The human brain seeks patterns. While we praise creativity and inspired art, a new work is rarely an entirely novel invention. Painters study the work of other painters; the patterns of nature inspire architects and writers reimagine old stories they heard from their parents as kids.

Creative work is based on repetition and variation; while the artist cannot help, but repeat what they saw from others, they would also transform some of these elements and this variation the key to a new, genuine artwork. Repetition on the other hand is what enables genre classification. Films are grouped into genres based on the similarities in their plot, but these categories are not closed, uniform classes.

The genres themselves can change over time, move from one continent to another or mix with another genre. This is necessary for the genre in order to stay alive, however, occasionally the variation can lead to the birth of a rather strange subgenre or new genre. However, odd genres are not all the love children of other genres; our list also features categories that made their way into film from the realm of computer games or arts.

10. Ostern

Ostern is the Eastern European version of Western, which was popular in the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. While the genre borrows the memes from the American Western, it puts it into a Soviet context. In opposition to the Western’s shady heroes, the main character of the Ostern is a perfect example of the ideal, innocent Soviet hero, while the red rocks of Monument Valley are replaced by the Russian steppe. T

he historic background is naturally the Russian Revolution. The films that were produced mainly during the 60s are affected by the Soviet propaganda; but they usually follow the plot of any American western: a village recruits a strange hero to defend it from the adversary – which will be the Cossacks in an Ostern.

However, especially in Checkoslovakia and Yugoslavia, the genre was affected by the sardonic humour of the national cinema, such as Oldrich Lipsky’s Lemonade Joe (1964). Here the central conflict unfolds around alcohol. Lemonade Joe is a teetotal cowboy who fights the owner of the local bar, convincing the inhabitants of the benefits of a healthier lifestyle.

Examples: Lemonade Joe (1964), The Elusive Avengers (1966), White Sun of the Desert (1969), The Bodygurad, (1979)

9. Parkour films

There is no need to mention that film played a key role in they way computer games evolved. The presence of multiple ‘camera angles’, the increasing focus on the face (and voice) of the characters (who are often played by actual actors like in Masseffect or Fallout), is an example of the influence the movies had on the video game industry. However, this is not a one-sided relationship: computer games prove to be a similarly inspirational pool of ideas for filmmakers.

This is how bullet-time made its way into film, and that Parkour is evidence of. Parkour, a.k.a. free running, is a frequently used element in video games such as Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia or Mirror’s Edge. In Parkour games, getting through obstacles is an equally (if not more) important part of the gameplay as is fighting the enemy: the player has to run, jump and climb on walls and rooftops, making movement the chore element of the game.

However, one could say that movement has always been in the centre of video games, as in most situations the player has to guide a character from one point to the other. When it is applied to films however, the increased focus on movement results in a gripping, concentrated action movie.

Movement becomes the new action. Instead of the old school duel of Westerns, where the opponents are facing each other while steadily waiting for the final gunshot, in Parkour films the way the characters escape the tough situations is more important than the fight itself. There are no steady moments, just acrobatic jumps and great urban landscapes.

Examples: Yamakasi (2001), District 13 (2004), Prince of Persia (2010)

8. Bollywood horror

It is natural in the life cycle of a genre to change when it moves from one geographic location to the other and is adapted by a national cinema different to the one that gave birth to it. In some cases the result can be a rather unique subgenre as the importing country applies the national traits of their own film industry to the genre.

Bollywood film is unique enough in itself, but when combined with a genre coming from the West, the result is undoubtedly special. Bollywood horror is not a new phenomenon; its appearance dates back to the 40s. What makes this variation of the horror genre very unique is the presence of the Bollywood trademark musical scenes with singing.

The first Indian horror film was Mahal from 1949, starring the iconic Bollywood actor Ashok Kumar. The film was a great success, resulting in a quick upswing in the popularity of Bollywood horror. Although it might just be an exotic experience for some fans, Hindi horror is important for posing criticism at patriarchy, politics and economic success through the images of terror in the various scenes of everyday life: the workplace, family life and the urban space.

Examples: Mahal (1949), Bees Saal Baad (1962), Raat (1992)

7. Necrorealism

Necrorealism is a post-avantgarde Russian art movement form the 80s, established by a small group of experiemntal artsists and led by filmmaker Yevgeny Yufit. The necrorealist film examines death with the curiousity of a coroner. However, death is not certain in these movies: In an act of rebellion, corpses come back into a sort of half-life that symbolises the confused state of postmodern art itself.

The handful of filmmakers that started the movement approached the subject of death with a good amount of black humour and sardonic curiosity. Inspired by a pathology textbook, the art group started with live performances of violent death and torture scenes as a clear will to shock their audiences before establishing a small film studio in Leningrad.

Their short films feature people in the wilderness doing various wild things, zombie-like mutants as a result of a scientific experiment and a group of strange-behaving men in medical uniforms killing a sailor.

Necrorealist film glorifies death in a similar way neorealists praised life. It is not a coincidence that it was Eastern Europe where the genre sprouted into life; as a flower blooming on the rotting corpse of socialism it praised death in opposition to the socialist pathos.

Examples: Werewolf-Orderlies (1984), Spring (1987), Suicide Warthogs (1988)

6. Bizarro

When something is too weird to be labelled as a cult film it can be called a Bizarro. Although it is not a widespread terminology, the expression Bizarro film is more and more frequently used to describe a group of films with absurd, surreal and grotesque elements, which are thought-provoking and flabbergasting at the same time.

The name Bizarro was first applied to describe a literary genre, which includes fiction that the reader mainly enjoys for its weirdness. It is not a coincidence that one of the key publishers associated with the genre is called Eraserhead Press: David Lynch’s Eraserhead is one of the best film examples for Bizarro, followed by the entire Jodorowsky filmography.

Examples: Eraserhead (1977), Holy Mountain (1973), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

At the early stages of film history, the medium was mainly considered as a means of reproduction. No doubt, like photography embalms time, a key aspect of film is that it is able to record and conserve movement. However, theorists, such as Eisenstein and Karacauer realised early on that film is more than the simple reproduction of reality, and argued that it is, in fact, the seventh form of art.

The argument of these theorists was underpinned by some excellent expressionist films such as Metropolis or The Cabinet of Dr Caligary – the latter featured on this list. Yet, as the Hollywood studio system emerged, the experimental approach to film form took a back seat and gave way to the classical Hollywood narrative. The main idea here was to preserve the continuity of the story at both visual and narrative levels.

Even though the classical Hollywood system remained stable until the 60s, as the WWII shook the world and collective memory, film, alongside of other arts, saw the appearance of directors and movements that rejected the old conventions. These directors were mostly auteurs who developed their own, unique mise-en-scene.

Instead of the continuity of the story they brought something else into the centre of the screen – in some cases (as exemplified by Last Year in Marienbad) this was the human mind, dreams or memory, in other cases (as we see in Persona) this is the figure of the Artist himself.

In these movies the importance of the plot and action was dwarfed by the beauty of the form itself. Omitting conventional narrative logic, these films offered an unusual story enriched with philosophical and artistic references, requiring a certain level of cultural precognition from their audience.

As European art film gained international recognition, Hollywood film could not stay unaffected by its innovations for long. Directors, like David Lynch and Kubrick, who stand on the borderline of art film and popular cinema, took over the narrative innovations of the former and introduced them to the wider audience, producing some mind-twisting movies that mix the memes of popular culture with a good amount of auteurist novelties.

This list aims to cover the most significant films with unusual narrative from the early stages of film history up until today, when directors are yet again forced to look for new ways to shock the audience who is already familiar with the weird twists of a Lynch, Fincher or Christopher Nolan movie.

The pool of great mind-twisting films is almost infinite, therefore, when it came to selecting 15, we tried to focus on films and directors that best represent the emergence of this narrative form, as well as how it has been implemented by popular cinema under the effect of art film.

15. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene; 1920)

During the early phase of film history expressionism was the first movement to try and free film from its responsibility to be no more than the reproduction of reality or time embalmed. With the use of strong contrast between light and shadows, unusual camera angles and distorted shapes in the setting expressionist film creates a delirious, dreamlike atmosphere that is ideal for early horror films.

