Film: The Five Best Films

1

The Third Man (PG)

A contender for the greatest-film-of-all-time award, Carol Reed's gilt-edged thriller guides us around a post-war Vienna slithered through by Orson Welles's smirking racketeer.

2

Last Night (5)

Don McKellar's warm, witty, oddly intimate meditation on the end of the world as we know it. Genevieve Bujold crops up as the sort of French teacher you always wished you'd had and so conspicuously didn't.

3

West Beirut (5)

Involving rites-of-passage debut from former Tarantino collaborator Ziad Doueiri, all played out in a divided-up, war-riven Beirut. See New Films, right.

4

0 Things I Hate About You (2)

Armed with a TV director, rookie screenwriters and an untried cast, 0 Things I Hate About You conspires to make over The Taming of the Shrew as a high-school comedy. And gets away with it too.

5

It All Starts Today (2)

A French Blackboard Jungle, delivered in hard-ball, high-minded fashion by writer-director Bertrand Tavernier. See New Films, right.