Subgenre Sampler

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Àma Gloria (Ama Gloria) (2023): Feat. Louise Mauroy-Panzani, Ilça Moreno Zego; Centred by an extraordinary child performance, this is an exquisite French drama bathed in the milk of human kindness in the face of…
Anatomy of a Fall (2023): Dir. Justine Triet
Feat. Sandra Huller, Swann Arlaud, Jehnny Beth…; An extraordinary, multi–layered dramatic thriller from France that deservingly won the Palm D'or at Cannes. For the past year, Sandra, a…
Divertimento (2023): Dir. Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar
Feat. Oulaya Amamra, Lina El Arabi, Niels Arestrup; A biopic of Zahia Ziouani, one of the few worldwide renowned female conductors. Classical symphonic music is everything for 17–year–old…
Goodbye Julia (2023): An outstanding drama from Sudan about two women – a retired Muslim singer and a Southern Sudanese widow – who forge an unusual friendship…
La Chimera (2023): Dir. Alice Rohrwacher; Another delight from dir. Alice Rohrwacher that completes a trilogy (after The Wonders and Happy as Lazzaro) about Italy's relationship with its…
Let the River Flow (2023): Dir. Ole Giaever
Feat. Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen, Ivar Beddari, Gard Emil; A superbly–crafted and moving indigenous rights drama about a young teacher whose repressed Sami heritage is awakened by a protest group who…
Monster (Kaibutsu) (2023): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Sakura Ando, Eita Nagayama, Soya Kurokawa; Director Hirokazu Kore–eda returns home with his first Japanese film since the Palm d'Or–winning "Shoplifters" (2018) with this…
Perfect Days (2023): Dir. Wim Wenders
Feat. Koji Yakusho; The irrepressibly handsome Kôji Yakusho stars as a solitary man who cleans public lavatories for a living but seems to have a rich inner life…
Radical (2023): Dir. Christopher Zalla
Feat. Eugenio Derbez; A quality, engaging drama based on the true story of a teacher in a neglected Mexican border town that tries a radical new method to unlock his…
Annie's Fire (Annie Colère) (2022): Dir. Blandine Lenoir
Feat. Laure Calamy, Pascale Arbillot, Josiane Balasko…; Laure Calamy again proves she's one of the most likeable actresses in French cinema as a working mother who finds her people among those offering…
Between Two Worlds (2022): Dir. Emmanuel Carrere
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Helene Lambert, Louise Pociecka; Juliette Binoche plays a well–known author who goes to live in northern France to research her new book on the subject of job insecurity.…
Blue Caftan, The (2022): Dir. Maryam Touzani
Feat. Lubna Azabal, Saleh Bakri, Ayoub Missioui; A rare peek into Moroccan culture, and the dying craft of hand–made caftans that are painstakingly embroidered with a needle and thread. And…
Both Sides Of The Blade (Avec amour et acharnement) (2022): Dir. Claire Denis
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Vincent Lindon, Grégoire Colin; Jean and Sara have been living together for 10 years. When they first met, Sara was living with François, Jean’s best friend and an admirer from…
Broker (2022): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Kang-ho Song, Doona Bae; Master Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore–eda turns to South Korea for the first time for this drama starring Cannes–winning actor Song…
Close (2022): Dir. Lukas Dhont
Feat. Eden Dambrine, Léa Drucker, Kevin Janssens; Another closely–observed Belgian drama that, along with "Playground", explores a traumatic rite–of–passage. Here the protagonists…
EO (2022): Dir. Jerzy Skolimowski; Veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski returns with this Cannes Jury Prize–winner — a unique, visually expressive and sometimes bleak…
Godland (2022): Dir. Hlynur Pálmason
Feat. Elliott Crosset Hove, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson; A masterly work of slow cinema from Iceland, inspired by 19th–Century period photography in both narrative and style, and the contemporary…
One Fine Morning (Un Beau Matin) (2022): Dir. Mia Hansen-Love
Feat. Léa Seydoux, Pascal Greggory, Melvil Poupaud…; Lea Seydoux is French movie star royalty but she keeps it real in this sublime film from Mia Hansen–Løve (Bergman Island), one of Europe’s…
Saint Omer (2022): Dir. Alice Diop
Feat. Guslagie Malanda, Kayije Kagame; Inspired by real events, this devastating fictional drama from French–Senegalese director Alice Diop delivers a formally brilliant treatise on…
The Teachers' Lounge (Des Lehrerzimmer) (2022): Dir. Ilker Catak
Feat. Leonie Benesch; A bracing drama about an idealistic maths teacher caught in the pressure–cooker environment of a contemporary German high school. Leonie…
Two Tickets To Greece (2022): Dir. Marc Fitoussi
Feat. Laure Calamy, Olivia Cote, Kristin Scott Thomas; A sunlit escapist comedy set in Les Cyclades (the original French title) starring Laure Calamy and Olivia Côte as long–estranged childhood…
Another World (2021): Dir. Stéphane Brizé
Feat. Vincent Lindon, Sandrine Kiberlain, Anthony Bajon; Vincent Lindon plays a factory boss going through a painful divorce while managing a painful downsize at his company which has been taken over by a…
Big Hit, The (Un Triomphe) (2021): Dir. Emmanuel Courcol
Feat. Kad Merad, David Ayala, Lamine Cissokho; Inspired by remarkable true events, this French Film Festival favourite follows a dedicated out–of–work actor (indelibly played by the…
Drive My Car (2021): Dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Feat. Hidetoshi Nishijima, Masaki Okada, Toko Miura…; This winner of the Best International Feature at the 2022 Academy Awards is a slow–burn, methodical drama about a grieving stage actor and…
Eiffel (2021): Dir. Martin Bourboulon
Feat. Romain Duris, Emma Mackey, Pierre Deladonchamps…; Handsomely mounted biopic set in the 1880's, telling the story of Parisian civil engineer Gustave Eiffel (Romain Duris) and his design of the Eiffel…
Full Time (A Plien Temps) (2021): Dir. Eric Gravel
Feat. Laure Calamy, Genevieve Mnich, Anne Suarez; A cracker of a French drama that teeters on the edge of a thriller throughout because it’s all about the pressure cooker that is modern life.…
Hatching (2021): Dir. Hanna Bergholm
Feat. Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkilä, Jani Volanen; Hanna Bergholm's feature debut has finally put Finland on the horror film map – an enchanting pubescent allegory about a 12–year–old…
Lamb (2021): Dir. Valdimar Johannsson
Feat. Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snaer Gudnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson…; An Icelandic folk horror of haunting, pastoral beauty with Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snaer Gudnason playing a couple who live on a remote farm with…
Lost Illusions (2021): Dir. Xavier Giannoli
Feat. Benjamin Voisin, Xavier Dolan, Cecile De France…; An all–star cast dazzles in the spectacular adaptation of Balzac’s classic novel about a young idealist who learns that anything can be…
Paris, 13th District (Les Olympiades, Paris 13e) (2021): Dir. Jacques Audiard
Feat. Noémie Merlant, Makita Samba, Lucie Zhang…; Jacques Audiard’s film charts the interwoven relationships between four twenty–somethings, beautifully played by Lucie Zhang, Makita Samba,…
Passengers of the Night, The (Les passagers de la nuit) (2021): Dir. Mikhaël Hers
Feat. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Noée Abita, Emmanuelle Beart…; Left by her husband, Elisabeth finds herself alone, responsible for the day–to–day care of her two children. She picks up a job on a…
Petite Maman (2021): Dir. Céline Sciamma
Feat. Nina Meurisse, Joséphine Sanz, Gabrielle Sanz; Master filmmaker Céline Sciamma is back with a captivating coming of age story that explores childhood and a mother–daughter relationship that…
Tale of Love and Desire, A (2021): Dir. Leyla Bouzid
Feat. Sami Outalbali, Zbeida Belhajamor; Ahmed, an 18–year old Frenchman of Algerian origin, meets Farah, a young Tunisian girl. He discovers a collection of sensual and erotic Arab…
Three Floors (Tre Piani) (2021): Dir. Nanni Moretti
Feat. Alba Rohrwacher, Riccardo Scamarcio, Nanni Moretti…; Nanni Moretti's all–star ensemble drama about three families who reside in the same apartment complex in Rome’s stylish Prati neighbourhood.
To Chiara (A Chiara) (2021): Dir. Jonas Carpignano
Feat. Swamy Rotolo, Claudio Rotolo, Giorgia Rotolo…; A rites–of–passage drama in the Italian neo–realist tradition that examines the impact of Mafia activity on those in the close…
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Guzen to Sozo) (2021): Dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi; An unexpected love triangle, a failed seduction trap and an encounter that results from a misunderstanding, the director of DRIVE MY CAR explores…
Worst Person in the World, The (2021): Dir. Joachim Trier
Feat. Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum; Gloriously provocative and richly perceptive comedy drama from talented Norwegian director Joachim Trier (THELMA), which follows an unpredictable,…
A Friendly Tale (Le bonheur des uns) (2020): Dir. Daniel Cohen
Feat. Bérénice Bejo, Vincent Cassel, François Damiens…; A charming four–hander from the director of LE CHEF in which a sparkling cast play two forty–something couples whose professional and…
Another Round (Druk) (2020): Dir. Thomas Vinterberg
Feat. Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang…; Another cheeky yet bittersweet provocation from Dogme 95 alumni Thomas Vinterberg that won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film. The…
Antoinette in the Cevennes (2020): Dir. Caroline Vignal
Feat. Laure Calamy, Benjamin Lavernhe, Olivia Cote…; A warm hearted French comedy from writer director Caroline Vignal, starring Laure Calamy as a school teacher on a journey of self–discovery in…
Beginning (Dasatskisi) (2020): Dir. Déa Kulumbegashvili
Feat. Ia Sukhitashvili, Rati Oneli; A devout women of the Jehovah's Witness faith undergoes a profound personal crisis in this triumphant cinematic achievement for Georgian…
County, The (2020): Dir. Grimur Hakonarson
Feat. Arndis Hronn Egilsdottir, Sveinn Olafur Gunnarsson; A quintessentially Icelandic serio–comedy from the director of RAMS about one woman’s fight against a monopolistic co–op stifling the…
De Gaulle (2020): Dir. Gabriel Le Bomin
Feat. Lambert Wilson, Tim Hudson, Isabelle Carré…; Spectacularly mounted biographical drama depicting a crucial period in the life of French army officer Charles de Gaulle, a famous figure in modern…
Everything Went Fine (2020): Dir. Francois Ozon
Feat. Sophie Marceau, Andre Dussollier, Géraldine Pailhas…; When André, 85, has a stroke, Emmanuelle hurries to her father’s bedside. Sick and half–paralyzed in his hospital bed, he asks Emmanuelle to…
How to Be a Good Wife (2020): Dir. Martin Provost
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Yolande Moreau, Noemie Lvovsky…; Feather lite French comedy set in 1968, with the predictably scene–stealing Juliette Binoche playing an immaculate and morally upright teacher…
Limbo (2020): Dir. Ben Sharrock
Feat. Amir El-Masry, Vikash Bhai, Ola Orebiyi…; A moving cross–cultural comedy about the refugee experience, set on a remote Scottish island where a promising young Syrian musician is waiting…
Man in the Hat, The (2020): Dir. Stephen Warbeck, John-Paul Davidson
Feat. Ciaran Hinds, Stephen Dillane, Maïwenn …; Road–trip comedy–musical about a man who sets off from Marseilles in a small Fiat 500, with five angry men in a Citroën Dyane…
Minari (2020): Dir. Lee Isaac Chung
Feat. Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Alan Kim…; Winner of the Grand Jury and Audience Awards at Sundance, this delicately drawn, sweeping story follows a Korean–American family in search of…
Never Gonna Snow Again (2020): Dir. Malgorzata Szumowska
Feat. Alec Utgoff, Maja Ostaszewska, Agata Kulesza…; Assured Polish Oscar contender about a Ukrainian immigrant who unexpectedly develops a cult–like following while working as a masseur in a…
Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020): Dir. Jasmila Zbanic
Feat. Jasna Djuricic, Johan Heldenbergh; A devastating, personal account of a nightmarish dilemma for a wife and mother working as a translator between the UN, the Serbian aggressors and…
Rosa's Wedding (2020): Feat. Candela Pena, Sergi Lopez, Nathalie Poza…; Delightful Spanish comedy about a hard–working seamstress in her mid–40's who decides to turn her life around after spending years…
Rose Maker, The (La fine fleur) (2020): Dir. Pierre Pinaud
Feat. Catherine Frot, Olivia Cote, Rukkmini Ghosh; Gentle French comedy with Catherine Frot (THE MIDWIFE) playing a rose maker on the verge of financial ruin, who hires three hapless misfits with no…
Ties, The (Lacci) (2020): Dir. Daniele Luchetti
Feat. Alba Rohrwacher, Luigi Lo Cascio, Laura Morante…; Naples, early 1980s. The once–happy union between Aldo and his wife Vanda is ruptured one evening when Aldo admits, unprompted, that he has…
Tigers (2020): Dir. Ronnie Sandahl
Feat. Erik Enge, Alfred Enoch, Johannes Bah Kuhnke…; Sports biopic telling the true story of Swedish football talent Martin Bengtsson, an 18–year–old whose dreams turned into nightmares when…
Wildland (2020): Dir. Jeanette Nordahl
Feat. Sandra Guldberg Kampp, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Joachim Fjelstrup; Powerful coming–of–age Scandi–noir about a Danish teenager who becomes embroiled in the ruthless criminal life of her aunt and…
1917 (2019): Dir. Sam Mendes
Feat. Dean-Charles Chapman, George MacKay, Daniel Mays; Immersive epic war film from director Sam Mendes (JARHEAD) which evokes the impression of a continuous take to follow two British soldiers on a…
A White, White Day (2019): Dir. Hlynur Pálmason
Feat. Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Ida Mekkin Hlynsdottir, Hilmir Snaer Gudnason…; Aesthetically striking Icelandic drama which plunges the viewer deep into the psyche of a tortured former police officer who suspects a neighbour…
Berlin, I Love You (2019): Dir. Peter Chelsom, Fernando Eimbcke, Claus Clausen
Feat. Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke…; Anthology film continuing the "Cities of Love" franchise (PARIS, JE T'AIME, NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU) set in the German capital where ten sugary stories…
Buoyancy (2019): Dir. Rodd Rathjen
Feat. Sarm Heng, Mony Ros, Thanawut Kasro; A 14–year old who works in the Cambodian rice fields with his family decides to escape illegally to Thailand, but finds instead that he has…
Dogs Don't Wear Pants (Koirat eivät käytä housuja) (2019): Dir. J.-P. Valkeapää
Feat. Krista Kosonen; Finnish erotic drama about a lonely dad who is traumatized by the loss of his wife in a drowning accident, and stumbles into ecstasy via a powerful…
Ema (2019): Dir. Pablo Larrain
Feat. Mariana Di Girolamo, Gael Garcia Bernal, Santiago Cabrera…; A bold and distinctive film from director Pablo Larrain (NO), with newcomer Mariana Di Girolamo playing a young dancer who is coping with an adoption…
Extraordinary, The (The Specials, Hors normes) (2019): Dir. Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano
Feat. Vincent Cassel, Reda Kateb, Helene Vincent; From the French directing team behind THE INTOUCHABLES comes this astute dramatisation of the true story of Stephane Benhamou (played by Vincent…
Farewell to the Night (L'adieu à la nuit) (2019): Dir. Andre Techine
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Kacey Mottet Klein, Oulaya Amamra; Catherine Deneuve anchors this French drama about a horse farmer whose grandson comes to visit, revealing that he has been radicalised by Islamic…
In the Name Of The Land (2019): Dir. Edouard Bergeon
Feat. Guillaume Canet, Veerle Baetens, Anthony Bajon…; Following the life of a stoic farmer across four decades, this bittersweet and deeply moving drama marks the directorial debut of French…
Les Miserables (2019): Dir. Ladj Ly
Feat. Damien Bonnard, Alexis Manenti, Djebril Zonga…; This impressive feature debut from French director Ladj Ly is set in the French criminal underworld in aftermath of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, when…
Martin Eden (2019): Dir. Pietro Marcello
Feat. Luca Marinelli, Carlo Cecchi, Jessica Cressy…; A dazzling adaptation of Jack London's semi–autobiographical 1909 novel about a sailor who abandons his working class roots to pursue an…
Mystery of Henri Pick, The (Le mystère Henri Pick) (2019): Dir. Rémi Bezançon
Feat. Fabrice Luchini, Camille Cottin, Alice Isaaz…; Delectable literary–themed French comedy caper based on the book of the same name by David Foenkinos. The titular Henri Pick is a…
Of Love and Lies (2019): Dir. Julien Rappeneau
Feat. François Damiens, Andre Dussollier, Maleaume Paquin; Uplifting French dramedy about a diminutive but spirited 12–year old boy who challenges his lonely disillusioned dad into embracing life again…
Pain and Glory (Dolor y gloria) (2019): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Antonio Banderas, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Penelope Cruz…; A more restrained, but no less pretty and witty outing for septuagenarian director Pedro Almodóvar, which narrates evocative vignettes from the life…
Perfumes (2019): Dir. Gregory Magne
Feat. Emmanuelle Devos, Gregory Montel; Anne (Emmanuelle Devos) was once the star of her industry – a perfumer whose ability to produce enticing new fragrances was second to none. She…
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019): Dir. Céline Sciamma
Feat. Noémie Merlant, Adele Haenel; Céline Sciamma (GIRLHOOD) directs this devastatingly good, exquisitely executed lesbian period drama. Set in France in the 18th century, where a…
Proxima (2019): Dir. Alice Winocour
Feat. Eva Green, Matt Dillon, Lars Eidinger…; Eva Green plays a French astronaut enrolled in a demanding program at the European Space Agency in Cologne, struggling to maintain a relationship…
Room 212 (Chambre 212, On a Magical Night) (2019): Dir. Christophe Honore
Feat. Chiara Mastroianni, Vincent Lacoste, Camille Cottin…; Playful French rom–com from acclaimed writer–director Christophe Honore (MA MERE, DAN PARIS). Set over the course of one night, where…
Seberg (2019): Dir. Benedict Andrews
Feat. Kristen Stewart, Jack O'Connell, Margaret Qualley…; Kristen Stewart is riveting as French New Wave actress Jean Seberg, in this drama set in the 1960's, when she passionately involved herself in the…
Spread Your Wings (Donne-moi des ailes) (2019): Dir. Nicolas Vanier
Feat. Jean-Paul Rouve, Mélanie Doutey, Louis Vazquez; A gorgeous boys' own eco–adventure from France, based on the true story of a visionary scientist and his 14–year–old son who bond…
Truth, The (2019): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke…; Dazzling modern family drama from master auteur Kore–eda Hirokazu (SHOPLIFTERS), pairing French screen icons Catherine Deneuve and Juliette…
We'll End Up Together (Nous finirons ensemble) (2019): Dir. Guillaume Canet
Feat. Francois Cluzet, Marion Cotillard, Gilles Lellouche…; From the writer/director of the LITTLE WHITE LIES comes another chic French take on the formula of THE BIG CHILL, with the entire cast returning to…
Weathering with You (2019): Dir. Makoto Shinkai; Touching Japanese animated romance doubling as an eco–fable, about a high school boy who befriends a girl who can manipulate the weather. From…
While at War (2019): Dir. Alejandro Amenabar
Feat. Karra Elejalde, Eduard Fernandez, Santi Prego; From Alejandro Amenabar, acclaimed director of THE SEA INSIDE, comes this drama set in Spain in 1936 on the cusp of the Spanish Civil…
Who You Think I Am (Celle que vous croyez) (2019): Dir. Safy Nebbou
Feat. Juliette Binoche, François Civil, Nicole Garcia…; Juliet Binoche is outstanding at the helm of this elegant psychological thriller, playing a French literature professor and middle–aged…
A Faithful Man (L'homme fidèle) (2018): Dir. Louis Garrel
Feat. Louis Garrel, Laetitia Casta, Lily-Rose Depp; Romantic farce with a whimsical, French new–wave sensibility directed by and starring Louis Garrel. A dashing journalist finds his life…
A Man in a Hurry (Un homme pressé) (2018): Dir. Hervé Mimran
Feat. Fabrice Luchini, Leïla Bekhti; French comic–drama based on the life of the former head of Peugeot, Christian Stieff, a high profile businessman who has let his personal life…
Birds of Passage (2018): Dir. Ciro Guerra, Cristina Gallego
Feat. Natalia Reyes, Carmina Martinez, Jose Acosta; Intelligent and engrossing narco–thriller set in Columbia in the 1960's, following an indigenous Wayuu man and his family as they turn to drug…
Burning (2018): Dir. Chang-Dong Lee
Feat. Yoo Ah-in, Jeon Jong-seo, Steven Yeun; Beautifully crafted film following a young aspiring novelist who reconnects with a childhood neighbour, before events take an unexpectedly sinister…
By the Grace of God (Grâce à Dieu) (2018): Dir. Francois Ozon
Feat. Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet, Swann Arlaud; Hard–hitting French–Belgian drama about three sexual abuse victims who attempt to the to justice the Catholic priest who was…
Capharnaum (2018): Dir. Nadine Labaki
Feat. Zain Al Rafeea; A uniquely humanistic portrayal of tragic poverty in Beirut from the perspective of an extraordinarily gutsy 12 year old Lebanese boy. After…
Claire Darling (La dernière folie de Claire Darling) (2018): Dir. Julie Bertuccelli
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, Alice Taglioni; Catherine Deneuve plays a reclusive millionaire who unexpectedly decides to get rid of all her belongings in a yard sale on the lawn of her mansion.…
Climax (2018): Dir. Gaspar Noe
Feat. Sofia Boutella, Kiddy Smile, Roman Guillermic; A dance movie like you're never seen, legendary provocateur Gaspar Noe helms this brilliant and intoxicating ensemble piece. Set in an abandoned…
Cold War (2018): Dir. Pawel Pawlikowski
Feat. Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot; The director of 'Ida' (2013) follows up with a deeply romantic, immaculately composed tale of a Polish concert pianist and a charismatic singer who…
Divine Order, The (2018): Dir. Petra Biondina Volpe
Feat. Marie Leuenberger; A passionate drama set in Switzerland, following a mother and housewife who campaigns for a referendum on the right of women to vote – in 1971…
Donbass (2018): Dir. Sergey Loznitsa
Feat. Tamara Yatsenko, Irina Zayarmiuk, Grigory Masliuk; A 13–part exploration of the conflict between Ukraine and the Russian–supported Donetsk People's Republic throughout the…
Everybody Knows (Todos Lo Saben) (2018): Dir. Asghar Farhadi
Feat. Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Ricardo Darín; Iranian maestro Asghar Farhadi assembles a powerhouse cast for this Spanish–language about a mother–of–two who returns from Buenos…
Girls of the Sun (Les filles du soleil) (2018): Dir. Eva Husson
Feat. Golshifteh Farahani; Powerful wartime film following a Kurdish female battalion who are fighting against ISIS extremists to take back control of their village. Stars…
Happy as Lazzaro (2018): Dir. Alice Rohrwacher
Feat. Adriano Tardiolo, Nicoletta Braschi, Sergi Lopez…; It's summer at Inviolata, an isolated rural estate, where an extended family of tobacco farmers toil under the rule of a domineering marchesa, and…
Heiresses, The (2018): Dir. Marcelo Martinessi
Feat. Ana Brun, Margarita Irún, Anna Ivanova; Slow–burn drama from Paraguay about a privileged middle–aged lesbian couple whose new found financial hardship results in one being…
Ideal Palace, The (L'incroyable histoire du facteur Cheval) (2018): Dir. Nils Tavernier
Feat. Jacques Gamblin, Laetitia Casta, Florence Thomassin; Affectionate biographical drama based on the extraordinary real–life story of a simple French postman who spent 33 years building a magnificent…
In The Aisles (In den Gängen) (2018): Dir. Thomas Stuber
Feat. Franz Rogowski, Sandra Huller; A German wholesale supermarket is the setting for this gentle romantic drama following a reclusive blue–collar shelf stacker (Andreas Leupold,…
In Your Hands (Au bout des doigts) (2018): Dir. Ludovic Bernard
Feat. Lambert Wilson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jules Benchetrit; A young delinquent with a talent for the piano captures the attention of the Director of the National Conservatory of Music in this feel–good…
Keeper, The (Trautmann) (2018): Dir. Markus Rosenmüller
Feat. David Kross, Freya Mavor; Biographical drama telling the story of Bert Trautmann, the German soldier who escapes a POW camp to become a footballing icon, marrying the daughter…
Loro (2018): Dir. Paolo Sorrentino
Feat. Toni Servillo, Elena Sofia Ricci, Riccardo Scamarcio…; The director of THE GREAT BEAUTY returns with another tale of Italian decadence and corruption, this time based on the life and times of the infamous…
Mother is Wrong (TV Mini-series) (Maman a tort) (2018): Feat. Anne Charrier, Pascal Elbé; French thriller following a detective who, despite being already consumed by a major robbery, takes on the chilling case of a child who tells her his…
My Brilliant Friend (TV Mini-series) (L'amica geniale) (2018): Dir. Saverio Costanzo
Feat. Valentina Acca, Annarita Vitolo; Evocative Neapolitan drama adapted from the international best–selling novel by Elena Ferrante, following an elderly woman as she recounts her…
Never Look Away (Werk ohne Autor) (2018): Dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Feat. Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer; The director of THE LIVES OF OTHERS helms this drama spanning three eras of German history to tell the story of an artist who survives the Nazi…
Non-Fiction (Non Fiction) (2018): Dir. Olivier Assayas
Feat. Guillaume Canet, Juliette Binoche, Vincent Macaigne…; Buoyant drama set in the Parisian publishing world, with acclaimed director Olivier Assayas reuniting with actors Juliette Binoche and Guillaume…
Photograph (2018): Dir. Ritesh Batra
Feat. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra; A charming romance from the director of THE LUNCHBOX set in Mumbai, where a struggling street photographer convinces a shy stranger to pose as his…
Roma (2018): Dir. Alfonso Cuaron
Feat. Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira; Another masterclass in storytelling from Mexican maestro Alfonso Cuarón, about a year in the life of a middle–class family's maid in Mexico…
Shoplifters (Manbiki kazoku) (2018): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Lily Franky, Sakura Ando, Mayu Matsuoka; Charming, funny and heartbreaking all at once, this drama from the Japanese master of humanism Kore–eda is set in Tokyo and follows a group of…
Sink or Swim (Le grand bain) (2018): Dir. Gilles Lellouche
Feat. Mathieu Amalric, Guillaume Canet, Benoit Poelvoorde…; A group of 40–something guys, all on the verge of a mid–life crisis, decide to form their local pool's first ever synchronized swimming…
Sorry Angel (2018): Dir. Christophe Honore
Feat. Pierre Deladonchamps, Vincent Lacoste, Denis Podalydes; Articulate and powerful love story set in Paris in the 90's, where a worldly writer falls for a younger, carefree university student.
Third Wife, The (2018): Dir. Ash Mayfair
Feat. Tran Nu Yen-Khe; Haunting and devastating period drama set in 19th century rural Vietnam, where a 14–year old girl is married off to a wealthy landowner and…
Transit (2018): Dir. Christian Petzold
Feat. Franz Rogowski; Distinguished wartime melodrama from Christian Petzold (BARBARA, PHOENIX) following the plight of a holocaust survivor who assumes the identity of a…
Woman at War (2018): Dir. Benedikt Erlingsson
Feat. Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir; A droll yet heroic tale of a fifty–year–old environmental activist who is secretly waging a one–woman–war on the local…
Working Woman (2018): Dir. Michal Aviad
Feat. Liron Ben-Shlush; Workplace drama capturing the spirit of the "Me Too" movement to tell the story of a smart and capable mother of three who returns to the workforce…
Yuli (2018): Dir. Iciar Bollain
Feat. Carlos Acosta, Santiago Alfonso, Keyvin Martinez; Rousing biopic of the Cuban ballet superstar Carlos Acosta, nicknamed Yuli by his father, who saw recognised his talent for dance and sent him to…
A Bag of Marbles (Un sac de billes) (2017): Dir. Christian Duguay
Feat. Dorian Le Clech, Batyste Fleurial; The experience of the French occupation during WWII is told uniquely using a child's perspective in this latterday adaptation of the book by Joseph…
A Fantastic Woman (Una mujer fantástica) (2017): Dir. Sebastián Lelio
Feat. Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco; Another supremely elegant, substantive and compassionate character study from the director of GLORIA that this time focuses on a transgender woman in…
Aurore (I Got Life!) (2017): Dir. Blandine Lenoir
Feat. Agnes Jaoui, Thibault de Montalembert, Pascale Arbillot; Actress and co–writer Jaoui is the heart and soul of this witty if overly–familiar rom–com as the eponymous 50–year–old…
Babylon Berlin (TV Series) (2017): A German neo–noir television series based on novels by Volker Kutscher that takes place in Berlin during the Weimar Republic, starting in 1929.…
Back to Burgundy (Ce qui nous lie) (2017): Dir. Cedric Klapisch
Feat. Pio Marmaï, Ana Girardot, François Civil; Sumptuous French family saga which will be a special treat for oenophiles, as three siblings attempt to save the family vineyard in picturesque…
Bolshoi, The (Bolshoy) (2017): Dir. Valery Todorovsky
Feat. Margarita Simonova, Alisa Freindlikh, Valentina Telichkina…; Russian drama about a young and talented ballet dancer from the provinces who is determined to find success on stage at the Bolshoi Theatre in…
BPM (Beats Per Minute) (2017): Dir. Robin Campillo
Feat. Nahuel Pérez Biscayar, Arnaud Valois, Adele Haenel; Remarkable and inspiring drama by the director of EASTERN BOYS, set in 1990's France and following a group of passionate AIDS activists who take on…
Call Me By Your Name (2017): Dir. Luca Guadagnino
Feat. Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg…; Completing the "Desire" trilogy with I AM LOVE and A BIGGER SPLASH, this coming–of–age drama is set in Northern Italy in 1983, where a 17…
Custody (Jusqu'à la garde) (2017): Dir. Xavier Legrand
Feat. Léa Drucker, Denis Ménochet; Astonishing French drama charting a family struggling with the embittered fallout of divorce, and the resulting impact on the two children. The…
Foxtrot (2017): Dir. Samuel Maoz
Feat. Lior Ashkenazi, Sarah Adler; The impressive sophomore effort of director Samuel Maoz (LEBANON) is a perceptive and bold exploration of war and grief. An affluent couple living in…
Gauguin: Voyage de Tahiti (2017): Dir. Edouard Deluc
Feat. Vincent Cassel; Vincent Cassel delivers a committed, absorbing performance as French painter Paul Gauguin. Set in 1891, when Gauguin exiled himself to Tahiti to…
Happy End (2017): Dir. Michael Haneke
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Mathieu Kassovitz…; Michael Haneke lends his impeccably chilly style to this blackest of comedies about the disintegration of family relationships amidst the enduring…
I Am Not a Witch (2017): Dir. Rungano Nyoni; Full of joy and tragedy in the equal measure, this assured debut from Zambian writer–director Rungano Nyoni follows the story of 9–year…
Insult, The (2017): Dir. Ziad Doueiri
Feat. Adel Karam, Kamel El Basha; An exchange on a Beirut street between a Palestinian construction worker and a Lebanese Christian escalates into a passionate dispute that opens…
Ismael's Ghosts (2017): Dir. Arnaud Desplechin
Feat. Mathieu Amalric, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Marion Cotillard…; The always impressive Mathieu Amalric (DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY) anchors this ambitious and narratively complex story of a film maker whose life…
Jeune Femme (Montparnasse Bienvenüe) (2017): Dir. Léonor Sérraille
Feat. Lætitia Dosch; Drama set in Paris, following a spirited yet struggling woman in her 30's in the wake of a difficult break up with her wealthy boyfriend. A…
Just To Be Sure (Otez-moi d'un doute) (2017): Dir. Carine Tardieu
Feat. François Damiens, Cecile De France, Andre Wilms; A delightful French comedy–of–errors following a grounded 45–year old widower whose life changes abruptly when he learns that the…
Legacy, The - Series 3 (TV Series) (Arvingerne) (2017): Feat. Trine Dyrholm, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Lene Maria Christensen…; The excellent Danish family saga continues with the four siblings – Gro, Signe, Frederick and Emil entangled in emotional and financial…
Let the Sunshine In (2017): Dir. Claire Denis
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Xavier Beauvois, Philippe Katerine…; Juliette Binoche is radiant as a Parisian artist and divorced mother who bravely searches for sexual fulfillment and companionship in middle age.…
Loveless (2017): Dir. Andrei Zvyagintsev
Feat. Matvey Novikov, Maryana Spivak, Aleksey Rozin; Exquisitely austere Russian drama by modern master Zvyagintsev (LEVIATHAN, ELENA) which offers a dissection of a failed relationship against the…
Midwife, The (Sage femme) (2017): Dir. Martin Provost
Feat. Catherine Frot, Catherine Deneuve; Two of French cinema's most beloved actors, Catherine Deneuve and Catherine Frot, team up in this rich character study by the director of SERAPHINE.…
Other Side of Hope, The (2017): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Sakari Kuosmanen, Sherwan Haji, Ville Virtanen…; This Finnish take on the European migrant crisis – proclaimed to be last directed by auteur Aki Kaurismäki – is a poignant yet typically…
Pop Aye (2017): Dir. Kirsten Tan
Feat. Thaneth Warakulnukroh; Quietly uplifting road trip dramedy following a disillusioned Bangkok architect who embarks on a trek across the idyllic Thai countryside with the…
Rodin (2017): Dir. Jacques Doillon
Feat. Vincent Lindon, Izia Higelin; Austere drama set in Paris in 1880, where Auguste Rodin, widely considered the founder of modern sculpture, received his first state commission and…
Screwed (Pihalla) (2017): Dir. Nils-Erik Ekblom
Feat. Mikko Kauppila, Sanna Majuri, Valtteri Lehtinen; Sweet–natured Finnish coming–of–age drama about two teenage boys who fall in love during a summer in the countryside.
See You Up There (Au revoir là-haut) (2017): Dir. Albert Dupontel
Feat. Albert Dupontel, Nahuel Pérez Biscayar, Laurent Lafitte…; French film adaptation of the ambitious novel set a few days before the 1918 Armistice, where, among the ruins of WWI, a genius draftsman and a…
Square, The (2017): Dir. Ruben Östlund
Feat. Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West; A smart and ambitious art world satire from the director of FORCE MAJEURE set in and around a cutting–edge contemporary art museum, where a…
Summer 1993 (2017): Dir. Carla Simón
Feat. Laia Artigas, Paula Robles, Bruna Cusí; An evocative and affecting autobiographical depiction of Catalan writer–director Carla Simón's childhood. Set in 1993, 6–year old Frida…
Thelma (2017): Dir. Joachim Trier
Feat. Eili Harboe, Henrik Rafaelsen, Kaya Wilkins…; A gracefully unsettling Nordic thriller about a painfully shy young woman whose oppressed, conservative upbringing and burgeoning passion for a…
Wajib - The Wedding Invitation (Wajib) (2017): Dir. Annemarie Jacir
Feat. Mohamed Bakri; Wryly comedic drama set in Nazareth in the lead–up to Christmas, where a conservative father and his estranged hipster son attempt to reconcile…
Western (2017): Dir. Valeska Grisebach
Feat. Meinhard Neumann, Reinhardt Wetrek, Syuleyman Alilov Letifov; As foreign construction workers build a dam in a rural Bulgarian village, a German man has a series of personal encounters with the local landscape…
Wound, The (Inxeba) (2017): Dir. John Trengove
Feat. Nakhane Toure; An unforgettable South African drama following a closeted relationship between two Xhosa men participating in a coming–of–age initiation…
A Silent Voice (Koe no katachi) (2016): Dir. Naoko Yamada
Feat. Miyu Irino; Unique Japanese anime following a deaf girl called Shoko, who is bullied at school by a boy who grows up to be tormented by his past behavior, and…
After the Storm (Umi yori mo mada fukaku) (2016): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Hiroshi Abe, Kirin Kiki, Yôko Maki; After the death of his father, a morally bankrupt private detective struggles to find child support money and reconnect with his son and…
Aquarius (2016): Dir. Kleber Mendonca Filho
Feat. Sonia Braga, Maeve Jinkings, Irandhir Santos…; Gratifying portrait of a 65–year–old widow and retired music critic who battles a development company to retain her residency at the…
Country Doctor, The (Irreplaceable) (2016): Dir. Thomas Lilti
Feat. Francois Cluzet, Marianne Denicourt; Genteel drama starring François Cluzet (THE INTOUCHABLES) as a devoted doctor in a rural French town who himself is diagnosed with a serious illness…
Dancer, The (La danseuse) (2016): Dir. Stéphanie Di Giusto
Feat. Soko , Gaspard Ulliel, Mélanie Thierry…; Dazzling rags–to–riches biopic following the true story of Loïe Fuller and Isadora Duncan, two dancers who together pioneered modern…
Death of Louis XIV, The (La mort de Louis XIV) (2016): Dir. Albert Serra
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud; A master of minimalist portraits of historical figures, Albert Serra directs French New Wave doyen Jean–Pierre Léaud as Louis XIV during the…
Dheepan (2016): Dir. Jacques Audiard
Feat. Antonythasan Jesuthasan; A Sri Lankan refugee in France finds himself posing as the father and husband of two other refugees in order to gain asylum status. An unflinchingly…
Elle (2016): Dir. Paul Verhoeven
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny…; Controversial, unflinching drama closely following the perspective of a woman who is repeatedly raped by the same masked intruder, but whose…
Frantz (2016): Dir. Francois Ozon
Feat. Pierre Niney, Paula Beer; A young woman in small–town Germany is mourning the death of her fiance in the wake of WWI, and forms an unexpected bond with an enigmatic and…
Graduation (Bacalaureat) (2016): Dir. Cristian Mungiu
Feat. Adrian Titieni, Maria-Victoria Dragus; Subtly engrossing drama follows the moral dilemmas of a well–meaning and respected doctor who succumbs to Romania's endemic corruption in order…
Handmaiden, The (2016): Dir. Park Chan-Wook
Feat. Min-hee Kim, Tae-ri Kim, Jung-woo Ha…; Delicious erotic thriller from the brilliant Park Chan–Wook, who lends his impeccable style to a provocative potboiler of lesbian love and…
Happy Hour (2016): Dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Feat. Tanaka Sachie, Kikuchi Hazuki, Mihara Maiko…; Intelligent and novelistic drama exploring the private and professional lives of four Japanese women in their 30's across an ambitious, but…
Innocents, The (Agnus Dei) (2016): Dir. Anne Fontaine
Feat. Lou de Laâge, Agata Kulesza, Agata Buzek…; In Poland after World War II, a young French Red Cross intern who is sent to assist the survivors of the German camps discovers several nuns in…
Julieta (2016): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Emma Suarez, Adriana Ugarte; The complexities of a woman's past are unraveled after a chance encounter, in this loose adaptation of three short stories by Alice Munro. More…
King's Choice, The (2016): Dir. Erik Poppe
Feat. Jesper Christensen, Anders Baasmo; Vibrant war–time drama set during the three days in 1940 when German forces occupied Oslo and King Haakon VII and his family went into hiding.…
Like Crazy (La Pazza Gioia) (2016): Dir. Paolo Virzi
Feat. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Micaela Ramazzotti; Gratifying comedy–drama following two women, one a troubled introvert, one an impassioned mythomaniac, who break out of a psychiatric facility…
Neruda (2016): Dir. Pablo Larrain
Feat. Gael Garcia Bernal, Luis Gnecco, Mercedes Morán; Universally acclaimed biographical drama about poet and communist senator Pablo Neruda, who was forced into hiding with his artist wife when the Cold…
Odyssey, The (L'odyssée) (2016): Dir. Jérôme Salle
Feat. Lambert Wilson, Pierre Niney, Audrey Tautou; A shimmering yet unvarnished biopic of pioneering Frenchman Jacques Cousteau, who invented the aqualung and went on to become a world–famous…
Olive Tree, The (El olivo) (2016): Dir. Iciar Bollain
Feat. Anna Castillo, Javier Gutiérrez, Pep Ambros; Spanish actor–director Iciar Bollain and Ken Loach's regular screenwriter Paul Laverty join forces for this warm and sometimes humorous road…
Perfect Strangers (Perfetti sconosciuti) (2016): Dir. Paolo Genovese
Feat. Giuseppe Battiston, Anna Foglietta, Marco Giallini…; A clever comedy of manners for the iphone–era, this Italian award–winner follows a dinner party debacle that unfolds after seven…
Planetarium (2016): Dir. Rebecca Zlotowski
Feat. Natalie Portman, Lily-Rose Depp, Emmanuel Salinger; Natalie Portman and Lily–Rose Depp play two American sisters in pre–war France with apparent psychic abilities that engage the interest…
Polina (2016): Dir. Valérie Müller, Angelin Preljocaj
Feat. Anastasia Shevtsova, Veronika Zhovnytska, Juliette Binoche; Elegant, methodical drama about a gifted Russian dancer who gives up the chance to join the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet when she moves to France to…
Rams (2016): Dir. Grimur Hakonarson
Feat. Sigurour Sigurjonsson, Theodor Juliusson; Distinctively woolly Nordic tale of two estranged sheep–farming brothers as they attempt to save their flocks from pending eradication in a…
Salesman, The (Forusande‎) (2016): Dir. Asghar Farhadi
Feat. Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoosti; Another subtle yet powerful drama from the celebrated director of THE SEPARATION and THE PAST that replays his signature themes of fear, guilt and…
Sami Blood (2016): Dir. Amanda Kernell
Feat. Lene Cecilia Sparrok , Hanna Alström; Emotionally powerful female coming–of–age movie set in 1930's Sweden, where a reindeer–herding teenager, an indigenous Sami child,…
Teacher, The (Ucitelka) (2016): Dir. Jan Hrebejk
Feat. Zuzana Mauréry; Black comedy set in 1983 Bratislava, where a school teacher takes advantage of Communist traditions, manipulating the parents of her students into…
Things to Come (L'avenir) (2016): Dir. Mia Hansen-Love
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Andre Marcon, Roman Kolinka; A passionate and intelligent philosophy professor experiences a crisis of identity in this exquisitely detailed drama with Huppert terrific in the…
Toni Erdmann (2016): Dir. Maren Ade
Feat. Peter Simonischek, Sandra Huller, Ingrid Bisu; Brilliant, unclassifiable German comedy where a stern, career–focused woman is followed around a series of mundane board meetings and vapid…
Two is a Family (Demain tout commence) (2016): Dir. Hugo Gélin
Feat. Omar Sy, Clemence Poesy; An elegantly crafted, crowd–pleasing comedy–drama in fine French tradition, following a bachelor (Omar Sy, THE INTOUCHABLES) who enjoys a…
Untamed, The (La región salvaje) (2016): Dir. Amat Escalante
Feat. Ruth Ramos, Simone Bucio, Jesús Meza; Unforgettable psycho–sexual horror featuring a multi–tentacled alien which becomes the source of obsession for members of a Mexican…
Your Name (Kimi no na wa) (2016): Dir. Makoto Shinkai; Another exquisite animated drama from Makoto Shinkai, an increasingly beloved and notable voice in the world of Japanese anime. The story is based on…
A Man Called Ove (En man som heter Ove) (2015): Dir. Hannes Holm
Feat. Rolf Lassgard, Bahar Pars, Filip Berg; Endearing Swedish hit about a grumpy 59–year–old widower who was deposed as president of the condominium association, but still presides…
Arabian Nights (2015): Dir. Miguel Gomes
Feat. Crista Alfaiate; Wildly original and ambitious triptych of films set in modern–day Portugal but structured on the sprawling Arabic fairy–tale collection…
As it is in Heaven 2: Heaven on Earth (Heaven on Earth) (2015): Dir. Kay Pollak
Feat. Frida Hallgren, Niklas Falk, Jacob Oftebro; Sequel to the beloved Swedish classic, follows on after the death of conductor Daniel Darius, where the soprano and love of his life expects his…
Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) (2015): Dir. Eva Husson
Feat. Finnegan Oldfield; A refreshingly non–judgemental account of female promiscuity, following a group of adolescents in a sleepy French town who start a sex party…
Boomerang (2015): Dir. François Favrat
Feat. Laurent Lafitte, Mélanie Laurent, Audrey Dana…; Proficient French thriller from the author of SARAH'S KEY concerns a pair of siblings and their pursuit for the truth behind their mother's death.
Brand New Testament, The (2015): Dir. Jaco Van Dormael
Feat. Benoit Poelvoorde, Catherine Deneuve, François Damiens…; Fantastical comedy in which God's teenage daughter gets fed up up with her overbearing father – who never gets off the computer – and…
Cemetery of Splendour (2015): Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Feat. Jenjira Pongpas Widner; Mesmerising film in the director's indefinable style, set in and around a rural Thai hospital which may be haunted. A group of soldiers…
Courted (2015): Dir. Christian Vincent
Feat. Fabrice Luchini, Sidse Babett Knudsen; Denmark's Sidse Babett Knudsen (BORGEN) stars in this quietly accomplished French romantic drama as a juror who's shared past with a judge is…
Decadence (Decadencia) (2015): Dir. Joaquin Rodriguez
Feat. Nataly Umaña, Alejandro Estrada; Over–heated eroticism from Mexico with a young woman falling for a rich entrepreneur after he nearly runs her over with his car.
Fencer, The (Miekkailija) (2015): Dir. Klaus Haro
Feat. Märt Avandi; An accomplished Estonian fencer returns to his homeland after fleeing from the Russian secret police during WWII. He quickly becomes a role model and…
Francisco: The Man Behind The Pope (Francis:Pray for Me) (2015): Dir. Beda Docampo Feijóo
Feat. Darío Grandinetti, Silvia Abascal, Leticia Bredice; Somewhat fawning look at the life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, form his early childhood days in Argentina to his becoming Pope Francis.
Francofonia (2015): Dir. Alexandr Sokurov
Feat. Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Benjamin Utzerath; A richly evocative and insightful historical cine–essay from celebrated dir. Alexander Sokurov (RUSSIAN ARK) that charts the relationship…
Heat Wave (Coup de chaud) (2015): Dir. Raphaël Jacoulot
Feat. Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Gregory Gadebois; A peaceful French hamlet is turned upside down when a deranged local starts harassing the the villagers and causing hostilities to rise dangerously.…
Heavy Water War, The (The Saboteurs) (2015): Dir. Per-Olav Sørensen
Feat. Espen Klouman-Høiner, Soren Pilmark, Anna Friel…; Thrilling Norwegian mini–series tells the story behind Hitler's plan for obtaining the atomic bomb during WW2, and the heavy water sabotages in…
Idol, The (Ya tayr el tayer) (2015): Dir. Hany Abu-Assad
Feat. Tawfeek Barhom, Kais Attalah, Hiba Attalah; Comedy–drama based on the true story of an aspiring Palestinian musician who sets about overcoming the extraordinary goal of competing on the…
In the Shadow of Women (L'ombre des femmes) (2015): Dir. Philippe Garrel
Feat. Clotilde Courau, Stanislas Merhar, Lena Paugam; Romantic drama from Philippe Garrel, a prolific French auteur whose work is rarely available outside of France and often deal with the subject of…
It's Only the End of the World (2015): Dir. Xavier Dolan
Feat. Nathalie Baye, Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard…; French–Canadian prodigy Xavier Dolan returns with this Cannes–winning melodrama about a terminally ill gay writer who returns to his…
Ixcanul (Volcano) (2015): Dir. Jayro Bustamante
Feat. Maria Mercedes Coroy, Maria Telon; Rare Guatemalan drama set on the slopes of an active volcano, where a marginalised Mayan community prepare for the arranged marriage of a…
La Belle Saison (Summertime) (2015): Dir. Catherine Corsini
Feat. Cecile De France, Izia Higelin, Noemie Lvovsky; Two women strike up a passionate affair against a backdrop of the feminist movement in early–1970's France, but struggle to reconcile of…
Land of Mine (Under sandet) (2015): Dir. Martin Zandvliet
Feat. Roland Møller, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard; Multi award–winning historical drama following a unit of captured German soldiers who are put to work disabling Hitler's munitions by an…
Legacy, The - Series 2 (TV Series) (Arvingerne) (2015): Feat. Trine Dyrholm, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Lene Maria Christensen…; Second season of the gripping drama in which the death of a matriarch brings forgotten secrets out into the open and causes a prolonged battle for…
Love (Love 3D) (2015): Dir. Gaspar Noe
Feat. Aomi Muyock, Karl Glusman, Klara Kristin; French cinema's enfant–terrible Gaspar Noe finds some more envelopes to push in this explicit adult drama. An American living in Paris enters a…
Marguerite (2015): Dir. Xavier Giannoli
Feat. Catherine Frot, Andre Marcon, Michel Fau…; Touching French version of the story inspired by the life of Florence Foster Jenkins, a socialite who believed she was in possession of a beautiful…
Mustang (2015): Dir. Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Feat. Gunes Senoy, Doga Doguslu, Elit Iscan…; Sublime female coming–of–age story set in a remote Turkish village, where five sisters face the stifling expectations of their…
My Mother (Mia Madre) (2015): Dir. Nanni Moretti
Feat. Margherita Buy, John Turturro, Nanni Moretti…; Affecting character study of a director in the middle of an film–making crisis who has to deal with the inevitable yet still unacceptable loss…
Neon Bull (Boi neon) (2015): Dir. Gabriel Mascaro
Feat. Vinícius de Oliveira, Juliano Cazarré; Transgressive and beguiling drama set in the Brazilian world of the vaquejada, a traditional style of rodeo, as seen through the eyes of a gender…
One Wild Moment (2015): Dir. Jean-François Richet
Feat. Vincent Cassel, Francois Cluzet, Alice Isaaz…; Exotic romantic comedy with Cassel and Cluzet as two friends who bring their daughters with them on a beach vacation and find themselves in an…
Our Little Sister (Umimachi Diary) (2015): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, Kaho …; Another exquisite domestic drama from Kore–eda Hirokazu that revolves around the loves and working lives of three sisters who accommodate their…
Passion of Augustine, The (2015): Dir. Lea Pool
Feat. Céline Bonnier, Lysandre Ménard, Valérie Blais; A warm, intelligent drama set in a convent school in Quebec in the late 1960's, where women are given the opportunity to learn music regardless of…
Second Mother, The (Que Horas Ela Volta?) (2015): Dir. Anna Muylaert
Feat. Regina Case; An intelligent, touching and funny film exploring the complexities of class structure in Brazil. Tensions arise when a wealthy family allows their…
Son of Saul (2015): Dir. László Nemes
Feat. Géza Röhrig, Levente Molnár, Urs Rechn; Masterful, but deeply disturbing glimpse into the horror of Auschwitz seen through the perspective of a prisoner forced to burn the corpses of his…
Suburra (2015): Dir. Stefano Sollima
Feat. Pierfrancesco Favino, Elio Germano, Claudio Amendola…; Enthralling crime saga follows a gangster named Samurai as he attempts to turn the waterfront of Rome into an Italian Las Vegas.
