What country is your favorite foreign film from?

I have a fair number of foreign films that I like... But the ones that immediately came to mind are from Spain (not on the list): "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" and "Law of Desire", both directed by Pedro Almodovar. His more recent work is not as good, I think. I speak some Spanish (very rusty), so I can follow along with the (English) subtitles. I hate dubbed films. phi: Ooh! I forgot "Diva" and "Tampopo" - both right up there. Also "Local Hero" (Scottish?) and "High Tide" (Australian)...

Spain--it would have to be "Women On the Verge Of a Nervous Breakdown." Honorable mention to "The Exterminating Angel," also from Spain, as it happens. Although I was recently quite taken by "A Midwinter's Tale," from England, but that was largely because it mirrored my own experience so. (It's a must-see for TRME alumni!)

***I saw "My Life As a Dog" dubbed first, then subtitled. I rather liked the dubbing, particularly the voice of the American actor that they got to dub the sympathetic uncle. I was a little disappointed when I saw the subtitled version that his warm, wonderful voice was missing from the film. I am not, however, one of these regrettable folks who can't abide subtitles.

Taiwan, The Wedding Banquet. It's in English with parts in Mandarin(which is subtitled in English). It's hilarious.

The other country was Denmark I believe. It was a TV series given in four hour segments called The Kingdom. The advertisers said it was like ER on acid and I would have to agree.

belgium-- babette's feast
french-- entre nous

Germany always gets shafted in lists like these...I would say my favorite foreign language film right now is "Fox and His Friends" by Fassbinder...extremely depressing but very compelling story about a man who wins the lottery and is used by his newfound "friends"

My classic fave is Seven Samurai by Kurosawa (RIP). The new foreign film I'm really excited about is a German film called Run Lola Run, by Tom Tykwer. Saw it at the Toronto film fest -- amazing movie. So were Benigni's Life is Beautiful, and Don McKellar's Last Night.

Although Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down was interesting...

la belle et la bete. *sigh*,

are you suggesting that anyone from France's favorite foreign film would be american? What if a Brit's favorite film is The Seven Samuri? *** Oh, duh. I mis read the comment. Sorry.

Au Revoir Les Enfants. I love seeing movies with subtitles in languages I understand, to catch the differences in flavor in the translations.

Diva (France). But close behind are such films as Like Water for Chocolate (Mexico), Tampopo (Japan), any number of Jackie Chan flicks (Hong Kong), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Spain) ...

I too, like them subtitled instead of dubbed. And I'm not including the large number of English, Scottish (Trainspotting), Canadian (except French Canadian), and Australian films that hit the big screen in this country. I also have a hard time thinking of The Wedding Banquet as any more foreign than, say, The Devil's Advocate.

It is a sad statement about my French that while watching Men with Guns the other night I had an easier time with the Spanish, in which I have had no formal training.

I love those old Japanese films like Roshomon, Hidden Fortress, and Seven Samurai. I'm also partial to films from Brazil like Dona Flor and her 2 husbands. Then there's Murmur of the Heart - Louis Malle, France.

what? no germany? [or is wim wenders austrian?]

***bill: I actually really enjoyed I am Curious Yellow but that's not really a foreign film to me... :)
Jen: I haven't seen it since it was shown in class in 6th grade... My taste in movies has probably changed since I was 12. :)

Curious Yellow ...just kidding.
* I really hated "Ran" by Kurosawa (dead guy), the battle scenes in which people were getting their arms chopped off and red paint was squirting out just seemed to silly. Still, I was probably too young when I saw it (16?).
** lelle, they showed that in 6th grade! ...has some pretty explicit sexual scenes in it! ...oh wait, maybe I'm just being a sexually repressed American.

I have a number of foreign films at home. My favorite are Japanese - subtitled, not dubbed - Seven Samurai and Ran, and Kagemusha. Another favorite is The Official Story which I can sort of understand in Spanish. I'd rather have subtitles than dubbing - it's distracting to see the lips moving, and they have to do bizarre "long winded" sentences to get things to match sometimes (Japan -> English especially).

Eris: I thought about Spain, but I didn't know if it was just me who knew about a lot of those (knowing Spanish and all) or if they really had a lot of movies on the market. Another favorite of mine is "Like Water for Chocolate" in Spanish. Hey, we can swap tapes!

Milktree: I've missed your contentious comments :) Yes, someone from France could conceivably like Casablanca. "could be" is the operative phrase for your other question ;)

Bill: I didn't like the violence in Ran (same reason I'm avoiding Pvt Ryan) - but that wasn't really what the movie was about. It's King Lear, essentially, set in violent 16th century Japan. I of course feel they could have expressed the horror of the war without showing a guy with an arrow sticking in his eyeball, but such is life ... (Reality: Yes. I understand subtlety; I don't need something smeared in my face).

