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Labels: foreign films

Foreign Films New to View Vol. 4, No. 4

The Foreign Films New to View newsletter is a monthly publication designed to keep you up to date on some of HCPL's latest foreign films on DVD. The selections in this newsletter are just a sample of the rich variety of films available to you through your library. Use the sign-up box above to have this newsletter sent directly to your e-mail every month, with new, recommended movies for you to view. See Foreign Films Archive.


The Beaches of Agnes, directed by Agnes Varda

(In French, with English subtitles)

Sometimes called the godmother of the French New Wave cinema, Agnes Varda has led a life rich in art and accomplishment. This documentary, self-reflective and autobiographical, allows viewers to glimpse something of Varda's skill as a filmmaker and photographer. It sweeps us through the politics and passions of the times, touching on everything from the feminist movement and the Black Panthers to the films of Varda's late husband, Jacques Demy, and the birth of the French New Wave. HCPL owns other films by Varda, including Vagabond and another documentary The Gleaners and I.





Bliss, directed by Abdullah Oguz



(In Turkish, with English subtitles)



What happens when stern and unmoveable tradition clashes with modern, contemporary ways? Meryem finds out when she is raped and then condemned to die by the people in her Anatolian village in order to rid her family of her shame. When the task of the honor killing is left to her cousin, however, he feels more sympathy for the innocent young woman than shame. Rather than murder her, he instead runs away with her to a more modern, if more complicated and subtle, world.


Flame and Citron, directed by Ole Christian Madsen

(In Danish and German, with English subtitles)

In Copenhagen, 1944, the Holger Danske was one of Denmark's leading resistance forces in the fight against the Nazis. Two of those resistance fighters are Flame, young and idealistic, and Citron, a bit more realistic and down to earth. Together, they become the underground's most proficient killers of collaborators and sympathizers. With the Nazi SS hunting them, they can trust only each other. Then a new agent appears for yet another assignment, one perhaps most dangerous of all: to assassinate the head of the Gestapo.


Import Export, directed by Urich Seidl

(In German, Russian, and Slovak, with English subtitles)

Not everyone gained when Eastern Europe emerged from behind the Iron Curtain. Import Export reveals the lives of two desperate people in a changed world. Olga, a nurse from Ukraine who knows only poverty, searches for a better life in the West, as Paul, an unemployed security guard from Austria, travels to the East in search of the something similar. Seidl, a documentary filmmaker, uses some of his film techniques, so effective in making a work of nonfiction, to reveal how it is for the downtrodden left-behinds.


Touch of Spice, directed by Tassos Boulmetis

(In Greek, with English subtitles)

An accomplished professor of astrophysics journeys back to his childhood home, a journey that conjures memories both joyful and sorrowful. In warm-hearted and softly glowing scenes, the film portrays Fanis' relationship with his beloved grandfather, the sorrow and loss he felt from being thrown out of Turkey when a child, and the difficulties his family faced as they adjusted to life in Greece. The film may be a bit cloying, saccharin, and occasionally cliché-ridden, including scenes with the ubiquitous happy hooker (yawn), but it was a hit in Greece, where its natural audience resides.

You the Living, directed by Roy Andersson

(In Swedish, with English subtitles)

Darkly humorous, this film presents a Scandinavian take on the absurdities of life. Andersson uses a mostly stationary camera to create tableaux of life in Scandinavia, with the subjects artfully positioned in the midst of muted pale greens and light greys that carry over and link into subsequent scenes. Expertly shot, with dialogue both subtle and witty, You the Living traces a series of absurd vignettes that address the meaning of life or more accurately, the lack of meaning. Some characters reappear in further scenes, such as the biker woman, who laments that no one understands her, even her mother, or the young woman in the bar who pines for a musician from a minor rock band. Dreamy, absurd, sometimes achingly sad, and hilarious, the stories, if they can be called that, are carefully linked by color or weather or character or music. The cheerful New Orleans jazz melodies, played by the film's odd collection of musicians, counterbalance the near despair that falls on the subjects as they face their dreary but nevertheless comic lives and situations.

Labels: foreign films

March 2010 Vol. 4, No. 3

The Foreign Films New to View newsletter is a monthly publication designed to keep you up to date on some of HCPL's latest foreign films on DVD. The selections in this newsletter are just a sample of the rich variety of films available to you through your library. Use the sign-up box above to have this newsletter sent directly to your e-mail every month, with new, recommended movies for you to view.


