Category Archives: Foreign Language

2013, Based on a Book, Catholic culture, Drama, Latino Culture, Spanish, Violent

Bless Me, Ultima (2013)

Leave a comment

From Netflix:

In a village in New Mexico, the life of young farm boy Antonio is dramatically changed when an old medicine woman joins his household. This affecting coming-of-age tale recounts Antonio’s experiences to reveal the spiritual conflict in his community.

“Bendíceme, Última” is a book written originally in English by Rudolfo Anaya. Wikipedia offers an extensive discussion of this film.

Because I had read the book years ago I suspected that watching the film might be boring. If you let yourself immerse in the period, the culture, and the language, you might find this film a charming experience.

There was much superstition, belief in witches, and misinformation mixed in with the Mexican Catholic culture in that place and era. Superstition always surprises and disappoints me. However, if you read much history you come to see how prevalent superstition has been throughout the ages. Let us not forget the Salem witch trials.

From Netflix I got a copy of this film which offered choices in sound track and subtitles. Whether a purchased copy offers the same choices I do not know. In any case I chose Spanish sound track and subtitles and was really happy with the result. For anyone interested in Spanish, this version offers a very approachable and easily understood spoken Spanish. As is almost always the case the spoken and written scripts are very close but not exactly the same.

One other similar film that comes to mind is “Like Water For Chocolate”.

Consider this style of film “sui generis”. Hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did.

2010, Based on a Book, Basically Sad, Dark, Detective, DO NOT MISS, Drama, German, Murder Investigation, Nudity, Psychological Drama, Rape, Sensitive treatement of emotions, Suicide, Suspense, Wonderful acting, Wonderful photography

The Silence (2010)

Leave a comment

From Netflix:

When 13-year-old Sinikka goes missing from the same spot where another girl was murdered 23 years earlier, a retired investigator teams up with a younger colleague to unravel the parallel mysteries.

According to Wikipedia, this film is based on the German crime fiction novel The Silence (German: Das Schweigen) by Jan Costin Wagner. In fact the film is in German with subtitles.

Everything about this film is incredibly well done. Not only the story, but the photography, the pace, and above all else the acting.

Lifelong sadness over the loss of a loved-one is the pervasive theme of the film. From the very beginning we witness the initial rape and murder. (Later on we witness the second murder.) Rather than being a mystery story, the film centers on how the crimes effect each of the many characters: a retired detective whose marriage failed under the stress of his desperate efforts to solve the initial crime; a young brilliant detective trying to get over the recent death of his wife; the mother of the first victim; the parents of the second victim; the smug, officious, inept present-day chief detective; and each of the two guilty parties.

Only a bit of a mystery exists: can you recognize how one of the original killers has morphed into a present-day respectable citizen?

WARNING: be prepared for sadness and irony. However, DO NOT MISS THIS SUPERB FILM!

2012, Acceptable for children, Arab Culture, Arabic, Bicycles, Could Be Sad, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Feel Good For All, Human spirit, Optimistic, Religious Theme, Unusual

Wadjda (2012)

Leave a comment

From Netflix:

Persistent 10-year-old Wadjda would like nothing more than a new bicycle so she can beat her friend (a boy) in a race. But it’s going to take some ingenuity to get one — especially in her culture, which sees bikes as a threat to a girl’s virtue.

Because this film is not yet on DVD, and also not available from Netflix, we went to a movie theater. As my hearing gets worse, I am dependent on subtitles. Since this film is in Arabic, there were subtitles.

While re-enforcing my opinions about the sad repression of women under Islam, this film cannot fail to charm even the most skeptical viewer. Spunky Wadjda and her wonderful young friend Abdullah are a pleasure to watch. Abdullah is so thoughtful of his rebellious sidekick that you wonder where in his male-dominated society he learned to care.

“Just tell the story” and the points will come across. Indeed, you will see religious fundamentalism revealed as also hypocrisy. You will see that although Wadjda’s father loves her and her mother, he is under societal pressure to produce a male heir. You will see Saudi natives able to bully possibly non-legal immigrants. And above all you will see a somewhat crushing regimen forced upon the women in a seemingly bleak country.

For a down-to-earth possibly sad but also spirited story, DO NOT MISS!

2011, Acceptable for children, Catholic culture, Comedy, Could Be Sad, Italian, Satire, Slapstick

We Have A Pope (2011)

Leave a comment

From Netflix:

The pope has died, and the congress of cardinals has chosen his successor. But what happens if the newly elected pontiff doesn’t want the job? This comedy follows the Vatican’s travails as it strives to make one cardinal accept his destiny.

