Subgenre Sampler

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Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995): Dir. Shusuke Kaneko
Feat. Shinobu Nakayama, Ayako Fujitani; Japanese Kaiju genre film (giant monsters!) which is the ninth inclusion to the Gamera film series, but enjoyable as stand–alone entertainment,…
Finally Sunday (Vivement Dimanche!) (1983): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Fanny Ardant, Jean-Louis Trintignant; A businessman in trouble with the police over the murder of his wife's lover finds solace in his secretary who decides to investigate the case…
Germany, Pale Mother (Deutschland bleiche Mutter) (1980): Dir. Helma Sanders-Brahms
Feat. Eva Mattes, Ernst Jacobi; Bleak WWII drama that follows the tragic fate of a couple who marry the day before the war breaks out when he is drafted to the Eastern front only to…
You Are Not Alone (Du er ikke alene) (1978): Dir. Ernst Johansen, Lasse Nielsen
Feat. Anders Agensø, Peter Bjerg; Beautifully evocative Danish coming–of–age story set in an all–boys boarding school, which confronts themes of homosexuality and…
Ascent, The (Voskhozhdeniye) (1977): Dir. Larisa Shepitko
Feat. Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Anatoli Solonitsyn; A Soviet WWII classic shot in appalling winter conditions in which two partisans on a mission to gather food contend with the winter cold, the…
Boomerang (Comme un boomerang) (1976): Dir. Jose Giovanni
Feat. Alain Delon, Carla Gravina, Dora Doll; French crime film with Alain Delon playing an ex–gangster and father of a delinquent teen, who is determined to clear his son's name after he…
Chinese Roulette (Chinesisches Roulette) (1976): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Anna Karina, Margit Carstensen, Brigitte Mira…; Daunting Fassbinder drama concerning a cheating mother and father unwittingly convinced by their disabled daughter to each take their lovers on a…
Satan's Brew (Satansbraten) (1976): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Margit Carstensen, Volker Spengler, Ingrid Caven…; Schizophrenic Fassbinder dramedy involving a German poet struck with writer's block that partakes in a number of moneymaking schemes involving his…
Man from Hong Kong, The (1975): Dir. Brian Trenchard-Smith
Feat. George Lazenby, Bill Hunter, Rebecca Gilling…; Cracking martial arts adventure tracking an inspector sent to Australia to expel a drug courier. Photogenically set against the backdrops of Ayers…
Vincent, François, Paul et les autres (1974): Dir. Claude Sautet
Feat. Yves Montand, Michel Piccoli, Serge Reggiani…; French drama following three friends facing mid–life crises, based on the novel La grande Marrade by Claude Néron.
Touki Bouki (1973): Dir. Djibril Diop Mambety
Feat. Magaye Niang, Mareme Niang; A Senegalese drama, recently restored, about a cowherd and a university student try to make money in order to go to Paris and leave their boring past…
A Gorgeous Girl Like Me (Une Belle Fille Comme Moi) (1972): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Bernadette Lafont, Andre Dussollier; Twisted French black comedy of a licentious, manipulative murderess recounting her sordid past to a green criminology student. Dripping in silly…
Lo Scopone Scientifico (1972): Dir. Luigi Comencini
Feat. Bette Davis, Alberto Sordi, Silvana Mangano…; Little–known Italian comedy stars Bette Davis as a wealthy, Nora Desmond–esque countess who entices those less fortunate to gamble with…
Merchant of Four Seasons, The (Händler der vier Jahreszeiten) (1972): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Hanna Schygulla, Ingrid Caven, Peter Chatel…; Crushing melodrama centred on a man whose life begins to cave in on him after returning from service in the Foreign Legion to find his dreams…
Tout Va Bien (Everything’s All Right) (1972): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin
Feat. Yves Montand, Jane Fonda, Anita Caprioli; Radical political drama from Nouvelle Vague luminary Jean Luc–Godard and frequent collaborator Jean–Pierre Gorin, set during a wildcat…
Beware Of A Holy Whore (Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte, The Little Chaos, The City Tramp) (1971): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Hanna Schygulla; Dubbed Fassbinder's most autobiographical work, this ambiguous comedy investigates relations between a clan of artists attempting to make a film in…
Max and the Junkmen (Max Et Les Ferrailleurs) (1971): Dir. Claude Sautet
Feat. Romy Schneider; French crime drama set in the noir shaded streets of Paris follows a frustrated detective getting tangled up in a love triangle after commissioning a…
Conformist, The (Conformista, Il) (1970): Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
Feat. Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin…; Dazzling images and a potent brew of sex and politics merge seamlessly in this milestone of cinema about a submissive Italian Fascist recruited to…
Ear, The (Ucho) (1970): Dir. Karel Kachyna
Feat. Jirina Bohdalova, Radoslav Brzobohaty, Jiri Cisler; Set over the course of an evening this is a searing look at life under an oppressive totalitarian system and an equally harsh examination of a…
Things of Life, The (Les Choses De La Vie) (1970): Dir. Claude Sautet
Feat. Romy Schneider, Michel Piccoli, Jean Bouise; Golden Palm nominated French comedy focusing on the life of a fatally injured man who upon seeing his life flash before his eyes realizes he must…
Army of Shadows (L'Armée des Ombres, aka Army in the Shadows) (1969): Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
Feat. Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel…; Melville’s heavyweight masterpiece – by turns sombre, exhilarating, and tension–filled – tackles the clandestine rearguard…
Colour of Pomegranates (Color of Pomegranates) (1969): Dir. Sergei Paradjanov
Feat. Sofiko Chiaurel, Melkon Aleksanyan, Vilen Galstyan; A visually exquisite, at times baffling film from the much–censored Armenian director. Retells the life of 18th century mystic poet Sayat Nova…
Funeral Parade of Roses (Bara no Soretsu) (1969): Dir. Toshio Matsumoto
Feat. Shinnosuke Ikehata (aka Peter), Yoshio Tsuchiya; A bold and significant product of the Japanese New Wave that loosely transposes Oedipus Rex to the underground gay culture of 1960s Tokyo with a…
Katzelmacher (1969): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Hanna Schygulla; Daring Fassbinder drama focused on a group of Munich friends indulging in the banality of their ordered lives until the arrival of a Greek immigrant…
Ma Nuit Chez Maud (My Night at Maud's / My Night with Maud) (1969): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Jean-Louis Trintignant, Francoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault; Rohmer's fourth moral tale again presents the idea of a man's romantic dilemma with more than one woman in his life. The wordy philosophising is…
Slogan (1969): Dir. Pierre Grimblat
Feat. Jane Birkin, Serge Gainsbourg; Vivacious French romance about a reckless advertising director who throws caution to the wind and abandons his preggers wife to embark on a worldwide…
Touch of Zen, A (Hsia Nu) (1969): Dir. King Hu
Feat. Hsu Feng; A dazzling blend of medieval potboiler, religious fable and martial arts spectacular, set in an ancient China wracked by civil war. Centred on the…
Damned, The (1968): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Berger; Italian dir. Luchino Visconti casts a languorous eye over the decline of a German industrialist family during the Nazi era. Heavyweight cast includes…
Kuroneko (1968): Dir. Kaneto Shindo
Feat. Kichiemon Nakamura, Nobuko Otowa, Kiwako Taichi; Visually exquisite black and white horror film from Japanese director Kaneto Shindo (ONIBABA). An adaptation of a supernatural folktale set during…
Milky Way, The (1968): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Paul Frankeur, Laurent Terzieff, Alain Cuny…; Bunuel experiments with narrative in relating theories of traditional Catholicism to the encounters of two wandering vagrants.
