Art House & International Essentials: German Cinema
Without German cinema, American film history would be a shadow of itself, since Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau, and other greats would transfer their talents to the United States starting in the 1920s. Throughout the 1930s, distinctive actors and directors, like Peter Lorre, Douglas Sirk, and Billy Wilder, would follow suit. Before that migration, however, Germans made some of the most stunning films to grace the silver screen. From Werner Herzog to Wolfgang Petersen and Tom Tykwer, new visionaries continue to emerge with style and attitude to burn. Check out our
Essential German Cinema on DVD, including:
›Essential German Cinema DVDs
Art House & International Essentials: Chinese-Language Films
Chinese-language cinema reached new heights of artistic maturity and expression with the rise of the “Fifth Generation” group of filmmakers. Daring directors Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige confronted taboo subjects such as the Cultural Revolution and social oppression in their portraits of China’s turbulent past and present. Other outstanding directors of China’s current cinematic renaissance include Hong Kong’s quirky and poetic Wong Kar-wai and Taiwan’s most famous export, Ang Lee. Explore our
Essential Chinese-Language Films on DVD, including:
›Essential Chinese-Language Films
Art House & International Essentials: French Cinema
French cinema has a history of innovation and excellence reaching back to the dawn of movies, and renewed with each passing season. Georges Méliès, the Lumière brothers, Louis Feuillade, Abel Gance... Jean Renoir explored the interlayering of theater and life, tragedy and absurdity, in an epic range of genres and settings. Robert Bresson, Jacques Tati, and Jean-Pierre Melville all established utterly distinctive styles and visions, and became inspirations to a generation of critics and film historians who themselves became filmmakers--the French New Wave that reinvented movies. Check out our
Essential French Cinema on DVD, including:
›Essential French Cinema DVDs
Art House & International Essentials: African Cinema
Though it's taken longer for Africa to assert itself as a filmmaking force on par with Europe or Asia, technological advances (specifically the digital camera) have set African directors free to share their deeply-moving, frequently allegorical stories with the world. Over the decades, this diverse territory has birthed master directors like Senegal's Ousmane Sembene and Egypt's Youssef Chahine. In the 2000s, Chad's Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (
Bye Bye Africa,
Daratt) and Mauritania's Abderrahmane Sissako (
Waiting for Happiness,
Life on Earth) have become two talents to watch, and many more will surely arise in the years to come. Check out our
Essential African Cinema on DVD, including:
›Essential African Cinema
