Hello to all the Fringe aficionadoes from Dallas, Texas. It's time once again to perambulate through the catalog of independent and/or offbeat films past and present. This month is mainly about films in languages other than English - taking a look at current offerings and a couple of oldies. Let's begin.

2006 was a banner year for films in languages other than English at The Oscars. Two nominees (and one winner) were Pan's Labyrinth (2006), directed by Guillermo del Toro, and The Lives Of Others (2006), a directorial debut of sorts for Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Each was a strong contender for 'Best Foreign Film', but, it was The Lives Of Others that received the nod.

Pan's Labyrinth takes place in Spain in 1944, when General Franco (1892-1975) was head of state. A young girl, Ofelia, and her mother are taken out of their city life by the mother's new husband, the cruel and ruthless Capitan Vidal, and removed to a mill in the country where Capitan Vidal may supervise the rooting out of anti-Fascist rebels. While there, Ofelia escapes her situation by exploring a nearby maze, under the guidance of a faun (aka Pan). The faun tells her that she is the reincarnation of a princess, but that to prove that she is indeed the princess, she must complete three daunting tasks. Ofelia's adventures in the maze, and the film's denouement, are a testament to the power of myth. Ofelia is played by the stunning Ivana Baquero, who demonstrates a worldliness years beyond her age.

The Lives Of Others is set in 1984 in the former East Germany. As the title credits attest, glasnost is not yet even a glimmer behind the Iron Curtain, and in East Germany, the Stasi (Staatssicherheit, the State Security secret police) keep watch over the citizens with a vast array of official and unofficial domestic spies. One such official, Oberst Wiesler (played by the late Ulrich Mühe, who grew up in East Germany), is asked to engage in full-fledged surveillance of a playwright/author, Georg Dreyman, and his live-in girlfriend, Christa-Marie Sieland, an actress who has caught the eye of a local cabinet minister. The cabinet member, Herr Hempf, wishes to discredit Dreyman so that he can have the actress to himself. In the beginning, we see Wiesler as a true believer in the Communist ideal in East Germany - his life is completely structured around his official obligations, in which he invests an almost religious devotion. As the story moves on, and as he realises just what sort of influence he can exert on the lives of these people, and for whom he is ultimately working, he reconsiders the path he has embarked upon. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck weaves this tale masterfully, and gets full measure from each of the principals in the narrative. The film is tense, poignant, and ultimately very satisfying. Note to file: The actual translation of the original German title, Das Leben Der Anderen, is 'The Life Of Others'. It's not clear why the English title was made plural - perhaps the true translation is more compelling.

Offside (2006), by Jafar Panahi, is an occasionally amusing, occasionally (slightly) tragic, but ultimately very human film that chronicles the struggles of several young women who wish to attend a World Cup qualifying match in Tehran. The trouble is that women are officially banned from men's sporting events in Iran. Jafar Panahi asked several women to give him their most successful ploys for getting into such an event, and cobbled these ideas together into this film. A scan of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) entries for all of the actors and actresses suggests that all of the on-camera players are actually who they appear to be - young women, Iranian soldiers, a grandfather, an uncle, and so on. None of them seems to be professional in film. As a result, the film has an exceptional ring of authenticity about it. This writer watched the film for quite some time before realising that what he was watching couldn't have been a true documentary (the camera angles betrayed this), though the film certainly has the impact of a documentary. There is not much in the way of a soundtrack, and the film proceeds a little unevenly. The director's genius is that he is able to discuss the prohibition of women from sporting events in a very balanced way. We are able to see the other side of the issue, at least briefly, and presentation is neither doctrinaire nor severely biased. In the end, what makes this film so remarkable is its humour and humanity.

Riding Alone For Thousands Of Miles (2005), by director Yimou Zhang, is an expansive allegory about the relationship between fathers and sons. It follows the travels of Gou-ichi Takata (played by 'the Japanese Clint Eastwood' Ken Takakura), who is an elderly man estranged from his only son, Ken-ichi. He learns that his son is dying, and that his son's passion is Chinese folk opera. Takata decides to travel to China to film a famous folk-opera singer whom his son had met the prior year, as a redemptive favour to Ken-ichi. The rest of the film outlines Takata's saga first to find, and then film, the singer, Li Jiamin, who he learns has been put in prison for an altercation that occurred just before Takata's arrival. The lengths to which Takata is willing to go to secure this film of Li Jiamin underscores his determination to try and bridge the deep emotional chasm between himself and Ken-ichi. This film is definitely a sedate journey; it won't set your heart racing with martial-arts action, nor will it beggar belief with fanciful fairy-tale leaping-about. It is a film grounded in the idea that a father would do almost anything for his son - even undertake a journey of thousands of miles. Pay particular attention to the little boy, Yang Yang - he has practically no dialogue in the film, but he shows an emotional range simply with his face that is remarkable for such a young child.

Akira Kurosawa is one of the acknowledged masters of film, frequently mentioned in the same breath as Fellini, Bergman, Godard, and Eisenstein. Most of his films are lyrical, fabulist, and atmospheric. One notable exception, and a fascinating one at that, is High And Low (1963), originally released to English-language audiences as Ransom. High And Low is based on a pulp-fiction novel, A King's Ransom, by Ed McBain, the nom de plume of the late Evan Hunter, though it takes only the thinnest of plotline veneers from the McBain novel. The story revolves around Kingo Gondo, the self-made head of a shoe company, who has gone out on a limb financially in order to buy out his fellow investors. Just as he is about to consummate the deal, his son is kidnapped - or is he? The ransom demand is merely all of the money Gondo has raised for his business deal - and the deal has an expiry date. It turns out that the child who has been taken is not the son of Gondo, but the son of his chauffeur. Gondo is faced with a true conundrum - should he sacrifice his plans to help his chauffeur, who clearly cannot pay the ransom, or should he gamble that the kidnapper will not do as he claims, given that he has taken the wrong child? What makes this film so interesting, especially to fans of Akira Kurosawa, is that the first half of the film strongly resembles a stage play - the blocking of the characters on-camera looks like nothing so much as a theatrical production. The second half of the film is pure police procedural, the way Ed McBain would have written it, with none of the staging of the first half. It is a very entertaining mystery/thriller, with a morality play thrown in.

The Thirteenth Floor (1999) is an English-language film from director Josef Rusnak. It's a psychological thriller in the grand fashion, punctuated with heavy doses of science fiction. The film received scant attention at cinemas, even though it features an all-star cast including Craig Bierko (Cinderella Man), Gretchen Mol (The Notorious Bettie Page), Vincent D'Onofrio (The Cell), and Dennis Haysbert (US television's The Unit). And although the film plays with the viewer's head considerably, no detail is left unresolved at the end - so fear not. If you like this film, you may like Cypher (2002) from Vincenzo Natali, starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu. Comments regarding The Thirteenth Floor apply to Cypher.

That's it from Dallas for this edition. In the next column, Tideland (2005), El Mago (2004), and a bevy of other cinema offerings to tantalise you.

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(c) Kevin Gillette 7 September 2007

Kevin Gillette works in film distribution in Dallas, Texas, USA

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008