Rashomon (1950)

Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon is not only widely regarded as one of the greatest films of the 20th century, but also as one of its greatest pieces of art of any form. It's hard to appreciate how good the film is now because we've all seen its central conceit done so many times since then, namely showing an event from multiple characters biased perspectives (I think I first saw this done on an episode of Perfect Strangers). Its a great way to explore human biases, the mutability of memory, and the difficulty of arriving at absolute truth. The story here is of a rape and a murder and we see events  as retold by the three principle players, including one who is dead, before getting a more or less objective eye view from a witness who had remained silent. The film doesn't stop there however but shows some of the characters grappling with what these diverse retailing's mean, there is cynicism expressed, but also a desire to move beyond petty self interest into some kind of expansive humanity. This is a movie that asks its audience to think clearly and piece things together and then ask themselves introspective and existential questions about truth and humanity, and its shot beautifully. ****