# European Movies w/ Nature Being Important In Film **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 4, 2023, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995 "2023-06-04T18:28:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/1 "2023-06-04T18:28:48Z")
Can you imagine a French (or any European) “Jeremiah Johnson”? Maybe you know of a movie? I’m sure this isn’t just an American thing… but nature doesn’t seem to be stressed as much as American movies, where it’s sometimes central to the movie, or at least constantly there, in the background of discussions between characters. Bergman was interested in Faro Island, but I can’t think of any movies. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/2 "2023-06-04T18:59:56Z")
There’s the French film [La guerre du feu](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082484/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2) (Quest for Fire), but I think that’s not exactly what you’re looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/3 "2023-06-04T19:00:19Z")
I mean, I have no way of providing a relative count of movies, but the first one that popped into my head was _Aguirre, the Wrath of God_, a German movie that positively wallows in the steaminess of the Amazon. But maybe you could be more specific about the role that nature plays? I’m not sure if that fits. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/4 "2023-06-04T19:50:54Z")
Jean de Florette was the first film I thought of, but that was farmland not wilderness. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/5 "2023-06-04T20:03:13Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I mean, I have no way of providing a relative count of movies, but the first one that popped into my head was _Aguirre, the Wrath of God_, a German movie that positively wallows in the steaminess of the Amazon. This must qualify, it was certainly the first I thought of. _Nature: Fuck your feelings. -Herzog_ ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/6 "2023-06-05T10:44:06Z")
Pre-WWII, there used to be a whole genre in the German speaking world of “Bergfilme”, “mountain films”, that played in the Alps and mostly were about climbing and skiing. Luis Trenker from South-Tyrol was its big star, and Leni Riefenstahl got her start in the business acting in mountain movies. > **[Mountain film](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_film)** > > A mountain film is a film genre that focuses on mountaineering and especially the battle of human against nature. In addition to mere adventure, the protagonists who return from the mountain come back changed, usually gaining wisdom and enlightenment. > Although the first mountain film, depicting the ascent of the Mont Blanc by the American climber Frank Ormiston-Smith, was released in 1903, the mountain film genre is most associated with the German Bergfilme (singular: Bergfilm) released in the... But generally, the OP has a point, and my theory is that because Europe is so densely populated, there are fewer wide and open landscapes like in the US that can play a role in movies, like the plains in US westerns. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/7 "2023-06-05T11:06:56Z")
Thought of another one: in Roberto Rossellini’s “Stromboli”, the island and volcano play the major role. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/8 "2023-06-05T13:19:36Z")
Would the Clint Eastwood “spaghetti westerns” count? ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/9 "2023-06-05T13:42:04Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > But generally, the OP has a point, and my theory is that because Europe is so densely populated, there are fewer wide and open landscapes like in the US that can play a role in movies, like the plains in US westerns. I remember my mom finding out that Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood fame was only about 19000 acres at its largest, and being offended. That’s only about 5.5 miles on a side. “How could they not find Robin Hood in that tiny little place?!?” She was thinking in terms of Canadian forests, which cover half the damn country. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/10 "2023-06-05T13:55:26Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > I remember my mom finding out that Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood fame was only about 19000 acres at its largest, and being offended. That’s only about 5.5 miles on a side. “How could they not find Robin Hood in that tiny little place?!?” This is a semi-ninja’ing of what I was about to post-- Europe has been civilized for hundreds and hundreds of years, and there are really no great forests of Europe. Not in the same sense as the vast trackless wilderness of North America which created romantic, adventurous notions of the ‘wild frontier’ and ‘manifest destiny’. At the _ **actual** _ time period of a movie like _Jeremiah Johnson_ which was referenced in the OP, the wilderness was seen as a thing to be tamed and exploited for monetary gain. By the time of the movie _Jeremiah Johnson_, the notion of the vast wilderness had become romanticized in a way that it hadn’t been at the time. I’ve long had a fascination with the way Western TV shows and movies show romanticized, highly fictional notions of the old west or the ‘wild frontier’ through the respective prisms of 1950s, 60s and 70s sensibilities. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/11 "2023-06-05T13:55:36Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Would the Clint Eastwood “spaghetti westerns” count? Also the “potato westerns”, the German movies after Karl May novels that played in the American West, but were actually filmed in Croatia. The landscapes always played big roles in these movies. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/12 "2023-06-05T16:00:14Z")
“Walkabout” and “Fitzcarroldo”? ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/13 "2023-06-05T16:21:05Z")
I can think of one or two British movies about people in their relationships with wildlife, but in a rather domesticated way: [Ring of Bright Water](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Bright_Water) [Tawny Pipit](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tawny_Pipit_(film)) Perhaps also [A Lion Called Christian](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lion-Called-Christian-DVD/dp/B0021L9IJ0) ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/14 "2023-06-05T18:24:36Z")
Don’t forget [Born Free](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_Free). The characters were Kenyan, but the actors and the film were British. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/15 "2023-06-05T20:07:20Z")
How about Local Hero? I have no idea how well known it is in the US, but the beach and the sea are central to the movie. > **[Local Hero (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Hero_(film))** > > Local Hero is a 1983 Scottish comedy-drama film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and starring Peter Riegert, Peter Capaldi, Denis Lawson, Fulton Mackay and Burt Lancaster. Produced by David Puttnam, the film is about an American oil company representative who is sent to the fictional village of Ferness on the west coast of Scotland to purchase the town and surrounding property for his company. For his work on the film, Forsyth won the 1984 BAFTA Award for Best Direction. > A stage musical a... j ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/16 "2023-06-05T21:00:58Z")
The first film to come to mind is Jean-Jacques Annaud’s [_The Bear_ (1988)](https://youtu.be/Z6ZVD2cYUqo) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/17 "2023-06-05T21:08:21Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > How about Local Hero? I have no idea how well known it is in the US, but the beach and the sea are central to the movie. One of my favorite movies. And what a soundtrack! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/18 "2023-06-06T06:52:47Z")
“Nature” and “vast wilderness” aren’t synonyms, something like _The Big Blue_ very clearly has a Nature backdrop. Also, lots of films (not just Bergman) set on islands or the coast. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/19 "2023-06-06T23:20:26Z")
I haven’t seen it in years, and mentioned cold weather struggles, having to make a fire, and that kind of struggle (along with the usual), but the water is definitely central to this movie with a very eerie atmosphere. I think I’ll try to remember to give this a second viewing. I think I gave it a 7/10 ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995/20 "2023-06-06T23:47:22Z")
Does an American film made in Europe count? [The Way](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441912/) was filmed in France and Spain and while “nature” is not the focus of the film, scenery and weather play a big part in it as the characters are outside most of the time. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-movies-w-nature-being-important-in-film/984995.md?page=2)