This is war.

[icarus]

I'm looking for art house films, costume dramas (go light on the history because he likes history), light romantic foreign language comedies (he fled from the Japanese version of Shall We Dance?).

Anything wildernessguru would hate. Because I want revenge, damn it, for the last two hours spent watching Army of Darkness.

I can't believe he likes this.


ETA: Don't tell me you like it because I will disown you, lol.

ETA: Thank you, guys, this is turning into an excellent rec-list of movies.

ETA 2: I'm making up a post with the names of all the movies recc'd here.

Oh, oh, oh! I love Bollywood movies! He'll hate those -- he can't even stand the music. Anyone have some recs?

Comments

[lauramcewan.livejournal.com]

Roy does.

**runs**

[lauramcewan.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

Roy compels me to tell you, that did you know the line that is used to open the book is the same line used to control the robot by the alien in The Day the Earth Stood Still?

Yeah. I don't care, either.

But Roy claims to have had dinner with the director of AoD....

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Klaatu barada nikto? Seriously?

[wildebeth.livejournal.com]

I hate that movie. omg My ex (emphasis on ex) made me watch it several years ago. Look out. If you haven't already seen the others, this one is the third in a series.

Dave keeps trying to get me to watch all these movies with a ton of violence. I don't get the fascination with the mafia, and I'd rather spork myself in all my major arteries than watch any more "action" movies my parents stuffed down my throat over the years.

Oh yeah, recs

[wildebeth.livejournal.com]

Look here (http://www.nclrc.org/cultureclub/collection.html) in the Screening Room for inspiration. Great site.

I love Amélie; in fact, it's my favorite movie. :) I'm thinking about trying to learn French so I can watch without English subtitles; the director said they were a terrible translation.

[lauramcewan.livejournal.com]

My suggestion: The Pillow Book

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Thank you, it sounds perfect.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Almost anything by Truffaut sounds like it would be a good start. Bergman, maybe...Smiles of a Summer Night? or Fanny and Alexander? La Nuit de Varennes, I suggested that in your other post. The Story of Adele H. Camille Claudel. Cousin, Cousine, one of my favorite movies of all time. Peppermint Soda.

God, I saw approximately nine zillion French movies between 1978 and 1988, and I'm blanking on almost all of them. What was the one where they're all on a barge singing about women getting illegal abortions? Drat.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

This is freaky. I can remember almost the entire first stanza of that song, in French, as well as random lines of dialogue, but not the actual name of the movie. Argh.

[an-kayoh.livejournal.com]

If I tell you I love Shall We Dance, will you feel better?

Mostly Martha is a good film. Well, except that Martha's sister dies and she has to raise her niece and the niece is freaked out, but there are some excellent scenes where Martha and The Love Interest are all snarky and cute.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yes, I will. It's such an amusing, sweet film (and the Japanese original is 20 times better than the US version, Richard Gere notwithstanding).

Oh yeah. He hated the new Battlestar Gallactica series. Oh! And he didn't want to see Oz. *evil smile*

[enname.livejournal.com]

Being that about the only films I ever watch are arthouse I can say with a definitive tone of voice that I do not like Army of Darkness. The Japanese version of Shall We Dance I did like.

Hmm. Any of the truly kooky and offbeat stuff he might like. :P

Well The Spanish Apartment (best if you can get it in Spanish) is of course the ultimate foreign romantic comedy, with a side of sort of arthouse. The Trois couleurs Bleu, Rouge and Blanc or any of Krzysztof Kieslowski's films. Krótki film o milosci (A short film about love) would have a nice double edge. Bonus points for being very slow moving. Oh, and his Decalogue. Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, Gus van Sant of course, Werner Herzog ... although that is dabbling in history except for each film being incredibly long.

Half of French film? There is a wonderful pile of Iranian art house films out there (A Time For Drunken Horses etc), the classical German and ... Asia is wow, overload. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung were in one that would be excactly what you want: pre revolutionary China, lost love... and I can't recall its name. :P Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring is a Korean one.

