Christianity and Film

Directed by Vittorio De Sica.
89 minutes; released 1948.
An unemployed man needs a bicycle to work, but then his bicycle is stolen. In Italian with English subtitles.

Directed by Kon Ichikawa.
116 minutes; released 1956.
A Japanese soldier is nursed back to health by a Buddhist monk, then devotes himself to searching the jungle battlefields for the abandoned remains of dead soldiers to give them a decent burial.

Directed by Hugh Hudson.
123 minutes; released 1981.
In this true story of two British runners competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics, a fervent Scottish missionary runs to serve God while the other runner, a Jewish student at Cambridge, sprints to seek glory and fight prejudice.

Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski.
55-minute episodes; released 1989.
Kieslowski's series of ten dramas each inspired by one of the Ten Commandments. In Polish with English subtitles.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa.
140 minutes; released 1975.
An eccentric Mongolian frontiersman saves the members of a Russian surveying expedition by teaching them how to survive in the wilderness. Based on the novel by Vladimir Klavdievich Arsen'ev.

Directed by Richard Attenborough.
190 minutes; released 1982.
The biography of Mohandas K. Gandhi, a small-time Indian lawyer who rose to fame through his philosophy of non-violent but direct-action protest.

Directed by Louis Malle.
101 minutes; released 1987.
A Jewish boy is hidden from the Nazis in a French Catholic boarding school. In French with English subtitles.

Directed by D.W. Griffith.
178 minutes; released 1916.
Four separate but interwoven stories, unified by the common theme of man's inhumanity to man.

Directed by Frank Capra.
132 minutes; released 1947.
A man facing financial ruin contemplates suicide until his guardian angel shows him how meaningful his life has been to those around him.

Directed by Elia Kazan.
108 minutes; released 1954.
A former boxer stands up to the criminal boss of a corrupt union of dock workers. Starring Marlon Brando.

Directed by Roberto Rossellini.
105 minutes; released 1945.
A woman and a priest work with the Italian underground in Nazi-occupied Rome. In Italian, with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Steven Spielberg.
196 minutes; released 1993.
The true story of Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi party, womanizer, and war profiteer, who saved the lives of more than 1,100 Jews during World War II.

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
96 minutes; released 1957.
A knight returning home from the Crusades encounters Death, who agrees to a chess game. In the balance hang the lives of the knight and a group of traveling players. In Swedish with English subtitles.

Directed by Ermanno Olmi.
177 minutes; released 1978.
The life of a rural peasant family in early twentieth century northern Italy. In Italian, with English subtitles.

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
91 minutes; released 1957.
A retired professor who lives alone with his housekeeper reminisces about his failures and disappointments in personal relationships. Includes a 90-minute documentary by Jörn Donner on Bergman's life and work. Audio track in Swedish with optional English subtitles.