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

Man With A Movie Camera – Cinematic Innovation from Soviet Russia

Man With A Movie Camera Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Man With A Movie Camera is one of the most influential films from the silent era. Made in 1929 by Dziga Vertov, it uses a range of effects that have been copied throughout the existence of cinema. It was one of the first to employ rapid cutting, split screens, slow motion, and dissolves. It also threw in a load of magic through messing with perspective, using stop motion, and literally having magicians on screen. All the effects come together to create a work imbued with excitement for the potential of modernity to change Russia and the world. This film feels like a celebration of life bottled up in a time capsule from 1920’s urban Russia.

From: Russia, Europe
Watch: Kanopy, YouTube, JustWatch
Next: Battleship Potemkin, I Am Cuba, Metropolis

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Unless you’re an art fan, you might be reading the title and thinking, “why would I want to watch a film about an old artist?” Well this isn’t just a film about an old artist. This is a film about an innovator, someone going against the zeitgeist (the ideas and beliefs of the time). Along the way you can learn about Norwegian society, conservatism in Europe, sexism, and of course art!

Why Watch Edvard Munch?

You like really good biographical films that are re-enacted perfectly
Ingmar Bergman, the King of Swedish directing said this film was a ‘work of genius’
Find out what it is like to be an innovator – complete with depression, rejection, and more…
You’re an art or history student

The Breakdown

Edvard Munch opens with a woman whispering into Munch’s ear, “you can meet me after dinner.” We later learn that the seductive woman is the elusive Miss Heiberg. However, instead of scenes of Munch with this woman, the director cuts to poor people dying of consumption in 19th Century Kristiana (the old name for Oslo). We find out that consumption is widespread in the city and that the poor work 11 hours a day.

The director (Peter Watkins) then juxtaposes the horrific life of the poor in Norway with the middle class. The middle class rules Norwegian society and are strongly conservative and protestant and seem to have a lot of free time. Munch is from the middle class, so understanding the lower classes sets a framework for us to judge him and his peers from.

The style of this docudrama is what makes it great. It compares to the great cinema verite classics like Battle of Algiers and District 9. Firstly, there are interviews with some of the minor characters, snippets from art critics that lambasted Munch, and a narrator. This matches the usual layout for the documentary genre. Secondly, Munch looks at the camera all the time, making it seem that he knows that he is being filmed for a documentary, which makes it feel more real. Lastly, everything looks as if the film was filmed in the late 1800s. The costumes are great, the buildings fit, and the actors play everything perfectly. You could be forgiven for thinking that this was a real documentary.

The film also amazingly depicts the process of creating a piece of art. Watkins reveals Munch’s emotions whilst he paints and scratches the canvas through montages of old and new memories. As a result, we can see what Munch is trying to express with his painting, allowing us to understand him, unlike his shallow critics.

Conclusion

Edvard Munch is a great film. I love a good docudrama (Battle of Algiers and District 9 are two of my favourite films) and this is no exception. In addition, Edvard Munch takes us into the world of an artist. We see the creative process right from it’s original inspirations. Munch’s paintings are bleak and violent, and Watkins reveals why. This is where you learn about late 19th century Norwegian society and how it rubs off on an innovative artist.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Germany)

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

Buy this film by clicking on the Picture above!

Can you imagine a world 20 years after the fall of Hitler and the Nazis in which a former Nazi ended up in love with an Arab immigrant? Well you don’t have to, you just have to watch this film. You’ll experience racism, prejudice, and loneliness. The experience will hopefully be enough to help you feel the loneliness of life as an immigrant and to drop any prejudices you may have. The film is currently available to watch on YouTube (click on link).

Why Watch Ali: Fear Eats the Soul?

It will provoke a lot a debate! So much to talk about!
It is one of acclaimed German director, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s masterpieces (it won awards at the prestigious Cannes film festival)
Experience racism and prejudice in Western Europe in the 1970s
See some excellent camerawork – partly discusses below

The Breakdown

Emmi, an old white German woman walks into a bar to get out of the pouring rain. The camera cuts 180 degrees to show a group of Arabs watching Emmi from the other end of the bar. Then the camera cuts back 180 degrees to show Emmi sit down at a seat closest to the door. The camera marks the distance between Emmi and the Arabs drinking at the other end of the bar. Will the distance between Emmi and the Arabs be broken?