Stolen Kisses (Baisers Voles) (1968): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud, Delphine Seyrig; Third film in the director's Antoine Doinel series (see also THE FOUR HUNDRED BLOWS) starring Jean–Pierre Leaud, here as a careless young man…
Theorem (Teorema) (1968): Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Feat. Terence Stamp, Silvana Mangano, Massimo Girotti…; A mysterious stranger seduces and corrupts each member of a bourgeois family. Pasolini stitches religious, social and political metaphors into his…
Z (1968): Dir. Costa-Gavras
Feat. Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Irene Papas; Pioneering conspiracy thriller based on the true story of the murder of a doctor and the raw sore of Greek political corruption it exposes. Oscars…
Belle De Jour (Beauty of the Day) (1967): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli…; Cool and elegant comedy of manners about a virginal newlywed who works the day shift in a high class brothel. Bunuel's surrealist…
Champagne Murders, The (Le scandale) (1967): Dir. Claude Chabrol
Feat. Anthony Perkins, Maurice Ronet, Yvonne Furneaux…; Claude Chabrol transitions into his revered period of thrillers with this potboiler about a champagne tycoon's partner who suspects his partner's…
Firemen's Ball, The (1967): Dir. Milos Forman
Feat. Jan Vostrcil, Josef Sebanek, Josef Valnoha; Early film from the director of AMADEUS and CUCKOO'S NEST is an engaging, off–beat collection of comic vignettes, including a clumsy beauty…
King Kong Escapes (1967): Dir. Ishiro Honda
Feat. Mie Hama, Akira Takarada, Rhodes Reason…; Kaiji co–production between Japan and the USA which pits a robot version of King Kong (MechaniKong!) against a giant dinosaur Gorosaurus. A…
Le Samourai (The Samurai) (1967): Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
Feat. Alain Delon; Alain Delon plays an ultra–cool assassin whose flawless disposition is impenetrable to the Gendarmerie but not to a sexy key witness. Steely…
Mouchette (1967): Dir. Robert Bresson
Feat. Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Maria Cardinal; An impoverished young girl in rural France bears the brunt of hard times in this perfectly formed study, taken from the novel by George Bernanos.…
Oedipus Rex (1967): Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Feat. Silvana Mangano, Franco Citti, Alida Valli; Striking visual achievement, filmed amidst the Moroccan desert and Bologna, describes the Oedipal tale of a tortured soul who murders his father and…
Playtime (1967): Dir. Jacques Tati
Feat. Jacques Tati; Tati's satirical vision of modern city life and brutalist architecture is his magnum opus. His alter–ego Mr. Hulot goes about his third…
Weekend (1967): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Mireille Darc, Jean Yanne; A poetic, stylised and savage vision as only Godard could dream up and/or get away with. Road chaos and carnage is his metaphor for the decline of…
Young Girls of Rochefort, The (Les Demoiselles de Rochefort) (1967): Dir. Jacques Demy
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Francois Dorleac, Gene Kelly; The carrot of love is dangled in Jacques Demy's positively radiant follow–up to UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG: an unbridled, colour–saturated…
Andrei Rublev (1966): Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
Feat. Anatoli Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolai Grinko; Enthralling historical drama vividly portrays the 15th Century Russian painter who was encumbered by the political turbulence of the time.
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966): Dir. Robert Bresson
Feat. Anne Wiazemsky, Francois Lafarge, Philippe Asselin; Robert Bresson's immediately recognisable minimalist style is here lent to one of the few films whose central character is a donkey.
Before the Revolution (1966): Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
Feat. Adriana Asti, Francisco Barilli; Bertolucci's second film – made at the age of 22! – demonstrates his bravura visual style fully formed around this coming of age in the…
Closely Observed Trains (1966): Dir. Jiri Menzel
Feat. Vaclav Neckar, Josef Somr, Vlastimil Brodsky; Oscar–winning Czech film about a lonely train guard's attempt to lose his virginity while his country copes with the German occupation. The…
Daisies (1966): Dir. Vera Chytilova
Feat. Julius Albert, Jitka Cerhova, Marie Ceskova; Much–loved cinematic firecracker from the halcyon days of 60s Czech radicalism, in which two girls (both called Marie) live out their anarchist…
Guerre Est Finie, La (1966): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Yves Montand, Ingrid Thulin, Genevieve Bujold…; (The War is Over). Deeply romantic film in which Spanish Civil War refugee Yves Montand tries in vain to keep alive the memory of his struggle.
Le Deuxieme Souffle (Second Breath) (1966): Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
Feat. Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Raymond Pellegrin; A gangster escapes from prison and returns to his criminal ways, but a determined inspector is on his tail. Has all the style and restraint we can…
Man and a Woman, A (1966): Dir. Claude Lelouch
Feat. Anouk Aimee, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Pierre Barouh; Classic love story is one of the most popular foreign films of all time. Intelligent, sensitive script is ignited with exotic locations and Francis…
Masculin Feminin (1966): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud, Chantal Goya, Brigitte Bardot; Godard steers toward the political with this bittersweet social comment about the Parisian youth culture of '65 through a series of oddly connected…
Patriotism (Yûkoku) (1966): Dir. Yukio Mishima
Feat. Yukio Mishima, Yoshiko Tsuruoka; Short film directed by Japanese writer and revolutionary Yukio Mishima, based on his short story of the same name published in 1961. Set in February…
Persona (1966): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson; Perhaps dir. Bergman's most renowned and haunting work, a study of the psychological processes between a mute patient and her repressed nurse. Liv…
Trace of Stones (Spur der Steine) (1966): Dir. Frank Beyer
Feat. Manfred Krug, Krystyna Stypulkowska, Eberhard Esche; An East German film which was censored by the ruling communist party for years before being finally released in 1989, depicting the working…
War and Peace (1966): Dir. Sergei Bondarchuk
Feat. Lyudmila Savelyeva, Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Irina Gubanova; The definitive version of Leo Tolstoy's gargantuan novel, set during the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in the early 19th century. Nothing else quite…
A Blonde in Love (1965): Dir. Milos Forman
Feat. Hana Brejchova, Vladimir Pucholt, Vladimir Mensik; This early film from the director of AMADEUS tells the simple story of a young girl's search for a pianist with whom she spent the night. Forman…
Alphaville (1965): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim Tamiroff…; A private eye is sent to a futuristic city run by a computer to rescue a trapped scientist. Amalgam of film noir and science fiction illustrates the…
Battle of Algiers, The (1965): Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo
Feat. Brahim Haggiag; Gripping account of the Muslim uprising which led to the withdrawal of France from Algeria was shot merely four years after the revolution, and as…
Fists in the Pocket (1965): Dir. Marco Bellochio
Feat. Lou Castel, Paola Pitagora, Marino Mase; A ferocious intensity pervades this bitter yet utterly startling tale of a family afflicted with epilepsy, blindness and frustration, unafforded the…
Juliet of the Spirits (1965): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Giulietta Masina; Perhaps the female flipside of Fellini's 8 1/2, he again infuses stylised flashbacks and fantasies into the real world of a gregarious housewife who…
Pierrot Le Fou (Crazy Pete) (1965): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina; A striking example of the French New Wave. It's kiss, kiss, bang, bang all the way with Jean Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina as maverick intellectual…
