Foreign Film and Indy Lover.

[caledesi]

You tell me your favs, and I will tell you mine.

Foreign -
All About My Mother

An Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, writer-director Pedro Almodovar's compassionate tribute to women examines the life of Manuela (Cecilia Roth), who leaves Madrid for Barcelona shortly

Life is Beautiful

In this poignant tragicomedy, a clever Jewish-Italian waiter named Guido (Roberto Benigni, who won an Oscar for his role) is sent to a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, along with his wife (Nicoletta Braschi) and their young son (Giorgio Cantarini). Refusing to give up hope, Guido tries to protect his son's innocence by pretending that their imprisonment is an elaborate game, with the grand prize being a tank. Benigni also directed.

Fanny and Alexandria

Director Ingmar Bergman's autobiographical drama, the 1984 Best Foreign Film Oscar winner, depicts a family in crisis after its lively patriarch, Oscar (Allan Edwall), dies unexpectedly. Desperate to provide stability to her children, Fanny and Alexander, the widow Emilie (Ewa Froling) marries a minister, but their new life proves to be foreboding and lonesome. It's up to their grandmother (Gunn Wallgren) to infuse joy into their existence.

Frida

Julie Taymor directs this Oscar-winning biopic of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek), focusing on her often rocky relationship with husband Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina). Also known for her controversial political and sexual reputation (she was a communist and a bisexual), Frida struggled with a life of wracking pain following an accident, the amputation of a leg, and finally, drug and alcohol abuse that killed her at age 47.


The Wedding Banquet

This lyrical film by Ang Lee dares to expand the definition of love. Wei Tong (Winston Chao) is a successful Manhattan businessman enjoying a thriving relationship with his live-in lover, Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein). Life is perfect, except his parents don't know he's gay. So, when they decide to visit from Taiwan, he asks his tenant, Wei Wei (May Chin), for help. She agrees to pose as his fiancée -- a plan that goes a little too far.

Monsieur Ibrahim

1960s Paris serves as the backdrop for Francois Dupeyron's heartwarming drama. Momo (Pierre Boulanger), a teenage orphan, lives in a working-class neighborhood and has very few friends -- save for the kindly local prostitutes, who adore him. Momo soon befriends the older and wiser shopkeeper Ibrahim (Omar Sharif), who soon becomes a father figure for Momo and takes him on a journey of self-discovery that will change both of their lives.

Indys:

What Alice Knew

A penniless young woman, Alice (Emily Grace), is trying to get from New Hampshire to Florida so she can pursue a career as a marine biologist. When she meets a friendly couple (Judith Ivey and Bill Raymond) traveling in a recreational vehicle, she's soon recruited into their seedy underworld of truck-stop prostitution. Think Go Ask Alice with a millennium twist.

Particles of Truth (if you loved Gale Harold in Queer as Folk) you will love this. He is straight in this movie...aah

Struggling New York City artist Lilli (Jennifer Elster) should rejoice at her upcoming show, but she can't get past the insecurity of her troubled childhood. To makes things worse, her father (Alan Samulski) is dying, and her mom (Susan Floyd) has gone over the edge. Things begin to change for Lilli when she meets Morrison (Gale Harold), a poet with his own serious problems. But the two must face their issues if they're to make it as a couple.


And you?

[jilln]

1. foreign

Betty Blue (37 le matin)


Plot Summary for
37°2 le matin (1986)

Zorg is a handyman working at in France, maintaining and looking after the bungalows. He lives a quiet and peaceful life, working diligently and writing in his spare time. One day Betty walks into his life, a young woman who is as beautiful as she is wild and unpredictable. After a dispute with Zorg's boss they leave and Betty manages to get a job at a restaurant. She persuades Zorg to try and get one of his books published but it is rejected which makes Betty fly into a rage. Suddenly Betty's wild manners starts to get out of control. Zorg sees the woman he loves slowly going insane


and to a much lesser degree, The Tin Drum


Danzig in the 1920s/1930s. Oskar Matzerath, son of a local dealer, is a most unusual boy. Equipped with full intellect right from his birth he decides at his third birthday not to grow up as he sees the crazy world around him at the eve of World War II. So he refuses the society and his tin drum symbolizes his protest against the middle-class mentality of his family and neighborhood, which stand for all passive people in Nazi Germany at that time. However, (almost) nobody listens to him, so the catastrophe goes on...

[caledesi]

2. Betty Blue is on my Netflix queue. nt

[jilln]

4. I hope you don't get the Director's cut

I just bought the DVD and only the director;s cut is available ... makes the movie too long in my opinion.

