Top 5

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

csprague — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:34:08 GMT

benthams_head:

Depressing Holiday films:

Rocky

Thanksgiving

I gotta say: poor Adrian! She spends all day cooking a turkey for her drunkard of a brother, and how does he thank her? By throwing it out the window! She then goes to an empty ice rink with a blockheaded amateur-circuit boxer and is cajoled into spending the night at his depressing apartment. She ends up getting married to this guy. She almost dies in childbirth. She gets sexually harassed by Mr. T. Her husband gains a fortune and buys her a hideous snake watch. The fortune is squandered (again, the brother). And, to top it off, she dies mysteriously. Worst Thanksgiving EVER!

Wow, now I totally want to watch Rocky, a movie I have managed to avoid for a long time.

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

benthams_head — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:30:48 GMT

Risselada:

leeroy711:

SkyPilot:

UPDATE 11/14: 10 Most Accessible Foreign Films A lot of you picked films that showed up on Chris's list. Plus, leeroy711 gets quoted! And by the way, I think benthams_head makes a really strong case for July 4 in Brokeback Mountain.

That gateway drug thing actually makes a lot more sense the more I think about it. I realized that when I try to get my other friends into foreign movies, I almost always loan them my copy of Amelie or Run Lola Run..................... as Ice T said: "I'm your pusher."

Heh yeah, and I wouldn't be surprised if one of those two movies is usually shown the first week of any basic level foreign film class at any randomly chosen US University. It get's people eased into reading subtitles.

Don't forget about "Life is Beautiful" or "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"! They were two of the few "fo-lang" joints that had sustainable runs in the multiplex circuit. "LiB" actually got my wife hooked on subtitles, and now she's got a 2-film-a-month French New Wave habit!

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

Risselada — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:12:15 GMT

leeroy711:

SkyPilot:

UPDATE 11/14: 10 Most Accessible Foreign Films A lot of you picked films that showed up on Chris's list. Plus, leeroy711 gets quoted! And by the way, I think benthams_head makes a really strong case for July 4 in Brokeback Mountain.

That gateway drug thing actually makes a lot more sense the more I think about it. I realized that when I try to get my other friends into foreign movies, I almost always loan them my copy of Amelie or Run Lola Run..................... as Ice T said: "I'm your pusher."

Heh yeah, and I wouldn't be surprised if one of those two movies is usually shown the first week of any basic level foreign film class at any randomly chosen US University. It get's people eased into reading subtitles.

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

leeroy711 — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:52:06 GMT

SkyPilot:

UPDATE 11/14: 10 Most Accessible Foreign Films A lot of you picked films that showed up on Chris's list. Plus, leeroy711 gets quoted! And by the way, I think benthams_head makes a really strong case for July 4 in Brokeback Mountain.

That gateway drug thing actually makes a lot more sense the more I think about it. I realized that when I try to get my other friends into foreign movies, I almost always loan them my copy of Amelie or Run Lola Run..................... as Ice T said: "I'm your pusher."

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

benthams_head — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:01:26 GMT

Depressing Holiday films:

Metropolitan

Christmas

A comedy of manners about the late-80s debutante ball circuit would hardly seem to qualify as bleak material, but one scene, in particular, has always stuck in my memory. The film largely takes place in the penthouses and ballrooms of upper Manhattan. At one point, though, the bookish and out-of-place Audrey is seen simply walking the city streets amid the bustling Christmas tide. We sense in her a kind of sorrow. She’s trapped in a world of sniveling upper-crust brats, and yet she desperately wants to find a connection in the world from which she’s been cloistered. This is why she falls for the faux-proletarian Charley and why she ventures out alone in search of everyday experience. Whit Stillman (the director) never puts a heavy point on this. He simply lays out the scene for us to experience. Brilliant stuff.

Brokeback Mountain

Fourth of July

Enis stares pensively at a small town fireworks display with his back turned to the camera. While the flashing bombs in the sky provide an easy metaphor for his inner turmoil, we also experience, through him, a corner of America where the veneer of patriotism hides a brutal and unforgiving cultural landscape.

