International Sensibilities- Foreign Films II
Italian – Ginger and Fred 1986 Directed by Frederico Fellini. With Marcello Mastroianni and Guiletta Masina. A tender film about Amelia and Pippo, a professional dance couple who based their career on Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Thirty years later, they’re asked to reunite for a truly crass television special. Things have, of course, drastically changed. Their reception, however, is heartwarming. Amazon Prime Oddly, my first Fellini pick, La Strada can’t be found on either site.
Swedish – Fanny & Alexander 1982 Directed by Ingmar Bergman. Not one of Bergman’s signature, depressive/intellectual features, this semi-autobiographical family saga feels like a warm bath despite adversity. Widowed Emilie marries Edvard Vergérus thinking he admires her joie de vie. Instead, she enters a severe, authoritarian household. Young Alexander makes up stories that infuriate his step-father. When Emilie tries to get a divorce, Edvard threatens to take the children. There’s an escape, a pregnancy, a fire, a ghost, and Christmastime revels. Amazon Prime
British – They Shall Not Grow Old 2018 Directed by Peter Jackson. This breathtaking documentary was assembled from archival footage shot during WWI, painstakingly restored and colored. (In fact, part II explains how.) We see soldiers recruited, in training and trench warfare, playing soccer with German prisoners, passing through the rubble of villages, returning home…There’s even a glimpse or two of the original cameraman lugging his equipment.
Jackson has not only sequenced the film to seem narrative, but added perfect sound effects. Voice-overs are the words/recordings of survivors. Where film/color was indistinct, copious research of uniforms, guns, even local foliage was employed for accuracy. It’s an amazing accomplishment, illuminating and moving. Included on HBO with Amazon Prime
Chilean/Spanish – Gloria 2018 Directed by Sebastian Lelio. Starring Paulina Garcia. Much as I appreciate Julianne Moore, the American version of this film runs a poor second to the original. Ten years after divorce, with her children grown, 58 year-old Gloria starts going to singles events. At a disco, she meets a divorced father of two still supporting adult daughters. Rodolfo is, in fact, at their beck and call, but has other appealing qualities. Gloria gets quickly involved.
The couple go away together, happy until one of his daughters calls. Putting off response, they make love. During an otherwise romantic dinner, Gloria disposes of Rodolfo’s phone. When he excuses himself and disappears, she parties hard. Back home, he continuously calls. At last, the heroine pulls herself together and exacts revenge. Down, but not out, we see her slowly revive. The film manages to be both realistic and charming- not Hallmark. Every woman will relate. Amazon Prime
Chinese – Raise the Red Lantern 1991Directed by Zhang Yimou. Starring Gong Li. Adaptation of the Su Tong novel Wives and Concubines. An educated young woman is sold to a wealthy man in the 1920s to pay off her father’s debts. His compound houses one wife, her son and two other mistresses as well as dozens of servants. Songlian soon learns each is luxuriously kept, but treated with respect only the day before her master visits when a red lantern is hung by the apartment.
The wife knows her time is past, but his mistresses are extremely competitive. Our heroine trusts the wrong one. Luxury cloaks a clandestine affair, a treacherous doctor, lying maids, and terrible punishment. Unable to accept the brutality and injustice of her life, Songlain gradually despairs, then, as a third mistress arrives, sinks into madness. The film is glorious to look at, moving, and illuminating in its depiction of its time and characters. Amazon Prime
Vietnamese – The Scent of Green Papaya 1993 Directed by Tran Anh Hung. Young Mùi becomes the servant for a large family. Her peaceful demeanor and naïve curiosity are appealing to the wife (and to us). Cinematography is lovely. Ten years after the irresponsible husband passes away, Mùi regretfully changes employment, moving to the home of a pianist. Though he’s engaged to be married, her new employer prefers his instrument to his fiancé. The musician plays tumultuously when his intended is present, yet lyrically when his servant is near. A happy ending is poetic. Amazon Prime
Soviet-Japanese – On neither site, but well worth tracking down, is Dersu Uzala- 1975 Directedby Akira Kurosawa. 1902. Russian surveyor Captain Arsenyev hires a solitary, uneducated old hunter as a guide in the mountains of Eastern Siberia. Dersu is truly one with the land, gaining respect from the men with his instincts, knowledge, ingenuity, and compassion. He also saves the captain’s life.
Five years later, the two again come across one another in the same rough terrain. Dersu is hired, again saves his friend’s life, and almost loses his own. Over the years, the old man twice tries unaccommodating civilization, but returns to the woods. His eventual death is darkly ironic. A stunning film with next to no dialogue.
Top photo: Bigstock
