Directed by Bo Widerberg • 1967 • Sweden
Starring Pia Degermark, Thommy Berggren, Lennart Malmer

Bo Widerberg reached new heights of visual lyricism with this sublime retelling of a real-life nineteenth-century romantic tragedy. Bound by their all-consuming desire, a young circus tightrope walke...

Directed by Tsui Hark • 1986 • Hong Kong
Starring Brigitte Lin, Sally Yeh, Cherie Chung

In the aftermath of China’s first democratic revolution, three high-spirited young women (Brigitte Lin, Cherie Chung, Sally Yeh) from very different backgrounds cross paths on a quest for liberation. Fate fin...

Directed by Jacques Audiard • 2005 • France
Starring Romain Duris, Niels Arestrup, Jonathan Zaccaï

A riveting character study in the guise of a gritty underworld thriller, Jacques Audiard’s international breakthrough features an explosive performance from Romain Duris as a real-estate broker tor...

Directed by Catherine Breillat • 2004 • France
Starring Amira Casar, Rocco Siffredi

After attempting suicide, a young woman (Amira Casar) makes a startling proposition to the man (Rocco Siffredi) who rescued her: she will pay him to watch her naked body over the course of four nights as long as ...

Directed by Joachim Trier • 2011 • Norway
Starring Anders Danielsen Lie, Malin Crépin, Aksel Thanke

Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie) will soon complete his drug rehabilitation in the countryside. As part of the program, he is allowed to go into the city for a job interview. Taking advantage of the ...

Directed by Vittorio De Sica • 1964 • Italy, France
Starring Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Aldo Puglisi

Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren cemented their status as one of the all-time great screen couples in Vittorio De Sica’s classic battle-of-the-sexes farce. He’s Domenico, a suave, b...

Directed by Amir Naderi • 1984 • Iran
Starring Madjid Niroumand, Moussa Torkizadeh, Abbas Nazeri

Childhood takes on mythic dimensions in one of the defining works of postrevolutionary Iranian cinema. Inspired by director Amir Naderi’s own boyhood, THE RUNNER is lit from within by Madjid Nirouman...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1969 • Egypt
Starring Mahmoud el-Meliguy, Ezzat el-Alaili, Nagwa Ibrahim

Adapted from a classic novel by Abd al-Rahman Sharqawi, this howl of rage against social injustice is one of director Youssef Chahine’s most influential works, crowned by a career-best perform...

Directed by Andrzej Żuławski • 1981 • France, West Germany
Starring Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Heinz Bennent

Andrzej Żuławski’s stunningly choreographed nightmare of a marriage unraveling is an experience unlike any other. Professional spy Mark (Sam Neill) returns to his West Berlin home to fin...

Directed by Ann Hui • 1982 • Hong Kong
Starring George Lam, Andy Lau Tak Wah, Cora Miao

One of the major films of the Hong Kong New Wave, Ann Hui’s BOAT PEOPLE is a work of indelible humanity and searing political resonance. Invited to document the progress of postwar Vietnamese society, a Japan...

Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda • 1998 • Japan
Starring Arata, Erika Oda, Susumu Terajima

If you could choose only one memory to hold on to for eternity, what would it be? That’s the question at the heart of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s revelatory international breakthrough, a bittersweet fantasia in which...

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn • 1999 • Denmark
Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Kim Bodnia, Liv Corfixen

On the gritty margins of Copenhagen, two friends drift apart as violence and obsession take hold. Disaffected alcoholic Leo (Kim Bodnia) struggles with a crumbling relationship and growing rage, w...

Directed by Lam Nai-choi • 1991 • Hong Kong
Starring Fan Siu-Wong, Gloria Yip, Yukari Oshima

The ultimate Hong Kong black-comic gorefest, this live-action adaptation of the cult manga is a blood feast of entrail-wreathed splatter and literally eye-popping ultraviolence. After he’s sentenced to a...

Directed by Mark Lewis • 1988 • Australia
Starring Tip Byrne, Glen Ingram, H. W. Kerr

Mark Lewis takes the nature documentary into new realms of the humorous, surreal, and downright bizarre with this stranger-than-fiction tale of the ultimate environmental self-own. The cane toad—Bufo marinus, a...

Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov • 1964 • Cuba, Soviet Union
Starring Raquel Revuelta, Luz María Collazo, José Gallardo

Both a landmark of radical political cinema and one of the most visually ravishing films ever made, this legendary hymn to revolution shimmers across the screen like a fever dream...

Directed by Ousmane Sembène • 1975 • Senegal
Starring Thierno Leye, Myriam Niang, Seune Samb

An adaptation of Ousmane Sembène’s own 1973 novel, XALA is a hilarious, caustic satire of political corruption under an inept patriarchy. On the night of his wedding to his third bride, government offici...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1958 • Egypt
Starring Youssef Chahine, Farid Shawqi, Hind Rostom

Youssef Chahine established his international reputation with this masterpiece, which, though initially a commercial failure in Egypt, would become one of the most influential and celebrated works in ...

Directed by Felipe Cazals • 1976 • Mexico
Starring Enrique Lucero, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Rodrigo Puebla

One of Mexico's most highly regarded works of political cinema, CANOA: A SHAMEFUL MEMORY reimagines a real-life incident that had occurred just eight years before its release, when a group of ur...

Directed by Werner Herzog • 1972 • West Germany, Mexico, Peru
Starring Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Roho

The first of Werner Herzog’s legendary—and notoriously tempestuous—collaborations with actor Klaus Kinski is a feverish account of sixteenth-century Spanish conquistador Lope de Aguirre’s...

Directed by Walerian Borowczyk • 1976 • France
Starring Sylvia Kristel, Joe Dallesandro, André Falcon

One of director Walerian Borowczyk’s most haunting and psychologically complex films, LA MARGE (“The Margin”) stars Joe Dallesandro as Sigismond, a happily married businessman who embarks on an...

Directed by Olivier Assayas • 2016 • France
Starring Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz

With this intimate supernatural drama, the celebrated French filmmaker Olivier Assayas conjures a melancholy ghost story set in the world of celebrity and haute couture. Starring Kristen Stewart, ...