“Murder's nothing. It's just a simple experience. Murder and rape? Do you know what beauty there is in evil?”

A film about poverty for the Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive (USA)

“Those who came before have passed on. And I'm left behind. A penniless beggar. Not a cowrie to my name. Look, my purse is empty… Lord, the day is done and evening falls. Ferry me across to the other shore…”

– Indir Thakrun, singing

A non-battlefield war movie on VE Day. It had to be a Soviet film, on this date. Thank you, Russia.

“Time will pass. Towns and villages will be rebuilt. Our wounds will heal. But our fierce hatred of war will never diminish.”

– Stepan

When the cranes fly over Moscow, a young couple learns about the war. Now separated, one day, when it is over, if, they'll reunite

 

The hand-held cinematography, groundbreaking at the time, came from former war cameraman Sergey Urusevskiy.

May 8 is both director Rossellini and Bergman's character Karen's #birthday.

“What mystery, what beauty.”

– Karen

“It's a weird, crazy idea, but that's the reason it intrigues me.”

– Tom Garrett

“With nothing to do, no news and in terrible solitude, we were 100 unfortunates awaiting our fate. I had no illusions about my own. If I could only escape, run away…”

– Fontaine

A film about Buddhism, or set in Japan, in honour of the birth of Buddha, celebrated in Japan on April 8 as 花祭り (Hana Matsuri, aka Flower Festival)

“Can't you see that whatever you do is futile? The armies of Britain and Japan can come and fight all they wish. Burma is still Burma. Burma is the Buddha's country.”

– old monk

While stationed in Burma, Mizushima disguises himself as a dhutanga, a wandering Buddhist monk, burying the remains of his fellow Japanese soldiers.

Basketball: the final day of March Madness

 

The first full-colour Chinese sports film and an example of how “state feminism” was promoted through popular media, often in opera but also in more humanist form.