Category Archives: Foreign Language

1992, Spanish, Violent

El Mariachi (1992)

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From NetFlix:

Writer-director Robert Rodriguez’s indie debut and his big-budget follow-up are both featured on this disc. Sundance Film Festival winner El Mariachi chronicles the travails of a traveling musician (Carlos Gallardo) who’s been mistaken for an assassin who carries his weapons in a guitar case — and whom the local crime lord wants dead. In Desperado, the mariachi (Antonio Banderas) returns — this time seeking revenge. Salma Hayek co-stars.

Robert Rodriguez made this film in Mexico for $9000 which is,
of course, absurdly low. He could shoot each scene only once.
For a beginner in Spanish, this is the perfect film because the
Spanish is terse and very easy. This is a violent film.

Once CD contains both “El Mariachi” and “Desperado”. Try to see “El Mariachi”
before watching “Desperado”.

2003, Comedy, Feel Good For All, French, Old-Fashioned

Seducing Doctor Lewis (2003)

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From NetFlix:

This comedy follows a small fishing town in Quebec that’s facing tough times as the economy continues to take a hit. The townspeople are thrilled when a major company chooses their locale to build a factory; trouble is, the factory will be built only if the town can convince a full-time doctor to move there. So, a local man (Raymond Bouchard) organizes a no-holds-barred crusade to bring in a big city doctor (David Boutin).

This is “old fashioned” in the sense that it is simply made, presents a gentle reality with no superhuman or digital interference. And yes it is corny at times. But you can just relax and watch it without the feeling that something unpleasant is about to happen.

1977, Italian, Not Feel Good, Violent

1900 (1977)

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From NetFlix:

Bernardo Bertolucci’s epic tale follows the lives of two Italian men — a peasant (Gerard Depardieu) and a landowner (Robert De Niro) — both born on Jan. 1, 1900. Friends as children, the two become estranged as their differing social status pulls them apart. Their personal conflicts mirror the political events in Italy, as both fascism and socialism gain footholds in the country. Sterling Hayden, Donald Sutherland and Burt Lancaster co-star.

“1900” is the name of this two-disk film which traces the rise and fall of the Black Shirt Fascists in Italy. It was made in 1977 and gives you an opportunity to see amazingly young Robert De Niro padrone), Gerard Depardieu (peasant farmer), Dominique Sanda (playgirl), and Donald Sutherland (local Black Shirt leader). Burt Lancaster appears as the old grandfather of Robert De Niro.

Italian films do what American films often fail to do: tell it like it was. In the case of a largely peasant population you will see and hear crudity that could never appear in an American film. Even I, as trash acclimated as I am, was shocked.

On the superficial side who knew that Gerard Depardieu was ever handsome instead of being the bloated pig that he currently is. Depardieu acts well but De Niro comes off as not acting very well. The really scary character is Donald Sutherland who plays to perfection a creepy scociopathic homocidal Black Shirt. His violence is truly ugly.

On another superficial topic, the sex scenes are uniquely uninhibited. You get to see Dominique Sanda dancing around practically naked. De Niro and Depardieu share a prostitute in which the actors move about the room in complete frontal nudity. Not that you would be interested.

1000NYTimes, 1001BeforeDie, 1963, Italian, Not Feel Good

The Leopard (1963)

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From NetFlix:

In this war drama set in 1860s Sicily, Prince Don Fabrizio Salina (Burt Lancaster) attempts to hold onto the glory he once knew, while his nephew, Tancredi Falconeri (Alain Delon), has joined opposition forces and is being heralded as a war hero. As Falconeri begins to fall for Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), the daughter of the town’s new mayor, Don Calogero Sedara (Paolo Stoppa), Salina must learn to accept his changing political status.

Garibaldi landed in Sicily in 1860 (at the time of our civil war). Burt Lancaster (speaking Italian) is a Sicilian prince who can never adjust to the new egalitarian order. The film beautifully recreates the book. But the pace is very slow and you really might have to be motivated to watch this film. In my case I read “Il Gatopardo” in Italian.

2003, Italian, Not Feel Good, TV Series

The Best Of Youth (2003)

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From NetFlix:

This sprawling Italian drama sweeps from the ’60s to the 21st century,
tracking the journey of two brothers, Nicola (Luigi Lo Cascio) and
Matteo (Alessio Boni). The two take different paths: After traveling,
Nicola becomes a successful psychiatrist, while Matteo becomes a policeman
intent on catching criminals. Their politics diverge as well, straining
the family bond. Originally aired as a miniseries on Italian television.

NetFlix offers this Italian TV miniseries on 2 disks. There are subtitles. You really do get the modern history of Italy in a memorable way by watching the series. You realize how much Italy has suffered (floods, Italian terrorists, etc). The characters are appealing. Warning: do not expect a happy ending. Life just goes on.

