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14 August 2003
How do I know you haven’t seen them? Because none of them have more than 1,000 votes at the
IMDb
. Even
Vidocq
, a film only released in continental Europe and directed by someone with a stupid name, has more than that. This list is naturally slanted towards more recent films, and I make no apologies for that.
All of these are available on DVD, either in English or with subtitles, in region 1 or 2. If you don’t have a multi-region player, what on Earth are you doing reading this list?
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Le Mari de la coiffeuse
- Perhaps I’m scraping the barrel (already!) a little here, because I wasn’t too impressed with this film. Like One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, I felt it was squarely aimed at a certain audience, and that didn’t include me. Get it if you have a bit of cash spare and want to see Jean Rochefort dancing.
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Looking Through Lillian
- I’ve said before, it’s nowhere near as good as it thinks it is, but still remarkably entrancing.
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Ponette
-
An awkward film, not particularly well scripted or directed, and certainly not a fun night in. None of that matters when Victoire Thivisol (also in
Chocolat
) is on screen, starring at the age of just four and turning in a better performance than countless overpaid adults. How she did it, I’ll never know, especially considering that she’s not simply playing a child learning to interact with others, but one that’s just lost its mother in tragic circumstances as well.
(As I type this, is has 995 votes, making it only just eligible. It may have more when you read this.)
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West Beyrouth
- Ziad Doueiri. Don’t worry if the name doesn’t ring a bell; he was assistant cameraman for Quentin Tarantino, directed this, and hasn’t been involved with any films since. West Beyrouth stars the director’s brother, Riad, and the unknown Mohamad Chamas, who, I am lead to believe, is now once more in a refugee camp. These two play boys in Lebanon in the 70s when Beirut is split into west — Muslim — and east — Christian. The film is excellent as a slice-of-life, the like of which most Westerners will never experience.
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The Luzhin Defence
- Based on Nabokov’s novel, this sheds a lorryload of meaning in translation (and that was from reading the English version — for all I know the Russian text could pack in even more). Basically, then, Luzhin is a talented if somewhat eccentric and introverted chess player who, while at a tournament in Italy, falls in love with a Russian lady and gets engaged to her, against her mother’s wishes. Made more than bearable by the presence of two fine actors, John Turturro and the ever-watchable Emily Watson.
-
Lost in La Mancha
- From dancing in Le Mari de la coiffeuse to serious health problems in Terry Gilliam’s abortive attempt to bring Don Quixote to the big screen, Jean Rochefort makes his second appearance here. A cautionary but entertaining documentary, and honest.
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Bug
- Magnificently intertwingled comedy, nicely shot with strong performances and some great dialogue. My personal favourite line:
‘you’re insensitive! You…insensite!’
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Sobachye serdtse
- A far more successful adaptation of an early 20th century Russian novel — although I’ll admit I haven’t actually finished the book yet — it’s a comical, pointed film about a scientist who brings a man back to life using organs from a dog he found in the street. Perhaps not as great as its IMDb rating suggest, but that’s skewed by few votes.
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The Dancer Upstairs
- John Malkovich’s debut behind the camera is measured, tough, and compassionate. Javier Bardem is excellent as always as Agustín Rejas, a lawyer-turned-policeman in the unenviable situation of being employed by a corruptgovernment to hunt down the leader of a brutal terrorist movement. Although the film is mostly centred on the characters, the climax is almost unbearably tense, no matter how many times you watch it.
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Vacas
- One of the best films ever as long as you’re not violently opposed to the Basque people. Julio Medem dispenses for the most part with the outright plot weirdness of some of his more recent works and gives us three generations of two rival families during the Spanish Civil War. It could have been a great romance, it could have been a great horror film, it could have been a great action film, but that’s not enough for Medem — it’s all of those and more. Genius.