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Great Movies Under 90 Minutes

Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Dziga Vertov · 117 critic votes
A cameraman wanders around with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling inventiveness.
Persona (1966)
Ingmar Bergman · 108 critic votes
A young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer.
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
Maya Deren, Alexandr Hackenschmied · 89 critic votes
A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Carl Theodor Dreyer · 88 critic votes
A classic of the silent age, this film tells the story of the doomed but ultimately canonized 15th-century teenage warrior. On trial for claiming she'd spoken to God, Jeanne d'Arc is subjected to inhumane treatment and scare tactics at the hands of church court officials. Initially bullied into changing her story, Jeanne eventually opts for what she sees as the truth. Her punishment, a famously brutal execution, earns her perpetual martyrdom.
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Vittorio De Sica · 75 critic votes
Unemployed Antonio is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. However on his first day, his bicycle—essential to his work—gets stolen. His job is doomed unless he can find the thief. With the help of his son, Antonio combs the city, becoming desperate for justice.
Rashomon (1950)
Akira Kurosawa · 75 critic votes
Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.
L'Atalante (1934)
Jean Vigo · 71 critic votes
Newly married couple Juliette and ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'Atalante along with the captain's first mate and a cabin boy.
City Lights (1931)
Charlie Chaplin · 68 critic votes
A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.
Daisies (1966)
Věra Chytilová, Rudolf Jaroš · 65 critic votes
Two teenage girls embark on a series of destructive pranks in which they consume and destroy the world around them.
Killer of Sheep (1977)
Charles Burnett · 57 critic votes
An African-American man working at a slaughterhouse in the Watts area of Los Angeles leads a dissatisfied and listless existence.
News from Home (1976)
Chantal Akerman · 55 critic votes
Impersonal and beautiful images of Akerman's life in New York are combined with letters from her loving but manipulative mother, read by Akerman herself.
La Jetée (1962)
Chris Marker · 54 critic votes
A man confronts his past during an experiment that attempts to find a solution to the problems of a post-apocalyptic world caused by a world war.
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Sergei Eisenstein · 52 critic votes
A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resultant public demonstration, showing support, which brought on a police massacre.
Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
Buster Keaton, Roscoe Arbuckle · 49 critic votes
A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meager skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch.
Modern Times (1936)
Charlie Chaplin · 45 critic votes
A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time...
The Gleaners and I (2000)
Agnès Varda · 44 critic votes
Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Her investigation leads from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism.
Journey to Italy (1954)
Roberto Rossellini · 43 critic votes
Married for eight years with no children, Brits Katherine and Alex Joyce are driving to Italy, their ultimate destination just outside of Naples to sell the villa they have just inherited from his uncle, the villa where they will be staying during their time there. On the drive, they come to the realization that this trip marks the first time that they have truly been alone together, and as such don't really know one another in the true sense.
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Hayao Miyazaki · 40 critic votes
Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.
Black Girl (1966)
Ousmane Sembène · 38 critic votes
Eager to find a better life abroad, a Senegalese woman becomes a mere governess to a family in southern France, suffering from discrimination and marginalization.
The House Is Black (1962)
Forugh Farrokhzad · 35 critic votes
Set in a leper colony in the north of Iran, The House is Black juxtaposes "ugliness," of which there is much in the world as stated in the opening scenes, with religion and gratitude.
The General (1926)
Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman · 34 critic votes
During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnny Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an attached boxcar—and he single-handedly must do all in his power to both get The General back and to rescue Annabelle.
The Color of Pomegranates (1969)
Sergei Parajanov · 34 critic votes
The life of the revered 18th-century Armenian poet and musician Sayat-Nova. Portraying events in the life of the artist from childhood up to his death, the movie addresses in particular his relationships with women, including his muse. The production tells Sayat-Nova's dramatic story by using both his poems and largely still camerawork, creating a work hailed as revolutionary by Mikhail Vartanov.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Tobe Hooper · 31 critic votes
Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way, they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.
Pickpocket (1959)
Robert Bresson · 30 critic votes
Michel takes up pickpocketing on a lark and is arrested soon after. His mother dies shortly after his release, and despite the objections of his only friend, Jacques, and his mother's neighbor Jeanne, Michel teams up with a couple of petty thieves in order to improve his craft. With a police inspector keeping an eye on him, Michel also tries to get a straight job, but the temptation to steal is hard to resist.
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003)
Tsai Ming-liang · 30 critic votes
On a dark, wet night in Taipei City, a cavernous old picture palace is about to close its doors forever. A meager audience, the remaining few staff, and perhaps even a ghost or two, watch King Hu’s wuxia classic "Dragon Inn", each haunted by memories and desires evoked by cinema itself.
Where is the Friend's Home? (1987)
Abbas Kiarostami · 28 critic votes
An 8-year-old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.
L'Argent (1983)
Robert Bresson · 27 critic votes
A forged 500-franc note is passed from person to person and shop to shop, until it falls into the hands of a genuine innocent who doesn't see it for what it is—which will have devastating consequences on his life.
Un Chien Andalou (1929)
Luis Buñuel · 24 critic votes
Un Chien Andalou is an European avant-garde surrealist film, a collaboration between director Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali.
My Life to Live (1962)
Jean-Luc Godard · 24 critic votes
Twelve episodic tales in the life of a Parisian woman and her slow descent into prostitution.
A Day in the Country (1936)
Jean Renoir · 23 critic votes
The family of a Parisian shop-owner spends a day in the country. The daughter falls in love with a man at the inn, where they spend the day.
Vampyr (1932)
Carl Theodor Dreyer · 22 critic votes
Allan Gray, a young man fascinated by the supernatural, goes to a small village where he feels a sinister force descending upon him. There, Allan meets an old man who asks him to protect his two daughters, for one of them has been bitten by a vampire.
Los Olvidados (1950)
Luis Buñuel · 22 critic votes
A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent life in the infamous slums of Mexico City; among them Pedro, whose morality is gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.
Eraserhead (1977)
David Lynch · 22 critic votes
First-time father Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
The Headless Woman (2008)
Lucrecia Martel · 22 critic votes
After running into something with her car, Vero experiences a particular psychological state. She realizes she might have killed someone.
Twin Peaks (2017)
David Lynch · 22 critic votes
The return of a missing FBI agent triggers a series of converging investigations around the small town of Twin Peaks, alongside signs that reality there is beginning to break apart.
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Ernst Lubitsch · 21 critic votes
Thief Gaston Monescu and pickpocket Lily are partners in crime and love. Working for perfume company executive Mariette Colet, the two crooks decide to combine their criminal talents to rob their employer. Under the alias of Monsieur Laval, Gaston uses his position as Mariette's personal secretary to become closer to her. However, he takes things too far when he actually falls in love with Mariette, and has to choose between her and Lily.
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Douglas Sirk · 21 critic votes
Two different social classes collide when Cary Scott, a wealthy upper-class widow, falls in love with her much younger and down-to-earth gardener, prompting disapproval and criticism from her children and country club friends.
Le Bonheur (1965)
Agnès Varda · 21 critic votes
Though married to the good-natured, beautiful Thérèse, young husband and father François finds himself falling unquestioningly into an affair with an attractive postal worker. One of Agnès Varda's most provocative films, 'Le bonheur' examines, with a deceptively cheery palette and the spirited strains of Mozart, the ideas of fidelity and happiness in a modern, self-centered world.
Paris Is Burning (1990)
Jennie Livingston · 21 critic votes
Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.
The Watermelon Woman (1996)
Cheryl Dunye · 21 critic votes
A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.
Wavelength (1967)
Michael Snow · 20 critic votes
Wavelength consists of almost no action, and what action does occur is largely elided. If the film could be said to have a conventional plot, this would presumably refer to the three “character” scenes. In the first scene two people enter a room, chat briefly, and listen to “Strawberry Fields Forever” on the radio. Later, a man (played by filmmaker Hollis Frampton) enters inexplicably and dies on the floor. And last, the female owner of the apartment is heard and seen on the phone, speaking, with strange calm, about the dead man in her apartment whom she has never seen before.
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Orson Welles · 19 critic votes
The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm (1968)
William Greaves · 19 critic votes
In Manhattan's Central Park, a film crew directed by William Greaves is shooting a screen test with various pairs of actors. It's a confrontation between a couple: he demands to know what's wrong, she challenges his sexual orientation. Cameras shoot the exchange, and another camera records Greaves and his crew. Sometimes we watch the crew discussing this scene, its language, and the process of making a movie. Is there such a thing as natural language? Are all things related to sex? The camera records distractions - a woman rides horseback past them; a garrulous homeless vet who sleeps in the park chats them up. What's the nature of making a movie?
Nosferatu (1922)
F. W. Murnau · 18 critic votes
The mysterious Count Orlok summons a happily married real estate agent to his castle, located up in the Transylvanian mountains, to finalise a terrifying deal.
Mouchette (1967)
Robert Bresson · 18 critic votes
A young girl living in the French countryside suffers constant indignities at the hand of alcoholism and her fellow man.
Je Tu Il Elle (1974)
Chantal Akerman · 18 critic votes
A woman suffers a subdued psychological breakdown in the wake of a devastating breakup.
Duck Soup (1933)
Leo McCarey · 17 critic votes
Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale.
Brief Encounter (1945)
David Lean · 17 critic votes
Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
Max Ophüls · 17 critic votes
A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember. As she tells the story of her lifelong love for him, he is forced to reinterpret his own past.
One Way or Another (1977)
Sara Gómez · 17 critic votes
In Miraflores, Cuba, the growing romance between Mario, a factory worker, and Yolanda, a schoolteacher, throws into relief the differences in their perspectives and values in Revolutionary Cuba.
Blue (1993)
Derek Jarman · 17 critic votes
Against a plain, unchanging blue screen, a densely interwoven soundtrack of voices, sound effects and music attempt to convey a portrait of Derek Jarman's experiences with AIDS, both literally and allegorically, together with an exploration of the meanings associated with the colour blue.
F for Fake (1973)
Orson Welles · 16 critic votes
Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his name by selling forged works of art by painters like Picasso and Matisse. Irving was infamous for writing a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles moves between documentary and fiction as he examines the fundamental elements of fraud and the people who commit fraud at the expense of others.
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Isao Takahata · 16 critic votes
In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.
Petite Maman (2021)
Céline Sciamma · 15 critic votes
After the death of her beloved grandmother, eight-year-old Nelly meets a strangely familiar girl her own age in the woods. Instantly forming a connection with this mysterious new friend, Nelly embarks on a fantastical journey of discovery which helps her come to terms with this newfound loss.
Zero for Conduct (1933)
Jean Vigo · 14 critic votes
In a repressive boarding school with rigid rules of behavior, four boys decide to rebel against the director on a celebration day.
By the Bluest of Seas (1936)
Boris Barnet · 14 critic votes
Two men shipwrecked on an island in the Caspian Sea are saved by members of a collective farm, where they work on its fishing boats and woo the young woman leading the fishermen.
Losing Ground (1982)
Kathleen Collins · 14 critic votes
Sara, a cold college professor, and her husband, an ecstatic painter, spend a summer away from the city, straining their rocky relationship.
Videodrome (1983)
David Cronenberg · 14 critic votes
As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon "Videodrome," a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture and punishment, Max sees a potential hit and broadcasts the show on his channel. However, after his girlfriend auditions for the show and never returns, Max investigates the truth behind Videodrome and discovers that the graphic violence may not be as fake as he thought.
Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988)
Terence Davies · 14 critic votes
Siblings Maisie and Tony, along with their mother, gather for their sister Eileen's wedding. It is a joyous occasion, but through flashbacks, it becomes clear that the family was not always happy. Their father was physically abusive to his wife and left the children emotionally traumatized. As a result, the children have grown into unhappy adults, looking for love they didn't receive when they were young.
Earth (1930)
Oleksandr Dovzhenko · 13 critic votes
The film tells about the creation of the first collective farm communes and class enmity. Vasyl, a member of the Komsomol, with the help of a local party organization, gets a tractor and plows private boundaries "on kulak fields." However, this enthusiasm will cost him dearly.
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)
F. W. Murnau · 13 critic votes
On the South Pacific island of Bora Bora, a young couple's love is threatened when the tribal chief declares the girl a sacred virgin.
Born in Flames (1983)
Lizzie Borden · 13 critic votes
In near-future New York, ten years after the “social-democratic war of liberation,” diverse groups of women organize a feminist uprising as equality remains unfulfilled.
Germany, Year Zero (1948)
Roberto Rossellini · 12 critic votes
In the ruins of post-WWII Berlin, a twelve-year-old boy is left to his own devices in order to help provide for his family.
The Long Day Closes (1992)
Terence Davies · 12 critic votes
Bud is a lonely and quiet boy whose moments of solace occur when he sits in rapture at the local cinema, watching towering and iconic figures on the movie screen. The movies give Bud the strength to get through another day as he deals with his oppressive school environment and his burgeoning homosexuality.
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
Lotte Reiniger, Carl Koch · 11 critic votes
Taken from The Arabian Nights, a wicked sorcerer and the beautiful prince Achmed battle one against the other during a series of wondrous adventures.
Wings (1966)
Larisa Shepitko · 11 critic votes
Former fighter pilot turned provincial schoolmistress Nadezhda Petrovna struggles to adapt to peacetime, having internalised military ideals of service and obedience.
Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
Godfrey Reggio · 11 critic votes
Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.
Wagon Master (1950)
John Ford · 10 critic votes
Two young horse traders guide a Mormon wagon train to the San Juan Valley and encounter rugged terrain, the cutthroat Clegg gang, hospitable Navajo, and moral challenges on the journey.
Night and Fog (1956)
Alain Resnais · 10 critic votes
Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.
Winter Light (1963)
Ingmar Bergman · 10 critic votes
A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.
Handsworth Songs (1986)
John Akomfrah · 10 critic votes
The Black Audio Film Collective’s acclaimed essay film, 'Handsworth Songs', examines the 1985 race riots in Handsworth and London. Interweaving archival photographs, newsreel clips, and home movie footage, the film is both an exploration of documentary aesthetics and a broad meditation social and cultural oppression through Britain’s intertwined narratives of racism and economic decline.
Tongues Untied (1989)
Marlon Riggs · 10 critic votes
Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs telling the story of his growing up, scenes of men in social intercourse and dance, and various comic riffs, including a visit to the "Institute of Snap!thology," where men take lessons in how to snap their fingers: the sling snap, the point snap, the diva snap.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Robert Wiene · 9 critic votes
Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.
Our Hospitality (1923)
Buster Keaton, John G. Blystone · 9 critic votes
A young man falls for a young woman on his trip home; unbeknownst to him, her family has vowed to kill every member of his family.
A Page of Madness (1926)
Teinosuke Kinugasa · 9 critic votes
A man takes a job at an asylum with hopes of freeing his imprisoned wife.
The Wind (1928)
Victor Sjöström · 9 critic votes
When Letty Mason relocates to West Texas, she finds herself unsettled by the ever-present wind and sand. Arriving at her new home at the ranch of her cousin, Beverly, she receives a surprisingly cold welcome from his wife, Cora. Soon tensions in the family and unwanted attention from a trio of suitors leave Letty increasingly disturbed.
Mädchen in Uniform (1931)
Leontine Sagan · 9 critic votes
A sensitive girl is sent to an all-girls boarding school and develops a romantic attachment to one of her teachers.
The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)
Roberto Rossellini · 9 critic votes
In a series of simple and joyous vignettes, director Roberto Rossellini and co-writer Federico Fellini lovingly convey the universal teachings of the People’s Saint: humility, compassion, faith, and sacrifice. Gorgeously photographed to evoke the medieval paintings of Saint Francis’s time, and cast with monks from the Nocera Inferiore Monastery, The Flowers of St. Francis is a timeless and moving portrait of the search for spiritual enlightenment.
Cairo Station (1958)
Youssef Chahine · 9 critic votes
Qinawi, a physically challenged peddler who makes his living selling newspapers in the central Cairo train station, is obsessed with Hanuma, an attractive young woman who sells drinks. While she jokes with him about a possible relationship, she is actually in love with Abu Siri, a strong and respected porter at the station who is struggling to unionize his fellow workers to combat their boss' exploitative and abusive treatment.
All My Life (1966)
Bruce Baillie · 9 critic votes
The film is made up of one single take. The camera pans to the left, focusing on a dilapidated fence in a rural field, as Ella Fitzgerald's "All My Life" plays on the soundtrack. At the end of the 3 minute film, the camera tilts up to the blue sky just as the song ends.
Wendy and Lucy (2008)
Kelly Reichardt · 9 critic votes
A near-penniless drifter's journey to Alaska in search of work is interrupted when she loses her dog while attempting to shoplift food for it.
Suspense (1913)
Phillips Smalley, Lois Weber · 8 critic votes
Abandoned by her maidservant in an isolated country house, a mother must protect herself and her baby from an invading tramp while her husband races home in a stolen car to save them.
The Kid (1921)
Charlie Chaplin · 8 critic votes
A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.
L’Age d’Or (1930)
Luis Buñuel · 8 critic votes
The film consists of a series of tightly interlinked vignettes, the most sustained of which details the story of a man and a woman who are passionately in love. Their attempts to consummate their passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, by the Church and bourgeois society in general.
People on Sunday (1930)
Curt Siodmak, Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, Fred Zinnemann, Rochus Gliese · 8 critic votes
A semi-documentary experimental 1930 German silent film created by amateurs with a small budget. With authentic scenes of the metropolis city of Berlin, it's the first film from the later famous screenwriters/directors Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann.
Pinocchio (1940)
Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, Norm Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Bill Roberts · 8 critic votes
When the gentle woodcarver Geppetto builds a marionette to be his substitute son, a benevolent fairy brings the toy to life. The puppet, named Pinocchio, is not yet a human boy. He must earn the right to be real by proving that he is brave, truthful, and unselfish.
I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Jacques Tourneur · 8 critic votes
A nurse in the Caribbean turns to voodoo in hopes of curing her patient, a mindless woman whose husband she's fallen in love with.
Duck Amuck (1953)
Chuck Jones · 8 critic votes
The short-tempered Daffy Duck must improvise madly as the backgrounds, his costumes, the soundtrack, even his physical form, shifts and changes at the whim of the animator.
Fuses (1967)
Carolee Schneemann · 8 critic votes
A silent film of collaged and painted sequences of lovemaking between Schneemann and her then partner, composer James Tenney; observed by the cat, Kitch.
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Rob Reiner · 8 critic votes
"This Is Spinal Tap" shines a light on the self-contained universe of a metal band struggling to get back on the charts, including everything from its complicated history of ups and downs, gold albums, name changes and undersold concert dates, along with the full host of requisite groupies, promoters, hangers-on and historians, sessions, release events and those special behind-the-scenes moments that keep it all real.
It's Such A Beautiful Day (2012)
Don Hertzfeldt · 8 critic votes
Bill struggles to put together his shattered psyche.
Lovers Rock (2020)
Steve McQueen · 8 critic votes
During a house party in 1980s West London, a group of young West Indian friends find romance, joy, and tension unfolding over the course of one night set to the rhythms of reggae.
Shoes (1916)
Lois Weber · 7 critic votes
A young working girl, struggling to support her family on her meager salary, desperately wishes for a new pair of shoes.
Nanook of the North (1922)
Robert J. Flaherty · 7 critic votes
This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.
The Unknown (1927)
Tod Browning · 7 critic votes
On the lam, criminal Alonzo hides in the circus as The Armless Wonder—a performer who uses his feet to hurl knives. Alonzo keeps the arms he really has concealed to hide his identity. Meanwhile, ringmaster's daughter Nanon has a phobia of being touched by men, but is romantically pursued by not only Alonzo but the strongman Malabar. Alonzo's desperation to remain with Nanon will only end in tragedy.
Freaks (1932)
Tod Browning · 7 critic votes
A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
Rose Hobart (1936)
Joseph Cornell · 7 critic votes
Cornell employs clips from 1931's jungle melodrama East of Borneo – more specifically, clips of its lead actress, Rose Hobart – to disquieting effect. Through Cornell's collage editing, Hobart becomes a singular object of desire and dread, trapped in an exotic paradise.
At Land (1944)
Maya Deren · 7 critic votes
A woman washes up on a beach and embarks on a surreal journey, encountering others and fragmented versions of herself in a quest for identity.
A Portrait of Ga (1952)
Margaret Tait · 7 critic votes
Another early experiment in portraiture from Tait. In filming her mother she asks the wider question of how much the camera can reveal of the person.
Window Water Baby Moving (1959)
Stan Brakhage · 7 critic votes
On a winter's day, a woman stretches near a window then sits in a bathtub of water. She's happy. Her lover is nearby; there are close ups of her face, her pregnant belly, and his hands caressing her. She gives birth: we see the crowning of the baby's head, then the birth itself; we watch a pair of hands tie off and cut the umbilical cord. With the help of the attending hands, the mother expels the placenta. The infant, a baby girl, nurses. We return from time to time to the bath scene. By the end, dad's excited; mother and daughter rest.
Titicut Follies (1967)
Frederick Wiseman · 7 critic votes
A stark and graphic portrayal of the conditions that existed at the State Prison for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and documents the various ways the inmates are treated by the guards, social workers, and psychiatrists.
W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (1971)
Dušan Makavejev · 7 critic votes
What does the energy harnessed through orgasm have to do with the state of communist Yugoslavia circa 1971? Only counterculture filmmaker extraordinaire Dušan Makavejev has the answers (or the questions). His surreal documentary-fiction collision begins as an investigation into the life and work of controversial psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Reich and then explodes into a free-form narrative of a beautiful young Slavic girl’s sexual liberation.
Adoption (1975)
Márta Mészáros · 7 critic votes
When middle-aged Kata realises that her life will only be complete if she has a baby of her own, her longstanding-but-married boyfriend Joska refuses to comply. But by developing an unlikely friendship with the angst-ridden teenage orphan Anna, who is also involved in a controversial relationship, Kata discovers aspects of herself, and her role as a woman, that have gone unexamined throughout her entire, lonely life.
Girl Friends (1978)
Claudia Weill · 7 critic votes
A photographer and her best friend are roommates. She is stuck with small-change shooting jobs and dreams of success. When her roommate decides to get married and leave, she feels hurt and has to learn how to deal with living alone.
Stand by Me (1986)
Rob Reiner · 7 critic votes
After learning that a boy their age has been accidentally killed near their rural homes, four boys decide to go see the body. Gordie, Vern, Chris, and Teddy encounter a mean junk man and a marsh full of leeches, but they also learn more about one another and their very different home lives. Just a lark at first, the boys' adventure evolves into a defining event in their lives.
The Apple (1998)
Samira Makhmalbaf · 7 critic votes
After twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two Iranian sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time.
You Were Never Really Here (2018)
Lynne Ramsay · 7 critic votes
A traumatized veteran, unafraid of violence, tracks down missing girls for a living. When a job spins out of control, Joe's nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered—leading to what may be his death trip or his awakening.
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
Georges Méliès · 6 critic votes
Professor Barbenfouillis and five of his colleagues from the Academy of Astronomy travel to the Moon aboard a rocket propelled by a giant cannon. Once on the lunar surface, the bold explorers face the many perils hidden in the caves of the mysterious planet.
Seven Chances (1925)
Buster Keaton · 6 critic votes
Struggling stockbroker Jimmie Shannon learns that, if he gets married by 7 p.m. on his 27th birthday -- which is today -- he'll inherit $7 million from an eccentric relative.
A Colour Box (1935)
Len Lye · 6 critic votes
Animated shapes dance to Cuban music. This was one of the first animations to be painted directly onto the film.
The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1935)
Jean Renoir · 6 critic votes
Mild-mannered novelist of Western fiction, Amédée Lange, and his colleagues take over a publishing house after their exploitative boss disappears, only for the superior to return and try to reclaim the profits from their successful cooperative.
Portrait of Jennie (1948)
William Dieterle · 6 critic votes
A mysterious girl inspires a struggling artist.
Paths of Glory (1957)
Stanley Kubrick · 6 critic votes
A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.
Lola (1961)
Jacques Demy · 6 critic votes
A bored young man meets with his former girlfriend, now a cabaret dancer and single mother, and soon finds himself falling back in love with her.
Flaming Creatures (1963)
Jack Smith · 6 critic votes
Filmmaker and artist Jack Smith described his own film as a “comedy set in a haunted movie studio.” Flaming Creatures begins humorously enough with several men and women, mostly of indeterminate gender, vamping it up in front of the camera and participating in a mock advertisement for an indelible, heart-shaped brand of lipstick. However, things take a dark, nightmarish turn when a transvestite chases, catches and begins molesting a woman. Soon, all of the titular “creatures” participate in a (mostly clothed) orgy that causes a massive earthquake. After the creatures are killed in the resulting chaos, a vampire dressed like an old Hollywood starlet rises from her coffin to resurrect the dead. All ends happily enough when the now undead creatures dance with each other, even though another orgy and earthquake loom over the end title card.
Mothlight (1963)
Stan Brakhage · 6 critic votes
Seemingly at random, the wings and other bits of moths and insects move rapidly across the screen. Most are brown or sepia; up close, we can see patterns within wings, similar to the veins in a leaf. Sometimes the images look like paper cutouts, like Matisse. Green objects occasionally appear. Most wings are translucent. The technique makes them appear to be stuck directly to the film.
Dog Star Man (1964)
Stan Brakhage · 6 critic votes
Experimental film following a cycle of seasons as well as the stretch of a single day as a man and his dog slowly ascend a mountain.
7 Women (1966)
John Ford · 6 critic votes
In a mission in China in 1935, a group of women are preyed on by Mongolian bandits, led by Warlord chief Tunga Khan.
Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1967)
Jean-Luc Godard · 6 critic votes
As the city of Paris and the French people grow in consumer culture, a housewife living in a high-rise apartment with her husband and two children takes to prostitution to help pay the bills.
Duvidha (1973)
Mani Kaul · 6 critic votes
A newly-married merchant’s son is sent away for business. A ghost, who laid eyes on the bride, falls madly in love with her and takes the form of the husband and begins living with her.
Agarrando pueblo (1978)
Luis Ospina · 6 critic votes
Two filmmakers travel around impoverished sectors of the cities of Bogotá and Cali in search of the images of abjection needed to complete a documentary commissioned by German TV. Meanwhile, another camera captures these “vampire” filmmakers feeding off the misery of their marginal subjects.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
Pedro Almodóvar · 6 critic votes
After being dumped by her lover, Pepa finds her life and the lives of those around her spiraling out of control in a deliciously chaotic series of events.
Red Wood Pigeon (1989)
Nanni Moretti · 6 critic votes
Michele is an MP for the Italian Communist Party who loses his memory in a car crash, though hardly anyone around him seems to notice. During a crucial water polo match on the eve of election day, he gradually begins to remember his past life, revealing a man whose personal and political identity crisis mirrors that of Italian communism itself.
Nitrate Kisses (1992)
Barbara Hammer · 6 critic votes
Essay documentary explores eroded emulsions and images for lost vestiges of lesbian and gay culture. First feature by a pioneer of lesbian cinema, Hammer weaves gay and lesbian couples with footage that unearths the forbidden and invisible history of a marginalized people.
Before Sunset (2004)
Richard Linklater · 6 critic votes
Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of the day together before Jesse has to again leave for a flight. They are both in relationships now, and Jesse has a son, but as their strong feelings for each other start to return, both confess a longing for more.
Elephant (2004)
Gus Van Sant · 6 critic votes
Several ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.
Ida (2013)
Paweł Pawlikowski · 6 critic votes
In 1960s Poland, young novitiate Anna is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a family secret dating back to the years of the German occupation.
Within Our Gates (1920)
Oscar Micheaux · 5 critic votes
Abandoned by her fiancé, an educated black woman with a traumatizing past dedicates herself to helping a near bankrupt school for impoverished black children.
Rain (1929)
Joris Ivens, Mannus Franken · 5 critic votes
A lyrical portrait of Amsterdam and its changing appearance during a rain-shower.
Shanghai Express (1932)
Josef von Sternberg · 5 critic votes
A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
James Whale · 5 critic votes
Dr. Frankenstein and his monster both turn out to be alive after being attacked by an angry mob. The now-chastened scientist attempts to escape his past, but a former mentor forces him to assist with the creation of a new creature.
The Only Son (1936)
Yasujirō Ozu · 5 critic votes
A rural widow sends her only son to Tokyo to receive a better education. Years later, she visits him and finds he has become a night school teacher struggling to support his wife and son.
Bambi (1942)
David Hand, James Algar, Bill Roberts, Norman Wright, Samuel Armstrong, Paul Satterfield, Graham Heid · 5 critic votes
Bambi's tale unfolds from season to season as the young prince of the forest learns about life, love, and friends.
Listen to Britain (1942)
Humphrey Jennings, Stewart McAllister · 5 critic votes
A depiction of life in wartime Britain during the Second World War. Director Humphrey Jennings visits many aspects of civilian life and of the turmoil and privation caused by the war, all without narration.
Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953)
Jacques Tati · 5 critic votes
Monsieur Hulot, Jacques Tati’s endearing clown, takes a holiday at a seaside resort, where his presence provokes one catastrophe after another. Tati’s masterpiece of gentle slapstick is a series of effortlessly well-choreographed sight gags involving dogs, boats, and firecrackers; it was the first entry in the Hulot series and the film that launched its maker to international stardom.
La Pointe Courte (1955)
Agnès Varda · 5 critic votes
A penetrating study of a marriage on the rocks, set against the backdrop of a small Mediterranean fishing village. Both a stylized depiction of the complicated relationship between a married couple and a documentary-like look at the daily struggles of the inhabitants of Sète in the South of France.
Ivan the Terrible. Part II (1958)
Sergei Eisenstein · 5 critic votes
This is the second part of a projected three-part epic biopic of Russian Czar Ivan Grozny, undertaken by Soviet film-maker Sergei Eisenstein at the behest of Josef Stalin. Production of the epic was stopped before the third part could be filmed, due to producer dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's introducing forbidden experimental filming techniques into the material, more evident in this part than the first part. As it was, this second part was banned from showings until after the deaths of both Eisenstein and Stalin, and a change of attitude by the subsequent heads of the Soviet government. In this part, as Ivan the Terrible attempts to consolidate his power by establishing a personal army, his political rivals, the Russian boyars, plot to assassinate him.
Moi, un noir (1958)
Jean Rouch, Pierre Braunberger · 5 critic votes
Winner of the prestigious Prix Louis Delluc in 1958, "Moi, un noir" marked Jean Rouch's break with traditional ethnography, and his embrace of the collaborative and improvisatory strategies he called "shared ethnography" and "ethnofiction". The film depicts an ordinary week in the lives of men and women from Niger who have migrated to Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire for work.
Shoot the Piano Player (1960)
François Truffaut · 5 critic votes
Charlie is a former classical pianist who has changed his name and now plays jazz in a grimy Paris bar. When Charlie's brothers, Richard and Chico, surface and ask for Charlie's help while on the run from gangsters they have scammed, he aids their escape. Soon Charlie and Lena, a waitress at the same bar, face trouble when the gangsters arrive, looking for his brothers.
Méditerranée (1963)
Jean-Daniel Pollet · 5 critic votes
[Here] Pollet made a work that is the very definition of what French critics like to call an ovni or ufo (as in ‘unidentified filmic object’). [It] has been described as being ‘like a comet in the sky of French cinema,’ an ‘unknown masterpiece,’ and an ‘unprecedented’ work that refuses interpretation even as it has provoked reams of critical writing. Its rhythmic collage of images – a girl on a gurney, a fisherman, Greek ruins, a Sicilian garden, a Spanish corrida – is accompanied by an abstract commentary written by Sollers, and only the somber lyricism of Antoine Duhamel’s score holds the film’s elements together. At first viewing, you fear that [it] might fly apart into incoherent fragments. Instead, over the course of its 45 minutes it invents its own rules, and you realize you’re watching something like the filmic channeling of an ancient ritual.
Scorpio Rising (1963)
Kenneth Anger · 5 critic votes
A gang of bikers prepares for a race as sexual, sadistic, and occult images are cut together.
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Richard Lester · 5 critic votes
Capturing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in their electrifying element, 'A Hard Day's Night' is a wildly irreverent journey through this pastiche of a day in the life of The Beatles during 1964. The band have to use all their guile and wit to avoid the pursuing fans and press to reach their scheduled television performance, in spite of Paul's troublemaking grandfather and Ringo's arrest.
Diamonds of the Night (1964)
Jan Němec · 5 critic votes
Two Jewish boys escape from a train transporting them from one concentration camp to another. Beyond themes of war and anti-Nazism, the film concerns itself with man's struggle to preserve human dignity.
Loves of a Blonde (1965)
Miloš Forman · 5 critic votes
Andula, an innocent Czech girl from a factory town, is desperately in search of love. She believes she's found it when she beds Milda, a charming young musician visiting from Prague. Milda, however, is only looking for a casual encounter, and leaves town assuming he'll never see Andula again. But when Andula doesn't hear from him, she packs up and heads to Prague, to the surprise of Milda and his parents.
The Producers (1967)
Mel Brooks · 5 critic votes
A conniving Broadway producer and his meek accountant plan to profit from charming wealthy old biddies to invest in an overbudget production, and then put on a sure-fire disaster, so nobody will ask for their money back — and what's more disastrous than a tasteless musical celebrating Adolf Hitler.
I Am Somebody (1970)
Madeline Anderson · 5 critic votes
Madeline Anderson’s documentary brings viewers to the front lines of the civil rights movement during the 1969 Charleston hospital workers’ strike, when 400 poorly paid Black women went on strike to demand union recognition and a wage increase, only to find themselves in confrontation with the National Guard and the state government. Anderson personally participated in the strike, along with such notable figures as Coretta Scott King, Ralph Abernathy and Andrew Young, all affiliated with Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Anderson’s film shows the courage and resiliency of the strikers and the support they received from the local black community. It is an essential filmed record of this important moment in the history of civil and women’s rights. The film is also notable as arguably the first televised documentary on civil rights directed by a woman of color, solidifying its place in American film history.
Notes Towards an African Orestes (1970)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 5 critic votes
The director presents takes and scenes filmed on location in Africa for a film-that-never-was, a black Oresteia.
Zorns Lemma (1970)
Hollis Frampton · 5 critic votes
Zorns Lemma is a 1970 American structuralist film by Hollis Frampton. It is named after Zorn's lemma (also known as the Kuratowski–Zorn lemma), a proposition of set theory formulated by mathematician Max Zorn in 1935. Zorns Lemma is prefaced with a reading from an early grammar textbook. The remainder of the film, largely silent, shows the viewer an evolving 24-part "alphabet" (where i & j and u & v are interchanged) which is cycled through, replaced and expanded upon. The film's conclusion shows a man, woman and dog walking through snow as several voices read passages from On Light, or the Ingression of Forms by Robert Grosseteste.
The House in the Woods (1971)
Maurice Pialat · 5 critic votes
A collection of explicitly simulated sexual vignettes ranging from rape and orgy to historical events.
Line Describing a Cone (1973)
Anthony McCall · 5 critic votes
LINE DESCRIBING A CONE is what I term a solid light film. It deals with the projected light beam itself, rather than treating the light beam as a mere carrier of coded information, which is decoded when it strikes the flat surface (the screen). It is projected in the normal way, on a 16mm film projector. Though inevitably there will be a wall that limits the length of the beam, a screen is not necessary. The viewer watches the film, by standing with his, or her, back towards what would normally be the screen, and looking along the beam towards the projector itself. The film begins as a coherent line of light, like a laser beam, and develops through the 30 minute duration, into a complete, hollow cone of light. Line Describing a Cone deals with one of the irreducible, necessary conditions of film: projected light. It deals with this phenomenon directly, independent of any other consideration. It is the first film to exist solely in real, three-dimensional, space.
The Girl Chewing Gum (1976)
John Smith · 5 critic votes
At Stamford Road in Dalston Junction of east London, the camera follows pedestrians, cars and birds while a narrator, who appears to be the director behind the camera, seems to instruct the objects.
The Lorry (1977)
Marguerite Duras · 5 critic votes
In this most talky and personal of films, director Marguerite Duras and actor Gerard Depardieu do an on-camera read-through of a movie script. Occasionally, the director comments about the characters or their motivations, and sometimes the actor does. That's all -- there is no action, there are no location shots, no one pretends to be anything else. The script itself tells about an encounter between a blank-slate of a woman hitchhiker, and a communist truck driver. As the reading progresses, Duras comments bitterly about the failed ideals of communism and the glorious revolution that will probably never happen.
Tale of Tales (1979)
Yuri Norstein · 5 critic votes
Distant, well-worn memories of childhood are inhabited by a little gray wolf. Through astonishing imagery, the memory of all of Russia is depicted.
Simone Barbès ou la vertu (1980)
Marie-Claude Treilhou · 5 critic votes
Simone, a leather-clad porn theater worker, spends her shifts bantering with her coworker and observing eccentric customers in the cinema’s lobby. Tonight, she clocks out and heads off to meet her girlfriend, a waitress at a lesbian club. Later, she’ll encounter a lonely man on the prowl.
Reassemblage (1983)
Trinh T. Minh-ha · 5 critic votes
A complex visual study of the women of rural Senegal. Through a complicity of interaction between film and spectator, Reassemblage reflects on documentary filmmaking and the ethnographic representation of cultures.
Bless Their Little Hearts (1984)
Billy Woodberry · 5 critic votes
Charlie Banks, chronically unemployed, struggles to find dignity and a meaning for life in the impoverished Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts.
Stop Making Sense (1984)
Jonathan Demme · 5 critic votes
A concert film documenting Talking Heads at the height of their popularity, on tour for their 1983 album "Speaking in Tongues." The band takes the stage one by one and is joined by a cadre of guest musicians for a career-spanning and cinematic performance that features creative choreography and visuals.
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987)
Todd Haynes · 5 critic votes
The final 17 years of American singer and musician Karen Carpenter, performed almost entirely by modified Barbie dolls.
A Short Film About Killing (1988)
Krzysztof Kieślowski · 5 critic votes
Jacek climbs into the taxi driven by Waldemar, tells him to drive to a remote location, then brutally strangles him, seemingly without motive.
Images of the World and the Inscription of War (1989)
Harun Farocki · 5 critic votes
Farocki’s intriguing and troubling film explores the processes of visual perception and how they affect our understanding of history and society. In a work reminiscent of the writings of Paul Virilio and Michel Foucault, Farocki examines a range of phenomena including aerial reconnaissance photos of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Hello Cinema (1995)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf · 5 critic votes
Makhmalbaf puts an advertisement in the papers calling for an open casting for his next movie. However when hundreds of people show up, he decides to make a movie about the casting and the screen tests of the would-be actors.
Toy Story (1995)
John Lasseter · 5 critic votes
Led by Woody, Andy's toys live happily in his room until Andy's birthday brings Buzz Lightyear onto the scene. Afraid of losing his place in Andy's heart, Woody plots against Buzz. But when circumstances separate Buzz and Woody from their owner, the duo eventually learns to put aside their differences.
A Moment of Innocence (1996)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf · 5 critic votes
A semi-autobiographical account of an incident in Makhmalbaf's life when, as a 17-year-old, he stabbed a policeman at a protest rally. Two decades later, he tracks down the policeman he injured in an attempt to make amends.
Mutter und Sohn (1997)
Aleksandr Sokurov · 5 critic votes
A man goes for a walk through the countryside with his dying mother.
The End of Evangelion (1997)
Kazuya Tsurumaki, Hideaki Anno · 5 critic votes
SEELE orders an all-out attack on NERV, aiming to destroy the Evas before Gendo can advance his own plans for the Human Instrumentality Project. Shinji is pushed to the limits of his sanity as he is forced to decide the fate of humanity.
La Petite Vendeuse de Soleil (1998)
Djibril Diop Mambéty · 5 critic votes
A young girl with a physical disability arrives in Dakar and challenges the convention of boys selling newspapers on the street.
Sicilia! (1999)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 5 critic votes
A man returns to visit his native Sicily after living in New York for a long time. He learns about the Sicilian way of life from stylized conversations with an orange picker, his fellow train passengers, his mother, and a knife-sharpener.
O Fantasma (2000)
João Pedro Rodrigues · 5 critic votes
Sergio is a brooding, alienated man who works as a trash collector in Lisbon by day and roams the city streets by night seeking rough, anonymous sex with men. One night he meets a man who seems to be the embodiment of his tormented fantasies, and he becomes obsessed with the stranger until loneliness and unfulfilled desire propel him finally into a dark and dangerous animalistic state.
Old Joy (2006)
Kelly Reichardt · 5 critic votes
Soon to be a father, Mark feels the pressure of domestic responsibility closing in, so he is more than happy to accept when his old friend Kurt proposes a camping trip in the Oregon wilderness. During their time together, the men come to grips with the changes in their lives and the effect on their relationship.
This Is Not a Film (2011)
Jafar Panahi, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb · 5 critic votes
Renowned Iranian director Jafar Panahi received a 6-year prison sentence and a 20-year ban from filmmaking and conducting interviews with foreign press due to his open support for the opposition party in Iran's 2009 election. In this film, which was shot secretly by Panahi's close friend Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and smuggled into France on a USB stick concealed inside a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes, Panahi documents his daily life under house arrest as he awaits a decision on his appeal.
Goodbye to Language (2014)
Jean-Luc Godard · 5 critic votes
"The idea is simple / A married woman and a single man meet / They love, they argue, fists fly / A dog strays between town and country / The seasons pass / The man and woman meet again / The dog finds itself between them / The other is in one, / the one is in the other / and they are three / The former husband shatters everything / A second film begins: / the same as the first, / and yet not / From the human race we pass to metaphor / This ends in barking / and a baby's cries / In the meantime, we will have seen people talking of the demise of the dollar, of truth in mathematics and of the death of a robin." -JLG
Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death (2016)
Arthur Jafa · 5 critic votes
A reflection on Jafa's desire to craft a "black cinema" that is responsive to the "existential, political, and spiritual dimensions" of Black life. Comprised of found footage sampled from films, newscasts, sporting events, music videos, and citizen videos, all of it downloaded from the Internet, the clips have been woven together and set to Kanye West's anthem "Ultralight Beam." Together the images and music make for an intense, poignant meditation on African American life in the twentieth-century. This history is also the history, by necessity, of racism and prejudice.
One Week (1920)
Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton · 4 critic votes
Newlyweds receive a build-it-yourself house as a wedding gift—and the house can, supposedly, be built in "one week". A rejected suitor secretly re-numbers packing crates, and the husband struggles to assemble the house according to this new 'arrangement' of its parts.
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
Jean Epstein · 4 critic votes
Convinced that his family is tainted by generations of evil, Roderick Usher is hellbent on stopping his sister Madeline’s wedding to prevent the cursed Usher bloodline from expanding. When her fiancé Allan arrives at the crumbling estate to claim his bride, Roderick goes to ruthless—even deadly—lengths to keep them apart.
City Girl (1930)
F. W. Murnau · 4 critic votes
A waitress from Chicago falls in love with a man from rural Minnesota and marries him, with the intent of living a better life - but life on the farm has its own challenges.
Enthusiasm (1930)
Dziga Vertov · 4 critic votes
An audiovisual symphony that delves into the industrial, agrarian, and cultural fabric of the Donbas region during the inaugural Soviet Five Year Plan. It spotlights anti-religious campaigns, propagandistic marches, and the vibrant athletic culture of its time
Frankenstein (1931)
James Whale · 4 critic votes
Henry Frankenstein pieces together body parts in the hope of bringing a human-like creature to life. The mad scientist’s dreams are shattered by his monstrous creation awakening with rage to a world that hates and fears him.
The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)
Ernst Lubitsch · 4 critic votes
An amorous lieutenant is forced to marry a socially awkward princess, though he tries to keep his violin-playing girlfriend on the side.
Land without Bread (1933)
Luis Buñuel · 4 critic votes
An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time.
Toni (1935)
Jean Renoir · 4 critic votes
In the 1920s, the Provence is a magnet for immigrants seeking work in the quarries or in the agriculture. Many mingle with locals and settle down for good — like Toni, an Italian who has moved in with Marie, a Frenchwoman. Even a well-ordered existence is not immune from boredom, friendship, romance, or enmity, and Toni becomes entangled in a web of increasingly passionate relationships. For there is his best pal Fernand, but also Albert, his overbearing foreman; there is Sebastian, a steady Spanish peasant, but also Gabi, his young rogue relative; there is Marie, but there is also Josefa.
Night Mail (1936)
Harry Watt, Basil Wright · 4 critic votes
This documentary short examines the special train on which mail is sorted, dropped and collected on the run, and delivered in Scotland on the overnight run from Euston, London to Glasgow.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
David Hand, William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Percival C. Pearce, Ben Sharpsteen · 4 critic votes
A beautiful girl, Snow White, takes refuge in the forest in the house of seven dwarfs to hide from her stepmother, the wicked Queen. The Queen is jealous because she wants to be known as "the fairest in the land," and Snow White's beauty surpasses her own.
Hellzapoppin' (1941)
H. C. Potter · 4 critic votes
Olsen and Johnson, a pair of stage comedians, try to turn their play into a movie and bring together a young couple in love, while breaking the fourth wall every step of the way.
Cat People (1942)
Jacques Tourneur · 4 critic votes
A Serbian émigré in Manhattan believes that, because of an ancient curse, any physical intimacy with the man she loves will turn her into a feline predator.
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Preston Sturges · 4 critic votes
A New York inventor, Tom Jeffers, needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife, Gerry, decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire, J. D. Hackensacker III.
The Seventh Victim (1943)
Mark Robson · 4 critic votes
After young Mary Gibson discovers that her older sister Jacqueline has disappeared, she leaves her boarding school and heads to New York City to track down her sibling. But Mary gets drawn deeper into the mystery.
A Diary for Timothy (1945)
Humphrey Jennings · 4 critic votes
A narrator recounts the state of Great Britain near the end of WWII via a visual diary for the titular baby boy born in September 1944.
Begone Dull Care (1949)
Norman McLaren, Evelyn Lambart · 4 critic votes
In this extraordinary short animation, Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren painted colours, shapes, and transformations directly onto their filmstrip. The result is a vivid interpretation, in fluid lines and colour, of jazz music played by the Oscar Peterson Trio.
The Reckless Moment (1949)
Max Ophüls · 4 critic votes
After discovering the dead body of her teenage daughter's lover, a housewife takes desperate measures to protect her family from scandal.
The Hitch-hiker (1953)
Ida Lupino · 4 critic votes
Roy and Gilbert's fishing trip takes a terrifying turn when the hitchhiker they pick up turns out to be a sociopath on the run from the law. He's killed before, and he lets the two know that as soon as they're no longer useful, he'll kill again. The two friends plot an escape, but the hitchhiker's peculiar physical affliction, an eye that never closes even when he sleeps, makes it impossible for them to tell when they can make a break for it.
Eyes Without a Face (1960)
Georges Franju, Claude Sautet · 4 critic votes
Dr. Génessier is riddled with guilt after an accident that he caused disfigures the face of his daughter, the once beautiful Christiane, who outsiders believe is dead. Dr. Génessier, along with accomplice and laboratory assistant Louise, kidnaps young women and brings them to the Génessier mansion. After rendering his victims unconscious, Dr. Génessier removes their faces and attempts to graft them on to Christiane's.
Plácido (1961)
Luis García Berlanga · 4 critic votes
In a small Spanish town, during the Christmas holidays, a group of rich old ladies organize a peculiar event that consists of inviting a homeless person to sit down to dinner at their wealthy table. Plácido, a humble worker, is hired by the organizers to participate in a parade with his three-wheeled vehicle, a seemingly simple mission that will not be easy for him to accomplish.
Something Different (1963)
Věra Chytilová · 4 critic votes
In her first feature, Věra Chytilová uses a combination of documentary and fiction film techniques to tell two stories in counterpoint. The first follows Olympic champion gymnast Eva Bosáková, who contemplates retirement as she undergoes a gruelling training schedule; the second, a housewife who is unappreciated and ignored by her husband.
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
Russ Meyer · 4 critic votes
A trio of thrill-seeking go-go dancers kidnap a young girl and attempt to seduce an old rancher and his two sons out of their small fortune, but their scheme doesn't play out as intended.
Romance of Aniceto and Francisca (1967)
Leonardo Favio · 4 critic votes
Aniceto is used to being lonely. When Francisca offers him her love, his personal limitations and little miseries arise.
Naked Childhood (1968)
Maurice Pialat · 4 critic votes
Handed over to foster care by his mother—who's unwilling to give up permanent custody—the now-adolescent François understands that nothing in life is permanent, and his increasingly erratic actions reflect this knowledge.
Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971)
Robert Bresson · 4 critic votes
Jacques, a young man with artistic aspirations, spends four nights wandering Paris with a young woman, whom he rescued from suicide.
Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
Werner Herzog · 4 critic votes
Through examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since her teens, and her work on behalf of other deaf-blind people, this film shows how the deaf-blind struggle to understand and accept a world from which they are almost wholly isolated.
Nostalgia (1971)
Hollis Frampton · 4 critic votes
Michael Snow narrates a series of Hollis Frampton's photographs (speaking as Frampton, in the first person)—as each picture catches fire on a hot plate.
The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes (1971)
Stan Brakhage · 4 critic votes
At a morgue, forensic pathologists conduct autopsies of the corpses assigned. "S. Brakhage, entering, WITH HIS CAMERA, one of the forbidden, terrific locations of our culture, the autopsy room. It is a place wherein, inversely, life is cherished, for it exists to affirm that no one of us may die without our knowing exactly why. All of us, in the person of the coroner, must see that, for ourselves, with our own eyes. It is a room full of appalling particular intimacies, the last ditch of individuation. Here our vague nightmare of mortality acquires the names and faces of OTHERS. This last is a process that requires a WITNESS; and what 'idea' may finally have inserted itself into the sensible world we can still scarcely guess, for the CAMERA would seem the perfect Eidetic Witness, staring with perfect compassion where we can scarcely bear to glance." – Hollis Frampton
My Childhood (1972)
Bill Douglas · 4 critic votes
The first part of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape - he paid for it with the money he made from returning empty jam jars - and this escape is reflected most closely at this time of his life as an eight-year-old living on the breadline with his half-brother and sick grandmother in a poor mining village.
Daguerréotypes (1975)
Agnès Varda · 4 critic votes
An intimate portrait of the small shops and shopkeepers of the Rue Daguerre in Paris, a picturesque street that has been the filmmaker’s home for more than 50 years.
Nazareno Cruz and the Wolf (1975)
Leonardo Favio · 4 critic votes
The Mighty One offers Nazareno Cruz all the wealth in the world if he agrees to abandon his beloved; otherwise, the curse that supposedly weighs on him will be fulfilled.
Crossroads (1976)
Bruce Conner · 4 critic votes
The 1945 atomic-bomb explosion at Bikini Atoll becomes a thing of terrible beauty and haunting visual poetry when shown in extreme slow motion, shown from 27 different angles, and accompanied by avant-garde Western classical music composed for electric organ by Terry Riley. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Pacific Film Archive in 1995.
Getting to Know the Big Wide World (1978)
Kira Muratova · 4 critic votes
On a rough and tumble construction site for a new factory, the conversation flows and love blooms for trio Lyuba, Misha, and Kolya. In the liminal space of their workplace, they build material and intangible connections.
Asparagus (1979)
Suzan Pitt · 4 critic votes
A symbolic reflection on issues of female sexuality, art and identity constructs.
