Isao Takahata (Japan, 1994). (Heisei tanuki gassen pompoko). Ages 10 and up. In this modern-day version of the legend of the tanuki, Japan's mighty (and mighty cute) raccoon-dogs, the animals unite to save their forest home from encroaching suburbia. (119 mins)

Otar Iosseliani (U.S.S.R., 1975). In this exquisite film by Georgian director Otar Iosseliani, a string quartet's visit to a small village is treated with the gentle satire usually associated with the Czech New Wave. “Iosseliani is (Georgia's) greatest director” (Tom Luddy). (94 mins)

Julien Duvivier (France, 1933). Archival Print! The famed Inspector Maigret roams crowded Montparnasse cafes and dingy tenements as he hunts for a nihilistic, Dostoevskian killer. Both a classic film noir and a seminal police procedural. (98 mins)

Raoul Walsh (U.S., 1915). Archival print! Judith Rosenberg on piano. The first feature-length gangster film, shot on location in New York, stars Anna Q. Nilsson as a society girl running a Bowery mission and Rockliffe Fellowes as a gang leader. “Regeneration, astounding for 1915, marks the start of a new cinema” (Senses of Cinema). (61 mins)

Raoul Walsh (U.S., 1931). Vault print! A Jewish woman is forced to accept a passport identifying her as a prostitute in order to travel within Imperial Russia. Stars Elissa Landi, Lionel Barrymore, and a remarkably young Laurence Olivier. (81 mins)

Nikita Mikhalkov (U.S.S.R., 1979). (Pyat vecherov). This classic by the great Mikhalkov (Dark Eyes) tells of the bittersweet reunion of former lovers who have been separated since Hitler's 1941 invasion of Russia. (100 mins)

Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 1949). (Nora inu). Toshiro Mifune is a driven detective in this bravura Tokyo noir, Kurosawa's homage to Simenon. Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura star. “A bona fide masterpiece” (Time Out). (122 mins)