Try loading any of the film festival web pages and seeing what they have on offer as well. Should be easy to get hold of some of them as they are out and about trying to be shown.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, I absolutely love Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring -- and you're right, he'd hate it.

pre revolutionary China, lost love

Was that "To Live"? Only, that covers communist China as well.

The Spanish Apartment sounds great. And Ingmar Bergman, yes, yes.

I'd also like to get into all those classic Katharine Hepburn films. If you know any good Shakespeare adaptations I'd love to hear it (I understand there's a terrific Hamlet out there somewhere, and of course I've seen the Olivia Hussey version of Romeo and Juliet a few times). Didn't Kenneth Branaugh do a version of Henry V?

Oh yeah! He also hates musicals! He ran from West Side Story.

I once found this very cool version of Carmen that was done with a flamenco interpretation of Bizet.

I've been considerate, darn it! I've always tried to get films where our tastes intersect and I've watched more bloodbaths than I can possibly stand. But now, the gloves are off.

Icarus

[kagyakusha.livejournal.com]

The Fountain. it's light on history and heavy on strange strange moments. I haven't managed to get through the whole movie (yet) because I foolishly keep trying to watch it while i've been drinking

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Okay, cool.

Icarus

[jinxed-wood.livejournal.com]

Two Days in Paris (http://nymag.com/listings/movie/two-days-in-paris-deux-j/)? See, even the title is enough to give him a headache...

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ah, perfect.

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

Um, if you are not totally required to enjoy it, there's a French film called Four Stars that's kind of funny. There are a couple of moments of REALLY WEIRD AND UNPLEASANT (fully deserving the caps) characterisation, such as when the "boyfriend" is a total dick to the "girlfriend" (iirc, he actually slaps her at one point) and she decides to stay with him, but it is also a) French, b) a rom com, and c) was highly regarded by the sometimes-insane staffers at the 2006 SIFF. If you can ignore the fact that there are bits that don't really hang together re characterisation, there are some genuinely funny moments.

There is also Free Floating, which is Russian, and I swear to god I thought it was the second most shit movie I've ever seen at the festival this year, but I've evaluated it and evaluated it and I think I just don't know enough about Russia to get all the subtleties, but that it is a biting commentary on how Russia works now and how someone who is honest is going to get completely lost. Very good, I think, though, like I say, I hated it totally when I first saw it and really wanted to stab the director.

Beauty In Trouble is Eastern European and has a couple of flaws but is generally good - a woman divorces her husband slowly as she's falling in love with another man. Again a few weird parts, but overall I liked it. The ending montage could have used some work, but that's the way it goes.

I don't know what you mean by art house, but one of my favourite movies ever (and NOT for the faint of heart) is Twist, a Canadian retelling of Oliver Twist that uses junkie hustlers in place of orphans. A lot of people don't like it because it doesn't follow the story all the way through and lacks a happy ending (the ending is really ambiguous rather than concrete) and there are some VERY, VERY violent scenes in it, including graphic IV drug use, so not for anyone needle-phobic, very graphic (in more ways than one) sex, physical violence, gore, and slightly-more-than-implied murder, but Nick Stahl is possibly the finest actor of his generation and waiting for the right part for the world to know this, and he really carries the movie. It is not an action flick, despite having all those action-y elements in it; it's mainly about choices and honesty and has some very brilliant moments to it. This is probably the closest-to-perfect movie I can think of, but I tend to like very dark movies that aren't necessarily as well-filmed as they think they are. It might be well out of what you mean by art house, particularly given your other requests of costume dramas and light foreign language rom com, but it's what I think of as art house. This movie was nominated for at least one of the Canadian version of the Oscar, for either best actor or best film.

Another, similar film (I like me some gay hustlers, apparently) is Mysterious Skin. Also very good, and won the Golden Space Needle for either best film or best director for 2005. This one is pretty easy to find and is based off a book of the same name. I don't recall particularly horrible scenes in it (or more than you would expect from a movie that I like, anyway).

And in a completely different vein, Red Coloured Grey Truck is not the finest former-Yugoslavian movie I've seen, but it's definitely a funny romantic comedy (with, as is true of most Eastern European films, a very pointed focus on the war, but covered well by some very genuine humor).

