Film series: BBC Culture’s Best in World Cinema

image from Kurosawa’s Rashomon

Cornell Cinema regularly includes classic Hollywood and foreign language films in its programming, and considers them essential viewing as part of its educational mission. All of the titles listed here are screening as part of other series, but we thought it was worth grouping them here, as all recently appeared on BBC Culture’s 100 greatest foreign-language films. BBC Culture undertook the task of assembling the list in the Fall of 2018, polling 209 film critics from 43 countries, speaking 41 languages, “to salute the extraordinary diversity and richness of films from all around the world” and to determine a consensus top 100 foreign-language films. The resulting list of 100 films is comprised of titles made by 67 different directors, from 24 countries, and in 19 languages. All of the films assembled here can be found somewhere on the list, including the #2 film, Bicycle Thieves! Two Japanese films from the list, Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (#4), as well as Yasujiro Ozu’s Late Spring (#53), will also be shown. Both screenings will feature introductions by Andrew Campana (Asian Studies), a newly-hired faculty member teaching a survey course on Japanese Cinema (see our Japanese Cinema: A Survey series for more!). Other films from the BBC list include Federico Fellini’s Rome-set La Dolce Vita (#10) and the Senegalese new wave masterpiece Touki Bouki (#62). Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (#16), featuring live musical accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra, will end the series on November 8.