Selections from Mabee Library's Collection of Foreign Films in Four Parts

Part Four:


Run Lola Run / Lola Rennt (Germany)
PN1997 .L65 1999

A film that sprinkles spine-tingling chills for its entire 81 minutes, Lola Rennt (known in the U.S. as Run Lola Run) is an intensely satisfying fusion of driving techno music and stunning visuals. Tom Tykwer's hip, German-language thriller is known primarily for its unique structure -- part video game, part choose-your-own-adventure -- which propels Franka Potente's feisty yet vulnerable Lola through three versions of a plan to secure an impossible sum of money in the next 20 minutes. But it's the details within that structure that sometimes escape critics' attention. In one original device, Tykwer follows the lives of the people Lola blows past, and how that split-second interaction helps determine the next months or even years of their lives. As they turn to stare or shout an insult, Tykwer zooms in on their faces, kicking off a flurry of snapshots that serve as chilling portents and bracing commentary on the interconnectedness of random events. Lola's initial idea for getting the money is the same each time, meaning that the viewer thrice watches very similar footage, but it's the small variations that make it newly engaging each time. The sequences are separated by the film's only quiet moments -- touching flashbacks of pillow talk in which Lola and Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) reveal their deepest insecurities. Shot through a gauzy red filter, these moments provide stark contrasts to the brashness of the rest of the film. The action is fueled throughout by pumping rave music, much of it composed by Tykwer himself. The resulting package is a spike of adrenaline that should thrill anyone who appreciates a smart concept executed at a frenetic pace. ~Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

The Legend of Paul and Paula / Die Legende von Paul und Paula (Germany)
PN1997 .L42 1999

A sentimental favorite of East German cinema, The Legend of Paul and Paula is a moving and realistic portrait of a couple's struggle to find satisfaction and love in their everyday lives. Paula, a single mother, works long hours at a supermarket and is generally dissatisfied with her life. Approached by an older tire salesman, Herr Saft, she gravitates toward him but their relationship lacks the overriding passion she desires. Paula drifts into a bar one night and meets a most unlikely match, Paul, a respectable but slightly dull, married man. After they fall in love to a wonderful soundtrack of '70s German pop music, Paul must choose between his terminally annoying wife and Paula. Unable to break with his past, Paul wavers and Paula withdraws, seriously hurt. The ending is a classic example of "You don't know what you have until it's gone." ~Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide

The Sea Inside / Mar Adentro (Spain)
PN1997 .M363 2005

Leagues beyond a disease-of-the-week movie, and a total departure for its director, The Sea Inside is a potent emotional journey anchored by powerhouse performances. It turns out that Alejandro Amenábar, known for gothic horror (The Others) and existentialism (Abre los Ojos), can do lyrical intimacy with equal finesse. Amenábar's technique is partly responsible for bringing Ramon Sampedro to life; his camera explores the rolling landscape of Sampedro's mind, as well as the photographs of his bedroom, which show the rich exuberance of Ramon's youth. But The Sea Inside wouldn't be half the experience without the work of Javier Bardem. He's such a charismatic figure, so quick to flirt or joke, that he can seduce even from his state of permanent recline, and at times, the 2004 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film is equally satisfying as a wistful romance. Ramon's very quickness of wit provides the film with a central conundrum: how can a person who seems so harmonious with his world want to end his life? The Spanish countryside provides an idyllic backdrop for such weighty philosophical debate, deceptively appropriate in the way it accentuates the fragile beauty of life -- especially as captured through Javier Aguirresarobe's cinematography. Amenábar's script is also keenly attuned to life's absurdities. A memorable argument transpires between Ramon, stubbornly confined to his bed, and a paralyzed priest, down two floors because his wheelchair couldn't be carried any higher into the house. A messenger runs between the two, exchanging barbs, but their polarized views lie a much greater distance apart. Ramon's sardonic outlook on religious salvation cannot be shaken, and Bardem's performance convinces the audience there's no reason it should be. The range of perspectives of those who care about him lends the film additional poignancy, never crossing over into maudlin sentiment. ~Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

The Ogre (Germany)
PN1997 .O335 1999

Based on a novel by French author Michel Tournier, this drama chronicles the redemption of Abel, a French POW responsible for kidnapping dozens of young boys for recruitment by the Nazi SS during WW II. The film opens with black-and-white shots of Abel's childhood in Paris. The year is 1925 and already he has problems getting along with teachers and students. Then he is befriended by the portly young Nestor. Abel loses his only friend during a terrible fire that demolishes the school and leaves him convinced that he has been blessed by fate to survive. Fourteen years quickly pass; the story turns to color, and the now hulking Abel is seen working in a Paris garage. He also spends time with his girlfriend Rachel. It is she who playfully dubs him "ogre" because he is rather rough in bed. Abel has always loved children. He was good friends with little Martine, until she falsely accuses him of rape and he is sent to prison. During the war, he is freed by the German invaders who involve him with the upper echelons of the SS and give him a job as a hunting assistant on Goering's Bavarian estate. ~Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Butterfly / Le Papillon (France)
PN1997 .P326 2004