Truman (2015): Dir. Cesc Gay
Feat. Ricardo Darín, Javier Camara; Spanish cinema stars Ricardo Darin and Javier Camara team up for this sensitive comedy as childhood friends who reunite after many years when one of…
Wait, The (L'attesa) (2015): Dir. Piero Messina
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Lou de Laâge, Giorgio Colangeli; Juliette Binoche plays a mother who slowly draws a connection to her son's fiancée while they await his arrival at a beautiful Sicilian villa.
Zoom (2015): Dir. Paulo Morelli
Feat. Gael Garcia Bernal, Alison Pill, Jason Priestley…; A multi–dimensional interface between a comic book artist, a novelist, and a film director. Each lives in a separate reality but authors a…
A Chance Encounter (Quantum Love) (2014): Dir. Lisa Azuelos
Feat. Sophie Marceau, Francois Cluzet, Lisa Azuelos…; High–concept romantic comedy which blends fantasy with reality as a a married man's encounter with another woman develops into a mutual…
Beloved Sisters (2014): Dir. Dominik Graf
Feat. Hannah Herzsprung, Henriette Confurius, Florian Stetter…; Acclaimed period drama depicts the unconventional romance between two aristocratic sisters and a rebellious poet who took the European literary world…
Court (2014): Dir. Chaitanya Tamhane
Feat. Vira Sathidar, Vivek Gomber; A strikingly confident directorial debut that exposes the antiquity of the Indian legal system through the court trial of an ageing protest singer…
Crow's Egg, The (Kaakkaa Muttai) (2014): Dir. M. Manikandan
Feat. Ramesh , J. Vignesh, Iyshwarya Rajesh; Affecting Tamil comedy set in a Chennai slum follows two mischievous and resourceful brothers as they witness the opening of a local pizza shop, and…
Diplomacy (2014): Dir. Volker Schlondorff
Feat. Andre Dussollier, Niels Arestrup, Burghart Klaussner…; A thematically rich and expertly staged historical drama that depicts the relationship between Dietrich von Choltitz, the German military governor of…
Eden (2014): Dir. Mia Hansen-Love
Feat. Félix de Givry, Pauline Etienne, Vincent Macaigne…; Peculiarly affecting drama set in the underground "garage" dance subculture of early–nineties Paris, where a teenager forms a DJ collective…
Far from Men (2014): Dir. David Oelhoffen
Feat. Viggo Mortensen, Reda Kateb; Viggo Mortensen stars in this existential western adapted from an Albert Camus' short story. Set in Algeria in the fifties, Mortensen is charged with…
Folies Bergère (Paris Follies) (2014): Dir. Marc Fitoussi
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Michael Nyqvist…; Isabelle Huppert stars in this lighty comic French tale as a as a farmer’s wife who takes off to Paris on a whim and finds romance in unexpected…
Fool, The (Durak) (2014): Dir. Yuri Bykov
Feat. Artyom Bystrov, Boris Nevzorov, Natalia Surkova; An idealistic Russian plumber discovers a building is about to collapse, and when he alerts the authorities of the need to evacuate the residents…
Force Majeure (Turist) (2014): Dir. Ruben Östlund
Feat. Johannes Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Kristofer Hivju…; A barbed and incisive Swedish black comedy of gender politics, centred around a family on a skiing holiday in the French Alps who face a recognizable…
Giovanni's Island (2014): Dir. Mizuho Nishikubo; Affecting anime drama in the mould of GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES set in the Kuril Islands during the aftermath of WWII where a friendship blossoms…
Girlhood (2014): Dir. Céline Sciamma
Feat. Karidja Touré, Assa Sylla, Lindsay Karamoh…; Potent coming–of–age drama set on the margins of Paris that follows a 16–year–old girl whose poor prospects tempt her to join…
Haemoo (2014): Dir. Sung-Bo Shim
Feat. Yun-seok Kim, Yoo-chun Park, Ye-ri Han; Harrowing account of a fishing–boat crew that takes on a dangerous commission to smuggle a group of illegal immigrants from China to Korea.
Hidden Away (A escondidas) (2014): Dir. Mikel Rueda
Feat. German Alcarazu, Adil Koukouh, Joseba Ugalde; Spanish romantic drama filmed in neighbourhoods throughout Bilbao, exploring themes of sexual awakening, racism and deportation through the story of…
I Am Happiness on Earth (2014): Dir. Julien Hernandez
Feat. Hugo Catalan, Gabino Rodriguez, Andrea Portal; Gay–themed Mexican film about the infatuation a commitment–phobic film director has for a talented dancer. Director Julian Hernandez…
Labyrinth of Lies (2014): Dir. Giulio Ricciarelli
Feat. Alexander Fehling, Johannes Krisch, Friederike Becht…; Thought–provoking drama set in 1950's Germany in which an ambitious young prosecutor's pursuit of an Auschwitz commandant exposes the…
Legacy, The - Series 1 (TV Series) (Arvingerne) (2014): Feat. Trine Dyrholm, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Lene Maria Christensen…; From the creators of BORGEN and THE KILLING comes this gripping drama in which the death of a matriarch brings forgotten secrets out into the open…
Leviathan (2014): Dir. Andrei Zvyagintsev
Feat. Aleksey Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Vladimir Vdovichenkov…; A bleak but compelling allegory of modern Russia is lensed through a fisherman's struggle against bureaucracy, corruption and demons of his own as he…
Love at First Fight (Les Combattants) (2014): Dir. Thomas Cailley
Feat. Adele Haenel, Kevin Azais, Antoine Laurent…; An intensely physical take on the romantic comedy, with an awkward summer romance taking place at a French survivalist camp between a…
Mommy (2014): Dir. Xavier Dolan
Feat. Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clément, Antoine-Olivier Pilon…; Xavier Dolan directs this piercing account of a widowed single mother, raising her violent son alone, who finds new hope when a mysterious neighbor…
New Girlfriend, The (Une Nouvelle Amie) (2014): Dir. Francois Ozon; Playful and stylish exploration of gender identity and eroticism based on a short story by Ruth Rendell, in which a grieving widower begins dressing…
Phoenix (2014): Dir. Christian Petzold
Feat. Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Nina Kunzendorf; The director of YELLA and BARBARA reunites with his ingenue Nina Hoss for this romantic tale of deception about a concentration camp survivor who…
Saint Laurent (2014): Dir. Bertrand Bonello
Feat. Gaspard Ulliel, Jeremie Renier, Louis Garrel…; A decadent alternate portrait of the iconic fashion designer covering the peak of his career from 1967 to 1976. From the dir. of HOUSE OF PLEASURES.
Samba (2014): Dir. Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano
Feat. Omar Sy, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Tahar Rahim…; The creative force behind THE INTOUCHABLES return with this inspirational drama centered on the redeeming relationship between a Senegalese…
Second Chance, A (2014): Dir. Susanne Bier
Feat. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Thomas Bo Larsen…; Susanne Bier directs a haunting melodrama about the contrasting lives of two police officers, whose lives take a dark turn after finding a neglected…
Silent Heart (2014): Dir. Bille August
Feat. Ghita Norby, Paprika Steen, Jens Albinus…; Earnest chamber drama about three generations of a family coming together over a weekend. A sick mother's wish to die before her disease worsens gets…
Someone You Love (2014): Dir. Pernille Fischer Christensen
Feat. Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen; Danish drama about an aging singer whose recording process is interrupted by the arrival of a grandson he's never met.
Timbuktu (2014): Dir. Abderrahmane Sissako
Feat. Abel Jafri, Hichem Yacoubi; A powerful and subtle drama set in the city of Timbuktu in Mali, West Africa. The city has been occupied by Jihadists, and the citizens are suffering…
Two Days, One Night (2014): Dir. Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Feat. Marion Cotillard, Fabrizio Rongione, Catherine Salee; Marion Cotillard stars as a young mother, discovers that her workmates have opted for a significant pay bonus, in exchange for her dismissal. She has…
Winter Sleep (2014): Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Feat. Haluk Bilginer, Melisa Sozen, Demet Akbag; Winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes this provocative drama follows a local celebrity who runs a small hotel with his wife. In winter…
Wonders, The (Le Meraviglie) (2014): Dir. Alice Rohrwacher
Feat. Alba Rohrwacher, Maria Alexandra Lungu, Sam Louwyck; A Tuscan family of beekeepers find their household disrupted by the arrival of a silently troubled teenage boy and a reality TV show intent on…
Yves Saint Laurent (2014): Dir. Jalil Lespert
Feat. Pierre Niney, Charlotte Le Bon, Guillaume Gallienne; A look at the life and loves of famed French designer Yves Saint Laurent.
A Touch of Sin (2013): Dir. Jia Zhang-ke
Feat. Wu Jiang, Baoqiang Wang, Zhao Tao; Another striking modern tale of urban discontent from leading Chinese auteur Jia Zhang–ke, one which remains as perceptive and…
Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013): Dir. Abdellatif Kechiche
Feat. Léa Seydoux, Adele Exarchopoulos; The Cannes Palm D'Or–winning drama that explores, in a series of elongated sequences, a young woman's blossoming sexuality and maturity when…
Borgen - Series 3 (TV Series) (2013): Feat. Sidse Babett Knudsen, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Pilou Asbæk; Further episodes from the Bafta–winning Danish political drama in which an idealistic prime minister's rise to power brings with it a web of…
Broken Circle Breakdown, The (2013): Dir. Felix Van Groeningen
Feat. Veerle Baetens, Johan Heldenbergh, Nell Cattrysse; Dynamic and sexy musical romance set in the Flemish region of Belgium over seven years of poignant love and loss, and featuring a magnificent…
Camille Claudel, 1915 (2013): Dir. Bruno Dumont
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Jean-Luc Vincent; Another acting masterclass from the formidable Juliette Binoche intensifies this clear–sighted portrait of misunderstood sculptress Camille…
Child's Pose (2013): Dir. Calin Peter Netzer
Feat. Luminita Gheorghiu, Vlad Ivanov; A manipulative mother contrives to keep her adult son out of prison following a manslaughter charge in this gripping character drama from the…
Eastern Boys (2013): Dir. Robin Campillo
Feat. Olivier Rabourdin, Kirill Emelyanov, Danil Vorobyev; Unconventional thriller explores the shifting dynamics in a relationship between an older man and a young immigrant male hustler.
Father Brown (TV Series) (2013): Feat. Mark Williams, Hugo Speer, Sorcha Cusack; A reboot of the 1970's British television detective period drama about the eponymous Roman Catholic priest who solves crimes in a fictional Cotswold…
Finishers, The (De toutes nos forces) (2013): Dir. Nils Tavernier
Feat. Jacques Gamblin, Alexandra Lamy, Fabien Héraud; Inspiring tale of a father's attempt to bond with his cerebral palsy–afflicted son by participating in an Ironman endurance contest. A real…
Friends From France (Les interdits) (2013): Dir. Philippe Kotlarski, Anne Weil; Two cousins pose as an engaged couple on a tour to Odessa in order to help liberate persecuted Jews in this suspenseful Iron Curtain thriller.
Garden of Words, The (2013): Dir. Makoto Shinkai
Feat. Miyu Irino, Kana Hanazawa; Another gorgeous animated romance from the director of 5 CENTIMETRES PER SECOND, centred on the poignant relationship between a sensitive teenager…
German Doctor, The (2013): Dir. Lucía Puenzo
Feat. Àlex Brendemühl, Natalia Oreiro; Chilling domestic thriller centred on the Argentine family who lived unknowingly with Josef Mengele, the notorious Auschwitz physician, after he fled…
Gloria (2013): Dir. Sebastián Lelio
Feat. Paulina García, Sergio Hernández; Another superb Chilean drama in the wake of the previous year's NO, Paulina Garcia plays a free–spirited 58–year–old divorcee who…
Great Beauty, The (2013): Dir. Paolo Sorrentino
Feat. Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli…; This Academy–Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film has dir. Paolo Sorrentino's regular frontman Toni Servillo as an aging Roman…
Heart of a Lion (2013): Dir. Dome Karukoski
Feat. Laura Birn, Peter Franzén; Thoughtful character study of an ultranationalist skinhead whose racist attitudes soften through his desire for a family – specifically his…
Homeland (2013): Dir. Mohamed Hamidi
Feat. Tewfik Jallab, Jamel Debbouze; In this affecting tale of self–discovery, a French law student visits his father’s village in Algeria for the first time, only to have his…
Ida (2013): Dir. Pawel Pawlikowski
Feat. Agata Trzebuchowska, Agata Kulesza; The ghosts of the Holcaust and Stalinism haunt this modern masterpiece about a young nun, who on the verge of taking her vows, visits her only…
In Bloom (2013): Dir. Nana Ekvtimishvili
Feat. Lika Babluani, Mariam Bokeria; Set in the newly independent state of Georgia in the wake of the Soviet regime, this powerful story follows two young girls as they courageously…
Jappeloup (2013): Dir. Christian Duguay
Feat. Guillaume Canet, Marina Hands, Daniel Auteuil…; A workmanlike rendering of the feats of Jappeloup, a diminutive horse who went to triumph against the odds at the 1988 Seoul games, becoming a French…
Just a Sigh (2013): Dir. Jérôme Bonnell
Feat. Emmanuelle Devos, Gabriel Byrne; Emmanuelle Devos and Gabriel Byrne experience a brief encounter as an actress and a professor who trade glances on a Paris–bound train. A…
Like Father, Like Son (2013): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Masaharu Fukuyama, Machiko Ono, Yôko Maki…; Two divergent families struggle to cope with the revelation that their young sons were swapped at birth in this moving domestic drama from dir.…
Living is Easy with Eyes Closed (2013): Dir. David Trueba
Feat. Javier Camara, Natalia de Molina, Francesc Colomer…; Award–winning Spanish comedy concerning a Beatles–obsessed school teacher on a quest to meet John Lennon, picking up two teenage runaways…
Mood Indigo (2013): Dir. Michel Gondry
Feat. Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh…; Audrey Tautou and Romain Duris star in this wild interpretation of Boris Vian’s cult novel 'Froth on the Daydream' from dir. Michel Gondry.
Nightingale, The (2013): Dir. Phillippe Muyl
Feat. Baotian Li, Xiaoran Li, Xin Yi Yang; Gentle drama that draws together an elderly farmer and his spoiled urban grand–daughter on a lengthy pilgrimage through beautiful…
Norte, The End of History (2013): Dir. Lav Diaz
Feat. Sid Lucero; Epic Dostoyevskian themes of cultural memory, national guilt and the origin of evil are translated to a modern–day Phillipines setting in this…
Of Horses and Men (2013): Dir. Benedikt Erlingsson
Feat. Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Charlotte Bøving, Kristbjörg Kjeld; A series of comic vignettes of life in a rural Icelandic community, which shows the intertwined lives of humans and horses in sometimes awkward…
Omar (2013): Dir. Hany Abu-Assad
Feat. Adam Bakri, Leem Lubany; This gripping new film from the dir. of PARADISE NOW concerns a Palestinian freedom fighter who is tricked into becoming an informant for the Israeli…
On My Way (2013): Dir. Emmanuelle Bercot
Feat. Catherine Deneuve; A fine late–life outing for the ageless Catherine Deneuve, here playing a free–spirited grandmother who takes to the road with her…
Paradise: Hope (Paradise Hope) (2013): Dir. Ulrich Seidl
Feat. Melanie Lenz, Joseph Lorenz; Austrian provocateur Ulrich Seidl dispatches a typically unvarnished portrait of institutional ritual with this concluding chapter to his PARADISE…
Past, The (2013): Dir. Asghar Farhadi
Feat. Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim, Ali Mosaffa; Dir. Asghar Farhadi's follow–up to the acclaimed A SEPARATION centres on a man who must face the complications of divorce after he leaves his…
Rock the Casbah (2013): Dir. Laïla Marrakchi
Feat. Morjana Alaoui, Nadine Labaki, Lubna Azabal…; Culturally–specific family comedy in which three women reunite in Morocco to mourn in accordance with Muslim tradition following the death of…
Rocket, The (2013): Dir. Kim Mordaunt
Feat. Sitthiphon Disamoe; The uplifting story of a cursed boy who strives to prove himself by building a giant rocket for the occasion of Laos' famous Rocket Festival.
Siddharth (2013): Dir. Richie Mehta
Feat. Rajesh Tailang, Tannishtha Chatterjee; Another bracing neo–realist drama from the director of AMAL about a tea–seller from Delhi who travels across India in search of his…
Tattoo (Tatuagem) (2013): Dir. Hilton Lacerda
Feat. Irandhir Santos, Jesuíta Barbosa, Rodrigo Garcia; Singular Brazilian film set in the 70's, where the leader of a debaucherous cabaret theatre troupe falls in love with a soldier, and is torn between…
Turning Tide (2013): Dir. Christophe Offenstein
Feat. Francois Cluzet, Samy Seghir, Virginie Efira…; Francois Cluzet stars as an intrepid solo round–the–world yacht racer battling the elements, a crippled ship, and an immigrant boy…
Venus in Fur (2013): Dir. Roman Polanski
Feat. Emmanuelle Seigner, Mathieu Amalric; Roman Polanski masterfully adapts David Ives' play–within–a–play about an actress who goes to great lengths to convince a director…
Violette (2013): Dir. Martin Provost
Feat. Emmanuelle Devos, Sandrine Kiberlain, Olivier Gourmet; Emmanuelle Devos is hypnotic as Violette Leduc, the French writer whose fearless memoirs, championed by Simone de Beauvoir, broke new boundaries for…
We Are the Best (Vi är bäst!) (2013): Dir. Lukas Moodysson
Feat. Mira Grosin, Mira Barkhammar, Liv LeMoyne; Endearing portrait of teenage experimentation set in early '80s Stockholm where two decidedly unmusical 13–year–old girls decide to form…
Wetlands (2013): Dir. David Wnendt
Feat. Carla Juri, Christoph Letkowski, Marlen Kruse; Provocative comic tale of an eccentric girl who has strange attitudes towards hygiene and sexuality longs for the reunion of her divorced parents.
A Gun in Each Hand (2012): Dir. Cesc Gay
Feat. Javier Camara, Ricardo Darín, Jordi Molla…; A talk–em–up as opposed to a shoot–em–up, this lively portmanteau follows the dissatisfied lives of eight middle–aged…
A Lady in Paris (2012): Dir. Ilmar Raag
Feat. Jeanne Moreau, Laine Mägi, Patrick Pineau; An Estonian woman bereft of loved ones moves to France to care for an elderly expatriate who still obsessively pines for a former younger lover. An…
A Royal Affair (2012): Dir. Nikolaj Arcel
Feat. Mads Mikkelsen, Alicia Vikander, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard; 18th Century Denmark is the backdrop for this high–costumed drama about the love affair between Queen Caroline Matilda and her royal physician…
After May (Something in the Air) (2012): Dir. Olivier Assayas
Feat. Lola Créton, Clément Métayer; Hatched from dir. Olivier Assayas' personal experiences, this bittersweet evocation of the leftist fervour that caught hold of young Europeans in the…
Amour (2012): Dir. Michael Haneke
Feat. Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert; An octogenarian couple find their love put to the ultimate test when one of them suffers a stroke in this devastating humanist drama from master…
Augustine (2012): Dir. Alice Winocour
Feat. Vincent Lindon, Soko , Chiara Mastroianni…; Romantic drama speculating on a relationship (that in reality did not occur) between the 19th Century French neurologist Jean–Martin Charcot…
Barbara (2012): Dir. Christian Petzold
Feat. Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Rainer Bock; A doctor who dreams of defecting from 1980's East Germany is banished to a country medical clinic under the possible watch of Stasi informants in…
Bekas (2012): Dir. Karzan Kader
Feat. Zamand Taha, Sarwar Fazil; Two Iraqi orphans fantasize about travelling to America and summoning the help of Superman in this simple yet stirring childhood adventure, one that…
Beyond the Hills (2012): Dir. Cristian Mungiu
Feat. Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur; Cristian Mungiu directs this engrossing companion piece to his Cannes–winning 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS, about the test of closeness between…
Blancanieves (2012): Dir. Pablo Berger
Feat. Daniel Giménez Cacho, Angela Molina, Maribel Verdu…; The legend of Snow White is transposed to the bullfighting, flamenco dancing netherworld of the Spanish provinces in this beautiful and beguiling…
Dangerous Liaisons (2012): Dir. Jin-ho Hur
Feat. Cecilia Cheung, Jang Dong-Gun, Zhang Ziyi; A sumptuous new adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' famous novel, relocating the grand sexual conspiracy to opulent 1930s Shanghai, where two wealthy…
Farewell, My Queen (2012): Dir. Benoît Jacquot
Feat. Diane Kruger, Léa Seydoux, Virginie Ledoyen…; Benoît Jacquot’s film goes behind the scenes of Louis XVI and — more specifically — Marie Antoinette’s court during…
Fill the Void (2012): Dir. Rama Burshtein
Feat. Hadas Yaron, Yiftach Klein; A young woman negotiates the fraught rite of arranged marriage in this austere insight into rituals of an Orthodox Hassidic family in Tel Aviv.
Hannah Arendt (2012): Dir. Margarethe von Trotta
Feat. Barbara Sukowa, Janet McTeer, Julia Jentsch…; Barbara Sukowa portrays famed German–American political theorist Hannah Arendt during her response to the 1961 trial of ex–Nazi Adolf…
Haute Cuisine (2012): Dir. Christian Vincent
Feat. Catherine Frot, Hippolyte Girardot; A heavenly food biopic of the life of Danièle Delpeuch, celebrated private chef to the French president, François Mitterrand.
Hunt, The (2012): Dir. Thomas Vinterberg
Feat. Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen; A hard–hitting moral drama of everyday persecution from dir. Thomas Vinterberg, starring Mads Mikkelsen as a teacher whose life is shattered by…
In the Fog (2012): Dir. Sergey Loznitsa
Feat. Vladislav Svirskiy, Vladislav Abashin; Intense, slow burning Russian drama exploring the moralities of war through the story of a man wrongly accused of collaboration with the German…
In the House (2012): Dir. Francois Ozon
Feat. Fabrice Luchini, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emmanuelle Seigner…; Set in a literary milieu, this deliciously warped meta drama from dir. Francois Ozon concerns the writings of a precocious 16–year–old…
Inch'Allah (2012): Dir. Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette
Feat. Evelyne Brochu, Sabrina Ouazani, Sivan Levy; A French Canadian doctor working in Ramallah experiences the conflict of the Israel–Palestine divide firsthand in this powerful…
Italian Film Festival Collection, The - 2012: Volume One (2012): Comprehensive box–set collection of 16 of the best Italian films featured at the 'Italian Film Festival 2012' spread over 5 discs. Films…
Italian Film Festival Collection, The - 2012: Volume Two (2012): Comprehensive box–set collection of 14 of the best Italian films featured at the 'Italian Film Festival 2012' spread over 5 discs. Films…
Jackie (2012): Dir. Antoinette Beumer
Feat. Carice Van Houten, Jelka van Houten, Holly Hunter; Two Dutch sisters (played by real life siblings Carice and van Houten) trek from the Netherlands to mid–west America in aid of a mother they've…
Kon-Tiki (2012): Dir. Espen Sandberg, Joachim Roenning
Feat. Pål Sverre Hagen; A rousing dramatisation of the 1947 voyage of the legendary Kon–Tiki, a balsa–wood raft lead across the Pacific by Norwegian explorer…
Last Sentence, The (2012): Dir. Jan Troell
Feat. Jesper Christensen, Pernilla August; Anchored by a superb Jesper Christensen, this serious and sombre biopic accurately reflects Swedish journalist Jesper Christensen's stubborn…
Laurence Anyways (2012): Dir. Xavier Dolan
Feat. Melvil Poupaud, Suzanne Clément, Nathalie Baye…; Young French–Canadian actor/director Xavier Dolan stays behind the camera of his third film (made at 23 years of age, no less), an assured…
Looking for Hortense (2012): Dir. Pascal Bonitzer
Feat. Jean-Pierre Bacri, Kristin Scott Thomas, Isabelle Carré…; This bittersweet comedy of manners finds familiar May–December pleasures in the mid–life journey of an unhappily married professor who…
Lore (2012): Dir. Cate Shortland
Feat. Saskia Rosendahl; A satisfyingly ambitious and haunting drama from the Australian dir. of SOMERSAULT, set in Europe in the aftermath of WWII. Following the arrest…
Man Who Laughs, The (2012): Dir. Jean-Pierre Améris
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Marc-André Grondin, Emmanuelle Seigner…; Victor Hugo's classic tale of two orphans – one disfigured, one blind – who become popular entertainers compels in this handsomely…
Masquerade (2012): Dir. Chang-min Choo
Feat. Byung-hun Lee; A Chosun Dynasty monarch under threat of assassination recruits a jester who specialises in satrising royals to impersonate him in this richly…
My Straight Son (Azul y no tan rosa) (2012): Dir. Miguel Ferrari
Feat. Guillermo Garcia, Nacho Montes, Hilda Abrahamz; Venezuelan drama about a successful gay photographer living in Caracas whose teenage son from a past relationship comes to stay. Unfamiliar with the…
Neighboring Sounds (Neighbouring Sounds) (2012): Dir. Kleber Mendonca Filho
Feat. Irandhir Santos, Maeve Jinkings, Gustavo Jahn; The striking feature debut of Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho (BACURAU) depicting life on a sheltered prosperous street adjacent to a poor…
No (2012): Dir. Pablo Larrain
Feat. Gael Garcia Bernal, Alfredo Castro; Gael Garcia Bernal plays an ad executive who conceives a campaign to defeat Augusto Pinochet in Chile's 1988 referendum in this unique celebration of…
Oh Boy (A Coffee in Berlin) (2012): Dir. Jan Ole Gerster
Feat. Tom Schilling, Katharina Schüttler; A college dropout wanders the streets of Berlin contemplating his place in the world in this ironic portrait of early adulthood.
On Air (Parlez-moi de vous) (2012): Dir. Pierre Pinaud
Feat. Karin Viard, Nicolas Duvauchelle; A solid character vehicle for French mainstay Karin Viard, here playing the sophisticated host of a radio talkback show, whose knack for delivering…
Other Son, The (2012): Dir. Lorraine Levy
Feat. Emmanuelle Devos, Pascal Elbé, Jules Sitruk…; Two families on either side of the Israeli–Palestinian divide learn that their sons were switched at birth in this moving human drama.
Paradise: Faith (Paradise Faith) (2012): Dir. Ulrich Seidl
Feat. Maria Hofstatter, Nabil Saleh, Natalija Baranova; The second installment of Ulrich Seidl's PARADISE trilogy follows Anna Maria, the sister of Teresa (in PARADISE: LOVE), a single woman in her 50s…
Paradise: Love (Paradise Love) (2012): Dir. Ulrich Seidl
Feat. Margarethe Tiesel; The first chapter of the Ulrich Seidl's PARADISE trilogy is a provocative take on exotic romance in which a middle–aged Austrian woman plays…
Patience Stone, The (2012): Dir. Atiq Rahimi
Feat. Golshifteh Farahani, Hami Djavadan; Atiq Rahimi's adapts his own bestselling novel about a Muslim woman whose paralyzed husband offers quiet relief amid the sorrows of life in a…
Pieta (2012): Dir. Kim Ki-Duk
Feat. Min-soo Jo, Jung-Jin Lee; Kim Ki–Duk directs this controversial Golden Lion winner, about a debt–collecting thug who is forced to confront his violent ways when a…
Reality (2012): Dir. Matteo Garrone
Feat. Aniello Arena, Loredana Simioli, Nando Paone; A working class scam artist tries out for 'Big Brother' in this bustling, Fellini–esque satire of unrealised dreams from dir. Matteo Garrone…
Renoir (2012): Dir. Gilles Bourdos
Feat. Michel Bouquet, Christa Theret, Vincent Rottiers…; Sumptuous, sun–kissed art biopic based on the last years of impressionist painter Auguste Renoir (Bouquet) during World War I, and the…
Rita (TV Series) (2012-2015): Feat. Mille Dinesen, Lise Baastrup, Carsten Bjørnlund…; Danish comedy series following the life of a defiantly outspoken school teacher and single mother who excels in her teaching but struggles in her…
Rust and Bone (2012): Dir. Jacques Audiard
Feat. Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Celine Sallette…; Jacques Audiard (A PROPHET) directs this searing drama of a broken woman (Marion Cotillard) who rediscovers the will to live through an itinerant man…
Silent Youth (2012): Dir. Diemo Kemmesies
Feat. Martin Bruchmann, Josef Mattes, Linda Schule; Low key German indie drama offering a story of gay first love, replete with palpable sexual tension and interesting, honest performances. Like so…
Sister (2012): Dir. Ursula Meier
Feat. Léa Seydoux, Kacey Mottet Klein, Martin Compston…; On the slopes of a Swiss ski resort, a resourceful 12–year–old boy steals to support his troubled older sister in this fine…
Suskind (2012): Dir. Rudolf van den Berg
Feat. Karl Markovics, Jeroen Spitzenberger; A serious, respectful historical dramatisation of the deeds of Walter Sueskind, a Jewish industrialist in Amsterdam who used his leverage as an…
Tabu (2012): Dir. Miguel Gomes
Feat. Teresa Madruga, Laura Soveral, Ana Moreira…; A retired woman seeks out a man with a secret connection to her past life as a plantation owner in Africa in this a beguiling black and white mystery.
Taste of Money, The (2012): Dir. Sang-soo Im
Feat. Kang-woo Kim, Yoon-sik Baek, Yuh-jung Youn; The dir. of THE HOUSEMAID buffs this heady class critique of Korea's impudent elite to a high sheen, with the lust and corruption of a wealthy family…
Teddy Bear (10 Timer til Paradis) (2012): Dir. Mads Matthiesen
Feat. Kim Kold; Real life body–builder Kim Kold stars as a shy and awkward 38 year–old Danish bodybuilder who still lives with his mum, but decides to…
Thérèse Desqueyroux (Therese Desqueyroux) (2012): Dir. Claude Miller
Feat. Audrey Tautou, Gilles Lellouche, Anaïs Demoustier; In pre–war France, a free–spirited woman joins a wealthy landowner in a loveless marriage. Audrey Tautou dials down the cute to deliver…
Third Half, The (2012): Dir. Darko Mitrevski
Feat. Katarina Ivanovska, Sasko Kocev; A Macedonian football club hires a German coach to galvanize the team as Nazis prepare to enter the country in this wartime occupation drama.
Wadjda (2012): Dir. Haifaa Al-Mansour
Feat. Waad Mohammed, Reem Abdullah; This humanist triumph is the first ever feature to be shot in Saudi Arabia, centering on a plucky young girl who attempts to raise money for a…
War Witch (Rebelle) (2012): Dir. Kim Nguyen
Feat. Rachel Mwanza; A remarkable magical realist portrayal of the tragedy of child soldiering in one of Africa’s many civil wars, with the phenomenal Rachel Mwanza as…
Welcome Aboard (2012): Dir. Jean Becker
Feat. Patrick Chesnais, Jeanne Lambert, Miou-Miou; No stranger to movies about unlikely friendships, dir. Jean Becker balances sentiment with pathos in this finely drawn character study of a…
White Elephant (2012): Dir. Pablo Trapero
Feat. Ricardo Darín, Jeremie Renier, Martina Gusman; Two priests determined to build a hospital in a Buenos Aires shantytown encounter violent resistance from local drug lords in this superb social…
Yossi (2012): Dir. Eytan Fox
Feat. Ohad Knoller; A satisfying, exploratory follow–up to Israeli gay drama YOSSI AND JAGGER, this catches up with the titular Yossi, now ten years older and no…
A Happy Event (Un Heureux Evenement) (2011): Dir. Rémi Bezançon
Feat. Louise Bourgoin, Pio Marmaï, Josiane Balasko…; Keenly felt depiction of the baby blues as a young couple struggle to come to grips with parenthood.
Against the Wind (Headwinds) (2011): Dir. Jalil Lespert
Feat. Benoit Magimel, Isabelle Carré, Bouli Lanners…; Quality French drama explores the emotional wreck of a widower who tries to rebuild his life and make sense of his loss in the aftermath of his…
Ages of Love (Manual of Love 3) (2011): Dir. Giovanni Veronesi
Feat. Robert De Niro, Monica Bellucci, Riccardo Scamarcio…; Third installment in the fluffy romantic series has benefits from the presence of De Niro as a visiting professor seduced by his neighbour's…
All Our Desires (2011): Dir. Philippe Lioret
Feat. Marie Gillain, Vincent Lindon; Well–meaning social melodrama from the dir. of WELCOME follows the determined fight by a judge to defend an impoverished woman from ruthless…
And If We All Lived Together (2011): Dir. Stéphane Robelin
Feat. Guy Bedos, Daniel Brühl, Geraldine Chaplin…; Five 70–something friends resolve to move in together when faced with life in a retirement home, much to the fascination of a ethnology student…
Back to Stay (2011): Dir. Milagros Mumenthaler
Feat. María Canale, Martina Juncadella , Ailín Salas…; A spare, melancholic film that languidly reveals its narrative secrets as three bickering sisters clash in their neglected Buenos Aires family…
Beginning of the Great Revival (The Founding of a Party) (2011): Dir. Sanping Han, Jianxin Huang
Feat. Andy Lau, Chow Yun-Fat, Daniel Wu…; In the tradition of unashamedly jingoistic cinema comes this state–sanctioned celebration of ninety years of Chinese Communist Party rule.…
Beloved (2011): Dir. Christophe Honore
Feat. Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Ludivine Sagnier…; An expressive, cosmopolitan musical about the life and loves of a mother and daughter spanning four decades, played by the Real McCoy, Catherine…
Borgen - Series 2 (TV Series) (2011): Feat. Sidse Babett Knudsen, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Pilou Asbæk; Further episodes from the Bafta–winning Danish political drama in which an idealistic prime minister's rise to power brings with it a web of…
Bunohan (Return to Murder) (2011): Dir. Dain Said
Feat. Zahiril Adzim, Faizal Hussein, Wan Hanafisu…; Somber martial–arts flick with three estranged brothers returning to their hometown to care for their ailing father. Interesting hybrid of…
Café de Flore (2011): Dir. Jean-Marc Vallée
Feat. Vanessa Paradis, Kevin Parent; Two parallel stories of love and hope transcend their time difference in this fantastical juggling act from French–Canadian filmmaker…
Chinese Takeaway (2011): Dir. Sebastian Borensztein
Feat. Ricardo Darín, Muriel Santa Ana, Ignacio Huang…; Wry comedy of clashing cultures centres on an unlikely friendship between a curmudgeonly hardware store–owner and a young immigrant.
Circumstance (2011): Dir. Maryam Keshavarz
Feat. Sarah Kazemy, Nikohl Boosheri, Reza Sixo Safai…; A wealthy Iranian family struggles to contain a teenager's growing sexual rebellion and her brother's dangerous obsession in this courageous, if…
Corpo Celeste (2011): Dir. Alice Rohrwacher
Feat. Salvatore Cantalupo, Anita Caprioli; A thirteen–year–old girl moves back to southern Italy with her mother and older sister and struggles to find her place, restlessly…
Declaration of War (2011): Dir. Valérie Donzelli
Feat. Valérie Donzelli, Jérémie Elkaïm; A young couple go to war for their cancer–stricken child in this galvanizing drama, based on dir. Valérie Donzelli's fight for the life of her…
Elena (2011): Dir. Andrei Zvyagintsev
Feat. Nadezhda Markina, Andrey Smirnov, Aleksey Rozin; An old fashioned mortality play told through the eyes of Russia's new monied class, centred on the wife of a wealthy businessman whose sudden death…
Elles (2011): Dir. Malgorzata Szumowska
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Anaïs Demoustier, Joanna Kulig; Juliette Binoche plays an investigative reporter who becomes entangled in the world of student prostitution in this serious erotic thriller.
Flowers of War, The (2011): Dir. Zhang Yimou
Feat. Christian Bale, Ni Ni, Paul Schneider; Dir. Zhang Yimou tackles the Nanking massacre with equal parts grim realism and stylish melodrama – befitting of a lavish wartime epic, less so…
Footnote (2011): Dir. Joseph Cedar
Feat. Shlomo Bar-Aba, Lior Ashkenazi, Micah Lewnsohn; A father and son's complicated relationship is tested over the award of a vaunted academic prize in their shared field of Talmudic studies in this…
Forgiveness of Blood, The (2011): Dir. Joshua Marston
Feat. Tristan Halilaj, Refet Abazi, Zana Hasaj; Dir. Joshua Marston (MARIA FULL OF GRACE) helms this engrossing Albanian drama of family blood feuds and the tensions between tradition and…
Giants, The (2011): Dir. Bouli Lanners
Feat. Zacharie Chasseriaud, Martin Nissen, Paul Bartel; The misadventures of two teenage brothers and a local misfit are engagingly recounted in this balmy Belgium picaresque.
Goodbye, First Love (2011): Dir. Mia Hansen-Love
Feat. Lola Créton, Sebastian Urzendowsky; The director of FATHER OF MY CHILDREN turns her nuanced lens on the passionate but slow–maturing romance between a couple who break up in their…
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011): Dir. Takashi Miike
Feat. Koji Yakusho, Naoto Takenaka; The ever–versatile Takashi Miike changes tack from his rollicking samurai adventure, 13 ASSASSINS, to deliver a restrained and resonant tale of…
Himizu (2011): Dir. Sion Sono
Feat. Shota Sometani, Tetsu Watanabe, Fumi Nikaido; Bleak coming–of–age story with two teens scraping out an existence in post–tsunami Japan and embarking on a campaign of violence…
House of Pleasures (House of Tolerance) (2011): Dir. Bertrand Bonello
Feat. Hafsia Herzi, Jasmine Trinca, Noemie Lvovsky…; Richly designed elegy set in a Parisian bordello at the end of the 18th century follows the working lives of its varied inhabitants. Bonello's…
I Wish (2011): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Koki Maeda, Ohshiro Maeda, Yui Natsukawa…; Two brothers living in different cities because of their parents' separation conspire to reunite them through a mythical 'wish' in this delicate,…
In Darkness (2011): Dir. Agnieszka Holland
Feat. Robert Wieckiewicz, Agnieszka Grochowska, Kinga Preis; A stirring, endlessly suspenseful wartime resistance drama from dir. Agnieszka Holland (EUROPA, EUROPA), about the ordinary men and women surviving…
Intouchables, The (2011): Dir. Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano
Feat. Francois Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny…; Exemplary feel–good French comedy that details the unlikely friendship between an aristocratic quadriplegic and a young French–African…
Italian Film Festival Collection, The - 2011 (2011): Comprehensive box–set collection of 11 of the best Italian films featured at the 'Italian Film Festival 2011' spread over 5 discs. Film…
Jewel, The (2011): Dir. Andrea Molaioli
Feat. Toni Servillo, Remo Girone, Sarah Felberbaum; Mordant morality tale set in the world of big–business with Servillo as a very 'creative' accountant trying everything to keep his company…
Kid with a Bike, The (2011): Dir. Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Feat. Thomas Doret, Cecile De France, Jeremie Renier…; Yet another impressive work of contemporary social realism from Belgian duo Jean–Luc and Pierre Dardenne, this time observing the growing pains…
King of Pigs, The (2011): Dir. Sang-ho Yeon; A tough, hard–glancing Korean anime about two adults who recall their violent school days as both purveyors and victims of systemic bullying.…
Kiss Me (Kyss mig, aka With Every Heartbeat) (2011): Dir. Alexandra-Therese Keining
Feat. Ruth Vega Fernandez, Liv Mjönes, Krister Henriksson; Heartfelt romantic drama about a woman who is engaged to be married when she finds herself falling for her soon–to–be stepmother's…
Lan Kwai Fong (2011): Dir. Wilson Chin
Feat. Shiga Lin; Hong Kong's answer to SEX AND THE CITY set in its central nightlife district, where lust is rampant and love elusive for an ensemble of handsome…
Las Acacias (2011): Dir. Pablo Giorgelli
Feat. Germán de Silva, Hebe Duarte; An improbable gem of the road movie genre, about the slow–forming relationship between a long–haul truck driver and the woman (and…
Le Havre (2011): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Andre Wilms, Kati Outinen, Jean-Pierre Darroussin…; An old–time shoe–shiner befriends a young African refugee in hiding from immigration authorities in this soft–centred comedy from…
Life Without Principle (2011): Dir. Johnnie To
Feat. Lau Ching-wan, Terence Yin, Richie Ren; Hong Kong's master of suspense crafts this swirling triumvirate of stories centred on unraveling lives amidst the global financial crisis. Combing…
Love Exposure (2011): Dir. Sion Sono
Feat. Takahiro Nishijima, Hikari Mitsushima; Notorious cinematic oddity from Japanese director Sion Sono (WHY DON'T YOU PLAY IN HELL), following the adventures of a Catholic teenage boy who…
Michael (2011): Dir. Markus Schleinzer
Feat. Michael Fuith; Brilliant and disturbingly macabre directorial debut from Markus Schleinzer, observing a man who has imprisoned a 10–year old boy in his…
Minister, The (2011): Dir. Pierre Schöller
Feat. Olivier Gourmet, Michel Blanc, Zabou Breitman…; Nuanced political drama follows the daily process of governance from the vantage point of of the French Transport Minister as he negotiates the…
Monsieur Lazhar (2011): Dir. Philippe Falardeau
Feat. Mohamed Fellag, Sophie Nelisse, Emilien Neron…; An asylum seeking Algerian attempts to pass himself off as teacher in a Canadian school bereft after the suicide of a popular teacher.
My Best Enemy (2011): Dir. Wolfgang Murnberger
Feat. Moritz Bleibtreu, Georg Friedrich, Ursula Strauss; A Jewish man switches places with his Nazi best friend in order to survive, in this dark WWII drama.
My Piece of the Pie (2011): Dir. Cedric Klapisch
Feat. Karin Viard, Gilles Lellouche; A Capra–esque satire shot in the mode of a French romantic comedy, replete with clunky political statements and glossy Euro visuals. Karin…
Play (2011): Dir. Ruben Östlund; Ruban Östlund (THE SQUARE) directs this acute observation of bullying based on true events, in which a group of adolescent boys robbed other…
Policeman (2011): Dir. Nadav Lapid
Feat. Yiftach Klein; With contemporary Israel as its disquieting backdrop, this sharp and incisive account of revolutionary action, witnessed through the eyes of a…
Polisse (2011): Dir. Maïwenn
Feat. Karin Viard, Marina Fois, Nicolas Duvauchelle …; A tough, unglamorous insight into the police work of a Parisian Juvenile Protection Unit, whose officers grapple with the moral and personal dilemmas…
Separation, A (2011): Dir. Asghar Farhadi
Feat. Peyman Moaadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat…; Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, this masterfully layered domestic drama sees the wheels of justice turn slowly against a…
Source, The (La Source des femmes) (2011): Dir. Radu Mihaileanu
Feat. Leïla Bekhti, Hafsia Herzi, Hiam Abbass; A dashing feminist dramedy sprung from the male bias in the Middle East, about a village of women who take up a 'sex strike' after their husbands…
Spark of Life, The (As Luck Would Have It) (2011): Dir. Alex de la Iglesia
Feat. Jose Mota, Salma Hayek, Blanca Portillo…; An aggressive media satire centred around the frenzied bidding war that erupts for a permanently and publicly immobile man's story, with the man…
Tomboy (2011): Dir. Céline Sciamma
Feat. Zoé Héran, Malonn Lévana; An androgynous ten–year–old girl passes herself off as a boy during the summer holidays in this tender coming–of–age tale.
Turin Horse, The (2011): Dir. Bela Tarr
Feat. Janos Derzsi, Erika Bok; A final, uncompromising vision from Hungarian master Bela Tarr, whose ominous vision of two deathly souls hunkered down during a windstorm takes its…
Turn Me On, Goddamit! (2011): Dir. Jannicke Systad Jacobsen
Feat. Helene Bergsholm, Beate Stofring, Malin Bjorhovde; Deadpan sex comedy in a sleepy Norwegian hamlet with a hormone ravaged teen determined to lose her virginity.
We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam) (2011): Dir. Nanni Moretti
Feat. Michel Piccoli, Nanni Moretti, Margherita Buy; Michel Piccoli plays a reluctant successor to the recently deceased pope in this comic look inside the Vatican Church.
Well-Digger's Daughter, The (2011): Dir. Daniel Auteuil
Feat. Daniel Auteuil, Kad Merad, Sabine Azema…; Daniel Auteuil covets the art house with his directorial debut, a bright, old–fashioned adaptation of a Marcel Pagnol novel centred on a feud…
Whore, The (2011): Dir. Hansjörg Thurn
Feat. Alexandra Neldel, Thure Riefenstein; A young woman falsely accused of harlotry on the eve of her wedding, takes up with a group of traveling whores and seeks revenge on those who've…
Wunderkinder (2011): Dir. Markus Rosenmüller
Feat. Gedeon Burkhard, Natalia Avelon; A history of Germany in broad strokes, this heartrending coming–of–age tale charts the upheaval of WWII through the eyes of three child…
You Will Be My Son (2011): Dir. Gilles Legrand
Feat. Niels Arestrup, Lorànt Deutsch; An intense, boldly flavoured father–son melodrama centred on a prestigious French wine label, whose arrogant owner (Arestrup) begins to groom…
18 Years Later (Diciotto anni dopo) (2010): Dir. Edoardo Leo
Feat. Edoardo Leo, Marco Bonini; Picturesque road trip movie following two estranged brothers (played by writer and co–writer/director Marco Bonini and Edoardo Leo) who take a…
20 Cigarettes (2010): Dir. Aureliano Amadei
Feat. Vinicio Marchioni, Carolina Crescentini, Giorgio Colangeli; Wry autobiographical story about an assistant director who receives an offer to fly to Iraq in order to shoot a film, surprisingly sincere.
