During World War II, famously neutral Switzerland closed its borders to the incoming waves of people attempting to escape Hitler's Third Reich, sending back those who did not meet its strict new definition of political ...

Herman’s thoughtful, heartbreaking child’s-eye portrait of the Holocaust, adapted from a novel by John Boyle, pits the innocence of youth against the unimaginable horrors of Germany’s wartime atrocities. Drawing strong ...

William Friedkin’s groundbreaking “Band” was one of the first Hollywood films to directly address the issue of homosexuality, a verboten topic even in the late ’60s. Adapted from Mart Crowley’s Broadway play, the film ...

Film-makers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady offer an intelligent, insightful look at the cruel realities of life in the crime-ridden ghettos of Baltimore, a city where only one-quarter of young black men will ever graduate ...

This second retelling of “To Have and Have Not” comes six years after the infamous Bogart/Bacall iteration and offers none of that classic’s Hollywood gloss on Hemingway’s prose. Instead, Garfield as a gruff, ...

Whale's brilliant, wonderfully cheeky sequel to "Frankenstein" managed to equal its predecessor in terms of tone and originality, while adding sly barbs of humor. Apart from Whale's clever, offbeat direction, the film's ...

Based on the novel by Cornell Woolrich, Truffaut's wry, languorously paced revenge thriller that mirrors the work of two of the French director's idols, Hitchcock and Jean Renoir, creating an atmosphere of jarring ...

Though some may balk at the "snuff film" aspect of Steel's project, "Bridge" is actually a fascinating, compassionate film that humanizes those who succumbed to their personal demons. Not only does it carry a strong ...

One of the earliest postwar masterpieces from Germany, Wicki's "The Bridge" is a stridently antiwar film that depicts the tragic loss of innocence under the futile and exploitative protocols of end-stage combat. Still ...

Based on a true story, this riveting war film, shot in Sri Lanka, represented a new career peak for director David Lean, who’d go on to shoot the monumental “Lawrence Of Arabia”. Top-notch acting (Guinness won an Oscar ...

Mark Robson's handsome film is equal parts war movie and romance, with gorgeous Technicolor and an A-list cast. The macho, magnetic Holden fits his part like a glove, and his love scenes with Kelly pack real heat (the ...

Asquith's mournful, utterly absorbing ensemble drama was adapted by Terence Rattigan from his own play. Redgrave, in one of his greatest screen performances, is magnificent, communicating both the unrelenting severity ...

This intelligent, cross-cultural gay romance has a lot of charm and low-key sweetness to recommend it, but it also deals squarely with some of the more troubling aspects of Middle Eastern politics. The idealized world ...

Steve Rash's film takes liberties with some details of Holly's short life, but more than compensates in showcasing the courageous performance of a most unlikely actor for the lead: Gary Busey, known for tough guy roles ...

Ichikawa's absorbing study of soldiers under fire was one of the first films in any country to explore the spiritual impact of war. Heightening the effect, on one hand, is his brilliant use of music, via the ...

Warner’s hit musical “42nd Street” spawned a wildly successful franchise of glittering follow-ups, with the common ingredients Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler (except for the last picture), and the spectacular staging and ...

Based on the novel by Patrick McCabe, "Butcher Boy" is the blackest of black comedies, and unlike anything you've seen. Stephen Rea is effective as always playing Francie's drunken father, but it's Eamonn Owens's ...

One of the finest achievements of the silent era and in some ways an allegory of Weimar Germany's decadent demise, Wiene's "Caligari" is an eerie, heavily stylized horror film. With its distorted angles, chiaroscuro ...

Dmytryk's stunning production remains one of our best war films, and courtroom dramas. A trio of outstanding performances distinguish it: an Oscar-nominated Bogart in one of his best turns as the embattled Queeg; Jose ...

Michael Ritchie's verité-style, bitingly cynical send-up of electoral politics resonated with viewers in the year of Nixon's reelection campaign, and yet it still feels utterly contemporary, partly due to the ...