Foreign Films

it was pretty gross!

laprimamirala wrote:

It was me! You gotta see it! [Metropolis] Lang did films in Germany before he came over here and primarily did the horror/mystery genre.

I saw it! It wasn't bad. M is next. I'm really looking forward to that one!

laprimamirala wrote:

The Nazis were probably responsible for most of that [the fact that all copies of Nosferatu were to be destroyed]. Goebbels was a paranoid media freak.

That and the fact that it was copyright infringement. Nosferatu was seen as a ripoff of Dracula.

swiss_tiger wrote:

I never heard of that one LP. But there's another russian movie coming to my mind. Ever heard of Battleship Potemkin? That one is pretty famous i think.

Yeah! That is a movie. And the Odessa Staircase sequence is one of the best film sequences I've ever seen. An interesting fact - all the women in that scene are played by men

good for you! You've seen more than most film classes will see in a semester!

catbox_9 wrote:

laprimamirala wrote:

It was me! You gotta see it! [Metropolis] Lang did films in Germany before he came over here and primarily did the horror/mystery genre.

I saw it! It wasn't bad. M is next. I'm really looking forward to that one!

laprimamirala wrote:

The Nazis were probably responsible for most of that [the fact that all copies of Nosferatu were to be destroyed]. Goebbels was a paranoid media freak.

That and the fact that it was copyright infringement. Nosferatu was seen as a ripoff of Dracula.

swiss_tiger wrote:

I never heard of that one LP. But there's another russian movie coming to my mind. Ever heard of Battleship Potemkin? That one is pretty famous i think.

Yeah! That is a movie. And the Odessa Staircase sequence is one of the best film sequences I've ever seen. An interesting fact - all the women in that scene are played by men

and I do remember that trivia fact now! Thanks for the reminder!

laprimamirala wrote:

good for you! You've seen more than most film classes will see in a semester!

Yeah I have. UCLA's most popular film class (History of American Cinema) only covers American movies. What good is that? If I relied only on them I'd have never seen Battleship Potemkin. I probably wouldn't have seen A Clockwork Orange or The Third Man either. I certainly wouldn't have seen Metropolis, M, Nosferatu, or Les Diaboliques (although I haven't seen the last 3 yet).

we are so quick to think the only good thing is an American thing.

another interesting facet of film (and I'm not talking the Godzilla series) is the Asian genre. The Seven Samurai comes to mind. My husband really gets into these films, many of them made in the 1950s, that are very dramatic and have good fight sequences, way before Crouching Tiger.

Tokyo Story is supposed to be good. When I was a little kid I watched a few of those Godzilla movies :haha:

one of those Godzilla movies was my first real creature feature..at age 8, it can be pretty scary!

I don't think they scared me. My neighbor and I used to watch them constantly though. Speaking of Godzilla, I kind of want to see the original King Kong (which isn't foreign ).

especially when Kong takes off Fay Wray's skirt! very racy for 1933!

1933 was Pre-code. They could get away with that back then.

they did get away with a lot...but by the late 30s, they had pretty much clamped down...David Selznick, the producer of Gone With the Wind, had to fight tooth and nail to get Rhett Butler's utterance of "damn" to stay in the final cut.

How times have changed. Now they say damn on the Disney Channel (probably - I don't watch that channel).

I know when I saw Gone With The Wind I was quite offended at the use of damn

Another scene that was in serious doubt of making the final cut was when Scarlett awakens in her bedroom (the night after Rhett carries her up the stairs and....) The mere suggestion of what had happened the night before was too much for the Catholic Church and the Legion of Decency (no kidding, there was actually such a thing)...

More problems with the censors - just before the shower scene in Psycho they showed a toilet flushing. That was a HUGE no-no. I mean showing a toilet period was not allowed let alone showing one flush. Hitchcock had to fight pretty hard to keep that scene. Eventually those codes kind of fell apart as people released movies without certification and we got the present-day rating system which, while terrible, allows just about anything.

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Back on topic I just (2 minutes ago) finished watching M. WOW! I'll post a review in a little while, but WOW!

swiss_tiger wrote:

But hey, there's no better actor for this role than Peter Lorre.

You're right! Lorre is amazing, especially when he freaks out in the basement at the end

Despite the fact I don't speak German, that is the best film I've reviewed since I started reviewing them!

German's do put out some decent movies - one of my favorite foreign film directors is Tom Tykwer who did some of the best foriegn films I ever saw. His first film in English was so-so and definately not his best work (Perfume).

If you are looking for good foreign films, here is a list of some that I recommond - both as a former Film student and former manager of a movie rental store:

Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer - 1998, German) - enjoy the adrenaline rush techno movie like nothing you've seen before.

The Princess and the Warrier (Tom Tykwer - 2000, German)

Ladri di Biciclette (the Bicycle Thief - 1949, Italian)** A MUST see movie, but beware it may be the most depressing movie I've ever seen

Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro - 2006, Spanish) Probably the most well known out of those I'm going to list... But well worth watching. Amazing cinematography. del Toro is slated to do The Hobbit. I cannot wait.

Killing Zoe (Roger Avery - 1994, French) bank robbing caper flick, not the best but entertaining. Everyone mentioned Nosferatu... Well there's actually a sex scene in Killing Zoe where Nosferatu is playing on a tv during the scene. Thought that was an interesting tie-in to the conversation...

Ok I wrote a ton so I'm going to stop. If you like these or want more suggestions I'd be happy to throw more out there. I'm a big movie buff so... Just let me know. (If there are any movies that I listed that you HAVE to see it's "the bicycle thief" and "run lola run" but I recommend them all).

ScubatheHooD wrote:

Ladri di Biciclette (the Bicycle Thief - 1949, Italian)** A MUST see movie, but beware it may be the most depressing movie I've ever seen

That one is very high on my list of to-see foreign films. The IMDb and Sight and Sound poll both give it very good reviews. I think 8 1/2 is supposed to be a good Italian film, too.

catbox_9 wrote:

That one is very high on my list of to-see foreign films. The IMDb and Sight and Sound poll both give it very good reviews. I think 8 1/2 is supposed to be a good Italian film, too.

It's beyond good. Borderline elite. A movie you WANT to see again but at the same time don't want to see again due to how depressing it is. Kind of like Schindlers List. (only better).

ScubatheHooD wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

That one is very high on my list of to-see foreign films. The IMDb and Sight and Sound poll both give it very good reviews. I think 8 1/2 is supposed to be a good Italian film, too.

It's beyond good. Borderline elite. A movie you WANT to see again but at the same time don't want to see again due to how depressing it is. Kind of like Schindlers List. (only better).

I went ahead and bought it on Amazon. It'll be a while before I watch it though.

ScubatheHooD wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

That one is very high on my list of to-see foreign films. The IMDb and Sight and Sound poll both give it very good reviews. I think 8 1/2 is supposed to be a good Italian film, too.

It's beyond good. Borderline elite. A movie you WANT to see again but at the same time don't want to see again due to how depressing it is. Kind of like Schindlers List. (only better).

Well I watched it

It's a pretty good movie I thought. The way you mentioned it being depressing I was expecting Antonio to get killed by that mob at the end or maybe Bruno would die when the kid was in the water but none of that happened. He didn't even go to jail. Still, he has no bike and he's going to lose his job. No job means no money and then he can't feed his family.

Any Federico Fellini fans out there? I downloaded La Strada las night but despite what it said, there were no English subtitles. My Italian is not good enough to watch a film without subtitles so forget that. I'm trying to get 8 1/2 instead. That's supposed to be better anyways.