Best movies like Britain's Most Fragile Treasure

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Britain's Most Fragile Treasure Starring Janina Ramirez, Tim Ayers, Sarah Brown, Tony Cattle, and more. If you liked Britain's Most Fragile Treasure then you may also like: X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, Vincent & Theo, The Watcher in the Woods, Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, Night Unto Night and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

Historian Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of a centuries-old masterpiece in glass. At 78 feet in height, the famous East Window at York Minster is the largest medieval stained-glass window in the country and it was the creative vision of a single artist - a mysterious master craftsman called John Thornton, one of the earliest named English artists. The East Window of York Minster is far more than a work of artistic genius, it is a window onto the medieval world and the medieval mind - telling us who were once were and who we still are, all preserved in the most fragile medium of all.

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X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes

A doctor uses special eye drops to give himself x-ray vision, but the new power has disastrous consequences.

Vincent & Theo

The tragic story of Vincent van Gogh broadened by focusing as well on his brother Theodore, who helped support Vincent. Based on the letters written between the two.

The Watcher in the Woods

After an American family moves to an old country manor in rural England, one of the daughters is tormented by the spirit of the owner's long lost daughter, who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago during a solar eclipse.

Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell

Wild Combination is a visually absorbing portrait of the seminal avant-garde composer, singer-songwriter, cellist, and disco producer Arthur Russell. Before his death in 1992, Arthur prolifically created music that spanned both pop and the transcendent possibilities of abstract art. Now, over fifteen years since his passing, Arthur's work is finally finding its audience. Wolf incorporates rare archival footage and commentary from Arthur's family, friends, and closest collaborators to tell this poignant and important story.

Night Unto Night

A bleak mansion sits ominously on a cliff above the sea somewhere on Florida's east coast. In its shadows, two people meet: a scientist haunted by incurable illness and a beautiful woman haunted by the voice of her dead husband. Ronald Reagan and Hollywood-debuting Viveca Lindfors star in an eerie drama steeped in religious faith and supernatural fear, in the destructive power of sexual jealousy and the redemptive power of love. In one of his earliest directorial efforts, Don Siegel (Dirty Harry, The Shootist) displays his command of pacing and camerawork, building the action to a climactic hurricane that parallels the tumultuous emotions of characters precariously balanced between now and the hereafter.

Rawhead Rex

Ireland will never be the same after Rawhead Rex, a particularly nasty demon, is released from his underground prison by an unwitting farmer. The film follows Rex's cross country rampage, while a man struggles to stop it.

Room

A Texan begins a cross-country journey in hope of finding the empty loft she keeps seeing in visions.

Kazaam

When Max fools a gang of local toughs, he finds himself in big trouble. Fleeing from the thugs, Max runs into an old warehouse and bumps into a boom box. By doing that, he manages to release Kazaam, a genie who has been held captive for thousands of years.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

During the Italian Renaissance, Pope Julius II contracts the influential artist Michelangelo to sculpt 40 statues for his tomb. When the pope changes his mind and asks the sculptor to paint a mural in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo doubts his painting skills and abandons the project. Divine inspiration returns Michelangelo to the mural, but his artistic vision clashes with the pope's demanding personality and threatens the success of the historic painting.

The Bourne Ultimatum

Bourne is brought out of hiding once again by reporter Simon Ross who is trying to unveil Operation Blackbriar, an upgrade to Project Treadstone, in a series of newspaper columns. Information from the reporter stirs a new set of memories, and Bourne must finally uncover his dark past while dodging The Company's best efforts to eradicate him.

Comic Book Confidential

In the 20th century, no artistic medium in North America with so much potential for creative expression has had a more turbulent history plagued with less respect than comic books. Through animated montages, readings and interviews, this film guides us through the history of the medium from the late 1930s and 1940s with the first explosion of popularity with the superheroes created by great talents like Jack Kirby and hitting its first artistic zenith with Will Eisner's "Spirit". It then shifts to the post war comics world with the rising popularity of crime and horror comics, especially those published by EC Comics under the editorshiop of William B. Gaines until it came crashing down the rise of censorship with the imposition of the Comics Code. In its wake of the devastation of the medium's creative freedom, we also explore EC's defiant survival with the creation of the singular "Mad Magazine" by Harvey Kurtzman.

The Game

In honor of his birthday, San Francisco banker Nicholas Van Orton, a financial genius and a cold-hearted loner, receives an unusual present from his younger brother, Conrad: a gift certificate to play a unique kind of game. In nary a nanosecond, Nicholas finds himself consumed by a dangerous set of ever-changing rules, unable to distinguish where the charade ends and reality begins.

Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2

Following on from the plot of the last movie, babies can communicate with each other using 'baby talk', and have an innate knowledge of the secrets of the universe. The baby geniuses become involved in a scheme by media mogul Bill Biscane (Jon Voight). Helping the geniuses is a legendary superbaby named Kahuna. He joins up with several other babies in an attempt to stop Biscane, who intends to use a state-of-the-art satellite system to control the world's population.

Marathon Man

A graduate student and obsessive runner in New York is drawn into a mysterious plot involving his brother, a member of the secretive Division.

The Secret of My Success

Brantley Foster, a well-educated kid from Kansas, has always dreamed of making it big in New York, but once in New York, he learns that jobs - and girls - are hard to get. When Brantley visits his uncle, Howard Prescott, who runs a multi-million-dollar company, he is given a job in the company's mail room.

After

A haunting and powerful psychological thriller. Set in icy upstate New York in the winter of 2002, "After" is about the Valentinos, a middle class clan facing financial hardship--their family stone cutting business is slowly failing--and coping with the usual rivalries and resentments that affect all but their absent daughter, Samantha, who has recently escaped Rochester for a new life in lower Manhattan. At their center is matriarch Nora (Quinlan), whose cheerful exterior masks an emotional fragility of which the entire family is painfully aware and fiercely protective. But, their delicate balance is threatened by a carefully concealed secret that, once revealed, will change their lives forever.

Smiley

After learning of an urban legend in which a demented serial killer named SMILEY can be summoned through the internet, mentally fragile Ashley must decide whether she is losing her mind or becoming Smiley's next victim.

Doctor Mabuse

Criminal mastermind Dr. Mabuse returns from exile to begin a new reign of terror, and only young Inspector Carl Lohemann stands in his way.

Harry and Walter Go to New York

Two hoplessly out of their class con-men attempt to pull off the largest bank heist of the l9th century—by gaining the enmity of the most famous bank robber in the world and the affection of a crusading newspaperwoman.

Heavy Petting

Celebrities and creatives -- including musician David Byrne, performance artist Spalding Gray, comedian Sandra Bernhard, radical activist Abbie Hoffman, and poet Allen Ginsberg-- recall their earliest sexual experiences.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are called in to unravel a mysterious curse that has plagued the Baskerville family for generations. When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead, his heir, Sir Henry, begs Holmes to save him from the terrifying supernatural hound that has brought fear and death to his household.

Luck in Pawn

Country girl Annabel Lee has big dreams of being a famous artist. Her widowed mother encourages her to go to the city so she can study. Annabel works hard, but she sells only one painting. She discovers that a renowned artist is spending the summer at a nearby resort, so she sends him her best work for a critique. A friend recommends that she see him in person, so Annabel pawns a piece of jewelry and heads for the resort. The artist informs her that she doesn't have enough talent to achieve much.

Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision

A film about the work of the artist most famous for her monuments such as the Vietnam Memorial Wall and the Civil Rights Fountain Memorial.

Parajanov: The Last Spring

Made in wartime and edited in candlelight, Mikhail Vartanov's rarely-seen masterpiece tells about his friendship with the genius Sergei Parajanov who was imprisoned by KGB "at the peak of his artistic power". Vartanov takes us back with the scenes from his censored 1969 film The Color of Armenian Land where Paradjanov is at work on his suppressed chef-d'oeuvre The Color of Pomegranates - widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time - and contrasts it with the shocking request Parajanov sent him in unpublished 1974 letters from the Soviet prisons. Vartanov's camera documents Parajanov's striking last day at work in 1990 during the making of the unfinished Confession. A monumental wordless montage - the entire sixth reel - concludes Vartanov's acclaimed documentary, which, despite the prohibitive conditions it was created in, won the admiration of many of cinema's greatest artists, including Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.

True Nature

Part drama and part supernatural thriller, TRUE NATURE tells the story of a family reunited when their college-age daughter is found after a year-long disappearance. With no memory of what happened to her, she soon discovers that her very presence threatens to expose the secrets and fragile lies by which her family has lived.

Blood on the Sun

Nick Condon, an American journalist in 20s Tokyo, publishes the Japanese master plan for world domination. Reaction from the understandably upset Japanese provides the action, but this is overshadowed by the propaganda of the time.

Waste Land

An uplifting feature documentary highlighting the transformative power of art and the beauty of the human spirit. Top-selling contemporary artist Vik Muniz takes us on an emotional journey from Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, to the heights of international art stardom. Vik collaborates with the brilliant catadores, pickers of recyclable materials, true Shakespearean characters who live and work in the garbage quoting Machiavelli and showing us how to recycle ourselves.

