Some Foreign Movies Worth Watching
I have always loved movies. It's unfortunate that I have no talent that will enable me to participate in any aspect of the making of the film. I can't act, sing, direct, write or photograph. Nothing. But my appreciation for movies has grown over the years. For most people, movies are just entertainment, and many movies are even a lowbrow form of that. It's not like that for me. Most people who know me make comments about my knowledge, ranging from an awe struck "how do you know so much?" to a critical "she's such a know-it-all". Most of my knowledge comes from watching movies. I have the uncanny ability to cut through all the fillers in a movie and reach the messages, the information, the very heart. I have already spoken about movies that I believe were much better than they were given credit for, and now it's time to speak about some films that I believe need to be watched, but aren't because of the language barrier. I'm talking about foreign films.
Here are some movies I have seen over the years, and I enjoyed every minute of them even though I had no idea what the characters were saying.
1. Hotell
This is a Swedish film about a young, beautiful, privileged woman, Erika, whose expectations of a perfect future are shaken when her son is injured during childbirth, leading to permanent brain damage. It's a future she simply cannot accept, which keeps her from so much as holding her newborn son as her more practical husband begins to cope with his new situation. She joins a support group for people dealing with trauma and is more of a silent participant till one of the members suggests wanting to be someone else for a change. When the group coordinator takes some time off, five individuals from the group decide to spend some time in a hotel, acting out personalities that they would want to be in real life, if only life were so kind to them. There's Anne-Sofi, who has been unpopular and shy and abused her whole life, and wants nothing more than to be someone whose coworkers like her and ask her about her daily life. There's Rikars, a man with serious mommy issues and a fascination with Mayan torture techniques. There's Oskar, whose curse in life is that it's been too perfect for him so far, too stable, too devoid of drama. And then there's Pernilla, a woman who has reached middle age without ever getting married or being in a sucessful relationship, and believes that having someone to share physical relationships with would be therapeutic to her.
Together, the five of them spend a week in different hotels, getting booted out from each one due to various reasons. Yes, the supporting characters are fascinating, but the film belongs to Erika, played masterfully by recent Oscar winner Alicia Vikander (whose performance here surpasses that in The Dansih Girl). Even though she is consistently judged as self-centred and privileged in the movie, you understand how shaken up she is now that her life has changed forever. You sympathise with her, not once being able to judge her for her money and success, instead feeling her anger with her, even when she refuses to touch her own child.
Hotell left me wanting more. I was literally gripped throughout, which is more than I can say for a lot of Oscar nominated films, even the Oscar nominated foreign films that tend to be really good. It never compromises with entertainment and never ventures into the dreary 'art film' category (we all know how that works out, huh?). But here's my biggest compliment- no matter what language you speak, you can go to watch Hotell and actually enjoy it, without having to pretend later that you've enjoyed it because you want to show everyone that you get foreign films.
3. Children of Heaven
This Iranian gem of a film is one of my favorite films of all time. One of the problems with our perception of West Asian countries (or any developing country for that matter) is that we see them only through the eyes of relatively wealthy, English-speaking societies. We see them as backdrops, sometimes even as props, and never do we get a chance to experience these countries as people who live in them.
Children of Heaven is one of those movies that you can't not like. You just can't. There is forced simplicity, something that writers and directors employ to lend a stylistic atmosphere to their films. And then there's purity, there's innocence. There's the ability to look at the world through a child's eyes. It's not easy. Most children ion film are precocious creatures cast only to speak some funny lines or act cute or tug at heartstrings in moments when the adults become too rough to look at. But Children of Heaven goes beyond these tropes and explores something only a child can experience- the struggle of a brother-sister duo sharing one pair of shoes. Through this story, we are taken through the streets of Iran, witnessing the life of ordinary men and women that no Hollywood film could have helped us do.
Here are some movies I have seen over the years, and I enjoyed every minute of them even though I had no idea what the characters were saying.
1. Hotell
This is a Swedish film about a young, beautiful, privileged woman, Erika, whose expectations of a perfect future are shaken when her son is injured during childbirth, leading to permanent brain damage. It's a future she simply cannot accept, which keeps her from so much as holding her newborn son as her more practical husband begins to cope with his new situation. She joins a support group for people dealing with trauma and is more of a silent participant till one of the members suggests wanting to be someone else for a change. When the group coordinator takes some time off, five individuals from the group decide to spend some time in a hotel, acting out personalities that they would want to be in real life, if only life were so kind to them. There's Anne-Sofi, who has been unpopular and shy and abused her whole life, and wants nothing more than to be someone whose coworkers like her and ask her about her daily life. There's Rikars, a man with serious mommy issues and a fascination with Mayan torture techniques. There's Oskar, whose curse in life is that it's been too perfect for him so far, too stable, too devoid of drama. And then there's Pernilla, a woman who has reached middle age without ever getting married or being in a sucessful relationship, and believes that having someone to share physical relationships with would be therapeutic to her.
Together, the five of them spend a week in different hotels, getting booted out from each one due to various reasons. Yes, the supporting characters are fascinating, but the film belongs to Erika, played masterfully by recent Oscar winner Alicia Vikander (whose performance here surpasses that in The Dansih Girl). Even though she is consistently judged as self-centred and privileged in the movie, you understand how shaken up she is now that her life has changed forever. You sympathise with her, not once being able to judge her for her money and success, instead feeling her anger with her, even when she refuses to touch her own child.
Hotell left me wanting more. I was literally gripped throughout, which is more than I can say for a lot of Oscar nominated films, even the Oscar nominated foreign films that tend to be really good. It never compromises with entertainment and never ventures into the dreary 'art film' category (we all know how that works out, huh?). But here's my biggest compliment- no matter what language you speak, you can go to watch Hotell and actually enjoy it, without having to pretend later that you've enjoyed it because you want to show everyone that you get foreign films.
2. Monsieur Lazhar
This movie wasn't really underrated, and it was nominated for an Oscar in the Foreign Film category. Also, it's not the first title that comes to mind when you think of entertainment. But Monsieur Lazhar is one of my favorite movies about teachers, and that is after some stiff competition from Mona Lisa Smile and Dead Poets Society (which were both the same things with the genders reversed, right?). It's about an Algerian teacher who comes to a French Canadian school to replace a teacher who committed suicide in her own classroom. As the children deal with the grief of losing someone they looked up to, the teacher's own losses are slowly revealed.
I think this is one of those movies that is worth watching just for it's last scene, such as Roman Holiday. The last scene makes us question if the recent paranoia regarding inappropriate relationships between teachers and students completely destroyed our ability to see the innocent, pure closeness between mentor and pupil. Perhaps an embrace isn't something disgustingly inappropriate, but a show of affection of like-minded people.
This Iranian gem of a film is one of my favorite films of all time. One of the problems with our perception of West Asian countries (or any developing country for that matter) is that we see them only through the eyes of relatively wealthy, English-speaking societies. We see them as backdrops, sometimes even as props, and never do we get a chance to experience these countries as people who live in them.
Children of Heaven is one of those movies that you can't not like. You just can't. There is forced simplicity, something that writers and directors employ to lend a stylistic atmosphere to their films. And then there's purity, there's innocence. There's the ability to look at the world through a child's eyes. It's not easy. Most children ion film are precocious creatures cast only to speak some funny lines or act cute or tug at heartstrings in moments when the adults become too rough to look at. But Children of Heaven goes beyond these tropes and explores something only a child can experience- the struggle of a brother-sister duo sharing one pair of shoes. Through this story, we are taken through the streets of Iran, witnessing the life of ordinary men and women that no Hollywood film could have helped us do.
Comments
Post a Comment