Culture Cheat Sheet: 5 Foreign Films to Watch Now

We get it, we get it—those bloody subtitles! But once you stop straining your eyes, you’ll see that far-u200bflung flicks hit closer to home than you may think. “They’re about familiar ideas, but come at them from different perspectives,” says Jesse Wente, director of film programs at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox and co-u200bcurator of its Stanley Kubrick retrospective (to Jan. 25). Here, he makes his case for five classics every woman should see.

If you like Before Midnight (2013) by Richard Linklater
Watch Contempt (1963) by Jean-u200bLuc Godard

The marriage between (often-nude) ingénue Brigitte Bardot and her gauche screenwriter husband explodes into an infamous 30-minute on-screen fight. “Most have heard of Bardot, but don’t know why she captivated so many. This is one movie where you understand why.”