The Foreign Film Thread

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c.g._eads

Veteran
I'm very open to foreign films - there's just not a lot of information out there on them. So even though they have two full rows of foreign films at my video store, I stare at them blankly - no idea which ones are the gems and which are the duds.

I'm pretty open to any genre, as long as the story is good. My least favorite is probably straight action, but if it's a good story I'll check it out. Also, I love great endings (who doesn't?) so if you know any foreign films that fall into that category, please recommend them.
 
Day For Night- a masterpiece about movie-making (or any Truffaut. Shoot the Piano Player is my other favorite. And all the Antoine Doinels)
Elling- hilarious!
Stray Dog, High and Low, The Bad Sleep Well- Film Noirs by Kurosawa (no samurais)
Amelie - funny unique love story
Scenes From a Marraige - 6 hour long episodes of the best acting ever caught on film.
Mon Oncle - chaplin-style physical comedy. hilarious! (also Mr. Hulot's Holiday, Playtime)
Rififi- one of the best heist movies ever
Bob Le Flambeur, Le Circle Rouge, Le Samourai - crime movies by the Godfather of the New Wave
Man Bites Dog - Hilarious Mockumentary about a serial killer.
Cinema Paradiso - beautiful coming-of-age story
Oldboy - visually stunning
My Life as a Dog - coming-of-age
Pelle the Conqueror - more coming-of-age also excellent.
Umberto D. - my favorite neo-realist
Mafioso, Divorce Italian Style, Big Deal On Madonna Street - great Italian comedies
Fireman's Ball, Loves of a Blond - Milos Forman in Czechoslovakia
 
TheMacB has a great list.

I would add these:

- The Chorus
- Hero
- Life is Beautiful
- Das Boot
- Battle Royale
- Bicycle Thieves
- Harakiri
- High and Low
- Seven Samuarai
- House of Flying Daggers
- City of God
- District B-13
- Femme Nikita, La
- Kung Fu Hustle
- Pan's Labyrinth
- Run Lola Run
- Tsotsi
 
One of our last independent movie houses back home used to show one foreign film at all times. Three screens and one would be just for foreign or independent choices.

One I enjoyed were:

Bread and Tulips- a funny and entertaining Italian film
Italian for Beginners- another funny one, Danish, Italian, and English
Tampopo- noodle comedy out of Japan
Da Wan (English: Big Shot's Funeral)- a weird comedy with Donald Sutherland, Chinese and English



None of my choices are terribly heavy on massive critical acclaim, but they are cheap rentals and pretty entertaining.
 
- The Grand Illusion
- Father and Son
- Z
- The Time of the Wolf
- Ikuru
- Flowers of Shanghai
- Vertical Ray of the Sun
- Jules and Jim
- Talk to Her
- Wild Strawberries
- The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
- Breaking the Waves
- discreet charm of the bourgesie
- Akira Kirosawa's Dreams
- Persona (the B+W Cinematography is unreal!)
- everybody has their favorite Wong Kar Wai, mine are Days of Being Wild, In the Mood for Love, and 2046
- Yi yi
- Play Time
- The Barbarian Invasions
- Eclipse
- Le Samourai
- Pather Panchali
- Character
- Stalker
- You may have already seen La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2, but Fellini's neo-realist films are wonderful(La Strada and Nights of Cabiria)


Most of these are pretty mainstream foreign, and they should have them just about anywhere.
 
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I forgot one of my favorite films, foreign or not, in a long time: The Lives of Others.
 
So what do you think about foreign films in general? They're so different from American films and I know American films get a bad rap (and of course, every film is different), but I was watching the film, "Red", mentioned above, and I made it about 45 minutes in and to be honest, it felt like nothing was happening.

The main character does meet a man who is listening to his neighbor's phone conversations, but the way in which we learn this is almost incidental and lacks any urgency or importance. An American movie would've made this a much bigger deal to drive home that this is the plot or point of the movie.

I don't know which is "better". Cause I get the feeling if the plot doesn't present itself as important, then why should I feel it's important? Why should I care? Is this a result of watching too many American movies?
 
