Chienfantome's yearly French & Korean recommendations

[Chienfantome]

Alright guys, time has come for my yearly recommendations. I’ll start with the French films, and soon I’ll do the same with Korean films.
2014 has been a great year for French films. A lot of people here in France like to spit on French cinema, saying it’s always the same depressing dramas without much sense of direction. I’m not one of those and I’m generally proud of French cinema, this year probably more than ever. Maybe we don’t have an Amelie this year, but there has been plenty of fantastic films from different genres. Documentaries, comedies, dramas. Films with heart, films with ideas, joyful, spleen or heartbreaking.
I’ve narrowed my recommendations to 15 films which is a good indicator of how great a year it’s been, because those are 15 films I truly loved out of 60 French films or so I saw this year. They are listed in the chronological order I saw them this year.

Au bord du monde (On the Edge of the World) by Claus Drexel
The best documentary I’ve seen this year alongside Frederick Wiseman’s “At Berkeley”. Claus Drexel follows homeless people in Paris, entirely during night time. He discusses with them, not about how they came to living in the streets, but about how they see society and people. It’s a fascinating, gut-wrenching film about the invisible human beings populating cities, people who are not considered citizens anymore but still have an often-times sharp vision of the world. It’s also a beautiful film about Paris, beautifully filmed at night. Really is one of the best discoveries I’ve made in theaters this year.

Tonnerre by Guillaume Brac
This one is really one of the films that show the signs of a real French New Wave in cinema, like a film I recommended to you last year, The Battle of Solférino. This one also has actor Vincent Macaigne in the lead, as a tired well-known musician who decides to go spend some time with his father, in the small village he is from, Tonnerre, in Bourgogne. There, he falls in love with a younger girl. This is fresh French cinema, dealing with the uncertainties of life, and how sentiments can take us on an unexpected road. It’s both light and powerful.

Jacky au Royaume des Filles (Jacky in the Kingdom of Women) by Riad Sattouf
One of the craziest and most politically infused films I have seen in French cinema in a long time. The film is set in an imaginary country where women dominate society. Women rule everything and men are here to serve them. Jacky is a young guy who dreams of marrying the daughter of the chief general (a woman of course) of the country. There’s gonna be a ball, and every family in the country hopes their son might be chosen. This is hilarious, and such an obvious mockery of countries where women are treated as almost slaves to men. A real political charge disguised as an absurd comedy.

Eastern Boys by Robin Campillo
A Parisian man brings home a younger male prostitute from Eastern Europe. But this one is a member of a sort of gang who will attack the Parisian and steal him. And yet, a relationship is born out of this. It’s a brutal and yet delicate film about the unexpected relationships of life, the dominancy struggles between men, all told without looking to ease the sentiments of the viewer. It’s a sensible, beautiful, intelligent film.

La belle vie (The Good Life) by Jean Denizot
A small film that didn’t play for long here in Paris, but I was lucky to catch it. It’s a first film about the real story of a father who kidnapped his two sons from their mother because he lost their custody in a bitter divorce. He took them and lived an outcast life with them for years in the countryside, in the mountains and in several places, spending years fleeing justice. It’s a surprising film that feels like a modern western with a very natural feel to it. The young actors in it are great. Funnily, there’s been a second French film this year on the same subject, one with Mathieu Kassovitz portraying the father, but “La Belle Vie” is the best film of the two.

Dans la Cour (In the courtyard) by Pierre Salvadori
A man looking for a job ends up accepting a janitor’s position in a Paris residential building. There, he bonds with a retired lady. Salvadori is one of the best French directors for human comedy, sometimes tainted with spleen, like this one is (if you haven’t seen “The Apprentices”, do it !). It’s a superb film about putting your life on pause to take a necessary break, fighting your demons, and also a powerful film about unlikely friendships. Catherine Deneuve portrays the retired lady.

Bird People by Pascale Ferran
Bird People takes place around Paris’ International Airport. A young woman works in one of the airport’s hotels as a maid, while one of the customers is an American businessman who doesn’t want to take his plane. Strange, delicate and poetic, Bird People slides inside the parenthesis of life, those pause moments that are sometimes temporary, and sometimes longer than expected. The director embraces those small moments of life and turn them into a magical moment of cinema.

