Foreign Film Oscars from the 2000s

This is the fifth (and final) in a series of five blog posts dedicated to the 2013 '31 Days of Oscar Blogathon' hosted by the blogging divas Kellee (of Outspoken and Freckled), Paula (of Paula's Cinema Club) and Aurora (of Once Upon a Screen).

(For a complete summary of what I'm writing about, check out this post.)

Post 1: Foreign Film Oscars from the 1950s
Post 2: Foreign Film Oscars from the 1980s (Part 1)
Post 3: Foreign Film Oscars from the 1980s (Part 2)
Post 4: Foreign Film Oscars from the 1990s

In this final post, just two films.  I'm going to examine the following Oscar nominated films from the 2000's:

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Taiwan - 2000)
• Amelie (France - 2001)

Zhang Ziyi kicks ass

CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (2000)
This is Ang Lee's best film (in my opinion.)  It's a wuxia film set in Qing Dynasty China, it has actors from many different nationalities and terrific martial arts sequences choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping.

Basic Plot:
Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) is an accomplished swordsman late in his career looking to avenge the death of his master (his master was killed by Jade Fox.)  Meanwhile Governor Yu, his wife and daughter, Jen (Zhang Ziyi) are guests at Sir Te's estate.  Li Mu Bai's sword, the Green Destiny is stolen; he and Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) track it down, fall in love, and battle with Jade Fox.

Great Scenes:

• All of the martial arts scenes are out of this world. The scenes dabble in fantasy (people have ability to temporarily 'fly')  but if you can get past that bending of reality, you'll enjoy the film much more.
• I love the quiet scenes like when Li Mu Bai and Shu Lien are drinking tea in the bamboo forest.  There are moment of no dialog and they're very nicely done.
• The ending scene with the bridge is so surreal and beautiful (I won't give away what happens for those that haven't seen this.)  The music is wonderful here and throughout the film (the combination of the cello and percussion is amazing.)

Why it's a great film:

• Martial arts scenes are unbelievable...paired with percussion music in many cases
• Cinematography is wonderful
• The music (cello solos by Yo-Yo Ma)
• Kick-ass women

If you liked this film, also consider:

• House of Flying Daggers (2004)

Amelie (2001)
I've only seen this film once...but it left its mark.  One word: quirky.

Basic Plot:
A sheltered girl with a terrific imagination becomes a waitress at a cafe inhabited by eccentrics. Quirkiness ensues.

Great Scenes:

• Escorting the blind man across the street while describing in some great detail all things around them
• The list of the small things that Amelie likes...love when she pushes her fingers into the bag of grain.
• Amelie wonders: 'How many couples are having an orgasm now?'

Why it's a great film:

• Audrey Tautou is so good in this.
• Cinematography is very nicely done
• If you're a fan of 'light quirk', I think you love this...the filmmakers put just enough in to make it interesting.

If you liked this film, also consider:

• Gotta be honest...not much else like this!

Foreign Film Oscars from the 1990s

This is the forth in a series of five blog posts dedicated to the 2013 '31 Days of Oscar Blogathon' hosted by the blogging divas Kellee (of Outspoken and Freckled), Paula (of Paula's Cinema Club) and Aurora (of Once Upon a Screen).

(For a complete summary of what I'm writing about, check out this post.)

Post 1: Foreign Film Oscars from the 1950s
Post 2: Foreign Film Oscars from the 1980s (Part 1)
Post 3: Foreign Film Oscars from the 1980s (Part 2)

Hope you like director Ang Lee, because he directed two of the three films in this post!  In this post, I'm going to examine the following Oscar nominated films from the 1990s:

• The Wedding Banquet  (Taiwan - 1993)
• Eat Drink Man Woman  (Taiwan - 1994)
• Life Is Beautiful  (Italy - 1997)

A marriage of convenience

THE WEDDING BANQUET (1993)
This was my introduction to Director Ang Lee.  And what an introduction it was!

Basic Plot:
Wai-Tung Gao and Simon are a gay couple living in New York City. Wai-Tung's parents don't know this and want him to marry a woman and have a baby boy to continue to the family name.  To appease them, he marries one of his tenants (a marriage of convenience, it appeases his parents and she [Wei-Wei] is a starving artist from mainland China who needs a green card.)  Wai-Tung's parents fly to the US from Taiwan to throw an elaborate wedding banquet...a series of events unfold and things start to get out of hand.