I have no idea if ANY of these are likely to interest you at all, and I know they're all flawed (I'd love to hand you a selection of movies and say "All of these are brilliant, watch them all!") but those are the ones I could think of on short notice. I would strongly suggest checking them out a bit further via the internet to see if you have any interest, but you're hardly dumb, so of course you're going to do that. I just kind of worry that I overrepresent things as quality and then people get freaked out by what I've suggested and I've been an idiot.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Well, part of the goal is for me to watch movies that I enjoy, so I'm not sure about many of these.

Actually, I probably wasn't going to check these out on the internet first. I'm a little bit lazy like that. ;)

Icarus

[orca-girl.livejournal.com]

Oh! Army of Darkness? Huh.

No, I'm not going to tell you that I like it. I'm only going to say that I had always heard that the "Evil Dead" trilogy was "classic". Because those are the ones with Bruce Campbell, right? Hmm. First: I had no idea that they involved time travel as well as zombies. I thought they were post-apocalyptic or something. Second: your timely warning will cause me to be alert the next time one of my trusted male friends tries to argue that I should watch this trilogy. (As a rule, they know I don't do zombie flicks anyway. Except for "Shaun of the Dead", that doesn't count. And "Resident Evil" doesn't count either, because Oded Fehr is in it.)

I have to admit that I am having a really difficult time coming up with a costume drama that is NOT historical...

How about any number of Jane Austen adaptations?

"Ever After"? "French Kiss"?

[ursula]

I have to admit that I am having a really difficult time coming up with a costume drama that is NOT historical...

Casanova. (The movie.)

[nqdonne.livejournal.com]

Two words: Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility would likely be the most painful (I LOVE THAT MOVIE).

There's also Love Me If You Dare, which is a French romantic comedy. So, so schmoopy - it's great :P

Muriel's Wedding?

[orca-girl.livejournal.com]

*glomps you* Sense & Sensibility is very near the top of my all-time favorites, and also is my current favorite "I just want to settle down with something that makes me feel cozy" film. MMMMMM!

Speaking of Muriel's Wedding...

Strictly Ballroom!!!!! My god, if that doesn't make him claw his eyes out...

Also: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Plus, I can recommend (from recent exposure), if you can find it (god knows how), a recent-ish New Zealand film called "The Price of Milk", which is notable for starring Karl Urban. Utterly bizarre.

[lherelenfeline.livejournal.com]

Shakespeare in Love?
Notting Hill?
A walk to remember?

[slashpile.livejournal.com]

Well, I was in a presentation on the films of Tarkovsky today. (Original Solaris, Mirror). I gather the later films are more self-referential. There is much about time folding in on itself or possibly being a paradox and apparently people sit and look a lot, and you sit and look at a table until a bottle spontaneously falls off.

Now, they might be lovely films, but the most exciting thing someone said was that they have much in common with Dutch paintings of interiors. So, you know.

[slashpile.livejournal.com]

And on things you might actually enjoy, and following on the Jane Austen suggestions above: Mansfield Park. Fantastic, but with polite coldness in the attic and amateur theatricals and drawing room discussions of arguments against slavery.

[crazed_delusion]

I must admit...I love Army of darkness. *Runs and hides behind couch* but hey at least you didn't have to watch all 3 of them. And here I offer a promising art-house flick although it's not out yet you can find a theater and make him see it when it does *runs out places link at feet and hides again*

Wristcutters: A Love Story

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Okay, I'll keep an eye out for it.

[presently.livejournal.com]

I... I.. may have slept through most of the Army of Darkness trilogy, but what I did see, well.. I don't want to be disowned. I like you. >> *hides!!*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

So long as you don't actually admit it, we are on good terms. ;) *pretends I didn't read comment, looking away with dignity*

[ursula]

L'ami de Mon Amie. Origin of the line, "She likes the mountains and I like the ocean, so we can never be together".

