2011 Foreign Language Oscar movies Update

This year I had in mind to watch the entire cadre of Oscar nominated foreign language films. Admittedly, I have only seen one so far. I have had them on my Netflix queue for months but keep pushing the down in the order. Watching a foreign language film takes a little more of my brain power than I have lately, especially after a long day of hanging out with middle school students. I thought I was going to get the original Upstairs, Downstairs, but for some crazy reason, there is a long wait for that. Really America? People are going nuts for Upstairs, Downstairs these days – and not even the new one. Anyway, I finally ended up with I am Love, the Italian nominated film with Tilda Swinton, speaking Italian. It’s a doozy! It begins with a formal family dinner with the mega-rich Reccci family where cracks in the beautiful family demeanor become apparent. The cracks become chasms as the film progresses. The way the movie is filmed is interesting. Long, languorous shots of empty rooms or bees buzzing over flowers, for example. It also a lot about passion and love as the title suggests, but it all seems very chaste, until whoza, a very revealing sex scene, which seemed out of place, I thought. It’s a pretty fascinating film, overall, and it’s good to watch a movie that pushes the boundaries of what you think film should do. So, I’ll get working on the rest of the list (see below) I believe Biutiful is next.

2011 Oscar Nominees for best Foreign Language Film

I am Love, Italy
Dogtooth, Greece
Biutiful, Mexico
In A Better World, Denmark
Incendies, Canada,
Outside the Law, Algeria

Cyrus

For at least the first ½ hour of Cyrus, I had a frozen grimace on my face. Embarrassing and disgusting things kept happening. Would the big goofy depressed John (John C. Riley) win over the beautiful Molly (Marissa Tomei)? Yes, inexplicably. Would he then be able to win over Molly’s strange man-child son, Cyrus (Johan Hill)? Well, not sure. A lot of things don’t seem to make sense in this movie. Least of all why Jaime (Catherine Keener) continues to support and listen to John’s paranoid ranting even while she is planning for her wedding. I know it sounds like I didn’t like this movie, and sure there were parts I found unlikeable, but it definitely held my interest and had moments of sweetness. Yeah, and that grimace, it reappeared on and off throughout the movie.

More Travel Viewing

In flight viewing:
Long flights mean lots of strange viewing of movies and TV shows that you may never get a chance to see otherwise. I tried a French, Little House on the Prairie style TV show, and a Curb Your Enthusiasm-like show – BUT much less funny. And the following films:

Another Year – I never even finished this movie because the plane landed, but I wanted to finish it! I’m going to wait until it’s on Netflix instant play. Another Year is a Mike Leigh film, the director known for having his actors improvise the dialogue after months of studying the character. This film is about a British couple whose house is the center of the social life for friends and family, and they are some dysfunctional friends for sure, especially Mary played by Leslie Manville who is flighty and ridiculous and lonely. The movie is in four episodes – one in each season of the year. As I am writing about this I am even more curious to find out what happens in the last scene but worried after I read, “The last scene is quite devastating.” Yikes, what could that be about?

Inception – probably not the best film to watch on an airplane, especially when there are many distractions surrounding me, the food cart, the dude next to me buying duty free big bottles of alcohol etc. Anyway, I tried my best to figure out what Leonardo was doing as he was flying around different dimensions or what cute Ellen Page was doing as she was falling to the ground in slow motion in a smart white parka outfit. I know people say that the LOOVE this movie but I didn’t get it. It seemed like it had one trick that they kept replaying, but as I said, I was distracted.

Post Travel Viewing
My Life in Ruins – A friend from work recommended this movie --another romantic comedy from Nia Vardalos of My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame. And since I just visited Greece and am in love with all things Greek (the Parthenon, feta cheese, tziki sauce, priests with high hats) she suggested My Life in Ruins. I really enjoyed the tourist element of this movie – it is obviously filmed right at the amazingly beautiful ancient ruins in Greece, and there were some funny moments in the film but the romance is a little dull. I definitely recommend it for those who just got back from Greece though. It was full of all the wonderful things I liked about Greece.

Tamera Drew – British movie about a writer’s colony and the village surrounding it. Very underwhelming.

A High Wind in Jamaica/ A Travel Movie

When I travel, I like to go to the movies. I know some say, why go into a dark movie theater in another country – you may just as well be at home? But I think being at the movie theater in another country or state is a cultural experience. I remember being in Kingston, Jamaica and listening to the loud Jamaicans caterwauling throughout the film (of course, I can’t remember what movie it was). Or being in an outdoor theater in Germany with my sister in my Mom watching West Side Story dubbed in German – that was an unforgettable experience.

Lucky for me, I was just in Paris visiting my nephew who is studying there this year and of course I wanted to go to a movie. Nick, my nephew, has been enjoying some old classic American films this year which are surprisingly ubiquitous in Paris – the Parisians, I learned, love archetypal American movies, the more iconic the better: John Wayne, westerns etc. Nick and I found A High Wind in Jamaica at the La Filmoteque Quartier Latin. This film from 1965 (the year of my birth!) has Anthony Quinn as a pirate accidentally kidnapping a passel full of children – these children turn out to be bloodless heathens and the pirates end up being the dupes. It was entertaining but kinda hokey.

