Interstellar
(2014)In a future where Earth is dying from crop blight and famine, a pilot and his crew travel through a wormhole to find a new home for humanity. They must leave their families behind and face unknown dangers in space.
Slow films for a rainy night
Some nights you want a film that is in no hurry. These take their time on purpose: long takes, small rooms, weather. They are not empty, they are just paced for someone who is staying in.
Harakiri
(1962)A masterless samurai requests to perform ritual suicide at a feudal lord's estate. Through flashbacks, he reveals the harsh code of the samurai and the tragic events that led him to seek this violent end.
Human
(2015)The film shows aerial footage of landscapes and people from around the world. It also presents people telling their own personal stories directly to the camera.
Princess Mononoke
(1997)A young prince cursed by a demon sets out to find a cure. He gets caught between the gods of the forest and a human settlement that destroys the wilderness. A young woman raised by wolves fights to protect the forest.
Ennio
(2021)This documentary tells the story of Ennio Morricone, the famous Italian composer. It features interviews with people who knew and worked with him, covering his long and influential career.
Ikiru
(1952)A terminally ill Tokyo bureaucrat searches for meaning in his final days. He struggles with the emptiness of his work and his strained family relationships.
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish
(2020)A college student meets a young woman who uses a wheelchair and has a sharp personality. They develop an unlikely connection through shared interests and time spent together.
Baraka
(1992)The film moves through locations around the world to show natural landscapes, human rituals, and industrial life. It has no story or dialogue, only images and music.
The Woman in the Dunes
(1964)An amateur entomologist is tricked into staying at a house at the bottom of a sand dune, where a lonely widow lives. The villagers prevent him from leaving and force him to work shoveling sand.
Red Beard
(1965)A proud young doctor arrives at a rural clinic run by a gruff veteran physician, Red Beard. He resents the assignment but gradually learns to treat the poor and forgotten patients with compassion.
Tokyo Story
(1953)An elderly couple leaves their small town to visit their grown children in Tokyo. They find their children are too busy with their own lives to spend much time with them.
The Seventh Seal
(1957)A medieval knight returning from the Crusades during the Black Death challenges Death to a chess game to delay his fate. He searches for meaning and proof of God's existence in a world ravaged by plague and despair.
Dune: Part Two
(2024)Paul Atreides joins the Fremen people on the desert planet Arrakis. He leads them in a war against House Harkonnen.
The Salt of the Earth
(2014)This documentary follows the life and work of photographer Sebastião Salgado. It shows his decades of capturing people and landscapes around the world, from troubled regions to pristine nature.
WALL-E
(2008)In a future Earth covered in trash, a lonely little robot named WALL-E keeps cleaning up. One day a sleek robot named EVE arrives from a spaceship. WALL-E falls in love with her and follows her into outer space.
Paris, Texas
(1984)A man named Travis reappears after being missing for four years. He reconnects with his brother and young son, then takes a road trip through the American Southwest to find the boy's mother.
Soul
(2020)A middle school teacher and aspiring pianist named Joe Gardner falls into a coma after an accident. He tries to reunite his soul with his body so he can perform at a big jazz gig.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
(2013)A bamboo cutter finds a tiny princess inside a glowing bamboo shoot. She grows into a beautiful young woman, but must face her fate and the demands of the world outside her rural home.
Call Me by Your Name
(2017)In the summer of 1983 in northern Italy, a 17-year-old boy named Elio begins a relationship with Oliver, a 24-year-old graduate student staying with his family. The film follows their romance over the course of a few weeks.
Stalker
(1979)A guide known as the Stalker leads two men through a dangerous forbidden area called the Zone to reach a room that is said to fulfill peoples deepest wishes. The long journey tests their hopes and beliefs.
Flow
(2024)A cat must find a way to survive as floodwaters rise and cover its world. It joins other animals on a boat, navigating the flooded landscape with no spoken language.
Wild Strawberries
(1957)An old professor travels by car to receive an honorary degree. Along the way, he revisits memories and encounters strangers who make him reflect on his life.
Samsara
(2011)This documentary travels to 25 countries to present a wordless mosaic of human life, nature, and industry. It strings together carefully composed images of rituals, landscapes, and machines to show connections across the globe.
Sansho the Bailiff
(1954)Two aristocratic children are sold into slavery and forced to endure harsh conditions. The film follows their separate struggles to survive and find freedom.
2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968)Astronauts and scientists travel to Jupiter to investigate a mysterious alien monolith. Their voyage is overseen by the sentient computer HAL 9000.
The Elephant Man
(1980)In late 19th century London a severely deformed man named John Merrick is exhibited as a freak by a cruel showman. A surgeon rescues him and brings him to a hospital where Merrick slowly gains the respect of the staff and high society. The film follows his struggle to be treated as a person despite his appearance.
The Lives of Others
(2006)A Stasi officer in East Germany is assigned to spy on a playwright and his lover. He secretly monitors their lives through audio surveillance.
Rashomon
(1950)Several people give conflicting accounts of a samurai's murder in a forest. Each version reveals how the witnesses and participants lie to make themselves look better.
Late Spring
(1949)A widowed father and his adult daughter live together in postwar Japan. Their quiet routine is disrupted when family and friends pressure the daughter to marry, forcing her to choose between caring for her father and starting a life of her own.
Before Sunrise
(1995)A young American man and a French woman meet on a train and decide to spend a single night walking through Vienna together. They talk about life and love as they get to know each other before dawn.
The Mirror
(1975)A dying poet reflects on his childhood, his family, and his memories. The film blends personal moments with historical footage from Soviet history.
The Passion of Joan of Arc
(1928)A young woman is put on trial for her religious visions by her English captors. She faces interrogation and pressure to renounce her beliefs as her captors seek to break her spirit.
Barry Lyndon
(1975)An 18th century Irish rogue tries to rise from poverty into the aristocracy by seducing and marrying a wealthy widow. The film follows his early successes and his eventual downfall.
Loving Vincent
(2017)The film follows a man who investigates the final days of painter Vincent van Gogh. He talks to people who knew van Gogh and pieces together what happened before his death.
Close-Up
(1990)A man named Hossein Sabzian poses as a famous filmmaker to trick a family into thinking they will be in his movie. The film shows the real trial and reenactments of the events with the actual people involved.
Million Dollar Baby
(2004)A poor waitress in her thirties persuades a grizzled boxing trainer to take her on as a fighter. With his help, she works her way up from nothing toward a professional career.
No Country for Old Men
(2007)In 1980 West Texas, a welder named Llewelyn Moss finds a suitcase full of cash in the desert after a drug deal goes wrong. A ruthless hitman named Anton Chigurh is sent to recover the money, and a sheriff named Ed Tom Bell investigates the trail of violence that follows.
Yi Yi
(2000)Three generations of a Taiwanese family in Taipei navigate personal struggles and everyday life. An engineer, his wife, his young son, and his teenage daughter each face their own turning points.
Ordet
(1955)A family in rural Denmark struggles with faith and madness. One son believes he is Jesus Christ, while another questions his beliefs.
Dersu Uzala
(1975)A Russian explorer travels through the rugged wilderness of the Russian Far East in the early 1900s. He meets a native hunter who becomes his guide and close friend, and they rely on each other to survive the harsh environment.
This list is from Underplayed Gems, a catalogue of films and series from everywhere. Not quite it? Tell the Catbot what you feel like watching, or browse by genre, country and year.