WHAT FOREIGN FILMS HAVE YOU WATCHED LATELY?

[ChiO]

One more that occurred to me, though it may not quite fit within Moira's criteria (it's German, but deals with East Germany before the Wall fell):

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck - THE LIVES OF OTHERS (2006)

[Mr. Arkadin]

Regarding Kieslowski's films I like No End and A Short Film About Love, are these part of the Decalogue? Does anyone know?

A Short Film About Love AKA Decalogue VII is indeed part of Kieslowski's epic.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Mike, Arkadin, Kingrat and anyone else who contributes to this thread regularly or would like to:

Could you please think about posting a list of films you would recommend by country, concentrating in particular on Russian, Polish, Czech and any other country. Naturally, the films from the Soviet era and after are of particular interest, at least to me.

Thanks in advance for anything you might be able to offer--though I realize that you might not have time for this. Anything would be of help.

I've been dumpster diving through Italian Eurotrash for the last couple of years, so I'm not sure I would be the best person to respond to this. ChiO listed some great films that are more or less landmarks and Andrzej Wajda already has his own thread, courtesy of Kingrat. As for adding on to that foundation:

The Double Life of Veronique (1991)
Valerie and her Week of Wonders (1970)
Ascent (1976)
Come and See (1985)
Ballad of a Soldier (1960)
The Asthenic Syndrome (1989)
Burnt by the Sun (1994)
The Ear (1970)
The Sacrifice (1986)
Mother and Son (1997)
Stalker (1979)
The Mirror (1974)
A Slave of Love (1978)
Strike (1924)
The Thief (1997)
Man of Marble (1977)
Alice (1988)
Earth (1930)
The Red and the White (1967)
Marketa Lazarova (1967)
The Fireman's Ball (1967)
The Color of the Pomegranates (1969)

[charliechaplinfan]

I've just tried to watch The Colour of Pomegranates but put it aside until another day when some of my health problems have abatted and I can do it full justice, I liked the beginning though.

[feaito]

Yesterday I watched Almodóvar's "The Skin I Live In" (2011), a completely disturbing, brutal, very well done piece of work, with Antonio Bandera's in his best role since he left Spain for USA. It has very few comic touches; it's a thriller and a drama, and its characters are sick and lost in life. Marisa Paredes and Elena Amaya are also great. I think I will watch sometime again to understand the film in all its complex levels.

[MikeBSG]

"The Color of Pomegranates" left me cold. I may not have seen it under the best of circumstances. However, the previous film by the same director, Sergei Parajanov, "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" is one of my favorite films. However, it has a dreamlike style that is not to everyone's taste.

[charliechaplinfan]

I'll bear that in mind Mike, I knew when I put the movie on that I'd have to find the right frame of mind to watch it.

[JackFavell]

Another vote for Cranes Are Flying. A beautiful sad film.

Has anyone mentioned Burnt by the Sun?

[ChiO]

And I forgot:

Russian (Georgian)

REPENTANCE (Tengiz Abuladze 1987)

[MikeBSG]

"Repentance" is a great film. It is allegorical/poetic in style. This could drive some viewers up the wall. (I think when it was released over here in the 80s, it disappointed people who expected an anti-Stalin expose.) If you liked Malick's "The Tree of Life," you will probably like "Repentance." If you hated "Tree of Life," my bet would be that you won't like "Repentance."

"Burnt by the Sun" is a terrific film. Its director, Nikita Mikhalkov, made two terrific films from the Seventies: "Slave of Love" and "Unfinished Piece for Player Piano." The first deals with the Russian Civil War, the second is loosely based on Chekhov's works. Mikhalkov also directed "Dark Eyes" in the late 80s, with Marcello Mastroianni. I am not as thrilled with the "Oblomov" he made in the early 80s, but it is significant as an early example of non-Soviet, Russian nationalism.