Robert Wiene’s silent horror film is a metaphoric story. Screenwriters Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz embodied their criticism of the German Empire’s war government that conditioned the common people (symbolized by Caligari) to kill. However, Wiene implemented the script with a change: in his version the story is being told by an inmate of a mental institution who has an obsession that Caligari, the director, is an insane criminal who hypnotizes people to kill.

Even though, according to Kracauer, this frame tames the harsh social criticism of the film; it turns it into a special piece of early cinema history, one that establishes unreliable narrative.

14. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky; 1979)

Nature plays a pivotal role in Tarkovsky’s deeply spiritual, existential cinema. In Stalker two men, the Professor (a scientist played by Nikolay Grinko) and a poet called Pisatel (Anatoliy Solonitsyn), pay the Stalker (Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy) to escort them into the Zone. Crossing the barbed wire fence and an embattled territory they arrive to their destination. The Zone is a mystical land of a nature once rich and lively, now seriously war-torn and abandoned.

It is through this land’s labyrinths that Pisatel and the Professor have to find their way to the Room, a place that promises to make every desire to come true. Pisatel and the Professor’s journey is a metaphoric one, during which Tarkovsky explores the real purpose of science, art and everyday life.

The Zone is a special space. Its derelict architecture evokes a hypothetical nuclear war and at the same time the collective memory of the soviet era and the Gulag camps. The wounded but colourful organic space of the Zone signifies a certain disillusioned hope in opposition to the desaturated village which operates as a trap.

13. Werckmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr; 2000)

After the seven-hour long Satantango, Werckmeister Harmonies with its two and half-hours is a fairly short Bela Tarr film, but this does not make it an easier watch. Bela Tarr is a remarkable director who is mostly known for his slow movies.

The most particular about his films is their silence: there is not much happening on the screen while people slip from one condition into another. Tarr’s scenes are often long takes, letting the characters naturally exist in their surroundings. However, it is exactly this minimalistic naturalist mise en scene that makes his films stylized, dreamlike and not easy to empathize with.

Werckmeister Harmonies opens with a particularly long pub scene: Janos (Lars Rudolph), the central character explains an eclipse to the drinking folks, using them as living props. It is hard to tell when the drunken people fall out of their roles as planets and turn the scene into a delirious dance, but there is certainly an apocalyptic air by the end of the scene.

This is followed by a circus truck arriving into town that beholds the dead body of a whale. The arrival of this monster and the cold stirs up the calm life of the town, leading to tensions and tragic uncertainty. The film’s climax comes at the sudden appearance of the Prince from behind the whale: his mysterious character appears to trigger the people’s murderous passions.

12. Adaptation (Spike Jonze; 2002)

If it comes to film adaptations better than the originals, Adaptation must be mentioned among the finalists. Spike Jonze’s way of putting Suzan Orlean’s book on screen is astounding: instead of simply turning the plot of the literary work into a screenplay, he created an ‘intellectual adventure movie’ by telling the story of the man trying to adapt the book of Suzan Orlean. However, it is not as simple as that.

Jonze’s in-film screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) suffers from a writer’s block and the annoying shadow of his easy-going twin brother, Donald (Nicholas Cage). Trying to write the screenplay of the film about a journalist (Meryl Streep), who is writing a bestseller about an orchid thief (Chris Cooper), he suddenly finds himself literally involved in the adventures of his characters.

If you prefer your brain constantly being tickled by a complicated multi-layered story than the experience provided by watching an ordinary adventure film, then Adaptation is your sort of film. You have already seen it? Watch it again! It has several hidden subtleties to reveal once you’re done with the intellectual challenge of deciphering who writes the story of whom, who writes the story of another person.

11. El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky; 1970)

Alejandro Jodorowsky never produced a conventional film. Coming from a background in theatre, he became the master of surreal, absurd cinema with El Topo, which established the director’s international fame among the lovers of cult films. In this surreal, metaphysical western Jodorowsky himself plays El Topo, the lonely journeyman who travels on horseback with his own, naked child on his lap. He asks the child to bury a teddy bear and the picture of his mother.

Later he leaves the boy with the monks and carries on with his journey with a new, female companion. It is a spiritual journey – El Topo is in search of the four Masters to learn and master the art of killing. In order to fulfill his destiny however, he has to murder the four unbeatable Masters, which is only possible through tricks and lies.

During this process El Topo learns how to be truthful and achieves redemption. Jodorowsky’s film is a dark, visionary story that mixes Christian, Buddhist and Teoist symbols with elements familiar from spaghetti westerns.

10. The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry; 2004)

Michel Gondry’s romance uses non-linear narrative to tell the story of an estranged couple who are trying to erase their memory of each other in order to put an end to their relationship. However, as Joel (Jim Carry) goes through the procedure of memory erasure, the images of their relationship come up once again and his subconscious doesn’t seem to let go of the memory of their happier times.

The plot is organised around Joel’s memories, following the events of past in reverse order. However, it is not only the order of time that gets shuffled up. Some characters from Lacuna, where the memory erasure is taking place, turn out to be playing more prominent roles. The relationship of the characters forms a complicated cobweb. It is revealed that some of them went through the procedure themselves and that it is not that easy to trick the human mind.

9. Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais; 1961)

The 60s brought an end to the long reign of traditional narrative in film, giving space to more experimental storytelling structures. Alain Resnais frees moving images from their bondage to space and time and renders dream and memory the key organisational power to control the flow of light and shadow on the screen.

This crystallizes in Last Year at Marienbad, which was a critically acclaimed success. In this dreamlike movie the borderline between space and time diminishes and it is hard to distinguish between the layers of reality, dreams and hypothetical fiction.

The audience is forced to lose their trust in the characters and traditional storytelling at the same time. If one wants to decipher this film, it can only be done by accepting the director’s rules: space and time is relative. Instead of focusing on the characters and the action, the film strips its lead figures of their names and places time at the centre of attention. The man at the beginning of the film claims that he met the woman in Marienbad one year ago, while the woman has no recollection of their encounter.

Whether one of them is right or both of them are lying – possibly no one can tell, but as the film goes on and new variations of similar situations arise, it slowly loses importance. Due to the disorienting shifts in time and space the film is a hard one to follow, but if one can surrender themselves and let the film rule, watching Last Year at Marienbad is a beautifully poetic film experience.

While some people love British comedies, others might say that they are rude, dull, and not the least bit funny. But what makes British comedies essentially British? The quirky characters, the inordinate abstract humour of the Pythons, and the stereotypically British everyday situations are all essential contributors, but they are not the only ones.

Most British comedies are highly political or socially sensitive (in some cases perhaps more insensitive), combining these situations with oddly out of space characters (zombies from “Shaun of the Dead”), slapstick comedy elements (the Black Knight from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”) or other harsh, stereotypical jokes.

Even though particularly the earlier comedies include several references that are specific to British culture, quite a few of the nation’s comedies were successful even outside the country’s borders. The key to this is the black humour that invites the audience to laugh at their own misery, and at the same time providing escapism.

As long as it is possible to make a joke about a certain situation, it cannot be too bad – that is the British approach that allows comedians to mock religions, ethnic groups and history. Although they can sometimes go a bit too far, like it happened with the Pythons when “Life of Brian” was banned in several countries.

15. Death at a Funeral (Frank Oz, 2007)

In Frank Oz’s black comedy, humour based on characters replaces the absurdity of situations. An oversized family gathers for the funeral of a businessman in the English countryside, but instead of a sublime family get-together, the event transpires into a chaotic farce.

An old uncle who can’t quite control his bowel movements (Peter Vaughan), an anxious fiancée (Alan Tudyk) who is accidentally given some drugs instead of Valium resulting in a naked scene on the rooftop, and a midget (Peter Dinklage) as an unexpected guest wanting to blackmail the family with photos of the deceased and himself in a compromising situation, form the core of the quickly evolving disaster.

Interestingly, the film received better reviews in international markets than in the UK. While some UK critics said the brilliant cast was wasted on a mediocre comedy, US critics praised the film as a well-paced comedy where the tragicomic situations follow each other exactly at the right time to enhance one another.

Perhaps “Death at a Funeral” offers a slightly consumerized version of British humour, but the sharp black humour and the brilliant cast is a combination that simply works.