Directed and written by Philippe Muyl, the family-friendly Le Papillon (The Butterfly) concerns a search for the title creature. Often lonely because of her single mother's busy work schedule, eight-year-old Elsa (Claire Bouanich) befriends an elderly neighbor man named Julien (Michel Serrault), eventually joining him on a trek to find a rare butterfly that lives for only 72 hours. As the relationship between the two teaches them both a few things about themselves, Elsa's mother (Nade Dieu) worries that her daughter has been kidnapped. ~Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

What Have I Done to Deserve This? / Que he Hecho yo para Merecer Esto? (Spain)
PN1997 .Q34 2003

What Have I Done to Deserve This? is a hilarious Pedro Almodóvar film about a spectacularly dysfunctional family living in Madrid. As is typical with early Almodóvar, the plot twists come thick and fast, and the entire film cheerfully teeters on the edge of insanity; indeed, this film is far more accessible and humane than many of the director's later works. Clearly, Almodóvar is drawing in this film to some degree on his own chaotic past. Born in the small town of Calzada de Calatrava, Almodóvar made his way to Madrid in 1968 and initially supported himself by selling used items in a flea market. Unable to attend film school, he took a job with the phone company, saved his salary, and eventually purchased a Super-8 camera. Almodóvar made a series of bizarre and entirely unconventional short films with his friends until he shot his first feature, Pepi, Luci, Bom y Otras Chicas del Montón (1980, aka Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom). Shot in 16 mm, the film was then blown up to 35 mm and became an underground hit, something like John Waters' breakthrough film, Pink Flamingos (1972). In What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Almodóvar chronicles the intersecting lives of speed-addicted domestic Gloria (Carmen Maura) and her husband, Antonio (Ángel de Andrés López), whose sons are prostitutes and drug dealers. Grandmother is mentally incompetent, Antonio is a Nazi sympathizer involved a plot of forge Hitler's nonexistent diaries, and the next-door neighbor is call girl Cristal (Verónica Forqué), who does little to ease Gloria's plight. All of this is played entirely for laughs, and somehow, it all works, making the characters in the film at once sympathetic, hilarious, and buffoonish, with the end result that the film resembles nothing so much as a live-action cartoon. Almodóvar's comic pacing never flags, unlike some of his later films, and he seems cheerfully at home in these lunatic surroundings, delivering one of the most satisfying and outrageous comedies of his long career. As he began to take his work more seriously, he lost much of his comic assurance; here, as a near-punk filmmaker, he creates a world of decadent exuberance that brims with contagious goodwill and absurdity. One of Almodóvar's best films, What Have I Done to Deserve This? is an excellent introduction to Almodóvar's work as a whole, and a reminder of a time when he did not take his work as seriously (often with unfortunate results) as he now does. ~Wheeler Winston Dixon, All Movie Guide

Sobrenatural (Mexico)
PN1997 .S627 1999

Unnerved by having heard a neighbor being killed, Dolores (Susana Zabaleta) is not easily reassured. Though her husband Andres (Alejandro Tommasi) discounts her concerns about nefarious goings on in their apartment building, whatever confidence she had disappears when he mutters the murdered woman's name in his sleep. When witchy neighbor, Madame Endor (Delia Casanova) says she is in danger, Dolores believes it. Then the psychologist her husband sends her to becomes convinced that she is correct in her concerns. Dolores believes Satan is involved in the unsettling events around her, and she gets the chance to find out. This film is in the Spanish language. ~Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Cows / Vacas (Spain)
PN1997 .V17 2002

In Basque country, feuds, governments, and wars come and go, while cows placidly observe the strange behaviors of the humans who care for them. In 1875, during a massacre inspired by an out-of-control family feud, a farmer and his friend find themselves in a ditch together. One of them dies, and the other survives by playing possum using his friend's blood as a disguise. As the film flashes forward in time, the man is now a grandfather who amuses himself by painting the tranquil gaze of cows over and over again, while he observes that his son is having an affair with his dead friend's granddaughter. Finally, during the Civil War in 1936, violence again mars the life of the family, as the illegitimate son of the earlier affair attempts to make headway with his life. ~Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide