The Edukators, by Hand Weingartner, had everything one would want to have in a movie. It was what most would consider as the “complete package.” From comedy, to romance, to thrill, and to social awareness, Weingartner made sure to seamlessly incorporate all those various elements into one film.

The film began with Jan and Peter, childhood best friends that have stuck to each other ever since. Together, aside from their normal day jobs, they comprise the “Edukators.” Without giving away their identities, they are known by the public as a group who breaks into mansions only to leave messages for the owners, never stealing anything. During a trip Peter took, Jan and Jule, Peter’s girlfriend unexpectedly fell in love with each other. This led to Jan and Jule breaking in the house of Jule’s creditor; however, their identities were compromised and this was when all started to go out of control. They had to kidnap Jule’s creditor, Hardenberg, and they eventually had multiple discussions with him about social causes.

Compared to the previous European films seen, I found this film to be the most interesting. The film kept me engaged from start to finish. I believe that Weingartner wanted the film to be influential, and it definitely was. Ever since the beginning of the film, most of the audience surely felt that they were being educated by the Edukators. The film presented various social point of views which kept the audience thinking. Whether it based from the rebellious teens or the experienced businessman, or both, a new perspective on viewing the society was obtained.

Nevertheless, the social message aspect of the film was not the only part to look out for. As mentioned, there was also a great interplay of comedy, romance, and thrill in the movie. Whenever scenes may seem to lead viewers to be being stressed out by the standpoints being presented, Weingartner effectively found a way to strike a balance. An over-saturation of a specific feeling would have never occurred in the film, yet, all are still engaged.

I was fortunate enough to have visited Norway during my summer break last year. While my family and I were doing our typical clutch souvenir shopping, I noticed that a lot of products were related to trolls. I did not understand why and I was not able to get a chance to ask about it back then. I figured that it had something to do with local cultural beliefs but I never got to confirm it. After seeing the film Trollhunter, it was able to inspire me to go back to a culture I was yet to uncover. Trollhunter is simply a mockumentary about the fictional existence of trolls in the Norwegian region. The film was centered on a group of college students interviewing and following the undertakings of a man who’s sole purpose is to kill trolls when necessary.

Frankly, I do not know anything about Norway’s film industry but this film caught me by surprise. Being able to visit Norway in the past, I never expected to see a fantasy film that would be able to greatly capture the country’s culture and beauty. The idea of having some sort of found footage as the foundation of the film fit the theme well given that trolls are ideally creatures people have never witnessed. It gave the audience that “what if” idea at the very beginning of the film, immediately making them question the genuineness of what they are about to see. The director, Andre Ovredal, was also able to find the right balance in making the audience believe whether the film was fantasy or not. Despite viewers’ curiosity on how these trolls look like, they were not shown minute after minute, trying to ensure that the curiosity lasts throughout the film. A well thought-out pacing was executed for the appearance of trolls given that the audience should always remember that the film is just a “documentary.” Moreover, although not as significant, the film utilized the vast amount of scenery that can be found in Norway’s land. Ovredal was effectively able to use Norway’s landscape for setting the trolls’ territories. Every location a troll was found made sense if they were to actually exist in real life.

All in all, Trollhunter is a refreshing play on certain imaginary creatures a country has developed in its culture. Trolls are commonly heard of in Scandinavian mythology as creatures potentially dangerous humanlike creatures that are not Christian. The film was able to show these characteristics and even more as the trolls were boosted to drastic strengths. It was able interestingly captivate viewers’ attention throughout the length of the film, keeping everyone judging whether trolls do live around us.

Not knowing about the exact history of a certain country, Good Bye, Lenin! is an interesting tragicomedy as well as great history lesson about Germany. Since the movie is in German, it is understood that the primary target audience are supposed to be people from their country, but it also gives a great message for the others that have seen it.

The first thing I liked about the film was that Good Bye, Lenin! shows the dynamics of family and country. Initially, it shows how conflict may arise because of those two factors. The film starts of introducing the siblings Alex and Ariane, along with their mother, Christiane, who is an advocate of the socialist cause in East Berlin. As they grew older, the siblings we not fond of the socialism whereas their mother continued to fully support it. One day, Alex decided to join a rally fighting against socialism and his mother witnessed it, causing her to have a heart attack, leading to a coma that would last for eight months.

That tragic event, together with societal change, caused a huge shift in the lives of all in the family. During those eight months, East Berlin transformed into a capitalist state, having drastic changes to the lifestyle of the people. When Christiane finally woke up, the doctor said that any form of shock could potentially lead to her death. Alex accepted the challenge of doing everything to make his mother believe that they were still in the same country they were eight months ago. There was now a need to compromise. Alex was willing to sacrifice set aside his beliefs in exchange for his mother having a longer life. It was also shown how a family was rebuilt despite the challenges through the addition of Rainer, Ariane’s husband, and Lara, Alex’s girlfriend.