Tristesse Club (Fool Circle) by Vincent Mariette
Two brothers who aren’t really close reunite for their father’s funeral, back in the village where they grew up. There, they meet with a young woman who claims to be their step-sister. Funny and strange film with a great set of actors (including one Ludivine Sagnier some of you probably remember from Ozon’s “Swimming-pool”) and a surprising soundtrack. It’s a film with both great dialogue and a real sense of atmosphere.

Maestro by Léa Fazer
The director used the screenplay written by Jocelyn Quivrin, a French actor who died driving his car too fast a few years ago. The story is about a young actor who dreams of acting in blockbusters and ends up in a small-budgeted poetic period film directed by an old wise filmmaker. The film is actually about Quivrin’s experience working with Eric Rohmer. It’s a film full of heart, melancholy and laughter, and starring the always great Michael Lonsdale as the filmmaker.

Les combattants (Fighters) by Thomas Cailley
One of last year’s Cannes Film Festival’s revelations, which played at the Director’s Fortnight. The film follows a young man living in the south of France, working in the family business with his brother. One day he meets a girl his age, tougher than him, who wants to join the hardest branch of the army. One of the most refreshing films of the year, full of ideas, well written and directed, taking us on the road to youth’s dreams and obstacles with a lot of humor.

Hippocrate by Thomas Lilti
A young intern starts his first day at a Paris hospital. He’s the son of one of the hospital’s top doctors. Will he be up to the task ? Directed by a former doctor, this is a drama tainted with offbeat humor that deals with social issues as well as human dramas. It’s a film sharply written with truth and soul.

3 coeurs (3 hearts) by Benoît Jacquot
A heartbreaking love triangle. A man falls for a woman, loses her, and later falls for another woman he finds out is the sister of the first one. Directed by Benoît Jacquot (Farewell, my Queen) ,it’s a beautiful, beautiful romantic drama, mature, thoughtful, touching, beautifully portrayed by the trio of actors Benoît Poelvoorde, Chiara Mastroianni and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Eden by Mia Hansen-Love
Eden follows a young man who dreams of being a great DJ, his relationships, his hopes and disillusions. More than just a film about the musical French Touch (which it also is, a couple of supporting characters notably being the two guys that were to become Daft Punk), it’s a human story, the path of the protagonist through the years, that make Eden so special. It’s a journey sometimes euphoric, sometimes melancholic through the 90’s and 00’s, a film both intimate and epic which explores the dreams, the hopes and disillusions of youth.

Une nouvelle amie (The New Girlfriend) by François Ozon
The yearly François Ozon. And it’s a good one again this year. Romain Duris portrays a widower with a baby to take care of now that is wife is deceased. His late wife’s best friend, who promised to watch over them to her dying friend, spends a lot of time with him, and one day discovers that Duris’ character dresses as a woman when he’s at home. At first uncomfortable with the discovery, she soon befriends the female version of her dead friend’s husband. It sounds quite crazy, but the film is actually a very subtle film about grief, but most of all about women. And what it is to be a woman. Quite fascinating. I know there are a few Ozon lovers here, I’m sure you’ll catch this one when it comes to y

I would also highly recommend the latest Astérix animated film, “Astérix : le Domaine des Dieux”, but I don’t know if there are any Astérix fans over here. But know that this is one of the funniest films I’ve seen in 2014.

[numbersix]

Thanks for this, Chien. At the very least I aim to see Les Combattants and Une Nouvelle Amie. Hope they're a lot better than Bird People

[Chienfantome]

Well I hope you'll find so

[Buscemi]

Eden is going to be the inaugural release of Broad Green Pictures (who also has 99 Homes, Learning to Drive and the new film from Jeremy Sulnier on their slate) on April 24th. I've read mixed notices on it and I worry about the inclusion of American elements in the story (also, most films with Greta Gerwig end up not being good). Such elements tend to be there for distribution reasons rather than actually being part of the story (see many UK films during Richard Curtis's heyday).

