World Cinema

[Stewart]

I would guess that those of us who enjoy translated literature no doubt enjoy a helping of world cinema, too. So, what are everyone's favourite films from all corners of the globe?

I don't watch that many films - because I'm either working, reading, or out - but when I get a chance then I tend to gravitate to offerings from around the world rather than the more popular fare.

My favourite film is Alain Resnais' Last Year In Marienbad - not because I understand it but because I probably never will. Every time I watch it something new is spotted, another idea comes to mind but I can never form an opinion on it as a whole. The ultimate in repeat viewing.

I liked Lars von Trier's The Five Obstructions, a documentary in which he challenged an old mentor, Jørgen Leth, to repeatedly remake his short film, The Perfect Human, each time forcing upon him a number of restrictions that, in effect, force him to think about how he's going to tackle the short each time.

[Catch22]

Originally Posted by Stewart

I would guess that those of us who enjoy translated literature no doubt enjoy a helping of world cinema, too. So, what are everyone's favourite films from all corners of the globe?

I mentioned two quality Japanese movies on the Recent Purchases thread, When the Last Sword is Drawn and The Twilight Samurai; and I'm sat on another at the moment, 1964s Woman in the Dunes, based on the novel by Kobo Abe - which I haven't read (for shame).

Originally Posted by Stewart

Lars von Trier's The Five Obstructions, a documentary in which he challenged an old mentor, Jørgen Leth, to repeatedly remake his short film, The Perfect Human, each time forcing upon him a number of restrictions that, in effect, force him to think about how he's going to tackle the short each time.

Lots of fun that one; I have this mental problem* that tells me the male star of the first obstruction, and also my favourite, was BBC working class leftie-ntellectual Mark Steel (it was actually a guy called Daniel Hernandez Rodriguez, but I can't find any pictures to dis/prove my lunacy).

I've been introducing my g/f to the "joys" of von Trier recently. We watched Dancer in the Dark a week or so ago, and Dogville a few days back. Second viewings of both for me; DitD is "okay", in my opinion, Dogville very good indeed. I've got the sequel Manderlay on my list to see, and Von Trier has two more on his slate: Wasington, the third part of his American Trilogy, and Antichrist, a horror which poses the suggestion that the world was created by Satan, not God...

* Insert a full stop there, if you wish.

[Patrick Murtha]

I should think that anyone who enjoys modern world literature would derive intense satisfaction from a viewing of Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows --a 1969 film that on its restoration and reissue in 2006 earned as unanimous acclaim across the entire cine-critical spectrum as I have ever witnessed. To top it off, the Criterion two-disk DVD set is one of the finest presentations a film has ever had in that format.

[saliotthomas]

Originally Posted by Patrick Murtha

I should think that anyone who enjoys modern world literature would derive intense satisfaction from a viewing of Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows --a 1969 film that on its restoration and reissue in 2006 earned as unanimous acclaim across the entire cine-critical spectrum as I have ever witnessed. To top it off, the Criterion two-disk DVD set is one of the finest presentations a film has ever had in that format.

Based on a Josseph Kessel Novel-(as was Belle de jour)
Melville is one of the best for dark thrillers.

[Patrick Murtha]

Despite the success of the film, I am not aware of the English translation of Army of Shadows being reprinted in the US or UK since 1944 -- although I suppose it is possible there were paperback editions at some point. In any case, this is not an easy book to find (other Kessel titles in English are far easier to locate). I have a copy borrowed from a local university library right now.

[Morten]

Originally Posted by Stewart

I liked Lars von Trier's The Five Obstructions, a documentary in which he challenged an old mentor, Jørgen Leth, to repeatedly remake his short film, The Perfect Human, each time forcing upon him a number of restrictions that, in effect, force him to think about how he's going to tackle the short each time.

Von Trier and Leth. My fellow countrymen.

Lars Von Trier is a dribbling idiot. Who could possibly take seriously a man who makes a trilogy of movies critiquing America when he has never so much as been there because the poor fool is afriad of flying?! In Denmark he's our Quentin Tarantino: overrated crap.

Anders Thomas Jensen (Green Butchers, Flickering Lights, Adam's Apples) is a director and writer with a completely unique blend of insight into the darkest corners of the human psyche and satirical black comedy, always with a touch of the humane. And of course Susanne Bier (After The Wedding) is a phenomenal film maker.

I also love Wes Anderson, Sergio Leone and Ingmar Bergman.

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Morten

Who could possibly take seriously a man who makes a trilogy of movies critiquing America when he has never so much as been there because the poor fool is afraid of flying?

Me, for one. I'm looking forward to Wasington, whenever it comes round. I've also enjoyed Breaking The Waves and thought Idioterne was, in spite of it serious moments, funny. Dancer In The Dark was okay, but I wouldn't overly recommend it.

But in a media age where knowledge is available around the clock from 24-7 news programmes, books are everywhere, and the internet is only a login away then I don't think it's necessary for one to visit America to be critical of aspects of it. I quite liked his counter to Americans complaining that he made films set in American despite never setting foot in the country, by citing Casablanca as a film set in a foreign country but they never left the US. It doesn't, though, explain his reasons for being critical, if indeed that's what he's being. The films feel explicit enough in this - especially the end credits - but I don't think he's ever confirmed that as being his intention.