[saltpoint]

3. Indy -- Jonathan Cauette's TARNATION

Foreign --

LILIES

ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER

THE DREAM LIFE OF ANGELS

[Kathy in Cambridge]

5. Au Revoir Les Enfants

I weep every time I see this movie. It's a true story of Louis Malle's youth during World War II. If you haven't seen it, you MUST!

I just watched Grand Illusion on Turner Classic Movies. It's still one of my faves, and one of the greatest anti-war movies ever made. It was directed by Jean Renoir in 1937, and stars French matinee idol Jean Gabin.

Seven Samurai

All About My Mother

The Marriage of Maria Braun

La Strada

The 400 Blows

Antonia's Line

[CBHagman]

6. Great idea for a thread!

Here are a few of mine:

Shall We Dance?

A respectable Japanese salaryman goes through the motions of his daily life as though sleepwalking, commuting wearily back and forth to his suburban home, where he barely sees his wife and teenaged daughter. During his evening commute, he notices a lovely, rather wistful woman staring out the window of a dance studio. When he impulsively goes up to the studio one evening, he is flung headlong into the world of ballroom dance, which soon becomes an obsession.

Funny, charming, and full of heart, Shall We Dance is as much about the need for a creative outlet as it is about the subculture of ballroom dance. Dance students and instructors will recognize themselves in its winning ensemble cast.

Blue

After the tragic deaths of her husband and daughter, a young woman begins a new and apparently solitary existence. What appears at first to be a meditation on the unraveling of a life soon turns into a depiction of the interconnectedness of human beings.

Amelie

A young woman, having been brought up in an emotionally sterile household, leaves home to begin a new life in Paris. There she discovers her power to influence the lives of others, and chooses, by turns, to act as fairy godmother or avenging angel. The question remains, however, whether she can also take action on her own behalf, especially in matters of the heart.

[jilln]

7. D'oh!

How could I forget Amelie, and of course City of Lost Children?

[Kat45]

8. I loved Life Is Beautiful and The Wedding Banquet.

Two excellent movies.

[ghostsofgiants]

9. Mine...

Foreign:
Kwaidan - classic Japanese horror anthology film based on traditional Japanese ghost stories. Beautifully shot.

Les Yeux Sans Visage (Eyes Without A Face) - classic French horror film (I'm a big fan of horror, haha) about a woman who lost her face in an accident and a doctor who kidnaps girls and takes their faces in an attempt to revuiled the faceless woman's face.

Spoorloos (The Vanishing)- A woman vanishes while on vacation with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend searches for her for years, which draws the attention of the kidnapper, who promises to reveal what happened to the woman. Possibly the best ending to a movie I've ever seen.

Indie films:
Pi - Daren Aronofsky's debut film. Black and white, 16mm sci-fi weirdness.

Requiem For A Dream - Aronofsky's masterpiece. Downward spiral of addiction. Brutal to watch. SO fucking good.

Eraserhead - David Lynch's first feature length film. Weird, creepy, disturbing.

Lost Highway - More creepy and disturbing Lynch weirdness.

(I got lazy with the descriptions.)

[CBHagman]

10. The original Vanishing..

...is one of the most disturbing and suspenseful films I've ever seen. It haunts you long after it ends.

[ghostsofgiants]

11. Absolutely, I love it

The ending made me feel claustrophobic just watching it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. If you like horror movies, get

The Eye (Hong Kong): After receiving a cornea transplant, a young woman begins to "see dead people all the time." And there's more. A fine and subtle film, enriched by taking place in a society that still has a strong belief in ghosts.

[ghostsofgiants]

27. Awesome, thanks!

I"ll check it out for sure.

[Nevernose]

12. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, anything Kurasawa

WOTVOANB is by far one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, one of the few that had me laughing until my side hurt and I was wheezing.

Kurasawa is, of course, renowned the world over, but he combines my twin loves of Shakespeare and samurai violence/katana beheadings so perfectly...

[ghostsofgiants]

13. I put a couple Kurosawa films on my zip.ca queue tonight

Yojimbo and Roshomon. Haven't seen any Kurosawa films before, but those two come highly recommended.

[Nevernose]

15. Yojimbo wasn't based on Shakespeare

But it is still an incredible movie, and Rashemon as well. Search out the Criterion version if at all possible.

The opening scene is great, with the dog carrying the human hand; you just KNOW it's going to be a rough town.

Ran and Throne of blood were taken directly from King Lear and Macbeth, respectively, and are exemplary in their own right, made better by the Samurai-Shakespeare stuff.

[ghostsofgiants]

28. Yeah, I'm a Criterion addict, haha, so no worries there

I'll check out the others later.

[CBHagman]

20. It certainly changes the way you look at gazpacho.

I assure you that I have NEVER had gazpacho without thinking of Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown. It also has great scenes with a moving sidewalk...

