Foreign Language Hall of Fame

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How many members are still in this? It kind of looks like some aren't going to make it? It be nice to know who's in and who's out?

I will finish this but I've definitely put this on pause to see who drops out
I went through the trouble and listed the films and posters in order of completion rate right now...

Cosmic Runway - Phoenix
Thursday Next - The Age of Shadows
Citizen Rules - Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Edarsenal - Assassination
Okay - Benny's Video
Ultraviolence - The Leopard
Siddon - Thelma
Cricket - Sword of Doom
Nemanja - The Saragossa Manuscript
Mija Frost - Samsara
MovieMad - The Belier Family
Scarlet Lion - Entre Nos
Luis - Pan's Labyrinth
Captain T - Borgman
Nope1172 - La Haine

So I'm not even going to bother with Samsara, Entre Nos, Borgman or La Haine until July



I will finish this but I've definitely put this on pause to see who drops out
So I'm not even going to bother with Samsara, Entre Nos, Borgman or La Haine until July
I figured you'd be finishing, so no worries there.

I think most of us are in pause mode. I know I am.



Weird is relative.
I've been busy, but here are some brief thoughts...

Thelma

A study of repressed emotion leading to supernatural effects. Definitely an interesting concept, but I feel it was unrealized. This film took the popular route of being moreso "vague" and "quietly shocking" rather than clarifying its mysteries.

Assassination

Basically non-stop shooting. I wasn't sure what was going on most of the time. Age of Shadows wins over this when it comes to Korean resistance movies.

Samsara

A life of solitude without experience does not create wisdom, and running away from character-building experiences back towards solitude is an act of cowardice, not courage. That's the message I took away from this Buddhist fable. Enlightenment doesn't happen without making mistakes first.



How many members are still in this? It kind of looks like some aren't going to make it? It be nice to know who's in and who's out?
No one's officially dropped out, but it would be nice to hear updates from the people who are considerably behind. I have to get ready for work right now, but when I get home I'll send out some PMs.

I don't think Cosmic will finish.
I know right? I don't know if I can watch one film with only 7 weeks left. You guys might have to continue on without me.

Speaking of which, I actually started to watch Samsara on Friday, but I had to run an errand and I completely forgot to go back to it haha.



'The Sword of Doom' (1966)



This is an epic film. Everything from the sound editing to the acting, the fight scenes and the way it looks is mesmerizing. There's a scene at the beginnign where the grinding of the water mill sounds like the beating of a woman's heart just before she is brutally attacked, which is followed up by a more suggestive motion of the mill's inner workings. Metaphors like that help create the tension which is cranked up throughout. I couldn't help thinking while watching it, that this movie must have been a massive influence to modern day film-makers like Quentin Tarantino.

The most noticeable thing though is the lighting. It's used to great effect in most scenes to project shadows and silhouettes.



If I had to criticise it, I would say the ending is slightly abrupt, but that's being a bit harsh. Overall it's a highly stylish, brutal tale of a samurai on the path to self destruction.



I sent a message to anyone who has yet to review at least 7 films, since ideally everyone would have around 8 films watched by now, and 9 by the end of the week. Hopefully anyone uncertain about whether or not they can finish this HoF on time will come forward and let us know.



Weird is relative.
3 films...nine whole sentences
Um, everyone has basically already expressed the thoughts I would have said about these movies, so I'm not the type to repeat it all over again.



“I was cured, all right!”
La Haine (1995) - Mathieu Kassovitz


The first time I watched a 'Mathieu Kassovitz' film I was extremely disappointing. Les rivières pourpres (The Crimson River) looked so good in that black and red VHS cover, but the film itself wasn't a big deal, well shot and well acted, but this is it... Years ago, I watched 'Gothika', a dumb Halle Barry movie, and I was sad when the name "Mathieu Kassovitz" puped up on the screen at the end credits (watched on TV, so I didn't knew who was the diretor, back in that time I couldn't see the infos of the films like today and the internet wasn't as easy as today to have acces). Later, another film proved to me that Mathieu was just a "Hollywood" director: Babylon A.D.! After this one, ten years ago, I just put his name on my blacklist and forgot his existence as a director.

For the Foreign Language Hall of Fame I met his name again. Covered with uncertainties I decided to forget all the other times that I was disappointed with the director's work (at least for the next 98 min). When the film began, a contrasting black and white sucked me into the suburbs of a French town. There, I accompanied the isolated life of a group of friends with no prospect of improvement of life, without motivation to get a job, without interest in having a family, only the revolt against the system and everything in it. "I want to kill a cop," maybe that's the only long-distance thought we've got in this group.

There are moments of La Haine, (my favorites) that the camera of Mathieu abandons the central characters, and looks for the environs of the suburb. It is in these scenes that I was enchanted by this astonishing environment. It's trivial things, like a DJ in his apartment that seems to have the pedestrians and neighbors as audience, On top of a building, sausage with bread, friends interact in a relaxed way, we feel some tension, are the sequels of the night before, where a riot happened, and several of them were there, or had their life affected in some way by this event . In a chance encounter, a dance scene: Breakdance. Until that point, we had already witnessed an imitation of De Niro in Taxi Driver by one of the characters (Vinz) and many other influences from America had already appeared. Maybe they were heirs to American culture, and along with it, they inherited hatred. It's funny how the main characters had their names practically kept, inherited from the actors: Vincent Cassel is "Vinz", Hubert Koundé is "Hubert" and Saïd Taghmaoui is "Saïd". It is enough to show us how they could all have been those young people lost in the suburbs, with no hope of a better life. An alter-ego like we call here.

