Directed by François Truffaut • 1959 • France

François Truffaut's first feature is also his most personal. Told through the eyes of Truffaut's cinematic counterpart, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), The 400 Blows sensitively re-creates the trials of Truffaut's own childhood, unsentimentally...

Directed by Vittorio De Sica • 1944 • Italy

A very early Vittorio de Sica effort, The Children are Watching Us was originally released in Italy as I bambini ci guardano. Director De Sica collaborated with another neorealist pioneer Cesar Zavattini on the screenplay. The film, a morbid melodram...

Directed by Volker Schlöndorff • 1966 • France, West Germany

At an Austrian boys' boarding school in the early 1900s, shy, intelligent Törless observes the sadistic behavior of his fellow students, doing nothing to help a victimized classmate, until the torture goes too far. Adapted from Rober...

Directed by Allan King • 1967 • Canada

For his enthralling first feature, Allan King took his cameras to a home for emotionally disturbed young people. Situated inside the facility like a fly on the wall, we witness the full spectrum of emotions displayed by twelve fascinating children and the...

Directed by Jane Campion • 1989 • New Zealand

Though she went on to create a string of brilliant films, Jane Campion will always be remembered for her stunning debut feature SWEETIE, which focuses on the hazardous relationship between the buttoned-down, superstitious Kay and her rampaging, dev...