Forrest Gump

New Years 1972

The look on Lt. Dan’s face says it all.

Rocky

Thanksgiving

I gotta say: poor Adrian! She spends all day cooking a turkey for her drunkard of a brother, and how does he thank her? By throwing it out the window! She then goes to an empty ice rink with a blockheaded amateur-circuit boxer and is cajoled into spending the night at his depressing apartment. She ends up getting married to this guy. She almost dies in childbirth. She gets sexually harassed by Mr. T. Her husband gains a fortune and buys her a hideous snake watch. The fortune is squandered (again, the brother). And, to top it off, she dies mysteriously. Worst Thanksgiving EVER!

The Passion of the Christ

Good Friday

Relax, Jesus. Mel Gibson really does love you. He just has his own special way of showing it.

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

STEPHENtheDIRECTOR — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:38:42 GMT

Depressing holidays:

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Dysfunctional Families:

Pieces of April

The Royal Tenebaums

Psycho

Happiness

Running With Scissors

Most Accessible Foreign Films:

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

SkyPilot — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:36:24 GMT

Here's Chris Campbell's 10 Dysfunctional Families. I see that a couple of your picks made the list; I salute you.

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

Risselada — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:02:37 GMT

SkyPilot:

10 Most Depressing Holidays in Movies*

What about Mrs. Hurdicure's happiest memory in the movie Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy? Basically her son shows up with her kids on Christmas day. You find out her husband died. The kids open the presents and don't like them and call her a dummy. Then everyone leaves after only like two minutes before she can even serve supper. And THAT is her happiest memory! So sad and hilarious.

But just wait until the end of the movie where you find out what her saddest memory is! EVEN MORE HILARIOUS!!! AND SO SAD!!!

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

Risselada — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:52:55 GMT

indieabby88:

Top dysfunctional families (in no particular order)

The Tenenbaums from The Royal Tenenbaums

The Buckmans from Rachel Getting Married

The Berkmans (coincidence?) from
The Squid and the Whale
The Burnhams from American Beauty

The Burnses from Pieces of April

The Burroughses/the Finches from Running with Scissors

The family from Death at a Funeral (no last names were given)

Carrie and her mother from Carrie

The Torrances from the Shining

Weird bit of trivia: Peter Hedges, who wrote and directed "Pieces of April" also wrote and directed "Dan in Real Life," another movie about a dysfunctional family with the last name of Burns.

Wow all of the family names start with B or T. Strange.

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

filmgal81 — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:00:25 GMT

I'd like to add Home for the Holidays under the dyfunctional family list. A perfect example of the ties that bind- and potentially strangle- during the holiday season. Plus, it is a movie about Thanksgiving- most are around Christmas.

SkyPilot:

This week on SpoutBlog, Chris Campbell will build these lists:

10 Best Dysfunctional Families in Movies

10 Most Depressing Holidays in Movies*

10 Most Accessible Foreign Language Films of the Last 10 Years**

Does anyone have opinions on these? Here's your chance to influence Chris's picks.

*How about Columbus Day in Christopher Columbus: The Discovery?

**I had to laugh when Risselada leeroy711 called Amelie the "gateway drug" of foreign films in this Top 5 Overrated Movies discussion. (Sorry about my flub, leeroy!)

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

SkyPilot — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:06:19 GMT

leeroy711:

SkyPilot:

I had to laugh when Risselada called Amelie the "gateway drug" of foreign films in this Top 5 Overrated Movies discussion.

That was me. I was adding to what Rizzo had already said something to the effect that Amelie seems to be the movie that people who maybe wouldn't otherwise see foreign movies will cling to as "their favorite foreign film"

Sorry leeroy! Thanks for the note.

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

mercurial — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:42:08 GMT

Most Depressing Holidays in Movies:

1.) Pieces of April - Thanksgiving

2.) A Christmas Story - Christmas

3.) Bio-Dome - Earth Day

4.) 200 Cigarettes - New Year's Day

5.) The Nightmare Before Christmas - Christmas

6.) National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - Christmas

More when I think of them . . .

