Subgenre Sampler
Drama > Foreign Cinema: 1774 Films to Buy & Rent
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…
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,…
Le Notti Bianche (White Nights) (1957)
- Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni, Maria Schell, Jean Marais…
- A departure from neo–realist beginnings, this surreal Visconti masterwork adapts Dostoyevsky’s ‘White Nights’ through dreamlike art…
Les Miserables (1957)
- Dir. Jean-Paul Le Chanois
Feat. Jean Gabin, Bernard Blier, Daniele Delorme…
- Adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel with Jean Gabin playing the peasant who is jailed for stealing a loaf of bread in 19th century France. A faithful…
Lower Depths, The (Donzoko) (1957)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Kyoko Kagawa, Isuzu Yamada…
- Arresting Maxim Gorky stage adaptation (previously filmed by Jean Renoir) is transposed to Japan’s Edo–era slums. Social realisms and 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…
Sissi - The Fateful Years of an Empress (1957)
- Dir. Ernst Marischka
Feat. Romy Schneider
- Concluding film in the Sissi trilogy ends on a somber note with Romy Schneider struggling with Viennese court life as she moves towards a tragic end.