Fast Scans

Mastered in HD from a 35mm print struck from the original negative, Buster Keaton's masterwork finds the silent-era comic genius directing himself as a locomotive engineer who "loves his engine and his girl." During a series of hilarious misadventures, he loses, then regains both. While not without a few blemishes, the picture quality (especially on Blu-ray) runs circles around an earlier release. With three musical scores to choose from, plus a load of extras. A four-star General.

East meets West in a culture clash between old-fashioned and contemporary mores when traditional upper-middle-class New Delhi parents arrange their daughter's marriage to a man she'll meet two days before the wedding. Mira Nair (The Namesake, Mississippi Masala) excels on this thematic turf, and her film has a hint of the Bollywood feel even though characters don't break into song as the style demands. The plentiful music and dance here are more organic. No RSVP required for this wonderful Wedding.

Before getting her well-deserved Oscar for channeling Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, Marion Cotillard appeared in this diverting enough Parisian trifle billed as "Sex in the City, French style," costarring as a shy cellist at odds with her live-in boyfriend who falls for a fellow musician. Julie Depardieu, daughter of Gérard, proves talent runs in the family as the lovelorn sibling fleshing out her fantasies in the garishly dreamy photo-novels she fashions. Writer-director Julie Lopes-Curval's airy soufflé should appeal to romantics. [See Trailers, LJ 10/1/09]

Told from the perspective of a real-life German woman (an indelible Nina Hoss) determined to survive the Soviet conquest of Berlin in 1945, director Max Färberböck's handsomely mounted docudrama can be a tough slog at times, but the story is sufficiently powerful and well acted to overcome any rough patches. Despite garnering the enmity of her countrymen, the titular figure seeks out a permanent liaison with a Russian officer to avoid repeated rape by Red Army soldiers. History buffs in particular will get caught up.

The cinematic equivalent of a page-turner, Costa-Gavras's political thriller (the title means "he lives" in Ancient Greek) offers a thinly veiled dramatization of the 1963 murder of political activist Gregoris Lambrakis. In scant screen time, Yves Montand imbues his tragic character with dignity and grace, while Jean-Louis Trintignant slyly captures the determinism of the magistrate out to bring down the government-sanctioned perpetrators. This cinema verité-style classic should draw more than foreign-film buffs.