Excalibur (1981, R18+)

Dir: John Boorman, UK/USA, 140mins, 35mm

Since the late 1960s, Anglo-Irish director John Boorman had cherished the chance to restore the original axis of the story of the Knights of the Round Table: in the supernatural and incestuous battle between Merlin and Morgana and in the original romance of Malory’s Morte d’Arthur tales. By the time it was released in the early 1980s, his vision had been undermined by other adaptations both serious (Robert Bresson) and ‘naff’ (Monty Python) – and then by studio interference in Boorman’s original, sexy and bloody three-hour cut. Yet his is one of those films which the decades has pulled up from box office indifference to pantheon of cult cinema status; enduring for its erotic, adult sense of the cinema fantastique, and its stylish maturity compared to too much of the screen sword and sorcery made since. Boorman’s casting now also seems inspired, with Helen Miriam as Morgana and early roles for Patrick Stewart, Liam Neeson and Gabriel Byrne.