Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, Rashomon is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man?s murder and the rape of his wife. Toshiro Mifune gives another commanding performance in the eloquent masterwork that revolutionized film language and introduced Japanese cinema to the world.

In Ingmar Bergmans ?Das Siebente Siegel? kehrt der Ritter Antonius Block von einem Kreuzzug in das pestverseuchte Schweden zur?ck. Zu seiner Best?rzung erwartet auch ihn der Tod schon. Nicht bereit zu sterben, ohne den wahren Sinn des Lebens erkannt zu haben, ?berredet Block den Tod zu einem Spiel. Der Tod gew?hrt ihm eine Gnadenfrist: F?r die Dauer einer Partie Schach darf er suchen was er zu finden hofft. Ein schicksalhaftes Forschen nach Antworten ?ber das Leben, den Tod und der Existenz Gottes beginnt...

Orson Welles? second film follows the story of Eug?ne Morgan, an inventor and draftsman, and Isabel Amberson, the daughter of a wealthy upper-class family. Although deeply in love, due to their class distinctions their romance is doomed from the start. When Isabel finally marries the dull and steady Wilbur Minafer, Eug?ne leaves town. Almost 20 years later Eug?ne, now a successful automobile maker and father to 18 year old Lucy, returns and their romance starts all over again, to the great chagrin of Isabel?s arrogant son, George...

Banned in Spain and denounced by the Vatican, Luis Bu?uel?s irreverent vision of life as a beggar?s banquet is regarded by many as his masterpiece. In it, novice nun Viridiana does her utmost to maintain her Catholic principles, but her lecherous uncle and a motley assemblage of paupers force her to confront the limits of her idealism. Winner of the Palme d?or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival, Viridiana is as audacious today as ever.

The time is early twentieth century, a remote village in Bengal.The film deals with a Brahmin family, a priest - Harihar, his wife Sarbajaya, daughter Durga, and his aged cousin Indir Thakrun - struggling to make both ends meet.

Harihar is frequently away from home on work. The wife is raising her mischievous daughter Durga and caring for elderly cousin Indir, whose independent spirit sometimes irritates her... Apu is born. With the little boy's arrival, happiness, play and exploration uplift the children's daily life.

Durga and Apu share an intimate bond. They follow a candy seller whose wares they can not afford, enjoy the theatre, discover a train and witness a marriage ceremony. They even face death of their aunt - Indir Thakrun. Durga is accused of a theft. She fall ill after a joyous dance in rains of the monsoon. On a stormy day, when Harihar is away on work, Durga dies.

On Harihar's return, the family leaves their village in search of a new life in Benaras. The film closes with an image of Harihar, wife and son - Apu, slowly moving way in an ox cart.

Aparajito opens in the city of Benaras. The father dies after an illness. Apu's mother decides to return with Apu to the countryside. Young Apu and his widowed mother struggle for existence. She wants him to become a priest like his father, but he persuades her to send him to school. She makes sacrifices to make it possible for Apu to study. Apu wins a scholarship and leaves for the city, Calcutta. Sarbajaya, the mother, falls ill. Delayed by his exams, Apu arrives too late. She has died. He leaves again for Calcutta.

Apur Sansar is about Apu the man. Soumitra Chatterji, who would act in several later Ray films, played Apu. Apu has to give up studies and look for work. Unable to find a job, he is writing a novel based on his life. He gets married unexpectedly to a village girl (played by Sharmila Tagore in her debut role). Young wife finds herself disoriented in the new city life. Both soon develop a companionship and fall in love. They are blissfully happy for a year. She is pregnant and leaves to be with her family for childbirth. She dies while giving birth to their son. Apu blames the infant for its mother's death and refuses to see it. At last, he gives up his novel and goes to meet his son. Reunited, the two of them leave for Calcutta.

Fran?ois Truffaut?s intensely touching story of a misunderstood adolescent is an indictment of the injustices of the criminal justice system?s treatment of juvenile offenders. The film follows the Parisian youth, Antoine Doinel, who grows up in poverty and neglect. Engaging in childish pranks, Antoine delves into a life of petty crime. When he steals a typewriter from his stepfather to pawn it, his parents turn him over to the police and he is left at the ?mercy? of the French judicial system.

John Steinbeck's quasi-documentary study of Dust Bowl immigrants inspired John Ford's film, The Grapes of Wrath. Like Steinbeck's book, the film follows the Joads, an Okie family trying to get to California in an overloaded jalopy filled with crying children, beaten-down people, and dying grandparents. It is a sympathetic look at the fate of the farmers who fled the Dust Bowl for brighter futures in California, but encountered there instead the same class system and prejudices that had impoverished them back home.

Mexico 1925: Der Amerikaner Freddie Dobbs und sein Landsmann Curtin arbeiten in Tampico als Tagel?hner. In ihrer Unterkunft h?ren sie mit gro?er Neugier, wie der alte Goldsucher Howard von seinen besseren Tagen erz?hlt. Howard begeistert die beiden f?r eine Expedition zu einer hoch in den Bergen gelegenen Goldader. Bereits die Anreise wird zum gef?hrlichen Abenteuer, doch die M?he lohnt sich: Die Mine erweist sich als wahre Goldgrube. Doch mit dem Reichtum w?chst das Misstrauen unter den M?nnern, die in der Wildnis aufeinander angewiesen sind.