When news anchor Howard Beale (posthumous Oscar-winner Peter Finch) suffers an on-screen breakdown, Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway, in her Oscar-winning role), an ambitious network executive, exploits his fragile mental state to capitalise on his newfound celebrity. 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

Screening as part of the New Hollywood season.