In the following conversation, recorded remotely in 2020, filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Ari Aster discuss the mission, evolution, and ongoing work of The Film Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and preserving motion-picture history that Scorsese established in 1990.

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch • 1932 • United States
Starring Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall

When thief Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) meets his true love in pickpocket Lily (Miriam Hopkins), they embark on a scam to rob lovely perfume company executive Mariette Colet (Kay Francis...

Directed by Fernando de Fuentes • 1934 • Mexico
Starring Marta Roel, Enrique del Campo, Carlos Villatoro

Lost in the forest, a trio of hikers enmeshed in an adulterous love triangle take refuge in a strange monastery that seems frozen in time. As bizarre portents—a bat-shaped shadow without a so...

Directed by Jean Vigo • 1934 • France

In Jean Vigo's hands, an unassuming tale of conjugal love becomes an achingly romantic reverie of desire and hope. Jean (Jean Dasté), a barge captain, marries Juliette (Dita Parlo), an innocent country girl, and the two climb aboard Jean's boat, the L'Atalan...

Directed by Juan Bustillo Oro • 1934 • Mexico
Starring Víctor Urruchúa, Carlos Villatoro, Magda Haller

This vividly stylized, broodingly intense early Mexican sound melodrama by Juan Bustillo Oro hinges on an audacious flashback structure. When an ailing monk recognizes a new brother at his cloi...

Directed by Lewis Milestone • 1939 • United States
Starring Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney Jr., Betty Field

George and Lennie are California migrant workers on the run from the law because of something the simple-minded giant Lennie did. They find work at a local ranch, where they dream of making ...

Directed by John Ford • 1940 • United States
Starring John Wayne, Ward Bond, Ian Hunter

Shot in stunning chiaroscuro by master cinematographer Gregg Toland, THE LONG VOYAGE HOME is John Ford’s and screenwriter Dudley Nichols’s lyrical adaptation of four one-act plays by Eugene O’Neill, distilled...

Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger • 1948 • United Kingdom
Starring Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring

THE RED SHOES, the singular fantasia from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is cinema’s quintessential backstage drama, as well as one of the most glorious Tech...

Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1950 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori

A riveting psychological thriller that investigates the nature of truth and the meaning of justice, RASHOMON is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made. Four people give different accou...

Directed by Jean Renoir • 1951 • France, United Kingdom, India, United States
Starring Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields

Director Jean Renoir’s entrancing first color feature, shot entirely on location in India, is a visual tour de force. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden, the fi...

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1953 • Japan
Starring Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Kinuyo Tanaka

By the time he made UGETSU, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation. And with this exquisite ...

Directed by Luchino Visconti • 1954 • Italy
Starring Alida Valli, Farley Granger

This lush, Technicolor tragic romance from Luchino Visconti stars Alida Valli as a nineteenth-century Italian countess who, during the Austrian occupation of her country, puts her marriage and political principle...

Directed by Federico Fellini • 1954 • Italy
Starring Giulietta Masina, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart

With this breakthrough film, Federico Fellini launched both himself and his wife and collaborator Giulietta Masina to international stardom, breaking with the neorealism of his early career in ...

Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1954 • Italy

This prize-winning short is a poetic portrait of life on the coast of Sicily before, during, and following a volcanic eruption.

Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1954 • Italy

Vittorio De Seta’s rhythmic editing adds drama to this chronicle of a Sicilian spearfishing expedition.

Directed by Laurence Olivier • 1955 • United Kingdom
Starring Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Claire Bloom

In RICHARD III, director, producer, and star Laurence Olivier brings Shakespeare’s masterpiece of Machiavellian villainy to ravishing cinematic life. Olivier is diabolically captivat...

Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1955 • Italy

Vittorio De Seta captures the music and pageantry of an Easter celebration in Sicily.

Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1955 • Italy

Filming amid the flaxen wheat fields of Sicily, Vittorio De Seta documents the everyday rituals of farmers during harvest time.

Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1955 • Italy

The rhythms of the sea set the tempo for this vivid account of a day in the lives of Sicilian fishermen.

Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1955 • Italy

Harshness and beauty exist side by side in this look at the lives of sulfur mine workers and their families in southern Italy.

Directed by Federico Fellini • 1955 • Italy

Federico Fellini's IL BIDONE follows a trio of Italian swindlers who resort to petty schemes in order to con poor people out of their money.

Directed by Stanley Kubrick • 1957 • United States
Starring Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolph Menjou

Stanley Kubrick’s PATHS OF GLORY is among the most powerful antiwar films ever made. A fiery Kirk Douglas stars as a World War I French colonel who goes head-to-head with the army’s ruthless ...

Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1958 • Italy

From sunrise to sunset, Vittorio De Seta chronicles the lives of Sardinian women who look after both home and fields while their shepherd husbands are away tending their flocks.

Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1958 • Italy

The striking landscapes of rural Sardinia provide the backdrop to this lyrical look at the hardscrabble lives of the region’s shepherds in winter.