Towards A Personal Canon: Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a figment of my mind. In this cobwebbed,  nostalgia-laden mind, it oddly consists of Yugoslavia, Poland, Hungary,  Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.
 
This is rather arbitrary -- except for the fact that these countries once formed satellites to the Soviet Union, a buffer zone against the threat of the West.

Today, balkanization and democratization have sliced and diced Eastern Europe. Yugoslavia is gone and has become five nations. Czechoslovakia has split into halves.

But I still hark back, perversely if nostalgically, to those glorious times when they operated as singular countries, when they were ruled by the strange strictures -- the freeze and thaw -- of socialism.  

Today, I still hark back to the Czech New Wave. The Czechs, like Jiri Menzel and Milos Forman, as much as the Slovaks, like Dusan Hanak and Juraj Jakubisko.

 

 


















I still hark back to the Yugoslavian Black Wave in the mid-1960s. Aleksandr Petrovic, Zivojin Pavlovic, and Dusan Makavejev presided, but there were quite a few equally capable cineastes lurking in the eclipse.

I still think about the early alumni of the National Film School in Lodz -- Krzysztof Zanussi, Roman Polanski, Jerzy Skolimowski, and Andrzej Wajda, the best-known names in Polish cinema graduating and making films in quick succession.

Hungary remains largely terra incognita beyond what Miklos Jancso, Marta Meszaros, Istvan Szabo and a few select filmmakers have had to offer. Istvan Gaal, Pal Sandor, Zoltan Fabri have only begun to be rediscovered and reassessed by wider audiences, within and without Hungary.

Much remains unaccounted for and undocumented for the moment. National archives have not been thoroughly exhausted. And these are bountiful times for some countries like Romania, hitting its stride with the emergence of such talents as Cristi Puiu and Cristian Mungiu. There is much to discover -- and this list is liable to reflect more informed and more comprehensive choices, a wider and more inclusive geography.

 

Meanwhile here is one version of Eastern Europe that deserves to be seen. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it is a fairly useful one with which to start an exploration of national cinemas that have been, by virtue of ideological association, unjustly dismissed and overlooked. 

The list, in no particular order:



Narcissus and Psyche (Gabor Body, 1980)
Satantango (Bela Tarr, 1994)
Dekalog (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1989)
The Cassandra Cat (Vojtech Jasny, 1963)
Young and Healthy as A Rose (Jovan Jovanovic, 1971)
When Father Was Away on Business (Emir Kusturica, 1985)
The Joke (Jaromil Jires, 1969)
Daisies (Vera Chytilova, 1966)
Man of Marble (Andrzej Wajda, 1977)
The Sun in A Net (Stefan Uher, 1962)

Build A House Plant A Tree (Juraj Jakubisko, 1980)
Capricious Summer (Jiri Menzel, 1968)
The Cremator (Juraj Herz, 1968)
Celebration in the Botanical Garden (Elo Havetta, 1969)
Wild Lilies (Elo Havetta, 1972)
Fruit of Paradise (Vera Chytilova, 1970)
Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, 1958)
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jires, 1970)
Kanal (Andrzej Wajda, 1957)
Damnation (Bela Tarr, 1988)

Courage for Every Day (Evald Schorm, 1964)
Larks on A String (Jiri Menzel, 1969)
The Dog Who Loved Trains (Goran Paskaljevic, 1977)
Werkcmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr, 2000)
Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (Emir Kusturica, 1981)
A Generation (Andrzej Wajda, 1955)
Valley of the Bees (Frantisek Vlacil, 1968)
The Shop on Main Street (Jan Kadar/Elmar Klos, 1965)
Almanac of Fall (Bela Tarr, 1985)
Loves of a Blonde (Milos Forman, 1965)
Camera Buff (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1979)