14. 24 Hour Party People (Michael Winterbottom, 2002)

Although Winterbottom is an auteur with a genre-diverse filmography, the integrity of his style is recognisable in his most mainstream movies as well as his art films. This is also true about “24 Hour Party People”, a delirious overview of the famous (or infamous?) Manchester music community from the late 70s to the early 90s.

The film is centered on the character of Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan), a key figure of the Manchester music industry who, coming from a background in television, established Factory Records, the record label linked to Joy Division and New Order, amongst others. Winterbottom playfully mixes real events with fictional elements – and he is not shy to admit this. His uncomplicated mise-en-scene is as down to earth as the heavily northern accented characters of his film.

While some of the self-referential scenes will only make sense for those who are familiar with the musicians of the Manchester scene, this trippy film is a great, essentially British comedy that makes you laugh at other people’s misery.

13. The Full Monty (Peter Cattaneo, 1997)

Despite the strongly suggestive title, “The Full Monty” is one of the mildest comedies on this list, following the tradition of the Ealing series. It is a heart-warming mixture of kitchen sink realism and light-hearted comedy, proving that even sombre issues like unemployment, mental health problems and sexual difficulties can be discussed in a more light-hearted way. “The Full Monty” combines the genres of kitchen sink realism and comedy in a way to get the best out of both.

The setting is the industrial city of Sheffield and the heroes are six unemployed former factory workers – the perfect foundation for a kitchen sink drama. The mise-en-scene also plays along to enhance the realism of the film: the external scenes, like the steelworks, the canal scene and some road scenes are carefully constructed to include the industrial cityscape within the frame.

The interior shots, like the scene at the job centre, provide the social framework, and the six unemployed men, who come up with the idea of getting rich by the best ever Chippendale show, are responsible for taking the edge off the cold realism with discreet humour.

12. The World’s End (Edgar Wright, 2013)

There is an iconic pub in London’s Camden Town that goes by the same name as the one that lent the film its title. If you ever end up in North London on a Friday night and there is nowhere else to go for a pint (unlikely event), you can always go to the World’s End and mingle with a quirky crowd while surrounded by a selection of pinned insects. The pub concerned in the film is almost as iconic as the renowned London establishment: it is the last stop of the famous Golden Mile pub crawl, which incorporates the 12 pubs of Newton Haven.

Gary King (Simon Pegg) disappointingly failed to do the 12 pints, 12 pubs challenge in his better days as a teenager, but, years later, as a middle-aged man he decides to revisit the city and reunite with his old friends to give the pub crawl another go. However, as the not-so-young group attempts to reconcile the past, they have to realise that a lot has changed in Newton Haven and aliens have now invaded the city.

The third piece of Edgar Wright’s Three Flavours Cornetto is a great piece of British comedy with a good amount of blokey banter and pinch of nostalgia for the old days when a pint at the pub after school dragged on until the next morning, resulting in hilarious stories to tell.

11. Life is Sweet (Mike Leigh, 1990)

Mike Leigh is known for his lengthy film production technique where, without having a screenplay, he slowly establishes the film together with his actors during long improvisation sessions. Leigh’s movies are centered on the small, everyday issues of life.

Thanks to the aforementioned working process, this is represented in a genuinely spontaneous and honest way, where the actors not only breathe life into their characters, but seemingly become one with them, while the presence of the camera remains unnoticed. “Life is Sweet” follows the same principle.

This comedy, about a working-class London family constituted by two twin sisters and their parents living in a relationship that today’s kids would describe as ‘complicated’, does not offer moments of loud laughter, but rather it gives its audience an insight into their own daily problems, with a pinch of light humour.

The colourful mise-en-scene recalls Douglas Sirk’s “Imitation of Life”, but apart from the visuals, the two films couldn’t be more different. While Sirk’s actors move around the set with the pretentious beauty of 50s films, Alison Steadman (Wendy), Jim Broadbent (Andy), Jane Horrocks (Nicola), Claire Skinner (Natalie) and Timothy Spall (Aubrey) play their part in this North London melodrama very naturally and spontaneously.

10. Lavender Hill Mob (Charles Crichton, 1951)

Part of the Ealing Comedies, “Lavender Hill Mob” is a crime comedy set in the post-war austerity of Britain and Paris (in part) and includes a brief, charming appearance by Audrey Hepburn.

Henry Holland (Alec Guinness), who works as a bank clerk, manages to put his hands on a load of gold bullion and is ready to retire from work; unfortunately he faces the dilemma of how to smuggle his treasure abroad. When he meets Alfred Pendelbury (Stanley Holloway), a solution to the problem surfaces: smuggling the gold to Paris in the form of Eiffel Tower paperweights.

However, things get complicated when the gold disguised as paperweights is set out for sale and British schoolgirls buy a few of them as souvenirs. A rush through Paris and London starts in order to recover the gold before it reaches London and before the police lay their hands on it, unveiling the crime.

9. Four Lions (Christopher Morris, 2010)

No film could be more up to date politically than “Four Lions” is at the moment. Chris Morris’ British comedian’s brilliant black comedy is centred on a group of Islamist suicide bombers who try to perform a terrorist attack in London. Five years after the 7/7 in London, “Four Lions” treats both religious parties with equal criticism and respect.

The Islam jihadists, Omar (Riz Ahmed), Waj (Kayvan Novak), Faisal (Adeel Akhtar) and Hassan (Arsher Ali) are portrayed as funny but human characters at the same time. Together with the white convert, Barry (Nigel Lindsay), the group decides to perform their terrorist attack during the London Marathon (after discarding the idea of bombing a mosque and a Boots), which turns out to be a disaster.

The authorities trying to defend the public are as useless as the giddy terrorist: and as a result, the police kill more innocent people and likewise, more terrorists are assassinated by fellow jihadists. “Four Lions” is a comedy on terrorism as much as it is on the war against terrorism, with not the slightest shadow of blasphemy.

The documentary filmmaker has a responsibility towards their audience. In their roles they are perceived as the advocates of truth, they are expected to reveal hidden secrets and tell their story as accurately as possible. At the same time however, a documentary filmmaker has to face the challenge of keeping objective distance from their subject, which, on many occasions, proves more difficult than it may seem.

The relationship between film and reality has been a recurring topic of since the early age of cinema. André Bazin for instance makes a distinction between two kinds of filmmakers; defining one group as those who “put their faith in the image” and the other as those “who put their faith in reality”.

Since the camera is only capable to record a reflection of the reality, it is through editing where the director can try and get this image as close to reality as possible. Inevitably though, the filmmaker themselves have an opinion on their subject, which will have an effect on the final product. The most difficult task for a documentary filmmaker is to find the balance between objective reality and relating their subjective opinion to their audience.

This list tries to give example of a number of the issues a documentary filmmaker has to face, such as the elementary question of whether something should or should not be filmed as exemplified by Catfish. Other films, such as Grizzly Man, Amy and Searching for Sugarman, relate to the issue when the filmmaker’s persona is strongly present in the film, affecting its objectivity; while Blackfish touches on the problems and ethical questions of filming wild animals.

Providing topic for debates and receiving some criticism, it should be noted though, that these films are from the cream of the genre, excellent documentaries that managed to relate their story to the audience in a highly engaging way, and by doing so, a number of them succeeded in raising public awareness.

10. Catfish (Ariel Schulman; Henry Joost, 2010)

In the digital age anyone can make a film. Most people have a device, which is capable of recording moving images; hence often the most simple, everyday situations of our lives become the topic of someone’s amateur film. But who wants to become a subject of someone’s story without their knowledge?

Catfish kicks off as an innocent semi-home video: Ariel and Henry, the two young filmmakers turn their camera on Nev, Ariel’s brother, and start recording his curious online relationship with a little girl, Abbie. Their impromptu film appears to be made simply to kill boredom and slightly annoy Nev.

However, Nev is not entirely against the camera: his initial shyness gets subdued by narcissism when he becomes acquainted with Abbie’s attractive older sister, Megan, and they start an online relationship. Whereas Nev has the chance to deny or accept the presence of the camera in his private life, Abbie’s family do not. The filmmakers of Catfish record their life as presented on Facebook, their phone conversations and texts, exposing them to judgement and criticism without their knowledge.

