foreign musical films.

[25th Annual Speller]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:51am

So... I am doing a project for FIlm in school where I am comparing hollywood musicals to foreign musicals. I was simply wondering if any-one has seen any foreign musicals that they would like to recommend or anything. If not... I'm sorry for wasting a thread.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:52am

8 Women.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 12:07pm

Bollywood puts out about 100 a year.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 12:29pm

8 Women (France)
The Other Side of the Bed (Spain)
The 2 Sides of the Bed (Spain)
Yes Nurse! No Nurse! (Belgium)
The Young Girls From Rochefort (France)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (France)
Line 1 (Germany)

Updated On: 3/6/09 at 12:29 PM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 1:09pm

I want to second The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It is an absolute delight and Catherine Deneuve is entrancing in her role.

[Weez]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 1:32pm

The Happiness of the Katakuris is pretty awesome. Bizarre BIZARRE Japanese movie. Yes, bizarre even by Japanese standards. Good fun. :)

[WOSQ]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 1:33pm

Nota bene: this is all from memory.

I think it was East Germany or the USSR that used to do musicals that extolled the virtues of the communist state. There was a documentary called something like "East Side Story" that was a montage of these films. This would be 10-12 years ago.

I remember this doc played the Film Forum in NY. You could email them. Google "Film Forum NYC" and see if there is a contact.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 1:43pm

I almost forgot 20 Centimeters from Spain, which is quite interesting. Also the Oscar-nominated Lagaan from India.

[KrissySim]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 3:03pm

Foreign musical films do not always follow the format of the American Musical Theatre.
To give you some examples:

Rembetiko (Greece)
Vengo (Spain, but produced in France)
Latcho Drom (multi national, produced France)
Los Tarantos (Spain, Spain's answer to West Side Story, in fact)

or the biopic Camarón (Spain, my first film appearance as a background dancer, & "scenery role")

Otherwise, I do second with what has been posted here. Bollywood has a wealth of musicals. try Devdas

[Plum]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 3:39pm

Les Chansons d'Amour, from France

And of course the marvelous Once, from Ireland.

Netflix has a "foreign musicals" category with what looks like hundreds of titles. Bollywood dominates, for some strange reason. :) Also, Weez - I have The Happiness of the Katakuris in my queue and I can't wait to see it.

[xoangel2789xo]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:00pm

Lagaan

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:59pm

In my opinion, the best foreign musical film is The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

I don't even think I like any others. (Even though I liked 8 Women, I didn't even remember it was a musical!)

So there's something the USA does better than anyone else! (Or at least we used to.)

[25th Annual Speller]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:01pm

Thank you all so much!

I am going to check these all out.

[KrissySim]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 12:14am

There are many others not yet mentioned, but don't get me started

Carlos Saura of Spain has directed a series of beautiful musical films, both narrative and non-narrative, and provides examples of a purely European approach to the musical film which is really in a genre of its own. There are many, but check out:

Narrative:

Blood Wedding
Carmen
Fados

Non-narrative:

Sevillanas
Flamenco
Iberia

Updated On: 3/6/09 at 12:14 AM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 12:36pm

One of the interesting things about The Young Girls from Rochefort is that it was a French film that combines both English and French languages and actors. The films stars Catherine Deneuve shortly after her success in Umbrellas of Cherbourg, but also features George Chakiris of West Side Story fame and Gene Kelly. And the score contains my favorite Legrand song, Chanson des Jumelles (The Twin Song), which is also used in 8 Women.