Mother Joan of the Angels (Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1961)
The Ear (Karel Kachyna, 1970)
Interrogation (Ryszard Bugajski, 1982)
Time of the Gypsies (Emir Kusturica, 1988)
Firemen's Ball (Milos Forman, 1967)
White Dove (Frantisek Vlacil, 1960)
Dancing in the Rain (Bostjan Hladnik, 1961)
The Oak (Lucian Pintilie, 1992)
Tri (Aleksander Petrovic, 1965)
When I'm Dead and White (Zivojin Pavlovic, 1967)

W.R. Mysteries of the Organism (Dusan Makavejev, 1971)
Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing (Dusan Makavejev, 1967)
Man is Not A Bird (Dusan Makavejev, 1965)
Sweet Movie (Dusan Makaevejev, 1974)
A Short Film About Killing (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1988)
A Short Film About Love (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1988)
Curriculum Vitae (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1975)
Closely Watched Trains (Jiri Menzel, 1966)
Reconstruction (Lucian Pintilie, 1968)
Adoption (Marta Meszaros, 1975)

The Medusa Raft (Karpo Acimovic-Godina, 1980)
The Outsider (Bela Tarr,1981)
Szerelem (Karoly Makk, 1971)
Another Way (Karoly Makk, 1982)
My Sweet Little Village (Jiri Menzel, 1985)
Diamonds of the Night (Jan Nemec, 1964)
Intimate Lighting (Ivan Passer, 1966)
Knife in the Water (Roman Polanski, 1962)
Round-Up (Miklos Jancso, 1966)
Winter Wind (Miklos Jancso, 1969)

How I Was Systematically Destroyed By Idiots (Slobodan Sijan, 1983)
The Red and the White (Miklos Jancso, 1967)
Red Psalm (Miklos Jancso, 1972)
My Way Home (Miklos Jancso, 1965)
It Rains in My Village (Aleksander Petrovic, 1968)
Montenegro (Dusan Makavejev, 1981)
Landscape After Battle (Andrzej Wajda, 1970)
Everything for Sale (Andrzej Wajda, 1969)
Father (Istvan Szabo, 1966)
The Hand (Jiri Trnka, 1965)

Eroica (Andrzej Munk, 1958)
A Distant Journey (Alfred Radok, 1950)
I EVen Met Happy Gyspies (Aleksander Petrovic, 1967)
Family Nest (Bela Tarr, 1979)
The Scar (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1976)
Year of the Quiet Sun (Krzysztof Zanussi, 1984)
Silence and Cry (Miklos Jancso, 1967)
And Give My Love to The Swallows (Jaromil Jires, 1972)
Cabaret Balkan (Goran Pasklajevic, 1998)
Alice (Jan Svankmajer, 1988)

Man of Iron (Andrzej Wajda, 1981)
Saragossa Manuscript (Wojciech Has, 1965)
Oil Lamps (Juraj Herz, 1971)
Sitting on A Branch, Enjoying Myself (Juraj Jakubisko, 1989)
Marathon Family (Slobodan Sijan, 1982)
Possession (Andrzej Zulawski,1981)
Little Otik (Jan Svankmajer, 2000)
Third Part of the Night (Andrzej Zulawski, 1971)
Catsplay (Karoly Makk, 1972)
The Cow (Karel Kachyna, 1994)

Black Cat, White Cat (Emir Kusturica, 1998)
Ecce Homo Homolka (Jaroslav Papousek, 1969)
Cantata (Miklos Jancso, 1963)
Witches' Hammer (Otakar Vavra, 1970)
The Party and the Guests (Jan Nemec, 1966)
Who is Singing Over There? (Slobodan Sijan,1980)
The Pier (Wojciech Solazrz, 1969)
Black Peter (Milos Forman, 1964)
Hogo Fogo Homolka (Jaroslav Papousek, 1970)
Marketa Lazarova (Frantisek Vlacil, 1967)

