Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Month of Foreign [First Third Recap]

The Official Story

Porco Rosso

How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck
Repetitive Herzog documentary about Pennsylvania auctioneers.

Man Bites Dog
This movie is fucked up.  Definitely recommended for violence-lovers.
A documentary crew follows a serial killer around as he rapes, murders, and bodydumps local citizens.  The longer they film him, the more the filmmakers get involved.

Fantastic Planet
Aliens capture humans and keep them as pets.
Think Twilight Zone episode meets French animated sci-fi movie.
From the 1970s.     

Masculin Feminin
I have a new celebrity crush.
Her name is Chantal Goya.
She is a babe.

Belle De Jour
Catherine Devenue plays a housewife with intimacy issues.  She copes by becoming a prostitute.  Who wouldn't?  This is by far the most accessible Bunuel film I've ever seen.  I'd highly recommend this one.

I'm Not Scared
Whitney and I invited our friends over to watch this Spanish thriller.  Half an hour in, we were all covering our eyes, hiding behind blankets, and screaming.  All the good things we'd heard about I'm Not Scared turned out to be true.

The Class
I wrote my thesis on Hollywood ghetto high school movies so The Class has been on my To-Watch list for a while now.  As it turns out, the worst that French teachers have to deal with are kids who talk back, have disrespectful attitudes, and a limited vocabulary.  No one gets shanked by makeshift knives, has their dogs murdered, or gets their heads smashed into the floor.  You know, like American high schools.  Very interesting entry into the genre.

Summer Hours
Nice minimalist film without any real conflict.  Three adult siblings must decide to what to do with their mother's priceless art collection.  So they do.  The end.

5 comments:

Simon said...

Might I say, great list. At least, hope it's a great list. So far it is.

I'm still vaguely retarded as to these movies. Must fix, if only Parental would get over Netflix-phobia.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. That is all.

dw said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dw said...

i love chantel goya too!!

that Tu M'as Trop Menti song is so good.

dw said...

the link is supposed to be

http://www.ilike.com/artist/Chantal+Goya/track/Tu+M'as+Trop+Menti

but it doesn't work for some reason.

Aiden R. said...

Man, Bel Du Jour was steeeeraaaaange. So was Man Bites Dog, but in a much different way. I need to see about 90% of these again. Awesome reviews and solid picks.