Soft Fiction (1979)
Chick Strand · 4 critic votes
Chick Strand's SOFT FICTION is a personal documentary that brilliantly portrays the survival power of female sensuality. It combines the documentary approach with a sensuous lyrical expressionism. Strand focuses her camera on people talking about their own experience, capturing subtle nuances in facial expressions and gestures that are rarely seen in cinema. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 2015.
Every Man for Himself (1980)
Jean-Luc Godard · 4 critic votes
A look at the sexual and professional lives of three people — a television director, his ex-girlfriend, and a sex worker.
Crime Wave (1985)
John Paizs · 4 critic votes
A young director intent on making "the greatest color crime movie ever" can't seem to finish his script--he has a beginning and an end, but he can't quite figure out the middle. The daughter of his landlord, excited to have a real "movie person" living nearby, tries to help by putting him in touch with a man who wants to collaborate on a script--the strange "Dr. Jolly"
Street of Crocodiles (1986)
Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay · 4 critic votes
A puppet, newly released from his strings, explores the sinister room in which he finds himself.
Nouvelle Vague (1990)
Jean-Luc Godard · 4 critic votes
Composed entirely of literary quotations from many different sources and from several historical periods, the loose narrative concerns a drifter found by a rich woman who soon falls in love with him. A drowning accident takes place and the drifter dies, but some time later he reappears in the woman’s life looking for a job. Or could it be the man’s twin brother?
Twin Peaks (1990)
David Lynch, Mark Frost · 4 critic votes
A fan of "Twin Peaks"? Get the inside scoop from co-creator Mark Frost. Hear what keeps people coming back to the show and what this means for the future of television.
Calendar (1993)
Atom Egoyan · 4 critic votes
A photographer and his wife travel across Armenia photographing churches for a calendar project. Travelling with them is a local man acting as their driver and guide. As the project nears completion, the distance between husband and wife grows.
The White Balloon (1994)
Jafar Panahi · 4 critic votes
Several people try to take advantage of a little girl's innocence to hustle money her mom gave to her to buy a goldfish with.
US Go Home (1994)
Claire Denis · 4 critic votes
In the sixties, in a suburb near Paris, Martine wants to lose her virginity.
Bouquets (1995)
Rose Lowder · 4 critic votes
Bouquets 1-10 is Lowder’s first collection in an ongoing series of one minute episodes, each composed of footage shot around a general geographic location that has been alternately woven, frame by frame, into a single film reel and connected through the interstitial still life image of a flower that cues the beginning of each integrated film Bouquet. Each bouquet of flowers is also a bouquet of frames mingling the plants to be found in a given place with the activities that happen to be there at the time. Lowder uses the film strip as a canvas with the freedom to film frames on any part of the strip in any order, running the film through the camera as many times as needed.
DUPE OD MRAMORA (1995)
Želimir Žilnik · 4 critic votes
A trans couple from 1990s Belgrade beholds their profession as a pacifistic mission, curbing the urges of rapists, gamblers and horny young men during turbulent periods in war-torn country.
Perfect Blue (1997)
Satoshi Kon · 4 critic votes
Rising pop star Mima quits singing to pursue a career as an actress. After she takes up a role on a popular detective show, her handlers and collaborators begin turning up murdered. Harboring feelings of guilt and haunted by visions of her former self, Mima's reality and fantasy meld into a frenzied paranoia.
Run Lola Run (1998)
Tom Tykwer · 4 critic votes
Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manni. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a very bad guy. She has 20 minutes to raise this amount and meet Manni. Otherwise, he will rob a store to get the money. Three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along Lola's run.
Millennium Actress (2001)
Satoshi Kon · 4 critic votes
Documentary filmmaker Genya Tachibana has tracked down the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, who mysteriously vanished at the height of her career. When he presents her with a key she had lost and thought was gone forever, the filmmaker could not have imagined that it would not only unlock the long-held secrets of Chiyoko’s life... but also his own.
The Day He Arrives (2011)
Hong Sang-soo · 4 critic votes
A film director who no longer makes films arrives in Seoul to meet a close friend. When the friend doesn't show up, he wanders the city aimlessly for three days, grabbing drinks and meeting women, with each day playing out like a version of the last.
Leviathan (2012)
Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel · 4 critic votes
An experimental portrait of the North American commercial fishing industry through the lens of GoPro cameras placed on a fishing vessel off the coast of New England.
The Dreamed Path (2017)
Angela Schanelec · 4 critic votes
Theres and Kenneth are both young when they first meet whilst on holiday. They fall in love but are unable to prevent themselves from losing each other. Thirty years later, in another country, another couple: Ariane leaves her husband David because she no longer loves him. The paths they both take lead them to Kenneth and Theres.
Cold War (2018)
Paweł Pawlikowski · 4 critic votes
A man and a woman meet in the ruins of post-war Poland. With vastly different backgrounds and temperaments, they are fatally mismatched and yet drawn to each other.
Time (2020)
Garrett Bradley · 4 critic votes
Fox Rich, indomitable matriarch and modern-day abolitionist, strives to keep her family together while fighting for the release of her incarcerated husband. An intimate, epic, and unconventional love story, filmed over two decades.
Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895)
Louis Lumière · 3 critic votes
Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.
A Corner in Wheat (1909)
D. W. Griffith · 3 critic votes
On a whim, a greedy tycoon decides to corner the world market in wheat. This doubles the price of bread, forcing grain producers into charity lines and others further into poverty. The film contrasts the differences between the lives of those who work to grow the wheat and the life of the man who dabbles in its sale for profit.
True Heart Susie (1919)
D. W. Griffith · 3 critic votes
Susie secretly loves her neighbor, William Jenkins, but neither, it seems, can confess their feelings for each other.
La Souriante Madame Beudet (1923)
Germaine Dulac · 3 critic votes
An unhappily married woman devises a scheme to get rid of her husband.
Lady Windermere's Fan (1925)
Ernst Lubitsch · 3 critic votes
A society woman believes her husband is having an affair, a misconception which may have dire personal consequences for all involved.
Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (1927)
Walter Ruttmann · 3 critic votes
A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.
Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)
Charles Reisner · 3 critic votes
The just-out-of-college, effete son of a no-nonsense steamboat captain comes to visit his father whom he's not seen since he was a child.
The Cameraman (1928)
Edward Sedgwick, Buster Keaton · 3 critic votes
A photographer takes up newsreel shooting to impress a secretary.
The Docks of New York (1928)
Josef von Sternberg · 3 critic votes
A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.
The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928)
Germaine Dulac · 3 critic votes
Obsessed with a general's wife, a clergyman has strange visions of death and lust, struggling against his own eroticism.
The River (1929)
Frank Borzage · 3 critic votes
Passion carried an innocent boy and a worldly woman beyond the barriers of conscience.
À propos de Nice (1930)
Jean Vigo · 3 critic votes
What starts off as a conventional travelogue turns into a satirical portrait of the town of Nice on the French Côte d'Azur, especially its wealthy inhabitants.
Other Men's Women (1931)
William A. Wellman · 3 critic votes
The friendship of two working stiff railroad engineers is put to the test when one falls for the other’s wife.
Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)
Jean Renoir · 3 critic votes
Michel Simon gives one of the most memorable performances in screen history as Boudu, a Parisian tramp who takes a suicidal plunge into the Seine and is rescued by a well-to-do bookseller, Edouard Lestingois. The Lestingois family decides to take in the irrepressible bum, and he shows his gratitude by shaking the household to its foundations. With Boudu Saved from Drowning, legendary director Jean Renoir takes advantage of a host of Parisian locations and the anarchic charms of his lead actor to create an effervescent satire of the bourgeoisie.
It's a Gift (1934)
Norman Z. McLeod · 3 critic votes
After he inherits some money, Harold Bissonette ("pronounced bis-on-ay") decides to give up the grocery business, move to California and run an orange grove. Despite his family's objections and the news that the land he bought is worthless, Bissonette packs up and drives out to California with his nagging wife Amelia and children.
Man of Aran (1934)
Robert J. Flaherty · 3 critic votes
A documentary on the life of the people of the Aran Islands, who were believed to contain the essence of the ancient Irish life, represented by a pure uncorrupted peasant existence centred around the struggle between man and his hostile but magnificent surroundings. A blend of documentary and fictional narrative, the film captures the everyday trials of life on Ireland's unforgiving Aran Islands.
Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937)
Sadao Yamanaka · 3 critic votes
In a slum in Edo Japan, a ronin hopes that his deceased father's former master will hire him while a disgraced hairdresser attempts to regain his pride by kidnapping the daughter of a wealthy pawnbroker, who is set to be married.
Ornamental Hairpin (1941)
Hiroshi Shimizu · 3 critic votes
A Japanese mountain inn patron's foot is cut by an ornamental hairpin accidentally left behind by a former patron, leading to much curiosity among the other patrons regarding her identity.
The Blood of Jesus (1941)
Spencer Williams · 3 critic votes
Razz accidentally shoots his wife Martha when his hunting rifle drops on the floor and discharges. The church congregation gathers at Martha’s bedside to pray for her recovery, and during this period an angel arrives to take Martha’s spirit from her body, but she is tempted by the slick Judas Green, who is an agent for Satan.
Laura (1944)
Otto Preminger · 3 critic votes
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.
The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Orson Welles · 3 critic votes
A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.
Force of Evil (1948)
Abraham Polonsky · 3 critic votes
Lawyer Joe Morse wants to consolidate all the small-time numbers racket operators into one big powerful operation. But his elder brother Leo is one of these small-time operators who wants to stay that way, preferring not to deal with the gangsters who dominate the big-time.
Louisiana Story (1948)
Robert J. Flaherty · 3 critic votes
The idyllic life of a young Cajun boy and his pet raccoon is disrupted when the tranquility of the bayou is broken by an oil well drilling near his home.
Rope (1948)
Alfred Hitchcock · 3 critic votes
Two young men attempt to prove they committed the perfect murder by hosting a dinner party for the family of a classmate they just strangled to death.
A Song of Love (1950)
Jean Genet · 3 critic votes
Two prisoners in complete isolation, separated by the thick brick walls, and desperately in need of human contact, devise a most unusual kind of communication.
Forbidden Games (1952)
René Clément · 3 critic votes
Orphaned after a Nazi air raid, Paulette, a young Parisian girl, runs into Michel, an older peasant boy, and the two quickly become close. Together, they try to make sense of the chaotic and crumbling world around them, attempting to cope with death as they create a burial ground for Paulette's deceased pet dog. Eventually, however, Paulette's stay with Michel's family is threatened by the harsh realities of wartime.
On Dangerous Ground (1952)
Nicholas Ray · 3 critic votes
A big-city cop is reassigned to the country after his superiors find him too angry to be an effective policeman. While on his temporary assignment he assists in a manhunt of a suspected murderer.
Glen or Glenda (1953)
Ed Wood · 3 critic votes
A man who secretly cross-dresses struggles to reveal his true self to the woman he loves in a provocative exploration of gender and social prejudice.
The Bigamist (1953)
Ida Lupino · 3 critic votes
San Francisco businessman Harry Graham and his wife and business partner, Eve, are in the process of adopting a child. When private investigator Mr. Jordan uncovers the fact that Graham has another wife, Phyllis, and a small child in Los Angeles, he confesses everything.
Moonfleet (1954)
Otto Preminger, Fritz Lang · 3 critic votes
Set in the eighteenth century, Moonfleet is about John Mohune, a young orphan who is sent to the Dorset village of Moonfleet to stay with an old friend of his mother's, Jeremy Fox. Fox is a morally ambiguous character, an elegant gentleman involved with smugglers and pirates.
A Movie (1958)
Bruce Conner · 3 critic votes
Bruce Conner's landmark experimental film consisting entirely of found footage edited to a new score.
Anticipation of the Night (1958)
Stan Brakhage · 3 critic votes
First person view of a man, seen only in shadow, attempting to connect with the world around him. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.
Dracula (1958)
Terence Fisher · 3 critic votes
After Jonathan Harker attacks Dracula at his castle, the vampire travels to a nearby city, where he preys on the family of Harker's fiancée. The only one who may be able to protect them is Dr. van Helsing, Harker's friend and fellow-student of vampires, who is determined to destroy Dracula, whatever the cost.
Free Radicals (1958)
Len Lye · 3 critic votes
In this powerful abstract film with a soundtrack of African drum music, Lye scratched "white ziggle-zag-splutter scratches" on to black leader, using a variety of tools from saw teeth to arrow heads. The first version of the film won a major award at the International Experimental Film Festival Held in Brussels in 1958 in association with the World's Fair. Stan Brakhage described the film as "an almost unbelievably immense masterpiece".
The Song of the Marshes (1961)
Cecilia Mangini · 3 critic votes
On a hot summer day, a group of boys of the Roman suburbs play and laugh in one of the many rivers that surround the city. The camera scrutinizes them, approaches them, reveals the gestures and glances, wraps them in a sort of visual dance, while the words of the commentary (entrusted to the poetic sensibility of Pier Paolo Pasolini) narrate the stories, desires, dreams, the future.
Christmas on Earth (1963)
Barbara Rubin · 3 critic votes
For all intents and purposes, "Christmas on Earth" is a performance art film about genital worshipping. At 29 minutes, Barbara Rubin has created the ultimate study on the celebratory and erotic nature of free-love. The film is tinted in various colors, hence the title, and finds various individuals engaging in sexual activity. Men with women, men with men, women with women, and several orgies throughout.
Notebook (1963)
Marie Menken · 3 critic votes
An epic love story centered around an older man who reads aloud to a woman with Alzheimer's. From a faded notebook, the old man's words bring to life the story about a couple who is separated by World War II, and is then passionately reunited, seven years later, after they have taken different paths.
Blowjob (1964)
Andy Warhol · 3 critic votes
Andy Warhol directs a single 35-minute shot of a man's face to capture his facial expressions as he receives the sexual act depicted in the title.
NOW (1965)
Santiago Álvarez · 3 critic votes
Using morgue photos, newsreel footage, and a recording by Lena Horne, Cuban filmmaker Santiago Alvarez fired off 'Now!', one of the most powerful bursts of propaganda rendered in the 1960s.
The Fireman's Ball (1967)
Miloš Forman · 3 critic votes
The firemen of a provincial Czechoslovakian town throw a ball in honor of the old chief's retirement. There will be music and dancing, a beauty pageant and a raffle. The whole town will be in attendance. However, the proceedings are dogged by difficulty at every step. Workplace injuries, stolen prizes, a shortage of pretty girls... and fire.
Blow Up My Town (1968)
Chantal Akerman · 3 critic votes
A young girl shuts herself away in her apartment and goes about her business in a strange way, as she wastes the night in the kitchen – humming all along.
Fata Morgana (1970)
Werner Herzog · 3 critic votes
Shot under extreme conditions and inspired by Mayan creation theory, the film contemplates the illusion of reality and the possibility of capturing for the camera something which is not there. It is about the mirages of nature—and the nature of mirage.
Les yeux ne veulent pas en tout temps se fermer, ou Peut-être qu'un jour Rome se permettra de choisir à son tour (1970)
Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet · 3 critic votes
Straub-Huillet’s first color film, adapts a lesser-known Corneille tragedy from 1664, which in turn was based on an episode of imperial court intrigue chronicled in Tacitus’s Histories. The costuming is classical, and the toga-clad, nonprofessional cast performs the drama’s original French text amid the ruins of Rome’s Palatine Hill while the noise of contemporary urban life hums in the background. Their lines are executed with a terrific flatness and frequently through heavy accents; the language in Othon becomes not merely an expression but a thing itself, an element whose plainness here alerts us to qualities of the work that might otherwise be subordinated.
The Things of Life (1970)
Claude Sautet · 3 critic votes
The mind of Pierre Bérard, a successful middle-aged architect, is torn between his unstable present with Hélène, his younger lover, and his happy memories of the past with Catherine, his ex-wife; but his true destiny awaits him at a crossroads on his way to Rennes…
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)
Jaromil Jireš · 3 critic votes
Valerie, a Czechoslovakian teenager living with her grandmother, is blossoming into womanhood, but that transformation proves secondary to the effects she experiences when she puts on a pair of magic earrings. Now seeing the world around her in a different light, Valerie must endure her sexual awakening while attempting to discern reality from fantasy as she encounters lecherous priest Gracian, a vampire-like stranger and otherworldly carnival folk.
Pink Narcissus (1971)
James Bidgood · 3 critic votes
An outrageous erotic poem focusing on the daydreams of a beautiful boy prostitute who, from the seclusion of his ultra-kitsch apartment, conceives a series of interlinked narcissistic fantasies populated by matadors, dancing boys, slaves, and leather-clad bikers.
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972)
Jonas Mekas · 3 critic votes
Jonas Mekas weaves an elegiac diary film from his 1971–72 return to Lithuania, chronicling a visit to his birthplace of Semeniškiai after decades in exile. Blending personal memory with documentary observation, the film becomes both a portrait of homecoming and a meditation on displacement, family, and the passage of time.
Fantastic Planet (1973)
René Laloux · 3 critic votes
On the planet Ygam, the Draags, extremely technologically and spiritually advanced blue humanoids, consider the tiny Oms, human beings descendants of Terra's inhabitants, as ignorant animals. Those who live in slavery are treated as simple pets and used to entertain Draag children; those who live hidden in the hostile wilderness of the planet are periodically hunted and ruthlessly slaughtered as if they were vermin.
Dyketactics (1974)
Barbara Hammer · 3 critic votes
Born in Los Angeles but a New Yorker by choice, Barbara Hammer is a whole genre unto herself. Her pioneering 1974 short film Dyketactics, a four-minute, hippie wonder consisting of frolicking naked women in the countryside, broke new ground for its exploration of lesbian identity, desire and aesthetic.
The Mouth Agape (1974)
Maurice Pialat · 3 critic votes
Monique is dying of cancer, lying in bed in the apartment above the store her family owns. Her philandering husband carries on with life, her son remains aloof, and her daughter-in-law wonders if she is witnessing her own decline. They all struggle to express, or feel, their love for one another.
The Text of Light (1974)
Stan Brakhage · 3 critic votes
Time-lapse photography of books, paintings, reflections, and light falling on textures, shot entirely through a glass ashtray. "'All that is is light.' – Dun Scotus Erigena. 'To see the world in a grain of sand.' – William Blake. These are the primary impulses while working on this film. It is dedicated to Jim Davis who showed me the first spark of refracted film light." - S.B.
Seasons of the Year (1975)
Artavazd Peleshyan · 3 critic votes
The last collaboration of Artavazd Peleshian and cinematographer Mikhail Vartanov is a film-essay about Armenia's shepherds, about the contradiction and the harmony between man and nature, scored to Vivaldi's Four Seasons.
Airplane! (1980)
Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker · 3 critic votes
An ex-fighter pilot forced to take over the controls of an airliner when the flight crew succumbs to food poisoning.
The King and the Mockingbird (1980)
Paul Grimault · 3 critic votes
A young shepherdess and a chimneysweep plan to get married and escape the clutches of a tyrannical king in love with her, assisted by the guile of a cheeky mockingbird, the king's archenemy.
Gently Down the Stream (1981)
Su Friedrich · 3 critic votes
GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM is constructed from fourteen dreams taken from eight years' worth of my journals. The text is scratched directly on to the film so that you hear your own voice as you read. The accompanying images of women, water, animals and saints were chosen for their indirect but potent correspondence to the text.
Son of the White Mare (1981)
Marcell Jankovics · 3 critic votes
A horse goddess gives birth to three powerful brothers who set out into the Underworld to save three princesses from three evil dragons and reclaim their ancestors' lost kingdom.
The Beyond (1981)
Lucio Fulci · 3 critic votes
New Yorker Liza Merril inherits an old hotel in Louisiana and invests her savings to reopen the place, unaware that the hotel houses the body of a dead painter murdered decades earlier, and that the location is about to become a gateway to Hell.
Dimensions of Dialogue (1983)
Jan Švankmajer · 3 critic votes
Three surreal depictions of failures of communication that occur on all levels of human society.
First Name: Carmen (1983)
Jean-Luc Godard · 3 critic votes
A woman involved with a terrorist group becomes dangerously close to the police officer guarding the bank they plan to rob.
Standard Gauge (1984)
Morgan Fisher · 3 critic votes
Standard Gauge is an autobiographical film that examines Morgan Fisher’s work as an editor in the film industry. The film goes through scraps of rejected material along with commentary on the meaning of all the scrapped images. This film is an account and critique of the processes of meaning within film production through an examination of both materialism and the institution of film itself.
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Woody Allen · 3 critic votes
Cecilia is a waitress in New Jersey, living a dreary life during the Great Depression. Her only escape from her mundane reality is the movie theatre. After losing her job, Cecilia goes to see 'The Purple Rose of Cairo' in hopes of raising her spirits, where she watches dashing archaeologist Tom Baxter time and again.
When the Wind Blows (1986)
Jimmy Murakami · 3 critic votes
With the help of government-issued pamphlets, an elderly British couple build a shelter and prepare for an impending nuclear attack, unaware that times and the nature of war have changed from their romantic memories of World War II.
The Dead (1987)
John Huston · 3 critic votes
After a convivial holiday dinner party, things begin to unravel when a husband and wife address some prickly issues concerning their marriage.
Pictures of the Old World (1988)
Dušan Hanák · 3 critic votes
A raw and telling portrait of a people left behind by the modern world, inspired by the work of photographer Martin Martinček - whose pictures of the inhabitants of the Liptov region in central Slovakia, encompassed by the Tatra mountains, distilled entire lifetimes into luminous and intransient images. Dušan Hanák's continuation of these photographs takes the shape of a poetic visual essay, capturing more comprehensive vignettes of their isolated human experiences.
How to Live in the German Federal Republic (1990)
Harun Farocki · 3 critic votes
A series of 32 short scenes, uniformly set in West German instructional and training classes, that show various tasks among the citizenry being done solely as the result of exhaustive preparation - everything from women preparing to give birth, to strippers stripping, to policemen making arrests. Farocki uses the material to savagely dissect the West German mode of life.
The Nightmare before Christmas (1993)
Henry Selick · 3 critic votes
Tired of scaring humans every October 31 with the same old bag of tricks, Jack Skellington, the spindly king of Halloween Town, kidnaps Santa Claus and plans to deliver shrunken heads and other ghoulish gifts to children on Christmas morning. But as Christmas approaches, Jack's rag-doll girlfriend, Sally, tries to foil his misguided plans.
The Wrong Trousers (1993)
Nick Park · 3 critic votes
Wallace rents out Gromit's former bedroom to a penguin, who takes up an interest in the techno trousers created by Wallace. However, Gromit later learns that the penguin is a wanted criminal.
No Sex Last Night (1996)
Sophie Calle · 3 critic votes
Armed with camcorders, French artist Sophie Calle and American photographer Greg Shephard head West across the United States in his Cadillac convertible to produce and document a narrative of their journey and relationship.
Nowhere (1997)
Gregg Araki · 3 critic votes
In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith, his bisexual girlfriend, her lesbian lover and their shy gay friend plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds.
Film Is (1998)
Gustav Deutsch · 3 critic votes
Film ist. 1-6 is an avant-garde collage from Gustav Deutsch, using found footage from various scientific films to explore the properties, impact and nature of film.
But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)
Jamie Babbit · 3 critic votes
Megan is an all-American girl. A cheerleader. She has a boyfriend. But Megan doesn't like kissing her boyfriend very much. And she's pretty touchy with her cheerleader friends. Her conservative parents worry that she must be a lesbian and send her off to "sexual redirection" school, where she must, with other lesbians and gays learn how to be straight.
Outer Space (1999)
Peter Tscherkassky · 3 critic votes
A young woman move towards a house that holds a potentially dangerous spirit that has been tormenting her. The woman tries to fight against the film itself as it starts to cause the world to collapse.
Decasia (2002)
Bill Morrison · 3 critic votes
A meditation on the human quest to transcend physicality, constructed from decaying archival footage and set to an original symphonic score.
The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
Sylvain Chomet · 3 critic votes
When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters—an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire—to rescue him.
Wasp (2003)
Andrea Arnold · 3 critic votes
Zoë is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford. She is poor and can't afford to buy food. One day her old flame drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. Scared that he doesn't want to go out with her, she lies and tells him that she is just babysitting the kids. This will be her first date in years.
At Sea (2007)
Peter Hutton · 3 critic votes
Three segments depicting the life cycle of a freighter boat.
You, the Living (2007)
Roy Andersson · 3 critic votes
In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, deadpan vignettes that rush past. Some are just seconds long, none longer than a couple of minutes. A young woman remembers a fantasy honeymoon with a rock guitarist. A man awakes from a dream about bomber planes. A businessman boasts about success while being robbed by a pickpocket, and so on. The absurdist collection is accompanied by Dixieland jazz and similar music.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Wes Anderson · 3 critic votes
The Fantastic Mr. Fox, bored with his current life, plans a heist against the three local farmers. The farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with the sly fox, seek revenge against him and his family.
The Image Book (2018)
Jean-Luc Godard · 3 critic votes
In Le Livre d’Image, Jean-Luc Godard recycles existing images (films, documentaries, paintings, television archives, etc.), quotes excerpts from books, uses fragments of music. The driving force is poetic rhyme, the association or opposition of ideas, the aesthetic spark through editing, the keystone. The author performs the work of a sculptor. The hand, for this, is essential. He praises it at the start. “There are the five fingers. The five senses. The five parts of the world (…). The true condition of man is to think with his hands. Jean-Luc Godard composes a dazzling syncopation of sequences, the surge of which evokes the violence of the flows of our contemporary screens, taken to a level of incandescence rarely achieved. Crowned at Cannes, the last Godard is a shock film, with twilight beauty.
Dahomey (2024)
Mati Diop · 3 critic votes
Thousands of royal artifacts of Dahomey, a West African kingdom, were taken by French colonists in the 19th century for collection and display in Paris. Centuries later, a fraction returned to their home in modern-day Benin. This dramatized documentary follows the journey of 26 of the treasures as told by cultural art historians, embattled university students, and one of the repatriated statues himself.
Barque sortant du port (1895)
Louis Lumière · 2 critic votes
In very bad weather and a stormy sea, a small boat manned by two men is trying to leave the harbor of La Ciotat, while several people are watching them from the nearby pier.
Le Repas de bébé (1895)
Louis Lumière · 2 critic votes
A father, a mother and a baby are sitting at a table, on a patio outside. Dad is feeding Baby her lunch, while Mum is serving tea.
La Fée aux Choux (1896)
Alice Guy-Blaché · 2 critic votes
A brief fantasy tale involving a strange fairy who can produce and deliver babies coming out of cabbages. Note: This is a LOST film; the existing film of the same name is the remake from 1900.
Les Résultats du féminisme (1906)
Alice Guy-Blaché · 2 critic votes
It's a society in which gender roles are switched. Will men stand to be unequal?
War Be Damned (1914)
Alfred Machin · 2 critic votes
An army pilot is visiting the home of another army pilot in a neighboring country, and falling in love with his sister, when war breaks out.
Ceux de chez nous (1915)
Sacha Guitry · 2 critic votes
With family connections to some famous French artists, writers, and musicians of the time, Sacha Guitry decided to film the individuals in action, to celebrate the greatness of his culture, threatened by Germany in the ongoing Great War.
The Battle of the Somme (1916)
Geoffrey H. Malins · 2 critic votes
A documentary and propaganda film which shows the British Army's preparations for, and the early stages of, the battle of the Somme.
A Man There Was (1917)
Victor Sjöström · 2 critic votes
Terje Vigen, a sailor, suffers the loss of his family through the inflexibility of another man. Years later, when his enemy's family finds itself dependent on his benevolence, Terje must decide whether to avenge himself.
Cœur fidèle (1923)
Jean Epstein · 2 critic votes
A naval captain returns and jilts a socialite to take care of his bastard daughter.
Ballet Mécanique (1924)
Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy · 2 critic votes
Ballet Mécanique is a Dadaist, post-Cubist art film conceived, written, and co-directed by the artist Fernand Léger in collaboration with the filmmaker Dudley Murphy. It has a musical score by the American composer George Antheil.
He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
Victor Sjöström · 2 critic votes
After a baron steals his scientific discoveries, runs away with his wife, and slaps him in public, a man joins a Parisian circus sideshow as a clown whose act consists of being slapped repeatedly and becomes infatuated with a showgirl colleague whose father intends to marry her off to the baron.
Strike (1925)
Sergei Eisenstein · 2 critic votes
Workers in a factory in pre-revolutionary Russia go on strike and are met by violent suppression.
The Crazy Ray (1925)
René Clair · 2 critic votes
A night watchman on the Eiffel Tower wakes up to find the entire population of the city frozen in place.
A Sixth Part of the World (1926)
Dziga Vertov · 2 critic votes
Through the travelogue format, it depicts the multitude of Soviet peoples in remote areas of USSR and details the entirety of the wealth of the Soviet land. Focusing on cultural and economic diversity, the film is in fact a call for unification in order to build a "complete socialist society".
L'invitation au voyage (1927)
Germaine Dulac · 2 critic votes
A woman enters a nightclub and slowly begins to open herself up.
Lonesome (1928)
Paul Fejos · 2 critic votes
Two lonely people in the big city meet and enjoy the thrills of an amusement park, only to lose each other in the crowd after spending a great day together. Will they ever see each other again?
Steamboat Willie (1928)
Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks · 2 critic votes
Mickey Mouse, piloting a steamboat, delights his passenger, Minnie Mouse, by making musical instruments out of the menagerie on deck.
The Circus (1928)
Charlie Chaplin · 2 critic votes
Charlie, a wandering tramp, becomes a circus handyman - soon the star of the show - and falls in love with the circus owner's stepdaughter.
Finis Terræ (1929)
Jean Epstein · 2 critic votes
On the islet Bannec, off the coast of Brittany, four fishermen have set up camp for three months to harvest seaweed. If processed correctly, the ash of the seaweed can be sold for high prices. It is therefore burnt in several large piles on the island. Problems arise when one of them gets an infected thumb.
The Wild Party (1929)
Dorothy Arzner · 2 critic votes
Wild girls at a college pay more attention to parties than their classes. But when one party girl, Stella Ames, goes too far at a local bar and gets in trouble, her professor has to rescue her. Gossip linking the two escalates until Stella proves she is decent by shielding an innocent girl and winning the professor's respect.
Bimbo's Initiation (1931)
Dave Fleischer · 2 critic votes
Bimbo finds himself surrounded by a mysterious group of robed figures who invite him to become a member of their secret organisation. When he refuses, they fling him through a nightmarish sequence of terror and torture devices. Will our hapless hero make it out alive?
From Saturday to Sunday (1931)
Gustav Machatý · 2 critic votes
Two secretaries go out on a double date, but the inexperienced Mary flees when offered money for sexual favors. She takes refuge in a cafe and encounters a plebeian Prince Charming. The film recounts the simple progress of their romance after they go home together.
Monkey Business (1931)
Norman Z. McLeod · 2 critic votes
Four stowaways get mixed up with gangsters while running riot on an ocean liner.
Broken Lullaby (1932)
Ernst Lubitsch · 2 critic votes
A young French soldier in World War I is overcome with guilt when he kills a German soldier who, like himself, is a musically gifted conscript, each having attended the same musical conservatory in France. The fact that the incident occurred in war does not assuage his guilt. He travels to Germany to meet the man's family.
Kuhle Wampe or Who Owns the World? (1932)
Slatan Dudow · 2 critic votes
Kuhle Wampe takes place in early-1930s Berlin. The film begins with a montage of newspaper headlines describing steadily-rising unemployment figures. This is followed by scenes of a young man looking for work in the city and the family discussing the unpaid back rent. The young man, brother of the protagonist Anni, removes his wristwatch and throws himself from a window out of despair. Shortly thereafter his family is evicted from their apartment. Now homeless, the family moves into a garden colony of sorts with the name “Kuhle Wampe.”
Love Me Tonight (1932)
Rouben Mamoulian · 2 critic votes
A Parisian tailor goes to a château to collect a bill, only to fall for an aloof young princess living there.
Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)
Dorothy Arzner · 2 critic votes
A drunken newspaperman, Jerry Corbett, is rescued from his alcoholic haze by an heiress, Joan Prentice, whose love sobers him up and encourages him to write a play, but he lapses back into dipsomania.
The Blood of a Poet (1932)
Jean Cocteau · 2 critic votes
In a poet’s room, an armless statue abruptly comes to life. It invites the poet to step through a mirror and to discover another world. Strange places and characters present themselves to him. The poet tears himself away from these twisted fascinations and returns, with some difficulty, to his room.
The Music Box (1932)
James Parrott · 2 critic votes
The Laurel & Hardy Moving Co. have a challenging job on their hands (and backs): hauling a player piano up a monumental flight of stairs to Prof. von Schwarzenhoffen's house. Their task is complicated by a sassy nursemaid and, unbeknownst to them, the impatient Prof. von Schwarzenhoffen himself. But the biggest problem is the force of gravity, which repeatedly pulls the piano back down to the bottom of the stairs.
Ganga Bruta (1933)
Humberto Mauro · 2 critic votes
A man kills his wife on their wedding night, after discovering she had been unfaithful. After being acquitted, he moves to the country, where he becomes part of a love triangle.
Man's Castle (1933)
Frank Borzage · 2 critic votes
Bill takes Trina into his depression camp cabin. Later, just as he finds showgirl LaRue who will support him, Trina becomes pregnant.
The 39 Steps (1935)
Alfred Hitchcock · 2 critic votes
Richard Hanney has a rude awakening when a glamorous female spy falls into his bed - with a knife in her back. Having a bit of trouble explaining it all to Scotland Yard, he heads for the hills of Scotland to try to clear his name by locating the spy ring known as The 39 Steps.
The Seahorse (1935)
Jean Painlevé · 2 critic votes
Examines the sea horse, the only fish that swims upright. We watch it use its prehensile tail to wrap around plants and other sea horses. A frontal bulge houses organs including an air ballast. Three fins propel this fish. We see a female place her eggs in a male's pouch where they are fertilized and nurtured until birth in violent contractions. Inside the pouch are nurturing blood vessels. We then follow the growth of an embryo, greatly magnified: we examine its heart beating and its dorsal fin moving. Young sea horses attach themselves to each other. The film ends with images of many sea horses moving on the ocean floor, superimposed on a horse race.
Fallen Blossoms (1938)
Tamizō Ishida · 2 critic votes
Set against the backdrop of an imperial victory in the civil war leading up to the Meiji Restoration, Fallen Blossoms tells the story of the sorrows of women in a geisha house in Kyoto by recounting the relationships of its inhabitants.
Love Affair (1939)
Leo McCarey · 2 critic votes
A French playboy and an American former nightclub singer fall in love aboard a ship. They arrange to reunite six months later, if neither has changed their mind.
Spare Time (1939)
Humphrey Jennings · 2 critic votes
Spare Time is a 1939 British film directed by Humphrey Jennings for the GPO Film Unit, and made for the 1939 New York World's Fair. It is 15 minutes long and documents the leisure activities of workers in the coal, steel, and cotton industries in Sheffield, Bolton, Manchester and Pontypridd. Commentary is provided by Laurie Lee.
Dumbo (1941)
Ben Sharpsteen, Norm Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson, Bill Roberts, Jack Kinney, Samuel Armstrong · 2 critic votes
Dumbo is a baby elephant born with over-sized ears and a supreme lack of confidence. But thanks to his even more diminutive buddy Timothy the Mouse, the pint-sized pachyderm learns to surmount all obstacles.
Detour (1945)
Edgar G. Ulmer · 2 critic votes
The life of Al Roberts, a pianist in a New York nightclub, turns into a nightmare when he decides to hitchhike to Los Angeles to visit his girlfriend.
Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946)
Maya Deren · 2 critic votes
A social event choreographed in the manner of a dance, illuminated by concepts drawn from Greek legend; one of filmmaker Maya Deren's most intriguing works.
Antoine and Antoinette (1947)
Jacques Becker · 2 critic votes
1947, in France, Antoine and Antoinette, a young couple living in Paris, lead a monotonous existence: he works in a print shop while she is a shop assistant. But one evening, they regain hope: Antoine finds a winning lottery ticket in his girlfriend's handbag. He decides to cash it in, but loses his wallet. What follows is a series of twists and turns that redefine the couple's priorities while forcing them to remain optimistic.
In the Street (1948)
Helen Levitt, James Agee, Janice Loeb · 2 critic votes
Images of street life in New York's Spanish Harlem during the 1940s.
Le Tempestaire (1948)
Jean Epstein · 2 critic votes
Following a premonition, a young woman tries to persuade her fiancé not to go out to sea in his fishing boat, but the boy ignores her and sets out. Soon, a storm occurs, and the girl frantically tries to find out his fate. Eventually, at the advice of her grandmother, she goes to the "Tempestaire", who has the power to speak to the wind and subdue it.
Blood of the Beasts (1949)
Georges Franju · 2 critic votes
An early example of ultra-realism, this movie contrasts the quiet, bucolic life in the outskirts of Paris with the harsh, gory conditions inside the nearby slaughterhouses. Describes the fate of the animals and that of the workers in graphic detail.
Meditation on Violence (1949)
Maya Deren · 2 critic votes
Chao-Li Chi shadow boxes indoors and practices with a sword outdoors. Theoretically, the film describes in a single continuous movement three degrees of traditional Chinese boxing, Wu-tang, Shao-lin, and Shao-lin with a sword. A long sequence of the ballet-like, sinuous Wu-tang becomes the more erratic Shao-lin; in the middle, there is an abrupt change to leaping sword movements, in the center of which, at the apogee of the leap, there is a long held freeze-frame.
Afrique 50 (1950)
René Vautier · 2 critic votes
The first French anti-colonialist film, derived from an assignment in which the director was to document educational activities by the French League of Schooling in West Africa. Vautier later filmed what he actually saw: “a lack of teachers and doctors, the crimes committed by the French Army in the name of France, the instrumentalization of the colonized peoples.” For his role in the film, Vautier was imprisoned for several months. The film was banned from public screening for more than 40 years.
Outrage (1950)
Ida Lupino · 2 critic votes
A young woman who has just become engaged has her life completely shattered when she is raped while on her way home from work.
The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950)
Frank Launder · 2 critic votes
Nutbourne College, an old established, all-boys, boarding school is told that another school is to be billeted with due to wartime restrictions. The shock is that it's an all-girls school that has been sent. The two head teachers are soon battling for the upper hand with each other and the Ministry. But a crisis (or two) forces them to work together.
High Noon (1952)
Fred Zinnemann · 2 critic votes
Will Kane, the sheriff of a small town in New Mexico, learns a notorious outlaw he put in jail has been freed, and will be arriving on the noon train. Knowing the outlaw and his gang are coming to kill him, Kane is determined to stand his ground, so he attempts to gather a posse from among the local townspeople.
Hurlements en faveur de Sade (1952)
Guy Debord · 2 critic votes
Debord directed his first film, "Hurlements en faveur de Sade" in 1952 with the voices of Michele Bernstein and Gil Holman. The film has no actual images; instead, it shows bright white when there is speaking and black when there is not. Long silences separate speaking parts. The film ends with 24 minutes of black silence.
Lightning (1952)
Mikio Naruse · 2 critic votes
The story of Kiyoko, a young woman who has successfully managed to make a break with her dysfunctional family who have been trying to arrange a marriage for her with a disagreeable man whom she has rejected.
Little Fugitive (1953)
Raymond Abrashkin, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin · 2 critic votes
After a prank makes Joey Norton believe he killed his older brother, he runs away from home and spends the day at Coney Island while his brother tries to find him before their mother gets home.
The Back of Beyond (1954)
John Heyer · 2 critic votes
This 1954 classic follows an outback mailman as he travels along the Birdsville Track.
Granada Mirror-Water (1955)
José Val del Omar · 2 critic votes
Experimental, cinematic symphony of Granada, José Val del Omar's birthplace.
The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955)
Luis Buñuel · 2 critic votes
A bizarre black comedy about a man whose overwhelming ambition in life is to be a renowned serial killer of women, and will stop at nothing to achieve it - but not everything goes according to plan...
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Don Siegel · 2 critic votes
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
Rentrée des classes (1956)
Jacques Rozier · 2 critic votes
In a small village in Provence, on the first day of school, a young boy throws his bag into the river on a bet, and the retrieval of it leads to a thrilling adventure.
Street of Shame (1956)
Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasuzō Masumura · 2 critic votes
Follows five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation debates the passage of an anti-prostitution law.
The Red Balloon (1956)
Albert Lamorisse · 2 critic votes
A young boy discovers a stray balloon, which seems to have a mind of its own, on the streets of Paris. The two become inseparable, yet the world’s harsh realities finally interfere.
There's Always Tomorrow (1956)
Douglas Sirk · 2 critic votes
When a toy manufacturer feels ignored and unappreciated by his wife and children, he begins to rekindle a past love when a former employee comes back into his life.
Toute la mémoire du monde (1956)
Alain Resnais · 2 critic votes
A documentary about the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It presents the building, with its processes of cataloguing and preserving all sorts of printed material, as both a monument of cultural memory and as a monstrous, alien being.
Adebar (1957)
Peter Kubelka · 2 critic votes
Adebar is the first of Peter Kubelka's 'metric films', in which every element of the composition is precisely ordered and in relation to the gestalt. The film is made up of single units---13, 26 and 52 frames long---which are subjected to a complex rule-system, including a strict use of positive and negative space, that determines their structure within the film.
Plan 9 from outer Space (1957)
Ed Wood · 2 critic votes
In California, an old man grieves the loss of his wife, and dies the day after she is buried. However, the space soldier Eros and his mate Tanna use an electric device to resurrect them both, alongside the strong Inspector Clay, who was murdered by the alien-controlled dead couple. When the populations of Hollywood and Washington DC see flying saucers on the sky, a colonel, a police lieutenant, a commercial pilot, his wife and a policeman try to stop the aliens.
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Jack Arnold · 2 critic votes
A dangerous combination of radiation and insecticide causes the unfortunate Scott Carey to shrink, slowly but surely, until he is only a few inches tall. His home becomes a wilderness where he must survive everything from spiders living in the cellar to his beloved cat.
Schwechater (1958)
Peter Kubelka · 2 critic votes
In 1957, Peter Kubelka was hired to make a short commercial for Schwechater beer. The beer company undoubtedly thought they were commissioning a film that would help them sell their beers; Kubelka had other ideas. He shot his film with a camera that did not even have a viewer, simply pointing it in the general direction of the action. He then took many months to edit his footage, while the company fumed and demanded a finished product. Finally he submitted a film, 90 seconds long, that featured extremely rapid cutting (cutting at the limits of most viewers' perception) between images washed out almost to the point of abstraction — in black-and-white positive and negative and with red tint — of dimly visible people drinking beer and of the froth of beer seen in a fully abstract pattern.
Shadows (1959)
John Cassavetes · 2 critic votes
The relationship between Lelia, a light-skinned black woman, and Tony, a white man is put in jeopardy when Tony meets Lelia’s darker-skinned jazz singer brother, Hugh, and discovers that her racial heritage is not what he thought it was.
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Clyde Geronimi, Les Clark, Eric Larson, Wolfgang Reitherman · 2 critic votes
Cursed to die by the evil fairy Maleficent when she was a baby, Princess Aurora is sent into hiding under protection from three good fairies. As she grows up far away, Maleficent becomes increasingly determined to seal the princess's fate.
Arnulf Rainer (1960)
Peter Kubelka · 2 critic votes
An experimental film, the last in Peter Kubelka's trilogy of “metric films”. Each frame of Arnulf Rainer is composed of darkness or light and silence or sound.
Fuego en Castilla (Tactilvisión del páramo del espanto) (1960)
José Val del Omar · 2 critic votes
A short, experimental documentary featuring sculptures by Alonso de Berruguete and Juan de Juni. Shot within the Valladolid National Museum, the film is an excercise in what Val de Omar called "Tactile vision".
The Exiles (1961)
Kent Mackenzie · 2 critic votes
The story of one night in the lives of a group of young Native American men and women who have left their reservations and are now living in the Bunker Hill district of Los Angeles.
Carnival of Souls (1962)
Herk Harvey · 2 critic votes
Mary Henry ends up the sole survivor of a fatal car accident through mysterious circumstances. Trying to put the incident behind her, she moves to Utah and takes a job as a church organist. But her fresh start is interrupted by visions of a fiendish man. As the visions begin to occur more frequently, Mary finds herself drawn to the deserted carnival on the outskirts of town. The strangely alluring carnival may hold the secret to her tragic past.
Twice A Man (1963)
Gregory Markopoulos · 2 critic votes
A reworking of the myth of Hippolytus, in which a chaste youth rejects the incestuous advances of his mother and is saved from death by a caring physician.
Zapruder film (1963)
Abraham Zapruder · 2 critic votes
The Enchanted Desna (1964)
Yuliya Solntseva · 2 critic votes
Based on the novel of the same name by Oleksandr Dovzhenko. About the childhood of the famous Ukrainian film director Oleksandr Dovzhenko, who was born on the ancient lands of Chernihiv, along the banks the Desna. The film consists of two parts. The first is the world shown through the impressions of the six-year-old Sashko. The second is the recollections and reasoning of Sashko, now an elderly colonel who liberates his native village during the war.
Intimate Lighting (1965)
Ivan Passer · 2 critic votes
Two classically trained musicians and childhood friends - one a successful cellist in Prague, the other a violinist who makes his money playing provincial funerals - reconvene on the eve of a small-town symphony concert.
Not Reconciled (1965)
Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet · 2 critic votes
A story about the continuity and collapse of history, the power of suppression, and the terror of reconciliation; loyalty, treason and revenge. In a brave cinematic game, Heinrich Böll’s story Billiards at Half-Past Nine is split up into cracks, blocks, breaks and sudden turns, as the life story of a German family, covering numerous generations, is propelled forward.
Simon of the Desert (1965)
Luis Buñuel · 2 critic votes
Simon, a deeply religious man living in the 4th century, wants to be nearer to God so he climbs a column. The Devil wants him come down to Earth and is trying to seduce him.
The Flicker (1965)
Tony Conrad · 2 critic votes
A film consisting of alternating black and white frames.
Castro Street (1966)
Bruce Baillie · 2 critic votes
Inspired by a lesson from Erik Satie, a film in the form of a street: Castro Street, running by the Standard Oil Refinery in Richmond, California.
Outer and Inner Space (1966)
Andy Warhol · 2 critic votes
A 16mm Warhol film of Edie Sedgwick sitting in front of a television monitor on which is playing a prerecorded videotape of herself. On the videotape, Edie is positioned on the left side of the frame, facing right; she is talking to an unseen person off-screen to our right. In the film, the “real” or “live” Edie Sedgwick is seated on the right side of the film frame, with her video image behind her, and she is talking to an unseen person off-screen to our left. The effect of this setup is that it sometimes creates the rather strange illusion that we are watching Edie in conversation with her own video image.
The War Game (1966)
Peter Watkins · 2 critic votes
A docudrama depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain. After backing the film's development, the BBC refused to air it, publicly stating "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting." It debuted in theaters in 1966 and went on to great acclaim, but remained unseen on British television until 1985.
La Collectionneuse (1967)
Éric Rohmer · 2 critic votes
A man kidnaps a woman and holds her hostage just for the pleasure of having her there.
Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator (1967)
Dušan Makavejev · 2 critic votes
After many adventures, a young female switchboard operator starts a love relationship with a serious young man. But while he's away on business, she gets lonely and succumbs to her colleague's passes.
The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967)
Melvin Van Peebles · 2 critic votes
Turner, a black American soldier, is given three days leave in Paris. Not knowing what to do with himself, he goes to a nightclub where he meets a French girl named Miriam. Their romance blossoms, but their love affair is darkened by Turner's impending departure and the specter of racial prejudice.
High School (1968)
Frederick Wiseman · 2 critic votes
Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside Northeast High School as a fly on the wall to observe the teachers and how they interact with the students.
Hour of the Wolf (1968)
Ingmar Bergman · 2 critic votes
While vacationing on a remote German island with his younger pregnant wife, an artist has an emotional breakdown while confronting his repressed desires.
One Night... A Train (1968)
André Delvaux · 2 critic votes
The Belgian linguistics professor Matthias is going through a difficult period in relations with his girlfriend Anne. She is French, he is Belgian, and, oddly enough for an enlightened Europe and a doubly enlightened university environment, this small difference is a shadow on the couple’s personal life. One day, during a train ride, Anne disappears and Mathias goes looking for her in an unknown city.
Razor Blades (1968)
Paul Sharits · 2 critic votes
In Razor Blades, Paul SHARITS consciously challenges our eyes, ears and minds to withstand a barrage of high powered and often contradictory stimuli. In a careful juxtaposition and fusion of these elements on different parts of our being, usually occurring simultaneously, we feel at times hypnotised and re-educated by some potent and mysterious force.
The Girl (1968)
Márta Mészáros · 2 critic votes
A young woman leaves a state orphanage to find her mother in this interesting examination of how the overt repression of women in the older pattern of village life has been replaced by the more subtle exploitation inherent in the apparently freer existence of young girls in the contemporary city.
Witchfinder General (1968)
Michael Reeves · 2 critic votes
England, 1645. The cruel civil war between Royalists and Parliamentarians that is ravaging the country causes an era of chaos and legal arbitrariness that allows unscrupulous men to profit by exploiting the absurd superstitions of the peasants; like Matthew Hopkins, a monster disguised as a man who wanders from town to town offering his services as a witch hunter.
Blood of the Condor (1969)
Jorge Sanjinés · 2 critic votes
A community reacts against a group of foreigners who under the guise of development assistance are forcibly sterilizing the peasant women.
Hi, Mom! (1970)
Brian De Palma · 2 critic votes
Vietnam vet Jon Rubin returns to New York and rents a rundown flat in Greenwich Village. It is in this flat that he begins to film, 'Peeping Tom' style, the people in the apartment across the street. His obsession with making films leads him to fall in with a radical 'Black Power' group, which in turn leads him to carry out a bizarre act of urban terrorism.
The Wild Child (1970)
François Truffaut · 2 critic votes
The true story of Victor of Aveyron. In a French forest circa 1798, an abandoned child — feral, filthy and mentally impaired — is found. Dr Jean Marc Gaspard Itard becomes interested in the case and patiently attempts to civilise the boy.
Duel (1971)
Steven Spielberg · 2 critic votes
Traveling businessman David Mann angers the driver of a rusty tanker while crossing the California desert. A simple trip turns deadly, as Mann struggles to stay on the road while the tanker plays cat and mouse with his life.
Interview (1971)
Mrinal Sen · 2 critic votes
A young Indian man has been assured by an uncle that all he needs to land a lucrative job is to show up to the interview in a Western style suit, but the morning of the interview is fraught with unexpected difficulties.
Love (1971)
Károly Makk · 2 critic votes
Luca, who regularly visits her bedridden mother-in-law, hides from her the fact that János, his son, has been arrested on a trumped up political charge.
Punishment Park (1971)
Peter Watkins · 2 critic votes
In this fictional documentary, U.S. prisons are at capacity, and President Nixon declares a state of emergency. All new prisoners, most of whom are connected to the antiwar movement, are now given the choice of jail time or spending three days in Punishment Park, where they will be hunted for sport by federal authorities. The prisoners invariably choose the latter option, but learn that, between the desert heat and the brutal police officers, their chances of survival are slim.