The Current (Istvan Gaal,1963)
Sweet Anna (Zoltan Fabri, 1958)
The Hour-Glass Sanatorium (Wojciech Has, 1973)
Walkover (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1965)
322 (Dusan Hanak, 1969)
Illumination (Krzysztof Zanussi, 1973)
Structure of Crystal (Krzysztof Zanussi, 1969)
The Man from London (Bela Tarr, 2007)
The Prefab People (Bela Tarr, 1982)
Pearls of the Deep (Chytilova/Jires/Menzel/Nemec/Schorm, 1966)

Birds, Orphans, Fool (Juraj Jakubisko, 1969)
Shadows of a Hot Summer (Frantisek Vlacil, 1978)
The Good Soldier Sveijk (Karol Stekly, 1957)
Bolshe Vita (Ibolya Fekete, 1996)
Our Car (Frantisek Cap, 1962)
Lemonade Joe (Oldrich Lipsky, 1964)
Seclusion Near A Forest (Jiri Menzel, 1976)
Diary for My Children (Marta Meszaros, 1984)
Szindbad (Zoltan Huszarik,1971)
Four Nights with Anna (Jerzy Skolimowski, 2008)

The Unknown Soldier's Patent Leather Shoes (Rangel Vulchanov, 1979)
Merry-Go-Round (Zoltan Fabri, 1956)
The Witness (Peter Bacso, 1969)
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu, 2005)
Tales from the Golden Age (Cristian Mungiu et al, 2009)
Filantropica (Nae Caranfil, 2002)
The Goat Horn (Metodi Andonov, 1972)
Michael The Brave (Sergiu Nicolaescu, 1970)
Police, Adjective(Corneliu Porumboiu, 2009)
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)

Towards A Personal Canon: Latin America

My top 100 Latin American films of all time.

There are traditional hot beds in Latin American cinema and my viewing has tended to be influenced by the availability of films from those countries. Probably topmost would be Brazil, which experienced an awakening  in the 1960s with the emergence of Cinema Novo. The likes of Glauber Rocha and Nelson Pereira dos Santos were among its chief exponents. But if Cinema Novo was about espousing social transformation and political liberation, the so-called Cinema Marginal offered cinema from the fringes -- unashamedly underground and low-budgeted. Lumped together under this banner were loose cannons like Rogerio Sganzerla and Julio Bressane.

Another traditional powerhouse of Latin American film would be Argentina. In the 1960s, the term Third Cinema was coined here by Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino to describe the cinema being practiced in the Third World, sociopolitical, mass-centered, anti-colonial. In the last decade or so, Argentina has seen a resurgence with Nueva Ola, or the New Argentine Cinema. Directors of note include Martin Rejtman, Lucrecia Martel and Lisandro Alonso.

Mexico must also be mentioned as a country with a rich tradition in filmmaking. Time and again, it has produced good directors throughout the last century. Examples would be Emilio Fernandez in the 1940s, Arturo Ripstein in the 1970s, and an entire generation of talented filmmakers in the 2000s).

Chile will probably be synonymous with two luminaries: Raoul Ruiz, the director of magical, Borgesian films, and Patricio Guzman, the director of compelling political documentaries. They are easily two of the best filmmakers ever produced by the continent.

Cuba too has had a great film tradition: Tomas Gutierez Alea will always be held in high esteem by cineastes for Memories of Underdevelopment (although in truth he was no one-hit wonder), Humberto Solas for Lucia, and Santiago Alvarez for revolutionary documentaries that must still do Fidel Castro proud.)

But a handful of paragraphs to introduce Latin American cinema will always be insufficient. My own survey is at best fragmentary. Thus this list benefits from the input of several books. David A. Cook's A History of Narrative Film. Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell's Film History: An Introduction. Deborah Shaw's Contemporary Cinema of Latin America. Tamara L. Falicov's The Cinematic Tango, Contemporary Argentine Film. 

A few leads were also provided by the folks at mubi and kg. 

