Hello, and welcome back to Weekly Cinemeh. This week we go in a different direction from our month of horror and do some foreign comedies. I enjoy comedies so this week was a good week for me. To the list!
1: Closer to The Moon
This movie is based on the true story of the Rosenthal gang's heist in soviet controlled Romania after WWII. Basically a bunch of Romanian's who were part of the Jewish resistance movement against the Nazis get fired from their jobs and replaced by people who are more willing to support the Soviet Union, and in response they decide to rob a bank. Its a dark story that is shown through a series of funny moments. The writer/director is a Romanian man named Nae Caranfil who lived through this time period and I think his ability to find humor in a dark time is great. The cast is good, Mark Stong is good at playing good guys who are slightly sinister and Vera Farmiga does a great job in a pretty complex role. The movie deals well with a subject that gets lost over in the US. People who grow up during a war are a much different group than people born during peacetime, especially when the war is fought in your country. This movie portrays the communists behind the iron curtain as incompetent, self serving, violent, and bovine. One of my favorite jokes in the movie is the extras in the "documentary" being filmed are all communist soldiers, and none of them know how to do anything other than be soldiers so it's funny watching them try to act. Its a good movie, watch it.
Eshi: Closer to The Moon is kind of a weird thing. It's a comedy, it certainly has a humorous bent but the comedy is kind of perpendicular to the plot. Its not a dark comedy, where disturbing or upsetting material is handled in a funny way, its more like a fucked up drama wearing a silly hat. That said, the funny bits are pretty funny and the drama is compelling. I would have liked to see more Romanian actors featured prominently but really only because I'm not super familiar with any and I enjoy learning about international pop culture.
2: In The Loop
This is a movie based around a very funny Brittish TV show called The Thick Of It, which I love. Its about a group of politicians around 2001-2002 dealing with the possibility of going to war in Iraq. This movie is full of British and American comedians and some amazing insults. Its a lot like the TV show. You get to see some politicians being evil and/or incompetent who get yelled at by Peter Capaldi (whom you may know as the 12th Dr. Who) who is employed by the British government to keep politicians in line. It is a fun film with some very funny bits. Peter Capaldi is amazing at playing rage incarnate, and I would say that the movie is worth watching just to see him insult the poor people under his command. The subject matter can be a little dry, but the characters are fun to watch and its a good political satire. Watch it.
Eshi: I really wish that politicians were so easily dominated by loud noises and colorful profanity, I feel like someday they could be domesticated, maybe even housebroken. Peter Capaldi is both super charismatic and wonderfully descriptive with his outbursts. In The Loop is well cast and superbly written, even if I'm not super on-board with some of the visual choices, (the whole thing is shot in soft focus). Give it a shot sometime.
3: The Trip To Italy
The Trip to Italy is a movie that was originally a TV miniseries about two British comedians, Rob Bryden and Steve Coogan, traveling around the Italian countryside eating at some amazing restaurants and enjoying a beautiful country. I enjoyed the first The Trip movie, it was fun watching two comedians who do a lot of voices compete with each other while driving around and eating good food. It was a fun ride. The sequel is just more of that but in Italy. I don't think this movie was as good as the first, but it was still fun to watch dueling impressionists out Michael Cain one another. There are some amazingly funny bits and some great scenery. Its a deeper movie than just all of that though. These two comedians deal with mid-life crises, getting closer to death, and the various amounts of success and failure each have experienced. Watch it if you liked the first movie, you will probably like the second because it is just more of the same.
Eshi: The Trip was a fun, low-intensity comedy about a couple of friends/rivals going through their mid-life crises via road trip and restaurant tour. The Trip To Italy is that but in Italy. Don't get me wrong, it is exactly what its expected to be, and it was very enjoyable, but it was probably unnecessary. Steve Coogan is the same ego-maniacal douche Steve Coogan so often portrays and Rob Bryden is as delightful as he usually is, save that I noticed that he looks like a Welsh Mitt Romney. I watched this mostly for the fucking beautiful shots of the Italian coast and delicious Italian food. The steady background of two talented comedians bantering was just a very welcome bonus.
