In addition to Memorial Hall Library's new subscription access to Mango Languages, watching a foreign film is a great way to master a new language. Watching foreign feature films gives viewers a chance to listen to and follow native conversations with no pressure to respond as you might in a formal instructional setting. Whether or not you turn on the English subtitles, foreign language films provide an artistic lens on the social, political and cultural experiences in far away places. Soaking up foreign dialogue in the context of an exciting thriller plot or a cozy romcom, expands your cultural horizons even from the comfort of your couch. If you haven't tried our subscription access to Kanopy and Hoopla, consider this list of selected French and Spanish feature films and get the popcorn popping.
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Frantz /
FRENCH In post-World War I Germany, a young woman mourning the death of her fiancé meets a mysterious Frenchman who comes to lay flowers on his grave and claims to be his old friend. Set in Germany and France in the immediate aftermath of the First World War Kanopy Link |
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Jauja /
SPANISH, DANISH After a Danish engineer and his teenage daughter move to Argentina for a job with the army, the daughter runs away with a soldier and her father travels across the country to look for her. An astonishingly beautiful and gripping Western starring Viggo Mortensen, JAUJA (pronounced how-ha) begins in a remote outpost in Patagonia during the late 1800s. Kanopy Link |
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Return of the hero / Le Retour du Heros
FRENCH In early nineteenth-century France, a captain returns home from war as a penniless deserter but is welcomed as a war hero, and when he assumes that role, he must battle wits with his fiancée's sister who knows the truth but impersonated him while he wasgone by writing letters to her sister on his behalf Kanopy Link |
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Bag of marbles /Un Sac du Bille
FRENCH Two young Jewish brothers escape the Nazis in occupied France."The great value of Christian Duguay's film is the degree to which it makes such a barbaric and bewildering chapter in human history comprehensible for young audiences." - Matt Fagerholm, RogerEbert.com Kanopy Link |
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SPANISH After his mother sends pre-teen Tomás to live with his slacker older brother in Mexico City, Tomás convinces his brother and a friend to join him in search of a local folk-rock legend who has been hospitalized |
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La tête en friche/My afternoons with Margueritte
FRENCH Uneducated Germain and avid reader Margueritte begin an unlikely friendship when Margueritte introduces Germain to the world of literature and reading.Germain is lured by Marguerite's passion for life and the magic of literature from which he has always felt excluded. As Margueritte broadens his mind via reading excerpts from her novel, Germain realizes that he is more of an intellectual than he has ever allowed himself to be. Afternoons spent reading aloud on their favorite bench transform their lives and start them both on a new journey. Kanopy Link |
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Nostalgia for the Light
SPANISH Film master director Patricio Guzman, travels 10,000 feet above sea level to the driest place on earth, the Atacama Desert, where atop the mountains astronomers from all over the world gather to observe the stars. The sky is so translucent that it allows them to see right to the boundaries of the universe. The Atacama is also a place where the harsh heat of the sun keeps human remains intact: those of Pre-Columbian mummies; 19th century explorers and miners; and the remains of political prisoners, "disappeared" by the Chilean army after the military coup of September, 1973. Available on Hoopla |
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Ensemble C'est Tout / Hunting and Gathering Under the Milky Way
FRENCH Camille (Audrey Tautou. Amelie) works evenings as an office cleaning woman and makes graceful drawings in her free time while living in the attic of a Parisian apartment block. Philibert (Laurent Stocker) is a young, aristocratic history buff living - temporarily - in an apartment lower down, part of the estate of his late grandmother. He has let out part of it to up-and-coming cook, Franck a gruff young loner and womaniser with a genuine love for his frail grandmother, Paulette . When Camille falls ill, Philibert insists she stay with the two of them so he can look after her. And even though she and Franck clash, the trio manage to live together and learn from each other.Annotation Kanopy Link |
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Faces places /
FRENCH Film director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR set out on a journey across France to meet people and collect images. Nominated Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards. Kanopy Link |
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Gigante
SPANISH A hulking-but-shy security guard falls for a beautiful, young cleaning woman, but cannot approach her until layoffs force him to act. Hoopla Link Kanopy Link |
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Amélie
FRENCH Quiet and reserved, Amelie Poulin spends her days as a waitress at a Paris cafe and entertains herself by playing kindhearted practical jokes on her neighbors. Hoopla Link |
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Alamar
SPANISH Before his five-year-old son Natan leaves to live with his mother in Rome, Jorge teaches Natan about their Mayan heritage, taking him to the pristine Chinchorro reef to live off the sea for a few weeks. Hoopla Link Kanopy Link |
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Quatre cents coups / The 400 Blows
FRENCH A thirteen-year-old boy on a quest for the meaning of life ends up on the wrong side of the law. Francois Truffaut's first feature is also his most personal. Told through the eyes of Truffaut's cinematic counterpart, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Leaud), THE 400 BLOWS sensitively re-creates the trials of Truffaut's own childhood, unsentimentally portraying aloof parents, oppressive teachers, and petty crime. Kanopy Link |
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Le Chef /
FRENCH When Alexandre, a veteran chef who has run out of ideas, is pressured by his boss, he teams up with a self-taught chef to save his career. "An amusing souffle of a comedy that pokes fun at foodies while honoring the art of those who cook for them." - Gary Goldstein, The Los Angeles Times Kanopy Link |
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Pope's Toilet/ El baño del Papa
SPANISH It's 1988, and Melo, an Uruguayan town on the Brazilian border, awaits the visit of Pope John Paul II. 50,000 people are expected to attend, and the most humble locals believe that selling food and drink to the multitude will just about make them rich. Petty smuggler Beto thinks he has the best idea of all--he decides he will build a WC in front of his house and charge for its use. His efforts bring about unexpected consequences, and the final results will surprise everyone. Kanopy Link |
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Chico & Rita
SPANISH Cuba, 1948. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. A piano player and a singer chase their dreams, and each other, from Havana to New York and Las Vegas. original soundtrack by legendary Cuban pianist and five-time Grammy-winning composer Bebo Valdes, CHICO & RITA captures a defining moment in the evolution of history and jazz, and features the music of (and animated cameos by) Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Cole Porter, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Tito Puente and others. Kanopy Link |
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Potiche/ Trophy Wife
FRENCH It's 1977 and women's liberation is in the air but Suzanne (Catherine Deneuve) is still the self-effacing, elegant housewife of wealthy industrialist Robert Pujol (Fabrice Luchini).After the workers at her husband's factory go on strike and he suffers a heart attack, a woman takes over the leadership of her husband's business and finds new personal and professional success. Kanopy Link |
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Embrace of the serpent /El abrazo de la serpiente
CATALAN, GERMAN, SPANISH The story of Karamakate, the last surviving Amazonian, and two scientists who spend four decades searching the Amazon for a sacred healing plant. Nominated to for Best Foreign Language Feature at the 2016 Academy Awards, Best International Film at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival Kanopy Link |
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Pelo Malo/Bad Hair
SPANISH A nine-year-old preening obsession with straightening his hair elicits a tidal wave of homophobic panic in his hard-working mother. A tender but clear-eyed coming-of-age tale. Winner of Best Film at the Havana Film Festival. Official Selection at the Toronto International Film Festival. Kanopy Link |