When Holly-Bolly's done...

Tired of just Hindi and English cinema? Check out the DVDs of these world-cinema titles.

You're a movie buff, right? You do try to catch up with whatever's worth watching, don't you?

At least, one good movie over the weekend, be it at a cinema hall or home? Your favourites? The list must be long, and probably includes everything from, say, Casablanca, The Godfather, Schindler's List, Pulp Fiction ... to Golmaal, Sholay, Rang De Basanti and so on "" more or less Hollywood and Bollywood stuff, and maybe the occasional foreign language film.

How about movies from, say, Spain, Mexico, France, Poland, Italy, Russia, Iran, China, Japan and so on? After all, it's not just the Americans and Indians who produce movies. But right, one hardly finds foreign-language films making it to cinema halls "" except a handful at those rare film festivals "" or even to the market (the biggest music-DVD stores I've been to have no more than a few titles).

Moreover, since these are never marketed, more so, in this part of the world, or the media hardly gives them any coverage, the exposure to such cinema remains low. So here's a short list of some well-known directors and their works, movies that have been critically acclaimed, as also where to pick them up.

Next time you go out DVD-buying, it won't be just the run-of-the-mill Hollywood-Bollywood options, but some world-class cinema too to look for.

Some definite collector's stuff comes from Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, who ranks highly among the world's great directors. Not to miss are Dekalog (1988), Three Colours: Red, Blue, and White (1993-94), which is a trilogy, and The Double Life of Veronique (1991).

Dekalog is a 10-part masterpiece (comes on four DVDs) based loosely on the Ten Commandments, broadly examining issues of moral conflict in the lives of contemporary Warsaw citizens. Love, marriage, infidelity, parenthood, guilt, faith and compassion are some themes brilliantly explored by Kieslowski.

In fact, American director Stanley Kubrick of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame called Dekalog the only masterpiece he could name in his lifetime. Kieslowski's trilogy (in French), Red, Blue and White, is based on France's national motto: liberty (blue), equality (white) and fraternity (red), where the director masterfully explores themes such as grief, revenge and forgiveness.

Let's move on to some Spanish language movies. Among the contemporary directors, Pedro Almodóvar, is certainly the biggest name in Spain.

While Almodóvar's latest Volver, which competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, is certainly the one to look out for, his other must-sees include All About My Mother, Talk to Her and Bad Education. Almodóvar's films are more colourful, melodramatic, comic, anti-clerical, and often dealing with bold themes such as homosexuality and prostitution.

If you're looking for some classics in Spanish, don't miss the legendary Mexican director Luis Bunuel's The Exterminating Angel, Los Olvidados and Viridiana.

The Mexican director currently making waves the world over, for his Golden Globe-nominated Babel, is Alejandro Gonzalez Iniarritu.

Iniarritu is known for his almost inimitable style of skillfully interweaving three or four different stories into one and both his previous ventures Amores Perros and 21 Grams (in English) testify to his creativity.

Some other contemporary Spanish movies worth the money are Buena Vista Social Club by Wim Wenders and Like Water for Chocolate by Alfonso Arau.

Moving east, while almost all movies from the Chinese masters Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige are worth the money "" such as Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern, To Live and The Shangai Triad and Kaige's Farewell My Concubine and Temptress Moon "" you may also go for more contemporary realist films movies directed by relatively newer directors like Wang Xiaoshuai (So Close to Paradise and Beijing Bicycle) and Jia Zhang-ke (Platform and Xiao Wu).

Not to miss out is Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, whose In the Mood For Love, Chunking Express and 2046 are must-sees.

Where can one buy such movies? Certainly not at regular music-DVD stores. Even if you're lucky to get a few titles, you may find them heavily censored. The best bet is to shop online. Websites like Amazon.com and Ebay.com offer most of these titles. The cost for buying DVDs is usually $10 and above, plus shipping charges.

In regular stores, the prices will be comparatively lower but you won't have too much choice.

Ironically, the best option to shop for world cinema still remains the vendor shops that sell pirated DVDs. In Delhi, for instance, Palika Bazaar has films available for Rs 200. In Mumbai, some shops near VT Station also offer pirated stuff.