The
World According to
Compiled by Alexandra Siemon
September 2001-February 2006
|
Title |
Description |
|
|
1900 |
Long Bertolucci film with Robert DeNiro about the development of the Italian communist party. |
|
|
The Agony and Ecstasy |
Italian Renaissance Charlton Heston chisels marble. Dated, but some like it. |
|
|
All Quiet on the Western Front |
From the novel, a strong anti-war film based on the disillusionment with World War I. |
Dana |
|
Amadeus |
Great music; don't believe the rest. (Austrian, 18th century) |
Dana |
|
Anne of the Thousand Days |
Sad Anne is a victim of Henry's Ambition. (1969 with Genevieve Bujold) |
Dana |
|
Barry Lyndon |
Costumes to die for but some viewers will die of boredom. (English, 18th century) |
|
|
Before the Rain |
Made in 1994, this Macedonian film anticipates the troubles happening there now. Stunning landscapes and violence that seems to be without resolution because the reasons for the ethnic hatred go back too far. |
Dana |
|
Braveheart |
Mel Gibson in blue. The battle scenes are supposed to be very accurate. Scots versus the English in the 13th century. |
Dana |
|
Burnt by the Sun |
A beautiful film of the world of a little girl whose life is overturned by the evil random politics of a dictatorship that neither she nor we can make sense of. |
Dana |
|
Cabaret |
It is a very dark world. The song is IRONIC! (German, set in 1920s) |
Dana |
|
Cromwell |
The English Puritans experiment with a Commonwealth. Serious overacting. |
Dana |
|
Dangerous Liaisons |
Nasty aristocracy and great emotion. (French, set in 18th century) |
Dana |
|
Das Boot |
A riveting and claustrophobic story. Tale of the sailors in a German U-boat. (1982) |
Dana |
|
Doll's House |
Claire Bloom is intense. (Danish, set in 19th century) |
Dana |
|
Downfall |
With Bruno Ganz as Hitler during the last days of the Third Reich. This is based on information from Hitler’s secretary, who is seen in the opening of the film reflecting on what she participated in. This gives a sense of the famous bunker, which was an incredible complex, and shows the reactions of various members of Hitler’s close circle as they understand that it is over. This was very popular in Germany. There is no sense of trying to “humanize” Hitler, but we do see him as a small man and wonder about the fate of those around him. The film won a number of awards. (2005) |
|
|
|
Not a great film, but a topic that is really remembered: the war in |
Dana |
|
|
Great opening scene on religious wars and a great sense of reigning paranoia, but some people together on screen who never met in life. (1998, Cate Blanchette as Queen Elizabeth and Joseph Fiennes as Robert Dudley) |
Dana |
|
Elizabeth Regina |
The Virgin Queen inspires all. (TV series, 1971, with Glenda Jackson) |
|
|
Elvira Madigan |
Made classical music popular. Romance. Set in late 19th-century
|
|
|
Galileo |
Does the Earth move? (Italian, 17th century) |
|
|
Gallipoli |
A terrible slaughter caused by poor leaders. Story told well in this film with a young Mel Gibson. (1981) |
|
|
Garden of the Finzi-Contini 1930’s. |
Italian Jews don’t see the menace coming their way. Excellent. (1970) |
Dana |
|
Germinal |
French Industrial Revolution. Coal mines are not pleasant places to work. |
Dana |
|
Goodbye, Lenin! |
An international box-office hit
inspired by Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, Wolfgang Becker’s
inventive satire takes an interesting slant on the effects of reunification
in Germany. Set in East Berlin in 1989, committed party loyalist Christiane
(Katrin Sass) suffers a heart attack and slips into a coma mere days before
the crumbling of the Berlin Wall. Eight months later, she regains
consciousness and is warned that any sudden shock could be fatal. Her son
Alex (Daniel Brühl) goes to extremes to shield her from the changes in the
outside world and in doing so brilliantly comments on post-unification
Germany. With its intelligent brand of humor and pathos, the film has won
twenty international awards and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign
Film. “A romantic comedy so smart and sweetly mature, it’s liberating” (Time).
