Foreign Films

[future girl]

At first I thought I would make a thread about one particular foreign movie or director, but then thought that since these movies aren't readily available at regular theatres it'd be better to make a thread hi-lighting a few of my favorites.

My absolute favorite film, be it foreign or not, is called Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and it's about well, the title says it all. It a Spanish film, directed by Pedro Almoldovar. I love him, his movies never cease to amaze me. Usually the main character is a woman and the way he portrays female daily life, relationships between lovers, family, work and just about anything else that could be mentioned is done with such artistic wit it's fascinating. Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was one of the first, if not [i]the[/i] first movie I saw by Almoldovar and to this day I never get tired. There are so many parts of this movies that deserved to be quoted, so many little details that add up to form the bigger and greater picture. This movie stars a young Antonio Banderas, before he sucked :rolleyes: Almodovar is a genius because he lifts greatness out of nothing. I honestly believe Antonio Banderas hasn't made a good movie since he stopped working in Spain. His characters had so much more depth, even if the role wasn't as the main character. I love Almodovar, I love this movie, so much happens in the course of one day, a person can change so much, learn so much in just a few hours, not to mention that visually I think it's a masterpiece. Camera work is divine in this movie.

Another foreign film that I can't get enough of is Le Femme Nikita, it's French and was directed by Luc Besson. Heh, again the movie revolves around a woman who's down in her luck, weak in some ways and ends with her being set free in one way or another. The reason Le Femme Nikita fascinates me is because of how human Nikita is. [spoiler]She's been trained to kill, but nevertheless, she's a woman, she falls in love[/spoiler] and it's just such a broad range of emotions that are perfectly natural. A perfect example of this and one of my favorite scenes is when she's[spoiler] in Venice and she has to shoot the woman from the bathroom window and meanwhile she's crying and her boyfriend's talking to her through the bathroom door and all in her underwear.[/spoiler] Luc Bessen really catches the essence of emotion. He also constantly uses one of the greatest actors on this earth, Jean Reno. The man is marvelous and even though his role in Le Femme Nikita is rather small its an integral part of the story-line, he's vital to the film...or at least I like to think so.

So, yea, those are two of my absolute favorite movies, which happen to be foreign ^_^ Anyone please, comment or mention others you might like.

[Arcadia]

[size=1][color=sienna][b]I'm not familiar with the first movie you mentioned, the Spanish one, but I've heard a lot of good things about Le Femme Nikita. I have yet to watch it myself, mostly because I'm lazy and I don't really like Blockbuster.

But some of my favorites are "Run Lola Run", a German film. The music is awesome (techno, for those interested), but the story itself is just fantastic. I highly recommend it.

The other one that I can think of is "8 Women". Heh, it's French. And it's deliciously bizarre. They start singing randomly through out the movie, but not really in a musical sense - it's really great.

Oh, here's something a little different for you, but I think you'll have a really hard time finding a copy of this. It's called "Man With a Movie Camera" by Dziga Vertow and it flashes a lot of images at once. There's no talking, just music. If you watch the film, you'll see how ahead of it's time it was, as well. It was made in 1929, and it looks like it could have been made today. This minute. Well, you get the idea. The music for it was put in later though. It follows the score Vertow had originally written for it pretty well, but it's not by him. Anyway, I want to say it's Italian, but I'm not sure.

Definitely go see any of these, if you can. They're super![/b][/color][/size]

[Pagan]

Le Femme Nikitan was good. It is one of my favorite foreign film. I hate most of them becaue they are in a different language and you have to read all that junk on the bottom of the screen and miss the entire movie reading. My favorite foreign film was Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. I loved this movie so much it had really nice music and fight scenes in it.

[future girl]

Hmph, that's the worse reason to not like Foreign films, "I don't like to read." I don't know, I've never had that problem, where the subtitles call more attention than the movie and I end up missing all the action and I've been watching films in languages I don't know since I was about ten or even earlier...I don't get it...

Anyway, Run Lola Run is one of those movies I've been dying to see, but can never get my hands on. Franka Potente, the woman who plays Lola, also did this other German movie called The Princess and the Warrior. I really liked it, it's so romantic in a non-sappy sort of way. I've also seen some previews about 8 Women and that seems very interesting too. I'm really dying to see Dirty Little Things, that's British, but it's with Audrey Tatou who's French. She also did Amelie which is one of the more famous foreign films right now.

