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

In Vanda’s Room

In Vanda’s Room Film Difficulty Ranking: 5

“Our country is the poorest, most pathetic of all”

The Lisbon that you will find here In Vanda’s Room is a Portugal you haven’t seen. It is a Portugal which resembles a third-world country. It will expose you to the city’s poorest residents that are all hidden away in the darkness, away from the eyes of tourists. Watch on for Lisbon’s realist version of Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting. Or, for something a little more upbeat, watch Aniki Bobo for your Portuguese film fix.

Why Watch In Vanda’s Room?

For an introduction to Pedro Costa and his critically acclaimed depictions of the marginalised people of Portugal
Meet some of the poorest people in Lisbon
It is currently available here on YouTube
Who needs a front door when you have a window?

The Breakdown

The film begins in Vanda’s room, where Vanda and her friend are sitting on a bed smoking heroin. The room is very dark, but you can make out the dirty green walls behind them and the layers of dark blankets covering the bed they sit on. Vanda inhales some smoke and coughs violently until her throat is cleared. She then viciously wipes her mouth on her sleeve. The lack of light, coughing fits, and drug addicts aren’t what you think of when you think of Lisbon. But Costa has a knack for revealing the hidden people of Portugal.

The next scene shows someone washing themself with a bucket of water in a dark derelict house. Bits of furniture and mess are cluttered around the place and there is still no sign of sunlight. Our first shot outside matches the mess inside the buildings as puddles mark the unpaved streets. A BBQ with a few pieces of wood burns to provide some light for the street which daylight does not seem to reach.

In this neighbourhood there is nothing to do. Vanda sells cabbages and another character tends parked cars, but otherwise there is no sign of business. So the character’s we see are usually hidden away in the dark and out of sight. Is this the life they’ve chosen or the life that they have been forced to live? That is a question that Costa looks to us to decide. However, they cannot prevent the bulldozers that are tearing down their neighbourhood. These bulldozers shed light on Lisbon’s poverty stricken residents, just as his film reveals their existence.

Conclusion

In Vanda’s Room is a solemn portrayal of Lisbon’s poorest residents. As a docufiction, this film does not show any bias towards or against the drug addicts who await eviction. Costa’s role is to reveal their existence for us to make our own judgement.

For more Portuguese film, check out Tabu for an alternative depiction of Lisbon (and the old Portuguese colonies in Africa).

Phenomena

Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

Phenomena sure is unique. Yes, it has a lot of the usual characteristics that form the horror genre but, it is definitely not your typical horror flick. Phenomena follows the daughter of a famous American actor who has a strong psychic connection with insects. She is sent to a Swiss boarding school in an area where some girls have been disappearing. And, of course, she sleepwalks.

Why Watch Phenomena?

In addition to the insect-girl mentioned above, this film features an old man in a wheelchair and his pet chimpanzee.
It’s backed by a very loud 80s heavy metal soundtrack to provide some relief to some of the more tense moments.
Lucky for you, there’s no subtitles – it’s mostly in English despite being an Italian film.
Ever wondered what a horror remake of the Sound of Music might look like? Well here’s your chance to find out.

The Breakdown

Phenomena starts in a Swiss Alpine setting. A yellow bus pulls up at a bus stop, picks up a few passengers from a tour group and drives off. As the camera follows the bus (moving on a 180 degree axis) we hear someone shouting “wait”. The camera moves back to the left to see a girl running up to the camera. She’s missed the bus. So what does she do? She goes to explore a house nearby. To her, the house looks empty. But to us, we see shots of some chains being pulled from the wall… she has company!!!

In the opening ‘scare’ the monster is concealed from view. We see the girl running away from the monster through the monsters eyes and we see shots of the girl running, but never shots of the monster itself. This continues deep into the film to build up our fear of the unknown. Revealing the killer would end the build up of tension. (although the heavy metal music seems to weaken the potential scare factor).

Another method the director uses to build tension is to quickly cut between perspectives. For example, later in the film our young American girl is exploring an abandoned house. As she walks up to the house Argento (the director) cuts between her 1st person perspective, a 3rd person perspective view from behind her back, and another establishing shot, to show where she is (in a field in the Swiss Alps walking to a wooden house). This combination of perspectives disorientates the viewer, and stops the viewer from anticipating what will happen, which leads to a greater shock.

If you’re looking for an 80s horror film with a dash of psychedelia and a dash of heavy metal, then Phenomena is for you. Enjoy.

Letter

Letter Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Image result for loznitsa letter

Here’s another opportunity for you to see a way of life hidden in a remote part of Russia. Again, Loznitsa’s short-documentary is available to watch on YouTube. So you have no excuses for avoiding 20 minutes of immersion into an intriguing mental asylum.

Why Watch Letter?