In German with English subtitles. Description adapted from the Florida Film Festival. Mary Giles, Outreach Assistant National Resource Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies |
Dana |
|
The Great Train Robbery |
The novel is often used for summer reading to give a sense of Victorian life. Entertaining. (1979 with Sean Connery) |
Dana |
|
Hamlet |
Multiple versions: Mel Gibson, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, and Sir Laurence Olivier. It is actually interesting to see them and compare. |
Branagh; Olivier: Dana |
|
Henry V |
Medieval. Kenneth Branagh fights the 100 Years War. Medieval Crispin’s Day speech! |
Dana |
|
Hope and Glory |
Children in England survive despite the Blitz and find things to enjoy. Nice film. (1987) |
Dana |
|
Howard’s End |
Life among the upper class of England at turn of last century. Great movie and cast, again from Forster novel, but darker and sadder. |
Dana |
|
In the Name of the Father |
Irish nationalism in the1970’s. Daniel Day-Lewis does great job. Hard to like the English legal system after this. |
|
|
Is |
A more heroic France resisting the Germans. (1966) |
|
|
Judgment at |
A star-studded cast in a film to ask the moral questions about responsibility. This surely simplifies some answers but the questions are still asked all the time. (1967) |
Dana |
|
Lady Jane |
Queen for Nine Days. (1986 with Helena Bonham Carter) |
|
|
The Leopard |
Italian nationalism. My great-great-grandfather was the Duke’s gardener. Burt Lancaster might seem out of place but works out. From novel of same name. |
|
|
Les Miserables |
No music. |
Dana |
|
Life of Emile Zola |
An old-fashioned biography of the French writer who took on the government when it framed an innocent man in the 1890s. (1937 with Paul Muni) |
|
|
Looking for Richard |
Al Pacino reflects on Richard. Great! (1996) |
|
|
Malena |
Sicily in WWII. Interesting commentary. Role of women, honor. It is a cruel world. |
|
|
A Man for All Seasons |
English Renaissance. Sir Thomas More stands up for his beliefs. Big hit. Based on Robert Bolt play with Paul Scofield. (1966) |
Dana |
|
Mary of |
Katherine Hepburn loses her head. (1936) |
Dana |
|
Mary, Queen of Scots |
She loses it again, only this time in 1971 with Glenda Jackson and Vanessa Redgrave. |
|
|
Michael Collins |
Bio of Irish national leader in the 1920s assassinated for making compromise. |
|
|
Mrs. Brown |
Queen Victoria's life after the death of her beloved Albert. Tries to be psychological and sort of works. Excellent acting by Judi Dench. |
|
|
My Beautiful Laundrette |
The Anglo-Saxon world (see some of the Forster films) is changing.
Immigrants have established lives and are a part of |
Dana |
|
The Name of the Rose |
Medieval. Who is doing the murders in the monastery? Sean Connery is the monk detective. Great movie from great book of same title. |
Dana |
|
The Nasty Girl |
Young German woman turns over some stones to reveal some prominent citizens’ Nazi pasts. (1989) |
Dana |
|
Oliver Twist |
Industrial Revolution. Brave boys. |
Dana |
|
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich |
A highly regarded film describing life in the Soviet gulag. (1970) |
|
|
Passage to |
When British culture collides with Asian, people can get hurt, but the political power shifts the morality. Good movie from Forster novel. |
Dana |
|
Peter the Great |
Russia 18th century. Tall guy. |
|
|
Private Life of Henry VIII |
Charles Laughton looks a lot like my idea of Henry. Elsa Lanchester, his real life wife, plays Anne of Cleves. (1933) |
|
|
Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex |
The Lovers? Bette Davis and Errol Flynn. Compare to |
|
|
Remains of the Day |
Quiet novel, quiet and powerful film. Life in |
Dana |
|
Restoration |
Much better than the book. Great sets. Got an Academy Award for costumes. Can you find Hugh Grant? |
Dana |
|
Return of Martin Guerre |
