The GoodTrash Guide to World Cinema

Ok, so you’ve decided to take the cinephilia plunge and really get obsessive about watching film. You’ve got your AFI Top 100 list and you might even be a little pleased about how many of films you have seen so far. You make a watch list and start having conversations that aren’t about movies, but about cinema. You discover the auteur theory and you figure out what it means to have a favorite director. You go on and on about New Hollywood and The Godfather. You know what film noir is and like porn, you can’t really define it but you can have a lively discussion about whether it is a cycle, a style, and/or a genre. This is wonderful, but there remains a confusing Babel of strange voices that are more than a little intimidating. And they are getting louder and more insistent.

Then you discover the BFI Top 100 and realize you can ignore world cinema no longer. What’s a GoodTrash film lover to do? Suffer through the top 10 with no regard for personal taste? Making movie watching a chore rather than a pleasure is precisely the side-effect I am trying to avoid.

What I want to do is suggest an approach (nowhere near exhaustive) that could aid the GoodTrash watcher in finding their feet as they wade out into the deep end of the pool of world cinema. This means of course, not starting on the deep end. So I will not be recommending difficult films, rather I am going to find handles in American genre film that help the reader grasp onto a group of international movies. The way I think this needs to be approached is to start with you, dear reader. Not the list, but your tastes. It seems better to begin with what you like to watch and attack the question of what to watch next from there, rather than some list from the gods of film criticism that will likely only lead to bitter frustration.

So my first suggestion is for the fan of gangster films. Your top five list is filled with The Godfather, Goodfellas, and Heat. You may or may not have a crush on Robert DeNiro’s mole. Asia is the place for you. I would recommend the stellar Infernal Affairs which was adapted as The Departed by Martin Scorsese. Also, The Godfather of yakuza (that’s Japanese for gangster, kids) films is Battles Without Honor and Humanity. Finally, if you’re a little more Tarantino in your gangster tastes, you could do no better than Ichi the Killer from Japanese bad boy director, Takeshi Miike.

Gangsters not your style? Are you more of a horror fan? If you are the sort that is a little bored with films that are formulaic or those whose whole sense of humor is poking fun at the formula, you should check out the New French Extremity. Recently GoodTrash Media contributor Kirsten Therkleson wrote an extensive review of High Tension directed by Alexandre Aja. This genre is by definition extreme. The violence and sexuality are definitely ramped up and the narratives (when they have narratives) are most assuredly not formulaic. In vampire stories, we have an excellent non-sexy vampirism that only manifests itself at sexy time in Trouble Every Day, directed by Clair Denis. Finally for fans of Kevin Smith’s Red State, you could do no better than Martyrs. One of the great things you might notice is that many of these films are directed by women. Hollywood movies in general and horror films in particular tend to be a boys-only club, not so in France. This gives a fascinating new wrinkle to the horror trope of the woman in peril.

Any classic Hollywood fans out there? Is film noir your cup of tea? Some critics have renamed the genre Film Noir American Expressionism, so why not check out some German Expressionism? What’s great about this category is that there is something for everyone. You love the crime aspect of noir? Great! Check out Fritz Lang’s M. Speaking of Uncle Fritz, if you love you some science fiction, check a major influence on Star Wars, Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey the epic film, Metropolis. Maybe the New French Extremity is a little too extreme for your tastes because you are more of Universal classic monsters kind of person, then check out The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Finally, if you are more into adventure stories, melodrama, or just want to see the major influence of the creation of the The Joker in the Batman comics, take a look at The Man Who Laughs.

Are you a big David Fincher fan? Or more generally a fan of the thriller? The Italian Giallo films are for you. If you don’t mind a little supernatural in your thrillers, check out Dario Argento’s Suspiria and Inferno. If you prefer more real-world based thrillers, the strangely named until you see it movie Don’t Torture a Duckling is a fine choice. For a fully psychological thriller in the vein of Brian De Palma and Alfred Hitchcock, Mario Bava’s The Girl Who Knew Too Much, aka The Evil Eye, will do all the things you like in a specifically Italian accent.

Like I said, the list is no where near exhaustive. But I think it can give some handles for the GoodTrash viewer who wants to broaden their cinephilia. I am sure some of you readers have some great suggestions as well. I would love to hear your horror stories (and wonderful stories too) about your first adventures in world cinema. Let me know in the comments below or at my twitter account or on letterboxd.