EB: I'm moving discussion to the appropriate survey. MacBeth? I really can't remember a Kurosawa movie about MacBeth! There was Ran - like King Lear ... I have a complete movie listing at
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/8353/movies.html. If it's in there, let me know!! I'd love to see it.

EB: Many thanks :) I simply missed it when I looked through the list. "Never subscribe an action to maliciousness when it can simply be subscribed to human error". I think you take actions as personal affronts when they are merely mistakes. I did TRULY want to see the movie and was interested what the title was FOR THAT REASON. Note that, per your suggestion, there's also now a director listing for the prolific directors!

I read your article - it's intriguing, but I'm not sure what it concludes. Mostly it says that it's hard for a Western audience to know why he chose his music or one spirit, etc. You were close to a lot of important observations but maybe you didn't have the background to see WHY he chose the colors and music he did? That was what I kept hoping you would get into, but you stopped at the "why did he do this?" and went on to the next "why". I've ordered the movie from reel.com and will survey on it later. I've heard of this movie many times but never, I guess, in the context of being "Macbeth". That review came from a member of my feudal Japan SIG that I merely cut and pasted in there and I guess promptly forgot!

Reality: empathy ... apparently EB has a different level than some of the rest of us do. My mom (who has degrees in psychology) is doing research on the topic for me - there are many papers published on how some people lack the ability to understand things without actually experiencing them. I'll post the references (in the other survey) when I have them.

EB: I did look for the movie, and didn't find it. I apparently did a typo or something in my search, but thought maybe it didn't mention MacBeth and you could recognize it by the title. That's all. I'm not known for laziness :) As far as arrogance and empathy go, I think you're assuming adult women do not think about abortion and related situations. Yes, I've considered what it is to be pregnant, and to tell the father, etc, seriously, even before my abortion. I think all of the women I know who ended up having abortions had gone through these situations, too. I've sat in a waiting room wondering if I had AIDS, I've sat in a waiting room wondering if my son was going to survive his skull fracture. Are they that different? Sure, a 20 year old never-married not-really-dating living-at-home might have trouble extrapolating. I don't think any of my friends fit into that category.

For your other point, I really don't think there are these huge, insurmountable cultural rifts. I've studied the Japanese culture for maybe 20 years now, have many Japanese friends. I can relate to them just as well as I relate to my non-Japanese friends. When they talk about a color or a feeling, I know "where they are coming from" on it, and they have said as much to me. It's not brain surgery, it takes an attention to detail, good memory, and mostly a desire to learn. I may in fact know more about *why* they tend to feel a certain way about a color or music type than they know, because I've studied the culture so much.

---

What happened to "3. If you'd like to continue this conversation, I will. I think you should experience at least once in your lifetime *not* getting the last word, I'm sure you'll find it a new and thrilling experience. "? If you want the last word, sure, you can have it. I don't debate for the last word, I debate because I'm truly interested in these things. You seem to be debating to prove that because I knew before my abortion what it would be like and how I would feel, and that it was not "wildly different and a life changing experience", that there's something wrong with me. I accept that you feel that way.

Kurosawa was awesome. I particularly like the film that was based on Macbeth, though I can't remember the name of it at the moment. lisashea: how can you express the horror of war without showing violence? (please note that this is a rhetorical question) This view seems comic to me. lisashea: 1. you seem to have an incomplete understanding of the phrase "rhetorical question." 2. The idea that you could truly understand the full horror of abortion without experiencing is abhorrent to me. 3. If you'd like to continue this conversation, I will. I think you should experience at least once in your lifetime *not* getting the last word, I'm sure you'll find it a new and thrilling experience. reality: I got lisashea's point about a thousand years ago, I just don't happen to agree with it.

lisashea:
1. The various titles of various releases in various countries at various times (1957-1961) are as follows: Komunosu jo, Castle of the Spider's Web, Cobweb Castle, Macbeth, Spider Web Castle, and Throne of Blood. It's one of his most critically acclaimed films.
2. The link you gave above was broken, but I managed to find your page. It would be a good idea to cross-reference your movies by director, although I realize this would be a pain in the butt. You have it listed thusly (I just cut and pasted):

Throne of Blood (Kumonosu-Jo) (1957) Akira Kurosawa's savage flowing adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth plunges viewers into an eerie, fog shrouded world of madness and obsession. Set in medieval Japan during a period of feudal conflict, Kurosawa's masterpiece combines the stylization of the Noh theater with the dynamic energy of the American Western to tell the tragic story of an ambitious warlord, international star Toshiro Mifune gives one of his finest performances as the proud warrior who is destroyed by his wife's murderous greed and his own all consuming desire for power. From its first frenzied battle sequences to the brutal climax, in which an entire forest seems to move against Mifune, and he is slain by arrows from his own army. Kurosawa's brilliantly staged classic is a cinematic triumph.