Meanwhile, the majority of these likely won't come to the US (except maybe through online distribution, where movies like Welcome to the Sticks and the original LOL turned up after failing to get domestic distribution). And I read a rumor that Disney bough the Asterix rights so they could keep his adventures off American screens (the story goes that the studio feels Asterix could steal Mickey Mouse's thunder). I don't know about said rumor's validity but it would explain why Asterix is so little known in the US (compared to another literary legend, Tintin, who has a decent following in the States).

[Chienfantome]

Opinions are indeed mixed on Eden. Some are not keen on it. I certainly am.
And don't worry about the inclusion of American elements in it. It most certainly is part of the story, and the human journey depicted. As for Gerwig, she only has 2 or 3 scenes in 135 minutes of film so...
I don't know about that Astérix rumour. I just think Astérix is way too French for American audiences, although you might say that it's popular almost everywhere in Europe so why not across the Atlantic.

[Shrykespeare]

Anything with Gong Li? (I know you know...)

[Ron Burgundy]

La belle vie, Eden and Tristesse Club strike me as the most interesting, and most likely that i will check out, if i can find them that is. Oh, and im a big Asterix fan! I read the comics in school and even got some home videos while i was young (albeit in german) from my Aunt. Thanks Chien, always good to have an insight into French Cinema, though i was somewhat disappointed not to see a film like La Haine or Irreversible.

[Chienfantome]

Anything with Gong Li? (I know you know...)

Of course I know
And as a matter of fact I DID see a good Gong Li film a couple of months ago, "Coming Home", directed by Zhang Yimou (who made the masterpiece "Raise the Red lantern" with her a couple of decades back).

La belle vie, Eden and Tristesse Club strike me as the most interesting, and most likely that i will check out, if i can find them that is. Oh, and im a big Asterix fan! I read the comics in school and even got some home videos while i was young (albeit in german) from my Aunt. Thanks Chien, always good to have an insight into French Cinema, though i was somewhat disappointed not to see a film like La Haine or Irreversible.

Well then Ron, I can only recommend you catch the latest animated Astérix movie then, it is formidable. As Boosch mentioned, Eden is getting a released in the US this spring, so maybe one day you should be able to put your hand on it with english subtitles...
As for a film like "La haine" or "Irréversible", indeed there wasn't a film like that this year. But Kassovitz announced that he's working on a film in the vein of "La haine", maybe it could arrive in 2016, who knows...

[Chienfantome]

Alright, after my French recommendations, here come the Korean ones !

Here are the best Korean films I have seen in 2014, out of more than 100 I've been able to watch last year :

The Terror Live
An ex-TV anchor who lost his position and now hosts a radio show receives a call live from a man claiming to be about to bomb one of Seoul’s biggest bridges. When the bomb detonates and the bridge collapses, the radio host sees the opportunity to get his TV anchor job back. A gripping thriller that never goes outside the studio and takes place in real time. Very intense, and a real political charge. One of the best films I’ve seen last year, from anywhere in the world.

Intruders
A screenwriter goes to a mountain cabin owned by his producer to finish writing his new script. On his way there, he meets a clingy ex-convict who wants to be his friend. Alone in the cabin, he starts getting a little bit anxious. As is the audience. A great little snowy redneck film, with great humor and unpredictability.

A Dream of Iron
A fascinating documentary tackling the end of the industrial era. Without much commentaries, but superb images of the gargantuan machines that are slowly dying. A great comment of the end of an era.

Broken
For the lovers of Korean revenge films, this is one great addition to the genre. The hero is a widower, factory worker, whose teenage daughter was raped and killed. The police investigation is slow, and the man receives an anonymous information telling him the location of those who did it. A bunch of teenagers. A great thriller that does not stop at telling us the cat and mouse story, but adopts each point of view (killer, family of the victim, police) to ponder about the moral at stake in such a criminal case.

