Kind Hearts and Coronets

1949, 106m

Roger Ebert lists Kind Hearts and Coronets among his "Great Movies", stating "Price is impeccable as the murderer: Elegant, well-spoken, a student of demeanor", and notes that "murder, Louis demonstrates, ... can be most agreeably entertaining"...Wiki. 

Alec Guiness plays eight different characters.

Farewell, My Concubine

1993, China, 155m

A riveting drama about a Peking Opera troupe. The story of their personal stories spans the turbulent half century till the end of the Cultural Revolution. It is a brilliant and heady concoction of culture and history, inlaid with top notch direction and acting. Certainly the most rewarding feature of the movie is the opportunity to participate in the grand, unfamiliar, exquisite experience of Peking Opera. The title of the film derives from an ancient opera of the same name, about a concubine whose master, a General, faces defeat. 

The Ruling Class

1972, 154m
"A comedy with tragic relief"...Peter O'Toole

"....  "snail-slow, shrill and gesticulating" ..."sledgehammer satire"..."snarling, overwrought, parochial satire "....most of his praise for O'Toole..."All actors can play insanity; few play it well. ...unfocused gaze, abrupt bursts of frenzied high spirits, sudden depressions. Funny, disturbing, O'Toole finds his way into the workings of madness, revealing the anger and anguish at the source.""....Wikipedia

Founding of a Republic

2009, 135m

This is a state sponsored film which tells the events from the end of WW2 till the proclamation of the PRC in 1949. This is a visual feast with legendary figures like the chain smoking Mao Zedong, Zhou En Lai and Chiang Kai Shek (not to mention many others who would be instantly familiar to the Chinese target audience), floating statuesquely across the screen. This is riveting cinema which vividly populates the mind with the events of the period. The personas of the figures are understandably idealized  but the portrayals live and breathe and touch the heart. The acting is top notch, rich in mannerism and feeling. This is indeed a moving and memorable film which moreover helps one to empathize with the Chinese self identity and pride as a nation.

Lore

In a cathartic climax, Lore smashes her beloved clay animal images, as if to demolish the cobwebs of the ideology she has nurtured on since infancy.