Usually I don’t think of English movies as being “foreign films”. I’m familiar with their language and culture and history, to a point. I listen to their music. Not so keen on their food. Enjoy that King Arthur stuff, Sherlock Holmes, Dr Who, Wallace and Gromit, and all those great British filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and that Terry Gilliam chap from Monty Python.
So I’m watching this coming of age movie that takes place in England in 1972. (Anita & Me) The girl’s parents and all their friends are from India. And that’s not what makes it a foreign film.
The English accents are so thick that I could only understand about 1/3 of their sentences.
I understood the Beatles just fine. Trainspotting was not an issue for me. Other folks come through loud and clear, but the girl and all the Anglos from Anita & Me turn my ears into potatoes. The folks from India I understand just fine.
So that’s what I like about foreign films. I don’t know what’s going on. So I guess that trying to figure out what’s going on, and imagining what all it might be, is what makes foreign movies fun for me.
It is a nice movie, too. It comes from the novel Anita and ME by Meera Syal. She also wrote the screenplay. She also plays the mom’s loudmouth friend in the movie, which she also produced. I think it’s autobiographical, but don’t hold me to that.
It would’ve helped if I could have understood the main character more. Because I did understand her parents and their friends, I was perhaps too sympathetic to their points of view. The English characters all came off a little like wacky caricatures, but I bet that’s really just how a bunch of ’em are.
There’s no nudity, but a few occurrences of implied onscreen sex, if you know what I mean. I love the grandmother! I wish I understood her!!!
You just have to see this. It’s funny. It’s heartwarming. It’s sad. There’s murder.
It’s the same sky there as here, isn’t it?