Night Flight
A high school boy living with his single mother is infatuated with the bad boy of the school. When they were kids, they were best friends. But what’s the place in Korean society for the homosexual youth ? A beautiful portrait of youth, and of the difficulty to be gay in Korea. It’s also a luminous film that manages to tackle the relationships between characters very well.

Gyeongju
A Korean who teaches in China returns to his homeland for the funeral of a friend. Once there, he decides to take a trip to Gyeongju, a city where he and his deceased friend once went on a memorable journey. A fascinating, poetic cinematographic journey through memories and fading time, that reminds of Eric Rohmer and Hong Sang-soo’s cinema.

The Face Reader
A Historical film set centuries ago. A man living scarcely as a face reader gets the opportunity to work at the King’s palace, where his son left to be an apprentice. Starring the best Korean actor, Song Kang-ho (hero of The Host and Memories of Murder), the film is lavish and manages to portray today’s Korea through the ancient tale. It’s epic, funny, and engaging.

10 minutes
A young man dreaming of becoming a TV producer finds an internship in an administrative service. When his boss offers him a permanent job in the administration, he must choose between his dream and the safety of a job on a silver plate. It’s the graduation film of a young filmmaker, and if you see it, you wouldn’t believe it’s a graduation first film. It’s a sharp film that leaves you quite impressed by its audacity.

The Attorney
An attorney who specializes in the sector that promises the best incomes, in the late 70’s Busan. At that time, South Korea is still a dictatorship, but the attorney lives his life without caring about what’s going on in the country. Til one day, a student he knows is arrested and tortured, accused of being a communist. The attorney accepts to defend him. This is the true story of the man who would become one of the strongest opponents to the regime, and a President of Korea once the country became a democracy in the late 80’s. A solid drama enlightening us about a little-known period of South Korea’s history, lifted again by the performance of Song Kang-ho.

Montage
A classical but particularly efficient thriller, about a cold case that is suddenly warming up. Years ago, a young girl was killed after being abducted. The killer was never caught. Today, the crime is about to… how do you say it in English, to lapse its limitation ? And suddenly, another kidnapping with the same methodology happens. Investigators have only a few days before the statute of limitation expires. Every minute counts. The first act of the film seems to take us on an obvious path. It’s fast, it’s efficient, it’s going way too smoothly to be surprised. Or so it seems. 20 or 25 minutes in, you realize that there is much more to this film than what you expected.

Miss the Train
One of the strangest films I have seen last year. It’s about a woman who gets locked up by a man who wants her to eat some cakes he prepared for her… When she eats the cake, she suddenly wakes up as someone else, far away. Where is she ? Who is she ? What the heck was that cake she ate ? It’s a film that starts as quite depressing, when it suddenly shifts to this bizarre sci-fi thing that has you think “Wait, what ?”. A pleasant surprise.

[Chienfantome]

It's that time of the year, when we like to put up our lists of favourite films of the year.
For now, it's time for me to list my annual 10 recommendations for Korean and French films I've seen in 2015. Most of them haven't been released outside of Korea or France, I guess.

KOREAN FILMS

Hill of Freedom
Hong Sang-soo's little music is always a delight. Those who don't like him won't change their minds with this one. A Japanese man arrives in Seoul to declare his love to a Korean woman who, he discovers upon his arrival, left on vacation. He settles in the neighborhood to wait for her, and starts a relationship with another woman.
http://asianwiki.com/Hill_of_Freedom

A midsummer's fantasia
A Korean filmmaker travels to a small Japan town to scout locations for his next film. he wanders around and meets the people that will inspire him for the characters and story of his film. A marvel of a film, beautiful and emotional, that explores inspiration and human interactions.
http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_A ... ntasia.php

Socialphobia
Two students from the police academy of Seoul investigate the suicide of a girl who had many enemies on social networks. An investigation film dealing with the hyperconnected state of Korean society, and the growing place of digital in our life. A strong film about youth too, and its difficulty to let the speed and emotion out of their perception of life.
http://asianwiki.com/Socialphobia

Cart
A classic but powerful social drama telling the true story of the female workers of a supermarket who fought to save their jobs. A strong denounciation of the place of women in Korean enterprises.
http://asianwiki.com/Cart_(Korean_Movie)

