Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "film-essay"
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1. Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
R | 87 min | Documentary, Comedy, Crime
Following the style of some of the world's most prolific street artists, an amateur filmmaker makes a foray into the art world.
Director: Banksy | Stars: Banksy, Mr. Brainwash, Space Invader, Debora Guetta
Votes: 68,870 | Gross: $3.29M
2. F for Fake (1973)
PG | 89 min | Documentary
A documentary about fraud and fakery.
Directors: Orson Welles, Gary Graver, Oja Kodar, François Reichenbach | Stars: Orson Welles, Oja Kodar, François Reichenbach, Elmyr de Hory
Votes: 18,329
3. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967)
Not Rated | 87 min | Comedy, Drama
A day in the life of a Parisian housewife/prostitute, interspersed with musings on the Vietnam War and other contemporary issues.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Jean-Luc Godard, Yves Beneyton, Juliet Berto, Helena Bielicic
Votes: 8,547 | Gross: $0.10M
4. Sans Soleil (1983)
Not Rated | 100 min | Documentary, Drama
A woman narrates the contemplative writings of a seasoned world traveler, focusing on contemporary Japan.
Director: Chris Marker | Stars: Amilcar Cabral, Florence Delay, Arielle Dombasle, Riyoko Ikeda
Votes: 12,149 | Gross: $0.03M
5. King Lear (1987)
PG | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
A descendant of Shakespeare tries to restore his plays in a world rebuilding itself after the Chernobyl catastrophe obliterates most of human civilization.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Woody Allen, Freddy Buache, Leos Carax, Julie Delpy
Votes: 1,490 | Gross: $0.06M
6. Film socialisme (2010)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama
The passengers on a Mediterranean cruise enjoy their luxuries as a small family struggles with overbearing media attention.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Jean-Marc Stehlé, Agatha Couture, Mathias Domahidy, Quentin Grosset
Votes: 2,925 | Gross: $0.03M
7. Far from Vietnam (1967)
Not Rated | 120 min | Documentary, Drama, War
In seven different segments, Godard, Klein, Lelouch, Marker, Resnais, and Varda show their sympathy and support for the North Vietnamese army during the Vietnam War.
Directors: Jean-Luc Godard, Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, Agnès Varda | Stars: Anne Bellec, Karen Blanguernon, Fidel Castro, Bernard Fresson
Votes: 887
8. Jaurès (2012)
83 min | Documentary, Biography
She came to see. I have no photo of Simon to show her, no trace except for these stolen shots, taken from the windows of his home overlooking the Jaures metro station: the canal, cars, ... See full summary »
Director: Vincent Dieutre | Stars: Eva Truffaut, Vincent Dieutre
Votes: 55
9. Level Five (1997)
Not Rated | 106 min | Documentary, Romance, War
The French computer programmer Laura inherits the task of making a computer game of the Battle of Okinawa during World War II. She searches the internet for information on the battle, and ... See full summary »
Director: Chris Marker | Stars: Catherine Belkhodja, Kenji Tokitsu, Nagisa Ôshima, Junichi Ushiyama
Votes: 948 | Gross: $0.02M
10. A.K. (1985)
71 min | Documentary, Biography, History
A documentary that shows the production of Ran and discusses the film techniques of Kurosawa himself.
Director: Chris Marker | Stars: Shigehiko Hasumi, Chris Marker, Akira Kurosawa, Tatsuya Nakadai
Votes: 1,226
11. Treblinka (2016)
TV-14 | 61 min | Drama, History
Interviews with two survivors of the death camp Treblinka recalling the horrors and their miraculous escape
Director: Sérgio Tréfaut | Stars: Isabel Ruth, Kiril Kashlikov
Votes: 78
12. A Divina Comédia (1991)
140 min | Drama
Patients in a mental institution see themselves as Adam and Eve, Sonia and Raskolnikov, a Philosopher and a Prophet, Alyosha and Ivan Karamazov, Jesus, Lazarus, Martha, Mary and St Teresa of Avila.
Director: Manoel de Oliveira | Stars: Maria de Medeiros, Miguel Guilherme, Luís Miguel Cintra, Mário Viegas
Votes: 505
13. Top Girl (2014)
95 min | Drama
TOP GIRL is the second part of the women and work trilogy by the writer-director Tatjana Turanskyj. Helena, 29, a single mother with an 11-year-old daughter, is a moderately successful ... See full summary »
Director: Tatjana Turanskyj | Stars: Julia Hummer, RP Kahl, Susanne Bredehöft, Katharina Bellena
Votes: 96
14. JLG/JLG: Self-Portrait in December (1994)
62 min | Documentary, Drama
Director Jean-Luc Godard reflects in this movie about his place in film history, the interaction of film industry and film as art, as well as the act of creating art.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Jean-Luc Godard, Geneviève Pasquier, Denis Jadót, Brigitte Bastien
Votes: 803
15. London (1994)
Not Rated | 85 min | Documentary
An inspiring tale through London by pictures narrated by Paul Scofield.
