The Metropolitan Opera: The Exterminating Angel

When a beautiful young woman in rural Moravia becomes unexpectedly pregnant, she learns that love is sometimes only skin-deep. Janáček took Gabriela Preissová's grim tale of infanticide and redemption, and condensed it into a masterful, spine-chilling drama. The tragic plight of the protagonists is presented with unsentimental realism that cannot help but trigger a response of deep compassion. Premiered at the National Theatre in the composer's hometown of Brno 115 years ago, the opera took him nine years to complete and is the first in which his distinctive voice can clearly be heard.

Based on Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci. The film recounts the tragedy of Canio, the lead clown (or pagliaccio in Italian) in a commedia dell'arte troupe, his wife Nedda, and her lover, Silvio. When Nedda spurns the advances of Tonio, another player in the troupe, he tells Canio about Nedda's betrayal. In a jealous rage Canio murders both Nedda and Silvio. The only actor in the cast who also sang his role was the celebrated Italian baritone, Tito Gobbi, but the film is largely very faithful to its source material, presenting the opera nearly complete.

Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had control over northern Italian theatres at the time, the opera had a triumphant premiere at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851. This 1994 recording, directed by Riccardo Muti, stars Roberto Alagna, Renato Bruson and Andrea Rost.

Four kids travel through a wardrobe to the land of Narnia and learn of their destiny to free it with the guidance of a mystical lion.

Casey, an antisocial individual, uses their ability to physically manifest their dreams to contact their late mother one last time. Voyaging through unfamiliar lands, Casey must confront their internalised fears and forgotten commitments before they can reach their last chance to say goodbye. Their only problem: Casey must decide between going back home and taking responsibility for their younger sibling, or missing out on their final moment of closure.

Un Chien Andalou is an European avant-garde surrealist film, a collaboration between director Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali.

A Meeting of Fools is a surreal Christmas movie that toes the line between inane and brilliant. Jack Woodford stars as Christmas Guy, a grumpy tv addicted, loner, who small world is turned upside down when he leaves his house for the first time and his feelings about Christmas and friendship are changed forever. A Meeting of Fools is the first Christmas movie to be released into the public domain immediately upon release.

A cold dinner is a dish with bad news. Today it will be more disgusting and destructive than yesterday; and tomorrow will not come at all.