Foreign - Movies

Goodbye To Language

Foreign

Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Goodbye to Language is a triumphant masterpiece from Jean-Luc Godard. The film follows a couple whose relationship breaks down along with the images, which in its second half takes a dog’s-eye view ofthe world. It is a meditation on history and illusion, figures merging and weaving across the screen along with the film’s ideas about romantic love and being-in-the-world. It has the feeling of a final statement, but knowing Godard’s penchant for re-invention, hopefully it is yet another beginning to an extraordinary career.

The Green Ray

Foreign

Eric Rohmer captures the ache of summertime sadness with exquisite poignancy in this luminous tale of self-exploration. The Jules Verne novel of the same name provides the loose inspiration for the story of Delphine (Marie Rivière), a dreamy, introverted young secretary who, reeling from a breakup with her boyfriend, faces the anxiety-inducing prospect of spending her summer vacation alone. As she bounces from a getaway in Cherbourg to the tourist-choked Alps to the sunny beaches of Biarritz, Delphine passes through a whirl of social activity—but through it all remains profoundly alone, searching for the true human connection that seems to perpetually elude her. As honest a portrait of loneliness, depression, and the longing for understanding as has ever been committed to film, THE GREEN RAY stands as one of the most piercingly perceptive works by the French cinema’s keenest observer of human relationships.

Incitement

Foreign

For the first time on screen and based on true events, acclaimed writer-director Yaron Zilberman (A Late Quartet) chronicles the disturbing descent of a promising law student to an intransigent ultranationalist obsessed with murdering his country's leader, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Incitement is a gripping and unnerving look through the eyes of a murderer who silenced a powerful voice for peace.

Quinceanera

Foreign

As Magdalena's (Emily Rios) 15th birthday approaches, her working class family prepares for the all-important QUINCEAÑERA - a lavish coming-of-age celebration. To help with expenses, Magdalena is forced to wear a hand-me-down party dress and abandon her dream of arriving in a Hummer limousine. But when her father discovers she's pregnant and refuses to believe the incredible truth - she's actually still a virgin - Magdalena moves in with her elderly Uncle Tomas (Chalo Gonzalez) and black sheep cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia). Her newfound family is soon put to the test, however, when an unexpected crisis threatens to tear them apart, and Magdalena learns what it truly means to come of age.

Marguerite

Foreign

1921, the beginning of the Golden Twenties. Not far from Paris. It is party day at Marguerite Dumont's castle. Like every year, an array of music lovers gathers around a great cause at the owner's place. Nobody knows much about this woman except that she is rich and that her whole life is devoted to her passion: music. Marguerite sings. She sings wholeheartedly, but she sings terribly out of tune. In ways quite similar to the Castafiore, Marguerite has been living her passion in her own bubble, and the hypocrite audience, always coming in for a good laugh, acts as if she was the diva she believes she is. When a young, provocative journalist decides to write a rave article on her latest performance, Marguerite starts to believe even further in her talent. This gives her the courage she needs to follow her dream. Despite her husband's reluctance, and with the help of a has-been divo, both funny and mean, she decides to train for her first recital in front of a crowd of complete strangers.

Six in Paris

Foreign

In 1965, young producer Barbet Schroeder supplied a 16mm camera, along with color film stock, to six friends, asking them to each make a short film about a Parisian neighborhood. The resulting films were shot quickly, with low budgets, improvised takes, and live sound. Fresh and original, and featuring contributions by luminaries including Nestor Almendros, Albert Maysles, and Jackie Reynal, these six vignettes offer captivating and varied glimpses of the City of Lights: "Saint Germain des Prés" by Jean Douchet "Gare du Nord" by Jean Rouch "Rue Saint Denis" by Jean-Daniel Pollet "Place de l'Étoile" by Eric Rohmer "Montparnasse et Levallois" by Jean-Luc Godard "La Muette" by Claude Chabrol

