Foreign Films

From Ikiru

So, anyone who knows me, knows that I like foreign movies. J.D. got his share of 1950 and 1960s Japanese films this weekend. Both were directed by Akira Kurosawa: The Bad Sleep Well and Ikiru . Both have to do with either the incompetence or corruption of government. I liked Ikiru more, especially the scene where the main character is sitting on a child's swing in the snow. That was a lovely moment. Ikiru is also about facing one's mortality.

Today's audience, glutted on explosions and constant action, probably won't find enough in these movies to hold their attention. Then again, most of these people are idiots anyway. These are the same people who think that Transformers was "the best movie ever." Storytelling evolves, true, and editing might be more important today then it was in the past, but as long as the story has something to say... I'm willing to listen and watch.

It just seems that old movies and foreign films are the only ones that usually contain something to think about.

Before my Japanese spree, I went on a German movie spree: Gloomy Sunday, 1999, and Nowhere in Africa, 2001. Gloomy Sunday is a take on the controversy that surrounded The Sorrows of Young Werther, except with a song that keeps causing people to commit suicide. But it's primarily about different types of love and the Shoah. Nowhere in Africa is also a story about the Shoah but from the perspective of a family that escaped to Africa and is struggling to survive emotionally. I liked both of them, but then again, I like reading subtitles.

Maybe a little Bollywood would lighten things up for next time... (no exploding couples though like in Dil Se).