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's perfect. I read the description and he said, "Stop." *g* *g* *g* *evil glee*

[nicocoer.livejournal.com]

I um. just like ZOmbie movies, as the idea of zombies makes me laugh hysterically. I will admit, though, that it's not at all deserving of the level of cult it has produced. I'm seen TRUE no budget zombie movies (aka my brother and his buddies with a DIGICAM) do better zombie plot. . .

hm. well, Boku wa Imoto ni Koi Wo Suru (http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/aid-498761/section-videos/code-j/version-all/pid-1004864772/) just came out. . .

"High school student Yori (Matsumoto Jun) is in love, but it is a love that cannot be spoken. Close with his twin sister Iku (Eikura Nana) since childhood, Yori knows that his feelings for her are more than just that of sibling love. He tries hard to hide his feelings and even push Iku away, but the emotions within him keep growing stronger and stronger until one day, he confesses his love to his sister. Although confused at first, Iku gradually realizes that she too feels the same way, but they know that their love can never be accepted."


Princess Mononoke Is an AWESOME movie- but chances are he'll like it. Lots of blood, demon fighting, and it takes place in a pseudo historical setting. . . time period- around when industry started battling nature for dominance. yeah. I mean, Studio Ghibli is AMAZING, and Miyazaki Is a phenomenal animator- and this film has all sorts of blood and violence. not payback material. Others have mentioned some of Miyazaki's other works, such as My Neighbor Totoro (http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/aid-35435/section-videos/code-w/version-all/pid-1004428781/) and Kiki's delivery service (http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/aid-35435/section-videos/code-w/version-all/pid-1004420636/). I'd save Mononoke for a less payback wprthy time, and the same with Spirited Away (http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/aid-35435/section-videos/code-w/version-all/pid-1004423662/) which is an AMAZING film. Ditto with Castle in the sky (http://us.yesasia.com/en/mc/-/4rb54oU9a7/prdTransfer.aspx/section-emag/code-w/version-all/pid-1001906079/). Miyazaki is truly an artist.

I've got one for you. Remember that Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves movie from a couple years ago, "The lake house"? It was based on a japanese romance film called Il Mare (http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/code-c/section-videos/pid-1001821648/).

<3

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ah well. I guess the main point is to find and watch movies I like. To be fair, this time I insisted he get his movie and I put the Queer As Folk back on the shelf. But, honestly, this one was just -- ugh.

I'll just move them further down the list.

Il Mare? Cool.

Icarus

[ix-tab.livejournal.com]

Italian for Beginners is a FANTASTIC Danish movie. It has hand held camera, natural lighting, and no soundtrack...or if it does I can't recall it at all, but the story and the people and their love!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_For_Beginners

It has some truly funny moments. I really don't do rom-coms, but this is just so much fun to watch.

And:
'Allegro non troppo' is wonderful and surreal and beautiful. Also, one of the first movies I ever saw in cinema, but that's just because I have laissez faire parents who didn't censor what I watched as a child.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegro_non_troppo

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Sounds excellent, and just perfect, too. :)

[rike-tikki-tavi.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, La Vie En Rose should be still out in movie theaters. It's a bio-pic about Edith Piaf. Suffers a little from jumping back and forth in time a lot but the music is divine.

If he doesn't like musicals, have you considered Victor/Victoria with Julie Andrews? It's my favorite curl-up-on-the-couch-with-a-big-fluffy-blanket feel-good movie. And it's set in Paris in the golden twenties.

And I second the rec for the BBC's Pride and Prejudice. Soooo good.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wanted to see that movie and wildernessguru nixed it. *adds it to the list immediately*

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

Marie Antoinette is only historical on the most shallow of levels. It's really just one big costume eye-orgy.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ah, we've seen that. They spoiled it with the music and then the sympathetic thin portrayal of Marie Antoinette? I guess I'll have to give up on the costume dramas because I'm more bothered by historical inaccuracy than he is. I ripped that one to shreds while he rather enjoyed it.

Icarus

[quivo.livejournal.com]

This is late to the party, but you DID call for Bollywood recs. I'd mention Devdas, but since you probably don't want to hate the movie too (apart from the music, it was boring as hell), try out Bunty Aur Babli and Paheli. And I'll throw in Dhoom and Dhoom 2 for added hilarity-- the music and dancing is SUPERB in those, and from my few glimpses of the rest of the movie, the plot is, well, not the best.