3 (Three) (2010): Dir. Tom Tykwer
Feat. Sophie Rois, Sebastian Schipper, Devid Striesow; Dir. Tom Tykwer energises this simple love story of a forty–something couple who fall for the same man with the frenetic visual and narrative…
A Quiet Life (2010): Dir. Claudio Cupellini
Feat. Toni Servillo, Marco D'Amore, Francesco Di Leva…; Moody thriller with Servillo –outstanding once again– as a restauranteur who's past resurfaces after a chance encounter with two…
Abel (2010): Dir. Diego Luna
Feat. Christopher Ruíz-Esparza, Jose Maria Yazpik; Sweet and satisfyingly unpredictable child fantasy about an imaginative young boy who returns from a psychiatric ward to declare himself the father…
Africa United (2010): Dir. Debs Paterson
Feat. Eriya Ndayambaje, Roger Nsengiyumva; An aspiring Rwandan footballer attracts a throng of like–minded soccer fans on a road trip to Johannesburg for the opening ceremony of the 2010…
Aftershock (2010): Dir. Feng Xiaoning
Feat. Xu Fan, Daoming Chen, Chen Li…; Tear duct busting melodrama of a young mother forced to make a horrifying decision in the wake of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. Maintaining…
Angele and Tony (2010): Dir. Alix Delaporte
Feat. Clotilde Hesme, Gregory Gadebois, Evelyne Didi; This quality, character–driven courtship between a prostitute with a past and a plainspoken fisherman successfully plays down obvious emotion…
Another World (Un altro Mondo) (2010): Dir. Silvio Muccino
Feat. Silvio Muccino, Isabella Ragonese, Michael Rainey Jr…; Glossy dramedy in which a wealthy slacker who after the death of his father finds himself the legal guardian of a half–brother he never new…
Ao: The Last Neanderthal (Ao: The Last Hunter) (2010): Dir. Jacques Malaterre
Feat. Simon Paul Sutton, Aruna Shields; Grounded in a semblance of reality and anthropology, this dramatic reimagining of the lives of Neanderthals speculates on the behaviors of homo…
Beyond (2010): Dir. Pernilla August
Feat. Noomi Rapace, Ville Virtanen, Outi Maenpaa…; Bruising family drama of a young woman's childhood (played by the Millennium Trilogy's Noomi Rapace) in a family torn apart by alcoholism and…
Biutiful (2010): Dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Feat. Javier Bardem, Maricel Álvarez; Proffering a seldom–seen, distinctly un–beautiful view of the city of Barcelona, a dishevelled Javier Bardem ambles its streets as…
Borgen - Series 1 (TV Series) (2010): Feat. Sidse Babett Knudsen, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Pilou Asbæk; Bafta–winning Danish political drama in which an idealistic prime minister's rise to power brings with it a web of consequences, sacrifices and…
Carlos (Carlos the Jackal) (2010): Dir. Olivier Assayas
Feat. Édgar Ramírez, Nora von Waldstätten, Alexander Scheer; An explosive, globe–trotting biopic of Venezuelan terrorist and fugitive Ilich Ramírez Sánchez – aka Carlos the Jackal – whose exploits…
Certified Copy (2010): Dir. Abbas Kiarostami
Feat. Juliette Binoche, William Shimell; Juliette Binoche steals the company of an erudite author for an afternoon of conversation and consternation in this breezy, yet cerebral stroll…
Chicas (2010): Dir. Yasmina Reza
Feat. Carmen Maura, Emmanuelle Seigner, Andre Dussollier; Carmen Maura plays a gracefully aging widower who finds love in the twilight of her life, only for her new companion to be met with cold disapproval…
Chico & Rita (Chico and Rita) (2010): Dir. Tono Errando, Javier Mariscal, Fernando Trueba; A date move with a difference, this sensuous animated tale for adults traces the love affair of a big–dreaming piano player and a gifted singer…
Copacabana (2010): Dir. Marc Fitoussi
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Aure Atika, Lolita Chammah; Free–spirited and perpetually unemployed Isabelle Huppert must get with the program after learning her newly engaged daughter (played by her…
Dark Love (L'amore buio) (2010): Dir. Antonio Capuano
Feat. Luisa Ranieri, Irene de Angelis, Gabriele Agrio; Drama set in contemporary Naples in the aftermath of a brutal rape of a young woman by three teenage boys. Follows the experiences of both survivor…
El Narco (2010): Dir. Luis Estrada
Feat. Damian Alcazar, Joaquin Cosio, Ernesto Gomez Cruz…; Intense crime drama that offers a hellish version of Mexico and the drug war seen through the eyes of a man returning to his home country after…
First Assignment, The (2010): Dir. Giorgia Cecere
Feat. Isabella Ragonese, Francesco Chiarello, Alberto Boll; A young teacher who posted to a provincial town struggles to connect with the local children and pines for her aristocratic boyfriend.
First Beautiful Thing, The (2010): Dir. Paolo Virzi
Feat. Valerio Mastandrea, Micaela Ramazzotti, Stefania Sandrelli; Winsome melodrama with a misanthropic professor returning to his home town to assist his dying mother. Delicately performed but perhaps overly…
Gainsbourg (2010): Dir. Joann Sfar
Feat. Eric Elmosnino, Lucy Gordon, Sara Forestier…; Freewheeling biographical account of singer/composer/actor Serge Gainsbourg, an enduring iconic figure of French popular culture. Serves the…
Happy, Happy (2010): Dir. Anne Sewitsky
Feat. Agnes Kittelsen, Henrik Rafaelsen, Joachim Rafaelsen…; Sharp comedy with a woman trapped in a loveless marriage finding her life taking an exciting turn for the better when an exciting new couple move in…
Heartbeats (2010): Dir. Xavier Dolan
Feat. Xavier Dolan, Niels Schneider, Monia Chokri; A quick turnaround for precocious French Canadian dir. Xavier Dolan; his sophomore feature an equally painful and amusing bifurcated romance, in…
Henry The 4th (Henri 4, Henry of Navarre) (2010): Dir. Jo Baier
Feat. Julien Boisselier, Joachim Krol; Henry IV (of France) is the subject of this grand and involving German–produced epic, originally conceived as a mini–series framed by the…
House by the Medlar Tree, The (2010): Dir. Pasquale Scimeca
Feat. Giusepe Firullo, Antonio Curcia, Omar Noto; Striking drama follows a family of fishermen struggling for survival in the face of harsh economic realities. Drawing from the same novel that…
Housemaid, The (2010): Dir. Sang-soo Im
Feat. Do-yeon Jeon, Jung-Jae Lee, Seo Woo; A sleek, sexual thriller of manipulation and revenge, centred on the consequences of a torrid affair between a wealthy industrialist and his newly…
Human Resources Manager, The (2010): Dir. Eran Riklis
Feat. Mark Ivanir; An absurdist odyssey from the director of LEMON TREE, about an Israeli bakery manager who must accompany the body of one of his employees back to…
Hunter, The (Shekarchi) (2010): Dir. Rafi Pitts
Feat. Rafi Pitts; Spare, lyrical drama with a low–paid security guard on the run from authorities after gunning down two police officers. Unfolding against the…
In a Better World (2010): Dir. Susanne Bier
Feat. Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen; This Oscar–winner for Best Foreign Language Film 2011 is another searing melodrama from celebrated Danish auteur Susanne Bier in which two…
Incendies (2010): Dir. Denis Villeneuve
Feat. Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette…; Twin siblings, against their better judgment, dig deeper into the backstory of their recently deceased mother in this powerful French Canadian…
King of Devil's Island (2010): Dir. Marius Holst
Feat. Stellan Skarsgard, Kristoffer Joner, Benjamin Helstad…; The boys of an early 20th century reform school revolt against an abusive regime in this stirring, snow–swept Norwegian drama. Featuring music…
Kiss Me Again (Baciami ancora) (2010): Dir. Gabriel Muccino
Feat. Stefano Accorsi, Vittoria Puccini, Pierfrancesco Favino…; The lives of young Italians struggling with issues of marriage, parenthood, and relationships are revisited in this pleasant sequel to THE LAST KISS.…
La Nostra Vita (Our Life) (2010): Dir. Daniele Luchetti
Feat. Elio Germano, Raoul Bova, Luca Zingaretti…; A construction worker's discovery of an illegal immigrant's body on site sets off a chain of events that radically alters his own life. An absorbing…
Le Quattro Volte (2010): Dir. Michelangelo Frammartino
Feat. Giuseppe Fuda; This mesmerizing blend of wordless narrative fiction and spontaneous nature documentary – about the 'cycle of life' in a rugged valley in Italy’s…
Little White Lies (Les petits mouchoirs) (2010): Dir. Guillaume Canet
Feat. Francois Cluzet, Marion Cotillard, Benoit Magimel…; Airy ensemble from the dir. of TELL NO ONE about a group of French sophisticates whose annual seaside reunion is disturbed when one of them is badly…
Longlasting Youth (TV Mini-series) (Le cose che restano) (2010): Dir. Gianluca Maria Tavarelli
Feat. Lorenzo Balducci, Daniela Giordano; A four–part mini–series about a Roman family who take separate paths after the death of their youngest son.
Lope (The Outlaw) (2010): Dir. Andrucha Waddington
Feat. Alberto Ammann, Leonor Watling, Pilar López de Ayala; Splendid biopic of Lope de Vega, the Spanish playwright who dominated Spain's early Golden Age of theare.
Lost Kisses (I baci mai dati) (2010): Dir. Roberta Torre
Feat. Carla Marchese, Donatella Finocchiaro; A 13–year–old girl in the deprived outskirts of a sprawling Sicilian city becomes a local celebrity to her needy community when word…
Love Like Poison (2010): Dir. Katell Quillévéré
Feat. Clara Augarde, Michel Galabru, Stefano Cassetti…; A potent variation on an oft–told theme, this carefully observed drama considers the fraught adolescence of a 14–year–old girl torn…
Monga: Gangs of Taipei (Báng-kah) (2010): Dir. Doze Niu
Feat. Ching-Tien Juan, Mark Chao, Ju-Lung Ma; Pungent youth drama set in 1980s Taiwan, after the end of military dictatorship, concerns the intertwined fate of five troubled friends.
Mozart's Sister (2010): Dir. Rene Feret
Feat. Marie Feret, Marc Barbe, David Moreau…; Exuberant romp through pre–revolutionary France following the life of Mozart's talented older sister who was soon sidelined as her family's…
My Afternoons With Margueritte (2010): Dir. Jean Becker
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Gisèle Casadesus; Gerard Depardieu plays an illiterate man who forges an unlikely friendship with a elderly writer in this gentle new film from the dir. of…
My Name is Khan (2010): Dir. Karan Johar
Feat. Shahrukh Khan, Kajol , Christopher B. Duncan; Well–meaning plea for racial tolerance with an Aspergers–afflicted Muslim detained in the U.S. as a terrorist and undertaking a journey…
Mysteries of Lisbon (Mistérios de Lisboa) (2010): Dir. Raul Ruiz
Feat. Adriano Luz, Clotilde Hesme, Maria Joao Bastos…; Sprawling, utterly beguiling tribute to the power of stories set in 19th century Lisbon where an orphan boy discovers the truth about his birth and…
Names of Love, The (2010): Dir. Michel Leclerc
Feat. Jacques Gamblin, Sara Forestier, Zinedine Soualem…; Witty cocktail of sex and politics about an extroverted left–wing activist who sleeps with her political opponents to convert them to her cause.
Norwegian Wood (2010): Dir. Tran Anh Hung
Feat. Rinko Kikuchi, Ken'ichi Matsuyama, Kiko Mizuhara; Yearning, visually rapturous adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s widely read novel, about a devoted college student in the 60s whose relationships are…
Of Gods and Men (2010): Dir. Xavier Beauvois
Feat. Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale, Olivier Rabourdin; Residing peacefully in a North African monastery, eight French Christian monks must confront the threat of an Islamic fundamentalist group in this…
Princess of Montpensier, The (2010): Dir. Bertrand Tavernier
Feat. Mélanie Thierry, Lambert Wilson, Gaspard Ulliel; French veteran Bertrand Tavernier tackles the period costume drama with a firm classical and intellectual grip, shifting effortlessly between the…
Question in Details (2010): Dir. Zsombor Dyga
Feat. Ferenc Elek, Roland Raba, Katya Tompos; Dark romantic drama with two strangers having their blind date take an odd turn when the woman's brother turns up.
Rise and Fall (Jew Suss) (2010): Dir. Oskar Roehler
Feat. Tobias Moretti, Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu; Wrenching true story about German actor Ferdinand Marian who, despite being married to a Jewish woman chose to play lead in the antisemitic…
Room in Rome (Habitación en Roma) (2010): Dir. Julio Medem
Feat. Elena Anaya, Natasha Yarovenko, Enrico Lo Verso…; Erotic chronicle of a brief encounter between two women set almost entirely within the confines of a hotel room. More porno–profundity from…
Round Up, The (La Rafle) (2010): Dir. Rose Bosch
Feat. Jean Reno, Mélanie Laurent, Gad Elmaleh…; A sensitive recreation of the tragic events and personal stories surrounding the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of 1942, where some 13,000 French Jews were…
Sarah's Key (2010): Dir. Gilles Paquet-Brenner
Feat. Kristin Scott Thomas, Mélusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup…; Kristen Scott Thomas plays an American journalist whose life and work becomes entwined with a young Jewish girl whose family was torn apart during…
School is Over (2010): Dir. Valerio Jalongo
Feat. Fulvio Forti, Valeria Golino, Vincenzo Amato; Documentary–like account of a bored, and frequently stoned, teenager who comes to the attention of his science teacher, who believes she can…
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2010): Dir. Wayne Wang
Feat. Gianna Jun, Bingbing Li, Russell Wong…; Wayne Wang (THE JOY LUCK CLUB) directs this unsubtle but sweeping multi–generational weepie, framed around the enduring bond between two women…
Solitude of Prime Numbers (2010): Dir. Saverio Costanzo
Feat. Alba Rohrwacher, Luca Marinelli, Martina Albano…; Mournful tale of two misfits whose awkward life paths never quite cross. Spanning from childhood into their forties this melancholic mosaic is…
Sorelle Mai (2010): Dir. Marco Bellocchio
Feat. Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Elena Bellocchio; A nostalgic "fantasy" documentary depicting six episodes of a family story in Bobbio filmed between 1999 and 2008 and featuring many members of the…
Special Treatment (2010): Dir. Jeanne Labrune
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Bouli Lanners; Playing a high class prostitute, Isabelle Huppert gets cosy with one her clients, a psychoanalyst, in this occasionally titillating, comically…
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010): Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Feat. Thanapat Saisaymar; Weerasethakul's most acclaimed and accessible film to date centres on a man dying of kidney failure, whose twilight hours are spent joyously with…
Vincent Wants to Sea (2010): Dir. Ralf Huettner
Feat. Florian David Fitz, Karoline Herfurth, Heino Ferch…; Likeable though lightweight road comedy in which a Tourette's sufferer escapes from a clinic with two others (an obsessive and an anorexic) and…
We Believed (Noi credevamo) (2010): Dir. Mario Martone
Feat. Luigi Lo Cascio; Period drama set during the repressive Bourbon reign in Italy in 1828, where two aristocrats and a young peasant join Giuseppe Mazzini's Young Italy…
What More Do I Want (Come Undone) (2010): Dir. Silvio Soldini
Feat. Alba Rohrwacher, Pierfrancesco Favino, Teresa Saponangelo…; Adroitly helmed exploration of infidelity with the two lovers juggling their hectic schedules around their clandestine meetings. Nothing new here,…
Woman of My Dreams, The (La donna della mia vita) (2010): Dir. Luca Lucini
Feat. Alessandro Gassman, Luca Argentero; Astute romantic comedy about the big and little lies people tell in their search for love, following the fallout of a friendship between two brothers…
About Elly (2009): Dir. Asghar Farhadi
Feat. Golshifteh Farahani, Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoosti…; Though something of a dress rehearsal for Farhadi's Oscar–winning A SEPARATION, this tense and absorbing account of a beach holiday tainted by…
Adrift (À Deriva) (2009): Dir. Heitor Dhalia
Feat. Vincent Cassel, Camilla Belle, Laura Neiva; Delicately captivating drama set in an ’80s Brazilian beach resort, with a young teenager discovering her father's infidelity as her own sexuality…
Albert Schweitzer (2009): Dir. Gavin Millar
Feat. Jeroen Krabbe, Barbara Hershey, Judith Godreche; Admirable biopic of German medical missionary and philosopher Schweitzer (regarded for his text on the "Reverence for Life"), whose deed treating…
Army of Crime, The (2009): Dir. Robert Guediguian
Feat. Simon Abkarian, Virginie Ledoyen; Part of a recent wave of prestigious WWII resistence dramas, this one reconstructs events around a group of Paris–based resistance fighters,…
Baaria (2009): Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
Feat. Raoul Bova, Margareth Made, Francesco Scianna…; Giuseppe Tornatore directs an autobiographical saga covering sixty years of turmoil through the eyes of three generations of a peasant family. Those…
Besouro (The Assailant) (2009): Dir. Joao Daniel Tikhomiroff
Feat. Ailton Carmo, Flavio Rocha, Jessica Barbosa; Set against the backdrop of the Brazilian civil rights struggle Invigorating tale told at breakneck pace of a young man's rise to folk hero status…
Broken Embraces (2009): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Penelope Cruz, Blanca Portillo, Lluís Homar…; Typically juicy Almodovar number again features the gorgeous Penelope Cruz, here playing a mistress cast in the lead role of a movie her millionaire…
Cezanne Affair, The (2009): Dir. Sergio Rubini
Feat. Sergio Rubini, Riccardo Scamarcio, Valeria Golino…; Sentimental comedy–drama with a son returning home to his dying father who's thwarted artistic ambitions cast a dark shaodw over his childhood.
Change of Plans (Le code a changé) (2009): Dir. Daniele Thompson
Feat. Dany Boon, Karin Viard, Emmanuelle Seigner…; Stacked Gallic dramedy stars Karin Viard and Dany Boon as a swanky French couple who invite six equally wealthy Parisians to dinner – their evening…
City of Life and Death (2009): Dir. Chuan Lu
Feat. Ye Liu, Yuanyuan Gao, Hideo Nakaizumi; This first serious depiction of the atrocities wrought on Chinese refugees and soldiers during the occupation of Nanking is a harrowing, expertly…
City of War (John Rabe) (2009): Dir. Florian Gallenberger
Feat. Ulrich Tukur, Daniel Bruhl, Steve Buscemi…; Riveting dramatisation of an unlikely true story in which a Nazi industrialist conspires to save the lives of 200,000 Chinese during the infamous…
Coco Avant Chanel (Coco Before Chanel) (2009): Dir. Anne Fontaine
Feat. Audrey Tautou, Benoit Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola…; Fittingly stylish and appealing biopic of legendary couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, tracing her early life from the rags of an orphaned childhood…
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (Coco & Igor) (2009): Dir. Jan Kounen
Feat. Anna Mouglalis, Mads Mikkelsen; Fashion icon Coco Chanel and composer Igor Stravinsky share a passionate, illicit love affair in this lavish period romance, which more or less takes…
Concert, The (Le Concert) (2009): Dir. Radu Mihaileanu
Feat. Alexeï Guskov, Mélanie Laurent, Dmitry Nazarov…; A band of out–of–work Moscow musicians travels to Paris posing as the celebrated Bolshoi Orchestra in this lavish, shamelessly popular…
Dogtooth (Kynodontas) (2009): Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Feat. Aggeliki Papoulia, Mary Tsoni, Hristos Passalis…; An astringent, blackly comic tale of a modern Greek family whose adult children have been imprisoned in their home since birth. Something of a…
Eagle Hunter's Son, The (2009): Dir. René Bo Hansen
Feat. Bazarbai Matei, Mardan Matei; Wistful Mongolian adventure follows a 12–year–old boy and his rite–of–passage between the lure of city life, and the…
East West East (2009): Dir. Gjergj Xhuvani
Feat. Ervin Bejleri, Helidon Fino, Gentiano Hazizi; An amateur cycling team from Albania heads to France to take part in a tournament only to discover on the way that revolution has broken out back…
Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl (2009): Dir. Manoel de Oliveira
Feat. Ricardo Trepa, Leonor Silveira, Catarina Wallenstein; Bewitching tale of a young man's obsessive love for his blonde–haired neighbour. Elegant and gently surreal adaptation of José Maria Eça de…
Eden is West (2009): Dir. Costa-Gavras
Feat. Riccardo Scamarcio; A pictorial offering from Costa–Gavras – usually at the helm of taut political thrillers – here directing a travelogue centered around…
Empire of Silver (2009): Dir. Christina Yao
Feat. Aaron Kwok, Tielin Zhang, Lei Hao…; A family banking empire begins to crumble when father and son come to grief over the country's transition from silver to paper money. Visually…
Father of My Children (2009): Dir. Mia Hansen-Love
Feat. Chiara Caselli, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Alice de Lencquesaing…; A convincing dramatic study of grief in the family, centred on a workoholic movie producer who leaves behind a legacy of financial burden to his wife…
Fortapasc (Fort Apache) (2009): Dir. Marco Risi
Feat. Libero de Rienzo, Valentina Lodovini, Michele Riondino…; Poignant account of the last days in the life of a young Italian journalist who's investigations into the Neapolitan Mafia resulted in his murder.
Founding of a Republic, The (Jian guo da ye) (2009): Dir. Sanping Han, Jianxin Huang
Feat. Guoqiang Tang, Guoli Zhang, Qing Xu…; The People’s Republic of China rolls out the big guns for this 60th anniversary epic, chronicling in big, sweeping gestures, the uprising of Mao…
From Beginning to End (Do Começo ao Fim) (2009): Dir. Aluizio Abranches
Feat. João Gabriel Vasconcellos, Rafael Cardoso, Júlia Lemmertz; Controversial Brazilian ode to incestuous half–brothers that's evocatively shot and titillatingly steamy but strangely coy on the consequences.
Giulia Doesn't Go Out at Night (2009): Dir. Giuseppe Piccioni
Feat. Valerio Mastandrea, Valeria Golino, Sonia Bergamasco; Understated romantic drama with an enigmatic Golina as the titular character, a swimming instructor with a dark secret who embarks on a romance with…
Hedgehog, The (Le hérisson) (2009): Dir. Mona Achache
Feat. Josiane Balasko, Togo Igawa, Garance Le Guillermic…; Charming, melancholy comedy in which a precocious, jaded 11–year–old from a well–to–do family decides to commit suicide on…
Human Zoo (2009): Dir. Rie Rasmussen
Feat. Rie Rasmussen, Hiam Abbass; Gritty, naval–gazing immigrant story of a Serbian refugee (writer/dir. Rasmussen) who escapes the ethnic violence of her worn–torn…
I Am Love (Io sono l'amore) (2009): Dir. Luca Guadagnino
Feat. Tilda Swinton, Edoardo Gabbriellini; Tilda Swinton stars as the Russian–born matriarch of a wealthy Milanese family in this fabulously opulent Italian drama, centred around her…
I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère) (2009): Dir. Xavier Dolan
Feat. Xavier Dolan, Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clément…; An angst ridden teen grapples with growing up gay and his neurotic, overbearing mother in this feisty first feature from young French Canadian…
I, Don Giovanni (2009): Dir. Carlos Saura
Feat. Lorenzo Balducci, Lino Guanciale, Emilia Verginelli…; Veteran Spanish director Carlos Saura conducts this lavish, darkly–tinged story behind the making of Mozart's opera masterpiece, 'Don Giovanni'.
Leaving (Partir) (2009): Dir. Catherine Corsini
Feat. Kristin Scott Thomas, Sergi Lopez, Yvan Attal; Doctor's wife and mother–of–two Kristin Scott Thomas falls unrelentingly for a blue–collar ex–con in this steamy, captivating…
Letters to Father Jacob (2009): Dir. Klaus Haro
Feat. Kaarina Hazard, Jukka Keinonen, Heikki Nousiainen…; Gently engrossing character study with a pardoned convict finding employment helping a blind pastor answer letters from his troubled parishioners.
Life Coach, The (Le Coach) (2009): Dir. Olivier Doran
Feat. Jean-Paul Rouve, Richard Berry, Annie Marivin…; Affable comedy with a business coach, up to his eyeballs in debt, taking on a most difficult assignment help an irredeemable miquetoast close an…
Lourdes (2009): Dir. Jessica Hausner
Feat. Sylvie Testud, Léa Seydoux, Elina Lowensohn; A subdued, open–ended account of pilgrimage and the credibility of miracles, this measured drama stars the always–excellent Sylvie Testud…
Mademoiselle Chambon (2009): Dir. Stéphane Brizé
Feat. Vincent Lindon, Sandrine Kiberlain, Aure Atika; Though familiar bourgeois territory for the French, this softly finessed chamber drama of a blue–collar mason (Lindon) who contemplates an…
Man Who Will Come, The (L'uomo che verrà) (2009): Dir. Giorgio Diritti
Feat. Maya Sansa, Alba Rohrwacher, Greta Zuccheri Montanari; Moving Italian war drama told through the eyes of an eight–year–old mute, who witnesses the brutal struggle between Italian partisans and…
Many Kisses Later (Ex) (2009): Dir. Fausto Brizzi
Feat. Claudia Gerini, Flavio Insinna, Silvio Orlando; Breezy rom–com –a smash hit in Italy– follows six couples from Chistmas to Valetine's Day and their various entanglements.…
Me Too (Yo, Tambien) (2009): Dir. Antonio Naharro, Alvaro Pastor
Feat. Lola Dueñas, Isabel Garcia Lorca, Antonio Naharro; Affecting tale of a bittersweet friendship between an office worker with Down syndrome and his restless, free–spirited colleague.
Milk of Sorrow, The (La Teta Asustada) (2009): Dir. Claudia Llosa
Feat. Magaly Solier, Susi Sanchez, Efrain Solis…; Beguiling allegorical drama with a young woman afflicted with a rare disease passed down through the breast milk of a rape victim.
My Tehran for Sale (2009): Dir. Granaz Moussavi
Feat. Marzieh Vafamehr, Amir Chegini, Asha Mehrabi; Marzieh is a young female actress living in Tehran. The authorities ban her theatre work and she is forced to lead a secret life in order to express…
No One Knows About Persian Cats (2009): Dir. Bahman Ghobadi
Feat. Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Koshanejad, Hamed Behdad; Unprecedented pseudo–documentary exploring Iran’s forbidden underground music scene, starring Tehranian rockers Negar Shaghaghi and Ashkan…
Plan B (2009): Dir. Marco Berger
Feat. Manuel Vignau, Lucas Ferraro, Mercedes Quinteros; Languid drama where a man's efforts to sabotage his ex–girlfriends new relationship – with a half baked plan of seducing her boyfriend,…
Police, Adjective (2009): Dir. Corneliu Porumboiu
Feat. Dragos Bucur, Vlad Ivanov, Irina Saulescu…; An ingenious, pared–back police procedural in the droll tradition of the Romanian New Wave that at once deconstructs the genre, and wittily…
Prisoners of War (TV Series) (Hatufim) (2009): Dir. Gideon Raff
Feat. Yoram Toledano, Ishai Golan, Adi Ezroni…; The source material for HOMELAND, this Israeli series is a more serious–minded and nuanced drama than its American successor, dealing with the…
Puzzle (Rompecabezas) (2009): Dir. Natalia Smirnoff
Feat. María Onetto, Arturo Goetz, Gabriel Goity; Low–key charmer with a bored housewife discovering her freakish aptitude for puzzles and partnering with a rich bachelor for an international…
Ricky (2009): Dir. Francois Ozon
Feat. Sergi Lopez, Alexandra Lamy, Mélusine Mayance; Intriguing fusion of kitchen–sink drama and magical realism by the mercurial Ozon with a young baby afflicted by an alarming physiological…
Road, Movie (2009): Dir. Dev Benegal
Feat. Abhay Deol, Tannishtha Chatterjee; A literal road movie inspired by the flickering image, this Indian travelogue follows a ragtag group across the country, whose mode of transport…
Sea Purple, The (2009): Dir. Donatella Maiorca
Feat. Valeria Solarino, Isabella Ragonese, Ennio Fantastichini; Solid lesbian bodice–ripper centres on the eternal romance between two 19th century Sicilian women, destined to suffer for their forbidden…
Sicilian Girl, The (La siciliana ribelle) (2009): Dir. Marco Amenta
Feat. Veronica D'Agostino, Gerard Jugnot; A vivid, level–headed account of Mafiaso intrigue, based around real events surrounding a young woman’s testimony in court against Sicilian…
Sister Smile (2009): Dir. Stijn Coninx
Feat. Cecile De France, Sandrine Blancke; The poignant, still resonant true story of 60s popstar The Singing Nun, vividly played by actress Cécile de France.
Someone I Loved (2009): Dir. Zabou Breitman
Feat. Daniel Auteuil, Marie-Josee Croze, Florence Loiret Caille…; Nuanced romantic drama with Auteuil reflecting on his great lost love while attempting to console his jilted daughter–in–law.
Soul Kitchen (2009): Dir. Fatih Akin
Feat. Adam Bousdoukos, Pheline Roggan, Moritz Bleibtreu…; Light but hearty food comedy from the dir. of THE EDGE OF HEAVEN, about a soulful Greek immigrant who sets about relaunching his failed restaurant…
Storm (2009): Dir. Hans-Christian Schmid
Feat. Kerry Fox, Anamaria Marinca, Stephen Dillane; Accomplished international courtroom drama sees a determined prosecutor (Fox) risk life and limb in order to prove that the former commander of the…
Thin Match Man, The (L'uomo fiammifero) (2009): Dir. Marco Chiarini
Feat. Francesco Pannofino, Marco Leonzi, Gabriele Manfredi; Modern fairy–tale about a house–bound boy determined to find the thin–match man, a figure his mother once created who lights the…
Undertow (Contracorriente) (2009): Dir. Javier Fuentes-Leon
Feat. Cristian Mercado, Manolo Cardona; A beguiling drama set in a remote seaside Peruvian village, where a fisherman mourns for his deceased lover and experiences his ghost lingering in…
Vincere (VIctory) (2009): Dir. Marco Bellocchio
Feat. Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Filippo Timi, Fausto Russo Alesi…; Provocative portrait of Benito Mussolini's spurned first wife and their brief romance as Il Duce begins ascent to Italy's leadership. Stylistically…
Welcome (2009): Dir. Philippe Lioret
Feat. Vincent Lindon, Audrey Dana, Firat Ayverd; An illegal Iraqi immigrant is befriended by a dispirited swim coach, who agrees to help smuggle the teenager into England by way swimming the English…
White Material (2009): Dir. Claire Denis
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Christopher Lambert, Isaach de Bankole…; Isabelle Huppert stars as a woman who refuses to abandon her plantation in Claire Denis' disquieting depiction of an African country on the verge of…
White Ribbon, The (Das weisse Band) (2009): Dir. Michael Haneke
Feat. Christian Friedel, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur…; Michael Haneke’s intellectual rigour is paired with a mesmerising sociological drama in this award–winning exploration of the roots of…
Wind Journeys, The (2009): Dir. Ciro Guerra; A Colombian accordion player makes the long trek to return his instrument – believed to be cursed by the devil – to a former mentor, in…
35 Shots of Rum (35 rhums) (2008): Dir. Claire Denis
Feat. Alex Descas, Mati Diop, Nicole Dogue…; A gorgeous meditation on child–parental devotion, centred on a middle–aged widower (Descas) who, in the tradition of Yasujiro Ozu (which…
5 Centimetres Per Second (Five Centimetres Per Second) (2008): Dir. Makoto Shinkai; Sublimely romantic animated feature divided into three separate episodes tracing the emotional journey of a teenage boy through to manhood, and the…
A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël) (2008): Dir. Arnaud Desplechin
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny…; KINGS AND QUEEN dir. Arnaud Desplechin spins another whirlwind tale of family relations, with Catherine Deneuve the terminally ill matriarch to a…
As God Commands (2008): Dir. Gabriele Salvatores
Feat. Filippo Timi, Elio Germano, Alvaro Caleca; Bracing character study follows a teenager and his Neo–nazi father dealing with their outsider status in their small town. Second collaboration…
Bride Flight (2008): Dir. Ben Sombogaart
Feat. Karina Smulders, Waldemar Torenstra, Anna Drijver…; New Zealand in the 1950's from a Dutch perspective makes this melodrama an intriguing, unique experience for Kiwi audiences, which also has the…
Butterfly Lovers (2008): Dir. Jingle Ma
Feat. Charlene Choi, Chun Wu, Ge Hu…; Martial arts 'M Butterfly' charts the afflictions that befall two lovers destined to always be parted. Gaudy, gender–bending romance from Hong…
Camino (2008): Dir. Javier Fesser
Feat. Nerea Camacho, Carme Elias; An absorbing, sensationally–told true story of a devoutly Catholic Spanish schoolgirl whose willing death at the age of 14 – brought about by…
Cherry Blossoms (2008): Dir. Doris Dorrie
Feat. Elmar Wepper, Hannelore Elsner, Aya Irizuki…; Tender cross–cultural tale with a German widower travelling to Japan to honour his wife's wishes to see the famed cherry blossom festival.…
Class, The (Entre les murs) (2008): Dir. Laurent Cantet
Feat. François Bégaudeau, Agame Malembo-Emene, Angélica Sancio; This stimulating Palm d’Or winner engages with the toil and trouble of a multi–ethnic, inner–city French classroom, and the headstrong…
Cloud 9 (Wolke 9) (2008): Dir. Andreas Dresen
Feat. Ursula Werner, Horst Rehberg, Horst Westphal; A frank yet sensitive depiction of a passionate love affair between a man and a married woman in their autumn years. Using a methodology similar…
Departures (2008): Dir. Takita Yojiro
Feat. Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kazuko Yoshiyuki; Poignant Oscar–winner that’s won over many hearts with its affecting tale of self–discovery, centered on a failed cellist whose career…
Early Bird Catches the Worm, The (2008): Dir. Francesco Patierno
Feat. Elio Germano, Laura Chiatti, Martina Stella; Leaden portrait of the rise and fall of popular Italian disc jockey Marco Baldini who's gambling addiction leads him tom make some decidedly rash…
Everlasting Moments (2008): Dir. Jan Troell
Feat. Maria Heiskanen, Mikael Persbrandt, Jesper Christensen; A touching, delicately shot memoir told from the perspective of a Finnish immigrant in Sweden who finds relief from her abusive husband in the art of…
First Day of the Rest of Your Life, The (Le Premier Jour du Reste de ta Vie) (2008): Dir. Rémi Bezançon
Feat. Jacques Gamblin, Zabou Breitman, Deborah Francois…; Five days in the life of an average, functional family form the basis of this universally appealing French comedy spanning the decade of the…
Giovanna's Father (2008): Dir. Pupi Avati
Feat. Silvio Orlando, Francesca Neri, Alba Rohrwacher…; Set during the second world ward this is a sad character study of a naive father who covers for his daughter's terrible crime.
Gomorrah (2008): Dir. Matteo Garrone
Feat. Toni Servillo, Gianfelice Imparato, Maria Nazionale; Justifiably celebrated, this ruthless expose of the Camorra underworld in Naples paints a stark and brutal picture of organised crime through five…
Headless Woman, The (2008): Dir. Lucrecia Martel
Feat. María Onetto, Claudia Cantero, César Bordón…; A mystery surrounding a woman's hit and run accident – and whether she in fact killed someone – is the riveting hook of this oblique,…
Honey (Bal) (2008): Dir. Semih Kaplanoglu
Feat. Bora Altas, Erdal Besikçioglu, Tülin Özen; A gorgeous, contemplative coming–of–age tale, centred on a young boy and his father, a rural beekeeper, in an idyllic mountainous region…
I've Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime) (2008): Dir. Philippe Claudel
Feat. Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, Serge Hazanavicius; Gratifying, melancholy French drama featuring a career–best performance by Kristen Scott–Thomas as an enigmatic woman struggling to fit…
Il Divo (The Deity) (2008): Dir. Paolo Sorrentino
Feat. Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto, Flavio Bucci; Dazzling, high–end political intrigue from dir. of CONSEQUENCES OF LOVE speculates on the years following Giulio Andreotti’s seventh term as…
Last Pulcinella (L'ultimo Pulcinella) (2008): Dir. Maurizio Scaparro
Feat. Massimo Ranieri, Adriana Asti, Jean Sorel…; A struggling actor travels to France to find his estranged son who has fled after witnessing a mob crime.
Last Stop 174 (2008): Dir. Bruno Barreto
Feat. Michel Gomes, Cris Vianna, Marcello Melo Junior; Adrenalised dramatisation of the infamous bus–hijacking examines the life of the troubled young hijacker. As an action film this is…
Lemon Tree (Etz Limon) (2008): Dir. Eran Riklis
Feat. Hiam Abbass, Doron Tavory, Ali Suliman…; An out–of–bounds lemon tree poses as a metaphorical olive branch in this heartfelt Israeli–Palestinian fable. When a…
Maid, The (2008): Dir. Sebastián Silva
Feat. Catalina Saavedra; The complex emotional attachment of a loyal live–in maid to the family she's served for more than twenty years is at the heart of this sly,…
Man Who Loves, The (2008): Dir. Maria Sole Tognazzi
Feat. Pierfrancesco Favino, Monica Bellucci, Kseniya Rappoport…; Melodramatic exploration of a heterosexual man's troubled relationships in comparison to his gay brother's blissful monogamy.
Mid-August Lunch (2008): Dir. Gianni Di Gregorio
Feat. Gianni Di Gregorio, Valeria De Franciscis, Marina Cacciotti; A comedy of manners and good taste in form and content, this soulful comedy sets up a middle–aged man forced to play host to a gaggle of…
Miracle of Berlin (Das Wunder von Berlin) (2008): Dir. Roland Suso Richter
Feat. Kostja Ullmann, Karoline Herfurth, Veronica Ferres; Ambitious telemovie set in Berlin, 1988, where a rebellious young man is forced by his father – a high–ranking Stasi officer – to…
Necessities of Life, The (2008): Dir. Benoit Pilon
Feat. Natar Ungalaaq, Paul-André Brasseur, Eveline Gelinas; This warmhearted tale of a consumptive Inuit hunter who gets sent to Quebec for treatment is an insightful celebration of Inuit tradtion, yet the…
Our Beloved Month of August (Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto) (2008): Dir. Miguel Gomes
Feat. Sonia Bandeira, Fabio Oliveira; Beautifully idiosyncratic film blending documentary with drama, from distinctive Portuguese director Miguel Gomes (TABU). A summery and romantic…
Palermo Shooting (2008): Dir. Wim Wenders
Feat. Campino , Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Dennis Hopper; A wild–living, world renowned German photographer travels to Sicily seeking a break from his past and encounters a beautiful woman and Dennis…
Paris (2008): Dir. Cedric Klapisch
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris, Mélanie Laurent…; A sweet–natured, if rather slight romantic dramedy, weaving in and out of the lives of a diverse set of heart–worn and heart–won…
Paris 36 (Faubourg 36) (2008): Dir. Christophe Barratier
Feat. Gerard Jugnot, Clovis Cornillac, Kad Merad; This period 30s French drama is set in a struggling music hall that seems destined for closure until a new star comes along to save the day. A love…
Peaceful Times (Friedliche Zeiten) (2008): Dir. Neele Leana Vollmar
Feat. Katharina M. Schubert, Oliver Stokowski, Nina Monka; A sweet, if slender trip back to 1960s West Germany, where a mother's mental health issues are remembered from the naive, but loving perspective of…
Red Baron, The (Der rote Baron) (2008): Dir. Nikolai Müllerschön
Feat. Maxim Mehmet, Til Schweiger, Joseph Fiennes…; Biographical melodrama focused around Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the celebrated showboating WW1 pilot. Thrilling airborne set–pieces make up…
Rest of the Night, The (Il resto della notte ) (2008): Dir. Francesco Munzi
Feat. Sandra Ceccarelli, Aurelien Recoing, Stefano Cassetti…; When the depressed wife of a provincial industrialist becomes convinced that her young Romanian maid is swiping valuable objects from around the…
Revanche (2008): Dir. Gotz Spielmann
Feat. Johannes Krisch, Irina Potapenko, Andreas Lust; A botched bank robbery resulting in the death of a prostitute compels an embittered ex–con to contemplate revenge in this steely, impressive…
Rudo and Cursi (Rudo y Cursi) (2008): Dir. Carlos Cuarón
Feat. Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna; The charismatic stars and co–writer of Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN reunite in this biting satire about two brothers from rural stock who have an intense…
Seraphine (2008): Dir. Martin Provost
Feat. Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur, Anne Bennent; Intimate, Cesar–winning portrait of troubled French artist Seraphine de Senlis, a little–known painter who worked as an impoverished…
Shirin (2008): Dir. Abbas Kiarostami
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Leila Hatami; From Abbas Kiarostami's avant–grade phase, this non–narrative tableaux of Iranian actresses (and one Juliette Binoche) enthralled by a…
Silent Light (Stellet licht) (2008): Dir. Carlos Reygadas; Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas (JAPON, BATTLE IN HEAVEN) helms his third feature with maturity and restraint, offering a striking, earthbound…
Song of Sparrows, The (Âvâz-e gonjeshk-hâ) (2008): Dir. Majid Majidi
Feat. Reza Naji; Iranian film following the life of a simple and contented ostrich farmer whose life changes dramatically when he loses his job and travels to Tehran…
Still Walking (2008): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Hiroshi Abe, You , Yui Natsukawa…; A recently remarried son (Abe) pays visit to his quietly disapproving parents in this exquisitely observed family drama, shot in the tradition of…
Summer Hours (2008): Dir. Olivier Assayas
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, Jeremie Renier…; Three siblings deliberate over the family estate following the death of their mother in this subtle, gorgeously rendered meditation on ‘moving…
Tokyo Sonata (2008): Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Feat. Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyôko Koizumi, Yû Koyanagi…; A devastating contemporary drama from the master of modern malaise, this piercing study of social collapse focuses on an downsized Japanese corporate…
Treeless Mountain (2008): Dir. So Yong Kim
Feat. Hee-yeon Kim, Song-hee Kim, Mi-hyang Kim; Korean–American So Yong Kim directs this moderate, heartfelt drama of two sisters, aged 3 and 6 respectively, who are abandoned by their mother…
Tulpan (2008): Dir. Sergey Dvortsevoy
Feat. Askhat Kuchinchirekov; A goofy love story is eked out of this astonishing account of nomadic life, where a family not only survive but relish sheep and goat herding on the…
Un Secret (2008): Dir. Claude Miller
Feat. Cecile De France, Ludivine Sagnier, Julie Depardieu…; Graceful, poignant French wartime drama centred on the son of a Jewish family who uncovers a piece of unsettling family history at the time of the…
Underdog Knight, The (Ying Han) (2008): Dir. Sheng Ding
Feat. Ye Liu, Yong You, Anthony Wong; An offbeat, anti–heroic character study out of mainland China, in which a self–styled martial arts pretender lands a job as bodyguard for…
Wild Blood (Sanguepazzo) (2008): Dir. Marco Tullio Giordana
Feat. Monica Bellucci, Alessio Boni, Luca Zingaretti; Compelling melodrama traces the rise and fall of two movie stars who embrace Fascism under Mussolini's Italy.
Wild Grass (Les Herbes Folles) (2008): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Andre Dussollier, Sabine Azema, Emmanuelle Devos…; A masterful light–footed comedy of the surreal from veteran French dir. Alain Resnais, centered on a missing wallet responsible for triggering…
Winter in Wartime (2008): Dir. Martin Koolhoven
Feat. Martijn Lakemeier, Yorick van Wageningen, Jamie Campbell Bower…; Sensitively handled account of a thirteen year old boy who joins the Dutch resistance at the tail end of World War II.
