Tag: Foreign

Au Revoir les Enfants (1987)

Post author By Mark A. Lester
Post date May 15, 2020
No Comments on Au Revoir les Enfants (1987)

As we reach our teen years, world events start to play a bigger part in our lives in the classroom.

When I entered middle school back in 2000 (!), more people were talking about the election, only to be followed a year later by the 9/11 attacks. I can only imagine what the talks will be like with young people now regarding the COVID-19 pandemic (especially those like my brother Jackson who are in the graduating class of 2020). These were evident in my mind as I was watching Louis Malle’s Au Revoir les Enfants, a reflection of his own childhood during World War II in France.

Tags 1987, Au Revoir Les Enfants, Coming of Age, Film Friday, Foreign, Foreign Language, France, holocaust, Louis Malle, Movie Review, PG, Rated PG, World War Two

5 Stars Movies Vintage

Ikiru (1952)

Even the most casual of filmgoers have, in some way, shape, or form, heard of the name Akira Kurosawa.

The legendary filmmaker is still felt today in films both domestically and globally, having inspired people such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas (shown here giving Kurosawa an Honorary Oscar). Of his films, Seven Samurai has got to be his most influential: it has been the inspiration for films ranging from The Magnificent Seven (the original and the remake) to Disney/Pixar’s A Bug’s Life. While I am still trying to work through his filmography (thank you Criterion Channel), I would argue the most moving film of his would be what he made two years prior to Samurai: Ikiru (which, translated, means “To live”).

Tags 1952, Akira Kurosawa, Foreign, Foreign Language, George Lucas, Ikiru, Kurosawa, Steven Spielberg, To LIve

5 Stars

Roma (2018)

It should come as no real surprise that a lot of the original films by Netflix are not that good.

Some (at least ones I have seen and heard of) are pretty terrible. I would say that Roma is not one of them, but that is a putrid understatement. Here is one of the best films of this or any year, and to say it is not worth seeing because it is not in English or in color would show how shallow you are as a movie goer.

Tags 2018, Alfonso Cuaron, Birdman, Black and White, Fernando Grediaga, Five Stars, Foreign, Gravity, John Ford, Marina de Tavira, Netflix, R, Rated R, Roma, The Revenant, Yalitza Aparicio, Yasujiro Ozu