Scorsese's 39 Essential Films

In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.

Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.

Arch-criminal Dr. Mabuse sets out to make a fortune and run Berlin. Detective Wenk sets out to stop him.

A film about the French general's youth and early military career.

During WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.

A bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.

The theatrical life of a beautiful courtesan in 1830s Paris and the four men who love her.

During the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1944, the Resistance leader, Giorgio Manfredi, is chased by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a way to escape.

American military personnel interact warily with a variety of Italian locals over a year and a half in the push north during the Italian Campaign of WWII as German forces make their retreat.

In rural Sicily, the fishermen live at the mercy of the greedy wholesalers. One family risks everything to buy their own boat and operate independently.

In post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen, endangering his efforts to find work. He and his son set out to find it.

An elderly man and his dog struggle to survive on his government pension in Rome.

A beautiful young woman takes her father's place as the prisoner of a mysterious beast, who wishes to marry her.

An old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city, but receive little attention.

A bureaucrat tries to find meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.

Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, and he gathers six other samurai to join him.

A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.

In medieval Japan, a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression.

An executive of a Yokohama shoe company becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom.

A motley quintet of inept small-time thieves attempt the burglary of a local pawnshop in this Italian farce.

Having recently been uprooted to Milan, Rocco and his four brothers each look for a new way in life when a prostitute comes between Rocco and his brother Simone.

A young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.

A pianist helps his brother escape from two gangsters, who retaliate by abducting their kid brother.

A small-time crook, hunted by the authorities for a car theft and the murder of a police officer, attempts to persuade a hip American journalism student to run away with him to Italy.

Two crooks with a fondness for old Hollywood B-movies convince a languages student to help them commit a robbery.