Hey, I want to know from you what you think are the most beautiful European Movies, whether they are old or young.
I'm from Europe myself, and I know that the general impression from Europeans is that European cinema is a bit underestimated or disliked by the "general American (Hollywood) public" (I'm not talking about the real filmfan, who likes the underground, experimental, alternative, European, etcetera).
I especially like European cinema. It's often a bit more serious, more..real than a lot of stuff out of Hollywood (with only people like Hartley, Egoyan, Cronenberg, Lynch etcetera escaping that "mainstream-like" American cinema).
Favourites include:
-Tarkovsky's works
-Fellini's works
-"Der Himmel uber Berlin" (Wings of Desire) and "In weiter Ferne, so Nah!" (Faraway, so close!) by Wenders
-The "Trois Couleurs-Trilogy" by Kieslowski
-L'appartement
-Tom Tykwer's films: Winterschlafer (Winter Sleepers), Lola rennt, Die Todliche Maria...
-Il ladro di bambini (Amelia- great "new" neo-realistic piece of work from Italy)
Still haven't seen to many films, like work from Bergman, Bunuel, Bresson...
Yeah, unforgivable, but I'm working on that!
Those three are to discovered very soon...
Also have to see much more of Godard, Truffaut, Bertolucci, Visconti...
So, what are your favourite Europeans...?
I'm in no position to call myself a European cinephile. There's soooooooo much I haven't seen. There are many directors whose entire filmography is on my "Movies I'm Ashamed To Admit I Haven't Seen" list.
That said, here's a very small, humble, short-sighted, ridiculously naive and incomplete list of some of the European films I have seen and enjoyed or been impressed by (not including British films on this list, by the way):
Nosferatu (Murnau)
Il Posto (Olmi)
Life is Beautiful (Benigni)
The Saragossa Manuscript (Has)
Wages of Fear (Clouzot)
M (Lang)
Night and Fog (Resnais)
The Decalogue (Kieslowski)
Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
My favourite are (I don't know if the translation is correct)Petersen's "The submarine", and "Karakter" from Netherlands. I havemt seen much of old directors, because videostores don't keep them, so I completely depend on TV
Yeah, Das Boot is GREAT! :wink:
Karakter is a good film. The best Dutch film is supposed to be Spoorloos (which Hollywood, in it's infinite wisdom, made into a- again crappy- remake, The Vanishing).
Very dark.
More European stuff?
Anyone knows the films of Moodysson, Kaurismaki, Almodovar...Dardenne-brothers, Angelopoulos?
Or older stuff?
I want to define the "ten European Classics", or something like that. :P
Are Godard's films better than that of Truffaut, De Sica, Wenders, Fellini...?
The first to put on the list has to be Wings of Desire (Wenders)...
The second Otto e Mezzo (Fellini).
And I would also add my personal favourite, Zerkalo (Tarkovsky).
Left open: seven places... :-D
1. The Decalogue
2. 8 1/2
3. Persona
4. Aguirre
5. Belle de Jour
6. The Third Man
7. The Passion of Joan of Arc
There's some variety there of some of my favs... but I feel thats the best of Kieslowski, Fellini, Bergman, Herzog, Bunuel (debatable for me), Reed, and Dreyer. But like Mags, I'm not a European film encyclopedia by any means.
I love spanish films - they are special, different than the rest of the european films. Wierd, excentric, emotional, ...Almodovar is maybe my favourite European.
This evening starts Claude Chabrol's cycle with "Les bonnes femmes".
"Das Boot" I've seen on TV (videostores here keep marvels like Spiderman, Batman, The Mummy..., they don't even have Taxy Driver anymore, maybe when Scorcese dies and they release all his films, like with Kubrick), and it made me cry like an idiot. Unforgettable.
I've seen that French film, I don't know the exact title, but something about an idiot on a dinner party, and I liked it except the ending - it's stupid, like nothing had happened, so petty bourgeois, disappointment.
1. Underground
2. The Virgin Spring
3. Black cat, White cat
4. Europa
5. Solaris
6. Seventh Seal
7. Bicycle Thief
8. 8 1/2
9. Os Mutantes
10. Ivan's Childhood
Would many of Kubrick's films qualify? Many were shot in Europe, after all...
A really good one that doesn't get mentioned often enough is Theo Angelopolous's Landscape in the Mist. Angelopolous is a Greek master of cinema, and this is probably his best film. It's my favorite, at least. From 1988. Not on DVD yet, unfortunately.