Shop on High Street, The (The Shop on Main Street) (1965): Dir. Jan Kadar; A key film of the Czech film renaissance of the 1960s, that explores 'everyday fascism' through the story of a Jewish shopkeeper who mistakes her…
Simon of the Desert (1965): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Silvia Pinal, Claudio Brook; A short surrealist fantasy concerning the life of Simon Stylites (Claudio Brook), an early Christian ascetic, who stood for years atop a column in…
Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1965): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Joseph Gehrard, Marina Vlady, Anny Duperey; The life of a Parisian prostitute, analysing the likes of women, language, western society as well as cinema itself. Godard's cinematic essay broke…
Bande a Part (Band of Outsiders) (1964): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Anna Karina, Claude Brasseur, Sami Frey; One of the dir.’s more accessible films follows the carefree criminal adventures of Anna Karina, Claude Brasseur and Sami Frey, while still…
Diary of a Chambermaid (1964): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Jeanne Moreau, Georges Geret, Michel Piccoli; Maid Jeanne Moreau manipulates two blue–blooded households to ascend her status in pre–war France. Another shrewd political jape from the…
Gertrud (1964): Dir. Carl Dreyer; Exploring similar territory to fellow Scandinavian Ingmar Bergman, Dreyer's final film is an intense psychological study about a middle–aged…
Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964): Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Feat. Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, Susanna Pasolini; Acted entirely by non–professionals, this is a startlingly visual rendering of the biblical text, blending breath–taking photography with…
Hamlet (1964): Dir. Grigori Kozintsev
Feat. Innokenti Smoktunovsky; The legendary Russian version of Shakespeare's play, which visually at least, stands as the greatest yet. Staged amidst the massive battlements of…
Kwaidan (1964): Dir. Masaki Kobayashi
Feat. Rentaro Mikuni, Michiyo Aratana, Misako Watanabe; A four part anthology of visually intoxicating Japanese period ghost stories. Each tale expanding domestic melodramas into the paranormal realm.…
Marriage Italian Style (Matrimonio All'italiana) (1964): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren; This hilarious marriage farce features Sophia Loren as a long–suffering unwedded woman: on her deathbed, she convinces the commitment–shy…
Onibaba (the Hole) (1964): Dir. Kaneto Shindo
Feat. Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura; An eerie, brazenly sensual medieval folk tale about a mother and daughter–in–law who kill just to survive and eventually turn on each…
Red Desert (il Deserto Rosso) (1964): Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni
Feat. Monica Vitti, Richard Harris; Housewife Monica Vitti embarks on a casual affair with Richard Harris following a nervous breakdown. Set amidst an oppressive industrial landscape,…
Soft Skin, The (La Peau Douce) (1964): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Francois Dorleac, Jean Desailly; Moving New Wave drama from Francois Truffaut tells the story of a scholar pursuing a torrid affair with a stewardess while attempting to juggle his…
Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The (1964): Dir. Jacques Demy
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo; Gorgeous French musical with Catherine Deneuve, in her acting debut, one of its many pleasures. A bittersweet romantic story is allied to a lush…
Woman of the Dunes (1964): Dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara
Feat. Eiji Okada, Kyoko Kishida; From a simple premise – a man becomes trapped in a valley of sand in which a solitary woman lives – the director is able to draw out…
An Actor's Revenge (1963): Dir. Kon Ichikawa
Feat. Kazuo Hasegawa, Fujiko Yamamoto; Unusual storyline concerns a Kabuki female impersonator, who seduces and arranges the destruction of three nobles responsible for his parents'…
Doulos, Le (The Finger Man) (1963): Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
Feat. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani; Eschewing the French New Wave movement in favour of homage to the then ‘passe’ genre of film noir, dir. Jean–Pierre Melville adds shades of…
Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni; Fellini's most revered film is a self–analytical exercise casting Marcello Mastroianni as a troubled director trapped by his own visions and…
Hands Over the City (Le mani sulla città) (1963): Dir. Francesco Rosi
Feat. Rod Steiger, Salvo Randone, Guido Alberti; An astute and ever–pertinent story of political corruption in post–World War II Italy starring Rod Steiger as a ruthless developer and…
High and Low (1963): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune; Adapted from a crime–novel by Ed McBain, this kidnapping–thriller is a central work in dir. Kurosawa’s series of film noirs, combining…
Le Feu Follet (The Fire Within) (1963): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Maurice Ronet, Jeanne Moreau, Alexandra Stewart; Brilliantly measured account of an alcoholic (Maurice Ronet) who makes a final social round to find reason why he should not take his own life. Rich…
Le Mepris (Contempt) (1963): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, Fritz Lang; An insecure screen–writer struggles with vulgar producers as well as his movie–star wife on the set of Homer's Odyssey. Brigitte Bardot,…
Leopard, The (Il Gattopardo) (1963): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale…; An Italian classic, concerning the decline of the 19th century Sicilian aristocracy – represented by Burt Lancaster– that fulfils its…
Organizer, The (I Compagni) (1963): Dir. Mario Monicelli
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni, Renato Salvatori, Annie Girardot…; Engrossing, beautifully filmed Italian drama about working class solidarity, set amidst the rapid expansion of industrial society in 19th Century…
Silence, The (1963): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Ingrid Thulin, Gunnel Lindblom; Final part of Bergman's Faith Trilogy (begun with THROUGH THE GLASS DARKLY and WINTER LIGHT) is set in an anonymous war–torn country where…
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni; A compendium of three stories starring Sophia Loren in her luscious prime in three very different roles. Together with Marcello Mastroianni, it…
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962): Dir. Agnes Varda
Feat. Corrine Marchand; One of the treasures of the French New Wave, dir. Varda’s debut is, Pauline Kael contends “one of the few films directed by a woman where the…
Exterminating Angel, The (1962): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Silvia Pinal; A psychic 'disaster movie', in which guests become trapped at a dinner party by a mysterious forcefield. As the days go by, dinner–table…
Grim Reaper, The (La Commare Secca) (1962): Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
Feat. Carlotta Barilli, Lorenza Benedetti, Clorinda Celani; Dir. Bertolucci's first film – with trademark technical virtuosity already in evidence – is a whodunnit about a prostitute murdered in a…
Harakiri (Seppuku) (1962): Dir. Masaki Kobayashi
Feat. Tatsuya Nakadai, Shima Iwashita, Akira Ishihama…; Japanese jidaigeki (period drama) set at the beginning of the Edo period, following a masterless samurai (ronin) who wishes to commit suicide…
Ivan's Childhood (1962): Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
Feat. Nikolai Burlyayev, Valentin Zubkov, Yevgeni Zharikov; A teenage spy works behind enemy lines in WW2 Germany. The Russian master's first feature is his least self–conscious and most efficient…
Knife in the Water (1962): Dir. Roman Polanski
Feat. Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka, Zygmunt Malanowicz; The old adage 'three is a crowd' is chillingly played out in Polanski's directing debut about a couple's troubled yachting weekend with a…
La Jetee (1962): Dir. Chris Marker; Classic science–fiction short told almost entirely in stills takes a man from the future on a terrifying journey back to his childhood. The…
Madame (1962): Dir. Christian-Jaque
Feat. Sophia Loren, Robert Hossein; Rags–to–riches tale set in Napoleonic France mirrors the real life of its Italian bomb–shell star, Sophia Loren.
