The third film of Rossellini’s heartbreaking neorealist ‘War’ trilogy tackles postwar Germany through the eyes of a boy suffering from material and moral poverty.
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Germany Year Zero (1948)
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Category / Criterion Collection
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Flowers of St. Francis, The (1950)
Rossellini’s work here is masterful, shot in a neorealist if also painterly style, that captures the purity and spirituality of ascetic Roman Catholicism in the early 13th century.
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Rome Open City (1945)
Rossellini’s breakthrough film is not just a defining work of Italian neorealism, but a powerful anti-war statement.
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Contempt (1963)
Emotions run deep in Godard’s masterwork as it charts the deterioration of a couple’s marriage whilst set against the chronic uncertainties of a movie production.
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Certain Women (2016)
A triptych of stories of ordinary women in Montana, whose vulnerabilities and desires are given the quiet Kelly Reichardt touch in this slow and contemplative work.
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Cul-de-sac (1966)
Polanski’s Golden Berlin Bear winner traverses the territory of absurdist cinema in what is a sporadically engaging but sharp commentary on power plays associated with psychological sadism and the gender and classist pressures to conform.
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Story from Chikamatsu, A (1954)
Mizoguchi’s superb late career form continues with this masterful period drama about strict social norms and gender roles, with themes of adultery and romantic passion giving it thematic complexity.
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Osaka Elegy (1936)
A young woman becomes her married boss’ mistress to help her debt-ridden father in this ‘30s classic from Mizoguchi that would pave way thematically for his later films about ‘fallen women’.
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Zatoichi and Chess Expert (1965)
There may not be much action, but this quite solid 12th instalment takes its time to give us well-developed characters in a narrative about strategic one-upmanship.
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Eternality Tan 