[Maully]

[color=green]I love foreign films, they are usually more intelligent than American Films. My fovorite director is a French director, Jean-Pierre Junet. He did [i]City of Lost Children, Delicatessen[/i] and [i]Amelie[/i]. I recommend any and ALL of these films. He also directed [i]Alien Resurrection[/i] at the time, he didn't understand any English at all, whichj is why that movie makes little sense...

I am waiting for [i]Spanish Apartment[/i] to hit DVD.

Question--for a film to be considered foreign to you, does it need to be in another language or made in a nother country?? Like any of Guy Ritchie's films, they are in English, but that is because they are made in England--are they foreign?[/color]

[GrimmFang]

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was a really good movie. I just recently saw Brotherhood of The Wolf that movie suprised me it had so much action more action than I anticipated this is the first French movie I ever saw.

[Ares]

I like Su Zhou He, a very good Chinese movie. It's interesting. It's about a guy in Su Zhou, China who [spoiler]is involved in crime and his girlfriend jumps off a bridge and then he finds her again and then they wreck.[/spoiler] You should definitely see it, because it's good enough to watch twice. I saw it on IFC.

I also like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It was very well made and interesting. It's one of my favorites.

[future girl]

I saw Su Zhou He, I saw it twice, actually ^_^ Also, I love the movie, The City of Lost Children, I've seen it about 3 times. To me a movie is foreign if it's from a different country. Even in the same language there's such a big difference of culture and customs and it's rarely the language I pay most attention to, anyway.

[Brasil]

I've gotta list Metropolis and Nosferatu.

Metropolis is one of the very first sci-fi films ever made, totally silent movie, directed by Fritz Lang...circa...1922 or 1927. On the surface, sci-fi, but underneath, social commentary.

Nosferatu. The greatest vampire film ever made. Kicks the **** out of any action/adventure vampire flick you'd see today. Totally realistic. Shot ON LOCATION. It really does believe in itself, a quality not apparent in too many films today.

Felini's "8 1/2" It's about a director's dream (literally) to film his greatest movie ever. Half of the film takes place in reality, the other half in the protagonist's (we could say Felini himself) head. It's an excellent film and I highly recommend it if you're in the mood for Italian...art. "8 1/2" is breathtaking.

Another Italian film not for the faint of heart is 1900. The director's name escapes me, but just run a search on IMDB.com. It's a long, long, long movie...about 4 and a half hours. 1900 is GRAPHIC...very GRAPHIC. There's rape, violence, death, murder, betrayal, drugs. Great cast, though. Sterling Hayden. Robert DeNiro. Donald Sutherland. I suggest asking your parents for permission before watching it. If they know what it is, they'll certainly want to be with you while you watch it.

Brotherhood Of The Wolf was excellent.

Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion was terrific. No villains in the entire movie, even as it takes place in a German POW camp. There are no bad Germans; there are no bad Frenchmen.

[BabyGirl]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Molleta [/i]
[B][color=green]My fovorite director is a French director, Jean-Pierre Junet. He did [i]City of Lost Children, Delicatessen[/i] and [i]Amelie[/i]. [/color] [/B][/QUOTE]

[color=deeppink][i]Amelie[/i] is one of my all-time favorite movies, it is SO amazing. Beautiful cinematography, colors, story, characters, narration...evertying is beautiful. A total classic.

[i]Battle Royale[/i] is an interesting Japanese movie about a very frightening concept that deals with high school age children. It gave me nightmares because I place myself too easily into the position of characters in movies sometimes, egh, those nightmares were creepy.

[i]Y Tu Mama Tambien[/i] is more or less a Mexican movie about sex. But the message and twist at the end are great, you just have to be able to sit through blatant nudity and several graphic sexual situations. It may be more a film for the movie buff [and adult audience] rather than the mediocre viewer.[/color]

[future girl]

I saw Y Tu Mama Tambien while my mother was away on vacation, quite on purpous too. At first glance the movie just seems like a sex film, but what I really liked was the social commentary the director showed as a backdrop. I also love the part where the narrator [spoiler]comments on the way the two guys use each other's bathrooms[/spoiler]. I think that was very well thought out.