Gi-hwa
A funny and touching road-movie following two forty-something rural guys who travel across the country with the son one of them, who just got out of jail. Great characters and humor give life to this Korean journey remindful of Hong Sang-soo's cinema.
http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_Gi-Hwa.php

My Dictator
In the early 70's, while South Korea lives under a dictatorship, a failed actor is offered a strange role : to incarnate North Korea's leader during the rehearsal of a summit between the leaders of South and North. An offer that will forever change his life, and most of all his relationship to his son.
A theme that looks like no other for a film that manages to be a powerful look at the years under Dictatorship, and a simple and touching story of a father and his son.
http://asianwiki.com/My_Dictator

Twenty
A pure comedy about three twenty year-old friends who must decide what to do with their lives. The three guys take three different routes. A laugh-out-loud comedy filled with well-crafted gags and characters. A hilarious animated sequence illustrating one of the guys pitching his idea for a sci-fi film to a director had me laughing on the floor.
http://asianwiki.com/Twenty_(Korean_Movie)

Island
A dark, black & white fantasy film about a man coming to an island to inherit the house of his late grandfather only to learn that it is haunted with a spirit. It could gear towards classical horror fare but on the contrary prefers to keep it strange, without ever fully embracing horror. Direction-wise, it's one of the most beautiful films I've seen this year, adding to it a gorgeous black & white. The ending is a bit disappointing but it is still nonetheless a remarkable small film.
http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_Island.php

Assassination
The second biggest film of the year at the Korean BO is also a great espionnage/adventure/historical film with a bit of a western vibe, set in Korea in the first half of the 20th century, during the Japanese colonial era. The resistance hires 3 specialists to kill the country's main quisling and a Japanese general. But some people don't want this assassination and hire another killer to prevent it.
It reminded me a lot of the films set in Paris during WWII, but as if it was made as a western. it's epic, it's well directed, it's full of great characters, and it's fun.
http://asianwiki.com/Assassination_(Korean_Movie)

Veteran
The biggest film of the year in Korea is also one of the very best. An action-comedy about a rightful cop trying to take down the smartass young boss of a huge company whom the cop suspects of doing some very dirty things. The action is the best I've seen this year in cinema, the film is tons of fun, and it comes with a strong discourse about Korean society, the nepotism and impunity of the big companies. We screened it as our opening film at the festival and the audience was cheering and applauding all along.
http://asianwiki.com/Veteran_-_Korean_Movie

FRENCH FILMS

L'affaire SK1
During the 90's, a serial rapist/killer terrorized the eastern districts of Paris. The film chronicles the years of investigation through the eyes of the cop leading it. The film is a wonderful look at the everyday life of the Paris criminal detectives in the 90's.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3433632/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Papa ou Maman (Daddy or Mommy)
The funniest French film of the year. A married couple on the verge of divorce fight to NOT get the custody of their kids, and will do anything to not obtain it. The film is mean as hell and full of great gags and character highly colorful.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4080672/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Arnaud fait son 2ème film
An actor turned director who made his first feature film years ago struggles to get his second one off the ground. A touching and funny film that feels very real and brings an interesting look at the difficulty of making films in 2015.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3480182/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Caprice
A man is torn between two women, an actress he is a fan of and suddenly starts dating and a young woman infatuated with him who turns his world upside down. Emmanuel Mouret is a director with a distinctive style and tone in French cinema, a bit old-fashioned, but at the same time fresh, funny and moving. This is his best film yet.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3612984/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

