Happy Lunar New Year!

Happy Lunar New Year! This is now the year of the Horse.  Not that I needed an excuse to use more My Little Pony gifs.

As for my goal of watching 40 films from 40 different countries, here is my progress so far:

1. Germany - Cherry Blossoms (Kirschblüten - Hanami)
2. The Netherlands - Spoorloos (The Vanishing)
3. France - Le salaire de le peur (The Wages of Fear)
4. Australia - Strictly Ballroom
5. Hungary - Macskafogó (Cat City)
6. Italy - Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
7. Czech Republic - Kolja
8. Belgium - Le gamin au vélo (The Kid with a Bike)
9. Sweden - Såsom i en spegel (Through a Glass Darkly)
10. Poland - Dekalog (The Ten Commandments)

Dekalog (The Ten Commandments) (1989)

First off, this is not a movie. This is actually a TV miniseries. But it's on the list, so I'll review it.  This is actually a ten-part miniseries that aired in the '80s.  This gives me an idea.  Maybe I will find other interesting miniseries and share them.  I am going to break each part into its own mini-review.  It should be noted that I watched each episode on a different day.  I am giving this an 8/10.  It's getting a higher rating based on the sheer effort it took to make all these stories.

1st story.

Here we see a father and son who are good at computers. The young son has questions about life and death, and wonders about the existence of a soul. The father does not believe in souls, but, of course, that's not good enough. His sister enrolls his son in Bible school behind his back. Then, of course the son does something stupid and ice skates by himself. He falls through the thin ice and dies.  What did we learn? Always have a buddy if you are going ice skating, swimming, or surfing. It's all about safety.

2nd story

This one just seemed to drag on forever.  A woman's husband is supposedly dying in a hospital.  She asks the doctor what his prognosis is because she's pregnant by another man and wants to know if she should get an abortion or not.  The doctor tells her he doesn't know his prognosis yet.  The woman goes ahead and schedules one and calls her lover to tell him she's going to do it.  He doesn't like this idea because without the connection of a baby, he knows she will leave him.  So she sleeps behind her dying husband's back and tries to destroy the evidence.  You know, the father of the baby has a right to his opinion too.  She goes to the doctor and tells him she's scheduled an abortion. The doctor flat out tells her not to do it.  THen, later that night, her husband wakes up and is fine.  His disease looks gone.  He walks to the doctor's office, who doesn't look surprised at all, and tells him that he is going to have a baby and is happy.

3rd story

This was the weakest one I have seen so far. A lonely lady on Christmas gets the married man she sleeps around with to drive her around town under the guise of looking for her husband, while in reality he's living somewhere else.  She lied to avoid being lonely on Christmas and dragged a man away from his wife and kids.  Well it's his own fault for sleeping with her in the first place.

4th story

Here's the fourth episode, which is Honor Thy Father and Mother.  A girl reads a letter from her deceased mother that confesses that the man who has raised her her entire life is not her biological father.  And then she tells him that she has feelings for him!  And she takes her shirt off!  Then it turns out she made the whole thing up, so they burn the real letter and pretend nothing happened! What?! Why do I watch these so late at night?  How am I supposed to go to sleep now? That is straight messed up.

5th story

This story is the director's opinion that the death penalty is wrong.  However, we need to keep serial killers off the street, and I don't want my tax dollars going to feed them, clothe them, give them shelter and free medical care when there are hungry children and homeless people who never did anything wrong.

6th story

This one was tense from beginning to end.  A lonely teenager spies on a thirtysomething year old woman from his apartment window.  He works at a post office and sends fake messages to get her to come to his work.  He even gets another job delivering milk so he has another excuse to see her.  Eventually he admits to her he's been spying and loves her.  At first she is angry but takes advantage of his spying to ask him on a date.  It is obvious that she does not believe in love but has sex purely out of lust.  She invites him to her apartment and taunts him.  He gets so upset that he runs back home.  He cuts his own wrists, but his friend's mother, who he's living with, finds him.  So he goes to the hospital and will be okay.  The woman is very apologetic and never meant for this to happen.  She continually checks the hospital and his work to see if he's been discharged.  So, she does care about him.  Is she starting to believe in love?  Don't worry, he is physically okay.  And yet, the ending is very open.

7th story

A 16-year-old has a baby, and her mother raises it as her own.  Now, she is 22 and still just as immature, living at home.  She takes the child and intends on taking her to Canada with her.  The father of the baby shows that he doesn't want to take care of her, so she runs off into the woods.  Her parents find her in a train station, and the child runs to the mother and hugs her.  The girl runs and jumps onto a nearby train, abandoning her child.  Guess she still wasn't mature enough to be a mother after all.

8th story

This story concerns a Polish/English translator who visits a professor to translate her books.  The professor asks her to sit in on one of her classes.  During her class, she tells her students that the welfare of a child is the most important thing.  The translator's bullshit meter goes off and tells a story.  The story is of a Jewish girl who was set to stay with a Catholic couple during WWII for protection.  At the last minute, the couple turns her away because they're afraid of what might happen if they're caught.  The professor realizes that she's talking about her, and she's ashamed of what she did.  They talk afterwards and the professor tells her that she's always thought about her, and realized that children are the most important thing and that she should not have turned her away.  She learned from experience and became a better person because of it.  Meanwhile, the translator held a grudge against her her entire life and gained nothing because of it.

