Foreign Films

I have started to watch the new Tom Cruise film "Valkyrie" (will see the rest later tonight) and realise the story has been done before: a German film by Pabst. That was a very good film which I saw in the Cardiff Film Society many years ago. I don't think there is a Cardiff Film Society now, though there is a Cardiff University Film Society (showing "Brief Encounter" this week). Pity, because I saw many fine films there (and some stinkers too) that aren't being shown now. There is the odd one at Chapter Arts Centre (a few years ago they showed "Showboat" with Paul Robson and before that a film by Mizoguchi, a very slow moving affair that was, according to a lecturer there, his finest film - I don't think so but I can't remember the title of the one I like most).
Cardiff Film Society would have lecturers, amateur film enthusiasts mostly, who gave talks on such things as "The Criteria of Modern Cinema" - we'd sit, chin on hand listening. brows furrowed, as if we hearing some great philosophical idea that would transform our lives. But the films were very good. Films by Kurosawa and Mizoguchi, Pabst and Fritz Lang, Bunuel and Renoir, short comedies by Chaplin and Robert Benchley (some of his on youtube now).
I ordered "Valkyrie" through a firm called lovefilm.com. Must see if they have any of those old foreign films....... Mmmm! But would I enjoy them so much now? Are they that good? Sometimes it's better not to look back since one may be sadly disappointed.