WATCH GREAT CINEMA

Instincts both maternal and carnal clatter like shards of glass in a blender in this uncompromising portrait of a woman on the edge from director Lynne Ramsay. Starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson in a frenzied pas de deux, Die My Love inflames the exposed nerves of delirium and desire.

Cascading through time, Mascha Schilinski’s incomparable Cannes prizewinner orchestrates echoes of past experience into transcendent poetic cinema. Surfacing evocative, gilded imagery from the shadows of femininity, Sound of Falling confirms the tremendous talents of its ambitious writer-director.

The first Nigerian film ever to screen in Official Selection at Cannes, this prizewinning debut feature from Akinola Davies Jr. is steeped in feeling and lyrical imagery. Bathing the father-son bond in a tender glow, this vibrant coming-of-age tale gathers up precious things amid political tumult.

Iconic auteur Jim Jarmusch’s acclaimed return to anthology filmmaking abounds with wryly resonant observations on the family unit. Sketching finely detailed portraits with its starry ensemble cast (including a gloriously rumpled Tom Waits), this offbeat triptych finds universals in idiosyncrasies.

Winner of Un Certain Regard at Cannes, Diego Céspedes’s debut feature pays luminous tribute to human resilience in inhumane times. Equal parts Chilean Western, dark fairy tale, and chosen-family hangout movie, this gorgeous work of queer magical realism finds love thriving amid sickness and hatred.

The glamor of talent and the realities of the road share a mic in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz, which traps a lost age of rock stardom in prismatic glass. Three crystal chandeliers—which once dressed the sets of Gone with the Wind—hang over hi-hats and amps in this genre-defining concert film.

Winner of the 1993 Palme d’Or, Chen Kaige’s widescreen epic draws on the classical theater for its expansive vision. Its modern take on taboos surrounding homosexuality and gender performativity— a first in Chinese cinema—was not without controversy: a queer, epoch-spanning masterpiece for the ages.