New foreign language movies (September 2011)

Dear all,

Over the past month, documentaries and movies in various languages have been recorded from free-to-air TV channels.

These programmes are available in the Self Study room (Level 2, Brennan MacCallum building) should you or your friends wish to view them.

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Chinese

Life on a String

A young, blind music apprentice is told by his dying master that when he breaks 1000 strings on his sanxian he will find the prescription to cure his blindness. He becomes a master of the instrument and takes on his own blind apprentice, who refuses to believe in the promise of the cure, preferring instead to seek the love of a woman.

(1991) China  Director: Kaige Chen
M  Drama  110 mins

English

This is England

A story about a troubled boy growing up in England in 1983. Eleven-year-old Shaun is a lonely and uncool kid whose father has recently been killed in the Falklands War. He comes across a few skinheads on his way home from school, after a fight. They become his new best friends, even like family. Based on the experiences of director Shane Meadows. Winner of the 2008 BAFTA for Best British Film.

(2006)  (UK/English)  Director: Shane Meadows
M  Drama  101 mins

French

Hidden

A married couple is terrorised by a series of videotapes planted on their front porch that points to their involvement in the French repression against Algerian pro-independence groups in the ’60s.

(2005)  (France/French)  Director: Michael Haneke
MA  V  Thriller  120 mins  Repeat

Korkoro

During World War II, a gypsy family travels the roads of France before learning that the Vichy regime no longer gives them the right to travel freely. Based on the real-life stories of Gypsies rounded up in the German-occupied France of 1943.

(2009)  (France/French)  Director: Tony Gatlif
M  L,V  Drama  120 mins

The Young Lieutenant

A young police graduate leaves the safety of his low-crime town to take up a post in Paris. He is taken under the wing of the division’s new chief inspector, a recovering alcoholic who lost her son years ago to meningitis. She involves him in the investigation of the murder of a homeless man.

(2005)  (France/French)  Director: Xavier Beauvois
M  V,L,A  Mystery  120 mins

German

Fitzcarraldo

Klaus Kinski plays the visionary Irish adventurer Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (known as “Fitzcarraldo” by the Indians), who obsessively hatches grandiose schemes to finance a dream of bringing Caruso and the strains of Verdi to an Amazon trading place at the turn of the century. His objective can only be achieved by hauling a massive steamship over a mountain.

(1982)  (Germany/German)  Director: Werner Herzog
PG  Drama  165 mins

The Wave
A high school teacher’s unusual experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own.

(2008)  (Germany/German)  Director: Dennis Gansel
M  Drama  107 mins

Wings of Desire
Wim Wenders’ much loved film follows the plight of an angel who becomes captivated by a beautiful trapeze artist and decides to trade his gentle existence for the torturous emotions of human life.

(1987) (Germany/German)  Director: Wim Wenders
PG  Fantasy  128 mins

Hebrew

What a Wonderful Place

An ex-policeman who works for a brutal gangster rediscovers his conscience while helping Jana, a call girl from Ukraine. A melancholic farmer from the desert plains finds out that the only person who truly understands him is Vissit, one of his Thai workers. A tough nature reserve ranger finds himself preoccupied with his handicapped father. In a dramatic encounter all three stories come together.

(2005) (Israel/Hebrew)  Director: Eyal Halfon
M  Drama  104 mins

Italian

A Heart Elsewhere

An award-winning Italian romantic comedy about Nello, a sensitive and shy 35-year-old whose philandering father keeps encouraging him to seduce women.

(2003)  (Italy/Italian)  Director: Pupi Avati
PG  Drama  110 mins

The Son’s Room

Giovanni is a successful psychiatrist who lives with his wife, daughter and son in a seaside town in Italy. The tranquillity and harmony of their family is shattered abruptly when their youngest child, Andrea, is killed in a diving accident. This delicate tale of a family trying to comprehend, and continue living, amid the loss of a loved one is both poignant and moving. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

(2001)  (Italy/Italian)  Director: Nanni Moretti
M  S,L  Drama  105 mins

Portrait of a Beauty
An extravagant period piece from renowned director Jeon Yun-su. After her brother commits suicide, a brilliant female painter must disguise herself as a man in order to maintain her family’s position in the Korean royal court.

(2008) (South Korea/Korean)  Director: Yun-su Jeon
M  Romance  108 mins

The Unforgiven

Follows the experiences of Seung-yong, a South Korean university student who has been drafted into the military for a compulsory 26 months of service. He finds it difficult to cope with the habitual violence and blind obedience of military life.

(2005)  (South Korea/Korean)  Director: Jong-bin Yun
MA  A  Drama  135 mins

Spanish

Killing Cabos

When Jaque kidnaps mob boss Oscar Cabos he becomes embroiled in a riotous night of car chases, mistaken identity and bizarre characters.

(2004)  (Mexico/Spanish)  Director: Alejandro Lozano
MA  V,L  Comedy  110 mins

Lucia, Lucia

With the help of two neighbours, a Spanish Civil War veteran and a young man, children’s author Lucia sets out to unravel the mystery surrounding her husband’s sudden disappearance on a trip to Brazil. Written and directed by Antonio Serrano and nominated for the 2004 Silver Ariel at the Ariel Awards.

(2003)  (Mexico/Spanish)   Director: Antonio Serrano
MA  S  Comedy  110 mins  Repeat