This film was a touchstone of the late 1960s, when it was seen as an antiwar allegory for a world in which madness seemed to reign. Of course, that would probably be true whenever this movie was shown, wouldn't it? Directed by Philippe de Broca and set during World War I, King of Hearts stars Alan Bates as a Scottish soldier separated from his unit in France. He wanders into a small French ...

Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Starring: Jacques Balutin, Alan Bates, Jackie Blanchot, Robert Blome, Pierre Brasseur

Costa-Gavras's Z, winner of the 1970 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, is a classic political thriller, combining intrigue with raw emotional power. The story turns on the investigation of the assassination of a left-wing Greek politician (Yves Montand), and his government's attempts to cover up the murky circumstances. Montand receives death threats as he prepares to give a speech ...

Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
Starring: Yves Montand, Irene Papas, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacques Perrin, Charles Denner
Directed By: Costa-Gavras

A haunting, evocative film set in the barren wilderness of Northern Shaanxi province in 1939. The life of a fourteen year-old peasant girl is changed forever by the arrival of a communist soldier.

Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
Starring: Quiang Liu, Tuo Tan, Xueqi Wang, Bai Xue
Directed By: Kaige Chen

This majestic, French-made film wishes viewers a "latcho drom"--a safe journey--as it follows the roots of the Rom, traveling people better known as Gypsies. Stunning and evocative, it transcends language and culture, bringing together the best elements of National Geographic-style documentary and music video in a kind of anthropological MTV. Using only music and image, without any steady ...

Manufacturer: New Yorker Video
Starring: La Caita
Directed By: Tony Gatlif

Manufacturer: Paramount
Starring: Jean Rochefort, Anna Galiena, Roland Bertin, Maurice Chevit, Philippe Clévenot
Directed By: Patrice Leconte

Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
Starring: Rüdiger Vogler, Patrick Bauchau, Vasco Sequeira, Canto e Castro, Viriato Jose da Silva
Directed By: Wim Wenders

Kurosawa's blackly humorous film, executed in the style of the American Western, is a sophisticated satire on greed, violence, paranoia, and human weakness. In a nonchalant manner reminiscent of a Bogart hero, a wandering samurai-for-hire (Mifune) turns the war between two clans fighting for control of a small town to his own advantage. One of the most popular Japanese films ever released in the ...

Manufacturer: Homevision
Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Eijirô Tono, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yôko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada
Directed By: Akira Kurosawa

Fresh, attentive, and emotionally shattering, the French film Ponette is an attempt to enter the world of a 4-year-old girl whose mother has just been killed in a car accident on one of the winding roads in the mountainous countryside near Lyon. Played by pudgy, sad-eyed Victoire Thivisol (winner of a controversial but perfectly understandable Best Actress award at the 1996 Venice Film ...

Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
Starring: Victoire Thivisol, Delphine Schiltz, Matiaz Bureau Caton, Léopoldine Serre, Marie Trintignant
Directed By: Jacques Doillon

Manufacturer: Triumph Films
Starring: Gérard Depardieu, Wojciech Pszoniak, Anne Alvaro, Roland Blanche, Patrice Chéreau
Directed By: Andrzej Wajda

Manufacturer: Polygram USA Video
Starring: Daniel Auteuil, Pascal Duquenne, Miou-Miou, Henri Garcin, Isabelle Sadoyan
Directed By: Jaco van Dormael