This exploitation gets even more enhanced and questionable when the three men head off for Michigan to visit Megan… A dark surprise is awaiting them there, which they are recording with hidden cameras, turning the documentary into a gripping thriller.

Also at the same time they are revealing the darkest secrets of someone’s, victimising this person in front of the camera by dramatizing their life. Catfish plays on the dirty pleasure of voyeurism that Big Brother capitalises on so well, except this is real life, which makes it even more controversial.

9. The Bridge (Eric Steel, 2006)

In 2004 Eric Steel continuously recorded the Golden Gate Bridge over the course of a year in order to film every single suicide. He ended up with over 5,000 hours of raw material and 23 recorded suicides. His film was generally acclaimed; however, it also prompted some criticism.

The fact that the director requested permission for filming from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area for a project capturing how man-made structure and nature cross their ways resulted in strong opposition by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area when it became apparent what the film was about. According to Steel’s statement he had to hide the real topic of his documentary as he would have not gotten approval, and he also wanted to hide this from the public.

Some criticism concerned the film staff observing the suicides instead of trying to intervene. This claim was denied by the crew, who admittedly informed the bridge authority whenever someone showed suicidal signs and there was time to prevent them jumping. Nevertheless, The Bridge is an emotionally shaking movie that revels the dark mystery of this monument, and raises the question why has nothing been done yet to prevent the suicides.

8. Nanook of the North (Robert J. Flaherty, 1922)

With Nanook of the North Flaherty established a new type of documentary film. Focusing on one individual instead of the entire group, Flaherty brings the everyday struggle of Inuit people closer to the audience than any documentary made before Nanook. At the same time, however, he does not work with only genuine footage. Some scenes of Nanook were staged and Flaherty even had some members of the group play certain roles.

Does this make his film less objective? Doing the same today would most probably count as too much intervention, meaning that the documentary filmmaker prioritised their subjective story over the real time situation. One should bear in mind though that at the time of Flaherty there were no set rules for documentary filmmaking and also capturing a specific moment with the rudimentary equipment available at the time often proved to be difficult.

Thus Flaherty’s tampering with real life events primarily served the purpose of depicting events that he might have witnessed whilst living with the Inuit but was not able to capture on camera, and just secondarily did he use staged scenes in order to dramatize the story of Nanook.

7. Amy (Asif Kapadia, 2015)

Asif Kapadia assembled his film from the material of 100 interviews and a rich collection of original footage of Amy Winehouse. Every frame of the film is real, either from the life of the singer or of the interviewees.

There is no external narrator, yet, Amy has been harshly criticised by some, who thought that it victimises the late singer and incriminates the father. Mitch Winehouse was the loudest to attack the film, saying that it magnifies his role in the death of Amy. But also the singer’s ex-boyfriend, Reg Traviss, complained that the movie gives a false picture of Amy’s last months.

Amy is a typical example what risks are awaiting the documentary filmmaker at the stage of editing. Even with a film that consists of factual scenes, when the filmmakers make their decision to include some scenes and discard some others they inevitably create an alternative version of the story. Asif Kapadia implied his reading of Amy’s life on the documentary he made, which does not necessarily comply with that of everyone.

6. Fahrenheit 9/11 (Michael Moore, 2014)

Michael Moore’s documentary, discussing the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack, received equal amount of praise and criticism. While in Cannes critics regarded it as a political statement in criticism of Bush, in America it was criticised for going too far and attempting to demoralise the state and plant doubts in people.

Even though it is a prominent role of documentary film to reveal the truth and give access to the story behind the news to people, it is difficult to tell when does a political documentary become demoralising. Although Fahrenheit 9/11 revealed essential truths about the Bush government, it also had the potential to become a handy weapon for anti-Bush campaigners – especially as it was released so close to the elections. Moore did not keep the necessary distance from his topic too.

As Alejandro Jodorowsky tells about his never made Dune, his energy radiates through the screen with an irresistible strength. Watching Jodorowsky’s Dune, a documentary directed by Frank Pavich, we do not get the impression that Dune was a failure or a doomed project.

On the contrary, Jodorowsky’s passionate commentary speaks of an exceptionally inspired work, during which a diverse group of strongly talented people contributed with original ideas to a visionary dream. Together they created the plans of this trip-like science fiction fantasy, which, even unmade, inspired some of the greatest sci-fi movies that we know today. But how could a film never made become so inspirational?

Jodorowsky, founder of the chaotic Panic Movement in theatre, started his career as a film director in the 70s with films similarly surrealistic to his theatrical work. After acid western El Topo he received $1 million to direct his next film, which was Holy Mountain, another psychedelic, surrealist work of art. Even though it generated limited return, this was the film that drove Jodorowsky into the attention of Michel Seydoux, who became the producer of Dune.

Jodorowsky, who had never read Dune before, wrote the script in 1974 and began his hunt for people who could make his dream come true. His first great discovery was comic book illustrator Jean “Moebious” Giraud, who became his “camera” and drew the storyboard of Dune frame by frame. Next he had to find the person who could work on the special effects.

Although first he wanted to get Douglas Trumbull, the special effects designer of 2001: A space Odyssey, with an unexpected twist he decided to hire Dan O’Bannon, who had only participated in one film as a visual effects designer. Chris Foss, known for his science fiction book cover artwork, and Swiss painter H.R. Giger also joined the visual team, and, according to Foss, thanks to the incredible, inspirational energy of Jodorowsky, they produced some of their best pieces of work while working on Dune.

For Jodorowsky, science fiction was a theatre and Dune was his “Prophet”. With his film he wanted to change how young people looked at the world. Unfortunately, he never succeeded in making this film, as all studios he approached rejected the plans of a 12-hour long psychedelic movie, and he refused to cut it. However, thanks to the 20 copies of the phone book-sized storyboard with countless beautiful drawings of scenes and design concepts,

Dune continued to live on even after its failure. Furthermore, Jodorowsky introduced some exceptional young talents like O’Bannon, Moebius and Giger to the film industry, and these people carried the legacy of Dune into their future projects. This is how Dune happened to be one of the most influential films never made, and here is our list of the seven greatest films that probably wouldn’t exist without Jodorowsky’s Dune.

1. Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)

The film that most directly shows signs of being influenced by Jodorowsky’s Dune is Alien. In 1974, Jodorowsky had managed to gather the greatest minds of film, music and popular art to work on the plans. In the documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune the director said he needed his ‘spiritual warriors’ for the film, and every single person on team was handpicked so that they would share the director’s passion and psychedelic dreams.

Jean “Moebius” Giraud, H.R. Giger, Chris Foss and Dan O’Bannon worked on the visuals of the film, and the cast even included names like Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, Mick Jagger and the band Pink Floyd. Although Dune, that could have been ’the greatest achievement in science fiction’ (according to Nicolas Winding Refn), never became reality, it did not evaporate into nothing without leaving its legacy behind.

When the project failed, O’Bannon, who would have been working on the special effects of Dune, went on to work on a script that would later develop into Alien. He found himself greatly inspired by the nightmarish paintings of H.R. Giger, who admittedly used art as a way of self-therapy to express the dark images of his subconscious.

O’Bannon said in an interview that he “hadn’t been able to get Hans Ruedi Giger off his mind” after leaving Paris, and therefore ended up writing a script essentially about a Giger monster. He then advised Ridley Scott to get Giger on the team for the film, and with the addition of Jean “Moebius” Giraud and Chris Foss as a concept artists, the four made sure that at least a fraction of what has been created during the pre-production works of Dune would be seen by millions on the screen.

Looking at Ridley Scott’s film, it is apparent that the Alien Xenomorph has its roots in the design of the Harkonnen Castle that Giger produced for Dune, since atop this construction there is a head-shape with a lengthened skull very similar to that of the Alien Xenomorph.

2. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)

George Lucas was not afraid to dream big when he started working on Star Wars. He wanted to reproduce the fantastic tales of his own childhood and at the same time awaken the inner child that is there in all of us.

Although his project was personal and strongly fuelled by his love of graphic novels and fantasy stories, it was also essential for him to produce a big hit, a film that would be loved and enjoyed by people of all age and background. In order to achieve this he merged the classic elements of western, fantasy, war movies and adventure film in a gigantic cosmic tale and used the latest computer technology to bring to life creatures never seen.