3. If you were so interested in seeing this movie, why did you not find it yourself? Why is it my obligation to do this for you? You seemed to be insinuating that no such movie existed and that if it did, I would have to prove it. Would you like me to locate a video copy for you, purchase it, and have it sent to your house? Additionally, I could show up on your doorstep and put the video into the player for you, press play... (Note: you can thank me for finding this info for you by *not* "debating" here).
3. I wrote a paper on this movie, which I have posted here.
4. For future reference, here is an excellent movie database.

reality, lisashea: I do not believe someone can *fully* understand something without experiencing it. I have a real problem with people who view abortion, for example, as simply a *concept* rather than an actual experience. At best, someone's concept is not as vivid as the experience itself, and that's if they have *really* thought of each step of the process (e.g. how would I feel finding out I'm pregnant? Now how I would I feel deciding whether to keep it? Telling the father? Making the appointment? WAITING in the waiting room? etc.). Would you guys feel that if you had read about sex all your lives but never experienced it, you would *really* understand sex? Do you guys feel that because you have read about or heard about the experiences of the opposite sex you *really* know what it is to be a man if you are a woman, or a woman if you are a man? Do you feel that you have as much insight into what it is to be executed for your political beliefs by reading accounts of executions as a political prisoner who actually was imprisoned and executed? I give more, usually far more, credence to an experience itself than a concept about an experience. I believe I can empathize as well or better than most people (and, lisashea, since you seem to believe that training in psychology makes one more qualified to comment on empathy: I will have a Bachelor's degree in Psychology in December. If you would like me to email you my cv I will), which is one reason why I stop short of proclaiming that my conception of what they are going through is equal to their experience. I believe that it is arrogant and insulting to the person going through the thing itself to state that you completely understand unless you have been there.

lisashea: I don't subscribe most of your actions to maliciousness, but to a certain brand of arrogance. And in this case, laziness. If you were so interested in the movie, you should have looked up the title yourself, it would not have taken you any longer than it did me to find it. I found it particularly interesting that you posted *your own* movie listing without looking through it, yet expected me to look through it and get back to you, when I was not the one expressing interest in learning what the title was in the first place.

about my paper: it was written for a particular class and had particular specifications as to content and length. I simply posted it as part of the info on this film, I did not elaborate on it. Interestingly, and coincidentally, my paper and your comments actually relate back to the topic of experience vs concepts - I am arguing that my "background" could never be sufficient to answer those questions (although given different paper specifications I would have explored the issue further), because I am not Japanese and have not grown up in their culture.

lisashea: you did do a typo, it's Macbeth, not MacBeth, common mistake

And finally, lisashea, please refer to the second sentence of #3 in the first paragraph of this epic commentary. I mean it.

lisashea: no, that is not the way I feel, your conclusion is incorrect, but I will not take the bait and try to debate you on that.

I don't believe you have gained any insight by my debating you, and I know that the insights I have gained are things that I should keep to myself because bill would probably be justified in kicking me off if I shared them. I think you debate, as most people do, to convert the other side to your opinion. I think it's clear that we disagree and have no chance of converting each other.

And yes, at this point that's all I ask, that you actually for once do not have the last word.

I like Anime, which means I have a good sized collection of tapes which are either dubbed, subbed or in a language I don't understand.
*elijahblue: I think lisashea's point is that you don't have to show graphic violence. you don't have to show rivers of blood, and guts strewn across the landscape. you don't have to smack someone in the face as hard as you can with the point to make them understand, a lesser slap can convey the emotion as well. then again, maybe I am missing the point and she is saying that no violence should be shown....
*elijahblue: hmmm.. I just re-read some of the earlier comments... you have amazed me greatly. how is it that you have difficulty with the concept that people can understand something without experiencing it?
*lisashea: that'd be it.. I was gonna argue, but I won't bother now..
(though I'll probably check out the references)
*elijahblue: I will disagree, but that is personal experience and I am probably an exception. I find that thinking each step through an experience is actually more vivid than the reality. the mind will add a lot more complications/feelings/whatever to something in anticipation of the event than the event actually holds. this is if you think through each step, a lot of people may not actually do this.
as far as an understanding before you experience something... I have in the past dreamt of an experience before experiencing it in real life, and the experience in real life was exactly as the dream depicted. it wasn't anything major, but it was annoying. something new should be something new. and yeah, I am fairly certain that we won't convert each other, since we are both fairly stubborn.

I like films from the Netherlands and Germany.

The Story of O it's supposed to be a porno but it's the only one I've ever seen with a plot I watched it for the value of the movie itself....

Like Water For Chocolate

Hong Kong