Raindance intern Amelie Thille shares her all-time top 10 Indie Films.

Incompreso (Luigi Comencini, 1966)
Incompreso is a fabulous movie about childhood. After the death of his mother, Andrea tries to act like an adult at his father's request. Andrea tries to draw his father’s attention to him because he needs tenderness. But his father doesn’t really understand him.
Usually I don’t cry when I watch a movie but after this one, I was crying for half an hour! But be careful, don’t think that is a melodrama; it’s just sincere and true. One of the most beautiful movies about childhood that I have ever seen.

Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)
Buy the movie HERE
During the First World War, two French officers are captured. They come from different social classes; a Marechal and a mechanic in civil life. But like captives they are equal. They plan their escape but the Marechal has to sacrifice himself to help his friend.
“Grand Illusion” is one of the most beautiful movies of the committed Jean Renoir. It shows how humans can pass over the class struggles in certain cases. 

American History X (Tony Kaye, 1998)
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Derek deals with racism and neo-Nazi groups. But after a stay in prison, he discovers that there is good and bad in each people. When he comes back home, her young brother is become racist too. Derek has to convince Danny to go back in the right track.
Tony Kaye uses a lot of violence but it’s always justified. Indeed, we can really feel the tension within the racist environment. It’s powerful and compelling.

In The Mood For Love (Wong Kar Wai, 2000)
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Hong Kong 1962, a newspaper editor moves into a new building with his wife. In the same time, a secretary and her husband move in the same house. They spend a lot of time together as friends. Then, they discover that their spouses have a relationship. They are both shocked and hurt…
With wonderful music, this film is a poetic love story. I watched it on a raining day and I felt so melancholy!

La Pianiste (Michael Haneke, 2001)
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French actress, Isabelle Huppert play Erika Kohut, a perverted and a sadomasochistic piano teacher who fall in love with one of her students.
Erika is frightening, repulsive and totally disgusting. But at the same time, she also so fascinating. When I watched this movie for the first time, I couldn’t remove my eyes from the screen. The performance of Isabelle Huppert is just amazing.

Under The Sand (Francois Ozon, 2000)
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Apparently, Marie’s husband has drowned while swimming. But she doesn’t accept the evidence. She continues to speak with him as he was alive and he appears to her frequently. As the film progresses she thinks about her husband’s death; accident or suicide?
Charlotte Rampling brilliantly plays Marie. We follow the story of this woman who is not crazy but just desperate. She controls everything. We don’t really know how to accept the death of a parent. Marie found a way to do it…

Elephant (Gus Van Sant, 2004)
Buy the movie HERE
Elephant movie treats about the violence at school. Two kids prepare a massacre in their school.
The theme is not new but the way to approach is totally innovative. Gus Van Sant doesn’t deal with the massacre itself but with the day before. It’s slow, quiet, and almost poetic.

The Sea Inside (Alejandro Amenabar, 2005)
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The movie tells the real-life story of Ramon Sampedro who fought in favour of euthanasia and also for his own death.
After an accident, Ramon Sampedro has been living as a quadriplegic for twenty-eight years. As he can’t move and live like a normal person, he tries to show the people around him how life is precious. Offers great thought about friendship, love and sense of life.

 
 

Good Bye Lenin  (Wolfgang Becker, 2003)
Buy the movie HERE
Kathrin Sass has dedicated her life to the perpetuation of Communist Party ideology. A major heart attack plunged her into a coma while the dissolution of East Germany. When she wakes up, the world is totally changed. To not disturb her recovery, her son decide to recreate the same world that she knew few months ago.
Alex is willing to do everything to hide his mother the new consuming society like. So, there are a lot of funny situations! “Good Bye Lenin” is also touching particularly the relationship between Alex and his mother.

The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, 2007)
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After the death of his father, Francis invites his two young brothers Jack and Peter to join him to meet their mother who lives in a convent in the Himalayas. The three brothers are drugs addicts and a little bit depressives! To find their mother, the three brothers have to go on board of the Darjeeling Limited train.
Wes Anderson carries us in the fabulous trip with wonderful pictures and colours. I was totally involved in the “spirit quest” of the characters that are totally crazy and so funny.
  

Amelie is a just graduated with a master’s degree in “Arts and Culture” in The University of Artois, France. She was intern in some fabulous festivals in France like the Jazz in Marciac festival. In her spare time, she sings opera.
As her studies are finished she will have to find a “real” job after her internship in Raindance.