The result was a record-breaking blockbuster that cost $11 million but in the forthcoming years produced $190 million only from US sales. Yet, Star Wars, the all-time favourite sci-fi saga that established the popularity of the genre in the film industry would perhaps never been able to have the same frenetic success without Jodorowsky’s Dune.

At the time sci-fi fantasy was not the obvious choice for a blockbuster, but Lucas already had some experience in sci-fi with THX 1138, and it seems likely that he would have had a chance to see a copy of Dune’s storyboard that Jodorowsky had sent to all major studios.

This material potentially served as an inspiration for the concept design of several Star Wars creatures, including Jabba, who strongly reminds us of Baron Harkonnen in his monstrosity. Not only does the character design evoke Jodorowsky’s Dune, but the first scene of A New Hope, often regarded as one of the best ever opening scenes, appears to be influenced by the opening scene of Dune as Jodorowsky imagined it.

The first scene of Dune would have been a long shot, admittedly inspired by The Touch of Evil by Orson Welles, starting with the camera traversing the universe, slowly zooming in to reveal galaxies, then stars, then planets and finally, spaceships in combat. Compare this to the opening of A New Hope, where the establishing still of a planetary body and its moon is made dynamic by a tiny space ship moving into frame as it is chased by an enormous star cruiser.

Both directors create the sensation of motion through space, but George Lucas decided against the long shot and divided the sequence into multiple scenes.

3. Contact (Robert Zemeckis, 1997)

Robert Zemeckis became known as a director mentored by Steven Spielberg, who was also the executive producer of his first two films. The real breakthrough in his career was Back to the Future in 1985, the sci-fi comedy that since became a cult film. He is often being labelled as a director mainly interested in special effects, although his biggest success was Forrest Gump, which did not particularly build on after-effects.

This was followed by Contact, which almost had nine times the budget of Star Wars ($90 million) and involved the work of almost all major visual effect companies, including Industrial Light & Magic, Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital and Pixar’s RenderMan. Until 2004 the opening scene was the longest computer generated long shot in live action film – evoking Jodorowsky’s opening scene for Dune better even than Star Wars.

Comparing it to the plans of Dune’s opening scene, one has to realise that it is literally the reverse of the greatest long shot never made. Zemeckis’ shot starts with a close-up of the surface of Earth and a medley of contemporary music and other radio sounds.

As the camera moves farther away from the planet Earth the radio signs become older and older, and at the same time the solar system shrinks into a single spot of light in the Milky Way only for the camera to further retreat and show other galaxies and a wide shot of the universe.

Without Dune this monumental opening scene would perhaps never have been made. However, it is probable that the limitations of 70s technology would have prevented Jodorowsky from realising his vision quite as fully as Zemeckis in the 90s.

Dogme 95 is a movement established by a handful of Danish directors. Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, Soren Kragh-Jacobsen and Kristian Levring signed the Dogme 95 manifesto and created the Vows of Chastity to support inexpensive filmmaking in opposition to big budget productions.

To protest against the expensive but insubstantial products of the special effect-driven Hollywood industry was not the only aim of the four directors; they stated that the auteur concept established by the French New Wave was “bourgeois romanticism”. Their aim was to emphasize that the creation of a movie is a collective process where the director and actors should cooperate as equals and therefore the former should never be credited as the creator of the film.

The Vow of Chastity is a list of ten restrictions a Dogme film should follow (although most proponents violate one or more of these rules). The manifesto is essentially an attack against the elementary factors of filmmaking that all directors work with and could hardly avoid using during their work.

It is perhaps due to the challenging nature of the list that the first films of the Dogme movement came three years after the signing of the manifesto: Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration and Lars von Trier’s The Idiots featured at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.

Although the movement gave birth to a few extraordinary, innovative movies that not only manage to promote the joy of collective filmmaking but are also pivotal in their social criticism, ultimately the restrictions proved to be more obstructive than inspirational.

Despite starting off as a similarly innovative phenomena to the French New Wave, the Dogme 95 project appears not to have had a comparable global revolutionary influence on filmmaking. Nevertheless, it produced numerous groundbreaking pieces, of which here is our list of the 20 best.

The 10 points of the Vow of Chastity:

1. Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).
2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot.)
3. The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted.
4. The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6. The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now).
8. Genre movies are not acceptable.
9. The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
10. The director must not be credited.

20. Fuckland (Jose Luis Marques, 1999)

The first Argentinian Dogme is a mockumentary about Fabian Stratas, a comedian who goes on a trip to the Falklands and documents this experience with his own hidden camera. Fabian soon sets his eyes on Camilla, and from this point the film focuses on how the central character tries to reterritorialize the Falklands through his relationship with this woman.

The two characters are the only performers in the film – all the others are locals unconscious about the fact that a film was being shot. Hence the movie was largely filmed illegally, helping the strange story to qualify for the approval of the Dogme 95 Committee.

19. Joy Ride (Martin Rengel, 2000)

The Swiss Dogme is based on a newspaper report about the death of a girl who was bullied and assaulted by the members of her group. The plot is not so different from a typical scary movie: a group of youngsters kill their time driving around the town when the addition of a girl to the group stirs up the situation, leading to a tragic end.

Although the inclusion of death and violence goes against the rules of Dogme filmmaking (the film must not contain superficial action), the amateur actors, the use of a hand-held camera and genuine locations make this film fit into the line of non-Danish Dogme films. While the strong socio-political statement common in most Dogme films is not as apparent as it could be, Joy Ride is an interesting example of how Dogme is constantly challenged by its own rules.

18. Gypo (Jan Dunn, 2005)

Gypo, one of the relatively recent films recognized by the Dogme 95 movement, is the first ever British Dogme film. Interesting difference from Danish Dogmes is that the film focuses on working class people. The story is centred on Helen (great performance by Pauline McLynne), her cooled-down marriage with Paul (Paul McGann) and the Czech immigrant Tasha (Chloe Sirene) who came into their life as a friend of their daughter’s.

The cinematography and subject of the film make it very similar to the British social realism of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. However, while the dysfunctional working class family and the topic of immigration offer a strong plot, the often-improvised scenes give the impression of a film graduate’s work instead of documentary realism.

Although the acting is great, the big drama of Dogme films seems somewhat over the top and unnatural in the milieu of kitchen sink realism. Despite its weakness in terms of British social realism though, as a foreign Dogme film, Gypo is a worthwhile watch with great moments of spontaneous filmmaking and a gripping story.

17. Once Upon Another Time (Juan Pinzas, 2000)

The first Spanish Dogme well represents the few typical memes that we can see being repeated in most of these movies. Once Upon Another Time is about the reunion of a group of old university friends who in the present live their (only seemingly) happy lives until the occasion brings up not only old memories, but all the psychological and sexual tension that existed between the members.

Rosendo (Monti Castineiras), the host, Nacho (Victor Mosqueira), Lorento (Isabel Vallejo) and Lucas (Vicente de Souza) turn out to be in a peculiar love quadrangle, but there are other unsettling secrets for the friends to work out too.

Psychological deficiency and frustration is often a central motif in Dogme films, and there is hardly any movie on this list where we can’t see a celebration or a family gathering occurring where the tension between the characters culminates. The first ever Dogme film, The Celebration entirely focuses on such an event, and so does the film of Juan Pinzas.

However, while the revelations in Vinterberg’s movie come as a shock, the secrets that get unveiled in Once Upon Another Time are not so surprising: by the time the characters reveal them, the audience would already figured them out.

16. Julien Donkey-Boy (Harmony Korine, 1999)

Although Harmony Korine’s film was recognized by the Dogme 95 committee, it does not come as a surprise that, like many other Dogme movies, it violates a few of the ten rules. It occasionally uses non-diegetic sound, and admittedly, some scenes were shot with hidden cameras that were not hand-held. However, these scenes are used to capture unpretentious reactions, therefore serve Dogme filmmaking by putting the people featuring in the movie before the apparatus.

Korine excels the documentary-style achievable by applying the rules of Dogme filmmaking, and mixes this with plentiful of surrealism resulting in an eccentric, istic but visually stunning movie.

The first American Dogme film is an experimental piece that tells the story of a schizophrenic, Julien (Ewen Bremmer), from his own point of view. Werner Herzog gives an extraordinary performance as the father, and the film is full of memorable filmic moments. However it is exactly the opposite of those Dogme films that omit filmic formalism in order to focus on a story and its human characters without any frippery.

