CITY Screen, York, resumes its World Cinema Matinees programme with this morning’s screening of the digital re-release of Jazujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story (U).

Rated number one in the Directors’ poll of the BFI’s Greatest Films Of All Time, this 1953 Japanese film has been championed by generations of master filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese, Wim Wenders, Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Aki Kiarostami.

In Tokyo Story, an elderly couple leave their small village to visit their married children in Tokyo, but they find themselves neglected by their busy and aloof offspring as Ozu addresses universal themes of family and modernity.

City Screen will be presenting a world cinema classic every Sunday at 10.45am and a repeat performance the following Thursday at the same time, continuing a matinee programme that was introduced last year.

“After a successful launch, our new strand will continue with more cinematic gems not to be missed on the big screen, says associate manager Cath Sharp.

“2014 is especially significant for L’Alliance Francaise de York as it celebrates its 20th anniversary, so City Screen will be showcasing a series of French films throughout the year, starting with adaptations of the plays of Marcel Pagnol: Marius in January and Fanny in February.”

Booked in for Sunday and Thursday, Marius (12A), is the first instalment of Pagnol’s Marseilles Trilogy, directed for the screen by actor Daniel Auteuil in 2013.

Set and shot in Marseille’s historic old port, the films revolve around the triumvirate of ageing bar owner César (Auteuil), his itchy-footed seafaring son Marius (Raphael Personnatz) and the beautiful young Fanny (Victoire Belezy).

In the first film, Marius dreams of life at sea but his jealousy over Fanny suddenly throws his plans into doubt. In Fanny (15), on February 9 and 13, the advances of an elderly salesman offer Fanny the chance of security and respectability but her heart belongs to Marius.

Wadjda (PG), the first Saudi Arabian feature film to be directed by a woman, was one of the most joyful discoveries of 2013 and now returns to City Screen on January 26 and 30. Made under cover by Haifaa Al Mansour, this funny, romantic drama revolves around a playful young girl’s determination to buy a bicycle, normally the preserve of boys in her country. Ten-year-old Waad Mohammed plays the sparky lead.

The Lives Of Others (15), writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s German suspense drama from 2006, is well worth seeing again on February 2 or 6 if eight years have passed by since you were last caught up in its web of intrigue.

It chronicles the effects of the East German secret police’s surveillance of a creative couple on both the artists themselves and the spy in charge of the Stasi operation, as von Donnersmarck paints a dark picture of life under the Communist regime.

Tickets can be booked on 0871 902 5726 or at picturehouses.co.uk/york