I am not an avid European movie viewer, but have seen some. With the exception of a few they all seem like bad episodes of the Twilight Zone, end the worst possible way, or make no sense. The only continental European movies I have seen that I liked is Run Lola Run and Das Boot, great movies, but the rest seem strange, weird, bizarre, or end with some tragic depressing ending. I do enjoy British television and film. The Full Monty was great. I know life doesn't always with the hero winning or in a happy way, but we see that almost every day IRL.

Why is this? Can someone recommend a truly good continental European film that is fun and enjoyable, instead of morose, twisted, depressing, or lacking a good story.

Not European, but a great movie is Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai.

instead of morose, twisted, depressing
sounds like a good film to me :m:
lacking a good story.
lacking your idea of a good story

Un Chien Andalou is great

p.s. maybe Europeans think different?

Originally posted by truth
Can someone recommend a truly good continental European film that is fun and enjoyable, instead of morose, twisted, depressing, or lacking a good story.

Anything from Pedro Almodovar - they are twisted, but funny and with great story.

Thomas Jahn: Knockin' on Heaven's Door

Bigas Luna: La teta y la luna

...and many others. I am afraid you just do not have much opportunity to see good European films in US. Unfortunately, we (Europeans) are in the very same situations - our cinemas play only that American crap. When I want to see a good film, I must go to film festival. (or I must dl it from Internet;) )

The percentage of european movies that are decent would be much MUCH higher than the percentage of american movies that are decent.

Abre los ojos. The original of Vanilla Sky.

I promise you won't get depressed, you won't see the dark side of the human mind, and you'll have a happy end.

Also: Das Experiment.

What a joyful experience that was. All fun, running around naked, spraying each other wet. Your typical summer camp movie.

"Ran" was another great movie.

Amazon.com essential video
As critic Roger Ebert observed in his original review of Ran, this epic tragedy might have been attempted by a younger director, but only the Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, who made the film at age 75, could bring the requisite experience and maturity to this stunning interpretation of Shakespeare's King Lear. It's a film for the ages--one of the few genuine screen masterpieces--and arguably serves as an artistic summation of the great director's career. In this version of the Shakespeare tragedy, the king is a 16th-century warlord (Tatsuya Nakadai as Lord Hidetora) who decides to retire and divide his kingdom evenly among his three sons. When one son defiantly objects out of loyalty to his father and warns of inevitable sibling rivalry, he is banished and the kingdom is awarded to his compliant siblings. The loyal son's fears are valid: a duplicitous power struggle ensues and the aging warlord witnesses a maelstrom of horrifying death and destruction. Although the film is slow to establish its story, it's clear that Kurosawa, who planned and painstakingly designed the production for 10 years before filming began, was charting a meticulous and tightly formalized dramatic strategy. As familial tensions rise and betrayal sends Lord Hidetora into the throes of escalating madness, Ran (the title is the Japanese character for "chaos" or "rebellion") reaches a fever pitch through epic battles and a fortress assault that is simply one of the most amazing sequences on film. --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

All the movies that have been listed are very good and worth watching. I would also recomend anthying by Fellini. Oh and of course Tarkovsky, with movies like the original Solaris, and Stalker. And while I'm at it, Bergman is realy good aswell, in a surrealistic kind of way.

The thing with european movies is this: They aren't Hollywood, therefore they tend to have lower budgets and are surprizingly often meaningfull, that is to say the good ones go beyond being mind numbing fast food for the brains of the collectively mindless mases, delicately designed to squeeze out the absolute maximum ammount of money from them.

That's definately not to say that ALL european movies are deep and meaningfull or that ALL Hollywood movies are shallow and pointless.
Directors like Stanley Kubrick have very valid movies, much worth watching. And while not very deep the Matrix and LOTR movies are a definate feast for the eyes.
And then movies like Lock Stock are all but mindless, however cool they may be.