There are no useable copies of any of these films in our collections, so we cannot offer them to cinemagoers anywhere

Jon Teckman, BFI

The project will take two years to complete. It has been made possible after the BFI won financial backing from the management consultancy Andersen Consulting.

The BFI's director Jon Teckman explained: "Film deteriorates naturally over time, especially if heavily used.

"There are no useable copies of any of these films in our collections, so we cannot offer them to cinemagoers anywhere."

He added that the films chosen were the ones most in demand at the BFI's National Film Theatre in London, as well as by screen bookers and festival programmes around the world.

Memorable

Four films are set for a glorious return in the first year of the project.

The first two, Some Like it Hot and Breakfast at Tiffany's, feature memorable performances by legendary screen beauties Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.

Billy Wilder's black and white comedy classic Some Like it Hot was made in 1959.

Hepburn played socialite Holly Golightly

It sees Monroe teamed with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. The two actors play musicians who witness a gangland murder.

To save their skins, they disguise themselves as women in order to join an all-female band, of which Monroe is a member.

Breakfast at Tiffany's, from director Blake Edwards, was made in rich Technicolor in 1961.

It stars Hepburn as socialite Holly Golightly.

Holly flits aimlessly, and often drunk, around New York, living off the men who woo her. But all that starts to change when George Peppard's steadying influence arrives on the scene.

The other two movies on the initial BFI list are Alfie, starring Sir Michael Caine, and the 1973 thriller Don't Look Now with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland.

Alfie was made in 1966 and has become a favourite for the early impressive performance by Sir Michael as a cold-hearted, cockney womaniser.

Sir Michael's role as Alfie helped establish him as a force in British cinema

Don't Look Now was set in Venice and sees Christie and Sutherland as a married couple tormented by what they believe is the ghost of their recently drowned young daughter.

The movie is classic for the skill of the mounting suspense - added to by visions of the dead daughter walking the streets in her red cloak.

But it also contains some memorable love scenes between Sutherland and Christie.

Cinemagoers will be able to see the first fruits of project collaboration from 20 October when Some Like it Hot reopens at cinemas around the UK.

It will be followed in 2001 by Breakfast at Tiffany's.