NE and I have been on a bit of a non-English movie kick of late. It all started when my friend P at work loaned me a box set of Guillermo Del Toro’s movies, well three of his movies. I’d already seen Pan’s Labyrinth and while I thought it was great, NE hated the downer of an ending. She said it tainted it and I have to agree to a certain extent. I don’t know if I’d ever watch it again, knowing what happens.
Anyway, I watched The Devil’s Backbone next and it was just brilliant without the bad ending to mar it. The characters were vibrant and nuanced and didn’t take a backseat to action. So two out of two were very good. Cronos was up next and while we found the characters were wonderful, the production quality seemed to be out of the 70’s or 80’s. It wasn’t too bad.
Around this time we signed up with lovefilm, an online movie rental place. So, we went for a bunch of non-english films at the top of our choice list. Films in German, French, and Spanish mainly. I put a lot of Almodovar’s films on the list, but surprisingly it was a french film that came up first. The Science of Sleep by Michel Gondry, which was weird and alright, but not great; a bit flat. Another French film followed that one in the form of Angel-A, which was one that I’d been looking forward to. It’s directed by Luc Besson who did the brilliant Fifth Element. The film itself was slow, but fascinating, really. I enjoyed it.
A Russian film was next in the form of the execrable Day Watch. I thought the first film was okay, not anywhere near the hype. Then I read the books by Sergei Lukyanenko and they were fab, much better than the movies.
Then we finally got our Almodovar film! Volver, one of his more recent films and one that shows that Penelope Cruz can actually act! A stunning thought. It’s another case of Hollywood giving a good actor nothing to do. Volver was a nice little story with well-drawn characters. I liked it, but didn’t love it.
In came a French thriller, Tell No One. I don’t like thrillers, really, but NE doesn’t mind them. So, she watched it and told me later that it was a decent example of thast kind of movie, but with better characterisation.
Within the last week we received a German film, which was a first. It’s called The Lives Of Others and it’s about “East Berlin, 1984. State Security begins surveillance on playwright and, on the surface at least, good socialist Georg Dreyman (Koch).” This is an excellent film with many levels that reveals much of the humanity of its subjects. I highly recommend this film.