Click here to copy URL

Take the Tour: "Classic films and European auteurs"

Classic films and European auteurs
50
Rate movies made by the best European directors of the 20th century
  • La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life)
    Italy - 1960
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    On assignment to chronicle the lives of the rich and famous Italian aristocracy in a gossip column for a Roman newspaper, Marcello (Mastroianni) floats from one fabulous ...
  • Fanny & Alexander
    Sweden - 1982
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    The story is set in 1907 Uppsala, Sweden, and deals with a young boy named Alexander, his sister Fanny, and their well-to-do family, the Ekdahls. The siblings' parents ...
  • The Third Man
    United Kingdom - 1949
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Holly Martins, a pulp novelist who has come to post-WWII Vienna with the promise of work from his friend, Harry Lime. When he finds that Lime has just been killed in a ...
  • L'Atalante
    France - 1934
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    When Juliette marries Jean, she comes to live on his ship, on board of which are, besides the two of them, only a cabin boy and the strange old second mate Pere Jules. ...
  • Wild Strawberries
    Sweden - 1957
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    It explores the disillusionment of an elderly physician, Professor Isak Borg, as he reflects upon his life and begins to perceive his mortality. As he travels to Lund to ...
  • Diabolique
    France - 1955
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Michel Delasalle (Paul Meurisse), the headmaster of a provincial boarding school, becomes the target of a murder plot concocted by his wife Christina (Véra Clouzot) and his mistress (Simone Signoret).
  • The Phantom Carriage
    Sweden - 1921
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    It's New Year's Eve. Three drunkards evoke a legend. The legend tells that the last person to die in a year, if he is a great sinner, will have to drive during the whole ...
  • Eight and a Half (8½)
    Italy - 1963
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), a filmmaker who is at a crisis point in his life and his work, struggles to make a new movie. This creative block triggers his ...
  • Rififi
    France - 1955
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Tony le Stéphanois (Jean Servais) is a grim, hardboiled crook fresh from a stretch in stir for the noble gesture of taking a rap for his younger buddy Jo le Suedois (Carl ...
  • Grande Illusion
    France - 1937
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    1916, during World War I. Lieutenant Maréchal and Capitaine de Boeldieu are two combat pilots who are shot down by the Germans. They are taken to a prisoner of war camp ...
  • Umberto D.
    Italy - 1952
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Umberto Ferrari, aged government-pensioner, attends a street demonstration held by his fellow pensioners. The police dispense the crowd and Unberto returns to his cheap ...
  • The Leopard
    Italy - 1963
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Set in 1860s Sicily, it portrays the decline of an aristocratic family under the crushing weight of political change. The film traces the waning of the noble home of ...
  • Wings of Desire
    Germany - West Germany (FRG) - 1987
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    The sky over Wenders' war-scarred Berlin is full of gentle, trenchcoated angels who listen to the tortured thoughts of mortals and try to comfort them. One, Damiel (Bruno ...
  • Stalker
    Soviet Union (USSR) - 1979
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    The setting is an unnamed country in an unforeseen postapocalyptic future. A meteorite has landed, and its impact has created a mysterious phenomenon known as the Zone, ...
  • Underground
    Yugoslavia - 1995
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    'Underground' takes a look at the modern history of Yugoslavia through the often absurd misadventures of two friends over several decades. The film begins in Belgrade in ...
  • Band of Outsiders (The Outsiders)
    France - 1964
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Three young people, Odile, Arthur and Franz meet up at an English language class and become instant friends. They share an interest in literature and crime fiction. When ...
  • A Man Escaped
    France - 1956
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    April 1943, during WWII. Fontaine, a 27 years old young man who is a member of the French Resistance fighting against the nazis, is arrested by the Gestapo in order to be ...
  • 1900 (Novecento)
    Italy - 1976
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    In 1901, in the north of Italy, the same day Giuseppe Verdi died, the sons of a landlord and a farm worker are born. They will be inseparable friends, although his ...