Showing posts with label foreign film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foreign film. Show all posts
Friday, November 6, 2015
Friday, August 21, 2015
Weekly Cinemeh
Hello, and welcome back to Weekly Cinemeh. This week's theme was French films. French cinema is known for being obtuse and artistic, and from what I have seen, this is close to the truth, though I am far from an expert. This was a fairly mixed week, but ultimately I am curious and will look up more French films. Anyway: to the list!
1: Les Visiteurs
The visitors is a French Comedy about a 12th century knight and his manservant being sent into the future while trying to go to the past to prevent the knight from killing his girlfriend's dad while tripping balls (because a witch spiked his water). The knight and his peasant friend are essentially a French version of Black Adder and Baldrick. While in the future, they need to find a way back with the help of the knight's descendants. This movie was pretty funny. Jean Reno is good and his Baldrick, played by Christian Clavier, is very funny, especially when he finds out that the nobility in the future got rid of the feudal system. This is also one of the only movies about the past that I have seen that addresses the fact that people from the middle ages had fucked up teeth, which was actually a plot point. It was fun to watch the medieval peoples fuck with the status quo, and I loved that the one of the first things that happens with them is that they get thrown in a mental institution. The only weird thing in this movie was that Jean Reno's character kept throwing out a "I wanna Fuck You" vibe to his descendant who looked like his S.O. from the past. Give it a watch.
Eshi: I enjoy Jean Reno; I don't think I've ever been disappointed by him and this movie isn't an exception. Watching a relatively dignified french actor run around with a flail squealing in battle rage is just delightful. Christian Clavier is simultaneously repulsive and charismatic and his whirlwind romance with the delusional baglady was great. I agree with Brian though that the whole, "Time to fuck my Grandkid" thing was disconcerting, but I don't know how the French go about their incest. They are making a third movie in this series, I'm not sure it needed a second (which I didn't even know about) and a third, almost twenty years after the second, is disappointing. This one's pretty good though, you should watch it.
2: Amelie
I love this movie. This wasn't my first time watching it, but I felt that if we are to suggest French movies we would be wrong to not include Amelie. Amelie is a movie about a introverted, oddball, and slightly naive French girl who decides to become a superhero of sorts, helping those in need and punishing bad people. Its a heartwarming and hilarious movie. Audrey Tautou was charming as the quixotic Amelie, and the rest of the cast was good as well, adding a delightful amount of charm to each scene. This movie focuses on the importance of having connections with people in your life. Amelie spends the bulk of her life in her own head, not giving much though to the world around her. When she discovers that it feels good to help people she dives into it, imagining herself as a Zorro type character and slowly coming out of her shell. Its a sweet movie that has some beautiful scenes, and I would suggest it heartily.
Eshi: Amelie is the most genuine and charitable examination of the fantasy-minded I've ever seen, and it brings me great joy. The characters are wonderfully exaggerated and fucking filled with personality. The story rambles and meanders just enough to be comfortable, cinematography is bright and spectacularly emotive, even the psycho-stalker character manages to be more playfully neurotic than threatening. Amelie is the movie version of your favorite candy: sweet, pretty, and interesting enough to always make you feel better.
3: Fascination
This was my first interaction with "erotic horror". This movie was about a thief who gets into trouble when trying to hold up a house inhabited by vampires. There is a lot of tits in this movie, which was only shocking because I didn't know that the movie was erotic horror until a bit into it. The plot was simple, and the characters where kind of bland. The thief is also the stupidest motherfucker that has ever lived. The entire movie revolves around the vampires killing this guy. They fucking tell him that they are going to kill him, but he stays because the power of boners. I am not saying that they elude to his possible death, they outright fucking tell him, and he doesn't run. I get people acting appropriately stupid in horror films to advance the plot, but rarely does a plot tell the victim that they are a victim, and then the victim doesn't even try to leave. The special effects also leave a lot to be desired. and when the vampires eventually eat someone on screen it is super obvious that they aren't eating a person, just hovering over the body pretending. All of this negatives aside, there are some beautiful scenes, specifically when Brigitte Lahaie walks casually along wielding a scythe after murdering a bunch of people. It was beautiful and frightening all at once. It was boring though, and for a horror movie that's a mortal sin. This movie didn't turn me off of the idea of erotic horror, but it might make me a little hesitant in the future.
