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

The Factory

Factory Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Image result for factory loznitsa

You’ve got no excuses for ignoring Loznitsa’s documentaries. They are available on YouTube (links below) and are only 30 minutes long. If you are looking for a portrayal of 1930s Russia go watch Portrait. For an otherworldly depiction of a working factory, watch Factory. You’ll be hypnotised by the mechanic sounds and glowing lights in a world where humans have become machines. Is this the future of humanity?

Why Watch Factory?

Just like Portrait you can watch this here on YouTube
To gain a greater appreciation for your current job
Experience factory life – where human’s become machines
To relax from another day’s work – the sounds, colours, and perfect processes will sooth you.

The Breakdown

It is still dark. There is a light blanket of snow on the ground. A long billboard of portraits is illuminated by the golden light of two small lamps. A few people walk by, their silhouettes blending into the darkness. The people walk from the darkness into an entry room lit in a spacey green. They all pass through a small turnstile and into the factory to become part of the machine.

In the factory a man crawls out of an orifice in the metal machinery. He picks up a long rod and starts to shovel metal back into the mouth of the machine. A group of women alternate grabbing a metal slab from a slow moving conveyor belt and shelving the blocks on a shelving unit behind them. Both men and women have become parts of the machine. Their movements have become as coordinated and reliable as the machines they work with. Have these people become robots? Are they losing their humanity?

The colours and sounds of the factory create a weirdly relaxing atmosphere. It reminded me of the warm feeling you feel when someone softly speaks to you as you are slowly falling asleep in a warm bed. The sounds of the machinery represent almost every onomatopoeic word. You hear bubbling, grinding, rattling, sloshing, and hissing. Then there are the colours. The warm reds and oranges of the molten metal against the otherwise dark factory and the futuristic greens and blues create an otherworldly environment. It could almost be an image of a dystopian future where humans work for/with the machine.

Conclusion

“What interests me is the possibility of realising thoughts with the resources that make up cinema. The rest is secondary…First an impression, then reflection, then realisation”

– Loznitsa (the director)

In Factory Loznitsa focuses on the physical stuff that makes up an image, namely the location and occupants. Here he moulds an extraordinary film of a Russian factory by depicting the harmony between machines and man. He makes what is real seem unbelievable – as if we are witnessing an alternate dystopian reality.

The Flying Circus – International Competition – SBIFF

In The Flying Circus, four lads from Kosovo receive an invitation from the Albanian National Theatre to put on their latest play for their festival. Problem is, to get there, they need to cross two borders illegally. They have to escape Serbian occupied Kosovo, sneak through Monetenegro, before crossing illegally into Albania.

It’s a funny ‘based on a true story’ escape/road trip film set in a divided Balkans. It manages to convey the seriousness of their journey, but lightened with humour. The only unnecessary addition to the film is the cliched holiday relationship between one of the actors and a woman from Tirana. It just feels too quick, underdeveloped, and unnecessary.

The humour comes from the strange situations and people the four actors stumble into and how they deal with them. For example, there’s the threatening episode when the Kosovars traveling from Kosovo are all threatened by a trio of skinheads in a restaurant. One of the skinheads brings out a gun to which one of the four actors smashes his hands on two glasses (as he saw in a movie earlier). It turns a threatening situation into something absurd to laugh at. In these comedic moments you almost forget that they’re on the run and their lives are under threat.

The Flying Circus also offers a glimpse of life as a Kosovar in the Balkans. At home there are routine ID checks of ethnic Albanians and officials speaking Serbian instead of the local Albanian. This sets up what they’re due to face later on. On the road, they face further checks – made by grumpy officials speaking Serbian, and they’re threatened by a local in Montenegro. All the signs show that the Kosovars are looked down upon both at home and abroad. This doesn’t change when they make it to Albania either, where the officials are corrupt and inept.

Overall, The Flying Journey is a fun journey, on a similar level to Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople. It’s got funny characters, humor in unlikely situations, and a happy-ish ending.

Crystal Swan – The American Dream in Belarus

Crystal Swan Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

In Crystal Swan you’ll meet Velya, an aspiring club DJ living in Minsk who doesn’t fit in Belarus. So she tries to get a U.S. visa to go live a better life abroad. The only problem is that she doesn’t have a respectable job to put on her visa application. So she puts down a fake job and adds a fake telephone number. However, when the visa officials say they will call her to confirm her application, she goes on a journey to rural Belarus to track down the number and try and make her American dream come true.

From: Belarus, Europe
Watch: Trailer
Next: Ladybird, Volver, Run Lola Run

Fugue – An Estranged Mother Returns to Her Former Life

Fugue Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

If you time traveled back to the life you were living 2 years ago, would you be happy with your former self or do things differently? In Fugue, Alicja returns to her estranged family after losing her memory 2 years before. She’s repulsed by her bougie family, friends, and former life as a devoted mother.

From: Poland, Europe
Watch: Trailer, Buy on Amazon
Next: Memento, Thelma, Paris, Texas

The Lobster

Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Greek director, Yorgos Lanthimos creates a darkly funny dystopian like you have never seen before. With 1 part Napoleon Dynamite, 1 part Gattaca, and 2 parts art-house, The Lobster deserves its recognition at the Cannes Film Festival 2015.

Why watch The Lobster?

You have watched loads of dystopian films like The Hunger Games, Bladerunner, and The Matrix and want to see a refreshing turn in the genre.
For laugh out loud awkwardness throughout.
What’s your spirit animal? Now’s the time to think of it!
Look ma… no subtitles!

A long shot of a woman driving starts of this slow burner from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. We watch her driving, with the sound of windscreen wipers and the car engine being the only sounds we hear. She stops, gets out of the car and walks over to a deer or horse and shoots it dead. Bam – the title credits appear! Welcome to another art-house film!

The premise of this one is intriguingly unique. Being single is banned. All ‘loners’ are taken to this Hotel where they have 45 days to partner up with one of the other temporary residents there. If you fail – you are turned into an animal of your choice (Colin Farrell wants to be… a Lobster). Sound fun!? You’ll find out some of the other strange rules as you watch and you’ll also notice the hilarious awkwardness of everyone there. Single people can be hilarious!

To heighten the awkwardness director Lanthimos uses a few camera techniques. Firstly he uses still long-takes to make everything feel awkward. Just as in the editing in Androids Dream emphasises the absurdity of everything on screen with fixed long-takes The Lobster makes everything look darkly comedic by making you look at the dancing/singing/hotel masturbation for longer than you need to. Secondly, most obviously in the hunt, Lanthimos uses slow-motion to emphasise the absurdity of what the whole hunting event. The people look even more stupid running around with tranquilizers in suits in slow motion. What’s more is that this slow-motion is accompanied by orchestral music, making it all appear even more like a weird ritual or charade.

Lastly, the actors and actresses top off the awkwardness with their speech. Every line is uttered clearly and quickly, and is always followed by a brief silence before the person being talked to actually replies. Their conversations are stunted and artificial which makes their relationships look artificial as well.

For a dystopia like you’ve probably never seen before (unless you’ve seen previously reviewed sci-fi Androids Dream) I’d definitely recommend this one. Just don’t expect a fast-paced thriller – expect an artistic and innovative take on the genre.