Here then is my list, an ever-protean list, in no particular order:


Nostalgia for the Light (Patricio Guzman, 2010)
The Battle of Chile (Patricio Guzman, 1975-1978)
The Hour of the Star (Suzana Amaral, 1985)
Chronicle of A Boy Alone (Leonardo Favio, 1965)
Three Sad Tigers (Raoul Ruiz, 1968)
The Deceased (Leon Hirszman, 1965)
Antonio das Mortes (Glauber Rocha, 1969)                           
The Dependent (Leonardo Favio, 1969)
The Given Word (Anselmo Duarte, 1962)
Los Muertos (Lisandro Alonso, 2004)

The Hour of the Furnaces (Fernando E. Solanas/Octavio Getino, 1968)
Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomas Gutierez Alea, 1968)
The Clandestine Nation (Jorge Sanjines, 1989)                     
Rapado (Martin Rejtman, 1992)
Julio Starts in July (Silvio Caiozzi, 1976)
Whisky (Juan Pablo Rebella, 2004)
Sao Paulo - Sociedade Anonima (Luis Sergio Person, 1965)
La Casa del Angel (Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, 1957)
The Red Light Bandit (Rogerio Sganzerla, 1968)
La Cienaga (Lucrecia Martel, 2001)

Rio, 40 Degrees (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1955)
Machuca (Andres Wood, 2004)
The Woman of Everyone (Rogerio Sganzerla, 1969)
The Priest and the Girl (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1965)
The Land of Sao Sarue (Vladimir Carvalho, 1971)
Bang Bang (Andrea Tonacci, 1970)
The Antenna (Esteban Sapir, 2007)
Swimming Alone (Ezequiel Acuna, 2003)
Copacabana Mon Amour (Rogerio Sganzerla, 1970)
Sao Bernardo (Leon Hirszman, 1971)

The Blood of the Condor (Jorge Sanjines, 1969)
Terra em Transe (Glauber Rocha, 1967)
Tan de Repente (Diego Lerman, 2002)
Black God, White Devil (Glauber Rocha, 1964)
Amores Perros (Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, 2000)
Limite (Mario Peixoto, 1931)
Men and Women (Walter Hugo Khouri, 1964)
Official Story (Luis Puenzo, 1985)
City of God (Fernando Meirelles, 2002)
Macunaima (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1969)

The Unscrupulous Ones (Ruy Guerra, 1962)
Ana and the Others (Celina Murga, 2003)
Bolivia (Adrian Caetano, 2001)
El Viaje (Fernando E. Solanas, 1992)
La Libertad (Lisandro Alonso, 2001)
Bye Bye Brazil (Carlos Diegues, 1979)
How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1971)                                                             
Central Station (Walter Salles, 1998)
Piel de Verrano (Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, 1961)
Fantasma (Lisandro Alonso, 2006)

Tangos, L'Exil de Gardel (Fernando E. Solanas, 1985)      
Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas, 2007)
Tony Manero (Pablo Larrain, 2008)
This Strange Passion (Luis Bunuel, 1953)
Nietzsche's Days in Turin (Julio Bressane, 2001)
Los Olvidados (Luis Bunuel, 1950)                                
Nazarin (Luis Bunuel, 1959)
Jackal de Nahueltoro (Miguel Littin, 1969)
Let's Go With Pancho Villa (Fernando de Fuentes, 1936)
Ganga Bruta (Humberto Mauro, 1933)
Lucia (Humberto Solas, 1968)

Man Facing Southeast (Eliseo Subiela, 1986)
The Last Supper (Tomas Gutierez Alea, 1976)
La Nina Santa (Lucrecia Martel,2004)
Japon (Carlos Reygadas, 2002)
The Death of A Bureaucrat (Tomas Gutierez Alea, 1966)       
The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel, 1962)
Waiting for the Messiah (Daniel Burman, 2000)
Fando and Lis (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1968)
Pixote (Hector Babenco, 1981)
Vidas Secas (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1964) 