Wushu - The Young Generation (2008): Dir. Antony Szeto
Feat. Sammo Hung, Fengchao Liu, Wenjie Wang; Under the auspices of genre legends Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan (in producing role), this standard–issue kung fu flick introduces a bevy a…
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile) (2007): Dir. Cristian Mungiu
Feat. Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu; Two women risk seeking an illegal abortion under Ceausescu rule in this staggering, high tension Cannes–winner from Romania. Reminiscent of…
After Him (Après lui) (2007): Dir. Gaël Morel
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Guy Marchand; Unsettlingly intimate French drama stars Catherine Deneuve as a devastated mother who obsessively channels her dead son by using his best friend as a…
Amal (2007): Dir. Richie Mehta
Feat. Rupinder Nagra; A stoic tale of hardship and humanity in New Dehli, centred on an upstanding rickshaw driver whose code of honesty and responsibility sees a dying…
An Old Mistress (Une vieille maîtresse/The Last Mistress) (2007): Dir. Catherine Breillat
Feat. Asia Argento, Fu’ad Ait Aattou, Caroline Ducey…; Fervent, visually opulent costume drama finds feminist firebrand Catherine Breillat tempering her sexually explicit tendencies to present a…
Angel (2007): Dir. Francois Ozon
Feat. Charlotte Rampling, Sam Neill, Lucy Russell…; Pretty costume drama follows the fortunes of an aspiring lady writer in Edwardian England. Based on the novel by Elizabeth Taylor (MRS PALFREY AT…
Band's Visit, The (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret) (2007): Dir. Eran Kolirin; Sweet and sensitive Israeli comedy following an Egyptian police band who get way laid in a small Israeli town and unexpectedly break down cultural…
Banishment, The (2007): Dir. Andrei Zvyagintsev
Feat. Konstantin Lavronenko, Maria Bonnevie; A discordant marriage is framed against a breathtaking visual backdrop in this grand and elemental narrative from the dir. of the equally masterful…
Ben X (2007): Dir. Nic Balthazar
Feat. Greg Timmermans, Marijke Pinoy, Laura Verlinden; A provocative Dutch drama of 21st century teen angst, centred on an Asperger’s Syndrome–afflicted gamer whose addiction to online…
Blind Mountain (2007): Dir. Yang Li
Feat. Huang Lu; A superbly executed kidnapping drama that’s also surprisingly achieved given its critical portrait of Chinese society, this concerns the heinous…
Caramel (Sukkar banat) (2007): Dir. Nadine Labaki
Feat. Nadine Labaki; Charming Lebanese soap opera with a social conscience, the latest in an emerging wave of dissenting Middle Eastern dramas divulges the stifled lives…
Chacun Son Cinema (To Each His Own Cinema) (2007): Dir. Theo Angelopoulos, Olivier Assayas, Bille August; 35 auteurs convey the meaning of cinema in less than three minutes each, in this epic commission to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film…
Chaotic Ana (Caótica Ana) (2007): Dir. Julio Medem
Feat. Charlotte Rampling, Gerrit Graham, Manuela Vellés; Spanish auteur Julio Medem (SEX AND LUCIA) returns with this abstractly ambitious, idiosyncratic undertaking, meshing the self–exploration of a…
Checkmate Provenzano (2007): Dir. Claudio Mariano Cirino, Paolo Santolini; Detailed docu–drama recreates the last few months in hiding of notorious Mafia don Bernardo Provenzano whose capture after forty–three…
City of Men (Cidade dos Homens) (2007): Dir. Paulo Morelli
Feat. Douglas Silva, Darlan Cunha; Salty Rio back–blocks melodrama from the producers of CITY OF GOD revolving around two orphaned street kids on the brink of adulthood faced…
Days and Clouds (2007): Dir. Silvio Soldini
Feat. Margherita Buy, Antonio Albanese, Giuseppe Battiston…; Resonating drama about a well–heeled, sophisticated couple who struggle to stay together after the husband loses his job. The dir. of BREAD…
Disengagement (2007): Dir. Amos Gitai
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Jeanne Moreau, Liron Levo; Juliette Binoche plays a French–Israeli settler in Gaza who must return to the West Bank following Israel’s pullout from the occupied…
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The (Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon) (2007): Dir. Julian Schnabel
Feat. Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josee Croze; Justly celebrated adaptation of the autobiography of the late Jean–Dominique Bauby, who enjoyed the high life as editor of Elle magazine before…
Don't Touch the Axe (Duchess of Langeais, The) (2007): Dir. Jacques Rivette
Feat. Jeanne Balibar, Guillaume Depardieu, Bulle Ogier…; A duchess and a general play out an unusual courtship in this engrossing period chamber piece, elevated by the superb interplay between the two…
Edge of Heaven, The (Auf der anderen Seite) (2007): Dir. Fatih Akin
Feat. Hanna Schygulla; Prompted by family upheaval, a university professor reconnects with his native Turkey, and other disparate lost souls, in this dramatic tapestry of…
Empties (Vratné lahve) (2007): Dir. Jan Sverak
Feat. Zdenek Sverak, Tatiana Vilhelmova, Daniela Kolarova; This cheeky Czech favourite comically indulges the disobedience of its retirement–aged protagonist, who, after losing his teaching position and…
Ex Drummer (2007): Dir. Koen Mortier
Feat. Dries Van Hegen; Ultra–violent Belgian black comedy mines similar territory to MAN BITES DOG and IRREVERSIBLE, albeit with a slightly higher dose of absurdity…
Fighter (2007): Dir. Natasha Arthy
Feat. Semra Turan, Nima Nabipour, Cyron Bjørn Melville; Girls–can–do–anything drama focused around a young Turkish–Danish teenager who is determined to become a kung–fu…
Flight of the Red Balloon, The (Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge) (2007): Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Feat. Juliette Binoche; From Taiwanese grandmaster Hou Hsiao–hsien, this rhapsodic French sojourn evokes Albert Lamorisse’s enchanting 1956 short film, chronicling a…
Girl by the Lake, The (La ragazza del lago) (2007): Dir. Andrea Molaioli
Feat. Toni Servillo, Denis Fasolo, Nello Mascia…; A murder–mystery that swept Italy's Academy Awards set in an idyllic North Italian village where a beautiful young girl is found murdered.…
Grocer's Son, The (Le fils de l'épicier) (2007): Dir. Eric Guirado
Feat. Nicolas Cazalé, Clotilde Hesme, Daniel Duval…; Gentle coming–of–age story following Antoine, a self–centered young man living in Paris, who is forced to return to his provincial…
Guru (2007): Dir. Mani Ratnam
Feat. Aishwarya Rai, Mithun Chakraborty, Abhishek Bachchan; Rewarding rags–to–riches drama relates the story of an entrepreneurial young boy from a village in Gujarat who became the biggest…
Heartbeat Detector (La Question Humaine) (2007): Dir. Nicolas Klotz
Feat. Mathieu Amalric, Michael Lonsdale, Lou Castel…; A dense, demanding corporate thriller woven around a German multinational, whose human resources expert (Amalric), in investigating the mental state…
Hunting and Gathering (2007): Dir. Claude Berri
Feat. Audrey Tautou, Guillaume Canet, Laurent Stocker…; A waif–thin artist/cleaner (Tautou) gains a new lease on life after a chance encounter with a dignified stutterer in this heartwarming lost…
Il Dolce E L'Amaro (The Sweet and The Bitter) (2007): Dir. Andrea Porporati
Feat. Donatella Finocchiaro, Luigi Lo Cascio, Fabrizio Gifuni; Compact underworld drama peddles a familiar crime–doesn’t–pay theme in its story of a young man seduced by the Mafia, only to become…
In the City of Sylvia (2007): Dir. José Luis Guerín
Feat. Xavier Lafitte, Pilar López de Ayala; A bouquet of visual and aural pleasures, this sensually shot mood–piece follows an unnamed artist who in turn ‘stalks’ a fetching young…
Joy Division (2007): Dir. Reg Traviss
Feat. Ed Stoppard, Tom Schilling, Bernadette Heerwagen…; Ed Stoppard, son of Sir Tom, stars as a young German boy who becomes a KGB agent in this ambitious wartime saga that sweeps from WWII to swinging,…
Kaidan (2007): Dir. Hideo Nakata
Feat. Kumiko Aso; Period J–horror from the director of THE RING relays the ghostly tale of a samurai’s son attempting to escape an ancient curse laid on his…
Katyn (2007): Dir. Andrzej Wajda
Feat. Maja Ostaszewska, Artur Żmijewski, Pawel Malaszynski; Andrzej Wajda cements himself as Poland’s greatest director with this late–career triumph, a war story addressing the eradication of some…
Kite Runner, The (2007): Dir. Marc Forster
Feat. Khalid Abdalla, Homayon Ershadi, Shaun Toub…; The ravages of Afghanistan and its effect on an American 'refugee' forms the basis of Khaled Hosseini's best–selling book, here given due…
La Vie en Rose (2007): Dir. Olivier Dahan
Feat. Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Emmanuelle Seigner…; Marion Cotillard excels (and deservingly won a Best Actress Oscar) in this stunning new biopic of the life and times of French singer Edith…
La Zona (2007): Dir. Rodrigo Plá
Feat. Daniel Giménez Cacho, Carlos Bardem, Daniel Tovar…; Award winning, intensely scripted and thought provoking drama set in a wealthy Mexican compound where the residents have formed a vigilante group to…
Lessons in Chocolate (Lezioni di Cioccolato) (2007): Dir. Claudio Cupellini
Feat. Luca Argentero, Violante Placido, Neri Marcore…; A building contractor on the verge of closing his biggest deal to date finds his future jeopardized when an illegally hired worker is injured on the…
Like Stars on Earth (Taare Zameen Par) (2007): Dir. Aamir Khan
Feat. Darsheel Safary, Aamir Khan, Tisca Chopra; Drama from Indian actor–director Aamir Khan (3 IDIOTS) following the life of an imaginative 8–year old boy with diagnosed dyslexia, who…
Lorna's Silence (Le Silence de Lorna) (2007): Dir. Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Feat. Arta Dobroshi, Jeremie Renier, Fabrizio Rongione; Further tales of hardship from the Cannes–winning Dardenne brothers, concerning the plight of an Albanian woman seeking Belgian citizenship…
Lust, Caution (Se, Jie) (2007): Dir. Ang Lee
Feat. Tony Leung (Chiu-wai), Joan Chen, Wei Tang…; Dir. Ang Lee (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) returns to the mainland to present a slow–burn, psychologically dense and provocative spy thriller, based on…
Manual of Love 2 (Capitoli successivi) (2007): Dir. Giovanni Veronesi
Feat. Carlo Verdone, Monica Bellucci, Riccardo Scamarcio; Monica Bellucci climbs abroad in this wry sequel. Director Giovanni Veronesi delves once again into the mysterious recesses of the human heart and…
My Brother Is An Only Child (Mio Fratello è Figlio Unico) (2007): Dir. Daniele Luchetti
Feat. Elio Germano, Riccardo Scamarcio, Angela Finocchiaro…; The struggle between popular Communist and Fascist groups in 60's Italy is the stage for this tale of hot–headed sibling and filial conflict.…
Noodle (2007): Dir. Ayelet Menahemi
Feat. Mili Avital, BaoQi Chen; Satisfying, well–realized tale of an Israeli flight attendant who becomes the reluctant guardian of a six–year–old Chinese boy…
O'Horten (2007): Dir. Bent Hamer
Feat. Baard Owe, Ghita Norby; The director of KITCHEN STORIES follows up with another comic delicacy about a 67–year–old engineer and his oddly challenging quest to…
One Hundred Nails (Centochidi) (2007): Dir. Ermanno Olmi
Feat. Raz Degan, Luna Bendandi; Quiet, thoughtful drama involving a jaded professor who in a fit of apostasy flees to the countryside only to be taken for Jesus by the locals.
Persepolis (2007): Dir. Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud; Exceptional black–and–white animated feature for adults based on the autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, who grew up in…
Romance Of Astrea and Ceadon, The (2007): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Stéphanie Crayencour, Andy Gillet, Cécile Cassel…; Eric Rohmer, master of the seasonal romantic tryst, steps out with this playful adaptation of a 17th century French novel, in which a handsome…
Rush Hour (The Trial Begins) (2007): Dir. Vincenzo Marra
Feat. Michelle Lastella, Fanny Ardant, Giulia Bevilacqua…; Tightly directed drama about the temptation of amoral manipulation. Italian tax official Filippo makes himself guilty of fraud and bribery to join…
Saawariya (Beloved) (2007): Dir. Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Feat. Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor; Notable for being the first mainstream Hindi movie to be funded by a U.S. studio, this stylistically decadent romance of unrequited love and desire…
Saturn in Opposition (Saturno Contro) (2007): Dir. Ferzan Ozpetek
Feat. Stefano Accorsi, Margherita Buy, Pierfrancesco Favino; Sensitive ensemble drama exploring the relationships of a group of friends who meet regularly for dinner. Ozpetek brings his characters…
Secret of the Grain, The (Couscous) (2007): Dir. Abdellatif Kechiche
Feat. Habib Boufares, Hafsia Herzi, Farida Benkhetache…; Acclaimed French film siphons the daily trials and tribulations of a working class Arab clan, whose patriarch dreams of opening a restaurant…
Son Of A Lion (2007): Dir. Benjamin Gilmour
Feat. Niaz Khan Shinwari, Sher Alam Miskeen Ustad; Pertinent, courageous drama filmed entirely in the Pashtun tribal area, telling the story of a young Pakistani boy who yearns to go to school and…
Strangers (2007): Dir. Guy Nattiv, Erez Tadmor
Feat. Patrick Albenque, Lubna Azabal, Mila Dekker; Balancing hopeful romanticism with political realism, this fatalistic drama brings together an Israeli and Palestinian in Paris during the frenzy of…
Suso's Tower (La Torre de Suso) (2007): Dir. Tom Fernández
Feat. Javier Camara, Gonzalo de Castro, César Vea; Forced to return to his native Spain following the death of a friend, a hard–living man decides to fulfill his dead mate’s dream of…
Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna) (2007): Dir. Patricia Riggen
Feat. Adrian Alonso, Kate del Castillo, Eugenio Derbez…; Stirring drama following Carlitos (Alonso) a young boy living in Mexico and his mother Rosario (del Castillo) living in LA, and their epic journey to…
Witnesses, The (2007): Dir. Andre Techine
Feat. Michel Blanc, Emmanuelle Beart, Sami Bouajila…; Told in three chapters, this matter–of–fact ensemble drama centred on the AIDS crisis as it hit Paris during the eighties, develops into…
XXY (2007): Dir. Lucía Puenzo
Feat. Ricardo Darín, Ines Efron, Martin Piroyanski; Articulate portrayal of the life of an intersex teenager searching for identity and exploring the complexities of coming–of–age in a…
You the Living (2007): Dir. Roy Andersson
Feat. Jessica Lundberg, Elisabeth Helander, Björn Englund; Master of the painstaking, deadpan vignette, Roy Andersson, continues his singular and obsessive vision with this absurdist comedy of…
After the Wedding (Efter brylluppet) (2006): Dir. Susanne Bier
Feat. Mads Mikkelsen, Sidse Babett Knudsen; A rewarding drama with a political conscience and a romantic heart, Mads Mikkelsen plays a teacher at an Indian orphanage who returns to Denmark to…
Along the Ridge (Anche libero va bene) (2006): Dir. Kim Rossi Stuart
Feat. Barbora Bobulova, Kim Rossi Stuart; Italian actor Kim Rossi Stuart's directorial debut is a heart–rending drama told through the eyes of an 11 year old boy whose family must cope…
Ball, The (Liscio) (2006): Dir. Claudio Antonini
Feat. Laura Morante, Umberto Morelli; Slender tale boasts a fine performance by Morante as a chanteuse and solo mother, whose son attempts to find her a boyfriend.
Bamako (The Court) (2006): Dir. Abderrahmane Sissako
Feat. Aissa Maiga; A mock trial of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank – whose representatives must defend charges of reckless lending and…
Bartali - The Iron Man (Mini-Series) (Gino Bartali - L'intramontabile) (2006): Dir. Alberto Negrin
Feat. Pierfrancesco Favino; Spirited made–for–TV biopic of Italy’s indomitable road cyclist Gino Bartali, twice winner of the Tour de France.
Beauty In Trouble (Kráska v nesnázích) (2006): Dir. Jan Hrebejk
Feat. Anna Geislerova, Josef Abrhám, Jana Brejchová; Exquisite Czech drama focused on a young woman living in Prague who, while struggling to care for her family after their home is destroyed by a…
Blame it on Fidel! (La Faute à Fidel!) (2006): Dir. Julie Gavras
Feat. Nina Kervel-Bey, Julie Depardieu, Stefano Accorsi; A warm, wise and wryly observed evocation of a child's accelerated maturation in the midst of early 1970s social and political upheaval, Nina…
Caiman, The (Il Camino) (2006): Dir. Nanni Moretti
Feat. Nanni Moretti, Margherita Buy, Jasmine Trinca…; Unflinching Italian film–within–a–film concerning a producer attempting to make a film about former Italian prime minister Silvio…
Climates (Iklimler) (2006): Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Feat. Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan; The director of UZAK employs startlingly high definition photography and an Antonioni–inspired dissection of male–female relations to…
Coeurs (Private Fears in Public Places) (2006): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Sabine Azema, Laura Morante, Pierre Arditi…; Romantic French drama with a vulnerable edge explores the modern dilemmas of loneliness and adoration through the lives of six alienated Parisians…
Colossal Youth (2006): Dir. Pedro Costa; A major work of contemporary art cinema, this mesmerizing sleepwalk throughout the demolished slums of Lisbon, Portugal is seen through the eyes of…
Days of Glory (Indigènes) (2006): Dir. Rachid Bouchareb
Feat. Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Bernard Blancan…; Epic Algerian WW2 drama focused on a determined group of Algerian soldiers fighting to defend France with little acknowledgement of their sacrifices…
Dirty Carnival, A (Biyeolhan geori) (2006): Dir. Ha Yoo
Feat. In-sung Zo, Ku Jin, Tae won Kwon; Dynamite entry in the burgeoning Korean gangster genre explores the meteoric rise – and inevitable fall – of one Byung–du, a lowly…
Don't Worry, I'm Fine (Je Vais Bien, Ne T'en Fais Pas) (2006): Dir. Philippe Lioret
Feat. Mélanie Laurent; Understated French drama centres on a distraught young woman's search for her twin brother after being told he has run away from the family…
Eden (2006): Dir. Michael Hofmann
Feat. Josef Ostendorf, Charlotte Roche; Charming romance revolves around an eccentric chef, and a random encounter with a mother trapped in a monotonous relationship. Fans of…
Etoile Du Soldat, L' (Star of the Soldier) (2006): Dir. Christophe de Ponfilly
Feat. Sacha Bourdo, Philippe Caubere, Hanns Zischler; Maladroit war drama based on the true story of a Russian soldier captured by the Mujahedin in Afghanistan who becomes enthralled by his freedom…
Family Law (Derecho de familia) (2006): Dir. Daniel Burman
Feat. Daniel Hendler, Arturo Goetz, Eloy Burman…; Fatherhood and career jitters converge in this wry comedy of family matters. Promising young dir. Burman displays a dry wit in looking at three…
Fireworks Wednesday (Chaharshanbe-soori) (2006): Dir. Asghar Farhadi
Feat. Taraneh Alidoosti, Matin Heydar-nia; This earlier feature from the director of A SEPARATION similarly explores the mores of the urban middle and lower classes with depth and complexity.…
Four Minutes (Vier Minuten) (2006): Dir. Chris Kraus
Feat. Monika Bliebtreu, Hannah Herzsprung; Unrelentingly gritty German drama of redemption details the hostile relationship between an incarcerated piano player and her emotionally chilly…
Golden Door, The (Nuovomondo) (2006): Dir. Emanuele Crialese
Feat. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Vincenzo Amato; Award–winning Italian drama from the dir. of RESPIRO follows the fortunes of a family of dirt–poor Sicilian peasants, from their homeland…
Hula Girls (2006): Dir. Sang-il Lee
Feat. Yasuko Matsuyuki, Yu Aoi; Feel–good true story of a depleted coal–mining town in Japan, and its residents’ efforts to build a Hawaiian–themed tourist…
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006): Dir. Ming-liang Tsai
Feat. Kang-sheng Lee, Shiang-chyi Chen; This achingly serene, Kuala Lumpur–set fable is one of Tsai Ming–liang’s best, starring his alter ego Lee Kang–sheng as a…
Inside Paris (Dans Paris) (2006): Dir. Christophe Honore
Feat. Romain Duris, Louis Garrel, Guy Marchand…; Sprinkled with the magic of the Nouvelle Vague, this hip and happening ode to big city Paris spends a night and day in the company of two brothers…
Kiss Me Baby (Baciami Piccina) (2006): Dir. Roberto Cimapnelli
Feat. Neri Marcore, Vincenzo Salemme, Elena Russo; Elegant blend of love–story, witty road movie and historical drama tells the story of a couple on their honeymoon at the most unlikely of times…
Lady Chatterley (2006): Dir. Pascale Ferran
Feat. Hippolyte Girardot, Marina Hands, Jean-Louise Coulloc'h; Sensuous, heartrendingly tender French/Belgian adaptation of an alternate version of D.H. Lawrence's once notorious novel 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'…
Land, The (La Terra, Our Land) (2006): Dir. Sergio Rubini
Feat. Paolo Briguglia, Emilio Solfrizzi, Sergio Rubini; Compulsive Italian dramedy depicting a man who returns to the home of his childhood to tie up the sale of the family estate, but is instead…
Love and Dance (Sipur Hatzi-Russi ) (2006): Dir. Eitan Anner
Feat. Jenya Dodina, Avi Kushnir, Oksana Korostyshevskaya…; This "Middle Eastern BILLY ELLIOT" sees the young protagonist oppose the macho aspirations of his secretly soft–centred Israeli father to…
Love and Honor (Bushi no ichibun) (2006): Dir. Yoji Yamada
Feat. Takuya Kimura, Nenji Kobayashi, Ken Ogata; Third chapter in dir. Yamada's revisionist samurai trilogy looks at a recently blinded samurai and the lengths his wife will go to protect his…
Melissa P. (2006): Dir. Luca Guadagnino
Feat. Marcello Mazzarella, Maria Valverde; Saucy, if ultimately restrained memoir of sexual adolescence, concerning a promiscuous teenage girl who seeks solace from her troubled life by…
Nina's Journey (2006): Dir. Lena Einhorn
Feat. Agnieszka Grochowska; Based on the captivating real–life story of writer–director Einhorn's mother, this restrained yet profoundly moving docudrama recaptures…
Offside (2006): Dir. Jafar Panahi; Filmed using non–professionals, in and around the unfolding events of an actual World Cup qualifier, Jafar Panahi expertly weaves a…
Orchestra Seats (Fauteuils d'orchestre) (2006): Dir. Daniele Thompson
Feat. Cecile De France, Sydney Pollack; A fetching French soufflé with a keen eye for Parisian charms, this dainty bohemian offering follows an appealing ensemble cast headed by café…
Our Country (A Casa Nostra) (2006): Dir. Francesca Comencini
Feat. Valeria Golino, Giuseppe Battiston, Luca Zingaretti…; Hard–nosed ensemble drama aims straight at the Italian big business jugular, levelling broadsides at capitalism and Big Brother as it critiques…
Page Turner, The (2006): Dir. Denis Drecourt
Feat. Catherine Frot, Deborah Francois; A typically frosty, femme–centric French chamber–piece about a classical music prodigy whose career is sabotaged by a concert pianist,…
Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del fauno) (2006): Dir. Guillermo Del Toro
Feat. Ariadna Gil, Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopez…; A stunning, sinister netherworld fantasy that parallels an equally compelling story of uprising against a fascist military unit in WWII Spain, this…
Paris, Je T'aime (Paris, I Love You) (2006): Dir. Olivier Assayas, Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet
Feat. Fanny Ardant, Juliette Binoche, Steve Buscemi…; A prestige line–up of actors and filmmakers converge in this grand anthology of love letters to the city of romance. With each vignette…
Prague (Prag) (2006): Dir. Ole Christian Madsen
Feat. Mads Mikkelsen, Stine Stengade; A journey to Prague to collect a deceased father's coffin turns into a prolonged, poignant and gruelling dissection of an estranged Danish couple's…
Provoked (2006): Dir. Jag Mundhra
Feat. Aishwarya Rai, Miranda Richardson, Naveen Andrews…; Provocative indeed, this is the true story of an Indian woman (played by Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai) who radically changed how the British public…
Rang De Basanti (2006): Dir. Rakesh Omprakash Mehra
Feat. Aamir Khan, Alice Patten; Progressive Bollywood fare bypasses musical melodrama for an overarching tale of history and self–discovery, guided by a British–Indian…
Red Kebaya, The (2006): Dir. Oliver Knott
Feat. Ramli Hassan, Vanida Imran, Corinne Adri; A lonely photographer with an excessive amount of haunting childhood baggage discovers the key to his past while recording abandoned houses in this…
Red Like the Sky (2006): Dir. Cristiano Bortone
Feat. Luca Carpriotti, Paolo Sassanelli, Marco Cocci; Affecting drama testifies to a young boy's steely resolve after being blinded, after he discovers a newfound joy in sound. An understated narrative…
Reprise (2006): Dir. Joachim Trier
Feat. Anders Danielsen Lie, Espen Klouman-Høiner, Viktoria Winge…; Touching, keenly perceptive Norwegian film fest favourite centres on two twenty–something writers whose vastly divergent personalities and…
Requiem (2006): Dir. Hans-Christian Schmid
Feat. Sandra Huller; Tightly coiled within Sandra Huller’s commanding lead performance, this riveting account of a young woman’s struggle with epilepsy and religious…
Science of Sleep, The (2006): Dir. Michel Gondry
Feat. Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Emma de Caunes…; A delightfully self–conscious, self–indulged fantasy for cine–wizard Michel Gondry, the director's follow–up to ETERNAL…
Secret Journey (Viaggio Segreto) (2006): Dir. Roberto Ando
Feat. Marco Baliani, Alessio Boni, Emir Kusturica; Leo, a psychoanalyst in his forties lives with his younger sister, Ale. When Harold , a famous and hugely successful artist, announces his intention…
Singer, The (Quand j'étais chanteur) (2006): Dir. Xavier Giannoli
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Cecile De France, Mathieu Amalric; Gerard Depardieu works his rotund charm as a journeyman lounge singer, crooning his way through half–empty nightclubs while forging an unlikely…
Still Life (Dong) (2006): Dir. Jia Zhang-ke
Feat. Zhao Tao; Another arresting globalisation story from China's leading contemporary filmmaker, situated on the banks of the Yangtze River, where once thriving…
Suddenly (Underbara älskade) (2006): Dir. Johan Brisinger
Feat. Michael Nyqvist, Anastasios Soulis, Moa Gammel…; Quality Swedish drama explores themes of grief and solace in its portrait of a bereaved family man, who must come to terms with the sudden death of…
Syndromes and a Century (2006): Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Feat. Arkanae Cherkam, Jaruchai Iamaram, Nu Nimsomboon; A rural hospital surrounded by Thailand's evergreen jungle is the setting for this blissful meditation on memory and desire, shot in the exquisite…
Time to Leave (2006): Dir. Francois Ozon
Feat. Melvil Poupaud, Jeanne Moreau, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi…; Dir. Ozon expands on the theme of death and mourning, first explored in UNDER THE SAND, with this carefully composed, if somewhat underdeveloped male…
Times and Winds (Bes Vakit) (2006): Dir. Reha Erdem
Feat. Ozkan Ozen, Ali Bey Kayali, Elit Iscan; Set in a remote Turkish village three friends on the cusp of adolescence struggle with both with their changing emotions and growing resentment of…
TranSylvania (2006): Dir. Tony Gatlif
Feat. Asia Argento, Birol Unel, Amira Casar; Tony Gatlif tones his freewheeling musical romanticism down a notch, but doesn’t discard the ramshackle sensuality of his earlier films, in this…
Vanaja (2006): Dir. Rajnesh Domalpalli
Feat. Mamatha Bhukya; Heartfelt story of empowerment centres around the rape and subsequent pregnancy of a 15–year–old Indian girl who aspires to be a…
Vitus (2006): Dir. Fredi M. Murer
Feat. Julika Jenkins, Urs Jucker, Bruno Ganz…; Sweet–natured chronicle of a young prodigy whose parents demand success as a pianist. The problem of trying to foster a child’s talent but…
Volver (2006): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Penelope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas; Formidable Spanish brand–name dir. Almodovar re–embracing what he knows best – womanhood – in a vibrant and tempestuous tale of…
What is Love? (Quale Amore) (2006): Dir. Maurizio Sciarra
Feat. Giorgio Pasotti, Arnoldo Foa, Vanessa Incontrada…; Sullen adaptation of Tolstoy's "Kreutzer Sonata" has jealous Pasotti recount how he murdered his wife. Good looking film features some accomplished…
Accused (Anklaget) (2005): Dir. Jacob Thuesen
Feat. Troels Lyby, Sofie Grabol; Unnerving Danish chamber–piece concerns the accusation by a 14–year–old girl that her father has sexually abused her – a…
Adam's Apples (2005): Dir. Anders Thomas Jensen
Feat. Mads Mikkelsen, Ulrich Thomsen, Paprika Steen…; Roguishly sardonic Danish black comedy about a sanguine country vicar (CASINO ROYALE’s Mikkelsen) who encounters resistance from a neo–Nazi…
Airlift, The (2005): Dir. Dror Zahavi
Feat. Heino Ferch, Ulrich Tukur, Bettina Zimmerman; Sweeping historical drama set in post–WWII Berlin with the love affair between a German single mother and an American General complicated by…
Allegro (2005): Dir. Christoffer Boe
Feat. Ulrich Thomsen, Helena Christensen; Conceptually intriguing Danish sci–fi drama concerns a gifted concert pianist whose lack of intimacy leads to amnesia, forcing him to enter…
Always - Sunset on Third Street (Always san-chôme no yûhi ) (2005): Dir. Takashi Yamazaki
Feat. Koyuki, Shin'ichi Tsutsumi, Hiroko Yakushimaru; A wistful Japanese drama, set against the backdrop of a developing Tokyo skyline in the 50's, centred on a handful of residents living in the…
Angel-A (2005): Dir. Luc Besson
Feat. Jamel Debbouze, Rie Rasmussen; This sleek, stylized departure for dir. Luc Besson dabbles in an unlikely romance between a statuesque blonde (Rassmusen), and a nebbish, diminutive…
Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State (2005): The BBC present a comprehensive visual and verbal account of the "Final Solution" phase of the Nazi Holocaust, focused on the most infamous of the…
Battle in Heaven (Batalla en el cielo) (2005): Dir. Carlos Reygadas
Feat. Marcos Hernández; Heavyset follow–up to JAPON finds Mexican dir. Reygadas dealing in the spiritual and moral crises of two lost souls: one an underprivileged…
Beast in the Heart, The (La Bestia nel cuore, Don't Tell) (2005): Dir. Cristina Comencini
Feat. Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Stefania Rocca, Alessio Boni…; Oscar–nominated Italian drama centred on the life of a successful career woman who finds herself haunted by nightmares of an abusive childhood…
Beauty Remains (Mei ren yi jiu) (2005): Dir. Ann Hui
Feat. Vivian Wu, Xun Zhou; Two sisters negotiate the turbulent rise of communism in China during the 1940s in this family melodrama. Sensuously filmed in tones reminiscent…
Cave of the Yellow Dog, The (2005): Dir. Byambasuren Davaa; The dir. of THE WEEPING CAMEL weaves an enchanting tale of nomads through the eyes of a young girl, using her friendship with a stray dog as a launch…
Child, The (L'enfant) (2005): Dir. Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Feat. Jeremie Renier, Deborah Francois; The latest humanist imprint from the Dardenne's is a gripping, logical extension of their socio–economic character studies, here following the…
Crime Novel (Romanzo criminale) (2005): Feat. Kim Rossi Stuart, Pierfrancesco Favino, Claudio Santamaria…; Novel–based Italian crime drama concerning a group of small–town crims who went on to become Rome's most merciless crime family and a…
Dark Horse (Voksne mennesker) (2005): Dir. Dagur Kari
Feat. Jakob Cedergren, Nicolas Bro; Charmingly offbeat slacker comedy from the director of NOI THE ALBINO, following a Copenhagen graffiti artist who spends his days dodging parking…
Days of Abandonment, The (I Giorni dell'abbandono) (2005): Dir. Roberto Faenza
Feat. Margherita Buy, Luca Zingaretti; Shattering Italian drama with Margherita Buy in a breathtakingly brutal performance as a middle–age woman left by her husband who deteriorates…
Death of Mr Lazarescu, The (2005): Dir. Cristi Puiu
Feat. Ion Fiscuteanu, Luminita Gheorghiu; Whirling, labyrinthine black comedy follows with interest the Kafkaesque plight of an ailing elderly drunk, whose stomach pains are met with…
El Violin (2005): Dir. Francisco Vargas
Feat. Angel Tavira; A one–handed violinist commands this potent political history of Mexico’s 1970s Guerrero peasant revolt. Plotting to befriend the…
Elsa and Fred (2005): Dir. Marcos Carnevale
Feat. Manuel Alexandre, China Zorrilla; Exquisitely acted romance between a pair of senior citizens expresses enough tenderness and fragility to overcome its rather prosaic storyline.…
Familia (2005): Dir. Lousie Archambault
Feat. Mylene St-Sauveur, Macha Grenon, Sylvie Moreau; Multi–faceted, thoroughly entertaining drama centres on the frequently discordant child–rearing beliefs of two friends as they attempt to…
Fateless (Sorstalanság) (2005): Dir. Lajos Koltai
Feat. Marcell Nagy, Aron Dimeny, Daniel Craig; Harrowing and distilled vision of the Holocaust adapted from a novel by concentration–camp survivor and Nobel prize–winning author Imre…
Gabrielle (2005): Dir. Patrice Chereau
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Pascal Greggory; Absorbing adaptation of a Joseph Conrad short story coolly dissects the disintegrating marriage of a bourgeois French couple. Gorgeously framed…
Heading South (Vers le sud) (2005): Dir. Laurence Cantet
Feat. Charlotte Rampling, Karen Young, Louise Portal; Pensive women's drama from the dir. of TIME OUT, set on a Haitian beach resort frequented by wealthy westerners and male gigolos. Set in the 70s…
House of Sand, The (2005): Dir. Andrucha Waddington
Feat. Fernanda Montenegro, Fernanda Torres, Ruy Guerra; Rapturous cinematography transforms this melodramatic saga of three generations of women stranded in Brazil’s inhospitable Maranhão region, into…
How Much Do You Love Me? (Combien tu m'aimes?) (2005): Dir. Bertrand Blier
Feat. Monica Bellucci, Gerard Depardieu, Jean-Pierre Darroussin…; Akin to THE VALET’s improbable live–in relationship, but offering entirely different results, this peculiar comedy–romance stars Monica…
In the Light of the Sun (Alla luce del sole) (2005): Dir. Roberto Faenza
Feat. Luca Zingaretti; Grave Italian drama, set in a time of increased Mafia terrorism and based on the chain of events that led to the assassination of the Catholic priest…
Italian Film Festival Collection, The - 2007 (2005-2006): Comprehensive box–set collection of 11 of the best Italian films featured at the 'Italian Film Festival 2007' spread over 6 discs. Films…
Italian, The (Italianetz) (2005): Dir. Andrei Kravchuk
Feat. Kolya Spiridonov, Nikolai Reutov, Maria Kuznetsova…; Despite the title there is little Tuscan sunshine to be found here, but instead a frosty though warm–hearted tale from a Russian orphanage,…
Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas) (2005): Dir. Christian Carion
Feat. Ian Richardson, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl; Fact–based WWI drama centred around how, on Christmas Eve, 1914, opposing French, German and British soldiers called a temporary ceasefire amid…
Karol - A Man Who Became Pope (2005): Dir. Giacomo Battiato
Feat. Piotr Adamczyk; A lavish TV biopic concerning the life of the Polish–born leader of the Roman Catholic church between 1978 and 2005, Karol Wojtyla or Pope John…
L'Enfer (Hell) (2005): Dir. Danis Tanovic
Feat. Emmanuelle Beart, Karin Viard, Marie Gillain…; Intense and twisting family psychodrama based on a script by Krystof Kieslowski (THREE COLOURS) has three French sisters finding their lives…
La Maison de Nina (2005): Dir. Richard Dembo
Feat. Agnes Jaoui, Sarah Adler, Katia Lewkowicz; Quietly accomplished French drama focused on the relationships within the fragile structures of the 'houses of hope': houses run by surrogate mothers…
La Petite Jerusalem (2005): Dir. Karin Albou
Feat. Elsa Zylberstein; Passion must be reconciled with faith for two sisters growing impatient with family and religious boundaries, while living in the drab Parisian…
Live and Become (Va, vis et deviens) (2005): Dir. Radu Mihaileanu; Set against a little–known human catastrophe in which thousands of Ethiopian Jews (Falasha) were evacuated to Israel during civil unrest in the…
Lower City (Cidade Baixa) (2005): Dir. Sergio Machado
Feat. Lazaro Ramos, Jose Dumont; Sensual, if sordid Latin American affair lustily relaying an ongoing threesome between two poverty–stricken ferrymen and a gorgeous Salvadorian…
Mario's War (La Guerra di Mario) (2005): Dir. Antonio Capuano
Feat. Valeria Golino; Confronting Italian drama focused on a young boy taken away from his abusive mother to be cared for by a generous upper–class couple attempting…
Method, The (El Método) (2005): Dir. Marcelo Pineyro
Feat. Eduardo Noriega, Najwa Nimri, Ernesto Alterio…; This smart black comedy for the 21st century sees corporate ethics slyly dissected as seven candidates blindly compete for an executive position in a…
Once You're Born (Quando sei nato non puoi più nasconderti) (2005): Dir. Marco Tullio Giordana
Feat. Alessio Boni, Adriana Asti; Frank Italian adventure by acclaimed director Marco Tullio Giordana (THE BEST OF YOUTH) telling the coming–of–age story of a wealthy…
One Stays, One Leaves (L' un reste, l'autre part) (2005): Dir. Claude Berri
Feat. Daniel Auteuil, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Nathalie Baye…; Witty French comedy with an undercurrent of angst in which two philandering middle–aged husbands do their utmost to juggle fresh–faced…
Princesses (Princesas) (2005): Dir. Fernando León de Aranoa
Feat. Candela Pena, Micaela Nevarez; A raw, heartfelt slice of social realism on Spain's unforgiving streets, this authentic drama about the tenuous friendship between two women who…
Regular Lovers (Les Amants réguliers) (2005): Dir. Philippe Garrel
Feat. Louis Garrel, Clotilde Hesme; A richly photographed, Nouvelle Vague–styled homage to the revolutionary spirit of protesters in 1968 Paris, dir. Garrel offers a lucid, at…
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005): Dir. Zhang Yimou
Feat. Ken Takakura; An unmistakably poignant, tear–jerking chronicle of an elderly Japanese man’s pilgrimage to Mainland China in the hope of reconciling a…
Ring Finger, The (L'annulaire) (2005): Dir. Diane Bertrand
Feat. Olga Kurylenko, Marc Barbe, Stipe Erceg; Ravishing to look at, if lacking so much as a storyline, this exquisite erotic fiction features Bond Girl Olga Kurylenko as a gorgeous laboratory…
Sacred Heart (Cuore Sacro) (2005): Dir. Ferzan Ozpetek
Feat. Erika Blanc, Barbora Bobulova, Camille Dugay Comencini…; Invigorating Italian drama of a successful businesswoman forced to re–assess her life by way of an encounter with a street kid after two of her…
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005): Dir. March Rothemund
Feat. Julia Jentsch; An interesting and worthy companion piece to the excellent DOWNFALL, this necessarily grim drama looks at the trial of 21–year–old…
Speer And Hitler: The Devil's Architect (2005): Dir. Heinrich Breloer
Feat. Sebastian Koch, Tobias Moretti; Painstaking docu–drama attempts to reevaluate the war crimes of one Albert Speer, Third Reich celebrity and Hilter’s personal architect…
Stupid Boy (Garçon Stupide) (2005): Dir. Lionel Baier
Feat. Natacha Koutchoumov, Pierre Chatagny, Rui Pedro Alves; Raw drama focused around Loic, a young gay swinger in Switzerland, and his attraction to an older man who offers unexpected emotional stability.…
Takeshis' (2005): Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Takeshi Kitano, Kayoko Kishimoto, Ren Osugi…; Returning to his comedic roots, dir. Takeshi Kitano springs layer upon layer of self–reference and in this conceptually ambitious, though…
Three Times (2005): Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Feat. Chen Chang, Shu Qi; Taiwanese great Hou Hsiao–Hsien rekindles the memory of three of his finest films, linking a trio of elegant, erstwhile love stories (across…
Tickets (2005): Dir. Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach; Surprisingly succinct take on the "omnibus" film sees the trifecta of Olmi, Kiarostami and Loach intersect three eclectic stories on a…
Tony Takitani (2005): Dir. Jun Ichikawa
Feat. Issey Ogata, Rie Miyazawa; A small jewel of a drama, based on a story by Haruki Murakami, about a lonely illustrator (Ogata) who meets the woman of his dreams, only later…
Tsotsi (2005): Dir. Gavin Hood
Feat. Presley Chweneyagae; Deserved winner of the 2006 Foreign Language Oscar, this gripping tale of a young homicidal street–thug ('tsotsi') in post–apartheid…
U-Carmen Ekhayelitsha (2005): Dir. Mark Dornford-May
Feat. Pauline Malefane; An inspired contemporary rendition of George Bizet's classic opera, with events relocated to the rich cultural hotbed of modern day South Africa.…
Valley of Flowers (2005): Dir. Pan Nalin
Feat. Milind Soman, Mylène Jampanoï, Naseeruddin Shah; Visually gorgeous, sprawling love story from the director of SAMSARA revises an epic Himalayan legend of a mischievous couple whose immortal love…
Water (2005): Dir. Deepa Mehta
Feat. Seema Biswas; The third and finest entry in dir. Deepa Mehta's 'Elements' trilogy (FIRE, EARTH) is an opulent depiction of the plight of a group of Hindu widows…
When Will the Girls Show Up? (Ma quando arrivano le ragazze?) (2005): Dir. Pupi Avati
Feat. Vittoria Puccini, Paolo Briguglia, Claudio Santamaria…; Charming Italian drama, billed as semi–autobiographical by its director Pupi Avati (A HEART ELSEWHERE), centred on two polar opposite musos who…
White Masai, The (Die Weisse Massai) (2005): Dir. Hermine Huntgeburth
Feat. Nina Hoss; A mysterious, well–textured tale of attraction concerns a young Swiss woman travelling in Africa with her boyfriend who becomes infatuated with…
Yacoubian Building, The (2005): Dir. Marwan Hamed; A downtown apartment building is the main setting for this lively, ambitious cross–section of Egyptian life: a melting pot of social, political…
Zozo (2005): Dir. Josef Fares
Feat. Imad Creidi; Sincere and occasionally dreamlike tale of displacement follows the plight of a 10–year old boy (Creidi) caught in the midst of Lebanon's civil…
2046 (2004): Dir. Wong Kar-Wai
Feat. Tony Leung (Chiu-wai), Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li…; A companion piece of sorts to IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, this has the seasoned stylist dir. Wong Kar–Wai sketch an impressionistic portrait of loss,…
3-Iron (Bin-jip) (2004): Dir. Kim Ki-Duk
Feat. Seung-yeon Lee, Hee Song Jae; Odd, elliptical love story from the dir. SPRING, SUMMER concerns the blossoming romance between a domestic abuse victim and her savior, a…
5x2 (Five Times Two) (2004): Dir. Francois Ozon
Feat. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Stephane Freiss; Simple and powerful 'deconstruction' of modern marriage, which offers five widely–spaced scenes from the relationship of an average French…
Aftermath (2004): Dir. Paprika Steen
Feat. Sofie Grabol, Soren Pilmark, Mikael Birkkjaer; A young couple struggle to cope following the death of their only daughter, in this somber Danish drama starring Sophie Grabol (THE…
As it is in Heaven (Så som i himmelen) (2004): Dir. Kay Pollak
Feat. Michael Nyqvist; A feelgood arthouse hit about a renowned classical music conductor who rediscovers his roots in the far north of Sweden. Acquiring a rundown…
Bad Education (Mala Educación, La) (2004): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Gael Garcia Bernal, Fele Martinez, Javier Camara; Another fascinating work from Almodovar who, after TALK TO HER, again matches his renowned taste in decor with adventurous yet controlled…
Blood and Bones (Chi to hone) (2004): Dir. Yoichi Sai
Feat. Takeshi Kitano, Joe Odagiri; Harrowing biopic about the life and times of an infamous first–generation Korean immigrant who came to Japan in the 1920s and by dint of his…
Bombon (El Perro) (2004): Dir. Carlos Sorin
Feat. Juan Villegas; A middle–aged man (Villegas), struggling to maintain his meager lifestyle working as a mechanic in remote Patagonia, and selling knives on the…
Brides (Nyfes) (2004): Dir. Pantelis Voulgaris
Feat. Damian Lewis, Victoria Haralabidou, Steven Berkoff; Through the passages of unrequited love, this bittersweet tale set on board a ship en route to the United States evokes a universal story of…
Bridge of San Luis Rey, The (2004): Dir. Mary McGuckian
Feat. Robert De Niro, Kathy Bates, Gabriel Byrne…; This star–studded costume drama of interlinked fates is the third celluloid incarnation of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Thorton Wilder…
Brothers (2004): Dir. Susanne Bier
Feat. Connie Nielsen, Ulrich Thomsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas; Dialing–up the Dogme–95 credentials of its creators, this melodrama proffers a dangerous family triangle between a career soldier…
C.R.A.Z.Y. (Crazy) (2004): Dir. Jean-Marc Vallée
Feat. Marc-André Grondin, Danielle Proulx, Michel Côté; Rockin' and colourful rites–of–passage drama evolves out an adolescent boy's (Grondin) experiences as part of an unusual family during…
Chorus, The (Les Choristes) (2004): Dir. Christophe Barratier
Feat. Gerard Jugnot, Francois Berleand, Jacques Perrin; Crowd–pleasing drama set in post–WW2 France, where a sympathetic and patient music teacher strives to win over the troubled orphans in…
Clean (2004): Dir. Olivier Assayas
Feat. Maggie Cheung, Nick Nolte, Beatrice Dalle…; An unorthodox drugs movie from the always–interesting Olivier Assayas (IRMA VEP), this distills with refreshing clarity the aftermath of…
Consequences of Love, The (2004): Dir. Paolo Sorrentino
Feat. Toni Servillo, Olivia Magnani, Adriano Giannini…; Icy but utterly involving, this Italian mood piece features Toni Servillo as a mysterious, lonesome resident of a Swiss hotel whose cool facade is…
Don't Move (Non ti muovere) (2004): Dir. Sergio Castellitto
Feat. Penelope Cruz, Sergio Castellitto; A sweaty reflection on lust and responsibility from actor Sergio Castellitto (MOSTLY MARTHA) in his second directorial outing, here playing a…
Downfall (Der Untergang) (2004): Dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel
Feat. Bruno Ganz, Thomas Kretschmann, Juliane Kohler…; Widely acclaimed for its claustrophobic intensity, intelligence and detail, this vivid re–enactment of the last ten days in the life of Adolf…
Edukators, The (The Educators) (2004): Dir. Hans Weingartner
Feat. Daniel Bruhl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg; A compulsive slice of German youth angst about rebels struggling with their cause, this arthouse smash–hit concerns a trio of youthful…
Exils (Exiles) (2004): Dir. Tony Gatlif
Feat. Romain Duris; Possibly dir. Gatlif's most exuberant and personal film yet, this observes a bohemian French couple's journey southwards to their family's respective…
Familia Rodante (Rolling Family) (2004): Dir. Pablo Trapero
Feat. Graciana Chironi, Bernardo Forteza; Argentinian comedy from the director of EL BONAERENSE, following a large family who embark on an epic road trip from Buenos Aires to a village in…
Fida (2004): Dir. Ken Ghosh
Feat. Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Fardeen Khan; Typically likeable Bollywood item that intercrosses two love stories with the tale of an online bank heist. Treading lightly through the genre…
Great Journey, The (Grand Voyage, Le) (2004): Dir. Ismaël Ferroukhi
Feat. Nicolas Cazalé; A few weeks before his college entrance exams, a young man finds himself obligated to drive his stubborn father to Mecca. From France through Italy,…
Great Water, The (Golemata voda) (2004): Dir. Ivo Trajkov
Feat. Saso Kekenovski, Maja Stankovska, Mitko Apostolovski; Serious–minded Macedonian drama traces the fortunes of an orphan (Kekenovski) after WW2, who despite religious repression struggles to become a…
Head-On (Gegen die Wand) (2004): Dir. Fatih Akin
Feat. Birol Unel, Sibel Kekilli; Set in scungy working–class Hamburg, this constructs an unusual love story around two Turkish immigrants – a drunken janitor (Unel) and a…
Hidden Blade (Kakushi-ken: oni no tsume) (2004): Dir. Yoji Yamada
Feat. Masatoshi Nagase; The fading glory of the Japanese feudal period in the Meiji Resoration is once again beautifully explored by the dir. of TWILIGHT SAMURAI through a…
In Your Hands (Forbrydelser) (2004): Dir. Annette K. Olesen
Feat. Jens Albinus, Trine Dyrholm, Ann Eleonora Joergensen; Denmark’s latest Dogme dispatch concerns a prison priest whose faith is tested by a young inmate claiming to perform miracles of…
Innocence (2004): Dir. Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Feat. Zoé Auclair, Lea Bridarolli, Bérangère Haubruge…; A strange and sinister – but also uttering beguiling – fantasy combining phantasmagorical imagery and a dewy atmosphere to metaphorically…
Innocent Voices (Voces inocentes) (2004): Dir. Luis Mandoki
Feat. Carlos Padilla, Leonor Varela; The tumultuous upheaval of civil war is witnessed through the eyes of a terrified 12–year–old boy, whose approaching teenage years spell…
Intimate Strangers (Confidences trop intimes) (2004): Dir. Patrice Leconte
Feat. Sandrine Bonnaire, Fabrice Luchini, Anne Brochet; Another stylish excursion into suspensful romanticism for dir. Leconte (MONSIEUR HIRE), here premised on a woman's mistaken assumption that she is…
Intruder, The (L' Intrus) (2004): Dir. Claire Denis
Feat. Michel Subor, Beatrice Dalle, Katia Golubeva…; More sensory cinema from the dir. of BEAU TRAVAIL, lodged in a globally sprawling, free–associative narrative encircled loosely around one…
Jasmine Women (Mo li hua kai; Blossoming Jasmine; Jasmine Flower) (2004): Dir. Yong Hou
Feat. Joan Chen, Wen Jiang, Zhang Ziyi; Intergenerational Chinese weepie about women who are unlucky in love, set during the 1920s, '50s and '80s, and based on the book by Su Tong (also the…
Keys to the House, The (Chiavi di casa, Le) (2004): Dir. Gianni Amelio
