Foreign Film

I love foreign film but if you are new to it then here is a brief introduction to some of my favourites.

You can't go too wrong if you start with the Russians.  I'd recommend 'The Man With the Movie Camera' not just to foreign cinema but to to cinema itself.  Made at a time when people were experimenting with the new technology it shows a series of experiments displaying what can be done with film.  There is Sergei Eisenstein with his montages in films such as 'October', about the October Revolution and using people who were actually part of the historical event, and the ever classic 'Battleship Potemkin', although he can be difficult to understand if you are not au fai with Russian History.  Another Russian from much later in history shuns the montage technique for long, long slow shots and he is Andrei Tarvosky.  Making a number of great perfectionist films and delving into different genres to subvert them for his own purposes.  Meditating on God and Art his films meander and wander in a lost world with his characters struggling with spiritual matters.  But which film to start with?  I maintain that his best film is 'Ivan's Childhood' about a boy spy who has to grow up fast in a warring country as it has all the best elements of Tarvosky's work.  If you don't want any plot at all then watch 'Mirror' as that is more about the sensual direction of film elements and evokes memories you don't remember having.  'Stalker' is a great film about gaining access to a forbidden land in order to find a fabled 'wish granter' and is deeply strange.  'Solaris' is his one of his more plot driven films about the delusion of love aboard a space station.  'Nostalgia' was made when his output was less than perfect but still this is an intriguing film about homesickness and religious devotion.  With 'Sacrifice' I misunderstood the premise as I thought the main character was debating weather to sacrifice his life so as to save his country from a nuclear strike, it sort of is the premise but not exactly, this one is a bit like 'Nostalgia' as it is not as perfect as his other films but still worth a watch.  'Andrei Rublev'  is a film I regularly forget he has made possibly because each scene dissolves into your consciousness like an ice cube in hot water, an utterly amazing experience shot in wonderful black and white.
  Robert Bresson is a film-maker who had influenced Tarvosky and you can see why.  Bresson's character's are involved in spiritual dilemmas and are filmed with austerity, constriction.  He used non-professional actors and taught them to read their lines in a certain monotone way, to him they were not actors but models.  'L'argent' was the first Bresson film I watched and it is one of his best, the depths of depravity that the innocently arrested man goes to is harrowing and gut wrenching.  Equally dispiriting is 'The Devil, Probably' about a young man who is psychologically troubled by the modern world and looks for spiritual direction from his friends and psychiatrists.  'Lancelot Du Lac' is okay but because it is set in a medieval world I think it works less well than when Bresson sets his stories in contemporary France due to his alienating method.  Before 'Shawshank Redemption' there was 'A Man Escaped' about a man spending his life in prison plotting to escape through slow work, the DVD skipped at the end for me so I still don't know if he got out alive or not.  'Diary of a Country Priest' is as good and if not better than 'L'argent' only this has a more optimistic feel to it though it is still quite tough, this was made while Bresson was still developing his restricted style so the models have a bit of emotion to them.  Another Frenchman worth looking at is Jean Renoir, son of the famous painter, who made 'The Rules of the Game' and 'The Grand Illusion'.  'The Rules of the Game' is a comedy/tragedy about the class of rich people with their servants in the country containing some beautiful moments and wonderful poetry.  'The Grand Illusion' is the French 'Great Escape' but being French involves some philosophy about how though the prisoners dream of freedom they will never be free even in peacetime.
  It would be difficult to make a list of foreign film without the Swedish Ingmar Bergman, but where to start?  A good place would be 'Winter Light' as it is a short simple film with huge depth concerning the loss of a priest's faith in God.  'Wild Strawberries' is a lovely bitter-sweet film about a father travelling with his daughter and looking back on his life.  'The Seventh Seal' is of course the most classic of classic films with the extremely famous scene of the main character playing chess with Death.  'The Hour of the Wolf' is a harrowing look at a tormented artist and his long suffering wife.  'Shame' is even more harrowing dealing with a relationship during war trying to cope with the tensions and pressures that it produces.  'Persona' is a delve into an ill woman and her nurse's pysche and 'Smiles of a Summer Night' is that rarest of things a Bergman comedy.
  Moving to Italy and Michelangelo Antonioni is a top recommendation with his loose trilogy 'L'avventura ', 'La Notte' and  'L'eclisse'.  The first is about a woman who goes missing and then slowly becomes forgotten, the second about the deterioration of a couple's relationship and the third is about a writer who is unhappy with his life.  His films are wonderfully photographed and enigmatic.  'Red Desert' is about a woman trying to raise her child against the corruption of the modern world and 'The Passenger' shows Jack Nicholson as a man who takes the identity of an arms dealer.  Though not strictly a foreign film 'Blow Up' does deserve a mention as it was made in England during the '60s and is beautiful look at shallow counter culturalism.  My second Italian you should check out is Ferdinando Fellini and his film '8 1/2' about making films.  It is one of my all time favourite films that in a time of cinematic seriousness pokes fun at the business in a life enhancing and, at times, touching way.  Then there is 'La Dolce Vita' which to me is quite boring but does have some astounding moments that makes it just about worth while.     
  So there you have it a quick introduction to some of the best foreign film for you to look up and watch with pleasure.