Tahia ya didou! (1971)
Mohamed Zinet · 2 critic votes
Originally commissioned by the city of Algiers to promote tourism, Mohamed Zinet’s Tahia ya Didou blends documentary with fiction to create a poetic, acerbic and rapturous portrait of the director’s native city. The camera travels freely, through the port, market, streets and cafés, capturing everyday people, some of whom recur frequently enough to seem like protagonists. The nominal plotline follows a French tourist couple’s leisurely visit to the city, the man having previously served in the army during the Algerian war. As they walk around, his comments betray his mindset’s racist colonial prejudices, while his wife reiterates asinine clichés. Their unhurried wandering is interrupted when he comes across a blind man and realises that he tortured him during his army service. The film is punctuated with punchy sequences that show a poet named Momo delivering verse as an elegy for Algiers.
Y'a qu'à pas baiser (1971)
Carole Roussopoulos · 2 critic votes
Documentary about the practice of abortion in France in the early seventies, at a time when it was still illegal.
Chircales (1972)
Jorge Silva, Marta Rodríguez · 2 critic votes
This film documents the life of a family of brick makers in the outskirts of Bogotá, using the personal experience of the Castañeda family to expose the exploitation of manual laborers. Marta Rodríguez and Jorge Silva worked on this documentary from 1966 to 1972, establishing a relationship with the family which allows the viewer an intimate look at their hardships.
LA Plays Itself (1972)
Fred Halsted · 2 critic votes
Two men have a fleetingly idyllic meeting outside of Los Angeles while Fred Halsted shows a young pick-up the ropes within city limits.
Red Psalm (1972)
Miklós Jancsó · 2 critic votes
Set in the 1890s on the Hungarian plains, a group of farm workers go on strike in which they face harsh reprisals and the reality of revolt, oppression, morality and violence.
A Simple Event (1973)
Sohrab Shahid-Saless · 2 critic votes
The story of a ten years old Iranian schoolboy living with his mother and his father in Northern coasts of Iran. The boy helps his father in selling the latter's illegal fishing and helps his mother in shopping for her and bringing home water from a well. The three characters live together in only one room. Their life is austere. The boy eats only bread and milk every day... One day the boy's mother dies.
Sylvie (1973)
Klaus Lemke · 2 critic votes
Fashion model Sylvie falls asleep drunk in the cab of Munich taxi driver Paul, and an impossible love affair beckons.
Aerial (1974)
Margaret Tait · 2 critic votes
"Touches on elemental images; air, water, (and snow), earth and fire (and smoke) all come into it." - MT
Lancelot of the Lake (1974)
Robert Bresson · 2 critic votes
Having failed in their quest for the Holy Grail, the knights of the Round Table return to Camelot, their number reduced to a mere handful. Seeing a rift developing between Lancelot and Mordred, Arthur urges his knights to bury their differences and become friends. However, the king is unaware that Lancelot is having an affair with his queen, Guinevere. Lancelot is torn between his duty to his king and his love for the queen, whilst Mordred is determined to use his infidelity to destroy him.
Penda's Fen (1974)
Alan John Clarke · 2 critic votes
Through a series of real and imagined encounters with angels, demons, and England's pagan past, a pastor's son begins to question his religion and politics, and comes to terms with his sexuality.
Light Music (1975)
Lis Rhodes · 2 critic votes
Light Music is a classic work of expanded cinema. Formed from two projections facing one another on opposite screens, Light Music is Rhodes’ response to what she perceived as the lack of attention paid to women composers in European music. She composed a ‘score’ comprised of drawings that form abstract patterns of black and white lines onscreen. The drawings are printed onto the optical edge of the filmstrip. As the bands of light and dark pass through the 16mm projector they are ‘read’ as audio, creating an intense soundtrack that proposes a direct relationship between the sonic and the visual. What you hear is equivalent to what you see.
Nuts in May (1976)
Mike Leigh · 2 critic votes
A middle-class couple go camping in Dorset, but peace and quiet elude them.
House (1977)
Nobuhiko Obayashi · 2 critic votes
Hoping to find a sense of connection to her late mother, Gorgeous takes a trip with her friends to visit her aunt's ancestral house in the countryside. The girls soon discover that there is more to the old house than meets the eye.
Makwayela (1977)
Jacques d'Arthuys, Jean Rouch · 2 critic votes
A group of factory workers in post-independence Mozambique perform a ritual of song describing their work in South African gold mines and decrying the evils of apartheid.
Une sale histoire (1977)
Jean Eustache · 2 critic votes
A group of friends listen as one man tells them a story about a time when, in a small cafe, he discovered a peephole into the ladies' bathroom and became addicted to looking through it at female genitals. They ask him questions and come to conclusions about sex. This is a filmed, scripted version. Then, the actual person who this happened to relates the same story; this time, however, it is an unscripted documentary, in which the same things occur as in the scripted one.
Always for Pleasure (1978)
Les Blank · 2 critic votes
A musical portrait of New Orleans' street celebrations and unique cultural gumbo in 1977: second-line parades, Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest. Features live music from Professor Longhair, the Wild Tchoupitoulas, the Neville Brothers and more. This glorious, soul-satisfying film is among Blank's special masterworks. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 1999.
Gates of Heaven (1978)
Errol Morris · 2 critic votes
A documentary about a pet cemetery in California, and the people who have pets buried there.
The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (1979)
Raúl Ruiz · 2 critic votes
Two narrators, one seen and one unseen, discuss possible connections between a series of paintings. The on-screen narrator walks through three-dimensional reproductions of each painting, featuring real people, sometimes moving, in an effort to explain the series' significance.
Who's Singin' Over There? (1980)
Slobodan Šijan · 2 critic votes
On the last bus to Belgrade before the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, a gallery of eccentrics turns an ordinary journey into a tragicomic portrait of a nation on the brink.
Documenteur (1981)
Agnès Varda · 2 critic votes
After separating from the father of her son, a young French woman tries to find lodging and a fresh start in L.A. for herself and her son.
L'homme atlantique (1981)
Marguerite Duras · 2 critic votes
A woman watches and speaks to a man as he moves through a house by the sea. She observes his presence and tracks his shifting distance from her.
Spacy (1981)
Takashi Ito · 2 critic votes
"His films are like a roller-coaster. His way of throwing the act of seeing into utter confusion is an attack on the eyes in their corporeal function, and to attack the eyes is to take on tile body itself as your opponent. The film makes you break out in sweat only by shooting a safe, peaceful gymnasium in the dark." (Koharu Kisaragi)
Beyrouth, ma ville (1982)
Jocelyne Saab · 2 critic votes
In July 1982, the Israeli army besieged Beirut. Four days earlier, Jocelyne Saab sees her house burn and 150 years of family existence go up in smoke. She then takes refuge in questioning: when did this all begin? How did the Beirut people live the siege? Each place will then become a story and each name a memory.
Blue Planet (1982)
Franco Piavoli · 2 critic votes
A look at the passage of time through the changing seasons, human evolution and everyday life.
Hours for Jerome (1982)
Nathaniel Dorsky · 2 critic votes
The recording of the daily events of Dorsky and his partner, artist Jerome Hiler, around Lake Owassa in New Jersey and in Manhattan. The two parts of the films revolve around the four seasons with the first part revolving around spring through summer, while the second part revolves around fall through winter.
Illusions (1982)
Julie Dash · 2 critic votes
A woman in a Hollywood dubbing studio struggles with race and preconceptions. The short film depicts the life of an African American woman passing as a white woman working in the film industry during the 1940s. It calls attention to the lack of African Americans in the film industry during that era.
Visit or Memories and Confessions (1982)
Manoel de Oliveira · 2 critic votes
A long-hidden, personal doc about leaving a beloved house by the late, revered Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira.
Angst (1983)
Gerald Kargl · 2 critic votes
A killer is released from prison and breaks into a remote home to kill a woman, her handicapped son and her pretty daughter.
Our Century (1983)
Artavazd Peleshyan · 2 critic votes
A man paves his own way to his own soul through an intellectual quest, tragedies of nations and personal drama. The road moving through the cosmic distances is a flight into one's internal world. This flight and this drama are revealed in this philosophical film-poem.
Possibly in Michigan (1983)
Cecelia Condit · 2 critic votes
A musical horror story about two young women who are stalked through a shopping mall by a cannibal. He follows them home, and here the victims become the aggressors.
The Gold Diggers (1983)
Sally Potter · 2 critic votes
An avant-garde examination of the relationship between women and money in society. Mixing musical, silent melodrama, and philosophical treatise into a post-punk, heady brew.
Barres (1984)
Luc Moullet · 2 critic votes
The 1984 short Barres celebrates the ingenious ways one can get onto the Paris Metro without paying.
Egyptian Series (1984)
Stan Brakhage · 2 critic votes
A series of meditations on Egyptian hieroglyphs – designations (as I finally saw them) of nurturing godheads.
Nothing Lasts Forever (1984)
Tom Schiller · 2 critic votes
An artist fails a test and is required to direct traffic in New York City's Holland Tunnel. He winds up falling in love with a beautiful woman, who takes him to the moon on a Lunar Cruiser.
The Angel (1984)
Patrick Bokanowski · 2 critic votes
The climbing of an immense staircase made up of the most varied stairs. Symbolic scenes occur on different levels where characters seem to be prisoners of their deeds and of their own folly. The steep staircase leads little by little towards the zones of great light where human beings and nonhuman beings meet.
The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1986)
Nan Goldin · 2 critic votes
Nan Goldin's slide show “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” converted, mixed and screened as a film by the artist, portraying the American underground culture, the no wave scene, post-Stonewall gay subculture, among others.
Christine (1987)
Alan Clarke · 2 critic votes
Christine is a pasty-faced teen in a windbreaker and ill-fitting striped shirt who walks endlessly from one friend's house to another, delivering heroin while their parents are absent.
Johnny Flash (1987)
Werner Nekes · 2 critic votes
Jurgen is an unknown electrician with a dream of pop stardom. His mother browbeats him into fame, while two managers compete for his contract. All Johnny really wants to do is get some sleep.
A Short Film About Love (1988)
Krzysztof Kieślowski · 2 critic votes
19-year-old Tomek whiles away his lonely life by spying on his opposite neighbour Magda through binoculars. She's an artist in her mid-thirties, and appears to have everything - not least a constant stream of men at her beck and call. But when the two finally meet, they discover that they have a lot more in common than appeared at first sight...
Alice (1988)
Jan Švankmajer · 2 critic votes
A quiet young English girl named Alice finds herself in an alternate version of her own reality after chasing a white rabbit. She becomes surrounded by living inanimate objects and stuffed dead animals, and must find a way out of this nightmare - no matter how twisted or odd that way must be.
Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies (1988)
Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay, Weiser Quay · 2 critic votes
Stop-motion animated short film in which, among other things, a man made of wire looks malevolent.
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
David Zucker · 2 critic votes
When the bumbling Lieutenant Frank Drebin investigates events following the shooting of his partner, he stumbles upon an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.
Isle of Flowers (1989)
Jorge Furtado · 2 critic votes
A tomato is planted, harvested and sold at a supermarket, but it rots and ends up in the trash. But it doesn’t end there: Isle of Flowers follows it up until its real end, among animals, trash, women and children. And then the difference between tomatoes, pigs and human beings becomes clear.
Sodom (1989)
Luther Price · 2 critic votes
"Sodom By the Sea is a 17 minute experimental documentary about immigration to the United States. It uses the historic site of Coney Island as a point of departure from which to explore both the hopes and failed dreams of those who left their native lands to start a new life in America. Optically printed images of contemporary Coney Island are juxtaposed against the voices of immigrants describing their varied yet shared experiences. Intertitles serve to stitch together two parallel themes: that the heyday of Coney Island and the heyday of immigration to America occurred simultaneously, and that the two had both a subtle and lasting impact on each other." - Mary Patierno
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
Shinya Tsukamoto · 2 critic votes
A "metal fetishist", driven mad by the maggots wriggling in the wound he's made to embed metal into his flesh, runs out into the night and is accidentally run down by a Japanese businessman and his girlfriend. The pair dispose of the corpse in hopes of quietly moving on with their lives. However, the businessman soon finds that he is now plagued by a vicious curse that transforms his flesh into iron.
I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)
Aki Kaurismäki · 2 critic votes
After losing his job and realizing that he is alone in the world, a businessman opts to voluntarily end his life. Lacking courage, he hires a contract killer to do the job. Then, while awaiting his demise, he meets a woman and promptly falls in love.
Sink or Swim (1990)
Su Friedrich · 2 critic votes
Through a series of twenty six short stories, a girl describes the childhood events that shaped her ideas about fatherhood, family relations, work and play. As the stories unfold, a dual portrait emerges: that of a father who cared more for his career than for his family, and of a daughter who was deeply affected by his behavior. Working in counterpoint to the forceful text are sensual black and white images that depict both the extraordinary and ordinary events of daily life. Together, they create a formally complex and emotionally intense film.
The Match Factory Girl (1990)
Aki Kaurismäki · 2 critic votes
Iris is a shy and dowdy young woman stuck in a dead-end job at a match factory, who dreams of finding love at the local dancehall. Finding herself pregnant after a one-night stand and abandoned by the father, Iris finally decides the time has come to get even and she begins to plot her revenge.
Blue Black Permanent (1992)
Margaret Tait · 2 critic votes
In 1990s Edinburgh, Barbara Thorburn reflects on memories of her poet mother, Greta, and her tragic death.
Chronicle of a Lying Spirit by Kelly Gabron (1992)
Cauleen Smith · 2 critic votes
“Chronicles of a Lying Spirit (by Kelly Gabron) is less a depiction of 'reality' than an exploration of the implications of the mediation of Black history by film, television, magazines, and newspapers. Using her alter ego, Kelly Gabron, Smith fabricates a personal history of her emergence as an artist from white-male-dominated American history (and American film history). Smith collages images and bits of text from a scrapbook by 'Kelly Gabron' that had been completed before the film was begun, and provides female narration by 'Kelly Gabron' that, slowly but surely, makes itself felt over the male narration about Kelly Gabron (Chris Brown is the male voice). The film's barrage of image, text and voice is repeated twice, and is followed by a coda. That most viewers see the second presentation of the imagery differently from the original presentation demonstrates one problem with trusting any media representation.” Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.
Fatima's Letter (1992)
Alia Syed · 2 critic votes
A woman remembers her past by faces she sees while travelling on the London Underground. She begins to believe that these people, like her, have all taken part in the same event. She composes a letter to her friend Fatima – a personal documentary around journeys, memories and watching. The story is spoken in Urdu with sub-titles in English, although the subtitles do not always appear in conjunction with what is spoken.
Falling Lessons (1993)
Amy Halpern · 2 critic votes
A rhythmic montage of almost 200 faces, human and animals, that Halpern pans vertically, creating a cascade of visages suggesting that while individuals express a range of emotions they remain ultimately enigmas.
Belovy (1994)
Viktor Kossakovsky · 2 critic votes
Portrait of a troubled peasant family. The film tells the story of two times widow Anna Belova who lives together with her brother Mikhail. Blending the two personalities, Kosakovsky characterizes the true Russian soul: she is the rational worker, honest and strong - he is the drunken poet, the idealist, his philosophy fades into radical nonsense time after time.
The Lion King (1994)
Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff · 2 critic votes
Young lion prince Simba, eager to one day become king of the Pride Lands, grows up under the watchful eye of his father Mufasa; all the while his villainous uncle Scar conspires to take the throne for himself. Amid betrayal and tragedy, Simba must confront his past and find his rightful place in the Circle of Life.
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Mamoru Oshii · 2 critic votes
In the year 2029, the barriers of our world have been broken down by the net and by cybernetics, but this brings new vulnerability to humans in the form of brain-hacking. When a highly-wanted hacker known as 'The Puppetmaster' begins involving them in politics, Section 9, a group of cybernetically enhanced cops, are called in to investigate and stop the Puppetmaster.
Léon G. Damas (1995)
Sarah Maldoror · 2 critic votes
Léon G. Damas (1912–1978) was the first poet to “live Négritude”, according to the Senegalese poet, politician and cultural theorist Léopold Sédar Senghor. Cosmopolitan and always in transit, his writing is a chorus of melodies and imagery imbued with angst and melancholy and strongly influenced by jazz and blues. Punctuated by images of the landscapes of French Guiana and the voice of the artist, the film exemplifies the poetic documentary form to which Maldoror frequently returned.
Gabbeh (1996)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf · 2 critic votes
An elderly couple go about their routine of cleaning their gabbeh, while bickering gently with each other. Magically, a young woman appears, helping the two clean the rug. This young woman belongs to the clan whose history is depicted in the design of the gabbeh, and the rug recounts the story of the courtship of the young woman by a stranger from the clan.
Commingled Containers (1997)
Stan Brakhage · 2 critic votes
Comingled Containers is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage. "This 'return to photography' (after several years of only painting film) was made on the eve of cancer surgery - a kind of 'last testament,' if you will… an envisionment of the fleeting complexity of worldly phenomenon."
Gummo (1997)
Harmony Korine · 2 critic votes
Teenagers Solomon and Tummler kill time in Xenia, Ohio, a small town that has never recovered from the tornado that ravaged the community in the 1970s.
BESHKEMPIR (1998)
Aktan Abdykalykov · 2 critic votes
In a remote Kyrgyz village, Beshkempir, an infant foundling, is taken in by five older women and later adopted by a couple unable to bear children of their own. Fast forward to his early teenage years, a pubescent Beshkempir is faced with all the problems of crushing on girls and courtship, reconciling with friends and dealing with death in the family. Above all he questions his place in the world as an adoptee.
Life on Earth (1998)
Abderrahmane Sissako · 2 critic votes
Just before the turn of the 21st century, Drahmane returns to his father's village in Sokolo, Mali. A contemplative bike stroll around town makes him reflect on the significance of time passing at the dawn of a new millennium. As everybody goes on with their daily tasks, Sokolo might as well be the center of the world. The film earned Sissako awards at the Fribourg International Film Festival, the Ouagadougou Panafrican Film and Television Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival.
Sud (1999)
Chantal Akerman · 2 critic votes
Chantal Akerman investigates the American Deep South through the story of a lynching and grisly murder of an African-American man that took place in Texas in 1998.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Eduardo Sánchez, Daniel Myrick · 2 critic votes
In October of 1994 three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary. A year later their footage was found.
When the Day Breaks (1999)
Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis · 2 critic votes
A rooster has his last biscuit for breakfast and goes grocery shopping. A pig prepares her breakfast (potato peelings, with the potatoes thrown in the trash) and discovers she needs more milk. Their paths cross, a lemon falls into the sewer, and both lives are changed.
Blackboards (2000)
Samira Makhmalbaf · 2 critic votes
Itinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a group of old men looking for their bombed-out village; he offers to guide them, and takes as his wife Halaleh, the clan's lone woman, a widow with a young son. Reeboir attaches himself to a dozen pre-teen boys weighed down by contraband they carry across the border; they're mules, always on the move. Said and Reeboir try to teach as their potential students keep walking. Danger is close; armed soldiers patrol the skies, the roads, and the border. Is there a role for a teacher? Is there hope?
Still/Here (2001)
Christopher Harris · 2 critic votes
In this austere and sorrowful portrait of his hometown, St. Louis, Harris sets his black-and-white 16mm camera loose to wander through the city’s decaying northside neighborhoods, an area populated almost exclusively by working class and working poor African Americans. Gliding down empty streets, across the facades of once-elegant homes, entering condemned buildings, the camera makes a detached but ultimately damning portrait of civic neglect and apathy. Poignantly, human beings are rarely encountered; their presence haunts the soundtrack of eerie footsteps, an unanswered telephone, and sparse voiceover commentary from found sources.
Bodysong (2003)
Simon Pummell · 2 critic votes
Documentary footage from various sources, set to music. Showing the whole of human life, from birth to death and beyond.
The Station Agent (2003)
Tom McCarthy · 2 critic votes
When his only friend dies, a man born with dwarfism moves to rural New Jersey to live a life of solitude, only to meet a chatty hot dog vendor and a woman dealing with her own personal loss.
Anatomy of Hell (2004)
Catherine Breillat · 2 critic votes
A woman employs a gay man to spend four nights at her house to watch her when she's "unwatchable".
Oh! Man (2004)
Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi · 2 critic votes
After Prisoners of the war and On the Heights all is Peace, this film concludes Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi's trilogy on the first world war. From the emblem of totalitarianism to individual physical suffering, the directors use this representation of man's rampaging violence to draw up an anatomical inventory of the damaged body and examine the consequences of the conflict on children, from 1919 to 1921. From the deconstruction to the artificial reconstruction of the human body, they try to understand how humanity can forget itself and perpetuate these horrors.
Wolff von Amerongen: Did he commit bankruptcy offences? (2004)
Gerhard Friedl · 2 critic votes
Germany's economic movers and shakers get a thorough going-over in Friedl's docu-fiction hybrid, which doesn't hesitate to point fingers at those partially responsible for Europe's financial woe.
Tale of Cinema (2005)
Hong Sang-soo · 2 critic votes
In Seoul, a suicidal student meets a young woman who decides to join him in his fatal gesture. Dongsoo, an unsuccessful filmmaker, spots a beautiful young woman, who happens to be the lead actress in the film he has just seen. Their stories will cross paths thanks to their love for cinema.
The Squid and the Whale (2005)
Noah Baumbach · 2 critic votes
Based on the true childhood experiences of Noah Baumbach and his brother, The Squid and the Whale tells the touching story of two young boys dealing with their parents' divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980s.
Down There (2006)
Chantal Akerman · 2 critic votes
Akerman spends a month in Tel Aviv, in an apartment by the sea, contemplating childhood, family, and her Jewish identity.
Idiocracy (2006)
Mike Judge · 2 critic votes
To test its top-secret Human Hibernation Project, the Pentagon picks the most average European-Americans it can find - an Army private and a prostitute - and sends them to the year 2505 after a series of freak events. But when they arrive, they find a civilization so dumbed-down that they're the smartest people around.
Think of Me First As a Person (2006)
George Ingmire · 2 critic votes
Documentary film and home movie about Dwight Core, Jr., a boy with Down syndrome. The footage was originally shot throughout the 1960s and 1970s by Core's father, Dwight Core, Sr. The footage was later discovered and completed by the filmmaker's grandson, George Ingmire.
Water Lilies (2007)
Céline Sciamma · 2 critic votes
Set during a sultry summer in a French suburb, Marie is desperate to join the local pool's synchronized swimming team, but is her interest solely for the sake of sport or for a chance to get close to Floriane, the bad girl of the team? Sciamma, and the two leads, capture the uncertainty of teenage sexuality with a sympathetic eye in this delicate drama of the angst of coming-of-age.
Trash Humpers (2009)
Harmony Korine · 2 critic votes
Follow a small group of elderly “Peeping Toms” through the shadows and margins of an unfamiliar world. Crudely documented by the participants themselves, we follow the debased and shocking actions of a group of true sociopaths the likes of which have never been seen before. Inhabiting a world of broken dreams and beyond the limits of morality, they crash against a torn and frayed America.
Oki's Movie (2010)
Hong Sang-soo · 2 critic votes
Oki, a film student, gets involved in two relationships as she navigates the advances of a fellow student and grapples with her feelings for her much older professor.
Tomboy (2011)
Céline Sciamma · 2 critic votes
Ten-year-old Laure isn't like most girls. She prefers football to dolls and sweaters to dresses. When Laure and her family move to a new neighbourhood, local girl Lisa mistakes Laure for a boy. Indulging in this exciting new identity, Laure becomes Mickaël, and so begins a summer of long sunny afternoons, playground games and first kisses. Yet with the school term fast approaching, and with suspicions arising amongst friends and family, Laure must face up to an uncertain future.
Oh Willy… (2012)
Emma De Swaef, Marc James Roels · 2 critic votes
Forced to return to his naturist roots, Willy bungles his way into noble savagery.
The Woolworths Choir of 1979 (2012)
Elisabeth Price · 2 critic votes
Concerned with processes of assembly, CHOIR brings together disparate bodies of material and archival technologies into dissonant concert. It is a work of several parts. Part one constructs an auditorium in which an action will be staged. Part two assembles the chorus to narrate the action. Part three supplies the action.
A Thousand Suns (2013)
Mati Diop · 2 critic votes
In 1972, Djibril Diop Mambety shoots "Touki Bouki." Mory and Anta are in love. Two young lovers share the same dream: to leave Dakar for Paris. At the fateful moment, Anta embarks. Mory stays alone on quay, unable to tear himself away from his land. Forty years later, "A Thousand Suns" investigates the personal and universal inheritance which represents "Touki Bouki." What has happened since? Magaye Niang, the hero of the movie, has never left Dakar. And today, the old cowboy wonders where Anta is, the love of his youth. Stories about family, exile and cinema meet between the sphere of intimacy and that of myth.
Fruitvale Station (2013)
Ryan Coogler · 2 critic votes
Oakland, California. Young Afro-American Oscar Grant crosses paths with family members, friends, enemies and strangers before facing his fate on the platform at Fruitvale Station, in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009.
Local Legends (2013)
Matt Farley · 2 critic votes
The adventures of Matt Farley as he spends a few weeks preparing for a big comedy show in Manchester, NH.
Homeland (2015)
Abbas Fahdel · 2 critic votes
A young woman escapes the war in Syria and ends up in the forest in Sweden. Listening to music is a way for her to survive and bring her back, in dreams and memories, to her homeland.
Yourself and Yours (2016)
Hong Sang-soo · 2 critic votes
While a South Korean man wanders the city in search of the woman he just broke up with, she successively meets and flirts with two men who claim to have met her before.
L. Cohen (2017)
James Benning · 2 critic votes
A view of an Oregon farm field, observing a solar eclipse and incorporating a Leonard Cohen song.
Mrs. Fang (2017)
Wang Bing · 2 critic votes
In a quiet village in southern China, Fang Xiuying is sixty-seven years old. Having suffered from Alzheimer's for several years, with advanced symptoms and ineffective treatment, she was sent back home. Now, bedridden, she is surrounded by her relatives and neighbors, as they witness and accompany her through her last days.
Tonsler Park (2017)
Kevin Jerome Everson · 2 critic votes
Tonsler Park observes, in black and white 16mm, the democratic process in action, at Charlottesville, Virginia voting precincts, over the course of Election Day, November 8, 2016.
America (2019)
Garrett Bradley · 2 critic votes
A cinematic omnibus rooted in New Orleans, challenging the idea of black cinema as a "wave" or "movement in time," proposing instead a continuous thread of achievement.
Fire Will Come (2019)
Óliver Laxe · 2 critic votes
When Amador Coro gets out of prison for having provoked a fire, nobody is waiting for him. He returns to his home town, a small village hidden in the mountains of rural Galicia, to live with his elder mother, Benedicta, and three cows. Life goes on calmly, following the rhythm of the nature. Until the night when a fire devastates the region.
Honeyland (2019)
Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska · 2 critic votes
When nomadic beekeepers break Honeyland’s basic rule (take half of the honey, but leave half to the bees), the last female beehunter in Europe must save the bees and restore natural balance.
Monkeyshines (1889)
William Kennedy Dickson, William Heise · 1 critic vote
Experimental film made to test the original cylinder format of the Kinetoscope and believed to be the first film shot in the United States. It shows a blurry figure in white standing in one place making large gestures and is only a few seconds long.
A Panoramic View in the Grand Canal (1896)
Alexandre Promio · 1 critic vote
Filmed in 1896 by Alexandre Promio for the Lumière company, this short actuality presents one of the earliest traveling shots in cinema. With the camera mounted on a gondola, the film glides along Venice’s Grand Canal, capturing passing gondolas, bustling waterfront activity, and the city’s iconic architecture from a moving perspective. This simple yet groundbreaking technique introduced audiences to a new way of experiencing motion on screen.
L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat (1896)
Auguste Lumière, Louis Lumière · 1 critic vote
A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.
The Cat Playing (1897)
Louis Lumière, Auguste Lumière · 1 critic vote
A kitten plays with a small piece of wood attached to a string.
Village de Namo: Panorama Taken from a Sedan Chair (1900)
Gabriel Veyre · 1 critic vote
The film is a panorama shot-scene lasting just under a minute. The panorama film, as coined by Lumière, is a moving-camera shot--usually accomplished by placing the camera on a moving transport, such as a boat or train.
The Big Swallow (1901)
James Williamson · 1 critic vote
A man, objecting to being filmed, comes closer and closer to the camera lens until his mouth is all we see. Then he opens wide and swallows camera and cinematographer. He steps back, chews, and grins.
The Man with the Rubber Head (1901)
Georges Méliès · 1 critic vote
A chemist carries out a bizarre experiment with his own head.
The Flying Train (1902)
· 1 critic vote
The Flying Train depicts a ride on a suspended railway. The footage is almost as impressive as the feat of engineering it captures. For many years our curators believed our Mutoscope rolls were slightly shrunken 70mm film, but they were actually shot on Biograph’s proprietary 68mm stock. Formats like Biograph’s 68mm and Fox’s 70mm Grandeur are of particular interest to researchers visiting the Film Study Center because the large image area affords stunning visual clarity and quality, especially compared to the more standard 35mm or 16mm stocks.
Photographing a Female Crook (1904)
Wallace McCutcheon · 1 critic vote
A criminal woman is brought in by the police to be photographed (a mug-shot, presumably), capturing her making faces or grimacing. This simple, short film has been often cited as an early instance of a "tracking-in" or dolly-in in cinema, where the camera moves closer to the subject instead of remaining fixed.
The Impossible Voyage (1904)
Georges Méliès · 1 critic vote
Using every known means of transportation, several savants from the Geographic Society undertake a journey through the Alps to the Sun which finishes under the sea.
A Trip Down Market Street (1906)
Harry J. Miles · 1 critic vote
A Trip Down Market Street is a 13-minute actuality film recorded by placing a movie camera on the front of a cable car as it travels down San Francisco’s Market Street. A virtual time capsule from over 100 years ago, the film shows many details of daily life in a major American city, including the transportation, fashions and architecture of the era. The film begins at 8th Street and continues eastward to the cable car turntable, at The Embarcadero, in front of the San Francisco Ferry Building. It was produced by the four Miles brothers: Harry, Herbert, Earle and Joe. Harry J. Miles cranked the Bell & Howell camera during the filming.
The '?' Motorist (1906)
Walter R. Booth · 1 critic vote
A magical glowing white motorcar ignores policemen, drives up buildings, flies through outer space, and can transform into a horse and carriage.
The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906)
Charles Tait, Millard Johnson, William Gibson · 1 critic vote
Just as Galeen and Wegener's Der Golem (1915) can be seen as a testament to early German film artistry, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) symbolizes both the birth of the Australian film industry and the emergence of an Australian cinema identity. Even more significantly, it heralds the emergence of the feature film format. However, only fragments of the original production of more than one hour are known to exist, preserved at the National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra; Efforts at reconstruction have made the film available to modern audiences.
Laughing Gas (1907)
Edwin Stanton Porter · 1 critic vote
A woman goes to the dentist for a toothache and is given gas. On her way home on the subway she can't stop laughing, and every other passenger catches the laughter from her.
Burnham Beeches (1909)
Cecil M. Hepworth · 1 critic vote
First film of Burnham Beeches, the famous beauty spot and ultimate film location.
Messina Earthquake (1909)
Luca Comerio · 1 critic vote
Documentary on the Messina earthquake
The Country Doctor (1909)
D. W. Griffith · 1 critic vote
While caring for his sick daughter, a doctor is called away to the sickbed of a neighbor. He finds the neighbor gravely ill, and ignores his wife's pleas to come home and care for his own daughter, who has taken a turn for the worse.
Léontine's Electric Battery (1910)
· 1 critic vote
Léontine lights up our lives with an electric battery, electrocuting everyone in her path. Her victims include two old ladies (played by men in drag), dancers at a café, workers on a construction site, a group of lackluster conscripts, and the local police force. To add insult to injury, she douses everyone with buckets of water.
Leontine's Boat (1911)
Roméo Bosetti · 1 critic vote
Léontine cannot resist her desire to sail her new toy boat indoors. She plugs up the drains and turns on the faucets, flooding the house as water rains down through the floorboards and collapses the ceilings.
Léontine Flies Away (1911)
· 1 critic vote
Léontine is sent airborne by too many helium balloons and takes a catastrophic joyride across town, while her parents and the townsfolk frantically chase after her. Her journey is depicted with dazzling aerial views.
The Terror (1911)
Albert Capellani · 1 critic vote
An actress returns from the theatre and discovers her apartment has been burglarized; she lights a cigarette and the room catches fire; the burglar saves her life, and she, in return, saves his, and he returns her jewels.
Cunegonde Receives Her Family (1912)
· 1 critic vote
Whilst the master of the house is away, the maid gets a visit from her family. Together, they attack her employer's bourgeois residence with ardent zeal and rustic technology.
How a Mosquito Operates (1912)
Winsor McCay · 1 critic vote
A hungry mosquito spots and follows a man on his way home. The mosquito slips into the room where the man is sleeping, and gets ready for a meal. His first attempts startle the man and wake him up, but the mosquito is very persistent.
The Cameraman's Revenge (1912)
Ladislas Starevich · 1 critic vote
A jilted husband takes his revenge by filming his wife and her lover and showing the result at the local cinema.
The Land Beyond the Sunset (1912)
Harold M. Shaw · 1 critic vote
A poor young boy goes on a field trip and dreams of escaping to a land beyond the sunset.
Lea and the Ball of Yarn (1913)
Cines · 1 critic vote
Bess is busy reading a book when her folks come in and command her to spend more time at work. They give her a ball of yarn, a crochet needle and set her to work. She is left alone and while moving around in her chair she loses track of the ball of yarn. It happens to have been caught in her belt at her back and out of her own view. Being a girl of quick temper and strong in athletics, the home is in so much of a turmoil when her parents return that Bess has not been subjected to work since. (Moving Picture World)
Protea (1913)
Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset · 1 critic vote
Protéa is the last film directed by Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset, one of the early film pioneers in France. The hero of this film is a female spy, an acrobatic Mata-Hari, played by his favorite actress, Josette Andriot, who wore a characteristic costume of a close-fitting black jersey, two years before Musidora achieved cult status with her similar appearance as Irma Vep. This final masterpiece reflects Jasset's popular style: rhythmic action, fantastic realism, rich visuals, an anarchistic philosophy, a disdain for psychology, and an attention to lighting that earned him the nickname “the Rembrandt of the cinema". Although Jasset died shortly after completion, the film had considerable success and Andriot went on to make four more films in the series with other directors.
Daisy Doodad's Dial (1914)
Laurence Trimble · 1 critic vote
Daisy and her husband both go in for a face-pulling contest, but when the big day comes she is unable to attend the competition, and her husband wins instead. When the next opportunity comes around, she is determined to win -- but gets a little over-enthusiastic on the way to the contest and finds herself in trouble! She is most ungrateful for her rescue; fate, however, catches up with her that night…
The Woman of Mystery (1914)
Alice Guy · 1 critic vote
Norma, a dancer, receives many presents from admirers. Among them she finds a peculiar looking box, out of which spring several poisonous snakes. Nelson, a detective, is called upon to solve the mystery.
Carmen (1915)
Cecil B. DeMille · 1 critic vote
When a free-spirited woman captivates an army officer, their passionate affair unravels into obsession and violence.
One A.M. (1916)
Charlie Chaplin · 1 critic vote
A drunken homeowner has a difficult time getting about in his home after arriving home late at night.
The Pawnshop (1916)
Charlie Chaplin · 1 critic vote
A pawnbroker's assistant deals with his grumpy boss, his annoying co-worker and some eccentric customers as he flirts with the pawnbroker's daughter, until a perfidious crook with bad intentions arrives at the pawnshop.
The Vampires: The Terrible Wedding (1916)
Louis Feuillade · 1 critic vote
War Christmas (1916)
· 1 critic vote
French silent film.
Culprit (1917)
André Antoine · 1 critic vote
At trial the prosecuting attorney makes a startling confession: the defendant is his son whose pitiful fate led him to murder. The attorney left the young man's pregnant mother, and the unwed poor thing had to fight against a hostile world.
For Luck (1917)
Yevgeni Bauer · 1 critic vote
Since Zoya Verenskaya's husband passed away ten years ago, she has been devoted to her daughter Lee. At present, Lee is in poor health, and she is in danger of losing her eyesight. Zoya's suitor Dmitry wants to get married, but Zoya is determined to wait until Lee is better. Then, on a vacation in the Crimea, they learn Lee's true feelings for Dmitry, and suddenly all of their lives are thrown into turmoil.
The Dying Swan (1917)
Yevgeni Bauer · 1 critic vote
After being betrayed by her playboy lover, a heartbroken mute young woman joins a ballet company; during a performance of “The Dying Swan,” she enraptures a painter obsessed with portraying death genuinely.
The Immigrant (1917)
Charlie Chaplin · 1 critic vote
A European immigrant endures a challenging voyage only to get into trouble as soon as he arrives in New York.
A Dog's Life (1918)
Charlie Chaplin · 1 critic vote
The Tramp and his dog companion struggle to survive in the inner city.
The Lady of the Dugout (1918)
W. S. Van Dyke · 1 critic vote
Real life outlaw Al Jennings tells a "real" story about how he came to the aid of a woman who was abused by her alcoholic husband.
The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918)
Winsor McCay · 1 critic vote
Winsor McCay recreates the sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania by a German U-boat in this propaganda piece designed to stir up anti-German sentiment during World War I.
Broken Blossoms (1919)
D. W. Griffith · 1 critic vote
The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.
The Oyster Princess (1919)
Ernst Lubitsch · 1 critic vote
A pampered American oyster tycoon decides to buy a husband for his daughter, but things don’t go quite as planned. Along the way there are mishaps, misunderstandings and a foxtrot sequence that must be seen to be believed.
What Do Men Want? (1921)
Lois Weber · 1 critic vote
According to this Lois Weber production, men don't really seem to know what they want at all -- first Frank (J. Frank Glendon) wants to be an inventor. Then he wants to marry his childhood sweetheart, Hallie (the lovely Claire Windsor). Then he wants children. Then, when his inventions bring him financial success, he becomes restless, so he takes up with another woman. Eventually he figures out that the woman's reputation is less than squeaky clean, so he wants his wife back.
Cinderella (1922)
Lotte Reiniger · 1 critic vote
Cinderella, the "ash girl," is kept in menial labor by her two wicked stepsisters. Meanwhile the handsome prince of the territory is out hunting bears. His father invites everyone in the country to a ball, and a fairy godmother appears to help Cinderella attend in style. The prince falls for her, but she runs away as her fairy godmother's deadline of midnight arrives. The prince finds her lost slipper and searches the territory for its rightful owner, hoping to live happily ever after when he finds her.
Cops (1922)
Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton · 1 critic vote
Buster Keaton gets involved in a series of misunderstandings involving a horse and cart. Eventually he infuriates every cop in the city when he accidentally interrupts a police parade.
A Woman of Paris (1923)
Charlie Chaplin, A. Edward Sutherland · 1 critic vote
When Marie St. Clair believes she has been jilted by her artist fiance Jean, she decides to leave for Paris on her own. After spending a year in the city as a mistress of the wealthy Pierre Revel, she is reunited with Jean by chance. This leaves her with the choice between a glamorous life in Paris, and the true love she left behind.
Au Secours ! (1924)
Abel Gance · 1 critic vote
Max accepts a wager that he cannot remain in a haunted castle for one hour (11 PM to midnight) without crying for help. As soon as he arrives he encounters strange and nightmarish visions, but he is nevertheless on the verge of winning the bet when a phone-call brings startling news.
The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924)
Lev Kuleshov · 1 critic vote
An ignorant and prejudiced American’s visit of Soviet Russia goes off the rails after his luggage is stolen and he is separated from his bodyguard.
The Marriage Circle (1924)
Ernst Lubitsch, James Flood · 1 critic vote
An unhappily married couple moves to Vienna, where the wife’s married best friend lives, and soon, sparks fly between the wife and the best friend’s husband.
The Navigator (1924)
Donald Crisp, Buster Keaton · 1 critic vote
The wealthy and impulsive Rollo Treadway decides to propose to his beautiful socialite neighbor, Betsy O'Brien. Although Betsy turns Rollo down, he still opts to go on the cruise that he intended as their honeymoon. When circumstances find both Rollo and Betsy on the wrong ship, they end up having adventures on the high seas.
Lady of the Night (1925)
Monta Bell · 1 critic vote
The story of two baby girls, born near in proximity but worlds apart in society: Molly Helmer, the daughter of a thief, and Florence Banning, the daughter of the judge who sent Molly's father to prison. The girls' lives come together as they reach the age of eighteen, when Florence leaves the security of the exclusive Girls Select School, and Molly, now orphaned, begins her life after reform school.
The Salvation Hunters (1925)
Josef von Sternberg · 1 critic vote
A hopelessly hopeful drifter, a bitter young woman, and a helpless child live on the docks, spending their days in poverty and listless wandering. Overhead, a dredge hauls up mud and trash from the nearby seabed-- the same mud and trash from the day before. They finally decide to leave for the city to seek fulfillment, only to encounter further privation, destitution, temptation.
The Unholy Three (1925)
Tod Browning · 1 critic vote
After abandoning life under the big top, three sideshow veterans reinvent themselves as master criminals in a world of masquerade, fraud, and betrayal.
Anemic Cinema (1926)
Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray · 1 critic vote
A spiral design spins. It's replaced by a spinning disk. These two continue in perfect alternation until the end: a spiral design, a disk. Each disk is labelled and can be read as it rotates. The messages, in French, feature puns and whimsical rhymes and alliteration. The final message comments on the spiral motif itself.
Battling Butler (1926)
Buster Keaton · 1 critic vote
A meek millionaire masquerades as a boxing star to win a girl's heart.
Mother (1926)
Vsevolod Pudovkin · 1 critic vote
A Soviet woman is caught between her husband and son, who find themselves on opposing sides of the Russian Revolution.
Ménilmontant (1926)
Dimitri Kirsanoff · 1 critic vote
A pair of sisters leave the country for the city after their parents are slaughtered in a mysterious axe murder.
Rien que les heures (1926)
Alberto Cavalcanti · 1 critic vote
The life of a great city (Paris) from dawn until dusk, including the beautiful and the ragged, the rich and the poor.
So This Is Paris (1926)
Ernst Lubitsch · 1 critic vote
Paul and Suzanne Giraud are happily married and living in a quiet neighborhood. When Suzanne notices that their new neighbors are expressive dancers in revealing outfits, she demands Paul speak to them about their lack of morality. Paul discovers that the woman is Georgette Lalle, an old flame.
München-Berlin Wanderung (1927)
Oskar Fischinger · 1 critic vote
In 1927, motivated by a longing for freedom, Fischinger set off on a walking trip from Munich to Berlin. Covering the distance in nearly four weeks, he captured the country’s hidden beauty. His voyage serves as a symbolical transition and underlines a belief that people are the same everywhere.
The Three-Sided Mirror (1927)
Jean Epstein · 1 critic vote
A wealthy young businessman consecutively falls in love with a classy English woman (Pearl), a Russian sculptress (Athalia), and a naive working-class girl (Lucie).
Disque 957 (1928)
Germaine Dulac · 1 critic vote
Dulac’s three 1929 "abstract" films, Record 957, Αrabesques, and Themes and Variations, were the results of a long period of reflection by the filmmaker, who sought to create a "pure" or "integral" cinema that would capture the essence of the new medium and owe nothing to the other arts. Each of these three studies was designed to be played silent. The first one, Record 957, is conceived of as a "visual impression […] in listening to Frédéric Chopin's Preludes n. 5 and 6." Its title and its opening shot of lightplay on a spinning record not only announce the film's dominant cyclical motif, but also evoke one of the filmmaker’s major sources of inspiration in Loie Fuller's serpentine dances.
Fieldwork Footage (1928)
Zora Neale Hurston · 1 critic vote
Under the tutelage of anthropologist Franz Boas (her former Columbia professor) and Harlem Renaissance arts patron Charlotte Osgood Mason, Zora Neale Hurston spent nearly two years, from 1927 to 1929, studying the folkloric customs, work songs, spirituals, and vernacular language of African American communities along the River Road and from New Orleans to Florida.
Ghosts Before Breakfast (1928)
Hans Richter · 1 critic vote
Hans Richter, noted for his abstract shorts, has everyday objects rebelling against their daily routine.
Pass the Gravy (1928)
Fred Guiol, Leo McCarey · 1 critic vote
Schultz raises prize chickens and roosters that are always getting into neighbor Max Davidson's garden and eating the seeds, leading to constant feuding between the two men. When their children announce their engagement the two men decide to bury the hatchet and Davidson suggests a dinner at his house. He gives his young son, Ignatz, two dollars to buy a chicken but the boy pockets the money and kills Schultz' first place rooster instead. Once seated at the table all but Schultz discover what they are eating and desperately try to hide the bad news from Schultz who is sure to kill Davidson if he knows the truth.
Show People (1928)
King Vidor · 1 critic vote
Hollywood hopeful Peggy Pepper arrives at a major studio, from Georgia, to become a great dramatic star. Things don't go entirely according to plan.
The Building of the New Tyne Bridge from Newcastle to Gateshead (1928)
· 1 critic vote
There are some breathtaking shots of workers constructing Newcastle's iconic Tyne Bridge, designed by Mott, Hay and Anderson, in this detailed and informative film, showing the men erecting the arches at dizzying heights. From BFI collection "This Working Life: Steel".
The Eleventh Year (1928)
Dziga Vertov · 1 critic vote
The film is dedicated to the achievements of the Ukrainian SSR for the eleventh anniversary of the October Revolution.
The Patsy (1928)
King Vidor · 1 critic vote
An awkward teenager hopelessly in love with her older sister's boyfriend tries to make him notice her.
Themes and Variations (1928)
Germaine Dulac · 1 critic vote
I evoke a dancing woman. A woman? No. A bouncing line with harmonious rhythm. I evoke a luminous projection on veils ! Precise matter! No. Fluid rhythms. Why should one disregard, on screen, the pleasure that movement brings us in the theatre? Harmony of lines. Harmony of light. Lines, surfaces, volumes evolving directly, without the artifice of evocation, in the logic of its forms, dispossessed of any overly human sense, allowing an elevation towards the abstract, thus giving more space to sensations and to dreams : integral cinema. —Germaine Dulac
West of Zanzibar (1928)
Tod Browning · 1 critic vote
A magician seeks vengeance upon the man who paralyzed him and the illegitimate daughter he sired with the magician's wife.
A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929)
Anthony Asquith · 1 critic vote
A jealous barber's assistant becomes enraged by the attentions the manicurist he's obsessed with and a repeat customer pay to one another.
A Pair of Tights (1929)
Hal Yates · 1 critic vote
Two girls are invited by one of the girls boyfriend's tight boss for dinner. On the way they stop for a cheap ice cream. But swinging doors, ventilators, cops and a brat make it nearly impossible to get the ice cream even close to the car where the rest is waiting.
Blackmail (1929)
Alfred Hitchcock · 1 critic vote
London, 1929. Frank Webber, a very busy Scotland Yard detective, seems to be more interested in his work than in Alice White, his girlfriend. Feeling herself ignored, Alice agrees to go out with an elegant and well-mannered artist who invites her to visit his fancy apartment.
Dans la nuit (1929)
Charles Vanel · 1 critic vote
A quarry worker gets married and lives his marital bliss, until an explosion at his workplace, a mine, disfigures him...
Erotikon (1929)
Gustav Machatý · 1 critic vote
Andrea, the beautiful daughter of a railway gateman, is seduced by a rich passenger, who missed his train. Left pregnant, Andrea marries another man and moves to Prague, only to encounter her former lover and recover her former lust.
In Spring (1929)
Mikhail Kaufman · 1 critic vote
Kyiv, 1929. Shots of the city as it wakes up and its awakening echoes with the lyrical pictures of the rebirth of nature. Kaufman’s attentive camera pauses for a long time on the smiling faces of children, painting a lyrical picture, a confession of love for Kyiv.
Liberty (1929)
Leo McCarey · 1 critic vote
While changing clothes in a getaway car, escaped convicts Stan and Ollie mistakenly put on each other's pants. They spend the rest of the film trying to exchange pants in various unlikely settings.
Post (1929)
Mikhail Tsekhanovsky · 1 critic vote
A boy is sitting at a table, writing a letter for Boris Prutkov. The cartoon follows the journey of this letter from Rostov to Leningrad, where its addressee Prutkov has just left for Berlin; when the letter arrives in Berlin, Prutkov has just departed for London; as the letter arrives in London, Prutkov is already on a steamboat to Brazil, and once the letters is delivered by postman Don Basilio, Prutkov is already on his way back to Leningrad– where the letter, having followed Prutkov around the world, finally reaches him. The film sings a song of praise to the global postal services and to the reliability of the postmen, but it also tells the story of a journey around the world, returning once more to the new Soviet capital: Leningrad.
The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna (1929)
Hanns Schwarz · 1 critic vote
This silent-screen classic, like many others produced near the end of the silent era, was both a theatrical extravaganza boasting an original orchestral score and an item which languished in obscurity for many years. When Carlo Piccardi took what was left of the score by Maurice Jaubert and re-created it, the existing footage was restored and paired with a new orchestral performance which was shown in Paris in 1988. The film's story concerns the travails of a woman who has been living quite comfortably as the mistress of a colonel in the Tsar's army in Russia. However, she eventually encounters a penniless young lieutenant and falls madly in love with him, as he does with her. Despite her best intentions of remaining with the colonel, and his intention to avoid trouble with his fellow soldiers, they cannot forswear this relationship, and tragedy is the inevitable result. The title refers to a moving incident in the story, and translates as "the wonderful lie of Nina Petrovna."
Turksib (1929)
Victor A. Turin · 1 critic vote
Bold and exhilarating documentary account of the building of the Turkestan-Siberian railway, presented as a heroic triumph of Soviet progress over natural adversity.
Salt for Svaneti (1930)
Mikhail Kalatozov · 1 critic vote
An ethnographic treasure that documents with visual bravado the harsh conditions of life in the isolated mountain village of Ushkul.
Sarah and Son (1930)
Dorothy Arzner · 1 critic vote
A ne'er-do-well husband, after years of abusing his wife, disappears with their son, and winds up selling him to a wealthy family. Years later, the wife, now a world-famous opera singer, finally has enough time and money to begin a search for him.
The Revenge of Pancho Villa (1930)
Felix Padilla, Edmundo Padilla · 1 critic vote
Through recontextualized footage from decades of Mexican and American silent films and newsreels, the life story of Mexican revolutionary hero Pancho Villa unfolds in a series of spectacular battle sequences.
Weekend (1930)
Walter Ruttmann · 1 critic vote
Wochende (Weekend) is a film initially commissioned by the Berlin Radio Hour. Prior to Weekend, Ruttmann had made numerous celebrated avant-garde films, namely Opus I-IV, and the spectacular Berlin: Symphony of a City (1927). The advent of sound films dawned, and, interested in how spectators perceive sound, he premiered a film without pictures. On June 13th, 1930, the audience took their seats, the lights went down, and the sound of the film was heard. But the screen was completely blank.
Daïnah la métisse (1931)
Jean Grémillon · 1 critic vote
After three weeks and a long, hot voyage across the Pacific, an ocean liner finally arrives at its destination, Ecuador. That evening, the event is marked by a masked ball and a magic show.