Un français (French Blood)
A film that was widely discussed in France, it follows a neo-fascist man from his early days of adulthood to being a full grown man. The film depicts a generation of fear and hate with great lucidity and strength in a year when the extreme-right party in French politics has never been stronger, unfortunately.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4168502/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Comme un avion (The sweet escape)
The new film from my favorite French director, Bruno Podalydès. It follows a 50 year-old man who decides to buy a kayak online to sail down a river and find himself alone on a journey through nature... except he'll only sail a couple of miles before making a long stop at a restaurant/inn he crosses along the river.
Podalydès films are little gems of humor, melancholy, magic that explore the human soul like no others. This one, once again.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4163644/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Mustang
The French representative for the Oscars is actually set in Turkey, and it's one of the most beautiful films I've seen this year. Five teenager sisters who drea of freedom in a turkish small town full of bigots who want to keep them in their traditions. A wonderful look at the conflict between youth and tradition, freedom and conservatism, where light and darkness respond to each other.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3966404/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Dheepan
Jacques Audiard won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, finally, and yet it's not his best film. The last act almost ruins it. But before those last 15 minutes is a powerful tale of two immigrates from Sri Lanka who settle in the French suburbs and discover that they fled a war to arrive in another kind of zone of conflict and despair.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4082068/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Les deux amis (Two friends)
French actor Louis Garrel turns director for this examination of friendship, telling of two friends infatuated with the same girl as they wander through Paris.A funny and cruel film that depicts friendship like few other films before. Vincent Macaigne and Golshifteh Farahani co-star with Louis Garrel.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4176556/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

La vie très privée de monsieur Sim (The very private life of mister Sim)
One of the very last films I've seen this year, sees a salesman take the road to sell a new product in the sounth of France but has a hard time really working as his fmaily problems trouble him. A very fine film about human relationships, and the inability to communicate between members of a family. It's also very funny, but a sort of dark humor.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4313614/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Bonus:
Two shorts that are among the best thing I've seen in cinema this year : "Inupiluk" and "Le film que nous allons tourner au Groenland". The first one is the story of two friends who welcome a couple of Groenland inhabitants in Paris. The second one is sort of a documentary that follows the team that made the first one as they prepare to make the sequel to Inupiluk as a feature film. It is crazy, it is funny, it is touching.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3483878/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

[numbersix]

Thanks for the recommendations, Chien. Out of those I've only seen Mustang, which is certainly in my Top 10 of the year. Can't wait for Dheepan.

[Chienfantome]

You're welcome Six, always a pleasure to put these lists together.
Mustang will definitely be in my global Top 10 films of 2015.

[JohnErle]

As long as Chien is waving the flag for French and Korean films, I may as well toss a couple of Canadian ones out there.

There's only two I want to highlight, which is hardly worthy of its own thread, so I'll just piggyback on Chien's picks.

Backcountry - This is a tense survival thriller about a couple who go hiking and get lost in the woods, where they have to deal with a creepy backwoods tour guide and a hungry black bear. The guy is pretending to be a more experienced hiker than he really is to impress his girlfriend, who he plans to propose to, and when his grandstanding causes them to get lost, it's the personal dynamic that elevates this beyond your standard thriller. Plus there's a bear attack you won't soon forget.

Preggoland - When a mid-30s alcoholic shows up hungover at a child's birthday party and causes a scene, she gets kicked out of her circle of friends, who are all married with kids and done with partying like teenagers. When she buys a fancy stroller as a make-up present, there's a misunderstanding, everyone assumes she's pregnant, they invite her back into the fold, and she gets caught up in a lie she can't find a way out of. It's a great premise, reasonably well executed, and a Hollywood remake with Amy Schumer seems inevitable.

[Buscemi]

I got Backcountry on Blu-ray the week it came out after seeing the film online (it was $9.99 at Best Buy, which is a steal in terms of Scream Factory titles). It was a lot better than Into the Grizzly Maze (the other killer bear movie of 2015).

I haven't seen Preggoland but I do know there is a BD-R of it available on Amazon. I haven't had the best of luck with Canadian comedies (there are some good ones but a lot of them feel like copies of bad American comedies) so I have been hesitant on seeing it.

[JohnErle]

Preggoland is a typical Canadian film in that it takes itself too seriously and focuses heavily on the drama, wasting a lot of the comic potential in the premise. Sonja Bennett is very good in the lead role though, and the way she keeps sinking deeper and deeper is cleverly constructed, so it's worth a look if you're not expecting a laugh-out-loud comedy.