15. The Breadbasket (Matthew Biancaniello, 2002)

Directed and acted by Matthew Biancaniello, The Breadbasket is a short film about Harry, the actor suffering of eating disorder that finally makes his life impossible. Harry has an antagonistic relationship with food, his body and girlfriend, yet, he can’t do anything to change his life and do something against the ravenous attacks.

Even though the film works with the most minimalistic mise-en-scene to compile with the rules of Dogme 95, the result is a surrealistic story on the demonic appetite, similar to the Hungarian Taxidermia. Despite the brief length of the film it is a powerful testament of the modern illness of depression and eating disorders.

As the best Dogme films, it does not only give an insight into a disrupted human mind, but it places the audience into the point of view of the character, resulting in a memorable, but rather uncomfortable cinematic experience.

Film is a medium that is able to capture history as it happened and preserve the images of the past. Hence, since its invention, it has been an instrumental means of recording the most important events of human history, especially the atrocities of war. Besides documenting however, film also offers the opportunity to construct entirely or partly fictional stories.

On this occasion, we are not going to discuss the relationship between reconstruction and construction and subsequently, how ’real’ we consider the moving images of our history to be. Instead we are going to focus on the role movies play in remembrance.

By looking at the collection of documentaries and fictional films of a certain historic event, we are able to see how our memories of that event have changed over time.

After WWII, several films were produced on the Holocaust, and these pictures became important elements in the process of remembrance and as documents/testaments of the accounts of survivors. While some of these films are instrumental in rendering history and therefore turning the focus on the victims of the Holocaust, others bear witness to the conscience of a new generation trying to come to terms with the shadows of their past.

21. Sarah’s Key (Gilles Paquet-Brenner, 2010)

Sarah’s Key is one of the few entirely fictional films on the Holocaust, featuring a past and present layer of narrative. The past goes back to 1942, the year when the deportation of the French Jews began in Paris with the infamous Vel d’Hiv Roundup.

Following the Strazynski family, whose daughter Sarah (Mélusine Mayance) left her little brother locked up behind a secret door at their home; the film represents the humiliating terror of this event particularly well. The present thread of the narrative follows Julia (Kristin Scott Thomas), a journalist working on a story about the Roundup.

Where Sarah and Julia’s story meet is the flat: it turns out that Julie’s father in law was the member of the family that moved in to the place where Sarah is desperate to return to open a door.

Despite Kristin Scott Thomas’ great acting, the film’s main strength is Sarah’s story. Driven by the little girl’s desperate will to find her brother, as well as some great supporting roles (Niels Arestrup playing Sarah’s foster father is memorable), the past has a well-paced and gripping narrative that makes it a worthwhile watch.

20. Sunshine (Istvan Szabo, 1999)

Ralph Fiennes appears to be a favourite choice of actor for directors working on Holocaust films. In this family drama that aspires to represent a hundred years Hungarian Jewish history, he performs as a significant member of three generations each, in a rather convincing performance.

Szabo’s film is not a perfect one, yet it is an important piece in the corpus of Holocaust films. It points out what is rarely shown in a similar way on screen: that besides being Jewish, the victims of the Holocaust were of Polish, German, French or Hungarian nationality, some of them putting their trust into their nation until the very last moment.

The Sonnenscheins changed their names and religion, and were influenced by the contradictory political ideologies that existed in Hungary over the hundred years. When the time came, they did not earnestly believe that the Holocaust could affect them too.

It did however, and even the Catholic national hero, Adam Sors (Fiennes) was sent to the death camp along with other Jews of the country. The strength of Sunshine is the grandeur of the historic tableau it represents; however, it is a shame that even the three hours running time didn’t allow the director to linger on and give a more detailed character representation, which one would expect from a family drama.

19. The Counterfeiters (Stefan Ruzowitzky, 2007)

The Counterfeiters is based on the story of the Operation Bernhard – a program that was meant to destabilise the British economy by flooding the market with counterfeit notes. This micro narrative focuses on Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), a counterfeiter who is able to evade death in the concentration camp due to his drawing skills.

Later, as he is transferred to Sachsenhausen to oversee the counterfeit note production, the audience is only shown glimpses of the horrible images of the Holocaust. Death, terror and famine are mainly present through their absence. They exist on the other side of the wall which separates barracks 18 and 19 from the shocking reality of the rest of the camp.

For a viewer who is familiar with Holocaust films, the rare instances when the evidence of the genocide manages to cross the wall are more than enough to place the story in context though, underlining the characters’ moral dilemma that this film is really about.

18. Au Revoir Les Enfants (Louis Malle, 1987)

Louis Malle’s film is an extraordinary, beautiful and personal confession, even though in terms of mise-en-scene it is less innovative than the director’s previous works. Au Revoir Les Enfants is based on Malle’s experience as a child when he studied at a religious school and became friends with a Jewish boy – he only found out that the boy was Jewish when he was deported.

In the film Julien (Gaspard Manesse) is a well-pampered boy from a rich family and a leader at school. When he returns to school after a holiday, Pere Jean introduces three new students. At first he is having an antagonistic relationship with the awkward Jean Bonnet (Raphael Fejto), but they soon become friends and Julien finds out about his friend’s secret: the boy’s real name is Kippelstein and he is a Jew.

The Golden Lion-winner movie is a school drama and a moving film about childhood nostalgia from the point of view of an adult. However it is also a story about people who stood up for humane values at a time when there were not many brave enough to do this.

17. Fateless (Lajos Koltai, 2005)

Fateless is a rare example of a Hungarian film achieving international success. Although it has not been nominated for an Oscar, it was clear from the very beginning that the adaptation of Imre Kertész’s Noble prize novel was going to be a big-budget production.

In Hungary, this usually entails a director with some experience in Hollywood (Lajos Koltai previously known as cinematographer of Malena and Sunshine), at least one well-known foreign actor (Daniel Craig in a cameo role) in the cast, as well as fairly traditional narrative and cinematography. Although this is a necessary compromise if producers want to secure a big budget for a film; it is bound to attract criticism among Hungarian film scholars and critics.

While in Hungary the film was criticised for being too mainstream and for not reflecting the novel’s innovative language in its visual style, it received more positive rating from foreign reviewers. It has been praised for Gyula Pados’ cinematography that represents well the bleak transition from everyday life to the camps, and for giving an unmerciful close-up of the lurid episodes of life in a camp while allowing no emotional catharsis for the audience.

16. Korczak (Andrzej Wajda 1990)

Wajda became the prominent figure of Polish film as a rebellious political filmmaker. His early films, such as Kanal, Ashes and Diamonds and The Ashes were strongly critical about not just the Soviet ideology, but also about the past of Poland.

The story of Janusz Korczak, a Polish-Jewish teacher, who set up an orphanage for Jewish kids and later accompanied them to the gas chambers, would have offered Wajda the opportunity to assess the issues of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism in Poland with the same critical voice, but he chose not to. Through its visuals, Korczak is a return to the director’s earlier work, but it is not a political film.

The black and white images here focus on the extraordinary moral strength of a person who discovers that when the length of life does not matter anymore, the quality still does. This late Wajda film is perhaps not innovative in terms of mise-en-scene, but it speaks about human heroism in a mature, professional way that only the most experienced, nobly aged storytellers have.

15. Rose’s Songs (Andor Szilagyi, 2003)

In the act of remembering the crucial step towards preserving a memory is turning it into a myth. If in 1987 Shoah represented the passing down of one generation’s story to the next by the means of words, Rose’s Songs represents the stage when one more generation later, the history of their grandparents gradually becomes a fable or a myth.

Rose’s Songs has two heroes; the visible Geza Halasz (Franco Castellano), who supposed to be the representative of Imre Rose, and the invisible Imre Rose himself, the opera singer who hides the Halasz family in his house.

He is only present through his voice and in form of his beautiful singing that keeps the hope in the growing group of Jews that found shelter at his place. At the same time, Mr. Halasz’s presence is very evident in his love of women and in the petty tricks he plays in order to save all of them and his secrecy. Soon the audience starts suspecting that the real hero might not be the one that is invisible, but rather the wondrous Halasz, who is hiding a shocking truth about the heroic Mr. Rose.

