Establishing director Sally Potter as a daring cinematic force to be reckoned with and giving Tilda Swinton a role she was born to play, Orlando (1992) is set through 400 years of European history seen through the eyes of a protagonist who switches between genders as if it was “no difference at all.”

Causing unmatched social furore upon its initial release, Cruising stars Al Pacino as a psychologically suggestible young police officer who is tasked with investigating brutal murders in the gay leather bars of New York’s Meatpacking district.

Aided by committed performances and a stirring soundtrack, Nicolas Roeg’s tale of dangerous passion that erupts between Milena Flaherty (Theresa Russell) and Dr. Alex Linden (Art Garfunkle) is as provocative, brash, and innovative as it was when it was originally released in 1980.

Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) follows the underground travails of Tokyo transsexual coquette Eddie (played by renowned androgynous Japanese performer Peter) and her band of non-conforming friends in an unforgettable pageant of decadent, wild, and still-prescient ideas regarding the nature of sexual and cultural identity.

Featuring a star performance from Louise Brooks that has come to definitively embody silent cinema’s notions of femininity, charisma, and eroticism, Pandora’s Box (1929) follows the adventures of the fun-loving, Charlston-dancing temptress Lulu whose social world entirely falls prey to her effortless and vibrant magnetism.

One of the last acknowledged masterpieces in Hitchcock’s career, Marnie (1964) stars Tippie Hedren as the eponymous character: a frigid woman with a mysterious past, a penchant for kleptomania and colour coordinated panic attacks. As her husband Mark (Sean Connery) gamely tries to manage and control Marnie’s aberrant and destructive drives, it slowly becomes clear that Mark may be harbouring as much pathological impulse as Marnie herself.