A timeless ant-war parable that looks at public reaction when the hair of an American war orphan mysteriously turns green. This makes him an object of ridicule in his small town, where the locals call for the boy's head to be shaved. There is an interesting coda to this wonderful and unusual film: Producer Dore Schary and director Joseph Losey made it for RKO before the politically conservative Howard Hughes took over. Hughes hated the film's pacifist message, and did his best to sabotage it find out more...

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs might be Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse's finest hour, a delicate, devastating study of a woman, Keiko, played heartbreakingly by Hideko Takamine, who works as a bar hostess in Tokyo's very modern post-war Ginza district. Sly, resourceful, but trapped, Keiko comes to embody the conflicts and struggles of a woman trying to establish her independence in a male-dominated society. A profoundly moving masterpiece. find out more...