The Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame III: Foreign Language Edition

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I capitalize as a general rule. When I joined, it was the first forum I ever joined, and I just did it quick with my only intention being to post a question in the question thread.
I'm glad you stuck around! What was the one question you first had?

Me? I came over to MoFo with GBG who was a friend at another board.





Shoplifters (2018)

Nobuyo Shibata: Sometimes it's better to choose your own family.

This was very good. The story of a "family" of shoplifters doing what they can to squeak by. One night the father and mother come across a very young girl hiding in the alley and decide to take her home with them. They quickly realize that the girl comes from an abusive home and decide to keep her. They aren't asking for a ransom or anything so it's not really kidnapping and how can you return a child to that environment? It'd be almost criminal to do such a thing. They just add her to the collection which includes Grandma, Big Sis and Little Brother. That sets the table for the next hour and a half of this unique family drama.

And for an hour and a half I kept wondering where the hell is this story going? We find out about their jobs, learn their personalities and while we know they aren't all on the up and up they also don't come across as anything more than a caring family, real basic stuff, until....

that last half hour... and I'm not gonna say anything more about that. The movie doesn't pose any questions that we haven't already seen before but it's execution sets it apart. It's a pretty solid build up to a great ending. This is one of them movies where little things happen in almost every scene that, by themselves, don't seem too important but when stacked on top of each other hits pretty good by the time it's all said and done. I had never heard of this so it was a complete blindside. Nice!

p.s. I did watch Chunking Express last week but I have to try and give it another go before I review it.



Yep, recently bias.
Shoplifters is one newly watched FL film that will be making my voting ballot...I'm hoping to find some more, hopefully some of my remaining PR choices will make my ballot.



Shoplifters is one newly watched FL film that will be making my voting ballot...I'm hoping to find some more, hopefully some of my remaining PR choices will make my ballot.
Out of the PR recs for you, 2 will definitely make my ballot and 2 others have a chance.



Here's what I wrote about Shoplifters in the Personal Roulette.

I thought Shoplifters would be right up my alley when I first heard about it sometime back. Right from the get go I was hooked and very interested to learn more about these people and their very different type of lifestyle.

I loved the unique world that the movie shows us. I liked the actors and the characters they portrayed too. They were intriguing and seemed like real people and not just mere props in some movie. I don't even know what city they were in, but it doesn't matter as it was like a candid view of a world that one would never see and to me that's cool.



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
The Tin Drum

This is based on a book by Gunter Grass, which I read a long time ago but couldn't remember much about, apart from the beginning and the eels in the horses's head.

It's a grotesque, semi-comic, semi-fantastical story of the time before and during World War 2 from the perspective of Oskar, a boy who decides not to grow. He is played throughout - as a newborn baby and an adult and all in between - by a 12 year old actor, who did a very good job portraying this character (although considering some of the later scenes, I don't think it was right that they had a child actor for this).

I was interested in the story and I liked the colour palette and the way some of the scenes were shot. It was an interesting perspective on a time in history and there was a certain darkly comic energy to the tone and the characters, although the pace flagged a bit at times.

However, it was too grotesque for me. Everything and everyone was unpleasant - deliberately so, I suppose, but it was wearing over 2 and a half hours of it. I felt like I was watching it through my fingers - metaphorically a lot of the time, but sometimes literally. I'd made it through the bit with the eels, but the scenes with Oskar and the girl I thought crossed the line of what should be shown on screen.



I am going to be sticking to my one per director rule for the foreign list and will be picking Nobody Knows instead of Shoplifters for my Kore-eda. I really wish people would check it out.




Vivre Sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard 1962)

Big fan of Anna Karina here! I've only seen her in a few films, but I like what I see. She's perfect for French new wave films as she's able to convey moodiness to exuberance with those expressive eyes of hers. Godard sure knows how to fill the frame with her to the film's best advantage. Vivre Sa Vie (Live Your Life) is a showcase for Anna Karina's talents and works well as a case study of a young woman with no real direction in life.

Vivre Sa Vie is Godard's third feature length film and there's lots of experimental film making techniques employed which added to the films up close and personal feel. I enjoyed the various experimentation with camera and sound as much as I did watching Anna Karina.

The first half of the film was a 5/5 for me. I would've preferred if the story continued to follow Nana (Anna Karina) around Paris as she meandered through her own life. The prostitution story of the second half felt more conventional in story telling and lost me some, as I preferred the free form story of the first half. As much as I liked the film I have to say the very ending was disappointingly cliched. The very last scene was the equivalent of a book that starts out with 'It was a dark and stormy night'.

Overall I'm impressed.





Vivre Sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard 1962)

Big fan of Anna Karina here! I've only seen her in a few films, but I like what I see. She's perfect for French new wave films as she's able to convey moodiness to exuberance with those expressive eyes of hers. Godard sure knows how to fill the frame with her to the film's best advantage. Vivre Sa Vie (Live Your Life) is a showcase for Anna Karina's talents and works well as a case study of a young woman with no real direction in life.

Vivre Sa Vie is Godard's third feature length film and there's lots of experimental film making techniques employed which added to the films up close and personal feel. I enjoyed the various experimentation with camera and sound as much as I did watching Anna Karina.

The first half of the film was a 5/5 for me. I would've preferred if the story continued to follow Nana (Anna Karina) around Paris as she meandered through her own life. The prostitution story of the second half felt more conventional in story telling and lost me some, as I preferred the free form story of the first half. As much as I liked the film I have to say the very ending was disappointingly cliched. The very last scene was the equivalent of a book that starts out with 'It was a dark and stormy night'.

Overall I'm impressed.

One of my favorites. Love the ending too. Glad you liked it.



What is recency bias, really? Why does it apply to new films, but not to old films that you only watched recently?
I think it applies to both but the difference is that new films can only have been seen recently.



I love The Tin Drum, and I did nominate it for someone. The question is did I nominate it for Thursday who didn't like it, Sean who loved it, or Ed who hasn't watched it yet? Oh my the suspense is killing me!

I want to see Vivre Sa Vie again. I know I liked it but I don't remember it well. I can say with all certainly however that Anna Karina gets a



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
I am going to be sticking to my one per director rule for the foreign list and will be picking Nobody Knows instead of Shoplifters for my Kore-eda. I really wish people would check it out.
I will add Nobody Knows to my watchlist.

Undecided whether to impose a one film per director rule on myself for my foreign language list. It might help me cut it down to 25 but how do I pick just one Melville?



I will add Nobody Knows to my watchlist.

Undecided whether to impose a one film per director rule on myself for my foreign language list. It might help me cut it down to 25 but how do I pick just one Melville?
He and Bergman might be the reason why I have to. Those two directors could be half my list.