Films

Lot’s of good films coming out of Scotland lately. There’s “Young Adam” starring Ewen McGregor that premiered at Edinburgh the other week.

Films shot round my neck of the woods include Peter Mullans “Orphans” and the wonderful “My Name Is Joe”. Luc Besson was shooting in Glasgow in the spring for a movie starring Morgan Freeman and Fan Lee, don’t know when it’s due out though ?

Originally posted by Hand87_5
My favorite non french cinema in Europe is definitely the British one. (and Irish actually)
I like many Spanish ones as well.
I’m not keen of Italian cinema and don’t know much of the other countries.

La vita e bella was super! Though I think that was an international production.

‘Whisky Galore’ about the wreck of SS Politician’ a ship loaded with our Scottish national drink whiskey which in 1941 was wrecked off the Hebrides islands in North-Western Scotland.
The film was about the islanders plundering the whisky cargo and maintaining a conspiracy of silence to thwart HM Customs.

My favorite non french cinema in Europe is definitely the British one. (and Irish actually)
I like many Spanish ones as well.
I’m not keen of Italian cinema and don’t know much of the other countries.

British? Snatch.

“16 pigs can comsume 90 kilograms of raw uncoocked flesh in about 8 minutes, hence the expression greedy as a pig”.

“Protection from what, from za Germans?”

“You’re not very usefull to my alive, Turkish, are ya?”

“The fact that on the back of your gun replica is written, while mine says Golden Eagle O’fifty, makes your balls shrink even faster.”

“You like dags?”

Spanish film industry is the second in Europe after France. The topics tend to be sometimes too naturalistic, sordid and depicting the marginal sides of societies. Sometimes too violent and with a deep sexual orientation. So they are not “easy” and comertial films. But plots are usually witty and the quality is high. Almodovar is the magic director of the Spanish industry.

For Britain, I think ‘Brassed Off’ was a brilliant and fair portrayal of a mining town in decline in the ’80’s and led to the fantastic line “My Dad’s lyin’ poorly in hospital and Margaret ******* Thatcher lives?”

For the wartime period there were many films which captured the spirit of the British people under duress, but none more so than “Went the Day Well.” This is a superb film produced during the war portraying the taking over of an English village by German special forces posing as a Polish unit. Their task was to set up a radar station in support of a full scale invasion. The film was quite graphic for it’s time as it shows the villagers reactions ranging from terror to foolhardy displays of bravado to the villages united uprising against the Germans. Brilliant stuff.

Zulu I think shows Britain in Colonial times in not too good a light. The missionaries trying to change the culture of the Zulu, The rift between Officer’s and enlisted men (and even between Officer’s of equal rank), the ‘malingering Hectors’ in the Hospital. Superb line where Michael Caine’s character offers to have another Officer’s boots cleaned to which the Officer replies ‘If you’re sure it’ll be no bother?” Caines character replies “Oh, it’s no bother, not offering to do them myself old boy.”

There are probably many more which are far more representative than those, but they work for me.

Regards,

kev35

Trainspotting maybe? And ofcourse the books of Adrian Mole :).

Krijg toch allemaal de klere, val voor mijn part allemaal dood!!!

Ohh we have already forgotten Flodder. “Betalen, polaroid”? Brilliant!

A typically Dutch movie? I guess ‘Schatjes’ nicely portrays our family life, ‘De Fanfare’ our corniness, ‘Turks Fruit’ our nice way of covering subtlety in rudenes… But i think ‘Spetters’ best portrays the Netherlands as a country, but you do have to take the social outcry that film created when it was released too.

However, i don’t think one film can ever be enough to portray or even symbolise a country. Each and every film is bound by the setting in which it takes place, be that a social environment, timeframe or simple the storyline. A film can wonderfully illustrate a part of a nation’s history or identity and can sometimes even give a taste, but i doubt it can completely represent a country.

Just for example: which film illustrates Britain better: The Full Monty, or Pride and Prejudice? I think both do an outstanding job in their own niche.

Ah Siske de Rat, a fine taste of film you have Ben, but I think it is a tipical Amsterdam movie not a Dutch one. I would say for Holland, soldaat van oranje (soldier of Orange) not because it is a war movie but because you can see alot of different Dutch mentalities in the movie.

regards,

JW