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!

1960 Winner, The Virgin Spring

The Virgin Spring

Director:        Ingmar Bergman

Distributed by:  Janus Films

Released:  February 1960

Country:  Sweden

If Ingmar Bergman were a director-for-hire today, and Lifetime approached him to do a TV movie for them, The Virgin Spring, the 1960 Best Foreign Film, would be what he would come up with.  Lifetime is known for putting out movies with soap-opera-style plots that include sex, and usually violence that is somehow related to the sex.  The Virgin Spring doesn’t feature some model in high heels murdering some face man for dumping her to be with his perfect wife, but the sex and violence are sure there.  The difference is, The Virgin Spring includes philosophy, thoughts on God, and commentary on society’s imposition of the feelings of guilt.  Those kinds of themes are generally not found in movies like, My Stepson, My Lover or The Babysitter’s Seduction—at least I didn’t pick up anything like that during my multiple viewings.

Töre and his golden-haired daughter, Karin

The Virgin Spring is also a period piece, set in 13^th century Sweden.  Töre, played by Bergman favorite Max von Sydow, is the head of a very Christian family, and a rather well-off one at that.  Töre has a young, pretty daughter named Karin that he spoils to some degree, at least as much as you can spoil a girl in 13^th century Sweden.  She is, in relation to the title, the virgin of the story.  One morning, Töre sends Karin to take candles to the closest Christian church, some miles away.  She is happy to do it.

Going with her will be Ingeri, the servant girl who lives with the family.  Ingeri is for sure not a virgin, obviously somewhere in the middle of a pregnancy by someone we don’t know, and probably neither does anyone else.  Behind the scenes, we see Ingeri praying to the Norse god Odin, not for anything nice but for a little disaster of some kind to fall upon Karin.  Clearly, Ingeri is a little jeal of her blonde friend and her life on the primrose path.

Riding up to the church on horseback, Ingeri and Karin part ways, which is not the greatest idea. 

The herdsmen:  They seem nice.

Then again, it isn’t nearly as dumb as when Karin runs into three goat herds and asks them if they want to join her for some cucumber sandwiches her mother packed with her for the ride.  A couple of the gentlemen look at Karin with the yellow hair like she’s a cup of cold water in the Sahara.  In a very tense, well-shot scene, two of the men take advantage of the situation in a sexually violent way.  Ingeri, though, is nearby, hiding and watching the whole thing, feeling really like she wished she hadn’t said that prayer to Odin at the beginning of the day.  I’ll leave it there in terms of specifics, but we will again see old Töre, and so will the herdsmen. 

Like with 1961’s Best Foreign Film, Through a Glass Darkly, also directed by Bergman, this simple plot is full of things to think on.  Töre is a good Christian man, but what how will he react when he learns about his precious daughter?  Ingeri truly wished evil on Karin, but hey, she didn’t mean it, so what is her responsibility?  What will happen to the goatherds?  And who is Ingeri’s baby’s father? 

Ingeri and Karin:  Feel the love.

The Virgin Spring is no cheap exploitation film, regardless of what the plot may sound like.  The acting is terrific, and the pacing of the film feels just right.  There is something almost artificial about the scenic design, as if the story is just a parable or a fable being told.  That underscores the presumption that this film has themes and ideas to ruminate on.  And if Bergman would have just left that aspect out of it, I’m sure he could have pitched it as a featured Lifetime movie of the week.

The Title:  Jungfrukällan.  We are talking about a spring coming out of the ground, not the time of year.  The title is from a Swedish ballad from about the time of the setting of the story.  The lyrics include the chilling lines:

They met three highwaymen:

"You either be highwaymen's wives,

Or would you lose your young lives?"

The culture:  The theme that stuck out to me was that of Christianity versus paganism in medieval times.  Which is greater?  I think Bergman is attempting to answer that question at a very basic level in the film, but in a broader context philosophically.

Agenda danger:  This one would make a good PSA-type film for the dangers of letting your kids out too long, even if they are just out delivering candles to a church.

Best Picture that year:  The Apartment

Rating:  A simple story with great acting.  Bergman doesn’t get too fancy, like the likes of Fellini, yet the material is as heady the Italian’s.  Bergman himself called this “a wretched imitation of Kurosawa,” most specifically of the Japanese director’s philosophical parable Rashomon, 1951’s Best Foreign Film.  He’s wrong.  This is no Rashomon, but it should be seen as a classic in its own right.