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July 2009
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Forei gn Films
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New to View
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Vol. 3, No. 7 |
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The Foreign Films New to View newsletter is a monthly publication designed to keep you up to date on some of HCPL's latest foreign films on DVD. The selections in this newsletter are just a sample of the rich variety of films available to you through your library. Use the sign-up box above to have this newsletter sent directly to your e-mail every month, with new, recommended movies for you to view. See Foreign Films Archive.
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Aetbaar, directed by Vikram Bhatt
(In Hindi, with English subtitles)
Dr. Malhotra believes he is just being a protective parent, but his daughter Ria feels he is overly possessive. Still, they live in an uneasy peace...until Aryan enters Ria's life. Aryan has all the qualities that Dr. Malhotra finds appalling but Ria finds attractive. Dr. Malhotra sees him as overwhelming, while Ria finds him to be magnetic. His "wild" is her "intriguing." Throw in the tacit approval of Aryan by Ria's mother, and the story has the makings of a family soap opera.
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Diva, directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix
(In French, with English subtitles)
When a young man secretly records an opera diva in concert, he means no real harm; he just admires her talent. But the diva in question is being stalked by Taiwanese thugs, who also want the recording. Then a mysterious woman in serious trouble hides another tape in the young man's motorcycle bag, a tape that connects a police chief with the mob and a prostitution operation. Now the opera fan finds himself in serious trouble. A French New Wave film, this also is full of action and intrigue.
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Ecoute le Temps, directed by Alanté Kavaïté
(In French, with English subtitles)
Charlotte is grieving the death her mother, who was murdered in her quiet country house. When Charlotte returns to her mother's town to investigate what happened, she finds an array of residents who could all be suspects, especially since her mother read tarot cards for nearly everyone in the town and knew some dark secrets. Charlotte has one skill that can really help here. She is a sound recordist, and she finds that her sound equipment has picked up her mother's dialogue in the days leading up to her death. Now the young woman must unravel the words of the past and find out who killed her mother.
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Nammura Mandara Hoove, directed by Sunilkumar Desai
(In Kannada, with English subtitles)
It's an old theme in the arts. Two best friends are hopelessly in love with the same woman. Which one will sacrifice his heart's desire to save a friendship and make a best friend the happiest man on earth?
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Road to the West, directed by Bohdan Poreba
(In Polish, with English subtitles)
A railroad employee and his assistant must transport explosives to the western front. The journey is filled with perils, not the least of which is the war. Now the two workers must face vicious German soldiers, desperate deserters, and gangs of equally desperate men out for an easy buck in a dangerous time.
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Sangre de Mi Sangre, directed by Christopher Zalla
(In Spanish, with English subtitles)
A melodramatic look at the harsh life of illegal immigrants in the U.S., this thriller explores a father-son relationship pulled apart by geography and life's bitter hand. Pedro travels illegally to New York to join his father, Diego, who has worked for many years as a dishwasher in a restaurant. Robbed along the way, Pedro finds he needs to struggle at every turn just to survive. Meanwhile, Juan, the thief, uses Pedro's identity to try to insinuate himself into the life of Diego. While Juan works every angle he can to convince Diego he is his long-separated son, Pedro just tries to survive.
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A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, directed by Wayne Wang
(In Mandarin, English, and Farsi, with English subtitles)
Like Sangre de Mi Sangre (above), Wang's film is made in the U.S. but focuses on the plight of foreigners, who find language, customs, and their own family to be alien and nearly incomprehensible. Created by the director of The Joy Luck Club, this film looks at a father, newly arrived from China, who is visiting his daughter. It isn't that Mr. Shi and Yilan don't love each other, but they certainly don't understand each other. In Yilan's case, the problem is with the language itself, since English is far more her native language than Mandarin. Mr. Shi finds some solace and connection in an unexpected friendship with an older Iranian woman.
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Twenty-four Eyes, directed by Keisuke Kinoshita
(In Japanese, with English subtitles)
Beginning in 1927, this film follows the career of Hisako Oishi, a young woman teaching in rural Japan. Although herself a groundbreaker of sorts - riding her bicylce to school and enjoying her liberated status as a teacher - she nevertheless embraces the traditional Japanese mores that conflict with the increasingly militaristic ways of a grasping, imperialistic government. She finds a special bond with her first class of young students, who witness and live through the horrors of World War II. Their lives continue to touch her through the years, just as her life also touches them.
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Vampyr, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
(In German, with English subtitles)
Out on a walking tour, Allan Gray comes to a mysterious house whose inhabitants are greatly troubled by a vampire. The old woman, long dead, nevertheless seeks the beautiful Léone, using a treacherous village doctor as her agent. The great influence of German Expressionism is present in this film, through the use of shadow and light, exaggerated images, and symbolism, all working to pull into question what is real and what is not, what is illusion or hallucination and what is tangible and dangerous.
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Waiting for the Clouds, directed by Yesim Ustaoglu
(In Turkish, with English subtitles)
Like The Weeping Meadow (see June 2009 below), Waiting for the Clouds takes a close look at the effects of war on Greek civilians in Turkey after the Turkish War of Independence in the 1920's. When Turkey won its independence in 1923, Greeks living in Turkey, particularly around the Black Sea area, were forcibly deported, but what of those who managed to remain? This film follows two Greek sisters who did stay, carefully concealing their heritage and identity. Decades later, when one of the sisters has passed away, the other sister travels to Greece to seek out her brother, not seen in fifty years.
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