Gospel According to St. Matthew. A far cry from the Hollywood Bible epics: immediate, made so by Pasolini's simplicity of setting and action, and his effective use of hand-held cameras and non-professional actors. Pasolini preserves the words of the gospel; his Marxism does not show through. 1964.

Julius Caesar. Joseph Mankiewicz's production remains the best filmed version, with excellent performances by Marlon Brando as Antony, James Mason as Brutus, John Gielgud as Cassius -- but the battle scenes are overdone. 1953.

The Wages of Fear. French, yet a surprising commercial success in the U.S. (both with sub-titles and in a dubbed version). Henri-Georges Clouzot wrote and directed this tragedy of Latin truckers working in a South American town run by American oil interests. Suspenseful and sometimes brutal, never sentimental. 1953, Janus Film Festival. Harvard Square's festival of eminent films including Jean Renoir's best (Rules of the Game) and Sergei Eisenstein's last (Ivan the Terrible), Beauty and the Beast, Jean Cocteau's luxurious fairy tale fantasy, complements Marcel Camus's exotic myth Black Orpheus, set in Rio. Marcel Carne's Le Jour Se Leive [Daybreak] is a suspenseful and symbolic psychological study of a murderer who has locked himself in an attic. It should be better known. Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel takes place in a German cabaret between the wars. It was Marlene Dietrich's first film, and as Lola the vamp she sings cabaret songs. Many people think The Grand Illusion the best film ever made; I wouldn't put it that high, but it is undoubtedly a great film. Then there are The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries -- films Bergman has surpassed many times, yet which seem to remain the popular favorites.