Magic Myxies (1931)
Mary Field, F. Percy Smith · 1 critic vote
Short film showing (with limited accuracy) the life-cycle of myxomycetes.
Safe in Hell (1931)
William A. Wellman · 1 critic vote
To avoid the rigors of the law, Gilda flees New Orleans and hides on a Caribbean island where the worst criminals can ask for asylum. Besieged by the scum of the earth, Gilda will soon find out that she has found refuge in hell.
The Last Flight (1931)
William Dieterle · 1 critic vote
Cary, Shep, Bill, and Francis are pilots during World War I. The four friends, haunted by the devastation of the war, head to Paris instead of home, where they meet Nikki, an eccentric and wealthy young woman. Nikki is drawn to Cary, and the five friends, tagged by the boorish reporter, Frink, drink their way from Paris to Lisbon.
The Public Enemy (1931)
William A. Wellman · 1 critic vote
Two young Chicago hoodlums, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, rise up from their poverty-stricken slum life to become petty thieves, bootleggers and cold-blooded killers. But with street notoriety and newfound wealth, the duo feels the heat from the cops and rival gangsters both. Despite his ruthless criminal reputation, Tom tries to remain connected to his family, however, gang warfare and the need for revenge eventually pull him away.
Working Girls (1931)
Dorothy Arzner · 1 critic vote
Two sisters from Indiana, the wide-eyed and innocent Mae Thorpe, and her more streetwise sister June, move into the Rolf House for Homeless Girls in New York. With June's help, Mae obtains a job as a stenographer for the scientist Joseph von Schraeder, while June gets work as a telegraph operator at Western Union.
Any Old Port! (1932)
James W. Horne · 1 critic vote
Stan and Ollie check into a seedy hotel and help a young girl escape the clutches of the landlord. They are forced to flee the hotel with no money and Ollie arranges for Stan to fight at a local boxing hall for $50. Stan's opponent turns out to be Musgy who uses a loaded glove. During the fight the glove is swapped and Stan triumphs only to find that Ollie has bet their fee that he would lose.
County Hospital (1932)
James Parrott · 1 critic vote
Ollie is in the hospital with a broken leg. When Stan comes to visit him, total chaos ensues.
Helpmates (1932)
James Parrott · 1 critic vote
Ollie's house is a mess after a wild party from the previous night. Ollie receives a telegram from his wife (who is on vacation in Chicago), which tells him that she is returning home in the afternoon. Fearing his wife's wrath he calls Stan over to help him clean up. Things go downhill and they make more mess not less.
Island of Lost Souls (1932)
Erle C. Kenton · 1 critic vote
An obsessed scientist conducts profane experiments in evolution, eventually establishing himself as the self-styled demigod to a race of mutated, half-human abominations.
Me and My Gal (1932)
Raoul Walsh · 1 critic vote
Jaunty young policeman Danny Dolan falls in love with waterfront cafe waitress Helen Riley.
One Hour with You (1932)
Ernst Lubitsch, George Cukor · 1 critic vote
Andre and Colette Bertier are happily married. When Colette introduces her husband to her flirtatious best friend, Mitzi, he does his best to resist her advances. But she is persistent, and very cute, and he succumbs. Mitzi's husband wants to divorce her, and has been having her tailed. Andre gets caught, and must confess to his wife. But Colette has had problems resisting the attentions of another man herself, and they forgive each other.
One Way Passage (1932)
Tay Garnett · 1 critic vote
A terminally ill woman and a debonair murderer facing execution meet and fall in love on a trans-Pacific crossing, each without knowing the other's secret.
Sa verom u boga (1932)
Mihajlo Popović · 1 critic vote
WWI comes to a small Serbian village of Kumodraž , disturbing its residents' quiet life.
Spring Shower (1932)
Paul Fejos · 1 critic vote
It tells the story of Marie, an austerely beautiful young peasant girl played by the French star, Annabella. She is seduced beneath a flowering tree by the admirer of one of the daughters of the prosperous family for whom she works, becomes pregnant and is cast out.
Ten Minutes to Live (1932)
Oscar Micheaux · 1 critic vote
A movie producer offers a nightclub singer a role in his latest film, but all he really wants to do is bed her. She knows, but accepts anyway. Meanwhile, a patron at the club gets a note saying that she'll soon get another note, and that she will be killed ten minutes after that.
The Dentist (1932)
Leslie Pearce · 1 critic vote
An unconventional dentist deals with patients in slapstick fashion.
The Old Dark House (1932)
James Whale · 1 critic vote
In a remote region of Wales, five travelers beset by a relentless storm find shelter in an old mansion.
Baby Face (1933)
Alfred Edward Green · 1 critic vote
A young woman uses her body and her sexuality to help her climb the social ladder, but soon begins to wonder if her new status will ever bring her happiness.
Fétiche (1933)
Ladislas Starevich · 1 critic vote
A toy stuffed dog has just been sewn together when it hears a young child ask for an orange. The child's mother explains that they have no money, and so she cannot buy any oranges. The dog is then packed up along with a box full of other toys to be sold, but it soon winds up in the street. The dog picks up an orange from a curb side stand, and hopes to take it home to the child. But that night, before the dog can get back to the child's home, it must face a series of strange and frightening adventures.
Japanese Girls at the Harbor (1933)
Hiroshi Shimizu · 1 critic vote
Set in the port city of Yokohama, two girls, Sunako and Dora who attend a Christian school, pledge to be friends. But when a youth named Henry appears on his motorcycle and offers to take Sunako for a ride, we know that this friendship won't last and that the lives of both girls will change in ways they are barely able to comprehend, and can do little to change.
Liebelei (1933)
Max Ophüls · 1 critic vote
Vienna in the beginning of the twentieth century. Cavalry Lieutenant Fritz Lobheimer is about to end his affair with Baroness Eggerdorff when he meets the young Christine, the daughter of an opera violinist. Baron Eggerdorff however soon hears of his past misfortune...
Woman of Tokyo (1933)
Yasujirō Ozu · 1 critic vote
Ryoichi and Chikako, brother and sister, live together. Chikako toils during the day and, at night, prostitutes herself to fund his college tuition.
Five Men in a Circus (1934)
Mikio Naruse · 1 critic vote
A five member circus runs into problems while touring rural Japan.
Open all Night (1934)
George William Pearson · 1 critic vote
Anton is an exiled Russian Grand-duke but works in a hotel as a night manager with tragic consequences.
The Black Cat (1934)
Edgar G. Ulmer · 1 critic vote
After a road accident in Hungary, the American honeymooners Joan and Peter and the enigmatic Dr. Werdegast find refuge in the house of the famed architect Hjalmar Poelzig, who shares a dark past with the doctor.
The Goddess (1934)
Wu Yonggang · 1 critic vote
A young prostitute, who is trying to give her infant son a good start in life, must contend with a coercive pimp and the prejudices of others.
The Song of Ceylon (1934)
Basil Wright · 1 critic vote
Ambitious documentary chronicling the cultural life and religious customs of the Sinhalese and the effects of advanced industrialism on such customs.
Them Thar Hills (1934)
Charley Rogers · 1 critic vote
Stan and Ollie travel to the mountains for Ollie's health, and park their caravan near a well into which a gang of moonshiners have earlier dumped their moonshine; and the boys proceed to quench their thirst thinking that it is iron-rich mountain water. The real trouble doesn't begin, though, until a married motoring couple stop by to borrow some gasoline, and the already-cranky husband leaves his thirsty wife with the boys while he goes off to refill his car's empty gas-tank. A sequel was made to this film: TIT FOR TAT, q.v.
Three Songs of Lenin (1934)
Dziga Vertov · 1 critic vote
This documentary, made up of 3 episodes, is based on three songs sung by anonymous people in Soviet Russia about Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
We Are Not Children (1934)
Augusto Genina · 1 critic vote
In the spring of 1913, Jean Servin, a son of a family, became friends with Roberte, a little midinette. He leaves her a few months later to marry Cécile Breton. The years go by. Jean becomes an important businessman. One evening, he meets Roberte, who has become the wife of a wealthy American. She does not love her husband any more than he loves his wife. They recall their memories. They seem to still love each other. They plan to rebuild their lives. Together, they will spend a few days in Dieppe, as they did in the past after their first meeting. They feel so different from what they were twenty years ago that they understand that the past cannot live again.
An Inn in Tokyo (1935)
Yasujirō Ozu · 1 critic vote
An unemployed Japanese man and his two sons wander the industrial flatlands of Depression-era Tokyo, until he chances upon an old friend and befriends a woman and her daughter, who are in a similar predicament.
Coal Face (1935)
Alberto Cavalcanti · 1 critic vote
1935 documentary about the hard working life of Welsh coal miners.
Good Luck (1935)
Sacha Guitry · 1 critic vote
A girl, Marie, who got engaged to a boy who is leaving for military training (thirteen days) wins two million on the raffle, thanks to an older man, Claude, whom she calls her good luck …
Hands across the Table (1935)
Mitchell Leisen · 1 critic vote
A manicurist and an engaged loafer, both planning to marry money, meet and fall in love.
Happiness (1935)
Aleksandr Ivanovich Medvedkin · 1 critic vote
A hapless loser (with the surname of Loser) undergoes misadventures with avaracious clergy, a tired horse, and a walking granary (among other things) on his road to collectivized happiness.
The Fallen Sparrow (1935)
Kenji Mizoguchi · 1 critic vote
In Tokyo, Osen is the servant girl of an unscrupulous antiques dealer, Kumazawa, who takes in the penniless Sokichi Hata. Kumazawa mistreats Sokichi and Osen, while swindling some Buddhist monks out of their temple treasures. When Kumazawa is arrested, Osen agrees to help Sokichi finance his dream of going to medical school. They live in a humble room, and eventually the only way Osen can find enough money for them is to prostitute herself during the day, without Sokichi knowing. (Will Gilbert)
Wife! Be Like a Rose! (1935)
Mikio Naruse · 1 critic vote
Kimiko, a Tokyo white-collar working girl, lives with her serious, intellectual, haiku-writing mother. Kimiko seeks to marry her boyfriend but needs her absent father to act as the go-between and negotiate the marriage. Kimiko travels and finds her father living with a second family.
Confessions of a Cheat (1936)
Sacha Guitry · 1 critic vote
Life story of a charming scoundrel, with little dialogue other than the star/director's witty narration. As a boy, only he survives a family tragedy when he's deprived of supper (poisonous mushrooms!) for stealing...concluding that dishonesty pays. Through years of dabbling in crime and amusing adventures, two women appear and reappear in his life, a dazzling blonde jewel thief and a stunning brunette gambler. Finally, he meets the mysterious Charbonnier who had saved his life in World War I, leading to the surprising next phase in his career...
Osaka Elegy (1936)
Kenji Mizoguchi · 1 critic vote
Ayako becomes the mistress of her boss in order to pay her father's debt and prevent him from going to prison for embezzlement.
Sabotage (1936)
Alfred Hitchcock · 1 critic vote
Karl Anton Verloc and his wife own a small cinema in a quiet London suburb where they live seemingly happily. But Mrs. Verloc does not know that her husband has a secret that will affect their relationship and threaten her teenage brother's life.
Sisters of the Gion (1936)
Kenji Mizoguchi · 1 critic vote
A geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto feels obliged to help her lover when he asks to stay with her after going bankrupt and leaving his wife. However, her younger sister opposes this, thinking that they should both find wealthy patrons to support them.
Easy Living (1937)
Mitchell Leisen · 1 critic vote
J.B. Ball, a rich financier, gets fed up with his free-spending family. He takes his wife's just-bought (very expensive) sable coat and throws it out the window, it lands on poor hard-working girl Mary Smith. But it isn't so easy to just give away something so valuable, as he soon learns.
Republic Steel Strike Riot Newsreel Footage (1937)
Paramount News · 1 critic vote
Newsreel footage of the 1937 steelworkers strikes
Trade Tattoo (1937)
Len Lye · 1 critic vote
Trade Tattoo went even further than Rainbow Dance in its manipulation of the Gasparcolor process. The original black and white footage consisted of outtakes from GPO Film Unit documentaries such as Night Mail. Lye transformed this footage in what has been described as the most intricate job of film printing and color grading ever attempted. Animated words and patterns combine with the live-action footage to create images as complex and multi-layered as a Cubist painting. Music was provided by the Cuban Lecuona Band. With its dynamic rhythms, the film seeks (in Lye’s words) to convey “a romanticism about the work of the everyday in all walks of life."
Young and Innocent (1937)
Alfred Hitchcock · 1 critic vote
When a young writer is falsely accused of murdering a famous actress, he escapes custody and joins forces with the daughter of a police constable to prove his innocence.
Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938)
Norman Foster · 1 critic vote
The Japanese detective rounds up a league of assassins for Scotland Yard.
The Ghost Cat and the Mysterious Shamisen (1938)
Kiyohiko Ushihara · 1 critic vote
Mitsue is a popular stage actress and the lover of a shamisen player named Seijuro. She jealously murders two other objects of his affection: Okiyo, a young woman from a samurai family, and Kuro, a cat. The spirits of Okiyo and Kuro then merge into a vengeful ghost.
Ask a Policeman (1939)
Marcel Varnel · 1 critic vote
The mirthful adventures of Police-Sergeant Samuel Dudfoot and his two constables, Albert Brown and Jeremias Harbottle, who stage a fabricated crime-wave to save their jobs---and then find themselves involved in the real thing.
Bachelor Mother (1939)
Garson Kanin · 1 critic vote
Polly Parrish, a clerk at Merlin's Department Store, is mistakenly presumed to be the mother of a foundling. Outraged at Polly's unmotherly conduct, David Merlin becomes determined to keep the single woman and "her" baby together.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
Sidney Lanfield · 1 critic vote
When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.
Gaslight (1940)
Thorold Dickinson · 1 critic vote
Twenty years removed from Alice Barlow's murder by a thief looking for her jewels, newlyweds Paul and Bella Mallen move into the very house where the crime was committed. Retired detective B.G. Rough, who worked on the Barlow case, is still in the area and grows suspicious of Paul, who he feels bears a striking resemblance to one of Barlow's relatives. Rough must find the truth before the killer can strike again and reclaim his bounty.
There's No Tomorrow (1940)
Max Ophüls · 1 critic vote
Evelyne, a woman of bourgeois origin, now reduced to dancing in a sleazy nightclub, is reunited with her first love, who has become a successful doctor.
Tins for India (1941)
Bimal Roy · 1 critic vote
Documenting the production of kerosene tins and their reuse in rural India, this early short by Bimal Roy observes industrial labor and everyday life with a restrained, humanist perspective.
Aniki-Bóbó (1942)
Manoel de Oliveira · 1 critic vote
Two schoolboys, Carlitos and Eduardo, fight for the affection of a girl, Teresinha.
Angels of Sin (1943)
Robert Bresson · 1 critic vote
A well-off young woman decides to become a nun, joining a convent that rehabilitates female prisoners. Through their program, she meets a woman named Thérèse who refuses any help because she says she was innocent of the crime she was convicted for. After being released from prison, Thérèse murders the actual perpetrator of the crime and comes to seek sanctuary in the convent.
Stormy Weather (1943)
Andrew L. Stone · 1 critic vote
The relationship between an aspiring dancer and a popular songstress provides a retrospective of the great African-American entertainers of the early 1900s.
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
William A. Wellman, James Tinling · 1 critic vote
A posse discovers a trio of men they suspect of murder and cow theft and are split between handing them over to the law or lynching them on the spot.
Phantom Lady (1944)
Robert Siodmak · 1 critic vote
A devoted secretary embarks on a dangerous mission to try to find the elusive woman who may prove her boss didn't murder his wife.
The Private Life of a Cat (1944)
Maya Deren, Alexandr Hackenschmied · 1 critic vote
An intimate study of the life of a domestic cat, taking place over a period of months as she gives birth to a litter of kittens and cares for them as they grow.
Western Approaches (1944)
Pat Jackson · 1 critic vote
A World War II drama-documentary showing the struggles of Merchant Navy seamen following an attack by a U-Boat. Western Approaches is a vast area of ocean control covering thousands of square miles of the Atlantic. In these waters is set this single incident in the fiercest and longest sea battle in history. The players are not professional actors but serving officers and men of Allied Navies and Merchant Fleets. This film is dedicated to them and their comrades who made the Allied victory possible.
Club Havana (1945)
Edgar G. Ulmer · 1 critic vote
A number of different characters unfolding love, hate, and death problems during an evening in a fashionable Latin nightclub.
Great Day (1945)
Lance Comfort · 1 critic vote
An impending V.I.P. visit causes bustle in an English village, while the Ellis family struggles with private problems.
L'espoir (1945)
André Malraux · 1 critic vote
Spanish Civil War, 1937. A platoon of Republican soldiers plans to stop the advance of the rebel troops by bombing a bridge on the road to Zaragoza, near the city of Linás. With the close collaboration of the peasants of the area, the soldiers try to overcome the continuous bombardments and endure the harsh and tireless opposition of the powerful enemy…
The Vampire (1945)
Jean Painlevé · 1 critic vote
After a look at some strange creatures, the narrator and camera take us to the Chaco forest, on the borders of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil, where a vampire bat lives, desmodus rotondus, attacking wildlife and domesticated creatures, killing small ones by draining all their blood and killing large ones by leaving a parasite in their bloodstream. Four inches long, with a 12-inch wingspread, we see it walk, approach a victim, pull out a patch of fur large enough for it to engage its teeth, then lap six or seven ounces of blood. Its saliva may be an anesthetic keeping its victims from waking. A stub nose and harelip contribute to its efficiency and its hideous look.
Topaz (1945)
Dave Tatsuno · 1 critic vote
This documentary was secretly and 'illegally' shot inside the prison camps, established during World War II by American authorities to detain US citizens of Japanese descent who were considered a potential threat to national security.
Två människor (1945)
Carl Theodor Dreyer · 1 critic vote
Set entirely in one room, an innocent young man is accused of plagiarising the work of an old professor. Later, he is blamed for the professor's murder.
Decoy (1946)
Jack Bernhard · 1 critic vote
A fatally shot female gangleader recounts her sordid life of crime to a police officer just before she dies.
Fireworks (1947)
Kenneth Anger · 1 critic vote
A dissatisfied dreamer awakes, goes out in the night seeking a 'light' and is drawn through the needle's eye. A dream of a dream, he returns to bed less empty than before.
Hue and Cry (1947)
Charles Crichton · 1 critic vote
A gang of street boys foil a master crook who sends commands for robberies by cunningly altering a comic strip's wording each week, unknown to writer and printer. The first of the Ealing comedies.
Motion Painting No. 1 (1947)
Oskar Fischinger · 1 critic vote
Motion Painting No. 1 is a 1947 experimental short animated film in which film artist Oskar Fischinger put images in motion to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 3, BWV 1048. It is a film of a painting (oil on acrylic glass); Fischinger filmed each brushstroke over the course of 9 months. In 1997, this film was selected for inclusion in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2000.
The Cat Concerto (1947)
William Hanna, Joseph Barbera · 1 critic vote
Tom Cat is a concert pianist who plays beautifully until he is interrupted by Jerry Mouse.
The Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947)
Yasujirō Ozu · 1 critic vote
A hard-hearted old woman in a bombed-out Tokyo neighborhood reluctantly takes in an abandoned boy, leading to a heartwarming bond between them.
A Hen in the Wind (1948)
Yasujirō Ozu · 1 critic vote
Tokiko patiently awaits her husband's return from WWII when her four-year old son falls ill. She takes him to the doctor but has no means of paying, so she resorts to prostitution. A month later, her husband returns to find his desperate wife, who tells him the truth. Together, they must deal with the consequences.
Children of the Beehive (1948)
Hiroshi Shimizu · 1 critic vote
A group of war orphans initially seen scratching out an existence through black market work, as they are taken under the wing of a nameless soldier, just repatriated after the war.
L'Amore (1948)
Roberto Rossellini · 1 critic vote
L'Amore ('Love') is a 1948 Italian drama anthology film that consists of two parts, The Human Voice (Una voce umana), based on Jean Cocteau's 1929 play of the same title, and The Miracle (Il miracolo), based on Ramón del Valle-Inclán's 1904 novel Flor de santidad.
Life in Shadows (1949)
Llorenç Llobet-Gràcia · 1 critic vote
The creative and ambitious Carlos, a young Spanish film buff, manages to become a professional camera operator with time and effort, and is also blessed with the love of Ana, which he has longed for; but the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936 changes everything for both of them.
Bad Film (1950)
Felix Forsman · 1 critic vote
Presentation of films that failed in various ways. At the beginning, there is no image other than an audio track, later an overexposed, underexposed, or otherwise failed image.
Gun Crazy (1950)
Joseph H. Lewis · 1 critic vote
Bart Tare is an ex-Army man who has a lifelong fixation with guns, he meets a kindred spirit in sharpshooter Annie Starr and goes to work at a carnival. After upsetting the carnival owner who lusts after Starr, they both get fired. Soon, on Starr's behest, they embark on a crime spree for cash.
Passport to Pimlico (1950)
Henry Cornelius · 1 critic vote
When an unexploded WWII bomb is accidentally detonated in Pimlico, it reveals a treasure trove and documents proving that the region is in fact part of Burgundy, France and thus foreign territory. The British government attempts to regain control by setting up border controls and cutting off services to the area.
Rabbit of Seville (1950)
Chuck Jones · 1 critic vote
Behind the Hollywood Bowl stage which is playing the opera The Barber of Seville, Bugs Bunny flees into the backstage area with Elmer Fudd in close pursuit. Seeing his opportunity to fight on his terms, Bugs raises the curtain on Elmer, trapping him on stage. As the orchestra begins playing, Bugs comes into play as the barber who is going to make sure that Elmer is going to get a grooming he will never forget.
The Gunfighter (1950)
Henry King · 1 critic vote
The fastest gun in the West tries to escape his reputation.
Anne of the Indies (1951)
Jacques Tourneur · 1 critic vote
After buccaneer captain Anne Providence spares Pierre LaRochelle and recruits him into her pirate crew, their growing attraction is tested when Captain Blackbeard reveals LaRochelle's true identity as a former French navy officer.
It's a Big Country (1951)
Clarence Brown, Don Hartman, John Sturges, Richard Thorpe, Charles Vidor, Don Weis, William A. Wellman · 1 critic vote
Comprised of eight unrelated episodes of inconsistent quality, this anthology piece of American propaganda features some of MGM Studios' best directors, screenwriters and actors; it is narrated by Louis Calhern. Stories are framed by the lecture of a university professor. In one tale a Boston resident becomes angry when the census forgets to record her presence. Another sketch chronicles the achievements of African Americans while still another pays tongue-in-cheek tribute to Texas.
Le film est déjà commencé? (1951)
Maurice Lemaître · 1 critic vote
“A pink moving screen will stand at the entrance to the theatre, in the night. One hour before the screening a projectionist will show Griffith’s Intolerance on this screen. The start of the film will be announced at 8.30 but no one will enter before 9.30. During these 60 minutes of waiting, people on the first floor of the building will shake out very dusty carpets, and someone else will throw ice water on the heads of those spectators waiting for the screening. Some actors who have infiltrated the crowd will insult other actors on the first floor. At this moment only, and to stop the beginning of a scandal, the doors of the theatre will open…”
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
Charles Crichton · 1 critic vote
A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipments of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country.
The Steel Helmet (1951)
Samuel Fuller · 1 critic vote
A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.
The Thing from Another World (1951)
Christian Nyby, Howard Hawks · 1 critic vote
Scientists and US Air Force officials fend off a blood-thirsty alien organism while investigating at a remote arctic outpost.
Víctimas del Pecado (1951)
Emilio Fernández · 1 critic vote
A nightclub performer decides to raise the baby boy she found abandoned in a trash can, putting her job and social life in jeopardy.
Feed the Kitty (1952)
Chuck Jones · 1 critic vote
A bulldog adopts an adorable kitten, but he can't let his owner know.
Neighbours (1952)
Norman McLaren · 1 critic vote
In this Oscar-winning short film, Norman McLaren employs the principles normally used to put drawings or puppets into motion to animate live actors. The story is a parable about two people who come to blows over the possession of a flower.
The White Reindeer (1952)
Erik Blomberg · 1 critic vote
A newly-married woman becomes frustrated as her husband, a reindeer herder for an Arctic village, spends much of his time away. Desperate for affection, she visits a shaman who offers a potion that makes her irresistibly desirable, with unexpected and deadly results.
The White Sheik (1952)
Federico Fellini · 1 critic vote
In Italy, small-town newlyweds Wanda and Ivan Cavalli embark on their honeymoon in the big city of Rome. Ivan dutifully wants to keep appointments with family and church, but Wanda is only interested in meeting her favorite photo-strip star known as "The White Sheik". While Wanda impetuously sneaks away to locate the object of her affections, disconsolate Ivan tries his hardest to keep up appearances with the couple's relatives.
Eaux D'artifice (1953)
Kenneth Anger · 1 critic vote
A woman dressed elegantly walks purposely through the water gardens at the Villa d'Este in Tivoli, as the music of Vivaldi's Winter movement of The Four Seasons plays. Heavy red filters give a blue cast to the light; water plays across stone, and fountains send it into the air. No words are spoken. Baroque statuary and the sensuous flow of water are back lit. Anger calls it water games.
Gion Festival Music (1953)
Kenji Mizoguchi · 1 critic vote
Fleeing a distressing family situation, Eiko, a very young girl, becomes an apprentice to Miyoharu, a veteran geisha. Both, determined to preserve their professional integrity, must face the selfishness and ambition of several petty people.
Oss Oss Wee Oss (1953)
Alan Lomax · 1 critic vote
Padstow, a fishing village on the coast of Cornwall, celebrates May Day with an ancient custom: two osses (hobby-horses) dance through the town streets accompanied by drums and accordions. All Padstownians participate in the event, which has now become a tourist attraction drawing over tens of thousands of annual visitors. Folklorists Alan Lomax and Peter Kennedy and filmmaker George Pickow collected footage at the festival in 1951, producing a pioneering work in the use of sound, low-light photography, and conversational presentation of narrative. A favorite of Margaret Mead, who used it in her classes, the film circulated widely and continues to have influence today, especially in the neo-Pagan community.
Statues Also Die (1953)
Alain Resnais, Chris Marker · 1 critic vote
Commissioned by the journal Présence Africaine, this short documentary examines how African art is devalued and alienated through colonial and museum contexts. Beginning with the question of why African works are confined to ethnographic displays while Greek or Egyptian art is celebrated, the film became a landmark of anti-colonial cinema and was banned in France for eight years.
The End (1953)
Christopher Maclaine · 1 critic vote
A short film which explores the last day in the lives of six different people.
Animal Farm (1954)
John Halas, Joy Batchelor · 1 critic vote
Animals on a farm lead a revolution against the farmers to put their destiny in their own hands. However this revolution eats their own children and they cannot avoid corruption.
Balletomines (1954)
John Reid · 1 critic vote
The 84th issue of the long running industry cinemagazine. Includes the articles: 'At Home', 'Tamworth Gala', 'Cut & Carry' and 'Balletomines'.
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Jack Arnold · 1 critic vote
When scientists exploring the Amazon River stumble on a “missing link” connecting humans and fish, they plan to capture it for later study. But the Creature has plans of his own, and has set his sights on the lead scientist's beautiful fiancée, Kay.
Fear (1954)
Roberto Rossellini · 1 critic vote
Irene Wagner, the wife of the prominent German scientist Professor Albert Wagner, had been having an affair with Erich Baumann. She does not disclose this to her husband, hoping to preserve his innocence and their "perfect marriage". This fills her with anxiety and guilt. However, Johanna Schultze, Erich's jealous ex-girlfriend, learns about the affair and begins to blackmail Irene, turning Irene's psychological torture into a harsh reality.
Islands of Fire (1954)
Vittorio De Seta · 1 critic vote
The first light of dawn. The sound of a boat and the screech of birds fill the wide expanse of sea. Black rocks emerge from the water, the “sciara” – the volcanic scoria – of Stromboli, the underwater sulfurous emanations, the layers of reddish rock eroded by the sea. The roar of the volcano can be heard, the flames and the liquid lava are thrown skyward. As nature unleashes itself, the fishermen row toward the shore, the sheep stray and the women return home.
It Should Happen to You (1954)
George Cukor · 1 critic vote
Gladys Glover has just lost her modeling job when she meets filmmaker Pete Sheppard shooting a documentary in Central Park. For Pete it's love at first sight, but Gladys has her mind on other things, making a name for herself. Through a fluke of advertising she winds up with her name plastered over 10 billboards throughout city.
The Raid (1954)
Hugo Fregonese · 1 critic vote
A group of confederate prisoners escape to Canada and plan to rob the banks and set fire to the small town of Saint Albans in Vermont. To get the lie of the land, their leader spends a few days in the town and finds he is getting drawn into its life and especially into that of an attractive widow and her son.
Golden Parable (1955)
Vittorio De Setta · 1 critic vote
Filming amid the flaxen wheat fields of Sicily, Vittorio De Seta documents the everyday rituals of farmers during harvest time.
Les maîtres fous (1955)
Jean Rouch · 1 critic vote
The subject of the film was the Hauka movement. The Hauka movement consisted of mimicry and dancing to become possessed by French Colonial administrators. The participants performed the same elaborate military ceremonies of their colonial occupiers, but in more of a trance than true recreation.
One Froggy Evening (1955)
Chuck Jones · 1 critic vote
A workman finds a singing frog in the cornerstone of an old building being demolished. But when he tries to cash in on his discovery, he finds the frog will sing only for him, and just croak for the talent agent and the audience in the theater he's spent his life savings on.
Children Who Draw (1956)
Susumu Hani · 1 critic vote
Children Who Draw explores the delicate chemistry of school children interacting in an art class through a constant juxtaposition of observational black-and-white portraits of the young children with lyrical passages shot in vivid color exploring their imaginative and expressive paintings. Experimenting with color as an intimate expression of the children’s inner worlds, a tool for deeper psychological investigation, Hani allows his camera to roam freely across the drawings, “de-framing’” and enagaging the artwork in a manner reminiscent of Alain Resnais.
Sorok Pervyi (1956)
Grigori Chukhrai · 1 critic vote
An unexpected romance occurs for a female Red Army sniper and a White Army officer.
Sound of the Fog (1956)
Hiroshi Shimizu · 1 critic vote
In the heart of the Japanese Alps, in Kamikochi, Nagano Prefecture, botany professor Kazuhiko Onuma spends time with Tsuruko, his lover. One night, Kazuhiko's wife Kazuyo comes to see them and confronts the professor about his extramarital affair, and Tsuruko, an inevitable witness to the confrontation, leaves the professor the following morning. Over the next decade, whenever he visits the mountain cabin every autumn equinox, the memory of Tsuruko will forever haunt Kazuhiko...
The Killing (1956)
Stanley Kubrick · 1 critic vote
Career criminal Johnny Clay recruits a sharpshooter, a crooked police officer, a bartender and a betting teller named George, among others, for one last job before he goes straight and gets married. But when George tells his restless wife about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.
The Mystery of Picasso (1956)
Henri-Georges Clouzot · 1 critic vote
Using a specially designed transparent 'canvas' to provide an unobstructed view, Picasso creates as the camera rolls. He begins with simple works that take shape after only a single brush stroke. He then progresses to more complex paintings, in which he repeatedly adds and removes elements, transforming the entire scene at will, until at last the work is complete.
Quatermass 2 (1957)
Val Guest · 1 critic vote
In England, a group of space scientists led by Bernard Quatermass, who have developed plans for the first Moon colony, learn that a secret, ostensibly government-run, complex of identical design has been built in a remote part of England and is the focus of periodic falls of small, hollow "meteorites" originating in outer space. Quatermass determines to investigate and uncovers a terrifying extraterrestrial life form which has already begun action to take over the Earth.
Recreation I and II (1957)
Robert Breer · 1 critic vote
Featuring a commentary by Noël Burch (in nonsense French), Recreation's rapid-fire montage of single-frame images of incredible density and intensity has been compared to contemporary Beat poetry.
Rio, Zona Norte (1957)
Nelson Pereira dos Santos · 1 critic vote
A talented songwriter of sambas is forced to face the social injustices of the city around him.
The Hunters (1957)
John Marshall, Robert Gardner · 1 critic vote
An ethnographic documentary following four Ju/’hoansi (!Kung) men during a multi-day giraffe hunt in the Kalahari Desert, filmed during the Smithsonian–Harvard Peabody expedition of 1952–53.
The Smallest Show on Earth (1957)
Basil Dearden · 1 critic vote
Jean and Bill are a married couple trying to scrape a living. Out of the blue they receive a telegram informing them Bill's long-lost uncle has died and left them his business—a cinema in the town of Sloughborough. Unfortunately they can't sell it for the fortune they hoped as they discover it is falling down and almost worthless.
The Tall T (1957)
Budd Boetticher · 1 critic vote
An independent former ranch foreman and an heiress are kidnapped by a trio of ruthless outlaws.
What's Opera, Doc? (1957)
Chuck Jones · 1 critic vote
Elmer Fudd is again hunting rabbits - only this time it's an opera. Wagner's Siegfried with Elmer as the titular hero and Bugs as Brunnhilde. They sing, they dance, they eat the scenery.
Bridges-go-round (1958)
Shirley Clarke · 1 critic vote
New York City’s bridges dissolve into shifting abstractions through montage, superimposition, and color. Set to an electronic score by Louis and Bebe Barron, the film transforms familiar urban structures into an uncanny, alien landscape (an alternate version of the film features a jazz score by Teo Macero).
Buffalo Bill in 27 Forms (1958)
Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd · 1 critic vote
Derives from the pattern that appears when two celluloid sheets painted with different patterns are moved over one and other. (Filmform)
L'opéra-mouffe (1958)
Agnès Varda · 1 critic vote
Impressions of the rue Mouffetard, Paris 5, through the eyes of a pregnant woman.
Mimbre (1958)
Sergio Bravo · 1 critic vote
Shows the visual impressions aroused when entering the workshop of a wicker craftsman known as 'Manzanito' in the late 50's Santiago, Chile.
Unknown to the City (1958)
Cecilia Mangini · 1 critic vote
The life, the problems, the hopes of the ragazzi of the suburbs of Rome. Ignored by the city, these young men spontaneously express their vitality, their violence, their willingness to put themselves at risk. They are at the center of "Ragazzi di vita", the first novel by Pier Paolo Pasolini, author of the text of this documentary.
Hold, Sun! (1959)
Ferry Radax · 1 critic vote
A sailor appears at the port of Buenos Aires, and at the same time as a dandy in Fegina, the “Riviera” of Monterosso al Mare (double-role: Konrad Bayer). Through a kind of “inner monologue” both are dependent on one another in a cryptic way. An elegant, cool beauty (Suzanna Hockenjos) becomes bored with the dandy, causing him to suddenly (in order to impress her?) shoot the sun from the sky, which produces a very erotic Eve (Ingrid Schuppan), but gives nothing more to the dandy. Thereupon, he further knocks down the moon, but this spectacle also bores the cool blonde. Incensed about this, the dandy destroys his entire strange world. In doing so, he loses Eve. Grief regarding her death and despair regarding the unwelcoming lady turns the dandy back to a sailor. He returns to the sea.
Men of Consett (1959)
Tom Stobart · 1 critic vote
Directed by Thomas Stobart.
The Crimson Kimono (1959)
Samuel Fuller · 1 critic vote
Two detectives clash over the hunt for a burlesque dancer’s killer in Los Angeles’ Japanese district.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Terence Fisher · 1 critic vote
When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.
We Are the Lambeth Boys (1959)
Karel Reisz · 1 critic vote
Seminal piece of documentary filmmaking by New Wave director Karel Reisz following the daily activities of members of the Lambeth Youth club in late-1950s London.
Black Sunday (1960)
Mario Bava · 1 critic vote
A vengeful witch, Asa Vajda, and her fiendish servant, Igor Jauvitch, return from the grave and begin a bloody campaign to possess the body of the witch's beautiful look-alike descendant: Katia. Only a handsome doctor with the help of family members stand in her way.
Nobody’s Calling (1960)
Kazimierz Kutz · 1 critic vote
Shortly after World War 2 a young man arrives on the Recovered Territories and starts a romance with a young woman, all the while evading the ghosts of his past.
Stendalì: Still They Toll (1960)
Cecilia Mangini · 1 critic vote
A unique 1960s documentary on the traditional dirge sung by women in Griko, an ancient dialect of Salento, so old that it originates from the ancient Greeks who once colonized that part of southern Italy.
Sweet Delusions (1960)
Alberto Lattuada · 1 critic vote
Francesca, a seventeen-year-old Roman, is finally sure she has found love. Almost sure. She spends the day observing other lovers' behaviors and considering whether she is ready to jump. Her age notwithstanding, this movie is more about coming of age than about improper or illegal romantic relationships.
The Brides of Dracula (1960)
Terence Fisher · 1 critic vote
A young teacher on her way to a position in Transylvania helps a young man escape the shackles his mother has put on him. In so doing she innocently unleashes the horrors of the undead once again on the populace, including those at her school for ladies. Luckily for some, Dr. Van Helsing is already on his way.
The Enchanting Shadow (1960)
Li Han-hsiang · 1 critic vote
A young scholar spends the night in a creepy temple that is said to be haunted. He doesn't believe in the rumors, but after running into a Taoist swordsman, he meets a beautiful lady ghost.
The Lady with the Dog (1960)
Iosif Kheifits, Semyon Derevyansky · 1 critic vote
On holiday in Yalta, Muscovite banker Dimitri Gurov contrives to meet a young woman who walks her dog. She’s Anna Sergeyevna, trapped in a loveless marriage to a lackey. He’s unhappy in an arranged marriage. With neither spouse at hand, Dimitri and Anna begin an affair.
A Woman Is a Woman (1961)
Jean-Luc Godard · 1 critic vote
Longing for a baby, a stripper pursues another man in order to make her boyfriend jealous.
Allures (1961)
Jordan Belson · 1 critic vote
Allures is a spectacular sequence of moving figures and points, a film which reaches out to the cosmic and the spiritual, where the spatial dimension becomes transcendental.
Night Tide (1961)
Curtis Harrington · 1 critic vote
A young sailor falls in love with a mysterious woman performing as a mermaid on the local pier. As they become entwined, he comes to suspect the woman might be a real mermaid who lures men to a watery death during the full moon. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 2007.
Alyonka (1962)
Boris Barnet · 1 critic vote
Set in 1955 when many migrated from Russia to the Steppes of Kazakhstan, this is the trip back to the Canal from the frontier and farms by a number of people who tell their settler stories. Alyonka Muratova is a winsome 13 year old who talks Dmitry Prokovich, the chief mechanic for the Soviet, into giving up his seat in the truck to a young mother with her infant daughter. Then Alyonka and Dmitry share the back of the open truck with a young woman, newly graduated dentist who has not been able to find a position, Stefan, a hitchhiker with a dog who hopes his upper-class wife will return to him and the countryside, and Vasselina Petrovolka, a woman who lost one of her twin daughters in a riding accident by the river shortly after they arrived, and now is returning to tell the other twin of her sister's fate. A warm hearted look at common folks traveling in the frontier.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1962)
Robert Enrico · 1 critic vote
During the American Civil War, a Southerner is about to be hanged from a bridge for sabotage when something unexpected happens.
Barravento (1962)
Glauber Rocha · 1 critic vote
In Bahia, an educated black man returns to his home fishing village to try and free people from mysticism, in particular the Candomblé religion, which he considers a factor of political and social oppression, with tragic outcome.
Cosmic Ray (1962)
Bruce Conner · 1 critic vote
Experimental short uses Ray Charles' “What'd I Say” as accompaniment to constantly shifting collage of female nude, cartoons, and newsreels of atomic bomb explosions.
Die Parallelstrasse (1962)
Ferdinand Khittl · 1 critic vote
Feature-documentary "pointing up a thousand facets of this world and probing to determine what may lie beneath the surface".
Heaven and Earth Magic (1962)
Harry Everett Smith · 1 critic vote
The first part depicts the heroine's toothache consequent to the loss of a very valuable watermelon, her dentistry and transportation to heaven. Next follows an elaborate exposition of the heavenly land, in terms of Israel and Montreal. The second part depicts the return to Earth from being eaten by Max Müller on the day Edward VII dedicated the Great Sewer of London.
Kill (1962)
Kenji Misumi · 1 critic vote
In Edo-period Japan, Shingo is born the son of an assassin who was executed for murdering her lord’s concubine. Decades later, his adoptive family is massacred for keeping the secret. Armed with an unbeatable swordfighting technique, Shingo embarks on the path of the masterless samurai in search of vengeance and a path beyond his own ignominious origins.
Labyrinth (1962)
Jan Lenica · 1 critic vote
A self-consciously Kafkaesque tale of a winged lonely man literally devoured by totalitarian rule.
Sunday Evening (1962)
Franco Piavoli · 1 critic vote
Young peasants come together to dance in the evening. The girls arrive by bike; the boys get ready for them by doing their hair. The less shy amongst them begin to dance. Then, some of them go home, singing as they go, delighted to have obtained a promise. Others take advantage of the dark to make love.
The World's Greatest Sinner (1962)
Timothy Carey · 1 critic vote
A bored insurance salesman quits his job to go into politics. He first starts preaching about how man is greater than he thinks and that man can live forever. He ends up forming his own political party, "The Eternal Man" party. He begins to be referred to as "God". Then he starts having doubts about the eternalness of man.
Bay of Angels (1963)
Jacques Demy · 1 critic vote
A bank clerk is drawn into the risky world of a gorgeous gambling addict.
Borom Sarret (1963)
Ousmane Sembène · 1 critic vote
A cart-taxi driver goes to the city to make a living, but out of sympathy with other poverty-stricken people, he works for free and goes hungry himself.
Curd Cheese (1963)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 1 critic vote
Pier Paolo Pasolini's contribution to the omnibus film "RO.GO.PA.G" casts Orson Welles as a director attempting to make a film of the crucifixion of Jesus-all while he, the cast, and crew behave in the most un-Christlike ways imaginable.
Kiss (1963)
Andy Warhol · 1 critic vote
An hour-long paean to the art of the kiss featuring fourteen couples, from passionate participants to lethargic lovers, engaging in the intimate act.
Little Stabs at Happiness (1963)
Ken Jacobs · 1 critic vote
Little Stabs at Happiness is a collection of silent shorts Jacobs shot from the period of 1959-1963. Jaunty tunes (and a somber reflection) accompany the footage.
The Lizards (1963)
Lina Wertmüller · 1 critic vote
The uneventful lives of three young men who live in a small, poverty-stricken village in southern Italy.
The Mischievous Prince Slays the Giant Serpent (1963)
Yugo Serikawa · 1 critic vote
In this influential cult-classic animated film based on Japanese folklore, Susano is the youngest son of Izanagi and Izanami, the heavenly couple who created the Earth. Still a young boy, Susano is devastated by the passing away of his mother. Determined to find her despite the reprimands of his father, he embarks on a journey to find his brother and his sister for spiritual guidance.
The Nose (1963)
Alexandre Alexeieff, Claire Parker · 1 critic vote
A study in pins of a man who loses his nose which becomes a personality in its own right.
The Sword in the Stone (1963)
Wolfgang Reitherman · 1 critic vote
Wart is a young boy who aspires to be a knight's squire. On a hunting trip he falls in on Merlin, a powerful but amnesiac wizard who has plans for him beyond mere squiredom. He starts by trying to give him an education, believing that once one has an education, one can go anywhere. Needless to say, it doesn't quite work out that way.
The Virgin of Nuremberg (1963)
Anthony M. Dawson · 1 critic vote
Women are being tortured to death with various devices in the dungeon of an old castle by a mysterious, hooded figure who may be a notorious executioner from medieval times.
BLIND KIND (1964)
Johan van der Keuken · 1 critic vote
With the use of montage sequences, voiced over with the observations of the children, van der Keuken was able to use artistic expression to portray the sightless children’s unique perspective of the world.
Couch (1964)
Andy Warhol · 1 critic vote
The couch at Andy Warhol's Factory was as famous in its own right as any of his Superstars. In Couch, visitors to the Factory were invited to "perform" on camera, seated on the old couch. Their many acts-both lascivious and mundane-are documented in a film that has come to be regarded as one of the most notorious of Warhol's early works. Across the course of the film we encounter such figures as poets Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso, the writer Jack Kerouac, and perennial New York figure Taylor Mead.
Film (1964)
Alan Schneider · 1 critic vote
A man attempts to evade observation by an all-seeing eye.
Haircut (1964)
Andy Warhol · 1 critic vote
Shot in slow motion, with tiny bits of stagy lighting that seem to crumble and flake like cookies, Billy Name gives one of his notorious haircuts--and Warhol turns it into a homoerotic performance, a dance of adoration and control, a triangle of looking and keeping-at-bay, that is a slightly dullish but finally essential contribution to Warhol's long project of bringing portraiture technologies to moviemaking.
Mass for the Dakota Sioux (1964)
Bruce Baillie · 1 critic vote
An experimental film dedicated to the Dakota Sioux, which follows the form of the Christian Mass. A series of images of contemporary America interwoven with the ritual spiriting away of a dead Indian.
Of Stars and Men (1964)
John Hubley · 1 critic vote
Of Stars and Men is a 1964 animated film from the Hubley family of animators, based on the 1959 book of the same name by astronomer Harlow Shapley, who also narrates. Made in the style of a documentary, it tells of humankind's quest (in the form of a child) to find its place in the universe, through themes such as outer space, physical matter, the meaning of life and the periodic table. There are no character voices; instead, they "talk" through their actions. It has been cited as an example of an "animated documentary".
On the Road: A Document (1964)
Noriaki Tsuchimoto · 1 critic vote
Japanese documentary from 1964 directed by Noriaki Tsuchimoto. The film focuses on the taxi drivers of Tokyo in the year before the Tokyo Olympics and the difficulties they face: construction obstructing traffic, poor working conditions, numerous accidents, and bad pay. It becomes a critique of a changing and modernizing urban Japan.
Seven Up! (1964)
Paul Almond · 1 critic vote
A group of British children aged 7 from widely ranging backgrounds are interviewed about a range of subjects. The filmmakers plan to re-interview them at 7 year intervals to track how their lives and attitudes change as they age.
The Disorderly Orderly (1964)
Frank Tashlin · 1 critic vote
Poor Jerome Littlefield. He wants to be a doctor – but that's not exactly the perfect career choice when you're hopelessly squeamish. So he settles for the job of orderly at the Whitestone Sanitarium, a career move that's guaranteed to keep the patients – and viewers – in stitches!
The Knell (1964)
René Vautier · 1 critic vote
At the beginning of the 1960s, in Salisbury (now Harare), in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), the government of Ian Smith hanged three black revolutionaries who had nevertheless been pardoned by the Queen of England. René Vautier, with ZAPU (Zimbabwe African Party for Unity), denounces this killing. Expelled by the Rhodesian police (informed by the French secret services), the filmmaker shoots a film in Algeria in the form of an indictment against colonial savagery. The film was first banned in France, then authorized in 1965.
Verifica incerta - Disperse Exclamatory Phase (1964)
Gianfranco Baruchello, Alberto Grifi · 1 critic vote
A short film containing a collection of clips from various Hollywood movies.
Ödenwaldstetten (1964)
Peter Nestler · 1 critic vote
Portrait of a small south German village and its residents in the early sixties. Rural culture is undergoing a transformation caused by the intrusion of the industrial world. Gestures at work and words of its inhabitants.
Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965)
Doris Wishman · 1 critic vote
On the run after dispatching her rapist, homemaker Ellen flees to the Big City, where further misfortunes befall her. When she finally finds stability, she discovers that her landlady's son is a detective, threatening her newfound identity and peace of mind.
Chronicle of a Boy Alone (1965)
Leonardo Favio · 1 critic vote
The story of a delinquent eleven-year-old orphan in authoritarian Argentina.
Essere donne (1965)
Cecilia Mangini · 1 critic vote
This documentary is one of the earliest film enquiries on women's condition in Italy, seen in its different aspects: social, economic, psychological. Starting from an analysis of the feminine role models proposed by the cultural industry, the film finds its protagonists among all kinds of women.
Man Is Not a Bird (1965)
Dušan Makavejev · 1 critic vote
A Serbian engineer falls for a younger woman, but he is inept at courtship.
Poor Little Rich Girl (1965)
Andy Warhol · 1 critic vote
A young, jobless woman stays in bed, reads, talks on the phone, smokes cigarettes, makes fresh coffee, and tries on some clothes from a large wardrobe.
Quixote (1965)
Bruce Baillie · 1 critic vote
Co-founder of Canyon Cinema and the San Francisco Cinematheque and one of the godparents of experimental film, Bruce Baillie (1931-2020) has forged a singular path in his visionary explorations of the world, his exquisite treatment of light and fragmented storytelling influencing successive generations of like-minded filmmakers. Shot on a cross-country journey during 1964 and 1965, is the Baillie film most in need of rediscovery. Joining the ranks of Bob Dylan, Robert Frank and Jack Kerouac in chronicling a tumultuous period in American history from the road, Baillie sets out "to show how in the conquest of our environment in the New World, Americans have isolated themselves from nature and from one another."
Schmeerguntz (1965)
Gunvor Nelson · 1 critic vote
A hilarious, grotesque and grave attack on the public ideal of the American housewife.
Screen Test No. 1 (1965)
Andy Warhol · 1 critic vote
Ronald Tavel taunts Philip Fagan, who lacks the verbal dexterity to counter the clever spider’s web of words that Ronald Tavel weaves to ensnare him, so that Fagan’s only response is to refuse to respond and stare silently off-screen, turning the screen test into a strange form of psychodrama.
The Knack ...And How to Get It (1965)
Richard Lester · 1 critic vote
A nebbish schoolteacher begs his smooth (and misogynistic) pal to teach him 'the knack' – how to score with women. Serendipitously, the men meet up with a new girl in town, as well as a friendly lunatic who can’t help but paint things white.
The Secret Formula (1965)
Rubén Gámez · 1 critic vote
A cinematographic essay, full of surreal moments and provocative scenarios related to intellectual debates about the Mexican national character.
Up the Junction (1965)
Ken Loach · 1 critic vote
The lives and loves of three young working class women, set in the pubs, terraced houses and factories of Battersea, South London.
Vinyl (1965)
Andy Warhol · 1 critic vote
Andy Warhol’s screen adaptation of Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange”.
YA VIZHU SOLNTZE (1965)
Lana Gogoberidze · 1 critic vote
In Georgia during WWII Zurikela, an orphan boy, meets Khatia, a blind girl, and vows to help her to see again.
A Report on the Party and the Guests (1966)
Jan Němec · 1 critic vote
A group of the bourgeois head for a prominent figure's birthday party. As they venture through the woods and have a picnic, they're suddenly surrounded by some suspicious strangers.
Bariera (1966)
Jerzy Skolimowski · 1 critic vote
A dream-like meditation on post-industrial life in Communist Poland.
CERRO PELADO (1966)
Santiago Álvarez · 1 critic vote
A ship of athletes training on the rough seas becomes a symbol of Castro’s Cuba, the games projected on the backdrop of political struggle. This is the story of a ship and of a sports delegation whom the enemy tried to stop from participating in the Tenth Central American and Caribbean Games.
