Film recommendations that don't require much language

[miss direct]

I'm after some films that my boyfriend and I can watch together. We don't have the same first language - I can't watch Turkish films without falling asleep (and they're mostly rubbish anyway), and he gets fed up of watching English films as he can't follow them when they have long stretches of speech. Action films or visual type films are all right. We're currently arguing about what to download and watch tonight. Can anyone recommend anything?

 

[Lo Siento.]

how about putting english subs on? Might help him

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Quest For Fire

 

[miss direct]

Nah, the subtitles wouldn't help...it's too tiring watching a whole film and having to read all the time, and he has problems with his eyes.

 

[DJ Squelch]

The Artist (or Mr Bean)

 

[foamy]

Up or WallE

 

[miss direct]

Tried to watch wallE with him last week and he started moaning that he was bored. Not enough action I suppose. Sigh.

 

[Firky]

Valhalla Rising, amazingly bat shit experimentalist film, sort of a philosophical meditation on realism, religion and shit.

Really good but not to everyone's taste. Probably my favourite film I have seen this year

There's very little dialogue in it (subtitled).

 

[Firky]

Prometheus with the sound off would be good!

 

[Reno]

Amer has almost no dialogue:

 

[gentlegreen]

Mon Oncle, Jour de Fete, Monsieur Hulot's Holiday

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Valhalla Rising, amazingly bat shit experimentalist film, sort of a philosophical meditation on realism, religion and shit.

Really good but not to everyone's taste. Probably my favourite film I have seen this year

There's very little dialogue in it (subtitled).

That looks good. Now downloading a blu ray rip

 

[Supine]

The Big Blue maybe

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Mon Oncle,

I bought a french copy of Mon Oncle, I remembered seeing it on telly and they just made these 'french' noises so I did not think it mattered.

Turns out there is speaking in it, the english just dubbed a load of haw he haw over the top. The english dub version is quite the rarity now apparently, I think an incomplete version of it was available on a German box set of Jacques Tati.

 

[Casually Red]

 

[butchersapron]

Most Melville films were very sparse on the dialogue. Rififi.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Not really the same thing, but (maybe interestingly) in most of Kim Ki Duk's films the protagonists don't (or barely) speak. It's not always because they are mute or whatever, it's just that you don't see them on screen talking. Actually a lot of his films are fairly dialogue free (and pretty good to boot).

I like . . .
3 Iron
Bad Guy
The Isle
Spring Summer Autumn Winter
Samaritan Girl.

 

[Casually Red]

black cat white cat. . everyone loves that whos seen it

 

[Miss Caphat]

obv. this popped into my head because of the Xmas movie thread, but Polar Express is one that can be understood without the dialogue for the most part.

 

[Miss Caphat]

ooh, or The Red Balloon or Triplets of Belleville

 

[butchersapron]

Ozu another one who went on easy on dialogue.

 

[Casually Red]

deep throat

 

[Part 2]

Level the playing field by putting a film on that neither of you understands.

 

[DexterTCN]

The Red Balloon (as said by Ms Caphat)

Ip Man

 

[redsquirrel]

Most Melville films were very sparse on the dialogue. Rififi.

What about Terrance Malick's work? Again not loads of dialogue.

Also a lot of Westerns might be good suggestions, even though there might be quite a bit of talking for a lot of them you probably don't need much language to understand what's going on and enjoy them.

 

[goldenecitrone]

Baraka. Lots of early Laurel and Hardy.

 

[miss direct]

Thanks for the ideas. We ended up watching Pulp Fiction - although it does have stretches of dialogue, the non dialogue bits are good enough that he enjoyed it anyway. Then we watched Quest for Fire, which was certainly different! No speaking at all, just grunting

If people can add any more suggestions, it'd be great. I can see us watching a lot of films over the winter!

If anyone knows any good Turkish or Kurdish films, those would be good too. His first language is Kurdish, and we have watched a number of Kurdish films together, but they tend to be quite depressing.

 

[stuff_it]

Thanks for the ideas. We ended up watching Pulp Fiction - although it does have stretches of dialogue, the non dialogue bits are good enough that he enjoyed it anyway. Then we watched Quest for Fire, which was certainly different! No speaking at all, just grunting

If people can add any more suggestions, it'd be great. I can see us watching a lot of films over the winter!

If anyone knows any good Turkish or Kurdish films, those would be good too. His first language is Kurdish, and we have watched a number of Kurdish films together, but they tend to be quite depressing.

...I wonder why...

You just missed the London Kurdish Film Festival as well. They do indeed look pretty depressing though: http://lkff.co.uk/features/

AFAIK most of the world watches a lot of English speaking films, so I think just persevere and his language will improve gradually. It might be possible to get prints of English films with Kurdish/Turkish subtitles, so long as they aren't too dialogue heavy it might help his English and get him through the odd scene.

 

[redsquirrel]

Once Upon A Time In Anatolia is a great Turkish film released earlier this year, which coincidently doesn't have great deal of dialogue.

The most recent adaptation of Wuthering Heights has very little dialogue, although the strong Yorkshire accents in the first half could mean that your boyfriend might have a hard time understanding what little talking there is.

 

[stuff_it]

Once Upon A Time In Anatolia is a great Turkish film released earlier this year, which coincidently doesn't have great deal of dialogue.

The most recent adaptation of Wuthering Heights has very little dialogue, although the strong Yorkshire accents in the first half could mean that your boyfriend might have a hard time understanding what little talking there is.

Or he could end up with a Yorkshire/Kurdish accent...