Coco Before Chanel
directed by Anne Fontaine

(In French, with English subtitles)

Years after being abandoned by her father, Gabrielle Chanel finds a job in a tailor shop where she meets and soon begins an affair with French millionaire Etienne Balsan. Through Baron Balsan, she is introduced into French society and given the opportunity to design her own style of hats. Though her career takes off, her personal life becomes more complicated when she falls in love with Balsan's former best friend, Arthur Capel.


Lorna's Silence
directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

(In French, with English subtitles)

Lorna is a young Albanian woman, who dreams of opening up her own shop with her boyfriend. Without money, however, she finds herself entwined in a vicious plan devised by a mobster. Her current marriage to the drug addict Claudy gives her marginally legal status, with possible Belgian citizenship. Matters begin to turn murky, however, when her organized-crime sponsors now expect her to hurry along Claudy's death through a drug overdose in order that she may in turn marry a Russian Mafioso, also looking for Belgian identity papers. What happens, though, when the drug addict decides to clean himself up, calling on Lorna to help him achieve his goal? Lorna's conscience clicks into gear, and matters do not seem so cut and dried, nor easily defined.


Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
directed by Tony Jaa and Panna Rittikrai

(In Thai, with English subtitles; also English dubbing available)

Outside of the action-packed format of the film and the actor playing the main character, this film has little to do with Ong Bak. While Ong Bak had a contemporary setting, Ong Bak 2 is more of an epic from a distant, even mythical, past. A young boy born into nobility has his accustomed life stripped from him after the murder of his family. Taken into a band of outlaws, he grows up, training with them in the martial arts. He must learn to fight in order to exact his revenge against evil slave traders as well as the man responsible for his parents' death.


Rashevski's Tango
directed by Sam Garbarski

(In French and Hebrew, with English subtitles)

What does it mean to be Jewish? Three generations of the Rashevski family grapple with the question, after the death of Rose, the secular matriarch who believed that the tango would make all troubles disappear. The characters confront issues of relationships, family, religion, love, romance, and interfaith marriage, all the while trying to define just what a mensch is.


Revanche
directed by Gotz Spielmann

(In German, with English subtitles)

A ex-con falls in loves with a prostitute after becoming an assistant in a brothel, where the two of them make plans to escape and start a new life together. When events go horribly wrong, Alex, the petty, small-time grifter, must hide out in the country while the heat cools off a bit. There he waits for his lover, trying to stay occupied and out of trouble


The Song of Sparrows
directed by Majid Majidi

(In Farsi, with English subtitles)

From the director of Baran, Children of Heaven , and The Willow Tree, this film takes viewers through a series of episodic misadventures that involve Karim, the film's protagonist, a poor farmer, who is led away from his spiritual roots into a kind of hell. The image of the city as center and source of evil is an old one, and Karim's journey to Tehran to get his daughter's hearing aid repaired presents an image no different. Once there, Karim begins to carry castoffs, pieces of Tehran, back to his rural village, as if he were trying to bring the very city to his doorstep. Perhaps only the intervention of God...or an accident...will awaken Karim to his spiritual loss and folly.

Labels: foreign films

February 2010 Vol. 4, No. 2

The Foreign Films New to View newsletter is a monthly publication designed to keep you up to date on some of HCPL's latest foreign films on DVD. The selections in this newsletter are just a sample of the rich variety of films available to you through your library.

Buddenbrooks
directed by Franz Peter Wirth

(In German, with English subtitles)

The sweeping tale of the rise and fall of a wealthy German merchant family, Buddenbrooks dramatizes the conflict between family loyalty and personal freedom. Whether it is Thomas's blind embrace of running the family business, Toni's acceptance of her father's will that she marry the clownish Grunlich, or Christian's purposeful decision to be the ne'er-do-well of the family, each conflict seems to bring the family and its fortunes closer to ruin. This adaptation of Thomas Mann's most famous work is brought to life with period costumes, stunning settings, and unforgettable performances.


Departures
directed by Yojiro Takita

(In Japanese, with English subtitles)

Daigo Kobayashi is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved. Now out of a job, he decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. When he answers a classified ad entitled "Departures," he thinks it is an advertisement for a travel agency. Only later does he discover that the job is actually for a 'Nokanshi' or 'encoffineer,' a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art, acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed.


Desierto Adentro
directed by Rodrigo Plá

(In Spanish, with English subtitles)

Aureliano tells the story of how his father Elias dedicated his life to building a church in order to gain God's forgiveness for a great sin he thought he had committed. In the early 20th century, when Mexico was in the midst of revolution, the military put down any hint of rebellion in whatever ruthless manner it chose. It is not surprising then that Elias sees his hometown devasted when government troops mistake his family and friends' procession to his baby's baptism as the advance of rebel troops. As Elias flees the troops, he experiences a heavenly vision that opens the way for him to make amends. This quest for atonement is manifested through his building the church in the desert. His children see matters differently, however, and Aureliano's story brings into question when it is that heavenly quests turn into earthly madness.


