Japanese electronic-music pioneer Ryuichi Sakamoto has been at the cutting edge of both pop and avant-garde music for over four decades. Opening up a brave new world of sound through his work with his influential band Yellow Magic Orchestra, Sakamoto went on to a distinguished international caree...

Bad marriages make great movies, as evidenced by these gloriously messy, cuttingly perceptive portraits of some of the most dysfunctional relationships ever captured on-screen. With raw emotion, dramatic blowups, and soul-baring self-reflection baked into the premise, these tales of marital break...

Queer cinema has existed nearly as long as the movies themselves. You just have to know where to look for it. For the second installment of Queersighted, a series from guest programmer Michael Koresky that views film history through a distinctly queer lens, we turn our sights to a handful of film...

The richly impressionistic documentaries of Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross are wonders of regional American filmmaking made according to an unwavering philosophy: to be completely present in the moment and alive to the ecstatic humanity that passes before their camera. Transforming everyday life in...

A new breed of westerns emerged after World War II, stained by film noir’s anxious, disenchanted mood and enriched by its psychological and moral complexity. Romantic myths of the frontier gave way to tougher tales of ruthless outlaws, corrupt cattle barons, gold-crazed prospectors, mercenary gun...

Of all the cinematic New Waves that broke over the world in the 1960s, the one in Czechoslovakia was among the most fruitful, fascinating, and radical. With a wicked sense of humor and a healthy streak of surrealism, a group of fearless directors—including Miloš Forman (THE FIREMEN’S BALL), Vera ...

The great prickly humanist of British cinema, Mike Leigh has forged a body of work unique in its concern for the struggles of ordinary people and the social fabric of working-class London. Famously born from a process of extensive improvisation with his powerhouse actors, Leigh’s films inhabit a ...

Fearlessly raw, angry, and unrestrained, the films of underground auteur Gregg Araki give voice to the angst and alienation of queer youth everywhere. Emerging as one of the edgiest and most vital voices of 1990s New Queer Cinema movement with radical provocations like THE LIVING END and TOTALLY ...

Black Lives Matter, and art has a role to play in centering and celebrating the experiences of black people. Until the end of June, we’ve removed the subscription paywall from these films that focus on the dreams, struggles, desires, and art of black characters and real-life subjects. From redisc...

Power to the people! From labor organizing to armed uprising to the struggle for rights at the ballot box, cinema has long proved a powerful tool for documenting, dramatizing, and enacting political change from the grassroots up. The films collected here bear witness to the Civil Rights and Black...

Among the most fascinating chapters of cinematic history is that of the so-called “race films” that flourished in the U.S. between the 1920s and ’40s. Unlike the “black cast” films produced within the Hollywood studio system, these films not only starred African Americans but were funded, written...

The films of visionary street photographer Khalik Allah are dreamlike drifts through the margins of society, gritty and sublime portraits of the disenfranchised and dispossessed that, in their infinite compassion and philosophical insight, achieve an almost spiritual transcendence. Growing out of...

The inventive, self-reflexive films of independent trailblazer Cheryl Dunye offer multilayered, sharply funny commentaries on the intersections of black and queer identity. Over the course of six provocative, sardonic shorts, Dunye honed a unique, quasi-documentary style she dubbed “Dunyementary,...

Marrying the daredevil physical comedy of Buster Keaton with the martial-arts mastery of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan is an international icon whose awe-inspiring stunt work and acrobatic grace set a new standard for action spectacle. Working his way up through the Hong Kong film industry of the 1970s ...

The boy wonder who became the great, wandering titan of international cinema, writer-director-actor and all-around force of nature Orson Welles began his filmmaking career with some of the most dazzling and innovative opuses ever made within the Hollywood studio system—but his vision was always t...

Sprawling, labyrinthine, and obsessed with cryptic symbols, conspiracies, and clues, the films of French New Wave titan Jacques Rivette unfold like epic, choose-your-own-adventure puzzles that draw you ever deeper down their loopy, mysterious rabbit holes. Featuring his tantalizing study of postw...

In 1979, poet Adrienne Rich observed that “one of the most powerful social and political catalysts of the past decade has been the speaking of women with other women, the telling of our secrets, the comparing of wounds and sharing of words.” Curated by guest programmer Nellie Killian, Tell Me cel...

For almost three decades, Frances Marion was Hollywood’s highest-paid screenwriter (male or female), a pioneer who shaped the nascent art of script writing and whose seemingly boundless imagination yielded some of the most unforgettable words and stories ever put on screen. Like fellow trailblaze...

Two of the world’s most brilliantly original filmmakers, identical twins Stephen and Timothy Quay have, over the course of more than four decades, amassed an enormous cult following for their visionary blend of puppetry and stop-motion animation. Perhaps best known for their gothic classic STREET...

The Cannes Film Festival’s top jury prize has long been one of the most coveted awards in international cinema. Over decades of competition, the Palme has crowned instant classics like ROME OPEN CITY and TASTE OF CHERRY, recognized the mastery of auteurs like Ermanno Olmi and Mike Leigh, and occa...

When the 1968 edition of the Cannes Film Festival opened amid widespread civil unrest, filmmakers began pulling their movies from the schedule in solidarity with the workers and students protesting across France. This series gathers select titles from the year’s official lineup, alongside a scene...

Over the course of a nearly forty-year career, Louis Malle forged a reputation as one of the world’s most versatile cinematic storytellers, with such widely acclaimed, and wide-ranging, masterpieces as ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS, MY DINNER WITH ANDRE, and AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS. At the same time, how...

There were title sequences before Saul Bass, and there were title sequences after Saul Bass. The legendary graphic artist, born 100 years ago on May 8, revolutionized the art of motion-picture credits with his groundbreaking opening to Otto Preminger’s THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, using strikingl...

The most celebrated figure of the Second New Wave of Taiwanese cinema, boundary-pushing auteur Tsai Ming-liang charts the contours of contemporary alienation in mesmerizingly enigmatic works that are at once rigorously spare and richly sensuous. Spanning more than twenty years, this trio of some ...