Foreign films

[Lerxst]

I just finished a 3 day long adventure in movie watching. Had a digital copy of "Das Boot" but it lacked English subtitles. I've never seen the movie before.

Now... I love historical war dramas and have seen most, even the crappy, WWII movies released since the 60's. I also learned German on and off for a couple months before "life" got in the way. So I figured I would challenge my brain.

Holy crap!

It's like my brain just switched the "English switch" off and I followed along with the whole thing. Couldn't understand most of the words or conversations, but I was still engrossed in it the whole time; the characters, the story, even some of the humor. It's amazing how the context and (really good) acting help guide you along.

Think I'm going to have to definitely watch it again a few more times to fully appreciate some of the subtleties now that I know the situation and I'm not trying to put the puzzle pieces of plot + dialogue together on the fly.

This still has to be one of the best movies I've watched in this genre for a really long time. Also LOVE the lack of CGI!!

So... you ever try doing something like this with a foreign film? Knowing you weren't going to understand anything but surprising yourself with how much your brain could still pick up and even learning some of the language?

Also - anyone know of or can recommend any other really good German movies that have similar styles? Maybe not war, but kind of suspenseful drama types with regular people in the "real" world?

 

[Apone]

It's not a German film, but there's an incredible Russian WWII film about the Nazi invasion called 'Come and See'. It was made in 1986 or something-- it's kind of a high-art horror film that is really not something you should miss… I'm sure you can get subtitles, but the images alone are enough to haunt you forever.

It makes you wonder why all war movies aren't horror films-- I can't think of too many things that are genuinely more terrifying than being in a war, except maybe being in some sort of apocalyptic event. Somehow people are more afraid of ghosts and psychos and zombie plagues than they are of thousands or millions of people murdering each other in real life…

Anyways, incredible film, definitely recommended.

 

[muir]

'Come and see' is pretty disturbing and a truely anti-war film as Apone says

'Das Boot' is a great film. 'Stalingrad' was good as was 'downfall', but both are pretty bleak

The 'Heimat' series set in germany was also good.

'The lives of others' is brilliant

Lars von triers 'Zentropa' was interesting

Can't think of any suspenseful German drama films except 'das experiment', 'the Edukators', 'run lola run' and the 'bader meinhof complex'. 'Faust' is an old classic of German expressionism and then theres fritz langs 'metropolis'

Also there was that horrible horror film that was remade badly into an american film: 'Funny games'. People walked out when it was shown at cannes and the director said that he had intended to divide the audience into those that would keep watching and those that wouldn't!

 

[Tin Man]

I think the move Mephisto might fall into that category. It's set in World War II and is an intriguing take on Faust.

When I was learning Japanese, I watched some anime without subtitles. It was surprisingly easy to understand, it could be because many characters in anime tend to over emote.

 

[Vict]

I watch Korean revenge films without subtitles.

 

[muir]

I forgot to mention german new wave directors like Fassbinder and Herzog....they might be worth a look

 

[grt$5vb]

At least Funny Games was unpredictable.

Hmmm, do you only want German?? If not there are always "Biutiful" with Javier Bardem and "Life is Beautiful", of course.

 

[toska]

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