Planeta Bur: The Planet of Storms (1962): Dir. Pavel Klushantsev
Feat. Vladimir Yemelyanov, Georgi Zhzhyonov, Yuri Sarantsev; Cult science–fiction with Russian cosmonauts landing on a Venus teeming with flesh–eating plants, lizard men and dinosaurs! Ingeniously…
Salvatore Giuliano (1962): Dir. Francesco Rosi
Feat. Salvo Randone, Frank Wolff, Frederico Zardi; An epic Italian political drama, charting in a non–linear fashion the true story of Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano, a criminal and…
Sanjuro (1962): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai; The sequel to YOJIMBO unravels the story of nine would–be Samurai unveiling a government corruption ring. Kurosawa adopts a satirical…
Tale of Zatoichi, The (1962): Dir. Kenji Misumi
Feat. Shintaro Katsu; The inaugural movie in the iconic 'Zatoichi' series – which followed the intriguing adventures in mythical Japan of a blind masseur, who has…
Winter Light (1962): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Gunnel Lindblom…; The second in Bergman's faith trilogy, in which a village priest finds himself drawn towards atheism after the death of his wife. Crisp, reflective…
End of Summer, The (Kohayagawa-ke no aki) (1961): Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Feat. Ganjiro Nakamura, Setsuko Hara; Another intimate portrayal of Japanese family life from the dir. of TOKYO STORY that explores the breakdown of traditional family values in the face…
Femme Est Une Femme, Une (A Woman is a Woman) (1961): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Anna Karina, Jean-Claude Brialy, Jean-Paul Belmondo…; Godard flirts with the Hollywood musical, and any other idea that takes his fancy to tell his buoyant tale of a free–spirited stripper who…
Jules and Jim (Jules et Jim) (1961): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre…; Jeanne Moreau stars in this famous New Wave melodrama caught up in the spirit of its swinging times. A twenty–year love triangle, lightening…
Last Year at Marienbad (L'Annee Dernier a Marienbad) (1961): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi; All the rules of film–making are broken in this notorious question mark of a film in which a past event plagues the occupants of a grand…
Notte, La (The Night) (1961): Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau, Monica Vitti; A compelling bout of urban alienation, with Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau as a despairing married couple coming slowly apart at the seams.…
Through a Glass Darkly (1961): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Max von Sydow; Husband, father and brother must cope with the disintegrating mental health of a young woman on an island. The focus is on religion, madness and the…
Two Women (1961): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Sophia Loren; Sophia Loren won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as a WW2 widow who endures turmoil with her 13–year–old daughter before they are…
Viridiana (1961): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Silvia Pinal, Francisco Rabal, Fernando Rey; Bunuel purges his spiritual demons in this potent psychological study of a novice nun who loses her innocence when she visits her…
Yojimbo (1961): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa; Mercenary Sanjuro walks into town and sells his services to both factions of rival gangs – to stand back and watch them destroy each other.…
Bad Sleep Well, The (1960): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune; A contemporary gangster saga that uses a Hamlet–esque narrative to indict corporate and political corruption. Government officials were not…
Classe Tous Risques (Consider All Risks) (1960): Dir. Claude Sautet
Feat. Lino Ventura, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Sandra Milo; French–Italian gangster film following the exploits of a French mobster (Lino Ventura, based on a real life henchman for the French Gestapo)…
Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse (The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse) (1960): Dir. Fritz Lang
Feat. Dawn Addams, Peter Van Eyck, Gert Frobe; The final film in Fritz Lang's DR. MABUSE series, which includes DR. MABUSE, THE GAMBLER and THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE, is also the director's…
L'Avventura (1960): Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni
Feat. Monica Vitti; The quintessential Euro–arthouse film of the 60s – a rambling yet elegant voyage through the sterile lives of the bourgeiousie, following…
La Dolce Vita (1960): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni; An episodic film following the very cool Marcello Mastroianni, a disillusioned journalist trapped in shallow, so called 'decadent' society. A…
Lola (1960): Dir. Jacques Demy
Feat. Anouk Aimee, Marc Michel; Irresistible 'New Wave' confection breezily spins its romantic tale around the alluring presence of Anouk Aimee, here a cheery cabaret–dancer…
Naked Island (Hadaka no shima) (1960): Dir. Kaneto Shindo
Feat. Nobuko Otowa, Taiji Tonoyama; An exquisitely simple and moving Japanese drama, notable for having almost no spoken dialogue in depicting a year of struggle for a small farming…
Rocco and His Brothers (1960): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Alain Delon, Renato Salvatori, Annie Girardot…; An uncompromising, richly detailed portrait of an impoverished family who travel to Milan where they are beset by violent misfortune.
Shoot the Pianist (Shoot the Piano Player) (1960): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Charles Aznavour, Marie Dubois, Nicole Berger…; Part homage to Hollywood film noir, part love story and part and parcel of the new wave, a down–on–his–luck pianist is drawn into…
Testament of Orpheus (Testament D'orphee) (1960): Dir. Jean Cocteau
Feat. Jean Cocteau, Yul Brynner, Jean-Pierre Leaud…; Cocteau's swansong is an intensely personal odyssey, with the director himself immersed in a world of his cumulative creation. Like a moving…
Virgin Spring, The (1960): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Max von Sydow; Bergman won his first Oscar for this brooding yet gripping medieval tale about a peasant couple who avenge the savage murderers of their daughter.