Eshi: Man, if you like gratuitous nudity and amateur pantomime this is the one for you. Half the conversations basically end with one or more parties trying to look alluring and wandering off, leaving the last person speaking just kind of standing there, trying to figure out what the fuck they're doing there. That character is the audience surrogate regardless of who they are at the time. The thief is too busy trying to be cool to give a fuck about his grandiosely telegraphed and clearly outlined demise, the vampires are pretty much just crazy rich ladies who get off on ineffectually mouthing travelers for their blood, and the sex scenes are all pretty much what it would look like if rape had a sibling with Down's. Brian is right though, Brigitte Lahaie does a grand job of answering the age old question, "why does that corpse have a boner?" for all kinds of reasons.
1: Les Visiteurs
The visitors is a French Comedy about a 12th century knight and his manservant being sent into the future while trying to go to the past to prevent the knight from killing his girlfriend's dad while tripping balls (because a witch spiked his water). The knight and his peasant friend are essentially a French version of Black Adder and Baldrick. While in the future, they need to find a way back with the help of the knight's descendants. This movie was pretty funny. Jean Reno is good and his Baldrick, played by Christian Clavier, is very funny, especially when he finds out that the nobility in the future got rid of the feudal system. This is also one of the only movies about the past that I have seen that addresses the fact that people from the middle ages had fucked up teeth, which was actually a plot point. It was fun to watch the medieval peoples fuck with the status quo, and I loved that the one of the first things that happens with them is that they get thrown in a mental institution. The only weird thing in this movie was that Jean Reno's character kept throwing out a "I wanna Fuck You" vibe to his descendant who looked like his S.O. from the past. Give it a watch.
Eshi: I enjoy Jean Reno; I don't think I've ever been disappointed by him and this movie isn't an exception. Watching a relatively dignified french actor run around with a flail squealing in battle rage is just delightful. Christian Clavier is simultaneously repulsive and charismatic and his whirlwind romance with the delusional baglady was great. I agree with Brian though that the whole, "Time to fuck my Grandkid" thing was disconcerting, but I don't know how the French go about their incest. They are making a third movie in this series, I'm not sure it needed a second (which I didn't even know about) and a third, almost twenty years after the second, is disappointing. This one's pretty good though, you should watch it.
2: Amelie
I love this movie. This wasn't my first time watching it, but I felt that if we are to suggest French movies we would be wrong to not include Amelie. Amelie is a movie about a introverted, oddball, and slightly naive French girl who decides to become a superhero of sorts, helping those in need and punishing bad people. Its a heartwarming and hilarious movie. Audrey Tautou was charming as the quixotic Amelie, and the rest of the cast was good as well, adding a delightful amount of charm to each scene. This movie focuses on the importance of having connections with people in your life. Amelie spends the bulk of her life in her own head, not giving much though to the world around her. When she discovers that it feels good to help people she dives into it, imagining herself as a Zorro type character and slowly coming out of her shell. Its a sweet movie that has some beautiful scenes, and I would suggest it heartily.
Eshi: Amelie is the most genuine and charitable examination of the fantasy-minded I've ever seen, and it brings me great joy. The characters are wonderfully exaggerated and fucking filled with personality. The story rambles and meanders just enough to be comfortable, cinematography is bright and spectacularly emotive, even the psycho-stalker character manages to be more playfully neurotic than threatening. Amelie is the movie version of your favorite candy: sweet, pretty, and interesting enough to always make you feel better.
3: Fascination
This was my first interaction with "erotic horror". This movie was about a thief who gets into trouble when trying to hold up a house inhabited by vampires. There is a lot of tits in this movie, which was only shocking because I didn't know that the movie was erotic horror until a bit into it. The plot was simple, and the characters where kind of bland. The thief is also the stupidest motherfucker that has ever lived. The entire movie revolves around the vampires killing this guy. They fucking tell him that they are going to kill him, but he stays because the power of boners. I am not saying that they elude to his possible death, they outright fucking tell him, and he doesn't run. I get people acting appropriately stupid in horror films to advance the plot, but rarely does a plot tell the victim that they are a victim, and then the victim doesn't even try to leave. The special effects also leave a lot to be desired. and when the vampires eventually eat someone on screen it is super obvious that they aren't eating a person, just hovering over the body pretending. All of this negatives aside, there are some beautiful scenes, specifically when Brigitte Lahaie walks casually along wielding a scythe after murdering a bunch of people. It was beautiful and frightening all at once. It was boring though, and for a horror movie that's a mortal sin. This movie didn't turn me off of the idea of erotic horror, but it might make me a little hesitant in the future.
