Film Difficulty 3

To help you ease your way into our world, we have devised a the film difficulty ranking system to rate the difficulty of each film reviewed on our site. The easiest to watch films (the Rom-Coms and Superhero flicks that you watch anyway) will have a rating of 1. Foreign language films automatically add one point, as do black and white films, and films with strange and hard to follow plots. Welcome to Film Difficulty 3.

Film Difficulty Ranking 3: More of a challenge for those familiar with foreign films. Level 3 is like a mix between an intriguing European mime artist and your most interesting and demanding school teacher.

If you’ve mastered these films, move onto Film Difficulty Ranking 4.

Umberto D (Italy) – An Introduction to Italian Neorealist Film

Umberto D Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Here’s your chance to introduce yourself to Italian neorealist film. Umberto D. is one of the standout films of the neorealist genre. You’ll meet the elderly Umberto, a man who has been forced into poverty by his government and landlady. It’s a must watch for all film fans.

You can watch the film here on YouTube if your Italian is up to scratch. Otherwise you can rent it here for the price of a coffee.

Why Watch Umberto D?

For the perfect introduction to Italian Neorealism
To see how bad poverty was in post-war Italy
It’s emotional – it’ll get you angry, sentimental, hopeless, and hopeful
It’s actually De Sica’s favourite film (above Bicycle Thieves)

The Breakdown

Umberto D starts with a protest in one of Rome’s city squares. An organized group of elderly men are all demanding a raise in their pensions. One of these men is Umberto D. Ferrari, a retired government worker.

Unfortunately for Umberto, life isn’t going too well. Even though he worked all of his life for the government, he can’t afford to live on the pension they’ve given him. As a result, his unsympathetic landlady is kicking him out.

Despite this, Umberto is always well-dressed in a suit, tie, and hat. He manages to keep his smart dress throughout the film. It’s almost a symbol of his dignity. The only time he thinks about begging is when he removes his hat and gives it to his pet dog Flike to beg on behalf of him. It’s the only short moment in which he relinquishes his dignity and asks for help.

Umberto is not the only one that needs help. You’ll notice some beggars asking for money. But there’s also the landlady’s maid, one of the only friends of Umberto. There’s one iconic scene which focuses on her, pretty much the only scene that isn’t focused on Umberto. In the scene she walks from one end of the landlady’s kitchen to the window to watch a cat wandering over the neighbours roofs. Whilst it may not sound that significant, the scene emphasises the maid’s lack of freedom. Whilst the cat can freely roam the roofs of Rome, she is confined to the landlady’s kitchen. She cannot afford to live by herself or go to school and ultimately she will share the same fate as Umberto later in life. It shows that, unless there’s change, poverty will continue to exist.

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Conclusion

De Sica claimed that Umberto D. was his favourite film that he made. In addition, it’s probably one of the best examples of Italian Neo-realism. It’s full of emotion, and quickly gets you to sympathise with Umberto. It’s a must watch if you’re into foreign film.

If you want to get to know more classic Italian films, I’d recommend checking out Divorce: Italian Style for a comedy that inspired Martin Scorsese, and La Dolce Vita from maestro Federico Fellini. For more Neorealist film check out the following:

La Terra Trema (Visconti)
Germany Year Zero (Rossellini)
Bicycle Thieves (De Sica)

Akasha – Afro-Bubblegum in the Sudanese Civil War

Akasha Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

If you’re looking for an African film which avoids the stereotypes of focusing on war, poverty, or aids, this film is for you. Akasha is one of the fresh new African films leading the Afro-Bubblegum style; films which portray a fun, frivolous, and fierce Africa. It’s not the Africa portrayed in the media.

From: Sudan, Africa
Watch: Trailer - release date TBC
Next: Wallay, Abouna, Rafiki

The Wolves (Los Lobos) – Berlinale 2020

The Wolves is a spiritual sister to Sean Baker’s The Florida Project. Instead of a boisterous white mum and daughter living in a motel by Disney World, The Wolves features a single mum with two young boys that have just crossed the border into the United States. The kids are happy to follow their mum and spend more and more days passing time in a shabby apartment on the understanding that they’re going to Disneyland.

The two boys are stuck at home everyday making their own entertainment whilst their mum works double shifts to try and create a better future. There’s no school for them to go to and they’re forbidden from leaving the apartment. Any chances of being caught and deported must be avoided.

Despite being stuck in the apartment all day, The Wolves is presented with a lot of warm nostalgia. There’s a slow and lazy guitar soundtrack that generates the same warm melancholic tones of films imbued in Americana like Mud, Bombay Beach, or even parts of Thelma and Louise. There’s also warmth in the games that the two boys play to keep themselves occupied and the drawings that come to life in their imagination. Even though the melancholic soundtrack and bleak surroundings hint that the American dream is out of reach, their playfulness shows it won’t stop them dreaming.

The Wolves is an ode to the faceless people of America. Not just the immigrants that cross the southern border seeking a better life, but the homeless, and anybody scraping together a life living below the poverty line. A few times in the film, Samuel Kishi Leopo (the director) inserts montages of portraits of people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds living within the new family’s community. All the portraits feature people staring straight into the camera like you might see in a National Geographic magazine, showing them without anything to hide. It shows them purely, in front of their humble homes. What these people have in common is an absence of the white picket fenced house promised by the American dream. It’s a sign that being American, or simply being in America for those that migrate north, doesn’t automatically grant you a well spring to health and prosperity. The Wolves honestly highlights the people that the country has left behind.

For more films from the Berlin film festival, head to our Berlinale home page.

Mommy – Sexy Moms and One Uncontrollable Teenager

Mommy Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Sexy Moms + One Uncontrollable Kid = Mommy, a film with Canadian Karaoke and Violence. Sounds like a game of Cards Against Humanity right!? A smart-phone like aspect ratio takes headlines in this one in a beautifully shot film about a single mother trying to raise her unpredictably violent son.

From: Canada, North America
Watch: Trailer, Rent on Amazon, Buy on Amazon
Next: We Need to Talk About Kevin, Tangerine, Room

Freedom Fields – Meet the Libyan Women’s Football Team

Freedom Fields Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Freedom Fields follows a group of Libyan women trying to start up the women’s Libyan football team. They’ve all grown up watching sports stars like Messi and Ronaldo and want to be just like them. However, in a fiercely patriarchal society, their dreams are under threat from extremist preachers and their conservative followers.

From: Libya, Africa
Watch: Trailer
Next: Wadjda, The Eagle Huntress, Girlhood