Junge's testimony is a salutary reminder that Hitler was like other people in ways, and that the evil he manifested could visit us again if more civilized humans don't remain watchful.

Metropolis has a place in world history as well as in the annals of fantasy. Adolf Hitler was said to have loved it, and Lang eventually fled Germany for Hollywood when the Third Reich wanted him to run its movie industry. Few movies of any era offer so much varied food for thought, cinematically and politically. Its new restoration is a major motion-picture event.

Among the picture's many surprises is a superb robbery scene filmed in a near-total silence that contrasts exhilaratingly with the noisy flamboyance of more recent films in this venerable genre.

This astoundingly beautiful Korean production is poignant, original, and engrossing.

Rohmer's films are renowned for their beauty, so it's surprising that he made a picture using digital video rather than film. But this was the right choice.

It's dark, funny, ferocious, and vintage Wilder all the way.

Weir had a truly magical touch in early films like this 1977 masterpiece, which offers a transfixing excursion into the "dream time" of Australian myth.

Berri lets the story develop in a leisurely and organic way, capping it with a last scene that's subtle and satisfying. Jean-Pierre Bacri is just right as the man and Emilie Dequenne is perfect as the maid.

Indelible images and brilliant use of unconventional music make this a nonfiction film that must be seen – and heard – to be believed.

The acting is superb, the filmmaking is imaginative, and the story never goes quite where you expect.

A fascinating nonfiction voyage into rural and urban France, focusing on idiosyncratic individuals who live off things the rest of us throw away, from food to furniture.

Stunningly smart, genuinely disturbing film.

Excellent acting, intelligent screenwriting, and dynamic filmmaking give this Mexican production a forceful emotional and intellectual charge.

The drama's elegant structure, which takes you through a series of surprises so smoothly and logically that it might be over before you realize you've seen one of the new year's most intriguing, intelligent movies.

It's no accident that this movie is named after both the filmmaker and his subject. It stands with the most thoughtful releases of recent months, and will linger in memory.

Intelligent, revealing, and sometimes hilarious.

Morris's unique blend of realism and surrealism gives the film great resonance as a portrait of one eccentric individual and, more important, a study of the morbid proclivities that run beneath the surface of our supposedly civilized society.

A smart and scary voyage into the uncanny realm where hard realities,mind-spinning myths, and hallucinatory visions blur.

Suspenseful and ingeniously directed.

You may become a cinemaniac yourself after sitting through this beauty.

Egoyan's cinematic brilliance shows up intermittently in this atmospheric thriller, which gains most of its punch from Hoskins's surprisingly subtle performance.

It's illuminating and nostalgic and for anyone who lined up for American movies in that bygone golden age.

Wong has acquired a loyal cult following over the years, and Dupont's exquisitely filmed episodes show why.

Movies don't come more original, inventive, or outlandishly entertaining.

Cinema's greatest surrealist is at the peak of his powers in the last movie of his unparalleled career.

Makhmalbaf continues her rise as Iran's most promising young female filmmaker, and Iranian cinema extends its reign as one of the world's most exciting cultural phenomena.

Stillman brings his usual sharp wit to this exploration of upper-middle-class angst, completing the comic trilogy he began with "Metropolitan" and "Barcelona."

One of the best pictures so far this year, marking a high point of Rudolph's career and reconfirming the extraordinary talent Mr. Campbell has shown in earlier films. Dentistry will never seem the same.

Barbet Schroeder directed the ingeniously made film, which weaves fact, hypothesis, and conjecture into a harrowing yet continually gripping and often highly amusing narrative. [12 Oct 1990]

Ms. Denis is one of contemporary film's best stylists. Friday Night is part tone poem, part love song, and all pure magic.

The movie elegantly mingles drama, comedy, and low-key spiritual resonance. It also has a splendid cast.

Kaurismaki is Finland's greatest filmmaker, and never has he more artfully balanced his patented blend of deadpan humor, low-key melodrama, and toe-tapping music.

Pinter's screenplay offers an exciting mixture of psychological suspense and storytelling surprise, and the lead performances are close to flawless.

Avoiding the clichés and condescension that characterize many films on religious figures, the movie is at once a compelling drama and a thoughtful look at faith-related issues on personal, social, and cultural levels.

Most of the way this ranks with the Coens' most immaculately crafted work. Cain would have loved its dreamlike chills, and so will audiences nostalgic for the movies of half a century ago.

Obviously a profoundly personal film, but it's also a smartly conducted tour through the world of building and design that Kahn towered over during the most successful phases of his career.

Dumont's cinematic style is aggressively physical and philosophical at the same time. It irritates as many viewers as it inspires, but it prompts more thought than ordinary movies ever do.

Chabrol's filmmaking has rarely seemed more assured, elegant, and intelligent.

The acting is smart and gritty, Almereyda's visual style has a raw immediacy found in few films with Shakespearean pedigrees, and an eclectic music score adds atmosphere and surprise every step of the way.

The movie is a portrait, not a polemic -- but I can't imagine an attentive viewer leaving Love & Diane without increased understanding and concern with regard to inner-city life.

Masina gives one of her most expressive performances.

Wit, joy, imagination, and sensational mid-'60s music.

The credo of Italy's fabled neorealist movement was that movies rooted in real, unadorned experience carry more dramatic impact than studio concoctions can dream of, and this 1952 masterpiece exemplifies that argument brilliantly.

Everyone raves about this 1957 film -- and everyone's right.

The story has old-fashioned characters and situations, and Haas has sensibly filmed it in an old-fashioned way, stressing visual appeal rather than the story's sordid undertones. The acting is excellent, too.