Feat. Charlotte Rampling, Kim Rossi Stuart; Eloquent Italian drama directed by Gianni Amelio (OPEN DOORS) following a distant father attempting to reconnect with his disabled son by…
Kings and Queen (Rois et reine) (2004): Dir. Arnaud Desplechin
Feat. Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric, Catherine Deneuve…; A tragicomedy of multiple layers and degrees untangles the complicated life of one Emmanuelle Devos, and the various men she calls her own. Spun…
Land Has Eyes, The (Pear ta ma 'on maf) (2004): Dir. Vilsoni Hereniko
Feat. Sapeta Taito, Rena Owen, Voi Fesaitu; The first ever Fijian feature film, this evokes WHALE RIDER with its tale of a young woman (Taito) who aspires to transcend an existence…
Life I Want, The (Vita che vorrei, La) (2004): Dir. Giuseppe Piccioni
Feat. Luigi Lo Cascio, Sandra Ceccarelli; Intriguing Italian romantic drama about two avid actors cast as lovers who begin to cross over the boundaries of stage–life and reality with an…
Life is a Miracle (Zivot je cudo) (2004): Dir. Emir Kusturica
Feat. Slavko Stimac, Natasa Solak; Another feverish, frenetic and heartfelt vision from Balkan dir. Emir Kusturica (UNDERGOUND), attempting here to fathom and unknot the bloody Bosnian…
Light, The (L'Équipier) (2004): Dir. Philippe Lioret
Feat. Sandrine Bonnaire, Philippe Torreton, Anne Consigny; Impeccable Gallic melodrama of family history concerns the arrival of a stranger to a xenophobic Breton community in the ‘60s to work on a…
Look At Me (Comme une Image) (2004): Dir. Agnes Jaoui
Feat. Jean-Pierre Bacri, Agnes Jaoui; Another diverting comedy of manners from the husband–wife creative team behind THE TASTE OF OTHERS, set among the fragile egos of the literary…
Love in Thoughts (2004): Dir. Achim von Borries
Feat. Daniel Bruhl, August Diehl, Anna Maria Muhe…; Melancholic true story of two self absorbed teenagers who make a pact to kill themselves should they no longer feel love and kill those who robbed…
Ma Mere (My Mother) (2004): Dir. Christophe Honore
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Louis Garrel, Emma de Caunes; A perverse Mediterranean sex–romp that manages to skirt regularly between tasteless debauchery and absurd immorality. A heady Isabelle…
Machuca (2004): Dir. Andres Wood
Feat. Ariel Mateluna, Matias Quer; Observing the onset of Augusto Pinochet's bloody coup d'etat in Chile in 1973, through the eyes of two boys who become friends across the…
Maria Full of Grace (2004): Dir. Joshua Marston
Feat. Catalina Sandino Moreno, Yenny Paola Vega, Guilied Lopez…; An accomplished delve into the experience of a 'drug mule', a teenage Colombian girl who enlists to smuggle heroin into the United States, so as to…
Masai - The Rain Warriors (2004): Dir. Pascal Plisson; Simple and visually–sweeping, this African epic follows a group of teenage warriors from their drought–stricken village out into the…
Me And My Sister (Les Soeurs Fachees) (2004): Dir. Alexandra Leclere
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Frot; A deceptively simple French comedy, which has a bubbly and gauche rural–dwelling woman (Frot) visiting her arrogant and successful sister…
Moolaade (2004): Dir. Ousmane Sembene
Feat. Fatoumata Coulibaly; A rare glimpse for New Zealanders of the work of elderly Sengalese dir. Sembene – novelist, newspaper editor and founder of the New African…
Mountain Patrol (Kekexili) (2004): Dir. Chuan Lu
Feat. Lei Zhang, Bujie Duo; An enthralling eco–thriller which portrays the battle over the endangered Tibetan antelope between poachers and a hard–knit unit of…
Nobody Knows (Dare mo shiranai) (2004): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Yuya Yagira, Ayu Kitaura, You; Based on a notorious 1988 case where four abandoned children were found to have been living on their own devices out of a Japanese apartment for six…
Offbeat (Kammerflimmern) (2004): Dir. Hendrik Hölzemann
Feat. Matthias Schoenaerts, Jessica Schwarz, Florian Lukas; Fitfully intense indie drama is set around the daily rounds of a paramedic (Schweighöfer) struggling with his own dreams, memories and a few lurking…
Overture, The (Hom rong) (2004): Dir. Ittisoontorn Vichailak
Feat. Anuchit Sapanpong, Aratee Tanmahapran; Biopic exploring the life of Thai musical master Luang Pradit Pairoh (Sorn Silapabanleng), who was a palace musician and ra–nad ek (Thai…
Queen of Sheba's Pearls, The (2004): Dir. Colin Nutley
Feat. Helena Bergstrom; Set in post–WW2 England this centres its tale on a rural West Country family, whose members are on the cusp of various life passages, upset by…
Raincoat (2004): Dir. Rituparno Ghosh
Feat. Ajay Devgan, Aishwarya Rai; Dramatically–ambitious dir. Ghosh here creates an understated chamber piece from the usual Bollywood melodramatics, staging a rainy–day…
Rice Rhapsody (Hainan ji fan) (2004): Dir. Kenneth Bi
Feat. Sylvia Chang, Mélanie Laurent, Maggie Q; Light, good–natured familial farce about a sturdy single mother who, fearing a drought of grandchildren, plots to ‘straighten’ the…
Sea Inside, The (Mar Adentro) (2004): Dir. Alejandro Amenabar
Feat. Javier Bardem, Belen Rueda, Lola Dueñas…; A deserving winner of the Best Foreign Film Academy Award, this outstanding melodrama is based on the unique real–life story of Ramon Sampedro,…
Shadows Of Time (Scatten der Zeit) (2004): Dir. Florian Gallenberger
Feat. Prushant Narayanan, Tanishta Chaterjee; Sumptuous romantic melodrama of a high order, following the bittersweet relations between two abandoned children, who graduate from working in a…
Stray Dogs (Sag-haye velgard) (2004): Dir. Marziyeh Meshkini
Feat. Gol-Ghotai , Zahed , Agheleh Rezaie; A wrenching, emotionally gripping tale of two children, orphaned after their parents are imprisoned, who must fend for themselves in…
Summer Storm (Sommersturm) (2004): Dir. Marco Kreuzpaintner
Feat. Robert Stadlober, Kostja Ullmann; Two best friends – the pride of the local rowing club – find their loyalties and chances of winning threatened, as one gets serious about…
Sun, The (2004): Dir. Alexandr Sokurov
Feat. Robert Dawson, Issey Ogata; A lucid, painstaking portrait of Emperor Hirohito, whose authority over Japanese troops during WWII is contrasted against intimate scenes of…
They Came Back (Les Revenants) (2004): Dir. Robin Campillo
Feat. Géraldine Pailhas, Jonathan Zaccai, Frédéric Pierrot…; This disquieting, unconventional ‘zombie’ movie concerns a global phenomenon of returning dead, and their subsequent integration back into living…
Three Dancing Slaves (2004): Dir. Gaël Morel
Feat. Nicolas Cazalé, Stephane Rideau, Thomas Dumerchez…; French romantic drama set in a working class Annecy neighbourhood where three brothers are in and out of the criminal world after their mother dies,…
Trilogy 1: The Weeping Meadow (To Livadi pou dakryzei) (2004): Dir. Theo Angelopoulos; The first part of an intended trilogy of films dealing with 20th century Greece, this monumental epic depicts the travails of a Greek refugee family…
Tropical Malady (2004): Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Feat. Banlop Lomnoi, Sakda Kaewbuadee; A gorgeous two–hander from the dir. of BLISSFULLY YOURS begins as a tender romance between a farmer and a solider, before transforming into a…
Turtles Can Fly (Lakposhtha hâm parvaz mikonand) (2004): Dir. Bahman Ghobadi
Feat. Soran Ebrahim, Avaz Latif; The first widely–released film to emerge from post–Hussein Iraq, this wrenching tale concerns a raucous gang of children who scratch out…
Twenty Thirty Forty (20 30 40) (2004): Dir. Sylvia Chang
Feat. Sylvia Chang, Rene Liu, Lee Sinji; The destinies of three women in contemporary urban Taiwan – aged 20, 30 and 40 – evolve in parallel as each feels their way through the…
Ushpizin (2004): Dir. Giddi Dar; Respectful and dryly humorous parable of an ultra–Orthodox Jewish couple on the eve of the festival of Succoth, who invite two travellers…
Very Long Engagement, A (Long dimanche de fiançailles, Un) (2004): Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Feat. Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Clovis Cornillac…; Another crowd–pleasing favourite from the dir. of AMELIE, which uses the Great War as setting for the fairytale search by Audrey Tatou for her…
Wayward Cloud, The (2004): Dir. Ming-liang Tsai
Feat. Kang-sheng Lee, Shiang-chyi Chen; Eye–popping musical numbers burst forth from this outré Tsai Ming–liang offering, which couples the Taiwanese director’s usual…
World, The (Shijie) (2004): Dir. Jia Zhang-ke
Feat. Zhao Tao; The dir. of PLATFORM continues his perceptive and wry dissection of Chinese society reacting with surreal clumsiness to the forces of globalisation,…
Yesterday (2004): Dir. Darrell Roodt
Feat. Kenneth Khambula, Leleti Khumalo; A groundbreaking drama set in a South African village, which depicts a woman's (Khumalo) struggles with health, family and local superstition when…
15 (2003): Dir. Royston Tan
Feat. Melvin Chen, Erick Chun; Doing for the tiny island nation of Singapore what LA HAINE did for France, this box–office hit follows the misfiring antics of three teenagers…
A Heart Elsewhere (Il Cuore Altrove) (2003): Dir. Pupi Avati
Feat. Giancarlo Giannini, Neri Marcore, Vanessa Incontrada; Seemingly a soft–centred drama set in 1930s Italy, this curious tale of blind love carries its own insinuating mood of melancholy. Marcore…
Anatomy of Hell (Anatomie De L'enfer) (2003): Dir. Catherine Breillat
Feat. Amira Casar, Rocco Siffredi; A queasily explicit sex drama about a suicidal woman who challenges (and pays) a promiscuous gay man to participate in an uneasy nightly ritual of…
Armaan (2003): Dir. Honey Irani
Feat. Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Gracey Singh; A hospital soap–opera, Bollywood–style, centering around a doctor and his neurosurgeon son who dream of turning a private hospital into a…
As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me (2003): Dir. Hardy Martins; Based on the novel by Josef Martin Bauer, this film recounts the harrowing true story of Clemens Forell, the German POW who escaped a Siberian labour…
At Five in the Afternoon (Panj é asr) (2003): Dir. Samira Makhmalbaf
Feat. Agheleh Rezaie, Abdolgani Yousefrazi; Delivering perhaps her most visually poetic, yet dramatically starkest work to date, the dir. of THE APPLE and BLACKBOARDS has a father and daughter…
Barbarian Invasions, The (2003): Dir. Denys Arcand
Feat. Remy Girard, Stephane Rousseau, Dorothee Berryman…; Another finely–wrought drama from French–Canadian dir. Denys Arcand, who invests his keen sense of history, politics, literature and sex…
Best of Youth, The (La Meglio gioventù) (2003): Dir. Marco Tullio Giordana; Sprawling and heady Italian saga tracks the lives of two brothers through the idealistic dreams of the 1960s and the long messy aftermath of…
Cafe Lumiere (Kôhî jikô) (2003): Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Feat. Tadanobu Asano, Yo Hitoto; Luminous tribute to Japanese dir. Yasujiro Ozu from a Taiwanese admirer, which honours Ozu's aesthetic in a minimalist study of personal…
Carandiru (2003): Dir. Hector Babenco; An expressionist series of tales set within the notorious titular prison in Sao Paolo, Brazil, as seen through the eyes of a benevolent doctor and…
Chokher Bali (2003): Dir. Rituparno Ghosh
Feat. Aishwarya Rai, Prasenjit Chatterjee; Set in colonial Bengal, this adaptation of Nobel prizewinner Rabindranath Tagore's 1902 novel, concerns a beautiful widow (Aishwarya) who enters a…
City of Men (TV Series) (Cidade dos Homens) (2003): Feat. Darlan Cunha, Douglas Silva; Brazilian TV followup to the crime epic CITY OF GOD, continues the lives of Acerola and Laranjinha in the shanties of Sao Paolo dodging drug gangs…
Crimson Gold (Talaye sorkh) (2003): Dir. Jafar Panahi; Extraordinary, emotionally–compelling class fable set in contemporary Iran, which begins with a failed jewelery heist in Tehran, then…
Dot The I (El Punto sobre la I) (2003): Dir. Matthew Parkhill
Feat. Gael Garcia Bernal, James D'Arcy, Natalia Verbeke; A skillfully moody London romance, in which the relationship of an engaged couple is disturbed by a pre–wedding ritual in which Verbeke must…
Evil (Ondskan) (2003): Dir. Mikael Håfström
Feat. Andreas Wilson, Henrik Lundstrom, Gustaf Skarsard; Based on a renowned novel, this dramatic thriller is set in the 1950s Sweden, where a high school bully (Wilson) is expelled and sent by his mother…
Facing Windows (La Finestra di fronte) (2003): Dir. Ferzan Ozpetek
Feat. Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Massimo Girotti, Raoul Bova; An Italian woman finds her life and desires fraying away, as she struggles to support her family in the apartment blocks of Rome, while coming to…
Father and Son (Otets i syn) (2003): Dir. Alexandr Sokurov
Feat. Andrei Shchetinin, Aleksei Nejmyshev, Aleksandr Razbash; A loose 'sequel' to dir. Sokurov's arthouse hit MOTHER AND SON, this again uses an oblique, dreamlike visual style, here for an exploration of filial…
Fear and Trembling (Stupeur et tremblements) (2003): Dir. Alain Corneau
Feat. Sylvie Testud; A Belgian translator (Testud) takes a job in the corporate world of Tokyo (a city where she was born and grew up) hoping to rediscover the culture…
Forest for the Trees, The (Der Wald vor lauter Bäumen) (2003): Dir. Maren Ade
Feat. Eva Löbau; Impressively insightful German drama following an idealistic young teacher who starts a job at a Karlsruhe school and contends with her own…
Good Morning, Night (2003): Dir. Marco Bellocchio; A dramatisation of events surrounding the kidnapping and murder of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978 by The Red Brigades, as seen through the…
Goodbye Lenin! (2003): Dir. Wolfgang Becker
Feat. Daniel Bruhl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova; This comedy of concealment set around the fall of the Berlin Wall was a justifiable success around the world, with a bittersweet mood of political…
Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Classics: From 1983 to 1986 (The Boys From Fengkuei; A Summer at Grandpa's; A Time to Live, A Time to Die; Dust in the Wind) (2003): Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien; A collection of four of the early films from director Hou Hsiao–Hsien, who is a leading figure in the Taiwanese New Wave. The Boys From…
I'm Not Scared (Io Non Ho Paura) (2003): Dir. Gabriele Salvatores
Feat. Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Dino Abbrescia, Giorgio Careccia…; Atmospheric thriller from dir. Gabriele Salvatores that deftly conveys a foreboding childhood experience during a long, hot summer in the country,…
James' Journey to Jerusalem (Massa'ot James Be'eretz Hakodesh) (2003): Dir. Ra'anan Alexandrowicz
Feat. Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe; A witty yet significant portrait of contemporary Israel that takes the form of a deceptively straightforward fable, charting the progress of a young…
Kal Ho Naa Ho (Tomorrow May Never Come) (2003): Dir. Nikhil Advani
Feat. Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta; Sporting a string of hit songs and featuring a troika of India's most popular stars, this giddy swirl of romantic comedy, musical, family melodrama…
Kiss Me First (Prima dammi un bacio) (2003): Dir. Ambrogio Lo Giudice
Feat. Stefania Rocca, Marco Cocci; Endearing Italian comedy following the fate of two separated lovers whose lives cannot help but intersect. The events of WW2 inevitably drive these…
Kitchen Stories (Salmer fra kjøkkenet) (2003): Dir. Bent Hamer
Feat. Tomas Norstrom, Joachim Calmeyer, Reine Brynolfsson…; A slyly humourous offering from Scandanavia, examining the efforts of the (real–life) Swedish Home Research Institute to improve lives of…
Koktebel (2003): Dir. Boris Khlebnikov, Alexei Popogrebsky
Feat. Gleb Puskepalis, Igor Chernevich; A delicately imagined journey through the Ukrainian countryside in the company of a widower and his 11–year old son, who set off on foot from…
Last Life in the Universe (2003): Dir. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Feat. Tadanobu Asano, Riki Takeuchi, Sinitta Boonyasak; With a cool command of the aloof, this strange, seductive noir–romance merges the soulless existence of a suicidal librarian (Asano), a…
Love Me If You Dare (Jeux d'enfants) (2003): Dir. Yann Samuell
Feat. Marion Cotillard, Guillaume Canet; Two French kids develop an intense relationship through escalating games of "dare" that bond and haunt them through a turbulent teenage and…
Miracle of Bern, The (2003): Dir. Sonke Wortmann; Set in grim post–WW2 West Germany, this passionate, if broadly–handled drama respools a backdrop of events leading to the shock triumph…
Monsieur Ibrahim (2003): Dir. Francois Dupeyron
Feat. Omar Sharif, Pierre Boulanger; Set on the multicultural streets of 1960s working–class Paris, this warm–hearted tale has a Sufi grocery store owner befriend a lonely…
Nathalie... (2003): Dir. Anne Fontaine
Feat. Emmanuelle Beart, Fanny Ardant, Gerard Depardieu; Steamy French confection involves frustrated wife Ardant in hiring prostitute Beart to seduce her philandering husband (Depardieu), and bring her…
Noi Albinoi (Noi the Albino) (2003): Dir. Dagur Kari
Feat. Tomas Lemarquis, Pröstur Leó Gunnarsson; Distinctive drama about a 'gifted' 17–year–old who rebels against the limits of life in a remote Icelandic town. Brimming with…
Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika) (2003): Dir. Caroline Link
Feat. Juliane Kohler; An old–fashioned epic of family survival, where a privileged Jewish family migrate from 1938 Nazi Germany into the exotic vastness of…
Osama (2003): Dir. Siddiq Barmak
Feat. Marina Golbahari; Though nothing to do with a certain infamous terrorist, this first Afghani film made since the rise and fall of the Taliban also happens to be a…
Remember Me (Ricordati di Me) (2003): Dir. Gabriel Muccino
Feat. Fabrizzio Bentivoglio, Laura Morante, Monica Bellucci; The dir. of THE LAST KISS constructs an equally heightened melodrama about the saga of a middle–class Italian family, their various personal…
Return, The (Vozvrashcheniye) (2003): Dir. Andrei Zvyagintsev
Feat. Ivan Dobronravov, Vladimir Garin, Konstantin Lavronenko…; A surprise arthouse hit about a couple of teenage brothers who are taken on a mysterious trip by their estranged and rather surly father, with his…
Rosenstrasse (2003): Dir. Margarethe von Trotta
Feat. Katja Riemann, Maria Schrader, Martin Feifel; Fact–based drama set around the wartime protest movement of Aryan German women in 1943 Berlin, who were distraught at the forced detention of…
Since Otar Left (2003): Dir. Julie Bertuccelli
Feat. Dinara Droukarova, Nino Khomassouridze, Ester Gorintin; Touching and wryly comic tale set in post–Communist Georgia, in which a mother, daughter and granddaughter partly survive through a romantic…
Singing Behind Screens (Cantando dietro i paraventi) (2003): Dir. Ermanno Olmi
Feat. Bud Spencer, Davide Dragonetti; Visually opulent Italian epic directed by Ermanno Olmi (THE TREE OF WOODEN CLOGS) set in coastal China and centred on a plucky widow who takes her…
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring (Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom) (2003): Dir. Kim Ki-Duk
Feat. Oh Young-Soo, Kim Ki-Duk, Kim Young-Min…; As the seasons pass through many years, the inhabitants of a floating temple on a woodland pond – a young boy and his wizened mentor –…
Springtime in a Small Town (2003): Dir. Tian Zhuangzhuang; Long–awaited followup to THE BLUE KITE for dir. Zhuangzhuang (who was banned from filmmaking for three years afterwards), constructing a…
Story of Marie and Julien, The (Histoire de Marie et Julien) (2003): Dir. Jacques Rivette
Feat. Emmanuelle Beart, Jerzy Radziwilowicz; Meandering and hypnotic tale of the supernatural from French master Jacques Rivette, which begins in the apparently nondescript world of a Parisian…
Swimming Pool (2003): Dir. Francois Ozon
Feat. Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance; A beguiling psychological thriller, in which a British mystery–novelist (Rampling) travels to her publisher's holiday house in rural France for…
Thousand Months, A (Mille Mois) (2003): Dir. Faouzi Bensaïdi
Feat. Fouad Labied, Nezha Rahile; A rare international release from Morocco, this portrays languid months of existence for a boy who, following various family crises, moves with his…
Time of the Wolf (Temps du loup, Le) (2003): Dir. Michael Haneke
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Beatrice Dalle, Olivier Gourmet; Chilling, disconcerting post–apocalyptic nightmare that begins with Isabelle Huppert and children fleeing into a barren French countryside,…
Touch of Spice, A (Politiki kouzina) (2003): Dir. Tassos Boulmetis
Feat. George Corraface; Spices build bridges in this touching account of a Greek astrophysicist and his spice merchant grandfather, conjoined by that now–familiar…
Travellers and Magicians (2003): Dir. Khyentse Norbu
Feat. Tsewang Dandup, Sonam Lhamo; A puckishly effective road movie from the Himilayan kingdom of Bhutan, this follows a young villager who gets the opportunity to travel forth from…
Twentynine Palms (2003): Dir. Bruno Dumont
Feat. Katia Golubeva, David Wissak; Provocative in both form and content, dir. Dumont (L'HUMANITE) crafts an opaque thriller around a dysfunctional couple's 'holiday' in the American…
Untold Scandal (2003): Dir. Je-yong Lee
Feat. Mi-suk Lee, Yong-joon Bae; ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ translates seamlessly to Chosun Dynasty Korea, with temptress Lady Cho (Lee) assuming role of sexual power broker in this…
Vodka Lemon (2003): Dir. Hiner Saleem
Feat. Romen Avinian; The residents of a diminishing Armenian village eke out meagre living in this sombre, if delightfully deadpan post–communist…
Zelary (2003): Dir. Ondrej Trojan
Feat. Anna Geislerova, Gyorgy Cserhalmi; A layered tale of war and romance set around the 1943 purge of the Czech resistance by the occupying Nazis, and a young nurse's flight to…
A Loving Father (Aime ton père) (2002): Dir. Jacob Berger
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Guillaume Depardieu, Sylvie Testud; Gerard Depardieu and real–life offspring Guillaume star as estranged father and son in this MISERY–inspired scenario of gaping family…
A Tale of a Naughty Girl (Mondo Meyer Upakhyan) (2002): Dir. Buddhadev Dasgupta
Feat. Samata Das, Rituparna Sengupta, Arpan Basar; Caught between the push of tradition and the pull of the promise of a new life, a bright prostitute's daughter runs away to Calcutta to escape a…
Abouna (Our Father) (2002): Dir. Mahamat-Saleh Haroun; Set in the impoverished, dusty landscapes of Chad, this fable of African fragmentation follows two brothers (aged 8 and 15) as they search…
And Now Ladies and Gentlemen (2002): Dir. Claude Lelouch
Feat. Jeremy Irons, Patricia Kaas, Thierry Lhermitte…; A smooth exercise in self–satire from dir. Lelouch, with Jeremy Irons playing a shifty jewel–thief who hooks up with lounge–singer…
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2002): Dir. Dai Sijie; Lovingly photographed fable of freedom, set during China's 'Cultural Revolution' in 1971 and based on the dir.'s own adolescence. Two young…
Blissfully Yours (Sud Sanaeha) (2002): Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul; One–of–a–kind filmmaker Weerasethakul embarks on a delicate, ethereal journey through Thailand’s magical wilderness, to beguiling…
Broken Wings (K’nafayim Shvurot) (2002): Dir. Nir Bergman
Feat. Orly Silbersatz Banai, Maya Maron; The fraught shuffle of daily life for an Israeli family after the death of the male head of the household, is depicted with touching and intimate…
Chaos (2002): Dir. Coline Serreau
Feat. Vincent Lindon, Catherine Frot; A witty French thriller where, through a chance meeting, a middle–class woman comes to the rescue of an Algerian–born prostitute who is…
Chihwaseon (Painted Fire) (2002): Dir. Kwon-taek Im
Feat. Min-sik Choi, Sung-kee Ahn; A mainstay of Korean cinema, Im Kwon–taek helms this impassioned portrait of one of the country's most celebrated painters, Jang…
City of God (Cidade de Deus) (2002): Dir. Fernando Mierelles
Feat. Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmano da Hora, Phellipe Haagensen; An incendiary Brazilian drama depicting two decades of blood–drenched rivalry between two youth gangs who control a slum area of Rio De…
Crime of Father Amaro, The (El Crimen del padre Amaro) (2002): Dir. Carlos Carrera
Feat. Gael Garcia Bernal; Melodramatic and ironic critique of the crimes of the Roman Catholic church that was hugely successful in its native Mexico. A young priest…
Cuckoo, The (Kukushka) (2002): Dir. Aleksandr Rogozhkin
Feat. Anni-Kristiina Juuso, Ville Haapasalo, Viktor Bychkov; An earthy drama of non–communication set amid the frozen WW2 battleground of Lapland, where a pacifist Finnish soldier, a survivalist Russian…
Devdas (2002): Dir. Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Feat. Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai; The most expensive production in Bollywood history to date is this gorgeously extravagant soap opera based on one of India’s most widely–read…
Dolls (2002): Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Miho Kanno, Tatsuya Mihashi; Beautiful to behold with its spectacular Japanese vistas, but unfocused in content, dir. Takeshi stumbles with an art film that feels stranded…
El Bonaerense (2002): Dir. Pablo Trapero; An authentically macho tale about the notoriously clannish and corrupt police force of Buenos Aires (members are known as 'el Bonaerense') which…
Enlightenment Guaranteed (2002): Dir. Doris Dorrie
Feat. Uwe Ochsenknecht, Gustav-Peter Wohler; Entertainment is guaranteed for those in the right headspace with this droll comedy, in which two befuddled German brothers on holiday in Japan stray…
Gada Meilin (2002): Dir. Feng Xiaoning; Lauded, but rather obscure action drama set in 1930s Mongolia, where the nomadic tribal leader Gada Meilin tried to prevent the 'desertification' of…
Historias Minimas (Intimate Stories) (2002): Dir. Carlos Sorin
Feat. Javier Lombardo; Gentle, uneventful road movie drifts between three separate journeys from a remote village in Argentina to San Julian. Softly observed, this quietly…
House of Fools (Dom Durakov) (2002): Dir. Andrei Konchalovsky; Based around the true story of a Chechen mental hospital which was abandoned by staff during the recent civil war, with patients left to fend for…
In This World (2002): Dir. Michael Winterbottom; A powerful, simply wrought story of two Afghani brothers who attempt to journey from their Pakistani refugee camp across Asia and Europe to…
Japon (Japan) (2002): Dir. Carlos Reygadas; A crippled man journeys into a remote Mexican canyon in order to end his life, but becomes entangled with a saintly old woman, village politics and a…
L'Homme du Train (Man on the Train) (2002): Dir. Patrice Leconte
Feat. Jean Rochefort, Johnny Hallyday; An elegantly amusing role–switching tale that's equal parts social comedy, existential drama and subtle thriller, tinged with melancholy…
L'Idole (2002): Dir. Samantha Lang
Feat. Leelee Sobieski, James Hong; Playing a troubled Australian actress, Sobieski arrives in Paris and befriends her elderly Chinese neighbour in this melancholy…
Lilya 4-Ever (2002): Dir. Lukas Moodysson
Feat. Oksana Akinshina, Artyom Bogucharsky, Pavel Ponomaryov; Lauded Swedish film–maker Lukas Moodyson turns his talents to the plight of a Russian teenage girl whose hopes for a brighter future (and…
Madame Sata (2002): Dir. Karim Ainouz
Feat. Lazaro Ramos, Marcelia Cartaxo, Felippe Marques…; The underbelly of 1930s Rio de Janeiro glistens in this atmospheric drama about the celebrated João Francisco dos Santos (Ramos), a flamboyant gay…
Man Without a Past, The (2002): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Markku Peltola, Kati Outinen; Another understated, double–take comedy from Finnish dir. Kaurismaki, making perhaps his most cleverly balanced work yet. An itinerant…
Marie-Jo and her Two Loves (2002): Dir. Robert Guediguian
Feat. Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Gerard Meylan; A dreamy, perceptive romance gently steered under the Mediterranean sun by dir. Guédiguian, who again uses the vibrant setting of his native…
Monsieur Batignole (2002): Dir. Gerard Jugnot
Feat. Gerard Jugnot; An ironic comedy set in WW2 Paris, in which the titular butcher helps himself to an apartment vacated by a Jewish family who have been rounded up by…
Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002): Dir. Aparna Sen; A casual aquaintance between two passengers (one Hindu, one Muslim) on a bus journey in northern India becomes a matter of life and death when the…
Oasis (2002): Dir. Chang-Dong Lee
Feat. Kyung-gu Sol, So-ri Moon; Tough and emotionally powerful drama, highlighted by fearless performances, which charts the romance between a recent parolee and a cerebral…
Open Hearts (Elsker dig for evigt) (2002): Dir. Susanne Bier
Feat. Mads Mikkelsen, Sonja Richter; A touch edgier than recent 'Dogme 95' melodramas, this explores the consequences of a car accident on the previously steady lives of those…
Ping Pong (2002): Dir. Fumisiko Sori
Feat. Yôsuke Kubozuka, Arata; A madcap, yet gently humourous Japanese sports tale, set around two table tennis hotshots (Kubozuka and Arata) preparing for a ferocious battle at a…
Private Property (2002): Dir. Joachim Lafosse
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Jeremie Renier; Isabelle Huppert is held to emotional ransom by her two grown–up twin sons in this ‘Mexican standoff’ of family dysfunction and domestic…
Radical Digital Cinema - Vol. 1 (Egoshooter, Half the Rent) (2002-2004): Dir. Christian Becker, Oliver Schwabe, Marc Ottiker
Feat. Tom Schilling, Stephan Kampwirth; The brainchild of Wim Wenders, this digital cinema incubator provides a supportive framework for young filmmakers to push the envelope of the…
Radical Digital Cinema - Vol. 2 (Summer Moon (aka Junimond), Fools) (2002-2003): Dir. Hanno Hackfort, Tom Schreiber; The brainchild of Wim Wenders, this digital cinema incubator provides a supportive framework for young filmmakers to push the envelope of the…
Respiro (Grazia's Island) (2002): Dir. Emanuele Crialese
Feat. Valeria Golino; Highly charged and mostly insightful depiction of a free–spirited woman whose near–psychotic episodes have a profound effect on her small…
Russian Ark (2002): Dir. Alexandr Sokurov; Distinguised by its dazzling cinematic conceit – 300 years of Russian history staged in the Hermitage Museum (with 2000 extras) and captured in…
Satin Rouge (2002): Dir. Raja Amari
Feat. Hiam Abbass, Hend El Fahem; A still–attractive but lonely widow is liberated through the world of belly–dancing in this infectious romantic drama from Tunisia. At…
Sea is Watching, The (Umi wa miteita) (2002): Dir. Kei Kumai; Set in the red–light district of 19th century, Edo–period Tokyo, this sensitively mounted drama concerns the lives of prostitutes…
Sex is Comedy (2002): Dir. Catherine Breillat
Feat. Anne Parillaud, Gregoire Colin, Roxane Mesquida; A self–reflexive twist in the cinema of Catherine Breillat (ROMANCE), here recreating the filming of a lengthy and troublesome sex–scene…
Son, The (2002): Dir. Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Feat. Olivier Gourmet, Morgan Marinne, Isabella Soupart; Finding the perfect subject for their pared down visual aesthetic, the Bros. Dardenne follow up the Cannes–winning ROSETTA with an ostensibly…
Summer Things (Embrassez qui vous voudrez) (2002): Dir. Michel Blanc
Feat. Charlotte Rampling, Jacques Dutronc, Carole Bouquet…; Rom–com with an ensemble cast led by Charlotte Rampling as an unhappily married woman who is off to stay at a seaside resort, where she…
Swing (2002): Dir. Tony Gatlif; The latest excursion into the music–rich culture of Europe's 'gypsy' population from dir. Gatlif (GADJO DILO), this time set around its…
Talk to Her (2002): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Javier Camara, Geraldine Chaplin, Rosalie Flores…; With his fourteenth film, star Spanish director Almodovar marries his supreme style with an original, emotionally resonant story for what might just…
Ten (10) (2002): Dir. Abbas Kiarostami; Teasing but ultimately rewarding drama, in which a video camera, mounted on the dashboard of a car in Tehran, records the lives of the driver and…
Together (He Ni Zaiyiqi) (2002): Dir. Chen Kaige
Feat. Tang Yun, Liu Peiqi, Chen Kaige; Touching story of a father and his 13–year–old son, a shy violin prodigy, who scrape up their meagre savings and set off from their…
Turning Gate (On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate) (2002): Dir. Sang-soo Hong
Feat. Sang-kyung Kim; A wry and astute drama of romantic hang–ups, this follows a crestfallen actor’s trysts with two random women as he rebounds from a failed…
Twilight Samurai, The (Tasogare Seibei) (2002): Dir. Yoji Yamada
Feat. Hiroyuki Sanada, Ren Osugi, Rie Miyazawa…; Boldly subverting the masculine cliches of the genre, this refreshing and highly rewarding Samurai drama follows a dishevelled, low–status…
Twin Sisters (De Tweeling) (2002): Dir. Ben Sombogaart; An epic 'tale of two sisters', which follows their lives after being separated as children in 1920s Holland and sent to live with rich and poor…
Uzak (Distant) (2002): Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Exuding a sense of melancholic accomplishment, this slowly unfolding Turkish drama centres on two cousins – one, a successful but cynical…
Villa Des Roses (2002): Dir. Frank Van Passel
Feat. Julie Delpy, Shirley Henderson, Timothy West; A visually stylish excursion to Paris on the eve of WWI, in a shabby boarding house run by an English couple (Henderson and West) into which a new…
Waiting for Happiness (Heremakono) (2002): Dir. Abderrahmane Sissako
Feat. Khatra Ould Abder Kader, Mohamed Mahmoud; A worldly 17–year–old returns to his coastal hometown, only to find himself a stranger amongst a community caught in limbo between…
Warm Spring (2002): Dir. Tana Wulan
Feat. Chenren Tian, Yan Zhang; Little–known but rather poignant story in which an orphan girl runs away from her abusive foster parents and is sheltered by a poor elderly…
Yossi and Jagger (2002): Dir. Eytan Fox
Feat. Ohad Knoller; Subversive, sweetly–natured gay drama set amid the close–quarters comraderie of the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) where a commanding…
A Ma Soeur! (For My Sister, aka Fat Girl) (2001): Dir. Catherine Breillat
Feat. Anais Reboux, Roxane Mesquida, Libero de Rienzo…; An artfully impassive study of sexual predation that takes place during the summer holidays of two teenage sisters – the dumpy Anais Reboux and…
A Young Prisoner's Revenge (2001): Dir. Mu Deyuan; Obscure, but supposedly award winning Chinese drama concerns the botched plans of a couple to bribe a judge so their son, guilty of robbery, gets a…
Aimee and Jaguar (2001): Dir. Max Farberbock
Feat. Maria Schrader, Juliane Kohler; A forbidden love story that crosses both ethnic and sexual lines, inspired by a true love affair between a role–model Nazi mother and a…
All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001): Dir. Shunji Iwai
Feat. Hayato Ichihara, Yu Aoi, Ayumi Ito…; Vogue Japanese dir. Shunji Iwai renders the contemporary teen malaise with poignancy and despair in this haunting commentary on the perils of…
Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) (2001): Dir. Zacharias Kunuk
Feat. Natar Ungalaaq, Sylvia Ivalu, Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq; A ‘cause celebre’ of recent film festivals worldwide, this filmed folktale from the ice–bound Innuit communities of northern Canada,…
Autumn Spring (Babí léto) (2001): Dir. Vladimír Michálek
Feat. Vlastimil Brodsky; Spry Czech comedy of elderly bad manners, concerns an aging prankster (Brodsky) who spends his retirement impersonating people in league with a…
Baran (2001): Dir. Majid Majidi; Patiently rewarding, bittersweet drama in which a young Afghan woman disguises herself as a man in order to assume her injured father's construction…
Behind the Sun (2001): Dir. Walter Salles
Feat. Jose Dumont; Worthy followup to CENTRAL STATION by dir. Salles, again accessing the underlayers of Brazil in a melodrama set in the dusty hinterlands of 1910. …
Brief Crossing (2001): Dir. Catherine Breillat
Feat. Gilles Guillain, Sarah Pratt; Compelling and explicit portrayal of the brief sexual encounter between a naive French teenager and a married English woman who meet on an overnight…
Count of Monte Cristo, The (2001): Dir. Josee Dayan
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Ornella Muti, Jean Rochefort; The classic tale of injustice and revenge (by Alexander Dumas), gets respectful treatment in this French TV mini–series starring Gerard…
Crying... Silicon Tears (Klama) (2001): Dir. Thanassis Papathanassiou; One of the biggest hits of recent Greek cinema, this is a lavish parody of 1960s Greek movie melodramas, mixing musical, comedy and suspense into a…
Dark Blue World (Tmavomodry Svet) (2001): Dir. Jan Sverak
Feat. Krystof Hadek, Ondrej Vetchy, Charles Dance…; From the dir. of KOLYA and based on the story of Czech pilots who fled the Nazis in WW2 to fly alongside the RAF, this is an unsentimental, yet…
Devil's Backbone, The (Espinazo Del Diablo, El) (2001): Dir. Guillermo Del Toro
Feat. Eduardo Noriega, Frederico Luppi, Marisa Paredes; This elegant amalgam of melodrama and horror movie set in a boys orphanage during the Spanish Civil War is rich in baroque atmospherics, and features…
Divided We Fall (2001): Dir. Jan Hrebejk
Feat. Boleslav Polivka, Anna Siskova, Jaroslav Dusek; In WW2 Czechoslovakia, couple Bolek Polívka and Anna Sisková shelter their Jewish neighbour during the Nazi Occupation, with much absurd comedy…
Dog Days (2001): Dir. Ulrich Seidl
Feat. Maria Hofstatter, Alfred Mrva, Erich Finsches…; A wilfully transgressive Euro–drama examining middle–class dysfunction and despair in a Viennese suburb over a few days in a summer heat…
Eureka (2001): Dir. Shinji Aoyama
Feat. Aoi Miyazaki, Koji Yakusho; Unforgettably beguiling Japanese road trip movie shot in sepia–toned cinema scope, following the existential odyssey of a group of emotionally…
Ghislain Lambert's Bicycle (2001): Dir. Philippe Harel
Feat. Benoit Poelvoorde, Jose Garcia; Less sports drama than celebration of the endearingly average, this comical biopic charts the 30–year career of big–hearted, but…
I'm Going Home (2001): Dir. Manoel de Oliveira
Feat. Michel Piccoli, John Malkovich, Catherine Deneuve; Calmly balanced between drama and sly comedy, this excursion into the trials and experiences of old age, is a late tour–de–force by the…
Ignorant Fairies, The (His Secret Life) (2001): Dir. Ferzan Ozpetek
Feat. Stefano Accorsi; A woman's life in Rome is thrown into relief after the death of her doctor husband – especially when she discovers a secret inscription on the…
In Praise of Love (Eloge de L'amour) (2001): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Bruno Putzulu, Cecile Camp, Jean Davy…; Dir. Godard’s first major film in over a decade presents intellect and filmmaking in full–flight, while stubbornly refusing to provide a…
Italian For Beginners (2001): Dir. Lone Scherfig
Feat. Anders W Berthelsen; A likeable ensemble comedy in which six vulnerable characters orbit a drab Copenhagen suburb, each seeking some form of solace, romance or…
Kandahar (2001): Dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf; A Canadian–Afghani journalist travels incognito into the heart of wartorn Afghanistan to find her sister. Filmed at the height of the…
La Ciénaga (The Swamp) (2001): Dir. Lucrecia Martel
Feat. Graciela Borges, Mercedes Morán, Martín Adjemián…; Dir. Lucrecia Martel's debut film is an abstract Chekhovian tale of two bourgeois families roasting under the Argentinian sun within the confines of…
Lady and the Duke, The (2001): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Jean Claude Dreyfus, Lucy Russell; Intellectually stimulating and strikingly anti–realist account of the French Revolution, told through the (true–life) relationship…
Lagaan (2001): Dir. Ashutosh Gowariker
Feat. Aamir Khan, Gracey Singh, Paul Blackthorne…; Bollywood epic that broke through to international awards and audience with its ‘test–match’ running–time, lavishness and periodic…
Laissez-Passer (Safe Conduct) (2001): Dir. Bertrand Tavernier
Feat. Jacques Gamblin, Denis Podalydes, Marie Gillain; A vivid and suspenseful drama set in the French film industry during the German occupation of WWII, this is a labour of love for leading French dir.…
Last Kiss, The (L'Ultimo Bacio) (2001): Dir. Gabriel Muccino
Feat. Stefano Accorsi, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Stefania Sandrelli; Award–winning Italian melodrama investigates the anxieties of a young unmarried couple on the verge of parenthood. Stefano Accorsi is torn…
Merci Pour Le Chocolat (Nightcap) (2001): Dir. Claude Chabrol
Feat. Isabelle Huppert; Slyly subversive psychodrama, with Isabelle Huppert excelling as the owner of a Swiss chocolate–business, who also happens to be a…
Millennium Mambo (2001): Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Feat. Shu Qi; The first in dir. Hou’s ‘contemporary youth’ trilogy is a light–infused strobe of aimless young adults living in the accelerated urban…
Minor Mishaps (2001): Dir. Annette K. Olesen
Feat. Jorgen Kiil, Maria Wurgler Rich, Jannie Faurschou; Emerging from the lighter end of the Dogme 95 movement, this drama reunites a father and three children after the death of their mother in a car…
Naked, The (Golasy) (2001): Dir. Witold Swiêtnicki; Genuine oddity, this Polish satire upon the tedium of the Soviet era, as experienced by an office full of white–collar workers, is lent a…
Night Shift (Trois Huit) (2001): Dir. Phillippe Le Guay
Feat. Gérald Laroche, Marc Barbe; Tense French workplace drama about a mild–mannered factory employee who must cope with a vindictive and domineering co–worker. Working…
Pauline and Paulette (Pauline et Paulette) (2001): Dir. Lieven Debrauwer
Feat. Dora van der Groen, Ann Petersen; An amusing, poignant tale of two elderly sisters and their unique relationship, portrayed by two grand old dames of Belgian theatre. After her…
Piano Teacher, The (2001): Dir. Michael Haneke
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Annie Girardot, Benoit Magimel; Isabelle Huppert gives the bravest and possibly best performance of her career as a brittle, imbalanced music teacher in a drama that might prove too…
Read My Lips (Sur Mes Levres) (2001): Dir. Jacques Audiard
Feat. Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Devos; Sturdy, unconventional French thriller about an insecure, partially–deaf office clerk who tries to help an irascible ex–con integrate…
Samsara (2001): Dir. Pan Nalin
Feat. Shawn Ku, Christy Chung, Neelesha Bavora; A spiritual and visually resplendent drama based around the sexual awakening of a novice Buddhist monk in remote, mountainous Tibet. After…
Sex and Lucia (2001): Dir. Julio Medem
Feat. Paz Vega, Tristan Ulloa, Najwa Nimri…; Another sumptuous, stylistic meditation for dir. Julio Medem that interlocks his penchant for intricate, fractured narrative with a thrust of daring…
Song for Martin, A (2001): Dir. Bille August
Feat. Sven Wollter, Reine Brynolfsson; Touching drama of a composer and concertmaster who fall in love through classical music, only to battle the effects of Alzheimer's. Foreseeable…
Time for Drunken Horses, A (2001): Dir. Bahman Ghobadi
Feat. Ayoub Ahmadi, Rojin Younessi, Amaneh Ekhtiar-dini…; Set in remote Kurdistan, along the mountainous smuggling border between Iran and Iraq, this chronicles the pitiable circumstances of a recently…
Time Out (2001): Dir. Laurence Cantet
Feat. Aurelien Recoing, Serge Livrozet; A subtly layered account of middle–class businessman Aurelien Recoing, who pretends to his family and friends that he is corporate highflyer,…
Trouble Every Day (2001): Dir. Claire Denis
Feat. Vincent Gallo, Beatrice Dalle, Alex Descas…; This messy yet mesmerizing tale of visceral sexual obsession has vamp Beatrice Dalle spoiling a couple's Paris honeymoon when she develops a carnally…
Tunnel, The (2001): Dir. Roland Suso Richter
Feat. Heino Ferch, Nicolette Krebitz; An extended though by no means deep excavation of German Cold War history, in which an East German swimmer (Ferch) defects to West Berlin in 1961 and…
Under the Sand (2001): Dir. Francois Ozon
Feat. Charlotte Rampling, Jacques Nolot, Bruno Cremer; Charlotte Rampling enters a twilit zone of denial following her husband’s disappearance into the sea on a beach holiday, and mysterious…
Vertical Ray of the Sun, The (At the Height of Summer) (2001): Dir. Tran Anh Hung
Feat. Tran Nu Yen-Khe, Nhu Quynh Nguyen, Le Khanh; Conjuring once more the scent, hue and atmosphere of Vietnam, the dir. of SCENT OF GREEN PAPAYA depicts the complicated sisterhood of three women in…
Visitor Q (Bizita Q) (2001): Dir. Takashi Miike
Feat. Kenichi Endo, Shungiku Uchida, Kazushi Watanabe…; Miike Takashi's most controversial film – which in this case is really saying something – finally coming to video (?). A legendarily…
Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001): Dir. Shohei Imamura
Feat. Koji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu; Nourishing sex fable in which Japanese everyman Koji Yakusho, down and out after losing his wife and job, discovers the joys of making love to a…
What Time Is It There? (2001): Dir. Ming-liang Tsai
Feat. Kang-sheng Lee, Cecilia Yip, Jean-Pierre Leaud; Three forlorn individuals bide their time between grief, ennui and loneliness in this minimalist – and unusually talky – masterpiece from…
Wind Will Carry Us, The (2001): Dir. Abbas Kiarostami
Feat. Behzad Dourani; Carried by the dir.’s deadpan comic instincts and more minimally poetic, this quasi–fable concerns (what seems to be) a documentary crew who…
Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too!) (2001): Dir. Alfonso Cuaron
Feat. Maribel Verdu, Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna; Acclaimed universally (and here in NZ beset with censorship wrangles), this Mexican joyride, taken by two teenage boys and an older woman, is indeed…
101 Reykjavik (2000): Dir. Baltasar Kormakur
Feat. Baltasar Kormakur, Victoria Abril; An endearingly skewed yet unexpectedly poignant sex comedy moored in the 30–below temperatures of the Icelandic winter, about a…
Amores Perros (Love's a Bitch) (2000): Dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Feat. Emilio Echevarria, Gael Garcia Bernal, Goya Toledo…; Bursting forth with passion, cinematic mettle and pungent local flavours, this debut feature, a triptych of stories set in polyglot Mexico City, is…
Beijing Bicycle (2000): Dir. Wang Xiaoshuai
Feat. Lin Cui, Bin Li, Yuanyuan Gao; Set in the milieu of urban cycle–couriers, this retells De Sica’s BICYCLE THIEF on the teeming streets of Beijing where country–boy Lin…
Blackboards (2000): Dir. Samira Makhmalbaf
Feat. Said Mohamadi, Behnaz Jafari; Set in politically unstable Kurdistan, this followup to THE APPLE by dir. Makhmalbaf, traces the adventures of a group of teachers searching the…
Bread and Tulips (2000): Dir. Silvio Soldini
Feat. Licia Maglietta, Bruno Ganz, Marina Massironi…; When 40–something housewife Licia Maglietta is deserted by her family during vacation, she seizes on a chance to roll the romantic dice once…
Circle, The (2000): Dir. Jafar Panahi
Feat. Brano Holicek, Pavlina Mourkova, Jeri Pecha; Banned its native Iran, this compendium of linked stories circumscribes the various oppressions women must suffer under that country’s strict…
Code Unknown (2000): Dir. Michael Haneke
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Arsinee Khanjian, Thierry Neuvic…; Perhaps dir. Haneke's (THE PIANO TEACHER) least straightforward effort, this sketches a series of interconnected storylines loosely bound by themes…
Comedie de L'Innocence (Comedy of Innocence) (2000): Dir. Raul Ruiz
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Jeanne Balibar, Charles Berling; A spooky psychological thriller, in which a young boy of nine tells his mother (Huppert) that in fact he is the son of another woman. When this…
Day I Became a Woman, The (2000): Dir. Marziyeh Meshkini
Feat. Fatemeh Cherag Akhur, Hassan Nebhan, Shahr Banou Sisizadeh; A trio of strong metaphorical tales that outline three aspects of “a woman’s lot” in contemporary Iran, with humour and cinematic…
Faithless (2000): Dir. Liv Ullmann
Feat. Erland Josephson; Formidable high–brow drama directed by actress Ullmann from an autobiographical script by her veteran collaborator Ingmar…
Farewell - Brecht's Last Summer, The (2000): Dir. Jan Schutte
Feat. Josef Bierbichler, Monika Bliebtreu, Elfriede Irrall; Prior knowledge of the life of playwright Bertolt Brecht (played by Josef Bierbichler) will enhance this accomplished chamber–drama, set at an…
Girls Can't Swim (Les filles ne savent pas nager) (2000): Dir. Anne-Sophie Birot
Feat. Isild Le Besco, Karen Alyx, Pascale Bussieres…; Moody French coming–of–age drama about two girls, one who lives in the coastal town in Brittany, the other from the city. Best…
Himalaya (2000): Dir. Eric Valli
Feat. Thilen Lhondup, Gurgon Kyap, Lhakpa Tsamchoe…; A journey into the life of a remote Nepalese village which relies on an annual pilgrimage to collect salt from the Tibetan side of the Himalayas,…
In the Mood for Love (2000): Dir. Wong Kar-Wai
Feat. Tony Leung (Chiu-wai), Maggie Cheung; As in DAYS OF BEING WILD, dir. Wong Kar–Wai portrays the languor of a 1960s Hong Kong in which two neighbours discover their respective spouses…
Les Destinees Sentimentales (2000): Dir. Olivier Assayas
Feat. Emmanuelle Beart, Charles Berling, Isabelle Huppert; Genteel family saga from the trilogy of novels by Jacques Chardonne that follows the destiny of pastor Charles Berling through the first decades of…
Lumumba (2000): Dir. Raoul Peck
Feat. Eric Ebouaney; A strident and fittingly uncompromising biopic about an African political icon, Patrice Lumumba, who liberated the Congo from Belgium in the late…