Island Etude
directed by Chen Huai-en

(In Mandarin, with English subtitles)

Before graduating from college, a young man with a serious hearing impairment decides to cycle around Taiwan, following the full perimeter of the coast, where he rediscovers his roots, makes new friends, and falls in love.


Lake Tahoe
directed by Fernando Eimbcke

(In Spanish, with English subtitles)

From the director of Duck Season, this film follows the young Juan, who has just crashed a car, a gift from his father. With the engine in disrepair, Juan walks about town, trying to get the car fixed. His journey on foot brings him, and the viewers, closer to an understanding about his life and his family.


Like Stars on Earth
directed by Aamir Khan

(In Hindi, with English subtitles)

Eight-year-old Ishaan can't seem to get anything right in class and gets into more trouble than his parents can handle. They pack him off to a boarding school to be disciplined and to pull his energetic imagination under control. While Ishaan finds that despite the school change, he is still does not fit in, his art teacher, Nikumbh, realizes that something is wrong and sets out to discover what it is. With time, patience, and care, Nikumbh helps Ishann find himself.


One Day You'll Understand
directed by Amos Gitai

(In French, with English subtitles)

As the 1987 trial of Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie unfolds on television, Victor Bastien reviews old family documents and finds a distressing "Aryan declaration" authored by his late father. This new discovery throws Victor's conception of his family's history into darkness. His mother, Rivka, keeps a stubborn silence about the past, while Tania, his sister, defends their father's declaration. At the same time, Victor's wife and children grow concerned about his increasing distraction. Burning with the need to unearth the truth, Victor takes his family to the tiny village where Rivka's parents were forced to hide during the war.


A Woman in Berlin
directed by Max Färberböck

(In German, with English subtitles)

Women were the victims of the Red Army invasion of Berlin in 1945, with mass rape and no protection from law or society. One of them, the anonymous lead character, decides to look for an officer who can protect her. A complex symbiotic relationship develops between her and Russian officer Andrej that will force them to remain enemies until the bitter end.

Labels: foreign films

January 2010 Vol. 4, No. 1

The Foreign Films New to View newsletter is a monthly publication designed to keep you up to date on some of HCPL's latest foreign films on DVD. The selections in this newsletter are just a sample of the rich variety of films available to you through your library.

Chinese Odyssey
2002, directed by Jeffrey Lau

(In Cantonese, with English subtitles)

This could be a Shakespearean comedy, set in the Ming Dynasty, with a young emperor and his sister in disguise as a man, of course, slipping off into the countryside, getting separated, falling in love with probably inappropriate people, and then spending the rest of the film sorting things out. Will the princess fall in love with the town bully, despite her disguise as a man and his boorish ways? Will she see his better attributes? Will the emperor fall for the bully's sister, who also occasionally dresses like a man? And to top it off, the royal guards are in hot pursuit, sent by their mother, to retrieve the two young people and restore them to their rightful, if rather boring, places.



A Christmas Tale
directed by Arnaud Desplechin

(In French, with English subtitles)

Ah, home for the holidays. What could be more delightful? Or in the case of a holiday movie, what could be more miserable? However, Desplechin brings to us a family in this holiday tale that is as complex as it is disfunctional and delightful to watch. Junon (Catherine Deneuve) is the matriarch of the clan, She has been diagnosed with leukemia and is in need of a blood donor for a procedure that could either save her or hasten her death. It's all a gamble, and she must look to her unruly offspring for help here, an uncertain prospect at best. Her alcoholic son, chronically depressed daughter, and Nietzsche-quoting husband, along with a suicidal nephew and various other members of the family all make for a merry bunch. Yet Desplechin makes the watching of this film delightful, as humor does flit through the scenes, with a touch of nostalgia for a time long past, when at least the illusion of a happy family blossomed in old movies and song.


Death in the Garden
directed by Louis Buñuel

(In Spanish, with English subtitles)

Set in the jungles of South America, this film brings together several characters, who find themselves retreating into the jungle after a rebellion in their country, where they encounter their fates. The jungle, the titular garden, presents images of the real and the surreal, as well as some philosophical questions of faith and politics, as survival becomes increasingly problematic for the refugees.


