"2005"

Until those bright, active days return, outstanding international films can help satisfy that yearning for far-off places. Below are ten special Netflix titles that should satisfy your itch to travel the world.

The First World War, which officially ended a hundred years ago this past Sunday, was the most consequential and devastating conflict the world had ever seen.

In the years after the smashing success of Mike Nichols’s “The Graduate” (1967), Anne Bancroft came to believe that her portrayal of Mrs. Robinson, the bored middle-aged wife and mother who seduces newly minted college grad Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), overshadowed the rest of her career.

Though movies have often fueled our country’s propaganda machine in times of war, for me personally those films that expose war’s folly are more interesting simply because they feel more authentic and honest.

Any serious student of film will recognize Japan’s outsize contribution to advancing this most vivid and powerful of art forms. Just consider the legacy of Ozu (“Tokyo Story”) and Kurosawa (“Rashomon”) for a start. Of course, over the years many lesser-known Japanese directors have also done brilliant work.Happily, that tradition of excellence has extended well into this century. Below are eight of my favorite Japanese entries made over the last fifteen years.  Each in their own way explores a vastly different culture from ours, while shedding light on human issues and emotions we all share.

Reading about Jane Fonda, you quickly recognize that there’s enough incident and achievement in her 78 years to fill three lives. She was in fact famous for three things: acting, activism, and launching the fitness craze that’s helped countless baby boomers stay fit and healthy into their senior years.

Once famous, Bob Dylan didn’t wait long to put his poetic, socially rebellious, cage-rattling persona on film. In the words of former girlfriend Joan Baez, he “burst on the scene already a legend” in 1961, and had only been recording for three years when he became the subject of documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker’s groundbreaking tour diary, “Don’t Look Back” (1965). 

Young adult used to be just another stage in personal development, starting somewhere around the end of Barbie dolls and army men, and cresting just after the discovery of beer and indie rock. Growing up seems to happen in that one, long, hot zone of emerging identities and burgeoning freedom.  These days, YA is an entire industry of books and movies, a full lifestyle in fact, and one that doesn’t end once the “adult” is no longer “young.” After all, growing up is never quite over, which explains why YA audiences are as likely to be “adult” as they are “young.” For instance, who is the prime audience for “The Hunger Games?” Not just kids.   One forgets that the term “teenager”  gained traction only in the 1940s, as the popularity of Frank Sinatra took hold with a multitude of teen girls. Suddenly, this overlooked group had the attention of radio programmers and audiences, and a demographic was born. 

Name almost any type of film and it’s likely Robert Wise made at least one of them.   Whether it's a horror movie, a science-fiction outing, a war picture, an ensemble drama, a suspense film or a musical, Wise handled it, usually in exceptional fashion. (The only area he really didn’t tackle was pure comedy.)   Yet predictably, his versatility didn’t play well with some film commentators of his time who prescribed to the “auteur” theory, which lent more significance to directors who consistently followed a signature style in their work.