In addition, the director, Wolfgang Becker, was able to present to the world the state Germany was in during the 1990s. Despite being in the background of the family’s story, the change Germany underwent throughout the film was surely felt. It symbolized the transition of an arguably fragmented country, different fractions finally uniting as one. It gives a heartwarming message to the viewers that change is inevitable and necessary at time s for the overall improvement of the collective. Honestly, I have always had a bad view of Germany due to the holocaust being attached to its name. However, this film made me realize that drastic change may still arise from seemed to be a hopeless situation.

After watching various European films from the 60s, The Five Obstructions was a refreshing take on European cinema. The Five Obstructions is a film about making film. Although it is considered a relatively modern documentary, it still goes back to a film from the past. Lars Von Trier, the actual director of the documentary, challenged Jorgen Leth, the director of the film The Perfect Human, to remake his own film multiple times given certain obstructions.

The original The Perfect Human was shown at the beginning of the documentary and I had mixed thoughts about it. The film was quite peculiar, showing multiple clips of people doing random things such as eating, lying down on the bed, and even jumping. The film did not make sense to me at first. However, after pondering about it as the documentary progressed, I realized that Leth was trying to show that the “perfect human” is basically all people. The film was simply trying to show people in their natural habitat. There can never be just one true perfect human as all of us are all human with our own respective characteristics.

All the obstructions Trier gave to Leth were given with the intention to make life hard for Leth. Trier’s obstructions for his fellow director tested Leth’s prowess for film making. Obstruction after obstruction, Leth always delivered a film, however, it was not always to Trier’s liking. Although all the films Leth made were arguably also great films, there was an instance wherein he was not able to fully understand one of Trier’s obstructions. While watching the film, Leth’s artistry amazed me. The original The Perfect Human was somewhat dull but that certainly changed for the new films he made. It is astonishing to see how a director could come up with different ways of making the film, yet all still share the same message. Whether the film was done as a cartoon or in one of the worst slums of Bombay, Leth was effectively able to show Trier that he could overcome all challenges directly targeting his character. Moreover, the film also showed that despite having a great overall film, it is impossible to please everyone. Every film is really up to the audience’s judgement.

In the end, Trier made the last film with the 5th obstruction of not letting Leth do anything aside from making him be the voice of the narrative. Honestly, I am not sure whether documentary itself is supposed to be part of the 5th obstruction film or whether it could be considered as the “6th obstruction.” Nevertheless, the entire documentary was a great way for Trier to show respect for Leth and his work. It was evident that The Perfect Human was not forgotten over time. The documentary shows Leth’s competence and commitment during the supposedly unseen processes of film making. It shows the possible challenges these people face on a regular day. It leads the audience to appreciate the minds behind the industry, showing what dedication is being put for our entertainment.

As I would expect from most European films, L’Avventura is also not one of your typical love stories. Despite the film being dragging, that aspect of the film was able to add to the underlying meaning it was trying to convey.

The film begins with showing Anna, along with her best friend, Claudia, on her way to her boyfriend, Sandro. The two ladies met up with Sandro for a planned cruise trip together with other seemingly wealthy couples. In the beginning of the film, all would most likely perceive Anna to be the main female protagonist, but, surprisingly, things would quickly change later on. Before and during their cruise trip, Anna showed multiple signs of her disappointment in her relationship with Sandro and hey had another argument during one of their island stops. Then out of the blue, Anna disappears. Anna’s cruise companions, and even marshals from the main island, searched for her a number of times, all of which ended up in failures. They tried all possibly ways to find her, but they were never able to even until the end of the film.

Given the disappearance of Anna, L’Avventura was expected to be film about searching for Anna and being able to find her in the end. Notably, the director, Michelangelo Antonioni, decided to steer away from this assumed plot. Anna’s disappearance created a long-lasting suspense for the film that helped keep the audience captivated. This is the first time I have seen a film wherein the anticipated lead of a film suddenly just vanishes, showing zero signs of her presence as the film progressed. Shortly after Anna’s disappearance, there was a new development occurring between some of her companions. Sandro showed signs of feeling something for Claudia even when they were searching for his very own missing girlfriend. At first, Claudia resisted Sandro’s signals, but that did not last for long. The two were portrayed to have a lot more intimate scenes during the latter parts of the film while still searching for only reason they met each other in the first place. One thing led to another and the two started falling deeply in love with each other. Eventually, the two completely forgot about Anna to the point that they were having conversations about getting married.

