At a time when movie reviews have degenerated into mere publicity and film scholarship has become entangled in pedantic discourse, close readings of major directing careers and significant films are a needed alternative. In European Directors and Their Films: Essays on Cinema, Bert Cardullo analyzes of some of the most important film artists and individual films of the last several decades. Beyond simple biographical capsules and plot summaries, these readings demonstrate with elegance and clarity what cinema means as well as what it shows, explaining how international moviemakers use the resources of the medium to pursue complex, significant human goals.

In this volume Cardullo offers fresh perspectives on some of the established greats of European cinema—including Vittorio De Sica (Shoeshine, Bicycle Thieves, Umberto D.), Federico Fellini (I Vitelloni, La Strada, Nights of Cabiria), Jean Renoir (Grand Illusion, The Rules of the Game), Robert Bresson (L'Argent), Jacques Tati (Mr. Hulot's Holiday), Ingmar Bergman (Winter Light, Autumn Sonata), Eric Rohmer (A Tale of Winter), and Roman Polanski (The Pianist)—as well as insights into vital work by such contemporary filmmakers as Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher), Sergei Bodrov (Prisoner of the Mountains), Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (La Promesse, The Son, L'Enfant), Andrei Kravchuk (The Italian), and Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days).

Including essays on filmmakers from continental Europe, Russia, and Scandinavia, this engaging companion to World Directors and Their Films will appeal to general readers as well as scholars of international cinema.