Ever mention to your friends that you love foreign films? Are you remembering how much they groan and openly declare they will never watch a movie with you? Yea, pretty much my life. I am a very open person about film and will watch most anything. Well, except for Batman Forever, forever a wretched movie. I enjoy many foreign films, but usually I am pretty particular about which ones and what genres. 

Given that Chinese cinema is mainly focused on martial arts and history involving martial arts, I usually stay away. I'm a bit burnt on watching another person slide across water on the tip of a sword and dodge a bullet by jumping through an airplane rotor. Sliding my attention way south for a minute, there is not much in the way of South American or Central American cinema that piques my curiosity these days. However, the incredible "City of God" is Brazilian gold. 

If we jump over the Great Pond, and pass Gibraltar, we arrive at my new obsession: the Southern European gangster genre! Well, I may be jumping the gun a bit in declaring this a "genre," but two gangster pictures to emerge in the last couple of years have me fascinated. 

The first is "Gomorrah." Based on the book by Roberto Saviano, the film follows several characters embroiled in modern day Italy, all who have deep ties to the modern mafia. This movie dispenses with any notions of a "Micheal Corleone" character as some type of anti-hero with whom we, the audience, may sympathize. It pistol whips the viewer with the realities of organized crime and its destructive force on everything. The grit of this movie is the most appealing characteristic. For anyone who loves to read about true crime, this is a win. 

The second film in my "Southern European Gangster Film" series, would be the French film, "Un Prophète." Whereas "Gomorrah" is a mash of stories colliding, "Un Prophete" is a single story about the life and rise of a "Micheal Corleone." We, the viewers, are witness to how a simple thief can rise to become the most dangerous man in organized crime by doing the most basic thing: learning. Most gangster films focus on the brutality, and while this movie is cold-blooded, it shows that the most dangerous weapon is the mind. 

So, the next time your friends decide to whine because you're dying to watch a foreign film, slide in one of these two and show them that a few of the best gangster flicks were not filmed in New York.