley), More created a sensation when it was released in 1969, quickly becoming a cult classic and famed for its Pink Floyd soundtrack.
L'Age D'OrL'Age D'Or
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1930 63 minsDirector: Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali unite for this masterpiece of cinematic surrealism remains as brilliantly witty and shocking as ever, more than 80 years on.
The Mask of SatanThe Mask of Satan
Horror 1960 86 minsDirector: Mario Bava
Italian horror classic from acclaimed Italian horror auteur Mario Bava, about a beautiful witch Asa (Barbara Steele) who rises from her grave to take revenge upon her enemies.
Battleship PotemkinBattleship Potemkin
Historical drama 1925 69 minsSilentDirector: Sergei M. Eisenstein
A fixture in the critical canon almost since its premiere, Eisenstein’s film about a 1905 naval mutiny was revolutionary in both form and content.
Bad TimingBad Timing
1980 122 minsDirector: Nicolas Roeg
Nic Roeg's complex, elusive cult classic is a Vienna-set tale of all consuming passion, starring Art Garfunkel, Theresa Russell and Harvey Keitel.
The Black PantherThe Black Panther
Drama 1977 97 minsDirector: Ian Merrick
Gripping crime drama charts the killing spree which Donald Neilson, aka the Black Panther, perpetrated across England during the mid-70s.
CapturedCaptured
War 1959 64 minsDirector: John Krish
Previously only shown to a restricted audience of top military brass from the Ministry of Defence, Captured is a stunning Prisoner of War drama.
Visions of EcstasyVisions of Ecstasy
Drama 1989 20 minsDirector: Nigel Wingrove
Nigel Wingrove's experimental depiction of the erotic imaginings of the 16th Century Carmelite nun remains the only film ever to banned under Britain's blasphemy laws.
Un Chien AndalouUn Chien Andalou
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1928 16 minsSilentDirector: Luis Buñuel
A scabrous study of desire, the subconscious and anti-clericalism - Buñuel and Dalí’s provocative first film is a classic of Surrealist cinema.
MaitresseMaitresse
Drama 1976 113 minsDirector: Barbet Schroeder
Gerard Depardieu plays the young innocent who falls for the mysterious maitresse Ariane (Bulle Ogier), a leather clad dominatrix, in Barbet Schroeder’s controversial film.
SkinflickerSkinflicker
Drama 1973 41 minsSilentDirector: Tony Bicât
Tony Bicât’s radical, found-footage record of a revolutionary act, in which three dissidents kidnap a cabinet and torture a cabinet minister.
Trans-Europ-ExpressTrans-Europ-Express
Thriller 1966 95 minsDirector: Alain Robbe-Grillet
This stylish, cult 1966 erotic thriller stars French New Wave icons Jean-Louis Trintigant and Marie-France Pisier.
The Birth of a NationThe Birth of a Nation
Historical drama 1915 191 minsSilentDirector: D.W. Griffith
D W Griffith's highly controversial and abhorrently racist, yet historically significant American silent epic about the American Civil War and its aftermath.
Within Our GatesWithin Our Gates
Drama 1919 74 minsSilentDirector: Oscar Micheaux
Oscar Micheaux’s startling silent classic – the earliest surviving feature from an African-American director – presents a fascinating black counterpoint to Griffith’s Birth of a Nation.