Foreign Films

It's time to start thinking about what films to "discuss" at this season's Hockomock Film Festival Movie Club. Over the year's we've highlighted a number of great foreign films because we try to have about a quarter of our films from outside the English speaking world. I know a lot of folks don't like to read the subtitles on a film, but it's worth a stretch since so many excellent films are made outside the US and UK.
Here's a list of my favorites from Asia and the Middle East which runs to dramas since I'm humor challenged and prefer dark films. Actually I prefer films where things blow up preferably with cowboys, but I'm trying to be serious. Films from Europe tomorrow.

China
To Live-Zhang Yimou's reflection on forty years of 20th century Chinese history. An epic film told from one family's point of view. This is my favorite film of all time both for its story and the extraordinary film-making. A film that repays repeated viewing because the more you look the more you see.

Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-Two films that build on the traditional Chinese genre of sword and wire-work films to create real art. Both are extraordinarily beautiful. In Hero, Zhang Yimou shoots each segment of the film in a different color scheme and makes great use of special effects. The story and acting in CTHD makes you care about the characters.

Japan
I'm partial to the films of Akira Kurosawa. Rashomon is a masterpiece of world cinema with its single story told from multiple points of view. The Seven Samurai is a classic action film that became a classic cowboy movie when it was remade as The Magnificent Seven. Ran, Kurosawa's homage to Shakespeare's King Lear, is a brilliant film about how things fall apart.

India
Sorry to say, I haven't really gotten into the serious cinema of India. My favorite Bollywood film is Lagaan, a movie about an Indian village that uses cricket to beat the Brits out of a tax increase. They sing, they dance, they use every cliche of sports and war films, and its fun.  My Name is Khan, while not quite in the same class as the other films here, is an wonderful, very human film about an autistic man's triumphs-actually two or three movies, in India, in America, and in Love. Indian films tend to run beyond the two hour time frame favored by film club members, but I should spend some time with both the classic films of Satyajit Ray and modern serious films.

Iran
The Color of Paradise is the story of a blind boy who is not loved by his father. The film is amazing in that you see what it is to be blind. No coincidence that the little boy is named Mohammed and that the viewer is placed in the role of the omniscient observer. My other all-time favorite film. This one will blow you away and stay with you a long, long time.

Iraq
Turtles Can Fly. An antiwar film that isn't anti-American. Refugee children making a life amid the ruins.