What movies are about cultures interacting?
March 4, 2017 3:28 PM Subscribe
I would like to watch interesting movies about cultures interacting. Do you have any suggestions? If so, what makes them particularly worth watching? Both fiction and documentaries would be of interest to me.
Walkabout is a really compelling (also disturbing) movie about the interaction between two white Australian city teens who are abandoned in the Outback and aided by a young Aboriginal man.
posted by pangolin party at 3:47 PM on March 4, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by pangolin party at 3:47 PM on March 4, 2017 [6 favorites]
The novel Shogun by James Clavell, and the 5-part US miniseries (1980) based on it are all about this topic. Required reading for interpreters in training.
posted by Jesse the K at 3:49 PM on March 4, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Jesse the K at 3:49 PM on March 4, 2017 [2 favorites]
L'auberge Espagnole
The King and I
The Edge of Heaven
French Kiss
The Joy Luck Club
The Last King of Scotland
Leap Year
A Room With a View
Under the Tuscan Sun
posted by benadryl at 4:35 PM on March 4, 2017
The King and I
The Edge of Heaven
French Kiss
The Joy Luck Club
The Last King of Scotland
Leap Year
A Room With a View
Under the Tuscan Sun
posted by benadryl at 4:35 PM on March 4, 2017
Grizzly Man!
posted by rhizome at 5:04 PM on March 4, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 5:04 PM on March 4, 2017 [2 favorites]
Cold Fever. Japanese man travels to Sweden to pick up his parents' remains.
posted by pxe2000 at 5:06 PM on March 4, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by pxe2000 at 5:06 PM on March 4, 2017 [2 favorites]
Dances With Wolves. Empire of the Sun. Last of the Mohicans. The New World.
posted by Autumnheart at 5:10 PM on March 4, 2017
posted by Autumnheart at 5:10 PM on March 4, 2017
There was a made for Netflix movie about two teachers in NYC, one Orthodox Jewish and one Muslim who become good friends over a few things, including dealing with backlash from the school, dating customs, etc. It was really sweet. (Quick google: its called "Arranged").
posted by jrobin276 at 5:11 PM on March 4, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by jrobin276 at 5:11 PM on March 4, 2017 [4 favorites]
Worlds Apart, set in Greece looking at the relationships between a Greek teenage student and a Syrian refugee, a Greek father and a Swedish businesswoman, and a Greek grandmother and a retired German historian.
posted by deanc at 5:17 PM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by deanc at 5:17 PM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
Chocolat (1988) by Claire Denis is a film about a French woman returning to Camaroon, where she grew up, and realising that what she understood to be happening in her childhood was not the full story.
Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. Not quite sure how to describe it, but radical interracial couple in Thatcher's Britain have visit from Indian dad, who has many things to say about their lives.
Rom com Double Happiness is quite charming... More about a daughter caught between two cultures.
posted by chapps at 5:20 PM on March 4, 2017
Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. Not quite sure how to describe it, but radical interracial couple in Thatcher's Britain have visit from Indian dad, who has many things to say about their lives.
Rom com Double Happiness is quite charming... More about a daughter caught between two cultures.
posted by chapps at 5:20 PM on March 4, 2017
It is my handicap, perhaps, that I’ve read Paul Bowles’ novel The Sheltering Sky, which inspired this movie. It makes it difficult for me to see Bernardo Bertolucci’s film in a fresh light, to judge it on the basis of what it is, rather than what it is not.
The book is so complete, so deep and so self-contained that it shuts the movie out. Bertolucci shows us the outsides and the surfaces, and a person seeing this movie without having read the book might ask what it is about.
Ebert mentions a couple other movies that might be of interest to you.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 5:23 PM on March 4, 2017
The book is so complete, so deep and so self-contained that it shuts the movie out. Bertolucci shows us the outsides and the surfaces, and a person seeing this movie without having read the book might ask what it is about.
Ebert mentions a couple other movies that might be of interest to you.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 5:23 PM on March 4, 2017
Mississippi Masala, about a Ugandan-Indian family who have emigrated to that US state.
posted by brujita at 5:27 PM on March 4, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by brujita at 5:27 PM on March 4, 2017 [2 favorites]
Ali: Fear Eats The Soul. A beautiful work by the director Rainer Werner Fassbinder about an older German woman and a much younger Moroccan man who fall in love in 70s west Germany, much to the disgust of the woman's racist, close-minded family. One of my favorites ever, always brings tears to my eyes.
posted by nightrecordings at 5:48 PM on March 4, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by nightrecordings at 5:48 PM on March 4, 2017 [3 favorites]
Many moons ago, M. Night Shyamalan funded/wrote/starred in/directed Praying With Anger, about an American teenager of East Indian descent who goes back to India. If you can find a copy of it, it is well worth a watch.
posted by invisible ink at 6:02 PM on March 4, 2017
posted by invisible ink at 6:02 PM on March 4, 2017
No Man's Land (2001) features two soldiers on opposite sides of the Bosnian-Serbian war that are forced to interact with each other.
posted by Ufez Jones at 6:02 PM on March 4, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Ufez Jones at 6:02 PM on March 4, 2017 [3 favorites]
"Two Days in New York" is a sweet movie with Chris Rock and Julia Delpy as a married couple in NYC. Her quirky family visits from France and some hilarity ensues. A sweet film that always makes me smile and bonus, it's on Netflix.
