When news anchor Howard Beale (posthumous Oscar-winner Peter Finch) suffers a public breakdown, announcing that he is going to commit suicide on his final programme, the network he works for exploits his fragile mental state to capitalise on his newfound celebrity. 

Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance), an ambitious programming executive, convinces her superiors to let the broadcast go ahead, hoping the sensational event will give the network its greatest ratings ever. 

Cynical, blackly funny, and remarkably prescient in its depiction of the advent of a news media culture predicated on ratings and entertainment rather than actual news, Network remains one of the greatest satires of US cinema. 

Notes by David O’Mahony