Originally released as 16 short films between 1958-2003.

Sixteenth film has container title: The opening day of Close-up.

Booklet available for checkout.

Special features of these DVDs: optional audio commentaries for most films.

The second collection of European short films from Cinema16. This specially compiled two-disc edition of classic, cult and award winning shorts from European filmmakers marks the launch of Cinema16 in the US. It features previously unseen short films and early works by some of today's most notable European filmmakers, as well as award-winning films from its rising stars. The release features some of the best shorts from Cinema16's previous releases as well as some new additions.

The man without a head (France, 2003, 18 min., col.): An ordinary room overlooking a vast industrial landscape. In the distance, the ocean as far as the eye can see. With a nostalgic air, the man without a head dances with lively steps. A bow tie is tied. A photograph, with a dazzling look from the one he loves. He prepares himself for the romantic rendezvous. Tonight, he will declare his love. For such an occasion, he shall buy a head.

Wasp (UK, 2003, 23 min., col.): 23 year old Zoë ought to be wild and free but she's already got four kids. Zoë is broke and her kids are hungry. She abandons them for an old flame while wasps are hunting for food around a rubbish bin.

Doodlebug (UK, 1997, 3 min., b&w): A man waits patiently in his apartment to squash a bug, but he could be hurting himself more than he realizes.

World of glory (Sweden, 1991, 16 min., col.): A plain, ordinary man tells us about his work as a real-estate broker, his dead father, his ordinary home and so on in a naturalistic voice, lacking any emotions.

Je t'aime, John Wayne (UK, 2000, 10 min., b&w): Belmonde lives in 1990's London as an iconic , cool Frenchman modelled on the new wave cinema of the 1960's. Really he is English and middle class - a fact that his family won't let him forget!

Gasman (UK, 1997, 14 min., col.): It's the Christmas season. With her mom's help, Lynne, a girl of perhaps eight, dresses up; her younger brother Steven plays with a toy car. The children leave with their dad, who's affectionate with them. They walk down a railroad track where an unkempt woman waits with two children, about the same age as Lynne and Steven. The children go with them. They're all headed to a holiday party at a pub. Lynne notices that the girl acts all too familiar with her dad. What's going on?

Jabberwocky (Czechoslovakia, 1971, 13 min., col.): Lewis Carroll's poem is read and followed by a free-form animated depiction of images and toys from childhood, repeatedly overturned by a live cat.

Fierrot le Pou (France, 1990, 8 min., b&w): Every Sunday, Solange comes to the gymnasium to practice basketball on her own. Every Sunday, at the same time, a young Parisian comes to practice too. He's used to failing in trying to impress her with his scores. And every Sunday, she smiles, enjoying watching him gesticulate. But this particular Sunday, the young man is playing an unerring score...

Rabbit (UK, 2005, 8 min., col.): A selection of 1950s educational stickers, found in a provincial junkshop twenty years ago, provide the ingredients for this adult fairytale. When a boy and girl find an idol in the stomach of a rabbit, its magical abilities lead to riches, but for how long? Rabbit tells a tale of lost innocence, greed and the random justice of nature.

Copy shop (Austria, 2001, 12 min., b&w): Visually stunning experimental film about a man who works in a copy shop and copies himself until he fills the whole world.

Boy and bicycle (UK, 1958, 27 min., b&w): A teenage boy plays truant from school, and spends the day riding around the town and the deserted beach on his bicycle, letting his mind wander as he imagines he is the only person in the world.

Nocturne (Denmark, 1980, 8 min., col.): It's night. Perhaps after a dream of an intruder crashing through a window, a woman who's sensitive to light has a telephone conversation with a friend. The woman has a plane ticket from Copenhagen to Buenos Aires at 6 that morning. She doesn't want to go. Her friend encourages her to make the trip. Later, she stands in a car park with her suitcase. Flying geese fill the screen.

Before dawn (Hungary, 2005, 13 min., col.): Before dawn, a large transport truck lumbers down a makeshift road through fields of tall grain. It stops where two such roads cross. Two men get out to check the truck, the horn sounds a few times, and the fields are alive with people each carrying a suitcase. They rush into the back of the truck, and it sets out down one road. Does a new dawn await these immigrants without papers?

Election night (Denmark, 1998, 11 min., col.): On election night we meet Peter, an idealistic young man, who suddenly discovers he has forgotten to vote. On his way to the polls he encounters a variety of taxi drivers, all racist in their way and Peter has to decide whether to stand up for his convictions or get to the polls on time.

Six shooter (Irish, 2004, 27 min, col.): On a train journey home through rural Ireland, a man whose wife has just died that morning, encounters a strange and possibly psychotic young oddball. His outlandish words and actions set in motion a chain of events that lead inexorably to the tale's dark and dangerous conclusion.

The opening day of Close-Up (Italy, 1996, 7 min., col.): At his cinema in Rome, the Nuovo Sacher, Nanni Moretti anxiously oversees preparations for the premiere of the film Close-Up, by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. Meanwhile Disney's The Lion King is taking Italy by storm.

Not rated.

DVD.

Audio tracks in English, French, Danish, Italian, and Swedish ; subtitled in English.