Some foreign films...

Jean de Florette

An excellent film about a man who inherits a plot of land in rural France, who gives up his taxman job in the city and who moves with his wife and young daughter to begin a new life. Unknown to him though, the occupiers of the next plot have sabotaged his plans by blocking up the well. This film shows how a mans hope and optimism can be ground down, and how men will do anything for greed. Sandy Brown is the colour i would use to describe this film.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

Somewhat of a sequal to Oldboy, another film i've reviewed, this film is also about revenge, and made by the same director. It tells the story of a Korean woman who is imprisoned for the murder of a toddler for 13 years. Again, like Oldboy, the plot is full of twists, and has a great lead performance. Beautiful film, which actually feels more like Kill Bill than Oldboy. It has a very western feel about it, especially the fighting and the characterisation. White and Black is how i would describe this film. (although not in Grey-scale!)

A very long engagement

The most-recent film by my favourite Director, Jean-pierre Jeunet, is about a young woman, played by Audrey Tautou whose fiance has died while fighting in WW1. But thanks to clouded and contradictory versions of the story, she keeps searching for him, believing he is in fact alive. Fantastically shot film, with beautiful scenery and gritty battlescenes mixed together to show the two sides of the story: the war-time action, and the post-war investigating. Red and Yellow.




The City of Lost Children

Another film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, this one being his second from 1995. You can tell that he was given A LOT of money to make this film, and while it is probably his worst film, that is not saying much, as it is still much better than most films. Labelled a childrens film, (although it has plenty of violence and some partial nudity) it tells the odd story of a fictitious world where children are kidnapped so that an evil scientist can steal their dreams for his own use. Very good film, with Ron Perlman putting a good performance. Whatever you do though, and i suppose this goes for all foreign films, DO NOT WATCH THE DUBBED VERSION. I watched it for 5 minutes and couldn't bear it. Always go with subtitles. Colour: Dirty Brown, dirty green.