Where We Are:  Portugal
wikipedia



Viagem ao Princípio do Mundo (Voyage to the Beginning of the World)
Year of Release: 1997
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Jean-Yves Gautier, Leonor Silveira, Diogo Dória, Isabel de Castro
Directed By: Manoel de Oliveira
Genre:  Drama

Overview:
"One of the most beautiful films ever made about aging. VOYAGE TO THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD brings together 89-year-old Portuguese film maker Manoel de Oliveira and Italian icon Marcello Mastroianni, in what would be his last film. Playing a film maker clearly based on Oliveira, Mastolianni takes three actor friends on a driving tour of a mountain village, where one of the actors (Jean-Yves Gautier) is united with the elderly aunt he has never met. Family becomes the link between the past and present, in a film of great simplicity, dignity, and wisdom. Through Mastroianni, Oliveira speculates on the beginnings and endings (the village is in the North, where the Portuguese nation began), on what remains of the past (a primitive wooden statute, the meaning of which has been lost) and on what disappears (the ruins of a hotel). The cinematography, by Renato Berta, is at once radiantly clear and surrealistically devoid of detail - as if what we were seeing was already a recollection." - Dave Kehr, NY DAILY NEWS

My Thoughts:
This was a beautiful, poetic film, simple in execution, subtle and complicated in thought.  It's a study in character, in memory and origins, the meaning and hold of the past, whether that be the past of the individual, the family, or the country.  It's a film that takes it time - another person might say it's slow and talky.  There really isn't any action, all of the conflict is internal, and there are no heroes or villains. Instead it's a film about the search for identity, whether that search is focussed toward the family one comes from or things left behind from one's youth as age has taken over.

I found it to be an elegant little film with a lovely nostalgic atmosphere, but as much as I enjoyed the film, I would only recommend it for the art house crowd.  There is nothing to hold the attention of the Hollywood blockbuster crowd.

Bechdel Test:  Fail

Overall: 4/5

Where We Are:  Spain
wikipedia

What We Watched:


El espíritu de la colmena (Spirit of the Beehive)
Year of Release:  1973
Starring:  Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent, Isabel Tellería
Directed By:  Victor Erice
Genre:  Drama

Overview:
The Criterion Collection is proud to present Víctor Erice's spellbinding The Spirit of the Beehive, widely regarded as the greatest Spanish film of the 1970s. In a small Castilian village in 1940, directly following the country's devastating civil war, six-year-old Ana attends a traveling movie show of Frankenstein and becomes possessed by her memory of it. Produced as Franco's long regime was nearing its end, The Spirit of the Beehive is both a bewitching portrait of a child's haunted inner life and one of the most visually arresting movies ever made.

My Thoughts:
This was a beautiful film in every sense of the word.  Everything about it was excellent: the atmosphere, the direction, the cinematography, the performances.  It's a film of few words and much empathy, a film to relax and absorb and think about - one of the best sorts of films.  It has a slow, quiet, deliberate pace, and that sort of pace isn't for everyone. 

It's a film about isolation and alienation inside the family unit.  The father sees the bees in his hive working feverishly toward nothing - when it is actually his own family trapped in this  beehive, not the bees. It's a film about the innocence of childhood and how children see the world differently from  adults and that things we may dismiss as adults can have a profound effect upon a child.  It's a film about a child's desire for a father, but also a child's fear of her father.  It's also a critique of Franco's regime.

But most of all it's a really, really great film.  Highly recommended for art house film lovers.  One of the best films I've seen.

Bechdel Test:  Pass

Overall:  5/5

Where We Are:  France
wikipedia

What We Watched:


L'Atalante
Year of Release:  1934
Starring:  Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, Michel Simon
Directed By:  Jean Vigo
Genre:  Romance, Drama

Overview:
Even among cinema's legends, Jean Vigo stands apart. The son of a notorious anarchist, Vigo had a brief but brilliant career making poetic, lightly surrealist films before his life was cut tragically short by tuberculosis at age twenty-nine. Like the daring early works of his contemporaries Jean Cocteau and Luis Buñuel, Vigo's films refused to play by the rules. This set includes all of Vigo's titles: À propos de Nice, an absurdist, rhythmic slice of life from the bustling coastal city; Taris, an inventive short portrait of a swimming champion; Zéro de conduite, a radical, delightful tale of boarding-school rebellion that has influenced countless filmmakers; and L'Atalante, widely regarded as one of cinema's finest achievements, about newlyweds beginning their life together on a canal barge. These are the witty, visually adventurous works of a pivotal film artist.

My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this film and thought it was quite good, though I can't say that I thought this was one of the greatest films of all time.  I think it had the potential to be one of those films, had Vigo been allowed to keep it the way he envisioned and if we had that version.  This is, after all, a reconstructed version of L'Atalante, the film having been chopped by the distributor back in 1934.  Vigo obviously had tremendous talent and it's a shame he died so young.