2005, Could Be Sad, Feel Good For All, Musical, Several languages, War

Joyeux Noel (2005)

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From NetFlix:

Inspired by a true story, this heartwarming tale unfolds on Christmas Eve, 1914, in the midst of World War I. As the French, Scottish and German soldiers prepare to open their presents, a momentous event occurs that changes the destinies of four people: an Anglican priest, a French lieutenant, a world-class tenor and his soprano lover. Diane Kruger, Benno Furmann, Guillaume Canet, Gary Lewis, Dany Boon and Daniel Bruhl star.

I found another description:

In 1914, World War I, the bloodiest war ever at that time in human history, was well under way. However on Christmas Eve, numerous sections of the Western Front called an informal, and unauthorized, truce where the various front-line soldiers of the conflict peacefully met each other in No Man’s Land to share a precious pause in the carnage with a fleeting brotherhood. This film dramatizes one such section as the French, British and German sides partake in the unique event, even though they are aware that their superiors will not tolerate its occurrence

At first my reaction was, “This film is just too goody-goody”. But eventually the film got to me. It is a very musical film and features a folk-tune called “I’m Dreaming of Home” which is sung several times.

You will not regret seeing this film.

1001BeforeDie, 2007, Could Be Hard To Watch, Could Be Sad, Feel Good Not For Children, German, Redemption, Revenge

The Lives of Others (2007)

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From NetFlix:

Set in 1980s East Berlin, director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s debut feature (which earned an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film) provides an exquisitely nuanced portrait of life under the watchful eye of the state police as a high-profile couple is bugged. When a successful playwright and his actress companion become subjects of the Stasi’s secret surveillance program, their friends, family and even those doing the watching find their lives changed too.

For me this compelling film (recommended in “1001 Films To See Before You Die”) was a “feel good” because it has the most memorable and wonderful ending. In between there is a lot of sadness. Also the film is somewhat illustrative of the phrase “the banality of evil”. Not that those times were easy: the Stasi blackmailed ordinary people into spying on their neighbors.

The banality of evil is a phrase coined by Hannah Arendt and incorporated in the title of her 1963 work Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. It describes the thesis that the great evils in history generally, and the Holocaust in particular, were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths but rather by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal. This concept has it critics. See The Banality Of Evil

1001BeforeDie, 2007, Biographical, Could Be Hard To Watch, DO NOT MISS, French, Not Feel Good

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

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From NetFlix:

In 1995, author and Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a stroke that put him in a coma; he awakened mute and completely paralyzed. Mathieu Amalric stars in this adaptation of Bauby’s autobiography, which he dictated by blinking. Julian Schnabel was nominated for the 2008 Best Director Oscar and won the Golden Globe in the same category for his poignant film about the strength of the human spirit.

This film (one of the “1001 Films To See Before You Die”) is the true story of an editor of “Elle” who suffered a stroke and descended into locked-in syndrome. All he could do was move his left eyelid. His ultra-patient caretakers devised a method of communication with him. Using that he wrote a small book “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” which Julian Schnabel made into this film.. You might want to read that short book. It might be difficult or unpleasant to imagine how it would be to be trapped in such a manner. Unfortunately I came away disliking Bauby. In the film he is cruel, even in his reduced state, to the woman who loves him even while she is helping him. Any comments on this ?

1001BeforeDie, 2007, Biographical, Could Be Sad, French, Musical

La Vie en Rose (2007)

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From NetFlix:

Marion Cotillard earned an Oscar for playing beloved Parisian singer Edith Piaf, whose passion for her music saw her through a life filled with tragedy. From her forlorn childhood in a brothel to her big break at Louis Leplée’s (Gérard Depardieu) nightclub and her premature death at the age of 47, director Olivier Dahan creates a loving portrait of the legendary chanteuse. Sylvie Testud and Pascal Greggory co-star in this critically acclaimed biopic.

“La Vie en Rose” is one of the “1001 Films to See Before You Die.” “Thrilling” is the word that comes to my mind. Any review I have read has been a rave. It is a long film (140 minutes) that seems short. The finale in which she sings her most famous “Non, je ne regrette rien” gave me goosebumps. I am glad I heard her sing this song in a theatre where the screen was the world and nothing else existed. If you want to hear the real Edith Piaf sing her theme song, click on Non, je ne regrette rien

1001BeforeDie, 2006, Could Be Hard To Watch, Spanish, Violent

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

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From NetFlix:

In this fairy tale for adults, 10-year-old Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) stumbles on a decaying labyrinth guarded by Pan (Doug Jones), an ancient satyr who claims to know her destiny. With a new home, a new stepfather (Sergi Lopez) — a Fascist officer in the pro-Franco army — and a new sibling on the way, nothing is familiar to Ofelia in this multiple Oscar-winning tale set in 1944 Spain from director Guillermo del Toro.

In “1001 Films to See Before You Die”, this film is recommended as probably the best film by Mexican directory Guillermo del Toro. The film has a split personality: half is the suffering and torture due to Ofilia’s stepfather who is a bitter and twisted member of General Franco’s fascist army; the other half is the fantasy world to which Ofilia escapes in order to get away from the ugly realities. So, yes, there is violence and some torture. And also there are some memorable fantastic special effects scenes. Not for children.