Mercantile // Our Top 5 Classic Film Choices

These are the Mercantile's selection of classic films that we are revisiting whilst we spend our time at home. The films below all made an impact on cinema audiences and influenced future directors. These are the list of films we would be happy to watch time and time again.

Harvey   Dir.Henry Koster, 1950.

A comedy drama based on the Mary Chase play and starring James Stewart who was nominated for an Academy award for his performance. The story revolves around Stewart who plays Elwood P. Dowd and insists to everyone he meets that his best friend is an invisible 6ft 3.5 inch tall rabbit named Harvey. 

The Night of the Hunter  Dir. Charles Loughton, 1955.

A dark, chilling American thriller directed by the actor Charles Loughton, and based on the novel of the same name. The story stars Robert Mitchum  as a dangerous and corrupt minster who involves himself in the lives of a widow and her two children in order to discover money her husband has left buried. Initially the film was met with mixed reaction but has since gone on to reach cult status and was selected for preservation in the National film Registry. 

La Dolce Vita  Dir. Federico Fellini, 1960.

Considered to be one of the greatest films of world cinema, Fellini won the 1960 Palme d’or for La Dolce Vita and was nominated for the Best Director Oscar. With a stunning backdrop of early 1960's Rome, the story takes place over seven days and nights and revolves around journalist Marcello journey through the city in search of love and happiness.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid  Dir. George Roy Hill, 1969.

Ranked as the 73rd greatest American film ever made, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is an American Western whos screenplay was written by William Goldman. Winning four academy awards and nominated for another three, it is loosely based around the real life figures of outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker (Butch) and Harry Longaburgh (Sundance Kid) who are on the run after a succession of train robberies.

Diva  Dir.Jean-Jacques Beineix , 1981.

A retrospective cult classic that moved away the realist look of the 1970's and adopted a more colourful style and was nominated for a Cesar Award.  Starring Frederic Andrei as a young Parisian postman, who is obsessed with classical music.  He involves himself with a whole cast of characters who include a celebrated opera singer, mobsters, a teenage thief and a corrupt policeman in this stylish French thriller.