Favourite Repertory Screenings of 2025

It’s been good year of film discoveries from the past, and a few rediscoveries too. Surprisingly, my list this year includes rep screenings I attended in Dubai. May there be more of this next year.

This is a run down of my rep cinema—going with links if you’d like to read more, followed by my favourites of the year.

Films watched at festivals throughout the year:

• BFI Film on Film, and Il Cinema Ritrovato, and in other festivals in Rotterdam, Venice, Vienna

Watched a few at the following retrospectives:

• Jan-Feb:
  David Lynch films at various cinemas in Amsterdam to mark his death and Nuri Bilge Ceylan: Inner Landscapes at EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam.
  
  

• April:
  The Lady with The Torch at EYE, Myriad Voices: Reframing Taiwan New Cinema and You Must Remember This Presents…”The Old Man Is Still Alive” at BFI. Wrote about all three here.
  
  

• November-December:
  Shah Rukh Khan Festival, and wrote a bit more about it here
  (There was a small Ranbeer Kapoor retrospective earlier in the year in Dubai, but it didn’t include a great line up wasn’t very good)

  
  Few films from Love, Sex, Religion, Death: The Complete Films of Terence Davies at the BFI
  
  An array of rep screenings that include holiday films and films from various film programmes around town, and a surprisingly decent selection of holiday films in Dubai at VOX Cinema’s Festive Films programme - no lazy Home Alone programming here. Wrote about all of this here.

This year I also watched a lot of classics, I soon learned that watching pre-code films was a soothing way to end the day. Highlights include:

- Films starring Jean Arthur - I watched as many films as I could from her filmography, and still have a lot more, so I might continue in new year. But I also hope her films make it to cinemas some day. My dream is to work on a Jean Arthur retrospective if no one is planning one anytime soon.
- The Thin Man series - best crime solving couple, and generally one of the best couples in cinema.

Here’s my top 40 film discoveries of the year, starting with a top 10 and the rest is in alphabetical order.
It is followed by a shorter list of films I was happy to finally rewatch in a cinema for the first time.

1. A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1989)
BFI, London

“My heart was filled with a sense of happiness.”

2. Devdas (Sanjay Leela Bhansali, 2002)
Reel Cinemas - Dubai Mall
VOX Cinemas Grand Hyatt

Exquisite looking film. Watched it twice in one week. Part of Shah Rukh Khan Film Festival, but he’s the least interesting part of the film.

3. The House of Mirth (Terence Davies, 2000)
BFI, London

"My dear, the world is vile."

4. Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies, 1988)
BFI, London

"It rained when I found you
It rained when I lost you
That's why I'm so blue when it rains" 

5. The Talk of the Town (George Stevens, 1942)
EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam

“I like people who think in terms of ideal conditions. They're the dreamers, poets, tragic figures in this world, but interesting.”

6. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, 1936)
EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam

“He’s pixelated.”

7. On Approval (Clive Brook, 1944, 35mm)
BFI Film on Film Festival

Narrator: Tell me, Duke, how did you lose your money?
George: Women.
Narrator: Yes, I know. I mean your big money?
George: Big women.

8. The Heiress (William Wyler, 1949)
BFI, London

“He must come, he must take me away, he must love me, he must. Morris will love me - for all those who didn't.”

9. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
Genesis Cinema, London

“I won't be in danger. After all, what have I done? My duty”

10. The Open Door (Henry Barakat, 1963)
IFFR, Rotterdam

11. 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933)
Cinema Museum, London

12. Adam’s Rib (George Cukor, 1949, 35mm)
Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna

13. Aniki Bobo (Manoel de Oliveira, 1942)
Biennale Cinema 2025 - The 82nd Venice International Film

14. Annie (John Huston, 1982)
VOX Cinemas - Festival City - Dubai

Everyone knows the songs Tomorrow and It’s a Hard Knock Life, but no one talks about Lets Go to the Movies. And Albert Finney crying after watching Camille starring Greta Garbo, of which we see at least 3 mins worth of clips from it. No one would do this today.

28. L’Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
Curzon Mayfair, London

15. Avanti! (Billy Wilder, 1972, 35mm)
BFI, London

“I don't object to foreigners speaking a foreign language. I just wish they'd all speak the same foreign language.”

