50 European Gems 1955 - 1985
As I write articles about older European movies, I like to discover movies that aren't too well known. Undiscovered gems so to speak, from Europe, because European movies tend to be less famous than American movies (maybe I will do an American list someday as well). I love to share these finds. I only chose movies with less than 50 user reviews on IMDb to be sure these are more or less undiscovered movies, though I am sure the real movie buff will recognize (more than) a few. These movies are generally speaking from the period 1955 - 1985.
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50 titles
- DirectorEttore ScolaStarsNino ManfrediVittorio GassmanStefania SandrelliThree partisans bound by a strong friendship return home after the war, but the clash with everyday reality puts a strain on their bond.
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsKrystyna JandaJerzy RadziwilowiczTadeusz LomnickiA young Polish filmmaker sets out to find out what happened to Mateusz Birkut, a bricklayer who became a propaganda hero in the 1950s but later fell out of favor and disappeared.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean-Pierre LéaudClaude JadeHiroko BerghauerAntoine Doinel works dying flowers in the courtyard outside his apartment. He is married to Christine, who is pregnant. He has an affair with a Japanese woman, jeopardising his marriage.
- DirectorFrancesco RosiStarsLino VenturaTino CarraroMarcel BozzuffiAn investigation of the judges' assassinations reveals a political background.
- DirectorGeorges LautnerStarsLino VenturaBernard BlierFrancis BlancheA dying mob boss hands over his business to an old friend, Fernand. The boss' assistants want to get rid of the latter. But are the Volfoni brothers and Théo real threats? Ensuing fights and shootouts are more comical than deadly.
- DirectorDino RisiStarsVittorio GassmanCatherine SpaakJean-Louis TrintignantAn impulsive braggart takes a shy law student with him for a two-day road trip from Rome to Tuscany.
- DirectorFrancesco RosiStarsGian Maria VolontèLuigi SquarzinaPeter BaldwinAn Italian industrialist died in a plane crash. An accident or an assassination?
- DirectorMarco FerreriStarsMarcello MastroianniCatherine DeneuveMichel PiccoliA highly stylized surreal farce about the events leading up to Custer's Last Stand anachronistically reenacted in an urban renewal area in modern Paris.
- DirectorElio PetriStarsGian Maria VolontèFlorinda BolkanGianni SantuccioA chief of detectives, homicide section, kills his mistress and deliberately leaves clues to prove his own responsibility for the crime.
- DirectorBertrand BlierStarsGérard DepardieuBernard BlierJean CarmetAlphonse lives in an empty building. Empty but for one neighbour, the police captain Morvandieu. When the man who have killed Alphonse's wife appears, the three men will be thrown in a serie of event in a surrealist world.
- DirectorBertrand BlierStarsGérard DepardieuMiou-MiouPatrick DewaereTwo thugs harass assault, steal, murder, Marie-Ange, a jaded, passive hairdresser, joins them as lover, cook, and mother confessor, on her own search for seemingly unattainable sexual pleasure.
- DirectorJuraj HerzStarsRudolf HrusínskýVlasta ChramostováJana StehnováSet in Central Europe during World War II, a demented cremator believes cremation relieves earthly suffering and sets out to save the world.
- DirectorJuliusz MachulskiStarsWieslaw MichnikowskiJerzy StuhrOlgierd LukaszewiczTwo scientists are placed into a 3-year hibernation, but when they wake up, it turns out to have been 50 years, and they are the only two males in a new underground society composed exclusively of women.
- DirectorMichael AndersonStarsGeorge SegalAlec GuinnessMax von SydowIn the West Berlin of the 1960s, two British agents are killed by a Nazi group, prompting British Intelligence to dispatch agent Quiller to investigate.
- DirectorNarciso Ibáñez SerradorStarsLewis FianderPrunella RansomeAntonio IranzoA couple of English tourists arrive on an island where all the children have gone crazy and are murdering the adults.
- DirectorJan NemecStarsHelena PejskováJana PracharováZdena SkvoreckaA small group of bourgeois guests head for a birthday party of a prominent figure. As they go through the woods and have a picnic, they are suddenly surrounded by a bunch of suspicious strangers.
- DirectorElio PetriStarsMarcello MastroianniUrsula AndressElsa MartinelliIn a future where a human vs. human "Big Hunt" is used as an alternative to war, a veteran huntress' plan to kill a "victim" for a major TV sponsorship deal is compounded by romance.
- DirectorÉric RohmerStarsJean-Louis TrintignantFrançoise FabianMarie-Christine BarraultA devout Catholic man's rigid principles are challenged during a one-night stay with Maud, a divorced woman with an outsize personality.
- DirectorMichael WinnerStarsOliver ReedOrson WellesCarol WhiteThe professional and romantic misadventures of an advertising executive in 1960s swinging London.
- DirectorClaude LelouchStarsMichèle MorganSerge ReggianiPhilippe LéotardA very unorthodox police inspector is assigned to investigate a millionaire's mysterious death.
- DirectorJindrich PolákStarsPetr KostkaJirí SovákVladimír MensíkJan is a decent, boring man, living a decent, boring life as a rocket designer. When his adventurous twin brother dies in a breakfast accident, Jan decides to impersonate him, unwittingly becoming a part of a Nazi time travel conspiracy.
- DirectorGrigori KromanovStarsUldis PucitisJüri JärvetLembit PetersonPolice gets a call-out to a lonely hotel in the Alps. When an officer gets to the hotel everything seems to be all right. Suddenly, an avalanche cuts them out from the rest of the world, and strange things are going to happen.
- DirectorVáclav VorlícekStarsDana MedrickáJirí SovákOlga Schoberová"What if someone had an absurd dream and the visions ran out in the street?" a scientist asks Rose, a researcher who discovers a way to engender beneficial dreams (to produce contented, productive workers). There's a problem: after an injection of her elixir, dream elements become real. Rose learns this after dosing her husband Henry to stop his dreaming about Jessie, a curvaceous comic-book heroine who has anti-gravitational gloves he needs to study so he can solve a problem at the factory where he's chief engineer: Henry wakes up with Jessie asleep next to him pursued by a cowboy and a super hero. Jealousy consumes Rose. All this plus satire aimed at the Czechoslovak state.
- DirectorSlobodan SijanStarsBogdan DiklicDanilo 'Bata' StojkovicPavle VuisicThe Topalovic family has been in the burial business for generations. When the old (150 yrs old) Pantelija dies, five generations of his heirs start to fight for the inheritance.
- DirectorClaude FaraldoStarsMichel PiccoliBéatrice RomandMarilù ToloMade without proper language, just gibberish and grunts, this is an absurdist comedy about a man who rejects every facet of normal bourgeois life and turns his apartment into a virtual cave.