Subgenre Sampler

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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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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,…
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…
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…
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 –…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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.
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…
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.
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…

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