The Case of the Naves Brothers (Luis Sergio Person, 1967)   
Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa, 2009)
The Holy Mountain (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973)            
Castle of Purity (Arturo Ripstein, 1973)
The Angel Was Born (Julio Bressane, 1969)
Rio, Northern Zone (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1957)        
El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)                                  
The Criminal Life of Archibaldo dela Cruz (Luis Bunuel, 1955)
Crane World (Pablo Trapero, 1999)
Passion of Berenice (Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, 1976)

La Frontera (Ricardo P. Larrain, 1991)
79 Primaveras (Santiago Alvarez, 1969)
Isle of Flowers (Jorge Furtado, 1989)
Araya (Margot Benacerraf, 1959)
Historias Minimas (Carlos Sorin, 2002)
Los Guantes Magicos (Martin Rejtman, 2003)
Killed His Family, Went to the Movies (Julio Bressane, 1969)
Batalla en Cielo (Carlos Reygadas, 2005)                            
Enamorada (Emilio Fernandez, 1946)                                   
Throw Me A Dime (Fernando Birri, 1960)
                                                                                
Maria Candelaria (Emilio Fernandez, 1944)
LBJ (Santiago Alvarez, 1968)
Funny Dirty Little War (Hector Olivera, 1983)
The Penal Colony (Raoul Ruiz, 1970)
Drifter (Cao Guimaraes, 2007)
Accident (Cao Guimaraes, 2006)                                      
Fresa Y Chocolate (Tomas Gutierez Alea, 1994)               
Awakening of the Beast (Jose Mojica Morins, 1970)
The Adventures of Juan Quin Quin (Julio Garcia Espinosa, 1967)                                                                                   
The Strategy of the Snail (Sergio Cabrera, 1993)

Towards A Personal Canon

 A list of my cinematic touchstones. 



Warning: It can get counter-canonical, but it's intended that way. An alternative.

1910s

The Cameraman's Revenge (Ladislaw Starewicz, 1912)
Fantomas (Louis Feuillade, 1913)
Ingeborg Holm (Victor Sjostrom, 1913)]
Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914)
Les Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915)
Der Golem (Henrik Galeen/Paul Wegener, 1915)
Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1916)
The Dying Swan (Yevgeni Bauer, 1917)
True Heart Susie (D. W. Griffith, 1919)
The Oyster Princess (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919)
Father Sergius (Yakov Protazanov, 1919)
Die Puppe (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919)
Sir Arne's Treasure (Mauritz Stiller, 1919)

1920s

Souls on The Road (Minoru Murata, 1921)
Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (Fritz Lang, 1922)
La Roue (Abel Gance, 1923)
The Smiling Madame Beudet (Germaine Dulac, 1923)
Die Niebelungen (Fritz Lang, 1924)
L’Inhumaine (Marcel L’Herbier, 1924)
Strike (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
The Joyless Street (G.W. Pabst, 1925)
Menilmontant (Dmitri Kirsanoff, 1926)
A Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)
By The Law (Lev Kuleshov, 1926)
La Glace A Trois Faces (Jean Epstein, 1927)
Napoleon (Abel Gance, 1927)
The Seashell and the Clergyman (Germaine Dulac, 1928)
Zvenigora (Alexander Dovzhenko, 1928)
The Man with The Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
Finis Terrae (Jean Epstein, 1929)

1930s

Salt for Svanetia (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1930)
Enthusiasm (Dziga Vertov, 1931)
Road to Life (Nikolai Ekk, 1931)
The Murderer Dimitri Karamazov (Fyodor Otsep, 1931)
Boudu Saved From Drowning (Jean Renoir, 1932)
Ganga Bruta (Humberto Mauro, 1933)
L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
Man of Aran (Robert Flaherty, 1934)
Happiness (Alexander Medvedkin, 1935)
By the Bluest of Seas (Boris Barnet, 1936)
Rose Hobart (Joseph Cornell, 1936)
The Only Son (Yasujiro Ozu, 1936)
Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1939)