Malena (2000): Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
Feat. Monica Bellucci; The dir. of CINEMA PARADISO throws an amber–lit glow around a man’s memory of a boyhood infatuation in his hometown in WWII Sicily.…
Me You Them (Eu Tu Eles) (2000): Dir. Andrucha Waddington
Feat. Regina Case, Lima Duarte, Stenio Garcia; Set in the arid hinterlands of Brazil, this serio–comic study of rural polyandry has Regina Case (Brazil’s Oprah Winfrey) hitch up three…
One Hundred Steps, The (I Cento Passi) (2000): Dir. Marco Tullio Giordana; Expansive, fact–based drama set around a young man's fight against local mafiosos in the small Sicilian village of Cinisi in the…
Platform (Zhantai) (2000): Dir. Jia Zhang-ke
Feat. Zhao Tao; Taking its title from a Chinese hit rock song of the 80s, this fetchingly spare epic meditates on the changes of that turbulent decade and the…
Presque Rien (Almost Nothing) (2000): Dir. Sebastien Lifshitz
Feat. Jérémie Elkaïm, Stephane Rideau; French drama of melancholic first love that, despite the common themes, sets itself apart with sensitive acting and a deeply felt approach to the…
Road Home, The (2000): Dir. Zhang Yimou
Feat. Zhang Ziyi, Honglei Sun, Hao Zhang; Tackling the period of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, period dir. Zhang Yimou (RAISE THE RED LANTERN) gives the story of a young man's return home…
Shadow Magic (2000): Dir. Ann Hu
Feat. Jared Harris; The 'shadow magic' in question is the early cinema, which is brought to Beijing in 1902 by a travelling promoter (Harris), who, along with a local…
Shower (Xizhao) (2000): Dir. Zhang Yang
Feat. Pu Cunxin, Zhu Xu; A popular success with international audiences, this Chinese comedy is centred around a modern–day bathhouse in Beijing without a…
Sky Is Falling, The (Cielo cade, Il) (2000): Dir. Andrea Frazzi, Antonio Frazzi
Feat. Isabella Rossellini, Jeroen Krabbe; Two young orphan girls are sent to live with relatives in Tuscany, Italy during WW2 and discover intriguing new perspectives through their Jewish…
Town is Quiet, The (La Ville est Tranquille) (2000): Dir. Robert Guediguian
Feat. Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin; A characteristically gritty yet humanist urban drama that expands out in scope from the directors’ previous snapshots of life in his home town…
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000): Dir. Bela Tarr
Feat. Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz, Hanna Schygulla; A visionary film to herald in the 21st century, Bela Tarr’s apocalyptic masterpiece begins with the arrival of a bizarre circus attraction to a…
Afterlife (1999): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Arata Erika Oda, Susumu Terajima; Original, intriguing conception of what happens after life – a panel of students challenge a succession of deceased persons to choose one…
All About My Mother (1999): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Cecilia Roth; Almodovar's "celebration of mother and womanhood" has been hailed as something of a departure for the director, though in fact all of his (beloved)…
Bleeder (1999): Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn
Feat. Kim Bodnia; Hard–nosed drama about a brooding man who turns destructive when he learns of his girlfriend’s pregnancy in…
Butterfly's Tongue (La lengua de las mariposas) (1999): Dir. Jose Luis Cuerda
Feat. Fernando Fernan Gomez, Manuel Lozano; Heartwarming Spanish coming–of–age drama set in Galicia in 1936. Against the backdrop of the encroaching Spanish Civil War, a shy…
Cabaret Balkan (The Powder Keg) (1999): Dir. Goran Paskaljevic
Feat. Nikola Ristanovski; Troubling split–portrait of the Serbian psyche, depicting a series of often violent incidents over the course of a single night in Belgrade,…
Celebration, The (Festen) (1999): Dir. Thomas Vinterberg
Feat. Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen, Thomas Bo Larsen; Conceived and executed under the "Dogma 95" manifesto, this corrosive black comedy sees the birthday celebrations of a wealthy family implode after…
Children of the Marshlands (Les Enfants du Marais) (1999): Dir. Jean Becker
Feat. Jacques Villeret, Michel Serrault, Eric Cantona; Old–fashioned French drama, whose 1930s Loire Valley setting is refreshingly free of the usual cliches, while remaining utterly charming and…
Colour of Paradise, The (1999): Dir. Majid Majidi
Feat. Mohsen Ramezani; A gripping, compassionate study of a blind Iranian boy’s attempts to connect with his egotistical father and a carpentry tutor when he is taken to…
Cup, The (1999): Dir. Khyentse Norbu
Feat. Orgyen Tobgyal, Neten Chokling, Jamyang Lodro; This charming, slyly comic tale of soccer–mad young monks obsessed with viewing the World Cup has found broad worldwide appreciation with its…
Girl on the Bridge, The (1999): Dir. Patrice Leconte
Feat. Daniel Auteuil, Vanessa Paradis; This glossy slice of modern 'poetic realism' has an attractive visual component but its arch–Romanticism won't be everyone's glass of Chablis.…
Gloomy Sunday (Ein Lied Von Liebe Und Tod) (1999): Dir. Rolf Schubel
Feat. Joachim Krol, Erika Marozsan, Ben Becker…; Captivating drama which pivots around the apocryphal origins of the classic melancholy song 'Gloomy Sunday' in pre–WW2 Budapest. An amiably…
Gohatto (Taboo) (1999): Dir. Nagisa Oshima
Feat. Takeshi Kitano; Visually stunning evocation of the tensions in a samurai–training school in 1860s Japan, with Kitano playing a captain who agonises over his…
Harmonium in my Memory, The (1999): Dir. Young-jae Lee
Feat. Do-yeon Chun, Min-hie Kim, Byung-hun Lee; Sweet, soft–spoken melodrama of jittery first love, recalling the innocent love triangle that forms between a handsome, fresh–faced…
Human Resources (1999): Dir. Laurent Cantet
Feat. Jalil Lespert; Astute French drama from director Laurent Cantet (THE CLASS) set in a white collar human resources department in Normandy, about the conflicts that…
It All Starts Today… (1999): Dir. Bertrand Tavernier
Feat. Philippe Torreton, Maria Pitarresi, Nadia Kaci; Determinedly humanist account of the difficulties facing a kindergarten teacher in impoverished northern France, based on the experiences of the…
La Veuve de Saint-Pierre (Widow Of Saint-Pierre) (1999): Dir. Patrice Leconte
Feat. Emir Kusturica, Juliette Binoche, Daniel Auteuil; In 1850, on a tiny island near Canada, an oafish Emir Kusturica is sentenced to die by guillotine. While waiting for an executioner to arrive from…
Lies (Gojitmal) (1999): Dir. Jang Sun-Woo
Feat. Kim Tae Yeon, Lee Sang Hyun; Highly controversial in its native Korea (the source novel was banned) this tale of S&M sex–addiction between a schoolgirl and an older…
Mifune (1999): Dir. Soren Kragh-Jacobson
Feat. Iben Hjejle, Anders W Berthelsen, Jesper Asholt…; The third Dogma 95 film is in many ways as traditional a European romantic comedy as you could come across, a breezy and smart take on a yuppie…
Moloch (1999): Dir. Alexandr Sokurov
Feat. Yelena Rufanova, Leonid Mozgovoy; Typically Sokurov, the dir. of RUSSIAN ARK turns his filtered lens on a day in the life of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun, concerned more with the…
Not One Less (1999): Dir. Zhang Yimou
Feat. Wei Minzhi; 13–year old peasant–girl Wei Minzhi is handed the responsibility of substitute–teaching a class of children in a rural China…
Pornographic Affair, A (An Affair Of Love) (1999): Dir. Frederic Fonteyne
Feat. Nathalie Baye, Sergi Lopez; A decidedly unpornographic meditation upon the mutability of human desires and emotions, with Nathalie Baye and Sergi Lopez as a nameless couple who…
Postmen in the Mountains (Nashan naren nagou) (1999): Dir. Jianqi Huo; A simply conveyed fable of 'youth' coming to an understanding of 'age', with a young man accompanying his father on a long–held postal delivery…
Romance (1999): Dir. Catherine Breillat
Feat. Caroline Ducey, Sagamore Stevenin; A schoolteacher's boyfriend loses sexual interest in her, so she embarks on a series of unlikely sexual encounters in search of intimacy and…
Rosetta (1999): Dir. Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Feat. Emilie Dequenne; Drawing creative parallels with the Danish 'Dogma' movement, this is a rigidly intense study in survivalism that forsakes any plot contrivance to…
Three Seasons (1999): Dir. Tony Bui
Feat. Harvey Keitel; The first US film to be shot in post–war Vietnam, this intertwined series of four tales set in contemporary Saigon, rapturously conveys a…
Time Regained (Le Temps Retrouve) (1999): Dir. Raul Ruiz
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Beart, John Malkovich…; Legendary surrealist Chilean director Ruiz takes a break from his schedule or runaway obscurities (most sadly unavailable in NZ) for this legit…
Venus Beauty Institute (Venus Beauty) (1999): Dir. Tonie Marshall
Feat. Nathalie Baye, Audrey Tautou; A modest beauty salon is the setting for this wry ensemble piece about the vagaries of womanhood, with an engagingly eccentric collection of clients…
Yi Yi (A One and a Two) (1999): Dir. Edward Yang
Feat. Nien-Jen Wu, Elaine Jin, Issey Ogata; Masterful cinema – a drama that loosely surveys a middle–class family in contemporary Taipei, encompassing a wealth of human observation…
2 Seconds (1998): Dir. Manon Briand
Feat. Charlotte Laurier, Dino Tavarone; A frothily enjoyable drama set around a mountain–bike rider (Laurier), who despite an addiction to the thrills of high speed cycling, is forced…
Alice Et Martin (1998): Dir. Andre Techine
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Carmen Maura, Mathieu Amalric; A maladjusted young drifter (Alexis Loret) has success as a Paris fashion model and a torrid love affair with his half–brother's…
An Autumn Tale (1998): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Marie Riviere, Beatrice Romand, Alain Libolt; Completing his suite of films based on the four seasons, dir. Rohmer provides another mellow, seemingly unplotted comedy, in which Rhone valley…
Beau Travail (1998): Dir. Claire Denis
Feat. Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Gregoire Colin; Best Film of 2000 for many highbrow critics, this oblique study of jealousy and power in the ranks of the French Foreign Legion is pure…
Besieged (1998): Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
Feat. Thandiwe Newton, David Thewlis; Returning to a 'chamber–piece' setting reminiscent of LAST TANGO IN PARIS, dir. Bertolucci unfolds an enigmatic relationship in a Rome…
Bird People In China, The (Chûgoku no chôjin) (1998): Dir. Takashi Miike
Feat. Masahiro Motoki, Renji Ishibashi; Visually rich and accomplished drama set around a parallel journey by a businessman and a yakuza gangster to a remote Chinese highland in search of a…
Central Station (1998): Dir. Walter Salles
Feat. Fernanda Montenegro; A cantankerous woman who writes letters for the illiterate at Rio De Janeiro's train station obliges to help a 9–year–old boy locate his…
Chance or Coincidence (1998): Dir. Claude Lelouch
Feat. Alessandra Martines, Pierre Arditi, Marc Hollogne; Bereaved wife Alessandra Martine speeds like a comet through this intriguing comedy from dir. Lelouch equal parts melodrama, musical and…
Children of Heaven (1998): Dir. Majid Majidi
Feat. Mohammad Amir Naji, Amir Farrokh Hashemian, Bahare Seddiqi; More simplicity from Iran in this child's tale of small disasters and small triumphs, as a lost pair of shoes provides a catalyst for change for a…
Così ridevano (The Way We Laughed) (1998): Dir. Gianni Amelio
Feat. Enrico Lo Verso, Francesco Giuffrida; A superbly novelistic epic set amid the rigours of post–WW2 Italy where two poor Sicilian brothers settle in northern Turin in search of future…
Dreamlife of Angels, The (1998): Dir. Erick Zonca
Feat. Elodie Bouchez, Natacha Regnier; Displaying the laconic influence of Eric Rohmer, the French critical triumph of 1998 explores with a contemporary honesty the friendship between two…
Drifting Clouds (1998): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Kati Outinen, Kari Vaananen, Elina Salo…; Day–glo colours collide with glum silences in Aki Kaurismaki's unemployment comedy, effortlessly combining the previously unreconcilable genres…
Earth (1998): Dir. Deepa Mehta
Feat. Maia Sethna, Nandita Das, Kitu Gidwani; The director of FIRE takes on another controversial element of modern India with the second in her (proposed) trilogy – a humanistic view of…
Eternity and a Day (1998): Dir. Theo Angelopoulos
Feat. Bruno Ganz; A slow, austere cinematic journey in which memories and present–day events mesh in the thought–processes of a dying Greek writer (Bruno…
Idiots, The (1998): Dir. Lars Von Trier
Feat. Bodil Jorgensen, Jens Albinus, Anne Louise Hassing…; One of the fruits of Dogma 95, this sensationally conceived outing from von Trier will satisfy those with a penchant for the experimental, and…
Inheritors, The (Die Siebtelbauern) (1998): Dir. Stefan Ruzowitzky; An earthily subversive drama set among a rural community of peasants and masters in an idyllic Austrian valley in the early 20th century. When the…
L'Ennui (1998): Dir. Cedric Kahn
Feat. Charles Berling, Arielle Dombasle, Sophie Guillermin; The tale of the restless and infuriating sexual obsession that a philosophy professor develops for an uncomplicated young woman. Observing their…
Late August, Early September (Fin août, début septembre) (1998): Dir. Olivier Assayas
Feat. Mathieu Amalric, Virginie Ledoyen, Francois Cluzet…; Overlooked French drama from prolific and distinctive auteur Olivier Assayas (IRMA VEP, PERSONAL SHOPPER) following a group of friends and lovers as…
Left Luggage (1998): Dir. Jeroen Krabbe
Feat. Isabella Rossellini, Marianne Sagebrecht, Laura Fraser; Concerning a free–spirited young woman working as a nanny in a Jewish household in Antwerp, this resolutely serious drama struggles with…
Life Is Beautiful (La vita e bella) (1998): Dir. Roberto Benigni
Feat. Roberto Benigni; Winner of both Best Foreign Film and Best Actor Oscars (a first for an actor speaking a foreign tongue) as well as the top prize at Cannes, Roberto…
Love Etc. (1998): Dir. Marion Vernoux
Feat. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Charles Berling, Yvan Attal; Depicts an infernal love–triangle between three friends – taken from the novel ‘Talking It Over’ by Julian Barnes. Charming comedy…
Lovers of the Arctic Circle (1998): Dir. Julio Medem
Feat. Najwa Nimri, Fele Martinez, Nancho Novo; Artful but humourless slice of 'magic realism' that follows the near–metaphysical long–term relationship between two childhood…
Marquise (1998): Dir. Vera Belmont
Feat. Sophie Marceau; Bawdy, naturalistically–styled period romp about the artistic clashes between playwrights Moliere and Racine at the court of Louis XIV. Sophie…
Men with Guns (1998): Dir. John Sayles
Feat. Frederico Luppi; Criminally denied a theatrical release, this masterful study of Third World realities is arguably prolific indie dir. John Sayles most accomplished…
Mother and Son (1998): Dir. Alexandr Sokurov
Feat. Aleksei Ananishnov, Gudrun Geyer; Little–seen outside Europe, dir. Sokurov's dream–like films have been championed by critics (incl. Susan Sontag), and find their best…
Red Violin, The (1998): Dir. Francois Girard
Feat. Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Flemyng, Greta Scacchi; The contemporary auction of a prized antique violin becomes another suspenseful, passionate chapter in its lifespan as we learn of its 300 year…
Show Me Love (Fucking Amal) (1998): Dir. Lukas Moodysson
Feat. Rebecka Liljeberg, Alexandra Dahlstrom; Vivid depiction of teenage angst and restlessness that became a cause celebre (and box–office hit) in its native Sweden for frank, passionate…
Sicilia! (1998): Dir. Jean-Marie Straub, Daniele Huillet; An unnamed man engages in a series of idle discussions with family members and strangers upon his return to Sicily from America in this aesthetically…
So Close To Paradise (Biandan, guniang) (1998): Dir. Wang Xiaoshuai
Feat. Wang Tong, Shi Yu, Guo Tao; Chinese film set in the city of Wuhan before it was a household name, where two young migrant workers become embroiled in the city's criminal…
Terrorist, The (1998): Dir. Santosh Sivan
Feat. Ayesha Dharkar; Discovered and championed by the actor John Malkovich, this intensely concentrated thriller depicts the hardening and training of 19–yr old…
Thief, The (1998): Dir. Pavel Chukhrai
Feat. Vladimir Mashkov, Yekaterina Rednikova, Misha Philipchuk; Serious–minded trek across the landscapes and mindsets of post–WWII Russia that's been compared to BURNT BY THE SUN for dramatic impact.…
Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (1998): Dir. Patrice Chereau
Feat. Pascal Greggory, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Charles Berling…; Friends and associates of a deceased painter make a procession, via train, to the artist’s burial in this superb French drama. A highly nuanced…
Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl (Tian yu) (1998): Dir. Joan Chen
Feat. Li Xiaolu; Coming–of–age story set in the 70's about a teenage girl who is sent to the countryside during the "Down to the Countryside" Movement in…
Apple, The (1997): Dir. Samira Makhmalbaf
Feat. Massoumeh Naderi, Zahra Naderi, Ghorban Ali Naderi; More than the curiosity piece you'd expect from its 17 year old director, this is a strange, small film that uniquely blends documentary footage with…
Artemisia (1997): Dir. Agnes Merlet
Feat. Valentina Cervi, Miki Manojlovic, Michel Serrault; Study of the first significant female painter, Artemisia Gentileschi, the daughter of Caravaggio's one–time assistant in 17th Century…
Au Petit Marguery (1997): Dir. Laurent Benegui
Feat. Stephane Audran, Michel Aumont; You are cordially invited to attend the farewell dinner of a long–loved Parisian restaurant whose Chef is losing his sense of smell. Memories…
Character (1997): Dir. Mike van Diem
Feat. Fedja Van Huet; A murderous confrontation bookends an elegantly told story of class, oppression and perseverance in 1920s Rotterdam, in which a young…
Dance of the Wind (1997): Dir. Rajan Khosa
Feat. Ami Arora, Roshan Bano, Kitu Gidwani; Set in contemporary Delhi, this drama concerns the responses of classical Hindi singer Kitu Gidwani to her mother’s death. Steeped in a particular…
Eel, The (1997): Dir. Shohei Imamura
Feat. Koji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu; After doing eight years for killing his wife, an inhibited man (Yakusho Koji of SHALL WE DANCE) sets himself up at a quiet riverside barbershop, the…
Gadjo Dilo (1997): Dir. Tony Gatlif
Feat. Romain Duris, Rona Harther, Izidor Serban; Re–casting a spotlight onto the poor and downtrodden yet spiritually rich gypsy culture, film–maker/musician Toni Gatlif grafts a…
Going to School with Dad on My Back (Bei qi baba shangxue) (1997): Dir. Youchou Zhou; Straightforwardly touching tale of a young boy, who with the help of his selfless family, graduates from his impoverished Malian River village to the…
Hamam - The Turkish Bath (1997): Dir. Ferzan Ozpetek
Feat. Alessandro Gassman, Francesca d'Aloja, Carlo Cecchi; Beautifully presented, exotic drama about a young Italian designer whose sexual and spiritual life takes a profound turn after inheriting a steam…
Happy Together (1997): Dir. Wong Kar-Wai
Feat. Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung (Chiu-wai), Chen Chang; Wong Kar Wai's South American gay love story features the usual dazzling Christopher Doyle camerawork, but replaces the genre thrills of FALLEN…
Harmonists (Comedian Harmonists) (1997): Dir. Joseph Vilsmaier
Feat. Ben Becker, Heino Ferch, Ulrich Noethen…; The most popular singing group of 1920s Germany, the sextet Comedian Harmonists toured widely and were world–famous by the mid–30s.…
Kitchen (1997): Dir. Yim Ho
Feat. Jordan Chan, Yasuko Tomita; Treading the same grungy Hong Kong streets as the films of Wong Kar–Wai, this adaptation of a novel by Banana Yoshimoto concerns a love affair…
La Vie de Jesus (Life of Jesus) (1997): Dir. Bruno Dumont; Virtuoso bleakness from the dir. of TWENTYNINE PALMS, in his debut study of alienated existence for a group of unruly skinheads in rural Flanders who…
Live Flesh (1997): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Javier Bardem, Francesca Neri, Liberto Rabal; Five aggrieved characters get wrapped in a sticky web of consequence after a fateful incident leaves one paralysed and another in jail. Dir.…
Lucie Aubrac (1997): Dir. Claude Berri
Feat. Carole Bouquet, Klaus Barbie; French Resistance true–story from the period–eye of dir. Claude Berri (JEAN DE FLORETTE), offering a romantic sub–plot between…
Ma Vie Sexuelle (1997): Dir. Arnaud Desplechin
Feat. Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Devos, Emmanuel Salinger; Ponderous study of Parisian twentysomething ennui centering around a typically amoral, self–obsessed Frenchman who has few problems bedding…
Marius et Jeannette (1997): Dir. Robert Guediguian
Feat. Ariane Ascaride, Gerard Meylan; A laidback yet buoyant slice–of–ordinary–life set on the low–rent side of Marseille, where two wounded fortysomethings strike…
On Connait la Chanson (Same Old Song) (1997): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Pierre Arditi, Sabine Azema, Jean-Pierre Bacri…; A winner of seven Cesar awards, this light–hearted homage to Dennis Potter applies his musical–cinematic ideas to the…
Post Coitum (1997): Dir. Brigitte Rouan
Feat. Brigitte Rouan; The director herself plays a 40–year–old wife, mother and book editor who has her respectable life devastated after a whirlwind affair…
Secrets of the Heart (Secretos del Corazon) (1997): Dir. Montxo Armendariz
Feat. Andoni Erburu, Inigo Garces; A subdued drama that views rural Spain through the childs' eye of its protaganist, a young boy whose curiosity leads him into a haunted house…
Taste of Cherry, A (1997): Dir. Abbas Kiarostami
Feat. Homayon Ershadi, Abdolrahman Bagheri, Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari; Kiarostami's Palme D'Or winner follows the 'last rites' of an affluent, suicidal middle–aged man who scours the streets of Teheran for an…
Truce, The (1997): Dir. Francesco Rosi
Feat. John Turturro, Rade Serbedzija; The aftermath of WWII locates Auschwitz survivor John Turturro on a difficult, redemptive journey back to his home town. Based on Primo Levi's…
Unknown Pleasures / Xiao Wu (1997-2002): Dir. Jia Zhang-ke
Feat. Zhao Tao; Two astonishing features from gifted 'sixth generation' Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang–ke (PLATFORM, THE WORLD); his terrain the onset of popular…
A Summer's Tale (1996): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Melvil Poupaud, Amanda Langlet; Once more exploring the fickleness of love, dir. Rohmer involves holidaying student Melvil Poupard in a love–quadrangle of romantic options. In…
Antonia's Line (1996): Dir. Marleen Gorris
Feat. Willeke van Ammelrooy, Els Dottermans, Jan Decleir; The deserving winner of the '96 Best Foreign Film Oscar recalls the 50 year history of matriarch Antonia and her defiantly unconventional brood in…
Autumn Sun (Sol de otoño) (1996): Dir. Eduardo Mignogna
Feat. Frederico Luppi, Norma Aleandro; Argentine drama following a Jewish woman who pretends to be in a relationship with a Jewish man from Uruguay (Frederico Luppi, CRONOS) to appease her…
Bag of Rice (1996): Dir. Mohammad-Ali Talebi
Feat. Jairan Abadzade, Shirin Bina, Masume Eskandari; A child and her elderly neighbour have small adventures on the streets of Tehran while trying to buy a sack of rice. Those seeking a rare alternative…
Devil's Island (1996): Dir. Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
Feat. Baltasar Kormakur, Gisli Halldorsson; The director of COLD FEVER bites off a little more ice than he can comfortably chew, with this sprawling tale of the difficulties of life in 1950s…
East Palace / West Palace (1996): Dir. Zhang Yuan
Feat. Vicki Zhao, Si Han, Jun Hu; This rare independent mainland Chinese film is a difficult, often devastating two–hander between a gay man and the policeman sent to arrest him…
Eighth Day, The (1996): Dir. Jaco Van Dormael
Feat. Daniel Auteuil; The director of the much–loved TOTO THE HERO makes another film about magic at ground level, with Daniel Auteuil having his humdrum life…
Fiesta (1996): Dir. Pierre Boutron
Feat. Jean-Louis Trintignant, Gregoire Colin; Biting, rigorously intelligent parable of the Spanish Civil War, watches unblinking as a young soldier is intiated into the brutalities by his…
Fire (1996): Dir. Deepa Mehta
Feat. Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das; Blazing melodrama defiantly targets Indian sexual hypocrisy and tradition, not to mention trangressing 'Bollywood' taboo, in portraying two women…
Flower of My Secret, The (1996): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Marisa Paredes; An artistic maturing for the director of kitsch sex comedies like HIGH HEELS and KIKA, this is an introspective study of a successful authoress…
Gabbeh (1996): Dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Feat. Abbas Sayah, Shaghayeh Djodat, Hossein Moharami…; Unique combination of lyricism and social realism from one of the icons of Iranian cinema – a story of a remote struggling tribe, the…
Goodbye South Goodbye (1996): Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Feat. Jack Kao, Lim Giong; Another exemplary, detailed effort from dir. Hsiao–Hsien, this time following a couple of small time grafters trying to put together 'the big…
Horseman on the Roof (1996): Dir. Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Olivier Martinez; Strapping melodrama in the old–fashioned Errol Flynn milieu set during the cholera epidemic of 1800s France. A tale of chivalry, loyalty and…
Irma Vep (1996): Dir. Olivier Assayas
Feat. Maggie Cheung, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Nathalie Richard…; Ranking up there with the best movies–about–movies, this supremely stylish, sexy film showcases an unseen side of Hong Kong action diva…
Kama Sutra (1996): Dir. Mira Nair
Feat. Indira Varma, Sarita Choudhury, Ramon Tikaram…; The director of SALAAM BOMBAY returns to her native land for this enticing, beautifully photographed tale of love, jealousy and revenge among the…
Kids Return (1996): Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Ando Masanobu, Kaneko Ken; Two feckless delinquents discover the local boxing–gym, which provides inspiration for one and an entry into a yakuza gang for the other.…
King of Masks, The (1996): Dir. Tianming Wu
Feat. Zhu Xu; Touching paternal tale, in the Chinese mainland tradition, concerning an aging street performer determined to pass on his technique to a young…
Kolya (1996): Dir. Jan Sverak
Feat. Zdenek Sverak, Andrei Chalimon; A beautifully sentimental Oscar winner for Best Foreign film – set during the 1988 Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia, when a…
Lars von Trier Collection (Breaking the Waves, Tranceformer, The Idiots) (1996-1998): Dir. Lars Von Trier; Three provocative Lars von Trier films from the director's 'Dogme' phase. Includes the documentary 'Tranceformer – A Portrait of Lars von…
Libertarias (1996): Dir. Vincente Aranda
Feat. Victoria Abril, Ana Belen, Miguel Bose…; Examining the Spanish Civil War from a left–wing point–of–view, this passionate war drama focuses on a trio of women – a…
Nelly and Mr. Anaud (1996): Dir. Claude Sautet
Feat. Emmanuelle Beart, Michel Serrault; Emmanuelle Beart gets caught up in a May–to–December romance with Michel Serrault in another elegant and subtle drama from the director…
Nenette & Boni (1996): Dir. Claire Denis
Feat. Gregoire Colin, Alice Houri , Jacques Nolot…; Minor, though beautifully rendered slice–of–life from Claire Denis casts an eye on two teenage siblings raised separately by divorced…
O'Quatrilho (1996): Dir. Fabio Barreto
Feat. Fabio Barreto, Mariana Pellegrino Barreto; Steamy Latino variant on the patented love–triangle/adultery story, set among immigrants newly settled in turn of the century Brazil, freshly…
Other Side of Sunday, The (1996): Dir. Berit Nesheim
Feat. Marie Theisen, Bjorn Sundquist, Hildegun Riise; Yearning to discover the 'other side' of life in 1950s Norway, teenager Marie Theisen evades her harshly religious father to explore the amorphous…
Ponette (1996): Dir. Jacques Doillon
Feat. Victoire Thivisol; Staying at her Aunt's provincial cottage after the accidental death of her mother, a four–year–old girl comes to terms with death, while…
Pretty Village, Pretty Flame (1996): Dir. Sadjan Dragojevic
Feat. Dragan Bjelorgrlic, Nikola Kojo; Seen in flashback from a ward in triage, the Bosnian war is portrayed in a riveting counter–play of nihilism and theatre, as a band of Serbian…
Prisoner of the Mountains (1996): Dir. Sergei Bodrov
Feat. Oleg Menshikov, Sergei Bodrov Jr, Susanna Mekhraliyeva…; A Tolstoy fable is here seamlessly transposed to the Chechean conflict, with two Russian soldiers apprehended by a Chechean village elder who hopes…
Promise, The (La Promesse) (1996): Dir. Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Feat. Jeremie Renier, Olivier Gourmet; A deceptively modest, altogether riveting early film from the Dardenne brothers, here test–driving the formal rigors of their unwavering…
Self Made Hero, A (1996): Dir. Jacques Audiard
Feat. Mathieu Kassovitz; Mattieu Kassovitz (director of LA HAINE) proves to be no slouch actor here as a WW2 idler who swats up and cheekily ascends the ranks of the…
Summer in La Goulette (1996): Dir. Ferid Boughedir
Feat. Sonia Mankai, Ava Cohen-Jonathan, Sarah Pariente…; Three families of disparate cultures enjoy harmony in Tunisian paradise, until three of their beautiful daughters flirt with losing their virginity,…
Temptress Moon (1996): Dir. Chen Kaige
Feat. Gong Li, Leslie Cheung; Chen Kaige elevates the sumptuous Chinese epoch of FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE with this visually rapturous, though far less coherent saga of epic…
Tierra (Earth) (1996): Dir. Julio Medem
Feat. Carmelo Gómez, Emma Suarez, Karra Elejalde; Intimate portrait of Angel (Gomez), an exterminator who travels to a remote wine–making town to rid them of a plague of woodlice, and gradually…
Too Late (Prea Târziu) (1996): Dir. Lucian Pintilie
Feat. Razvan Vasilescu; Bleak, unflinching examination of Romanian society from dir. Pintilie focuses on an inexperienced investigator who discovers a myriad of corruption…
When the Cat's Away (1996): Dir. Cedric Klapisch
Feat. Garance Clavel, Zinedine Soualem; A movie for cat lovers and young romantics alike, this Latino–tinged, funky, yet alluringly modest French film follows the dowdy–cute…
Will It Snow for Christmas? (1996): Dir. Sandrine Veysset
Feat. Dominique Reymond, Daniel Duval; Not a seasonal film 'for the whole family', rather a slow–paced evocation of hard–won, rural life for an impoverished French family of…
All Things Fair (1995): Dir. Bo Widerberg
Feat. Johan Widerberg, Marika Lagercrantz; The late Bo Widerberg's swansong records a bittersweet memoir of his love affair with a teacher 22 years his senior. The casting of his young son in…
Beyond the Clouds (Al di là delle nuvole) (1995): Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni
Feat. Fanny Ardant, Chiara Caselli, Irene Jacob…; Michelangelo Antonioni's final film weaves together four stories of discontented love in his characteristic cinematic style. Featuring a huge…
Brother of Sleep (1995): Dir. Joseph Vilsmaier
Feat. Andre Eisermann, Dana Vavrova, Ben Becker…; A bastard child born in remote 19th century Bavaria proves to have an eerie, powerful musical gift, causing consternation among the inbred, somewhat…
Campfire (Short Films by Bavo Defurne) (1995-2000): Dir. Bavo Defurne; Four short films by the renowned gay Belgian filmmaker Bavo Defurne, whose work is distinguished by an aesthetic that combines an astute sense of…
Chungking Express (1995): Dir. Wong Kar-Wai
Feat. Takeshi Kaneshiro, Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung (Chiu-wai)…; Influential urban style piece that brought its director serious attention in the West. There's no plot to speak of; Kar–Wai's style is an…
Colonel Chabert, Le (1995): Dir. Yves Angelo
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Fanny Ardant, Fabrice Luchini…; After being presumed dead in Napoleonic battle, Gerard Depardieu returns to his home town to find his wife, his money and his honour being betrayed…
Convent, The (1995): Dir. Manoel de Oliveira
Feat. John Malkovich, Catherine Deneuve; Academic couple John Malkovich and Catherine Deneuve survey a spooky ancient convent in a quest to prove that Shakespeare is of Spanish descent. From…
Cyclo (1995): Dir. Tran Anh Hung
Feat. Le Van Loc, Tony Leung (Chiu-wai), Tran Nu Yen-Khe; Brooding expose of corruption, poverty and violence in contemporary Vietnam follows the ill fortunes of a young taxi–cyclist. Has potent…
Fallen Angels (1995): Dir. Wong Kar-Wai
Feat. Leon Lai, Michelle Reis; Seductive stylist Wong Kar–Wai here orchestrates the stories of three disreputable urbanites across a Hong Kong nightscape of impersonal…
French Woman, A (Une Femme Francaise) (1995): Dir. Regis Wargnier
Feat. Emmanuelle Beart, Daniel Auteuil; Emmanuelle Beart stars in this period tale of idyllic romance compromised by the reality of war. The director of INDOCHINE again embraces the…
La Haine (Hate) (1995): Dir. Mathieu Kassovitz
Feat. Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde, Said Taghmaoui…; A distinctive French urban crime drama in which the idle hands of male youth form fisticuffs on mean urban streets. A whole lot punchier, intelligent…
Land of Milk and Honey (1995): Dir. Joseph Destein
Feat. Lumi Cavazos, Richard Panebianco; A hired man plumbs the secrets of a Spanish–American family on a remote Californian coastal farm, in this stark, brooding melodrama. Stars…
Les Miserables (1995): Dir. Claude Lelouch
Feat. Jean-Paul Belmondo; Widely considered the definitive screen version of this granddaddy of French literary staples. Few concessions have been allowed in staging a…
Letters from the East (1995): Dir. Andrew Grieve
Feat. Ewa Froling, Mark Womack, Ingeborga Dapkunaite; The political turmoil of the Baltic Republics provides a backdrop for this Anglo–Estonian drama, in which a young English woman searches for…
Like Grains of Sand (1995): Dir. Hashiguchi Ryosuke
Feat. Yoshinori Okada, Kouta Kusano; Remarkable, intense Japanese high school romance is centrally about a gay relationship, though it essentially captures the universal,…
Maborosi (Mabaroshi) (1995): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Makikio Esumi, Tadanobu Asano; A young woman's fear that she brings death to those around her forms the basis for this contemplative, serene drama, the dir.'s debut. Suggestively…
Mina Tannenbaum (1995): Dir. Martine Dugowson
Feat. Romane Bohringer, Elsa Zylberstein; Two childhood girl–friends of different character and ambition endure a tempestuous friendship over three decades. A freshly drawn, stylish…
Molom (1995): Dir. Marie Jaoul De Poncheville
Feat. Molom Tseded, Yonden Yondejunai; Mystical travelogue of a spiritual nomad/shaman who comes to earth as an eagle, then traverses the breathtaking landscapes of rural Mongolia as the…
Promise, The (1995): Dir. Margarethe von Trotta
Feat. Corinna Harfouch, Meret Becker, August Zirner; Separated while trying to cross the Berlin Wall to the West in 1961, two lovers traverse thirty odd years of German history apart, yet faithful. This…
Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker (1995): Dir. He Ping
Feat. Jing Ning, Gang Wu, Xiaorui Zhao; Exotic tale of forbidden passion set among the labyrinthine traditions of Chinese society. Like the work of Zhang Yimou, the immaculate imagery does…
Shanghai Triad (1995): Dir. Zhang Yimou
Feat. Gong Li; Richly–hued encounter with the criminal high–life of 1930s Shanghai, told through the hired servant of a pampered gangster's moll, and…
Starmaker, The (1995): Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
Feat. Sergio Castellitto, Tiziana Lodato, Franco Scaldati; The director of CINEMA PARADISO reprises another movie–enchanted tale. An endearing con–man tours the countryside, posing as a studio…
Sun Valley (1995): Dir. He Ping
Feat. Feng Gu, Xueqi Wang; A vengeful Chinese warrior drifts into a small village on the Silk Road, where he is destined for a climactic showdown with a rival suitor of a young…
Trick of the Light, A (Brothers Skladanowsky) (1995): Dir. Wim Wenders
Feat. Udo Kier; Quirky, pseudo–documentary in the tradition of FORGOTTEN SILVER recreates through faux interviews and found footage the exploits of the…
Ulysses' Gaze (1995): Dir. Theo Angelopoulos
Feat. Harvey Keitel, Maia Morgenstern; Returning from exile in America, Yugoslavian filmmaker Harvey Keitel quests after rare film footage in the wartorn Balkans. Shot under conditions…
Underground (1995): Dir. Emir Kusturica
Feat. Miki Manojlovic, Lazar Ristovski, Mirjana Jokovic; Palme D'Or–winning epic covering fifty years of Balkan history in fantastical, magic–realist style. While the brash satire may be too…
White Balloon, The (1995): Dir. Jafar Panahi
Feat. Aida Mohammadkhani, Mohsen Kalifi, Fereshteh Sadr Orfani; Sophisticated kids and adults alike should seek out this multiple prize–winner from Iran that follows a seven–year–old–girl's…
Wild Reeds (Les Roseaux Sauvages) (1995): Dir. Andre Techine
Feat. Frederick Gorny, Gael Morel; Beautifully studied coming–of–age saga set in rural France at the end of the Algerian war, as four young friends on the cusp of adulthood…
Zero Kelvin (1995): Dir. Hans Petter Moland
Feat. Gard B. Eidsvold, Stellan Skarsgard; This tale of hardcore cabin fever in the 1930s has the Arctic wasteland as a backdrop for the face off between two romantic idealists – one a…
71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994): Dir. Michael Haneke
Feat. Anne Bennent, Lukas Miko, Gabriel Cosmin Urdes; A radical and virtuoso endpoint to Michael Haneke’s ‘Glaciation Trilogy’, this serves as a template for CODE UNKNOWN in its complex mosaic of…
An Unforgettable Summer (Un été inoubliable) (1994): Dir. Lucian Pintilie
Feat. Kristin Scott Thomas, Claudiu Bleont; Spare, well–realized drama taking place in 1925 on the Romanian/Bulgarian border, where Capitaine Petre Dumitriu (Bleont) and his wife…
Blush (1994): Dir. Shaohong Li
Feat. Ji Wang, Zhiwen Wang, Caifei He…; A sensual historical epic that follows the fortunes of two prostitutes who escape the Chinese revolution by fleeing their brothel in 1949 Shanghai.…
Burnt By the Sun (1994): Dir. Nikita Mikhalkov
Feat. Oleg Menshikov, Nikita Mikhalkov, Ingeborga Dapkunaite; Oscar–winning drama contrasts sunlit Chekhovian lyricism with the dark undercurrents of Stalinist Russia during the "Great Purge", when…
Day the Sun Turned Cold (1994): Dir. Yim Ho
Feat. Siqin Gaowa; Stark melodrama set in Northern China about a man who accuses his mother of having murdered his father some years before. Tantalising central tale,…
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994): Dir. Ang Lee
Feat. Sihung Lung, Yu-Wen Wang, Chien-lien Wu; Those that attended Ang Lee's WEDDING BANQUET will want to sample his tasty and sensual comedy about the perennial delights of life – sex and…
Ermo (1994): Dir. Zhou Xiaowen
Feat. Liya Ai, Liu Peiqi; A young woman yearns to acquire the largest colour tele in her village, largely as a bid in the popularity stakes. The Chinese flirt with materialism…
Il Postino (Postman, The) (1994): Dir. Michael Radford
Feat. Massimo Troisi, Philippe Noiret; The biggest international foreign language hit since LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE stars the late Massimo Troisi as a simple postie who learns the value…
Kingdom, The (Riget) (1994): Dir. Lars Von Trier
Feat. Ernst-Hugo Jaregard, Kirsten Rolffes, Ghita Norby…; A Danish medical soap opera from the director of BREAKING THE WAVES that's a bizarre yet compulsive combination of ghost story, TV drama and…
Like Two Crocodiles (1994): Dir. Giacomo Campiotti
Feat. Angela Baraldi, Fabrizzio Bentivoglio, Sandrine Dumas…; Various step–brothers feud like crocodiles when their bigamist father is forced by circumstances to reconcile his unknowing progeny. Attractive…
Miracle Alley (Midaq Alley) (1994): Dir. Jorge Fons
Feat. Salma Hayek; Miracle Alley is the setting for four pungent stories of urban lovelife among Mexico City residents. Strong pacing and local humour make this lengthy…
Queen Margot (La Reine Margot) (1994): Dir. Patrice Chereau
Feat. Isabelle Adjani, Vincent Perez, Virna Lisi…; A bodice–ripping yarn of treachery and forbidden passions between warring Catholic and Protestant factions in late 1500s France. Isabelle…
Satantango (1994): Dir. Bela Tarr
Feat. Mihály Vig; Daunting, one–of–a–kind event from Hungarian maestro Bela Tarr delves into seven formidable hours of East European malaise, where…
Separation, The (1994): Dir. Christian Vincent
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Daniel Auteuil; Isabelle Huppert and Daniel Auteuil provide a class double–act for this moving, mature portrait of a middle–class Parisian couple who put…
Silences of the Palace (1994): Dir. Moufida Tlatli
Feat. Amel Hedhili, Hend Sabri, Najia Ouerghi…; The daughter of a palatial servant reflects on her upbringing and steady revolt of her birthright obligations. Impassioned look at the status of…
Story of Xinghua (1994): Dir. Yin Li
Feat. Wen Jiang, Xingli Niu, Shaojun Tian…; Set in a remote village at the ruins of the Great Wall in Northern China, this explores the conflict between moral corruption, ancient traditions and…
Strawberry and Chocolate (Fresa y Chocolate) (1994): Dir. Tomas Gutierrez Alea, Juan Carlos Tabio
Feat. Jorge Perugorria, Vladimir Cruz, Mirta Ibarra; Oscar–nominated for Best Foreign Film 1995, a red–blooded conservative is befriended by a gay communist who challenges his prejudices.…
Three Colours: Red (1994): Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski
Feat. Irene Jacob, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Julie Delpy; A haunting conclusion to the acclaimed trilogy and the career of its late director. Irene Jacob plays a fashion model who becomes oddly connected…
Three Colours: White (1994): Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski
Feat. Zbigniew Zamachowski, Julie Delpy; The second in Kieslowski's trilogy is a lighter affair than BLUE but is no less exquisite or deeply philosophical. Embroided with more plot, its…
Through the Olive Trees (1994): Dir. Abbas Kiarostami
Feat. Mohamad Ali Keshavarz, Farhad Keradmand, Zerifeh Shiva; An extreme simplicity of style and storytelling disguises complex meditations on human nature and cinema in a typically distinctive film –…
To Live (1994): Dir. Zhang Yimou
Feat. Gong Li; An absorbing tale of Chinese peasantry in the dark shadow of politics over three decades. Distinguished by the star presence of Gong Li and her…
Yvonne's Perfume (1994): Dir. Patrice Leconte
Feat. Jean-Pierre Marielle, Hippolyte Girardot, Sandra Majani; A deserter from the Algerian war falls for the charms of a beautiful actress and her gay companion at a lakeside hotel for pensioners. The director…
Bandit Queen (1993): Dir. Shekhar Kapur
Feat. Seema Biswas; Far and away from the innocuous fluff that dominates India's film industry, comes this bold, controversial true story of Phoolan Devi, a notorious…
Blue Kite, The (1993): Dir. Tian Zhuangzhuang
Feat. Tian Yi, Wenyao Zhang, Xiaoman Chen; Emotive and honest account of the realities of daily life under chairman Mao's regime as witnessed by one Beijing family from the 1950s through…
Daens (1993): Dir. Stijn Coninx
Feat. Jan Decleir, Gerard Desarthe, Antje De Boeck; Earnest historical epic concerns labour relations in 19th Century Europe and follows one man's struggle to lead a revolt against the village elite.…
Especially On a Sunday (1993): Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore, Giuseppe Bertolucci, Marco Tul
Feat. Jean-Hugues Anglade, Patricia Arquette, Nicoletta Braschi…; Three stories of love and loss from the pen of Tonino Guerra brought to screen life by three directing talents. Sublime fare in the finest European…
Faraway, So Close (1993): Dir. Wim Wenders
Feat. Otto Sander, Bruno Ganz, Nastassja Kinski; WINGS OF DESIRE sequel is again about an angel who finds himself sucked back into humanity. This discusses politics and philosophy more directly than…
Farewell My Concubine (1993): Dir. Chen Kaige
Feat. Gong Li, Leslie Cheung; Lavish, episodic journey through 20th Century Chinese history, encompassing more revolutions than a 45. Joint winner of the Palm D'Or at Cannes is…
Germinal (1993): Dir. Claude Berri
Feat. Renaud , Gerard Depardieu, Miou-Miou…; The director of the JEAN DE FLORETTE films reunites with Gerard Depardieu for this epic recreation of the French coal–miners strike during the…
I Don't Kiss (J'embrasse Pas) (1993): Dir. Andre Techine
Feat. Emmanuelle Beart, Philippe Noiret; A 19–year old breaks away from his sheltered rural life and drifts into the seedy world of Parisian streetlife where he falls in love with…
I Don't Want to Talk About It (1993): Dir. Maria Luisa Bemberg
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni, Luisina Brando, Alejandra Podesta; The mother of a dwarf sets about removing all references in her town to dwarfism in order to protect her daughter from prejudice. Things complicate…
Like Water for Chocolate (1993): Dir. Alfonso Arau
Feat. Marco Leonardi, Lumi Cavazos, Regina Torne; Certifiable foreign–language block–buster blends the irresisistible ingrediants of primal female desire with old–fashioned…
Maadadayo (Madadayo) (1993): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Tatsuo Matsumura, Kyoko Kagawa; A masterful, understated last word from Japanese sensei Kurosawa, here paying tribute to an inspiration from his own life with the story of a retired…
My Favourite Season (Ma Saison Préférée) (1993): Dir. Andre Techine
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Daniel Auteuil, Marthe Villalonga; Involving French character drama, which observes the cracks in a woman's family dynamic when her elderly mother must move in with her due to poor…
Oh, Woe is Me (Helas Pour Moi) (1993): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Gerard Depardieu; Gerard Depardieu is the most accessible thing on offer in Godard's latest enigma, a film that's controlling idea is perhaps 'the desire of a God to…
Puppetmaster, The (1993): Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Feat. Li Tianlu; The turbulent pre–WWII history of Taiwan is woven into this epic yet simple docu–drama of the early years of famous puppeteer Li Tianlu,…
Scent of Green Papaya, The (1993): Dir. Tran Anh Hung
Feat. Tran Nu Yen-Khe, Man San Lu, Thi Loc Truong…; Drama as crisp and luxuriant as its title observes a wealthy Saigon family over two turbulent decades through the eyes of a peasant servant girl. Its…
Slingshot, The (1993): Dir. Ake Sandgren
Feat. Jesper Salen, Stellan Skarsgard, Basia Frydman; A bittersweet snapshot of pre–war Stockholm in which an enterprising 10–year–old flirts with boyhood rebellion. This local…
Sofie (1993): Dir. Liv Ulmann
Feat. Liv Ullmann; Actress Liv Ullmann makes a confident directing debut with this period drama about a Jewish woman's emotional journey over 20 years that begins with…
Temptation of a Monk (1993): Dir. Clara Law
Feat. Joan Chen, Zhang Fenyi; Graphic chronicle of blood–letting by a fierce warrior general in 7th century China, that hews to the visual traditions of the classic Japanese…
Three Colours: Blue (1993): Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Benoit Regent, Emmanuelle Riva…; Immaculate, introspective meditation on grief, redemption and liberty, Kieslowski's masterpiece borders on the pretentious. This redefines ART…
Accompanist, The (1992): Dir. Claude Miller
Feat. Richard Bohringer, Romane Bohringer; A humble pianist is hired to accompany a wealthy soprano in occupied France, but their partnership becomes fraught with rivalry and…
Best Intentions (1992): Dir. Bille August
Feat. Samuel Froler, Pernilla August, Max von Sydow…; Sincere, meticulous yet characteristically bleak adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's biographical account of his parents' turbulent courtship and…
Conte D'hiver (A Winter's Tale) (1992): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Charlotte Very, Frederic Van Den Driessche; A whirlwind romance ends abruptly for a young woman when she accidentally gives her lover a wrong address. Four years pass and she remains possessed…
Cronos (1992): Dir. Guillermo Del Toro
Feat. Frederico Luppi, Ron Perlman; Elderly antique dealer Federico Luppi discovers the ancient (and sought–after) 'Cronos' device, which has the power to give eternal life, but…
Dear Diary (Caro Diario) (1992): Dir. Nanni Moretti
Feat. Nanni Moretti; Often hilarious and inspiring film travelogue follows the endearing Nanni Moretti's personal experiences over 18 months. Over three chapters, he…
Discrete, La (1992): Dir. Christian Vincent
Feat. Fabrice Luchini, Judith Henry, Maurice Garrel…; Things don't go to plan for a philandering writer who refuses to commit emotionally. A literary yet accessible essay on sexual game–playing,…
Fiorile (1992): Dir. Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani
Feat. Claudio Bigagli, Galatea Ranzi, Michael Vartan; The brothers' Taviani spin three torrid tales of hot–blooded Italians at love and war, recounted by a father to his children about family myths…
Indochine (1992): Dir. Regis Wargnier
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Perez, Linh Dan Pham…; Oscar–winning Foreign Film of 1993 set during the Inochinese revolution of 1930. Catherine Deneuvre plays a French landowner coming to terms…
La Reine Blanche (1992): Dir. Jean-Loup Hubert
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Richard Bohringer; The return of a childhood friend to his home fishing village has fateful consequences for a long–married couple.