Oh and I hated Dear Wendy, the von Trier scripted film made by Thomas Vinterberg. Still haven't seen Vinterberg's Festen, though.

[Patrick Murtha]

Originally Posted by Morten

Lars Von Trier is a dribbling idiot. Who could possibly take seriously a man who makes a trilogy of movies critiquing America when he has never so much as been there because the poor fool is afriad of flying?! In Denmark he's our Quentin Tarantino: overrated crap.

Wallace Stevens, America's most "European" poet and noted Francophile. never visited Europe either. Stephen Crane had never been on a battlefield when he wrote The Red Badge of Courage. So I don't think the issue you raise matters terribly much. And for what it's worth (and not intending to get into an extended debate), I thought that Dogville was one of the best movies I've seen in the past ten years. So sue me.

[Eric]

Patrick Murtha does have a point about visiting. Quite a few film directors doing things about Ancient Greece and Rome have not necessarily visited the countries involved - let alone the era!

Nor did Bergman visit mediæval Sweden to enable him to make "The Seventh Seal".

As for Lars von Trier, I believe it was him who did that nutty series of episodes "Riget" about a spooky-weird hospital. He certainly likes distorting reality. I wouldn't go so far as to call him a dribble-droolly, spittle-flecked idiot, though. For some strange reason, after 35 years of experience of Swedish, I still cannot understand spoken Danish. However, in "Riget" ("The Realm" in English, I think) the only Danish I could understand was when two young people with Down's Syndrome were speaking it, enunciating distinctly, in the hospital kitchens.

[elcalifornio]

Speaking of von Trier not visiting places, I particularly like his version of the Medea story, which was a TV movie i believe.

[saliotthomas]

i love movies of Emir Kusturica.He use to live in Paris in the building where i had a Gallery.I also meet lot's of youngs Serbians exiled during the Kosovo/american war.They really are a lot like in his movie,party people,on the gypsie side.Paris was alive in those years,they century end.

There so much energy in his film and they alway stand out from the regular cinematographic productions.
Guernica, 1978, short
Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (Sjećaš li se, Dolly Bell), 1981
When Father Was Away on Business (Otac na službenom putu), 1985
Time of the Gypsies (Dom za vešanje), 1988
Arizona Dream, 1993
Underground, 1995
Black Cat, White Cat (Crna mačka, beli mačor), 1998
Super 8 Stories, 2001, documentary
Life Is a Miracle (Život je čudo), 2004
Promise Me This (Zavet), 2007
Maradona, 2008, documentary


I like also,some of the Indian Movies.Devdas is a must.They remind me a lot of the comedie musical of the 60's-I would not watch them to often but it refreshing now and then.

[Patrick Murtha]

I need to see more Kusturica, and I would also like to re-engage with Black Cat, White Cat, which on a first viewing had a unique, rude energy (probably coming partly out of Balkan folk traditions), that I wasn't able to fully assimilate, but which definitely impressed me!

[Howard]

I would certainly second the endorsements for Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows, which is one of my favourite films of all time. I first saw it many years ago in Paris, and never forgot it. For years I searched for a DVD version, but there was none available, not even in France. I don't know the Criterion version, but for UK readers I can certainly recommend the BFI DVD. The film is one I cannot recommend too highly, and the ending is the most emotionally devastating of any film I know. The Joseph Kessel novel, by the way, which I read last year in French, is quite an interesting book in its own right, if perhaps very much anchored to the time it was written, but the Melville film is a very free adaptation of it; only the beginning and end of the film bear much resemblance to the book.

[Eric]

I must admit that I've not seen one film by Kusturica. But I see that there's plenty about him on the internet. One interesting little fact about him is the following:

Religion and identity
On Đurđevdan (St. George's Day) in 2005 Emir was baptised into the Serbian Orthodox Church as Nemanja Kusturica (Немања Кустурица) in Savina monastery near Herceg Novi, Montenegro. To his critics who considered this the final betrayal of his Muslim roots, he replied that: "My father was an atheist and he always described himself as a Serb. OK, maybe we were Muslim for 250 years, but we were Orthodox before that and deep down we were always Serbs, religion cannot change that. We only became Muslims to survive the Turks."

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emir_Kusturica ]

[Eric]

One film-maker that intrigues me (not only her appearance) is the Estonian, Kadri Kõusaar. OK, she's only made one feature film so far, but she has written novels, one of which I tried, and failed, to interest British publishers in. So I've translated half of it and no one wants it. Such is the life of a translator, if you do things on spec.

One blow for her personally as a film director was that her film, "Magnus" got as far as the Cannes selection last year, which is prestigious enough for a woman film director of only 27. But as the film involves a suicide, the family of the person who killed himself and on whose life the film was based threatened to sue, so the film was withdrawn from last year's Cannes Film Festival and is banned in Estonia. But she is very ambitious, so she'll make it one day. She likes both Houllebecq and von Trier.