One of the barmaids challenges Ali, one of the Arabs, to go and dance with the old woman. Not one to refuse a challenge, Ali crosses the race threshold and walks to the other end of the bar where Emmi is sitting. He asks her to dance, and she accepts! They both cross the threshold and walk past the other Arabs to a dance floor at the back of the bar. All of the bar’s clientele watch them in silence.

Through Emmi and Ali’s relationship we get to experience the horrible amount of racism and prejudice they face from shopkeepers, Emmi’s family, and the people she works and lives with. What stuck with me was the image of Emmi’s son-in-law (played by Fassbinder) sitting on the couch reading a newspaper. He is dressed shabbily, is skipping work, and threatens to hit his wife if she doesn’t go get him a beer. Whilst he is acting like a pig, he complains about all the Arab immigrants and refers to them as pigs. The best metaphor of hypocrisy.

Conlcusion and What to Watch Next

The camerawork and unlikely relationship make this film great. It will challenge your own prejudices. Amazingly there are still a load of remnants from the time of Hitler – Emmi even admits she was a Nazi just like everyone else living in Germany whilst he was in power. For an excellent film on race in Europe go watch this film!

For more films about immigration and the migrant experience check out:

Black Girl: Sembene’s classic about a Senegalese girl taken to France to work for a French family. It’s essential viewing and available on YouTube.
Sin Nombre (Amazon): A Central American thriller following one boy trying to flee the country to escape the notorious Mara gang
Paddington (Amazon): One Peruvian immigrant tries to fit in in the U.K.

Wild Strawberries (Sweden) – How Did You Live Your Life?

Wild Strawberries Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Do you have a grouchy grandpa or a grumpy old friend? Well this is the perfect film to watch with them. It reminds of us of our mortality and explores the meaning of life. Are we better off grumpy or friendly – watch and decide. I admit, it’s not a barrel of laughs, but it is thoughtful, beautiful, and worth every minute of your time.

Check three reasons to watch it below. Then watch it here on YouTube.

Why Watch Wild Strawberries?

For the perfect introduction to Swedish maestro, Ingmar Bergman
To explore the meaning of life!
It’s one of the greatest road trip films (although it is completely different to the extroverted Hollywood road trip films)
To see some scary dreams and visions

The Breakdown

Wild Strawberries starts with Isak, a 78 year old professor about to receive a doctorate. He thinks how he has become lonely in his old age (in an inner-monologue that we hear from a lot in this film) before he introduces us to his family and goes to wake up his maid. He is ready for a road trip!

It doesn’t seem like anyone really likes him though. In his old age, he has become lonely because he doesn’t like hanging out with his family or community. To add to that, he is plain rude. Whilst driving, he chauvinistically tells Marianne to stop smoking because she is a woman, and feigns forgetfulness when she brings up how rudely he dismissed her relationship with his son.

Luckily, he begins to change as he starts to look back on his life. One particular dream sets him on this path. In this dream Isak stops outside a house with boarded windows. He anxiously walks to the left of the house, but doesn’t walk more than 10 steps (the camera stops him). He walks to the right, but stops himself again. He looks up at the town clock, but there are no hands on it to tell the time. Then he sees a hearse approaching. As it moves closer, one of the wheels of the hearse gets stuck on a lamppost and the coffin falls out. As Isak moves closer to close it’s lid, the hand of his own corpse tries to pull him inside. Is he already dead?

Conclusion

Wild Strawberries is one of Ingmar Bergman’s classics. It takes a grumpy old man who doesn’t care for his family or community and shakes him with dreams and visions to try and change him. The road trip is his journey to understanding the meaning of life.

Europa – Darkness in Post-War Germany

Europa Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

If you want to get an idea of how life was in Germany after the Second World War, Europa is your film. It recreates the inevitably nightmarish environment in a country shrouded by the horrors it has committed. It’s inventive, creative, and amazingly dark.

From: Germany, Europe
Watch: Trailer, Buy on Amazon
Next: Wings of Desire, Children of Men, Persona