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

Song of the Sea

Song of the Sea Film Difficulty Ranking: 1

Are you looking for a beautiful animation that carries an important, digestible message? Well you’ve come to the right place. Song of the Sea is Europe’s answer to Studio Ghibli and Pixar. It is a beautiful kids movie that adults will enjoy more because of it’s great storytelling. It is an ode to a disappearing culture, that only we can preserve.

Why Watch Song of the Sea?

If you like Miyazaki’s fantastic animated films
For an introduction to Irish Mythology
You like seals
So you can listen to some Irish!
For a commentary on Religion, Culture, and language – you didn’t think this was just a pretty little animation did you?

The Breakdown

Come away our human child, to the waters and the wild.

The opening lines of Song of the Sea set the scene for a mythology covered film. Up in a lighthouse on a craggy island rock a mum and her son paint the walls of a room. They are painting it for the new baby, and they paint the walls with scenes from Irish myths. As a present for his efforts, the mum gives her son a musical shell which carries the song of the sea…

There is so much to see and interpret from Song of the Sea that you could write a few essays on what how you make sense of it. One thing I noticed was the subtle contrasting portrayals of Christianity and Irish Culture. The contrast is shown through the lighthouse on a remote island by the coast, and in the grandma’s house in the city. Whilst the walls of the Lighthouse are painted with scenes from Irish mythology, the walls of grandma’s house are covered with pictures of family and images of Jesus and the Cross. In the lighthouse, the mother and son sing in Irish, whilst in the city, the grandmother listens to dull ballads.

Likewise the city is shown as oppressive and dirty compared to the freedom of the country. Whilst the cars of the city spew black smoke and almost run over the kids, there are no cars to ruin the picturesque island in the sea. In addition, all the rocks, trees, and fields in the country are beautifully patterned with spirals and circles (Irish patterns which appear a lot in the film), to contrast with the rigid straight lines of the city. The city’s inhabitants have forgotten about Ireland, and only the kids from the country can revitalise Irish culture by singing in Irish and embracing Irish culture.

Conclusion

In the same way as a Miyazaki film, Tomm Moore’s Song of the Sea stretches the creative boundaries of animation. However, Song of the Sea is not just a beautiful kids movie, it is an ode to Irish Culture. It holds the Irish language, song, and mythology. It shows us the importance of culture and our role in preserving it (see Embrace of the Serpent). So help out Irish culture and watch this film.

Scarred Hearts (Romania) – How to Live Life Lying Down

Scarred Hearts Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

“Life is a serious game for which we’ve even invented nickel plating. To live we must believe in their importance. But let us remember that it is all just a game”

You can tell Scarred Hearts was adapted from a novel. Philosophical musings are scattered throughout the film just like the stream-of-consciousness narrative I presume carries Max Blecher’s novel (correct me if my assumption is wrong!). Amazingly, it works! If you’re a big reader and want to convert to the big screen for a few hours without missing out on some philosophy, this one is for you!

Why Watch Scarred Hearts?

To understand the importance of humour in life (and in sickness, much like Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
Feel the political zeitgeist in Romania just before the Second World War
For some great quotes (e.g. “each moment, each pain, each thought, each event I consider important is but an atom in the vast ocean of world events”)
So many beautiful colours (just like a Wes Anderson movie)

The Breakdown

Scarred Hearts starts with the sound of a church choir singing. All we see is a sketched portrait of a man and then a load of old pictures of people lying down. The old pictures are of patients with Pott’s disease, a sort of tuberculosis of the spine. All of them must lie down whilst they are being cured.

But let’s talk about the film. The first thing I noticed was the beautiful colour palettes. There’s the pale blue and cream coloured hallways that match the nurses dress.

There’s the warm pinks and pale reds of the x-ray room.

And, there’s the pale, washed out blues and whites that make up the main hospital ward.

All these colour grades are carefully worked just like you might have noticed if you’ve seen a Wes Anderson film. Beautiful!

