In this adaptation of the satirical British novel, Flora Poste, a plucky London society girl orphaned at age 19, finds a new home with some rough relatives, the Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm. With a take-charge attitude and some encouragement from her mischievous friend, Mary, Flora changes the Starkadders' lives forever when she settles into their rustic estate, bringing the backward clan up to date and finding inspiration for her novel in the process.

Doogal

2006

English

2.8

♡ 4

9%

Dave Borthwick Director

John Krasinski as Additional Voices

William H. Macy as Brian

Whoopi Goldberg as Ermintrude

Ian McKellen as Zebedee

An adorable candy-loving mutt goes on a mission to save the world.

Neverwas

2005

English

6.5

♡ 12

14%

Joshua Michael Stern Director

Vera Farmiga as Eleanna

Ian McKellen as Gabriel Finch

Brittany Murphy as Maggie Paige

Aaron Eckhart as Zach Riley

Zach Riley is a psychiatrist, who leaves a job at a prestigious university, to take up a job at the privately run mental institution, Millwood. What he doesn't reveal at the time of his appointment is that this was the very place where his novelist father, T.L. Pierson, spent many years of his life.

Plenty

1985

English

6.0

♡ 9

59%

based on play or musical

Drama

french resistance

post-war england

Fred Schepisi Director

Sam Neill as Lazar

Hugh Laurie as Michael

Charles Dance as Raymond Brock

Ian McKellen as Sir Andrew Charleson

David Hare's account of a one-time French freedom fighter who gradually realizes that her post-war life is not meeting her expectations.

Richard III

1995

English

7.3

♡ 11

96%

Richard Loncraine Director

Roger Hammond as Archbishop

Adrian Dunbar as James Tyrell

Robert Downey Jr. as Lord Rivers

Ian McKellen as Richard III - Duke of Gloucester

A murderous lust for the British throne sees Richard III descend into madness. Though the setting is transposed to the 1930s, England is torn by civil war, split between the rivaling houses of York and Lancaster. Richard aspires to a fascist dictatorship, but must first remove the obstacles to his ascension—among them his brother, his nephews and his brother's wife. When the Duke of Buckingham deserts him, Richard's plans are compromised.

Bent

1997

English

7.1

♡ 17

74%

76%

Action

based on play or musical

concentration camp prisoner

Sean Mathias Director

Paul Bettany as Captain

Rachel Weisz as Prostitute

Jude Law as Stormtrooper

Ian McKellen as Uncle Freddie

Max is a handsome young man who, after a fateful tryst with a German soldier, is forced to run for his life. Eventually Max is placed in a concentration camp where he pretends to be Jewish because in the eyes of the Nazis, gays are the lowest form of human being. But it takes a relationship with an openly gay prisoner to teach Max that without the love of another, life is not worth living.

Animal Crackers

2017

English

5.8

♡ 12

67%

Tony Bancroft Director

Sylvester Stallone as Bullet-Man

Ian McKellen as Horatio P. Huntington

John Krasinski as Owen

Emily Blunt as Zoe

A family must use a magical box of Animal Crackers to save a rundown circus from being taken over by their evil uncle Horatio P. Huntington.

Swept from the Sea

1997

English

6.7

♡ 5

28%

Beeban Kidron Director

Rachel Weisz as Amy Foster

Ian McKellen as Dr. James Kennedy

Janine Duvitski as Mrs. Finn

Tony Haygarth as Mr. Smith

The film tells the story of Russian emigree and the only survivor from ship crash Yanko Goorall and servant Amy Foster in the end of 19th century. When Yanko enters a farm sick and hungry after the shipwreck, everyone is afraid of him, except for Amy, who is very kind and helps him. Soon he becomes like a son for Dr. James Kennedy and romance between Yanko and Amy follows.

Hating Peter Tatchell

2021

English

7.6

♡ 1

100%

Christopher Amos Director

George Carey as

Stephen Fry as Self

Ian McKellen as Self

Peter Tatchell as Self

The powerful and inspiring true story of the controversial human rights campaigner whose provocative acts of civil diso bedience rocked the British establishment, revolutionised attitudes to homosexuality and exposed world tyrants. As social attitudes change and history vindicates Peter's stance on gay rights, his David versus Goliath battles gradually win him status as a national treasure. The film follows Peter as he embarks on his riskiest crusade yet by seeking to disrupt the FIFA World Cup in Moscow to draw attention to the persecution of LGBT+ people in Russia and Chechnya.

All Is True

2018

English

6.3

♡ 18

73%

husband wife relationship

london, england

united kingdom

Kenneth Branagh Director

Judi Dench as Anne Hathaway

Ian McKellen as Henry Wriothesley

Harry Lister Smith as Jack Cade

Kenneth Branagh as William Shakespeare

London, June 29th, 1613. The Globe Theater, ran by the famous playwright William Shakespeare, accidentally burns to ashes. Seriously affected, he stops writing and returns to his hometown, where his wife Anne and daughters Judith and Susanna get surprised to hear he intends to stay there definitively, after two decades working in the capital, neglecting his sincere affections for them.

The Dresser

2015

English

6.7

♡ 9

100%

Richard Eyre Director

Emily Watson as Her Ladyship

Vanessa Kirby as Irene

Ian McKellen as Norman

Anthony Hopkins as Sir

One fateful night in a small English regional theatre during World War II a troupe of touring actors stage a production of Shakespeares King Lear. Bombs are falling, sirens are wailing, the curtain is up in an hour but the actor/manager Sir who is playing Lear is nowhere to be seen. His dresser Norman must scramble to keep the production alive but will Sir turn up in time and if he does will he be able to perform that night? The Dresser is a wickedly funny and deeply moving story of friendship and loyalty as Sir reflects on his lifelong accomplishments and seeks to reconcile his turbulent friendships with those in his employ before the final curtain.