Zazie Dans Le Metro (Zazie in the Underground) (1960): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Catherine Demongeot, Philippe Noiret; Anarchistic comedy drops the impudent 11yr old Zazie into the care of Uncle Phillipe Noiret and the whirlygig chaos of modern Paris. Adapted from…
400 Blows, The (1959): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Remy…; Truffaut's first film rocketed him to fame as some kind of New Wave radical, but at a second glance this story of a teenage delinquent thrown in and…
A Bout de Souffle (Breathless) (1959): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger…; Godard's landmark first film pulls out all the stops in the style department – with Jean–Paul Belmondo as the romantic fugitive,…
Amants, Les (Lovers, The) (1959): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Jeanne Moreau, Alain Cuny; This helped push the envelope of frank sexuality in cinema and made a star of Jeanne Moreau, as the rich, bored housewife whose extra–marital…
Black Orpheus (1959): Dir. Marcel Camus
Feat. Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn, Lourdes De Oliveira; Get caught up in the rhythms and colour of Rio De Janiero at Carnival time for an exotic, utterly unique spin on the Greek legend of doomed lovers…
Floating Weeds (Ukigusa) (1959): Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Feat. Ganjiro Nakamura; An aging actor who returns with his troupe to his provincial town, and becomes caught between his long–lost family and his jealous…
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada; Romance between a French actress and a Japanese architect rekindles their traumatic wartime experiences. The twin threads of despair and sensual love…
Human Condition, The (No Greater Love, Road to Eternity, A Soldier's Prayer) (1959-1961): Dir. Masaki Kobayashi
Feat. Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratana; An epic Japanese film trilogy following the life of a well–intentioned yet naïve pacifist and socialist as he tries to survive in the…
Les Cousins (1959): Dir. Claude Chabrol
Feat. Jean-Claude Brialy, Gerard Blain; Claude Chabrol continues his city / country theme from LE BEAU SERGE with this estranging drama following a country boy who ends up in a despicable…
Umberto D. (1959): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Carlo Battisti, Maria-Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari; A pensioner struggles to make ends meet in post–war Italy. Gloomy neo–realist piece wrenches the heart through a compassionate lead…
World of Apu, The (1959): Dir. Satyajit Ray
Feat. Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Alok Chakravarty; Final installment of the 'Apu trilogy' sees the complexities of adulthood painfully and euphorically realised for Apu through ambition, marriage and…
Ballad of Narayama, The (Narayama bushiko) (1958): Dir. Keisuke Kinoshita
Feat. Kinuyo Tanaka; Sombre but stylised retelling of a Japanese legend, about a poverty–stricken village and its eldest resident who, in accordance with tradition,…
Elevator to the Gallows (Lift to the Scaffold, aka. Ascenseur Pour L'echafaud) (1958): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly…; A young Jeanne Moreau stars in this elegant thriller about a crime of passion that backfires when the murderer gets trapped in a lift. Ambience par…
Hidden Fortress (1958): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune; Toshiro Mifune displays astounding skill with horse and sword as the ultimate warrior in this innovative amalgam of fairy–tale and Samurai…
Le Beau Serge (1958): Dir. Claude Chabrol
Feat. Jean-Claude Brialy, Gerard Blain; Accepted as the first film of the French New Wave, this Claude Chabrol drama tells the story of a man returning to his hometown only to discover his…
Magician, The (The Face) (1958): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Max von Sydow; Bergman's allegorical self–portrait of a controversial travelling magician who exacts revenge on a cynical doctor, but becomes trapped in his…
Mon Oncle (1958): Dir. Jacques Tati
Feat. Jacques Tati; Monsieur Hulot returns in another gag–laden adventure. His whimsical ways endear him to his nephew, but leave the boy's trendy parents cold.…
Cranes are Flying, The (Letyat Zhuravli) (1957): Dir. Mikhail Kalatozov
Feat. Tatyana Samojlova, Aleksei Batalov, Vasili Merkuryev; A Russian classic which conveys homefront anxieties during WW2 for a young bride whose original fiance has gone to the front. Pursued by his…
Il Grido (The Outcry) (1957): Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni
Feat. Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, Betsy Blair; This lesser–known work from Antonioni provides a missing link between Italian neorealism and the director's later works like L'AVVENTURA,…
Mother India (1957): Dir. Mehboob Khan
Feat. Nargis , Sunil Dutt, Raaj Kumar; A quintessential Indian classic, depicting the struggle of a woman through her adult life to reconcile traditional values and village life with a…
Mysterians, The (1957): Dir. Inoshiro Honda
Feat. Takashi Shimura, Kenji Sahara, Susumu Fujita; Pastel coloured invader movie from the creative team behind GODZILLA. Aliens refugees from a planet destroyed by atomic bombs flee to Earth in the…
Nights of Cabiria (1957): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Giulietta Masina; Giulietta Masina is marvelous as a waifish prostitute dreaming of a rich, wonderful life but always finding sorrow. Tragicomic masterpiece won an…
Seventh Seal, The (1957): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Max von Sydow; The solemn Swede garnered world prominence with this stunning, poetic allegory set in the plague–ridden 16th Century, where a disillusioned…
Throne of Blood (1957): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura; Kurosawa transposes MacBeth into a Samurai setting and the result justifies his reputation. Nothing short of an awesome spectacle Shakespeare himself…
Wild Strawberries (1957): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Victor Sjostrom, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin; A classic film of one man's reminiscences and his dramatic search for the meaning of human existence. The bleakness is imbued with a quiet optimism.
And God Created Woman (1956): Dir. Roger Vadim
Feat. Brigitte Bardot, Curt Jurgens, Jean-Louis Trintignant; The Bardot movie, set in sleepy St. Tropez where Bridget is the misunderstood town hussy who impulsively marries the brother of a boyfriend. Works…
Aparajito (1956): Dir. Satyajit Ray
Feat. Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Pinaki Sengupta…; Sequel to PATHER PANCHALI sees Apu now as an adolescent who abandons his village and travels to Calcutta, where he is inevitably confused with his…
Burmese Harp, The (Biruma no tategoto) (1956): Dir. Kon Ichikawa
Feat. Rentaro Mikuni; Another muted anti–war elegy conceived during Japan’s post–WWII recovery, this tells the journey of a Japanese private, who upon…
Flowing (Nagareru ) (1956): Dir. Mikio Naruse
Feat. Kinuyo Tanaka, Hideko Takamine, Isuzu Yamada; Dir. Naruse’s compassionate portrait of the fading post–war geisha trade. Considered one of the director's best among his many films to…
Kanal (1956): Dir. Andrzej Wajda
Feat. Teresa Izewska, Tadeusz Janczar; The darkest chapter of dir. Wadja's WWII 'Trilogy', is an unremitting portrayal of the last gasps of the 1944 Warsaw uprising. With desperate…
Man Escaped, A (1956): Dir. Robert Bresson
Feat. Francois Leterrier; Bresson's films are all extremely controlled in style: no suspense, no histrionics, flat acting, spare and simple camerawork, yet this is an…
Naughty Girl (Cette Sacree Gamine) (1956): Dir. Michel Boisrond
Feat. Brigitte Bardot, Francoise Fabian; A con–artist father leaves his devious minx of a daughter in the hands of a performer who discovers the girl is bent on disrupting his life the…
Plucking the Daisy (Mademoiselle Striptease) (1956): Dir. Roger Vadim
Feat. Brigitte Bardot, Roger Vadim; One of the Brigitte Bardot/Roger Vadim light comedies that relies on Bardot's charms rather more than the simple story of a smalltown woman who is…
