Best Movies from Around the Globe

One of the things I love most about movies is that you get to learn nuances about different countries. Maybe it's countries I've been to, want to go to, will never go to, or on my bucket-list, I am always fascinated about how other people live.  The movie industry means many different things in many different places.  Some small countries (France comes to mind) produce wonderful films.  Bollywood is world-wide phenomenon.  Here are some of my personal favorites:

Europe:

Love + Hate


This poster does not due the movie justice.  A wonderful hard-to-find independent movie about finding love in a prejudice society, you can watch, in parts, the whole movie on YouTube.  A modern day Romeo and Juliet detailing race relations in Britain.  Adam and Naseema are youths trying to grow up in a world that pays more attention to preconceived notions of cultures without actually knowing anything about them.   Adam and Naseema are drawn to each other in ways that neither of them expect questioning everything they know about life, love, and the pursuit of something greater.


Good Bye Lenin!

A delightful German tragicomedy.  Starring Daniel Brühl as Alex, recently know for playing Formula One driver Niki Lauda in Ron Howard's Rush.  What if you live in East Berlin, you're mother has a heart-attack and goes into a coma, only to awake and the Berlin wall has fallen, but she cannot endure any physical or mental shock for fear of another heart attack?  Keeping up appearances of a communist society when everyone around you experience freedoms for the first time?  This film and it's actor won critical acclaim during it's 2003 release and is worth a view.










Rust & Bone

Starring Academy Award winning Marion Cotillard and virtual unknown Matthias Schoenaerts as the leading characters.  What drew me to this movie was the fact the Marion's character Stephanie is a killer whale trainer that gets hurt from a freak accident that is very similar to documentary Blackfish and the dangers of working with orcas.  Matthias's Ali is a down on his luck single father who needs cash fast.  He meet Stephanie at a club, while working as a bouncer, prior to her accident and escorts her home.  A depressed Stephanie calls Ali after her accident and the two form an interesting friendship that evolves into something much deeper than they both expected.  I love the gritty feel of the film and what strength you can find in the impossible.






Asia:

3-Iron

A Korean movie about a drifter and an abused housewife that doesn't include much dialogue because it frankly doesn't need it.  You can feel her pain and their connection.  Tae-suk breaks into people's apartments based on take-out menu's being left on door handles.  He fixes their broken appliances, washes their clothes until one day he breaks into Sun-hwa's house.  Here the tables are turned and she watches him, while he is unaware someone is also in the house.  Together while her abusive husband is away on business they begin to break into people's homes.  They get into trouble, he goes to jail, gets release from jail and goes to Sun-hwa's house.  The rest is too hard and creative to even begin to explain so please just watch.  This film will stay with me forever as one of the most imaginative pieces of cinema I have ever seen.






Shall we Dance

I was first introduced to this movie while working at West Coast Video.  This is NOT the Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez version, that was made because of this Japanese film.  It does not compare to the original.   Shohei Sugiyama is a successful married businessman that sees a beautiful forlorn soul looking out from her dance studio.  Mai Kishikawa is a well known dancer and Shohei becomes obsessed with her.  He has to find out more about her so enrolls in classes at the dance studio.  Again, this movie is more about the surprises that life hands you in a way you never thought it could.












Australia:

Strictly Ballroom

I guess I have a dance theme going on but this is a different story about an ugly duckling turned into a beautiful swan by the love of dance and the journey of realizing your true self both inside and out.  Fran is an employee in the dance studio that by chance gets to partner with Scott, a destined to be champion, who has gotten jaded in the ballroom world.  Together they discover the magic of dance and take on the Australian Dancing Federation at the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix.  This is the first of Baz-Lurhmann films that I have seen and as with his other films, uses music for emotion in a way that no one else does, and I am totally bought in.  Now with Dancing with the Stars and Strictly Come Dancing people have better appreciation of ballroom and the moves in this film won't disappoint!









Tomorrow When the War Began

I like to equate this film to Australia's version of the Hunger Games or even Red Dawn would be a better example.  Twenty somethings off to a camping spot for a weekend of fun only to come home and find their town without power and their parents, neighbors, and loved ones held hostage by a foreign military group.  A plan is formed, chaos ensues, bonds are made, broken, and tested.  I love a good action film, I love a good teen novel, and I love me some foreign viewing!  It's an easy movie to watch and it is supposed to be part of a trilogy.  I really hope 2 and 3 are made!  One notable actor that American audiences would know is Phoebe Tonkin of the CW shows Vampire Diaries and The Originals.







Bollywood:

Bride or Prejudice

An Bollywood re-telling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice full of India's culture, music, dancing.  Starring Martin Henderson, from the Grudge, and Aishwarya Rai, once known as the most beautiful woman in the world!  As characters Darcy and Lalita we are once again taken on a romantic roller-coaster of, I love you, I hate you, I love you.  As I've said in previous blogs, I am a Jane Austen fanatic so I am willing to watch any movie based on the books.  This is fun, a little cheesy, and all things Bollywood!  The end credits are really fun and worth watching. 








So, here you go...why go outside in this winter weather when you can travel the world from the comforts of your own home in this sometimes subtitled story from a video store!