[MikeBSG]

Polish films that I like are

"In the Quiet of the Night" a murder mystery in early 20th Century Russian-occupied Poland.
"Aria for an Athelete" about a 19th Century wrestler.
"Damned Roads," about truck drivers in the 50s. Akin to "Wages of Fear" and "Only Angels Have Wings."
"Kanal" (Wajda)
"Landscape After Battle" (Wajda) A very intense study of a concentration camp inmate's first weeks of freedom.
"Ashes" (Wajda) Based on a 19th Century Polish novel. The plot was beyond me, but the Napoleonic battle scenes are incredible.
"The Promised Land" (Wajda) industrialization in 19th Century Poland. If you liked "Fanny and Alexander" you will probably like this.
"Man of Marble" (Wajda) The film that gives the finger to socialist realism.
"Ways in the Night" (Zanussi) A doomed romance in WWII.
"Year of the Quiet Sun" (Zanussi) a doomed romance after WWII.
"The Sargossa Manuscript" -- based on a Polish Gothic novel
"Revenge" (Wajda) -- based on a classic comedy

[MikeBSG]

Favorite East German films

"Murderers Are Among Us" -- A thriller with Hildegard Kneff. (Actually a Soviet Occupation Zone film, East Germany didn't exist just yet)
"Rotation" -- the ups and downs of working class life in Weimar and the Third Reich
"The Axe of Wandsbeck" -- a man is pressured into becoming an executioner for the Nazis. (The first film banned by the East German govt.) Influenced by "M", very noir.
"A Berlin Romance" -- the anti-"Ninotchka" He lives in (pre-Wall) West Berlin, and she lives in the East.
"The Sun Seekers" -- A surprisingly good socialist realism film about heroic uranium miners. (Banned for two decades)
"Stars" -- A German soldier supervising the transport of Jews to Auschwitz becomes disillusioned.
"Carbide and Sorrel" -- A clever soldier stays alive in the last days of WWII. (Surprisingly funny.)
"The Rabbit Is Me" -- A young woman becomes disillusioned with East German society. (Made in 1965 and banned. Never shown until after the Wall came down.)
"The Legend of Paul and Paula" -- Two non-conformists fall in love. The East German "Annie Hall."
"Jacob the Liar" -- A Jew in the Lodz ghetto claims to have a radio.

Post East German films dealing with the East German experience
"Goodbye, Lenin!" -- A young man tries to convince his mother that East Germany still exists
"The Legend of Rita" -- The fate of a Baader-Meinhof terrorist who settles in East Germany
"The Lives of Others" -- Stasi surveilance and harrassment of theatrical people.

[Mr. Arkadin]

I recently viewed Anna AKA Secrets of a Call Girl (1973). An interesting film that seemed to be part gangster/noir--part woman's melodrama. Edwidge Fenech plays a cashier in a small town who falls in love with a mobster, unaware of his life of crime. By the time she discovers the truth, she's trapped in the family and is pimped out to others. Things change drastically when she becomes pregnant and attempts to break away.

This was a a very different type of Italian movie considering the time in which it was released, as it was not giallo or sex comedy--two popular genres of the early seventies that often played on the erotic nature of sex rather than romanticism. In the interviews, the creators and Fenech remark on how it did OK in Italy, but much better abroad and you can definitely see why. Although there is nudity and a bit of exploitation, it works as degradation--not arousal, much like Paul Schrader's Hardcore (1979) although I don't think the movie reaches that artistic level. All and all, I liked it quite a bit and it's perhaps Fenech's deepest acting performance that I have seen to date, even if the film is a bit too sentimental for my taste at times. Classic film fans will also enjoy seeing Richard Conte as a mob boss in one of his last great roles. Fenech was a big fan of his and terrified to work with "an actor of his stature", but recalled that he was very sweet and kind to her.

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[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Pearls of The Crown my first Sacha Guitry movie and hopefully not my last. A story about the 4 pearls in the English crown involving figures from history from Francois II and Henry VIII through to modern day, many of the characters payed by Guitry himself and many of the female characters played by Jacqueline Delubac, his then wife. Another treat was to watch Raimu in another film, a favourite but not in enough movies for my liking.

[feaito]

I enjoyed very much that Guitry film. I'm looking forward to watching more Guitry films!