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom

Foreign

A young teacher in modern Bhutan, Ugyen, shirks his duties while planning to go to Australia to become a singer. As a reprimand, his superiors send him to the most remote school in the world, in a village called Lunana, to complete his service. He finds himself exiled from his Westernized comforts after an arduous 8 day trek just to get there. There he finds no electricity, no textbooks, not even a blackboard. Though poor, the villagers extend a warm welcome to their new teacher, but he faces the daunting task of teaching the village children without any supplies. He wants to quit and go home, but he begins to learn of the hardship in the lives of the beautiful children he teaches, and begins to be transformed through the amazing spiritual strength of the villagers

Bethlehem

Foreign

"Bethlehem” tells the story of the complex relationship between an Israeli Secret Service officer and his teenage Palestinian informant. Shuttling back and forth between conflicting points of view, the film is a raw portrayal of characters torn apart by competing loyalties and impossible moral dilemmas, giving an unparalleled glimpse into the dark and fascinating world of human intelligence.

Good Bye, Lenin!

Foreign

Winner of six prestigious European Film Awards, including Best Picture and 2004 Golden Globe® nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, this coming-of-age adventure blends the fall of Communism with the salient emotions of a family's love. "Destined to become one of Germany's biggest international hits," (BBC Films), Good Bye, Lenin! is a beautiful introduction to a whole new, free world. In 1989, Christiane Kerner has lost her husband and is completely devoted to the Socialist East German state. A heart attack leaves her in a coma, and when she awakens eight months later, the Berlin Wall has fallen and it's a whole new world. To protect her from the shock, her son Alex hatches a plan to keep her in the dark. It's easy... all he has to do is turn back the handle of time.

What's in a Name? (Le prénom)

Foreign

Vincent (Patrick Bruel), a successful forty-something, is about to become a father for the first time. He is invited to dinner at the charming apartment of his sister, Elisabeth (Valérie Benguigui), and brother-in-law, Pierre (Charles Berling), where he catches up with his childhood friend, Claude (Guillaume de Tonquédec). Whilst waiting for Anna (Judith El Zein), his younger spouse who is always running late, his fellow guests happily bombard him with questions on his fast approaching fatherhood... But when his hosts ask Vincent what name he has chosen for his future offspring, his response plunges the family into chaos.

The Auschwitz Report

Foreign

When two Slovak Jews finally manage to escape the Auschwitz concentration camp, they find themselves up against allies that don't believe the truth.

The Mark of the Angels: Miserere

Foreign

Paris. A choir master is found mysteriously murdered in a church, his eardrums blown out. Investigating is homicide Police Commander LIONEL KASDAN, just-retired but desperate to come back to action. Kasdan teams with Interpol Captain FRANK SALEK, a short-tempered younger cop. Together, they try to uncover the secrets of an international organization and crack this unusual case, leading to the captain’s childhood and a dark secret from his past.

Ox-Head Village

Foreign

After watching a viral video, a woman, who believes that she's the twin of one of the participants, decides to investigate the town where the video was shot. From the Director of The Grudge.

Nick the Sting

Foreign

'Nick the Sting' is another slam-bang action movie from pulp movie master Fernando di Leo ('The Italian Connection' ; 'Shoot First, Die Later'). Luc Merenda stars as small time conman Nick Hezard who gets caught up in the bigger scams of crime boss Robert Clark (Lee J. Cobb) in Geneva, Switzerland. Nick gets involved in jewel-related insurance scams, but soon realizes that Clark is about to double cross him. Nick gets a team together and concocts an elaborate scam of his own involving false arrests, fake murders, and prop police stations. This high stakes game of double and triple cross will either put Nick on easy street or straight into the grave.

