Criterion & World Cinema - a n00b needs some recommendations!

[Juggler]

I've finally reached the stage where I feel my DVD collection could do with an injection of some world cinema/foreign language (call them what you will!) movies! I haven't watched many in the past, so am completely new to this game :p but am now keen to experience something a bit different to the Hollywood stuff - just out of interest really!

I also want to poke into the Criterion Collection, so I figured I can kill two birds with one stone and focus on world cine releases by Criterion to start off with - seems to make sense hopefully :)

I know it is a tricky question, what with the size of the CC library and all, but can anyone recommend some of their releases of foreign movies (or specific director collections that I should consider) that would be a good starting block? I don't think I'm looking at any specific genre at the moment... just an initiation into 'world' in general :)

I've somehow stumbled across The Vanishing ('Spoorloos', Sluizer, 1988) and have read good things about it in various places (online and film guide books). I think this will be the first on my list :thumbs:

Anyways, over to you guys now, the more experienced and cultured lot to help me out :norty:


J

[Bolch]

The Vanishing is a belting film. It's worth watching the US remake as well just to see how different it is.

Seven Samurai is a must.

The 7th Seal is a pretty good film, however it dragged for me in places.

Non Criterion wise I'd recommend Amelie which is on C4 this Christmas

[Mike]

I'd suggest:

Fanny and Alexander (Bergman)

Yojimbo (Kurosawa)

Le Mepris (Godard)

The Discreet Charm Of The Borgeoise (Bunuel)

La Reine Margot (can't for the life of me remember the name)

The Wild Child (Truffaut)

Nights Of Cabiria (Fellini)

[taylora98]

Here's some more classics:

La Grande Illusion (Renoir) - also Criterion

La Regle De Jeu (Renoir) - Criterion in Jan 04

La Dolce Vita (Fellini)

Jules et Jim (Truffaut) - Tartan R2

Hiroshima Mon Amour (Resnais) - also Criterion

Les Enfants Du Paradis - (Carne) - also Criterion


plus of course, the master, Andrei Tarkovsky:

Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev (Criterion), Solaris (Criterion), Mirror, Stalker, Nostalghia, The Sacrifice

[Chibouk]

It's good to see people branching out in to undiscovered territory. I know I've experienced some cracking films since I asked a similar set of questions to you.

As a guideline, directors you could try are Ingmar Bergman, Francois Truffaut and Andrei Tarkovsky. Also worth trying are Fellini and Kurosawa.

All these directors have films available via the Criterion label, but ones you should try are:

Seventh Seal (magnificant)
Seven Samurai
Andrei Rublev
Wild Strawberries (one of the most touching films on life and death ever!)
8 1/2

Also available on Criterion is 'My Life As A Dog'. Probably the best thing to come out of Sweden since Bergman's days!
;)

HTH

[Juggler]

This is fantastic :thumbs: exactly the response I was hoping for with plenty of recommendations to work with!

Chibouk - decided it was time for something a little different, figured countries other than the UK & US must have produced something worth watching! :D

Thanks again to everyone that has contributed (and in advance for anyone else that would like to add more discussion/title recommendations!), I'll start researching some of them to decide where to start!


J

[cm-9]

Best foreign Criterion: Le Cercle Rouge

Some recent good examples of world cinema not already mentioned above:
Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding
Zhang Yimou's The Road Home
Anh Hung Tran's At the Height of Summer
Tom Tykwer's The Princess and the Warrior
Pedro Almodovar's Talk to Her
(all easily available on DVD in the UK, mostly at mid-price)

For some other recommendations, try
this long-running, but not overwhelming, thread: Foreign language films: a tidy link ('http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59718')
and for a cinephile view you could do worse thanDVD Beaver's Essential DVDs ('http://www.essential.dvdbeaver.com/')

For French films, the best English language guide to French cinema on the web is Films de France.com ('http://frenchfilms.topcities.com/index2.html') - anything they give 4 stars or 5 stars to, I would say you should try to see at some point in your life.
If you want info about where to find any French film on DVD or which version is the best you can find all you need to know (especially which ones have English subtitles) here: http://www.frenchfilmsondvd.com/default.htm

[minicooper69]

Knife In The Water - Polanski's first feature, and to this day one of his best :thumbs:

[Butch Coolidge]

M Fritz Lang
Ivan the Terrible Eisenstein
Children of Paradise Carne

[MERLIN]

edited as question was about World Cinema....

