If you like documentaries and foreign films, it is easy to
fill the winter months with streams from Netflix, as this list shows. Several
were gleaned from the new arrivals list at Netflix.
Here is what I have watched since I posted my last list. The
ratings I give are on my own number system which is explained at the link on
the sidebar. Clicking on a movie title will open a new browser tab with the
IMDb page for the movie.
The Gatekeepers –
2012 (3.0). All six living former heads of the Israeli Shin Bet, the government
security agency tasked with protecting Israel from terrorism, are interviewed
in this thoughtful Israeli documentary. Their statements about their time in
charge and how their attitudes have changed over the years are stylishly
blended with archival footage and CGI enhanced photographs of the events about
which they speak. The main focus is on the problems involving dealing with the
Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Though they all agree on what the path
should be to solving the problems, they also are one in their lack of
confidence in the politicians to take that path.
Stuck – 2013 (2.9).
Ten million children are languishing in poor conditions in orphanages around
the world and there are many qualified Americans who want to adopt some of
them, but are encountering significant problems and delays in the process.
Following prospective American adopters (three couple and a single woman) of
children in Vietnam, Cambodia, Haiti and Ethiopia, and including interviews
with attorneys, child development experts, teenage adoptees and various government
officials, this documentary illuminates some of the political problems involved
but most movingly shows the wonderfully appealing children and the
unconditionally loving people who want to become their parents. Doubts about
the wisdom of international interracial adoptions are seriously challenged by
this movie, and the fact that the single mother who wants to lovingly parent a
beautiful Ethiopian girl is African American is refreshing. This film shows how
hard it is for deeply loving parents to adopt, and by implied contrast, how
easy it is for some biological parents to bring a child into the world and
abandon it.
Protektor – 2009
(2.9). He is a popular radio announcer on the radio. She is an up and coming
young movie actress with platinum hair. They live in Prague and it is right
after the Nazis have invaded. At home she removes her wig to reveal her dark
hair and we begin to see the good and bad parts of their marriage as they each
deal with the Nazis in their own way, complicated by the fact she is a Jew.
This Czech movie has a smart script, good acting and efficient direction and
editing as we move between what seems like black and white dramas and then bright
colored realities. The movie is about how they each handle the Germans
differently, as she flirts with dangers and he tries to protect her by not
rocking the boat, and about how their marriage suffers in the process.
1964: AmericanExperience – 2013 (2.8). Shown on PBS fifty years later, using archival
footage and narration, this documentary captures the events of 1964 that
signified the many pivotal changes occurring in America as the country
continued to mourn its recently slain President and the new President LBJ
pushed his broadly progressive political agenda on a country that was openly
beginning to tear itself apart.
Good Ol’ Freda –
2013 (2.8). Freda Kelly was a 17 year old girl in a Liverpool typing pool in
1962 when some friends took her to a local basement pub to watch a new bank
perform. She immediately became a regular and an intense fan of the group and
soon fell into the job of heading their fan club. When they got a recording
contract, she was chosen to become their secretary, a job she held for ten
years as the Beatles rocketed to stardom and then broke up, right around the
time she got married and started a family and decided it was time to quit her
job. In this documentary Freda takes us back on a memory trip, aided by
interviews with people who had been involved back then and with her grown
daughter, and we see the qualities that made her the perfect person for the
job, a fan who was not fanatic, a secretary with devoted integrity and loyalty
in her work. Still working in the secretarial field fifty years later, Freda
characteristically has never cashed in on her pivotal connection with the
iconic group. Bad on Sir Paul for not even contributing a nod to his former
faithful employee and good for Ringo for doing so.
Birders: The CentralPark Effect – 2012 (2.8). Central Park in NYC is one of the greatest
accomplishments of city planning, a wonderful mass of nature in the midst of urbanity,
enjoyed by millions of people, a couple hundred different species of birds and
a few score people who delight in going to the park to watch the avian wonders.
Interviewing the bird watchers and showing them delight in watching the birds
and spotting and counting the colorful varieties is what this documentary does,
with efficiency and appeal.
Booker’s Place: AMississippi Story – 2012 (2.8). In 1965, following the murder of three
civil rights workers in the area, Greenwood Mississippi was visited by an NBC
news documentary crew wanting to see what people were like there. The only
African American interviewed was a waiter in the best white restaurant. He was
famous for his memorized recitation of the extensive menu, but when he was
filmed reciting, he added comments about how he was treated by the white
patrons and how that made him feel inside. After warning Booker about possible
consequences if his comments were aired, he said he wanted them included. This
new movie was made by the original documentarian’s son who had put the footage
on the Internet to archive it. Meanwhile the granddaughter of Booker had been
looking for a copy of the scene which she had never seen. Matched up, the two
descendants went back to Greenwood to fill in the story and bring it to date.
