Thursday Movie Picks: Non-English Language Films

 

For the 27th week of 2022 as part of Wandering Through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks. We go into the recurring subject of non-English Language films as it’s something that has been done a bunch of times in this series. Even as there’s a lot of films from parts of the world that many haven’t seen as my picks are based on films that I watched from my MUBI subscription this year as that’s become a streaming service that I really love. Here are my three picks:

1. Oslo, August 31st

A loose remake of sorts of the Louis Malle film The Fire Within that was adapted from a novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, Joachim Trier’s sophomore film is a fascination study of a day in the life of a man who is given a one-day leave from drug rehab to attend a job interview in Oslo. It is a fascinating character study that features an incredible leading performance from Anders Danielsen Lie who exudes a lot of the sense of alienation and uncertainty in the course of a day as he returns to Oslo and see that the world around him has changed and ponders his existence in life.

2. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s crime drama is an unconventional film as it revolves around a police chief, a prosecutor, a doctor, various officials in the police force, a couple of diggers, and two suspects trying to the find the location of a body being buried but also the impact of the crime itself. It is a film that doesn’t have much plot and is slowly-paced but it works as it play into these characters who are all just ordinary as the location itself is a major part of the story. Even as they deal with what had happened and the complexity of the crime.

3. Matthias & Maxime

From Xavier Dolan is his most recent feature film that is not just a massive improvement over the misfire that is The Death and Life of John F. Donovan but a new sense of maturity as it play into two life-long friends who participate in a student film where they kiss each other for the film. Thus, things start to become complicated as the titular characters would both endure their own journeys to understand what had happened and such. Even as one of the characters has a girlfriend though she believes that he’s not being totally honest. It is a film filled with rich visuals but it also more of a study of lingering feelings toward one another as it is a must for fans of Xavier Dolan.

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