Great Scenes:

• Simon giving Wei-Wei the run-down of all the tiny aspects of Wai-Tung's life so she'll come off looking like his long-time girlfriend. The "de-gaying" of the apartment is reminiscent of a scene from The Birdcage.
• At their wedding luncheon...when Old Chen offers his banquet hall for a real wedding banquet.  He's so gracious and humble towards 'The Commander' and his family.
• The wedding banquet scene itself is great...it's cool to watch some Asian wedding customs alongside American ones.  (And Ang Lee himself makes a brief cameo!)
• Shivaree!
• When Mr. Gao admits to Simon that he knows about their relationship

Why it's a great film:

• Sihung Lung plays Wai-Tung's father.  I just love him...he's in a lot of Ang Lee films. He was retired, but came out of retirement to do Ang Lee's first feature film: Pushing Hands. Ended up doing many other films after that with Lee.
• I like films with ethnic weddings in them, it's so interesting to me to see how other cultures celebrate weddings...and this film does not disappoint.

If you liked this film, also consider:

• Eat Drink Man Woman
• Brokeback Mountain

Family Style

EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN (1994)
This, in my opinion is Ang Lee's second best film. (More in my next post on what I consider his best film.)

Basic Plot:
A widower lives with his three grown daughters.  As the daughters meet male suitors and leave the nest, there is tension between them and with their father.

Great Scenes:

• The opening credit sequence is an amazing series of Chinese cooking styles.  An elaborate meal is being prepared for what appears to be dozens of people (we find out later that it's just the father and his three daughters.
• Then scene where Chu trades his expert lunch with the girls plain lunch and everyone in her class in keenly aware that her lunch is the best 
• The final scene when the father regains his sense of taste and rekindles his relationship with his 

Why it's a great film:

• It's chock full of great relationship stories, daughters to father, sister to sister, girlfriend to boyfriend, friend to friend, etc.
• The meal scenes are tremendous...everything looks so good!  You really need to watch this, then go out for good Chinese food.
• Sihung Lung (Chu), yes he's in this one, too!

If you liked this film, also consider:

• Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
• The Wedding Banquet
  

Father and son

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL (1998)
Who can forget the exuberance and passion of Roberto Benigni's reaction when he won two Oscars for his film Life Is Beautiful? This is a wonderful film that eloquently mixes humor and tragedy together in war story.

Basic Plot:

Jewish-Italian Guido (Benigni) meets and falls in love with Dora (Benigni's real-life wife Nicoletta Braschi) before the beginning of WWII.  They have a son and during WWII are captured and sent to a Nazi concentration camp.  There, Guido employs a game to shield his son from the horrors of the war and the camp.

Great Scenes:

• The one scene that stands out in my mind (it's been a while since I've seen this) is when Guido is led off by the Nazi guards (to his death)...he is still hamming it up for his son who is hiding but can see him.

Why it's a great film:

• Benigni has a comedian's face...it's elastic, expressive.  He looks a little funny. He uses this to great comedic affect. But it's also a dramatic film. This mixture of his comedic ways and the sobering drama of the story makes this film great.

If you liked this film, also consider:

• Black Book
• Au Revoir les Enfants
  

Foreign Film Oscars from the 1980s (Part 2)

This is the third in a series of five blog posts dedicated to the 2013 '31 Days of Oscar Blogathon' hosted by the blogging divas Kellee (of Outspoken and Freckled), Paula (of Paula's Cinema Club) and Aurora (of Once Upon a Screen).

(For a complete summary of what I'm writing about, check out this post.)

Post 1: Foreign Film Oscars from the 1950s
Post 2: Foreign Film Oscars from the 1980s (Part 1)

Because the 1980s were so awesome, I had to create a second post for the all of the foreign film goodness that came out of this decade.  In this post, I'm going to examine the following films:

• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988 - Spain)
• Cinema Paradiso (1988 - Italy)
• Jesus of Montreal (1989 - Canada)

Candela, Marisa, Lucia y Pepa

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (1988)
It's been a while since I've watched this, but I used to watch it quite a lot.  It's a very funny 'light feminist comedy' from Spanish director Pedro Almodovar.

Basic Plot:
Womanizer Ivan is stepping out on his girl, Pepa by taking a trip with new girl, Paulina. While Pepa tries to communicate with Ivan to work things out, various characters show up including: 1) Ivan's son, Carlos (Antonio Banderas); 2) Carlos's fiancee, Marisa (Rossy de Palma); 3) Pepa's friend Candela; 4) Ivan's previous lover, Lucia and 5) a hilarious taxi driver.  As the spineless Ivan burns bridges with all the women, stories intertwine with plot twists, gazpacho is drunk and hilarity ensues.

