Directed by Paul Verhoeven • 2021 • France, Netherlands, Belgium
Starring Virginie Efira, Charlotte Rampling, Daphné Patakia

The ever-provocative Paul Verhoeven brings his subversive vision to a seventeenth-century convent for this ecstatically blasphemous tale of religion, sex, scandal, and pla...

Directed by David Schickele • 1971 • United States
Starring Paul Eyam Nzie Okpokam, Elaine Featherstone, James Earl Garrison

When Paul Okpokam arrived in the U.S. in 1968, David Schickele decided to make a film about his Nigerian friend’s experience of coming to teach at San Francisco State Coll...

Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien • 2015 • Taiwan, China, Hong Kong
Starring Shu Qi, Chang Chen, Zhou Yun

The last film to date by Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien is a wondrous take on the traditional wuxia film that earned him the Best Director prize at Cannes. The story is simple, if elusive: in ni...

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 Med Hondo • 1979 • Algeria, Mauritania, France
Starring Robert Liensol, Roland Bertin, Hélène Vincent

Mauritanian French director Med Hondo’s staggering WEST INDIES: THE FUGITIVE SLAVES OF LIBERTY is a sui generis amalgam of historical epic, Broadway revue, Brechtian theater, and joy...

Directed by Catherine Breillat • 1976 • France
Starring Charlotte Alexandra, Hiram Keller, Rita Maiden

Filmed in 1976 but not released until 2000, A REAL YOUNG GIRL is Catherine Breillat’s taboo-busting directorial debut and one of the boldest explorations of female sexuality ever committed to c...

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

A visceral remake of James Toback’s 1978 film FINGERS played at fever-pitch intensity, this gritty neonoir, which swept the César Awards, centers on Tom (Romain Duris), a thuggish real-estate broke...

Directed by Takashi Miike • 1999 • Japan
Starring Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Miyuki Matsuda

In one of the most notorious horror films ever made, recent widower Shigeharu (Ryo Ishibashi) sets out to find a new wife by staging an “audition.” Interviewing a series of women, Shigeharu becomes encha...

Direcyed by Na Hong-jin • 2016 • South Korea
Starring Chun Woo-hee, Hwang Jung-min, Kwak Do-won

In this unrelentingly tense supernatural thriller, a foreigner’s mysterious appearance in a quiet, rural village unleashes a wave of suspicion among the locals—a gathering mistrust that quickly turns ...

Directed by Mauro Bolognini, Vittorio De Sica, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Franco Rossi, and Luchino Visconti • 1967 • Italy, France
Starring Silvana Mangano, Annie Girardot, Massimo Girotti

Five of Italy’s greatest directors contributed segments—each starring the divine Silvana Mangano—to this offbeat...

Directed by Jennifer Kent • 2014 • Australia
Starring Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall

An instant cult classic of psychological horror, the feature debut from Jennifer Kent packages a disquieting exploration of trauma, grief, and healing in the form of a spellbinding fairy-tale nightma...

Directed by Hideo Nakata • 1998 • Japan
Starring Nanako Matsushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Miki Nakatani

The film that launched the craze for J-horror in the West, director Hideo Nakata’s international sensation melded traditional Japanese folklore with contemporary anxieties about the spread of techn...

Directed by Dario Argento • 1977 • Italy
Starring Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci

One of cinema’s most potent hallucinogens, Dario Argento’s witchy freak-out is a sustained spectacle of outrageously stylized violence and eye-popping art direction. When doe-eyed American ballerina S...

Directed by Park Chan-wook • 2000 • South Korea
Starring Lee Yeong-ae, Lee Byung-hun, Song Kang-ho

Superstar director Park Chan-wook achieved his first major success with this masterful mystery thriller, which explores the complex relationship between North and South Korea with searing humanity....

Directed by Dario Argento • 1970 • Italy
Starring Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Eva Renzi

In his stunning first film as writer-director, Dario Argento singlehandedly created the giallo genre and instantly emerged as the filmmaker critics worldwide hailed as the “Italian Hitchcock.” Tony Musante an...

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 Emilio Fernández • 1951 • Mexico
Starring Ninón Sevilla, Tito Junco, Rodolfo Acosta

A treasure of Mexico’s cinematic golden age, this deliriously plotted blend of gritty crime film, heart-tugging maternal melodrama, and mambo musical is a dazzling showcase for iconic star Ninón Sevi...

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 flop at home, would become one of the most influential and celebrated works in all ...

Directed by Mikio Naruse • 1960 • Japan
Starring Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Reiko Dan

WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS might be Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse’s finest hour, a delicate, devastating study of a woman, Keiko (played heartbreakingly by Hideko Takamine), who works as a bar hoste...

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 Sarah Minter • 1991 • Mexico
Starring Ciro Basilio, Ana Hernandez, Marco Pavon

Alma (Ana Hernández) spends her days in screen printing, selling records at swap meets, and rehearsing plays and making fanzines with her friends. But Mexico City’s vibrant counterculture scene won’t keep...

Directed by Kidlat Tahimik • 1977 • Philippines Starring Kidlat Tahimik, Mang Fely, Dolores Santamaria

Acclaimed by Werner Herzog as “one of the most original and poetic works of cinema made anywhere in the seven...

Directed by Glauber Rocha • 1964 • Brazil Starring Geraldo Del Rey, Yoná Magalhães, Othon Bastos

Myth, mysticism, and revolution collide in a blistering existential western from Glauber Rocha, a pioneer of B...