Thirty-two-year-old Boleslav Polívka gives a truly brilliant and universally comprehensible performance as the thoughtful and talented university student Jan Dostál, who must endure humiliating interviews and undisguised corruption in order to pursue what he considers a meaningful profession as a train engineer.

The New York Times calls this electrifying film – based on a novel by the American master of detective fiction Ed McBain and often hailed as brilliantly unpredictable, especially in terms of genre – one of the best detective thrillers of all time.

A former gambler (Warren Beatty) opens a brothel in an unwelcoming hamlet. With the arrival of the worldly-wise Constance (Julie Christie), the business starts to prosper. But it is only a matter of time before they must face a group of gunmen hired by the local mining company.

In one of the most provocative films of its time, Peter Sellers plays a simple-minded gardener whose only knowledge of life outside the walls of the elegant Washington house where he lives comes from television. When the master of the house dies, however, Chance must inevitably face the real world.

Nicholas Ray’s legendary, bitterly melodramatic noir thriller presents Humphrey Bogart in an unusual role, playing a darkly charming Hollywood screenwriter with violent tendencies whose only alibi for a brutal murder comes from the attractive woman next door.

Sidney Lumet first proved that he was a master of the courtroom drama with 1957’s Twelve Angry Men. A quarter century later, Lumet – a director still awaiting proper international recognition – gave the one and only Paul Newman the defining role of his career.

An extraordinarily gripping thriller that faithfully depicts the French Resistance during the Second World War, Army of Shadows was digitally restored last year. Melville’s most personal film (he himself fought against the Nazis) has achieved cult status thanks to the widely admired stylist’s ability to get under his audience’s skin.