Of the myriad cinematic revolutions that swept the globe in the 1950s and ’60s, the British New Wave stood out for the raw immediacy and intense realism with which it rendered working-class lives and experiences. Emerging alongside the “angry young men” of England’s literary scene, filmmakers lik...

The free-jazz revolution that exploded in the late 1950s and early ’60s took music into hitherto unexplored realms of adventurous tonality, boundary-breaking improvisation, and ecstatic personal expression. Led by visionaries such as Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy, and Milford...

How did era-defining art films like Z, GIMME SHELTER, and SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE find an audience in the U.S.? It was thanks in large part to a groundbreaking movie-theater chain and distribution company called Cinema 5, the brainchild of an inspired, often difficult impresario named Donald Rugof...

While most genres wax and wane in popularity over time, one thing remains constant: our unending fascination with true crime stories. Real-life murderers, mobsters, and swindlers have provided models for popular horror, disquieting psychological realism, and avant-garde experiments alike. Inspire...

There was cinema before the French New Wave, and there was cinema after. The explosion of creative innovation that emanated from France in the late 1950s and early ’60s forever altered the course of film history by opening up new avenues of stylistic experimentation and trumpeting the concept of ...

This sprawling selection of films both directed and shot by women testifies to an extraordinary tradition of female collaboration behind the camera. Spanning the last half century of cinema and including work by trailblazing director-cinematographer duos such as Chantal Akerman and Babette Mangol...

From the rubble of a devastated postwar Italy, an extraordinary artistic flowering sprang forth that soon took the world by storm. Led by figures such as Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, and Luchino Visconti, a generation of filmmakers gave stirring expression to the concerns, struggles, and...

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 thru...

In 1954, an enormous beast clawed its way out of the sea, destroying everything in its path—and changing movies forever. The arresting original GODZILLA soon gave rise to an entire monster-movie genre (kaiju eiga), but the King of the Monsters continued to reign supreme: in fourteen fiercely ent...

No budget? No problem! Short on cash but flush with inspiration, these resourceful filmmakers prove that passion and creative vision can turn scarcity into opportunity. From the ultimate in B-noir sleaze (DETOUR) to counterculture sensations from the indie underground (SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSS...

Japan’s most renowned cinematographer, Kazuo Miyagawa came to film after studying traditional Japanese ink painting, training that influenced his professed desire “to use the camera to paint on film, to bring rhythm and music to camerawork, and to continue writing poetry in the tone.” That artist...

From the fiscal crisis of the 1970s to the September 11 attacks twenty years ago to a global pandemic that swept through America’s largest city, New York has seen its share of troubles over the years—but its resilience and vibrancy remain indomitable. Surveying a century of cinematic history, thi...

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...

It may be the season of cheerful carols and twinkling lights, but the holidays also bring about a melancholy mood that has inspired some of the world’s greatest filmmakers. This selection explores the clashing emotions at the heart of the yuletide spirit, including Jacques Demy’s gorgeous musical...

Few screenwriters have left such an indelible mark on art-house cinema as Jean-Claude Carrière (1931–2021). In an extraordinarily prolific career spanning six decades, Carrière left his formally inventive, thematically subversive signature on many of the most philosophically piquant films to emer...

Coined in 1994 by critic Mark Dery, the term “Afrofuturism” has become an essential framework for art about imagined and alternative Black experiences. As the author Ytasha Womack writes, “Afrofuturism combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, Afrocen...

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...

Wishing you could get away this summer? This collection of some of cinema’s most memorably disastrous trips will have you reconsidering the comforts of home. Dreaming of the crystal blue waters of the French Riviera? The existential ennui of Eric Rohmer’s LA COLLECTIONNEUSE should set you straigh...

A cross section of the last seven decades of international cinema, this lineup of past winners of the Academy Award for best foreign-language film includes masterpieces by titans like Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, and Luis Buñuel; high-water marks of the Czechoslovak New Wave;...

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 ...

Feast your eyes on a buffet of some of cinema’s most sumptuous banquets, a smorgasbord of lip-smacking delicacies that delight in the sensual pleasures and social rituals of eating. Start with a bowl of lusciously slurpable ramen in the freewheeling Japanese satire TAMPOPO, then tuck into couscou...

You’ve read—or at least meant to read—the book. Now see the movie. Just in time for the start of school, we’ve collected some of the all-time great page-to-screen adaptations, encompassing English 101 classics like “Great Expectations” and “Lord Of The Flies,” world-literature masterpieces like “...

Love sure is grand—except when it leads you to lie, steal, cheat, or even commit murder.