posted by areaperson at 6:08 PM on March 4, 2017
posted by areaperson at 6:08 PM on March 4, 2017
lawrence of arabia-perhaps the only westerner to ever understand the middle east. plus, pete kills.
winter's bone: midwestern rural poverty/meth culture bumps up against school and the law. lawrence shoulda got the oscar for this breakthrough lead role. remarkable.
do the right thing - racists and local blacks on hot day
bend it like beckham- immigrant and white bffs
the 100 foot journey - immigrants in france. food.
sorta iffy - an idiot abroad. a fish out of water genre, nonfic, where the middle class brit prot agonist is intentionally cast into extreme cultural contrast. like deep mongolia. or gay beach culture in rio. pretty cringy at times, but fascinating.
whale rider - contempory life and trad New Zealand maori culture conflict and a remarkable girl is the conduit for resolution.
little big man - criticized for cultural appropriation and playing loose w history, still probably the first contemporary film to depict the genocide of native americans as genocide.
maybe more later...
posted by j_curiouser at 6:44 PM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
winter's bone: midwestern rural poverty/meth culture bumps up against school and the law. lawrence shoulda got the oscar for this breakthrough lead role. remarkable.
do the right thing - racists and local blacks on hot day
bend it like beckham- immigrant and white bffs
the 100 foot journey - immigrants in france. food.
sorta iffy - an idiot abroad. a fish out of water genre, nonfic, where the middle class brit prot agonist is intentionally cast into extreme cultural contrast. like deep mongolia. or gay beach culture in rio. pretty cringy at times, but fascinating.
whale rider - contempory life and trad New Zealand maori culture conflict and a remarkable girl is the conduit for resolution.
little big man - criticized for cultural appropriation and playing loose w history, still probably the first contemporary film to depict the genocide of native americans as genocide.
maybe more later...
posted by j_curiouser at 6:44 PM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
Local Hero
posted by pushing paper and bottoming chairs at 8:06 PM on March 4, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by pushing paper and bottoming chairs at 8:06 PM on March 4, 2017 [5 favorites]
The Other Conquest (La Otra Conquista), 2000, Wikipedia, IMDb.
A film about the Spanish conquest of Mexico and the emergence of a new nation. Who's conquering whom?
Not family-safe, R-rated.
posted by runcifex at 8:36 PM on March 4, 2017
A film about the Spanish conquest of Mexico and the emergence of a new nation. Who's conquering whom?
Not family-safe, R-rated.
posted by runcifex at 8:36 PM on March 4, 2017
Strictly Ballroom is a ~great~ movie and has star struck dance partners.
posted by fshgrl at 11:06 PM on March 4, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by fshgrl at 11:06 PM on March 4, 2017 [4 favorites]
English Vinglish is a delightful Bollywood film about a conservative Indian woman struggling with English in America.
In a similar vein, Queen follows a small town Indian girl as she holidays in Europe and struggles to get out of her comfort zone.
Both are worth watching if you're interested in a clash of cultures, but Queen is a bit heavy-handed in its treatment.
posted by Senza Volto at 11:46 PM on March 4, 2017
In a similar vein, Queen follows a small town Indian girl as she holidays in Europe and struggles to get out of her comfort zone.
Both are worth watching if you're interested in a clash of cultures, but Queen is a bit heavy-handed in its treatment.
posted by Senza Volto at 11:46 PM on March 4, 2017
It's a pretty goofy (but also great) action movie, but the 'Learning the Language' montage scene from The 13th Warrior is a wonderful representation of how human brains adapt to their surroundings and cultural context. The film is full of Arab/Viking culture clash stuff too, although I wouldn't say any of it overly burdened with historical accuracy.
posted by Happy Dave at 3:00 AM on March 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Happy Dave at 3:00 AM on March 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Some of my favorites are Starukhi (unfortunately in Russian without subtitles), La Haine (French, no subtitles), and My Beautiful Laundrette.
posted by stinker at 10:16 AM on March 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by stinker at 10:16 AM on March 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Philomena
posted by emd3737 at 11:17 AM on March 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by emd3737 at 11:17 AM on March 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Just watched Gangs of New York yesterday and it shows a decent amount of strife between North and the South, Irish vs non-irish, Rich vs Poor, established vs immigrants.
posted by radsqd at 6:55 AM on March 6, 2017
posted by radsqd at 6:55 AM on March 6, 2017
Kitchen Stories - a 2003 film about Swedish efficiency researchers investigating the domestic habits of single Norwegian men.
posted by knapah at 11:53 AM on March 6, 2017
posted by knapah at 11:53 AM on March 6, 2017
Head On (Gegen die Wand) by Fatih Akin is about an older alcoholic German/Turkish man and a young German/Turkish woman living in Hamburg and navigating the influence of her family and their shared country of origin. Plus sex, drugs, violence, rocknroll.
posted by trotzdem_kunst at 11:34 PM on March 6, 2017
posted by trotzdem_kunst at 11:34 PM on March 6, 2017
A little late to this but here's a few that fit that criteria:
How tasty was my little French man?
Black Robe
Cabeza de Vaca
Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3263614/> Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:54 PM on March 7, 2017
How tasty was my little French man?
Black Robe
Cabeza de Vaca
Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3263614/> Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:54 PM on March 7, 2017
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posted by rhizome at 3:32 PM on March 4, 2017 [8 favorites]