I decided to take a risk in my Film Criticism and Theory course by showing international subtitled art house films to secondary students. Because the Film Criticism and Theory course is also considered a senior English course, students erroneously thought screening films will be in lieu of reading. In fact, there were frequent required readings and definitely more writing. I am a true believer that a picture is worth a thousand words. In conjunction with sample film essays, film reviews, an existential novel, and a Shakespearean play (for the adaptation and ideology units), students also had to read subtitles. At first, it was an understandably cumbersome job, which often took away from the entertainment. However, towards the end of the course, with heavy prefacing of the films and teaching them what to look for, students, for the most part, “grew” to endure the subtitles, especially if the film sustained their interest. Even if some of the films were hard to get through, students had to understand why they are studying it. The discipline to study international films is like studying Shakespeare: In spite of Shakespeare’s difficulties to comprehend and get through, there is still a need to study Shakespeare for his influential universality.
Reading subtitles is challenging—not just for young spectators but also for people in general. It takes patience and skill to simultaneously read and keep up with what is happening. Sometimes a second screening is needed because there is great chance especially for the “untrained” eye to miss something. As a then graduate student for the Humanities program, I remember having to screen a full-length international film for the first time, Lasse Halleström’s My Life as a Dog (1985)[1]. To be honest, during my childhood, the classic kung fu films (now revered and parodied by Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill series) became my very first recollection of international films. I must admit they were films of poor quality in content, visual aesthetics, and sound—the dubbing often “appeared” comical, as it was noticeably out of sync. It was not until later they were taken seriously when I watched film critics talk about the new international release from Europe. But it was my formal studies in cinema and Halleström’s My Life as a Dog that introduced me to a new cinematic world. It had minimal dialogue and the action was slow enough for me to “keep up.” Then came Federico Fellini’s 8 ½ (1963), which immediately became my Citizen Kane and my favorite film of all time. My life changed after discovering foreign films. And as I studied one foreign director, it led me to another. There were more international films after Fellini to enjoy and appreciate as I made more trips to my local DVD rental store. Later, I realized that most of the films I rented came from a DVD/Blu Ray distributor, Criterion Collection, which will be discussed later.
As a film instructor, I was acutely aware that international films are going to be challenging for film spectators in general mainly by the very nature of its label, “foreign,” which I do not like using. The term carries negative connotations such as “outcast,” “outsider,” different,” and “weird.” This dismissal has been the case dating back to a foreign film’s first release in 1920, which was actually a German film titled The Passion—according to film historian Kerry Segrave author of Foreign Films of America[2]. The film was negatively pegged as “the invading product”(Segrave 22). As far as the subject matter is concerned, the “foreign stuff was often immoral” according to Americans (Segrave 1). Thus, I prefer the term “international” films, which promotes a more open attitude. It also endorses the film’s uniqueness rather than weirdness.
Some may ask why study international films? Why go through all the “trouble” of trying to read and understand an international film? Why the challenge? First, it is also a complementary study of the canon for American cinema—there is an overt influential exchange between American and international directors—in themes, content, classical conventions, and so on. If Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954) did not exist, there would not be a Magnificent Seven (1960). If Federico Fellini’s I Vitelloni did not exist, Martin Scorsese would not have the inspiration to create Mean Streets (1973). Even early Scorsese was being referred to the new Federico Fellini by film critic Roger Ebert in his documentary Life Itself (2014)[3]—as Scorsese, too, focused on flawed and often emotionally vulnerable characters who struggle between conflicting identities. Regardless of the tough exteriors, they are easily wounded as their public personas fail to reconcile with their interior, more genuine yearnings. Other influential exchanges occur in genre films. For example, French crime films “borrowed” story templates from the classical American hard-boiled detective genre while still incorporating and maintaining their French “style.” The mutual exploration of the weepy woman motif that is iconically recognized in Michael Curtiz’s Mildred Pierce (1945) is also explored in British filmmaker David Lean’s A Brief Encounter (1945).[4] Akira Kurosawa revolutionized film intertextuality as he took the some of the most prominent, revered and timeless humanistic themes from the canonical works of William Shakespeare and contextualized them in an Eastern setting while using Noh theater influences.
