It's never been simpler to watch some of the very best online films … Gentry select some choice flicks for your enjoyment - turning up some lost gems and old favourites…

The best online films — according to Gentrystyle.com…

The sticky, chav-invested multi-money-plexes we used to call cinemas now show films like National Treasure 2 or Taken on two or three screens at a time, squeezing out opportunities to re-run old classics and different forms of filmmaking.

However, the very best online films can be found easily, at a number of excellent sites on the web that offer the chance to view long-forogtten masterpieces for free, whenever you want. It's the perfect form for movie-buffs and those curious to expand their frame of reference.

The most obvious destination for all moving images has to be You Tube. But there's much more to the site than happy slapping and exploding mentos experiments.

You'll find there some of the most remarkable, long-submerged movies ever made. One such miracle is the incredible "80 blocks from Tiffany's", portioned into 8 enjoyable parts. It's a 1979 Gary Weis documentary about Peurto Rican gangs in New York's South Bronx. It's the best of its kind and the language and late-70's asthetic is just so affirming, for some strange reason. It's savage, amusing and real.

Another is this 6-minute doc on Scorsese - Back on the Block, 1973 - that's really just an extended trailer for Mean Streets. Never have Italian-Americans looked so in need of a shower and a shave. Warning: might cause indigestion.

Samuel Beckett made only 1 film. It was called "Film", starkly enough, and featured a weary-eyed, long-in-the-shadows Buster Keaton. It's quite something.

Chris Marker's brilliant art-sci-fi La Jetee is also available in three parts. The quality is excellent and the chill it supplies is genuine. Watch it, then watch it again.

A few curios from the world's biggest digital grab-bag:

- Rare Marlon Brando screen test

- Vladmir Nabakov discusses Lolita

- Kurt Russell's Star Wars audition

The Internet Archive offers some of the best online films, anywhere - an amazing selection of feature films and documentaries in the public domain. The Ephemeral Films section sheds light on some remarkable artefacts such as drive in movies ads - my favourite of which is the weirdly insistent "Get Your Juicy Pickles".

I've also become an obessive fan of the fast talking, disgusting looking "Pizza Time!".

The British Government Public Information films are also a real, revelatory hoot. Check out this NHS guide to health from 1947. Learn how to sit up straight, wear suitable clothes and beat insomnia!

The IA also offers a choice selection of feature films like the dizzying "Carnival of Souls" - the inspiration behind much David Lynch's work. Find here too Hammer's camp-masterpiece "Horror Express" and the dystopian classic "A Boy and His Dog" just a fraction of those waiting for your eager eyes…

Other sites such as the dubiously titled Movies Found Online some of the best movies online offer a stunning collection of documentaries and feature films.

The glorious thing about these sites is that they do their best to replicate the old video store - you can trawl the lists and sample a few scenes before you settle down to the joys of online theatre.

Some unexpectedly unearthed favourites include:

- John Huston's - Truman Capote scripted - "Beat the Devil"

- John Carpenter's ridiculous, barnstorming Roddy Piper vehicle "They Live"

- Edgar G. Ulmer's gorgeous doom and gloom film noir "Detour" 

- And for horror fans, Brad Anderson's overlooked "Session 9"

So, you see - there's no reason to always shell out £20 every time you need a cultural fix. There are some genuinely brilliant film experiences to be had wothout leaving your desk.

Here's one to get you started - BBC's Arena on the career of Orson Welles, the best review of the master's career there is!

Perhaps free online cinema is the way forward - rarities and classics from the comfort of your desktop. Some ofthe best online films are the ones you stumble across - impossible to do nowadaysin a physical sense.

And if you can point our readers to any of the best online films you've discovered, whack your suggestions in the comments section…

Mr. Paolo Cabrelli

Category: Art & Culture