You need not be Catholic to enjoy this funny and sad romp through Rome, but it might help. Especially that is true because the film makes a bit of fun of various aspects of the Catholic church.

Basically, the newly elected pope does not want the job and he escapes in street clothes into the busy Roman life while his Secretary of State desperately searches for him hoping to convince him to remain as pope.

You might recognize the actor Nanni Moretti who directed this film. He plays the psychoanalyst which the Secretary of State hires to help the newly elected pope in his time of indecision. Needless to say, this is all tongue in cheek. At one point the psychoanalyst divides the cardinals into volleyball teams and stages a tournament. If you want to see Nanni Moretti in a wonderful film, try “The Son’s Room”. “We Have a Pope” is, on the other hand, a mere diversion which at times can be very funny.

In Italian with subtitles.

1990, Anti-Semitism, Based on true facts, Could Be Hard To Watch, DO NOT MISS, Gay theme, German, Human spirit, Jewish Culture, Military, Nudity, Polish, Revenge, Russian, Sex Scenes, True Story, Violent, War, WWII

Europa Europa (1990)

Leave a comment

From Wikipedia:

Europa Europa is a 1990 film directed by Agnieszka Holland. Its original German title is Hitlerjunge Salomon, i.e. “Hitler Youth Salomon”. It is based on the 1989 autobiography of Solomon Perel, a German Jewish boy who escaped the Holocaust by masquerading not just as a non-Jew, but as an elite “Aryan” German. The film stars Marco Hofschneider and Julie Delpy; Perel appears briefly as himself in the finale. The film is an international co-production between CCC Film and companies in France and Poland.

Hopefully you will watch both this 2 hour film and also the 3 hour film Sunshine.
Whereas “Sunshine” is an epic showing the history of Hungarian Jews during several epochs, “Europa Europa” is a true story about one Jewish teenager’s survival in the confusing changes in political alignment in Germany, Poland, and Russia between Hitler and Stalin.

WARNING: Once again (as in “Sunshine”) there will be some ugly scenes. Once such scene shows what it was like in the Jewish ghetto during WWII when the Germans either starved the Jews, or killed them outright, or sent them to concentration camps.

If this were not an autobiography I would label it as fantasy or magic realism or some such departure from reality. Yupp, the teenager, had literally unbelievable good luck. However, he survived partly because in all his reincarnations he learned to speak not only German but also Polish and Russian. Of course, he was also very resourceful. Moreover, when faced with a moral choice, he chose survival.

Watching the indoctrination of the Nazi Youth into a violent anti-Semitism was a revelation.

Despite the story’s best efforts, I will personally never believe that the German people did not know what was happening to the Jews.

Coupled with “Sunshine” I would call this film a DO NOT MISS!

2009, Comedy, Feel Good Not For Children, Gay theme, Human spirit, Italian, Italian culture

Loose Cannons (2009)

Leave a comment

From Netflix:

This fiery comedy from director Ferzan Ozpetek finds young Tommaso about to reveal to his large, frenetic Italian family that he’s gay. But he’s beaten to the punch by his older brother, who is promptly disinherited by their furious father.

“Fiery” is not accurate. Instead this film is a sentimental feel-good that offers some truly funny laughs. Fundamentally the theme of the film is that if you want a happy life you have to be bold and assert your own individuality instead of, for example, doing what your parents expect. Granted, family obligations and duties may be stronger in Italy than here in the U.S.A. Here this independence applies not only to the gay sons but also to their grandmother who did not get to marry the man she really loved and consequently lived a life of regret.

For you Italophiles, the Italian spoken in this film is beautiful to hear. English subtitles appear and are not optional.

2012, Dancing, Drama, Hebrew, Jewish Culture, Quiet, Religious Theme, Slow, Small gem of a film

Fill The Void (2012)

Leave a comment

From IMDB:

A devout 18-year-old Israeli is pressured to marry the husband of her late sister. Declaring her independence is not an option in Tel Aviv’s ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community, where religious law, tradition and the rabbi’s word are absolute.

If you want to see a quiet (except when the men are singing and dancing), slow, thoughtful portrait of the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic culture, you will enjoy this film in Hebrew with English subtitles.

Spoken words are scarce enough that it can be difficult if not impossible to know what is motivating some of the characters.

To summarize the film is easy: Yochay’s wife Esther dies in childbirth. Yochay needs a wife for his newborn child Mordechai. More exactly, he wants to marry Esther’s youngest sister Shira. But Shira’s older sister Frieda is, to her great shame, not yet married. Mother, father, aunt, Yochay and the culture pressure Shira to marry Yochay. Unfortunately Shira is unwilling to do so. Her conflict is more or less the content of the entire film. More I will not say.