  • Babette's Feast
    Denmark - 1987
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    In 19th century Denmark, two adult sisters live in an isolated village with their father, who is the honored pastor of a small Protestant church that is almost a sect ...
  • The Cremator
    Czechoslovakia - 1969
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Karl works at a crematorium in Prague. Obsessed with his duties, he believes he is not just cremating the dead, but liberating the souls of the departed. With Nazi forces ...
  • Before the Rain
    FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia) - 1994
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    The circularity of violence seen in a story that circles on itself. In Macedonia, during war in Bosnia, Christians hunt an ethnic Albanian girl who may have murdered one ...
  • Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
    Spain - 1988
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    A woman's lover leaves her, and she tries to contact him to find out why he's left. She confronts his wife and son, who are as clueless as she. Meanwhile her girlfriend ...
  • Rocco and His Brothers
    Italy - 1960
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    It is the story of a poor family torn apart by lust and greed. Rocco (Alain Delon), a soft-spoken, idealistic young man who must deal with turmoil and competition when he ...
  • The Spirit of the Beehive
    Spain - 1973
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    In a small Castilian village in the early 40s, in the wake of the devastating Civil War, Ana and her sister, having seen a mobile projection of Frankenstein, becomes ...
  • Pickpocket
    France - 1959
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Michel takes up picking pockets as a hobby, and is arrested almost immediately, giving him the chance to reflect on the morality of crime. After his release, though, his ...
  • Goodbye Children
    France - 1987
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    During the winter of 1943, Julien Quentin, a pampered mother's boy who acts tough to the students at the school but is actually a soft kid who wets the bed, leaves his ...
  • Once Upon a Time in the West
    Italy - 1968
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti), the power-hungry owner of a railroad company, hires Frank (Henry Fonda), a gunfighter without a conscience, to kill anyone who stands in the ...
  • The Last Laugh
    Germany - 1924
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    It tells the story of an elderly hotel doorman whose world crumbles when he is demoted to lavatory attendant. He is embarrassed by his new position so he tries to hide ...
  • The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
    Germany - 1933
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Berlin police inspector Lohmann investigates a case, in which all clues lead to a man, who's in a hospital for mental illnesses for since many years - Dr. Mabuse.
  • The Tree of Wooden Clogs
    Italy - 1978
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Ermanno Olmi’s Palme d’or-winner about the hardships faced by peasants in late 19th-century Lombardy is a masterpiece of neorealism. This wonderful portrayal of rural ...
  • Breathless
    France - 1960
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    The first feature film directed by Jean-Luc Godard and one of the seminal films of the French New Wave, Breathless is story of the love between Michel Poiccard, a ...
  • All About My Mother
    Spain - 1999
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    A Greek saying states that only women who have washed their eyes with tears can see clearly. This saying does not hold true for Manuela. The night a car ran over her son ...
  • Stromboli
    Italy - 1950
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Karen, a young woman from the baltic countries, marries fisherman Antonio to escape from a prisoners camp. But the life in Antonio's village, Stromboli, threatened by the ...
  • Bicycle Thieves
    Italy - 1948
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    After nearly two years of unemployment, Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) finally finds work posting bills. But he needs a bicycle to do the job. Unfortunately, he was forced ...
  • The Executioner
    Spain - 1963
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    An undertaker's assistant marries an executioner's daughter, and the new groom takes on his father-in-law's job but grows real squeamish when the time comes to execute ...
  • The South
    Spain - 1983
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    "El Sur" ("The South") is the story of Estrella, a little girl from Southern Spain who has been uprooted to the North. Estrella maintains a sentimentalized attachment to ...
  • Ordet (The Word)
    Denmark - 1955
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    In a conservative, super-pious Danish town, the widower Morten Borgen -- the father of three boys -- cuts against the grain of the community with his constant heretical ...
  • Casque d'or
    France - 1952
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    In an open-air dance hall, the members of Leca's gang are relaxing with their ladies. One of them, Marie, aka "Casque d'Or" (Golden Helmet) meets Manda, a carpenter. Her ...