I also loved the many quotes that are either written across the screen like in the old silent films or read out by the characters. They question eternal life, religion, and the meaning of life. But while doing so they are also aware of their own fate. Here’s a couple of the quotes which I noted down:

“Life is a serious game for which we’ve even invented nickel plating. To live we must believe in their importance. But let us remember that it is all just a game”
“Fortunate is he who keeps the hour of his death ever present and lives every day as if it was his last”

Conclusion

There isn’t really any driving narrative plot in Scarred Hearts. However, this adaptation (of a Max Blecher novel) works incredibly well. It carries the stream-of-consciousness musings of the author through the character’s and a number of title cards which outline the film. Well worth a watch for anyone who loves literature and philosophical ramblings.

Honeyland – Traditional Lifestyle on the Brink

Honeyland Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

If you love documentaries that stray into the fictional or very real docu-dramas, you’re in for a treat. Honeyland is one step up: it’s a docu-epic. It follows a middle-aged bee keeper in rural North Macedonia living on her own with her frail grandmother. Their survival is delicately in the balance when a large family join them looking for a better life. It’s a tale of modernity vs. tradition, and greed vs. modernity: a real showdown for the ages. Plus it’s shot beautifully.

From: North Macedonia, Europe
Watch: Now Showing in the U.S, Screening Times Elsewhere 
Next: Makala, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, Nobody Knows

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La Dolce Vita

Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

One of Fellinis classics, La Dolce Vita takes you on a tour of Rome’s superficial upper class world. This one is full of parties, affairs, and paparazzi.

Why watch La Dolce Vita?

Get a feel for that Italian culture without leaving your bed.
For a taste of Italy’s most famous director.
Get invited to a weird mix of parties with a crazy bunch of people.
Feel like someone famous as paparazzi follow you everywhere.

Two helicopters enter flying over Rome’s suburbs, one carrying a statue of Jesus. Children abandon football to chase after the two helicopters captured by sweeping camera movements. There’s even a nice shot of the helicopter carrying Jesus from the other helicopter. A pretty modern shot for the time. The helicopters approach a roof-party where a number of girls are sunbathing on the roof. One of the helicopter passengers leans out of the helicopter to ask for one of the girl’s number. He says he is taking Jesus to the Pope.

Paparrazi are everywhere. Watch out for the camera movement. It often moves with the paparazzi, putting you in their position. The camera moves quickly towards a famous subject just as the paparazzi swarm around them. We are always where there are famous or rich people and we are always invading people’s privacy. Where there is paparazzi there is something going on even if it is of their or Fellini’s own creation.

A superficial world is also presented cleverly by Fellini. I counted two times where non-diegetic music is then stopped by one of the characters on a nearby juke box or record player. What we think is real is actually fake. This superficiality of the parties Marcello attends also seem like big crazy attempts to entertain themselves. The superficiality reminded me of Antonioni’s L’Avventura released in the same year, like The Great Beauty (an homage to Fellini from 2013) and even, to an extent, Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers (hah! Bet you didn’t expect that to be mentioned.).

Anyway, as a classic, I have to recommend watching this one, even if it is to please your inner film buff. As for Fellini, I did slightly prefer Nights of Cabiria. Enjoy.

Sweet Sixteen – One Teenager’s Quest to Find his Lost Childhood

Sweet Sixteen Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

What were you doing on your sixteenth birthday? Hopefully something better than Liam. Sweet Sixteen came out three years before MTV’s My Super Sweet Sixteen and shows a semi-orphaned teenager waiting for his mum to get released from prison. It’s another brilliantly bleak depiction of working class youth in the U.K. from Ken Loach and a perfect reality check to the super rich spoiled kids which took over MTV screens a few years later.

From: U.K., Europe
Watch: Trailer, Tubi, Amazon Prime
Next: Trainspotting, Girlhood, This is England

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