Bob Le Flambeur (Bob the Gambler) (1955): Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
Feat. Roger Duchesne, Isabelle Corney; Superb French noir from the dir. of LE SAMOURAI, here debuting with a taut plan to rob the Deauville casino, that grows ever more perilous for…
La Strada (The Road) (1955): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Anthony Quinn; Fellini hit his stride and won a Foreign Film Oscar with this gentle road odyssey about a simple–minded clown whose loyalty to her boorish…
Lola Montes (1955): Dir. Max Ophuls
Feat. Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov, Anton Walbrook; The life of the famous 19th century courtesan provides the basis for this sophisticated portrayal of the capriciousness of fate, which leads to the…
Napoleon (1955): Dir. Sacha Guitry
Feat. Daniel Gelin, Raymond Pellegrin, Yves Montand…; A somewhat farcical film that suffers from being dubbed into English, over–narration, and the attempt to give a complete account of Napoleon's…
Ordet (1955): Dir. Carl Dreyer; Hailed by many critics as dir. Dreyer's masterpiece, this deep exploration of the true meaning of Christianity, set in rural Denmark, will repay the…
Pather Panchali (1955): Dir. Satyajit Ray
Feat. Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Subir Bannerjee; The first film from Asia's most respected film–maker also initiates his 'Apu trilogy', three of most admired films in history. A lyrical…
Rififi (1955): Dir. Jules Dassin
Feat. Jean Servais, Jules Dassin, Magali Noel…; The French reclaim film noir with this methodical and stylish heist movie, famous for its 35 minute real–time bank robbery, executed in virtual…
Generation, A (Pokolenie) (1954): Dir. Andrzej Wajda
Feat. Roman Polanski; Fast–moving account of the Polish Resistance during WWII, as a scrappy young recruit falls in love with his unit leader. Depicts the spirited,…
Godzilla (Gojira) (1954): Dir. Inoshiro Honda
Feat. Akira Takarada, Akihiko Hirata, Takashi Shimura; The original Japanese version of GODZILLA, complete with the anti–nuclear subplot which was cut from the 1956 US version. Concerns a…
Les Diaboliques (1954): Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot
Feat. Simone Signoret, Vera Clouzot, Paul Meurisse…; Simone Signoret stars as one of two women who conspire to murder the man they share – a sadistic schoolmaster. Iconic French thriller with a…
Samurai Trilogy, The (Musashi Miyamoto, Duel at Ichijoji Temple, Duel at Ganryu Island) (1954-1956): Dir. Hiroshi Inagaki
Feat. Toshiro Mifune; Sweeping saga of a legendary 17th century samurai Musashi Miyamoto, that made an icon of actor Toshiro Mifune. Played out against the turmoil of a…
Sansho Dayu (Sansho the Bailiff) (1954): Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyoko Kagawa…; One of Mizoguchi's great classics, based on an 11th century Japanese folktale elaborated into a sprawling vision of a cruel, mysterious cosmos, where…
Seven Samurai, The (1954): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune; Kurosawa's classic 'Eastern Western' about a village who hire an elite band of warriors to fend off marauders. Compassionate storytelling with combat…
Sound of the Mountain (Yama No Oto) (1954): Dir. Mikio Naruse
Feat. Setsuko Hara, Ken Uehara, Soh Yamamura; Dir. Naruse reprises the disintegrating marriage (and cast) of his earlier film, REPAST, in this profoundly affecting tale of a young woman (Hara)…
Touchez Pas au Grisbi (Hands Off the Loot) (1954): Dir. Jacques Becker
Feat. Jean Gabin, René Dary, Jeanne Moreau; Laid–back though influential French noir chronicling a wealthy, retired racketeer (Gabin) who is pulled back into the life of crime when his…
Twenty-Four Eyes (24 Eyes/Nijushi no hitomi) (1954): Dir. Keisuke Kinoshita
Feat. Hideko Takamine, Chishu Ryu; An elegiac triumph of nostalgia for youth and wartime humanism, this cherished landmark of Japanese cinema gracefully chronicles the 20–years…
Albert Lamorisse's Classic Shorts (White Mane, The Red Balloon) (1953-1956): Dir. Albert Lamorisse
Feat. Alain Emery; French director Albert Lamorisse's two landmark films WHITE MANE and THE RED BALLOON presented together on a single DVD is a must–have…
Gate of Hell (Jigokumon) (1953): Dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa
Feat. Machiko Kyo, Kazuo Hasegawa, Isao Yamagata; Tragic story of unrequited love set during the Heiji Rebellion in 1159, where a samurai warrior falls in love with a married…
I Vitelloni (1953): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Franco Interlenghi, Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi; This neo–realist Fellini combines humour and pathos for a truthful study of aimless youths either ill–equipped or unwilling to embrace…
Life of Oharu (1953): Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Kinuyo Tanaka, Toshiro Mifune; The prolific, though rarely seen dir. Mizoguchi came to attention with this chronicled downfall of a court–concubine in 17th century Japan,…
Madame De... (Earrings Of Madame De..., The) (1953): Dir. Max Ophuls
Feat. Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio De Sica, Charles Boyer; Widely considered one of the dir.'s peak achievements, this gracefully and ironically traces a doomed menage–a–trois in 18th century…
Mr. Hulot's Holiday (Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot) (1953): Dir. Jacques Tati
Feat. Jacques Tati, Nathalie Pascaud; Jacques Tati fine–tunes the virtues of JOUR DE FETE to create his most eponymous character. The first of four Hulot features follows the…
Tokyo Story (1953): Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Feat. Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara; The master of Japanese cinema, this is Ozu's masterpiece. An emotional tour–de–force is drawn from an elderly couple's ill–fated…
Ugetsu Monogatari (1953): Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyo, Kinuyo Tanaka; Stories by the 18th century writer Akinari Ueda are woven into an odyssey of civil–war misfortune, in which two peasant–potters and their…
Voyage to Italy (Journey to Italy/ Journey in Italy) (1953): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders; A meditative journey through the landscapes of Italy, accompanying Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders in the midst of a breakup. The ongoing drama of…
Wages of Fear (Salaire de la Peur, Le) (1953): Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot
Feat. Yves Montand, Charles Vanel; A young Yves Montand leads a group of impoverished men over rocky Latin American terrain with a dangerous load of nitro–glycerine. Considered…
Fanfan la Tulipe (1952): Dir. Christian-Jaque
Feat. Gerard Philipe, Gina Lollobrigida, Genevieve Page; Irresistible swashbuckling fluff, with Gerard Philipe imperious on the battlefield and in the bedroom. A daredevil pace matched with lusty female…
Ikiru (1952): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Takashi Shimura, Shinichi Himori, Haruo Tanaka; A patient meditation on life and death about a sullen yet dutiful office clerk of 30 years whose terminal illness compels him to rediscover his…
Le Plaisir (House Of Pleasure) (1952): Dir. Max Ophuls
Feat. Jean Gabin, Danielle Darrieux, Simone Simon…; Three tales by Guy de Maupassant go into this visually elegant treatise on the changing moods of love, youth and memory. The most successful…
Summer with Monika (1952): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Harriet Andersson; Early Bergman turns his lens on a pair of working class, teenage lovers. At first this rebellious holiday boat ride comes across as dreamy escapism…
Rashomon (1951): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori…; The film that brought Kurosawa to the attention of the world, and an Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film. Four wildly varying perspectives on a…
Repast (Meshi) (1951): Dir. Mikio Naruse
Feat. Setsuko Hara, Ken Uehara; A perceptive study of a fading marriage, in which a housewife (Hara) confronts the tedium and unhappiness of her domestic life, brought into sharp…
