In his ruthlessly clear-eyed final film, French master Robert Bresson pushed his unique blend of spiritual rumination and formal rigor to a new level of astringency. Bresson constructs his unforgiving vision of original sin out of starkly perceived details, rooting his characters in a dehumanizing material world that withholds any hope of transcendence.

Has' oneiric trance film famously uses a Russian doll structure to leap across time and space, following its unlikely hero across a series of bleak, frightening yet strangely exuberant, landscapes, largely set in a dream Andalusia. The Saragossa Manuscript fully deserves its legendary status as one of most unclassifiable and extraordinary cult/art films of the postwar European cinema.

Towering literary lion, fierce social critic, and inimitable cultural icon James Baldwin opened up a new space for the frank discussion of race, sexuality, and identity in American society. He also left behind a dynamic cinematic legacy, as seen in these portraits that capture his electrifying presence and passionate eloquence.