Queues and Random French Things

I need movie recommendations.  I checked my Netflix queue today, and I'm down to like five movies, most of them selections I'd been pushing down the list for years, knowing if they ever made it into our living room, they'd sit on the TV console for a few weeks only to be returned to the shipping facility, unwatched.  I perused the Movies You'll Heart section and the New Releases and added a couple of things, but for the most part was utterly uninspired.  So if you wouldn't mind letting me know some of the good stuff you've seen lately, I'd be much obliged. 

Incidentally, we watched "La Vie en Rose" last weekend, and it was pretty amazing.  It's beautifully shot and Marion Cotillard was phenomenal.  I usually find these musician biopics to be intolerably formulaic and heavy-handed, and maybe this  didn't seem to be either because it was French, which gives it an automatic artsy/sophisticated quality, but I think it truly went beyond the standard Hollywood fare in this genre.  She sure had one messed-up life, that Edith Piaf.  You think she's finally going to catch a break and some other terrible thing comes her way.  Man. 

Speaking of French films, if you're ever in the mood to have a good cry en francais, check out "Au Revoir Les Enfants" and "Le Grand Chemin."  We watched those in my French class in college, and I sat there with a bunch of disaffected frat boys -- who undoubtedly would have been texting each other if texting had been invented back then, but instead they stared glassy-eyed into the middle distance and occasionally jostled one another -- and bawled my eyes out.  After that semester, I stopped taking French because I'd finished my language requirement and didn't want to have class on Fridays anymore.  (Super lame.) 

We also read "Bonjour Tristesse" in that class.  I don't remember much about it except maybe something about a convertible driving around a mountain, perhaps resulting in a plummet to someone's death?  Or something?  (Or maybe I'm just thinking of "To Catch a Thief" and Grace Kelly's ultimate demise, which has nothing to do with anything, although those events took place in Monaco, which is sort of French-ish, anyhow.)  Anyway, it's some kind of trashola novel in the vein of Danielle Steele; I don't know why we didn't read Hugo or de Beauvoir or something a little more relevant or classic.  Of course, I read it in French, all diligent-like, and then I found out that everyone else in my class had found a bootlegged Xerox of an English version and read that instead.  (Super-duper lame.) 

This brings me to one of my greatest regrets in life:  not studying abroad in college.  My school was awash in study abroad programs, and I had every intention of spending at least a summer in Europe (I was deciding between an English lit course at Oxford or an art history program in Florence), but then I decided not to for easily the dumbest reason ever -- my boyfriend didn't want me to go.  AUGH.  Hello, nineteen-year-old self?  YOU ARE AN IDIOT.  (He wasn't some weirdo controlling dude or anything, I feel compelled to point out; he was just kind of boring, and I apparently let him drag me down into his boringness.)  I also blew it in law school, when I considered spending a summer in Paris studying international law, or a semester in Japan or Amsterdam, and again chose to stay put in favor of my relationship at the time.  Gergh. 

Now that I've gone on that frolic and detour, I will close by noting that, as I've been watching all the Olympic trials lately, I've been thinking about how unbearably stressful it must be to watch your kid compete in an elite-level sport.  Can you imagine having to sit up in the stands, all helpless and hand-wringy, and watch as your daughter launches herself onto the balance beam or as your son positions himself in the starting blocks to try to qualify for the freaking Olympic games, and you know how they want to win more than anything in their lives, and you know if they mess up even a tiny bit they could lose their shot at living out their dream, and you know you'll have to pick up the pieces if they don't make it?  Grah!  I get all bound up just watching the athletes as an objective observer; I think I'd end up gnawing my hand off and passing out if that were my kid out there.

As a bonus for getting through today's meandering entry:  Go here and be prepared to bust a gut.  (Via here -- also funny -- which I found thanks to Jamie.)

Comments

[christine]

We haven't had good luck with the rentals lately either, so I'll be curious to see what people recommend. I loved La Vie en Rose despite my general distrust of all biopics. I will say if crying over French films is your thing, La Vie en Rose did not hold a candle to the Diving Bell and the Butterfly. But one must keep in mind I am particularly sensitive to all movies which involve debilitating disease from which there is no cure. I cried.a.lot.

If you want to make it out to the theatres I really enjoyed Wall-E. Mostly before we get to meet the humans and their fate. I just want to give that mini-Johnny Number 5 a big hug.

[Chandra]

Well I work at a video store so I see quite a few. Some of my favorites that have come out recently are:
In Bruges
Charlie Bartlett
Kiss, Kiss. Bang, Bang.

Some of my favorite older ones are:
House of Sand and Fog
The Courtship of Eddie's Father
Arthur

Hope that helps!

[daysgoby]

Have you seen Under The Tuscan Sun? Diane Lane, good flick.

Also, A Year In Provence. It was a tv series, but I know it came out in a boxed set.