River, The (1951): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Nora Swinburne, Arthur Shields; A sublime and serene drama set on the banks of India's holy Bengal River in the 1920s, where a trio of young English girls come under the spell of a…
Susana (The Devil and the Flesh) (1951): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Rosita Quintana; A sexually devious reform girl seeks refuge in a decent working class family, only to cause upheaval with her devilish ways. Early Bunuel…
Diary of a Country Priest (Journal D'Un Cure De Campagne) (1950): Dir. Robert Bresson
Feat. Claude Laydu; Compelling and uncompromising – this adaptation of Georges Bernanos' classic French novel is one of dir. Bresson's best examinations of the…
Francesco giullare di Dio (Francis, God's Jester; The Flowers of St Francis) (1950): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Aldo Fabrizi; Following after dir. Rossellini's more obviously left–wing films (ROME OPEN CITY, PAISA), this unusual biopic would prove a transition work to…
La Ronde (1950): Dir. Max Ophuls
Feat. Anton Walbrook, Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani…; A witty chronicle of circular love–affairs and seductions in 19th century Vienna. Lavish sets and extravagent spiralling camerawork complement…
Miracle in Milan (1950): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Paolo Stoppa; Memorable foray into satirical fantasy for dir. de Sica, in which a hobo philanthropist is given the power to work miracles in the…
Scandal (Shubun) (1950): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Shirley Yamaguchi, Takashi Shimura…; This excellent early Kurosawa, has Mifune playing a painter who becomes acquainted with a pop–singer, and thus the target of a tabloid…
Stromboli (1950): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Ingrid Bergman; After his neo–realist masterpieces, this is one of the dir.'s best films, concerning a WW2 refugee who hastily marries an Italian fisherman and…
Summer Interlude (1950): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Maj-Britt Nilsson, Birger Malmsten, Alf Kjellin; Perhaps Bergman's first significant work, about an aging ballerina who reflects on a youthful romance with her now–deceased lover in moody…
Un Chant D'amour (A Song of Love) (1950): Dir. Jean Genet; Sole foray into cinema for French convict–turned–playwright Jean Genet is a brief and intense visual poem about the fantasies of…
Orpheus (Orphee) (1949): Dir. Jean Cocteau
Feat. Jean Marais, Maria Casares, Marie Dea…; Cocteau's surrealist retelling of the classical tragedy stars Jean Marais as Orphee, the writer who retrieves his wife Eurydice from the dead. A…
Stray Dog (Nora Inu) (1949): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune; An early film noir from Japan’s best–known director tracks police detective Toshiro Mifune into the underbelly of Tokyo in search of a pistol…
Bicycle Thieves (The Bicycle Thief, Ladri di biciclette) (1948): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell; A huge sentimental favourite about a man whose chance at meaningful labour is taken from him when his precious bicycle is stolen from him. Though not…
Drunken Angel (Yoidore tenshi) (1948): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura; The film that made Toshiro Mifune a star – playing a petty gangster with TB, who turns to an alcoholic doctor for help after a shoot–out.…
Les Enfants Terribles (The Strange Ones) (1948): Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
Feat. Edouard Dermithe, Nicole Stephane; A poetic drama–fantasy from the pen of Jean Cocteau (who also directed several scenes), that centres round the narcissistic,…
Germany Year Zero (1947): Dir. Roberto Rossellini; A heart–breaking depiction of life in the post–WW2 ruins of Berlin, in which a boy struggles to help his family who are forced to live in…
Jour De Fete (1947): Dir. Jacques Tati
Feat. Jacques Tati; Jacques Tati established himself as a major new comic as a postman who attempts to modernise his mail service. Such precise visual humour had not…
La Terra Trema (1947): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Luchino Visconti, Antonio Pietrangeli; Life–study of a poor Sicilian fishing village that is reverently neo–realist in its approach. Lovely B&W photography never distracts from…
Quai Des Orfevres (1947): Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot
Feat. Louis Jouvet, Bernard Blier, Suzy Delair…; Romantically bleak French noir about an ambitious starlet and her protective husband who find themselves implicated in the murder of a lecherous…
Belle Et La Bete, La (Beauty and the Beast) (1946): Dir. Jean Cocteau
Feat. Jean Marais, Josette Day; Cocteau brings a fine sense of fantasy to the old fable, creating a luxuriant atmosphere unique to his film–making. A true classic.
Paisa (1946): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Carmela Sazio, Robert Van Loon, Benjamin Emmanuel; Six short films focusing on the minor victories and losses of ordinary folk during WW2. Pioneering the now–familiar use of documentary footage,…
Panique (1946): Dir. Julien Duvivier
Feat. Michel Simon, Viviane Romance; Exemplary French noir based on the novel Les Fiançailles de M. Hire by Georges Simenon, the source of the Patrice Leconte film, MONSIEUR HIRE…
Shoeshine (Sciuscia) (1946): Dir. Vittorio De Sica; Perhaps Vittorio De Sica's first acknowledged masterpiece, concerns two young boys struggling to survive on the streets of post–WWII Rome by…
Les Dames Du Bois De Boulogne (1945): Dir. Robert Bresson
Feat. Maria Casares; Dir. Bresson and writer Jean Cocteau are strange bedfellows in this lush, stylish drama, well–removed from the director’s austere later…
Les Enfants Du Paradis (Children of Paradise) (1945): Dir. Marcel Carne
Feat. Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur…; This resplendent evocation of nineteeth century Paris street theatre follows the love of mime Jean–Louis Barrault for the highly–strung…
Rome: Open City (1945): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Anna Magnani, Aldo Fabrizi; Neo–realist war drama about resistance fighters in fascist Italy places the action right inside the everyday and humanises the heroic.…
Torment (Hets) (1944): Dir. Alf Sjoberg
Feat. Stig Jarrel, Alf Kjellin, Mai Zetterling…; Impressionistic study of authoritarian education and adolescent love was scripted by a young Ingmar Bergman, and its universe of cruel twists and…
Day of Wrath (1943): Dir. Carl Dreyer
Feat. Thorkild Roose, Lisbeth Movin, Sigrid Neiiendam; Witchcraft drama set in 17th century rural Denmark, where an innocent young woman is denounced following the death of her much older, harshly…
Ivan the Terrible Pts. 1 & 2 (1943): Dir. Sergei Eisenstein
Feat. Nikolai Cherkassov, Serafima Birman, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya; Spectacularly staged chronicle of the life of Czar Ivan IV, and his struggle to consolidate the Russian empire in the 16th Century. One of the…
Le Corbeau (1943): Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot
Feat. Pierre Fresnay; Fascinating as a wartime allegory made under the German Occupation of France, a small town becomes a hot–bed of paranoia following a rash of…
Eternel Retour, L' (1942): Dir. Jean Delannoy
Feat. Jean Marais, Madeleine Sologney, Yvonne de Bray…; (Love Eternal) A contemporary take on the legend of Tristan and Isolde, lovers united after death. Jean Cocteau's script is realised with the…
Les Visiteurs Du Soir (1942): Dir. Marcel Carne
Feat. Arletty, Marie Dea, Fernand Ledoux…; Two of the Devil's henchmen are dispatched to a fairytale–like 15th century castle with an eye to corrupting its inhabitants, especially a pair…
Ossessione (1942): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Clara Calamai, Massimo Girotti, Dhia Cristiani; Visconti's awesome debut interprets James Cain's novel of lust, greed, murder and recrimination, The Postman Always Rings Twice. Its stark rendering…
Jean Grémillon: During the Occupation (Remorques, Lumière d'été, Le Ciel Est à Vous) (1941-1944): Dir. Jean Gremillon
