All right, I can't authoritatively claim that these films had never been seen by anyone in China before, and that I was the first person to show them here. However, as I have lamented before, most Chinese - even youngsters who purport to be really interested in film, even in these days of cheap, good quality DVDs and readily accessible free downloads - have usually seen no more than a handful of foreign films. And almost always the same ones (Forrest Gump, Titanic, Life Is Beautiful, Braveheart.... yawn...). Almost everyone has seen Waterloo Bridge, Roman Holiday, The Sound Of Music and The Wizard Of Oz (and much of Charlie Chaplin) umpteen times over, because, until a decade or so ago, these were about the only foreign films that could be shown on TV here. And, since the coming of the VCD/DVD age a decade or more ago, most reasonably well-off city-dwellers have been able to keep up with the latest blockbusters. However, there is a huge black hole in people's cultural awareness about foreign cinema here: most of them know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the films of the '60s, '70s, and '80s. The Godfather is usually about the only film from those decades, the only film of a slightly 'edgy' or difficult character that anyone has ever seen (and just the original, rarely 'Part II').
And most of them, sadly, aren't all that curious to find out about what they've missed. When I was put in charge of a 'film class' in one of my university teaching jobs here a few years back, it was obvious that most of my predecessors had just shown recent blockbusters, and that was what the students expected. But I wasn't having that. Oh, no. I was going to try to educate them.
Here, then, is a list of......
Films I have most enjoyed challenging my Chinese students with
Lawrence of Arabia
(Dir. David Lean, 1962)
La Veuve de Saint-Pierre
(Dir. Patrice Leconte, 2000)
Men With Guns
(Dir. John Sayles, 1997)
Brazil
(Dir. Terry Gilliam, 1985)
La Cité des Enfants Perdus
(Dir. Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1995)
The Princess Bride
(Dir. Rob Reiner, 1985)
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
(Dir. Sydney Pollack, 1969)
Raining Stones
(Dir. Ken Loach, 1993)
Local Hero
(Dir. Bill Forsyth, 1983)
Spartacus
(Dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1960)
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
(Dir. Milos Forman, 1975)
Barton Fink
(Dir. Joel and Ethan Coen, 1991)
Catch-22
(Dir. Mike Nichols, 1970)
Touching The Void
(Dir. Kevin Macdonald, 2003)
La Battaglia di Algeri
(Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
In The Bedroom
(Dir. Todd Field, 2001)
Cabaret
(Dir. Bob Fosse, 1972)
Bowling For Columbine
(Dir. Michael Moore, 2002)
Dr Strangelove
(Dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
Citizen Kane
(Dir. Orson Welles, 1941)
and..... my absolute favourite making-their-brains-pop moment....
2001: A Space Odyssey
(Dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
An American colleague of mine and I were both rather keen to see if we could get away with showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but...... well, I lost the job before I could get hold of a copy! That piece of 'subversion' will have to wait till another day. Harold and Maude, too....
7 comments:
Excellent list. Would add one John Sayles movie -- "The Brother From Another Planet." It's one of the best initiations to race in America I can think of for the naive viewer, and the scene with the card sharp on the subway is one of my all-time favorites.
Where did you find a copy of 'Local Hero' here?
I confess I've never seen The Brother.... I must watch out for it.
I can't now recall where I picked up Local Hero. There used to be a very good DVD shop at the end of Gulou Dongdajie, at the NW corner of the Jiadaokou crossroads. That was where I bought most of my disks in my first couple of years here. It may already have disappeared before you arrived in Beijing, B. You know, they brought in that rule that every third shop along that street had to be a guitar shop.....
There was also a pretty good place just outside the east gate of Bei Shi Da, which is where I was teaching at this time. It may be there still, but I don't get up there very often any more. And I had a huge falling out with them - one of those situations where there was a sudden change of staff or ownership and they started getting all crabby about their returns policy.
Some great choices there.
'Cuckoo's Nest' went down particularly well with my bunch recently, as did 'Twelve Angry Men' (great opportunity to debate capital punishment and the merits of a jury system).
Yes, Twelve Angry Men is another classic, Stuart. Unfortunately I wasn't able to locate a copy until some time after I'd finished this course. On the few times I have tried to initiate discussions on the death penalty, I find that just about no-one has any qualms about it per se, and most of them are unconcerned even about the possibility of fatal miscarriages of justice because they have a naive faith in the infallibility of confession evidence.
I was surprised by how well Cuckoo's Nest was received. I had worried that the students might be unsympathetic towards, or at least uncomprehending of the mental hospital setting, but in fact they seemed pretty comfortable with it. And the theme of rebellion against authority certainly seems to strike a chord with them! I suspect that this might have gone down better with them than something like Cool Hand Luke or Escape From Alcatraz. The prison movie doesn't seem to be a genre they recognise here. Although, having said that, I know that Shawshank Redemption is fairly popular here.
During the discussion after Twelve Angry Men all I kept hearing was "but what about OJ Simpson". And yes, I was the only one who voted against the death penalty.
With Cuckoo I found students warmed to the film (and 'Chief' in Particular) after the basketball scenes, by which time they all hated nurse Ratched.
Anything with a bit of basketball will get them interested. You could try the more recent Glory Road if you want to explore the theme of racial prejudice with a sporting background and a great soundtrack. Not a classic, but I guarantee you they'll love it.
Ah, basketball's the secret, huh?
I'm afraid I find it the most tedious game on earth (OK to play, but to watch....aaargh!); though I have very much enjoyed both Glory Road and Coach Carter within the past year.
My experience is that although most (but not nearly all) Chinese boys are crazy about the game, most (very nearly all) Chinese girls find it as much of a turn-off as I do. And I was at a teachers' university, so there was a very heavy preponderance of girls in my classes.
On the capital punishment issue, I have always been tempted to try out Dead Man Walking, but I haven't been able to get a copy. I do have Kieslowski's A Short Film About Killing, but I fear Chinese students wouldn't get the point of that. It might be interesting to try out some of the films about the leading British post-war capital cases: 10 Rillington Place, Dance With A Stranger, Let Him Have It. These are all gripping stories, but I fear the Chinese wouldn't get why they are generally perceived as unjust sentences.
La Veuve de Saint-Pierre is actually one of the best films on capital punishment I've seen. Do you know it, Stuart?
It's based on a true story from the early 1800s, set on the small islands of Saint Pierre et Miquelon off Newfoundland, the last French territories in Canada. Two sailors kill a wealthy townsman as a sort of drunken prank. They are found guilty of murder, but, since this is the first capital case the island has seen in decades, the garrison commander has to send to France for a guillotine (the 'widow' of the title is a nickname for this) in order to carry out the sentence. One of the men is killed in an accident soon afterwards, but the garrison commmander's wife takes a shine to the other one and attempts to rehabilitate him through service to the community. In the several months it takes for the guillotine to arrive the man becomes popular with many of the islanders, who begin to lobby for a pardon for him.
The Serbian director Emir Kusturica plays the convict, Daniel Auteuil the commander, and Juliette Binoche his wife. It's beautifully photographed, and absolutely heartbreaking. Also - although, personally, I consider this a travesty! - it comes with a dubbed English soundtrack option.
"La Veuve de Saint-Pierre is actually one of the best films on capital punishment I've seen. Do you know it, Stuart?"
Regrettably not. But my wife's a Juliette Binoche fan, so I'll ask if it's in her collection.
I had the same M/F imbalance in my classes, but for the some of the same reasons you enjoyed it (despite not being an avid BB watcher), the female students will enjoy it too.
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