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Post by thwhtguardian on Apr 3, 2020 8:56:19 GMT -5
Herzog was one of the first directors I thought of for this theme, I'm thinking I might watch some of the documentaries he's done; I loved Cave of Forgotten Dreams and I've wanted to see Wheel of Time for a while so I'll try and track down that as well.
Sergio Leon's spaghetti westerns might make an appearance as well, and any excuse to watch Fritz Lang or Georges Méliès is always welcome.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 3, 2020 19:43:27 GMT -5
I've seen so much Herzog! In addition to Cave of Forgotten Dreams and My Best Fiend, his other great documentaries are Grizzly Man (about the guy who lived with the grizzlies until they ate him) and Encounters at the End of the World (about a research station in Antarctica.
I have Lo and Behold (about the Internet) on my Watchlist and I might watch it tonight.
I'll have to check out Wheel of Time.
And I highly recommend Herzog's Even Dwarves Started Small. It's not a documentary but, like My Best Fiend, it's free on Tubi.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Apr 12, 2020 15:42:58 GMT -5
I watched Cave of Forgotten Dreams again today and I really wish I could have seen it in 3-D as it was filmed.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Apr 15, 2020 15:44:03 GMT -5
I watched the Seventh Seal today, I'm not certain but I think this my have been the first foreign film I watched as a kid.
What was the first foreign film you saw?
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 15, 2020 16:46:22 GMT -5
I watched the Seventh Seal today, I'm not certain but I think this my have been the first foreign film I watched as a kid. What was the first foreign film you saw? Almost certainly it was "M". |
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 15, 2020 16:58:29 GMT -5
I watched the Seventh Seal today, I'm not certain but I think this my have been the first foreign film I watched as a kid. What was the first foreign film you saw? Probably the first Godzilla movie. But the first movie I saw with sub-titles was Beauty and the Beast, the 1946 French film by Jean Cocteau. It was on PBS and my mom made us come in and watch it. I was about 12. My mom was pretty good about herding my brother and I in the direction of good movies. And live theatre. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Apr 15, 2020 17:58:22 GMT -5
I watched the Seventh Seal today, I'm not certain but I think this my have been the first foreign film I watched as a kid. What was the first foreign film you saw? Probably the first Godzilla movie. But the first movie I saw with sub-titles was Beauty and the Beast, the 1946 French film by Jean Cocteau. It was on PBS and my mom made us come in and watch it. I was about 12. My mom was pretty good about herding my brother and I in the direction of good movies. And live theatre. I didn't think of the Godzilla films, but yeah those were probably the first for me too I used to live on those. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Apr 15, 2020 17:58:56 GMT -5
I watched the Seventh Seal today, I'm not certain but I think this my have been the first foreign film I watched as a kid. What was the first foreign film you saw? Almost certainly it was "M". I might have to cue that up for viewing later this month. |
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Post by berkley on Apr 20, 2020 16:06:20 GMT -5
I honestly can't think what my first foreign-language film might have been. I'm tempted to guess Godzilla, but I can't remember at all how old I was when I first saw it. Weird, you'd think this would be something that would stick in your mind. But I suppose when you're a small kid you're just thinking "monster movie".
However, the first one I ever saw at the theatre I'm pretty was a Godzilla movie, King Kong vs Godzilla, which wiki says was made in 1962 but must have been re-released to some Canadian theatres in 1975-76, which was when I caught it - I can pin it down because I remember which school year I was in, or think I do, anyway.
The first sub-titled movie I saw I think was The Innocent (1976) - not 100% sure, but I know the very beautiful Laura Antonelli was in it and looking at her filmography the description, poster, and release date all fit.
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Post by brutalis on Apr 21, 2020 9:08:46 GMT -5
I don't have too many European movies on DVD, so my choices are rather limited. To at least say I did participate this month I pulled out a few over the weekend for watching.
The Crimson Rivers, 2000 French mystery/psychological thriller with Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel. Detectives investigating grislmy murders in the French Alps around a university campus.
Brotherhood of the Wolf 2001 French period/action/horror with Mark Dacascos, Samuel Le Bihan, Monica Belucci and Vincent Cassel about 18th century killings in France.
Calendar Girls, 2003 British comedy with Helen Mirren, Julie Waters, Linda Bassett, Annette Crosbie, Celia Imrie and Penelope Wilton as a bunch of elderly women choosing to do a tasteful nude calendar to raise funds for their local hospital when one of the women is diagnosed with terminal leukemia.
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. 1989 French/Dutch Romantic Macabre Crime Drama with Helen Mirren as an abused wife of gangster Michael Gambon who owns a restaurant where she has secret dalliances with her lover. Dark, wicked, sexual, torture, and exotic food ending with cannibalism as just dessert/revenge.