But all of those are shiny IMHO. Have fun :D

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, more, more! He dislikes Hindi music so much that we can go for the best, coolest Hindi movies. (Besides... I miss them....)

[fractalreality.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wish I were at home right now and not in work because I did a film degree and there is *so much* I was forced to watch that's ever so slightly painful.

The ones I enjoyed, though, are:

Chungking Express - I stil ldon't understand the obsession with pineapples

All About My Mother - melodramatic film by Almodovar involving a transexual ex-truck driver. It's *beautiful*

A bout de souffle - French and, um, that's about it really... I haven't watched it in a couple of years but I love it.

Brief Encounter - though, everyone I know who has seen it loved it, so maybe he wont be into that.

If all else fails, the uncut version of Ken Branagh's 'Hamlet' makes some people twitch considerably.

...I'll look at my collection when I get in later to add more.

[stentoriansista.livejournal.com]

I second All About My Mother, and would add 8 Femmes (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283832/) (Catherine Deneuve. Singing. In a murder-mystery.) and Lilies (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116882/) (a French-Canadian film about prisoners acting out a play written by another prisoner about the audience member who betrayed him...um, it's hard to explain. Just watch it and enjoy the French men in dresses.) as well.

Have fun with the torment!

[sarka.livejournal.com]

You might want to check out the movies made by the Dogme 95 movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogme_95). *grins*

They're mostly not English, mostly excellent, and mostly very personal.

As a side note Lars von Trier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Von_Trier) makes wonderful films, regardless of whether they follow the Dogme 95 stipulations or not.

(Since this is a post for movies that WG would not enjoy, I hesitate to recommend my two all-time favourite Danish movies for the purpose of revenge, but I can't not mention "I Kina spiser de hunde" and "Blinkende lygter" which are both awesome.)

As for "costume dramas" that might work, how about the ridiculousness of "Knight's Tale" ?

[orca-girl.livejournal.com]

(I dithered about suggesting "Knight's Tale". I surprised myself by loving it -- and I'm usually at the forefront of snarking about historical movies and everything they're getting wrong. The thing about Knight's Tale, IMO, is that all the stuff they get wrong, they're aware they're getting wrong, and in most cases it's deliberate. -- Note: like Marie Antoinette, it frequently slides into giant WTF? moments including modern music. -- No, what shocked me the most about it was that lurking in the background were historical details that were strangely accurate, and I was left wondering, "how'd those get in there?" I mean, as a portrayal of the 14th century tournament culture, it's not bad. What especially got me was that 99% of the heraldry seen in the background wasn't the faux-heraldry that you so often see in "period" films that don't care; it was completely accurate -- they obviously based it on real stuff -- and furthermore was done in absolutely the correct artistic style for mid-14th century Europe. Nobody in films, NOBODY ever bothers to match heraldic style to period/location that closely. That charmed me instantly.)

[lttledvl.livejournal.com]

I have seen it, but yah, it is pretty dumb. It seems to be a guy thing, really. It's got a few quotes that are usable, but not much more than that appeals to me. I personally view it along the same lines as The Mummy. God that thing was awful. It was pretty in a visual effects way, but if you listen to it without seeing it, god I wanted to bang my head into a brick wall.

What's WG's takes on musicals? *grins evilly* Moulin Rogue might be one to start out with. It's all flashy and pretty, though honestly, I really didn't like it much and my hubby thought it was the dumbest thing in the world. I hesitate to suggest Evita - since being a history buff he might actually enjoy it. That is unless he hates Madonna with a passion. *snerk*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

He hates musicals. Didn't even like Evita when it was on one Sunday afternoon. But from the other room he got curious about how accurate it was and I started selling him on it.

That would be an ideal outcome. For me to start picking movies I like that he insists he hates -- and then for him to become interested. I told him, "Hey, maybe you'll like Shakespeare...." He swore he wouldn't. ;)

To be fair, half of why we watch so many of his movies is I get overwhelmed in the video store. Too many options, I just want to leave without getting anything. I'm like this with a lot of shopping, one reason I must have a list.

Icarus