Feat. Jean Gabin, Madeleine Renaud; Three character–driven dramas from the heralded French film director who has been little represented outside of his home country: Remorques…
Loyal 47 Ronin, The (47 Ronin) (1941): Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Yoshizaburo Arashi; Sombre rendition of a famous Japanese legend that's both quietly dignified and overtly nationalistic, tooled as propaganda during the height of…
Jour Se Leve, Le (Daybreak) (1939): Dir. Marcel Carne
Feat. Jean Gabin, Arletty; A renowned example of 'poetic realism', Jean Gabin gives another consummate performance as a doomed anti–hero. His tragic story is told in…
La Regle Du Jeu (Rules of the Game) (1939): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Roland Toutain…; Considered one the greatest films in history, this downbeat yet incisive satire centres around weekend shooting party that results in a myriad of…
Alexander Nevsky (1938): Dir. Sergei Eisenstein
Feat. Nikolai Cherkassov, Nikolai Okhlopkov; Eisenstein's first sound film is a patriotic epic about the 13th century hero who led his people against the Teutonic Knights. Monumental battle…
Bete Humaine, La (1938): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Jean Gabin, Simone Simon, Fernand Ledoux…; Adaptation of Zola's romantic tragedy brims with tension and exults the presense of French icon Jean Gabin as a hot–headed train driver coaxed…
I Accuse (J'Accuse) (1938): Dir. Abel Gance
Feat. Victor Francen, Line Noro, Marie Lou; Dir. Gance’s own remake of his 1919 silent classic, in which a soldier traumatised by the slaughter of WWI attempts to prevent future…
Marseillaise, La (1938): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Pierre Renoir, Lisa Delamare, Leon Larive…; Renoir's classic depicts events leading up to the French revolution in the 18th Century, electing to extract history from the heart of the common…
Grand Illusion (La Grande Illusion) (1937): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim…; The heroics and hypocrasies of war are illustrated through an imprisoned French squadron in WW1 and their cultured German commandant. A hailed…
Pepe Le Moko (1937): Dir. Julien Duvivier
Feat. Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin; Jean Gabin plays a super–cool gangster who finds immunity in the Algierian Casbah. Marvellously romantic, this classic of the French golden age…
César (1936): Dir. Marcel Pagnol
Feat. Raimu, Orane Demazis, Pierre Fresnay…; Playwright Marcel Parcol takes over the director's reins himself for this concluding part of his Marseille trilogy, following 'Marius' and 'Fanny'.…
Jacques Tati Shorts (1936): Dir. Jacques Tati; Three rare short comedies for those that can't get enough of the French funnyman. Watch your Left! (1936), School for Postmen (1947), and Evening…
Le Crime De Monsieur Lange (1935): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Rene Lefevre, Florelle , Jules Berry; One of the dir.’s early classics. Rene Leferve rises to newsprint fame as the author of the serial “Arizona Jim” after his boss, a…
L'Atalante (1934): Dir. Jean Vigo
Feat. Michel Simon, Jean Daste; A recently restored master work from the French film archive combines lyrical romance with inspired touches of fantasy.
Ecstasy (1933): Dir. Gustav Machety
Feat. Hedy Lamarr; Hedy Lamarr came to world attention in this 1932 film, playing a sexually–frustrated bride who goes on a fifteen minute nude romp in an alpine…
Liebelei (1933): Dir. Max Ophuls
Feat. Arthur Schnitzler; An early work from the German maestro of the tracking shot, whose tale of doomed romance between a young soldier and fraulein (taken from a play by…
Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Michel Simon, Charles Granval, Marcelle Hania; Renoir's joyfully anarchic attack on the bourgeoisie in which vagrant Michel Simon wreaks emotional havoc in the orderly household that have offered…
Fanny (1932): Dir. Marc Allegret
Feat. Raimu, Orane Demazis, Pierre Fresnay…; Leisurely French romantic drama based on the play by Marcel Pagnol that marks the second part in the Marseille film trilogy that started with Marius…
M... Worst Crime of All (1931): Dir. Fritz Lang
Feat. Peter Lorre; A chilling expressionist classic starring Peter Lorre as psychotic child molester. Dir. Lang masterfully fills the screen with understated but…
Marius (1931): Dir. Alexander Korda
Feat. Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis…; Based on the play by revered French writer Marcel Pagnol, this is the first film in the Marseille Trilogy featuring the characters of Marius (Pierre…
Silent Naruse (Flunky, Work Hard; No Blood Relation; Apart From You; Every-Night Dreams; Street Without End) (1931-1934): Dir. Mikio Naruse; A collection of silent era films from renowned Japanese director Mikio Naruse, the only five from the 1930's that still exist today, featuring new…
Blood of a Poet (1930): Dir. Jean Cocteau
Feat. Lee Miller, Pauline Carton; Cocteau's first film is a surrealist gem that sewed the seeds of his style. The Dali/Bunuel influence is clear, but this goes one step further with…
Blue Angel, The (1930): Dir. Josef von Sternberg
Feat. Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings; A masterwork of the twenties German grotesquerie, this enjoyed great success and gave an early career boost to Marlene Dietrich.
Earth (Zemlya) (1930): Dir. Alexander Dovzhenko; One of the poetic highpoints of Soviet cinema, this sets its simple tale amid the life of a Ukrainian peasant village undergoing modernization after…
Films of Jean Vigo, The (À propos de Nice; Taris, roi de l'eau; Zero De Conduite, L' Atlante) (1930-1933): Dir. Jean Vigo
Feat. Jean Daste; Three early, formative short works from seminal French filmmaker Jean Vigo. A PROPOS DE NICE (1930, 21 min): Vigo juxtaposes the affluence and…
Prix de Beaute (1930): Dir. Augusto Genina
Feat. Louise Brooks, Georges Charlia, Augusto Bandini; Louise Brooks is vivacious beyond compare in her first sound film, a jazz–age classic about a young office worker who enters a beauty…
Diary of a Lost Girl (1929): Dir. G.W. Pabst
Feat. Louise Brooks; Exceptional follow–up to the eye–opening PANDORA’S BOX, with Louise Brooks again provoking disorder with her unrestrained vitality and…
People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag) (1929): Dir. Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer; Scripted by a young Billy Wilder, this pivotal silent film harnessed the nascent talents of many other German film–makers that would come to…
Woman in the Moon (Frau im Mond) (1929): Dir. Fritz Lang
Feat. Willy Fritsch, Fritz Rasp, Gerda Maurus…; Silent–era sci–fi from director Fritz Lang. Based on the 1928 novel "The Rocket to the Moon" by his collaborator (and wife at the time)…
L'Argent (Money) (1928): Dir. Marcel L'Herbier
Feat. Pierre Alcover, Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel…; Classic of the late silent era from French filmmaker, writer and film theorist Marcel L'Herbier, based on the book of the same name by Émile…
Passion of Joan of Arc (1928): Dir. Carl Dreyer
Feat. Renee Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, Michel Simon…; An intense recreation of Joan of Arc’s trial and sentence that qualifies as one of cinema’s most transcendental achievements. Consisting…
Un Chien Andalou (1928): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Salvador Dali; Bunuel and Salvador Dali collaborated for this sensational short film that blew the lid off convention in a way history could never repeat. A…
End of St. Petersburg, The (1927): Dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin
Feat. Vera Baranovskaya, Aleksandr Chistyakov; The tensions that exploded with the 'October Revolution' in Russia, 1917 are schematised here using understated characterisations (of workers and…
Battleship Potemkin (1925): Dir. Sergei Eisenstein
Feat. Alexander Antonov, Vladimir Blasky, Grigori Alexandrov; This landmark Soviet propaganda film about the 1905 revolution is one of the greatest classics of all time. The smart use of visual metaphor and that…

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