[CBHagman]

21. It certainly changes the way you look at gazpacho.

I assure you that I have NEVER had gazpacho without thinking of Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown. It also has great scenes with a moving sidewalk...

[Abelman]

14. Any Almodovar for foreign

Amelie is probably my favorite, though, despite it not being Almodovar


Indie is hard to say because so many movies are "technically" independent. Sidenote, I used to think Indie meant it was made in Indiana and I could never figure out what was so damn cultural about stuff made in Indiana. But technically Ninja Turtles was an indie movie.

I can't really think of any, but I'm going to be making some, so watch for it!

[caledesi]

16. Oh, and don't forget "Monsoon Wedding."

Indian Film.


As the monsoon rains loom in director Mira Nair's romantic drama, Lalit Verma (Naseeruddin Shah) and his extended family reunite for the last-minute arranged marriage of his daughter Aiditi (Vasundhara Das) in New Delhi. As wedding preparations proceed, five stories intersect, highlighting different aspects of love and crossing boundaries of class and continent. The long-guarded secrets that emerge threaten to tear the family apart.

Excellent film.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. Recent films from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival:

1. Upswing:(Finland) A yuppie couple decides to take a vacation that none of their snooty friends can match: assuming the lives of unemployed people living in a housing project. This starts out as a "cultural clash" comedy, but a surprising plot twist sends the film off in another direction. Still very funny throughout, though.

2. Edelweiss Pirates (Germany): Sounds like the name of a polka band, but "Edelweiss Pirates" was actually the name of an anti-Nazi youth gang in WWII Germany. The film tells the true story of two orphaned brothers, one initially a member of the Hitler Youth and one an Edelweiss Pirate, trying to survive amid the ruins in the last year of the war.

3. Bitter Dream (Iran): An elderly man who ekes out a living at a cemetery washing corpses lords it over the other cemetery workers. But then he starts to hallucinate scenes in his TV set and to fear that the angel of death is coming after him. Both grim and funny at the same time.

4. Schiza (Kazakhstan): A retarded youth is lured by his mother's sleazy boyfriend into the illegal business of arranging bare-fisted boxing matches. He strikes up an odd relationship with the girlfriend and son of a boxer who is killed during one of the illegal matches. (Kazakhstan looks like a severely trashed version of North Dakota.)

5. Seaward Journey (Uruguay): In the 1950s, a group of elderly men from a remote town embark on a journey to see the sea. A sweet, funny road movie.

6. The Taste of Tea (Japan): A bit of magical realism that has a lot of good parts but never really comes together. It's about a family (the father is a hypnotherapist, the mother is an animator, the son has a crush on the new girl in school, the daughter has an imaginary companion who's a giant version of herself, and grandpa is just plain weird) living in a small village.

7. One-Night Husband (Thailand): On his wedding night, a man gets a phone call, leaves the house, and disppears forever. His wife goes to look for him and discovers that his family is more dysfunctional than she could have imagined. A good idea, but the director seems more interested in playing with camera angles than advancing the plot.

8. The Soup One Morning (Japan): A young man slowly goes crazy as he is being sucked into a cult, and his girlfriend pleads with him to start acting normal (which doesn't do a bit of good). While there is some striking and original photography in this film, the two main characters are too monotonous to hold one's interest.

Ironically, I didn't much like the Japanese films this year, but I can recommend any of the top five. Watch for them if they come to art theaters or DVD rentals in your community.

[caledesi]

19. OMG! Thank u. I luv Indy and foreign films... nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

23. I'm going to see some of the "holdovers" next week, so I may have

more recommendations.

What I like about foreign films is that they tell stories I haven't seen before, I feel as if Hollywood has lost all its creativity and taste and is mostly recycling old movies or even old TV shows.

It's also fun to get a glimpse of countries I've never been to and probably will never go to. (Remind me to stay out of Kazakhstan. It's depressing just to look at.)

[MrScorpio]

22. Movies by Luc Besson!

Le Femme Nikita, et al.

[Paladin]

24. "Amercord," "Virgin Spring," "Soldier of Orange"

N/T

[Calliope]

25. Foreign

Barbarian Invasions
Monsoon Wedding
Run Lola Run
I'll think of some more later.

[sundog]

26. "Nights of Cabiria"... I just watched "La mala educacion" & it was amazing

I also saw a great one called "Sex & Lucia" from 2002.

generally, Almodovar & Fellini get me all squishy :7

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

29. Just finished watching "La Grande Illusion" on TCM

Made in 1938, it's still one of the greatest movies ever made, with the great French actor Marcel Dalio (Rosenthal), Jean Gabin (Marechal), Pierre Fresnay (de Boildieu), and of course the incomparable Erich Von Stroheim. Peter Bogdanovich introduced the film and called it the greatest anti-war film in history and that Hitler considered it enemy number one.