Tired of Hollywood movies

[ajbera]

City of God was great, highly recommended.

Another critically acclaimed foreign film, but one I haven't seen yet, is Downfall (Der Untergang, as Cyclotron said.) It's a film about the last days of Hitler & his close circle as berlin falls. It's supposed to be very, very powerful. My local Blockbuster has it, so it shouldn't be hard to find.

And if you're just going for weird, I must recommend Incubus, a 1965 artsy horror film with William Shatner, spoken entirely in Esperanto. I sh*t you not.

[Ted Striker]

Downfall is on my list.

[Theben]

Life is Beautiful gets more flak than it deserves, I think, b/c the director is trying a different tactic with the POV of a holocaust film.

Of course, Caro Diario and Jonny Sticchinno are both great.

[Lul Thyme]

Downfall was good , very good movie of its kind in fact.
I liked Life is Beautiful.
Maybe not a top 20 or whatever but good.

[Barnabas]

I have a problem with Jodie Foster, If she is going to make only 3 movies per decade? Why choose crappy ones? Panic Room and this new one I watched yesterday, which by the way sucked.

I thought, oh, this one must be good, she probably reads hundreds of scrypts and chooses her projects carefully, BS


I will watch the next time some european movie, bad hollywood

bad bad

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
I have a problem with Jodie Foster, If she is going to make only 3 movies per decade? Why choose crappy ones?

"They drove a dumptruck full of money up to my house! I'm not made of stone!"
-- Krusty the Clown

Seriously, I think the bigger problem is that Foster doesn't want to play the traditional wife or girlfriend role and does want to play a strong female protagonist. I suspect that Hollywood only has three such roles per decade, regardless of quality.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Bosh

But the whole point of the film wasn't to create the most bad-ass action hero possible. Its not an action movie!!

Yeah, I know. I think it was also the *spoiler* that bothered me. Plus, the girl reminded me of a crazy girl I dated for a short time. The movie just wasn't winning me over.

[Addled Platypus]

thanks so far, for the advice

1. City Of God
2. ?
3. ?

[Thorgal]

One of my prefered films of all times:
Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (Aguirre, the Wrath of God) 1977 with Klaus Kinsky as Aguirre. A German film about the spanish crazy conqueror Lope de Aguirre:

"I am the great traitor. There can be none greater. Anyone considering desertion will be cut into 198 pieces. Those pieces will be stamped on until what is left can only be used to paint walls. Whoever takes 1 grain of corn or one drop of water too much will be imprisoned 155 years. If I want birds to drop dead from the trees, then the birds will drop dead from the trees. I am the Wrath of God. The earth I walk upon sees me and quakes"

Such is the credo of Aguirre.

[Az]

[q=Rufus]
"They drove a dumptruck full of money up to my house! I'm not made of stone!"
-- Krusty the Clown

Seriously, I think the bigger problem is that Foster doesn't want to play the traditional wife or girlfriend role and does want to play a strong female protagonist. I suspect that Hollywood only has three such roles per decade, regardless of quality.
[/q]

Yep.

In any case, I have plenty of respect of Foster, if only because how she led her personal life after reaching stardom.

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by Platypus Rex
thanks so far, for the advice

1. City Of God
2. Der Untergang
3. Downfall

Fixed.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Platypus Rex
thanks so far, for the advice

1. City Of God
2. ?
3. ?

Curry Favour:

Salaam, Bombay

Monsoon Wedding

Pather Panchali


Turning Japanese:

Tampopo

Tokyo Story

Kwaidan

Ealing comedies:

Kind Hearts And Coronets

The Ladykillers

The Lavender Hill Mob

Froggy went a courtin':

Le Samourai

L'Armee Des Ombres

Les Diaboliques

Death In A French Garden

The Friendly Giant Up North:

The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire

Jesus of Montreal

Black Robe


Mambo Italiano:

Roma, Citta Aperta

The Bicycle Thieves

The Decameron

Go Dutch:

Amsterdamned

The Vanishing

The Fourth Man

Swedish Meatballs:

Fanny And Alexander

Adalen 31

Wild Strawberries

Danish pastries:

Babette's Feast

Vampyr

Pelle The Conqueror

Germany Calling:

Pandora's Box

'M'

Die Bleierne Ziet (The German Sisters)

Up From Down Under:

The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith

Lantana

The Last Days Of Chez Nous

Kiwi Fruits:

Utu

The Navigator

Once Were Warriors

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
I have a problem with Jodie Foster, If she is going to make only 3 movies per decade? Why choose crappy ones? Panic Room and this new one I watched yesterday, which by the way sucked.

I thought, oh, this one must be good, she probably reads hundreds of scrypts and chooses her projects carefully, BS

You expect good taste from a lesbian?

[Sikander]

Lots of good stuff before, so just a few additions...

Stray Dog - by Kurosawa and starring Mifune. A good detective story set in post-war Japan. On DVD at better video outlets now.

Ridicule - a hilarious French film set at Versailles (mostly) during the reign of Louis XIV.

Metropolis - isn't so much a great movie by modern standards as a fascinating event in film history. The very design of the film is worth seeing it for, any other entertainment or film history gems are just gravy. An even better early film is (the original) Nosferatu. Again the film is visually amazing for its time.

The Virgin Spring & Wild Strawberries are my two favorite Bergman films, though they are quite different from one another. Both are worth the effort to see.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Sikander


You expect a good taste from a lesbian?

If she uses strawberry flavoured douches, why not ?


But I do like 'Desert Hearts'- as do a lot of straight men I know. Wonder why...

While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed professor of literature is unexpectedly seduced by a carefree, spirited young lesbian.

Ah, now I recall- that and the nude sex scenes.


Still, a good story and a stormin' soundtrack. I liked the cinematography, especially in the landscape shots.