The Investigation Must Go On
directed by Marek Rozenbaum

(In Hebrew, with English subtitles)

A police officer investigates a burglary and cannot decide if the crime was committed by a singer, the singer's wife, or his mistress. More than the puzzle of the crime, however, the officer feels pressure to crack the case to prove his own worth as a member of the force.


Lemon Tree
directed by Eran Riklis

(In Hebrew, with English subtitles)

Salma, a Palestinian widow, owns a grove of lemon trees, next to which Navon, the Israeli defense minister, has built a house. Overnight, her grove has become off-limits for security reasons and is to be uprooted. Salma begins a defiant campaign to save the grove, while forming a bond with Mira, Navon's long-suffering wife. This story is drawn from a real event. Riklis also directed The Syrian Bride.

Labels: foreign films

December 2009 - Vol. 3, No. 12

The Foreign Films New to View newsletter is a monthly publication designed to keep you up to date on some of HCPL's latest foreign films on DVD. The selections in this newsletter are just a sample of the rich variety of films available to you through your library.

Kabei

directed by Yoji Yamada


(In Japanese, with English subtitles)

Were all Japanese citizens in favor of war in the 1930’s and 40’s? Yoji Yamada shows that the answer is no. While Shigeru remains in jail for subversive and less than enthusiastic thoughts over Japan’s aggression towards China, his wife Kayo remains at home to raise their young children on her own. She faces the difficulties of being alone within her family and within the larger society around her, since her own enthusiasm for the war is less than her countrymen’s.

O’Horten

directed by Bent Hamer


(In Norwegian, with English subtitles)

Hamer, who directed the somewhat off-kilter Kitchen Stories, presents to us a story of a man who faces his retirement with his idiosyncrasies in tow. Forced to leave his job as a train engineer due to age, he now finds himself shifting his routines to suit his new life. Compared by more than one critic to Jacque Tati’s M. Hulot (Mon Oncle, Trafic, and Playtime), Odd Horten (for that is the O of O’Horten) goes about the routine of his humdrum life, all the while infusing subtle comedy into his actions and predicaments. In time, he comes to see what he has missed in life and what yet remains to be gained.

Stranded: The Andes Crash Survivors in Their Own Words

directed by Gonzalo Arijón


(In Spanish, with English subtitles)

In 1972, a plane crashed in the Andes, leaving several survivors stranded for 72 days. Their ordeal has been documented in both books and movies. Many of us remember well the shock of discovery that these young men had to resort to cannabalism of the dead in order to survive. This documentary looks at the events from the perspective of the survivors today, more than thirty years later. Arijón allows the men, now grey-haired and wiser for the ordeal, to speak of their experiences with candor and an almost transcendent respect for those who died and then became the means through which these sixteen men survived. Arijón uses some re-enactments, but allows the survivors themselves to address us with a poignancy and immediacy about the events so long in the past, but still so vivid to those who stand before the camera today.

Three Monkeys

directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan


(In Turkish, with English subtitles)

The director of Distant and Climates now brings us Three Monkeys. When a prominent politician kills a pedestrian, he knows his career may be over. He asks his driver to assume blame, for a reward, of course. At first, this deal looks pretty good. Eyüp, the driver, knows his family will be cared for while he serves his prison time, but he does not realize how thoroughly a family can fall apart even with financial support. His son begins to neglect his studies and falls in with a bad crowd. His wife may be having an affair with the politician. The story is full of uncertainties of plot and character, and behind it all brew numerous storms - rain storms that may be the cause of the initial accident and thunderstorms that become almost a metaphor for the disharmony engendered by the characters’ thoughts and actions.

Treeless Mountain

directed by So Yong Kim


(In Korean, with English subtitles)

When the mother of two young girls must leave them with their aunt as she searches for their missing father, the young girls learn the importance of prevailing in the face of adversity and abandonment. While the adults seem unthinkingly neglectful of the two children, the older child, Jin, only six years of age, becomes in a way even more responsible than any grown-up could be. Director Kim, Korean by birth but American-raised, brings to the film a poetic sensitivity and delicacy of style.

Labels: foreign films

Did you know that you can receive a monthly update on foreign films new to the library through your email? The Foreign Films New to View newsletter features brief descriptions of five to ten of the most recently purchased dvds with subtitles in the library. Easy links take you directly to the catalog for your convenience in locating these dvds. You may view this page by clicking on "Foreign Films" on the AVZone page, or subscribe to receive a monthly email message. See the link below:

http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/users/harford/web/nl_23.html

So far, over one hundred other HCPL users are enjoying this service, so take a look, sign up, and enjoy the show!

Labels: foreign films, Foreign Films New to View, newsletters