9th story

A man discovers that he can no longer have sex, and encourages his wife to find someone else.  When she does, he spies on them and then runs his damn bike off the road.  What the hell.

10th story

Here is the final story. A man dies with seemingly nothing but a collection of stamps.  His sons find out that the stamps are worth millions, but are told not to sell them, because they are their father's life work, and it would be disrespectful.  Meanwhile the sons get so obsessed with completing the collection that one of them trades a kidney for it.  Then, their stamps are stolen! I think the stamp collectors stole it because they knew the father had a huge collection and who else would know the value of them?  The sons should have kept them in a safe or in a safety deposit box in a bank, not laying around in an empty house.

Såsom i en spegel (Through a Glass Darkly) 1961

This morning my daughter woke me up by spilling cold milk all over my shoulders and chest, then cried that her cup was empty.  I told her, "Don't cry over spilled milk" and she did not find that funny.

Today's film is the 9th foreign film of the year, and it's from Sweden. Today's film is Såsom i en spegel (Through a Glass Darkly).  It is dark and moody and has a constant sense of isolation.  It takes place mostly on an island devoid of modern comforts.  The characters are Karin, her husband, David, her little brother, Minus, and thier dad.

Their dad has just gotten home from a trip, and based on the terrible gifts he gets them, we can tell he's out of touch with his family.  Karin has returned from a stint in a mental hospital, and her condition may be getting worse over time.  Minus has his own issues, especially since he is finding himself not attracted to women.

Even though her family is supportive, Karin is finding her condition getting worse.  She hears voices and has hallucinations.  She believes that their are people in her attic waiting for God in the crack in the wall.  After sexually assaulting her own brother in the abandoned ship nearby, she returns to the attic.  Suddenly, god appears to her and it turns out that it's a giant spider that attacks her.

Part of me wanted to see the giant spider come at her, but that would require special effects that did not exist at the time.  Also, the spider isn't real; it's in her mind.  It wouldn't have the same effect on us if we could see it.  It's only terrifying to her, because her reality is different from ours.  Later, a helicopter picks her up and takes her to the hospital.  She has a lot of issues to work out.  I will give this film a 7/10.

Le gamin au vélo (The Kid with a Bike) (2011)

Today's film is Le gamin au vélo (The Kid with a Bike).  It's my first film from Belgium, and I have to say, I'm not very impressed.  The story appears to be no different than a Lifetime Original Movie.  The story is okay but predictable, but the acting is great.

The kid with a bike is Cyril, who lives in a group home and has not heard from his dad, his only living relative, for a month.  He goes out of his way to find his dad's apartment to see where he could have gone, and also to retrieve his bike, which is his prized possession.  He runs into a hairdresser while doing this, and she finds out where the bike is.  His dad sold it to someone else, and she bought it off him.  The hairdresser, Samantha, goes to the group home to give the bike to Cyril.  He asks her if she could be his foster family for the weekends.  She agrees and everything goes well.

However, he's still determined to find his dad.  Samantha tracks down his address and they find out where he works.  Cyril wants to go at that moment so they head over to the restaurant where he's prepping for lunch.  It is clear that Cyril's father doesn't want him around, even for a visit.  He confesses to Samantha that now that he's the only one left to take care of Cyril, he wants to start over in a new life and that doesn't include Cyril at all.  Cyril has a really hard time taking this and I don't blame him.

Soon Cyril becomes manipulated by a young local drug dealer to help him rob somebody.  Cyril agrees to help him by knocking the victim out with a bat and robbing him.  He goes out against Samantha's wishes and completely ignores everything she's done for him to help someone who doesn't care.  Cyril gets caught and gets punished and has to repay what he stole, and apologizes to the man he hit.  The man's son, who he also hit with a bat, won't accept his apology.  The son chases him down and Cyril climbs a tree to get away from him.  Cyril falls out of the tree and is unconscious for a good while.  The men he hit discuss how to deal with his body when Cyril just up and walks away without a scratch.  The movie just ends right there.  Not only does he take Samantha for granted when she's the only person to take him in, he obeys a greasy drug dealer without question.  He needs to learn how to be grateful because he's an entitled brat.  He feels that he deserves his bike, he can leave her house through a window even though he's not supposed to go out at night, and doesn't respect her at all.  He even got her boyfriend to leave her.

There's nothing inherently bad about this movie at all.  There's just nothing great either, nothing that grabs my attention and leads me to believe that I absolutely have to see this before I die.  I will give this film a 7/10.

Kolja (1996)

Today's film is Kolja (or Kolya in some areas).  It's from the Czech Republic, and is a very sweet film.  It's about a cello player named Franta Louka, who totally looks like Sean Connery. After being let go from the philharmonic orchestra, he does odd jobs, including playing where he can, to make money.  His friend tells him about having a fake marriage so this Russian woman can have Czech papers so she won't be deported.  At first he's totally against it because it's a terrible and also illegal idea.  They don't even speak the same language.  She also has a five year old son, Kolja, and he has no idea how to interact with a child.