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Post by berkley on Apr 21, 2020 10:47:54 GMT -5
I remembered a couple other foreign films that I saw on tv as a kid:
Matchless, an Italian spy/fantasy film that I though was great fun as a youngster. Wiki says it was filmed in English, which is probably the reason I never knew it was an Italian production until decades later when I looked it up online. was trying to find out the title of it online.
Spirits of the Dead/Histoires Extraordinaires - an anthology or "omnibus" movie, as wiki calls it (first I ever heard this latter term) comprised of adaptations of three Edgar Allan Poe stories by three different directiors: Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, and Fellini.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 24, 2020 11:57:48 GMT -5
I find I have very little time to watch a full length movie any more. I can much more easily sneak in an episode of TV. But I finally did manage to watch something that will make the Theme. Per un Pugno di Dollari (Fistful of Dollars). Dir.: Sergio Leone. Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volontè, Marianne Koch.  No, it wasn't the first spaghetti western. But it was the first to garner international acclaim and it was the film that made the genre. It also made Clint Eastwood a movie star and catapulted Sergio Leone to international fame. Filmed in Spain in 1964 it wasn't released in the U.S. until Jan. 1967.  It's almost impossible to overstate how important this movie was as it was released across the world. For an international production that was plagued with money problems during filming, that had an international cast that struggled to communicate with each other and was filmed silently (all sound and dialogue was later dubbed) it is a triumphal success. It's also almost unique in that the film score by Ennio Morricone was largely done before filming and Leone frequently extended scenes to allow Morricone's score to continue.  The story is largely cribbed from Kurosawa's Yojimbo. To the extent that Kurosawa sued and received a percentage of the profits in settlement. Legend has it that Kurosawa realized more money from Fistful of Dollars than from Yojimbo (I don't know for sure if that legend is true. To be fair, Yojimbo was a pretty blatant theft of Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, so there we have it.  It's a pretty simple story. A stranger (yes, he does have a name...at least to the undertaker and in the credits) comes into a small town that is being torn between two warring crime factions. He works his way into the graces of each, causing the violence to escalate and ultimately comes out the winner.  From the brilliant opening title sequence to the use of Morricone's amazing music to the cinematography to the wry sense of humor about the violence of the characters, Leone re-defined the western genre. It may not be the best of the spaghetti westerns but it's arguably the most important and certainly the most influential. |
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Post by Calidore on Apr 24, 2020 19:36:01 GMT -5
Brotherhood of the Wolf 2001 French period/action/horror with Mark Dacascos, Samuel Le Bihan, Monica Belucci and Vincent Cassel about 18th century killings in France. is a hoot and a half. I love that movie. It takes as its seed a true occurrence--the Beast of Gevaudan, a never identified animal or animals that killed over a hundred people in an area of 18th century France--and grows it into a period costume drama/political conspiracy/monster movie with kung fu fighting and a villain who looks like something out of an old pulp thriller. But it's well made, well acted, and played completely straight. Great, great stuff. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Apr 25, 2020 19:32:30 GMT -5
I find I have very little time to watch a full length movie any more. I can much more easily sneak in an episode of TV. But I finally did manage to watch something that will make the Theme. Per un Pugno di Dollari (Fistful of Dollars). Dir.: Sergio Leone. Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volontè, Marianne Koch. No, it wasn't the first spaghetti western. But it was the first to garner international acclaim and it was the film that made the genre. It also made Clint Eastwood a movie star and catapulted Sergio Leone to international fame. Filmed in Spain in 1964 it wasn't released in the U.S. until Jan. 1967. It's almost impossible to overstate how important this movie was as it was released across the world. For an international production that was plagued with money problems during filming, that had an international cast that struggled to communicate with each other and was filmed silently (all sound and dialogue was later dubbed) it is a triumphal success. It's also almost unique in that the film score by Ennio Morricone was largely done before filming and Leone frequently extended scenes to allow Morricone's score to continue. The story is largely cribbed from Kurosawa's Yojimbo. To the extent that Kurosawa sued and received a percentage of the profits in settlement. Legend has it that Kurosawa realized more money from Fistful of Dollars than from Yojimbo (I don't know for sure if that legend is true. To be fair, Yojimbo was a pretty blatant theft of Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, so there we have it. It's a pretty simple story. A stranger (yes, he does have a name...at least to the undertaker and in the credits) comes into a small town that is being torn between two warring crime factions. He works his way into the graces of each, causing the violence to escalate and ultimately comes out the winner. From the brilliant opening title sequence to the use of Morricone's amazing music to the cinematography to the wry sense of humor about the violence of the characters, Leone re-defined the western genre. It may not be the best of the spaghetti westerns but it's arguably the most important and certainly the most influential. Great minds think alike, I plan on trying to sneak in the whole Dollars trilogy before the month is out. |
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Post by berkley on Apr 26, 2020 22:00:53 GMT -5
I have to watch those again too, it's been many years. My favourite Leone and probably my favourite western too, is Once Upon a Time inthe West, but his Eastwood trilogy is right up there.
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