La Sentinelle (The Sentinel) (1992): Dir. Arnaud Desplechin
Feat. Emmanuel Salinger, Thibault de Montalembert, Jean-Louis Richard…; French chiller from director Arnaud Desplechin (A CHRISTMAS TALE) about a forensic medicine student who finds himself mysteriously in possession of a…
Lolo (1992): Dir. Francisco Athie
Feat. Damian Alcazar, Lorena Caballero, Alonso Echanove; An unflinching portrait of an urban Mexican slum in which a 17–year–old's pursuit of happiness is shattered when a petty crime leads to…
Mima (1992): Dir. Philomene Esposito
Feat. Nino Manfredi, Margarita Lozano, Virginie Ledoyen; The first–time director captures the nuance and feeling of her own experience as a young girl who witnesses the mysterious disappearance of her…
Oak, The (Balanta) (1992): Dir. Lucian Pintilie
Feat. Maia Morgenstern, Razvan Vasilescu, Victor Rebengiuc; Provocative director Pintilie strikes the perfect balance of surreal comedy and powerful realism as he examines the progressive disillusionment of a…
Ox, The (1992): Dir. Sven Nykvist
Feat. Stellan Skarsgard, Ewa Froling, Lennart Hjulstrom; During the famine years of Sweden in the 1860s, a peasant family slaughter their employer's ox, then reap the consequences. Directed by Ingmar…
Savage Nights (1992): Dir. Cyril Collard
Feat. Cyril Collard, Romane Bohringer, Carlos Lopez…; A audaciously frank and romantic tale of the life, love and passions of its bisexual director and star, who died of AIDS and was posthumously…
Station, The (1992): Dir. Sergio Rubini
Feat. Sergio Rubini, Margherita Buy, Ennio Fantastichini; Beguiling film about a disillusioned society woman who becomes drawn to a humble station–master while waiting for the first available train.
Stolen Children, The (1992): Dir. Gianni Amelio
Feat. Enrico Lo Verso, Valentina Scalici, Giuseppe Ieracitano; Two kids are reluctantly escorted from Milan to Palermo after they are refused asylum at an orphanage. A warts–and–all, portrait of…
Story of Qui Ju, The (1992): Dir. Zhang Yimou
Feat. Gong Li; Docu–drama about a peasant wife's determined fight for her justice after her husband is assaulted. An insight into modern China is glimpsed…
Vacas (Cows) (1992): Dir. Julio Medem
Feat. Emma Suarez, Ana Torrent, Karra Elejalde…; Debut film of dir. Julio Medem follows in vivid, swift fashion the growing connections between two Basque families over the decades between the…
Warszawa (1992): Dir. Janusz Kijowski
Feat. Julie Delpy, Lambert Wilson, Hanna Schygulla; Tense and original drama has a young Jewish couple (Lambert and Delpy) escaping the Warsaw massacre in 1943, by hiding with an older woman…
A Heart in Winter (Un Coeur en Hiver) (1991): Dir. Claude Sautet
Feat. Emmanuelle Beart, Andre Dussollier; Impeccable romantic tragedy examines a love triangle between a virtuoso violinist, her violin–making boyfriend and his emotionally crippled…
Amants Du Pont Neuf, Les (1991): Dir. Leos Carax
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Denis Lavant; Extravagant production breathes fire into this unusual epic love story of two young Paris street punks. Through the ebbs and the flows, Carax adjusts…
Brighter Summer Day, A (1991): Dir. Edward Yang
Feat. Chen Chang; Sublime ode to adolescence set in early 1960's Taiwan, Edward Yang's sprawling, novelistic narrative reflects the personal and political turmoil of…
Centre Stage (Actress) (1991): Dir. Stanley Kwan
Feat. Maggie Cheung; Maggie Cheung won the Silver Bear in Berlin for her moving portrayal of Ruan Lingyu, a '30s Chinese matinee idol who committed suicide at age 25. A…
Conte De Printemps (A Tale of Springtime) (1991): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Anne Teyssedre, Hugues Quester, Florence Darel…; The first of the director's 'Tales of Four Seasons', as invigorating as its Springtime theme. Complex relationships are woven from the meeting of two…
Danzon (1991): Dir. Maria Novaro
Feat. Maria Rojo; Lovely film about a phone operator and mother in Mexico City enthralled by the popular Cuban dance, known as "danzon". When her regular dance partner…
Days of Being Wild (1991): Dir. Wong Kar-Wai
Feat. Leslie Cheung; An excellent example of the other side of Hong Kong movie–making. Set in 1960, Leslie Cheung plays a disillusioned, spoiled youth who…
Double Life of Veronique (1991): Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski
Feat. Irene Jacob; An incandescent meditation on the lives of two identical young women – one Polish, one French – both played by Irene Jacob (RED). A…
Europa, Europa (1991): Dir. Agnieszka Holland
Feat. Marco Hofschneider, Salomon Perel, Rene Hofschneider; A riveting account of the real–life ordeal experienced by German Jew Soloman Perel, who concealed his ethnicity for seven years when drafted…
Herman (1991): Dir. Erik Gustavson
Feat. Anders Danielsen Lie, Elisabeth Sand, Bjorn Floberg; A gentle, wry tale of a boy who finds his hair is falling out at the ripe old age of 11 but, instead of wallowing in puberty blues, chooses to turn…
Indecent Woman, The (1991): Dir. Ben Verbong
Feat. Jose Way, Coen Van Vrijberghe de Coningh, Huub Stapel; A married violinist is drawn into a no–holds–barred relationship with a mystery man. A decent erotic parable that perceptively explores…
Jacquot De Nantes (1991): Dir. Agnes Varda
Feat. Philippe Maron, Edouard Joubeaud, Laurent Monnier; Beautifully–crafted, affectionate tribute to the director's late husband, the film–maker Jacques Demy (UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, LOLA).…
Journey of Hope (1991): Dir. Xavier Koller
Feat. Necmettin Cobanoglu, Emin Sivas, Yaman Okay; Powerful but heart–breaking drama about an exiled Turkish family who trek through the Swiss alps in a desperate bid for a new homeland. Upset…
La Belle Noiseuse (1991): Dir. Jacques Rivette
Feat. Michel Piccoli, Emmanuelle Beart; Rivette's four–hour portrait of an artist as an old man explores the process and politics of a retired artist painting a nude model. Subtle,…
Life On a String (1991): Dir. Chen Kaige
Feat. Zhongyuan Liu, Lei Huang, Qing Xu; A richly poetic chronicle of a blind man who devotes himself to music. Like the director's subsequent FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE, some messages may be…
Madame Bovary (1991): Dir. Claude Chabrol
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Francois Balmer, Christophe Malavoy…; Chabrol remains faithful to the text of this oft–filmed classic of French literature, with Isabelle Huppert bringing a glacial refinement to…
Mediterraneo (1991): Dir. Gabriele Salvatores
Feat. Claudio Bigagli, Diego Abatanthono, Giuseppe Cederna; Oscar–winning tale of eight Italian soldiers who find themselves stranded on a remote Greek isle during WW2. An affecting and surprising…
Merci La Vie (1991): Dir. Bertrand Blier
Feat. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Anouk Grinberg; Two young girls bond on a magical, mysterious tour played out against shifts in time, from the present to Occupied France. The audacious mix of ideas…
Olivier Olivier (1991): Dir. Agnieszka Holland
Feat. Francois Cluzet, Brigitte Rouan, Gregoire Colin; After disappearing from his country home six years earlier, a boy's mysterious return brings with it a mix of salvation and suspicion to his…
Raise the Red Lantern (1991): Dir. Zhang Yimou
Feat. Gong Li; Gong Li is unforgettable as an educated woman who bitterly serves as the fourth arranged wife of a feudal nobleman. A magnificent tragedy, enriched…
Rhapsody in August (1991): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Sachiko Murase, Richard Gere; A Japanese grandmother shares painful memories of Nagasaki with her four grandchildren who travel to meet extended kin–folk in Hawaii. Dir.…
Scene at the Sea, A (1991): Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Kuroudo Maki, Hiroko Oshima, Sabu Kawahara…; One from dir. Kitano’s (HANA–BI) quieter side, this fable of deaf–mute garbageman’s obsession with surfing is deceptively minimal,…
Stranger, The (1991): Dir. Satyajit Ray
Feat. Deepankar Dey, Mamata Shankar; An absorbing domestic parable from revered film–maker Satyajit Ray, whose last film here explores familial bonds when a long–lost…
Tous Les Matins Du Monde (All the Mornings of the World) (1991): Dir. Alain Corneau
Feat. Jean-Pierre Marielle, Gerard Depardieu, Anne Brochet…; Gerard Depardieu duets with real–life son Guillaume in this romantic tale of love, betrayal and classical music in the 17th Century. Exquisite…
Van Gogh (1991): Dir. Maurice Pialat
Feat. Jacques Dutronc; The ultra–naturalistic style of Maurice Pialat may not seem the best choice for a costume drama about probably the most–often filmed…
Ages of Lulu, The (1990): Dir. Bigas Luna
Feat. Francesca Neri, María Barranco, Javier Bardem…; Spanish erotic drama depicting the sexual explorations of a young woman as she descends into the dangerous and kinky underworld of Madrid –…
C'est La Vie (1990): Dir. Diane Kurys
Feat. Nathalie Baye, Richard Berry; Another twee autobiographical snapshot, set at a French holiday resort in a late–'50s summer. A teenager's coming of age is marked by the…
Cinema Paradiso (1990): Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
Feat. Antonella Attili, Enzo Cannavale, Isa Danieli…; Enchanting, achingly sweet film in which young Toto falls into a lifelong adoration of movies at the village theatre and its grumpy old…
Close to Eden (Urga) (1990): Dir. Nikita Mikhalkov
Feat. Badema , Bayaertu , Vladimir Gostyukhin; The vanishing ancient culture of Mongolia is offered spellbinding yet humourous insight through a herdsman's family whose simple life is threatened…
Close-Up (1990): Dir. Abbas Kiarostami
Feat. Hossain Sabzian, Mohsen Makhmalbaf; A uniquely–devised work intermingling life and art, documentary and fiction, born of a real life incident in which an unemployed film buff is…
Cyrano De Bergerac (1990): Dir. Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Anne Brochet, Vincent Perez…; Rostand's classic play filmed in its native tongue, with the man born to play the poet with the outsized hooter, Gerard Depardieu. Little expense has…
Ju Dou (1990): Dir. Zhang Yimou
Feat. Gong Li; Immaculately composed fable about a village girl who conducts an illicit affair with the nephew of the bitter factory owner she has been forced to…
Kurosawa's Dreams (1990): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Akira Terao, Mitsuko Baisho, Martin Scorsese; Opinions vary wildly over this sequence of eight re–enactments of Akira's very own dreams – stunning photography and subtle use of…
Life and Nothing But (1990): Dir. Bertrand Tavernier
Feat. Philippe Noiret, Sabine Azema; Philippe Noiret plays a Missing–in–Action chief officer whose obsession to account for the anonymous casualties of WW1 draws him to a…
Little Gangster, The (Le Petit Criminel) (1990): Dir. Jacques Doillon
Feat. Gerald Thomassin, Richard Anconina, Clotilde Courau; Jacques Doillon (PONETTE) combines his eye for youthful naturalism with technical and storytelling assurance in this neatly formed movie about a…
Mahabharata, The (1990): Dir. Peter Brook
Feat. Erika Alexander, Maurice Benichou, Amba Bihler; This 'great story of mankind' forms the basis of Indian religion and mythology. Some 15 times the length of the bible, stage maestro Peter Brook has…
Man and Two Women, A (1990): Dir. Valerie Stroh
Feat. Valerie Stroh, Lambert Wilson, Dianne Pierens; Inspired by the writings of Doris Lessing, three sensuous stories are thoughtfully realised from the imagination of an emotionally inhibited writer.
Martha and I (1990): Dir. Jiri Weiss
Feat. Michel Piccoli, Marianne Sagebrecht; A touching, humourous yarn from the director's childhood memoirs. He witnesses his eccentric uncle (Michel Piccoli) marry his under–educated…
Match Factory Girl, The (1990): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Kati Outinen, Elina Salo; Aki Kaurismaki concludes his "Proletariat Trilogy" with this bleakly ironic fable following the drab fortunes of a factory–worker (Kati…
My Father's Glory (La Gloire de Mon Pere) (1990): Dir. Yves Robert
Feat. Philippe Caubere, Nathalie Roussel, Didier Pain; Archetypal French art movie adapted from the memoirs of author Marcel Pagnol (JEAN DE FLORETTE). Little Marcel takes to life in Provence where even…
My Mother's Castle (Le Chateau de Ma Mere) (1990): Dir. Yves Robert
Feat. Philippe Caubere, Nathalie Roussel, Didier Pain…; Sequel to MY FATHER'S GLORY continues life in Provence with the Pagnol family. The nostalgic vignettes unfold with each frame a scenic wonder to…
Night Sun (Il Sole Anche Di Notte) (1990): Dir. Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani
Feat. Julian Sands, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Nastassja Kinski; After rejecting nobility, a soldier (Julian Sands) struggles to find fulfilment at a monastery. A thoughtful, near–mythical meditation based on…
Roselyne and the Lions (1990): Dir. Jean-Jacques Beineix
Feat. Isabelle Pasco, Gerard Sandoz, Gabriel Monnet; Another visual triumph from the director of DIVA, this is an absorbing account of a teen couple's yearning to tame and perform with lions. The…
Royal Hunt, The (1990): Dir. Vitaly Melnikov
Feat. Nikolai Yeryomenko Ml, Svetlana Kryuchkova, Anna Sumokhing; Erotic and exotic expose of Catherine the Great and the claimants to her throne in 17th Century Russia. Passion, scandal and lavish costumes come…
Seduction: The Cruel Woman (1990): Dir. Monika Treut, Elfi Mikesch
Feat. Udo Kier; The director of VIRGIN MACHINE takes her subversive sensibilities further with this outing exploring the activities of a domanatrix. Udo Kier takes…
Story of Boys and Girls (1990): Dir. Pupi Avati
Feat. Felice Andreasi, Angiola Baggi, Davide Bechini; A piquant soap opera in which love, lust and class rivalry add to a twenty course meal shared by the thirty relatives of a newly engaged couple in…
Yaaba (1990): Dir. Idrissa Ouedraogo
Feat. Fatimata Sanga, Noufou Ouedraogo, Roukietou Barry; All–too–rare African film to emerge on Western shores is a simple delight about a friendship between a 12–year–old boy and an…
A World Without Pity (Un Monde Sans Pitie) (1989): Dir. Eric Rochant
Feat. Hippolyte Girardot, Mireille Perrier, Yvan Attal; A young Parisian slacker falls in love with an ambitious, bright student but finds the tables turning on his egocentric existence. Rochant's debut…
Belt, The (La Cintura) (1989): Dir. Giuliana Gamba
Feat. James Russo; American teacher James Russo embarks on an affair with a beautiful Italian woman in Rome, which gets interesting when she buys him a belt... to whip…
Black Rain (Kuroi Ame) (1989): Dir. Shohei Imamura
Feat. Yoshiko Tanaka, Katzuo Kitamura, Etsuko Ichihara; Alarming, mournful insider's view of post–nuclear devastation that focuses on a surviving family that have been contaminated by the fallout of…
Circus Boys (1989): Dir. Kaizo Hayashi
Feat. Hiroshi Mikami, Moe Kamura, Shu Ken; Sumptuous film blends illusion and reality in contrasting the paths of two brothers from a circus family, one an idealist who attempts to rejuvenate…
City of Sadness, A (Beiging Chengsi) (1989): Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Feat. Tony Leung (Chiu-wai), Hsin Shu-fen, Chen Sown-yung…; The first of the director’s trilogy of films about the modern history of Taiwan, here depicting the unstable post–WW2 period through the eyes…
Emma's Shadow (1989): Dir. Soeren Jacobsen
Feat. Line Kruse, Borje Ahlstedt, Erik Wedersoe; 12–year–old Emma, feeling that her affluent parents would care more for her if she were missing, fakes her own kidnapping, and discovers…
Five Days in June (1989): Dir. Michel Legrand
Feat. Sabine Azema, Annie Girardot, Matthieu Roze; Yet another addition to the canon of dramas based on childhood memoirs. A renowned composer takes the helm to recall five days in his life on the…
Lily Was Here (1989): Dir. Ben Verbong
Feat. Marion Van Thijn, Thom Hoffman, Coen Van Vrijberghe de Coningh; Well known for Eurythmics' Dave Stewart's seductive score, the film follows the desperate plight of a young woman forced to resort to prostitution…
Little Thief, The (1989): Dir. Claude Miller
Feat. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Didier Bezace; Penned by the late Francois Trauffant and completed by his protege, this engaging tale of mis–spent youth follows the adventures of a…
Milou En Mai (May Fools) (1989): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Michel Piccoli, Miou-Miou; In May of '68, a rural family gather for the reading of their matriarch's will, an event that will strangely affect their idyllic existence. Stephane…
Nocturne Indien (1989): Dir. Alain Corneau
Feat. Jean-Hugues Anglade, Clémentine Célarié, Otto Tausig; Moody drama from dir. Corneau (TOUS LES MATINS DU MONDE) sees a young Frenchman travel to India to search for a missing friend, and get lost in…
Open Doors (1989): Dir. Gianni Amelio
Feat. Gian Maria Volente, Ennio Fantastichini, Renato Carpentieri; A resonant political drama set in corrupt fascist Italy about a juror's attempt to save a political murderer from the gallows.
Rikyu (1989): Dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara
Feat. Rentaro Mikuni, Tsutomu Yamazaki; A unique dramatic meditation on the symbolic qualities of the Japanese tea ceremony, set around a Buddhist priest and the ruling Shogun of Japan in…
Sandwich Years (Les années sandwiches) (1989): Dir. Emile Ghigo
Feat. Michel Aumont, Clovis Cornillac; In post–war France, a young Jewish boy befriends an elderly op–shop owner after his parents are arrested.
Secret Wedding (1989): Dir. Alejandro Agresti
Feat. Floria Bloise, Mirta Busnelli, Tito Haas; An amnesic returns to his home village after 15 years to try to reconstruct his life, but the townspeople shun him and the authorities get…
Seventh Continent, The (1989): Dir. Michael Haneke
Feat. Dieter Berner, Leni Tanzer, Birgit Doll; The disintegration of a seemingly content, middle–class family is at the center of this chilling domestic autopsy; a clinical and cynical…
This Dance Is Ours (Waltzing Regitze) (1989): Dir. Kaspar Rostrup
Feat. Frits Helmuth, Mikael Helmuth, Ghita Norby; Longtime married couple reminisce the good times and bad when Regitze hosts a party for family and friends. Finely crafted family drama with inspired…
Why has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (1989): Dir. Bae Yong-kyun; A mystical journey into the riddles and symbols of Zen Buddhism through various characters ensconced in a remote monastery. Loosely threaded by a…
Zanzibar (1989): Dir. Christine Pascal
Feat. Fabienne Babe, Andre Marcon, Francis Girod; An enigmatic, sensual work set in the tumultuous and fickle world of film–making where three self–interested obsessives – the…
36 Filette (Virgin) (1988): Dir. Catherine Breillat
Feat. Delphine Zentout, Etienne Chicot, Olivier Parniere; The thrills and fears of a young girl's willed sexual awakening are explored when she opts to accept a ride from a mysterious stranger in order to…
Ariel (1988): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Turo Pajala, Susanna Haavisto, Matti Pellonpaa; A redundant miner takes his newly acquired Thunderbird to Helsinki in search of financial and emotional security, but is hampered with rotten luck. A…
As Tears Go By (Wong gok ka moon) (1988): Dir. Wong Kar-Wai
Feat. Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Jacky Cheung; Dir. Wong Kar–Wai debuted with this ambitious remake of MEAN STREETS, where best buddies Andy Lau and Jacky Cheung struggle through the…
Camille Claudel (1988): Dir. Bruno Nuytten
Feat. Isabelle Adjani, Gerard Depardieu, Alain Cuny; Intense, robust biopic of the French artist and lover of fellow sculptor, Auguste Rodin. Their tumultuous affair is passionately incarnated by…
Chocolat (1988): Dir. Claire Denis
Feat. Isaach de Bankole, Giulia Boschi, Francois Cluzet; Quietly rewarding autobiographical work follows a young woman to West Africa where she reminisces her childhood. Early work by the director of BEAU…
Cobra Verde (1988): Dir. Werner Herzog
Feat. Klaus Kinski; Klaus Kinski stars for the last time for Herzog as another doomed outcast in an alien environment. West Africa is portrayed as a cruel, highly…
Damnation (Karhozat) (1988): Dir. Bela Tarr
Feat. Miklós B. Székely, Vali Kerekes, Gyula Pauer; A magnificent representation of the earlier feature films of Hungarian master of miserabilism Béla Tarr, telling the story of a lonely barfly who…
Decalogue - Parts 1 - 5 (Dekalog) (1988): Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski; The Polish master's extraordinary series of hour–long dramas, each pertaining to one of the ten commandments. He matches the high concept with…
Decalogue - Parts 6 - 10 (Dekalog) (1988): Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski; Continuing Kieslowski's exemplary series of hour–long dramas, with a further five 'commandments'. Episodes: Dekalog 6 – "Thou Shalt…
Hanussen (1988): Dir. Istvan Szabo
Feat. Klaus Maria Brandauer; Klaus Maria Brandauer adds to his list of distinctive roles in this allegedly true tale of an Austrian soldier who recovers from shotgun wounds and…
I'm the King of the Castle (1988): Dir. Regis Wargnier
Feat. Jean Rochefort, Dominic Blanc, Regis Arpin; The young sons of a rich widowed industrialist and his house matron enter into an increasingly dangerous power play as their parents become close.…
Last Stop Paradise (Terminus paradis) (1988): Dir. Lucian Pintilie
Feat. Costel Cascaval, Dorina Chiriac, Gheorghe Visu; French/Romanian drama set against the outskirts of Budapest, centered around the ill–fated love affair between a waitress and a young pig…
Legend of the Holy Drinker, The (1988): Dir. Ermanno Olmi
Feat. Rutger Hauer, Anthony Quayle, Sandrine Dumas…; Rutger Hauer plays a drunken homeless man in Paris who is lent 200 francs by a stranger as long as he promises to repay it to a local church when he…
Mapantsula (1988): Dir. Oliver Schmitz
Feat. Eugene Majola, Darlington Michaels, Thomas Mogotlane; A disturbingly accurate evocation of township unrest in Soweto, as a young black petty criminal is throne into jail with a militant fraternity whom…
Music Teacher, The (1988): Dir. Gerard Corbiau
Feat. Jose Van Dam, Anne Roussel, Patrick Bauchau; Sterling voiced Jose Van Dam plays an opera star who retires to train an aspiring nymphette and her wayward peer. Like the superlative operatic…
Red Sorghum (1988): Dir. Zhang Yimou
Feat. Gong Li, Wen Jiang; A love story set among village winemakers who fight back against Japanese marauders in 1930's China. Blackly humorous and agonisingly horrific, this…
Rouge (1988): Dir. Stanley Kwan
Feat. Leslie Cheung; Beautiful, haunting ghost story about a 1930s courtesan whose restless spirit roams modern Hong Kong. Asian stars Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung…
Salaam Bombay! (1988): Dir. Mira Nair
Feat. Shafiq Syed, Hansa Vithal; Breakthrough Indian film that eschews Bollywood tradition is a compassionate account of an 11–year–old village boy, stranded on the…
Short Film About Killing, A (1988): Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski
Feat. Miroslaw Baka, Krzysztof Globisz, Jan Tesarz; Feature–length version of Kieslowski's indelibly chilling Decalogue Pt.5 further protracts a cold–blooded murder and the subsequent…
Short Film About Love, A (1988): Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski
Feat. Grazyna Szapolowska, Olaf Lubaszenko, Stefania Iwinska; Extended version of the director's DEKALOG Part 6 – "Thou shalt not commit adultery" shares its voyeuristic premise with MONSIEUR HIRE, though…
Une Affair Des Femmes (a Story of Women) (1988): Dir. Claude Chabrol
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Francois Cluzet; Traumatic, gripping fact–based story about the last woman to be guillotined in France. Isabelle Huppert is in feverish form as the woman both…
Virgin Machine (1988): Dir. Monika Treut
Feat. Ina Blum, Marcelo Uriona, Gad Klein; A frustrated German journalist takes her work to San Fransisco in this lesbian odyssey that proudly parades its fringe philosophy and contemporary…
Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejto, Francine Racette…; Dir. Malle has transformed a childhood memoir into a powerful and vivid account of a catholic schoolboy who unknowingly witnesses anti–semitism…
Babette's Feast (1987): Dir. Gabriel Axel
Feat. Stephane Audran; Oscar–winning and mouth watering delight which tells a wistful, wise tale with a subtle sense of humour. Exiled French housekeeper Stephane…
Blind Chance (Przypadek) (1987): Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski
Feat. Boguslaw Linda; In the opening scene a young Polish medical student (Linda) hurries to catch a train departing from Lodz to Warsaw, from which point dir.…
Boyfriends and Girlfriends (My Girlfriend's Boyfriend) (1987): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Emmanuelle Chaulet, Sophie Renoir; Through a series of deceptions and misunderstandings, four Parisians come to discover their true feelings for each other. Entrancing tale of…
Cry of the Owl, The (Le Cri du hibou) (1987): Dir. Claude Chabrol
Feat. Christophe Malavoy, Mathilda May, Jacques Penot; Rich adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel from New Wave director Claude Chabrol, who probes the mind of a troubled artist obsessed with his…
Dark Eyes (1987): Dir. Nikita Mikhalkov
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni; The Soviet director ventures to Italy for this exquisite Chekhovian romantic tragedy in which Marcello Mastroianni abandons rationale for the allure…
Debajo Del Mundo (Underground) (1987): Dir. Beda Docampo Feijóo
Feat. Oscar Ferrigno Jr., Gabriel Rovito; Intense WW2 drama focused on a Polish family who make the drastic decision to bury themselves underground to hide from the Nazis. Based on a true…
Girl Who Lived Twice, The (1987): Dir. Francois Villiers
Feat. Julian Sands; Julian Sands stars in this fantasy/drama about an Indian girl's obsession with finding her alleged rich husband of a past life. Shot in Nepal.
Grand Chemin, Le (1987): Dir. Jean-Loup Hupert
Feat. Anemone , Richard Bohringer; A charming, heartfelt drama about a childless and unhappy couple who are entrusted with the care of a 9–year–old relative over the summer…
Intervista (1987): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Sergio Rubini; An easy–going ode to dir. Fellini's early career at Cinecitta Studios, this takes the form of a mock interview–flashback, with the…
Long Live the Lady (1987): Dir. Ermanno Olmi
Feat. Marco Esposito, Simone Brandalise, Stafania Busanello; Six teenage catering scholars await a banquet at a remote chateau. A telling observation of boyhood evolves, with an emphasis on action and…
Pelle the Conqueror (1987): Dir. Bille August
Feat. Max von Sydow; Swedish widower Max Von Sydow emigrates in the 19th century to Denmark with his son, where they struggle against injustice and poverty. Won an Oscar…
Sur (1987): Dir. Fernando Solanas
Feat. Susu Pecoraro, Miguel Angel Sola, Philippe Leotard; A political prisoner, freed after five years, confronts his haunting past and alien present before reconciling with his wife. Deeply personal,…
Under the Sun of Satan (Soues Le Soleil De Satan) (1987): Dir. Maurice Pialat
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Sandrine Bonnaire, Maurice Pialat…; Both booed and awarded the top prize at Cannes Film Festival, Pialat's visionary film exemplifies the director's style and his thematic preoccupation…
Wings of Desire (1987): Dir. Wim Wenders
Feat. Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander…; Wenders ambitious and hypnotic film centres around two angels who can listen into human thought in pre–unified Berlin. This rich and surreal…
Yeelen (Brightness) (1987): Dir. Souleymane Cisse; One the few internationally–seen films from the African continent, this myth–like narrative concerns a young man of the Bambara culture…
Bashu, The Little Stranger (1986): Dir. Bahram Beizai
Feat. Susan Taslimi, Parvis Pourhosseini, Adrian Afravian; Compassionate film follows the plight of a 10–year–old boy whose raided Iranian village forced him to take contentious refuge. Certain to…
Betty Blue (1986): Dir. Jean-Jacques Beineix
Feat. Beatrice Dalle, Jean-Hugues Anglade; Beatrice Dalle stars as the ultra crazy and ultra sexy Betty in this lusty, over–the–top drama as only the French aspire to create.…
Decline of the American Empire (1986): Dir. Denys Arcand
Feat. Pierre Curzi, Remy Girard, Yves Jacques…; An astute and devastatingly frank expose of the sexes from the director of JESUS OF MONTREAL, that alternately eavesdrops on the separate gatherings…
Good Morning, Babylon (1986): Dir. Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani
Feat. Vincent Spano, Joaquim De Almeida, Greta Scacchi; Two artisan Italian brothers seek their fortune in America and wind up sculpting for D.W. Griffith on the set of INTOLERANCE. An elegant tribute to…
Green Ray, The (Summer) (1986): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Marie Riviere, Lisa Heredia, Beatrice Romand…; Exemplary Rohmer material, this bittersweet story follows a reserved young woman on her Riviera holiday, who must assert herself if she is to find…
Jean De Florette (1986): Dir. Claude Berri
Feat. Yves Montand, Gerard Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil; A modern classic of love, greed and revenge set against the beauty of 1920s French Provence, superbly performed by three of France's biggest…
Man and A Woman: 20 Years Later, A (1986): Dir. Claude Lelouch
Feat. Anouk Aimee, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Richard Berry; Worthy follow–up to Lelouch's seminal 60's romantic drama benefits from appealing performances by it's two leads.
Manon Des Sources (1986): Dir. Claude Berri
Feat. Yves Montand, Emmanuelle Beart, Daniel Auteuil; Indispensible sequel to JEAN DE FLORETTE concludes Marcel Pagnol's story of innocence, greed, envy and revenge in 1920s Provence. At the time the…
Mauvais Sang (The Night Is Young) (1986): Dir. Leos Carax
Feat. Michel Piccoli, Denis Lavant, Juliette Binoche; A street–punk joins a gang of hoods intent on stealing a top–secret serum, but complications prevail. Romantic thriller contains…
Melo (1986): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Sabine Azema, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi…; New Wave dir. Resnais explores unusually restrained, linear territory in this bittersweet melodrama centered around a love triangle between longtime…
Peking Opera Blues (1986): Dir. Tsui Hark
Feat. Brigitte Lin, Cherie Chung, Sally Yeh; One of prolific Hong Kong director/producer Tsui Hark's most celebrated films is a genre–blending romp set around the Peking Opera in 1913. A…
Sacrifice, The (1986): Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
Feat. Erland Josephson, Susan Fleetwood, Allan Edward; Tarkovsky's final film is this harrowing tale of a man who vows to sacrifice all that he is in order for the world to avoid the apocalypse. Further…
Therese (1986): Dir. Alain Cavalier
Feat. Catherine Mouchet, Aurore Prieto, Sylvie Habault…; Brooding realisation of the diaries of a convent girl who achieved sainthood. The meticulous, stylised treatment offers an experience akin to…
Colonel Redl (1985): Dir. Istvan Szabo
Feat. Klaus Maria Brandauer; Klaus Maria Brandauer offers another tour–de–force performance for the second in Szabo's WW2 trilogy (between MEPHISTO and HANUSSEN)…
Come and See (1985): Dir. Elim Klimov
Feat. Aleksei Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Lauciavicius; Shattering film that chronicles the devastating effect the Nazi occupation had on Russian peasantry, focusing on one impoverished youth. The brutal…
Detective, The (1985): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Claude Brasseur, Nathalie Baye, Johnny Hallyday…; Late, vague genre piece mismatches big name French stars (Baye, Leaud, and a young Julie Delpy) and trench coat chic with Godard’s newfound…
Great Wall, A (The Great Wall is A Great Wall) (1985): Dir. Peter Wang
Feat. Peter Wang, Sharon Iwai, Kelvin Han Yee; The first American film to be shot in China follows a Chinese–American computer executive (the director) and his family to Peking where they…
Hail Mary (1985): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Myriem Roussel, Thierry Rode, Juliette Binoche; Controversial and ultimately reverent update on the story of the immaculate conception, with Mary as a gas station attendant and Joseph as her cab…
Heart of the Dragon (Long de xin) (1985): Dir. Sammo Hung, Fruit Chan
Feat. Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Emily Chu; Uncharacteristically serious Chan–Hung drama follows police detective Chan's difficulties in caring for his mentally disabled, child–like…
Hour of the Star (1985): Dir. Suzana Amaral
Feat. Marcelia Cartaxo, Jose Dumont, Tamara Taxman…; Distinctive Brazilian drama following the life of an impoverished, orphaned young girl who moves to Rio de Janeiro to take a job as a typist after…
Mishima - A Life in Four Chapters (1985): Dir. Paul Schrader
Feat. Ken Ogata; Fascinating study of the controversial Japanese author/militarist whose desire to merge life and art led to his ritualistic suicide. A luminous…
My Life As a Dog (1985): Dir. Lasse Hallstrom
Feat. Arnold Alfredsson, Ing-Marie Carlsson, Ralph Carlsson; A young boy is taken away from his ill mother to a rural village where he confronts the likes of death, soccer, guilt and his first love. Ultimately…
No End (Bez konca) (1985): Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski
Feat. Grazyna Szapolowska; Bleak but powerful drama about life under martial law in early–1980s Poland, centred around the consequences that follow the death of an…
Official Story, The (1985): Dir. Luis Puenzo
Feat. Hector Alterio, Norma Aleandro, Chunchuna Villafane; The heart–wrenching official story of a woman who discovers her adopted daughter was stolen at birth by the then military dictatorship. This…
Ran (1985): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Tatsuya Nakadai; The title translates to 'chaos'; it is Kurosawa's vast and bloody interpretation of Shakespeare's King Lear. Grandiose in every sense – a…
Vagabond (1985): Dir. Agnes Varda
Feat. Sandrine Bonnaire; Award–winning drama that artfully presents poetic moments from young vagabond Sandrine Bonnaire’s last month alive, listlessly drifting…
When Father Was Away on Business (1985): Dir. Emir Kusturica
Feat. Moreno de Bartolli, Miki Manojlovic, Mira Furlan; A delightful dramedy of social upheaval, set during Yugoslavia’s Tito–Stalin conflict of the 1950s. Kusturica filters the tribulations of…
And the Ship Sails On (1984): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Freddie Jones, Barbara Jefford, Victor Poletti; An idyllic odyssey aboard an ocean liner, where celebrated guests who have gathered for the funeral voyage of a great opera star are introduced in…
Element of Crime, The (1984): Dir. Lars Von Trier
Feat. Michael Elphick; A detective’s unconventional methods qualify him for the investigation of child murders in a dark, decaying, post–apocalyptic Germany.…
Full Moon in Paris (1984): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Pascale Ogier, Fabrice Luchini, Christian Vadim…; From Rohmer's 'Comedies and Proverbs' series, wit and subtlety is derived from the simplest of plots. This time a headstrong woman's plans backfire…
Holy Innocents, The (1984): Dir. Mario Camus
Feat. Alfredo Landa, Terele Pavez, Belen Ballesteros; A soldier returns to his rural croft and recalls his impoverished family's struggle with daily life and unscrupulous landlords. The bitter climate of…
Kaos (1984): Dir. Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani; Marvellous but rarely seen compendium of four tales (and an epilogue) by Luigi Pirandello set in the parched landscape of Sicily. 'The Other Son'…
Legend of the Suram Fortress (1984): Dir. Sergei Paradjanov; Soviet dir. Sergei Paradjanov resumed his filmmaking career after years of exile with this visually rapturous, obscure folk tale. More opaque in…
Love Unto Death (L'amour à Mort) (1984): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Sabine Azema, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi; Alain Resnais (HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR) pursues his themes of love and death with this symbolic tale of lovers Simon (Arditi) and Elizabeth (Azema)…
Runner, The (1984): Dir. Amir Naderi
Feat. Abbas Nazeri, Majid Niroumand, Musa Torkizadeh; On a coastline strewn with the flotsam of the Arabian Gulf, an Iranian orphan boy scrapes a living together scavenging and selling ice before it…
Sunday in the Country, A (1984): Dir. Bertrand Tavernier
Feat. Louis Ducreux, Sabine Azema, Michel Aumont…; An elderly painter invites his family to his country villa; in a single day their happinesses and sorrows come to be expressed. Subtle, intelligent…
Swann in Love (1984): Dir. Volker Schlondorff
Feat. Jeremy Irons, Ornella Muti, Alain Delon…; Lavish filming of Proust's novel 'Remembrance of Things Past' which centres around a high class man who risks everything for his erotic obsessions.…
Three of Us, The (Noi Tre) (1984): Dir. Pupi Avati
Feat. Christopher Davidson, Ida De Benedetto, Gianni Cavina…; Charming, though slender, portrayal of Mozart’s teenage life as the 14–year old musical prodigy spends a summer in Italy and starts to…
Yellow Earth (1984): Dir. Chen Kaige
Feat. Quiang Liu, Tuo Tan, Xueyin Wang…; This spearheaded the wave of modern Chinese cinema to be seen outside the People's Republic. A communist soldier visits a backwards village in 1939…
À Nos Amours (To Our Loves) (1983): Dir. Maurice Pialat
Feat. Sandrine Bonnaire, Maurice Pialat, Cyril Collard; One of dir. Pialat's most satisfying dramas, this concerns a journey of a teenage girl (Bonnaire, in a stunning debut) when her family life turns…
Ballad of Narayama (1983): Dir. Shohei Imamura
Feat. Ken Ogata, Sumiko Sakamoto, Tonpei Hidari; Austere beauty characterises this second retelling of a Japanese legend, originally filmed in stylised, Kabuki–inspired vignettes. Ken…
El Norte (The North) (1983): Dir. Gregory Nava
Feat. Zaide Silvia Gutierrez, David Villalpando; The journey northward of a Guatemalan brother and sister (Zaide Silvia Gutierrez and David Villalpando) on the run is an epic saga of the modern…
Fanny and Alexander (1983): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Kristina Adolphson, Borje Ahlstedt, Pernilla Allwin; Dir. Bergman's last film is his least typical, yet one of his finest. It tells a semi–autobiographical family saga through the eyes of two…
First Name: Carmen (Prenom Carmen) (1983): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Maruschka Detmers, Jacques Bonnaffe; Late Godard standout is a markedly nostalgic throwback to his New Wavy years, combining an ad hoc terrorist, ill–fated romance, a…
Hong Kong 1941 (Dang doi lai ming) (1983): Dir. Po-Chi Leong
Feat. Chow Yun-Fat, Alex Man, Kien Shih…; One of Chow Yun–Fat's early classics, this portrays the disturbing invasion of Hong Kong by the Japanese in 1941, which disrupts the dreams and…
L'Argent (1983): Dir. Robert Bresson
Feat. Christian Patey; This bleak, enigmatic crime study depicts the tragic chain of events which emanate from a counterfeit bank note being passed through a photo shop.…
Life Is A Bed Of Roses (1983): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Ruggero Raimondi, Fanny Ardant, Geraldine Chaplin; Ambitious fantastical oddity from dir. Resnais was made as a tribute to era–defining French directors Melies, L'Herbier and Rohmer, weaving…
Makioka Sisters, The (Sasame-yuki) (1983): Dir. Kon Ichikawa
Feat. Keiko Kishi, Yoshiko Sakuma, Sayuri Yoshinaga; Lyrical Japanese drama set in the 1930's, following the lives of four siblings who have taken on their father's kimono manufacturing business. Based…
Nostalgia (Nostalghia) (1983): Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
Feat. Oleg Jankovsky; A lingering essay on the angst of living in exile, with Oleg Jankovsky as a beleaguered Russian academic subsisting in Italy (like Tarkovsky…
Pauline a La Plage (Pauline at the Beach) (1983): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Amanda Langlet, Arielle Dombasle; Teenage Pauline visits her older cousin plagued with boy trouble. Rohmer again demonstrates his knack for eliciting candid performances from…
Rembetiko (1983): Dir. Costas Ferris
Feat. Sotiria Leonardou, Nikos Kalogeropoulos, Michalis Maniatis; Stirring fictionalized biopic of Marika Ninou, a Greek Rebetiko (urban Greek folk music) singer who lived through some of the most dramatic…
A Good Marriage (Le Beau Marriage) (1982): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Beatrice Romand, Andre Dussollier, Féodor Atkine; An art history student is growing tired of being the mistress of a married painter, then meets a handsome and wealthy younger man whom she vows to…
Danton (1982): Dir. Andrzej Wajda
Feat. Gerard Depardieu; A gripping depiction of the political struggle faced by charismatic revolutionary Danton (Gerard Depardieu), whose campaign for peace and tolerance…
Fitzcarraldo (1982): Dir. Werner Herzog
Feat. Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale; Colonialist visionary Klaus Kinski attempts to haul a huge riverboat over a hill in 19th century S. America with the help of Indian…
Night of the Shooting Stars, The (Night of San Lorenzo, The) (1982): Dir. Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani
Feat. Omero Antonutti, Margarita Lozano, Claudio Bigagli; Set during the German retreat from Italy in 1944, this tragicomedy of War carries a magical nostalgia by being told through the memories of woman who…
Passion (1982): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Hanna Schygulla, Michel Piccoli; 'Film within a film' from France's thorniest director, sowing narrative confusion in his story of director Michel Piccoli trying to make a arthouse…
Querelle (1982): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Brad Davis, Jeanne Moreau; Fassbinder's parting shot is a fittingly bleak, ultra–stylised adaptation of Jean Genet's writings about the (bi)sexual escapades of a…
Return of Martin Guerre (1982): Dir. Daniel Vigne
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Nathalie Baye; A legendary French tale with Gerard Depardieu as the 16th century peasant who returns to his family after an eight year absense but is suspected of…
State of Things, The (1982): Dir. Wim Wenders
Feat. Patrick Bauchau, Samuel Fuller, Roger Corman; Reliving the personal turmoil of his first American production (HAMMETT), Wenders fashions a scathing yet oddly comedic…
That Night in Varennes (1982): Dir. Etore Scolla
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni, Jean-Louis Barrault, Harvey Keitel; An enthralling, vivid historical drama set during the last days of Louis XVI's reign during the 1791 revolution, but focusing largely on a band of…
Veronika Voss (1982): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Rosel Zech, Hilmar Thate, Cornelia Froboess; Fictionalised biography of a once famous actress whose career surrendered to drug–addiction, neurosis and the dubious motives of a medical…
36 Chowringhee Lane (1981): Dir. Aparna Sen
Feat. Jennifer Kendal, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Debashree Roy…; An English spinster living out her twilight years teaching in India befriends a young couple whose motives might not be what she suspects. Tender…
Aviator's Wife, The (La femme de l'aviateur) (1981): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Philippe Marlaud, Marie Riviere; A young student is devastated when he finds that his girlfriend is cheating on him. In order to find out why she did it, he decides to spy on her and…
Choix Des Armes, Le (Choice of Arms) (1981): Dir. Alain Corneau
Feat. Yves Montand, Catherine Deneuve, Gerard Depardieu; Two disparate ex–convicts face difficulties settling into normal society. Boasts France's greatest acting talents.
Christiane F. (1981): Dir. Ulrich Edel
Feat. David Bowie; Absorbing account of the decline and fall into the Berlin's degrading drug and prostitution scene of two young heroin addicts. Features the music and…
City of Women (1981): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni; Dir. Fellini pushes his fantasies to their zenith (or nadir), again with Marcello Mastroianni as the surrogate male. Falling asleep on a train, he…
Coup de Torchon (Clean Slate) (1981): Dir. Bertrand Tavernier
Feat. Philippe Noiret, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre Marielle…; Mordantly humourous suspense set in dusty French Senegal, with Noiret playing a much–abused police chief who begins to have dreams of…
Les Uns et Les Autres (Bolero) (1981): Dir. Claude Lelouch
Feat. James Caan, Geraldine Chaplin, Robert Hossein…; Sprawling extravaganza of questionable taste is not without its devotees. It charts the impact that music has made on the lives of four…
Lola (1981): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mario Adorf; Shattering Fassbinder drama depicting an exotic singer searching for true happiness and survival in post–war Germany. Fassbinder again excels…
Man of Iron (1981): Dir. Andrzej Wajda
Feat. Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Krystyna Janda, Marian Opania; Angry sequel to MAN OF MARBLE covers much the same ground with an alcoholic journalist sent to cover the Polish Solidarity strike and to discredit…
Mephisto (1981): Dir. Istvan Szabo
Feat. Klaus Maria Brandauer; An astonishing portrait of the seductive allure of pre–war fascism, faced by a talented actor, aptly played by fine thesp, Klaus Maria…
No Time for Tears (1981): Dir. Hark Bohm
Feat. Marie Colbin, Michael Gwisdek; True story of Marianne Bachmeier who shot the murderer of her child during his trial. Subtle yet disturbing film concentrates on the background to…
Pixote (1981): Dir. Hector Babenco
Feat. Marilia Pera, Ramos Da Silva; Inspired by the plight of his country's homeless children, dir. Babenco created this semi–improvised odyssey of three boys in the slums of…
Woman Next Door, The (1981): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Fanny Ardant; Emotional chaos ensues for a happily married man when his old flame, now also married, becomes his immediate neighbour. Taut, intimate melodrama…
Berlin Alexanderplatz (TV Series) (1980): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Gunter Lamprecht, Hanna Schygulla, Elisabeth Trissenaar…; This monolithic tome set in Weimar–era Germany represented the peak of dir. Fassbinder's filmmaking career. Across 15 hours, it details the…
From the Life of the Marionettes (1980): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Robert Atzom, Heinz Bennent, Martin Benrath; A dark themed and intricately plotted drama from dir. Bergman's later period, concerning a businessman who commits the sex–murder of a…
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…
Last Metro, The (1980): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Gerard Depardieu; Elegant war story in occupied France, Catherine Deneuve struggles to keep her Jewish husband's theatre operating while concealing his whereabouts.
Lili Marleen (1980): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Hanna Schygulla, Giancarlo Giannini, Mel Ferrer; Fassbinder's fact–based account of the recording of the Nazi anthem, sung by a jaded cabaret singer with a Jewish love interest.
Loulou (1980): Dir. Maurice Pialat
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Isabelle Huppert, Guy Marchand; Charismatic street rogue Gerard Depardieu lures an impetuous Isabelle Huppert out her stale, bourgeois partnership with Guy Marchand. Star chemistry…
Mon Oncle D'Amerique (My American Uncle) (1980): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Marie Dubois, Jean Daste; The dir. of LAST YEAR IN MARIENBAD experiments with notions of human behaviour in this unusual drama, centred around the theories of a French…
Un Mauvais Fils (A Bad Son) (1980): Dir. Claude Sautet
Feat. Patrick Dewaere, Brigitte Fossey, Yves Robert; Affecting working–class drama about a young man returning to France after a jail term in the US for narcotics, where his attempt to restart his…
Wim Wenders on Film (Lightning over Water, The State of Things, A Trick of the Light) (1980-1995): Dir. Wim Wenders; Boxset of three underseen Wim Wenders classics, each concerning the agony and ectasy of filmmaking.
