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!

1971 Winner, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

 

Director:  Vittorio de Sica

Distributed by:  Sony Pictures Classics

Released:  December 1970

Country:  Italy

Even if you are the most casual of film watchers, you probably have heard of the famous Italian director Federico Fellini.  He directed four Best Foreign Films winners, technically more than anyone else, including greats like Kurosawa and Bergman.  But before 1956, the Academy did not formally award an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, handing out non-competitive “Special/Honorary” awards from 1947 through 1955 for foreign films released in the United States.  If you count the eight Oscars given during that period (there was none given in 1953), there is another Italian director who also won four BFF Oscars:  Vittorio de Sica.

In some ways, De Sica is counter-weight to Fellini, leading what was known as the neo-realist movement in Italian cinema.  De Sica’s films deal in real-life situations, some grim and some comical, but always grounded in struggle and unfairness.  His characters, often played by non-actors, are not out of a dream and when they talk and think and act, they are talking and thinking and acting real things.  His movies are straightforward and his characters are easy to identify with.  Such is the case with his last great film, 1971 BFF winner The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.  Though it is not actually a neo-realist film, the movie is really about the end of the dream and the beginning of the reality.

Though this film belongs squarely in the “realist” category, the garden of the Finzi-Continis is sort of

Something inspires Giorgio to make his move on Micol

an escape from the realism that is pre-World War II Europe.  The Finzi-Continis are a rich Jewish family living on an estate in Northern Italy in the 1930’s, when being Jewish more than negates being rich.  Both kids are in their late teens as we meet them:  Mikel is the pretty blonde daughter who all the boys are just wild about; Alberto is her less popular, sickly older brother.  The two kids invite all their friends to hang out and play tennis, at a time when hanging out with Jews, even rich ones, is generally frowned upon.  This is their oasis from the outside world and from what is coming.

Micòl has a friend in her life named Giorgio, who grew up with her as close friends, and much of the film centers on their relationship.  He is the nice guy of the group, and also Jewish, while Alberto’s friend Bruno is the vulgar Neanderthal whom Micòl wants nothing to do with, seemingly.  Giorgio and Micòl’s friendship is explored in the occasional flashback, with their paths seemingly destined to come together romantically.  

Midway through the movie Giorgio takes the bull by the horns and kisses her, thinking she might be just as into him as he is into her; we the viewer see after the kiss, Micòl’s eyes are as lifeless as the “doll’s eyes” shark in Jaws—and if you kiss a girl and she has doll’s eyes, you either didn’t kiss her right or she just ain’t into you.  But maybe there’s more here—maybe Micòl realizes the sheltered world of the garden is in the past, and the future, especially for two Jewish kids, isn’t very bright.  Which is where we get back to the concept of realism—the time for this oasis from the anti-Semitism of Mussolini’s Italy is coming to an end, regardless of the wealth of the Finzi-Continis.

Doll's eyes

Pre-World War II movies are rarely full of optimism and this film is no exception.  There likely will be few happy endings for these characters.  Unlike another film set in pre-war Italy, Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful, there is no joy to be found here.  That’s because The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is real.  The garden the young friends gathered to, playing tennis together in this spot of beauty, is what wasn’t real.

The title:  Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini.  The film is an adaptation of a 1962 novel by Giorgio Bassini.

The Culture:  The film underscores how wealthy Jews were not exempt from the way their people as a whole were treated.  At one point, Giorgio’s father, says he didn’t think of the Finzi-Continis as Jewish.

Agenda danger:  The film’s message, I think, is that no matter how hard you try to ignore reality, it will come.  Giorgio is the central character of this film, and when I watched, I wondered why the other characters did not feel his anger at what was happening.  But Micòl is the one who, I think, sees what she will lose and knows that fighting it will be ultimately useless.

Best Picture that year:  The French Connection
 

Rating:  The realness that this film brings made me sympathize with the characters and dread the slipping away of the lives they loved.  De Sica ended his career on a high note—the other three BFF winners (that he made prior to this film) will be something to look forward to.