Foreign films

OK, I need some help.

I'm in this Culture Through Cinema class this summer, and we're supposed to pick a foreign film, watch it, and write a short paper about how the culture in the movie is related to the culture we're used to.

Problem is, I've watched very few foreign films in my day, and I'm pretty much lost when it comes to picking one out.

We've watched two in class thus far, Amelie and The Spanish Apartment. And stunningly, I didn't walk out after the first five minutes of either film.

Suggestions, please. And thanks in advance.

 

Lust, Caution, directed by Ang Lee. Didn't get a lot of pub despite/because of NC-17 rating.

 

God, I love Audrey Tatou and Amelie. Just wonderful.

Ryan, is this foreign as in outside the U.S. or foreign as in non-English language? Because if it's purely foreign, a movie I'd suggest is Dirty Pretty Things.

It's a British movie, about illegal immigrants in London, very interesting and enjoyable.

 

Not sure if the movie I choose has to be approved based on its rating, but I'll check it out. Thanks.

 

Yeah, the chick that played Amelie is phenominal.

And that's a good question. I'll find out in the morning, but I'm pretty sure it just has to be outside the U.S. because we're watching a movie in a week or so from Australia, and it's in English, obviously.

 

Amelie is a fantastic film.

One that immediately sprung to mind when I saw the thread title is Les Parapluies de Cherbourg...or, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. The whole thing is a song. Not like a musical with sweeping numbers and regular dialogue between, but every line is at least sing-songy. It's a love story, but not sappy. I didn't think I'd like it, but it turned out to be very good.

 

I'd recommend "Y Tu Mama Tambien" by Alfonso Cuaron--an amazing filmmaker.

 

Excellent movie. Might I also recommend "Abre Los Ojos," upon which Vanilla Sky was based.

 

Haven't seen that, I'll have to check it out.

 

I doubt you could make this work for your assignment, but my favorite foreign film is "Lola Rennt."

But only watch it in the original German. The English overdubs are truly awful.

 

From France
Cache - I still get nightmares about this one. Terrifying ordeal about a man who doesn't know why his family is being harassed. Terrorism subtext involved.
Army in the Shadows - A 1969 film (just released in the states in 2006) about the French underground struggle during WWII. My favorite WWII film. Period. There is no glamor in this one. Just a brutal study in the futility of a small and seemingly unorganized band of ordinary people.

From Germany
Good-bye Lenin - Just before the Berlin Wall falls an East German teenager's mother slips into a coma. When she wakes up, East Germany is no more, but the boy is terrified she'll suffer a relapse so he attempts to recreate East German life in a capitalistic society. Hilarious.
Downfall - The last days of Hitler. A stunning work.

From Russia
Come and See - This will fuck you up. It will spill your guts out on the floor and do a dance on them. It's about a little boy who is left to walk the countryside in Belarus as Nazis decimate everything.

From Poland
Decalogue - 10 hour-long vignettes dedicated to each of the Ten Commandments. If you only see one, try to find the one that deals with sentencing a murderer to death.

 

Sophie Scholl is another worth seeing.