I miss dolce...

I have an urge to go on a DVD spending spree and buy all the classic Italian and French films I can handle.

We should resurrect the Foreign Film festival.

I hadn't thought much about her until Moolaade finally popped onto my Netflix queue list with a February 5 release. Speaking of which, I should really bump that thread up...

I just kinda want some recommendations on Italian/French film from the '50s-'60s. I've read through her old threads on Italian films and wish I could ask her what she'd recommend for me specifically, and then discuss 'em with her, since she knows many of them inside and out.

Italian and French Movies I've Watched (1950s, 1960s):
8 1/2
Nights of Cabria
La Dolce Vita
Blow-Up
Breathless

Yep, that's it, unless you count Leone westerns. I've never seen any Visconti (but I'm saving the Leopard until I'm done with the book, which I'm reading right now).

I can help you out with French New Wave stuff, torri, as I had a class on that last semester.

Breathless is a good start.

Yeah, I've seen Breathless - I was "gifted" the new Criterion edition from a friend recently. But, that's Breathless. Does Godard have a more popular film? Probably not. It's his "8 ½," if you will.

I need to know what other Godard films are worth watching and who else, besides Godard, defined "new wave."

And there was surely more to French film in the 60s than just Godard, right?

What else you got?

Breathless is, indeed, his most popular film, possibly because it's his most accessible (arguable) or maybe just because it was his first. In any case, it's the one by which he (and the entire French New Wave) is known in the mainstream today.

I've seen five of Godard's films - Breathless, Contempt, Week End, Band of Outsiders, and Pierrot le Fou. All are worth watching. Contempt's my favourite, it's probably the most enjoyable, possibly the most accessible, and definitely the most beautiful. Week End is ultra-surreal, it's like some brilliant combination of Cronenberg and Lynch. Band of Outsiders is a big Tarantino inspiration, it's also pretty good, and Pierrot le Fou is fairly bizarre but also very worthwhile. You really can't go wrong with any of those.

As for other New Wave directors: there's Truffaut (I've seen 400 Blows, Jules et Jim, + Shoot the Piano Player), Resnais (Hiroshima mon amour, Last Year at Marienbad - which is my favourite New Wave film), Varda (Cleo from 5 to 7 is her most well known, and the one you shouldn't have any trouble finding), Rohmer (I've seen My Night at Maud's). There's also Chabrol and Rivette, but you might have trouble finding films by them, as the ones I saw in class were really old, really crappy VHS copies.

So, basically, start with Godard + Truffaut, and then work your way down. French cinema of the 60s is the New Wave, but if you're looking for some earlier stuff, try out Rififi. makeshift loves it as well and it's a really entertaining, exceptionally made French noir.

So there it is, my brief tutorial on the New Wave. I'd suggest also asking makeshift + kypade, they probably know a lot more than I do.

AWESOME.

What about Italian film?

If not, let's make it a deal to catch up. Maybe if this section grew a bit dolce would come back voluntarily.

So, I just added The 400 Blows, Contempt, and Band of Outsiders to my newly created Netflix account (about time, eh?).

I've got one week before classes start, and two weeks before they get intensive. I'm excited.

trixster covered pretty much the basics, though if yr looking for french films of the 50s and 60s, its not all new wave.

Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle and Playtime are among the best films of the 50s and 60s, respectively, and they're both brilliant, subtle, slapstickian comedies. (his other stuff is supposed to be great too, but i havent seen it. i think he only made like 5 or 6 films though).

Robert Bresson is also great, though, again i havent seen nearly as much as i wish. A Man Escaped might be the best prison/escape film ever made, and what I've seen of Diary of a Country Priest and Pickpocket are both well worth watching too. Not to mention another 4 or 5 films I recognize by title (and therefore are 'must-see').

there's also Jean-Pierre Melville and Jean Cocteau, who I've barely even begun with, and i'm sure others worth looking into i'm not even aware of (or only vaguely so).

other films worth mentioning from what trixster said:
godard:
my life to live
alphaville
a woman is a woman
masculin feminin
(aka everything he's done (that ive seen, i guess))
truffaut:
day for night
resnais:
night and fog
rohmer:
pauline at the beach
la Collectionneuse
claire's knee
love in the afternoon


I dont know nearly as much about, nor do I enjoy quite as much Italian film of this era, but I can give you /some/ recommendations later, if yant em.

