Preparez Vous Mouchoirs (Get Out Your Handkerchiefs)

Solange (Laure) is miserable. She can't eat or sleep and suffers from fainting fits. At his wit's end, her husband, played by a youthful Depardieu, approaches a stranger in a café and asks him to become her lover. The two men form a deep, unlikely friendship based on their shared devotion to a woman they don't understand, but even the lover's Mozart-obsession and alphabetised bookshelves fail to make her smile. The buffoonery of Depardieu and Dewaere's brilliant double-act infuses the film with dark humour but at its heart this is a tender, taboo-breaking tale of human misunderstanding and the love to be found in the least likely places. While those around her go to increasing lengths to bring her happiness, Solange discovers her own answers in a strange, touching relationship with an outcast 13-year-old boy. With strong performances and a wonderfully bizarre plot, Handkerchiefs won the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1978. Almost 30 years later it still has the power to surprise, shock and deliver the laughs. [Caroline Scott-Thomas]