Cathy Come Home (1966)
Ken Loach · 1 critic vote
Cathy and Reg are a couple with three young children, who find their life spiralling into poverty when Reg loses his well-paid job. Gripping and emotional, Cathy Come Home remains a truly ground-breaking piece of dramatic fiction, engaging viewers with social issues, such as homelessness, unemployment and the rights of mothers to keep their own children.
Hand Movie (1966)
Yvonne Rainer · 1 critic vote
Rainer's first film, Hand Film, was shot by fellow dancer William Davis when Rainer was confined to a hospital bed, recovering from major surgery and unable to dance. The resulting five minutes of footage is a sustained close-up shot of Rainer's hand against a grey background as it stretches and contracts, bends and points, performing the kinds of everyday, quotidian movements that characterize her pioneering minimalist choreography.
If I Had Four Dromedaries (1966)
Chris Marker · 1 critic vote
Composed entirely of still photographs taken by Chris Marker across 26 countries, If I Had Four Dromedaries presents a dialogue between three voices reflecting on the meaning of images and travel. Through this photo-essay form, Marker explores the relationship between still and moving images and the act of seeing itself.
La muerte de un burócrata (1966)
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea · 1 critic vote
A young man attempts to fight the system in an entertaining account of bureaucracy amok and the tyranny of red tape. Restored by the Academy Film Archive and the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industrias Cinematográficos in 2019.
Land of the Fathers (1966)
Shaken Ajmanov · 1 critic vote
An old man decides to find the body of his son, a Kazakh soldier who died fighting somewhere in Russia, to bury him in the land of his ancestors. Travelling across the land with his grandson, they discover the harsh reality of war. And when they finally find the coveted grave, they realise that many brothers-in-arms are buried with the soldier. Every inch of the great homeland becomes the land of our fathers, the land of the ancestors...
Le Père Noël a les yeux bleus (1966)
Jean Eustache · 1 critic vote
Daniel needs some money to buy a duffle coat that is in fashion, so he agrees to work for a photographer by dressing up as Santa Claus. He discovers that it is much easier to meet girls when he is in his costume.
Miss Death (1966)
Jesús Franco · 1 critic vote
A woman seeks to avenge her father's death using a local dancer, with long poisonous fingernails, to do her bidding.
Our Trip to Africa (1966)
Peter Kubelka · 1 critic vote
Originally commissioned by an Austrian couple in 1961 to photograph a travel diary documenting their wild game hunt, Kubelka shot three hours of film and recorded fourteen hours of audio. Over the next few years, Kubelka toiled in the editing bay, producing a work charged with intricate, ironic brutality.
The 15-Year-Old Widows (1966)
Jean Rouch · 1 critic vote
Filmed in Paris in 1964, this documentary short follows two fifteen-year-old girls from the city’s 16th arrondissement as they move through leisure, conversation, and social encounters. The film records their views on adulthood, relationships, and the future, capturing a moment of transition between adolescence and adult life.
The Skies of Our Childhood (1966)
Tolomush Okeyev · 1 critic vote
Bakai is an old shepherd who lives in the country while his children have long grown accustomed to life in the city. When his youngest son pays him a visit, Bakai wants him to stay and help with the rigors of rural living.
Ukamau (1966)
Jorge Sanjinés · 1 critic vote
While her husband is on his way to the market, a peasant woman is raped and murdered. Her widower carefully plans his revenge.
Breakaway (1967)
Bruce Conner · 1 critic vote
Breakaway plays out like a visual symphony. A prototype for the best (but still, lesser) contemporary formalist music videos, like Peter Care’s “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” and “Drive” (both for REM), Conner’s movie is an experiment in the visual language of film. But no matter how powerful a formal analysis of his filmmaking process may be in suggesting how Conner’s rhythms affect us, there is much in Breakaway – in Basilotta’s brash and unbridled self-assertiveness, in Conner’s feverish camera style, and even in the uncomplicated honesty of Cobb’s catchy lyrics and tune – that defies verbalisation… and must simply be loved! -- Senses of Cinema
Caprice Italian Style (1967)
Mauro Bolognini, Mario Monicelli, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Steno, Pino Zac, Franco Rossi · 1 critic vote
The film consists of six short stories created by different directors, but all the stories share one thing: a warm irony to current events.
David Holzman's Diary (1967)
Jim McBride · 1 critic vote
A young filmmaker decides to make a movie about his day-to-day activities in an attempt to understand himself and get his life back in order. A precursor to reality television and vlogs.
Gammelion (1967)
Gregory Markopoulos · 1 critic vote
Gammelion 1968, filmed at Il Castello Roccasinibalda in Rieti, Italy, is a major work in Markopoulos’s oeuvre, marking the transition into his late period and anticipating his epic final film, Eniaios 1947–91. Shot with only two rolls of film, the work extends seven minutes of footage to almost one hour of viewing time using hundreds of fades in and out. - Tate Modern
Great Society (1967)
Oe Masanori, Marvin Fishman · 1 critic vote
If Richie’s films were an American’s insight into Japan, Oe’s six-screen projection piece Great Society takes the intercultural dialogue back full circle onto the U.S., where he accumulated a compilation of American news footage and avant-garde imagery into a hybrid mesh to express distrust in singular point of views. A project commissioned by CBS, the six screens presented interact, mirror and fissure against one another, emanating an aura of vibrancy and confusion that was internationally a characteristic of the decade.
Liu Pi-Chia (1967)
Richard Yao-chi CHEN · 1 critic vote
LIU PI-CHIA, a biographical documentary depicting the life of a veteran who joined tens of thousands of others to work on national infrastructure construction projects in the 1960s, is considered Taiwan’s first cinéma vérité film.
Marvo Movie (1967)
Jeff Keen · 1 critic vote
Four minutes of heavily cut-up sound and vision with collage, animation and multiple exposures throughout.
Something Nice to Eat (1967)
Sarah Erulkar · 1 critic vote
Cooking is a kind of loving, features Jean Shrimpton
Spring Night, Summer Night (1967)
Joseph L. Anderson · 1 critic vote
Carl and Jessie are half siblings who feel trapped by the existential and economic pressures of living in the small mining town of Canaan, Ohio. Their shared rebellion soon takes on the form of an illicit love affair depicted in interwoven sequences of lusty poeticism and ethnographic vérité. When Jessie becomes pregnant, the tension between the couple’s youthful vitality and the dire realities of rural society leads to consequences both despairing and hopeful.
The Cut-ups (1967)
Antony Balch · 1 critic vote
Essentially a dizzying montage of quirky shots of legendary Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs and noted surrealist artist Brion Gysin, this nearly 20 minute avant-garde short features repeated articulations of such random things as "Hello," "Where are we now?," and "Look at that picture" instead of music or standard dialogue. The narrative is decidedly nonlinear and perplexing, with no discernible plot whatsoever as we see images of Gysin working on his paintings and calligraphic designs and Burroughs rummaging through draws, packing a suitcase, giving a young man a physical, making a call in a phone booth, and waiting on a platform for a subway train.
The Departure (1967)
Jerzy Skolimowski · 1 critic vote
A young Belgian car nut and hairdresser's apprentice attempts to get a Porsche by all means for his nearing debut race and meets a girl in the same time.
The First Russians (1967)
Aleksandr Ivanov, Yevgeni Shiffers · 1 critic vote
1918. Workers from Petrograd come to Altai region to establish the first agricultural commune. In spite of the hostility of the local White Army cossacks the workers build houses, cultivate land. The poor peasants are turning towards the commune. However, White Army cossacks take vengeance on the members of the commune.
The Jungle Book (1967)
Wolfgang Reitherman · 1 critic vote
The boy Mowgli makes his way to the man-village with Bagheera, the wise panther. Along the way he meets jazzy King Louie, the hypnotic snake Kaa and the lovable, happy-go-lucky bear Baloo, who teaches Mowgli "The Bare Necessities" of life and the true meaning of friendship.
The Naughty Ones (1967)
Vojislav Rakonjac Kokan · 1 critic vote
One night, after a disastrous traffic accident, witnesses reported seeing a woman behind the wheel who fled the scene. In reality, it was four teenagers who stole a Peugeot 404 for a spin. Later, one of them got out and began hitchhiking, while the others were involved in a fatal accident after being chased by the police shortly afterward. The police continue their intensive search for the fourth teenager.
Tomorrow's Promise (1967)
Edward Owens · 1 critic vote
“Tomorrow’s Promise is a film about vacantness. Which physically does ‘begin’, reversed, upside down on the screen […] suddenly another such position is taken (not in reverse), this time by a male figure and soon, in this same section, the girl of the reversed image reappears posed in a different way; a way obsessed by ‘mood’. Then a technical play of in-the-camera-editing occurs, more intense, brighter than in the first, reversed section. There are several inter-cuts which serve, in this and each subsequent section unto the end, as relative links into the final section: which is actually the ‘story’. The story the protagonist and her hero try to tell in their way is apophysis; except that ‘pictures’, clear visions take the place of words. My film could have been edited with precise tensions and a lucid straight narrative, but it was my aim to ‘re-create’ the protagonist of my personal life.” - Edward Owens
Uncle Janco (1967)
Agnès Varda · 1 critic vote
While in San Francisco for the promotion of her last film in October 1967, Agnès Varda, tipped by her friend Tom Luddy, gets to know a relative she had never heard of before, Jean Varda, nicknamed "Yanco". This hitherto unknown uncle lives on a boat in Sausalito, is a painter, has adopted a hippie lifestyle and loves life. The meeting is a very happy one.
When I Am Dead And Gone (1967)
Živojin Pavlović · 1 critic vote
The story about Jimmy Barka, a young vagabond who works as a seasonal worker. Having been sacked from the job, his dreams are to become a singer. As most of the things in the Balkans happen, he is destined to failure.
Coffea Arábiga (1968)
Nicolás Guillén Landrián · 1 critic vote
'Coffea arábiga' was sponsored as a propaganda documentary to show how to sow coffee around Havana. In fact, Guillén Landrián made a film critical of Castro, exhibited but banned as soon as the coffee plan collapsed.
Contras'city (1968)
Djibril Diop Mambéty · 1 critic vote
A fictional documentary that portrays the city of Dakar, Senegal, as we hear the conversation between a Senegalese man (the director, Djibril Diop Mambéty) and a French woman, Inge Hirschnitz. As we travel through the city in a picturesque horse drawn wagon, we chaotically rush into this and that popular neighborhood of the capital, discovering contrast after contrast: A small African community waiting at the Church's door, Muslims praying on the sidewalk, the Rococo architecture of the Government buildings, the modest stores of the craftsmen near the main market.
For My Crushed Right Eye (1968)
Toshio Matsumoto · 1 critic vote
Two chaotic series of images, one for each eye. Hipster living, malformed fetuses, war, arts events and pop culture stands for the material.
Great Green Valley (1968)
Merab Kokochashvili · 1 critic vote
A group of geologists discover oil under the fields where Sosana, the aged and anachronistic father, raises his herd with his unhappy wife, her friend and his growing boy with whom he displays a wonderful rapport. The land is invaded by big machinery that feels remarkably alien to the serene and natural aesthetic of the valley. The family all enjoys the pleasures and storytelling capacity a slide projector grants them, but it too feels distinctly out of place in a town with no plumbing.
Head (1968)
Bob Rafelson · 1 critic vote
In this surrealistic and free-form follow-up to the Monkees' television show, the band frolic their way through a series of musical set pieces and vignettes containing humor and anti-establishment social commentary.
Holiday (1968)
Lee Man-hee · 1 critic vote
Experimental short subject preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with Estate Project for Artists with AIDS, in 1998.
Innocence Unprotected (1968)
Dušan Makavejev · 1 critic vote
A documentary about the famous athlete and movie enthusiast who made Serbia's first sound film, Innocence Unprotected. The Nazi occupation of Belgrade prevented the film from gaining wider acclaim. Director Makavejev intersperses clips of the original film with interviews of surviving cast and crew members, as well as newsreel and archival footage.
La Rosiere de Pessac (1968)
Jean Eustache · 1 critic vote
This landmark documentary by Jean Eustache, filmed in 1968, hilariously exposes small-town pomposity and naiveté as it chronicles the preparations for an annual contest to crown a village’s most virtuous young woman.
Libahunt (1968)
Leida Laius · 1 critic vote
There are three children growing at Tammaru farm - one boy, Margus; and two orphan girls, Mari and Tiina. Margus' parents want him to marry Mari instead of Tiina as she is more their kind. Hotblooded Tiina is completely different from them and her mother was once executed for being a witch. Thinking that Tiina has bewitched Margus, Mari starts to publicly accuse her stepsister of being a werewolf.
Louis Lumière / conversation avec Langlois et Renoir (1968)
Éric Rohmer · 1 critic vote
Eric Rohmer leads a conversation with Jean Renoir and Henri Langlois on the art of filmmaker Louis Lumière.
Nothing (1968)
Ernst Schmidt Jr · 1 critic vote
Conceptual overabundance was contrasted with nothing in Nothing, which, as the title promises, was nothing. Two years later, when Schmidt Jr. wanted to produce a film version of Nothing consisting of a whiteness that was gradually and imperceptibly to shift to black, the film lab thought the negative was faulty and stayed with the original, that is: it copied – nothing. (Peter Tscherkassky)
Pas De Deux (1968)
Norman McLaren · 1 critic vote
Two ballet dancers perform a dance enhanced with surreal after-image visuals.
Six et Douze (1968)
Ahmed Bouanani, Abderrahman Tazi, Mohamed, Abdelmajid Rechiche · 1 critic vote
Six and Twelve is one of a series of short films and documentaries produced under the auspices of the Centre Cinématographique Marocain in the years after Moroccan independence. While most of these were utilitarian in nature, Bouanani, Tazi, and Rechiche took a different route with this film, creating a modernist “city symphony” film that documented six hours in the life of the city of Casablanca. Combining a hard bebop soundtrack with stunning black and white cinematography and a radical editing style, the film stands as a document to the energetic experimentation of this period of Moroccan art and cinema.
T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G (1968)
Paul Sharits · 1 critic vote
T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G uses flickering frames of solid color juxtaposed with positive and negative still images of a man—sometimes cutting off his own tongue with glitter-covered scissors, sometimes suffering a series of glitter-stained fingernail scratches across the face. Other rapidly alternating still images of eye surgery and a couple in the midst of intercourse. The soundtrack is a continuous looped recording of the word "destroy" over the entire length of the film.
The Wind is Driving Him Toward the Open Sea (1968)
David Brooks · 1 critic vote
A non-narrative patchwork of images, light, music, conversation, news headlines, the passing of generations, and, ultimately, a journey from New York City to Martha's Vineyard in an attempt to discover a man named Chandler Moore.
Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968)
Jonathan Miller · 1 critic vote
A university professor, confident that everything which occurs in life has a rational explanation, finds his beliefs severely challenged when, during a vacation to a remote coastal village in Norfolk, he blows through an ancient whistle discovered on a beach, awakening horrors beyond human understanding.
Windy Day (1968)
John Hubley, Faith Hubley · 1 critic vote
Two little girls muse on marriage and babies, love and death as they create and act out plays in their backyard. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2006.
79 Springtimes (1969)
Santiago Álvarez · 1 critic vote
This film memorializes the leader of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, on the occasion of his death. It narrates the story of a life which is also the story of a nation-recounting his important accomplishments in the struggle against colonialism and imperialism.
A.K.A. Serial Killer (1969)
Masao Adachi · 1 critic vote
AKA Serial Killer documents the social upheaval and political oppression that roiled Japan in the 1960s, profiling a nineteen-year-old serial killer Norio Nagayama. An indictment of media sensationalism, the film humanizes the young man by situating his crimes in the larger context of his environment.
Basta! (1969)
Ugo Ulive · 1 critic vote
“Through the use of violent symbols (loosely associated with Artaud’s notion of cruelty), some of the consequences of the current social organization in Latin-America are exposed: the alienation, marginalization and reification of men, and the continuous presence of imperialism, considered as rape.” (UU)
Binding Sentiments (1969)
Márta Mészáros · 1 critic vote
Edit, who became the wife of a politician out of a simple peasant girl, suddenly becomes a widow as a result of an accident. She never loved her husband. She lives a wealthy and lonely life amidst false friends, facing one of the last alternatives of her life, i.e. having to face her past in the hope of an independent new beginning.
Blind Beast (1969)
Yasuzō Masumura · 1 critic vote
A blind sculptor kidnaps an artists' model and imprisons her in his warehouse studio – a shadowland of perverse monuments to the female form. Here a deranged passion play of sensual and sexual obsession is acted out in world where sight is replaced by touch.
Commissars (1969)
Nikolay Mashchenko · 1 critic vote
To build a young state of workers and peasants, the party does not spare its most devoted and ardent fighters and sends experienced Bolsheviks to commissar courses.
Cut-Off Movie (1969)
Jun'ichi Okuyama · 1 critic vote
Raw material spliced into projection film, paper, leaves, vinyl, 6mm audio tape. Depending on hair, etc. the film breaks during projection. The film gets shorter with each projection, the author wrote this {Disappearance Movie} and named it.
Don Juan (1969)
Jan Švankmajer · 1 critic vote
The age-old story of Don Juan, played by giant puppets.
Gray Morning (1969)
Olney São Paulo · 1 critic vote
A couple is arrested and tortured after taking part in a political demonstration, being sentenced to death.
Lemon (1969)
Hollis Frampton · 1 critic vote
Light begins to illuminate the small, nipple-like end of a lemon on the right edge of the frame and gradually spreads until the entire lemon is clearly visible. Then the light recedes across the frame.
Meio-Dia (1969)
Helena Solberg · 1 critic vote
A group of school students sets up a rebellion that threatens to kill their teacher.
Soundtrack (1969)
Barry Spinello · 1 critic vote
Black and white with some color hand-applied to each print, hand-painted image, hand-painted sound.
Still (1969)
Ernie Gehr · 1 critic vote
"This collapse of separate times into one image creates another push/pull with the experience of depth. The superimpositions seem to lie on top of the image, yet they move into depth, creating what Gehr describes as a 'teasing play with planes.' But the play with space and position here involves more than tension between layers. The variations on light and shadow on the two levels cause the double-exposures to pop in and out of depth. A shadow on the first level can give the superimposition a sudden burst of solidity. Gehr calls our attention to the multiplicity of depth cues that operate in a film in addition to perspective recession. The cue of overlap creates much of the amusement of the film, as the vehicles on one level plow through the phantoms on the other. Gehr was particularly fascinated by the way depth cues provided by color (with warm colors coming forward) interact with the logic of space..." – Tom Gunning
The Dependent (1969)
Leonardo Favio · 1 critic vote
Fernandez is a lonely man leading a lonely life. All he does is work for an old man in a hardware store. But all that changes, when he meets the girl of his dreams... and her family.
The Dreams of the Centenarians (1969)
Robertas Verba · 1 critic vote
Though created to commemorate the centenary of Lenin, the documentary is far from celebrating Soviet ideology. In the film people who are one hundred years old talk about their lives. Their remembrances illuminate traditions and past of Lithuania.
The Inextinguishable Fire (1969)
Harun Farocki · 1 critic vote
An austere treatise on the military-industrial complex that produces napalm.
The Laughing Woman (1969)
Piero Schivazappa · 1 critic vote
Beautiful PR woman, Maria finds herself trapped in the home of the sinister and troubled Dr. Sayer, where she is subjected to a series of increasingly bizarre, terrifying, and degrading sex games. Sayer admits that he has murdered several women after the same ordeal, always killing them at the point of orgasm. But all is not what it seems, and through a series of twists and turns, the whole situation is slowly turned on its head.
Torture Dungeon (1969)
Andy Milligan · 1 critic vote
In Medieval England, the sadistic Duke of Norwich plots to eliminate all heirs to the throne so he can claim the crown for himself.
Venus in Furs (1969)
Jesús Franco · 1 critic vote
After a jazz musician finds a woman's corpse washed up on the beach and remembers that he witnessed her murder at a party the previous night, a woman who bears a strong resemblance to her begins to exact revenge on the murderers.
...ere erera baleibu izik subua aruaren... (1970)
José Antonio Sistiaga · 1 critic vote
An experimental film: dozens of pictorial techniques applied directly on celluloid; a work of impressive aesthetics that recovers certain ideas of abstract expressionism: endless chromaticism, constant mutations, the music of the cosmos, mysticism, synesthesia… and an enigmatic title that, although it imitates the phonetics of the Basque language, means nothing.
Att vara zigenare (1970)
Peter Nestler · 1 critic vote
Roma and Sinti people talk about their experiences in the Third Reich and the Federal Republic of Germany, inspired by Otto Pankok’s paintings of Romani theme and subject in the 1930s, declared degenerate art by the Nazis. These are moving narratives of persecution, discrimination, marginalisation, of life as second-class human beings, all of which lasts, incredibly enough, right up to the allegedly democratic present day of the film, since they live in inhumane conditions in barracks at the margins of cities and society and are not officially recognised as Nazi victims. Long, nearly uncut sequences open space for the people and their stories. That’s all it takes for one of Peter and Zsóka Nestler’s most important works.
Beauty and the Vagabond (1970)
Márta Mészáros · 1 critic vote
Savanyú and his friend work at a plant. After the monotonous shifts they engage in the pleasures of the afternoon and the night, i.e. parties and concerts. Savanyú dates Juli, they are already engaged. The young men live as sub-tenants, the young women in workers' hostels. None of these places are suited for spending time together. They are in need of an apartment. Out of the ruinous apartment which they lay siege on, however, they are sent away by the otherwise friendly policeman. At a concert held in the Park of Youth, Juli gets to know Géza. They flirt, then go to the country with a pop-group. Savanyú and his friends follow them. A minor fight cools the atmosphere.
Bleu Shut (1970)
Robert Nelson · 1 critic vote
"Even when we know the game is an illusion, the experience of Bleu Shut is entirely a pleasure: the ‘game’ is fun, the Nelson/Wiley debates, infectiously funny; and Nelson’s choice of imagery, quirky and amusing. Bleu Shut reveals, and allows us to enjoy, our gullibility within the pervasive absurdity of modern life." –Scott MacDonald
Bronco Bullfrog (1970)
Barney Platts-Mills · 1 critic vote
Del and his friends agree to take part in a robbery with a boy fresh from the borstal prison. When Del falls in love with Irene they decide to run away from their nagging parents - and the law.
Feola (1970)
Baadur Tzouladze · 1 critic vote
A man is put in charge of organizing a children's soccer team, but he doesn't know anything about the sport.
Multiple SIDosis (1970)
Sid Laverents · 1 critic vote
Short film utilizing quick cuts and multiple angles of a one-man-band musical performance by Sid Lavarents (who served as both film-maker and musician). Added to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress for 2000.
Piège (1970)
Jacques Baratier · 1 critic vote
A genuine performance film as Bernadette Laffont and Bulle Ogier engage, with reckless abandon, in a flurry of senseless destruction in a house at night. Somewhere between a hallucination and a nightmare. Both the explosive soundtrack and narration that accompanies the mayhem was provided by François Tusques.
Serene Velocity (1970)
Ernie Gehr · 1 critic vote
"Serene Velocity (1970) created a stunning percussive head-on motion by systemically shifting the focal length of a stationary zoom lens as it stared down the center of an empty institutional hallway – thus playing off the contradiction generated by the frames’ heightened flatness and the compositions’ severely overdetermined perspective. Without ever moving the camera, Gehr turned the fluorescent geometry of this literal Shock Corridor (in the then – new State University of N.Y at Binghamton) into a sort of piston-powered mandala. If Giotto had made action films it would be this." – J. Hoberman
Solo (1970)
Jean-Pierre Mocky · 1 critic vote
During an orgy, Some old and wealthy notables are being murdered by a small group of leftist young revolutionaries. Very soon the police are tracking down Virgile Cabral, the leader of the group. Meanwhile, Virgile's brother and only relative, Vincent, a violinist (and a thief), comes back to Paris. They have not seen each other for three years. Vincent does not believe in the revolution. He only tries to live as he wishes to live. But by looking for his hunted down brother, he has no other choice than to be involved in a fight that is not his.
The Bread and Alley (1970)
Abbas Kiarostami · 1 critic vote
After returning from an errand to get bread, a young boy encounters a dog that frightens him making the journey to get home more difficult than he could’ve imagined.
The Gratinated Brains of Pupilija Ferkeverk (1970)
Karpo Godina · 1 critic vote
Plotless and wordless, beautifully edited shots of young (often naked or semi-naked) people in various positions, illustrating different emotions, actions and situations, underlined by rock music.
The Hart of London (1970)
Jack Chambers · 1 critic vote
"The Hart of London" is an endlessly layered tour de force. It explores life and death, the sense of place and personal displacement, and the intricate aesthetics of representation. It is a personal and spiritual film, marked inevitably by Chambers’s knowledge that he had leukemia. The late American avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage said of Hart, "If I named the five greatest films [ever made], this has got to be one of them." Even this high praise falls short of hyperbole. The Hart of London is at the centre of Chambers’s extraordinary achievement.
A Journey to Avebury (1971)
Derek Jarman · 1 critic vote
A silent short movie, is a literal journey that we can experience. We are being taken to Avebury and given the chance to admire it for 10 minutes. The shots are incredibly beautiful, as we see a huge stone or trees bathed in orange light of sunset.
Bang Bang (1971)
Andrea Tonacci · 1 critic vote
An anonymous urban protagonist experiences a series of absurd situations--including a crazy cab ride, an encounter with a wacky criminal gang, and lots of gunplay--infused with a unique anarchic energy, eventually suggesting our true animal nature.
Cat (1971)
Zlatko Bourek · 1 critic vote
Julien Bouin, a former typographist, and his wife Clemence, who used to perform in a circus, hardly talk to each other in their small house, soon to be demolished. His cat Greffier being the only one he still gives affection to, he becomes the object of Clemence's anger.
Crni film (1971)
Želimir Žilnik · 1 critic vote
Director invites six homeless men to his flat for a few days (surprising his wife). He asks officials and people on the street if someone can help them, this being SFRJ, a state officially without those left on their own.
Finally Got the News (1971)
Peter Bessner, Rene Lichtman, John Louis Jr., Stewart Bird · 1 critic vote
FINALLY GOT THE NEWS is a forceful, unique documentary that reveals the activities of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers inside and outside the auto factories of Detroit. Through interviews with the members of the movement, footage shot in the auto plants, and footage of leafleting and picketing actions, the film documents their efforts to build an independent black labor organization that, unlike the UAW, will respond to worker's problems, such as the assembly line speed-up and inadequate wages faced by both black and white workers in the industry. Beginning with a historical montage, from the early days of slavery through the subsequent growth and organization of the working class, FINALLY GOT THE NEWS focuses on the crucial role played by the black worker in the American economy. Also explored is the educational 'tracking' system for both white and black youth, the role of African American women in the labor force, and relations between white and black workers.
From the Notebook of... (1971)
Robert Beavers · 1 critic vote
Shot in Florence, the film draws on Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks and Paul Valéry’s essay on da Vinci’s creative process to explore parallels between Renaissance space and the moving image. Beavers employs rapid pans and tilts along the city’s facades, interspersed with glimpses of his own face, linking camera movement to the filmmaker’s investigative gaze. The work marks a turning point in his practice, foregrounding presence and perception as central to his method. (Note: The film was re-edited and re-released in 1999.)
Hand Grenade (1971)
Gill Eatherley · 1 critic vote
Experimental animation, via multiple screens.
Healthy People for Fun (1971)
Karpo Godina · 1 critic vote
The Serbian province of Vojvodina is home to a multi-ethnic population of Serbs, Croats, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Romanians, and Roma. The different groups seem to coexist cheerfully and peacefully, full of respect for each other’s customs, songs and religions. But the filmmaker’s ironical gaze discovers cracks in a facade that has long been less harmonious than it seems…
Horror Film 1 (1971)
Malcolm Le Grice · 1 critic vote
Film shadow performance. "First presented in 1971 using three 16mm projectors each with a short loop of changing colour. Projected onto the same screen – the centre image large and the two side images smaller and superimposed into the centre of the larger screen. The performing body casts complex colour shadow. The action begins touching the screen and - passing through the space of the audience – it ends at the projectors. The actions are timed to an audio tape of breathing. Though improvised in detail to fit the particular time and place, the action follows a consistent pattern that has changed little since the first performance.".
How the Sausage Dog Work (1971)
Julian Antonisz · 1 critic vote
Polish animated short film that uses unconventional film techniques such as cut-out, drawing, filming miscible fluids and scratched images. Also uses non-camera technique such as drawing directly on film. The film is a humorous lecture on the internal structure of a dachshund. Parodying popular lectures at the same time, it contains a message about the superiority of the products of living organisms' techniques and calls for respect for the environment.
Jo (1971)
Jean Girault · 1 critic vote
A writer accidentally shoots his blackmailer and tries to hide the body.
Kaldalon (1971)
Dore O. · 1 critic vote
Attracted to Nordic landscapes, [Dore O.] filmed KALDALON (1970/71) in Iceland where images of water, rocks, steam and smoke were technically enhanced to appear blue-tinged.
Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)
John D. Hancock · 1 critic vote
Newly released from a mental ward, Jessica hopes to return to life the way it was before her nervous breakdown. But when Jessica moves to a country house with her husband and a close friend, she finds a mysterious girl living in there. Jessica's terror and paranoia resurface as evil forces surround her.
Plastic Jesus (1971)
Lazar Stojanović · 1 critic vote
Tom is a young guy from Zagreb, completely without money, trying to make films in Belgrade. He somehow manages to survive with a help of women. He doesn't believe in anybody, respects no one and is in constant conflict with the ruling system and order. After being left by a silly American girl, Tom binds with a woman whose husband is abroad. When she kicks him out, he moves in with her husband's sister, who later kills him in the attack of jealousy. All this is shown in the context of major historical events prior to 1968. with lots of archive footage of world leaders.
Quick Billy (1971)
Bruce Baillie · 1 critic vote
A psychedelic montage of home movie footage gives way to a silent western story.
Reality's Invisible (1971)
Robert E. Fulton · 1 critic vote
Fulton made the film during his brief time at Harvard, where he had been invited to teach by Robert Gardner, his friend and collaborator (Fulton would later serve as a cinematographer on Gardner’s 1981 documentary Deep Hearts, among others). Reality’s Invisible could be described as a portrait of the Carpenter Center, yet it is a portrait of an extremely idiosyncratic and distinctive sort. Fulton moves us through the concrete space of the Center’s Le Corbusier-designed building—the only structure by the architect in North America—but, more centrally, presents us footage of students making and discussing their work alongside figures like Gardner, theorist Rudolf Arnheim, artist Stan Vanderbeek, filmmaker Stan Brakhage, and graphic designer Toshi Katayama.
Red Army/PFLP: Declaration of World War (1971)
Masao Adachi, Kōji Wakamatsu · 1 critic vote
On their way back from the Cannes Film Festival in 1971, filmmakers Wakamatsu Koji and Adachi Masao visited Lebanon to meet Japan's Red Army faction and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to shoot a newsreel film promoting the Palestinian resistance. Conceived as a ‘declaration of world war’ that implicates us all, the directors capture the everyday banality of military training and preparation exercises for imminent battle.
Runs Good (1971)
Pat O'Neill · 1 critic vote
A darkish journey down memory lane, to visit some news events, folkways and thought patterns associated with the late forties and early fifties. The film is also concerned with such perceptual phenomena as color-space, "false tones" caused by varying black-white alternations of simultaneously seen rhythms set up by multiple repetitive actions, and the use of image outlines as "containers" for other imagery. Sort of a working notebook, which is continued in EASYOUT and DOWN WIND.
Spend It All (1971)
Les Blank · 1 critic vote
Another short documentary of "Real Food, Roots Music, and People Full of Passion for what they do!", Spend It All is Les Blank's spirited look at the French-speaking Cajun community of southwest Louisiana. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.
Stop Genocide (1971)
Zahir Raihan · 1 critic vote
A documentary film about to resist the brutal action taken by Pakistan occupy army against general people of Bangladesh (previously East Pakistan) in between 26 March, 1971 and 16 Dec, 1971.
The Moon and the Sledgehammer (1971)
Philip Trevelyan · 1 critic vote
The Page family lives without electricity or running water deep in the Sussex woods. Amidst ever-growing modernity and industrialization, the family carries out chores, hunts pheasants, builds steam engines, and postulates on man's trip to the moon. They demonstrate fine lateral thinking and, through their particular delivery, display fears and concerns about pollution, intensive farming, mechanization, and self-fulfillment during a time of technological advancement.
What's Wrong With This Picture? (1971)
George Landow · 1 critic vote
A found, utilitarian object, the overtly moralizing educational film “How to be a Good Citizen,” is elevated to the status of ‘art’. First presented unaltered and then in Landow’s color facsimile, the film is further modified by applying an opaque matte that creates a spatial paradox. - Harvard Film Archive
A Bee in the Rain (1972)
Fernando Lopes · 1 critic vote
This Portuguese drama examines the daily life minutiae and intrigues of two scions of society in the rural village where they live. One is a wealthy landowner, the other a widowed aristocrat who lives in a world of her own.
Asylum (1972)
Roy Ward Baker · 1 critic vote
A young psychiatrist applies for a job at a mental asylum and must pass a test by interviewing four patients. He must figure out which of the patients, is in fact, the doctor that he would be replacing if hired.
Chess (1972)
Edmond Bernhard · 1 critic vote
Filmic essai on different chess methods combined with an adapted sound setting made in collaboration with chess grandmaster Alberic O'Kelly de Galway. Voted for in the Sight & Sound 2022 Greatest Films of All Time poll.
Down Hear (1972)
Mike Henderson · 1 critic vote
A singular cinematic figure, San Francisco’s Mike Henderson became one of the first independent African-American artists to make inroads into experimental filmmaking in the 1960s. Henderson’s work throughout the 1970s and 1980s, from which this program of 16mm films is culled, thrums with a sociopolitical, humorous sensibility that lends his small-scale, often musically kissed portraits (which he later dubbed “blues cinema”) a personal, artisanal quality. - Film Society of Lincoln Center. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.
Ecstasy of the Angels (1972)
Kōji Wakamatsu · 1 critic vote
A militant revolutionary group is torn apart by betrayal as its members descend into paranoia and sexual decadence.
Elevator Girls in Bondage (1972)
Michael Kalmen · 1 critic vote
The underpaid staff of a seedy hotel rises up in revolt, and by the time head elevator girl Maxine starts spouting a surreal mix of folk songs and Marxist maxims, followed by an uproariously explicit sex scene, you’ll be ready to join the cause.
History Lessons (1972)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 1 critic vote
Set in contemporary Rome, the film shows through a series of encounters with “ancient” Romans, how the economic and political manipulation by ancient Roman society led to Caesar’s dictatorship. - British Film Institute
Images of Silence (1972)
Luiz Rosemberg Filho · 1 critic vote
Without any sounds, dialogues and with unknown actors, the images are the focus of this film. Images that want to awake, to question determinant moments, state of a system's languages, the morality of deaths, the immobility, the silence, among other subjects. Shot at the height of the Brazilian military dictatorship, it is an affront to the most diverse types of repression in that period.
La chambre (1972)
Chantal Akerman · 1 critic vote
Furniture and clutter of one small apartment room become the subject of a moving still life—with Akerman herself staring back. This breakthrough formal experiment is Akerman's first film made in New York.
Nathalie Granger (1972)
Marguerite Duras · 1 critic vote
With little or no embellishment, filmmaker Marguerite Duras offers a simple, often wordless chronicle of a woman's day. She and her friend are seen doing yard work, talking about their families and receiving the occasional visitor. The brightest spot in the day is when a washing machine salesman comes to call.
Plumb Line (1972)
Carolee Schneemann · 1 critic vote
The dissolution of a relationship unravels through visual and aural equivalences. Schneemann splits and recomposes actions of the lovers in a streaming montage of disruptive permutations: 8 mm is printed as 16 mm, moving images freeze, frames recur and dissolve until the film bursts into flames, consuming its own substance. Sound: Carolee Schneemann. -- EAI
Repeated Absences (1972)
Guy Gilles · 1 critic vote
François Naulet turns his bedroom into an island of drugs, loneliness and despair.
Salome (1972)
Carmelo Bene · 1 critic vote
Salome is the daughter of the second wife of King Herod. The King is infatuated with her and, after she fails to seduce the prophet John The Baptist, she dances for the King in order to ask for his execution.
Short Films '72-'75 (1972)
Stan Brakhage · 1 critic vote
Ten deliberately untitled films, each separated on the reel by several ft of black leader. #1 begins with blue negative face of child, ends with single centered eye; #2 begins with blowing snow, ends with lamp stand and lights of the city; #3 begins with landscape/sunset thru mist, ends with window sill; #4 begins with green tiled bathroom, ends with golden mirrored image of cameraman; #5 begins with back of airplane seat, ends with horizontal streaks of bold light; #6 begins with brown light thru quartz crystal, ends with candle wick burning and circled by boiling gold flecks; #7 begins with raccoon in rose light, ends with fading face of child; #8 begins with white lamp post, green tree leaves, and window, and ends with flashing window light on brown wall of motel room; #9 begins with rocks, tree trunk and plants in glow of light, ends with green and gold forest scene; #10 begins with flash of scratched "lightning," ends with moving dot, screen fading out.
Silent Running (1972)
Douglas Trumbull · 1 critic vote
After the entire flora goes extinct, ecologist Lowell maintains a greenhouse aboard a space station for the future with his android companions. However, he rebels after being ordered to destroy the greenhouse in favor of carrying cargo, a decision that puts him at odds with everyone but his mechanical companions.
The Inner Scar (1972)
Philippe Garrel · 1 critic vote
A composition of symbolic, surreal and almost mystic images.
The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder · 1 critic vote
Hans is a street fruit peddler and born loser. His choice of career upsets his bourgeois family, causing him to turn to drinking and violence. After recovering from a debilitating heart attack, his business finally begins to take off. However, the more he becomes a credit to his family, the more depressed he becomes.
Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
Eiichi Yamamoto · 1 critic vote
An evil feudal lord rapes a village girl on her wedding night and proceeds to ruin her and her husband's lives. After she's eventually banished from her village, the girl makes a pact with the devil to gain magical ability and take revenge.
Blues Under the Skin (1973)
Roviros Manthoulis · 1 critic vote
Blurring the line between documentary and fiction, THE BLUES UNDER THE SKIN dramatizes the tumultuous relationship of a young couple (Onike Lee and Roland Sanchez) as they struggle to overcome the barriers of poverty and prejudice that keep them from finding happiness together.
Child of Resistance (1973)
Hailé Gerima · 1 critic vote
A woman dressed in a robe, hands bound, is being transported through a barroom into a jail cell, directly outside of which later appears a jury box filled with jurors. Linearity is rejected as space is treated poetically, following the coordinates of a propulsive social idea - the social imprisonment of black women.
Frank Film (1973)
Frank Mouris, Caroline Mouris · 1 critic vote
A compilation of images co-creator Frank Mouris had collected from magazines interwoven with two narrations, one giving a mostly linear autobiography and the other stating words having to do with the images, the story the first voice is relating, or neither. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.
Moon's Pool (1973)
Gunvor Nelson · 1 critic vote
The film that is mostly shot underwater, in a pool, begins with footage of water and a close-up of Nelson from which we move to her body immersed in water in a bath-tub from which yet another transition occurs to a pool with male and female naked bodies swimming underwater. The latter part of the film is almost totally liberated from speech, and has a dreamlike, complex soundtrack consisting of sounds of waves, voices, water and music woven together into a seamless web of sounds.
Reel Time (1973)
Annabel Nicolson · 1 critic vote
A performance with sewing machine and projections.
Room Film 1973 (1973)
Peter Gidal · 1 critic vote
"This film is a consequent continuation and contraction of my film work, research which began with Room (1967). The film is not a translation of anything, it is not a representation of anything, not even of consciousness."
SOLIDARITY (1973)
Joyce Wieland · 1 critic vote
About a strike in which women are involved, but told in a very different way.
Soul in the Eye (1973)
Zózimo Bulbul · 1 critic vote
Inspired by Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver’s book Soul on Ice and dedicated to John Coltrane, Soul in the Eye marks the beginning of Black Brazilian films. The film is a metaphor for the legacy of culture and survival bestowed by enslaved Africans brought to the American continent and the search for freedom through inner transformation, in a game inspired by concretism.
Stone Wedding (1973)
Mircea Veroiu, Dan Pița · 1 critic vote
Two bleak stories about absent love. In the first, a widow is working hard in a desperate attempt to save her dying daughter. The second tells the story of two wandering singers who kidnap a bride from her wedding.
Stranded in Canton (1973)
William Eggleston · 1 critic vote
In 1973, photographer William Eggleston picked up a Sony PortaPak and took to documenting the soul of Memphis and New Orleans.
That'll Be the Day (1973)
Claude Whatham · 1 critic vote
Britain, 1958. Restless at school and bored with his life, Jim leaves home to take a series of low-level jobs at a seaside amusement park, where he discovers a world of cheap sex and petty crime. But when that world comes to a shockingly brutal end, Jim returns home. As the local music scene explodes, Jim must decide between a life of adult responsibility or a new phenomenon called rock & roll.
Tunde's Film (1973)
Tunde Ikoli, Maggie Pinhorn · 1 critic vote
Disenfranchised black, white and mixed race youths in East London decide to rob a bank.
About Some Meaningless Events (1974)
Mustapha Derkaoui · 1 critic vote
In Casablanca, a group of filmmakers conduct discussions with people about their expectations of, and aspirations for, the emerging Moroccan national cinema. When a disgruntled worker kills his superior accidentally, their inquest shifts focus, and they begin to probe the motives of the killing.
Attica (1974)
Cinda Firestone · 1 critic vote
In 1971, inmates at Attica State Prison seized control of D-yard and took 35 hostages after peaceful efforts for reforms failed. Attica investigates the rebellion and its bloody suppression, revealing institutionalized injustices, sanctioned dishonesty, and abuses of power.
Cockfighter (1974)
Monte Hellman · 1 critic vote
A man who trains fighting cocks vows to remain silent until one of his birds wins a championship.
Colour Poems (1974)
Margaret Tait · 1 critic vote
'Titles within the film are: Numen of the Boughs, Old Boots, Speed Bonny Boat, Lapping Water, Incense, Aha, Brave New World, Things, Terra Firma. A poem started in words is continued in images - Part of another poem as an addition to the picture - Some images formed by direct-on-film animation - Others 'found' by the camera" - MT
Dark Star (1974)
John Carpenter · 1 critic vote
A group of scientists are sent on a mission to destroy unstable planets. Twenty years into their mission, they have to battle their alien mascot as well as a "sensitive" and intelligent bombing device that starts to question the meaning of its existence.
Launch (1974)
Murray Martin, Peter Roberts · 1 critic vote
Activities leading up to the launch of a large ship built at the Swan Hunter's Wallsend shipyard.
Ruskin (1974)
Robert Beavers · 1 critic vote
Beavers traces John Ruskin’s legacy from London to the Alps and especially Venice, where the camera lingers on stone and water in dialogue with Ruskin’s writings. Turning pages and images of Unto This Last evoke the critic’s enduring perceptions and political vision, preserved through acts of reading.
What Are Gypsy Children Doing? (1974)
Schiffer Pál · 1 critic vote
Pál Schiffer's film reports on the injustices of the education system of the 1970s, the lies of the Kádár system, and the everyday life of Roma children.
31/75: Asylum (1975)
Kurt Kren · 1 critic vote
A meadow, a lake, the silhouette of a hill, trees. 21 days of the same view in Saarland. 21 days with five different cut-outs in a mask before the camera, which finally reveals a complete panorama. The landscape changes with the advancing seasons and becomes slowly delirious in its technical alienation.
Ali au pays des merveilles (1975)
Djouhra Abouda, Alain Bonnamy · 1 critic vote
Ali in Wonderland unveils the condition of immigrant workers in Paris in the 1970s. It is a cry of anger against exploitation and racism, uncompromisingly raising the role of the French state, the media, capitalism, and colonization in this system of domination that crushes those who suffer it. In this experimental essay on the condition of Algerian migrants in Giscard's France in the mid-1970s, every aesthetic choice has a precise and legible political motivation and gives body and voice to a figure completely absent from the experimental cinema of the time: that of the immigrant worker. Abouda is one of the children of immigrants seen in the film, and not a simple activist serving a cause, which is why the emotion of her experimental gesture, which she throws in the viewer's face, springs from a ferocity inscribed in her body, from an insatiable anger that inhabits her gaze.
Crystallization (1975)
Carroll Ballard · 1 critic vote
Award-winning filmmaker Carroll Ballard’s cinematic science excursion into microcinematography and electronic music.
Everyday Life in a Syrian Village (1975)
Omar Amiralay · 1 critic vote
The first documentary to present an unabashed critique of the impact of the Syrian government’s agricultural and land reforms, Everyday Life in a Syrian Village delivers a powerful jab at the state’s conceit of redressing social and economic inequities.
Hedgehog in the Fog (1975)
Yuri Norstein · 1 critic vote
A little hedgehog, on the way to visit his friend the bear, gets lost in thick fog, where horses, dogs and even falling leaves take on a terrifying new aspect...
Here and Elsewhere (1975)
Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Anne-Marie Miéville · 1 critic vote
Here and Elsewhere takes its name from the contrasting footage it shows of the fedayeen and of a French family watching television at home. Originally shot by the Dziga Vertov Group as a film on Palestinian freedom fighters, Godard later reworked the material alongside Anne-Marie Miéville.
Hitlerpinochet (1975)
Juan Forch, Jörg Herrmann · 1 critic vote
This silhouette-animated short exposes the Pinochet government through comparisons to Hitler's Nazi regime.
Mouth to Mouth (1975)
Theresa HAK KYUNG CHA · 1 critic vote
English and Korean words appear on the screen, a mouth forms the shape of an "O," then opens and closes. Is this the beginning of language? In this early videotape, Cha isolates and repeats a simple, physical act — a mouth forming the eight Korean vowel graphemes — so that this ordinary action becomes something primal and riveting.
Number Two (1975)
Jean-Luc Godard, Anne-Marie Miéville · 1 critic vote
Jean-Luc Godard mixes video and film in his Grenoble studio, discussing how he secured funding for the film. The action unfolds on two monitors, as a young working-class couple lives in a claustrophobic, high-rise apartment complex and marital discord is set off by the wife’s infidelity.
Passacaglia and Fugue (1975)
Jorge Honik · 1 critic vote
A movie filmed almost entirely in the interior of a house on the outskirts of S.C. de Bariloche, on the shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake, over the course of one full winter and the beginning of a spring. The camera, through frame-by-frame tracking and panning shots, goes along revealing furniture, corners, objects and books, using rails in the first instance and a calibrated disk mounted on a tripod in the second. The house vibrates with its own life, revealing almost ghostlike traces and vestiges while the human presence is barely suggested. These shots alternate with others of the landscape: a lake, snow, bushes rattled by the wind, the passing of the seasons, external signs that accentuate the solitude of the interior spaces.
The Naked Civil Servant (1975)
Jack Gold · 1 critic vote
Story of the life of Quentin Crisp, an Englishman who was brave enough to live his life according to his own style even in the hostile days of WW2.
The United States of America (1975)
James Benning · 1 critic vote
A conceptual bicentennial film dealing with spatial and temporal relationships between two travelers, their car, and the geographic, political, and social changes from NY to Los Angeles.
Workshop (1975)
Narcisa Hirsch · 1 critic vote
on the image of a collage on the wall, the voice of a woman describes a man the interior space of a workshop that is not seen.
33 Yo-Yo Tricks (1976)
P. White · 1 critic vote
A Yo-Yo expert does 33 tricks for the camera, one after the other.
Alaya (1976)
Nathaniel Dorsky · 1 critic vote
Sand, wind, and light intermingle with the emulsions. The viewer is the star.
Chinese Roulette (1976)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder · 1 critic vote
Ariane and Gerhard Christ, a wealthy Munich couple, plan for the weekend on separate trips, lying to the other about their trysts. However, their itineraries are complicated when they both arrive at the family's country home with their respective lovers.
Fortini/Cani (1976)
Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet · 1 critic vote
The film is a sort of presentation of Franco Fortini's book 'I Cani del Sinai'. Fortini, an Italian Jew, reads excerpts from the book about his alienation from Judaism and from the social relations around him, the rise of Fascism in Italy, the anti-Arab attitude of European culture. The images, mostly a series of Italian landscape shots, provide a backdrop that highlights the meaning of the text. - Fabrizio Sabidussi
Man With A Mirror (1976)
Guy Sherwin · 1 critic vote
The filmmaker's live interaction with his on-screen image which is projected onto a hand-held mirrored screen.The screen is white one side and mirrored the other, and is used by the performer to either 'catch' the projected image, or reflect it around the cinema space. The image on Film is of the same activity happening in a sunlit landscape. Visual echoes are set up between the live event and the recorded one.
Materialfilme (1976)
Birgit, Wilhelm Hein · 1 critic vote
For their 35mm Materialfilme (1976), the Heins randomly spliced together a mix of colour and black and white material taken from the header and footer of commercial films. The scratches, scribbles, hand-written and commercially printed numbers and dots that adorn such footage rush past the eye until they are replaced by images consisting only of washed-out colours or scratched black and white frames.
Salome (1976)
Teo Hernández · 1 critic vote
A personal interpretation of Oscar Wilde Salome from three basic elements: the light, the color, and the projection speed.
Soñar, soñar (1976)
Leonardo Favio · 1 critic vote
Mario, “el Rulo,” is a wanderer who travels the country giving artistic performances. One day he passes through the town of Carlos, a municipal employee who dreams of being an artist. A friendship is born between the two of them, and Carlos leaves it all behind to follow Mario.
The Astrologer (1976)
Craig Denney · 1 critic vote
Craig Alexander, a con-man "psychic" on the carnival circuit receives the opportunity to pilfer some legendary rubies in Kenya. His luck holds and he winds up the sole beneficiary of the ill-gotten wealth, which he parlays into an astrological broadcasting empire. But once he reaches the top, there's only one direction he can go...
The Margin (1976)
Walerian Borowczyk · 1 critic vote
A businessman leaves his country home, and wife and young son for a business trip to Paris. While there he develops a sexual and spiritual bond with a call girl.
Trobriand Cricket (1976)
Gary Kildea, Jerry Leach · 1 critic vote
An anthropological documentary about the people of the Trobriand Islands and their unique innovations to the game of cricket.
11 X 14 (1977)
James Benning · 1 critic vote
65 shots making up a cryptically alluded-to narrative: a lesbian couple's Midwest travels, a hitchhiking young man's journeys, the story of a man who may be having an affair.
After Cease To Exist (1977)
COUM Transmissions · 1 critic vote
"A film dealing with the borderline between evidence, crime, fetish and dream..."
Coffee (1977)
Dorothy Wiley · 1 critic vote
Silent, meditative film of an everyday object, a “cosmic love letter to coffee”.
Di Cavalcanti (1977)
Glauber Rocha · 1 critic vote
This controversial film from director Glauber Rocha records the funeral of his friend, major Brazilian painter Emiliano Di Cavalcanti.
In the Quarry (1977)
Jürgen Böttcher · 1 critic vote
Sculptor Makolies is filmed working on a sculpture in the middle of a quarry in Swiss Saxony. The quarry workers go about their work around him. Both the work in the quarry and the work on the large figure in sandstone require strenght and conscientiousness. This film observers both types of work, without comparing them.