Our Time Will Come

Foreign

1941. Hong Kong is under Japanese occupation. The anti-Japanese Dongjiang guerilla unit is tasked with rescuing cultural figures and extracting them from the besieged city. Primary school teacher, Fang Lan (Zhou Xun) and her mother are trying to live out this difficult period in a small run-down flat in Wanchai. After the schools are shut down, Lan unwittingly finds herself embroiled in the guerillas’ mission to save novelist Mao Dun. In the process, she meets Blackie Lau (Eddie Peng), the intrepid sharpshooter captain of the guerillas’ Urban and Firearms unit. Taking notice of Lan’s calm, intelligent nature, Blackie recruits her to join the guerillas. Worried for her daughter’s safety, Lan’s mother volunteers to take Lan’s place as a courier, only to be arrested on the job. To save her mother, Lan is forced to turn to a friend, who now works for the Japanese…

Manon of the Spring

Foreign

The second installment in Claude Berri’s sprawling rural tragedy that began with JEAN DE FLORETTE, MANON OF THE SPRING follows a beautiful but shy shepherdess (Emmanuelle Béart) as she plots vengeance on the men whose greedy conspiracy to acquire her father’s land caused his death years earlier. Taken together, these masterful adaptations of the novel by Marcel Pagnol stand as high-water marks of the French cinema, recapturing the rich humanist tradition of its classical era.

The Innocents

Foreign

Poland, December 1945: World War II is finally over and Red Cross nurse Mathilde is treating the last of the French survivors of the German camps. When a panicked nun appears at the clinic begging Mathilde to follow her back to the convent, the scene she finds is shocking: a holy sister about to give birth, with several more in advanced stages of pregnancy. A non-believer, Mathilde enters the sisters’ fiercely private world, dictated by the rituals of their order and the strict Rev. Mother (Agata Kulesza, Ida). Facing an unprecedented crisis of faith, the nuns increasingly turn to Mathilde as their belief and traditions clash with harsh realities.

Out in the Dark

Foreign

Nimer, an ambitious Palestinian student in the West Bank, dreams of a better life abroad. One fateful night in Tel Aviv, he meets Roy, an Israeli lawyer, and the two fall in love. As their relationship deepens, they are both confronted with the harsh realities of a Palestinian society that refuses to accept Nimer for his sexual identity, and an Israeli society that rejects him for his nationality. When Nimerʼs close friend is caught hiding illegally in Tel Aviv and sent back to the West Bank, where he is brutally murdered, Nimer is forced to choose between the life he thought he wanted and his love for Roy.

Henry Fool

Foreign

Acclaimed writer/director Hal Harley's (Amateur, Flirt), Henry Fool is a Faustian black comedy that will leave you screaming with laughter at its wild mix of vulgarity, antic humor and deeply-felt emotion. Intense, nerdy young garbageman Simon Grim (James Urbaniak) sulks through a sexless, humiliating lower-class existence. He shares a house in Queens, NY, with his clinically depressed mother Mary (Maria Porter) and sarcastic, promiscuous sister Fay (Parker Posey). Into their mundane existence comes Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan), a freewheeling, depraved faux intellectual and writer who inspires the repressed Simon to come out of his shell by writing a book-length poem. He also begins an affair with Fay, the two making love at the most awkwardly inappropriate moments. At Henry's goading, Simon timidly peddles his manuscript to an unscrupulous publisher, setting in motion an unforeseen chain of events both tragic and hilarious.

Talk to Her

Foreign

From Pedro Almodóvar, the director of the Academy-Award(r) winning All About My Mother (Best Foreign Language Film, 2000), comes his most acclaimed film yet. TALK TO HER is the surprising, altogether original and quietly moving story of the spoken and unspoken bonds that unite the lives and loves of two couples. Two men (Benigno and Marco) almost meet while watching a dance performance, but their lives are irrevocably entwined by fate. They meet later at a private clinic where Benigno is the caregiver for Alicia, a beautiful dance student who lies in a coma. Marco is there to visit his girlfriend, Lydia, a famous matador, also rendered motionless. As the men wage vigil over the women they love, the story unfolds in flashback and flashforward as the lives of the four are further entwined and their relationships move toward a surprising conclusion.

Foreign Movies