Top Ten Gift Ideas for the Foreign Film Buff

In the world of movie buffs, there are those who march to the beat of a different drummer. When most people are flocking to the local megaplex to catch the latest Hollywood zillion-dollar blockbuster, these folks quietly head to the art cinema to catch that intriguing new foreign release or a screening of a long-unseen classic. This holiday gift list is for the person who falls into that latter group.

DVDs
Of course, no experience is more enjoyable for the film fan than watching a great flick. These films all came out on DVD in November 2006 and later, so the movie lover on your gift list probably doesn't have them yet.

1. "Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films"
For that discriminating cineaste who deserves only the best (and most expensive) gift, one item stands head and shoulders above the rest: the massive new box set commemorating half a century of Janus Films, the distributor that brought many of the century's best foreign directors and films to the U.S. 

The set provides 50 immortal films on DVD, most of them foreign classics. The treasure trove includes French notables such as "Jules and Jim" and "The Four Hundred Blows;" "Pygmalion" and "The Lady Vanishes" from Britain; Italian gems such as "La Strada" and "L'Avventura;" Japanese films such as Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" and "Rashomon;" and Swedish classics including Bergman's "Wild Strawberries" and "The Seventh Seal."

Among the English-language classics included in the set are Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" and "The Thirty-Nine Steps." The set also includes three documentaries that survey classic pursuit scenes from silent films, sexy screen stars, and a tribute to Paul Robeson.

The set packs a hefty price tag–a list price of $800 (but available for $650)–but that works out to only about $13 a disc, and the package includes a beautiful book with more than 200 pages providing production credits and an informative essay for each of the films (along with a tribute to Janus Films by Martin Scorsese). The book makes up for the lack of DVD-style extras such as directors' cuts and outtakes.