Love at First Sight (1977)
Rezo Esadze · 1 critic vote
Murad Rasulov, a simple 16-year-old Azerbaijani, raised in Tbilisi, and a passionate fan of football, falls in love for the first time in his life with Anya, a Belarusian girl who is studying at the same institute in Baku, two years older than him. The difference in age and the conflict of cultures becomes an obstacle in the way of a young man whom no one helps, in a hopeless, desperate struggle for love.
Pumping Iron (1977)
George Butler · 1 critic vote
Amateur and professional bodybuilders prepare for the 1975 Mr. Olympia and Mr. Universe contests as five-time champion Arnold Schwarzenegger defends his Mr. Olympia title against Serge Nubret and the shy young Lou Ferrigno.
TONGPAN (1977)
Euthana Mukdasanit · 1 critic vote
Tongpan is a 1977 Thai 16 mm black-and-white docudrama that re-creates a seminar that took place in Northeast Thailand in 1975 to discuss the proposed Pa-Mong Dam on the Mekong. Interwoven are sequences depicting a poor farmer, Tongpan, who had lost his land to another dam some years before, and his struggles to make ends meet.
The Camera: Je or La Camera: I (1977)
Babette Mangolte · 1 critic vote
A subjective account of the act of making still photographs.
The Shetland Experience (1977)
Derek Williams · 1 critic vote
The environmental measures taken by the oil industry at the Sullom Voe terminal in the Shetlands.
Twin Peaks (1977)
Al Wong · 1 critic vote
Shot over the course of an entire year, the film is a 50-minute structural journey centered on the Twin Peaks hills in San Francisco. Wong mounted a 16mm camera inside his van and repeatedly drove the "infinity loop" road that winds around the peaks at a steady 15 miles per hour.
Amore (1978)
Klaus Lemke · 1 critic vote
The inconspicuous greengrocer's daughter Maria had to watch as the adored Italian Pietro broke her best friend's heart. Dressed up as a vamp, the vengeful Maria now sets a cunning trap for the attractive Papagallo. Maria is the daughter of a small German fruit and vegetable dealer, Pietro is the son of a large Italian fruit and vegetable dealer. Both live in Munich and both meet every morning at six o'clock in the Grossmarkthalle. Maria looks inconspicuous, while Pietro looks extremely attractive. Maria is hardly interested in men, whereas Pietro is interested in all girls. Maria doesn't care until Pietro first seduces Maria's best friend and then leaves her unhappy. Now Maria starts a campaign of revenge against the light-footed Casanova, in the name of her best friend and in the name of all the girls who have been seduced by Pietro. Maria lures Pietro, who is now madly in love with her, to his native Italy, where Pietro, blinded by love and jealousy, proposes to Maria.
Daughter Rite (1978)
Michelle Citron · 1 critic vote
A feminist documentary about female relationships, especially between mother and daughter.
Let Me Die a Woman (1978)
Doris Wishman · 1 critic vote
A documentary on the work of sex-change specialist Leo Wollman, including interviews with Wollman and a few of his patients, with an illustrated lecture on the various aspects of trans-identity plus actual footage of a gender reassignment operation.
Ofrenda (1978)
Claudio Caldini · 1 critic vote
Short film that shows daisies throughout the day with music as an accompaniment.
Orchestra Rehearsal (1978)
Federico Fellini · 1 critic vote
An orchestra assembles for a rehearsal in an ancient chapel under the inquisitive eyes of a TV documentary crew, but an uprising breaks out.
The Shout (1978)
Jerzy Skolimowski · 1 critic vote
A traveller by the name of Crossley forces himself upon a musician and his wife in a lonely part of Devon, and uses the aboriginal magic he has learned to displace his host.
The Song of Rio Jim (1978)
Maurice Lemaître · 1 critic vote
What is film? The spectator will be able to imagine all possible Westerns and anti-Westerns.
Things of Women (1978)
Rosa Martha Fernández · 1 critic vote
A young sociology student has an unintended pregnancy and is subjected to the terrible humiliation of an incompetent doctor. The girl falls ill from the poorly performed abortion and is taken by a friend to the General Hospital. Film that reports clandestine abortion in Mexico, with interviews with women who have had abortions in that hospital and shocking maternal death statistics from procedures carried out under unsafe conditions.
Tobacco Embers (1978)
Yugantar Film Collective · 1 critic vote
TAMBAKU CHAAKILA OOB ALI documents, re-enacts, and takes forward one of the largest movements of unorganized labor of its time and context, which sparked unionizing processes across India throughout the 1980s. In the spirit of mobilizing for the leftist labor and the women’s movements the Yugantar collective spent four months with female tobacco factory workers in Nipani, Karnataka in India, listening to their accounts of exploitative working conditions, discussing strategies for unionizing and steps to broaden solidarities for strike actions, and filming previously unseen circumstances inside the factories.
All Three, He Said (1979)
Gholamali Erfan · 1 critic vote
A young man is released from prison. Three other prisoners who where his cellmates explain his political and social life in three different ways: The first one defines him as the son of an unknown father and a Polish mother who were taken abroad when his mother has been killed at the time of WWII and then he has returned to Iran as the agent of Zionists arrested while he was spying. The second one defines him as the lover of a Polish woman who is the wife of an embassy employee and is arrested through a report by the husband. The third one tells that he has returned to the country to take his wife's jewelry and is arrested mistakenly.
Bolivar, sinfonia tropical (1979)
Diego Risquez · 1 critic vote
This is the first of Diego Risquez’ trilogy of avant-garde cinematic treatments of historical subjects. Using a painterly style, it features portraits, still lifes, and scenes shot as tableaux vivants, the film provides an experimental interpretation of the arrival of the Spanish and their domination of the New World, as well as the Venezuelan Independence movement, focusing on the role of Simón Bolívar. There is no dialogue or narration, simply a musical score and the depiction of events from Bolívar’s career.
Ephemerality (1979)
Marian Wallace · 1 critic vote
A short industrial experimental film
Fascination (1979)
Jean Rollin · 1 critic vote
A runaway criminal breaks into an eerie chateau, taking its two frightened chambermaids hostage. As night falls, a group of mysterious aristocratic women arrive and the criminal begins to realize the women are hiding a sinister secret.
First Case, Second Case (1979)
Abbas Kiarostami · 1 critic vote
A documentary about a teacher who sends a group of pupils out of the classroom when one of them does not own up to talking behind the master's back.
GESCHICHTE DER NACHT (1979)
Clemens Klopfenstein · 1 critic vote
It’s a black-and-white record of European cities in the dark (2-5am), from Basle to Belfast. Quiet, and meditative, what emerges most strongly is an eerie sense of city landscapes as deserted film sets, in which the desolate architecture overwhelms any sense of reality. The only reassurance that we are not in some endless machine-Metropolis is the shadow of daytime activity: a juggernaut plunging through a darkened village, a plague of small birds in the predawn light. The whole thing is underscored by a beautiful ‘composed’ soundtrack, from quietly humming streetlights to reggae and the rumble of armoured cars in Belfast. A strange and remarkable combination of dream, documentary and science-fiction.
Letter From Beirut (1979)
Jocelyne Saab · 1 critic vote
Letter from Beirut documents the filmmaker's return to Beirut during one of the lulls, three years after the outbreak of the civil war, animated by the urge to return. She is confronted by the physical, emotional and psychological ravages of the war, terrified and sorrowful, she cannot find her place in the city. In that quest, she communicates with everyday people, friends, neighbors, people riding the bus across the city's eastern and western flanks. To pace her journeying and dramatic unraveling of the film, Saab borrows the guise of a letter read in a voice-over, written by world-renowned poet Etel Adnan. A rare document from the civil war, Letter from Beirut lays bare and spontaneously how people make sense of their everyday in the midst of chaos, violence, terror and sorrow.
Light Reading (1979)
Lis Rhodes · 1 critic vote
The bloodstained bed suggest a crime..No answers are given, after the torrrent of words at the beginning of the film, all the film offers are closed images and more questions..Is it even blood on the bed, what fracture is there between seeing and certainty? If there has been a crime, 'she' might still be victim..How can a crime of such complexity and continuity be 'solved'? The voice searches for clues, sifting through them, reading and re-reading until the words and letters loom up nightmarishly, no longer hung on the structure of language.
My Survival As an Aboriginal (1979)
Essie Coffey · 1 critic vote
Essie Coffey gives the children lessons on Aboriginal culture. She speaks of the importance of teaching these kids about their traditions. Aboriginal kids are forgetting about their Aboriginal heritage because they are being taught white culture instead.
The Face with Two Left Feet (1979)
Neri Parenti · 1 critic vote
Gianni, a hotel cook, is frustratingly in love with the sexy blonde DJ at the nightclub "John's Fever" but he can't dance. When one of the cook's coworkers draws a mustache and beard on a poster of John Travolta everyone somehow finally notices that Gianni looks exactly like Travolta and the game is on.
The Pioneers (1979)
Narcisa Hirsch · 1 critic vote
Documentary about Jewish colonizers in Argentina.
The Terror and the Time (1979)
The Victor Jara Collective · 1 critic vote
Documentary about repressive violence in colonial Guyana.
Amy! (1980)
Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen · 1 critic vote
Amy Johnson was the first woman to fly solo from Great Britain to Australia. Mulvey and Wollen’s experimental documentary combines newsreel footage of the aviator’s arrival, dramatic recreations of events from her life and contemporary discussions by feminist groups on the subject of heroism in this most unconventional biopic.
Balcony in Africa (1980)
Anita Fernandez · 1 critic vote
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Brussels - Transit (1980)
Samy Szlingerbaum · 1 critic vote
Samy Szlingerbaum made his film Dakh-Brisel (Brussels-Transit) in 1980, thirty years after any Yiddish feature film had been produced. Szlingerbaum felt that the only way he could relate the story of his family’s search for refuge after World War II was in Yiddish. This Belgian-based filmmaker, deeply impacted by New York experimental cinema, gives us a masterful blend of powerful drama and stark documentary to tell the story of postwar European Jewry. Home, as it had been, no longer exists, and all that Samy’s family wants is a place in which to sink new roots.
Das HÖCHSTE GUT EINER FRAU IST IHR SCHWEIGEN (1980)
Gertrud Pinkus · 1 critic vote
The film deals with an imigrant woman from southern Italy, who lives in Frankfurt in the 1970s. Unusual about this film is the way of the storytelling. The original plan was to make a documentary, but none of the female protagonists were willing to be seen in front of the camera. The fear to expose their own family was too big. The law of “omerta” exists in the diaspora as well. A southern italian proverb states: “The girls greatest value is her beauty - the womans greatest value is her silence”. For this reason, in the film only the sound of Maria M. from Basilicata, can be heard. She remains anonemous. In the movie, southern italian emigrants act in Maria's story. In fact, they end up playing themselves, which gives the film several layers and adds a refreshing sense of humor.
Dis-moi (1980)
Chantal Akerman · 1 critic vote
Chantal Akerman meets with elderly Jewish women in Paris, all of them survivors of the Shoah, and listens to their family stories. Between interviews, Akerman's mother Natalia speaks of her own family. Made for a French miniseries on grandmothers.
Evening Rain (1980)
Wu Yigong, Wu Yonggang · 1 critic vote
At the tail end of the Cultural Revolution, Qiu Shi, a poet who has been in prison for six years, is transferred elsewhere by boat under the guard of two officers. During transit, he meets a series of passengers, who have also faced hardships in recent times.
Stardust Memories (1980)
Woody Allen · 1 critic vote
While attending a retrospect of his work, a filmmaker recalls his life and his loves: the inspirations for his films.
The Green Flag Girl (1980)
· 1 critic vote
a Chinese documentary about female motorcyclists
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (1980)
William H. Whyte · 1 critic vote
This witty and original film is about the open spaces of cities and why some of them work for people while others don't. Beginning at New York's Seagram Plaza, one of the most used open areas in the city, the film proceeds to analyze why this space is so popular and how other urban oases, both in New York and elsewhere, measure up. Based on direct observation of what people actually do, the film presents a remarkably engaging and informative tour of the urban landscape and looks at how it can be made more hospitable to those who live in it.
Babobilicons (1981)
Daina Krumins · 1 critic vote
Krumins’ fantasy sets the world of flora and fauna on its ear. At one moment grotesque greenish mushrooms grow, wither and reverse their life-cycle, at another, strange crustacean-like animals speed around on a bed of feathers, next a room is inundated with giant ladybugs… Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2009.
In the Shadow of the Sun (1981)
Derek Jarman · 1 critic vote
'The Shadow of the Sun' draws upon Derek Jarman’s interest with alchemical processes as a metaphor for reprocessing Super-8 film. Jarman once described film’s union of light and matter as “an alchemical conjunction” and experimented throughout his career with creating dream symbolism through the superimposition of image and action. Originally called English Apocalypse, the film’s final title is derived from a 17th Century alchemical text that used the phrase as a synonym for the philosopher’s stone – the highly sought substance that turns base metals into gold and silver. The film was intended as a step toward the idea of an ambient video, that like its musical counterpart, was designed to enhance an environment.
Jamal (1981)
Ibrahim Shaddad · 1 critic vote
The short film Jamal (1981) by Ibrahim Shaddad is a report from the life of a camel, most of which plays out in a dreary, small room – a sesame mill.
New York Portrait - Chapter 2 (1981)
Peter Hutton · 1 critic vote
Ritam zločina (1981)
Zoran Tadić · 1 critic vote
Old houses in Zagreb are destroyed in order to build new, bigger blocks. A teacher who lives in one of these houses allows a stranger to share his home with him. The stranger has a fascination with statistics, and claims he can predict crimes based on statistical analyses. When a predicted murder did not occur, the stranger is adamant that the whole town will suffer unless a balance is achieved - and he leaves.
Something Like That (1981)
Yoshimitsu Morita · 1 critic vote
Caio and Mari are two young people living in a relationship that goes beyond any definition. Over ten years, the plot transits between three striking moments where their desires conflict and their relationship is put to the test. The film, originated from the short film of the same name in 2006, proposes a reflection on sexuality, labels and how time constructs and transforms relationships.
Stations of the Elevated (1981)
Manfred Kirchheimer · 1 critic vote
Stations of the Elevated exposes viewers to an underground art scene- that is, one found exclusively on the sides of subways and train cars. A moving portrait of late-70's NYC, the film boasts a soundtrack by jazz legends Charles Mingus & Aretha Franklin.
Sync Touch (1981)
Barbara Hammer · 1 critic vote
A lesbian/feminist aesthetic proposing the connection between touch and sight to be the basis for a new cinema. The film explores the tactile child nature within the adult woman filmmaker, the connection between sexuality and filmmaking, and the scientific analysis of the sense of touch.
The Man Who Could Not See Far Enough (1981)
Peter Rose · 1 critic vote
A film that uses literary, structural, autobiographical, and performance metaphors to construct a series of tableaux that evoke the act of vision, the limits of perception, and the rapture of space.
The Roses of the Road (1981)
Ozualdo Candeias · 1 critic vote
The Option centers on a group of rural women who cut sugar cane and live in ramshackle highway neighborhoods. For many, their only escape to a potentially better life is through prostitution, often with truck drivers.
The Second Journey (1981)
Arthur Cantrill, Corinne Cantrill · 1 critic vote
As the camera moves gently from afar into the very heart of the monolith, the magic of the holiest site of the Aborigines unfolds in shimmering nuances of light. Shot at different times of day, the close-up and panorama shots of this more than 500-million-year-old stone formation combine silence and acoustically altered birdsong to convey a feeling of timelessness into which a sense of loss is also inscribed. The somnambulistic moonrise in the great sky seems almost like an abstract painting and yet it is real. The areas of discolouration in the film material caused by problems in the developing process were deliberately left in the film as a metaphor for the looming threat to this natural environment through bushfires and tourism.
The Way Home (1981)
Alexander Rekhviashvili · 1 critic vote
The film is set in southern Georgia during Ottoman control, where inhabitants, who were driven from their homes due to enemy invasions, try to return home through different means. One of these inhabitants is the young scholar Antimoz.
Closes (1982)
Pedro A. Nunes · 1 critic vote
A documentary produced in super-8 with a mixture of fiction. It caused a stir wherever it was shown, having to be subjected to the censorship in force at the time of the military regime. It poetically addresses the various prejudices and conflicts that involve the field of sexuality. Two men star in love scenes. Testimonials by Lauro Nascimentos, Eleonora Menicucci, João Silvério Trevisan, Henrique Magalhães and popular people about conflicts involving affection between people of the same sex.
Der Depp (1982)
Herbert Achternbusch · 1 critic vote
Voted for in Sight & Sound's 2022 Greatest Films of all time poll.
Family Tomb: A Love Poem to My Mother (1982)
Maria Lang · 1 critic vote
A portrait of Maria Lang's mother, which is also a family portrait of the filmmaker. The film shows an excerpt from the Lang family's everyday life. It follows the parents as they go about their daily chores and small rituals.
Journal inachevé (1982)
Marilú Mallet · 1 critic vote
In this heartwarming docudrama, Chilean immigrant Marilú Mallet strives to make a film about her experience of deep isolation. Her English-speaking husband, a prominent film director, criticizes her subjective approach to filmmaking; her young son, raised in Quebec, speaks only French. Interviews with Isabel Allende and other Chilean exiles reveal a deep bond in this powerful and resonant film about language and genre, exile and immigration.
Les Tournesols (1982)
Rose Lowder · 1 critic vote
The film presents a field of sunflowers. The focus is adjusted frame by frame in succession according to a series of patterns on particular plants situated in different parts of the field. The diverse configurations placed on separate frames of the film strip appear, when projected successively, simultaneously on the screen. Thus, filmed one after another at different focal lengths, the sunflowers combine during projection to form one spatiotemporal image. LES TOURNESOLS COLORES is a capricious version of the film. - Film Makers' Coop
Memory (1982)
Bruno Ganz, Otto Sander · 1 critic vote
A sequel to HEALING PROCESS: "Four years after my father died, I found the sympathy cards, the certificates for trees in Israel, and the letters of condolence that I stashed away in haste when my mother demanded, 'Get rid of these.' Due to my morbid curiosity, I opened the envelopes." – (from the beginning of the soundtrack)
Miss Universo en el Perú (1982)
Grupo Chaski · 1 critic vote
A documentary which shows the struggle of many women surrounding the Miss Universe 1982 pageant hosted by Peru. The government invested a large sum of money in this event, during a time the country suffered an acute political, economic and social crisis. On the other hand, we can appreciate the denigrating use of the women's image in publicity.
Passion (1982)
Jean-Luc Godard · 1 critic vote
While shooting a film, the director becomes interested in the unfolding struggle of a young factory worker that has been laid off by a boss who did not like her union activities.
Suzanne, Suzanne (1982)
Camille Billops · 1 critic vote
This poignant documentary profiles a young black woman's struggle to confront the legacy of a physically abusive father and her headlong flight into drug abuse. Suzanne, after years of physical and psychological abuse, is compelled to understand her father's violence and her mother's passive complicity, who suffered at her husband's hands as well, as the keys to her own self-destruction. After years of silence, Suzanne and her mother are finally able to share their painful experiences with each other in an intensely moving moment of truth.
The Atomic Cafe (1982)
Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, Pierce Rafferty · 1 critic vote
A disturbing collection of 1940s and 1950s United States government-issued propaganda films designed to reassure Americans that the atomic bomb was not a threat to their safety.
The Circular Scene (1982)
Claudio Caldini · 1 critic vote
The silhouettes of a couple in the window were filmed with few directions for the protagonists. They suggested the synthesis of cinematic space and the universality of their figures. The camera draws attention to moments, gestures, and actions, all inserted into the parentheses of a fade-in/fade-out. Cinema rediscovered as an effective memory machine.
The Interrogation (1982)
Ryszard Bugajski · 1 critic vote
Martinaud, an illustrious notary suspected of being the perpetrator of two horrendous crimes, voluntarily agrees to be questioned by Inspector Gallien on New Year's Eve. What initially is a routine procedure, soon becomes a harsh interrogation that seems to confirm the initial suspicions.
The Loveless (1982)
Kathryn Bigelow · 1 critic vote
Trouble ensues when a motorcycle gang stops in a small southern town while heading to the races at Daytona.
Ulysse (1982)
Agnès Varda · 1 critic vote
At the sea shore, a goat, a child, and a naked man. This is a photograph taken in 1954 by Agnès Varda. The goat was dead, the child was named Ulysses, and the man was naked. Starting from this frozen image, the film explores the real and the imaginary.
Bent Time (1983)
Barbara Hammer · 1 critic vote
One-point perspective visual path across the US beginning inside a linear accelerator or atom-smashing device and traveling to such high-energy locations as the home of an ancient sun calendar in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; the site of Ohio Valley Mound cultures; the Golden Gate and Brooklyn Bridges; and beyond. Scientists have noted that light rays curve at the outer edges of the universe, leading them to theorize that time also bends. Inspired by this idea, Hammer used an extreme wide angle lens and "one frame of film per foot of physical space" to simulate the concept of bent time.
Calamity Jane & Delphine Seyrig, A Story (1983)
Babette Mangolte · 1 critic vote
Delphine Seyrig decided to work on a film project about Calamity Jane to reveal Jane’s sensibility and insight about life in those letters to her daughter. The reading of those letters permits a self-reflection about feminism and motherhood.
Cracking Up (1983)
Jerry Lewis · 1 critic vote
Warren Nefron is a hopeless klutz who has some of the worst luck in the world: when he tries to end it all with a foolproof suicide plan, he still manages to mess it up. In desperation, he goes to a psychiatrist to see if there is some way for him to end his troubles.
Eyes of Fire (1983)
Avery Crounse · 1 critic vote
In 1750, an adulterous preacher is ejected from a small British colony with his motley crew of followers, who make their way downriver to establish a new settlement of their own beyond the western frontier.
Give Us a Smile (1983)
Leeds Animation Workshop · 1 critic vote
Shows the effect of the harassment women live with every day, ranging from ‘street humour’ and media stereotyping to actual physical violence. The film was made by women who lived in Leeds during the 1970s and early 80s, when a series of murderous sexual attacks by the so-called Yorkshire Ripper led to a virtual ‘curfew on women’. In response, the many women’s groups already active in the area decided it was time to put their own point of view.
Idhi Katha Matramena (1983)
Yugantar · 1 critic vote
This short improvised fiction film is affectionately called Yugantar’s ‘hit’ film. In the midst of the very active autonomous women’s movement in India, Yugantar collaborated with the research and feminist activist collective Stree Shakhti Sanghatana, provoked by an urgency to broaden discourses and political practice on domestic violence. Through an intense period of a consciousness raising style sharing of their own varied and multi-layered experiences of domestic violence, members of both collectives created a script that focuses on isolation and depression while also developing a complex female character in the process of articulating her situation and finding support in female friendship.
L'eau de la Seine (1983)
Teo Hernández · 1 critic vote
Teo Hernandez films the water of the Seine and its reflections for a film at once material and luminous.
Liberty at Night (1983)
Philippe Garrel · 1 critic vote
In the mist of the Algerian events, a man finds a fugitive happiness beside a local woman.
Llacquiy Huata (1983)
Magdaleno Nina · 1 critic vote
Two days watching Don Valentin, Quechua pastor of lamas and sheep from the highlands.
My Brother's Wedding (1983)
Charles Burnett · 1 critic vote
A young African-American man, living in Los Angeles without direction in his life, reluctantly agrees to be the best man for his brother, an upwardly mobile lawyer.
One Day Pina Asked (1983)
Chantal Akerman · 1 critic vote
Chantal Akerman followed famous Choreographer Pina Bausch and her company of dancers, The Tanzteater Wuppertal, for five weeks while they were on tour in Germany, Italy and France. Her objective was to capture Pina Bausch's unparalleled art not only on stage by behind the scenes.
Pneuma (1983)
Nathaniel Dorsky · 1 critic vote
The images in this film come from an extensive collection of out-dated raw stock that has been processed without being exposed, and sometimes rephotographed in closer format. Each pattern of grain takes on its own emotional life, an evocation of different aspects of our own being.
Rocío and José (1983)
Gonzalo García Pelayo · 1 critic vote
One of the oldest pilgrimages known to European Christianity is the pilgrimage to El Rocío, where prayers are said to the benevolent Blanca Paloma. Year after year, pilgrimage trains of more than a million believers set out to visit the small, remote andalusian village, which is normally inhabited by less than a thousand souls. In this film, the story of shy infatuation developing between two young people is little more than García Pelayo’s pretext to shooting this event in each and every detail. - Viennale
Serious Undertakings (1983)
Helen Grace · 1 critic vote
Directed by Helen Grace.
Turumba (1983)
Kidlat Tahimik · 1 critic vote
Kadu, a boy from Pakil, Laguna, experiences the dissolution of tradition as it gives way to capitalism in the form of Madame, a foreigner who initially came to their village as a customer during the Festival of Turumba.
Zelig (1983)
Woody Allen · 1 critic vote
Fictional documentary about the life of human chameleon Leonard Zelig, a man who becomes a celebrity in the 1920s due to his ability to look and act like whoever is around him. Clever editing places Zelig in real newsreel footage of Woodrow Wilson, Babe Ruth, and others.
Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
Woody Allen · 1 critic vote
A hapless talent manager named Danny Rose, by helping a client, gets dragged into a love triangle involving the mob. His story is told in flashback, an anecdote shared amongst a group of comedians over lunch at New York's Carnegie Deli. Rose's one-man talent agency represents countless incompetent entertainers, including a one-legged tap dancer, and one slightly talented one: washed-up lounge singer Lou Canova, whose career is on the rebound.
Crossroads (1984)
Mike De Leon · 1 critic vote
Borrowing a beloved song from his own 1984 feature Sister Stella L., Mike De Leon made this video in a damning response to the victory election of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as president of the Philippines. In a prepared statement at the Cannes premiere of his recently restored Itim, he wrote, “Horror has now acquired a more sinister meaning. It is no longer about a ghost but about the monsters of Philippine politics, monsters that, after a long wait in the subterranean caverns of hell, have returned to ravage and rape my country all over again. The crazy thing is that we invited them back.”
Eponine (1984)
Michel Chion · 1 critic vote
"When I began to write and shoot my film Eponine in 1975, I wanted to consciously ‘test’ this and other concepts of analysis with a film; the character of a mother without a face; the suggestion through sound of an outside world that one never sees (since the film takes place within the walls of a house from which one does not go out); the creation of an imaginary topography. The success of this film showed me that the concepts ‘worked’. Thus, for me, theory is not a dead demonstration. A living theory must be drawn from a personal experience." - Michel Chion
Every Picture Tells a Story (1984)
James Scott · 1 critic vote
James Scott's biopic of his father William Scott, his childhood and his origins as a painter.
I'm Hungry, I'm Cold (1984)
Chantal Akerman · 1 critic vote
Two girls come to Paris for the first time and try to live.
Klipperty Klopp (1984)
Andrew Kötting · 1 critic vote
"A post punk piece of pagan sensibility, complete with beastiality buggery and boundless energy. Maniacal filmmaking at its best. He takes his horse with him everywhere." Andrew Kötting
Ma'loul Celebrates its Destruction (1984)
Michel Khleifi · 1 critic vote
After the destruction of the Palestinian village of Ma’loul in 1948 and the forced displacement of its inhabitants, the site remains uninhabited. Each year, former residents are allowed to return for a single day, gathering among the ruins to share memories, recount the village’s past, and introduce younger generations to a place they cannot permanently inhabit, sustaining collective history through ritual return and testimony.
Rock My Religion (1984)
Dan Graham · 1 critic vote
Rock My Religion is a provocative thesis on the relation between religion and rock music in contemporary culture. Graham formulates a history that begins with the Shakers, an early religious community who practiced self-denial and ecstatic trance dances. With the "reeling and rocking" of religious revivals as his point of departure, Graham analyzes the emergence of rock music as religion with the teenage consumer in the isolated suburban milieu of the 1950s, locating rock's sexual and ideological context in post-World War II America. The music and philosophies of Patti Smith, who made explicit the trope that rock is religion, are his focus. This complex collage of text, film footage and performance forms a compelling theoretical essay on the ideological codes and historical contexts that inform the cultural phenomenon of rock 'n' roll music.
The Box Theory (1984)
Owen Land · 1 critic vote
The image of a commercial icon - the Native American woman on a Land O'Lakes butter package - unfolds into an infinite visual regress.
The Ties That Bind (1984)
Su Friedrich · 1 critic vote
The Ties That Bind is an experimental documentary about the filmmaker's mother, who was born and lived in southern Germany from 1920-1950. Through a mixture of personal anecdote and social history, she describes the rise of Nazism, the war years, and the Allied occupation, during which she met her future husband, an American soldier. The Ties That Bind breaks with the usual format of war documentaries, thus allowing a different portrait of the individual to emerge, while it reflects on the current political situation in America and the filmmaker's activities in relation to those issues.
Buddies (1985)
Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. · 1 critic vote
David, a naive graduate student, has volunteered to work as a 'buddy' for people dying of AIDS. Assigned to the intensely political Robert, a lifelong activist whose friends and family have abandoned him following his diagnosis, the two men, each with notably different world views, soon discover common bonds, as David's inner activist awakens and Robert's need for emotional release is fulfilled.
Golfball Ode to IBM (1985)
Mara Mattuschka · 1 critic vote
Hands vigorously pull scraps of paper from an antiquated printing press, while their owner remains invisible. Then Mimi Minus and a razor blade - the incident is still shocking. The shrouded head, wrapped in muslin, reappears, and black paint is daubed over the top ... no image retains its integrity, for each is crossed through, painted, double-exposed, spilt, soiled.
Kaze: One Minute and Forty Seconds (1985)
Tsutomu Shinozuka · 1 critic vote
Impressionistic silent short film (also known as ‘Kaze. Ippun yonjûbyô’) created by 17-year-old high school student Shinozuka Tsutomu. The animation, which won the Debut Prize at the inaugural Hiroshima International Animation Festival in 1985, shows a group of samurai racing at breathtaking speed across golden meadows. The film stands out for its visceral sense of motion and extraordinary dynamism, as has been confirmed by jury member Kawamoto Kihachirō, who noted that you can almost feel the force of the wind. The focus on ‘wind’, speed and warriors elegantly evokes a famous military maxim by Sun Tzu: ‘Your swiftness shall resemble the wind’. It is the first of four tenets of Fūrinkazan (風林火山, lit. ‘Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain’), a legendary Japanese battle standard drawn from Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’. Warriors should also be ‘as calm and orderly as forests, as fierce as fire, and as steadfast as mountains’.
Kurzer Besuch bei Hermann Glöckner (1985)
Jürgen Böttcher · 1 critic vote
This film portraits the artist and model-builder Hermann Gloeckner, who was born in Dresden in 1889. Even at the age of 96 he is still drawing with undiminished creative energy.
Kuća na pijesku (1985)
Ivan Martinac · 1 critic vote
An archaeologist returns from Spain. Living alone, he goes about his daily rituals. A haunting leads to tragedy, raising further questions of the man’s life.
Love Hotel (1985)
Shinji Sōmai · 1 critic vote
A call-girl named Yumi and Tetsuro, a married man with a debt to the yakuza, have a violent rendezvous in a cheap love hotel. Years later, haunted by the memory of that night, they reconnect and begin a strange love affair. Determined to finish what they started, they return to the scene of their first macabre passion.
Place (1985)
Antoinetta Angelidi · 1 critic vote
During its 85-minute running time, this jarring experimental film takes a no-holds-barred look at the way women have been treated and depicted in Western art.
Re-animator (1985)
Stuart Gordon · 1 critic vote
Conducting clandestine experiments within the morgue at Miskatonic University, scientist Herbert West reveals to a fellow graduate student his groundbreaking work concerning the re-animation of fresh corpses.
The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985)
Will Vinton · 1 critic vote
Largely considered to be the greatest American author, Mark Twain is celebrated in this exhaustive documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns.
The Angelic Conversation (1985)
Derek Jarman · 1 critic vote
The Angelic Conversation is a lyrical, haunting film about a young man’s search for love in a dreamlike landscape. Its tone is set by the juxtaposition of slow moving homo-erotic images and opaque landscapes through which two men take a journey into their own desires. Offscreen, Dame Judi Dench recites a sequence of Shakespeare's sonnets that counterpoint the action. Jarman called it, “My most austere work, but also the closest to my heart.”
The Black Tower (1985)
John Smith · 1 critic vote
A man finds himself haunted by a mysterious black tower in London that appears to follow him wherever he goes.
The Perfect Kiss (1985)
Jonathan Demme · 1 critic vote
A raw, live-in-studio performance of "The Perfect Kiss" by New Order.
The Stuff (1985)
Larry Cohen · 1 critic vote
Amalgamated Dairies hires David Rutherford, an FBI man turned industrial saboteur, to investigate a popular new product called “the Stuff,” a new dessert product that is blowing ice cream sales out of the water. Nobody knows how it’s made or what’s in it, but people are lining up to buy it. It's got a delicious flavor to die for!
Backlash (1986)
Bill Bennett · 1 critic vote
Two policemen track down and arrest an Aboriginal woman who has been accused of murder, and begin the trek back across the desert with her.
Beau temps, mais orageux, en fin de journee (1986)
Gérard Frot-Coutaz · 1 critic vote
This slice-of-life drama about an elderly couple and their estranged son covers twenty-four fateful hours that begin with the usual daily routine for the retired pair of former teachers (Micheline Presle and Claude Pieplu). Then their son telephones to say he will be coming over with his girlfriend and the normal pattern is changed, as he visits them rarely. While the mother is obsequious to her son when he arrives, past hurts and resentments bubble up during lunch, making it difficult for the son to tell them he is getting married. This is news enough, but the effect that announcement has on the son and his fiancée is unexpected and events later on in the day take a turn for the worse.
Dancers, Buildings and People in the Street (1986)
Rudy Burckhardt · 1 critic vote
Here this display of New York textures and cross-sections is juxtaposed with the creation of a dance work, Jig Jag, by choreographer-dancer Douglas Dunn and his remarkable company. The natural humor and classically tender abruptness of their gestures and phrases are beautiful enlargements or details of, in human scale, in animal scale, body to body, the vectors of form and relation in the carefully eyed city life outside.
Down and out in America (1986)
Lee Grant · 1 critic vote
The recession of the 1980s split the country into the haves and have-nots, from family farmers to factory workers and homeless people forced to live in decrepit welfare hotels. On the verge of losing everything, courageous Americans discover the power of community organizing to fight injustice.
Fake Fruit Factory (1986)
Chick Strand · 1 critic vote
Intimate documentary about young women who make papier mache fruit and vegetables in a small factory in Mexico. They have a gringo boss, but the factory is owned by his Mexican wife. The focus of the film is on the color, music and movement involved, and the gossip which goes on constantly, revealing what the young women think about men.
Malcolm (1986)
Nadia Tass · 1 critic vote
Malcolm is a chronically shy mechanical genius, who has just been fired for building his own tram. He gets Frank, who has just been released from jail, to move in to help pay the bills. With Frank's help, Malcolm turns to a life of crime.
Morning Star (1986)
Chaerul Umam · 1 critic vote
Bintang Kejora, an adventurer, is a drug seller who is boastful. He is blacklisted everywhere for being a fraud. One time he comes to a drought-stricken village, merely to see a girl he caught a glimpse of, sticking her head out of the window of a passing bus.
Perfect Film (1986)
Ken Jacobs · 1 critic vote
Directed by Ken Jacobs, 1985. In Jacobs' own words: "I wish more stuff was available in its raw state, as primary source material for anyone to consider, and to leave for others in just that way, the evidence uncontaminated by compulsive proprietary misapplied artistry, "editing", the purposeful "pointing things out" that cuts a road straight and narrow through the cine-jungle; we barrel through thinking we’re going somewhere and miss it all. Better to just be pointed to the territory, to put in time exploring, roughing it, on our own. For the straight scoop we need the whole scoop, or no less than the clues entire and without rearrangement. O, for a Museum of Found Footage, or cable channel, library, a shit-museum of telling discards accessible to all talented viewers/auditors. A wilderness haven salvaged from Entertainment."
Shadows in Paradise (1986)
Aki Kaurismäki · 1 critic vote
Nikander, a rubbish collector and would-be entrepreneur, finds his plans for success dashed when his business associate dies. One evening, he meets Ilona, a down-on-her-luck cashier, in a local supermarket. Falteringly, a bond begins to develop between them.
The Horse Thief (1986)
Tian Zhuangzhuang · 1 critic vote
Devout Buddhists, Norbu and Dolma live with their young son Tashi in a clan in Tibet. Norbu is a highwayman. After Norbu is charged with stealing from the temple, he and his family are banished. Impoverished and marginalized, they can do little when their beloved son becomes ill. Tashi dies of a fever. After a second son is born, Norbu focuses his every action on keeping this child alive, seeking re-admission to the clan for his wife and child, then risking all to save them from isolation and starvation in winter.
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (1986)
Derek Jarman, John Maybury, Richard Heslop, Christopher Hughes, Sally Yeadon · 1 critic vote
Three promotional films by The Smiths directed with an artistic and conceptual vision by the late director Derek Jarman. The result is the junction of the powerful lyrics and melodies by Morrissey and Marr combined with Jarman's expressive images. The music videos: 1) The Queen Is Dead 2) There Is a Light That Never Goes Out 3) Panic
Weather Diary 1 (1986)
George Kuchar · 1 critic vote
George Kuchar travels to Oklahoma in search of tornadoes, spends most of his time watching TV and eating food.
‎Monangambeee (1986)
Sarah Maldoror · 1 critic vote
Filmmaker-griot coming from the theater, it was with a camera, while the war in Vietnam occupied everyone's minds, that Sarah Maldoror gave visibility to the African wars of decolonization: Angola, Guinea Bissau, French Guinea, Cape Verde... Her short film Monangambée addresses the torture by the Portuguese army of a sympathizer of the Angolan resistance. At the end of editing, Sarah Maldoror approached the members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago during a Parisian concert and offered to add sound to her film. The next day they watched the film, were convinced and recorded their first soundtrack for free as evidence of African-American solidarity. Shot in Algiers, Monangambée is a film about torture and, more broadly, about the incomprehension between the colonized and the colonizers. It is based on a novel by the Angolan writer Luandino Vieira, then imprisoned by the Portuguese colonial power.
A Cold Draft (1987)
Lis Rhodes · 1 critic vote
Shows the surveillance of a woman by overseers who have judged her to be mad. What is most provocative about this film is that it proposes multiple credible points of view even as the woman is being certified insane by the Censors. We voyage into the skull of a woman and peer out to a monumentally static cold waste with planetary slow motion. It is the bunker-eye view.
Evil Dead II (1987)
Sam Raimi · 1 critic vote
Ash Williams and his girlfriend Linda find a log cabin in the woods with a voice recording from an archeologist who had recorded himself reciting ancient chants from "The Book of the Dead." As they play the recording an evil power is unleashed taking over Linda's body.
Fascinating Dollhouse (1987)
Uli Versum · 1 critic vote
Short experimental film about family and childhood. Features intertitles and a soundtrack of music and effects.
Friendship's Death (1987)
Peter Wollen · 1 critic vote
A robot messenger is sent to earth to appeal to humans to live in peace. Originally designed to go to MIT, by mistake she ends up in Amman, Jordan during the Black September riots of 1970. Sullivan, a British journalist, comes to her aid when she is found wandering without papers following a bombing and grants her refuge in his hotel room. But there she tells him she is a robot, sent as a peace envoy from another planet. He is not sure whether to believe her story or not, but finds her unusual view of the world appealing. They examine the human condition in a series of incredibly insightful and entertaining conversations.
Nekromantik (1987)
Jörg Buttgereit · 1 critic vote
A necrophilic street sweeper who cleans up after grisly accidents brings home a corpse for him and his girlfriend to enjoy sexually, but is dismayed to see that she prefers the corpse over him.
Nice Coloured Girls (1987)
Tracey Moffatt · 1 critic vote
Nice Coloured Girls is a short film classic by Tracey Moffatt, one of Australia's foremost visual artists. Three Aboriginal women cruise through Kings Cross and pick up a 'captain' (a drunken white man). They encourage him to spend his money on them and to drink until incapacitated while they steal his wallet and race off to catch a cab, self-satisfied. Nice Coloured Girls contrasts the relationship between Aboriginal women and white men in the past and present.
Road (1987)
Alan Clarke · 1 critic vote
A view of the inhabitants of a derelict road in Manchester, unsatisfied with their lives and routines. A young man locks himself away from the world. An older woman flirts with a soldier on leave. Two men invite two girls into an empty house.
Sock Ads: Judith Williamson Consumes Passionately in Southern California (1987)
Paper Tiger TV, Judith Williamson · 1 critic vote
Judith Williamson examines consumer culture in America, from the multiplication of products and their functions to capitalism’s colonization of the body. What is the meaning of freedom in modern day America? Is it the freedom to change the world or the freedom to change our socks?
Swimming to Cambodia (1987)
Jonathan Demme · 1 critic vote
Spalding Gray sits behind a desk throughout the entire film and recounts his exploits and chance encounters while playing a minor role in the film 'The Killing Fields'. At the same time, he gives a background to the events occurring in Cambodia at the time the film was set.
The Cyclist (1987)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf · 1 critic vote
The wife of Nasim, an Afghan immigrant in Iran, is gravely ill. He needs money to pay for her care, but his day labor digging wells does not pay enough. A friend connects Nasim to a two-bit promoter who sells tickets to watch Nasim ride a bicycle continuously for a week. The promoter brings in sick and aged spectators, haranguing them to find hope in Nasim's strength. Aided by his son, who feeds him as he rides, Nasim grinds out the days and shivering nights. Local officials believe this may be a plot and Nasim may be a spy; they try to sabotage him as do those who bet he won't finish the week. Will desperation alone get Nasim the money? Is any triumph an illusion?
The Dante Quartet (1987)
Stan Brakhage · 1 critic vote
A visual representation, in four parts, of one man's internalization of "The Divine Comedy." Hell is a series of multicolored brush strokes against a white background; the speed of the changing images varies. "Hell Spit Flexion," or springing out of Hell, is on smaller film stock, taking the center of the frame. Montages of color move rapidly with a star and the edge of a lighted moon briefly visible. Purgation is back to full frame; blurs of color occasionally slow down then freeze. From time to time, an image, such as a window or a face, is distinguishable for a moment. In "existence is song," colors swirl then flash in and out of view. Behind the vivid colors are momentary glimpses of volcanic activity.
The Last of England (1987)
Derek Jarman · 1 critic vote
The artist's personal commentary on the decline of his country in a language closer to poetry than prose. A dark meditation on London under Thatcher.
The Luncheon on the Grass (1987)
Priit Pärn · 1 critic vote
Several episodes, each focusing on a different figure. Towards the end they all come together to replicate the famous painting by Édouard Manet that provides the title.
A Day on the Grand Canal with the Emperor of China or: Surface Is Illusion But So Is Depth (1988)
Philip Haas · 1 critic vote
Director Philip Haas and artist David Hockney invite you to join them on a magical journey through China via a marvelous 72-foot long 17th-century Chinese scroll entitled The Kangxi Emperor's Southern Inspection Tour (1691-1698), scroll seven . As Hockney unrolls the beautiful and minutely detailed work of art, he traces the Emperor Kangxi’s second tour of his southern empire in 1689.
A Tale of the Wind (1988)
Joris Ivens, Marceline Loridan-Ivens · 1 critic vote
It is an autobiographical fiction starring Ivens as an old man who has spent his life trying to "tame the wind and harness the sea" by capturing them on film.
Another Woman (1988)
Woody Allen · 1 critic vote
Marion is a woman who has learned to shield herself from her emotions. She rents an apartment to work undisturbed on her new book, but by some acoustic anomaly she can hear all that is said in the next apartment in which a psychiatrist holds his office. When she hears a young woman tell that she finds it harder and harder to bear her life, Marion starts to reflect on her own life. After a series of events she comes to understand how her unemotional attitude towards the people around her affected them and herself.
Dreaming Rivers (1988)
Martina Attille · 1 critic vote
A bittersweet and nostalgic short drama illustrating the spirit of modern families touched by the experience of migration. Miss T., from the Caribbean, lives alone in her one-room apartment, her children and husband having left her to pursue new dreams. When she dies her family and friends gather at her wake. The tapestry of words that interweave the drama convey the fragments of a life lived, but only partly remembered.
IGUANA (1988)
Monte Hellman · 1 critic vote
A grotesquely disfigured harpooner called Iguana is severely mistreated by his fellow sailors on a whaling ship in the 19th century. One night he escapes and takes up residence on a remote island. He makes himself ruler of the island and declares war on mankind. Anyone unfortunate enough to wind up on the island with Iguana is subjected to his cruel tyranny.
Maria (1988)
Alexander Sokurov · 1 critic vote
A requiem for a Russian peasant woman, Maria Semionovna Voinova. The film is in two chapters. The first chapter consists of an impression of Maria Semionovna, scenes of the colours of summer time: hay–making, bathing in a river, work in the flax fields and a holiday in the Crimea. The second chapter, set nine years later, is in black and white and deals with how Maria Semionovna's life ended. The mood is one of a sad and elegiac narration.
Measures of Distance (1988)
Mona Hatoum · 1 critic vote
In this video, the artist tries to overcome the effects of distance, and reflects on geography represented in exile due to war, and on the psychological distance represented in each one’s approach to her womanhood. The video beautifully weaves personal images and audio recordings of a very intimate nature, binding the personal with the political. Reading aloud from letters sent by her mother in Beirut, Hatoum creates a visual montage reflecting her feelings of separation and isolation from her Palestinian family. The personal and political are inextricably bound in a narrative that explores personal and family identity against a backdrop of traumatic social rupture, exile and displacement.
Memories of a Tropical Jew (1988)
Joseph Morder · 1 critic vote
In this avant-garde exercise in self-reflection, director Joseph Morder reminisces about his youth in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where his Jewish parents settled after they left Poland. The heat of August in Paris brings forth memories and at the same time the adult Morder is involved in a love affair. There are no scenes from Ecuador here, and none of the images in the film are used to carry the narration; instead they vaguely illustrate what Morder happens to be saying at the moment.
Miracle Mile (1988)
Steve De Jarnatt · 1 critic vote
After 30 years of searching, Harry has finally met the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately, before they even have a chance to go on their first date, Harry intercepts some chilling news: WWIII has begun and nuclear missiles will destroy Los Angeles in less than an hour!
Once More (1988)
Paul Vecchiali · 1 critic vote
Louis is a family man, with a wife and young daughter, who discovers in mid-life that he is gay.
Shilde (1988)
Darezhan Omirbayev · 1 critic vote
One hot summer afternoon, two boys try to earn the cash for a movie in this beautiful evocation of the landscape of childhood.
Testament (1988)
John Akomfrah · 1 critic vote
Focuses on the Kwame Nkrumah era in Ghanaian history and paints a portrait of a female African government minister forced into exile after a coup d'état in 1966. Two decades later, she returns to confront the country she left behind.
Virgin Machine (1988)
Monika Treut · 1 critic vote
A German woman travels to San Francisco to find her mother, but winds up distracted by the sexually flamboyant culture of the city.
Warm Broth (1988)
Tom Rhodes · 1 critic vote
Everything will be ok, just close your eyes little thing go to sleep little fuck feel my hand on your warm forehead It's cold isn't it? Ice cold. Dream of something real sweet for mommy Mommy likes sweet things Dream of a merry-go-round and cotton candy Mommy's hand got all warm resting on your tiny head See, look at mommy's hand It got all warm now You're running a slight fever Mommy will get you some water And you're running a slight fever Little fuck don't have to go to school tomorrow but no playing in the yard Someone could see you And I'll be an unfit mommy You'll have to stay in all day but now, dream of the prettiest flower for mommy I'll make you oatmeal first thing And you could tell me the color of the - prettiest flower.
Weather Diary 3 (1988)
George Kuchar · 1 critic vote
Set in and around an El Reno motel, the tape records George's growing friendship with a young weather expert.
Atlantic Rhapsody (1989)
Katrin Ottarsdóttir · 1 critic vote
Presents a day in the life of a few inhabitants of Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands: A father and his daughter are having breakfast when the fire-brigade drive by. A woman and her child are looking at the fire and meet a married couple. The couple say hello to a man who is going out with his boat... and so on.
Cézanne - Conversation with Joachim Gasquet (1989)
Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet · 1 critic vote
A landmark work of symbolistic imagery. The words that the filmmakers speak offscreen are imaginary conversation with Cézanne quoted from a critique by Joachim Gasquet. An exchange of memories spanning over 250 years interweaves everything from the philosophy of Empedocles to excerpts from the film Madame Bovary, to extant paintings by Cézanne, to the buildings of the artists’ village at Mont Sainte-Victoire. —ntticc.or.jp
Homework (1989)
Abbas Kiarostami · 1 critic vote
Young male students at a local Iranian school are asked about their feelings on homework.
K (1989)
Jayne Parker · 1 critic vote
Les sièges de l'Alcazar (1989)
Luc Moullet · 1 critic vote
A French man recalls his moviegoing adventures at a now defunct titular theater as a journalist for the film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma during the mid-1950s.
Looking for Langston (1989)
Isaac Julien · 1 critic vote
A black and white, fantasy-like recreation of high-society gay men during the Harlem Renaissance, with archival footage and photographs intercut with a story. A wake is going on, with mourners gathered around a coffin. Downstairs is an elegant bar where tuxedoed men dance and talk. One of them has a dream in which he comes upon Beauty, who seems to reject him, although when he awakes, Beauty is sleeping beside him. His story and his visits to the jazz and dance club are framed by voices reading from the poetry and essays of Hughes and others. The text is rarely explicit, but the freedom of gay Black men in the 1920s in Harlem is suggested and celebrated visually.
Pickle Surprise (1989)
Tom Rubnitz · 1 critic vote
A short, hilarious cooking mantra.
The Firm (1989)
Alan John Clarke · 1 critic vote
Set in the 1980s, Dom is a teenager who finds himself drawn into the charismatic world of football 'casuals,influenced by the firm's top boy, Bex. Accepted by the gang for his fast mouth and sense of humor, Dom soon becomes one the boys. But as Bex and his gang clash with rival firms across the country and the violence spirals out of control, Dom realizes he wants out - until he learns it's not that easy to simply walk away.
Twilight City (1989)
Reece Auguiste · 1 critic vote
A fictional letter from a daughter, Olivia, to her mother in Dominica is the narrative thread connecting interviews from (predominantly) black and Asian cultural critics, historians and journalists. The choice of occupation for the daughter, a researcher, perhaps strains the narrative conceit too far. Nevertheless, for an avowedly political documentary the result is absorbing.
Vision in Meditation 1 (1989)
Stan Brakhage · 1 critic vote
This is a film inspired by Gertrude Stein's "Stanzas In Meditation", in which the filmmaker has edited a meditative series of images of landscapes and human symbolism "indicative of that field-of-consciousness within which humanity survives thoughtfully." It is a film "as in a dream," this first film in a proposed series of such being composed of images shot in the New England states and Eastern Canada. It begins with an antique photograph of a baby and ends with a child loose on the landscape, interweaving images of Niagara Falls with a variety of New England and Eastern Canadian scenes, antique photographs, windows, old farms and cityscapes, as it moves from deep winter, through glare ice, to thaw.
