Movies From Opposite Sides of the Globe

Foreign films are a vivid window on the world and the human condition, but often get little if any theatrical distribution in the United States. They aren’t even easy to find on DVD, especially in this part of the country.

Last week and this week, two new DVDs from New Yorker Video bring a pair of films from opposite sides of the world to American video audiences, each completely different from the other in both style and content, yet each equally intriguing.

“Belle Toujours” (2006) is a co-production from Portugal and France, an intimate, low-key, enigmatic homage and sequel of sorts to Luis Buñuel’s 1967 classic “Belle de Jour,” by 97-year-old writer-director Manoel de Oliveira.

“Sunflower” (2005) is a moving family epic from China, following a man’s life from birth through young adulthood during the political turmoil and sweeping socio-economic changes of the last third of the 20th century.

Mainstream movie fans who are casual viewers of foreign films might expect a 70-minute European film set in Paris, made by a veteran filmmaker who has been working in films since 1928, to be more accessible, more traditional, (less “foreign,” perhaps?) than a 129-minute Asian story heavily steeped in Beijing politics and Chinese culture. Such stereotyped assumptions, however, would quickly be reversed by viewing these two films.

Manoel de Oliveira turns 100 this December, yet has two more films in the works (including an anthology with Winnipeg’s Guy Maddin) and is probably the world’s oldest active director.

Nevertheless, his style remains very much a part of the non-Hollywood avant-garde movement that flourished around the 1960s and continues as part of today’s “indie” movie scene.

“Belle Toujours” is a slice-of-life character study that refuses to explain the details that mainstream audiences demand to know. It also lingers lovingly on its settings, both before and after the characters enter and exit.

The result, like other Oliveira films, might be trimmed to a half-hour or less by an American director, but stands as a fascinating exercise in cinematic minimalism.

Michel Piccoli reprises his role as Henri, the cynical playboy (now in his 80s) who in “Belle de Jour” had lusted after his best friend’s wife Séverine (now played by Bulle Ogier). Séverine has now renounced the secret, perverted life of her youth, while Henri has become an alcoholic obsessed with rekindling their relationship. The film is a uniquely personal take on how people change or don’t over the years.

The deliberate, leisurely style may take an effort to adjust to by American audiences, but fits its subject well.

While there is no audio commentary track, the DVD includes a very interesting series of interviews of the director and three main stars that may help, as well as a 39-page pdf file of the film’s promotional pressbook, plus (a rarity these days) a brief printed essay in the box.

The cinematic style of “Sunflower” is much closer to familiar Hollywood techniques of storytelling than “Belle Toujours.” However, it has a sense of detail and human emotion generally missing from mainstream American movies that immediately draws the viewer into its story.

At face value, it bears many similarities to and complements beautifully the fine 1993 Chinese film, “The Blue Kite” (available on DVD from Kino Video). “The Blue Kite” is a story of a boy in Beijing from 1953 through the late 1960s, but is much more obvious in its critique of political extremism during those turbulent times.

Both films are excellent follow-ups to the 1982 Chinese film “The Teahouse,” which dramatizes the effect of political turbulence in China on one group of characters from the late 1890s throughout the first half of the 20th century.

“Sunflower” starts in 1967 and continues through the end of the 20th century. The harsh political system has a critical effect on the lives of its simple, average family, yet is kept mainly in the background throughout the plot.

Writer-director Zhang Yang focuses instead on the equally turbulent father-son relationship as the central character grows to adulthood. We see directly the effect on them of the extreme economic and social changes in China from the 1970s through the 1990s, but it is their personalities that drive the story.

Old Zhang (brilliantly played by Sun Haiying) had been an artist sent to a “rehabilitation camp” under Mao’s regime, where his hands were broken and he was forced to learn manual labor. His steadfast wife (a powerful performance by Joan Chen) must raise their baby alone until he returns home to a 9-year-old son who can’t remember him.

The father forces the boy to become the artist he can no longer be. The boy, naturally, resists, sometimes violently, and tries to run away. Yet despite his increasing estrangement from his father, his natural talents for drawing and painting later lead to a girlfriend and eventually a major gallery exhibit. As a young man on his own, he still clashes with his parents, and his parents have their own personal disagreements.

“Sunflower” (the boy’s name Xiangyang is explained as meaning “facing the sun") resists becoming a mere soap opera, however, or a simple chronicle of China’s shift toward modern technology and world market capitalism. The film is instead a touching and tender study of family relationships that transcends national boundaries, languages, and cultures.

Again, there is no audio commentary on the DVD, but there are several brief interviews with the filmmakers and actors made during the movie’s production, which help provide a context.

Both “Belle Toujours” and “Sunflower” are sure to please devotees of international cinema. “Sunflower” will also probably have a broader appeal to viewers who give it a chance. If local stores don’t happen to carry the DVD, the distributor’s website is www.NewYorkerFilms.com.