Claudia and Sandro ended up being the main characters of this story, throwing Anna overboard. Initially just being in the sidelines, Claudia bumped Anna out of Sandro’s thoughts. In the film, Claudia mentioned something about change happening so easily and simply being accepted. I believe that is the main theme the film is trying to portray and it was able to do it pleasantly. Aside from Anna’s literal disappearance, it was noticeable how she also disappeared from the minds of everyone else moving forward. Scenes where shown wherein people would already just joke about her disappearance. Of course, this “second disappearance” of Anna was also seen with how Claudia and Sandra developed.

In the end, despite not having a theme which most would not abide to in today’s time, I was able to see how Antionio was amusingly able to execute it for the audience’s delight. Although change is needed, the L’Avventura is not a typical story due to it showing that change is easily accepted without having to look back at what was there before.

Admittedly, as someone who’s only been exposed to mainstream movies up to this point, Persona has to be one of the strangest films I’ve seen so far. I was not sure how to feel immediately after the film ended, but after pondering about film and its certain aspects later on, I realized how well thought-out Ingmar Bergman’s art was. Intending for the film to become a psychological drama, Bergman succeeded in his objective.

The film starts with the doctor relaying to the nurse, Alma, the new patient she has to take care of. The doctor explained how the patient, Elisabeth, was an actress that became mute after an incident in a performance. After knowing of the patient more and seeing her for the first time, Alma already showed signs of feeling eerie due to the oddness of Elisabeth’s context. Frankly, I could not help but feel the same way Alma did. Almost ninety-percent of speech in the film was done by a single person, something I definitely have not seen before in a film. Dumbfoundingly, even though that was the case, the film was still able to effectively show communication between the two women. As the film progressed, the relationship of the two women also developed. Since Elisabeth was always silent, an emotional Alma was always the one telling personal stories of herself while Elisabeth actively listened.

A scene that confused me a lot was when Elisabeth approached Alma after the nurse had just passed out due to alcohol. A few seconds later, it seemed as if Elisabeth was supernaturally trying to switch personas with Alma. At this point, I started rethinking whether the film was a horror film or not. When Alma woke up the following day, she had idea what happened the night before while Elisabeth lied about her strange actions.

As the days passed by, Alma found herself slowly transforming into the character of her patient. Alma was portrayed to have little-by-little changes in her personality compared to herself when the film just started. There was even a seen where Alma was having intimate interactions eith Elisabeth’s husband. Still without voice, Elisabeth was able to communicate to Alma with pure emotion. It seemed as if there was a dialogue even with only one person speaking.

To be frank, watching the film was a bit difficult as there were varying themes to the move depending on a specific scene. One moment it was drama, the next a thriller, so on and so forth. It was a interesting and beautiful play on showing character and emotions, whether through voices or the silence.

Being a science major, I have to admit that this class is my first encounter to any class that is about the arts aside from my EnLit classes. I entered this class being interested in film but not really knowing anything about the technicalities or specific techniques concerned with the art. I was mainly exposed to American films most of my life and watching the film A Woman is a Woman was a great way to start my European film journey.

The film generally revolved around the desire of a stripper named Angela to have a baby. She numerously asked her boyfriend, Emile, to have a baby with her but he would constantly reject her proposition. At a certain point, Emile even asked his own best friend, Alfred, as well as strangers to impregnate Angela because he strongly did not want to have a baby. Later on, Angela had enough and slept with Alfred who also had feelings for her. Eventually, Angela confessed to Emilie about the incident, and that finally made Emile decide to sleep with Angela to have a baby.

Not having any background about European films, I was intrigued as to how Jean-Luc Godard executed the film. Being told that it was movie that was released more than fifty years ago, I was skeptical at first if it would capture my interest, and it did. It was a unique play on romance and comedy, something I have never seen in American films. Compared to modern romance films wherein men show utter respect to women, A Woman is a Woman is quite the opposite. I was shocked to see the scenes in which Emile would literally approach strangers or call his best friend just so he can tell them to impregnate his own girlfriend. Emile was shown to have dominant characteristics, but, at the same time, he was also shown to be childlike with his random immature acts. It was bizarre but Godard was able to use those scenes well for comedic use. On the other had, Godard also portrayed women in a different light. Although Emile was firm on his decision to not have a baby, his stand did not hinder Angela from finding a new path to fulfill her goal. Angela was portrayed as a very determined woman despite her boyfriend being against her and her having an arguably immodest profession. In the end, despite various circumstances, Angela was able to get what she wanted, even if involved cheating with Alfred to make Emile give in.

After seeing this film, I look forward to seeing other films directed by Godard. His unique way of making films may not be for everybody but it surely captured my interest and attention. It is amusing to see other ways people portray and view romanticism throughout different eras. It shows how there is really no cap for creativity. The film effectively shows how being different is not a bad thing. Despite different ways of portraying relationships, at the end of the day, a woman is a woman.