Germany
Dark Blue Girl is a cautionary tale for parenthood that reminds us that no one has control over who their child will become.
Collide is a film that has talent in front of the camera, but they’re wasted through strings of mindless action and laughably poor dialogue.
Despite its length, Toni Erdmann succeeds because of the character study at its core, and also contains one of the best scenes of the year.
There is a story with immense emotional depth within Toni Erdmann, but the movie is so frequently dull, when the moments of comedy arrive they can feel somewhat cynical.
There currently is a radical change in our political landscape. The United States has drawn worldwide attention on the upcoming decision between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for the position of President. The United States is not the only country, either, as Austria is facing a similar conundrum.
In 1973, Augusto Pinochet seized power in Chile and demoted the previous civilian rule to replace it with a military dictatorship. Colonia Dignidad, commanded by Paul Schäfer and other allies of Pinochet, served as a prison for political detainees under his regime, despite the bastille being concealed by the veneer of a farming commune. With a historical premise as intriguing as this, it’s unfortunate how much Colonia’s (also known as The Colony) filmic portrayal falters more than it succeeds.
German expressionism was an art movement that began life around 1910 emerging in architecture, theatre and art. Expressionism art typically presented the world from a subjected view and thus attempted to show a distorted view of this world to evoke a mood or idea. The emotional meaning of the object is what mattered to the artist and not the physical reality.
German silent cinema of the 1920’s produced some of the most influential directors in the art of film making. Most directors and screenwriters working during this period were highly influenced by the German Expressionism art movement. Directors displayed Expressionism art in their films by presenting a distorted reality, which showed the inner turmoil of the characters.
There have been an abundance of actor, actress and director collaborations throughout the history of cinema. One of the first collaborations in Hollywood was that of director D.W Griffth and actress Lilian Gish, who worked together on over thirty films throughout the 1910s and 1920s.
Some of you may have come across Helene “Leni” Riefenstahl, so I hope you’ll forgive the introduction for those who haven’t. Born in 1902 in Berlin, Germany, Riefenstahl defied gender norms and became one of the most successful documentary filmmakers of the 1930s. At a time when most industries, especially film, were dominated by men, Riefenstahl found herself not only directing films but developing new techniques which influenced cinema up to this very day.
It may be fair to say that in the film industry, any motion picture that is not spoken in the English language is tagged under ‘foreign’. As we all know, Hollywood cinema is dominant among the world of film due to technological advancements, box office strategies for blockbusters, and stardom. For this reason, audiences are usually very selective when it comes to watching ‘foreign’ films.
Every time you look for new horror movies the same ten titles show up. The Shining, Jaws, The Exorcist, The Haunting, Psycho, Nightmare on Elm Street, Alien, Halloween, The Ring, and Night of the Living Dead. Not to say that these aren’t great films, they’re on the best lists for a reason; they’re classics!
There are a million great films outside the U.S, it’s just you haven’t seen them. Good fortune smiles on you today because I’m here to show 15 foreign flicks you should have seen a long time ago.