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Seven Samurai

Akira Kurosawa
1954 • 207 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Spine: #2 Editions: DVD, Blu-ray, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus, iTunes

In Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai), sixteenth-century villagers hire the eponymous warriors to protect them from invading bandits. This thrilling three-hour ride is one of the most beloved movie epics of all time.

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High and Low

Akira Kurosawa
1963 • 143 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #24 Editions: DVD, Blu-ray, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

Adapting Ed McBain’s detective novel King’s Ransom, Kurosawa moves effortlessly from compelling race-against-time thriller to exacting social commentary, creating a diabolical treatise on contemporary Japanese society.

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Yojimbo

Akira Kurosawa
1961 • 110 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #52 Editions: DVD, Blu-ray, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus, iTunes

To rid a terror-stricken village of corruption, wily masterless samurai Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune) turns a range war between two evil clans to his own advantage in Akira Kurosawa’s visually stunning and darkly comic Yojimbo.

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Sanjuro

Akira Kurosawa
1962 • 96 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #53 Editions: DVD, Blu-ray, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus, iTunes

In Kurosawa’s sly companion piece to Yojimbo, jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan’s evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a “proper” samurai on its ear.

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The Hidden Fortress

Akira Kurosawa
1958 • 139 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #116 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

A general and a princess must dodge enemy clans while smuggling the royal treasure out of hostile territory with two bumbling, conniving peasants at their sides; it’s a spirited adventure that only Akira Kurosawa could create.

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Rashomon

Akira Kurosawa
1950 • 88 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Spine: #138 Editions: DVD, Blu-ray, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus, iTunes

A riveting psychological thriller that investigates the nature of truth and the meaning of justice Rashomon is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made.

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Red Beard

Akira Kurosawa
1965 • 185 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #159 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

A testament to the goodness of humankind, Akira Kurosawa’s Red Beard chronicles the tumultuous relationship between an arrogant young doctor and a compassionate clinic director (Toshiro Mifune, in his last role for Kurosawa).

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Throne of Blood

Akira Kurosawa
1957 • 109 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Spine: #190 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood reimagines Macbeth in feudal Japan. Starring Kurosawa’s longtime collaborator Toshiro Mifune and the legendary Isuzu Yamada as his ruthless wife, the film tells of a valiant warrior’s savage rise to power and his ignominious fall.

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Ikiru

Akira Kurosawa
1952 • 143 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Spine: #221 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

An aging bureaucrat with stomach cancer decides to strip the veneer off his existence and find meaning in his final days. Considered by some to be Akira Kurosawa’s greatest achievement, Ikiru offers a multifaceted look at a life through a prism of perspectives.

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Stray Dog

Akira Kurosawa
1949 • 122 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Spine: #233 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

When a pickpocket steals a rookie detective’s gun on a hot, crowded bus, the cop goes undercover in a desperate attempt to right the wrong. Kurosawa’s thrilling noir probes the squalid world of postwar Japan and the nature of the criminal mind.

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Au hasard Balthazar

Robert Bresson
1966 • 95 minutes • 1.66:1 • France
Spine: #297 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar follows the donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel, but all with motivations beyond his understanding—a profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema.

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The Bad Sleep Well

Akira Kurosawa
1960 • 150 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #319 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

A young executive hunts down his father’s killer in director Akira Kurosawa’s scathing The Bad Sleep Well. Continuing his legendary collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa combines elements of Hamlet and American film noir to chilling effect.

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Drunken Angel

Akira Kurosawa
1948 • 98 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Spine: #413 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

In this powerful early noir from the great Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune bursts onto the screen as a volatile, tubercular criminal who strikes up an unlikely relationship with Takashi Shimura’s jaded physician.

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Dodes’ka-den

Akira Kurosawa
1970 • 144 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Spine: #465 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

By turns tragic and transcendent, Akira Kurosawa’s Dodes’ka-den follows the daily lives of a group of people barely scraping by in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. Kurosawa’s gloriously shot first color film displays all of his hopes, fears, and artistic passion.

