Sautet’s second feature (released just weeks after Godard’s “Breathless”) was initially a box-office failure, but has since climbed the ranks of France’s noir canon. Ventura’s world-weary face alternately expresses ...

Music video director Capotondi’s first feature skillfully mixes romance with chilling suspense and ominous psychodrama. Indeed, “Hour” effectively evokes Hitchcock with its cool twists and subtly played themes of random ...

This film’s original title “I Compagni” (“The Comrades”) was changed to “The Organizer” for the English language release to avoid any whiff of communist leanings in the subject matter. Star Mastroianni, in an atypical ...

Bergman’s recurring preoccupation with our darker impulses and the absence of God is on full display in “Spring”, a stark retelling of a 13th century Swedish ballad. This story of a pious, peaceful man forced to ...

The title for this groundbreaking piece of observational cinema comes from a musical revue that the guards perform each year. As that bizarre performance is shown intermittently during the film, the singing, smiling ...

Young’s first feature film is informed by his prior work as a social documentarian: he spent a full year living among migrant workers in the Southwest to gain insight into the plight of illegal immigrants. As a result ...

Kiarostami’s first film to be shot and produced outside of Iran is a provocative mind-bender saved from impenetrability by exceptional performances from the two leads and a subtle, cerebral script. Binoche, who won the ...

This poignant love story was the first film to be produced under the newly formed MGM banner and the first one to feature Leo the lion in the opening logo. Chaney is heartbreaking as the sad clown, affecting a ...

French New Wave director Chabrol executes yet another fascinating variation on his favorite theme: murder among the bourgeoisie. His sleek, detached filmmaking style is just right for this cerebral thriller. Bouquet ...

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 ...

Hazanavicius’ joyous, mostly silent film is both an ode to 1920’s filmmaking and a celebration of the art of cinema. Applying most all the conventions of silent movies, this comic romance proves that dialogue still ...

Oplev’s stylish, ultra-violent thriller mainly succeeds due to Rapace’s Salander, a fascinating creature who prowls across the screen much like the reptile tattooed on her back. Salander is one of the great movie ...

Adapted from William L. Shirer’s mammoth book of the same name, this three-part series originally aired on television over three nights in 1968. It was a landmark event back then, but even today, the footage of Hitler ...

This sweeping yet intimate epic is the sixth film from filmmaker Zhang and his fifth to star his muse (and then lover) Gong Li. The film was banned in China for its perceived criticism of pro-Mao activities, and Zhang ...

Roskam’s harrowing first feature uses the backdrop of Belgium’s criminal underworld to portray one man’s gradual disintegration. Both riveting and sad, Schoenaerts’ commanding performance makes us care deeply about this ...

The third (and best) of the seven Hope/Crosby “Road” films, “Morocco” reunites the leads for a slaphappy adventure romance that provided wartime audiences with much needed comic escape. Hope and Crosby always had an ...

Commissioned by the Japanese Olympic Committee to commemorate that country’s impressive post-war reconstruction, Ichikawa’s film was initially considered a disappointment, but now stands as a classic of its type ...

The striking-and strikingly talented-Theron gives a tour-de-force performance as Mavis, once the prettiest and most popular girl in class, who can’t quite figure out what went wrong after high school. (Of course, with ...

Marker’s video essay is both cinematic art and historical documentary. Originally finished in 1977, the director reworked the material in 1993 to include the demise of the Soviet Union. It’s a paean to intelligent, ...

“Women’s director” Cukor triumphs with this cozy, heartfelt adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel. His talented female cast, led by the irrepressible Hepburn as Jo, forms a living, breathing family we feel a ...