Atmospheric, twisty thriller benefits from brisk pacing and lots of suspense, but it also manages to tell a rich, character-driven story. Crowe's smoldering Bud is a tightly wound spring, while Pearce's Exley is the ...

A gritty, take-no-prisoners yarn, Cuesta's "L.I.E" offers no easy answers or resolutions to Howie's plight, and its willingness to paint life's roadblocks in shades of gray is precisely what makes it work. While ...

The mesmerizing "L'Age D'Or," a collaboration between young Spanish surrealists Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, contains no traditional plot but instead a series of striking dream-like images: a cow on a woman's bed, a ...

In his last outing, octogenarian French director Bresson spins this frighteningly credible yarn with an astonishing economy of language and motion. With devastating precision, the film contrasts the ignorance and ...

A sublime melding of the real and surreal, the deceptively simple plot of Jean Vigo's "L'Atalante" is part of its lasting appeal. Life on water is Eden, life on land, temptation, and we instinctively want the sanctity ...

This fizzy romantic adventure combines screwball laughs with eye-opening student-travel mishaps among the youthful, sexually vibrant cast of characters, who hail from all over Europe. Klapisch handles the madness with ...

Antonioni was in his mid-forties when he achieved international recognition with this exceptional film, portraying the moral and spiritual emptiness all too often found among the idle rich. In this world, as isolated in ...

This meticulously composed, at times breathtakingly abstract drama provides another variation on the Italian maestro's central preoccupation in the early '60s: the tenuousness of human connection. Vitti, his ...

It’s no surprise that Truffaut would be drawn to help make this film, considering his own career began with a similarly-themed masterpiece: "The 400 Blows". Both focus on tales of troubled youth, but the resemblances ...

Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's affecting film is akin to watching little children playing with fire. While it's hard to sympathize with the rather dim Bruno as he commits his enormous ...

Rivette's extraordinary drama about a famous artist who feels his well of talent has dried up examines the mysteries and passions that attend the artistic process, and the obsessive intimacy that often develops ...

Jean Renoir's moody adaptation of Emile Zola's book features one of Gabin's seminal pre-war performances, and an arresting turn by the sexy Simon (who'd venture stateside four years later to make "The Cat People"). ...

Ventura and Fabian make a sultry pair of mismatched lovers in Lelouch's pastry-light comedy caper, which simultaneously traces Simon's post-release reunion with Francoise, and the circumstances surrounding their romance ...

Before "The Birdcage" and the glitzy stage musical of the same name, Molinari's uproarious farce crossed boundaries to become a big international hit. Campy and outrageously off-kilter in the tradition of the best ...

With no voiceover narration, no talking heads, and no on-screen titles, Wiseman’s artful visual essay about art lets the audience bask in the aesthetic beauty of creation, while also exposing the nuts and bolts of how a ...

Daring for its time, Fellini's Oscar-nominated "Vita" is remembered best for the zaftig Anita Ekberg's swim in the Trevi Fountain and for the very first shot in the film, of a statue of Jesus being lifted over the city ...

Besson's flashy "Nikita" was a huge hit for the French director in 1990, inspiring several remakes and even a TV series. But those versions lacked an essential component of the original's success: the ...

Distinguished by its first-rate cast of leading Italian male actors, Ferreri’s jet-black social farce concerns the efforts of four jaded Parisians to indulge in the ultimate hedonistic act: eating and screwing ...

This explosive street drama set in the projects of Paris takes place over the course of 24 hours. Taking a cue from Scorsese and Spike Lee, Kassovitz employs a visceral visual style that may lack subtlety but will ...

Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne take on a raft of issues-illegal immigration, poverty, and racism-in this tense, heart-rending moral drama about a lower-class teen's secret effort to usher a vulnerable ...