Non American movies
The 400 blows
The film caused a revolution in cinema’s around the world with the story of a young Parisian who tries to survive an unfair and judgemental society. Directed by François Truffaut. Starring Jean-Pierre Léaud.
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8½
A semi-autobiographical story about a worshipped filmmaker who has lost his inspiration. He fends off the inquiries of his actors, reporters, and screenwriter
Directed by Federico Fellini. Starring Marcello Mastroianni.
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Alien
In 1979 it was the scariest movie ever released. A spaceship on the rescue is attacked by an acid spitting life form.
Directed by Ridley Scott. Starring Sigourney Weaver and John Hurt.
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Amelie
Amelie dedicates herself to helping others find love and happiness. But will she have the courage to do for herself what she has done for others?
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Starring Audrey Tautou.
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The bicycle thief
Ladri di biciclette. The story of a long-unemployed bill sticker becomes a bitter cry against poverty and the establishment.
Directed by Vittorio de Sica. Starring Lamberto Maggiorani.
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The boat
After scoring a hit on some British ships an U-boot is attacked by Allied destroyers. Depth charges slam into U-96 while they try to escape.
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Starring Jürgen Prochnow and Herbert Grönemeyer.
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Breathless
A bout de Souffle. A revolution in cinema, going back to the basics. Locations, natural lightning, jump cuts and hand-held camera’s.
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg.
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Brief encounter
A proper British housewife gets a piece of grit in her eye and falls desperately in love with the kind stranger who removes it.
Directed by David Lean. Starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.
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Cinema Paradiso
When Salvatore returns to his village in order to attend the funeral of a friend, he reminisces about their childhood together and how he met the love of his life.
Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. Starring Jacques Perrin.
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The day of the Jackal
Gentleman assassin “The Jackal” travels calmly through Europe. He’s going to kill French president De Gaulle and anyone who might compromise his mission.
Directed by Fred Zinnemann. Starring Edward Fox.
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Downfall
The story of Hitler’s final days as told through the eyes of his personal secretary and confident Traudl Junge.
Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. Starring Bruno Ganz and Alexandra Maria Lara.
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Dr. Strangelove
A deranged general orders a nuclear attack on Russia because of his belief that the Communists are polluting his bodily fluids.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott and Sterling Hayden.
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Four weddings and a funeral
Charles is serial monogamist. He meets an attractive American at a wedding and falls in love with her, but his inability to express his feelings gets in his way of true bliss.
Directed by Mike Newell. Starring Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell.
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Get Carter
Jack Carter, a vicious gangster from London, travels to Newcastle to attend his brother’s funeral. He begins to suspect that his brother’s death was not an accident.
Directed by Mike Hodges. Starring Michael Caine.
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The good, the bad and the ugly
After forming an uneasy alliance, a trio find themselves facing greed, treachery and murder as they search for a stash of gold.
Directed by Sergio Leone. Starring Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef.
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The killer
An eponymous killer is tangled in a web of moral imperatives after accidentally blinding a nightclub singer.
Directed by John Woo. Starring Chow Yun Fat.
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Lawrence of Arabia
Legendary British scholar and soldier, T. E. Lawrence, united Arab tribes in battle against the Ottoman Turks during WWI.
Directed by David Lean. Starring Peter O'Toole, Anthony Quinn and Omar Sharif.
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Pride and prejudice
The adventures of the five Bennet sisters and their attempts to find husbands an a financially secure future.
Directed by Simon Langton. Starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.
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The road
Gelsomina is sold by her mother to the cruel Zampano, a strongman in a traveling circus. The two travel together, with her beating the drum, playing a trumpet, and serving as his slave.
Directed by Federico Fellini. Starring Anthony Quinn.
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The rules of the game
La regle du jeu. The rules of the love game in pre-war France ordered by ideas of appropriate and inappropriate behavior.
Directed by Jean Renoir. Starring Nora Gregor.
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The seven samurai
In the 1600s the residents of a small Japanese village are seeking protection against repeated attacks by a band of marauding thieves.
Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Starring Takashi Shimura.
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The sweet life
La dolce vita. The adventures of a disillusioned journalist in the Rome party circuit. Including the famous showering in the Trevi fountain.
Directed by Federico Fellini. Starring Marcello Mastroianni.
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Tokyo story
Tokyo monogatari. The changing life in postwar Japan is portrayed in this tale of an elderly couple visiting their grown-up children in Tokyo.
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu. Starring Chishu Ryu.
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Trainspotting
The days in the lives of Mark Renton and the scabby crew of junkies, deadbeats, thieves, liars and nut jobs he calls friends.
Directed by Danny Boyle. Starring Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle.
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Wild strawberries
Smultronstället. Professor Isak Borg’s is going on a journey to receive an honorary degree. This evokes dreams and recollections.
Directed by Ingmar Bergman. Starring Victor Sjöström.
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Spotlight
Jean Renoir
Remarkable:
Jean financed some of his films by selling some of his late father’s paintings.
Born:
September 15, 1894
Died:
February 12, 1979
The second son of impressionist Auguste Renoir grew up in the artistic milieu of turn-of-the-century Paris. After World War I, in which he was wounded, his film career started when he scripted Catherine (1924). A year later Renoir directed his first film, La fille de l'eau because he wanted to make a star of his wife Catherine Hessling (a former model of his father).
The coming of sound raised him on a higher level commercially, On purge Bébé (1931) and artistically, La Chienne (1931).
In the late thirties he reached his peaks with La Grande Illusion (1937), a study of three French POWs and La regle du jeu (1939). He left France in 1941 during the German invasion and became a naturalized US citizen. In Hollywood, Renoir made six American films with limited success. He turned to writing, to the theatre and to television.
Jean was awarded the French légion d'honneur in 1977.
Academy awards:
1946 - Nominated best Director for: The Southerner (1945)
1975 - Honorary Academy Award
Selected Movies:
- La Grande illusion (1937)
- La Règle du jeu (1939)
- Une partie de campagne (1936)
- La Bête humaine (1938)
- La Chienne (1931)