Rose’s Songs is a fable, but not only that. It is also a truthful account on the persecution of Hungarian Jews.

France has always been a trailblazer for European cinema. To begin with, it played a key role in the birth of film with the Lumière brothers’ shorts, while in the ‘20s it became prominent with the French Impressionist Cinema and in the late 50s a new generation of French directors arrived to turn everything upside down, creating the French New Wave.

Ever since then, French cinema has been regarded as innovative, artistic and realistic, but at the same time it is also intertwined with a certain romantic feeling. This slightly two-faced character is well represented by the films on our list. While some of the greatest French films of recent years reflect the popular image of Paris as the city of love, other movies dig deeper below the surface.

Movies such as Amelie, The Triplets of Belleville, The Science of Sleep and Welcome to the Sticks focus on the beauty of simple things in life, whereas The Piano Teacher and Blue is the Warmest Colour explore human desires and emotions, often with an intimidatingly open approach to sexuality.

However, naturalistic representation is not only used for the portrayal of sexuality. Some films are remarkable for their social realism, such as the two movies by the Dardenne brothers, A Prophet and The Class.

Since we are talking about French films, we can’t avoid mentioning the wild independent filmmakers or the directors that don’t fit in the bigger picture due to their unique style, such as François Ozon, Alain Resnais, Michael Haneke and Jean-Luc Godard, the representatives of Auteurism.

20. Welcome to the Sticks (Danny Boon, 2008)

After a silly workplace mistake, Philippe (Kad Merad) gets transferred to the North from the sunny Provence. Philippe and his family receive the news very badly; apparently, they see the North as a dark, cold place where the simple local people speak a French that no one understands.

While Philippe’s family decides to stay behind, he sets off in a warm winter coat to face the cruel Buergues. As he gets to the city, his worst fear seems to come true: at the border it starts raining heavily and, when he first meets someone in the city, they don’t seem to understand a word of each other’s speech. Later, however, it turns out that the North is not that cold, and neither are the people living there.

The film largely builds on jokes about stereotypes and verbal humour, and that is its main aim: to make the audience laugh. Since language is an essential source of comedy here, Danny Boon himself supervised the translation of the film’s subtitles, so, as a result, it is enjoyable even to viewers who don’t speak French.

Welcome to the Sticks is a sweet and entertaining comedy with an essential Frenchness to it, but do not expect radical character development or naturalistic social representation here. The actors do a great job; they are funny and charming, providing a perfect entertainment that is as light as a good French rosé.

19. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)

Godard emerged as the key figure of the French new wave with films such as Breathless or Vivre sa vie. He introduced a new way of filmmaking with his trademark jump cuts, with episodes divided by long titles or philosophical sentences, and with a completely unique narrative in which the sequences follow each other with big ellipses or occasionally in a completely topsy-turvy way.

Although Godard significantly reformed the language of film, in his early productions his distinct style was nonetheless understandable to large audiences. However, his late films (those released after 1968) are difficult to decipher and are highly intellectual works.

In these, the narrative plot becomes secondary or disappears completely, leaving only a loose mass of images and sounds. With this particular film, Godard waves a final farewell to a coherent film language, offering the viewer a visual melting pot of political and philosophical slogans, two dead bodies, and a dog.

Although the viewer might discern a love story, a liaison between a married woman and a single man, this does not become the main narrative thread of the movie. It is just as significant as the scene of a ship reaching the dock and leaving, or the students conversing in front of a bookshop.

Godard brings film back to the age of the Lumière brothers, when the random moments of life caught on the street became the subjects of short films. Goodbye to Language consists of similar accidental moments, and it is up to the viewer to form their own interpretation of this lack of language or, rather, this new language.

18. Of Gods and Men (Xavier Beauvois, 2010)

Xavier Beauvois’ film is alarmingly up to date; it tells the story of seven Cistercian monks massacred by Islam fundamentalists. It is not so surprising that the movie was an imminent success in France – the true story of the Cistercian monks essentially summarizes the past decades’ controversies regarding the Arab world.

Algeria, where the films’ monks are based, was one of the first French colonies, which became independent only after 1962. Due to the strong historical and cultural connection, the events in Algeria are of special interest to French people.

The assassination of the seven monks was one of numerous attacks that targeted Christians in order to ruin their good relationship with Muslims. However, this film, more than simple a religious parable, elevates the monks’ story into a global symbol representative of all the recent terrorist attacks.

It was only a few months ago that Al-Qaeda members walked into the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo and killed 11 people. This clearly demonstrates that the topic is increasingly relevant, but not only in France: the activity of Islamic terrorists poses a threat to the rest of the world, including the lives of Arabs who wish to live their lives and practise their religion peacefully.

17. The Son (Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, 2002)

The Belgian Dardenne brothers are well known for their naturalistic films focusing on young people on the fringes of the society. In The Son they mix the usual social topic with psychological drama.

Olivier (Olivier Gourmet) is a carpenter living alone after the death of his only son which, five years earlier, had ruined his marriage with Magali (Isabella Soupart). He hires an apprentice, Francis (Morgan Marianne), a 16 year-old boy whom he recognizes as the murderer of his late son. Admiring the kid’s talent, Olivier tries to keep this secret to himself, but the truth inevitably comes to the surface.

The plot unfolds slowly in the background and is overshadowed by the mysterious, reserved presence of the master and apprentice. For most of the film, the Dardenne brothers’ camera shows the characters engaged in their work, using few words, their backs turned to the viewer.

The lack of music and dialogue further enhances the movie’s slow rhythm, but as more and more is revealed about the connection between Olivier and Francis, tension fills each image. The secret is almost visible, yet the directors manage to keep up the suspense and withhold the truth’s revelation until almost the very end.

16. The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke, 2001)

The representation of extreme emotions and sexuality, which are often enhanced by a realistic style of cinematography, is not uncommon in European cinema (Trainspotting, Damage, Dogville). But it is only in France that this approach is considered a movement, called New French Extremity.

Haneke’s The Piano Teacher is an essential contribution to this movement. The film, a study of suppressed sexual desire, represents the elementary nature of emotions and thus reveals the raw and undisguised nature of human beings. The result is a perfect yet revolting story.

The titular piano teacher, Erica (portrayed astoundingly by Isabelle Huppert), is a cold, pathetic and lonely figure. She is full of sexual tension that is ready to break loose any minute, while the frustration stemming from her own desires prompts her to physically harm herself.

The young and charming Walter (Benoît Magimel) arrives, stirring up her Electra complex, and a bizarre sexual relationship starts between teacher and student. Erica’s sexual aberration scares Walter but, at the same time, prompts him to give the woman exactly what she wants: humiliation and violence.

The story jumps between the violent sex scenes and episodes of Erica’s lonely, aberrant life. It delves gradually deeper into the essence of Erica’s distorted sexuality, which is harshly represented through long takes and static shots.

The director does not help the viewer decide who is the main character; it is just as difficult to put ourselves in Walter’s place as it is to share the perspective of the sexually obsessed Erica.

The Piano Teacher is definitely not a movie for the faint-hearted, but it undeniably illustrates the greatness of Haneke. Only a brilliant director could achieve this level of alienation in their viewers, an effect driven by the unvarnished representation of the darkest side of human desire.

15. The Science of Sleep (Michel Gondry, 2007)

Michel Gondry is recognizable for his unique visual style which he achieves by manipulating images in a variety of ways, including makeup, prosthetics and visual effects. The Science of Sleep provides a perfect playground for Gondry’s unique directorial style, since a great part of the film is set in an imaginary world where the elements of reality are represented in a distorted way.

The film is set in Paris and tells the story of Stéphane (Gael Garcia Bernal), who returns to his old family home where he falls in love with Stéphanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), his pretty neighbour. His attempts to win her however prove futile, as does his desire to gain respect and appreciation in his new job.

Stéphane then withdraws to the inner world of his imagination, though, in the end, it will be his childish fantasy that wins him the lady, friends, and the esteem of his colleagues. The Science of Sleep does not tell an extraordinary story; in the end, it is just another tale of today’s youth and their identity crisis.

What makes it special though is Gondry’s fantastic realism and his incredible visual technique: he creates wonderful creatures using the most simple materials, from paper to canvas and plastic pieces.

