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100 Best Foreign Films (91-100) Tristana (1970) Luis Bu–uel reunites with his belle de jour, Catherine Deneuve, in this less-famous, equally perverse meditation on sex, Catholicism, obsession, aging, Franco-ism and amputation. Deneuve is an implacably obscure object of desire both for her elderly guardian and for a young, studly suitor. The claustrophobic, Hollywood-spoofing perfection of the photography, sets and costumes only heightens the surrealistic kick. (S.R.) Two English Girls (1971) A young Frenchman goes to England and meets two sisters (both passionate, creative and tragically inclined). His love for them lasts over the years, as he shifts from one to the other. This is Francois Truffaut's most subtle work, pieced together out of fragments, but with underlying emotional patterns rising to the surface. With Jean-Pierre Leaud, Kika Markham and Stacey Tendeter. One of the great testaments to the elusiveness of happiness. (D.T.) Ugetsu Monogatari (1953) Kenji Mizoguchi's gentle but breathtaking medieval Japanese ghost story. Two fortune-seeking fools launch out into a chaotic world where chance, vanity and cruelty twist their destinies. The film is so ethereal and mysterious that every scene seems to take place in the corner of your eye. (M.A.) |
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The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) Jacques Demy was the last filmmaker anywhere who made movies about nothing but the pleasure and grace of the medium. This is a love story in which all the dialogue is sung (to music by Michel Legrand). Enchanting, ravishing, and with Catherine Deneuve in the blush of youth that signaled the fairy princess. Demy is dead now, but surely he was the man who could have filmed Stephen Sondheim. (D.T.) Vampyr (1932) Dreyer does a vampire movie, more or less, and comes up with the equivalent of a choked nightmare endured while sleepwalking across the bottom of a stagnant lake. Jeepers. Creepers. (M.A.) Vridiana (1961) Luis Bunuel's scathingly funny, surrealist tale of a religious novice (Silvia Pinal) violated by her horny uncle (Fernando Rey) is a field day for lapsed Catholics. The Spanish master seldom wielded his impeccable technique, his anticlerical, antifascist savagery or his withering view of sexuality to such devastating effect. Favorite moment: the orgy of beggars staged as an obscene parody of the Last Supper. (S.R.) Weekend (1961) Godard's apocalyptic vision of modern society, where life is one long traffic jam and a fender dent is reason enough to blow away the road hog who put it there. Cannibalism, Marxists, Emily Bronte, sex--what more could you want? (M.A.) |
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Wings of Desire (1988) Quotidian life in wall-divided Berlin as seen through the eyes and ears of sympathetic angels in overcoats. A great, priceless gift to filmgoers, however shamelessly ripped off for that R.E.M. "Everybody Hurts" video. (M.A.) The World of Apu (1959) The concluding part of the Apu trilogy, in which the boy has grown and gone to the big city, Calcutta, and is married. Then comes tragedy and recovery. With this trilogy, Satyajit Ray made India a filmmaking nation for the rest of the world--and helped to show Western audiences the potential for a life of the spirit in the observation of a camera. (D.T.) Zˇro de Conduite (1933) Jean Vigo's notorious, semisurreal paean to schoolyard anarchy. Four wild kids rebel against their boarding school's oppressive rules and end up provoking a full-scale revolution. A graceful, hilarious testament to the snot-nosed preteen in all of us. (M.A.) What do you think of these films? Sound off in the Movie Forum. |