Whether love was ever an issue is not clear.

If nothing else, the film is a captivating peek into the lives of these aloof and separate Jews.

For more information on this worthwhile film see the Wikipedia discussion.

2012, Crude Talk, Depression, Drama, Gay theme, Hebrew, Jewish Culture, Medical Theme, Military, Nudity, Quiet, Unrealistic

Yossi (2012)

Leave a comment

From Netflix:

While driving through a remote part of Israel, a closeted gay doctor crosses paths with a group of soldiers who inspire him to live life in the open. Ohad Knoller reprises the title role in this sequel to Yossi & Jagger.

Before seeing this film, you should watch the first of the 2-film series entitled Yossi & Jagger. Briefly we recall the plot of this first film: Jossi and Jagger are two (male) Israeli soldiers and lovers at their war front. Jagger is killed in action. For me this film was a chance to experience some of the life of the men and women in the Israeli army.

In this second film and 10 years later Jossi is a cardiologist. He is overweight, closeted, still in mourning, and leads a dismal, inactive, non-life. In one sense, what kept the movie interesting for me was Jossi’s refusal to react to any stimulus or friendly offer of some activity. Supposedly the “happy” ending is his finding someone to love. HOWEVER (and other critics disliked the same things) his new love, Tom, is a much younger, fitter soldier who forces Jossi to react to his overtures. Tom says he is attracted to Jossi’s intelligence. They have a one-night stand after which Jossi proposes that they spend their life together. None of this is realistic and seemed to me almost silly.

In summary I was moved by Jossi’s suffering (probably clinical depression) and waited hopefully for some solution. If only that solution had made some sense.

Instead, why not watch a wonderful film by the same director called Walk On Water ?

2012, Amputee, Boxing, Drama, Explicit sex, Explicit sexual discussion, French, Love Story, Mixed Martial Arts, Nudity, Optimistic, Redemption, Violent

Rust and Bone (2012)

Leave a comment

From NetFlix:

An extraordinary story of survival and salvation from the acclaimed, award-winning director of A Prophet. Starring Academy Award Winner Marion Cotillard as Stéphanie, who navigates a gritty relationship with Ali, a street fighter, in a world where love and courage appear in many forms.

When I first saw Matthias Schoenaerts in Bullhead I was very impressed. “Bullhead” is an excellent film but not for everyone because it is quite violent. In both “Bullhead” and “Rust and Bone” Schoenaerts plays a very physical role, that is to say a tough, strong, silent, possibly insensitive character. He can now take these roles because he is a very young looking and very much in good physical shape at the age of 35.

Of all the roles played by Marion Cotillard, probably her portrayal of Edit Piaf in La Vie en Rose. She is NOT an amputee. You can read about the film techniques in the Wikipedia article about the film.

Once again “Rust and Bone” might not be for everyone: there are brutal illegal fights between men for betting purposes (think dog fighting); there is much nudity and very explicit sexual intercourse; there is a harrowing scene on a semi-frozen pond; there are many frank scenes featuring Cotillard as an amputee.

However, the film is basically one about redemption, love, and the ability to mature and change.

If gritty appeals to you, then I heartily recommend both “Bullhead” and “Rust and Bone”.

2011, Based on true facts, Car Chase, Comedy, Crude Talk, DO NOT MISS, Explicit sexual discussion, Feel Good Not For Children, Flirting, French, Wonderful acting

The Intouchables (2011)

1 Comment

From NetFlix:

Based on a true story, a quadriplegic aristocrat’s world is turned upside down when he hires a young, good-humored ex-con as his caretaker. This unlikely duo overcomes adversity of every flavor as they shatter preconceptions of love, life and each other.

Between François Cluzet (as Phillipe) and Omar Sy (as Driss) the pairing is as entertaining and warm as it is seemingly unlikely. But the story is based on a real such friendship. Be sure to watch enough of the final credits to see photos of the actual persons as well as to learn what happened to them.

Do not be put off by the initial car chase. This is NOT a car chase film. Instead the story tells of the growing connection between a wealthy almost completely paralyzed French aristocrat, Phillipe, and his black ex-con caretaker, Driss, who comes from the other side of the tracks. Driss’s enthusiasm for life is infectious and it eventually enriches Phillipe’s life. Expect frank discussions of sex. Expect some misdirected flirting. Expect some wild, surprising physical adventures (for example, hang gliding). Expect to smoke a lot of weed.

Expect to have a lot of fun watching this wonderful film. No matter your taste in films, DO NOT MISS this French film with English subtitles.