Director: Patrick Keiller | Stars: Paul Scofield, John Major, Norma Major, Dennis Skinner
Votes: 761
16. Las cosas indefinidas (2023)
80 min | Documentary, Drama
Eva is a film editor. While working with her assistant Rami on a feature film about blind people, she seems to have lost her enthusiasm for cinema. Added is the recent death of her friend Juan, a film director whose films she edited.
Director: María Aparicio
Votes: 17
17. The Last Bolshevik (1993)
Not Rated | 120 min | Documentary, Biography, History
This documentary tells the story of film director Aleksandr Medvedkin, throughout his life a sincere believer in communism, whose films were repeatedly banned in the Soviet Union. Modern ... See full summary »
Director: Chris Marker | Stars: Léonor Graser, Nikolai Izvolov, Kira Paramonova, Viktor Dyomin
Votes: 731
18. Les temps morts (1965)
10 min | Animation, Short
What is man ? Man makes war, man kills man, man hunts, man is executed. A montage mixing original drawings by Topor, original shots and stock shots that ironically analyze what man is.
Director: René Laloux | Star: Roland Dubillard
Votes: 874
19. Too Early/Too Late (1981)
G | 100 min | Documentary
A sequence of shots of rural landscapes accompanied by readings of texts about the struggles of poor farmers.
Directors: Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub | Stars: Danièle Huillet, Bahgat Elnadi, Gérard Samaan, Gamal Abdel Nasser
Votes: 669
20. Palermo or Wolfsburg (1980)
173 min | Drama
An impoverished young man from Sicily travels to Wolfsburg, West Germany to find work. He takes a job in the Volkswagen factory after he travels through Northern Italy by train.
Director: Werner Schroeter | Stars: Nicola Zarbo, Otto Sander, Ida Di Benedetto, Magdalena Montezuma
Votes: 272
21. A Film Like Any Other (1968)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama
Workers on a car factory argue with revolutionary students.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Votes: 359
22. The Mad Masters (1955)
36 min | Documentary, Short, Horror
A documentary short depicting a Hauka ceremony where young workers are possessed by British colonial officers.
Director: Jean Rouch | Star: Jean Rouch
Votes: 1,775
23. Rattle-Can (2021)
90 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A reclusive college student finds social media fame as a disguised street artist who reveals his story through vandalism.
Director: Alexander Raye Pimentel | Stars: Kyle Abraham, Shawn Abraham, Hannah Bailey, Rebecca Bottorff
Votes: 70
24. Fortini/Cani (1976)
83 min | Documentary
The film is a sort of presentation of Franco Fortini's book 'I Cani del Sinai'. Fortini, an Italian Jew, reads excerpts from the book about his alienation from Judaism and from the social ... See full summary »
Directors: Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub | Stars: Franco Fortini, Luciana Nissim, Adriano Aprà
Votes: 187
25. Sagolandet (1988)
185 min | Documentary
When the daughter Johanna is born in 1983, Jan Troell tells the story about his childhood Sweden and how things were when he grow-up in the land of fairy tales and potential prosperity.
Director: Jan Troell | Stars: Ingvar Carlsson, Tage Erlander, Rollo May, Timo Nilsson
Votes: 218
26. Filmmakers vs. Tycoons (2005)
97 min | Documentary, Biography
This is the first of a series of two documentaries concerning the way the cinema industry is not respecting the author works as they were conceived, in the many ways this can be done. This ... See full summary »
Director: Carlos Benpar | Stars: Marta Belmonte, Woody Allen, Marco Bellocchio, Jack Cardiff
Votes: 177
27. Hollywood contra Franco (2008)
92 min | Documentary, Biography, History
The Spanish Civil War made a great impression on the lives of most of the American artists of the 20th Century. Lots of films were made in Hollywood referring to this event, and the defeat ... See full summary »
Director: Oriol Porta | Stars: Lluís Soler, Brendan Price, Alvah Bessie, Moe Fishman
Votes: 63
28. Inflation (1928)
3 min | Short, Documentary
Inflation explores the subject of money through photographs and with with stop motion animation techniques, adding faces of people impoverished and enriched by the unpredictability of finance.
Director: Hans Richter
Votes: 334
29. Mon cas (1986)
92 min | Drama, Fantasy
Four versions of the same story, first in the perspective of a theatre play, second in the perspective of a silent film, third in the perspective of a film of the 50s and finally in a biblical philosophical perspective.
Director: Manoel de Oliveira | Stars: Bulle Ogier, Luís Miguel Cintra, Axel Bogousslavsky, Fred Personne
Votes: 223
30. Staub (2007)
Not Rated | 90 min | Documentary
A look at the pervasive power of dust from its tiny particles settling in unseen places to its ability to cause illnesses and create the cosmos.
Director: Hartmut Bitomsky | Stars: Marga Beck, Cornelia Hoepfner, Ayni Iloar, Hiltrud Jehle
Votes: 154
31. Cofralandes, rapsodia chilena (2002)
311 min | Documentary, Comedy, Drama
Director: Raúl Ruiz | Stars: Bernard Pautrat, Raúl Ruiz, Malcolm Coad, Rainer Krause
Votes: 54
32. Los Angeles (V) (2018)
3 min | Short, Adventure, Drama
A black and white Super 8 short follows the stories of Los Angeles. There are textures of Griffith Park, Angels Flight, Hollywood, Franklin Village, and DTLA.
