Foreign Films

 

I like 'em Foreign!
Sep 27 '03

The Bottom Line Foreign? To someone outside the USA, all Hollywood movies are foreign. So many great movies out there, more than we'd ever see. But it's worth a try ... :-)

1) The Pillow Book: Peter Greenaway. Books written on skin. Female nudity. Male nudity. Hightlight: Ewan McGregor's manhood. Very sensual.

2) The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover: Peter Greenaway again. I absolutely adore this movie. What makes this work I think is the attention to detail, especially the sets! The sets are in rich colours. The dinning set is mainly red and black. The kitchen is mostly green. And as the actors move from one set to the other their clothing change colours to match. Visually thrilling and shocking. Watch out! Cannibalism is in this one.

3) Jamon Jamon: Spanish film. Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem star in this one. Essentially a love story. There's a nude bullfighting scene set at night. Wild!

4) Atame! (Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down): Another Spanish film, but this one is by Pedro Almadovar. Antonio Banderas, before he crossed over to Hollywood, made waves with this one. He plays a slightly weird guy who kidnaps a celebrity. They fall in love.

5) Chunking Express: From Hong Kong. Atmospheric Wong Kar Wai movie. Great acting from the cast, including the luminous icon Lin ChingHsia!

6) Amelie: French Cinema. A lovely waitress gets obsessed by a man who is obsessed with rejected photos from those automatic photo booths you find everywhere. A touching love story.

7) La Reine Margot (Queen Margot): Set in medieval days. A Catholic queen matched with a Protestant king. Or is it the other way around? Pardon me, but this was a while ago, and in French! Anyway, it's a visual treat, and erotic too. Politics and sex, what more can you ask for?

8) La Haine (The Hate): honestly, I can't quite remember what this one was about. All I know is that it really struck a chord with me and I can remember it to this day. It's about violence begetting violence. It's gritty and in B&W. Hmmmm ... I have to get it again.

9) Ju Dou: One of Zhang Yimou's best. Stars Gong Li. I used to find Zhang Yimou's movies boring until this movie. It's a wonderful study of infidelity, claustrophobic lives, and retribution. The most memorable scene for me is when the Gong Li character tries to induce an abortion with all kinds of concoctions, including chilli powder and so on. Shudder!

10) Raise The Red Lantern. Another one starring Gong Li. She plays the new concubine of a rich household. The red lantern is raised above the doorway of the front door to the quarters that the master spends the night in. It is a symbol of favouritism, of power. The concubines scheme to have it at their quarters. A surprise waits at the ending. Never judge a book by its cover is an idiom worth remembering.

11) Cinema Paradiso: A masterpiece. The boy grows up in a little town where censorship is done by the local priest. He befriends the projectionist who becomes a bit of a father towards him. The projectionists saves for the boy the censored scenes from the movies, and the boy, after leaving the town, returns home to view them. Very touching movie.

12) Life Is Beautiful: This one truly deserved its Oscars. The premise of the movie is fantastical: to turn incarceration during WWII into a game for a young boy. But yet it reaffirms the belief that life is indeed wonderful.

13) To Live: A Chinese movie about a rich, spoilt man who is reduced to rags and how he survives the hardship. A commentary on the tenacity of the human spirit.

14) Il Postino (The Postman): A simple postman finds love with the help of Pablo Neruda and poetry. A touching love story.

15) Happy Together: A Hong Kong gay-themed movie. To gay guys in Argentina make and break up. Universal themes of love and loss.

16) In The Mood For Love: Moody, atmospheric movie with Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, who looks gorgeous in cheongsams with far-out patterns. A slow dance of love that's not to be. Every scene is cropped tightly with something blocking your vision, as if you are peeping through a keyhold. Disconcerting and haunting.