film root

1

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.

 

2

The Exterminating Angel (Spain) – Bunuel At The Top of His Game

The Exterminating Angel Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Ever had a party where the friends you invited just don’t go home? They’ve stayed for dinner, stayed the night, and even though you’ve fed them breakfast in the morning, they’re still here! Well that’s what happens in Bunuel’s Exterminating Angel. It’s intriguing, entertaining, and Bunuel-level absurd. You’ve got to love it!

Why Watch the Exterminating Angel?
  • See more of Bunuel’s dark view of human nature (watch Viridiana for more)
  • To laugh at the aristocracy just like Monty Python’s Twit of the Year
  • For surrealism at it’s finest – there are bears and sheep wandering through the house, floating hands, and chicken legs in purses!
  • To learn how to small talk and ditch someone you don’t want to speak to anymore onto someone else
The Breakdown

The film starts with guests arriving in their fancy cars at the gates of a mansion in Spain. As the guests are entering the house, the servants are trying to leave like rats from a drowning ship. But what is the problem with this house?

Well it’s full of the aristocracy that’s why. The guests have their fancy dinner, and continue to have drinks, and then coffee, then go to sleep. At this party, the guests just don’t leave.

In the morning, the host tries to get them to leave after breakfast, but his plan fails. None of the guests leave. In fact, in a surrealist twist, none of them can leave. They are somehow all confined to fight for survival in the morning room of this giant mansion.

Yes, this film is absurd. But it’s also intriguing and entertaining enough to keep on watching. As for the political allegories, Roger Ebert puts it best:

“The dinner guests represent the ruling class in Franco’s Spain. Having set a banquet table for themselves by defeating the workers in the Spanish Civil War, they sit down for a feast, only to find it never ends. They’re trapped in their own bourgeois cul-de-sac. Increasingly resentful at being shut off from the world outside, they grow mean and restless; their worst tendencies are revealed.”

Conclusion

This is vintage Bunuel. Just like in Viridiana he subtly makes fun of Franco’s Spain. In this case he makes fun of the aristocracy who are trapped in their upper class bubble (their own oversized mansion).

 

3

Okja (South Korea)

Okja Film Difficulty Ranking: 1

At last, a film on Film Root that you can watch with a large popcorn and coke. It’s just like the Hollywood blockbusters you are familiar with and you can watch it on Netflix! It has a recognizable cast, action, clear demarcations between good and evil, and drama. You’ll also get Film Root points for watching this, as it is made by Korean Bong Joon-ho and features a bit of Korean! So have a day off from the art-house and slow films usually on here and enjoy!

Here’s a teaser trailer (no spoilers this time)

Why Watch Okja?
  • It’s a Hollywood film, it’s mostly in English, and it’s on Netflix! It’s an easy way for you to say you’ve watched an international film!
  • To see more from Bong Joon-ho, the great Korean director behind The Host and Snowpiercer
  • Learn about the brutal side of the food industry (to learn even more check out Food Inc)
  • If you like cute pigs!
Breakdown

You’ll see the high heeled Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) open the film with a swanky presentation that is one part Steve Jobs and two parts Pop Idol. She introduces Mirando (a rip on the real life Monsanto) and their latest innovation that will solve world hunger: a Super Pig.

For the Pop Idol twist, Lucy Mirando introduces a worldwide competition. She will send a bunch of Super Pigs to the best farmers from around the world and see who can raise the best Super Pig.

Sure enough, one of these Super Pigs is sent to Korea. As next we follow Mija, the young farm girl who takes care of Okja.

From the scenes with Okja and Mija, the director makes it clear that Okja is more than just a piece of meat. Okja helps Mija catch fish and harvest fruit and even saves Mija’s life in one of the opening scenes. These early scenes with Mija and Okja establish that Okja is a sentient and intelligent being.

However, Mirando, like the real life Monsanto and any good capitalist business is all about profit margins. Despite the best PR attempts of Lucy to hide her company’s lack of responsibility, it is obvious to us that they are bad!

Conclusion

Okja brings the ugly corporate controlled food industry to Hollywood with style! It has everything you want if you’re used to Hollywood blockbusters and you can watch it at home on Netflix!

Favourite quotes from the film (the first is also a personal goal of mine):

“Learn a new language – it opens doors!”

“Translations are sacred”

4

What is Slow Film and Why You Should Care?

Film Root’s Introduction to Slow Film

Image result for slow cinema

Watching slow cinema is a completely different experience to binge-watching your favourite TV show. When you’re binge-watching TV you can just sit in your seat and let the TV tell you a story. In contrast, when you’re watching slow film you have to do more.

Slow film is pretty much another art form within the world of film. So I’ve tried to help you understand what it is and why you should care in our first Film Root film introduction to slow film right here.