Early Renaissance. The mysterious return of a missing husband. |
Dana |
|
Richard III |
Olivier does great slime. A new version in 1996 sets this in 1930s, gets down and dirty. |
Dana |
|
Rob Roy |
The Scots fight the nasty English in the early 18th century. And Liam is cute is skirts. |
|
|
Room with a View |
A romantic turn as the British upper class go to |
Dana |
|
Rules of the Game |
A Jean Renoir film exposing the French class system. (1939) |
|
|
Scarlet Pimpernel |
Leslie Howard was the heart-throb of the 1930s. You decide. |
Dana |
|
Schindler’s List |
A major production on the Holocaust. Well-received and courses use it to teach. Good film. (1993) |
Dana |
|
Sea Hawk |
Queen Elizabeth and her pirates save the country from invasion again. This time with Errol Flynn and Flora Robson. Wanna guess why so many of these Elizabethan films were made in the 1930s and 1940s? (1940) |
|
|
The Seventh Seal |
A Classic with a capital C. An Ingmar Bergman film. Max von Sydow, as the knight Antonius Block, has returned home from the Crusades. The Plague has also arrived. The knight and his squire encounter villagers, dead and alive; a small troupe of players; and the Devil. The knight challenges the Devil to a game of chess in order to buy time in hopes of having just one inspiring moment to reconcile himself with God. A movie of its time (1956/Cold War) and beyond it; the viewer finishes the movie with a feeling that perhaps she might understand a bit of what it felt like to live in fear and awe in the Age of Faith/the Middle Ages. |
|
|
Shakespeare in Love |
A great romance set in the Elizabethan Renaissance. A Tom Stoppard work with lots of references for the Shakespeareans among you. |
Dana |
|
The Shop on |
Academy Award in 1965 for Best Foreign Film. The beginnings of the Final Solution made local and personal with a liberating ending. A Czech carpenter has to choose between simple human decency and submitting to local brutality. Excellent film, highly recommended. |
|
|
Six Wives of Henry VIII |
Careful BBC series. |
Dana |
|
Sophie’s Choice |
For me, the most disturbing Holocaust film. (Meryl Streep) |
Dana |
|
The Sorrow and the Pity |
A hard look at France during the Nazi occupation. Difficult to watch. (1971) |
|
|
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold |
Richard Burton and Claire Bloom give us the depressing, dark world of the Cold War. Good film. |
Dana |
|
Storm Over |
Queen Elizabeth and her Sea Dogs defeat the Armada. (1937 with |
|
|
Tale of Two Cities |
French Revolution. “’Tis a far, far better thing I do.” Do the black and white. |
|
|
Three Musketeers/ Four Musketeers |
French 17th century. Stick to the Michael York version. He's awfully cute, or was. |
|
|
The Tin Drum |
Film from the powerful Gunter Grass novel. A young boy watches the people in his town passively succumb to the Nazis. (1979) |
|
|
Tom Jones |
One of the best food seduction scenes ever. (English, 18th century) |
Dana |
|
The Virgin Queen |
Queen |
|
|
Young Bess |
Still more Queen Elizabeth. (1953 with Jean Simmons this time) |
|
|
Au Revoir les Enfants |
Dana |
|
Brideshead Revisited |
|
|
The Brothers Karamazov |
|
|
Christabel |
|
|
David Copperfield |
Dana |
|
The Day of the Jackal |
|
|
Dr. Zhivago |
Dana |
|
Europa, Europa |
Dana |
|
Far from the Madding Crowd |
Dana |
|
Gandhi |
Dana |
|
The Grand Illusion |
|
|
Great Expectations |
|
|
How Green Was My Valley |
Dana |
|
The Long Way Home |
Dana |
|
Nicholas and Alexandra |
Dana |
|
Portrait of Dorian Gray |
Dana |
|
Shake Hands with the Devil |
|
|
Tess |
Dana |
|
Vincent and Theo |
|
For even more information, look for suggestions, a few reviews, and dates of films at these sites:
Apeh Movie Suggestions
http://www.almuskie.com/apeh_movie_suggestions.htm
The Cold War Connection/ Doug Davis
http://cmu.edu/coldwar/film.htm
The Internet Movie Database
http://www.imdb.com