See:

http://kadri.vinci.ee/index.php?lang=en

and

http://kadri.vinci.ee/index.php?CatID=2

and

http://kadri.vinci.ee/?CatID=10


“I WANTED TO DO MY OWN FILM!”
Kadri Kõusaar, writer and film director, Estonia

Kadri Kõusaar - born in 1980 - studied Spanish and literature at the University of Tartu. She has published two books, as well as cultural articles and reviews in the most important newspapers in Estonia. "Magnus" is her first film and also the first Estonian film to be invited to compete in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival.

Kadri, your film was selected to compete in the “Un Certain Regard” category at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It is the first Estonian film ever to be invited to Cannes...
It was a completely crazy feeling to be selected for Cannes! We had just filled in the application forms and posted the DVDs for the Cannes selection committee. We did not hope anything... We knew that they have more than 5000 films to choose from... Three weeks later came the phone call from Cannes... But the craziest thing was that “Magnus” was invited by two different programs – “Un Certain Regard” and ”The Directors’ Fortnight” and I had to decide which programme to choose!

What was the most striking experience of being in Cannes?
I felt like Cinderella – after the parties when it was impossible to get a taxi, I just walked back barefoot to our apartment... All my evening dresses were borrowed; we were financially broke and overworked... and then all that glitz and glamour. Cannes is very bizarre experience existentially: you feel bigger than ever, but also smaller than ever... But all your doubts and sufferings just vanish, when people come to thank you after the screening, their eyes in tears...

[saliotthomas]

After Patrick Murtha mention of Army of shadow i got "The red circle" and "a lift for the gallow" two other classic of film noir.a pure delight!

[Sybarite]

Originally Posted by Morten

... Lars Von Trier is a dribbling idiot. Who could possibly take seriously a man who makes a trilogy of movies critiquing America when he has never so much as been there ...

With respect, I don't need to go to Saudi Arabia to know that it's a country that's ruled over by a bunch of fundamentalist, medievalist nutters who have no place in anything pretending to be a civilised world – and I don't need to have touched down in that country to be prepared to say that without any fear of being shown to be ignorant of the 'government' of that state.

Dogville is a fascinating and challenging film, really quite Brechtian, both in the way in which it is filmed and in how it deals with its subject.

A few of my favourite foreign language films, though, are:

• Jean de Florette and Manon des sources;

• The Enigma of Kasper Hauser;

• The Seventh Seal;

• Nosferatu (1922);

• Oberst Redl;

• Sumo Bruno;

• The Devil's Backbone;

• La Dolce vita;

• M;

• Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari;

• Le Grande illusion;

• Schultze Gets the Blues;

• Caché.

[Irene Wilde]

Originally Posted by Sybarite

With respect, I don't need to go to Saudi Arabia to know that it's a country that's ruled over by a bunch of fundamentalist, medievalist nutters who have no place in anything pretending to be a civilised world – and I don't need to have touched down in that country to be prepared to say that without any fear of being shown to be ignorant of the 'government' of that state.

Dogville is a fascinating and challenging film, really quite Brechtian, both in the way in which it is filmed and in how it deals with its subject.

A few of my favourite foreign language films, though, are:

• Jean de Florette and Manon des sources;

• The Enigma of Kasper Hauser;

• The Seventh Seal;

• Nosferatu (1922);

• Oberst Redl;

• Sumo Bruno;

• The Devil's Backbone;

• La Dolce vita;

• M;

• Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari;

• Le Grande illusion;

• Schultze Gets the Blues;

• Caché.

Ooh! Sybarite, you've listed some good 'uns! Might I add:

L'Avventura

La Notte

Au Revior Les Enfants

Belle du Jour

Rashomon

Hong gao liang

Ju Dou

And the very classic Les Diaboliques

I am hoping this site will get me as organized and familiar with non-English authors as I am with non-English films.

Edit: Oh leapin' lizards, I forgot Mitt liv som hund. I better lay off the martinis or lay off the send button before I make a complete arse of myself.

[metin]

Of all Kusturica movies, I've only seen Father Was Away On Business, Underground, Time Of The Gypsies, Arizona Dream. I didnt like the FWAOB, cause I wasnt familiar with the feeling of it. I grew up in a Bosnian neighborhood in Istanbul though. Underground is a superb movie IMO. Arizona Dream is a movie that should be made by an American director. It has something artificial there. Time Of The Gypsies, is very good but I believe that it was selling a culture to metropolitans. I didnt find it a sincere approach.

I love movies by Tarkovsky. Zerkalo, Stalker, Ivanogo Detstvo, Solyaris and Nostalghia are
the ones I've seen so far. Especially the first two affected me alot.

[saliotthomas]

It's alway interesting to see the the closer one is from the culture of a film maker the harder one is on his critic of his work.I certainly would be much exigent on French director than an outsider would be.
I don't know for the selling of the culture part,but i have to desagree about Arizona dream,an American director would have made a American movie.It's the spirit and style of Kusturica than gave the film it's interest,for there is very little plot or story.I loved the part when Vincent (cant remenber is name further!) act the part of the plane chase in the alfred Hitchcock film.

I just remenbered Takeshi Kitano is a great film maker,he give a new touch to the Japanese cinema.A mixe of humour and classic film noire.