There are a lot of wonderful shots, the camera work is very interesting, as is the lighting.  The visual aspect, while a bit choppy in editing, is very lyrical and poetic nonetheless.  Another thing Vigo really got right was in depicting the cramped space inside the barge.  While the performances of the two newlyweds are solid, Michel Simon's character, Père Jules, steals the show.  He's colorful, comical and salty, and I enjoyed him a lot.  It is a kind of story you don't see very often - it begins with the wedding and at its core is about the difficulty of the couple to adjust to married life.  Most romances are about the lead-up to the wedding and end with "they lived happily ever after" so it's refreshing to see a film address the reality of marriage being difficult. 

L'Atalante reminded me very much of Sunrise, and if you liked that film you'll like this one.  Recommended for silent film lovers (even though this isn't silent, it has a silent film aesthetic to it) and film lovers in general, but not really the general public.  While it's a very good film, the languid pacing alone would bore many modern viewers.

Bechdel Test:  Fail

Overall: 4/5

Where We Are:  The United Kingdom
wikipedia

What We Watched:


The 39 Steps
Year of Release:  1935
Starring:  Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle
Directed By:  Alfred Hitchcock
Genre:  Suspense/Thriller

Overview:
The best known of Hitchcock's British films, this civilized spy yarn follows the escapades of Richard Hannay (Robert Donat), who stumbles into a conspiracy that involves him in a hectic chase across the Scottish moors—a chase in which he is both the pursuer and the pursued. Adapted from John Buchan's novel, this classic Hitchcock "wrong man" thriller encapsulates themes that anticipate the director's biggest American films (especially North by Northwest), and is a standout among his early works.

My Thoughts:
This was a really, really good film.  Of course, with Hitchcock's name attached to it I was expecting it to be - and it didn't disappoint me.  It had a great atmosphere, great cinematography, suspense, and excellent work from all the cast.  Hitchcock really knew how to keep you interested, and how to pace and move things - you find out what's going on as Hannay does, which I felt really kept the suspense of the film going.  The editing, script and dialogue are all great too.  A really superb film. 

Recommended for anyone, unless you can't stand old movies.  Then I feel sorry for you.

Bechdel Test:  Fail

Overall: 5/5

Where We Are:  Ireland
wikipedia

What We Watched:


Intermission
Year of Release: 2003
Starring: Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy, Brian O'Byrne, Kelly MacDonald, Colm Meaney
Directed By: John Crowley
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Crime, Romance

Overview:
Fifty-four characters and eleven storylines intersect with "dazzling" (San Francisco Chronicle) results in this "raucously funny and compellingly gritty" (BBCi) comedy.  An ingenious tale of small-town delinquents, shady cops and warring lovers reunited by a bizarre kidnapping plan, Intermission is a dark, edgy, "very funny study of love, lust and petty crime" (Sight & Sound)!

My Thoughts:
This is a sort of gritty, slice-of-life of the working class kind of film.  It had a kind of disjointed beginning, and I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy the movie, but I gave it a chance and as it developed I was drawn further in and everything came together wonderfully.  It's entertaining and fun - and really, really funny at certain parts.  The look on Colin Farrell's face when Cillian Murphy's character puts the brown sauce in his tea.  I just about couldn't stop laughing.  It's a bit violent, the language is coarse, but the dialogue is well written and the actors really embody their parts.  I'll admit I bought it because of the presence of Colm Meaney, being the Trek fan I am, and he's great in it, but none of the actors are slouches. Recommended for anyone who's enjoyed an ensemble piece.

Bechdel Test: Fail

Overall: 3.25/5

Nói Albinói is worth watching. Don't know the other one.

One I can recommend for you to get is 101 Reykjavik.

Where We're Going Next:  Norway

I have 6 films to choose from here:

- The Bothersome Man
- Buddy
- Elling
- Hawaii, Oslo
- Insomnia
- Monster, Thursday

We've seen Insomnia, so it will likely be one of the others.

Where We're Going Next:  Sweden

I have a decent number of Swedish films to choose from, most of them from Ingmar Bergman.  I can say already that we'll be watching The Seventh Seal. 

- Cries and Whispers
- Crisis
- Fanny & Alexander
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
- The Girl Who Played With Fire
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
- I Am Curious (Blue)
- I Am Curious (Yellow)
- Ingeborg Holm
- Kestrel's Eye
- Let the Right One In
- The Magic Flute
- The Magician
- A Man There Was
- My Life as a Dog
- The Phantom Carriage
- Port of Call
- Saraband
- Scenes From a Marriage
- The Seventh Seal
- The Silence
- Smiles of a Summer Night
- Summer Interlude
- Summer With Monika
- Thirst
- Through a Glass Darkly
- To Joy
- Torment
- Wild Strawberries
- Winter Light
- You the Living