For another Loznitsa short documentary (I’d recommend checking out Factory and Portrait before this one)
Experience life at a mental asylum in remote North-Western Russia
See how Loznitsa experiments with blurred vision
Another dreamy, peaceful way to spend 20 minutes – find the film here on YouTube

The Breakdown

The film opens with a picture of a forest covered in a thick layer of mist. You can hear the wind blowing and a bird crowing. The forest cuts to a hut in blurred vision which obscures the face of a figure that repeatedly walks to the front of the house to shake a white bed sheet. A lightning strike hits and another human silhouette appears against the whitewashed front of the small mental asylum.

Loznitsa documents a handful of scenes from life in the mental asylum. We witness the residents helping out with harvesting the grain fields and feeding a cow that is left to roam the grounds. One particularly memorable shot shows two men standing at the forefront of the frame whilst a man sits behind them playing an accordion. While a cow meanders around the shot, the taller man nicks the shorter one’s hat and puts it on his head. The shorter man quickly grabs it back before they both carry on staring.

The whole 20 minute film uses blurred vision. Whilst it makes it hard to watch, it does respect the mental asylum residents. Their identity and their location are kept hidden, allowing them to continue life in their isolated existence. In addition, the human sounds, possibly sounds of pain, are kept quiet to respect their lives.

Conclusion

Loznitsa’s Letter is a another short and serene documentary. His experimental techniques make it harder to watch than Factory and Portrait, but it is equally intriguing. Loznitsa’s short documentaries are opportunities to immerse yourself in ways of life that you are probably unaware of. Enlighten yourself and watch them all on YouTube.

Mi Vida – International Competition – SBIFF

In Mi Vida, a retired hairdresser’s life changes when she travels to Cadiz to take a language course. She falls in love with the city and the escape from her life at home. However, she has to decide between her dreams and her concerned family at home.

Mi Vida is a fairly conventional but enjoyable film about breaking free and following your dreams. Like Under the Tuscan Sun, Lou finds a romanticised Southern European life. Instead of a crumbling Tuscan house overlooking the valley, Lou finds a ‘humble’ rooftop apartment overlooking the cathedral. In the locals she easily finds a new best friend and has someone fall in love with her. She’s living the clichéd Southern European dream many Northern Europeans and North Americans have.

The opening is the only part of the film which breaks convention. Lou navigates her way from the airport to a cramped apartment organised by the language class. Her hosts are a young black family living in a cramped apartment – not the place you’d expect a white retired lady to be. She’s put up in a small room and shares a bathroom with the family – emphasised when the young boy walks into the bathroom whilst Lou is washing her hands. However, to the detriment of the film and in honour of convention, Lou makes up an excuse to leave the apartment and ends up at the clichéd dream rooftop terrace.

The filmmakers dangle this more interesting relationship between an old white lady and a poor black family led by a single mum in front of us, before saying we can’t see it and showing us a relationship between an old white lady and her middle aged Spanish teacher. Why hint at an interesting film before switching to something generic?

100

All the Cities of the North (Bosnia) Life in an Abandoned Resort

All the Cities of the North Film Difficulty Ranking: 5

If you want to take a step into the world of slow film, I recommend reading our introduction here first. If you’re already a veteran of slow film, or are looking to tick off Bosnia from your film map All the Cities of the North may be for you. Let me know what you find!

Image result for all the cities of the north

Why Watch All the Cities of the North?

To see a film from Bosnia (a first for FilmRoot)
If you’ve seen a few of the Slow Films on FilmRoot and want to see more!
You’re not after a fast-paced thriller, but a reflective film where the most exciting moment is when a guy blows into a bottle
For something to meditate to

The Breakdown

This film opens with a still shot of a man sleeping in a tent. Slowly he starts to move and you see a compilation of shots showing him: sharpening a stick, eating berries off of a tree, and washing the tent. It’s not thrilling stuff, this is the world of slow film.

As per a typical slow film, there’s little dialogue and a lot of long shots in which nothing much happens. In this case, there is no dialogue, the talking you hear is a couple of contemplative narratives.

The film takes place at an abandoned holiday resort in the former Yugoslavia. Two men camp and live together on the resort and what we see is the mundane things they do there, from berry picking to washing.

The only break from the script comes in a few shots of one of the weird complexes that Yugoslavia built in Lagos. The complex in Lagos also now in disrepair, but like the Yugoslav complex, local people have started living here. Whether this is symbolic of the fall of communism or renewal is never clear.

Conclusion

If you’re interested in learning about slow film, I recommend starting with our introduction to slow film. If you’re already a veteran then you may find something in this film that I missed. Perhaps it was because I wasn’t able to watch this film in a whole sitting that I didn’t find as much in it as A Mysterious Object at Noon or From What is Before. If you find something interesting, please comment below!