Another reason to study international film is because of their artistic merit—not that American films are incapable of being artistic—take for example independent films or other Hollywood films who decided to challenge aestheticism and subvert or reinvent narrative traditions such as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde (1967), and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). However, it is hard not to overlook how a great majority of US imported foreign films fall under the art house genre. “Art cinema” dates back especially during 1950-1965, Europe’s Golden age. (Ezra 117). Pioneering and groundbreaking works from filmmakers such as Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Vittorio DeSica offered a refreshing reprieve from Hollywood traditions such as the “formulaic plots and happy endings”—all of which were merely “entertainment-driven” (Ezra 117). European directors, more specifically, exposed the gritty side of post-World War II effects such as DeSica’s neorealist film Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Fellini’s “transitional” neorealist film La Estrada (1954), which incorporated a combination of the brutal, impoverished conditions of carnival vagabonds and the expressionistic, mythical, and poetic black and white imagery. Antonioni offered something more challenging to the cinematic discourse with the use of contemplative long takes, “slower” narratives, abstract photography, and the symbolic composition of characters photographed as pieces of art to accentuate a more modern, alienated, and existential feel, especially in his innovative film L’Avventura (1960).[5]
The French New Wave and the avant-garde films burgeoned later on—especially decades after post World War II—as the economy began to improve and the efforts to make films became greater. In essence, films were artistically challenging and thematically and aesthetically abstract. Some examples include the works of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960), Francoise Truffaut’s 400 Blows (1959), and Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (1957)—to name a few. The movement set the groundwork for brooding, existential, social cultural, and psychoanalytical themes—a contrast to the typical and often predictable happy, boy-meets-girl and/or the hero-triumphs-and-gets-the-girl or the hero-saves-the-world story that dominated American cinema during the 50s. The term auteur (i.e., the filmmaker as the artist creating his own identifiable and recognizable signatures in his film repertoire) came into being. As European films continued to transcend entertainment value, it prompted a new approach to film screening. It became a serious intellectual study, especially in France in the 1950s and 1960s as literary theory made its way to film theory. The two analytical discourse communities began to converge as the theoretical rhetoric reciprocated. From this, cinema became a recognized academic discipline in universities in the decades that followed post World War II. Courses in film studies intersected disciplines in other departments in universities not only because of their theoretical but also for their intercultural and multicultural explorations. In the United States, film studies offered a new pedagogical approach in the humanities. It offered a breath of fresh air from the traditional canonical teachings of literature—although I am not rejecting the latter approach altogether.
In addition, film journals such as the French publication of Cahiers du Cinema helped propel the legitimization of cinema as a serious intellectual art. Film festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival and the Venice film Festival also pushed the legitimation of film as an intellectual interpretive art to the forefront internationally as it brought attention to directors, film critics, and film scholars from all over the film producing world.
Eastern directors also had their fair share in contributing to cinema as art while Europe was having their Golden Age. Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Yasujir? Ozu crossed their native boundaries and introduced a whole new approach in cinematic narrative. Japanese cinema helped bring a more intercultural aspect to the study of cinema as an academic discipline because of their “unique artistic quality” and “universal appeal,” which consequently helped “reconcile contradictory aspects of the cinema as high art and popular culture” (Yoshimoto 35). Akira Kurosawa’s Roshomon (1950), which won the Grad Prix in the Venice Film festival in 1951, introduced a groundbreaking narrative about a murder of a feudal husband that is told multiple times from multiple perspectives. The disjointed narrative moves back and forth between past and present.
The intercultural, multicultural, artistic, interpretive studies, and artistic influential exchange are all arguments for the study of international films in the Film Criticism and Theory course.
As mentioned in my commentary on “Generational Films,” Criterion Collection has created, whether intentional or not, their “canon” in releasing selected films that are considered art house, independent, and classic. (Now this can be arguable as some films like Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture (2010), Michael Bay’s Armageddon (1998), and Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop (1987) are some egregious mistakes.) With the exception of the aforementioned films, Criterion Collection is for the “serious” and artistically astute, film snobs, or the film elite. They offer the finest film restoration and digital transfers. They also include supplementary commentaries from film professors, film essayists, film critics, or other directors. Some films, because of the expensive copyright renewals, are now in extinction or about to go into extinction. Such films are considered a coveted one-of-a-kind collector’s commodity. As a result, the price of the out of print films continues to climb. Some sold on Ebay compel true film aficionados to bid relentlessly.