Water and Power (1989)
Pat O'Neill · 1 critic vote
A reflection between nature and man in Los Angeles about the city's surroundings' desertification due to enormous water consumption.
Water, Wind, Dust (1989)
Amir Naderi · 1 critic vote
A young teenager returns home after an absence to find his village in Iran deserted because of an incredibly severe drought. He begins a search to find his family, traveling through an amazingly bleak and desolate landscape. Primarily an essay on the issue of humans vs. nature, the film is of interest for technical and cultural reasons.
Lumumba, la mort d'un prophète (1990)
Raoul Peck · 1 critic vote
Documentary about African political leader Patrice Lumumba, who was Prime Minister of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) when he was assassinated in 1961.
Passage Through: A Ritual (1990)
Stan Brakhage · 1 critic vote
“[Passage Through] required the most exacting editing process ever; and in the course of that work it occurred to me that I’d originally made 'The Riddle of Lumen' hoping someone would make an ‘answering’ film and entertain my visual riddle in the manner of the riddling poets of yore. I most expected Hollis Frampton (because of 'Zorns Lemma') to pick up the challenge; but he never did. In some sense I think composer Corner has – and now we have this dance of riddles as music and film combine to make ‘passage,’ in every sense of the word, further possible.” –S.B.
Sanctus (1990)
Barbara Hammer · 1 critic vote
Hammer used old x-ray footage, rearranged, colored and orchestrated through optical printing, in order to reveal hidden bodily movements and rhythms in its constant juxtaposition.
The Garden (1990)
Derek Jarman · 1 critic vote
A nearly wordless visual narrative intercuts two main stories and a couple of minor ones. A woman, perhaps the Madonna, brings forth her baby to a crowd of intrusive paparazzi; she tries to flee them. Two men who are lovers marry and are arrested by the powers that be. The men are mocked and pilloried, tarred, feathered, and beaten. Loose in this contemporary world of electrical-power transmission lines is also Jesus. The elements, particularly fire and water, content with political power, which is intolerant and murderous.
Lyrical Nitrate (1991)
Peter Delpeut · 1 critic vote
Compilation of film clips from 1905-1915, found footage of silent movies and documentaries from the Jean Desmet Archive of the Netherlands Film Museum. Jean Desmet was one of the first Dutch film distributors. Lyrisch nitraat is a tribute to the craftsmanship of early filmmakers, but also shows the brittleness of old nitrate films. Composed as an opera about love and death, set to music by Bizet, Masek and Puccini.
Poison (1991)
Todd Haynes · 1 critic vote
A trio of interweaved transgressive tales, telling a bizarre stories of suburban patricide and a miraculous flight from justice, a mad sex experiment which unleashes a disfiguring plague, and the obsessive sexual relationship between two prison inmates.
Queen of Diamonds (1991)
Nina Menkes · 1 critic vote
Firdaus is a Blackjack dealer in a Las Vegas landscape juxtaposed between glittering casino lights and the deteriorating desert oasis. Negotiating a missing husband and neighboring domestic violence, Firdaus’ world unfolds as a fragmented interplay between repetition and repressed anger.
Reci, reci, reci... (1991)
Michaela Pavlátová · 1 critic vote
In a cafe, people talk, their words become expresively-shaped balloons. An older waiter tries to connect with a young woman who's reading. She brushes him off, but gets into an animated and romantic conversation with a young man. A dog goes from table to table drinking beer and wine when people aren't looking. Older men talk about sexual conquests until one of their wives interrupts them. The young couple argues; he starts to leave, she pleads, he leaves anyway. The waiter tries to help. Old guys talk until they nod off. Women chat. Later, as the waiter cleans up, the finds the young woman's book. He sighs, the dog sleeps it off.
Sanggye-Dong Olympic (1991)
Kim Dong-won · 1 critic vote
When it was decided that the 88 Olympics would be held in Seoul, the residents of Sanggye-dong were forced from their homes and they struggled against the government to at least guarantee them new residences.
Something Like a War (1991)
Deepa Dhanraj · 1 critic vote
An examination of India’s family planning program from the point of view of the women who are its primary targets. It traces the history of the family planning program and exposes the cynicism, corruption and brutality which characterizes its implementation. As the women themselves discuss their status, sexuality, fertility control and health, it is clear that their perceptions are in conflict with those of the program.
The Making of Monsters (1991)
John Greyson · 1 critic vote
Experimental musical based on a factual incident, the beating to death of a homosexual man in Toronto, 1985, by five teenagers.
The Teeth of My Mother (1991)
Jean-Christophe Bouvet · 1 critic vote
Paulette, Jean-Christophe's mother, talks too much; after ten years of struggle Jean-Christophe notices that Paulette talks less, but one night he sees his mother's dentures in a tooth glass. Kind friends explain to him that Paulette has passed from the oral stage to the sadistic oral stage. The mother shows her teeth, I love you, I crunch you, it's sure death...
Two Sisters (1991)
Caroline Leaf · 1 critic vote
A facially disfigured author's life with her guardian of a sister is disrupted when a stranger arrives at their door, claiming to be a fan.
Writing in the Sand (1991)
Amber Street Collective · 1 critic vote
A richly lyrical documentary celebration of the vibrant beach life in the North East of England, constructed entirely out of Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen's black & white photographs.
Lessons of Darkness (1992)
Werner Herzog · 1 critic vote
Shortly after the Gulf War, oil fires were raging all through Kuwait. In the week before this sea of fire would be extinguished, Werner Herzog filmed this apocalyptic landscape with its murky skies, scorched earth and capricious flames.
Samba Traoré (1992)
Idrissa Ouédraogo · 1 critic vote
During a robbery at a petrol station in town, one of the accomplices is shot dead. The other, Samba Traoré, flees with the loot: a suitcase full of banknotes. After years away, he returns to his native village. Life has gone on as usual, and Saratou is as beautiful as he remembers her. Director Idrissa Ouedraogo paints a portrait of a man haunted by his past, trying to rebuild his life and start afresh. But past mistakes never stay buried for long.
Side/Walk/Shuttle (1992)
Ernie Gehr · 1 critic vote
In this infamous structural film, Ernie Gehr takes to the glass elevator attached to San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel and rides its 24 stories up and down, constantly shifting the orientation of his camera to offer images of the city as a zone of constant flux, freed from gravity and in perpetual rearrangement.
Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (1992)
Jonas Mekas · 1 critic vote
The life and work of Fluxus artist George Maciunas as seen in clips filmed between 1952 and 1978.
Bedevil (1993)
Tracey Moffatt · 1 critic vote
Three stories of the supernatural are recounted in this anthology. Rick, an Aboriginal boy living near a swamp on Bribie Island, is haunted by an American solider who drowned in quicksand. Ruby and her family live in a house near long-abandoned train tracks, which still carry ghostly apparitions. A landlord has trouble evicting the tenants of an old warehouse: a couple that's been dead for years
I Was a Teenage Serial Killer (1993)
Sarah Jacobson · 1 critic vote
Mary was a good girl until she decides to kill all the "sexist pigs". She of course encounters many of which, and enjoys killing them.
Je vous salue, Sarajevo (1993)
Jean-Luc Godard · 1 critic vote
A short two-minute rumination on the once volatile situation during the period of the Bosnian War presented in the form of a photo-montage with accompanying text.
No Regret (1993)
Marlon Riggs · 1 critic vote
Five gay Black men who are HIV-positive discuss how they are battling the double stigmas surrounding their infection and homosexuality.
Totally F***Ed Up (1993)
Gregg Araki · 1 critic vote
Gay, alienated Los Angeles teens have a hard time as their parents kick them out of their homes, they don’t have money, their lovers cheat, and they are harassed by gay-bashers.
An Unforgettable Summer (1994)
Lucian Pintilie · 1 critic vote
In 1925 Romania, young Marie-Therese Von Debretsy refuses the flirtatious advances of her husband's commanding officer. As a result, the cosmopolitan family is reassigned to a brutally bleak and dangerous outpost on the Bulgarian/Romanian frontier where both their relationship and humanity are severely tested.
Baby I will Make you Sweat (1994)
Birgit Hein · 1 critic vote
In this highly personal and intimate travel diary, Birgit Hein has filmed with great candour her problems with aging, her need for tenderness, the frustration for being alone and her experiences in Jamaica.
Before Need Redressed (1994)
Gunvor Nelson, Dorothy Wiley · 1 critic vote
After doing Before Need, Gunvor Nelson and Dorothy Wiley embarked on a new creative process. They revisited the film, reworked it and reassembled it creating a shorter new version, called Before Need Redressed. A way to express how the passing time, reflection and accumulating experiences can affect the form and vision of a film. —Ulf Kjell Gür
Black Ice (1994)
Stan Brakhage · 1 critic vote
Inspired by a bad fall on a patch of black ice (that ultimately resulted in Brakhage's need for eye surgery), the filmmaker gives us something of a dreamlike descent through the fear and refractions of closed-eye vision regarding such an event.
Death of a Nation (1994)
David Munro · 1 critic vote
The sensational expose of the complicity of Britain, USA and Australia in the continuing genocide in East Timor.
Five Year Diary, Reel 80: Emily Died (1994)
Anne Charlotte Robertson · 1 critic vote
Anne’s niece Emily dies. Anne goes into a deep depression.
Go Fish (1994)
Rose Troche · 1 critic vote
Max is a trendy, pretty, young lesbian, who is having trouble finding love. A friend sets her up with Ely, whom Max likes, but Ely is frumpy, homely, and older. Nor do they have much in common. Can Max learn to look past the packaging?
Human Being (1994)
Ibrahim Shaddad · 1 critic vote
Sudanese filmmaker Ibrahim Shaddad provides a dramatic and powerful account of the trials and tribulations of a Sudanese villager in a large alien city. Shot entirely without dialogue, the film's innovative use of sound helps tell the story of a shepherd who leaves his wife and herd to settle in a nearby town. Since its premiere at the Alexandria Film Festival, Human Being (إنسان / Insan) has been shown in a number of festivals in the Middle East and Europe. This film is a prime example of experimental Arab cinema.
Katatsumori (1994)
Naomi Kawase · 1 critic vote
Filmmaker Naomi Kawase captures the love, loss, and loneliness felt as she prepares to move out of her foster mother's home.
Metal and Melancholy (1994)
Heddy Honigmann · 1 critic vote
This documentary is an offbeat "road movie" in which acclaimed documentarian Heddy Honigmann travels with, and thereby discovers the stories of, taxi drivers in Lima. In the early 1990s, in response to Peru's inflationary economy and a government destabilized by corruption and Shining Path terrorism, many middle-class professionals used their own cars to moonlight as taxi drivers in order to weather the financial crisis.
Narmada: A Valley Rises (1994)
Ali Kazimi · 1 critic vote
Narmada: A Valley Rises is beautifully photographed, inspiring film. It documents a 200 kilometer non-violent Gandhian march involving 6000 participants. The film offers a compelling and intimate portrait of a unique movement while raises critical and universal issues of human-rights, social justice, and development within a democracy.
Rudy Wurlitzer (1994)
Chris Petit · 1 critic vote
Some of Petit's works were made for television. In this session, the three films are about three major figures in the English universe: filmmaker Peter Whitehead, novelist and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer, and writer J. G. Ballard. In these cinematographic portraits, Petit explores the potentialities of the hybridization between fiction and documentary, building elaborate stories - supported in genres such as the police story - to better define the characters. In the biography of Ballard, we have a curious participation of David Cronenberg about to embark on the adaptation of Crash.
The Devil Never Sleeps (1994)
Lourdes Portillo · 1 critic vote
The Devil Never Sleeps is a “whodunit” documentary about family secrets. Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo received a phone call informing her of the mysterious death of her wealthy Mexican uncle Oscar. Officially ruled a suicide, Portillo’s relatives claimed murder, offering several possible suspects including a business partner, a ranch hand, and Oscar’s young widow who stood to inherit everything. Traveling to Mexico, Portillo attempts to learn the truth about her powerful uncle. Using interviews, old snapshots and home movies, she finds a complicated web of family secrets, intrigue, rumor and betrayal that makes her enigmatic uncle’s murder seem ever more likely, yet ever more obscure. As the Mexican saying goes, “When evil is lurking, the devil never sleeps.”
Travolta and Me (1994)
Patricia Mazuy · 1 critic vote
In the late 1970s, a French teenage girl is obsessed with the then popular American movie heartthrob John Travolta.
Alice in Russialand (1995)
Ken Russell · 1 critic vote
Documentary by Ken Russell that shows Alice traveling through a century of Russian's history, from the period of Tsarism, through Socialism and Glasnost. Alice's original characters embody ideological conflicts crossing politics, art and cultural movements.
Arabian Knight (1995)
Richard Williams · 1 critic vote
Princess Yum Yum falls in love with Tack and saves him from being executed. Later, when the protective orbs of the palace get stolen, Tack and Yum Yum set out to find them and save the kingdom.
BloodSisters (1995)
Michelle Handelman · 1 critic vote
From pushy bottoms to macho femmes, Bloodsisters is an A–Z documentary guide that takes an in-depth look at the San Francisco Leatherdyke scene during the mid-nineties.
Bontoc Eulogy (1995)
Marlon Fuentes · 1 critic vote
Marlon E. Fuentes' Bontoc Eulogy is a haunting, personal exploration into the filmmaker's complex relationship with his Filipino heritage as explored through the almost unbelievable story of the 1,100 Filipino tribal natives brought to the U.S. to be a "living exhibit" at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. For those who associate the famous fair with Judy Garland, clanging trolleys, and creampuff victoriana, Bontoc Eulogy offers a disturbing look at the cultural arrogance that went hand-in-hand with the Fair's glorification of progress. The Fair was the site of the world's largest ever "ethnological display rack," in which hundreds of so-called primitive and savage men and women from all over the globe were exhibited in contrast to the achievements of Western civilization.
By Hook or by Crook (1995)
Pierre Léon · 1 critic vote
Five extraterrestrials like no other are enjoying their last moments on planet Earth. Only one will stay to keep the secrets.
Cremaster 1 (1995)
Matthew Barney · 1 critic vote
CREMASTER 1 is a musical revue performed on the blue Astroturf playing field of Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho - Matthew Barney's hometown. Two Goodyear Blimps float above the arena like the airships that often transmit live sporting events via television broadcast. Four air hostesses tend to each blimp. The only sound is soft ambient music, which suggests the hum of the engines.
Forgotten Silver (1995)
Peter Jackson, Costa Botes · 1 critic vote
The life story of Colin McKenzie, a forgotten pioneer of international cinema who was born in rural New Zealand in 1888.
JLG/JLG – Self-Portrait in December (1995)
Jean-Luc Godard · 1 critic vote
Director Jean-Luc Godard reflects in this movie about his place in film history, the interaction of film industry and film as art, as well as the act of creating art.
Long Live the Hobos (1995)
Ana Poliak · 1 critic vote
The film tells the story of an imigrant to Argentina who works for the railway company of this land. Being a witness to the history of the land of silver in this century the film is also a shortcut of the changes in Argentina during the last 100 years.
Premonition Following an Evil Deed (1995)
David Lynch · 1 critic vote
A short film about the events following a murder.
Señora con flores (1995)
Chick Strand · 1 critic vote
A Mexican flower seller’s story of personal tragedy is delicately illuminated in an intimate and moving act of portraiture that is both unsettling and liberating. In her final film, Chick Strand mixes brutal heartbreak and palpable joy into a transformative vision of dignity and vitality.
The Addiction (1995)
Abel Ferrara · 1 critic vote
A vampiric doctoral student tries to follow the philosophy of a nocturnal comrade and control her thirst for blood.
The Doom Generation (1995)
Gregg Araki · 1 critic vote
Jordan White and Amy Blue, two troubled teens, pick up an adolescent drifter, Xavier Red. Together, the threesome embarks on a sex- and violence-filled journey through a United States of psychos and quickie marts.
Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)
Todd Solondz · 1 critic vote
An unattractive 7th grader struggles to cope with suburban life as the middle child with inattentive parents and bullies at school.
Workers Leaving the Factory (1995)
Harun Farocki · 1 critic vote
Using one of the Lumière Brothers' first films of workers leaving the Factory as his starting point, Farocki provides an insight to changes in industrial production, workers' strikes and motion pictures-- via images of workers leaving factories throughout the years.
Divinity Gratis (1996)
Betzy Bromberg · 1 critic vote
"DIVINITY GRATIS explores time and space, starting at the beginning of the world, with molten rock and water in sequences that are exquisite in their sensuousness. Bromberg’s ability to meld ideas and images is perhaps best exemplified in this work, which is truly breathtaking in its conceptual sweep. One line seems to unify the film – a voice repeats on the soundtrack, ‘A girl, blind from birth, saw the flash.’ The flash references an atomic blast, and thus links the film’s beginning section, which is all about origins, and the film’s suggestion of apocalypse, death and the infinite sweep of time.” –Holly Willis, LA WEEKLY
How to Invent Reality (1996)
Jon Bang Carlsen · 1 critic vote
Jon Bang Carlsen's essay about his way of approaching reality with a camera. Following the filming of "It's Now or Never", the story of an Irish bachelor's quest for love, Jon Bang Carlsen elaborates on how he manipulates reality in order to get to the core of it. " Staged documentary " he calls his method.
Kissed (1996)
Lynne Stopkewich · 1 critic vote
Over the years, a child's romantic ideals about death blossom into necrophilia, the study of embalming and the most profound relationship of her life.
Looking for Mushrooms (1996)
Bruce Conner · 1 critic vote
LOOKING FOR MUSHROOMS (1959-1967) is a psychedelic travelogue film that documents a series of “trips” through rural Mexico and urban America. Conner combined street views of San Francisco shot in the late 1950s with scenes of rural Oaxaca captured during his “mushroom-hunting” excursions between 1961 and 1962, when Bruce and his wife, Jean, were living in Mexico City. On at least one of these trips, the Conners were joined by Timothy Leary, the ex-Harvard professor and soon-to-be leading proponent of psychedelic drugs. In 1996, Conner revised the film once again: he used an optical printer to expand its length from three to fourteen-and-a-half-minutes, and added a new soundtrack, Terry Riley's "Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band," to create a more meditative, but no less hypnotizing, iteration of the mushroom hunt.
Lost Book Found (1996)
Jem Cohen · 1 critic vote
The result of over five years of Super-8 and 16mm filming on New York City streets, Lost Book Found melds documentary and narrative into a complex meditation on city life. The piece revolves around a mysterious notebook filled with obsessive listings of places, objects, and incidents. These listings serve as the key to a hidden city: a city of unconsidered geographies and layered artifacts—the relics of low-level capitalism and the debris of countless forgotten narratives. The project stems from the filmmaker's first job in New York—working as a pushcart vendor on Canal Street. As usual, Cohen shot in hundreds of locations using unobtrusive equipment and generally without any crew. Influenced by the work of Walter Benjamin.
O Amor Natural (1996)
Heddy Honigmann · 1 critic vote
O AMOR NATURAL is a documentary film about the erotic poetry of one of the greatest Latin American poets of the 20th century, the Brazilian Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987). The erotic poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, a household name in Brazil, remained unpublished during his lifetime, as he feared they would be deemed pornographic. In this celebration of his poetry and sensual vision, elderly residents of Rio read his poems and comment on their graphic, voluptuous imagery with tremendous candor and enthusiasm.
Passages (1996)
Lisl Ponger · 1 critic vote
Lisl Ponger creates an imaginary map of the twentieth century on which the stories of emigration are engraved like well-worn tracks of occidental memory. The pictures, made by observant tourists, are revealed, in their tensile relationship to the soundtrack, as a post-colonial journey. A journey through exactly those countries which long ago have been shrunk together in space and time. Finally the wonderful neon signs of the “Hotel Edison” and “Radio City” remind one of the origins of this form of appropriation of the world, of the time of great expeditions, of Benjamin‘s shop-windows and passages, and of the time when technical apparatus and means of transportation fundamentally altered the perceptions of modern man.
Passeio com Johnny Guitar (1996)
João César Monteiro · 1 critic vote
Lord knows where João de Deus has been. He's come home wounded in the head. He's got a bit of the soundtrack to Johnny Guitar in his head. Strangely enough, there is no sign of the hole in his head. Day breaks over the city. Further strolls are in sight. It is said that Mr. Monteiro, the alter ego of João de Deus, occasionally goes out with Nicholas Ray. At least, they've been seen together.
SEGELL IKHTIFA (1996)
Elia Suleiman · 1 critic vote
Chronicle of a Disappearance unfolds in a series of seemingly unconnected cinematic tableaux, each of them focused on incidents or characters which seldom reappear later in the film. Among the many unrelated scenes, there is a Palestinian actress struggling to find an apartment in West Jerusalem, the owner of the Holy Land souvenir shop preparing merchandise for incoming Japanese tourists, a group of old women gossiping about their relatives, and an Israeli police van which screeches to a halt so several heavily armed soldiers can get off the car and urinate.
The Last Angel of History (1996)
John Akomfrah · 1 critic vote
An examination of the hitherto unexplored relationships between Pan-African culture, science fiction, intergalactic travel, and rapidly progressing computer technology.
Voices In Time (1996)
Franco Piavoli · 1 critic vote
Visual ode to contemplative journey through the stages of life and the essence of human existence, set in a timeless backdrop of an Italian village.
Walking and Talking (1996)
Nicole Holofcener · 1 critic vote
Just as Amelia thinks she's over her anxiety and insecurity, her best friend announces her engagement, bringing her anxiety and insecurity right back.
When We Were Kings (1996)
Leon Gast · 1 critic vote
It's 1974. Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought by many to be past his prime. George Foreman is ten years younger and the heavyweight champion of the world. Promoter Don King wants to make a name for himself and offers both fighters five million dollars apiece to fight one another, and when they accept, King has only to come up with the money. He finds a willing backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of Zaire, and the "Rumble in the Jungle" is set, including a musical festival featuring some of America's top black performers, like James Brown and B.B. King.
Chile, the Obstinate Memory (1997)
Patricio Guzmán · 1 critic vote
After decades of fascist rule in Chile, Patricio Guzmán returns to his country to screen his documentary The Battle of Chile.
Deadpan (1997)
Steve McQueen · 1 critic vote
Deadpan is a four-minute installation film in which McQueen re-stages a death-defying Buster Keaton stunt. The side of a house is filmed toppling again and again from all angles onto an unflinching McQueen, who survives thanks to a carefully positioned window.
Four Corners (1997)
James Benning · 1 critic vote
James Benning's "Four Corners" uses a specific geographical location to pose larger questions about the United States. Here, the geographic and wholly imaginary place Four Corners, that favorite tourist destination where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah meet, becomes a kind of theoretical ground zero, the site from which Benning can give voice to other, pointedly unofficial American stories.
From Today Until Tomorrow (1997)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 1 critic vote
Based on a rarely performed Schoenberg opera from 1929, From Today Until Tomorrow explores one night in a marriage. A husband and wife return from a party where she has flirted with another man while he has cast an appraising eye toward one of her acquaintances. Each dreams, briefly, of leaving the marriage for the excitement and mystery of a new lover.
Study of a River (1997)
Peter Hutton · 1 critic vote
The first part (winter) of a seasonal study of the Hudson river in New York.
There Are Many Things One Can Talk About... (1997)
Omar Amiralay · 1 critic vote
The film was based on an interview with the late dramatist Saadallah Wannous a few months before he died of cancer. Wannous narrates his somber and relentless reflections – an adieu to a generation for whom the Arab-Israeli conflict has been the source of all disillusion. The playwright recounts, with some regret for the lost opportunities that resulted, how the Palestinian struggle became a central part of intellectual life for an entire generation
Under the Skin (1997)
Carine Adler · 1 critic vote
Although married and pregnant Rose has always been mother's favorite, it is younger sister Iris whose life is shaken up by mother's death. Suffocating, Iris spirals out of control and copes by losing herself in sexual oblivion.
Waiting For Guffman (1997)
Christopher Guest · 1 critic vote
Aspiring director Corky St. Clair and the marginally talented amateur cast of his hokey small-town musical production go overboard when they learn that Broadway theater agent Mort Guffman will be in attendance.
Babymother (1998)
Julian Henriques · 1 critic vote
A single mother determined to make it as a singer puts together an all-girl reggae group named Neeta, Sweeta, & Nastie with her friends. Living in a housing estate with little support, the odds are obviously against her. Emotionally she struggles too as she learns at her mother's death that her actual mother is the woman she had thought was her older sister. With the help of a female agent, the group starts to get some exposure and rises above their setting.
Dachimawa Lee (1998)
Ryoo Seung-wan · 1 critic vote
Hwa-nyeo and Chung-nyeo, two country girls who have come to Seoul with big dreams. They are thrilled just to see the wondrous Seoul landscape, but a group of thugs, including Shanghai Park, appears before them. Just as they face a terrible fate, a man by the name of Dachimawa Lee appears like a comet. He suavely fights off the thugs and rescues Hwa-nyeo and Chung-nyeo. The two girls become infatuated with his manly image, and Hwa-nyeo and Dachimawa Lee fall in love. Meanwhile, the head of the thugs, the Nameless Man of the East, hears that his underlings have been harshly beaten and decides to make Dachimawa Lee pay. Finally, there is a battle between Dachimawa Lee and the gang of the Nameless Man of the East.
France, We’re Coming! (1998)
Michael Glawogger · 1 critic vote
FRANKREICH WIR KOMMEN is a highly enjoyable documentary, obviously intended for TV, but showing at film festivals. It shows us the highlights of the 1998 World Cup Championships in France through the eyes of several interesting and diverse fans of the Austrian national team. Entertaining, even for those not interested in football.
Garden Pieces (1998)
Margaret Tait · 1 critic vote
A set of three 'film poems' composed around the theme of the garden - the central one featuring hand scratched animated drawings. Margaret Tait described them as follows: 'Round the Garden' - right round and round again, 'Garden Fliers' - flighty cartoon and a stunner of a piano piece and 'Grove' - grave and sonorous.
Gasman (1998)
Lynne Ramsay · 1 critic vote
A story of two children who react with naive simple emotion to a situation imposed upon them by their father's secret.
HUSET PA KAMPEN (1998)
Pjotr Sapegin · 1 critic vote
A man buys a house on a hill. A rat was there first, and proves to be unusually difficult to remove; it seems to think all the man's attempts to kill it are actually gifts. It loves the taste of the poison, thinks the trap is a sculpture, and so forth.
KHLEBNY DYEN (1998)
Sergey Dvortsevoy · 1 critic vote
Depicts a community of pensioners living in near isolation outside of St. Petersberg as it enacts the weekly ritual of bringing a delivery of bread—left at a rail junction two hours away—into the village for distribution.
Kirikou and the Sorceress (1998)
Michel Ocelot · 1 critic vote
Drawn from elements of West African folk tales, it depicts how a newborn boy, Kirikou, saves his village from the evil witch Karaba.
La Comtessa (1998)
David Lodge · 1 critic vote
A surrealistic nightmare inspired by an 1855 photographic portrait, in which the magic tricks of early cinema are used to eerie effect. Creepy and beautiful at the same time, it does not share platitudinous ways to frighten the audience with the vast majority of modern horrors. Countess di Castiglione is a really existed Italian courtesan famous for her beauty and wide acquaintanceship among the ruling elite of those times. She directed Pierre-Louis Pierson to help her create 700 different photographs in which she re-created the signature moments of her life for the camera. Robert de Montesquiou, a Symbolist poet, dandy, and avid art collector, was fascinated by the Countess di Castiglione. He spent thirteen years writing a biography, La Divine Comtesse, which appeared in 1913. After her death, he collected 433 of her photographs, all of which entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Le Dîner de Cons (1998)
Francis Veber · 1 critic vote
For Pierre Brochant and his friends, Wednesday is “Idiots' Day”. The idea is simple: each person has to bring along an idiot. The one who brings the most spectacular idiot wins the prize. Tonight, Brochant is ecstatic. He has found a gem. The ultimate idiot, “A world champion idiot!”. What Brochant doesn’t know is that Pignon is a real jinx, a past master in the art of bringing on catastrophes...
Show Me Love (1998)
Lukas Moodysson · 1 critic vote
Two teenage girls in small-town Sweden. Elin is beautiful, popular, and bored with life. Agnes is friendless, sad, and secretly in love with Elin.
Shulie (1998)
Elisabeth Subrin · 1 critic vote
Elisabeth Subrin’s masterful film is a shot-by-shot reenactment of an unreleased 1967 documentary portrait of SAIC student Shulamith Firestone, who, a few years later, would become a central figure in the rise of radical feminism. Through its meticulous staging, the film expresses in Subrin’s words, “the residues of the past,” and the resonance of issues around gender and class today. (Gene Siskel Film Center)
Tango of Yearning (1998)
Mohamad Soueid · 1 critic vote
Tango of Yearning (1998) is the first episode of an autobiographical trilogy on postwar Lebanon, later including Nightfall (2000) and Civil War (2002). Taking its title from Tango of Hope, a classic ballad by Nur al-Huda, the film draws from the director’s reflections on war, love, and cinema, as well as his personal experience at the public television channel TéléLiban. Conjuring various snippets of audiovisual archival material, the film is a poetic elegy to film, Beirut’s movie theaters, and a city undergoing radical transformation. Mohamed Soueid has long been a proponent of the experimental video documentary movement in Lebanon, playing a significant role in the country’s creative renaissance since the end of the civil war. Originally trained as a news videographer during the war, the experience offered him a facility with the medium, which he further developed by making non-linear documentary films with a distinctly personal take.
Temenos (1998)
Nina Danino · 1 critic vote
Temenos means a sacred site or ritual precinct. Temenos, the film, explores the phenomenon of visionary experiences. In the film we see locations where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared, including Lourdes, Fatima and Medjugorje in Bosnia & Herzegovina where the visions continue. Nina Danino films the landscapes that have witnessed these transcendental appearances, imbuing them with a sense of the sacred.
Train of Shadows (1998)
José Luis Guerin · 1 critic vote
Experimental silent homage to the origins of cinema, recreating the apparent disappearance of a French photographer in the 1920s.
Life/Expectancy (1999)
Michele Fleming · 1 critic vote
Voice-over (by Fleming's partner, Zack Stiglicz) combines narrative fragments about a solitary woman and excerpts from books on psychology to create a sense of everyday melancholy
The Iron Giant (1999)
Brad Bird · 1 critic vote
In the small town of Rockwell, Maine in October 1957, a giant metal machine befriends a nine-year-old boy and ultimately finds its humanity by unselfishly saving people from their own fears and prejudices.
The Limey (1999)
Steven Soderbergh · 1 critic vote
The Limey follows Wilson, a tough English ex-con who travels to Los Angeles to avenge his daughter's death. Upon arrival, Wilson goes to task battling Valentine and an army of L.A.'s toughest criminals, hoping to find clues and piece together what happened. After surviving a near-death beating, getting thrown from a building and being chased down a dangerous mountain road, the Englishman decides to dole out some bodily harm of his own.
The Man with the Beautiful Eyes (1999)
Jonathan Hodgson · 1 critic vote
A Charles Bukowski poem is put to animation. Four kids who are friends are drawn to a strange house that their parents tell them to avoid. One day they see a man of about 30 step outside, cigar and whiskey bottle in hand. He becomes a symbol for them of all that is strong, natural, and beautiful. What happens later to this man with the beautiful eyes introduces the boys to the gray and uptight world of adulthood that awaits them.
To the Sea (1999)
Annik Leroy · 1 critic vote
Starting in Germany before crossing into Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, Vers la mer (To the Sea) is a documentary-voyage filmed in black-and-white by Annik Leroy, as she traces the River Danube from its source to the estuary of the Black Sea.
A Time for Drunken Horses (2000)
Bahman Ghobadi · 1 critic vote
After their father dies, a family of five children are forced to survive on their own in a Kurdish village on the border of Iran and Iraq.
Asylum (2000)
Iain Sinclair, Chris Petit · 1 critic vote
Asylum is a film very much derived from chaos, expressing implicitly the ideas conjured up by its title. A strange mix of both documentary and fiction, where in the future a group of people are looking back at the twentieth century. A virus has wiped out most of the culture of the twentieth century, leaving just fragments of a project called 'The Perimeter Fence' to be pieced together. These fragments make up a documentary about an exiled group of disparate yet similar minds.
Branca de Neve (2000)
João César Monteiro · 1 critic vote
Monteiro moved far away from the visual opulence defined by his earlier films with his inspired adaptation of radical Swiss writer Robert Walser’s anti-fairy tale. Carefully restricting the image track, Monteiro maintains an almost totally black screen in order to focus instead on the voices of Snow White, the Prince, the Queen and the Hunter, engaged in an extended debate about love, free will and the events leading up to the fateful attempt on the maiden’s life. Despite its visual austerity, Snow White is haunted by the arresting images with which it begins – infamous black-and-white photographs of Walser lying dead in the snow after his heart attack outside a Swiss asylum at the age of seventy-eight, a strange realization of the “death of the author” so central to postmodern literary criticism.
Guided by Voices (2000)
Stom Sogo · 1 critic vote
In Guided By Voices, Sogo constructs a film version of Dennis Cooper's novel Guide. The highly abstracted, colored digital video (shot on video and Super-8) evokes a psychedelic experience. As Sogo recalls: "It was 5:45 AM; [I was] crashing at a friend's house, deep in Brooklyn, where I was dealing with a final point in the movie. Then, I crashed with a seizure, all my memories flashed before me. I fell off the stairs, and the film finished itself."
Origins of the 21st Century (2000)
Jean-Luc Godard · 1 critic vote
Commissioned by the heads of the 2000 Cannes Film Festival to make an opening-night short commemorating cinema as it enters its second full century, Godard instead offers up a 17-minute barrage of re-edited footage of wars and Nazi atrocities, interspersed with clips of Maurice Chevalier in "Gigi" and Godard's own "À bout de souffle."
Sea in the Blood (2000)
Richard Fung · 1 critic vote
Home movies and family photographs mixed with drawings and texts tell the story of a family that has lived with disease.
Sexy Beast (2000)
Jonathan Glazer · 1 critic vote
Ex-safecracker Gal Dove has served his time behind bars and is blissfully retired to a Spanish villa paradise with a wife he adores. The idyll is shattered by the arrival of his nemesis Don Logan, intent on persuading Gal to return to London for one last big job.
The Day I Became a Woman (2000)
Marzieh Meshkini · 1 critic vote
A girl reaches the age of nine and is supposed to act as a grown woman according to her family. A girl participates in a bike race against the will of her husband. An elderly woman decides she wants to buy all the things she always wanted but could never get.
The King's Wake (2000)
John McCloskey · 1 critic vote
It's Samhain (Hallowe'en) in old Ireland, and King Connor is haunted by his life, his legacy, and the enemies he killed in his time. Based on the famous Ulster Cycle.
Fat Girl (2001)
Catherine Breillat · 1 critic vote
Anaïs is twelve and bears the weight of the world on her shoulders. She watches her older sister, Elena, whom she both loves and hates. Elena is fifteen and devilishly beautiful. Neither more futile, nor more stupid than her younger sister, she cannot understand that she is merely an object of desire. And, as such, she can only be taken. Or had. Indeed, this is the subject: a girl's loss of virginity. And, that summer, it opens a door to tragedy.
Los (2001)
James Benning · 1 critic vote
Los Angeles is depicted in 35 stationary shots, each 2½ minutes long, in this non-narrative film, part 2 of Benning's "California Trilogy".
She Puppet (2001)
Peggy Ahwesh · 1 critic vote
Lara Croft, the virtual girl-doll of the late 20th century, is recast as a triad of her personas: the alien, the orphan, and the clone in this work based on appropriated footage from the game Tomb Raider.
Thief or Reality (2001)
Antouanetta Angelidi · 1 critic vote
An experimental-allegorical film. Three different people: a sculptress of funereal monuments, an actor preparing for Sophocles’ Antigone, and a mother who has lost her child, experience three different versions of reality - with a fourth character, a thief, providing the connecting link.
Visitor Q (2001)
Takashi Miike · 1 critic vote
In a dysfunctional family where the mother is a heroin addict and prostitute, beaten by her son, and the father is an ex-TV reporter, sleeping with his daughter and filming his son being beaten up, ‘Q’, a complete stranger enters the bizarre family, changing their lives for the better, finding a balance in their disturbing natures.
Caribs' Leap/Western Deep (2002)
Steve McQueen · 1 critic vote
Caribs’ Leap / Western Deep comprises two complementary films that are shown together as a three-screen, synchronised colour video projection. The films were originally commissioned for the Documenta 11 exhibition in Kassel, Germany in 2002. They were then screened in London by Artangel in the former Lumiere Cinema on St Martins Lane in the autumn of that same year.
Dad's Dead (2002)
Chris Shepherd · 1 critic vote
Our narrator looks fondly back at his childhood in Liverpool and the antics of his best friend Johnno. Well known for being a showman and a keen one for joking and the like, Johnno starts to change for the worse after he announced that his father has died.
Hukkle (2002)
György Pálfi · 1 critic vote
Using almost no dialogue, the film follows a number of residents (both human and animal) of a small rural community in Hungary – an old man with hiccups, a shepherdess and her sheep, an old woman who may or may not be up to no good, some folk-singers at a wedding, etc. While most of the film is a series of vignettes, there is a sinister and often barely perceptible subplot involving murder.
Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois · 1 critic vote
As Stitch, a runaway genetic experiment from a faraway planet, wreaks havoc on the Hawaiian Islands, he becomes the mischievous adopted alien "puppy" of an independent little girl named Lilo and learns about loyalty, friendship, and ʻohana, the Hawaiian tradition of family.
Mother (2002)
Luther Price · 1 critic vote
2002 short film by Royston Tan
Sailboats and Poppies (2002)
Rose Lowder · 1 critic vote
Little is necessary for everything to appear differently. The date, the hour, the weather, the space's layout, one's glance or presence of mind . . . can make everything change. The boats sail out of the Vieux port in Marseille to be amongst the poppy fields.
Five (2003)
Abbas Kiarostami · 1 critic vote
Finding himself in a house in the north of Iran by the Caspian Sea, the director picked up his handheld DV camera and began filming the seemingly anodyne events happening on the 500 metres of beach in front of his house—a piece of wood toyed with by the waves, people walking by the sea, indistinct shapes on a wintry beach or noisy ducks.
The Blonds (2003)
Albertina Carri · 1 critic vote
In 1977, when she was four years old, Albertina Carri's parents vanished without a trace, victims of Argentina's brutal military junta. In this fresh and politically daring film, the young Argentinian filmmaker attempts to unravel the mystery, piecing together her memories and fantasies in a quest to understand her parents' untimely fate.
The python (2003)
Laila Pakalniņa · 1 critic vote
An absurdist farce centering around a school in post-Soviet Latvia. After a rather disgusting prank (someone defecates in the school attic), the tyrannical headmistress deems that no one can leave until the culprit is caught. When the photographer's pet python escapes, havok breaks loose.
What Goes Up? (2003)
Robert Breer · 1 critic vote
Robert Breer’s What Goes Up... continues his “kitchen sink” approach of including as many different kinds of things as possible. Central to his art are a series of tensions. Rather than using animation to produce seamless illusions, his films reveal cinema’s dual nature as both an illusion of movement and a succession of stills. The ultimate effect of his work is ecstatic: by combining various rhythmic patterns, abstract and photographed shapes, and flatness mixed with depth illusions, Breer energizes ordinary eyesight. The whole world can seem more alive, alive with rhythms and colors and shapes and textures as well, after seeing one of his films. But Breer’s films also often have a theme of failure, of failed movements and failed aspirations, and the title What Goes Up..., in referencing the idiom “What goes up must come down”, refers to his childhood dreams of flying (illustrated here as in many of his films with airplanes) as well as to the limpness that follows orgasm for males.
3-Iron (2004)
Kim Ki-duk · 1 critic vote
A drifter lives in people's houses while they are away and repays them by doing chores for them. His life changes when he meets a beautiful woman who wants to escape her unhappy marriage.
A Family Finds Entertainment (2004)
Ryan Trecartin · 1 critic vote
A Family Finds Entertainment chronicles the story of mixed up teenager Skippy and his adventures in ‘coming out’. In this over the top celebration of queerness, Trecartin’s film mines the bizarre and endearing in an unabashed pastiche of ‘bad tv’ tropes. Cheesy video special effects, dress-up chess costumes, desperate scripts, and ‘after school special’ melodrama combine in the fluency of youth-culture lingo, reflecting a generation both damaged and affirmed by media consumption.
A Visit to the Louvre (2004)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 1 critic vote
A visit to the Louvre in Paris commentated by an actor reading Cézanne.
Créationnisme (2004)
Helge Schneider · 1 critic vote
A musician tries to get by working several jobs.
Los muertos (2004)
Lisandro Alonso · 1 critic vote
Vargas, a 54 year old man, gets out of jail in the province of Corrientes, Argentina. Once released, he wants to find his now adult daughter, who lives in a swampy and remote area. A deep mystery surrounds him.
Notre musique (2004)
Jean-Luc Godard · 1 critic vote
A three-chapter (Hell, Purgatory and Paradise) meditation on the city of Sarajevo in the wake of the Bosnian war, on Palestine and Israel, and on war itself.
The Great Art of Knowing (2004)
David Gatten · 1 critic vote
"This chapter of my ongoing exploration of the Byrd library finds its name and shape within a single volume from that collection: Athanasius Kircher's 17th century encyclopedia, THE GREAT ART OF KNOWING. Herein find tangled texts and crossed destinies, filled with figures at once buried deep and tossed high by History, lined with traces of a hidden romance. Love finds purchase between tightly shelved volumes. In the spaces between the letters. In the lines themselves. An antinomian cinema seems possible. A gentle iconoclasm? The image is always backwards in a mirror. The story unfolds slowly. The fourth film from the Byrd project." - David Gatten
The Hand (2004)
Wong Kar-wai · 1 critic vote
Hong Kong, 1960s. Zhang, a shy tailor's assistant, is riveted by his imperious client Miss Hua. Upon meeting her, she seduces him to make sure he will truly remember her when designing her garments. After this intimate first encounter, a rapport develops between the two. Entry is for the theatrically released extended version, not the segment from the Eros anthology.
Two Cars, One Night (2004)
Taika Waititi · 1 critic vote
Sometimes first love is found in the most unlikely of places, like in the carpark outside the Te Kaha pub.
V temnote (2004)
Sergey Dvortsevoy · 1 critic vote
Low key documentary recording the daily life of an elderly blind man in Russia.
A Darkness Swallowed (2005)
Betzy Bromberg · 1 critic vote
“A Darkness Swallowed opens on a pair of faded photographs showing an old dented car, one with a child standing beside it and the other without. Speaking in voice-over, Bromberg references a past event, one that will forever haunt her although it occurred before her birth. The film then sinks downward, dipping below the surface of the rational world to mine the seemingly infinite layers of the past stored within the fleshy entrails, chalky bones, sinewy spider webs and gnarled ligaments of both the body and the Earth. Noises – of clanging metal, bells, heartbeats and jazz music, to name only a few – combine to create a dense sound environment, a seemingly immense, three-dimensional space for contemplation." – Holly Willis, L.A . Weekly
Black Sun (2005)
Gary Tarn · 1 critic vote
Blurred images illustrate the narration of New York City-based artist Hugues de Montalembert, who was blinded in a vicious mugging some thirty years ago.
I for India (2005)
Sandhya Suri · 1 critic vote
Drawing from 40 years' worth of film footage and tape recordings her father sent to family members in India, filmmaker Sandhya Suri crafts a personal history that also explores the experiences of Indian expatriates. After moving to Great Britain in 1965, Yash Pal Suri chronicled his discoveries about his new home along with his feelings of alienation. The fruits of his labor appear in this film that received a Grand Jury Prize nod at Sundance.
Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine (2005)
Peter Tscherkassky · 1 critic vote
An attempt to transform a Roman Western into a Greek tragedy. The hero of Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine is easy to identify. Walking down the street unknowingly, he suddenly realizes that he is not only subject to the gruesome moods of several spectators but also at the mercy of the filmmaker.
Spicebush (2005)
Kevin Jerome Everson · 1 critic vote
SPICEBUSH interweaves various fragmentary narratives concerning education, luck. landscapes, gaining and losing a job, and the passage of time. The technique and style employed alternates between the documentary, the symbolic, and more conventionally scripted scenes. Filming individuals engaged in their careers conveys the documentary aspect. At a symbolic level, the fossil is a leitmotif suggesting past and present. The title of the film refers to the state butterfly of Mississippi, Spicebush Swallowtail. In the film, Mississippi is a place of origin. The Spicebush Swallowtail represents renewal or starting over. Throughout the film, a little girl appears in different guises and settings, functioning indirectly in the role of the chorus. The scripted scenes, shot in a documentary style, collaged with the other scenes begin to create the traces of a narrative structure.
The Lamentations Series: The Ninth Night and Day (2005)
Jalal Toufic · 1 critic vote
While the ten-day ceremony 'Âshûrâ' is a commemoration of the slaughter of the grandson of the prophet Muhammad and his relatives and companions at Karbalâ' in 680, it is also an invocation of the occulted Twelfth Imam, the Mahdî, in the hope of hurrying his exoteric earthly return. But how would the one invoked, who is (imaginally) present albeit occulted, perceive the ceremony? He would not perceive it the way we see it but in more temporal detail. While the first part of the video appears to be a documentation of the ceremony as it might be perceived by an all too human audience member, the second part of the video, which happens across a lapse of consciousness if not of being (indicated by the cut to black on the sound of the participants' hands striking their chests), and where time is dilated, implies that the essential spectator of the ceremony is the one to whom it is addressed, the Mahdî.
A Guest of Life: Alexander Csoma de Kőrös (2006)
Tibor Szemzo · 1 critic vote
'A Guest of life' is inspired by the journey of Alexander Csoma de Koros. The eccentric 19th century set out from his native Transylvania to central Asia on foot, only taking his knowledge of 13 dead and spoken languages with him. He wanted to find the ancestors of the Hungarians, but once reaching Tibet he stayed there, compiling an English-Tibetan dictionary, translating and abridging Buddhist teachings and literature, including the Book of the Dead. The film however is not a biopic, but a collection of impressions of Tibet, recorded on an 8mm camera, overlaid with excerpts from Csoma's diary and translations, spoken on the many languages familiar to Csoma. Intercut with the documentary-style footage are animated segments, which tell Transylvanian folktales that have been weaved around the legendary figure of Csoma.
Borat (2006)
Larry Charles · 1 critic vote
Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev travels to America to make a documentary. As he zigzags across the nation, Borat meets real people in real situations with hysterical consequences. His backwards behavior generates strong reactions around him exposing prejudices and hypocrisies in American culture.
Cinnamon (2006)
Kevin Jerome Everson · 1 critic vote
An experimental film that lifts the veil on the world of African American drag racing.
Container (2006)
Lukas Moodysson · 1 critic vote
Poetic, experimental and different, Container is described by Lukas Moodysson as "a black and white silent movie with sound" and with the following words; "A woman in a man's body. A man in a woman's body. Jesus in Mary's stomach. The water breaks. It floods into me. I can't close the lid. My heart is full."
Mayak (2006)
Mariya Saakyan · 1 critic vote
Lena returns to her home in a remote, war-ravaged Armenian village to try and persuade her grandparents to leave with her for safety in Moscow.
Paraguayan Hammock (2006)
Paz Encina · 1 critic vote
Set in 1935, a couple of aged smallholders are waiting for their son, for rain, for better days.
Supplying the Ruins (2006)
Oktay Ince · 1 critic vote
Portrait of Colonel Sabit, living alone in an abandoned house in Ankara. He has to move out when they come to demolish the building.
The Anthem (2006)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul · 1 critic vote
One of the ingrained rituals in Thai society is the blessing automatically given before certain ceremonies and events such as the playing of the Royal Anthem in movie theaters before feature presentations. This short presents a "Cinema Anthem" which comically praises and blesses the feature to come.
The Red Death (2006)
Víctor Erice · 1 critic vote
Spanish filmmaker Víctor Erice talks about the first movie he probably ever saw, Roy William Neill's The Scarlet Claw (1944), starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes. The remembrances of such a formative cinematic experience leads him to recall the dark days after the end of the Spanish Civil War, to confess the many fears stalking children and to reflect on the nature of memory itself.
These Encounters of Theirs (2006)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 1 critic vote
These Encounters Of Theirs divides 10 non-professional actors into couples, then has them take turns in declaiming the Dialogues With Leuco, Cesare Pavese's abstract, philosophical work.
BioShock (2007)
Ken Levine · 1 critic vote
A series of interviews with the key developers of the groundbreaking video game, Bioshock.
Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (2007)
Hana Makhmalbaf · 1 critic vote
A young girl zealously wants to go to school and learn to read and write. Almost everywhere she is met with hostility or indifference. The only young boy who takes her to his school is thrown out by the teacher, because helping her prevented him from arriving in time. On her way home she and other girls are taken as prisoners by boys playing as Taliban fighters. They tear her school book to pieces and threaten to stone their female captives.
Cargo 200 (2007)
Aleksei Balabanov · 1 critic vote
While returning to Leningrad from a visit to his brother, Professor Artyom's car breaks down and he finds assistance at an isolated farmhouse occupied by Alexey, his wife, a Vietnamese laborer, and a stranger who wanders around the farm. When his car is repaired, Artyom leaves, drunk on moonshine, and students Valera and Angelika arrive. After Valera gets drunk, the stranger abducts Angelika.
In the City of Sylvia (2007)
José Luis Guerin · 1 critic vote
A man returns to a city to try to track down a woman he met six years earlier.
Nightmares (2007)
Yael Bartana · 1 critic vote
This film inaugurates Bartana’s “Polish trilogy”, building on the complex Polish-Jewish relations as the point of departure towards a more universal narration about the figure of a stranger or newcomer. Sławomir Sierakowski (leader of the Polish leftist group and magazine “Krytyka Polityczna”) acts here as an activist who passionately invites Jews to come back to Poland. The derelict Tenth Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw provides the scenery of his passionate speech: “Jews! Fellow countrymen! People! Peeeeople! This is a call, not to the dead, but to the living. We want 3 million Jews to return to Poland, to live with us again. We need you! We’re asking you to return!” Bartana relates here to the timeless aesthetics of propaganda films, e.g. Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will from 1934 (where the stadium also becomes an scene of political manipulation), but also the earlier Zionist film chronicles targeted at Jews settling down on the Palestinian territories.
Pitcher of Colored Light (2007)
Robert Beavers · 1 critic vote
Filmed in his mother’s house and garden, Beavers traces shifting shadows across seasons, capturing a blend of solitude and peace. Light and shadow become passages to memory, as the film transforms walls and spaces into reflections of place, time, and inner voice.
Santiago (2007)
João Moreira Salles · 1 critic vote
Documentary about Santiago, a peculiar man who used to work for the director and his parents as a butler. The material was filmed in 1992 but, for some strange reason, the director felt he couldn't edit it and put it aside. In 2005 he remembers the unfinished film and starts its edition.
Smiley Face (2007)
Gregg Araki · 1 critic vote
Jane, a struggling but perpetually stoned actress, has a busy day ahead. She has several important tasks on her list, including buying more marijuana. Even though she already has a good start on the day's planned drug use, she eats her roommate's pot-laced cupcakes and embarks on a series of misadventures all over Los Angeles.
