Must watch classics

When a mysterious artifact is uncovered on the Moon, a spacecraft manned by two humans and one supercomputer is sent to Jupiter to find its origins.

A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.

A Chicago advertising man must struggle to travel home from New York for Thanksgiving, with a lovable oaf of a shower-curtain-ring salesman as his only companion.

A young boy accidentally joins a band of time travelling dwarves, as they jump from era to era looking for treasure to steal.

A concentration camp survivor rekindles her sadomasochistic relationship with an ex-SS officer working as a night porter at a Vienna hotel, but his former associates begin stalking them.

The lives of a disparate group of contestants intertwine in a grueling and inhumane dance marathon.

Two documentary filmmakers chronicle their time in Sonagchi, Calcutta and the relationships they developed with children of prostitutes who work the city's notorious red light district.

Documentary about war photographer James Nachtwey, considered by many the greatest war photographer ever.

The story of three lost boxes known as the Mexican Suitcase that were recovered in 2007. The boxes, misplaced in the chaos at the start of WWII, contained many of the Spanish Civil War negatives by the legendary photographer Robert Capa and fellow photographers Gerda Taro and David "Chim" Seymour.

A documentary on art-scene commentator Paul Hasegawa-Overacker's relationship with enigmatic photographer Cindy Sherman.

A camera crew follows Helmut Newton, the fashion and ad photographer whose images of tall, blond, big-breasted women are part of the iconography of twentieth-century erotic fantasy. He's on the go from L.A., to Paris, to Monte-Carlo, to Berlin, where he was a youth until he escaped from the Nazis in 1936. We see him on shoots, interviewing models, and discussing his work. It's not art and it's not good taste, he tells students. We meet June, his Australian-born wife, whom he married in 1948. Three actresses talk about working with Newton and how posing is different from acting. A heart attack in 1973 helps Newton re-focus, resulting in more personal photographic projects.

In 1981, Susan Meiselas published "Nicaragua, June 1978 to July 1979," 70 photographs she took documenting the Sandinista revolution. Ten years later, Meiselas returns looking for the people who appear in the photographs: where are they now, what do they remember, what do they think of their country and of the revolution? She finds a woman who buried her husband when she was 14; she talks to those who fought the Guarda Nacional - some are disillusioned, some still have the fervor of revolution; she talks to mothers about their sons; she finds a Guarda member who became a Contra. And she offers her own reflections on time and history and on the moment and meaning of a photograph.

In 2002, American photographer Tierney Gearon (1963- ), fresh from the disconcerting success of her 2001 exhibit at London's Saatchi Gallery, goes to upstate New York to begin a project photographing her mother. Over the next few years, two filmmakers record Gearon's visits, accompanied by her two young children and later a baby. Gearon's mother can behave erratically, and the presence of mother, daughter, and children brings up Gearon's own feelings about her childhood. Her children are philosophical about being photographed and on exhibition. Portraits of family, discovery, and healing may emerge.

After his wife divorces him, a Polish immigrant plots to get even with her.

A crime lord ascends to power and becomes megalomaniacal while a maverick police detective vows to stop him.

Promises Written in Water is an extremely stripped down abstract romantic story of a man and a woman, both in crisis. Kevin (Vincent Gallo) is a long-time, professional assassin, specializing in the termination of life. Mallory (Delfine Bafort) is a wild, poetic, beautiful young woman confronting her terminal illness and eventual suicide. She reaches out to Kevin to take responsibility for her corpse once she passes, requesting his protection of her dead body's dignity until her cremation. Kevin's acceptance of this request causes uncomfortable self-reflection and changes the lens through which he views death.

Birth: it's a miracle. A rite of passage. A natural part of life. But more than anything, birth is a business. Compelled to find answers after a disappointing birth experience with her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to explore the maternity care system in America.

A spoiled schoolgirl runs away from home, gets pregnant while hitch-hiking, and ends up as a fashion model for a pair of beauticians who like to photograph women committing crimes.

World-famous pop group the Spice Girls zip around London in their luxurious double-decker tour bus having various adventures and performing for their fans.

A girl gifted with a keen intellect and psychic powers uses both to get even with her callous family and free her kindly schoolteacher from the tyrannical grip of a sadistic headmistress.

A young boy stumbles onto a witch convention and must stop them, even after he has been turned into a mouse.

In the summer of 1962, a new kid in town is taken under the wing of a young baseball prodigy and his rowdy team, resulting in many adventures.

When Chloe and Riley Lawrence are invited to London to participate in the International Model UN competition, they enjoy seeing the sights and find romance with cute British boys.

A lackadaisical handyman and aspiring novelist tries to support his younger girlfriend as she slowly succumbs to madness.

After being kicked out of his rock band, Dewey Finn becomes a substitute teacher of an uptight elementary private school, only to try and turn his class into a rock band.