Eshi: Man, if you like gratuitous nudity and amateur pantomime this is the one for you. Half the conversations basically end with one or more parties trying to look alluring and wandering off, leaving the last person speaking just kind of standing there, trying to figure out what the fuck they're doing there. That character is the audience surrogate regardless of who they are at the time. The thief is too busy trying to be cool to give a fuck about his grandiosely telegraphed and clearly outlined demise, the vampires are pretty much just crazy rich ladies who get off on ineffectually mouthing travelers for their blood, and the sex scenes are all pretty much what it would look like if rape had a sibling with Down's. Brian is right though, Brigitte Lahaie does a grand job of answering the age old question, "why does that corpse have a boner?" for all kinds of reasons.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Foreign Engagement
It should be no surprise by now that Eshi and I love movies. We talk about them all the time, and even have a running series about it (coming Friday, seriously, we promise~). We're especially fond of foreign movies.
Unfortunately, foreign movies don't seem to get much love in American markets, this is due to various reasons such as lack of exposure or a hate of subtitles. Now the first one is hard to avoid since foreign films are rarely advertised in the U.S. so you would have to go out of your way to find them. This also ads a layer of mystique to them that might scare a few more people away from them. The second is ridiculous in my mind and is usually accompanied by the phrase "I go to movies because I don't want to read". This strikes me of being proud of ignorance and is all around disappointing.
Foreign movies are something that anyone who is a fan of movies should see. I have written about how Hollywood always makes the same stuff over and over again. Foreign movies offer a different take on old formulas, straight up new ideas (at least new to our culture), and they also offer a different view on traditional issues. This also helps the viewer get great insight into other cultures, which is never a bad thing.
Admittedly, some foreign film is weird as shit. La Jetee is a prime example of weird shit done well, if you find yourself looking for a sample. It was the inspiration for 12 Monkeys for all the Terry Gilliam fans out there and it is very worth the watch.
Here is a list that I found that offers some good suggestions on what to watch, but don't limit yourself to it. There are plenty of good movies from around the world that deserve a viewing, and if you like cinema this will expand your view on it as an art form. Just in case it doesn't go without saying watch the original foreign versions of things. Just do, seriously. Good places to start are; Let the Right One In, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and OldBoy, the last of which you may remember for Eshi's exultation of its amazing hammer-violence.
Unfortunately, foreign movies don't seem to get much love in American markets, this is due to various reasons such as lack of exposure or a hate of subtitles. Now the first one is hard to avoid since foreign films are rarely advertised in the U.S. so you would have to go out of your way to find them. This also ads a layer of mystique to them that might scare a few more people away from them. The second is ridiculous in my mind and is usually accompanied by the phrase "I go to movies because I don't want to read". This strikes me of being proud of ignorance and is all around disappointing.
Foreign movies are something that anyone who is a fan of movies should see. I have written about how Hollywood always makes the same stuff over and over again. Foreign movies offer a different take on old formulas, straight up new ideas (at least new to our culture), and they also offer a different view on traditional issues. This also helps the viewer get great insight into other cultures, which is never a bad thing.
Admittedly, some foreign film is weird as shit. La Jetee is a prime example of weird shit done well, if you find yourself looking for a sample. It was the inspiration for 12 Monkeys for all the Terry Gilliam fans out there and it is very worth the watch.
Here is a list that I found that offers some good suggestions on what to watch, but don't limit yourself to it. There are plenty of good movies from around the world that deserve a viewing, and if you like cinema this will expand your view on it as an art form. Just in case it doesn't go without saying watch the original foreign versions of things. Just do, seriously. Good places to start are; Let the Right One In, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and OldBoy, the last of which you may remember for Eshi's exultation of its amazing hammer-violence.
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