1940s

Ornamental Hairpin (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1941)
Aniki Bobo (Manoel de Oliveira, 1942)
Day of Wrath (Carl Dreyer, 1943)
Fires Were Started (Humphrey Jennings, 1943)
Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943)
Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944-1946)
Paisa (Roberto Rossellini,1946)
Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947)
The Red Shoes (Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
La Terra Trema (Luchino Visconti, 1948)
Jour de Fete (Jacques Tati, 1949)
Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)

1950s

The Young and the Damned (Luis Bunuel, 1950)
Venom and Eternity (Isidore Isou, 1951)
Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
Voyage to Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1953)
Bienvenido Mister Marshall (Luis Garcia Berlanga, 1953)
Sound of the Mountain (Mikio Naruse, 1954)
Lola Montes (Max Ophuls, 1955)
Tales of The Taira Clan (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1955)
Floating Clouds (Mikio Naruse, 1955)
Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson, 1956)
Antcipation of the Night (Stan Brakhage, 1958)
Moi, Un Noir (Jean Rouch, 1958)
Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958)
India (Roberto Rossellini, 1959)
The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959)

1960s

Triptico Elemental de Espana (Jose Val del Omar, 1960)
Pour La Suite du Monde (Michel Brault/Pierre Perrault, 1963)
Muriel (Alain Resnais, 1963)
I Am Twenty (Marlen Khutsiev, 1964)
Mass for the Dakota Sioux (Bruce Baillie, 1964)
Beppie (Johan van der Keuken, 1965)
Red Angel (Yasuzo Masumura, 1966)
Unsere Afrikareise (Peter Kubelka, 1966)
Marketa Lazarova (Frantisek Vlacil, 1967)
No Passage Through Fire (Gleb Panfilov, 1968)
Nostra Signora dei Turchi (Carmelo Bene, 1968)
The Hour of the Furnaces (Fernando E. Solanas, 1968)
Tres Tristes Tigres (Raoul Ruiz, 1968)
Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomas Gutierez Alea, 1968)
Reconstruction (Lucian Pintilie, 1968)
79 Primaveras and Other Shorts (Santiago Alvarez, 1969)
A Gentle Woman (Robert Bresson, 1969)
Antonio Das Mortes (Glauber Rocha, 1969)
Bhuvan Shome (Mrnal Sen, 1969)
Eros Plus Massacre (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1969)
Macunaima (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1969)

1970s

La Region Centrale (Michael Snow, 1970)
Eden and After (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1970)
The Man Who Left his Will on Film (Nagisa Oshima, 1970)
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jires, 1970)
The Hart of London (Jack Chambers, 1970)
Days and Nights in the Forest (Satyajit Ray, 1970)
Umut (Yilmaz Guney, 1970)
The Death of Maria Malibran (Werner Schroeter, 1972)
Red Psalm (Miklos Jancso, 1972)
Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambety, 1973)
A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)
Mes Petites Amoureuses  (Jean Eustache, 1974)
Still Life (Sohrab Shahid Saless, 1974)
Jeanne Dielman (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
Welfare (Frederick Wiseman, 1975)
India Song (Marguerite Duras, 1975)
Adoption (Marta Meszaros, 1975)
One Hundred Days After Childhood (Sergei Solovyov, 1975)
Four Seasons (Artavazd Peleshian, 1975)
Kings of the Road (Wim Wenders, 1976)
Le Fond de L'air est Rouge (Chris Marker, 1977)
Hitler: A Film From Germany (Hans-Jurgen Syberberg, 1978)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
A Few Days in the Life of Oblomov (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1979)