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

mercurial — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:32:44 GMT

Most Accessible Foreign Language Films of the Last 10 Years:

1.) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

2.) Kung-Fu Hustle

3.) Y Tu Mama Tambien

4.) Pan's Labyrinth

5.) Ringu

6.) Talk to Her

7.) The Spanish Apartment

8.) The Motorcycle Diaries

9.) CIty of God

10.) Amorres Perros

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

leeroy711 — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:25:59 GMT

SkyPilot:

10 Most Accessible Foreign Language Films of the Last 10 Years**

**I had to laugh when Risselada called Amelie the "gateway drug" of foreign films in this Top 5 Overrated Movies discussion. (Hey Rizzo, I can't find that quote now, did you delete it?)

That was me. I was adding to what Rizzo had allready said something to the effect that Amelie seems to be the movie that people who maybe wouldn't otherwise see foreign movies will cling to as "their favorite foreign film"

So........... with that, here's my list:

1. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

3. Run Lola Run (1998)

4. Amélie (2001)

5. Downfall (2004)

6. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

7. The Lives of Others (2006)

8. Night Watch (2004)

9. City of God (2002)

10. Volver (2006)

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

mercurial — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:13:51 GMT

10 Best Dysfunctional Families in Movies (in no particular order):

1.) Gosford Park

2.) Beetlejuice

3.) Happiness

4.) Little Miss Sunshine

5.) National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

6.) Mommie Dearest

7.) Parenthood

8.) Slums of Beverly Hills

9.) The Virgin Suicides

10.) Welcome to the Dollhouse

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

indieabby88 — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:12:07 GMT

Top dysfunctional families (in no particular order)

The Tenenbaums from The Royal Tenenbaums

The Buckmans from Rachel Getting Married

The Berkmans (coincidence?) from

The Squid and the Whale

The Burnhams from American Beauty

The Burnses from Pieces of April

The Burroughses/the Finches from Running with Scissors

The family from Death at a Funeral (no last names were given)

Carrie and her mother from Carrie

The Torrances from the Shining

Weird bit of trivia: Peter Hedges, who wrote and directed "Pieces of April" also wrote and directed "Dan in Real Life," another movie about a dysfunctional family with the last name of Burns.

Re:Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

Smooth_J — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:00:18 GMT

SkyPilot:

This week on SpoutBlog, Chris Campbell will build these lists:

10 Best Dysfunctional Families in Movies

10 Most Depressing Holidays in Movies*

10 Most Accessible Foreign Language Films of the Last 10 Years**

Does anyone have opinions on these? Here's your chance to influence Chris's picks.

*How about Columbus Day in Christopher Columbus: The Discovery?

**I had to laugh when Risselada called Amelie the "gateway drug" of foreign films in this Top 5 Overrated Movies discussion. (Hey Rizzo, I can't find that quote now, did you delete it?)

I'll throw in one for each (for now):

Dysfunctional family-The Royal Tenenbaums

Depressing holiday-Groundhog Day

Foreign film-The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Depressing holidays, dysfunctional families, foreign films you gotta love

SkyPilot — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:01:51 GMT

This week on SpoutBlog, Chris Campbell will build these lists:

10 Best Dysfunctional Families in Movies

10 Most Depressing Holidays in Movies

10 Most Accessible Foreign Language Films of the Last 10 Years*

Does anyone have opinions on these? Here's your chance to influence Chris's picks.

*I had to laugh when Risselada leeroy711 called Amelie the "gateway drug" of foreign films in this Top 5 Overrated Movies discussion. (Sorry about my flub, leeroy!)

UPDATE 11/12: 10 Best Dysfunctional Families by Chris Campbell. I see that a couple of your suggestions showed up!

UPDATE 11/13: 10 Most Depressing Holidays Dang, I wanted Earth Day from Bio-Dome to show up! Good work, mercurial.

UPDATE 11/14: 10 Most Accessible Foreign Films A lot of you picked films that showed up on Chris's list. Plus, leeroy711 gets quoted! And by the way, I think benthams_head makes a really strong case for July 4 in Brokeback Mountain.