And, in the funny foreign film section, try "Seducing Dr. Lewis" - it runs along the lines of Waking Ned Devine or Big Fish. Funny, funny movie.

[brooke]

the bucket list.
an officer and a gentleman.
ghost.
steel magnolias.
the holiday.
sabrina.
one fine day.

[Paula]

We bought the movie "21" in Saigon for 60 cents. I don't think it's even out yet in the U.S., but when it comes out, it's very good, although it made me think I should've had a LOT more fun in college. Also bought a copy of the new Indiana Jones movie on DVD in Saigon - I wonder if it was filmed with a cell phone or a Handycam! :) It was a pricey one - a whole 15,000 dong - nearly a dollar!

P.S. I love You was a good chick flick kleenex box rental as well. Watched it on the plane. Also watched the Other Boelyn Girl - skip that one! It wasn't even good on a 12-hour flight with nothing else to do!

[Tara in Tokyo]

Just a note about your Olympic trials comment... Not that I was anywhere close to that, but I competed in gymnastics for five years and my dad came to one (ONE!) of my gymnastics meets in all of those five years (and it was during my first season) because he was so nervous he couldn't sit there and watch. :) Even for practices he would pick me up in the parking lot rather than come inside for fear practice would still be going on.

[RockyCat]

The Mist. Technically a horror film, which I tend to avoid, but I really enjoyed this one. And the ending will blow you away.

[Cami]

My recommendations:

The Lover
Jamon Jamon
Henry and June
Run Lola Run
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!
Garden State

[Carolyn]

If you haven't already seen these, I highly recommend: Pieces of April, I am David, Lars and the Real Girl, BBC's Bleak House, and Pan's Labyrinth.

[pseudostoops]

oh man i LOVED au revoir les enfants. I have seen it at least 5 times in various french classes and it is awesome.

we really liked "gone baby gone" recently, and i liked "rendition" and if you're feeling the foreign film thing i just finally saw "l'auberge espagnole" and it was really good.

[Jakki]

checked out your listoftheday link...funny stuff.

[Sandy]

The Lives of Others - it's a German movie with subtitles, and I'm so glad I didn't let that scare me away. It's lyrical and moving. ****

[Leah]

Rent "The Orphanage" (in Spanish and SO GOOD). It's what film was made for.

Three Frenchies if you haven't seen them already: "Jules et Jim" and "The City of Lost Children" and/or "The Delicatessen." The first one is devastating; the other two are just plain weird.

We really really enjoyed "Brick," but it's a peculiar movie and after we were done with it, we couldn't think of a single person to recommend it to. Maybe you'd like it? I don't know.

"The Butterfly Effect" (director's cut only!) was awesome. Very much in the vein of "Memento," "Fight Club," that sort of thing.

And since you love theater, try "Dogville" and "Manderlay." Intense stuff, that.

[Becky]

I really liked "Stranger than fiction" and (on the totally opposite end of the spectrum) "Transformers".
:) Becky
http://www.stinkylemsky.typepad.com/

[Mauigirl]

I loved La Vie En Rose - saw it once in the movies and once on demand at home. Her life was amazingly tragic, wasn't it? And it was all true. She did a fantastic job of being Piaf.

I share your regret at not studying abroad during college - for the same stupid reasons. Oh to be young again knowing what I know now!

[Lacey]

OK, I know I'm behind the times and all, but judging from your love of Little House on the Praire, I think you should watch the PBS reality series "Pioneer House." It's so awesome! These people go live a pioneer life for a whole year! Then they have "Colonial House" and "1900 House" and "Regency House" and gobs of others. Good times, right there.

[fats]

Not that I've seen it or think it'll be a great movie, but just for curiousity's sake, you can add Bonjour Tristesse to your queue. I'm pretty sure they have it at Netflix and it's been on my queue for a while. With all of the French classes I took, I had to read it more than once, although I still have no idea what it was about.

Not to rub salt, but going abroad was by far the best thing I did in college. My biggest regret from those years is that I only went for a semester instead of a year (or longer!).

[Maura]

I second The Orphanage. It was very good. We also saw Across the Universe lately that left me singing Beatles songs for weeks.

More in the pop-culture genre, I liked Disturbia with Shia LeBouf, which was a modern day remake of Rear Window. I know the words "modern day remake" probably make you want to cringe (as they did me), but it was actually very well done.

Or rent a classic. Lawrence of Arabia?

[Karen]

Our faves (hubby in agreement) from the last year or so of renting:

The Secret Life of Words
The Very Long Engagement
Bon Cop, Bad Cop
Margaret's Museum
Local Hero
Maria Full of Grace

[nodakotagirl]

The Orphanage-Spain
Control-England
Sweetland-Minnesota
He loves me he loves me not-France
Open Range-US
The Chorus-France
FAr from heaven-US

[nodakotagirl]

Gods and Monsters