Frida

A film by Julie Taymor

The story of an exceptional woman who lived an unforgettable life. Frida Kahlo, born in Mexico in 1907, endured a life of crippling pain caused by a road accident in her youth, yet her innate energy, passion and love of life, as well as her enormous abilities as a painter, allowed her to overcome this daunting obstacle to achieve fame and recognition. From humble beginnings, Frida Kahlo is a talented artist with a unique vision, and from her enduring relationship with her mentor and husband, Diego Rivera, to her scandalous affairs, Frida's uncompromising personality inspires her greatest creations. She is an artist in every sense of the word – taking and owning all that life gives her and transforming it into unflinching portraits of her soul.

Frida, in many ways, prides herself on her independent, fiery nature, yet when Rivera becomes a part of her life, she quickly succumbs to his seductive charms. She marries him even though she knows he is constitutionally incapable of remaining faithful to her. She accepts this in the knowledge of what lies ahead for her since she is incapable of living without him. That the relationship is one of utter co-dependency is demonstrated by the fact that Rivera, even after their numerous breakups, keeps coming back to his one true love.

But we see also, and empathise with, the hypocrisy inherent in her own romantic dalliances, principally her bisexual flings with other women and even the affair she conducts with Trotsky himself during the period of his exile in Mexico, just before his assassination. Frida is a woman who experiences so many tragic things in life yet she never gives up, she in fact grows stronger, helped through hard times by her wit, her dignity and her love for life and art.

Between 1926, when she made her first self-portrait, and her death in 1954, Frida produced around 200 images. Certainly the biographical details of her remarkable life inflect many aspects of her work, yet her depiction of her body and experiences can also be seen as a response to wider cultural and political debates. For all their apparent naivety, her works frequently reveal an incendiary subtext, whether they are questioning power relationships between developed and developing nations, testing the role of women within a patriarchal society, or attempting to reconcile the global histories and religions of East and West.

Frida Kahlo's unique talent was to make her one of the century's most enduring artists. She is variously enshrined in the popular imagination as a bohemian artist, a victim turned survivor, proto-feminist, sexual adventurer who challenged gender boundaries, and, with her mixed-race parentage, an embodiment of a hybrid, postcolonial world.

Adapted from the biography by Hayden Herrera, the film is a marvellous tribute to a truly unique and remarkable woman, and one of the greatest female artists of the 20th century.

Possession

A film by Neil LaBute

Roland Michell is a laid-back American scholar who has come to London to research the 19th century English poet Randolph Henry Ash. The present year, 2000, marks the centenary of the discovery of Ash's work. While examining a first edition of one of Ash's volumes, Roland discovers some original letters which hint at the possibility that Ash, contrary to the public impression of his marital fidelity, may actually have had an affair with another famed poet of the time, Miss Christabel La Motte, a woman believed by her biographers to have lived exclusively with her partner Blanche. Confronted with this startling, revolutionary and, perhaps, priceless piece of information, Roland sets out to unravel the mystery.

He enlists the help of the sceptical British academic Maud Bailey, an expert on the life and work of Christabel La Motte, and also a distant descendant. The two embark on a journey to unravel the truth surrounding the poets' forbidden love. But as Roland and Maud track the elusive romance across the British countryside to Lincoln and Whitby, the two scholars soon find themselves tangled in a love affair of their own.

The narrative moves seamlessly between past and present to portray the parallel love stories in this beautiful and passionate adaption of the Booker Prize winning novel by A S Byatt.

Capturing Mary

A film by Stephen Poliakoff

This is the companion to Joe's Palace, set in the same exquisite empty house and is linked by the doorkeeper Joe through whose eyes we see the world.

When Joe opens the door to an elderly lady, she takes him back to a time when the house thronged with the glamourous and powerful – and to a time when she was young, beautiful and talented with the world at her feet.

As Joe takes her through the house Mary begins to relive her relationship with Greville White, a supremely charming man who seems to hold the rich and famous in the palm of his hand. Who was this enigmatic figure? Was he feigning friendship with Mary, but offering something much more sinister and frightening? In a dark and terrifying exploration of her youth, Mary relates a chilling story of a life captured and transformed.

Also included on the DVD is an exclusive prequel A Real Summer in which we see young Mary strike up an unexpected friendship with a young aristocrat Geraldine. An allegorical tale which explores the two aspects of Mary's personality, revealing in juxtaposition her aspirations, achievements and doubts, and the self-acknowledged warning that she will choose to ignore.

Joe's Palace

A film by Stephen Poliakoff

The story takes place in the exquisite but empty Mayfair house of reclusive billionaire Elliot Graham, who lives a lonely life across the road. When Joe, the naive son of the cleaner, takes the job as the vacant house's doorkeeper, he and Elliot strike up a fledgling friendship.

Soon Joe is given the run of the house, exploring its many rooms and secrets, and providing a convenient refuge for a cabinet minister and his beautiful mistress to conduct a clandestine and passionate love affair.

The house seems to attract lonely people – the doorman whom Joe replaces, the housekeeper, the night security guard, both the cabinet minister and his mistress, the homeless man and Elliot Graham himself. Elliot is increasingly paralysed by his suspicions of the origin of his inherited wealth and when the secret is finally revealed, it is Joe who accompanies the billionaire on his disturbing and devastating journey.

The Constant Gardener

A film by Fernando Meirelles, adapted from the novel by John le Carré.

British diplomat Justin Quayle meets the impulsive human rights activist Tessa when she heckles him after he has presented a lecture. When she learns that he is about to embark on a diplomatic mission in Kenya she proposes to him in order that she may accompany him as his wife.

In a remote area of northern Kenya, Tessa Quayle is found brutally murdered. Tessa's companion, Dr Arnold Bluhm, appears to have fled the scene, and the evidence points to a crime of passion. Members of the British High Commission in Nairobi assume that Tessa's widower, their mild-mannered and unambitious colleague Justin Quayle, will leave the matter to them. But haunted by remorse and jarred by rumours of his late wife's infidelities, Quayle surprises everyone by embarking on a personal odyssey that will take him across two continents.

Using his privileged access to diplomatic secrets, he will risk his own life, stopping at nothing to uncover and expose the truth – a conspiracy more far-reaching and deadly than Quayle could ever have imagined, involving members of the British High Commission and the sinister business practices of a leading multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical company. In the process of learning the secrets of his powerful enemies, Justin must uncover all of his wife's many secrets as well.

A very poignant and thought-provoking story of conspiracy, deception and treachery.

The Lost Prince

A film by Stephen Poliakoff

It is 1910. One dynasty holds sway over the most powerful nations of the world, at its heart is the British monarchy and its youngest member, Prince John. A loving, insightful and humorous child, Johnnie is witness to some of the most momentous events in the history of our times. As a baby he is surrounded by the extravagant court of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra at the height of British imperial power. But as the Great War looms his newly crowned father George V and his mother Queen Mary become embroiled in the tumult of world affairs and do not have time to see their special child as he grows. He is prone to epileptic fits and the medical profession consider him to be an imbecile and as such an embarrassment to the family.

As the landscape of Europe changes forever Johnnie is looked after in a remote farmhouse in the Sandringham estate by his devoted nurse Lalla. Dedicating her life to the little boy she determines to remind the monarchy that Johnnie is, at heart, a true prince. A beautiful, moving and heartbreaking deconstruction of the stultifying haze of tradition, refinement and etiquette in which the Edwardian royals lived.