In The Mood For Love

Fallen Angels

Life is Beautiful

The Tiger and The Snow

Johnny Palito

Strictly Ballroom

Lars Von Trier "Kingdom"

Trainspotting
 
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c.g._eads said:
So what do you think about foreign films in general? They're so different from American films and I know American films get a bad rap (and of course, every film is different), but I was watching the film, "Red", mentioned above, and I made it about 45 minutes in and to be honest, it felt like nothing was happening.
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That is an interesting question for me because I really love foreign films and if I ever have the choice to watch a Hollywood or domestic film vs a foreign film, I usually opt for the foreign language film. For one thing, I like to see how the styles differ from what we create over here, but also to see how the plot develops. And many of them do seem to move slower, but not always, so I have just attributed that to the same thing I would for a domestically made film: artistic (?) choice of the filmmaker.

I recently watched Non ti muovere which literally means "do not move" in Italian, and the whole time I am watching it, I'm thinking they at least named it right. The plot just seemed to go NO WHERE, and then there was the end. And POW. That whole slow as molasses movie was all tied up in one scene. Those slow moving plots turn out to be okay, even though I am aggravated the entire rest of the time for having no sense of direction.

So, I like watching foreign films overall.
 
I was watching this John Waters standup type thing on tv, he was saying something like, "I don't understand why people don't like foreign movies. I love subtitles. I even love white subtitles in a snow movie" :) And that's how we all feel.
 
Decided to bump this up to see if anybody had anymore suggestions. I tried to watch a lot of these but my video store didn't have them. :(
 
OK c.g.

So here's I few I think you should see. Tried to give a few different genre options, some are old some are new - most are listed by their English titles.

These are some of my personal foreign language favs:

Amelie
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
8 1/2
The Motorcycle Diaries
The Double Life of Veronique
In the Mood For Love
Infernal Affairs
Cinema Paradiso
Pan's Labyrinth
Solo Dios Sabe
A Very Long Engagement
2046
Amores Perros
L'Avventura
Cache
Captain Abu Raed
Lady Vengeance
Old Boy
City of God
Delicatessen
Devil's Backbone
Fearless
I'm Not Scared
The Lives of Others
Letters from Iwo Jima
Maria Full of Grace
Wild Strawberries
Solyaris
Downfall
Valentin
Black Book
 
c.g._eads said:
Has anybody seen "Avalon"? About a virtual reality game. I think it's a Japanese film. Was it any good?
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I actually own this. It's VERY stylized and pretty unique. Japanese filmmaker and writer (an anime guy and this is his first (and only?) live action) with Polish actors and shot in Poland.

I'm not into anime but apparently this movie is very "Ghost in the Shell" if that makes sense to you. I liked the movie, that's why I own it, and pretty much zero people have seen it, so I had to have it for my collection.

avalon4.jpg


But I do recommend all the others on my list before this one, unless you're into VR and anime.
 
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c.g._eads said:
I was watching the film, "Red", mentioned above, and I made it about 45 minutes in and to be honest, it felt like nothing was happening.

The main character does meet a man who is listening to his neighbor's phone conversations, but the way in which we learn this is almost incidental and lacks any urgency or importance. An American movie would've made this a much bigger deal to drive home that this is the plot or point of the movie.

I don't know which is "better". Cause I get the feeling if the plot doesn't present itself as important, then why should I feel it's important? Why should I care? Is this a result of watching too many American movies?
Click to expand...

Another Polish related post - yahoo for Poland! Rouge is the last part in the three colors trilogy by Kieslowski. I liked the series, and Rouge was my favorite entry in it, Bleu is drama heavy and Bialy is more comedic, but personally I highly recommend "The Double Life of Veronique" (La Double vie de Véronique) by him and with same lead actress. Beautiful cinematography and I really dug the bit of a mind-f&$% storyline.
 
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A few on my to watch again list

Goodbye Lenin
Atonement
Joyeux Noel
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Life Is Beautiful
Little Fish (australian)
Candy (australian)
Shine (australian)
Samsara
Downfall
Together (He Ni Zai Yi Qi)
Beijing bicycle
The Twilight Samurai
Baraka
Himalaya
Run Lola Run

Hope you didnt just mean foreign language.
 
Has anybody seen the movie "Ping Pong". I think it's a Chinese movie but it might be Japanese. Always see it at the store but don't know if it's any good.
 
I can't believe nobody has mentioned two of my favorites:

Leolo -- got to see this, a masterpiece. Haunting, weird, beautiful, tragic and funny. If you don't like strange, stay away.

Songs from the Second Floor -- another amazing, and very strange film.

Go now and get these!
 
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