The Banquet: a much loved cartoon with wry gallows humour
Zofia Oraczewska, “The Banquet / Bankiet” (1976) Its style seems outdated for a short animation
Ichthys: a caustic commentary on institutional religion
Marek Skrobecki, “Ichthys” (2005) For once I didn’t need to look up an English translation
The Red and the Black / The Horse: two little oil paintings in continuous motion
Witold Giersz, “The Red and the Black / Czorwane i Czarne” (1963) / “The Horse
Son (dir. Ryszard Czekala): a solid, powerful short about rural-urban and generational division
Ryszard Czekala, “Son / Syn” (1970) This short silent animation piece is one that Polish
Wild Strawberries: a road trip into self-discovery and examination that leads to redemption and self-forgiveness
Ingmar Bergman, “Smultronstället / Wild Strawberries” (1957) Few movies feature 80 or 70-something actors as lead
A Clockwork Orange: a political and social comedy satire relying too much on audiovisual shock tactics
Stanley Kubrick, “A Clockwork Orange” (2013) Not a bad film but for what it is,
House of Wax: realism versus art and artifice in horror cult film
Andre de Toth, “House of Wax” (1953) “House of Wax” was the movie that established
Repo Man: science fiction comedy satire on the beginnings of Western capitalist / consumerist culture’s downfall
Alex Cox, “Repo Man” (1984) Dare I say that with the passage of time, this
The Sweet Hereafter: a fragmented film labouring under too many issues about loss and betrayal of children
Atom Egoyan, “The Sweet Hereafter” (1997) It won quite a few Best Film and Director
French and French-language Films
Hidden: a film about guilt, trust, colonial exploitation and manipulation of signs is overburdened by art and cleverness
Michael Haneke, “Caché / Hidden” (2005) An imaginative if overly layered thriller about a couple