Along with its historical value, The Weather Underground is also a terrific movie, energetic, and articulate. It's the don't-miss documentary of the season.

In addition to its own merits as a social and cultural document, Broomfield's film continues the welcome trend of more and more nonfiction movies finding their way to theater screens and attracting wide general audiences.

Written and directed by a brilliant screen artist at the peak of his powers, it's an utterly original comedy-drama.

The result is a history lesson both invaluable and horrific.

The legendary Mifune leads a superb cast, and Kurosawa's kinetic camera keeps the adventure sizzling with energy and wit from start to finish.

Bruce Willis is bruisingly good as the hero and Brad Pitt is suitably zany as the activist who dogs his trail.

This is a sad and funny true-life tale that speaks volumes about the difficulties of independent filmmaking.

It combines a fresh and exciting style with stunning performances and that rarity in current film, a deeply humanistic story.

Stands with the greatest science-fiction movies ever made.

The filmmaking is meticulous and the ideas are endlessly thought-provoking.

A fact-filled study that's also a full-fledged work of cinema art. [2 Sept 1988]

Noyce's movie pares away the novel's meditations on the futility of war and the importance of religion. It retains the book's thoughtful blending of psychological and moral issues.

Superb performances from a nonprofessional cast. It's gripping, timely, and revealing.

Take a chance on Gerry. It's only a movie, and you'll get out alive no matter what happens on the screen. You might even find you've had a rare adventure.

Like many Altman movies, this is less a dramatic story to follow than an atmospheric environment to visit.

In the Mirror of Maya Deren, creatively written and directed by Martina Kudlacek, is an eloquent memorial to her unique accomplishments -- and an excellent introduction for those who have yet to discover them.

Feisty, funny, and smart.

The movie should fascinate anyone interested in politics, publishing, and the uneasy marriage between big money and mass communication.

Ingenious, eye-opening documentary.

All give heartfelt, unflashy performances that help make Shattered Glass one of the season's most thoughtful offerings.

Not that Honda's original Godzilla is a message movie first and foremost. It's a horror flick, and an ingenious one at that, with visual effects so vivid that gimmicky spin-offs became an enduring staple of popular film.

This superbly acted, expressively filmed story offers a rare blend of compelling drama, ethical awareness, and sheer human emotion.

Movie-style romance may never look quite the same. Neither will flower petals.

The suspense isn't exactly breathtaking, but there are some mighty fine laughs in this clever Claymation cartoon.Family fun for all.

It's a troubling, courageous, compulsively watchable work of art.

When he's good, Mr. Mamet is very good indeed, and Spartan stands with the best work he's done. It's fast-moving, unpredictable, and as tautly, tightly wound as thrillers get.

The secret to enjoying 8 Women is to check your analytical mind at the popcorn counter and settle back for almost two hours of cinematic mischief.

Like its star, it's quietly sincere and compulsively watchable.

Acted as a drama, paced like a ritual, filmed as a slice of rural Iranian life.

Excellent acting, a stirring screenplay, and crisply intelligent directing make this fact-based movie a great human drama as well as a riveting and revealing look at crucially important social issues.

Extravagant and funny it is, and also quite dark at times.

Episodic and uneven, but it has moments of great emotional power.

A quintessential New York director made this quintessential New York movie in 1973, with Pacino at his best.

Made near the end of Buñuel's career, it's not his greatest movie, but it contains some of his most memorable moments.

Cantet has rich insights into this material, and brings them alive through sensitive acting and powerful filmmaking.

From its star-studded cast to its indelible camerawork by the legendary Giuseppe Rotunno, it's an unforgettable experience by a revered master of European cinema.

The visual style is at once deliberately archaic and slyly postmodernist, slinky and sensuous from first frame to last.

Blurring all the lines between fiction and documentary, this gentle and amusing movie blends real, unrehearsed material with delightful storytelling scenes.

There's a new visual idea every second, each teeming with energy, pitch-dark comedy, and inspired cinematic lunacy.

His readings of his own work are especially thoughtful, moving, and provocative in the best possible ways.

Polanski's directing is marvelously assured and Depp is always fun to watch.

Cary Elwes is marvelously funny as the hero. [25 Sept 1987]

This is a great companion piece to Hou's masterly "Flowers of Shanghai" and fresh evidence of his status as Taiwan's greatest filmmaker.

Supercharged with an energy and ingenuity that "Run Lola Run" once had a patent on.

In the acting department, there's nobody on the current scene with more sheer talent --- or offbeat charisma -- than Philip Seymour Hoffman, in whose bearish body nestles the heart of a lithe and limber artist.

Moody, atmospheric, and bewitching, like other first-rate examples of modern Thai cinema.

Deeply personal, morally alert, and highly entertaining.

The movie is woven with care and complexity, again confirming von Trotta's place as one of the world's greatest female filmmakers.

A full-fledged masterpiece.

The latter element joins with Crudup's excellent acting to make this deliberately scruffy tale a worthwhile experience if you can handle its explicitly sordid subplots.

A pungent, powerful film that points an accusing finger not at religious beliefs but at flawed human institutions. It also targets social and cultural mores that are almost medieval in their patriarchal bias against girls and women.

A glistening gem among caper movies, this impeccably elegant jewel-heist drama takes its title from Buddhist lore, its cast from France's great gallery of leading men, and its style from the unique blend of cinematic savoir-faire and brooding existential angst.

The movie's main contribution is its fresh look at the Vietnam War, being refought in the Kerry-Bush presidential campaign at the time of the film's release.