Great Scenes:

• Pepa does voice-over work, but she has also done a clothes detergent television ad that's pretty funny.  She uses the product to wash the bloody sheets from her serial-killer son.
• Every scene with El Mambo-taxi driver (Guillermo Montesinos) is to die for...he (and his cab) steal every scene he's in.  I especially love the eye-drops gag.
• When Pepa is trying to hire an attorney for Candela, there's a slap that would make Joan Crawford proud and a great line that follows.
• Near the beginning where we see Pepa doing voice-over work for the film Johnny Guitar (with Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden.)

Why it's a great film:

• A very young Antonio Banderas is actually quite good in this
• The women are great in this film, epecially Carmen Maura and the Picasso-esque Rossy de Palma. Such an interesting face...I'm mesmerized.
• It's a farsical romantic comedy...it's a little off-kilter...quirky.
• There are some scenes that play as homages to other great classic films:
• Rear Window
• Citizen Kane
• Director Pedro Almodovar became globally known after this film

If you liked this film, also consider:

• Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
• High Heels

Toto loves movies just like me

CINEMA PARADISO (1988)
Simply put, this a love letter to the movies.  I feel that this is a must-watch if you love classic film and you love how films can affect people.

Basic Plot:
A young boy in a small town befriends the local aging projectionist (Alfredo, played by Philippe Noiret) and learns how to run the projection equipment from the grandfatherly figure.  The boy eventually grows up and leaves the small town to become a big-time film director.  When Alfredo dies, he returns to his small town and reminisces of days gone by.

Great Scenes:

• If you've seen this before, the huge payoff scene is the final one. I won't give any more away than that...watch and find out what I'm talking about.
• You can say that the final reel of this film is over-sentimental...but I love when Toto returns to his childhood home and revisits family and landmarks.  I love every scene at the end.

Why it's a great film:

• It's a love-letter to the movies, about people's love for movies and how movies affect people.

If you liked this film, also consider:

• Splendor
• Il Postino

Jesus crucified on Mount Royal

JESUS OF MONTREAL (1989)

A little shout-out to all my Canadian friends on Twitter! Easter is just around the corner and this modern telling of the Passion is a great film to watch.

Basic Plot:

A group of young actors try to breath life into the tired Passion play given by the church year after year.  What they produce is beautiful, informative and controversial.  The church does not approve and eventually life imitates art.

Great Scenes:

• The Passion play that the actors put on is wonderful.
• The actors hamming it up playing different styles of acting for the priest is hilarious
• The scene near the end of the film where the two girls are busking in subway station, that song they sing is so beautiful (Stabat Mater)
• The final scenes where you see the list of donor recipients is heartwarming.

Why it's a great film:

• It's a unique take on the traditional Passion play
• While the actors are educating their audience in the film about the end of Jesus's life, they're educating us about what happened as well.

If you liked this film, also consider:

• The Greatest Story Ever Told
• Ben Hur
• The Robe

Foreign Film Oscars from the 1980s (Part 1)

This is the second in a series of five blog posts dedicated to the 2013 '31 Days of Oscar Blogathon' hosted by the blogging divas Kellee (of Outspoken and Freckled), Paula (of Paula's Cinema Club) and Aurora (of Once Upon a Screen).

(For a complete summary of what I'm writing about, check out this post.)

Post 1: Foreign Film Oscars from the 1950s

So, we've made it through some of the Oscar awarded foreign language films of the 1950s, now lets move forward to the glorious 1980s!  (They're glorious to me because this was the decade of my high school and college years...so there's that.)  This is when I first started watching foreign films, so some of the films in this post (and the next, Part 2) hold special places in my heart as my eyes were opened to the wonderful world of foreign films.

• Fanny and Alexander  (1982 - Sweden)
• Babette's Feast  (1987 - Denmark)
• Au Reviour Les Enfants  (1987 - France)

Alexander in a contemplative mood

FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1982)
I've only seen this film once before, and it was some time ago, so this will be the toughest to write about.  However, it's an Ingmar Bergman film...and in general I love his work.  (The dream sequence at the beginning of Wild Strawberries is like no other...well perhaps only Fellini could top it for its surrealistic properties.)  You've got to love slow pacing here as the 'shorter' version of this film is 188 minutes.  The longer version is 312 minutes, nearly five hours...it was originally made as a four-part miniseries for television.

