My BFF Wrap-Up: My Ranking

Starting in June 2016, I watched and reviewed every winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, or in short, Best Foreign Film (BFF), in reverse chronological order from the 2015 entry to the awards inception in 1947 (watching the 2016 winner at the end).  Part of the experiment was to see how many of these I would be able to find.  In most cases, I was able to borrow the DVD of each film from the Cuyahoga County Library system (a consistently top rated system in Northeast Ohio), and as things went further back in time, that meant using the inter-library systems CCL employs, SearchOhio and OhioLINK.  I did have to watch a couple on the dusty old VCR.  On two or three occasions when I couldn’t find the movie through the CCL system, I was able to get DVDs from the Cleveland Public Library.  Once I paid $2 to watch a movie on Amazon, and that was the grand total of money I spent on this project.  I did find a couple rare films online, having exhausted every other possibility.  Only once was I not able to find a film at all, at least with English subtitles, and that was 1950’s The Walls of Malapaga.  I watched it only in French with Portuguese subtitles, and decided to review it anyway.

My reviews were intended for people who don’t normally watch foreign films, a group that included me not all that long ago.  I found a lot of the movies worth watching, not just ones you might see at an art house, but movies I am convinced would have been mainstream American favorites had they been in English.  I also sat through a lot of tedious, self-admiring crap that got awards for having the right political or social view to the voters of the Academy.  But enough about The Sea Inside.  My goal was to make the reviews be entertaining, especially when the movie wasn't, and to give American viewer something they could relate to.

The list here is my amateurish attempt to rank what is perhaps the unrankable.  There are a variety of genres and so many different cultures represented here that it is almost unfair to compare them against each other.  But I did anyway, and the films are listed below from best to worst.  Click any movie title to read the review.  You can follow me on Twitter at @hawley5150.   

Enjoy!

1989, Cinema Paradiso, Italy

2006, The Lives of Others, Germany

1951, Rashomon, Japan

1998, Life Is Beautiful, Italy

1957, La Strada, Italy

1949, The Bicycle Thief, Italy

2011, A Separation, Iran

1975, Dersu Uzala, Soviet Union

1967, Closely Watched Trains, Czechoslovakia

1947, Shoeshine, Italy

1964, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Italy

1963, 8½, Italy

2009, The Secret in Their Eyes, Argentina

1972, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, France

1983, Fanny and Alexander, Sweden

1962, Sundays and Cybele, France

1965, The Shop on Main Street, Czechoslovakia

1986, The Assault, The Netherlands

2000, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Taiwan

1987, Babette's Feast, France

1960, The Virgin Spring, Sweden

2002 Nowhere in Africa, Germany

1958, My Uncle, France

1971, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Italy

1968, War and Peace, Soviet Union

1957, Nights of Cabiria, Italy

2007, The Counterfeiters, Austria

1974, Amarcord, Italy

1952, Forbidden Games, France

 
1961, Through a Glass Darkly, Sweden

2014, Ida, Poland

2016, The Salesman, Iran

1948, Monsieur Vincent, France

2008, Departures, Japan

2015, Son of Saul, Hungary

1970, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Italy

1985, The Official Story, Argentina

1969, Z, Algeria

1966, A Man and a Woman, France

1973, Day for Night, France

1990, Journey of Hope, Switzerland

1980, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, Soviet Union

1982, Begin the Beguine, Spain

1993, Belle Époque, Spain

1959, Black Orpheus, France

1992, Indochine, France

1988, Pelle the Conqueror, Denmark

2005, Tsotsi, South Africa

1977, Madame Rosa, France

1981, Mephisto, Hungary

1954, Gate of Hell, Japan

2010, In a Better World, Denmark

1955, Samurai, The Legend of Musashi, Japan

2001, No Man's Land, Bosnia and Herzegovina

1976, Black and White and in Color, Ivory Coast

1979, The Tin Drum, West Germany

1996, Kolya, Czech Republic

1994,  Burnt by the Sun, Russia

1978, Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, France

2012, Amour, France

2013, The Great Beauty, Italy

1997, Character, Netherlands

2014, The Sea Inside, Spain

1995, Antonia's Line, Netherlands

2003, The Barbarian Invasions, Canada

1991, Mediterraneo, Italy

1984, Dangerous Moves, France

1999, All About My Mother, Spain

1950, The Walls of Malapaga, France/Italy (not ranked)

FINE!