I wish some of these movies were $10 staples at Target, Best Buy, etc.

I like Criterion dvds, but I'm not a fan of tight price control. Apple can pull it off, but Criterion? DVDs are digital - by ramping up production and charging less, you're not "cheapening" the product (or, in this case - the video quality and special features) at all.

I'd blind-buy these for $10-$15. NOT $25-$40.

they're a (relatively) small company that produces far better quality (packaging, pq, special features, etc) for far better films than almost any other dvd company out there. for how much work is surely put into getting the rights and often getting a brand new transfer and etc, 30 bucks isn't asking much.

straight from the site.

all that said, while i'm a huge fan of Criterion and think they're worth every nickel, if not penny, i definitely understand wishing for cheaper prices. deepdiscountdvd and dvdplanet are cheapish. but mostly, id stick to netflix and libraries over blind buying...mostly. there are some films in this thread that are good blind buys.

My knowledge of Italian cinema is limited, to say the least. That's another way of saying I've seen two: The Bicycle Thief + The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (if that's even an Italian film). So, yeah, I need to catch up on that badly.

Asian movies is what I'm into at the moment. Especially Asian gangster flicks, horror films and sci-fi flicks.

100% serious - let's make it a pact. Kypade, trixster, and (maybe) Lecter. One Italian film a week. Visconti, DeSica, Rossellini, and then Fellini and Antonioni.

Also, I was able to find Jules et Jim and Bande a Part on Mininova. So, no blind-buying Criterion for me

Sounds good to me, I should be able to keep up with that. We just need a list to get us going.

I've seen:
Visconti - The Leopard, Death in Venice, La Terra Trema
De Sica - Bicycle Thieves, Umberto D.
Rossellini - Germany Year Zero, The Flowers of St. Francis
Antonioni - Blow Up, La Notte, L'avventura
Fellini - 8 1/2 (:()

I'd be down for watching more, probably.

I'm not watching The Leopard until I'm done with the book

Luchino Visconti:
Obsession (1943)
White Nights (1957)
Rocco and His Brothers (1960)
The Leopard (1963)
The Damned (1969)
Death in Venice (1971)

Vittorio De Sica:
The Children Are Watching Us (1944)
The Bicycle Thief (1948)
Umberto D (1952)
Terminal Station (1953)
Two Women (1960)
Boccaccio '70 (1962) - w/ Fellini

Roberto Rossellini:
Rome, Open City (1945)
Paisan (1946)
Germany Year Zero (1948)
The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)

Federico Fellini:
I Vitelloni (1953)
La Strada (1954)
Nights of Cabria (1957)
La Dolce Vita (1960)
Boccaccio '70 (1962) - w/ De Sica
8½ (1963)
Satyricon (1969)
Roma (1972)
Amarcord (1973)

Michelangelo Antonioni:
L'avventura (1960)
La notte (1961)
L'eclisse (1962)
Blow Up (1966)

I should be able to get at least one from each director, except for Rossellini...

Lector, I'll probably be able to get all of these. Why don't you tell us which ones you think you can get easily (since you're not in NAmerica), and we'll watch those

Blow-Up
The Leopard
Death in Venice
The Bicycle Thief
Umberto D
La Strada
La Dolce Vita
8 1/2

"I really, really miss dolce..." definitely stands as the "biggest thread" in the Foreign and Independent Film forum in a year.

EDIT: Nvm, but still. 20 posts in a milestone here.

Considering there's just like four of us here, that's impressive.

So what do you want to start with, torri? And when?

Why don't we start with Bicycle Thief and Umberto D?

[I would do Visconti's Leopard, but, as I said, I'm reading it right now. Maybe next week?]

I've only seen La Dolce Vita (one of my favs), but I'm watching Blow-Up tonight.

Sounds good to me.

Should we have a deadline? How do you want to work this?