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!

1948 Winner, Monsieur Vincent

Monsieur Vincent

Director:  Maurice Cloche

Distributed by:  Lopert Pictures

Released:  December 1948 (in U.S.)

Country:  France

We cannot better assure our eternal happiness than by living and dying in the service of the poor, in the arms of Providence, and with genuine renouncement of ourselves in order to follow Jesus Christ.  –St. Vincent DePaul, 1648

St. Vincent DePaul is the Catholic patron saint of charitable institutions, and if you want to know why that is, this is the movie for you.  Monsieur Vincent is a straight-forward biopic, with none of the gloss or glamour that Hollywood gives to anything of a religious nature.  Vincent was a French-born, highly-educated man who had a calling greater than even the priesthood, though he didn’t know it at first.  Five years after his ordination in 1600, he was abducted by Barbary pirates and was sold into slavery, sold again twice, and remained a slave until he was given his freedom seven years later.  He then studied in Rome and after his return to Paris, was assigned to be the spiritual advisor of a wealthy family in nearby Clichy. 

Pierre Fresnay as Vincent DePaul

This is the point Monsieur Vincent starts its story.  Vincent arrives in the town looking for where he needs to be, but everyone appears to be hiding out in their homes.  A few take shots at him from their windows with rocks.  The village seems to have been plagued with a later edition of the Black Death, and Vincent to them appears to be someone who will do no good but to spread the disease around.  He finds a little girl living with her dying mother, whom no one is willing to risk helping.  But St. Vincent is.  He tends to the woman, allowing her to die with dignity, and eventually takes on the responsibility of the little girl.

When Vincent finds the mansion of the family to whom he is assigned to minister, they want him to stay with them and not venture out into what would be his probable death.  Vincent realizes this is not what God called him to do.  When things simmer down a bit and the folks come out to see who this crazy priest is, he challenges a crowd that has gathered.  He asks which family is at their limit, which family cannot possibly take on another mouth to feed—that is who he wants the little girl to go with.  A woman with a gaggle of kids around her steps forward—what’s one more?  Vincent is showing what charity is—not only for someone to being willing to give, but for someone else to ask the impossible of them.  This is the core of whom St. Vincent DePaul is.

"I'll be happy to give a few francs, as long as it's tax deductible."

The film continues on with Vincent’s life, with a stint aboard a ship powered by convicts, where he volunteers to roll up his sleeves and grab an oar.  Vincent rubs elbows with the rich and poor alike, asking more than all would like to give.  He tolerates the rich who give what they do to feel better about themselves, and challenges a rich woman, Louise de Marillac, to give more than what makes her feel comfortable.  Like the poor woman who took on the orphan girl, Louise rises to the occasion, co-founding the Daughters of Charity with Vincent, and eventually being canonized as a saint herself in 1934.

Monsieur Vincent is an inspirational movie about an inspirational character.  In watching the performance by Pierre Fresnay, I was reminded by Liam Neeson’s portrayal of Oskar Schindler in 1993’s Schindler’s List, when at the end he laments that, as much as he did, he could have done more, could have sold a car or a pin to save just a few more lives, but didn’t.  Vincent displays what charity is—giving and giving, but always being able to do more.  Like Schindler, who says, “I didn’t do enough,” Vincent always thinks he could have done more.

"This pin--two people."

The Title: I’m not sure why he is Mister Vincent, and not Father DePaul.  I come from a time when you called priests by their last name, and no one referred to Father Bill or Father Jason or whatever.

The culture:  Back in the Kingdom of France, in the early days of the Bourbons, you had the haves and the have-nots.  Vincent decided to provide for the latter by asking and asking of the former.

Brendan Gleeson as Fr. James, Calvary

Agenda danger:  It is always a pleasant surprise to see Catholic clergy in film treated with respect and reverence.  Vincent had his flaws, but like Spencer Tracy’s Father Flanagan in Boys Town (1938) or Bing Crosby’s Father O’Malley in The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945), he is portrayed as a regular guy who remembers what the calling of the priesthood is.  Though such portrayals may be rare these days, the few that exist are notable. 1972’s The Exorcist focuses on two priests, played by Jason Miller and frequent Best Foreign Film actor Max von Sydow, who make great sacrifice in defeating the Devil.  More recently, Brendan Gleeson’s Father James in 2014’s Calvary is the embodiment of sacrifice and forgiveness.  It’s no wonder the Vatican included Monsieur Vincent on its 1995 list of 45 great films, right up there with Schindler’s List and Best Foreign Films The Bicycle Thief (1949), La Strada (1954), 8½ (1963), Dersu Uzala (1975), and Babette’s Feast (1987).

Best Picture that year:  Hamlet.

Rating:  A inspiring film about a man who gives to God by helping the poor.  They don’t make films like this anymore.