European Film

Best European Films

From Alfred Hitchcock to Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman to Jean-Luc Godard, Europe has birthed many of film’s greatest innovators. And that’s just to name a few. The more you dig into the world of European film, the more and more gems you find. Scroll down to find the best European films currently reviewed on FilmRoot, or pick a country if you know what you’re after:

Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Only The Animals – International Competition – SBIFF

Only The Animals features a bunch of interconnecting narratives spanning across France and Cameroon. Each narrative is connected to the murder of a French woman during a snow storm in rural France. It’s weird, entertaining, and satisfying as every piece of the puzzle falls into place. Even the initially out of place opening of a man riding his bike through Abidjan with a goat on his back is eventually linked in and understood.

It’s a fun ride but I haven’t figured out what’s the point or message beyond ‘things happen by chance’. Not saying that it has to have a message – this film was enjoyable to watch – but it would turn a showy multiple narrative film into something better. Maybe I’m asking for too much after seeing the Trump era unravelling of a white upper class family in 2019s stand out murder mystery, Knives Out.

If anything it could be that everything the people aren’t grateful for gets reversed on them. E.g. Joseph is an inanimate loner who can’t love that ends up loving an inanimate loner who can’t love.

Only The Animals covers a lot but doesn’t feel slumped. While every character could have been given more of a backstory, it does fit the movie to not dwell so much. The fun is in watching the transcontinental story slowly unravel as each characters viewpoint layers onto the next.

Side note: slightly stereotypical story of witch doctors and scammers in Africa, even if it is hilarious watching them do their work to a horny middle aged white guy.

Viridiana (Spain)

Viridiana Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Who said you couldn’t make fun of a dictatorship whilst living in under a dictatorship? Luis Bunuel proves us wrong by returning to Spain to deliberately make this film that satirizes Franco. Would anyone dare do this today?

Check out this sleepwalking scene for a mere taste of the controversy.

Why Watch Viridiana?

Get to know one of the dark side of one of the most famous directors of the 20th century: Luis Bunuel
To see a film that savagely pokes fun at Spain under Franco, dictator from 1939 until 1973 (the film was banned in Spain until his death in 1975)
For a ‘Last Supper’ scene which got it banned in the Vatican
If you like laughing at human nature and the absurdity of life

The Breakdown

We meet Viridiana in the courtyard of her convent talking with her mother superior. She is told to go visit her uncle before she takes her vows to become a nun. A strange request as she hardly knows him. In a Bunuel film, this can only mean trouble.

Sure enough after Viridiana arrives at her uncle’s house, she is fetishised by Bunuel (meaning she is made into the object of her uncle’s sexual fetish). Bunuel shows her taking off her stockings and nun frock in one scene and has the uncle’s maid spy on her through a key hole.

Bunuel makes it even weirder when the uncle asks Viridiana to wear his dead wife’s wedding dress (she died on her wedding night). Sure enough she looks just like her.

Bunuel’s depiction of the weird uncle is a satire of the aristocracy under Franco. He paints them as perverted and stuck in tradition (his house is full of old artifacts and looks like Mrs.Faversham’s from Dickens’ Great Expectations).

But Bunuel does not just satirize the aristocracy. Everyone is a victim in this film!

Conclusion

Bunuel has a pretty dark view of humanity. No one in this film gets away without being made fun of from the creepy old uncle to the group of beggars Viridiana takes care of. Even Viridiana is made fun of with her saintly actions.

One scene which perfectly depicts Bunuel’s world view is a scene in which Jorge (the uncle’s son) buys a dog that is being dragged along on a lead under a running horse cart. He buys the dog to free it. However, as he walks off with the dog, he does not see another cart drive past with another dog being dragged along under it.

The Fourth Man – Dutch Thriller Full of Symbolism

The Fourth Man Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

“I lie the truth, until I no longer know whether something did or did not happen.” Who can you trust in this psycho-thriller from Verhoeven.

From: Netherlands, Europe
Watch: Trailer, Buy on Amazon
Next: Oldboy, Who Killed Teddy Bear?, The Shining

Echo – Paint Your Own Picture of Icelandic Society

Echo Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Why Watch Echo?

If you want to see a composite 80 minute film made from 56 parts
Experience a wide range of Icelandic society
Join the debate on the current state of Iceland

From: Iceland, Europe
Watch: Trailer, Mubi, IMDb
Next: Involuntary, Hale County This Morning This Evening, Coffee and Cigarettes

Illumination (Poland) – Search for Life’s Meaning in this Experimental Film

Illumination Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

If you love film and philosophy, Illumination might be the film for you. It’s like watching an existential essay: you’ll follow the main character as he stumbles through life trying to find meaning. It’s experimental and brilliant. Watch the film here (Buy on Amazon).

Image result for illumination zanussi

Why Watch Illumination?

You love philosophy (bonus points if you love existential philosophy)
Or if you love science (some parts are not for the squeamish)
Or if you don’t know what to do with your life and want to watch someone else who struggles to find meaning in theirs
It’s experimental – the editing will remind you of Bergman’s Persona (if you haven’t seen Persona watch it now)

The Breakdown

“What is illumination? Illumination is a term and concept of Augustine. We obtain knowledge by an enlightenment of the mind.”

The film starts by musing what the meaning of illumination is. Then it cuts to a half naked man taking a medical check. The camera cuts from a close up of his hand to a close up of his foot. Then someone asks the male subject for his name, his surname, his place of birth, height, and weight. In this opening, Zanussi (the director) reduces Franciszek to his physical being before we’ve had a chance to get to know him. This raw physical being is the starting point of this philosophical film essay.

After we meet Franciszek the film flashes to ‘reality’. You’ll see footage of the moon landing, and troops marching ready for war. These images quickly provide us with context. From them we can assume that the film is set in the late 1960s/early 1970s during the Cold War between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. These cuts of footage are also included to disrupt the rhythm of the film. Zanussi includes a lot of interjections like this in his film to intentionally jumble up the story. His intention is to show us the mess of images we see during our lifetimes and to make it difficult to follow the film, to reflect the struggle to find meaning in life.

Conclusion and What to Watch Next

There is a story-line in Illumination (the story of Franciszek) but it is hard to follow. Zanussi only uses Franciszek’s life as a framework for the film’s progression. Franciszek’s struggle to find enlightenment is the framework for the film’s commentary on the world’s struggle to find meaning in life. (Warning: you may be filled with existential angst/dread when watching this film).

First up, you need to watch Ingmar Bergman’s Persona if you haven’t already. It’s one of the best explorations of the human psyche (and at a level above David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive).

For more from Zanussi, I strongly recommend watching The Structure of Crystal before this one. It’s easier to watch and is one of those films that makes you feel at peace with life and death (a bit like Wild Strawberries).

Or for more straight up philosophy check out the stream of conscious genius of My Dinner With Andre.