To be exposed to some of the most influential international films is a novelty, a breath of fresh air, a moment of pause and reflection, a new worldly cinematic destination for my Film Criticism and Theory students, especially those who were willing to be open to a different cinematic experience. The study itself straddles multiple worlds and multiple disciplines. Knowledge and entertainment go beyond the “two-for-one deal” so to speak. By the end of the school year, there were requests from students for me to create a film list because there were so many more films to study . I must include some words of caution. As the MPAA rating does not apply to some of the films listed, please consult www.criterioncollection.com and www.imdb.com to familiarize yourself with some of the subject matter of the films—especially for those who are under the age of 18.
The films with an asterisk were films we have screened in class. The films with two asterisks indicate that the films are out of print. The list will continue to be revised with additions as I continue to do my own personal studies. Also, I will be working on an independent and arthouse list of films that are not necessarily distributed by Criterion Collection.
July 10, 2015
Specifically written for class of 2015 Film Criticism and Theory
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[1] This is the first international film I introduced to my art class (Film Studies)
[2] This book is also listed in my “Book Recommendations” page.
[3] See my film review of Life Itself. I respectfully disagree with Ebert’s comparison.
[4] The following list does not include British cinema, since I wanted to solely focus on subtitled films.
[5] See commentary on “Slow Narrative as Artifice.”
Works Cited
Ezra, Elizabeth, ed. European Cinema. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Segrave, Kerry. Foreign Films in America. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, Inc., 2004.
Yoshimoto, Mitsuhiro. Film Studies and Japanese Culture. Durham: Duke University Press, 2000.
Film Director Year Country
8 ½ Federico Fellini 1963 Italy
The 400 Blows Françoise Truffaut 1959 France
Amarcord Federico Fellini 1973 Italy
Army of Shadows** Jean Pierre Melville 1969 France
Au Revoir Les Enfants* Louise Malle 1987 France
Autumn Sonata Ingmar Bergman 1978 Sweden
Band of Outsiders Jean-Luc Godard 1964 France
Battle of Algiers* Gilla Pontecorvo 1966 Italy
Bed and Board Françoise Truffaut 1970 France
Belle de Jour Luis Bunuel 1967 France
Bicycle Thieves* Vittorio deSica 1948 Italy
Big Deal on Madonna Street Mario Monicelli 1958 Italy
Black Orpheus Marcel Camus 1959 France
Children of Paradise Marcel Carné 1945 France
Chung King Express Wong Kar-Wai 1994 Hong Kong
Claire’s Knee Eric Rohmer 1970 France
Classe tous risques Claude Sautet 1960 France
La Collectionneuse Eric Rohmer 1967 France
Contempt Jean Luc-Godard 1963 France
Cries and Whispers Ingmar Bergman 1972 Sweden
Day for Night François Truffaut 1973 France
Diary of a Country Priest** Robert Bresson 1951 France
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie* Luis Bu?el 1972 France
Divorce Italian Style Pietro Germi 1961 Italy
The Double Life of Véronique Krzystof Kie?lowski 1991 France
The Earrings of Madame de . . . Max Ophuls 1953 France
Elevator to the Gallows* Louis Malle 1957 France
Eyes without a Face Georges Franju 1960 France
