Calling all movie buffs! As I mentioned not too long ago, I'll be hosting an international film challenge off and on this year as a spinoff from Bethany's Orbis Terrarum 2010 Reading Challenge. While the tentative plan is to do this every other month throughout the length of the challenge (i.e. May, July, September, and November), here's all you need to know for May if you want to join in.
If you review any foreign films on your blog this month (be they new favorites or ones you just enjoyed trashing), send me a link to your post with the name of the film and the name of the director included somewhere. Please note that a movie's "foreign" status will be determined both by where you live (no American movies for U.S. bloggers) and the director's place of birth (and not the setting): Krzysztof Kieslowski's great Three Colors trilogy, for example, while mostly set in and associated with France, counts as a Polish film for the challenge, while Rob Marshall's virtually unwatchable Memoirs of a Geisha, although set in Japan, rather embarrassingly counts as an American film!
I'll add the links to the bottom of this post as the month progresses, and then hopefully people will feel free to hop around from blog to blog reading about and/or discussing the films in question. In the meantime, please be aware that you don't need to be a participant in the main Orbis Terrarum 2010 Challenge to hang out at this film festival. In fact, we can start talking movies now if you want to share your memories of some of your all-time favorites. At Bethany's suggestion, I'll list a handful of my many foreign film favorites here to get the ball rolling. 1) Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amélie (France, 2001). 2) Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love (Hong Kong, 2000). 3) Akira Kurosawa's High and Low (Japan, 1963). 4) Francesco Rosi's Salvatore Giuliano (Italy, 1961). 5) Carlos Saura's Cría cuervos (Spain, 1976). Any questions? Let me know!
Richard, The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany, 2008)
This looks fun, Richard! Hmmm. Does the Godzilla: Final Wars movie I am watching with my son right now count? Or any of the other similar Japanese films he just loves? Amazing how parenthood stretches your horizons.
ResponderBorrarBest of Youth!! That is one of my favourites! Love it. Thanks for hosting this Richard, thank you.
ResponderBorrar*Frances: Anything goes, my friend! My brother used to watch the Godzilla and Rodan movies seemingly every time I wanted to watch something on TV when we were growing up, so I'm glad this slice of Japanese Americana continues to live on...in somebody else's family. Hope you can join us for a movie (or maybe a film version of a play?)!
ResponderBorrar*Bethany: The Best of Youth is awesome, agreed! Have you seen My My Brother Is An Only Child? It's another great recent Italian film with a similar vibe. Will make you want to pick up your Italian studies again, for sure!
Whoa, Caravana de recuerdos has been busy while I was away from the interwebs! This sounds like a blast - David & I actually OWN a bunch of French films we haven't even watched yet (found a basket of Criterion Collection editions going for super-cheap a few months ago), so maybe this is the time. And also: Amélie! One of my faves. :-)
ResponderBorrar*Emily: I've cut way down on my DVD buying the last six months or so, but I still have 4-5 unwatched French Criterion DVD titles myself (France is my favorite country for foreign film by far). Wonder if we have any overlap in the two DVD archives? Anyway, hope you can join in and I'll be excited to see if you like your French movie(s) more than Frances liked her son's Godzilla movie!
ResponderBorrarI'm always up for watching foreign films! Did you write something about Cria Cuervois in the past year? I recognize the title and sure enough, it's on my handy iPhone "Movies to Look for List", but I can't remember why or where I heard about it. You say it's a favorite? That's a good enough recommendation for me! :)
ResponderBorrar*Sarah: Cool, welcome! I mentioned Cría cuervos at the beginning of last year's Orbis Terrarum challenge (and maybe in response to one of your movie posts on a Carlos Saura doc?), but then I kind of flaked out and didn't post many movie reviews the rest of the year. I'm happy to let you know that it's still one of my all-time favorites--and definitely my favorite Spanish-language film ever--though! It's available on DVD from Criterion.
ResponderBorrarSweet, they have it on Netflix now - I remember trying to find it before and failing, but it's currently near the top of my list! Looking forward to it.
ResponderBorrarI watched Mostly Martha (Swiss) and this weekend will watch Vitus (German). I am in for sure this month! I'll post a review of both in the same post and send you the link later this month.
ResponderBorrarI love watching foreign flicks!!
*Sarah: Cool!
ResponderBorrar*Bethany: Wonderful! I loved Mostly Martha, so I'll really be looking forward to what you have to say about it. Still waiting to find my first movie for the challenge that I really want to write about, though!