Director: Ian Clay | Stars: Brigitte Bertrand, Kayla Delehant
33. Bigas Luna: The entomologist gaze (2008)
Not Rated | 25 min | Documentary, Short, Biography
An exploration of the world and the work of the most international Catalan filmmaker through the director's entomological vision and his portrayal of the characters and themes he loves and hates.
Director: Sergi Rubió | Stars: Bigas Luna, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Jordi Mollà
Votes: 12
34. Evo (2002)
75 min | Documentary, History
E V O is a visually daring documentary look at evolutionary theory that comes off like a university course in paleobiology as taught by Marshall McLuhan." Monday Magazine Festival ... See full summary »
Director: Oliver Hockenhull
Votes: 8
35. Vermischte Nachrichten (1986)
101 min | Drama
Director: Alexander Kluge | Stars: Marita Breuer, Rosel Zech, Sabine Wegner, André Jung
Votes: 66
36. Torrella, una vida pel cinema (1997)
110 min | Documentary, Biography, History
A brief and revealing account of the life and work of Catalonian filmmaker Josep Torrella. It examines his career as a filmmaker and writer, and also his personal life as a friend, husband, confidant and patriarch.
Director: Sergi Rubió | Stars: Josep Torrella, Josep Ache, Victorio Aguado, Juan Ainaud de Lasarte
37. Filmmakers in Action (2005)
102 min | Documentary, Biography
Following the documentary "Filmmakers vs. Tycoons", this second part focus on the measures to protect authors' copyright, and the legal difference in the figure of the author in the United States or in France.
Director: Carlos Benpar | Stars: Marta Belmonte, Woody Allen, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Eugenie Bachelor
Votes: 127
38. Cofralandes, Part Four: Memories and Waltzes (2002)
87 min | Documentary, Comedy, Drama
Director: Raúl Ruiz | Stars: José Luis Barba, Néstor Cantillana, Amparo Noguera, Isabel Parra
Votes: 13
39. News from Ideological Antiquity - Marx/Eisenstein/The Capital (2008 Video)
570 min | Documentary
Director Alexander Kluge provides his own take of Eisenstein's unfinished filming of Karl Marx's Capital, a subject that the Russian director and James Joyce had debated in 1927.
Director: Alexander Kluge | Stars: Oksana Bulgakova, Dietmar Dath, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Durs Grünbein
Votes: 70
40. The trials of a fairly intelligent Imbecile (2019)
24 min | Short, Biography
Director: James Chehab | Stars: Antigone the Cat, Khadija Dia, Nour Saliba
42. Cartoline dalla Cina (1985 TV Short)
10 min | Documentary, Short
Images from China of the last century, simply urban and agricultural.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Star: Bernardo Bertolucci
Votes: 14
43. Cofralandes, Part Three: Museums and Clubs in the Antarctic (2002)
64 min | Documentary, Comedy, Drama
Director: Raúl Ruiz | Stars: Ignacio Agüero, Marcial Edwards, Javier Maldonado, Mario Montilles
Votes: 14
44. In Prison Air: A Book by Thomas Roma (2017)
23 min | Documentary, Short
Director: Milan Roganovic | Stars: Thomas Roma, Olivia Gray, Jack Sochet, Alex Jenkins
45. Pred buku
90 min | Documentary, Biography, Drama | Filming
An autobiographical poetic film essay on lost time, which aims to create a broader picture of the experience of losing home as the center of personal universe.
Director: Nenad Milosevic | Stars: Boris Isakovic, Jelena Curuvija, Matej Recer
46. Cofralandes, Part Two: Faces and Places (2002)
80 min | Documentary, Comedy, Drama
Director: Raúl Ruiz | Stars: Bernard Pautrat, Raúl Ruiz
Votes: 12
48. A Life's Work (2020)
90 min | Documentary
What's it like to dedicate your life to work that won't be completed in your lifetime? Fifteen years ago, filmmaker David Licata focused on four projects and the people behind them in an effort to answer this universal question.
Director: David Licata | Stars: Jill Tarter, Robert Darden, David Milarch, Paolo Soleri
49. Out of the Mist: An Alternate History of New Zealand Cinema (2015)
82 min | Documentary
Two decades on from Cinema of Unease, Tim Wong's ambitious film essay contemplates the prevailing image of a national cinema while privileging some of the images and image-makers displaced by the popular view of filmmaking in New Zealand.
Director: Tim Wong | Star: Eleanor Catton
50. Passarinhos (2020)
10 min | Documentary, Short
A poetic look about about quarantine at home during the covid-19 pandemic and the re-configurations of time, daily life and affective ties with others and yourself.
Directors: F. Monteiro Júnior, Weslley Oliveira | Stars: Renata Fortes, Naomy Romo