Fanny & Alexander (Theater and TV Version) Ingmar Bergman 1988 Sweden
The Fire Within Louise Malle 1963 France
Forbidden Games** René Clément 1952 France
The Great Beauty Paolo Sorrentino 2013 Italy
Le Havre Aki Kauriskmäki 2011 Finland
Hiroshima Mon Amour Alain Resnais 1959 France
I Vitelloni Federico Fellini 1953 Italy
Identification of a Woman Michelangelo Antonioni 1953 Italy
Ikiru Akira Kurosawa 1952 Japan
In the Mood for Love Won Kar-Wai 2000 Hong Kong
Jules and Jim François Truffaut 1962 France
Juliet of the Spirits Federico Fellini 1965 Italy
Kuroneko Kaneto Shindô 1968 Japan
La Dolce Vita Federico Fellini 1960 Italy
Lacombe, Lucien Louis Malle 1974 France
La Notte Michelangelo Antonioni 1961 Italy
L’avventura Michelangelo Antonioni 1960 Italy
L’eclisse Michelangelo Antonioni 1962 Italy
Léon, Morin Priest** Jean-Pierre Melville 1961 France
Le Notte Bianche Luchino Visconti 1957 Italy
Le Circle Rouge** Jean-Pierre Melville 1970 France
The Leopard Luchino Visconti 1963 Italy
The Life of Oharu Kenji Mizoguchi 1952 Japan
Love in the Afternoon Eric Rohmer 1972 France
The Lovers Louise Malle 1958 France
M Fritz Lang 1931 Germany
The Magic Flute Ingmar Bergman 1975 Sweden
Mama Roma Pier Palo Pasolini 1962 Italy
The Marriage of Maria Braun Rainer Werner Fassbinder 1978 Germany
Monsoon Wedding Mira Nair 2001 India
Murmur of the Heart Louis Malle 1971 France
My Life as a Dog* Lasse Halleström 1985 Sweden
My Night at Maud’s Eric Rohmer 1969 France
Night and Fog Alain Resnais 1955 France
Nights of Cabiria Federico Fellini 1957 Italy
Orpheus Jean Cocteau 1950 France
Pépé le Moko Julien Duvivier 1937 France
Persona Ingmar Bergman 1966 Sweden
Pierrot le Fou** Jean-Luc Godard 1965 France
Il Posto* Ermanno Olmi 1961 Italy
Purple Noon* René Clément 1960 France
Ran Akira Kurosawa 1985 Japan
Rashomon* Akira Kurosawa 1950 Japan
The Red Balloon* Albert Lamorisse 1956 France
The Red Dessert Michelangelo Antonioni 1964 Italy
Rififi Jules Dassin 1955 France
The Rules of the Game Jean Renoir 1939 France
Le Samouräi Jean-Pierre Melville 1967 France
Sanjuro Akira Kurosawa 1962 Japan
Satyricon Federico Fellini 1969 Italy
Scenes from a Marriage Ingmar Bergman 1973 Sweden
Senso Luchino Visconti 1954 Italy
Seven Samurai Akira Kurosawa 1954 Japan
Seventh Seal* Ingmar Bergman 1957 Sweden
The Silence Ingmar Bergman 1963 Sweden
Stolen Kisses Françoise Truffaut 1968 France
La Strada Federico Fellini 1954 Italy
Summer with Monica Ingmar Bergman 1953 Sweden
That Obscure Object of Desire Luis Bu?uel 1977 France
Three Colors: Blue Krzysztof Kie?lowski 1993 France
Three Colors: Red Krzysztof Kie?lowski 1994 France
Three Colors: White Krzysztof Kie?lowski 1994 France
Throne of Blood* Akira Kurosawa 1957 Japan
Through a Glass Darkly Ingmar Bergman 1961 Sweden
Tokyo Story Ysujiro Ozu 1953 Japan
The Two of Us** Calude Berri 1967 France
Ugetsu Kenji Mizoguchi 1953 Japan
Umberto D. Vittorio DeSica 1952 Italy
The Virgin Spring Ingmar Bergman 1960 Sweden
Viridiana Luis Bu?uel 1961 France
Vivre sa Vie Jean-Luc Godard 1962 France
Weekend Jean-Luc Godard 1967 France
White Mane Albert Lamorisse 1952 France
Wild Strawberries Ingmar Bergman 1957 Sweden
Wings of Desire Wim Wenders 1987 Germany
Winter Light Ingmar Bergman 1962 Sweden
A Woman is a Woman Jean-Luc Godard 1961 France
The Young Girls of Rochefort Jacques Demy 1967 France
Y Tu Mamá También Alfonso Cuarón 2001 Mexico
Yojimbo Akira Kurosawa 1961 Japan
Yi Yi Edward Yang 2000 Taiwan