Alexandria... Why? (1979): Dir. Youssef Chahine; An autobiographical film about the early life of director Youssef Chahine, set in Alexandria. Winner of the Silver Bear at the 29th Berlin…
Amour en fuite, L' (Love on the Run) (1979): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud, Marie-France Pisier; The fifth and final entry in dir. Truffaut's loosely autobiographical 'Anoine Doinel' series. Here, the footloose hero reaches his 30s and a new…
Camera Buff (Amator) (1979): Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski; Pointed, if slightly familiar satire of Communist life, has a smalltown clerk in Poland buy a Super8 film camera and begin to film life around him,…
Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979): Dir. Francesco Rosi
Feat. Gian Maria Volente, Paolo Bonacelli, Alain Cuny; A writer is exiled to the remote South in the mid 1930s. Based on the autobiography of Carlos Levi, this film in four parts contrasts his political…
La Luna (1979): Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
Feat. Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Barry, Alida Valli…; A wayward young junkie cuddles up to his Opera–singing mother (Jill Clayburgh) in this peculiar incest drama, shot in lush Bertolucci overtones.
Laura (Laura, Shadows of a Summer) (1979): Dir. David Hamilton
Feat. Maud Adams, Dawn Dunlap, James Mitchell…; One of the dreamy, soft focus movies of fashion photographer Hamilton, featuring his characteristic themes: the coming of age of a young girl in an…
Legend of the Mountain (Shan zhong zhuan qi) (1979): Dir. King Hu
Feat. Shih Chun, Hsu Feng, Sylvia Chang; A scholar translating Buddhist sutras visits a monastery filled with various mysterious characters, in this soothing spiritual drama with elements of…
Passe ton Bac d'abord (Graduate First) (1979): Dir. Maurice Pialat
Feat. Sabine Haudepin, Philippe Marlaud, Bernard Tronczak…; Dir. Pialat’s matter–of–fact realism and blasé cast of young actors conveys all the aimlessness and uncertainty of youth in this…
Sisters or the Balance of Happiness (Schwestern oder Die Balance des Glücks) (1979): Dir. Margarethe von Trotta; 1970s West German drama about two sisters whose unusually close relationship negatively impacts their individual personal lives.
Third Generation, The (Die Dritte Generation) (1979): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Hanna Schygulla, Margit Carstensen, Eddie Constantine…; A scathing black comedy about terrorism, one of the final films of German provocateur Rainer Werner Fassbinder. A hilariously indiscriminate plot…
Tin Drum, The (1979): Dir. Volker Schlondorff
Feat. David Bennett; One the best films ever made with a child protagonist, David Bennett is unforgettable as a 12–year–old who refuses to grow up and…
To Forget Venice (1979): Dir. Franco Brusati
Feat. Mariangela Melato, Eleonora Giorgi, Erland Josephson; Brooding melodrama about an extended family reunion in the house of an Operatic matriach.
Autumn Sonata (1978): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, Lena Nyman; The resumes of director Bergman and actress Bergman intersect for the first and only time in this, ahem, Bergmanesque (sombre, brutally honest,…
Blood Feud (Fatto di sangue fra due uomini per causa di una vedova - si sospettano moventi politici) (1978): Dir. Lina Wertmuller
Feat. Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Giancarlo Giannini; Convoluted romantic drama set against the rise of Mussolini has recently widowed Loren torn between an attorney and petty thief. Overheated (and…
Empire of the Passions (ai no borei) (1978): Dir. Nagisa Oshima
Feat. Tatsuya Fuji, Kazuko Yoshiyuki; Searing, underrated crime of passion from the dir. of IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES focuses less on explicit sex, unfolding as a ghost…
Hitler - A Film From Germany (1978): Dir. Hans-Jurgen Syberberg; An epic and highly original exploration of the sources of German fascism, in which experimentalist dir. Syberberg weaves a tapestry of surreal…
In a Year of 13 Moons (1978): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Volker Spengler, Ingrid Caven, Gottfried John…; Volker Spengler plays a hopelessly insecure trans–sexual cast adrift amid imposing cityscapes of modern Berlin. Fassbinder trawls out the…
Les Rendez-vous D'anna (Anna's Meetings) (1978): Dir. Chantal Akerman
Feat. Aurore Clement, Helmut Griem, Magali Noel; Dir. Akerman channels her nomadic existence in this semi–autobiographical account of a female filmmaker's tour of Europe to promote her latest…
Marriage of Maria Braun (1978): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Hanna Schygulla; During the reconstruction of post–war Germany, a woman emerges from the ruins of war and marriage to build an empire. Hanna Schygulla oozes…
Orchestra Rehearsal, The (1978): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Baldwin Baas, Clara Colosimo, Elizabeth Labi; A comedy of the absurd about a group of orchestra musicians who stage a revolt against the conductor after the building collapses. Allegory may be…
Tree of Wooden Clogs, The (1978): Dir. Ermanno Olmi
Feat. Luigi Ornaghi, Francesca Moriggi; Portrayal of early 20th century peasantry in Lombardy, this un–melodramatic alternative to Bertolucci’s NOVACENTO, examines with quiet…
A Special Day (1977): Dir. Ettore Scola
Feat. Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, John Vernon; Quietly subversive drama set entirely in a working–class apartment building in Rome, on the fateful day in 1938 that Mussolini welcomed Hitler…
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…
Bilitis (1977): Dir. David Hamilton
Feat. Patti D'Arbanville; Tissue–thin sex drama from famed 1970s photographer Hamilton (he of those misty images of nude or lace–clad women), going into dreamy…
Chess Players, The (1977): Dir. Satyajit Ray
Feat. Richard Attenborough; India's first internationally renowned film–maker draws upon the ancient game of chess as a metaphor for Anglo–Indian political relations…
Despair (1977): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Dirk Bogarde; Fassbinder's blackly comic adaptation of Nabakov's novel about delusion, depression and decline of the human spirit. Dirk Bogarde plays a Russian…
Man Who Loved Women, The (1977): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Charles Denner, Leslie Caron, Brigitte Fossey…; Charles Denner plays a dedicated skirt–chaser, who falls in love with women so constantly he is brought to the point of…
Padre Padrone (1977): Dir. Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani
Feat. Omero Antonutti, Saverio Marconi, Marcella Michelangeli…; An affecting true story about a Shepherd's son who escapes the shackles of family expectations and returns mature and educated to confront his…
Serpent's Egg, The (1977): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Isolde Barth, Heinz Bennent, Toni Berger; Jewish trapeze–artist Keith Carradine endures the depravities and anti–semitism of 1920's Berlin. Out of the director's most grotesque…
The Devil, Probably (Le diable probablement) (1977): Dir. Robert Bresson
Feat. Antoine Monnier, Tina Irissari, Henri de Maublanc…; Distinctive late–period inclusion into the incredible canon of films from director Robert Bresson (DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST), following a…
1900 (Novecento) (1976): Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Robert De Niro; Spectacular saga spans the first half of 20th Century Italy, and follows two men, one a peasant (Gerard Depardieu), the other a nobleman (Robert de…
Cria Cuervos (1976): Dir. Carlos Saura
Feat. Ana Torrent, Geraldine Chaplin; The remarkable Ana Torrent (SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE) turns in another mesmerizing performance as the middle child of recently deceased parents. A…
Desert of the Tartars, The (1976): Dir. Valerio Zurlini
Feat. Vittorio Gassman, Jacques Perrin, Helmut Griem…; Italian drama set in a hostile East Asian desert, where a isolated Lieutenant defends an old, unmaintained border fortress while awaiting an attack…
Face to Face (1976): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Liv Ullmann; A harrowing insight into a nervous breakdown suffered by a woman psychiatrist. Bleak yet compulsive through stylised photography and Liv Ullmanns…
Fellini's Casanova (1976): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Donald Sutherland; Fellini indulges himself just short of self–parody for a gorgeously stylised, absurdist revision of the life of the 18th Century lover. Donald…
Heart of Glass (1976): Dir. Werner Herzog
Feat. Clemens Scheitz; Werner Herzog committed his cast to six months of hypnosis, before embarking on a spellbinding tale of an 18th Century Bavarian glassblower whose…
In the Realm of the Senses (Ai No Corrida) (1976): Dir. Nagisa Oshima
Feat. Tatsuya Fuji, Eiko Matsuda; Hailed as an erotic masterpiece in some quarters and condemned as mere sexually explicit exploitation in others, Oshima’s indisputably elegant…
Kings of the Road (1976): Dir. Wim Wenders
Feat. Rudiger Vogler, Hanns Zischler, Lisa Kreuzer; Two men embark on an odyssey of discovery along Germany's East/West border. A thoughtful, illuminating road movie that will ultimately reward…
L'Innocente (1976): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Giancarlo Giannini, Laura Antonelli, Jennifer O'Neill; Visconti's swan–song is an exquisite noble period drama in which a faithless husband in driven to extremes when his wife bears a child to…
Maitresse (1976): Dir. Barbet Schroeder
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Bulle Ogier; An eye–watering, willfully transgressive tale of a petty crook (Depardieu) who enters into a seemingly conventional romance with a…
Man of Marble (1976): Dir. Andrzej Wajda; One of dir. Wadja's later masterpieces is a strong attack on the tactics and hypocrisy of the Communist government of the day. A film student…
Mr. Klein (1976): Dir. Joseph Losey
Feat. Alain Delon, Jeanne Moreau; A dark, dread–inducing moral tale, with Delon fleecing vulnerable Jews under German–occupied–France, only to be mistaken by…
News From Home (La Chambre, Hotel Monterey) (1976): Dir. Chantal Akerman
Feat. Chantal Akerman; A beautifully composed tableaux of New York in the seventies, cut to a reading of letters from dir. Akerman's mother. Also includes the…
Scar, The (Blizna) (1976): Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski
Feat. Franciszek Pieczka; Dir. Kieslowski's debut theatrical feature follows on from his earlier documentary work in dramatising what happens when a large chemical plant is…
Small Change (L'argent de Poche) (1976): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Nicole Felix, Chantal Mercier; Childhood in a small French village is portrayed as a series of witty poetic moments in a comedy that’s sunny, tender and finally serious in…
Stroszek (1976): Dir. Werner Herzog
Feat. Bruno S., Eva Mattes; Powerful tragi–comedy follows a simple–minded Bruno S to America with a prostitute trying to escape her unsavoury past. The film's…
The Marquise of O (Die Marquise von O) (1976): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Edith Clever, Bruno Ganz; An Eric Rohmer period drama set in 1799 telling the story of the Marquise von O, a virtuous widow, who finds herself pregnant who protests her…
Woman at Her Window, A (Une femme à sa fenêtre) (1976): Dir. Pierre Granier-Deferre
Feat. Romy Schneider, Philippe Noiret; Romy Schneider plays a lovelorn aristocrat torn between a nobleman and a political activist in 1936 Greece.
Woyzeck (1976): Dir. Werner Herzog
Feat. Klaus Kinski; A version of Georg Buchner's play, matching Herzog to another gloomy Germanic visionary, with Klaus Kinski as the soldier tormented by visions and…
Dersu Uzala (1975): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Maksim Munzuk, Yuri Solomin, Svetlana Danilchenko; Kurosawa ventured to Russia for this Oscar–winning epic detailing the experiences of a Russian military explorer in Siberia, and his friendship…
Emilienne (1975): Dir. Guy Cararil
Feat. Betty Mars, Pierre Oudry; French art house erotica based on a novel by Claude Des Olbes about a threesome between a young model, an artist and his wife. Straight faced and as…
Fear of Fear (Angst vor der Angst) (1975): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Margit Carstensen, Brigitte Mira; Overlooked Fassbinder drama following an isolated young mother suffering from post–natal depression who turns to drugs to help her cope. A fine…
Fox and His Friends (1975): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Peter Chatel, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Adrian Hoven; Fassbinder himself stars in one of his best melodramas as a working class lottery–winner who is exploited by his middle–class lover. A…
Je tu il elle (I, You, He, She) (1975): Dir. Chantal Akerman
Feat. Chantal Akerman, Niels Arestrup, Claire Wauthion; Dir. Chantal Akerman stars in her debut feature as a lonely drifter whose road trip to nowhere detours via encounters with a male truck driver and a…
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975): Dir. Chantal Akerman
Feat. Delphine Seyrig, Jan Decorte; Delphine Seyrig plays a repressed housewife whose rigid domestic routine – with, secretly, the occasional trick turned on the side –…
Lost Honor of Katherina Blum, The (1975): Dir. Volker Schlondorff
Feat. Angela Winkler, Jurgen Prochnow; Taken from the novel by Heinrich Boll, this reproach to the powers–that–be in mid–70s West Germany portrays the hardheaded…
Mother Kuesters Goes to Heaven (1975): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Brigitte Mira, Ingrid Caven, Karlheinz Bohm…; A furiously witty political black comedy from New German Cinema iconoclast Rainer Werner Fassbinder, heavily inspired by the melodramas of Douglas…
Seven Beauties (1975): Dir. Lina Wertmuller
Feat. Giancarlo Giannini, Shirley Stoler; Wimpish Casanova Giancarlo Giannini is cast wherever the winds of WWII fling him: eventually into a German concentration camp run by Shirley Stoler…
Story Of Adele H.,The (1975): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Isabelle Adjani, Bruce Robinson, Sylvia Marriott; A towering performance by Isabelle Adjani anchors this moody, but somewhat turgid romance. Based on the diaries of Victor Hugo's daughter that…
Wrong Move (1975): Dir. Wim Wenders
Feat. Rudiger Vogler, Nastassja Kinski; A young writer works through his artistic angst and laments the decline of German society in Wenders disquieting road movie. Downbeat, but compelling…
Xala (Impotence) (1975): Dir. Ousmane Sembene; When a government official (Thierno Leye) in newly–independent Senegal marries a third wife he finds himself struck down with impotence, in…
Alice in the Cities (1974): Dir. Wim Wenders
Feat. Rudiger Vogler, Yella Rottlander, Lisa Kreuzer; A German journalist's homeward trek is diverted through various cities when he helps a young companion re–locate her family. Wenders'…
Amarcord (1974): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Bruno Zanin, Pupella Maggio, Armendo Brancia; Fellini's last bonafide masterpiece – an inspired recreation of his memories of growing up in small–town Italy during the Fascist 1930s…
Arabian Nights (Il Fiore Delle Mille e Una Notte) (1974): Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Feat. Ninetto Davoli, Franco Citti, Tessa Bouche; For the final part of his “Trilogy of Life”, Pasolini interweaves several of the tales of the ‘Thousand and One Nights’,…
Conversation Piece (1974): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Burt Lancaster, Helmut Berger, Silvana Mangano; A retired professor, who leads of solitary and ordered existence is disturbed by rich and overbearing new tenants in his Roman palazzo. Assembles…
Effi Briest (1974): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Hanna Schygulla; Thoughtful drama, from provocative German Dir. Fassbinder, recounting the story of a stifled married woman whose long hidden affair reveals itself…
French Screen Icons: Romy Schneider (Love in the Rain, A Woman at Her Window) (1974-1976): Feat. Romy Schneider; Two French films from the 1970's starring German–born screen icon, Romy Schneider.
La Gueule Ouverte (The Mouth Agape) (1974): Dir. Maurice Pialat
Feat. Hubert Deschamps, Monique Mélinand, Philippe Leotard…; Devastating drama from dir. Pialat distills autobiographical material into an edifying portrait of terminal illness, and the emotional state of the…
La Maman Et La Putain (the Mother and the Whore) (1974): Dir. Jean Eustache
Feat. Bernadette Lafont, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Francoise Lebrun; At just over three and a half hours, this domestic chamber drama – probably the last great film of the French New Wave – is not for the…
Lacombe Lucien (1974): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Pierre Blaise, Aurore Clement; A subtle, probing study of the psychology of collaboration set in WW2 rural France, sees young peasant lad Pierre Blaise drawn into the local…
Lancelot Du Lac (1974): Dir. Robert Bresson
Feat. Luc Simon, Laura Duke Condominas, Humbert Balsan…; Bresson endows the legend of King Arthur with his unique style and vision, and exposes a density of ideas by stripping the story back to its base…
Love in the Rain (Un amour de pluie) (1974): Dir. Jean-Claude Brialy
Feat. Romy Schneider, Nino Castelnuovo, Suzanne Flon; More pomp and circumstance from Romy Schneider, here playing a well–to–do French woman indulging in various love affairs while holidaying…
Martha (1974): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Margit Carstensen, Karlheinz Bohm; Addressing his favourite subject, emotional cruelty, Dir. Fassbinder skillfully works a vein of pitch–black comedy in depicting Margit…
Mirror (Zerkalo) (1974): Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
Feat. Margarita Terekhova, Ignat Daniltsev, Larisa Tarkovskaya; Appropriately titled autobiography of Tarkovsky's childhood, impressioned by the volatile cultural environment. Unique in both form and vision, this…
Stavisky (1974): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Francois Perier, Anny Duperey…; Belmondo lends his shafty screen persona to the role of notorious financier, swindler, and raconteur Alexandre Stavisky, whose monetary exploits and…
Wim Wenders Road Movies (Alice in the Cities, Wrong Move, Kings of the Road) (1974-1976): Dir. Wim Wenders; Boxset compilation of a further three Wim Wenders touchstones, each variations on the quintessential road movie.
Burned Barns, The (Les granges brulées) (1973): Dir. Jean Chapot
Feat. Alain Delon, Simone Signoret; Moody provincial drama of death and betrayal reunites Delon and Signoret, this time on opposite sides of the law. More a character study than a…
Day For Night (La Nuit Americaine) (1973): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, Jean-Pierre Leaud…; The blueprint film about film–making – made a few decades before it became fashionable – mirroring the first–hand experiences…
Fear Eats the Soul (1973): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem; A sort of remake of Douglas Sirk's older woman–younger man melodrama "All That Heaven Allows", with added plot weirds countered by typical…
Scenes from a Marriage (1973): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson; Married couple Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson undergo a lengthy emotional ordeal as their marriage disintegrates. Shot in a sparse functional…
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…
Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972): Dir. Werner Herzog
Feat. Klaus Kinski; Stunningly shot on location in the Amazon, this spellbinding adventure details the decline and fall of a conquistador (Klaus Kinski) in his maniacal…
Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, The (1972): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Margit Carstensen, Hanna Schygulla; Lurid, feverish masterpiece from the incredibly prolific Fassbinder, chronicles a doomed lesbian relationship from the claustrophobic confines of…
Canterbury Tales, The (I Racconti di Canterbury) (1972): Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Feat. Hugh Griffith, Tom Baker, Pier Paolo Pasolini; Pasolini interprets four of Geoffrey Chaucer’s tales in the second of the director's medieval trilogy, set in a bawdy, perverse and dark vision of…
Cesar & Rosalie (1972): Dir. Claude Sautet
Feat. Yves Montand, Romy Schneider, Sami Frey…; French romantic drama with Yves Montand and Sami Frey playing contrasting romantic rivals to divorced single mum Romy Schneider. Montand is a coarse…
Cries and Whispers (1972): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Ingrid Thulin, Liv Ullmann, Harriet Andersson…; “It’s Monday morning and I’m in pain…” So begins one of Bergman’s most nerve–wrecking psychodramas, set in a 19th household of…
Discreet Charm of the Bourgeiosie (1972): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Stephane Audran…; Best Foreign Film Oscar–winner in which six guests convene for a meal they never actually get to eat! Bunuel veers between reality and illusion…
Fellini's Roma (1972): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Federico Fellini; The Italian master's eclectic home town portrait blends reconstructed memoirs and contemporary images (incl. a stunning traffic jam sequence) into a…
Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972): Dir. Yuen Chor
Feat. Lily Ho, Yue Hua, Bei Di; One of the most controversial, yet best directed films of Hong Kong erotic cinema, this shocked avid audiences in its day and exerts a raw power even…
Love in the Afternoon (L'Amour l'après-midi) (1972): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Bernard Verley, Zouzou , Françoise Verley…; The sixth and final movie in Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales" series concerning a bourgeois man who is still tempted to pursue other women despite being…
Ludwig (1972): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Helmut Berger, Romy Schneider, Trevor Howard…; A sumptuous biopic of 'mad' Prince Ludwig II of Bavaria (Berger) who reigned in the mid–1800s, creating and inhabiting his own bizarre world of…
Seduction of Mimi, The (1972): Dir. Lina Wertmuller
Feat. Giancarlo Giannini, Mariangela Melato; Satirical comedy taking plenty of shots at Italianisms, about a poor labourer who is forced to leave his family in Sicily to take an illegal factory…
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…
We Won't Grow Old Together (Nous Ne Vieillirons Pas Ensemble) (1972): Dir. Maurice Pialat
Feat. Marlène Jobert, Jean Yanne, Christine Fabréga…; A uniquely disquieting film covering the dissolution of an affair between an aged filmmaker and a much younger secretary, based on French director…
Death in Venice (1971): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Dirk Bogarde; Dirk Bogarde plays a gay composer whose unspoken obssesion with a young boy detains him in Venice during a cholera epidemic. This soft–focus,…
Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty, The (1971): Dir. Wim Wenders
Feat. Arthur Brauss; Enigmatic tale of a maturing goalkeeper who abandons his soccer team and ambles about Germany. Dir. Wender's typical sketchbook narrative provides…
Le Souffle Au Coeur (Murmur of the Heart) (1971): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Benoit Ferreux; A much praised coming–of–age tale concerns a sickly, but promiscuous teenage boy growing up in a stilted bourgeois family in 1950s Dijon…
Love (Szerelem) (1971): Dir. Karoly Makk; A quiet miracle of the little–seen Hungarian cinema, this quietly impressive story follows a woman's ongoing attention to her vibrant but…
Tristana (1971): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Fernando Rey, Franco Nero; Catherine Deneuve plays a beautiful young heroine burdened with a vulgar husband and a knee ailment that will require her leg to be amputated!…
Two English Girls (Anne and Muriel) (1971): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud, Kika Markham, Stacey Tendeter; A French writer encounters the delicate dilemma of falling in love with both English sisters at a Welsh coastal cottage. Tantalising romance is…
A Swedish Love Story (1970): Dir. Roy Andersson
Feat. Ann-Sofie Kylin, Rolf Sohlman; The debut feature film from director Roy Andersson (YOU, THE LIVING) is an unforgettably beautiful coming–of–age tale inspired by the…
American Soldier, The (Der Amerikanische Soldat) (1970): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Karl Scheydt, Elga Sorbas, Jan George…; The third in a loose trilogy of gangster films directed by prolific German iconoclast Rainer Werner Fassbinder early in his career. A…
Claire's Knee (1970): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Jean-Claude Brialy; The director's fifth moral tale gained him major international recognition. A curiously droll tale of a middle–aged man's obsession with the…
Confession, The (L'Aveu) (1970): Dir. Costa-Gavras
Feat. Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Gabriele Ferzetti…; A high–ranking government official in Communist Czechoslovakia is taken prisoner and forced to confess to treason he never committed.
Decameron, The (1970): Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Feat. Franco Citti, Ninetto Davoli, Jovan Jovanovic; The first part of dir. Pasolini’s ‘medieval trilogy’, this adapts ten of Boccaccio’s famously ribald tales of the Italian Middle Ages. With…
Domicile Conjugal (Bed and Board) (1970): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud; Serio–comic misadventures of Truffaut's alter–ego, Antoine Doinel, an immature father–to–be who is unsettled in matrimonial…
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…
Fellini Satyricon (1970): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Max Born…; Freely adapted from the Roman author Petronious, this follows the adventures of two bisexual youths through the decadent, fragmented age of Rome's…
Gods of the Plague (Götter der Pest) (1970): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Hanna Schygulla, Margarethe von Trotta, Harry Baer…; The second in a loose trilogy of gangster films directed by prolific German iconoclast Rainer Werner Fassbinder early in his career. In this…
Medea (1970): Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Feat. Maria Callas; Pasolini's stylised, passionate rendering of Euripides play blessed with the formidable presence of Maria Callas, in a non–operatic role, as…
Spider's Stratagem, The (1970): Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
Feat. Giulio Brogi, Alida Valli; Investigating the death of his anti–fascist father, Giulio Brogi is enveloped in an atmosphere of mystery as he strolls the sleepy town where…
Double Suicide (Shinjû: Ten no amijima) (1969): Dir. Masahiro Shinoda
Feat. Kichiemon Nakamura, Shiwa Iwashita, Hosie Komatsu; A landmark of avant–garde Japanese cinema aims to replicate the startling aesthetic of traditional 'bunraku' puppetry in its enactment of an…
Femme Infidele, La (The Unfaithful Wife) (1969): Dir. Claude Chabrol
Feat. Michel Bouquet, Stephane Audran, Maurice Ronet; French bourgeoisie couple Michel Bouquet and Stephane Audran form a murderous love–triangle with seducer Maurice Ronet, revealing the hidden…
Love is Colder Than Death (Liebe ist kälter als der Tod) (1969): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Ulli Lommel, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Hanna Schygulla…; The first in a loose trilogy of gangster films directed by prolific German iconoclast Rainer Werner Fassbinder early in his career. Fassbinder…
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…
Mississippi Mermaid (1969): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Belmondo; Tobacco baron Belmondo sends for a mail–order bride, gets the ravishing Deneuve. Too bad she's a con–artist with an inescapable past.…
Passion of Anna, The (1969): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Liv Ullmann, Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson…; Unpleasant drama set on a barren island with widow Ullman finding misery loves company in the form of tortured ex–convict von Sydow. Meanwhile…
Que La Bete Meure (This Man Must Die) (1969): Dir. Claude Chabrol
Feat. Michel Duchaussoy, Jean Yanne, Caroline Cellier; Thriller based on the book called The Beast Must Die by Cecil Day–Lewis (under the pseudonym Nicholas Blake), about a man who becomes involved…
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…
Bride Wore Black, The (La Mariée était en noir) (1968): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jeanne Moreau, Michel Bouquet, Jean-Claude Brialy…; Traumatised by her fiance's death, moments before due to be wed, Jeanne Moreau dedicates herself to a long–term plan of revenge, hunting and…
Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968): Dir. Daniele Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub
Feat. Gustav Leonhardt, Christiane Lang; Less astringent than the reputation of husband and wife filmmakers Straub–Huillet would suggest, this lean but invigorating treatment of Johann…
Cremator, The (1968): Dir. Juraz Herz
Feat. Rudolf Hrusinsky, Vlasta Chramostova; Widely considered one of the greatest films of the Czech new wave, a blackly humorous fantasy horror following the increasingly deranged impulses of…
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…
Hour Of The Wolf (Vargtimmen) (1968): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann; One of dir. Bergman's most troubled visions, this concerns the descent of an unstable artist (von Sydow) and his sensitive wife (Ullmann) into a…
L'Enfance-Nue (Naked Childhood) (1968): Dir. Maurice Pialat
Feat. Michel Terrazon; Astonishingly sober coming–of–age tale represents Pialat at his most profoundly unsentimental. The director brilliantly blends naturalism…
La Chamade (Heartbeat) (1968): Dir. Alain Cavalier
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli; Catherine Deneuve flitters between youthful passion and the comfort of an older, wealthy lover in this elegant menage a trios, lessened only by an…
Mandabi (The Money Order) (1968): Dir. Ousmane Sembene; The first significant film to be made in an African language (Wolof), directed by the 'father of African cinema', Ousmane Sembène. The title…
Memories of Underdevelopment (1968): Dir. Tomas Gutierrez Alea
Feat. Sergio Corrieri; Merging the political and personal to stunning effect, this witty and artful assemblage of documentary, still photography, and dramatic fiction…
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.
Signs of Life (Lebenszeichen) (1968): Dir. Werner Herzog
Feat. Peter Brogle; An early descent into madness for dir. Werner Herzog, in which a soldier charged with guarding a remote island fortress must overcome the boredom of…
Skammen (Shame) (1968): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Liv Ullmann, Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand; Bleak parable set against the back drop of a fictional war finds an apolitical couple aloofly living out their days on an island indulging in various…
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…
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…
Elvira Madigan (1967): Dir. Bo Widerberg
Feat. Pia Degermark, Thommy Berggren, Lennart Malmer…; Ultra–romantic story of an army officer and a tightrope dancer who sacrifice everything for each other. Filmed like a shampoo commercial, it…
La Chinoise (1967): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud, Anne Wiazemsky, Juliet Berto…; Five Parisian students dabble in the possibilities of enacting a Mao–ist revolution in the West, in one of dir. Godard's more overt flirtations…
Marketa Lazarova (1967): Dir. František Vláčil
Feat. Josef Kemr, František Velecký, Magda Vášáryová; A revelation of the Czech new wave, this dark medieval tale of feuding family clans beautifully evokes the historical tensions between Christianity…
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…
Red and the White, The (Csillagosok, katonak) (1967): Dir. Miklos Jancso
Feat. Jozsef Madaras; Russia’s bloody civil war of 1918 is lamented in this visionary war movie from influential Hungarian auteur Miklos Jancso. A formally stunning…
Thief of Paris, The (Le Voleur) (1967): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Genevieve Bujold, Marie Dubois; Enjoyable comedy with Belmondo as a young man cheated of his inheritance who in turn develops a taste for thieving. Set in Paris at the turn of the…
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…
Black Girl (La Noire de...) (1966): Dir. Ousmane Sembene; A French–Senegalese drama film and the directorial debut of Ousmane Sembene, often considered to be the first Sub–Saharan African film by…
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…
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.
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…
Nayak (The Hero) (1966): Dir. Satyajit Ray
Feat. Sharmila Tagore; Satyajit Ray deconstructs the male ego–centre in this tale of a Bengali movie star who must summon his own internal critic after coming under…
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…
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…
Wings (Krylya) (1966): Dir. Larisa Shepitko
Feat. Maya Bulgakova, Zhanna Bolotova; Elegant black and white drama about an ex–WWII Soviet fighter pilot, the directorial debut of Ukrainian filmmaker Larisa Shepitko. A…
Young Torless (Der junge Törless) (1966): Dir. Volker Schlondorff
Feat. Mathieu Carriere; Early film in the career of German director Volker Schlondorff (THE TIN DRUM), set in an Austrain military academy in the early 20th century which is…
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…
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…
Intimate Lighting (1965): Dir. Ivan Passer
Feat. Zdenek Bezusek; Intimacy and lightness are two words that fit this excellent Czech New Wave film like a glove. Ivan Passar (CUTTER’S WAY) contrasts the urbane…
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…
Paris vu par (Six in Paris) (1965): Dir. Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol; Passionate, parochial anthology of New Wave shorts from six of France's best: Godard, Chabrol and Rohmer headline a concoction of Parisian sketches…
Red Beard (Akahige) (1965): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Yuzo Kayama, Tsutomu Yamazaki…; An unusual hospital drama from dir. Kurosawa, collaborating for the final time with Mifune, who here plays a tough doctor coaching an intern (Kayama)…
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965): Dir. Sergei Paradjanov
Feat. Ivan Mikolajchuk, Larisa Kadochnikova, Tatyana Bestayeva; A tragic, Carpathian folk tale of two lovers separated by a family feud is the basis for Parajanov’s staggering debut. Miraculous visuals and a…
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…
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…
Assassination (Ansatsu) (1964): Dir. Masahiro Shinoda
Feat. Tetsuro Tamba, Eiji Okada; Japan’s turbulent, late 19th century landscape is the backdrop to this fiercely stylized tale of a masterless whose sword edge thrusts between the…
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…
Charulata (The Lonely Wife) (1964): Dir. Satyajit Ray
Feat. Madhabi Mukherjee; One of Satyajit Ray’s most accomplished (and Western–influenced) films, whose central female protagonist falls for the young, aspiring cousin…
Diamonds of the Night (1964): Dir. Jan Nemec
Feat. Ladislav Jansky, Antonin Kumbera, Irma Bischofova; Extraordinarily intense account, told with almost no dialogue, of two Jewish teenagers running for their lives after escaping from a train bound for…
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…
Intentions of Murder (Akai satsui, Unholy Desire) (1964): Dir. Shohei Imamura
Feat. Masumi Harukawa, Ko Nishimura, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi…; Unsentimental drama from Japanese director Shohei Imamura (THE INSECT WOMAN), depicting a rape survivor's determination to overcome her pitiless…
Le Bonheur (Happiness) (1964): Dir. Agnes Varda
Feat. Jean-Claude Drouot, Claire Drouot, Marie-France Boyer; Agnes Varda's sly subversion of romantic norms courted controversy with its frank depiction of the infidelity of a happily married man and the…
My Way Home (Igy jottem) (1964): Dir. Miklos Jancso
Feat. Andras Kozak, Sergei Nikonyenko, Janos Gorbe; In the final days of World War II, a young Hungarian is making his way home, through countryside full of the debris of war, when he is captured and…
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…
Une Femme Mariee (A Married Woman: Fragments of a Film Shot in 1964 in Black and White) (1964): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Bernard Noël, Macha Meril, Philippe Leroy; Key work from the first phase of Godard's career which deconstructs the life of a married woman in a series of complex and humorous portraits. Over a…
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'…
Bay of Angels (La baie des anges) (1963): Dir. Jacques Demy
Feat. Jeanne Moreau, Claude Mann, Paul Guers; A young bank employee is enticed into the world of gambling and travels to Nice where he falls in love with divorced mother and gambling addict…
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…
Insect Woman, The (1963): Dir. Shohei Imamura
Feat. Sachiko Hidari, Masumi Harukawa, Emiko Aizawa; The social upheaval of Japanese life between the wars is examined through the eyes of a struggling but resilient women in a poor farming village. The…
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…
Little Soldier, The (Petit soldat, Le) (1963): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Anna Karina, Michel Subor; Unheralded Godard sidebar has Michel Subor attempting to assassinate an Algerian sympathizer – if he can resist the charms of left–winger…
Mahanagar (The Big City) (1963): Dir. Satyajit Ray
Feat. Anil Chaterjee; Subtle and provoking satire of gender equality finds the wife of a once high–flying, but now redundant banker seeking employment, absorbing the…
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…
An Autumn Afternoon (1962): Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Feat. Chishu Ryu, Shiwa Iwashita, Keiji Sada; Dir. Ozu's final work is one of his best – an appropriately autumnal evocation of age and dependency, set around a widower who sorrowfully…
Boccaccio '70 (1962): Dir. Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini
Feat. Anita Ekberg, Romy Schneider, Marisa Solinas…; Naughty for the time, this all–star portmanteau film is loosely based on updated versions of the bawdy stories of 14th century writer Giovanni…
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…
Eva (1962): Dir. Joseph Losey
Feat. Jeanne Moreau, Sir Stanley Baker, Virna Lisi…; Jeanne Moreau is that obscure object of desire which novelist Stanley Baker falls for, and is taken for a ride. Interesting, if lurid Losey melodrama…
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…
Le Combat Dans L'île (1962): Dir. Alain Cavalier
Feat. Romy Schneider, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Henri Serre…; French drama exploring the tension between right and left wing politics in the early 60's, through the romantic conflict faced by a woman (Romy…
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.
Mamma Roma (1962): Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Feat. Anna Magnani; Pasolini, in this early minor–masterpiece, demonstrates a keen awareness of Italy’s altered social and political landscape in the…
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…
Sundays and Cybele (Les Dimanches de Ville d'Avray) (1962): Dir. Serge Bourguignon
Feat. Hardy Kruger, Patricia Gozzi; Touching, if occasionally over–sentimentalised drama that contemplates the relationship between a mentally scarred bomber pilot and the…
Trial of Joan of Arc, The (Procès de Jeanne d'Arc) (1962): Dir. Robert Bresson; One of dir. Bressons' more difficult works, depicting the final days of 15th century French religious patriot Joan of Arc and utilising the actual…
Vivre Sa Vie (My Life to Live) (1962): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Anna Karina; While filtered through dir. Godard's preoccupations with genre, this series of twelve vignettes about a Parisian woman's marriage breakup and gradual…
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…
Accattone (1961): Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Feat. Franco Citti; The debut feature of Italian filmmaker–novelist–poet–provocateur Pasolini, which depicts the underbelly of Roman street life in a…
Antigone (1961): Dir. Yorgos Javellas
Feat. Irene Papas; An impressive Irene Papas heads this black and white epic adapted from Sophocles' Greek tragedy, about the twisted family legacy left behind by…
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…
Essential Bergman: The Faith Trilogy Boxset (Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, The Silence) (1961-1963): Dir. Ingmar Bergman; Ingmar Bergman's trilogy of films dealing with questions of religion and faith, contained here in one essential boxset.
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…
Il Posto (1961): Dir. Ermanno Olmi
Feat. Loredana Detto, Sandro Panseri; This Italian neo–realist classic is a simply told yet beautiful depiction of a small–town boy whose employment search in Milan lands him…
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…
Mother Joan of Angels (Matka Joanna od Aniolow) (1961): Dir. Jerzy Kawalerowicz; A landmark of post–WW2 Polish cinema recounts in stunningly composed b&w images the disturbing true–story of a 17th century French…
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…
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…
Cloud-Capped Star, The (1960): Dir. Ritwik Ghatak
Feat. Supriya Choudhury; The kind–hearted daughter of a middle–class refugee family from East Pakistan sacrifices her own happiness for her unappreciative family,…
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…
Les Bonnes Femmes (1960): Dir. Claude Chabrol
Feat. Bernadette Lafont, Clotilde Joano, Stephane Audran; An early comedy from French new wave director Claude Chabrol (LE BOUCHER), following four single Parisian women as they encounter the romantic…
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…
Moderato Cantabile (Seven Days...Seven Nights) (1960): Dir. Peter Brook
Feat. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jeanne Moreau; New Wave two–hander stars Jeanne Moreau as a bored housewife who falls for Belmondo's brooding stranger. Stunning wide–screen…
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.
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.
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960): Dir. Mikio Naruse
Feat. Hideko Takamine; Melancholic masterpiece from a largely overshadowed figure in Japanese cinema: concerning the post–war ‘water trade’ of bar hostesses in…
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…
Adventures Of Antoine Doinel, The (400 Blows, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, Love on the Run) (1959-1979): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud; Francois Truffaut's most enduring cinematic creation, the irrepressible Antoine Doinel (played synonymously by Jean–Pierre Leaud) is…
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…
Ballad of a Soldier (1959): Dir. Grigori Chukhrai
Feat. Vladimir Ivashov; Soviet poetic realism brings a contemplative tone to the theatre of war, following a soldier’s pilgrimage back home after being granted leave for…
Come Dance with Me (Voulez-Vous Danser Avec Moi?) (1959): Dir. Michel Boisrond
Feat. Brigitte Bardot, Dawn Addams; Surprisingly entertaining French mystery thriller tracking a wife attempting to clear her husband's name from involvement in a dance studio murder.…
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…
Good Morning (Ohayo) (1959): Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Feat. Shimazu Masahiko, Koji Shidara, Chishu Ryu…; Ozu’s most accessible and scathing film amuses with its deceptively light–hearted tale of two boys’ vow of silence after being refused a…
Head Against the Wall (La tête contre les murs) (1959): Dir. Georges Franju
Feat. Pierre Brasseur, Paul Meurisse, Anouk Aimee…; Georges Franju’s first film is a high–intensity examination of post–war psychiatric care, centred on the survival of a delinquent youth…
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…
Pickpocket (1959): Dir. Robert Bresson; Dir. Bresson's austere meditation on the motive personal forces of criminal enterprise, this trails a directionless young man into a flirtation with…
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,…
Brink of Life (Nara Livet) (1958): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Eva Dahlbeck, Ingrid Thulin, Bibi Andersson…; Minor, but accomplished Bergman potboiler concerns three women in a maternity ward, who must each decide whether to give up their babies for…
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…
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.
Wide Blue Road, The (La grande strada azzurra) (1957): Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo
Feat. Yves Montand, Alida Valli, Francisco Rabal…; Italian neorealist melodrama drama which marks the feature debut of Gillo Pontecorvo (THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS). Set on a small rugged island off the…
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.
Akasen Chitai (Street of Shame) (1956): Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Machiko Kyo; Prostitution and the female plight are the chief concerns of this sympathetic, heartbreaking ensemble piece examining the trade of five headstrong,…
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…
Crazed Fruit (1956): Dir. Ko Nakahira
Feat. Yujiro Ishihara, Masahiko Tsugawa, Mie Kitahara; Two hedonistic brothers chase the skirt of a voracious young temptress in this scorching, jazz–infused statement on reckless youth. A seminal…
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…
Roof, The (Tetto, Il) (1956): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Gabriella Pallotta, Giorgio Listuzzi; Moving (and until recently, exceptionally hard to find) neo–realist drama that latches onto the hard times of a newly married couple who…
Sissi - The Young Empress (1956): Dir. Ernst Marischka
Feat. Romy Schneider; Royal life is not quite the bed of roses for Princess Sissi, now married to her beloved Franz but under the constant gaze of her meddling…
Dreams (Kvinnodröm; Journey Into Autumn) (1955): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Bjornstrand; Early, flawed Bergman microscope on relationships focuses on two women – a photographer and her model on a fashion shoot – as they…
French Can Can (French Cancan, Only the French Can) (1955): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Jean Gabin, Michel Piccoli, Dora Doll…; Jean Renoir returned to France after 15 years absence to make this vibrant tribute to the Parisian world of his father, the Impressionist painter…
I Live in Fear (Ikimono no Kiroku) (1955): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura; Convinced a nuclear holocaust is imminent, an elderly industrialist (Mifune) decides to uproot his reluctant family (even his mistresses!) from Tokyo…
Il Bidone (The Swindlers) (1955): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Broderick Crawford, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart…; An early work from dir. Fellini in which a trio of conmen roam the Italian countryside swindling peasants in order to fund the future they believe…
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…
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…
Sissi (1955): Dir. Ernst Marischka
Feat. Romy Schneider; Regal saga finds 16–year–old princess Sissi fall in love with husband–to–be Franz Josef in the first of an ongoing series of…
Yokihi (Empress Yang Kwei-Fei) (1955): Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori; Mizoguchi’s rare colour turn, a lush, poignant ancient fable centred on a commoner maid who marries an emperor, only to be destined for sacrifice.
Crucified Lovers, The (Chikamatsu Monogatari) (1954): Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Kazuo Hasegawa, Kyoko Kagawa, Eitaro Shindo; Powerful, Bunraku–inspired tragidrama of adulterous lovers whose illicit romance is doomed in Feudal, 17th century Japan. Essential Mizoguchi.
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,…
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…
Senso (1954): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Alida Valli, Farley Granger, Christian Marquand; A period love story set in the tumultuous 1860's in Italy, when it was occupied by invading Austrians. Dir. Visconti turns his eye on a love…
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)…
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…
Uwasa no onna (Her Mother's Profession, The Woman in the Rumour) (1954): Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiko Kuga; Dir. Mizoguchi's longtime muse, Kinuyo Tanaka, plays the madame of a geisha house who falls prey to rumour when both herself and her daughter become…
Victoria in Dover (The Story of Vickie) (1954): Dir. Ernst Marischka
Feat. Romy Schneider, Adrian Hoven; A prequel of sorts to the SISSI trilogy lovingly details the formative romance between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Romy Schneider features…
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…
Sawdust and Tinsel (Gycklarnas Afton) (1953): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Ake Gronberg; This grim flipside to Fellini’s loony, carnivalesque films powerfully relays the degradation of several circus performers at the end of their…
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…
Casque d'Or (Golden Marie) (1952): Dir. Jacques Becker
Feat. Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Claude Dauphin; A gangster’s moll falls in love with a reformed criminal, igniting underworld violence, in this lush, overwhelming tragi–romance set in Paris…
Flavour Of Green Tea Over Rice, The (Ochazuke no aji) (1952): Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Feat. Shin Saburi, Michiyo Kogure, Kōji Tsuruta; Dir. Ozu once again explores the subtleties of Japanese family life, this time drawing our attention to the struggles of those in arranged marriages…
Forbidden Games (Jeux Interdits) (1952): Dir. Rene Clement
Feat. Georges Poujouly, Brigitte Fossey, Laurence Badie; After her parents are killed in an air raid during WWII, a small girl makes friends with a peasant boy, and the pair gradually come to terms with the…
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…
Manina la Fille Sans Voile (The Lighthouse-Keeper's Daughter; The Girl in the Bikini) (1952): Dir. Willy Rozier
Feat. Brigitte Bardot; An obscure, almost forgettable French frolic, save for the eye–catching debut of one Brigitte Bardot. Here, the future sex symbol plays a…
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…
White Sheik, The (Sceicco bianco, Lo) (1952): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Alberto Sordi, Leopoldo Trieste, Giulietta Masina; Fellini’s against–the–grain feature debut coaxes the marital problems of a newlywed couple into a light, playful comedy that wasn’t…
Early Summer (Bakushû) (1951): Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Feat. Setsuko Hara, Chishu Ryu, Chikage Awashima; Another of dir. Ozu's majestic domestic dramas, this time concerning the inner–family conflicts over the spinsterhood of a daughter (Hara) and…
Idiot, The (Hakuchi) (1951): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Setsuko Hara, Masayuki Mori…; Flawed but compelling adaptation of Dostoyevsky's classic novel of human frailty, in which a madman and war criminal (Mori), is released from an…
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…
Los Olvidados (The Young and the Damned, aka The Forgotten Ones) (1950): Dir. Luis Bunuel; Ground–breaking masterwork from dir. Luis Bunuel's Meixcan period, set among slum children in Mexico City, whose harsh circumstances and…
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…
Story of a Love Affair (Cronaca di un amore) (1950): Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni
Feat. Lucia Bose, Massimo Girotti, Ferdinando Sarmi; Although more stylistically conventional than his 'mature' films, dir. Antonioni's debut feature is a strongly delivered, almost film noir,…
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…
Variety Lights (1950): Dir. Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada
Feat. Giulietta Masina; Fellini co–directed this carnivalesque drama about a mediocre theatre troupe in need of a crowd puller before breaking out solo with THE WHITE…
56 Rue Pigalle (1949): Dir. Willy Rozier
Feat. Raymond Cordy, Marie Dea; Distinctive French noir telling the tale of a boss, suspected of murdering his blackmailing manservant, who flees to Africa with his mistress once…
De Sica Collection, The (The Bicycle Thief, Miracle in Milan, The Roof) (1949-1956): Dir. Vittorio De Sica; Three films from Italian master Vittorio De Sica. Includes the previously unreleased THE ROOF (1956).
Late Spring (1949): Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Feat. Setsuko Hara, Chishu Ryu; Ozu’s greatest film outside of the universally acclaimed TOKYO STORY magically distils the director’s reoccurring family concerns: that of a…
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…
Quiet Duel, The (Shizukanaru ketto) (1949): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura; A pre–RED BEARD Toshiro Mifune plays an idealistic doctor who fatally contracts syphilis from performing surgery in this minor Kurosawa…
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…
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…
Ship Bound for India, A (1947): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Holger Löwenadler; An early, overlooked play adaptation finds Bergman's visual and dramatic style in its formative stages. Four troubled souls are drawn together by a…
Silence de la Mer, Le (The Silence of the Sea) (1947): Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
Feat. Howard Vernon; A German officer is billeted with an elderly man and his niece during the occupation of France in this introspective and talky chamber piece, heavy…
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.
It Rains On Our Love (1946): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Barbro Kollberg, Birger Malmsten; Bergman experiments with this awkward combination of romance and misery, in which a couple's happiness is dogged by their criminal and vagrant past.…
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,…
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…
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…
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'.…
Une Partie de Campagne (A Day in the Country) (1936): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Sylvia Bataille; This evocative, unfinished short (originally part of a full–length feature) lovingly captures the flirtations of a young girl as she detours…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
Gribiche (Mother of Mine) (1926): Dir. Jacques Feyder; A silent French film by Jacques Feyder. A 13–year–old working–class boy lives alone with his mother. While shopping in a Paris…
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…
Late Mathias Pascal, The (Feu Mathias Pascal) (1925): Dir. Marcel L'Herbier
Feat. Ivan Mosjoukine, Michel Simon; A French silent film, based on the novel by Luigi Pirandello. Russian actor Ivan Mosjoukine stars as Mathias, an assistant librarian from a…
Kean (1924): Dir. Alexandre Volkoff
Feat. Ivan Mosjoukine; A French silent film depicting the life of Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean, played by Ivan Mosjoukine, focusing on his romance with countess Elena de…

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