Gael Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg give highly natural performances, moving around comfortably in this world inhabited by Gondry’s huge paper mache figures. Stéphane, the daydreamer, is a perfect alter ego for Gondry, turning this simple story into a bittersweet comedy that is at the same time essentially French.

Japanese anime are often about children, but they are certainly not primarily for a young audience. These films offer an insight into the subconscious of Japanese society. A country that during the Second World War believed in the irrefutable military power of the state and the myth of the “divine wind” –the self-sacrifice of the kamikaze pilots. However, after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan had to face the truth that there was a bigger power than its god-like emperor–the United States.

The most remarkable pieces of the previous century, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, The Grave of the Fireflies, and Nausicaa from the Valley of the Winds were in one way or another, engaged with the nightmare of the Second World War, the shadow of which was overcast on Japan’s national identity, as well as the responsibility humanity played in the invention of weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, the self-reflective topic of a hyper-technocratic society also emerged, setting the question whether the quick absorption of Western technology will lead to the birth of a new demon to finally demolish what once was the Land of the Rising Sun.

While some of the anime produced after the millennia appear to be a resumption of this topic (Metropolis, The Wind Rises, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence), the bigger picture offers more hope than the movies of the ‘80s and the ‘90s. The children of these anime, the representatives of the Generation Y, appear to be fighting a different battle from that of their ancestors.

Their greatest challenge is to find a way to cope with the problems of everyday lives: the loss of a father (Wolf Children, A Letter to Momo), the uncertainties of teenage life and lack goals (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, 5 Centimeters Per Second), or the difficulties of finding one’s own identity (Spirited Away, The Cat Returns). While these problems might seem banal compared to the annihilating monsters of earlier movies, this is the generation who carries the difficult task of finally shaking off the shadows of the war and finding a way to live on. This list features the twenty best films of the Generation Y that you should definitely see. But note that while most of them can be found on Netflix, they’re mostly only available in European markets. If you are not from Europe, you’ll need a Netflix VPN with servers in Europe such as ExpressVPN.

20. A Letter to Momo (Hiroyuki Okiyura, 2011)

The experience of loss, life in the metropolis compared to that in the countryside, and the little demons of Japanese folklore are compulsory ingredients of a good Japanese animation for all ages. Sure enough, A Letter to Momo features all these, with a good amount of humor and emotional moments in addition.

The scary-looking, but friendly ghosts definitely provide a few good laughs while they help Momo cope with the loss of her father. For those who are able to appreciate slower paced movies, it is touching to see how Momo gradually realizes that she isn’t the only one who has suffered and that her relationship with her mum needs to be reconciled.

Although this anime does not compete with the magical perfection of Spirited Away, in the shadow of some purely funny and entertaining American animation, it is delightful to find gems like this, where wit is combined with a heartwarming, humane story. Nothing proves this better than the selection of awards A Letter to Momo won between 2012 and 2014: Tokyo Anime Award, Awards of the Japanese Academy, Asia Pacific Screen Awards and Annie Awards.

19. From Up on Poppy Hill (Goro Miyazaki, 2011)

Hayao Miyazaki’s son, Goro Miyazaki failed to prove his talent with Tales from Earthsea, his directorial debut in 2006, which, to put it mildly, was not a great success. His second film, however, is the work of an already matured director, a beautifully entertaining Ghibli production that is in line with the studio’s best movies.

From Up on Poppy Hill is set in the past and is the story of a group of school kids who try to save their clubhouse from closing down. As an adaptation of an ‘80s shoujo manga, the film deploys the best elements of the genre: the happy moments of youth, budding love, and a generally invigorating atmosphere.

In contrast to the magical world of his father, Goro Miyazaki positions himself closer to reality. His heroine, Umi, is much closer to Isao Takahata’s characters in the Graves of the Fireflies than to any of the half-magical Miyazaki heroines, although her grace and strength can be compared to that of Naisicaa or Chihiro. Generally speaking, From Up on Poppy Hill is the best historical shoujo anime as of today, with great character design and Satoshi Takabe’s excellent score.

18. The Cat Returns (Hiroyuki Morita, 2002)

The Cat Returns started as a short animation commissioned by a theme park. Although the commission was cancelled, Hayao Miyazaki didn’t give up on the project, and extended it to a sort of test film for new Ghibli directors to be overseen by Hiroyuki Morita. Over time, the film expanded and based on Morita’s storyboard, The Cat Returns emerged as a playful, experimental anime. As an homage to the old Ghibli directors, the movie features Baron Humbert von Gikkingen and Muta, the fat cat, from Yoshifumi Kondo’s Whisper of the Heart (1995).

The inhabitants of the Cat Kingdom represent the rest of the cast, and Haru, the (partially) human girl, receives the unwanted reward of having to marry the cat prince Luna after she saved his life. Haru’s journey to the Cat Kingdom is similar in some ways to that of Chihiro from Spirited Away; in order to find their real selves, they first have to lose themselves. Haru turns into a cat, while Chihiro loses her name and becomes Sen, and they can only retrieve their original forms once they are in possession of the knowledge of how to keep their integrity in the everyday life.

Because of this similarity and the two cameo characters, The Cat Returns is often treated as a weak alloy of Spirited Away and Whisper of the Heart; however, it is a beautiful and playful instructive tale on the complicated Japanese culture of exchanging favors.

17. Howl’s Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki, 2004)

Although not the best Miyazaki film of the twenty-first century, Howl’s Moving Castle deserves a place on this list. The moving castle itself is one of the most graceful Miyazaki creatures. As a medley of organic and steampunk shapes, it embodies the ideal unison of nature and the technical world. Meandering in the Wastes between two hostile countries, Howl’s castle is the place where the cursed Sophie seeks refuge as an old lady.

Some elements of this anime recall the story of The Wizard of Oz, especially the character of the Witch of the Waste, who puts the curse on Sophie out of jealousy, and Turnip Head, the scarecrow she encounters on her way to Howl’s castle. Although this universe is home to several Western fairytale characters, it also features the demon of the military power, which is most evident in the scene where giant bombers leave a city behind in flames.

As he turns the wicked witch into a harmless old lady, Miyazaki’s statement is that of transnational pacifism. He does not seek a party to blame or a stronger enemy to beat the opponent, but reconciles East and West in a transnational fairytale.

16. Short Peace (Hiroaki Ando, Hajime Katoki, Shuhei Morita, Katsuhiro Otomo, 2013)

Short Peace is a collection of four short films. Katsuhiro Otomo, who managed the project, collaborated with three remarkable anime artists. Two of them, Hiroaki Ando and Shoei Morita, worked with the director before, on Steamboy and Freedom Project, respectively, but none of them had directed a feature film as of yet.

Morita’s short, Possessions, features a samurai who has to mend various symbolic items on order to escape from a shrine. Otomo’s Combustible evokes the style of traditional Japanese paintings, but the starting shots also resemble a computer game. Hiroaki Ando’s Gambo also features painting-like visuals, enhancing the importance of traditional animation in opposition to the more prominent CGI. The beauty of these three shorts lies within their reference to Japanese religion and classic art, but Combustible is the one that manages to be the most innovative in its visual style.

In contrast, to the three stories about the past, Katoki’s Farewell to the Arms is a dystopian sci-fi. The longest, and also the best, in its animation technique, the most notable about this episode when compared to other sci-fi anime is the complete lack of the metropolis. In place of the city there is only decay as the war of men and machines reaches a new level. Short Peace is a great demonstration of what the most innovative animators of the time are capable of, and hopefully Ando, Katoki, and Morita will soon get a chance for a full-length directorial debut.

15. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Mamoru Hosoda, 2006)

A lighthearted coming-of-age movie about a girl, Makoto, and her two male friends, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is not a sci-fi anime, as the title might suggest. In this anime, Mamoru Hosoda does what is his strength: depicting the simple beauty of life in modern Japan.

Although some fans tend to presume the problem of time travel makes the film more complicated than it seems at first glance, there is no need to speculate over the nature and theory of time travel to enjoy this movie. Moreover, the fact that some characters can transport themselves back in time is secondary to the plot, since the main focus is on how Makoto will be able to preserve her friendship with the two boys and find a purpose to her life other than just having fun.