Horowitz: The Last Romantic

A stimulating study which features concert footage and interviews with the master pianist. Includes many of his favorite pieces.

Devil's Express

Luke and his friend Rodan take a break from the city streets to train in kung fu in China. Whilst there, Rodan steals an ancient amulet which prevents an evil spirit from leaving his tomb. The evil spirit, now free, possesses somebody and follows the pair back to New York City, where it lurks in the subways, killing and mutilating its victims. Can kung fu master Luke right Rodan's wrong and put a stop to the killings?

The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan

Everyone has a skeleton or two in his or her closet, but what about the director behind some of the most successful thrillers ever to hit the silver screen? Could M. Night Shyamalan be hiding a deep, dark secret that drives his macabre cinematic vision? Now viewers will be able to find out firsthand what fuels The Sixth Sense director's seemingly supernatural creativity as filmmakers interview Shyamalan as well as the cast and crew members who have worked most closely with him over the years. Discover the early events that shaped the mind of a future master of suspense in a documentary that is as fascinating as it is revealing.

Van Gogh: Painted with Words

A drama-documentary presented by Alan Yentob, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role.

Inside the Mind of Leonardo

Inside The Mind of Leonardo is based on the artist’s private journals dating from the Italian Renaissance. With over 6,000 pages of handwritten notes and drawings, da Vinci’s private journals are the most comprehensive documents that chronicle the work of the world’s most renowned inventor, philosopher, painter and genius. Using this precious collection of writings and drawings to recount Da Vinci’s story in his own words, and combining them with stunning visual effects and 3D technology, we re-create the mindscape and ideas of mankind’s greatest polymath.

Hitchcock: Shadow of a Genius

This documentary is a fascinating look at the cinematic genius of Alfred Hitchcock. Briefly covering much of his early British works, the film primarily focuses on his American classics, such as "Shadow of a Doubt", "Notorious", "Rear Window", "Vertigo", "Psycho" and "The Birds". The movie also covers his television years and neatly examines the Hitchcock signature touches, from his inevitable brief cameo to his famous MacGuffin.

The World's Most Beautiful Eggs: The Genius of Carl Faberge

Stephen Smith explores the extraordinary life and work of the virtuoso jeweller Carl Faberge. He talks to HRH Prince Michael of Kent about Faberge items in the Royal Collection and to Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who spent $100 million acquiring nine exquisite Faberge eggs. The bejewelled trinkets Faberge made for the last tsars of Russia in the twilight of their rule have become some of the most sought-after treasures in the world, sometimes worth millions. Smith follows in Faberge's footsteps, from the legendary Green Vaults in Dresden to the palaces of the tsars and the corridors of the Kremlin museum, as he discovers how this fin de siecle genius transformed his father's modest business into the world's most famous supplier of luxury items.

Perfect Timing

Perfect Timing is the story of Harry Crane, an infamous photographer whose sublime and evocative images single-handedly reshaped and rebuilt the boudoir and fitness industries. But, having made his mark, allowed the artist within to be released. Creatively and artistically, Harry has moved on; his work now consisting of portraits and interpreting rock wall fractals. Of course that meant leaving the professional schlock of commercial advertising behind him. Sounds good. Except there's that pesky issue of money. And Harry and his buds are quickly burning through large quantities of it. Bottom line - he's nearly broke and faces eviction.

Mary Magdalene: Art's Scarlet Woman

Waldemar Januszczak explores the impact of Mary Magdalene's myth on art and artists. In art all Christian saints are inventions but Mary Magdalene has been the subject of more invention and re-invention than any other.

Russia vs. the World

Fiona Shaw narrates this exploration of Russia's medieval origins through to its bloody expansion to become the biggest country in the world. It's a tale that set the scene for one of the world's most enigmatic figures, and his vision of modern Russia. From a tyrannical grip on ordinary citizens to rampant corruption at the highest level, this film reveals the secrets behind holding the world's largest country together in a narrative that takes in the KGB and its ancestors as well as Stalin, murder and gulags.

The Search for the Lost Manuscript: Julian of Norwich

In this hour-long documentary, Dr Janina Ramirez tells the incredible story of a book hidden for centuries in the shadows of history, the first book ever written in English by a woman, Julian of Norwich, in 1373. Revelations of Divine Love dared to present an alternative vision of man's relationship with God, a theology fundamentally at odds with the church of Julian's time, and for 500 years the book was suppressed. It re-emerged in the 20th century as an iconic text for the women's movement and was acknowledged as a literary masterpiece.