None of Kubricks would count. The production is american. As with another film already mentioned, The Third Man, is american produced.
~rougerum
However...didn't the BFI name The Third Man as best British film? I think Kubrick had Clockwork in there too. Technically, the money is American, but they're essentially British films.
Same situation can be said of say...several of Kurosawa's films. They're considered Japanese because he directed them and they take place there. But the money came from elsewhere -- Europe, America...
So does that make "Halloween" a "foreign" film, since it was financed by Syrian native Moustapha Akkad? :?
Only reason The Third Man is in that place is because Carol Reed is British himself. I'll go half and half on that. Only reason I could see Clockwork of all Kubrick films as one is because the cast and locale is british. I still consider it american.
~rougerum
Selznick CO-produced it, while Cotton and Welles starred in it. Everything else about the film is predominantly British or Austria. I'm still calling it a European film.
Breathless
Band of Outsiders
Persona
Wild Strawberries
Rocco and His Brothers
Rome, Open City
L'Avventura
Cries and Whispers
Quote from: SHAFTRBreathless
Band of Outsiders
Persona
Wild Strawberries
Rocco and His Brothers
Rome, Open City
L'Avventura
Cries and Whispers
Great list.
Quote from: godardianA really good one that doesn't get mentioned often enough is Theo Angelopolous's Landscape in the Mist. Angelopolous is a Greek master of cinema, and this is probably his best film.
Please, tell me more about Angelopoulos!
I want to see two of his films in the very near future,
Eternity and a Day and
Ulysses'Gaze. Unfortunately, those are the only films I can rent at my "cultvideostore" (you have those back here)...
I've read about Angelopoulos, his type of cinema, his use of long shots, etcetera.
A lot of critics regard him as one of the very few "great cineasts still alive" and he is often mentioned in the same line with all the best directors, like Bergman, Antonioni, Bunuel, etcetera.
Much less famous than all those others, though.
i'm pissed than they are making an american remake of luc besson's "taxi" and queen latifah is playing the principal role... what the hell is that? jimmy fallon plays the cop? hmm...
i think she is funny... but first of all the original taxi was a GUY... and it was very well done as an european movie in a city like paris... what are they going to do now? a yellow nyc cab?
pisses me off
Added "Wings of Desire" to my list of European films seen tonight. Wow --- just a profoundly philosophical and spiritual film. So much coming at you, with the "conversations" in everyone's minds. I need more time to digest it and am looking forward to the commentary. .... Beautiful cinematography, of course. ... I wish, more than ever, that I had never seen "City of Angels." Is there a better example of how a heavy-handed U.S. remake of a foreign film can just suck all of the mystery and beautiful ambiguity out of a movie?
OK. You have all mentioned the european classics. Now check these out.
The Celebration
101 Reykjavik
Man Without a Past
Breaking the Waves
Goodbye Lenin!
Il Postino
Lilja Forever
....and the list goes on
Quote from: SHAFTRRocco and His Brothers
:lol:
Quote from: Find Your MagaliAdded "Wings of Desire" to my list of European films seen tonight. Wow --- just a profoundly philosophical and spiritual film.
Yeah- GREAT film!
Make sure that you also see his follow-up (though less known):
Far away, so close! (
In weiter Ferne, so Nah!). :)
Quote from: Find Your MagaliIs there a better example of how a heavy-handed U.S. remake of a foreign film can just suck all of the mystery and beautiful ambiguity out of a movie?
Nope- not really.
THIS IS IT...
Some great European films (but don't care for my opinion.... haven't seen 8 1/2 yet :( )
Aniki Bobo (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
Talk To Her (Pedro Almodovar, Spain)
Jules and Jim (François Truffaut, France)
Une Belle Fille Comme Moi (François Truffaut, France)
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France)
Amarcord (Federico Fellini, Italy)
Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau, Germany)
Time Of Gypsies (Emir Kusturica, Yugoslavia)
Black Cat, White Cat (Emir Kusturica, Yugoslavia)
Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, Scotland)
8 Femmes (François Ozon, France)
La Pianiste (Michael Haneke, France)
There are sooooooooooo many other great european movies, but it's early and these are the ones I remember for now...
Quote from: Jesus Christ Bobby!Quote from: SHAFTRRocco and His Brothers
:lol:
That's a real movie by Luchino Visconti.
Rashomon :roll:
Bruno Dumont's L'Humanite came up in a different thread today.... definitely stands with the best of European cinema.
Quote from: NewtronQuote from: Jesus Christ Bobby!Quote from: SHAFTRRocco and His Brothers
:lol:
That's a real movie by Luchino Visconti.