Steak (2007)
Quentin Dupieux · 1 critic vote
George is the scapegoat of his classmates. One day he cracks and shoots them. His best and only friend Blaise is accused in his place and sentenced to 7 years in a psychiatric hospital. At the day of his release, Blaise realizes he only has one family: his best friend George. But he does not want to hear about his childhood friend, as he tries to integrate with the “Chivers” a gang whose members wear red jackets and boots, drink milk, drive sport trucks and play an incomprehensible and violent game that mixes cricket and mental arithmetic.
The Band's Visit (2007)
Eran Kolirin · 1 critic vote
A small Egyptian police band travels to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves stuck in the wrong town.
XXY (2007)
Lucía Puenzo · 1 critic vote
Alex, an intersexed 15-year-old, is living as a girl, but she and her family begin to wonder whether she's emotionally a boy when another teenager's sexual advances bring the issue to a head. As Alex faces a final decision regarding her gender, she meets both hostility and compassion.
A Horse Is Not a Metaphor (2008)
Barbara Hammer · 1 critic vote
The filmmaker, fighting ovarian cancer, stage 3, returns to her experimental roots, in a multilayered film of numerous chemotherapy sessions with images of light and movement that take her far from the hospital bed. A a cancer ‘thriver’ rather than ’survivor’, Barbara Hammer rides the red hills of Georgia O’Keefe’s Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, the grassy foothlls of the Big Horn in Wyoming, and leafy paths in Woodstock, New York changing illness into recovery. The haunting and wondrous music of Meredith Monk underscores and celebrates in this film that lifts us up when we might be most discouraged.
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008)
Sacha Gervasi · 1 critic vote
At 14, best friends Robb Reiner and Lips made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, hailed as the "demi-gods of Canadian metal" influenced a musical generation that includes Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax. Following a calamitous European tour, Lips and Robb, now in their fifties, set off to record their 13th album in one last attempt to fulfill their boyhood dreams.
Glory at Sea (2008)
Benh Zeitlin · 1 critic vote
A group of mourners and a man spat from the depths of Hades build a boat from the debris of New Orleans to rescue their lost loved ones trapped beneath the sea.
Kalendar (2008)
Naomi Uman · 1 critic vote
Kalendar obliquely tells the story of language acquisition. The filmmaker, struggling to learn a new language, comes to understand that the names of the months of the year have concrete manifestations.
Medicine for Melancholy (2008)
Barry Jenkins · 1 critic vote
Waking from a one-night stand that neither remembers, Micah and Joanne find themselves wandering the streets of San Francisco, sharing coffee and conversation and searching for a deeper connection.
Nights and Weekends (2008)
Greta Gerwig, Joe Swanberg · 1 critic vote
A man and woman must face the tension that builds between them during a long-distance relationship.
The Golden Age of Fish (2008)
Kevin Jerome Everson · 1 critic vote
The Golden Age of Fiah is an experimental feature film that interweaves various fragmentary narratives concerning Cleveland, Ohio. Though a series of motifs, an African American woman geologist is the catalyst that narrates Cleveland's prehistoric, past and present landscape. The title refers to Cleveland shale from the Devonian period (417 to 354 B.C.) a time that saw the arrival of many types of new fish. The irony lies in the story's subtle plot regarding murder/suicides in Cleveland, illustrated with archival footage of crime scenes.
Artemis' Knee (2009)
Jean-Marie Straub · 1 critic vote
Mourning the death of his partner and collaborator Danièle Huillet, Straub finds tender mercy in music and nature. Out of the abyss, Kathleen Ferrier sings “The Farewell” from Gustav Mahler’s “The Song of the Earth”, (which the composer wrote in 1909 after the death of his daughter) and Heinrich Schütz’s Lament on the Death of His Wife. The landscape also provides solace: the mountain grove where Endymion pines for his beloved Artemis, “a wild thing, untouchable, mortal,” appears to embody the Japanese concept of ‘mono no aware’ — a wistful acceptance of the fleeting beauty of things.
Atlantiques (2009)
Mati Diop · 1 critic vote
The odyssey of Senegalese friends who attempt a life-threatening boat crossing.
Black Dynamite (2009)
Scott Sanders · 1 critic vote
This is the story of 1970s African-American action legend Black Dynamite. The Man killed his brother, pumped heroin into local orphanages, and flooded the ghetto with adulterated malt liquor. Black Dynamite was the one hero willing to fight The Man all the way from the blood-soaked city streets to the hallowed halls of the Honky House.
Disorder (2009)
Huang Weikai · 1 critic vote
A "city symphony" full of dark humor that weaves together a collage of absurd sounds and events.
Final Flesh (2009)
Ike Sanders · 1 critic vote
The Pollard family is calmly discussing their impending death by atom bomb when Mrs. Pollard recounts a dream in which she sensually bathes herself in the "Tears of Neglected Children."
Light Being (2009)
Diana Toucedo · 1 critic vote
Voted for in Sight & Sound's 2022 Greatest Films of All Time poll
Little Snow Animal (2009)
Miia Tervo · 1 critic vote
Teenage girl looks for love but doesn't know where to find it.
Poosteh (2009)
Mostafa Aleahmad · 1 critic vote
After 14 years in jail, Saeed is known to be irreproachable and set free.On his way home, he goes in a situation that can put him back on prison once again.
The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy (2009)
Peter Liechti · 1 critic vote
The incredible story of how the mummified corpse of a 40-year-old man was discovered by a hunter in one of the most remote parts of the country. The dead man's detailed notes reveal that he actually committed suicide through self-imposed starvation only the summer before. Liechti's film is a stunning rapprochement of a fictional text, which itself is based upon a true event: a cinematic manifesto for life, challenged by the main character's radical renunciation of life itself.
Assemblages (2010)
Angela Melitopolous · 1 critic vote
A visual research project reexamining the ideas of the philosopher and psychiatrist Félix Guattari on animismic culture as a form of collective subjectivity (collective assemblages of enunciation), as well as the time in his life when he tried to lay a foundation for a fundamental critique of modernist concepts. In an interview recorded during the Gulf War (1991), Guattari spoke of the emergence of a geography of resistance that arises especially where postcolonial systems are declining. A new de-centered, animistic subjectivity is central for rethinking “the Object, the Other as a potential bearer of dimensions of partial subjectivity, if need be through neurotic phenomena, religious rituals, or aesthetic phenomena."
Color Series (2010)
Madison Brookshire · 1 critic vote
Color Series was made by providing the film laboratory with six written scores that directed the film timer to change the printing lights from "Red" to "Green" to "Blue." The result is a series of slow fades from one colour to the next, which, not unlike the experience of a sunrise, immerses the viewer in the perceptual phenomenon of gradual change. As Brookshire writes, "The subject of the work is duration, and color is the medium through which we experience it. The converse is also true: the subject is color and duration is the medium. The effect is a direct experience of time and vision."
Cry When it Happens (2010)
Laida Lertxundi · 1 critic vote
Los Angeles City Hall is reflected onto the window of the Paradise Motel. It serves as an anchor for this traversal through the natural expanse of California. Here, we discover a restrained psychodrama of play, loss, and the transformation of everyday habitats. Music appears across the interiors and exteriors and speaks of limitlessness and longing.
Dear Prudence (2010)
Rebecca Zlotowski · 1 critic vote
After the death of her mother, 17-year-old Prudence finds herself living alone in her Paris apartment. Then she meets Maryline, a rebel of her own age, who introduces her to the thrills of motorcycle racing on the biker circuit at Rungis. Prudence’s newfound lease of freedom becomes complicated when she falls for a boy Franck who wastes no time in taking advantage of her naivety...
Erie (2010)
Kevin Jerome Everson · 1 critic vote
Erie consists of a series of single take vignettes in and around communities near Lake Erie that relate to Black migration in the USA, contemporary conditions, folks concentrating on the task at hand, theater and famous art objects.
From His Apartment (2010)
Jean-Claude Rousseau · 1 critic vote
The continuing demand for high standards is what sets Rouseau's work apart. What makes this film distinctive is the way Rousseau explicitly returns to the source of his creative inspiration. So here he is at home reciting «Bérénice» to himself, whilst going about his household chores. It verges on the comical: There are repeated shots of him obstinately trying to turn off a dripping tap, or the jubilant close up of bare feet carried away in performing a dance step or two. Combining art with life in such a way, that nothing is compartmentalised, nothing lost - that is the goal.
Impressions (2010)
Jacques Perconte · 1 critic vote
The External World (2010)
David O'Reilly · 1 critic vote
A boy learns to play the piano.
A Bitter Taste of Freedom (2011)
Marina Goldovskaya · 1 critic vote
In her quest to uncover the wrongdoings of the Russian authorities, Anna Politkovskaya inspired awe in some and fear in countless others. At age 48 she was assassinated for simply doing her job. This documentary is based on Anna's conversations with filmmaker Marina Goldovskaya, Anna's former university professor and personal friend. Shot over a period of 20 years, this exclusive footage creates an incredible story of a woman who consciously gave her life for her convictions.
Attack the Block (2011)
Joe Cornish · 1 critic vote
A South London teen gang must team up with the other residents of their housing estate to protect the neighbourhood from a terrifying alien invasion.
Ein Jahr (2011)
Renate Sami · 1 critic vote
A tree in front of a wall over the course of a year.
Evil Selma # 27 (2011)
Tony Cokes · 1 critic vote
Video work on the Civil Rights Movement borrowing its core text from “Notes from Selma: On Non-Visibility” by the Alabama collective Our Literal Speed, mixing this text with lyrics and soundtracking by singer and songwriter Morrissey.
Game of Thrones (2011)
David Benioff, D.B. Weiss · 1 critic vote
Mumblecore (2011)
Megan Boyle, Tao Lin · 1 critic vote
A chronicle of Tao Lin and Megan Boyle's relationship filmed through a Macbook camera.
Nana (2011)
Valérie Massadian · 1 critic vote
Nana is 4 years old and lives in a stone house beyond the forest. Back from school, a late afternoon, all she finds is silence in the house. A journey into the darkness of her childhood. The world from her height.
Pariah (2011)
Dee Rees · 1 critic vote
A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.
Quality Control (2011)
Kevin Jerome Everson · 1 critic vote
Quality Control consists of a series of 16mm single take shots filmed in the summer of 2010,over a two day period, in a dry cleaners facility in Pritchard, Alabama, near Mobile, Quality Control exhibits the acts as well the conditions around labor and showcases, in Everson's words "the fine folks of Alabama producing a superior product." It is similar stylistically, in form and rhythm, to certain scenarios in Everson's award-winning and critically acclaimed previous films, including Erie (IFFR 2010) and in thematic concerns to several other short form works which follow the daily, quotidian tasks of workers in rest and in motion, and is an oblique sequel, ten years hence, to Everson's Creative Capital granted project A Week in the Hole (2001), which focused on an employee's adjustment to materials, time, space and personnel. - Written by Madeleine Molyneaux, producer
Solar Flare Arkestral Marching Band (2011)
Cauleen Smith · 1 critic vote
Sun Ra’s anthem Space Is the Place performed by The Rich South High School Marching Band in Chinatown Square, Chicago. Cauleen Smith organised and filmed this energetic flash-mob performance, showing the unsuspecting passers-by who gather to listen. The young men and women let nothing, not even rain, bring the performance to a halt.
The Kid with a Bike (2011)
Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne · 1 critic vote
Abandoned by his father, a young boy is left in the hands of an unqualified childcare provider.
A Girl and a Tree (2012)
Vlado Škafar · 1 critic vote
Summertime, a meadow covered with flowers. Wrapped in the rustle of birds and crickets, an old woman tells us about her life. Her happy childhood, her career on stage, moments of sadness or heartfelt joy. Such is the common, exceptional fate of Stefka Drolc.
Between the Waves (2012)
Tejal Shah · 1 critic vote
A surreal five channel film installation where unicorn women collect plastic and communicate through a mirror within a lunar setting. The film tackles issues such as sexuality, body, kinship and productiveness while blurring boundaries and categories.
Captivity (2012)
André Gil Mata · 1 critic vote
To be captive is to be confined, both in space and in time. The captive one is not only and necessarily a prisoner, but becomes an inherent part of that space, his identity being continually projected on it. The captivity space itself is in turn not inert; it is rather characterized by whomever it contains, it is shaped by that experience.
Frances Ha (2012)
Noah Baumbach · 1 critic vote
An aspiring dancer moves to New York City and becomes caught up in a whirlwind of flighty fair-weather friends, diminishing fortunes and career setbacks.
In the Stone House (2012)
Jerome Hiler · 1 critic vote
In the Stone House records and recollects a period of life of four years in rural New Jersey. In the latter 1960s, two young guys with monastic leanings leave the clatter of Manhattan’s art and film scene to catch the wave of higher consciousness that was about to change the world forever to find themselves washed ashore in a place only slightly updated from Way Down East. The monastic retreat quickly turned into the weekend getaway for a host of extravagant Manhattanites seeking films and fun. We learned from hitch-hiking guests that the police referred to our haven as “the stone house.” —Jerome Hiler
Supermen of Malegaon (2012)
Faiza Ahmad Khan · 1 critic vote
Malegaon, a small town tucked away near the heart of India geographically, is fraught with communal tension and under severe economic depression. To escape the harsh reality of their world, its people seek refuge in the fantastical world of cinema. This passion for cinema has spurred a group of cinema enthusiasts to make their own films-quirky, low budget, socially aware and notoriously funny spoofs of Bollywood films.
Today (2012)
Alain Gomis · 1 critic vote
Satché is about to die. He decides to make his last day on this world the day of his life.
20 Feet from Stardom (2013)
Morgan Neville · 1 critic vote
Backup singers live in a world that lies just beyond the spotlight. Their voices bring harmony to the biggest bands in popular music, but we've had no idea who these singers are or what lives they lead, until now.
All This Can Happen (2013)
Siobhan Davies, David Hinton · 1 critic vote
A flickering dance of intriguing imagery brings to light the possibilities of ordinary movements from the everyday which appear, evolve and freeze before your eyes. Made entirely from archive photographs and footage from the earliest days of moving image, All This Can Happen (2012) follows the footsteps of the protagonist from the short story 'The Walk' by Robert Walser. Juxtapositions, different speeds and split frame techniques convey the walker's state of mind as he encounters a world of hilarity, despair and ceaseless variety.
Blood (2013)
Alina Rudnitskaya · 1 critic vote
Documentary following a mobile blood donation team travelling through rural Russia, where people sell their blood to make ends meet.
Bloody Beans (2013)
Narimane Mari · 1 critic vote
On an Algerian beach, kids splash about, sleep, squabble - and then suddenly go to war. And it’s neither Lord of the Flies nor La Guerre des boutons. In her first film, full of grace, Narimane Mari films this childish freefor- all closely, at the irregular pace of an imagination inspired by the highest form of reality, national History — actually, nothing less than the Algerian War of Independence. When their make-believe induces a general upheaval, we follow the flock of children as they stamp their feet up the stairs, invade houses, cross village squares, in a whirlwind of shouts and empty words. Time is stretched like in a dream, through a choreography of belligerent shadows or the night-time explosion of the cemetery, as so many warning signs of dangers to come.
Coherence (2013)
James Ward Byrkit · 1 critic vote
Four couples gather for dinner the night a mysterious and powerful comet passes overhead.
Cut (2013)
Christoph Girardet, Matthias Müller · 1 critic vote
The body as a wound that never heals.
Let Your Light Shine (2013)
Jodie Mack · 1 critic vote
Eye candy as a special treat. Let Your Light Shine is the ultimate Spectrum Short film, a photokinetic stroboscopic spectacle for spectacles. A work in the tradition of the absolute animation film of the 1930s, which requires prismatic glasses to achieve the maximum result.
Tangerines (2013)
Zaza Urushadze · 1 critic vote
War in Abkhazia, 1992. An Estonian man Ivo has stayed behind to harvest his crops of tangerines. In a bloody conflict at his door, a wounded man is left behind, and Ivo is forced to take him in.
The Boy and the World (2013)
Alê Abreu · 1 critic vote
Suffering because of his father's departure to the big city, a boy leaves his village and discovers a fantastic world dominated by bug-engines and strange beings. An unusual animation with various artistic techniques that portrays the issues of the modern world through the eyes of a child.
The Island of St. Matthews (2013)
Kevin Jerome Everson · 1 critic vote
Years ago, Kevin Jerome Everson asked his aunt where their old family photos had gone. Her answer - ‘they were all lost in the flood’ - sparked this trip to meet the inhabitants of Westport, a small town just to the west of Columbus, Mississippi. They reminisce about the great flood of the Tombigbee River in 1973, when some people lost everything. Many heirlooms and photos of the Eversons were swallowed up, and part of the family history disappeared.
The Return to Homs (2013)
Talal Derki · 1 critic vote
Filmed over 3 years in Homs, accompanying 2 outstanding young men from the time they were only dreaming of freedom to the time when they are forced to change course. Basset, the 19yo national football team goalkeeper, who became an outspoken demonstration leader in the city, then an icon revolution singer, till he becomes a fighter... a militia leader. Ossama, his 24yo friend, renowned citizen journalist, cynical pacifist... as his views are forced to change, until he is detained by army secret service. It is the story of a city, of which the world have heard a lot, but never really got closer than news, never really had the chance to experience how a war erupted. a modern times epic of youth in war time.
3x3D (2014)
Jean-Luc Godard, Edgar Pêra, Peter Greenaway · 1 critic vote
A triptych of short stereoscopic films by Peter Greenaway, Jean-Luc Godard and Edgar Pêra. Includes "The Three Disasters" by Godard, "Cinesapiens" by Pêra and "Just in Time" by Greenaway.
Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory (2014)
Michael Rossato-Bennett · 1 critic vote
Five million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease and dementia—many of them alone in nursing homes. A man with a simple idea discovers that songs embedded deep in memory can ease pain and awaken these fading minds. Joy and life are resuscitated, and our cultural fears over aging are confronted.
Field Niggas (2014)
Khalik Allah · 1 critic vote
Set entirely at night, Field Niggas takes us to the corner of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in Harlem and introduces us to its faces. The non-synch audio track consists of conversations with and among those faces: dreams, regrets, arguments, affection, observations, opinions.
German Concentration Camps Factual Survey (2014)
Sidney Bernstein, Baron Bernstein, Alfred Hitchcock · 1 critic vote
On the 29th September 1945, the incomplete rough cut of a brilliant documentary about concentration camps was viewed at the MOI in London. For five months, Sidney Bernstein had led a small team – which included Stewart McAllister, Richard Crossman and Alfred Hitchcock – to complete the film from hours of shocking footage. Unfortunately, this ambitious Allied project to create a feature-length visual report that would damn the Nazi regime and shame the German people into acceptance of Allied occupation had missed its moment. Even in its incomplete form (available since 1984) the film was immensely powerful, generating an awed hush among audiences. But now, complete to six reels, this faithfully restored and definitive version produced by IWM, is being compared with Alain Resnais’ Night and Fog (1955).
Greenery Will Bloom Again (2014)
Ermanno Olmi · 1 critic vote
World War I, Italian north-eastern front after the 1917 bloody battles on the Altipiano. A group of soldiers face the difficulty of war in a story that unfolds in the space of one night. Events follow one after the other without any kind of pattern: the peaceful mountains suddenly become a place where men die. But every story told in this film is a true story.
Journey to the West (2014)
Tsai Ming-liang · 1 critic vote
In 2014, Tsai Ming-Liang was invited to make a film for the MarseilleFID, Marseille International Film Festival. Since he was not familiar with Marseille, he decided to make a film as tourist, capturing the beautiful Mediterranean sunshine in the late summer of that year. He also invited famous French actor, Denis Lavant, to appear alongside Lee Kang-Sheng playing Xuanzang. "Journey to the West" was invited to be the opening short film at the Berlin International Film Festival the same year.
P'tit Quinquin (2014)
Bruno Dumont · 1 critic vote
Seven Times a Day We Bemoan Our Lot and at Night We Get Up to Avoid Our Dreams (2014)
Susann Maria Hempel · 1 critic vote
A cinematic devotional book. Based on interviews with an unemployable sufferer (and his fellows), living in the East German countryside. Who lost his memory in 1989 and woke up into several nightmares.
Socialism (2014)
Peter von Bagh · 1 critic vote
Socialism, the 20th century's greatest dream and source of some of its darkest nightmares. Divided into eighteen chapters which all begin with quotes from left-wing thinkers and writers, Socialism embarks on a chronological journey through 20th century film and social history, starting with images from Louis Lumière's Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895), followed among others by Chaplin's comedy Work (1915), Roberto Rosselini's Rome, Open City (1945) and Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964).
Spectrum Reverse Spectrum (2014)
Margaret Honda · 1 critic vote
Margaret Honda's awesome Spectrum Reverse Spectrum is a silent, camera-less colour-field film created and exhibited on 70mm. A maximalist expression of minimalism reminiscent of James Turrell's light sculptures, Honda's immersive, epically scaled work is both abstract and strangely affecting, especially as a collective viewing experience.
The Dragon is the Frame (2014)
Mary Helena Clark · 1 critic vote
Diaristic but also generously expansive, Mary-Helena Clark's disarmingly raw and beautiful The Dragon is the Frame proceeds like an experimental detective film, exploring the enigma of depression in its subtle interplay between presence and absence.
Untitled #1: Dance of Leitfossil (2014)
Carlos Adriano · 1 critic vote
Experimental Short, Brazil
Aaaaaaaah! (2015)
Steve Oram · 1 critic vote
Alpha Male Smith and his Beta, Keith, move to take over a local community. They hook up with restless Female, Denise, igniting a deadly feud in which emotions run high and deep-seated grudges resurface amongst the tribe. Are we not men? Or are we simply beasts?
An Ecstatic Experience (2015)
Ja’Tovia Gary · 1 critic vote
A meditative invocation on transcendence as a means of restoration.
Evolution (2015)
Lucile Hadžihalilović · 1 critic vote
11-year-old Nicolas lives with his mother in a seaside housing estate. The only place that ever sees any activity is the hospital. It is there that all the boys from the village are forced to undergo strange medical trials that attempt to disrupt the phases of evolution.
Heart of a Dog (2015)
Laurie Anderson · 1 critic vote
Lyrical and powerfully personal essay film that reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother, her beloved dog, and such diverse subjects as family memories, surveillance, and Buddhist teachings.
Maman(s) (2015)
Maïmouna Doucouré · 1 critic vote
The 8-year-old Aida lives in an apartment in the Parisian suburb. The daily life of Aida and the whole family is overwhelmed when her father comes back from Senegal, their country of origin. Actually, he did not come back alone. He returned with the young Senegalese Rama whom he introduced as his second wife. Aida is very sensitive to her mother's distress. She decides then to get rid of the new visitor.
Taxi (2015)
Jafar Panahi · 1 critic vote
A yellow cab is driving through the vibrant and colourful streets of Tehran. Very diverse passengers enter the taxi, each candidly expressing their views while being interviewed by the driver who is no one else but the director Jafar Panahi himself. His camera placed on the dashboard of his mobile film studio captures the spirit of Iranian society through this comedic and dramatic drive…
The Pearl Button (2015)
Patricio Guzmán · 1 critic vote
The ocean contains the history of all humanity. The sea holds all the voices of the earth and those that come from outer space. Water receives impetus from the stars and transmits it to living creatures. Water, the longest border in Chile, also holds the secret of two mysterious buttons which were found on its ocean floor. Chile, with its 2,670 miles of coastline and the largest archipelago in the world, presents a supernatural landscape. In it are volcanoes, mountains and glaciers. In it are the voices of the Patagonian Indigenous people, the first English sailors and also those of its political prisoners. Some say that water has memory. This film shows that it also has a voice.
The Royal Road (2015)
Jenni Olson · 1 critic vote
A fascinating and unlikely reinvention story, The Royal Road simultaneously explores cinematic spiritual channeling, the conquest and colonization of Mexico and the American Southwest, fading historical Californian urban landscapes, and the passions found in butch identity to achieve an achingly beautiful and poetic defense of remembering. Probing roads from El Camino Real, to the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, to the road right outside the front door, Olson crafts a deeply intelligent and transcending observation of the human condition that reaches for redemption in the embrace of history, nostalgia, mindfulness, and sheer beauty. If you give yourself over to it, it will crack you wide open.
Ash 01 (2016)
James Benning · 1 critic vote
"Ash 01 is a declassified recording made from a B-52 bomber on December 26, 1972 during the Christmas carpet bombing of Hanoi." - James Benning. This work first premiered at MSU in Zagreb as an installation with scorched earth under the title Ash 01, curated by Tanja Vrvilo as a prologue to the 10th edition of her film festival, Film Mutations: Festival of Invisible Cinema (Filmske Mutacije: festival nevidljivog filma).
CTRL (2016)
David Kaskel, Nigel Townsend · 1 critic vote
A young gamer becomes embroiled in an e-sports competition in the midst of a war at home.
Ears, Nose and Throat (2016)
Kevin Jerome Everson · 1 critic vote
In Kevin Jerome Everson’s deeply affecting Ears, Nose and Throat, a woman’s testimonial faculties are confirmed through medical examinations before she recites a tragic story, whose horrors we don't see, hear, or smell, but can imagine far too easily.
Further Beyond (2016)
Joe Lawlor, Christine Molloy · 1 critic vote
In their debut documentary Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor take as their point of departure the compelling 18th Century figure, Ambrose O'Higgins, and attempt to retrace his remarkable journey from Ireland to Chile.
Hedonists (2016)
Jia Zhangke · 1 critic vote
The closure of an unprofitable state-run coal mine in Shanxi, China forces three middle-aged men who worked there to search for employment elsewhere.
Hi Stranger (2016)
Kirsten Lepore · 1 critic vote
I made this film especially for you. I needed to check in with you. I needed to tell you how I feel.
Inhebbek Hedi (2016)
Mohamed Ben Attia · 1 critic vote
Young Tunisian Hedi lives an ordered life in which he believes there can be no more surprises. His future will play out as other people have planned, until he meets a young woman named Rim at a hotel in Mahdia Hediand. An ostensibly personal story broadens into a panorama of a society in upheaval, an allegory about breaking away from traditions. And a film about the happiness and pain of freedom.
Lemonade (2016)
Beyoncé · 1 critic vote
The second "visual album" (a collection of short films) by Beyoncé, this time around she takes a piercing look at racial issues and feminist concepts through a sexualized, satirical, and solemn tone.
Letters from Panduranga (2016)
Thi Trinh Nguyen · 1 critic vote
In Vietnamese artist Thi Nguyen’s tranquil essay film, a letter exchange unveils the changing uses of space in various provinces and the different ways its inhabitants remember history.
Not Even Nothing Can Be Free Of Ghosts (2016)
Rainer Kohlberger · 1 critic vote
Rainer Kohlberger’s abstract film was created entirely without a camera. Through digital algorithms, he precisely arranged a rhythm of light and shadow that pulsates off the screen into our physical space with blinding intensity. The presence of light is almost felt as we are sucked into the image to become its ghostly accomplice. As we leave the theatre, the optical vibrations continue to haunt us.
The Dreamed Ones (2016)
Ruth Beckermann · 1 critic vote
It’s not uncommon for a film to have a moving love story at its core. Yet this particular set-up is unusual. The lovers here are Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan, both important representatives of post-war German-language poetry. The story of the relationship between the Austrian and the Jew from Czernowitz is told through their nearly 20-year correspondence (1948–1967). Or, more precisely, by a young woman and a young man reading from their letters in a studio in Vienna’s venerable Funkhaus.
The Red Turtle (2016)
Michaël Dudok de Wit · 1 critic vote
The dialogue-less film follows the major life stages of a castaway on a deserted tropical island populated by turtles, crabs and birds.
Zavestanje (2016)
Ivan Jovic · 1 critic vote
In this film the last living witnesses of the events from Second World War are telling their stories and thus transferring silenced victim’s voices to present times.
Configuration in Black and White (2017)
Helga Fanderl · 1 critic vote
A quartet of four black-and-white miniatures edited in-camera, Helga Fanderl's Configuration in Black and White captures fleeting moments of visual poetry: glimmers from a canal, snowfall, flowers for Peter Hutton, and birds in flight.
Dark Light (2017)
Susana de Sousa Dias · 1 critic vote
Mingling identity photos taken by the Portuguese political police during the Salazar dictatorship and testimonies from the children of an assassinated communist activist, Luz Obscura invents a form that recreates as faithfully as possible the feeling of a family's broken identity.
Purple (2017)
John Akomfrah · 1 critic vote
Purple is a six-channel video installation addressing climate change, human communities and the wilderness. At a time when greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are at their highest levels in history, with people experiencing the significant impacts of climate change, including shifting weather patterns, rising sea levels, and more extreme weather events, Akomfrah’s Purple brings a multitude of ideas into conversation. These include animal extinctions, the memory of ice, the plastic ocean and global warming. Akomfrah has combined hundreds of hours of archival footage with newly shot film and a hypnotic sound score to produce the video installation.
Raymond Tallis On Tickling (2017)
Johan Grimonprez · 1 critic vote
Dozens of couples dance in a circle, a house topples down a slope, a cat manically revolves around itself. A few seconds beforehand, an admonishing voice points out that a centuries-old philosophical assumption is under close scrutiny. It is René Descartes’ first tenet, »I think, therefore I am,« that the British neurologist Raymond Tallis calls into question in the video by the artist Johan Grimonprez. Tallis takes the view that human consciousness is not an individual construction but exists above all in relation to a vis-à-vis.
Rebirth Is Necessary (2017)
Jenn Nkiru · 1 critic vote
Director Jenn Nkiru authors a personal and powerful exploration of blackness through piecing together dreamlike portraits with stunning archival footage that includes Afrofuturism pioneer Sun Ra and revolutionary organization the Black Panther Party.
The Dead Nation (2017)
Radu Jude · 1 critic vote
A documentary-essay which shows Costică Axinte's stunning collection of pictures depicting a Romanian small town in the thirties and forties. The narration, composed mostly from excerpts taken from the diary of a Jewish doctor from the same era, tells the rising of the antisemitism and eventually a harrowing depiction of the Romanian Holocaust.
The Vietnam War (2017)
Ken Burns, Lynn Novick · 1 critic vote
Heroism, loyalty, persistence, innovation, selflessness, and finally, recognition of their patriotism in the face of persecution are all present in this remarkable story.
Tigers are not Afraid (2017)
Issa López · 1 critic vote
When her mother suddenly disappears with no one to care for her, young Estrella ends up on the street and joins a gang of children, triggering a dangerous and tragic chain of events.
Two Meetings and a Funeral (2017)
Naeem Mohaiemen · 1 critic vote
Two Meetings and a Funeral explores Bangladesh’s historical pivot from the socialism of the 1973 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting in Algeria to its ideological counterpoint, the emergence of a strong Islamic perspective at the 1974 Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) meeting in Lahore. Centred on Bangladesh’s navigation of these two historic meetings, as well as its fight for United Nations recognition (vetoed by China, acting as a proxy for Pakistan), the film considers the erosion of the idea of the Third World as a potential space for decolonialism, liberation theology and socialism. In particular, it looks at how a transnational Islamic ‘ummah’ concept was used against socialist forces.
Wallay (2017)
Berni Goldblat · 1 critic vote
Ady, a 13 years old boy, no longer listens to his father who raises him alone. The latter, running out of resources, decides to entrust Ady to his uncle Amadou for the summer. Uncle Amadou and his family live on the other side of the Mediterranean sea... in Burkina Faso! There, at 13 years, one must become a man but Ady, persuaded to go on holidays, understands things differently.
Waru (2017)
Ainsley Gardiner, Awanui Simich-Pene · 1 critic vote
Eight Māori female directors have each contributed a sequence to this powerful and challenging feature which unfolds around the tangi of a small boy who died at the hands of his caregiver.
Watching The Detectives (2017)
Chris Kennedy · 1 critic vote
Immediately after the Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013, amateur detectives took the Internet chat rooms to try to find the culprits, looking for details in photographs uploaded to the sites that could point to the guilt of potential suspects.
Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018)
Rosine Mbakam · 1 critic vote
Rosine Mbakam is invited to step in Sabine’s small hairdresser’s because it is dangerous in the street. She accepts and pushes in with her camera. Sabine’s stories and the customers’ joys, worries, problems and fears bring depth and life into the premises. At times, it feels like the entire African quarter of Brussels had squeezed in. Laughter abounds, anecdotes and life stories elicit emotions, and a male visitor brings a touch of flirt into the salon.
Empty Metal (2018)
Adam Khalil, Bayley Sweitzer · 1 critic vote
Adam Khalil and Bayley Sweitzer’s first feature as co-directors, Empty Metal takes place in a world similar to ours—one of mass surveillance, pervasive policing, and increasing individual apathy. The lives of several people, each inhabiting extreme poles of American social and political consciousness, weave together as each attempts to achieve some kind of forward motion, sometimes in contradiction, and always under the eye of far more controlling powers.
La París (2018)
Jaime Guerra · 1 critic vote
An essay on time, the perception of time. An invitation to slow down. A small mirror that allows us to see details but never a complete image of who we really are.
Party on the CAPS (2018)
Meriem Bennani · 1 critic vote
" ... Bennani's mother, a real-life pharmacist and pathologist, also plays one here on the CAPS. Her own mother's 80th birthday is the occasion for the titular party, at which she will debut a youthful new look, the product of an extensive rejuvenation procedure ... Shot in the artist's home city of Rabat, Morocco, the 30-minute video channel-surfs between pirate frequencies, surveillance footage, and documentation of the raucous celebration. We spend time with the party’s MC-for-hire as he slurps harira, flips off a trooper, and dispenses a longish musical interlude about a food vendor who once invoked his ire. Eventually, we land on the nightmarish, static-riven eyes and mouth of ZIP, a user interface promising an illicit escape from the CAPS, suggesting we "sign the lease" on a new body in Florida." — Maxwell Paparella (Screen Slate)
Rafiki (2018)
Wanuri Kahiu · 1 critic vote
Kena and Ziki long for something more. Despite the political rivalry between their families, the girls resist and remain close friends, supporting each other to pursue their dreams in a conservative society. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.
Shakedown (2018)
Leilah Weinraub · 1 critic vote
‘Shakedown’ was a series of parties founded by and for African American women in Los Angeles that featured go-go dancing and strip shows for the city’s lesbian underground scene. Inspired by trans woman Mahogany who, as the mother of the scene, presided over queer strip shows and balls for non-heterosexual audiences in the 1980s, butch Ronnie Ron created, produced and presented the new shows. In them, the largely female clientele from the ‘hood’ slipped dollar notes into lap dancers’ panties while celebrating lesbian sexuality to pulsating hip-hop beats.
The Burial of Kojo (2018)
Sam Blitz Bazawule · 1 critic vote
A man is trapped in a mine shaft by his vengeful brother while his daughter embarks on a magical journey to rescue him.
The Mermaids, or: Aiden in Wonderland (2018)
The Karrabing Film Collective · 1 critic vote
At the end of the world, only Indigenous people can survive the toxic landscape so the white fellas steal ‘mud children’ to experiment on in the hopes of finding a cure. One such mud child, Aiden now returns to his ancestral lands, where the mermaids were meant to protect him. But the mermaids are being targeted too.
two moons (2018)
James Benning · 1 critic vote
A fight breaks out between the cattle ranchers and the upstart sheep men, whose fences were seen as a threat to the freedom of the West.
Common Ground (2019)
Darren Emmerson · 1 critic vote
Explore the notorious Aylesbury Estate, concrete monument to the history and legacy of social housing in the UK, and home to a community affected by forces beyond their control.
Dark Trees (2019)
Malcolm Le Grice · 1 critic vote
Dark Trees starts with a view from a window in silhouette through which one sees a garden, tall trees, rooftops and the sea. This scene orientates the viewer, but we are quickly taken into an imaginary space offered by the trees, shot against a late evening sky. A floating camera and the dense superimposition of shots make for a scene that is now untethered. Towards the end we see the sun set over the sea; confirmation of the lyrical strain in much of Le Grice’s cinema.
De lo mio (2019)
Diana Peralta · 1 critic vote
Two "ride or die" sisters raised in NYC reunite with their estranged brother in Dominican Republic to clean out their late father's childhood home. The siblings laugh, brawl, and face their demons as they come to terms with letting go of their last connection to their motherland.
Domino (2019)
Brian De Palma · 1 critic vote
Seeking justice for his partner’s murder by an ISIS member, a Copenhagen police officer finds himself caught in a cat and mouse game with a duplicitous CIA agent who is using the killer as a pawn to trap other ISIS members.
Gloomy Eyes (2019)
Fernando Maldonado, Jorge Tereso · 1 critic vote
Poor Gloomy. It’s 1983, and the fact that he’s a zombie makes him an outcast. Hiding out in the forest, Gloomy has his sights on a human girl. But her uncle happens to be one of the most feared zombie-hunters in the land. Set in a surreal universe that owes a debt to the visual stylings of Tim Burton, this awardwinning VR experience pairs surreal animation with a darkly humorous take on zombie-human relations.
I Lost My Body (2019)
Jérémy Clapin · 1 critic vote
A story of Naoufel, a young man who is in love with Gabrielle. In another part of town, a severed hand escapes from a dissection lab, determined to find its body again.
It Has To Be Lived Once and Dreamed Twice (2019)
Rainer Kohlberger · 1 critic vote
In the sixth great mass mortality of the earth, humankind became extinct. Their technology had recently progressed so far as to deconstruct the algorithms of evolution and allow artificial life to develop on Earth.
Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway (2019)
Miguel Llansó · 1 critic vote
CIA agents Palmer and Gagano are tasked with the perilous mission of destroying “The Soviet Union!" As they enter the system using a VR simulation, their mission quickly turns into a delirious trap, far more complex than expected, as the fabric of reality starts unraveling around them.
Phantom Ride (2019)
Stephen Broomer · 1 critic vote
In Phantom Ride, Stephen Broomer permutates the home films of Ellwood F. Hoffmann (1885 – 1966), a self-made hosiery mill owner from Philadelphia, into a road movie.
Saint Maud (2019)
Rose Glass · 1 critic vote
Having recently found God, self-effacing young nurse Maud arrives at a plush home to care for Amanda, a hedonistic dancer left frail from a chronic illness. When a chance encounter with a former colleague throws up hints of a dark past, it becomes clear there is more to sweet Maud than meets the eye.
The Cordillera of Dreams (2019)
Patricio Guzmán · 1 critic vote
"In Chile, when the sun rises, it had to climb hills, walls and tops before reaching the last stone of the Cordillera. In my country, the Cordillera is everywhere. But for the Chilean citizens, it is an unknown territory. After going North for Nostalgia for the Light and South for The Pearl Button, I now feel ready to shoot this immense spine to explore its mysteries, powerful revelations of Chile’s past and present history." Patricio Guzmán
The Line (2019)
Ricardo Laganaro · 1 critic vote
The story of Pedro and Rosa, two miniature dolls who are perfect for each other, but reluctant to break boundaries and overcome their limitations to live out their love story.
The Tiger Who Came to Tea (2019)
Robin Shaw · 1 critic vote
On a rainy day, a mother and daughter forego a trip to the park to bake pastries and partake in a two-person tea party when an unexpected guest menacingly invites himself into the house and ransacks the food and drink in the house.
Those That, at a Distance, Resemble Another (2019)
Jessica Sarah Rinland · 1 critic vote
With an elephant’s tusk as the protagonist, the film meditates on the endless tactility of conservation.
Towards the Sun (2019)
Nour Ouayda · 1 critic vote
You are now in the main hall of the National Museum in Beirut. A guard reminds you that you are encouraged to touch the archeological objects. A voice in your headset suggests that you lick the stone. You are now facing a hole in the wall on the lower left corner of a mosaic. The voice in your headset indicates that it was made by a sniper. Out of curiosity, you dial 1-9-9-1 to listen to the rest of the story.
the names have changed, including my own and the truths have been altered (2019)
Onyeka Igwe · 1 critic vote
A film telling the same story in four different ways - using British colonial moving images to tell a folk story of two brothers, a VHS Nollywood TV series of the first published Igbo novel, a passed down story of a the family patriarch and the diary entries of the artist's first solo trip to her family's hometown.
AN UNUSUAL SUMMER (2020)
Kamal Aljafari · 1 critic vote
Following an act of vandalism, the Palestinian filmmaker's father decides to install a surveillance camera to record the scenes unfolding in front of the house. Everyday family life, or neighbours going to work, Unusual Summer captures fleeting moments of poetry whereas, in the background, the daily choreography of Ramla, located in today's Israël, comes to the surface.
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020)
Junta Yamaguchi · 1 critic vote
A cafe owner discovers that the TV in his cafe suddenly shows images from the future, but only two minutes into the future.
Coded Bias (2020)
Shalini Kantayya · 1 critic vote
Exploring the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini's startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all.
Expedition Content (2020)
Veronika Kusumaryati, Ernst Karel · 1 critic vote
Constructed from the audio archive of the 1961 Harvard Peabody Expedition to Netherlands New Guinea: In the encounter with the Hubula people, this work reflects a parallaxing image of the histories of field recording, ethnographic film, and colonialism.
Inside the Red Brick Wall (2020)
Hong Kong Documentary Filmmakers · 1 critic vote
In 2019, Hong Kong was swept by demonstrations against the controversial extradition bill. At the Polytechnic University, a group of students also takes a stand for freedom and democracy. Negotiations with the police are chaotic and aggressive, conducted via megaphones and politically charged music played over loudspeakers. The colorful umbrellas which the young people use to protect themselves against the brutal police actions emphasize the group’s bravado, which borders on recklessness. What begins as an energetic battle against the establishment turns into a lopsided game of cat and mouse when the police decide to surround the building. Within its red brick walls, the university building becomes a prison. Over the nearly two weeks that follow, as fear and exhaustion grow among the hundreds of students, so does the uncertainty. Should they hang on inside, or leave the building to face the armed police?
Mare (2020)
Andrea Štaka · 1 critic vote
Routinely, but with dedication, Mare runs her small family’s modest household, even though a new washing machine is not the only thing that is missing. When a chance encounter rekindles her libido, she does not hold back for long.
Radiograph of a Family (2020)
Firouzeh Khosrovani · 1 critic vote
"Mother married a photo of Father," says director Firouzeh Khosrovani in the opening of this deeply personal documentary. She's not speaking metaphorically though. Her mother Tayi literally married a portrait of Hossein in Teheran -he was in Switzerland studying radiology and was unable to travel back to his homeland for the wedding. The event illustrates the abyss that still exists in their marriage: Hossein is a secular progressive and Tayi a devout, traditional Muslim.
República (2020)
Grace Passô · 1 critic vote
One night, a Brazilian woman wakes up in a country exhausted from violent acts. Republic is a short film realized at home, in the beginning of 2020s quarantine, in the center of São Paulo, República neighborhood.
The Lobby (2020)
Heinz Emigholz · 1 critic vote
A character simply named Old White Male holds court in the lobbies of various apartment buildings in Buenos Aires and expounds with measured disgust on death, consciousness, and the state of contemporary human relations. The man’s mostly unsolicited remarks form an unsparing, stitched-together modern-day monologue that alternates between absurd and chilling, reasonable and grotesque. Filmed in Buenos Aires in October 2019, Heinz Emigholz’s spare continuation—and sardonic distillation—of certain themes explored in The Last City is morbid, confrontational, and hilarious.
The Woman Who Ran (2020)
Hong Sang-soo · 1 critic vote
While her husband is on a business trip, Gamhee meets three of her friends. She visits the first two at their homes, and the third she encounters by chance at a theater. While they make friendly conversation, as always, several currents flow independently above and below the surface of the sea.
This Land Is Ours! (2020)
Isael Maxakali, Sueli Maxakali, Carolina Canguçu, Roberto Romero · 1 critic vote
In the past, when white people didn’t exist, we used to hunt with our yãmĩyxop spirits. The whites came, cut down the trees, dried up the rivers and scared the animals away. Today, our tall trees are over, the whites surrounded us and our lands are tiny. But our yãmĩyxop are very strong and taught us the stories and chants from our ancients who walked around here.
Bo Burnham: Inside (2021)
Bo Burnham · 1 critic vote
Stuck in COVID-19 lockdown, US comedian and musician Bo Burnham attempts to stay sane and happy by writing, shooting and performing a one-man comedy special.
Dok smo bili tu (2021)
Sunčica Fradelić · 1 critic vote
Briefly depicted fragments from the characters' lives, through summer and winter, as each of them suffers a loss. Cinematic meditation on inevitable loss.
Fruit of Thy Womb (2021)
Fábio Silva · 1 critic vote
This movie is a journey through the director’s childhood. Fábio Silva uses the cinematic apparatus to take us on a trip to the past, to his past, towards the reasons behind his current estrangement from his father, calling on home videos as evidence of his account. A mysterious film in which the young filmmaker risks exposing his family privacy, full of betrayal and forgiveness. It is a privilege to watch a story told with such boldness, in which the boundaries between author, audience, and family trauma are barely distinguishable.
In Front of Your Face (2021)
Hong Sang-soo · 1 critic vote
She has never lived in a high-rise apartment, and she wonders how her sister can live at this height every day. A few days ago she kind of burst in to stay with her sister, and she is now becoming re-accustomed to life in Korea. While seeming to keep a grave secret to herself, she manages life one day at a time with a sense of mindfulness. Meanwhile a certain director, some years younger than her, has asked her to join his project, and after a polite refusal, they have agreed to meet for the first time today. Downtown Seoul is filled with narrow alleys that harbor tiny old bars, and that's where they meet. As they are getting drunk, there is sudden rainfall and thunder.
Lago Gatún (2021)
Kevin Jerome Everson · 1 critic vote
The artist travels through the Panama Canal, filming 10-minute reels of 16mm to create an almost abstract journey modulated in time through the light and dark of the opening and closing locks. Alternating with submerged darkness, we observe the beauty of the landscape, and the global trade that the canal was built to facilitate; bringing to mind that its American engineers imposed US segregation laws on the canal’s Jamaican migrant workforce.
Playground (2021)
Laura Wandel · 1 critic vote
When Nora witnesses Abel being bullied by other kids, she rushes to protect him by warning their father. But Abel forces her to remain silent. Caught in a conflict of loyalty, Nora will ultimately try to find her place, torn between children's and adult's worlds.
Queen of Glory (2021)
Nana Mensah · 1 critic vote
Brainy scientist Sarah, a doctoral student at Columbia University, is weeks away from following her very married boyfriend to Ohio when her mother dies suddenly, leaving Sarah the owner of a small but beloved Christian bookstore in the Bronx. Tasked with planning a culturally respectful funeral befitting the family matriarch, Sarah must juggle the expectations of her loving yet demanding family while navigating the reappearance of her estranged father all while grappling with what to do with the bookstore. Aided by an only-in-New York ensemble of Eastern European neighbors, feisty African aunties and a no-nonsense ex-con co-worker, Sarah faces her new responsibilities while figuring out how to remain true to herself.
Singing in Oblivion (2021)
Eve Heller · 1 critic vote
"Vienna’s Jewish Währinger cemetery opened to the public in 1784, during an era of tolerance and prosperity that eventually coincided with the dawn of photography. With the rise of Nazism, this historical jewel of a Biedermeier cemetery was variously desecrated and became an overgrown wilderness, though passersby noted it sounded as if a paradise of birds was locked behind its high stone walls. The graveyard today bears further scars of political and inertial neglect. Without the care of generations displaced or killed during the Nazi era, graves have been decimated by the falling branches and uncontrolled growth of ancient trees while the words and symbols on tombstones disappear into dust. Singing in Oblivion interweaves footage shot on location with images painstakingly lifted from antique glass negatives and printed one frame at a time in a darkroom onto 35mm film strips." - Eve Heller
ear for eye (2021)
Debbie Tucker Green · 1 critic vote
From front rooms, Black families, friends, students and older generations navigate British and American society today.
ALLENSWORTH (2022)
James Benning · 1 critic vote
It centers on Allensworth, the first self-administered African-American municipality in California, showcasing the buildings of the now-abandoned town and looking for the traces of a Black cultural history.
Fairy Tale (2022)
Alexander Sokurov · 1 critic vote
A civil and artistic statement about those who determined the fate of the planet: Stalin, Churchill, Mussolini, Hitler, according to a Russian newspaper.
Incredible but True (2022)
Quentin Dupieux · 1 critic vote
Alain and Marie moved to the suburb house of their dreams. But the real estate agent warned them: what is in the basement may well change their lives forever.
Introduction (2022)
Hong Sang-soo · 1 critic vote
Youngho is summoned by his father, who is a doctor. Finding him busy with his patients, one of whom is a famous actor, Youngho has to wait. When his girlfriend Juwon moves to Berlin for her studies, Youngho shows up in the city to surprise her. Through her mother, Juwon has found accommodation at the home of an artist whose beauty intimidates her. Some time later, Youngho goes to lunch with his mother who wants to introduce him to a colleague – it is the same man Youngho met at his father’s clinic. Youngho asks his friend Jeongsoo to accompany him, and after lunch they go to the beach. Youngho falls asleep, and dreams of Juwon. When he wakes up, he braves the considerable cold and goes swimming, while Jeongsoo watches.
Lagareh - The Last Born (2022)
Alberta Whittle · 1 critic vote
‘Lagareh’ – which translates from the Mandinka language as ‘The Last Born’ – is a work anchored around theories of abolition, rebellion, ancestral knowledge and love. Shot in Scotland, England, Barbados, Sierra Leone and Italy, the film melds a collection of scenes that give focus to the strength of contemporary Black womxn, whose individual acts of resistance are bound together through the artist’s conceptual storytelling. The artist situates Black love in proximity with historical sites of trauma, re-inscribed with rage, hope and exhaustion. Gestures, rituals and moments of intimacy are poignantly underpinned by a deep reflection on grief, loss and mourning, a resolute reminder of the trauma inflicted upon the Black body and of white privilege and power.
Much Ado About Dying (2022)
Simon Chambers · 1 critic vote
Simon Chambers is shooting a film in India when his uncle David calls him with a message of doom: “I think I may be dying.” What the viewer doesn’t yet know is that David, an eccentric gay actor, is a total drama queen, and a Shakespeare-lover who has grown old on a diet of attention and applause. Chambers returns to London to look after his uncle and capture his final stages of life on camera.
The Automat (2022)
Lisa Hurwitz · 1 critic vote
The 100-year story of the iconic restaurant chain Horn & Hardart, the inspiration for Starbucks, where generations of Americans ate and drank coffee together at communal tables. From the perspective of former customers, we watch a business climb to its peak success and then grapple with fast food in a forever changed America.
europe 16 (2022)
Lucia Séles · 1 critic vote
Fallen Leaves (2023)
Aki Kaurismäki · 1 critic vote
In modern-day Helsinki, two lonely souls in search of love meet by chance in a karaoke bar. However, their path to happiness is beset by obstacles – from lost phone numbers to mistaken addresses, alcoholism, and a charming stray dog.
Universal Language (2024)
Matthew Rankin · 1 critic vote
Winter. Somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg. Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen deep within the sidewalk ice and try to find a way to get it out. Massoud leads a group of befuddled tourists upon an increasingly-strange walking tour of Winnipeg historic sites. Matthew leaves his job at the Québec government and embarks upon a mysterious journey to visit his estranged mother.
The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025)
Kaouther Ben Hania · 1 critic vote
January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A five-year old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. Her name was Hind Rajab.

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