ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[MaineWriter]

Romania

Romanian title: 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile. Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2007.

[southendmd]

Argentina

AKA "Un ano sin amor".  I saw this at the Provincetown film festival in 2005, and it was quite memorable.  A writer and French teacher in Buenos Aires in 1996 with HIV seeks human contact via the S&M underground.

[oilgun]

Mexico

I couldn't resist playing this one, even though Mexico has been played already.  I used to go to Mexico City on a regular basis so I'm familiar with the Zona Rosa, but strangely, not with these strip clubs, they must have popped up after my time there.  



IMDb Plot Synopsis:  "Zona Rosa" is a documentary about the strippers who work in the gay clubs in Mexico City's famous district, the Zona Rosa. Christian Miranda gives us a tour though his professional and personal life while working as a cage-dancer stripper at one of Mexico City's famous gay nightclubs. Along with Christian we meet other strippers, patrons of the clubs and the club mangers. The nightlife, the scene, the money and the consequences are all on display as we tour through the notorious reality that gives the Zona Rosa its name

Argentina

AKA "Un ano sin amor".  I saw this at the Provincetown film festival in 2005, and it was quite memorable.  A writer and French teacher in Buenos Aires in 1996 with HIV seeks human contact via the S&M underground.

Well, that certainly looks like it might be right up my alley,  .  I'll see if Zip has it...
EDIT:   Sex...Sin...Passions - Zip does have it and I've added it to my queue!

[MaineWriter]

That was a fun round! We had an impressive list of countries:

Argentina
Aruba
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Burkina Faso
Canada
China
Denmark
Finland
France
Greece
India (Bollywood)
Israel
Japan
Luxembourg (with the UK)
Mexico
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Spain
Switzerland
Taiwan
Turkey

Shall we continue with Foreign Films Round Two, since Round One was such a success?

Leslie
GameMistress

[MaineWriter]

Italy

from Michelangelo Antonioni.

[oilgun]

Iceland / Canada / UK

aka: Bjólfskviða



With the Studly Gerry Butler:


==COMMENT==
I found a cool site about Icelandic film:  http://landogsynir.wordpress.com/

[southendmd]

Australia

IMDb:  Surely one of the best modern films about childhood, this swept the Australian Academy Awards and remains a thrilling film experience. When a young boy is left orphaned, his two aunts wage a bitter custody war over him. We see the adults' actions from the boy's point of view, with all the wonder, confusion, and naive wisdom such an outlook would provide. The events have a wry edge even in tragedy and remain gripping even in happiness. Stay tuned through the final credits for one of the best epilogues in film history.

Wendy Hughes plays the dark side of Auntie Mame, and she is both entrancing and repulsive, ludicrous and heartbreaking. The late John Hargreaves delivers a shattering cameo, and young Nicholas Gledhill deserves to be named in the company of Jean-Pierre Leaud, Anton Glanzelius, and Haley Joel Osment. The child's-eye direction is never less than astonishing, while the cinematography and music are gorgeous enough to take your breath away. If you thought the squabble over Elian Gonzalez was great drama, wait till you see this!

I loved  this film when I saw it back in '84.

=aside=
Gil, A Year Without Love will not disappoint.

[MaineWriter]

West Germany

[Fran]

Czechoslovakia / Austria

AKA Ekstase (Austria), Exstase (Czechoslovakia), Symphony of Love



From IMDb:

The world's first glimpse of a 19-year-old Hedy Lamarr occurs in the early moments of this 1930's treasure as she sweeps across the screen in an angelic wedding gown. This was to be the start of a legendary career. This was our glorious introduction to the most beautiful woman ever to grace the silver screen.

It is Eva's (Lamarr) wedding night and her older husband seems uninterested in her romantic advances. She retreats to the lonely bed and, in a beautiful scene, she fiddles with her wedding ring as the realization of her marital mistake overcomes her. The husband seems more interested in neatness and order than he does in love. Gustav Machaty uses gorgeous camera angles and pristine shot framing to capture Lamarr's considerable talent and beauty. With no words spoken in the early part of the film, she is able to grasp our sympathy, our hearts and our support. It is that combination that prepared the 1930's audiences for what they were about to see as the film unfolded. Ecstasy was considered shocking for its time... Some thought it to be scandalous.

She returns home to her father's estate and files for divorce. The next day, she wakes with a complete sense of freedom and happiness. She just has to go outside and feel the freedom of the countryside and fresh air. Eva goes for a horseback ride and happens across a beautiful lake. And in one of the most famous scenes in film history, Hedy Lamarr became the first person to ever appear nude in a major film. Her frolic in the woods and her skinny-dipping adventure in the lake were legendarily scandalous. But the audiences couldn't stay away. As with many of today's movies, the controversy made it a must-see film.

Eva's mischievous adventure introduces her to a handsome young man who helps her find her horse, who had run off with her clothes. After an awkward meeting, they eventually fall for each other. Their first romantic rendezvous was almost as controversial as the nude scene, with its blatant waves of eroticism. However, Machaty does beautiful work in these romantic moments. Machaty creates one delightful moment, when Eva literally seems to sink into her new lover, using a gorgeous early camera trick.

It cannot be overstated how brave this performance was on Lamarr's part. Many might have presumed it was career suicide. Instead, it gained her worldwide fame and caught the eye Louis B Mayer, who signed her to a contract with MGM. There are some truly erotic moments in this film, even by today's raunchy standards. It is impossible to imagine how they were received in the 1930's. Again, Machaty was very clever with his imagery, leaving a lot to the imagination. But we all understand very well what we are seeing and it is supremely well done.

The meeting of Eva's former husband and her current lover is perhaps inevitable. However, the consequences of that meeting are not. The film takes a few unexpected turns in its final act and it all makes for a great story and a lovely debut on the grand stage of movie stardom for Hedy Lamarr.

I highly recommend this once controversial, now tame film and urge you to seek it out in its restored form on DVD. It is easily worthwhile, if only for the pleasure of seeing Hedy Lamarr. But the story is compelling too and the direction is ahead of its time. Ecstasy is a memorable early treasure.

[opinionista]

Cuba

=comment= I loved this movie!

Diego, a cultivated, homosexual and skeptical young man, falls in love with a young heterosexual communist full of prejudices and doctrinary ideas. First come rejection and suspicion, but also fascination. Fresa y chocolate is the story of a great friendship, that is, a great love between two men, which overcomes incomprehension and intolerance.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106966/plotsummary