16. The Boys from Fengkuei (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1983)
BFI, London

17. Cairo, As Told By Chahine (Youssef Chahine, 1991)
Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai

18. Christopher Strong (Dorothy Arzner,1933)
Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna

19. Climates / Iklimler (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2006)
EYE Filmuseum, Amsterdam

20. Colour Flight (Len Lye, UK, 1938, 35mm) + Rainbow Dance (Len Lye, UK, 1936, 35mm)
Viennale 2025

21. The Comedians (Peter Glenville, 1967, 35mm)
BFI, London

“I have no faith in faith.”

22. The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928)
EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam
Live piano accompaniment by Martin de Ruiter.

“The crowd laughs with you always... but it will cry with you for only a day.”

23. A Day in the Country (Jean Renoir, 1946, 35mm nitrate)
BFI Film on Film Festival, London

24. Distant / Uzak (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2002)
EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam

25. The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980)
LAB111, Amsterdam

“My life is full because I know I am loved.”

26. Holiday (George Cukor, 1938)
Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna

“You see, Case, the trouble with me is that I never could decide whether I wanted to be Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale, or John L. Lewis.”

27. Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (Quentin Tarantino, 2006, 35mm)
Picturehouse Central, London

The Bride: You want to come to the wedding?
Bill: Only if I can sit on the bride's side.
The Bride: You'll find it a bit lonely on my side.
Bill: Your side always was a bit lonely. But I wouldn't sit anywhere else.

29. Last Summer (Frank Perry, 1969, 35mm)
BFI Film on Film Festival, London

30. Movie Movie (Stanley Donen, 1978, 35mm)
BFI, London

31. My Cousin Rachel (Henry Koster, 1952)
BFI, London

32. Now Barabbas Was a Robber (Gordon Parry, 1949)
BFI, London

33. Om Shanti Om (Farah Khan, 2007)
VOX Cinemas - Grand Hyatt, Dubai
Star Cinemas - Al Ghurair Centre, Dubai

The cameos in musical number Deewangi Deewangi was enough to make me go watch this film again within the same week. I clapped when Rekha appeared. Both times when I watched it.

34. The Parallax View (Alan J. Pakula, 1974, 35mm)
Prince Charles Cinema, London

“We're in the business of reporting the news, not creating it.”

35. Sholay: The Final Cut (Ramesh Sippy, 1975)
Reel Cinemas Dubai Mall

36. Stage Door (Gregory La Cava, 1937)
Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna

“We started off on the wrong foot. Let's stay that way.”

37. Two Acres of Land (Bimal Roy, 1953)
Biennale Cinema 2025 - The 82nd Venice International Film

38. Way Down East (D.W. Griffith, 1920, 35mm)
BFI, London
Live piano accompaniment by Neil Brand

“Today Woman brought up from childhood to expect ONE CONSTANT MATE possibly suffers more than at any point in the history of mankind, because not yet has the man-animal reached this high standard - except perhaps in theory.”

39. A Woman’s Sorrows (Mikio Naruse, 1937, 35mm)
Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna

“I need more experiences and I want to reconstruct my life by myself. 
I want to know what is the most beautiful thing in the world. 
I believe that we can see something more important in ourselves this way. 
I’ll search for it until I find out.”

40. Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)
Prince Charles Cinema, London

Pangzi: Life is a mixture of happy and sad things. Movies are so lifelike - that's why we love them.
Ting-Ting: Then who needs movies? Just stay home and live life.
Pangzi: My uncle says we live three times as long since man invented movies.
Ting-Ting: How can that be?
Pangzi: It means movies give us twice what we get from daily life.

Favourite rewatches, first time on the big screen:

1. Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater, 1995, 35mm) at Prince Charles Cinema

2. Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995, 35mm) at Prince Charles Cinema

3. The Holiday (Nancy Meyers, 2006) at Prince Charles Cinema

4. Lone Star (John Sayles, 1996) at EYE Filmmuseum

5. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) at Prince Charles Cinema, London

6. Summertime (David Lean, 1955, 35mm) at Il Cinema Ritrovato

7. Tea and Sympathy (Vincente Minnelli, 1956, 35mm) at BFI

8. Twin Peaks – Original US Pilot Episode (David Lynch, 1989, 35mm) at BFI Film on Film

9. Watch Out For ZouZou (Hassan El-Imam, 1972), Cinema Lumiere, SAFAR Film Festival, London

10. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) at VOX Cinemas, Dubai

Favourite rewatches after first watching them in cinemas when they were released:

1. Happy Feet (George Miller, 2006) at VOX Cinemas, Dubai

2. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007, 35mm) at Prince Charles Cinema