ON THE BEACH (1959) cast Fred Astaire as a nuclear scientist, two years after he danced opposite Cyd Charisse in SILK STOCKINGS. Stanley Kramer’s adaptation of Nevil Shute’s novel follows survivors in Australia awaiting radioactive fallout. Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Anthony Perkins join Astaire in a drama that gives the end of the world an intimate human scale.

LA CÉRÉMONIE (1995) pairs Isabelle Huppert and Sandrine Bonnaire in Claude Chabrol’s adaptation of Ruth Rendell. Their alliance drives a rural thriller toward a violent home invasion. The film belongs to Chabrol’s long collaboration with Huppert, which also includes VIOLETTE NOZIÈRE, A STORY OF WOMEN, MADAME BOVARY and MERCI POUR LE CHOCOLAT.

Claude Chabrol made his feature debut with LE BEAU SERGE (1958). Jean-Claude Brialy plays François, who returns to his childhood village and finds his old friend Serge, played by Gérard Blain, trapped in a life far from his youthful ambitions. The rural drama preceded the Paris-set LES COUSINS, which had initially been planned as Chabrol’s first film but was delayed by the cost of shooting in the capital.

Stanley Kubrick directed Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall in THE SHINING (1980). Nicholson’s Jack Torrance gives the film a human source of menace, while its quieter domestic moments make the horror feel close to ordinary family life.

Elaine May wrote and directed ISHTAR (1987), starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman as an aspiring singer-songwriter duo drawn into an international incident. Beatty also produced the comedy, whose central partnership turns misplaced confidence into escalating confusion.

Cameron Crowe wrote, produced and directed ALMOST FAMOUS (2000), drawing on his own experience for its story of a young rock journalist in the 1970s. The film turns life around a touring band into a coming-of-age story about music, belonging and the difficulty of writing honestly.

Frank Oz directed LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986), bringing the stage musical’s man-eating plant to the screen. Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene lead a cast that includes Steve Martin as a sadistic dentist and Bill Murray as his unusually enthusiastic patient.

Jeff Nathanson wrote CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (2002), starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a con man on the run and Tom Hanks opposite him. Steven Spielberg directed, Janusz Kamiński photographed the film and John Williams composed its score.

Guillermo del Toro’s THE SHAPE OF WATER (2017) draws on the language of silent cinema, classic musicals and 1950s monster films for its romance. Sally Hawkins leads an ensemble that includes Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg and Octavia Spencer.

Aaron Sorkin wrote A FEW GOOD MEN (1992), directed by Rob Reiner and photographed by Robert Richardson. Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson face off in the courtroom drama, with Nicholson delivering its enduring line, “You can’t handle the truth!”

George Lucas makes a brief cameo in Steven Spielberg’s HOOK (1991). Dustin Hoffman plays the title pirate, with Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins and Maggie Smith in the ensemble. John Williams composed the score, and Kathleen Kennedy produced the film.

John Ford directed Henry Fonda in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946), bringing the story of Wyatt Earp to the screen. Their collaboration places a familiar figure of Western history at the center of Ford’s cinematic landscape.

AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS (1956) was producer Michael Todd’s only feature film and won five Oscars, including Best Picture. David Niven and Cantinflas lead the Jules Verne adaptation, photographed in the Todd-AO format that Todd helped develop.

Psychologists and other specialists consulted during the making of INSIDE OUT (2015). Pete Docter’s film turns Riley’s emotions into characters, using an animated adventure to explore how sadness and joy both shape a child’s inner life.

Quentin Tarantino’s DEATH PROOF (2007) originally reached theaters as part of the GRINDHOUSE double feature with Robert Rodriguez’s PLANET TERROR. Fake trailers by Eli Roth, Rob Zombie and Edgar Wright helped frame the pair as a tribute to exploitation-film exhibition.

Gene Kelly’s bilingual rendition of “I Got Rhythm” is one of the musical highlights of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951). The sequence gives song and performance a shared language in a film that combines romance with dance.

Robert Towne wrote CHINATOWN, with production design by Richard Sylbert. Jack Nicholson and John Huston are central to its mystery, while the final line, “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown,” compresses the film’s bleak perspective into a few words.

Baz Luhrmann’s MOULIN ROUGE! (2001) blends a doomed romance with musical spectacle, drawing melodrama and opera into a world of heightened color and movement. Nicole Kidman stars, while “Come What May” remains one of the film’s signature songs.

Elaine May wrote THE BIRDCAGE (1996), directed and produced by Mike Nichols. Robin Williams and Nathan Lane play South Beach club owners whose meeting with their son’s prospective in-laws requires an elaborate charade. Gene Hackman plays the senator they are trying to impress.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001) brings the first volume of J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy to the screen. Its epic scale grows around the smaller bonds between its characters, keeping friendship and individual choices at the center of the journey.