Goya: Crazy Like a Genius

Join art historian Robert Hughes for a fascinating journey into the life of Spanish painter Francisco Goya. Using the artist's works as the benchmarks in this biographical profile, Hughes follows Goya from his role as painter to the royal court through his maturity as a war reporter and into his troubled final years. Hughes reveals how the upheaval of Goya's life can be traced through his paintings that range from the fanciful to the insane.

Treasures of the Anglo-Saxons

In this hour-long documentary, Oxford academic Janina Ramirez tours the country in search of Anglo-Saxon art treasures. Her basic thesis - and it is a plausible one - is that we should not look upon their era as a "dark age" as compared, for example, to Roman times, but rather celebrate it as an age in which creativity flowered, especially in terms of artistic design as well as symbolism. She shows plenty of good examples, ranging from the Franks Casket to the Staffordshire Hoard, and the Lindisfarne Gospels. - l_rawjalaurence

England's Reformation: Three Books That Changed a Nation

To mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Janina Ramirez tells the story of three books that defined this radical religious revolution in England.

Constable: A Country Rebel

The Haywain by John Constable is such a comfortingly familiar image of rural Britain that it is difficult to believe it was ever regarded as a revolutionary painting, but in this film, made in conjunction with a landmark exhibition at the V&A, Alastair Sooke discovers that Constable was painting in a way that was completely new and groundbreaking at the time. Through experimentation and innovation, he managed to make a sublime art from humble things and, though he struggled in his own country during his lifetime, his genius was surprisingly widely admired in France.

Silver Bells

Manhattanite Catherine O'Mara (Heche) bonds with a young man who has run away from his father. When the father returns to New York a year later to sell his Christmas trees, he and Catherine cross paths.

Blur

Artist Adrian Jonas toils in preparation for the biggest gallery opening of his career. The creative process takes Adrian deep into the depths of his mind, where he begins to experience premonitions of a terrible fate that awaits his beloved Iliana. Adrian grows to suspect that a mysterious neighbor is the phantom who means to harm his wife.

The Genius of Turner: Painting the Industrial Revolution

A film that looks at the genius of JMW Turner in a new light. There is more to Turner than his sublime landscapes - he also painted machines, science, technology and industry. Turner's life spans the Industrial Revolution, he witnessed it as it unfolded and he painted it. In the process he created a whole new kind of art. The programme examines nine key Turner paintings and shows how we should re-think them in the light of the scientific and Industrial Revolution. Includes interviews with historian Simon Schama and artist Tracey Emin.

20 Ft Below: The Darkness Descending

Below the streets of New York is a dark and dangerous world hidden in the shadows of abandoned subway tunnels and miles of forgotten infrastructure. When a young documentary filmmaker goes into these tunnels to uncover the unseen stories of the people living below our feet, she finds out that there is more to be afraid of than the dark. A mysterious figure, living beyond the reach of the law, has declared war on the outside world that threatens to tear apart the fragile underground society living in the tunnels and maybe even the city above it.

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought than to love and be loved by me . . . ." And so begins one of the most famous and haunting poems from the enigmatic mind of one of literature's most prolific dark poets, Edgar Allan Poe. This chilling classic adapted for a 21st-century audience. EDGAR ALLAN POE'S 'ANNABEL LEE' tells the story of Jack Blythe, an artist who rents a summer house in a quiet beach town to find creative inspiration. He gets more than he bargained for when he meets a beautiful but hauntingly mysterious woman who offers to be his subject for a painting. When Jack discovers that his seductive stranger resembles a woman presumed dead for 18 years, he becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth. Soon, Jack is caught up in a terrifying struggle that will unravel an unsolvable mystery and reveal a horrific secret

Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey

Legendary martial artist Bruce Lee is the subject of this thoughtful documentary by Lee aficionado John Little. Using interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and action sequences from Lee's last (unfinished) film, Game of Death, Little paints a textured, complex portrait of the world's most famous action hero

1 Giant Leap

1 Giant Leap is a concept band and media project consisting of the two principal artists, Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman. This is the film part of their first project. The result is a flowing, loose-knit tapestry of imagery, interviews, and diverse performances. Gathering material from 25 countries and dozens of famous and not-so-famous musicians, authors, celebrities, spiritualists, philosophers, and unique individuals from nearly every cultural background, this enveloping DVD is best enjoyed as a soothing audiovisual odyssey (select "loop mode" for continuous play!). Assembling this cornucopia by theme (Time, Inspiration, Sex, God, Death, etc.), Bridgeman and Catto function as co-composers with an astonishing array of collaborators, giving 1 Giant Leap its richly international (and some might say inter-spiritual) identity. The result is a far-reaching glimpse of our world through the eyes of those who improve it by their musical presence. --Jeff Shannon

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