Basic plot:
Fanny and Alexander are children in a wealthy family in Sweden.  Their father dies and their mother remarries a cruel and cold bishop.  Eventually the children escape from the prison that is the bishop's house.  In the end, the children's pregnant mother escapes too, after drugging the bishop (who dies later.)  And the film ends on a happy note with the Christening of the mother's new child.

Great scenes:

• The Christmas party at the beginning of the film is a nice scene...everything in the house is so lush and refined, and they're all having a great time.
• Edvard's Aunt running through the house, nightgown ablaze...that's a haunting image

Why it's a great film:

• It's a Bergman film...that's all that really needs to be said here...however...
• The acting is excellent
• It's a sumptuous period piece (set at the beginning of the 20th century)

If you like this film, also consider:

• Wild Strawberries
• My Life as a Dog

Dinner guests

BABETTE'S FEAST (1987)
This is the very first foreign film I ever saw.  It was at a friend's house in the late 1980s and I was curious as to how much different this film was from films made in the US.  (At that time, popular films in the US were things like Road House, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, etc.)

It took me a while to realize just how different this film was from others I had seen.  This film had more of an emphasis on character development (vs. the more American plot-driven films.)  When you get to learn a lot about the characters, you care about them and that makes for a more enjoyable film-watching experience (in my opinion.)  The pace was slower than American films...there was less dialog and there were spaces of silence (vs. American films non-stop talk, explosions, SFX.)


Basic plot:
A war refugee from Paris (Babette), acts as cook and homemaker for two elderly spinster sisters in a remote village in Denmark.  Every year, she renews her lottery ticket from France and one day she wins the 10,000 franc payout.  She spends the entire sum on one grand banquet for the two sisters and their friends.  Unbeknownst to them, Babette was a master chef at high-end Parisian restaurant when she lived in France.

Great scenes:

• The big payoff scene in this film is when Babette returns to the small village (after going to France for preparations) and cooks a grand meal for her friends.  The sisters and their friends have never eaten like this, not even close.  Because they were raised by a very pious father they agree to eat the meal, but not to delight in it or comment on it.  However as the meal unfolds, they struggle to contain themselves.

Why it's a great film:

• It opened the doors to many more great 'foodie' films (see list below)
• Babette's sacrificial love is truly heartwarming...she decides to blow it all on her friends, meaning she will have to remain in the village with them, unable to afford a return to France.

If you like this film, also consider:

• Eat Drink Man Woman
• Big Night
• Chocolat

Jean Bonnet studying music

AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS (1987)

Basic plot:
During WWII in occupied France, we find a Catholic boarding school for boys.  Some of the boys are Jewish are being 'hidden' from Nazis at the boarding school among the other children (the headmaster is in on it.)  One of the boys (Julien) begins to realize that these three Jewish kids are different and befriends one of them (Jean Bonnet.) At the end of the film Gestapo officers raid the school and the three Jewish boys are found and taken away.  Later we learn in a voice-over that the three children and the headmaster all died in concentration camps.


Great scenes:

• Most of the film focuses on the day-to-day life of the children in the boarding school.  Meals, chapel, classes, carousing.
• During a scavenger hunt/mock military exercise the two boys get separated from the rest of the school and end up lost in the woods. Eventually a Nazi patrol finds them and Jean Bonnet instinctively runs.
• Julien invites Jean to a fancy restaurant with his mother and brother.  At the restaurant a table of Nazi's is dining next to them. A minor ruckus is stirred up when some French military (German sympathizers, the Milice) attempt to kick a Jewish diner out of the restaurant.
• The final scenes are heartbreaking as armed Nazis remove Julien, the other Jewish boys and the headmaster and cart them off. Heartbroken, the children call out, "Au revoir, mon père!" Père Jean responds, "Au revoir, les enfants! À bientôt!"

Why it's a great film:

• It's an autobiographical film...this really happened to the director (portrayed by the Julien character.)
• There is this undercurrent of danger all throughout the film.  We know what's going on, then watch as Julien finds out, then we're fearing for Jean's capture throughout the film.  Threats loom around every corner: air raids, armed militia at the school, Nazis, etc.
• We've seen the development of a friendship between Julien and Jean and it immediately comes to an end.
• It's a harsh loss of innocence/coming-of-age film where kids are faced with the real life and death consequences of keeping a secret.

Coming up in the next post, a second post on Oscar-worthy films of the 1980s...there's just so many good ones!