1980s

Berlin Alexanderplatz (R.W. Fassbinder, 1980)
The Subjective Factor (Helke Sander, 1980)
Crac (Frederic Back, 1981)
Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1981)
Too Early, Too Late (Daniele Huillet/Jean-Marie Straub, 1982)
Three Crowns of a Sailor (Raoul Ruiz, 1983)
In The White City (Alain Tanner, 1983)
Monanieba (Tengiz Abuladze, 1984)
Les Favoris de la Lune (Otar Iosseliani, 1985)
Parade of The Planets (Vadim Abdrashitov, 1986)
O Melissokomos (Theo Angelopoulos, 1986)
Yeelen (Souleymane Cisse, 1987)
A Tale of the Wind (Joris Ivens, 1988)
Camp de Thiaroye (Ousmane Sembene, 1988)
The Hoary Legends of the Caucasus (Sergei Parajanov, 1988)
Alice (Jan Svankmajer, 1988)
The Eye Above The Well (Johan van der Keuken, 1988)
Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies, 1988)
Images of the World and the Inscription of War (Harun Farocki, 1989)
Recollections of the Yellow House (Joao Cesar Monteiro, 1989)
Sitting on a Branch, Enjoying Myself (Juraj Jakubisko, 1989)
The Days of Eclipse (Alexander Sokurov, 1989)

1990s

Aesthenic Syndrome (Kira Muratova,1990)
And Life Goes On (Abbas Kiarostami, 1991)
The Suspended Step of The Stork (Theo Angelopoulos, 1991)
El Sol del Membrillo (Victor Erice, 1992)
La Chasse Aux Papillons (Otar Iosseliani, 1992)
Ladoni (Artour Aristakisian, 1993)
Caro Diario (Nanni Moretti, 1994)
Satantango (Bela Tarr, 1994)
Silences of the Palace (Moufida Tlatli, 1994)
Deseret (James Benning, 1995)
Spiritual Voices (Alexander Sokurov, 1995)
A Moment of Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1996)
A Casa (Sharunas Bartas, 1997)
Masumiyet (Zeki Demirkubuz, 1997)
Tren de Sombras (Jose Luis Guerin, 1997)
Khrustalyov, Get the Car! (Aleksei German, 1998)
Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1998)
Rosetta (Jean Pierre/Luc Dardenne, 1999)
Histoire(s) du Cinema (Jean Luc Godard, 1988-1999)
L'Humanite (Bruno Dumont, 1999)

2000s

As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionaly I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (Jonas Mekas, 2000)
The Isle (Kim Ki-duk, 2000)
The Gleaners and I (Agnes Varda, 2000)
What Time is It There? (Tsai Ming-Liang, 2001)
Klassenfahrt (Henner Winckler, 2002)
Corpus Callosum (Michael Snow, 2002)
Uzak (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2002)
Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi, 2003)
Star Spangled to Death (Ken Jacobs, 2004)
Los Muertos (Lisandro Alonso, 2004)
Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine (Peter Tscherkassky, 2005)
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu, 2005)
Les Amants Reguliers (Philippe Garrel, 2005)
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (Quay Brothers, 2005)
Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa, 2006)
Todo Todo Teros (John Torres, 2006)
Syndromes and A Century (Apitchatpong Weerasethakul, 2006)
Death in the Land of Encantos (Lav Diaz, 2007)
My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, 2007)
Two Lovers (James Gray, 2008)
Now Showing (Raya Martin, 2008)
Melancholia (Lav Diaz, 2008)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, 2009)

Sources include:

24 Frames  (a book series focusing on national cinemas)

Essential Cinema - On The Necessity of Film Canons (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
Film - The Critic's Choice (edited by Geoff Andrew)
A Century of Films - Derek Malcolm's Personal Best (Derek Malcolm)
They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
Cahiers du Cinema
Sight and Sound
Foreign Affairs (edited by Kathy Schulz Huffhines)
The A List- 100 Essential Films (edited by Jay Carr)
Film History - An Introduction (Kristin Thompson/David Bordwell)
A History of Narrative Film (David A. Cook)