Fava beans and chianti will never taste the same

THEY are edge-of-the-seat viewing. Nail-biting and hair-raising. Suspenseladen thrillers have been a favourite of films fans since the early days of cinema.

To mark a new season of the genre at the BFI this autumn, we look at the best thrillers of all time... A counter-culture critique of the rat race where huge financial rewards are always one promotion away and crime has gone corporate. Angie Dickinson, below, stars with Lee Marvin at his hardboiled best as an ex-con chasing $93k from the mob. The fall of President Nixon and the breakdown of trust in the political system was the catalyst for Hollywood to create a series of intelligent, gripping, socially aware, critically lauded thrillers.

This is the third instalment of director Alan J Pakula’s “paranoia trilogy”. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, above, star as the Watergate journalists. Kathleen Turner was thrust from TV soap star to sultry big-screen siren in this erotic thriller, purring the line: “You aren’t too smart, are you? I like that in a man.”

In this update of Double Indemnity, Turner is the trophy wife who seduces William Hurt, above, into murdering her husband. Over a decade of raunchy fare followed Body Heat – with films such as Fatal Attraction – reaching a crotch-flashing climax here.

Starring Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, above, and the appropriately named Jeanne Tripplehorn, it is controversial due to its rape scene and exploitative treatment of lesbian characters. This year’s minibudget breakout hit is a sharp story of a mixed race couple caught up in a missing persons murder mystery.

Starring Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams, above, it offers an honest and uncomfortable view of the world.

BFI Thriller, runs from Friday, October 20 to Sunday, December 10 at BFI Southbank, online on BFI Player, and at selected UK venues.