  • The Hole (The Night Watch)
    France - 1960
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Year 1947. In France, a young man, Gaspard Claude, is convicted for the attempted murder of his wife, although he is innocent of the crime. He is sent to the notorious ...
  • My Night with Maud
    France - 1969
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    3rd entry in the series "Six Moral Tales" by Eric Rohmer. The narrator (Jean-Louis), a devout Catholic, moves to a provincial town and vows to marry Francoise, a pretty ...
  • The 400 Blows
    France - 1959
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    14-year-old Antoine Doinel has troubles at home and at school. Ignored and neglected by his parents, his relationship with his mother is further strained when he ...
  • A Summer's Tale
    France - 1996
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    The third film in Eric Rohmer's Tales of the Four Seasons. A shy maths graduate takes a holiday in Dinard before starting his first job. He hopes his sort-of girlfriend ...
  • The Rules of the Game
    France - 1939
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    André Jurieu (Roland Toutain), a French aviation hero, has fallen in love with Christine de la Chesnaye (Nora Gregor), who is married to wealthy aristocrat Marquis Robert ...
  • Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom
    Italy - 1975
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Set in the Nazi-controlled, northern Italian state of Salo in 1944, four dignitaries round up sixteen perfect specimens of youth and take them together with guards, ...
  • The American Friend
    Germany - West Germany (FRG) - 1977
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Jonathan Zimmermann, a picture framer in Hamburg is diagnosed as having leu leukemia. Ripley, an American art dealer dealing in forgeries, uses this fact to arrange for a ...
  • The Virgin Spring
    Sweden - 1960
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Set in 14th century Sweden, it is the sombre fable of peasant parents whose daughter, a young virgin, is brutally raped and murdered by goat herders after her half sister ...
  • Children of Paradise
    France - 1945
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    It follows a mysterious woman (Arletty) loved by four different men (all based on historical figures): an actor, a criminal, a count, and, most poignantly, a mime ...
  • Amarcord
    Italy - 1973
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    It explores the life of a small Italian coastal town in the 1930s, during the Fascist period.
  • Cries and Whispers
    Sweden - 1972
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    Karin and Maria come to the aid of their dying sister, Agnes, but jealousy, manipulation, and selfishness come before empathy. Agnes, tortured by cancer, transcends the ...
  • Nosferatu
    Germany - 1922
    Director:
    Cast:
    Synopsis:
    It follows the familiar story of Count Orlok moving from his ruined castle to the city of Wisborg, after the visit of one Thomas Hutter. Once there he becomes involved ...
Movies from this Rating List. (Click on a movie to rate it)
  • La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life)
  • Fanny & Alexander
  • The Third Man
  • L'Atalante
  • Wild Strawberries
  • Diabolique
  • The Phantom Carriage
  • Eight and a Half (8½)
  • Rififi
  • Grande Illusion
  • Umberto D.
  • The Leopard
  • Wings of Desire
  • Stalker
  • Underground
  • Band of Outsiders (The Outsiders)
  • A Man Escaped
  • 1900 (Novecento)
  • Babette's Feast
  • The Cremator
  • Before the Rain
  • Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
  • Rocco and His Brothers
  • The Spirit of the Beehive
  • Pickpocket
  • Goodbye Children
  • Once Upon a Time in the West
  • The Last Laugh
  • The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
  • The Tree of Wooden Clogs
  • Breathless
  • All About My Mother
  • Stromboli
  • Bicycle Thieves
  • The Executioner
  • The South
  • Ordet (The Word)
  • Casque d'or
  • The Hole (The Night Watch)
  • My Night with Maud
  • The 400 Blows
  • A Summer's Tale
  • The Rules of the Game
  • Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom
  • The American Friend
  • The Virgin Spring
  • Children of Paradise
  • Amarcord
  • Cries and Whispers
  • Nosferatu
arrow