And a real GREAT movie at that. Scorsese naturally talked about it in his documentary as well.
Quote from: RoyalTenenbaumSome great European films (but don't care for my opinion.... haven't seen 8 1/2 yet :( )
Aniki Bobo (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
Talk To Her (Pedro Almodovar, Spain)
Jules and Jim (François Truffaut, France)
Une Belle Fille Comme Moi (François Truffaut, France)
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France)
Amarcord (Federico Fellini, Italy)
Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau, Germany)
Time Of Gypsies (Emir Kusturica, Yugoslavia)
Black Cat, White Cat (Emir Kusturica, Yugoslavia)
Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, Scotland)
8 Femmes (François Ozon, France)
La Pianiste (Michael Haneke, France)
There are sooooooooooo many other great european movies, but it's early and these are the ones I remember for now...
wow!!! great list! (except for Le pianiste, i didn't like it) but 8 1/2 is missing :wink:
well i like European movies too, sadly i have no access to them as i wish but of all the european movies i've watched the Kieslowski's trilogy BLUE/WHITE/RED had the most huge impact on me especially Blue
I'll try to limit to what's not already up here:
Contempt
The 400 Blows
The Element of Crime
Smiles of a Summer Night
I Stand Alone
Passion of Joan of Arc
Last Year at Marienbad
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Discreet Charm of the Bourgoise
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Battleship Potemkin
The Last Laugh
Metropolis
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Band of Outsiders
Alphaville
Jules and Jim
The 400 Blows
Wings of Desire
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Night and Fog
Last Year at Marienbad
L'Atalante
Nights of Cabiria
8 1/2
The Gospel According to St. Matthew
The Red Shoes
Grand Illusion
The Rules of the Game
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Fitzcarraldo
The Bicycle Thieves
Bob le Flambeur
Rififi
Amelie
City of Lost Children
Solaris
The Mirror
Talk to Her
Women On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
The Seventh Seal
Wild Strawberries
Persona
Breaking the Waves
Orphic Trilogy
Beauty and the Beast (Cocteau)
Ratcatcher
In the Name of the Father
My Left Foot
The Boxer
Bloody Sunday
Cinema Paradiso
Three Colors Trilogy (Blue is my favorite)
Day of Wrath
Insomnia
M
The Third Man
...would The Tenant count as a European movie?
there's probably more that I'm forgetting......
The Last Laugh
Fistfull of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Quote from: Vile5Quote from: RoyalTenenbaumSome great European films (but don't care for my opinion.... haven't seen 8 1/2 yet :( )
Aniki Bobo (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
Talk To Her (Pedro Almodovar, Spain)
Jules and Jim (François Truffaut, France)
Une Belle Fille Comme Moi (François Truffaut, France)
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France)
Amarcord (Federico Fellini, Italy)
Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau, Germany)
Time Of Gypsies (Emir Kusturica, Yugoslavia)
Black Cat, White Cat (Emir Kusturica, Yugoslavia)
Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, Scotland)
8 Femmes (François Ozon, France)
La Pianiste (Michael Haneke, France)
There are sooooooooooo many other great european movies, but it's early and these are the ones I remember for now...
wow!!! great list! (except for Le pianiste, i didn't like it) but 8 1/2 is missing :wink:
well i like European movies too, sadly i have no access to them as i wish but of all the european movies i've watched the Kieslowski's trilogy BLUE/WHITE/RED had the most huge impact on me especially Blue
I think Isabelle Huppert's performance in La Pianiste is one for the ages. She's fucking great. As for 8 1/2..... well...... I'm not gonna say anything else about this to anyone :oops: . I must see this damn movie before I go insane.
Quote from: NewtronQuote from: Jesus Christ Bobby!Quote from: SHAFTRRocco and His Brothers
:lol:
That's a real movie by Luchino Visconti.
And I'am suppose to believe that.
Quote from: Jesus Christ Bobby!Quote from: NewtronQuote from: Jesus Christ Bobby!Quote from: SHAFTRRocco and His Brothers
:lol:
That's a real movie by Luchino Visconti.
And I'am suppose to believe that.
not every italian guy named Rocco is The Rocco. :wink:
Quote from: molly
not every italian guy named Rocco is The Rocco. :wink:
On xixax it is.
Quote from: Jesus Christ Bobby!Quote from: molly
not every italian guy named Rocco is The Rocco. :wink:
On xixax it is.
cool planet, that Xixax.