There were only a smattering of moviegoers at La Filmoteque Quartier Latin, a basement theater with the smell of thousands of movie goers, musty upholstered seats, and some other odor I couldn’t quite place. Nick said Parisians don’t eat and drink in the movies (How un-American!) – so we snuck in some French cookies, some petite buerres avec chocolate or some such thing – and sunk into the familiar yet different transporting world of being in a foreign movie theater – that’s my kind of travel!

Jane Eyre

According to Wikipedia, there have been 15 movie versions of Jane Eyre before the latest take on this classic Charlotte Bronte novel. There really didn't seem to be a need for another version but this addition with Mia Wasikowska as Jane and Michael Fassbender as Rochester manages to make this well known tale fresh. I love Mia Wasikowska (she was especially brilliant as Sophie, the tormented teenager in In Treatment)and she makes a great Jane, waifish with a direct and intense gaze. Fassbender as Rochester is good too, even funny in parts although a little too handsome for the part. This Jane Eyre seems scary and suspensful too -- there are moments when you start -- I even let out a gasp at one point. And, my least favorite part of the novel, when Jane is at Lowood School is happily short. So the 16th Jane Eyre is a worthy addition.

Four Movie Update

I’ve seen a lot of movies in the past month and have been delinquent about blogging about them. So here goes. I will start with the best and and with the least best.

Blue Valentine
When you hear about the premise of Blue Valentine, a depiction of the decline of a marriage, you think that does not sound fun. Of course, I wanted to see this movie from the start because it has Ryan Gosling, a great actor, but also, I kept hearing about how amazing this movie was. And it is amazing. The director switches back and forth between two marriages: the new and promising beginning and the ugly reality of a marriage beginning to fray. Gosling and Michelle Williams play Dean and Cindy, a married couple with a little girl of about 5 years old. Older Dean seems like he is desperately trying to hang onto his marriage while also having a playful and tender side to him – it’s hard to understand at first why his wife is seeming to sour on him. Cindy seems like the together one who reveals her intolerance of the goofy Dean and her deep insecurities. As the movie flashes back to the incipient stages of their life together a lot of what you first think about them begins to change. This director takes viewer on such an interesting journey – it’s hard to describe, especially without giving away some important plot points – but it’s a journey very much worth going on. Although Blue Valentine leaves you feeling depressed, it’s absolutely worth seeing. You can look at this movie from many different angles and see the characters from each of their points of view. I think it’s a remarkable little gem.


127 Hours
With a strategic bathroom break, I managed to get through 127 hours and actually enjoyed it – if enjoyed it is the word? With the –oh --so anticipated arm-lopping scene missed, I was able relish the great acting by James Franco and be amazed by the man he portrays, Aron Ralston. It’s hard to believe that a movie about a guy stuck in a canyon can be as compelling as 127 Hours, but it really is. I think a combination of the incredible story, the acting, and the amazing scenery makes this movie well worth watching. That desert in Utah seems like a pretty cool place to visit too.

True Grit
The best part of True Grit is Matt Damon who plays LaBoeuf, a doltish Texas Ranger. His character is the most surprising and interesting. Jeff Bridges plays Rooster Cogburn and he’s pretty funny, but often hard to understand. The spunky Mattie is played by Hailee Steinfeld who is very charming and fun to watch. True Grit is more violent than I thought it would be (I guess I should have figured since it is a Coen Brothers flick) but I still enjoyed it.

The Fighter
I resisted going to The Fighter because let’s face it, I don’t like to watch fight scenes. But after watching Melissa Leo at the Oscars and hearing about her memorable stint as the hard-edged but hilarious mother Alice, I had to know what this movie is all about. Alice, the mother of the two fighters, is a definitely a wack job; older brother Mickey is a drug-addled freak show, and younger brother Dickey is seriously deluded. Don’t even get me started on the nutty sisters. It is kind of like watching a movie that is not intended to be a comedy, but is very comic. I don’t think it’s a great movie, but it’s certainly something to see.

Somewhere
Sophia Coppola makes another paralysis inducing film that has us spying on a mundanity of a movie star as he sleep walks through fancy hotels. Her other film of this type is, of course, Lost in Translation which I liked. But this movie was really hard to sit through. (My reaction may have something to do with my friend I was with who though she tried her best to sit patiently through this movie, she did have the demeanor of someone who was being tortured). So if you’re up for some slow going – maybe you need to practice some meditation techniques, who knows, -- then you could try Somewhere. But you probably don’t want to.

Babies and Knight and Day

Babies – ooh those cute little babies with their cute little gurgles and cute little tootsies. A French film maker peeps into the world of four babies from four different countries. Two are from rural developing countries and two are from cities. The movie has no narration – rather a pleasant and friendly camera tells the story of these four beautiful babies. Pleasant, really is the word for this movie.

Knight and Day—forgettable. I saw it a few weeks ago, and I forgot about it – I had to check my Netflix account to remember what movie I saw. I think Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz were it in though.