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The Lower Depths

Akira Kurosawa
1957 • 125 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Editions: Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

Working with his most celebrated actor, Toshiro Mifune, Akira Kurosawa faithfully adapts Maxim Gorky’s classic proletariat play, keeping the original’s focus on the conflict between illusion and reality.

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The Red Balloon

Albert Lamorisse
1956 • 34 minutes • 1.33:1 • France
Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus, iTunes

Albert Lamorisse’s exquisite The Red Balloon remains one of the most beloved children’s films of all time. In this deceptively simple, nearly wordless tale, a young boy discovers a stray balloon, which seems to have a mind of its own, on the streets of Paris.

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White Mane

Albert Lamorisse
1952 • 39 minutes • 1.33:1 • France
Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

In the south of France, in a vast plain region called the Camargue, lives White Mane, a magnificent stallion and the leader of a herd of wild horses too proud to let themselves be broken by humans. Only Folco, a young fisherman, manages to tame him.

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The Ballad of the Sad Cafe

Simon Callow
1991 • 100 minutes • 1.77:1 • United Kingdom
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

Merchant Ivory’s The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, based on the novella by Carson McCullers and the play by Edward Albee, is both a grotesque black comedy and a prime slice of Southern Gothic set in a poverty-stricken rural community dominated by the curious, androgynous Miss Amelia.

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Bombay Talkie

James Ivory
1970 • 112 minutes • 1.78:1 • United States
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

Starring Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kendal, Bombay Talkie is Merchant Ivory’s affectionate, bemused view of Bollywood—India’s huge dream factory. Cameraman Subrata Mitra’s ravishing photography has never been surpassed in any other of James Ivory’s films.

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The Courtesans of Bombay

Ismail Merchant
1983 • 73 minutes • 1.33:1 • India
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus
The Courtesans of Bombay is Merchant Ivory’s intriguing docudrama about Pavan Pool, the enclosed area where the city’s singing and dancing courtesans ply their trade. It’s a portrait of a unique location both exotic and tawdry.

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The Deceivers

Nicholas Meyer
1988 • 102 minutes • 1.77:1 • United Kingdom
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

India, 1825: The country is being ravaged by the Thugees, cult members also known as the “Deceivers,” who commit robbery and ritualistic murder. Appalled by their activities, English officer William Savage (Pierce Brosnan) disguises himself and infiltrates their ranks.

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The Europeans

James Ivory
1979 • 91 minutes • 1.78:1 • United Kingdom
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

This entertaining film, from a delicious early novel by Henry James, takes place in a New England Arcadia that stands for everything beautiful, pure, and good. Into this Eden come a sophisticated European brother and sister who turn up unexpectedly on the doorstep of their staid American cousins.

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The Householder

James Ivory
1963 • 101 minutes • 1.33:1 • United Kingdom
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

The Householder, the first collaboration between Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, is the story of a young, underpaid Delhi schoolteacher (Shashi Kapoor) who marries and then, little by little, gets to know his young wife, Indu (Leela Naidu), during their first year together.

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Jane Austen in Manhattan

James Ivory
1980 • 111 minutes • 1.33:1 • United States
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

Rival theater companies compete to produce their own unique versions of Jane Austen’s childhood play Sir Charles Grandison in this delightful film from Merchant Ivory, featuring a brilliant ensemble cast, a witty screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and an inventive score by Richard Robbins.

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The Perfect Murder

Zafar Hai
1988 • 93 minutes • 1.77:1 • India
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

Inspector Ghote of the Bombay police has just been assigned his most perplexing case: a savage attack on a rich industrialist’s private secretary. Based on the award-winning novel by H.R.F. Keating, Merchant Ivory Productions’ The Perfect Murder is an entertaining, exotic detective thriller.

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