Right after she gets her papers, she goes to West Germany and leaves Kolja behind in the care of a relative.  Problem is, she's there to stay.  The relative suffers a stroke and Kolja is brought to Louka's house.  His friend convinces him to let him stay because it would look good for him to take care of his wife's child and the police are now suspicious of their fake marriage.

Despite being a confirmed bachelor, since he beleives that he can't have a musical career with a family, Louka proves to be a caring stepdad.  It's a challenge, mainly because they don't speak the same language.  However, Kolja is a good listener and picks up on the language quickly.  At night, Louka calls his friend, a Russian language teacher, to tell Kolya bedtime stories in his language.

Soon, the Russians leave the area for good, meaning Louka is no longer in danger from police.  Kolja's mom returns to pick him up.  But by this time, Kolja and Louka have bonded and are sad to see each other go.  This film is very sweet and everyone should see it.  I'm giving it an 8/10.

Sleeping Beauty (1959)

I'm excited about this animated feature, and my daughter is especially excited! Today's animated feature is Sleeping Beauty.  Sleeping Beauty's name is Aurora, she has blonde hair, and wears a pink dress.  Because of these two reasons, her favorite doll is Aurora and she carried it around with her everywhere without even knowing what movie she was from.  So we watched it and the dragon scared her so badly she had night terrors for two straight weeks.  She recently wanted to watch it again and I'm like "Are you sure?" But she wasn't scared this time and really liked this movie.

If you compare this movie to earlier Disney princess films, Cinderella and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, it's not as good, animation wise or story wise.  However, I liked that it heavily took from the ballet instead of just the fairy tale.  When Aurora is dancing in the forest, her movements are very fluid and ballerina-esque.  The drawing style of the people and their costumes has a medieval feel to invoke the times. The melodies of the songs are also taken directly from the ballet.

In the original story, there are 13 fairies, but in this movie there are only 4: Merriweather, Fauna, Flora, and Maleficent.  The king and queen do not invite Maleficent to their daughter's party because she's evil.  Feeling snubbed, she curses the baby with death - specifically, before her 16th birthday ends she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die.  The three good fairies take the baby into hiding and raise them as their own, without any help from magic.  Does this mean the fairies aren't really needed?  They were gone for 16 entire years and no one even noticed.  And as we learn during their preparations for her birthday party, even after 16 years they haven't mastered life without magic.  If they have no idea how to sew a dress, where did their outfits and Aurora's outfits come from?  Babies and toddlers need lots of clothes because they get dirty.  They couldn't have gone 16 years without learning how to sew or cook.

And why couldn't Maleficent find her?  You expect me to believe she's the most evil fairy with the most powerful magic and she can't even find one girl in her own backyard?  The dragon is cool, yes, everyone I know loves that dragon.  But she gets killed way too easily.

Although Princess Aurora is most associated with her pink dress, she doesn't wear it until the very end of the movie.  Most of the time it's blue (because the two fairies fight over what color it should be).  She wears pink in the parks to differentiate herself from Cinderella, who also wears blue.  This way, kids can associate the princess with a certain color dress.  This also explains why Ariel wears a sea-green dress that she never wore in the movie.

Even though Sleeping Beauty is not the best of the princess films, it has the most memorable villain. I will give this film a 6/10.

Raging Bull (1980)

Today's film is Raging Bull.  I did not know it was a true story until I watched it.  I was curious so I did some research.  It turns out that all the fights were pretty accurate.  The parts of the film I really liked were the cinematography and the sound.  The shadows and angles of the black and white film were very effective.  It did give it sort of a nostalgic feel since the movie takes place in the 1940s and 50s.

 

I did not like any of the characters in this film.  I thought the main three characters: Jake, his brother Joey, and wife Vickie all did exceptional jobs acting.  Joe Pesci as Joey did a great job because I have seen him in lots of films but he was really giving it his all during this one.

 

It doesn't matter how many fights Jake won, I have no respect for him.  He has a severe anger and jealousy problem and he takes it out on anyone he can.  He also makes out with underage girls and then beats his wife because he thinks she's cheating on him.  In reality he's cheating on her but it's all mixed up in his mind.  He doesn't feel that he's at fault.  Even when he is arrested for endangering an underage girl, he still maintains his innocence.  All he cares about is his weight and he doesn't ever eat anything healthy and hardly works out.  Just watches tv on a cheap antenna set that barely works and then goes out drinking.  Robert Deniro actually put on 60 pounds in order to play the older, fatter Jake.  That is dedication.  Jake is just a fatass wife-beater.

It took her a long time to do it, but Vickie finally left Jake.  I was happy, yet he still bothered her sometimes.  One thing I liked was the make-up jobs of everyone.  Even though it was black and white, the bruises and injuries of the characters looked realistic.  I will give this film a 7/10.