the band's visit and m

so last weekend, i watched two really amazing movies. they are completely unrelated, except for the fact that both are foreign. 

the first, "M", is a german thriller from 1931, and fritz lang's first sound film. it's about a child psycho murderer in berlin; the police cannot locate him, nor do they know who he is. whenever he sees a lone child, he goes under a sort of trance, and starts whistling "in the hall of the mountain king", that ever-creepy tune by edvard grieg. he wins over the child he is about to kill by buying them candy, balloons, and the like. it is shot beautifully, with interesting looks and not too much talking, which just makes the movie even creepier (and much more noir-like). overall, the movie is great, with just the right amount of suspense to keep you interested and scared. i definitely recommend everyone watches it-you will love it.

the second, "the band's visit", is an israeli film, about a certain alexandria ceremonial police orchestra, who go to play in petah tiqva at an arab cultural center. the band arrive in israel from egypt, but accidentally end up in bet hatikva (apparently a fictional town in the negev desert). one bad thing after another happens to them, as they try to get to the right town to play the show and represent their  country to the israelis. the orchestra, consisting of 8 men, play traditional arab music, which obviously enticed me, because i adore arabian music. it's hilarious, sad, thoughtful, and will leave you smiling. the characters speak arabic, hebrew and english to each other, which is awesome. the music is, of course, wonderful, and the end is just epic. whether you play an instrument, are arab or jewish (then i love you), or are just into cute, funny foreign films, then watch this. please, it's just wonderful.