King Lear

2008

English

7.6

♡ 2

71%

Drama

Trevor Nunn Director

Romola Garai as Cordelia

Philip Winchester as Edmund

Ian McKellen as King Lear

Zoe Boyle as Lady in Waiting

An aging King invites disaster, when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

Scandal

1989

English

6.4

♡ 22

91%

61%

Action

based on a true story

Michael Caton-Jones Director

Ian McKellen as John Profumo

Britt Ekland as Mariella Novotny

Malcolm Terris as Northern Gent

John Hurt as Stephen Ward

An English bon-vivant osteopath is enchanted with a young exotic dancer and invites her to live with him. He serves as friend and mentor, and through his contacts and parties she and her friend meet and date members of the Conservative Party. Eventually a scandal occurs when her affair with the Minister of War goes public, threatening their lifestyles and their freedom.

Priest of Love

1981

English

6.0

♡ 3

57%

Christopher Miles Director

James Faulkner as Aldous Huxley

Ian McKellen as D.H. Lawrence

Burnell Tucker as Earl Brewster

Ava Gardner as Mabel Dodge Luhan

Following the banning and burning of his novel, "The Rainbow," D.H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, move to the United States, and then to Mexico. When Lawrence contracts tuberculosis, they return to England for a short time, then to Italy, where Lawrence writes "Lady Chatterley's Lover."

Infinitum: Subject Unknown

2021

English

4.0

♡ 23

67%

Matthew Butler Director

Ian McKellen as Dr. Charles Marland-White Ben Lee

Ben Lee as Observation Scientist 2

Conleth Hill as Professor Aaron Östergaard

Chris Hart as Wytness Scientist 2

Jane is the subject of a twisted science experiment where she is placed in a parallel world and is forced to find a way to either alter her reality or be stuck in a time-loop, destined to repeat the same test over and over again, with no memory of her doing it before. But with each 'reset' she starts to retain fragments of memory. With clues pointing to the mysterious Wytness Quantum Research Centre, she tries to find a way out. (The film was shot entirely on an iPhone during the UK’s first lockdown.)

Apt Pupil

1998

English

6.7

♡ 53

54%

56%

1980s

Action

based on novel or book

Bryan Singer Director

Joe Morton as Dan Richler

David Schwimmer as Edward French

Joshua Jackson as Joey

Ian McKellen as Kurt Dussander

One day in 1984, Todd Bowden, a brilliant high school boy fascinated by the history of Nazism, stumbles across an old man whose appearance resembles that of Kurt Dussander, a wanted Nazi war criminal. A month later, Todd decides to knock on his door.

McKellen: Playing the Part

2017

English

7.4

♡ 10

100%

Joe Stephenson Director

Luke Evans as

Ian McKellen as Himself

Patrick Stewart as Himself

Milo Parker as Young Ian McKellen

Built upon a 14 hour interview, McKellen: Playing the Part is a unique journey through the key landmarks of McKellen's life, from early childhood into a demanding career that placed him in the public eye for the best part of his lifetime. Using an abundance of photography from McKellen's private albums and cinematically reconstructed scenes, a raw talent shines through in the intensity, variety and devotion to that moment in the light.

Great British Theatre Ian McKellen on Stage

2021

English

8.4

♡ 1

Action

Drama

With stories and anecdotes from his illustrious career on stage and screen, Ian McKellen performs extracts from his most iconic performances, including Shakespeare's King Lear and Tolkien's Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. Filmed live in London's West End by the National Theatre.—Amazon

On Broadway

2019

English

7.3

♡ 1

76%

Oren Jacoby Director

Hugh Jackman as Self

John Lithgow as Self

Ian McKellen as Self

Helen Mirren as Self

An all-star cast tells the inside story of the Broadway theater, and how it came back from the brink thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion and a sometimes uneasy balance between art and commerce. Legends of the stage and screen—including Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Viola Davis, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen—take us behind the scenes of Broadway's most groundbreaking and beloved shows, from A Chorus Line to Hamilton. Iconic performances by Lin Manuel Miranda, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, James Earl Jones and Mandy Patinkin lead the way on a hurly burly ride through Times Square, once again the main street of American show business in this documentary directed by Academy-Award nominee Oren Jacoby.

National Theatre Live: King Lear

2018

English

8.2

♡ 6

Ross MacGibbon Director

Lloyd Hutchinson as Fool

Danny Webb as Gloucester

Sinéad Cusack as Kent

Ian McKellen as King Lear

Considered by many to be the greatest tragedy ever written, King Lear sees two ageing fathers – one a King, one his courtier – reject the children who truly love them. Their blindness unleashes a tornado of pitiless ambition and treachery, as family and state are plunged into a violent power struggle with bitter ends.

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Cold Comfort Farm

Doogal

Neverwas

Plenty

Richard III

Bent

Animal Crackers

Swept from the Sea

Hating Peter Tatchell

All Is True

The Dresser

King Lear

Scandal

Priest of Love

Infinitum: Subject Unknown

Apt Pupil

McKellen: Playing the Part

Great British Theatre Ian McKellen on Stage

On Broadway

National Theatre Live: King Lear