Well done with a few surprises, even if the attitudes don’t seem to have
changed much in fifty years.
5 Broken Cameras –
2011 (2.8). This Arabic language documentary was filmed by a resident of
Palestine, starting with the birth of his youngest son in their small village
in Palestine. Around that time the Israelis were building new settlement
apartment houses encroaching into the area the villagers had been using for
their olive growing. The Israelis installed security fencing which was policed
by their army. The villagers began continuous protests and encounters with the
settlers and army and this movie documents these protests through the fifth
birthday of the young son. In the course of these five years, five cameras used
in the filming were broken by the Israelis. Definitely a home movie, but from
an unusual enough perspective to have earned an Oscar nod.
The Kid with a Bike
– 2011 (2.8). Practically no back story
is provided in this French movie about a young motherless boy age about ten
whose father dumps him at a boarding home and then tries to ditch him. The boy
naively chases after the father and in the process encounters a young woman who
has her own hairdressing shop where she lives in the back and where he starts
to visit her on weekends. Roaming the streets on his bike, he is soon being
targeted for recruitment by the local gang leader. Fine acting by the young boy
and the hairdresser carry this movie, which makes one think about abandoned
children and appreciate loving people who are willing to be surrogate parents.
There is no preaching here, just concentration on the two people and their
relationship.
Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home – 2010 (2.8). Under pressure from gentrification, Skid Row in
Los Angeles is the only surviving community for low cost housing for poor
people. Denizens are diverse, though their hard luck stories share elements of
mental illness, drug addiction, bad luck and bad choices. This documentary
follows several residents as they discuss their personal stories and what the
community means to them. People who at first glance make one want to turn away
are shown to have some admirable aspects midst their eccentricities. Personal
touch is the basis of this film, not political proselytizing.
Citizen Cohn –
1992 (2.8). Sleazy lawyer Roy Cohn is the subject of this biopic drama, which
concentrates on his time as counsel to the McCarthy committee communist witch
hunts and touches on aspects of his personal life and post McCarthy years as
well as his start as one of the Rosenberg prosecutors. The delusional egotism
of the man is intensely portrayed by James Woods but the movie is so focused on
his personality and unscrupulous tactics that the larger issues involved are
only barely touched.
Jane Eyre – 1983
(2.8). One of nineteen TV or movie productions of this classic listed at the
IMDb, this BBC miniseries suffers mostly from scenery chew acting by many of
the males, though that may have been somewhat true to character. The primary
blessing is the finely subtle acting of the adult Jane by Zelah Clarke, who
seems to have not done any further screen acting.
Dark Days – 2000
(2.6). Underneath plush riverfront property in NYC is an old railroad tunnel
which includes extra space intended for workmen. This documentary shows several
otherwise homeless people who suffer from various addictions and other problems
and who have made makeshift homes in this tunnel, some for many years. The
squalor in which they live is palpable. They emerge from holes to scrounge
garbage above ground hoping to find food and other items to use or sell. With
only a few interviews with other people, the movie spends most all its time
underground listening to these denizens expound on their lives. Though the film
captures the bleak lives in the tunnel, it does nothing to address the issues
that brought the people there.
Danton – 1983
(2.6). Made by a Polish director in France during the martial law response to
the Solidarity movement, this French language film is set in Paris during the
1790s and tells of the conflict between revolutionaries Robespierre and Danton regarding
whether the purges and executions of The Terror had gone too far.
Revolutionaries are always worried either that counter revolutionary plots to
restore the overthrown regime are afoot or that the ideals of the revolution
have become perverted. This movie shows this conflict, but unfortunately does
it with somewhat low production values, theatrical performances, excessive
dialogue and the absence of any particular drama or character exploration. Danton
was played by Depardieu, so his scenes were shot in French, but Robespierre was
played by a Polish actor, so his scenes were shot in Polish and dubbed into
French.
The Conversation
– 1974 (2.4). Written, produced and directed by Coppola, this slow moving
supposed thriller lacks any drama or punch as we labor through the intricacies
of what was then state of the art snooping, watching a seriously paranoid
private snoop who fears that, once again his work will lead to criminal violence
and he will not be able to stop it. As a character study of the snoop, the
script barely goes anywhere. Issues of privacy and personal responsibility were
supposedly addressed, but if so, the passage of time has made the treatment mediocre.
There are some interesting audio effects employed in the tape recording and
listening scenes.
The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were (though
some of the streaming rights may now have expired):
Stuck
Protektor
Good Ol’ Freda
Birders: The Central Park Effect
Booker’s Place: A Mississippi Story
5 Broken Cameras
The Kid with a Bike
Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home
Jane Eyre
The Conversation