Another Mexican movie that I really liked was Amores Perros. It's three stories and the way they intertwine. It's really very interesting, and it's also with Gael Garcia the actor from Y Tu Mama Tambien...I forget his character's name, but he's the one with the green eyes. He's currently workng on a movie with Almoldovar ^_^ Weee, I can't wait!!!!

[BabyGirl]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by anatema [/i]
[B]Another Mexican movie that I really liked was Amores Perros. [/B][/QUOTE]

[color=deeppink]I saw that one as well, but it bored me. The idea was great, though, how three completely different stories all come together in the end. I just thought that it was too drawn out, and maybe I was in a weird mood when I watched it but I could have sworn that it was close to 3 hours long.

However, I really like that director's style. It seems like there are a lot of hand-held type shots, it makes you feel like you're more in the story and gives it an overall tougher feeling [I couldn't think of the right word there =\]

[i]Y Tu Mama Tambien[/i], as compared to [i]Amores Perros[/i], just had a little more 'excitement' for my taste. I wouldn't want to sit through [i]Amores Perros[/i] again, that's for sure :cross:[/color]

[Maully]

[color=green]I agree with Poisontongue about Nasferatu--it shames EVERY other ampire movie. I have also seen 8 1/2. A truly excellent film...words are useless.

I liked Amorres Perros, but it does run a little long. A cute little comedy is "Bread and Tulips" It's about a middle aged woman who has to find herself. Let's see, I think that's all I have for today.[/color]

[Brasil]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Molleta [/i]
[B][color=green]I agree with Poisontongue about Nasferatu--it shames EVERY other ampire movie. I have also seen 8 1/2. A truly excellent film...words are useless.

I liked Amorres Perros, but it does run a little long. A cute little comedy is "Bread and Tulips" It's about a middle aged woman who has to find herself. Let's see, I think that's all I have for today.[/color] [/B][/QUOTE]

Holy ****! I didn't think anyone else here has seen 8 1/2. Rock on! There are so many great scenes in 8 1/2. I love the circus scene at the end, especially. And the balance between diagetic and non-diagetic music is extraordinary. We think Flight Of The Valkyrie is added in later to the soundtrack, but then we see the orchestra playing it in the ampitheatre during the next scene. Truly remarkable film.

[future girl]

I started watching Amores Perros somewhere around 4 or 5 a.m. and finshed well into the early morning, so yea, it is long, but I really liked this movie and I thought the pace was exellent. My favorite story of the three is the one of the old bum. I always find it so interesting that [spoiler]although he is a hired assasin and kills ppl for money, he wouldn't kill the fighting dog when it killed all his other dogs[/spoiler]. I thought that was really brilliant...His [spoiler]transformation, also, when he shaves his beard and cleans himself up is amazing[/spoiler] The difference is incredible. Heh, I think the movies awesome, I own the soundtrack too which is really good as well.

Another movie I wanted to mention was Time and Tide. It was directed by John Woo, it's a Chinese action move. It's really fast paced, and although it isn't all that rich in symbolism and social commentary, it is entertaining if in the right mood. There's also, Xiu Xiu the Sent Down Girl and Not One Less which are extremely rich in social commentary and a Japanese horror film called Another Heaven that I really liked. I'll get into these later though.

[Maully]

[color=green]Here's an older one... The Inheritors. It's rather strange. It's an old German film. It's kind of set in a fuedal system. The landowner dies, and in his will, he leaves all is land to his servants with no specification, just so that they will kill each other. It's a little demented, but I loveit.

Also, check out Til Human Voices Wake Us and Rabbitproof Fence I think they are both Australian films, I know Rabbitproof Fence is. I liked them both. [/color]

[Arcadia]

[size=1][color=sienna] I have to go back to PoisonTongue's comment about Metropolis and say [i]hell yes[/i]. I was up finishing this stupid English thing one night and was tuned into TCM, and they played a whole bunch of movies, and Metropolis was one of them. I'd already seen the animated version and was quite impressed, so when that director guy began talking about the silent film, I kind of stopped doing my work and paid more attention to that. And it was fantastic. Utterly fantastic.[/color][/size]