1966 Winner, A Man and a Woman

A Man and a Woman

Director:  Claude Lelouch

Distributed by:  United Artists

Released:  July 1966

Country:  France

On the surface, A Man and a Woman is a film as simple as its title.  You pretty much get what you are expecting:  A romance, a touch of comedy, some suspense as to whether the man and woman will be a couple in the end—the details are what may make the movie interesting.  It’s kind of like when you watch one of those trailers that pretty much tells you the whole story, and you wonder whether you should bother seeing the film—well, if there car crashes in the trailer and you are into car crashes, you probably don’t really care if the trailer gives too much away.  If you see the title A Man and a Woman and think that’s for you, you’ll probably like it.  If you just got dumped or divorced or hate romance films, you probably should forget about it.

Jean-Louis and Anne

So the details:  Two kids are at a boarding school:  A boy and a girl.  Presumably, some day they’ll grow into a man and a woman.  Which would be a good idea for a sequel, but that’s not what this movie is about.  The boy has a father who is a widower, and the girl’s mother is a widow.  The father, Jean-Louis, is a race car driver whose wife couldn’t take the stress of being married to a man in such a dangerous profession.  The mother is Anne, whose husband was a stunt man who couldn't take the danger of being in such a dangerous profession.  And well, the reason he couldn’t take the danger of being in such a dangerous profession is that one time he got killed do a stunt.

So like any good romance, Jean-Louis and Anne meet almost accidentally, in their case because of their kids; they have a feeling-out period; they admit to themselves and to each other their attraction; they have a feeling-out period (which today would get them their PG-13 rating); then an obstacle pops up and you’ll just have to watch it find out whether the homme and the femme end up together.

Jean-Louis (Trintignant) and Anne in Amour

Having seen Amour, 2012’s Best Foreign Film, about an elderly couple who endure the woman’s serious illness, I thought of A Man and Woman as almost a prequel to that later movie.  It’s as if after Jean-Louis and Anne work out their issues, they live a long life together until Anne has a stroke.  In fact, in both films, the Woman character is named “Anne.”  The Man character is played by the same actor, Jean-Louis Trintignant, who also had an important role in 1969’s Best Foreign Film, Z.  Both Amour and A Man and a Woman are simple films about the roles each person has in the relationship.

There is a realness to Jean-Louis and Anne's romance.  Jean-Louis is frequently unsure about what to do and about what Anne wants him to do.  One humorous scene has him talking to himself about how to react to her congratulatory note after he has won a race.  Anne is the more unsure one about how she feels about things in relation to her past relationship.  The question is whether she will let go of her dead stuntman in order to be happy with Jean-Louis.  You can probably guess if she will.  But that’s okay.

No car crashes in this one

The title:  Un Homme et une Femme. More famous than the movie, perhaps, is the theme,  written by Francis Lai, who is sort of France’s answer to Henry Mancini, having also written the easy listening classic “Theme from Love Story."

The Culture:  The feel of this film is a shift in times, from the more conservative 1950’s into the more sexually permissive 60’s.  The outdoor scenes are in color and the interiors are shot in black-and-white, adding to the sense of transition.  Men wear suits on dates and both feel free to smoke while dining at a restaurant with their kids.  It’s sort of a cross between Mad Men and Flight of the Concords' “Foux du Fafa.” 

Agenda danger:  This one is as apolitical as it gets—a nice escape.

Best Picture that year:  A Man for All Seasons

Rating:  A pleasant enough romance.  Both l’homme and la femme are likeable enough, and of course, the natural impulse is to hope they get together to become un couple.  Again, a mere reading of the title will tell you whether you’ll like it or not.  I prefer more complicated stories generally, but somehow knowing there probably wouldn’t be too many surprises didn’t take away from the romance for me.  And if you are into car crashes, you just might be in luck.