#69: Watch a foreign film

As an American, the fact that I have watched, and enjoyed, subtitled films (not movies) continues to make me laugh somewhat, because when I was growing up, there was no such thing as a non-American/English movie. You mean not only are there people in the world who don't speak English, but they make their own movies? What?!? Why would they want, or need, to do that? Aren't they happy with Harry Potter, Toy Story, Titantic and ET?

As I've gotten older, I've seen some great foreign films and realised that other countries often produce more interesting movies than the Hollywood machine. (If you haven't seen it, check out Downfall, an amazing story of Hitler's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII). So for my list I thought I would search out more interesting, foreign, movie fare.

So step in, In the House, a French film with Kristen Scott Thomas. Having seen her recently in a play, I thought I'd go double or nothing on the cinema front.

Time Out said: "There’s fun to be had from the pomposity and pretensions of Luchini and Scott-Thomas, yet the surrounding frolics also hint at the hidden agendas behind the stories which fascinate us, and indeed how those stories play up to a distanced, even unhealthy curiosity about the lives of others. Plenty to ponder then, but you can also simply enjoy its gossipy fizz. A witty, naughty, insight-packed provocation which never takes its seriousness too seriously."

Hollywood wishes it could make movies this interesting.