Among all the moments of danger that we accompany, it is in the first moment of peace that we feel affliction. Where were they going? What is the purpose? The fall was already armed.

There's a dialogue in which Hubert tells his mother, "I need to get out of here." At this point we know that Hubert is aware of the dangers that the environment is providing, the danger his friends are bringing. He was the only one who did not console himself during the fall.

I'm glad to say that I liked a Mathieu film, this is his most famous one, but as I said, his name was forgotten by me. Now I know that he's much more than Babylon.A.D.

★★★★



Years ago, I watched 'Gothika', a dumb Halle Barry movie, and I was sad when the name "Mathieu Kassovitz" puped up on the screen at the end credits
I had completely forgotten about that movie, or perhaps blocked it out of my mind haha. I would not have guessed that Gothika and La Haine were directed by the same person.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
'The Sword of Doom' (1966)



I couldn't help thinking while watching it, that this movie must have been a massive influence to modern day film-makers like Quentin Tarantino.

I was thinking the same thing when it came to a lot of graphic novels; in regards to influence, visually.



I was thinking the same thing when it came to a lot of graphic novels; in regards to influence, visually.
Yes definitely. There is a certain amount of serenity about some of the samurai fights and especially the one in the snow - which reminded me of The Bride v O Ren Ishi fight in Kill Bill.





Connor Macgregor Reviews...Benny's Video

INTRO: I've never watched a Michael Haneke film before so this is really my first forray into his work. It kind of makes sense to start with one of his early pieces, but I have to say, I was slightly let down here.

SUMMARY: A 14-year-old video enthusiast is so caught up in film fantasy that he can no longer relate to the real world, to such an extent that he commits murder and records an on-camera confession for his parents.

THE GOOD: I think the film has an interesting idea. The main protagonist is one you definitely can have a conversation about as to whether or not he is a psychopath, autistic, or badly brought up. The performance is fine, but not remarkable. I found it a very interesting dilemma. I liked the nostalgia of videos again, which is something you can easily identify with the 90s.

THE BAD: I found the film a bit too long, and slightly boring at points. I get Haneke is artier than most other filmmakers, but a bit more narrative and conflict wouldn't have hurt the film at all. The parents are odd. They hide this murder and don't really react like any other parents would. It's all very strange to watch. The conversation they have after finding out about the murder just goes on and on and on, and you get very bored very quickly. The film also lacks emotion too. None of the characters really react to anything. No cue of emotion, no shock to what these people have done. It's just very bland and weird again.

OVERALL: Benny's Video has good ideas, but a flawed execution overall. I think this is a film that will interest some and bore many others.

RATING: 71% - B+



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Assasination (2015)




It’s clear even before the credits that assassination doesn’t just refer to one particular event, but there will be murder and betrayal across the board.

It’s weird how similar this is to Age of Shadows – having both of them nominated in the same HoF. I wonder whether which you prefer depends on which one you watch first. Although they have similar settings themes, Assassination is a little less glossy, a little less serious.

Assassination wears its Western movie influences on its sleeve – the King Kong poster outside the cinema for example. At times it didn’t look quite as slick as it could have done, but I did like the lighting – the cave and the neon street lights were highlights.

Assassination is a little over long and over dramatic–
WARNING: spoilers below
long lost twins, anyone?
– but it’s pretty entertaining for its entire runtime. As much a drama as an action movie, I thought it was fairly well balanced in that regard. You’ve got to like a bride whipping a gun from her garter in the midst of a set-piece wedding shoot-out. It took me a while to completely establish who the different characters were (there’s a lot of similarly dressed men with moustaches, not to mention the time skips) but there were some interesting characters in there, especially the bespectacled sniper played by Jun Ji-Hyun, who did an excellent job.

One of the more enjoyable movies in this hall of fame for me.



Keep your station clean - OR I WILL KILL YOU
5/15 Entre Nos (2009)

Directors: Paola Mendoza, Gloria La Morte

Another solid, solid film in the challenge. In this one, we get to see the hardships of a single mother falling into poverty, intensified by the fact that these characters are in a foreign country. The film is almost as effective as a film like this could be, I got on board right away with the family, and I obviously rooted for their success. The acting is exemplary in most accounts, and this really does feel like front row seat to someone's hardships, it felt very grounded in the sense that I actually felt like I was watching a real person's life deteriorate before my eyes. At 80 minutes, the film could've definitely used a bit more material in the third act, I felt that there could've been a less abrupt transition from two points, a stronger ending could've really propel this film towards greatness, but nevertheless a very solid film.

SCORE - 78/100



Anyone else noticed how the same movies keep getting reviewed time after time? Entre Nos & Benny’s Video spring to mind.
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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.



Keep your station clean - OR I WILL KILL YOU
How many members are still in this? It kind of looks like some aren't going to make it? It be nice to know who's in and who's out?
Still in! Just need to pick up the pace a little more, but now that summer started I can speed through it!