[Jpf]

How about the Miyamoto Musashi Samurai Trilogy?

[StuBruise]

Originally posted by Butch Coolidge
M Fritz Lang

I believe Eureka's R2 SE is the best available version -- it has far more extras and supposedly has a better transfer and more accurate aspect ratio than the Criterion release.

Also it might not be foreign-language but Brazil is a fantastic release from Criterion and should be in everyone's collection :thumbs:

~~stu

[Tim Fleming]

You don't give too much away with regards to your genre preferences, however as I tend to favour Asian cinema I offer the following suggestions...

Seijun Suzuki - there are two of his films on Criterion in "Branded to Kill" and "Tokyo Drifter"... both are superb off-beat yakuza films from the 60's. Brilliant imagery and soundracks. Home Vision Entertainment (an arm of Criterion I believe) are releasing three more of his films in January in "Kanto Wanderer", "Underworld Beauty", and "Tattooed Life". As well as those there is also "Gates of Flesh" available in R2 and you can get "Pistol Opera" in R1.

Kurosawa... anything you can lay your hands on. Criterion have a number of which I would most recommend "Seven Samurai", "Throne of Blood" (his take on MacBeth), "Hidden Fortress" (the film credited with being the inspiration for Star Wars), "High and Low" (a superb film noir), and "Red Beard". His set of short stories on film "Dreams" is also available.

Hayao Miyazaki... the master of animation unequalled anywhere on the planet as far as I am concerned. You are probably aware of "Spirited Away" already, but you should look into "Kiki's Delivery Service", "My Neighbour Totoro", "Nausicaa", and "Laputa, Island in the Sky". Another must get from the same studio (Studio Ghibli) is "Grave of the Fireflies" which is possibly one of the great anti-war films of all time (again, this is just my opinion).

Some other Asian films I would recommend are:

Zhang Yimou's "Hero", "Raise the Red Lantern" and "Red Sorghum"

Ang Lee's "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman", "The Wedding Banquet" (although I have a feeling this is not available on DVD yet), and of course "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (qalthough I do prefer the slightly similar Yimou's "Hero")

Mira Nair's (spelling) "Salaam Bombay", "Mississippi Masala", and "Monsoon Wedding"

Katsuhito Ishii's "Shark Skin Man, Peach Hip Girl" and "Party 7"

Masahiro Shinoda's "Owls Castle"

Shekhar Kapur's "Bandit Queen"

Chan-wook Pak's "JSA"

Kitano "beat" Takeshi's "Hanabi", "Sonatine", "Boiling Point", and "Violent Cop"

Juzo Itami's "The Funeral", "Tampopo", "A Taxing Woman" (1&2), "Minbo no Onna", and "Supa no Onna"

There are many many more, but that is all that springs to mind at this minute.

[snow patrol]

in case you haven't already been convinced, GET THE VANISHING. It really is chillingly wonderful.

That obscure object of desire is very good as well, as is insomnia

[cm-9]

StuBruise - in my opinion the standard R2 release of Brazil is better than the Criterion - it doesn't have all the extras but it has a much more detailed picture, although slightly darker. It is the director's cut, with very minor differences from the Criterion 'the last word' director's cut - the main difference being in the opening credits. The Criterion was one of their first batch of DVD releases and it is non-anamorphic and basically a laserdisk port, not remastered for DVD: it is still considered to have a good set of extras though so I guess that fanatics need both the R2 and the Criterion.

Tim Fleming - thanks for some of the Asian cinema recommendations there, a really good selection. Unfortunately Zhang Yimou's Red Sorghum is not available on DVD afaik, and his best known film, Raise the Red Lantern, is only available in a very poor quality Hong Kong disk ... although there is a current Chinese National Ballet performance based on the film which I managed to catch in London last week, apparently Zhang Yimou had a lot of creative input!

[Shingster]

Red Sorghum is available on HK VCD, not exactly the best quality & naturally burnt in chinese/English subs but it's perfectly watchable & letterboxed at least. Yes Asia have it in stock.