Next Ten for Netflix: Foreign Films and Docs

Greetings to our blog readers in Turkey, Greece and the Czech Republic.....

Today, we look at the next ten foreign films and documentaries that we hope to watch via Netflix streaming. These days, we've gotten hooked on streaming, and perhaps the late Roger Ebert would have been proud of us!

The images are of 1) Boo Boo Bear, Yogi's sidekick, this image is used for the Turkish film "Winter Sleep" since bears hibernate zzzzzzzzzzzzzz during the winter, 2) the Hollywood sign is being used for the documentary "L.A. Plays Itself, and 3) lastly, Hot Stuff, the Harvey Comics icon, is used for the South Korean horror film "I Saw the Devil."

It may be a while before we get to watch "Winter Sleep" and "L.A. Plays Itself" as the two films combined would run for six hours!

The films are listed according to Internet Movie Database (IMDB) ratings, which are listed to the right.

Here is the next ten on Netflix:

1) Winter Sleep. Turkey. Nuri Bilge Ceylan. 2014. 8.4/10

2) LA. Plays Itself. documentary (USA). Thom Andersen. 2003. 8.0

3) I Saw the Devil. South Korea. Jee-woon Kim  2010. 7.8

4) A Summer's Tale. France. Eric Rohmer. 1996. 7.6

5) Force Majuere. Sweden. Ruben Olstlud. 2014. 7.4

6) A Coffee in Berlin Germany. Jan Ole Gerber. 2010. 7.4

7) Sister. Switzerland. Ursula Maier. 7.1

8) Stray Dogs. Taiwan. Tsai Ming Ling. 2013. 7.0

9) We Have a Pope. Italy. Nanni Moretti. 2011. 6.7

10) Anita (doc on Anita Hill; USA) Freida Lee Mock. 2014. 6.4

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com (For our other Netflix list, for English-language films)

http://www.netflix.com

http://www.imdb.com

UVA Beats Virginia Tech in Women's Volleyball

Greetings to our blog-readers in Ireland, Malaysia and Greece.

Though this blog has a slightly pro-Hokie leading (and an even more liberal bias; our apologies to Jonathan V. Last, a senior writer at "The Weekly Standard"), we did want to salute the University of Virginia's women's volleyball for their home win in Charlottesville over the Virginia Tech Hokies from Blacksburg.

The final score was UVA winning 3-1 (23-25, 25-19, 25-18, 25-19) with Natalie Bausback leading the Cavaliers with 17 kills and six blocks. Toni Jonowski had 13 kills for the 'Hoos and Haley Kole had 11 kills. The Cavs' are now 17-13 overall, and 10-8 in the ACC.

For the Hokies, Kathryn Caine had 17 kills and Lindsey Owens had 11 kills. The Hokies remain the team with a better record at 21-11 overall and 9-9 in the ACC.

This was the first time UVA won both matches against Va. Tech since 2005.

SIDEBAR: Our tweet of the night comes from our good friend Ali Arikan, a film and culture writer for "Slant" magazine. Arikan resides in his native Istanbul, Turkey, where it is now 9:30 a.m. (seven hours ahead of New York and Atlanta). Here is his tweet: "Another weird dream last night. I was at a library trying to pick out a book with Elizabeth Banks, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Peter Labuza."

Banks is an America actress (we believe she played Laura Bush in Oliver Stone's "W"), Ceylan is an acclaimed Turkish film director whose films include the brilliant "Uzak/Distance" and Labuza is a New York-based film critic.

http://www.virigniasports.com

http://www.slantmagazine.com

http://www.weeklystandard.com (not an endorsement)

My Top Ten Films of the Year (always subject to change-LOL!)

It should be pointed that I live in a smalltown and I usually get to see art films when I'm in Greensboro, Chapel Hill or Raleigh, NC, or in my hometown of Roanoke, Va. But, even when I see films in these cities, they are already second run in New York or LA or even Washington, DC!

I should also apologize to the great Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan as I am just now getting his latest film "The Three Monkeys" from Netflix, and his films always finish high in my lists. But, I will have a chance to update this for "Film Comment" magazine's fan survey by February.

Until then, here are my top ten favorite films of the year, with some titles that just missed the cut listed under honorable mention:

1. Bruno
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
3. An Education (pictured)
4. Sugar
5. Waltz with Bashir (Israel.)#
6. The Hurt Locker
7. A Serious Man
8. Cold Souls
9. Tyson
10. The Hangover

Honorable Mention:
"Adventureland"
"Capitalism: A Love Story"
"Inglorious Basterds"
"Food Inc."
"Moon"
"The Informant"
"Summer Hours" (France)
"Up"



#- This film was released last year to the Academy and critics, but not for the general public so I am including it here though it will not be on my "Film Comment" list for that reason.

PS- The politically conservative film critic Michael Medved actually named the new Robert Zemekis film "A Christmas Carol" film of the year. We're wondering if he got it mixed up with the uber-right wing slapstick comedy "An American Comedy," which regardless of one's politis is pretty god-awful. Nevertheless, if you want to see "A Christmas Carol" and you live in southwest Virginia, it will be showing at The Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, Va., starting on Friday.

PPS- As for "An Education," it continues its run this weekend at The Grandin Theatre in Roanoke, Va., The Chelsea Theatre in Chapel Hill, NC, The Landmark Theatres in Bethesda, Md., and at the Broadway Center Cinemas in Salt Lake City, Utah, among many other places.