Favorite foreign film, DUers?

[aldian159]

Me, "Cinema Paradiso". I still cry at the ending to that, and I've seen it like 5 times or so.

"Shall We Dance?" (Japan), Europa Europa (unsure what nation claims credit) and "The Shop on Main Street" (Czeckoslovakia) are very close behind.

[Melodybe]

1. Life is Beautiful

Just thinking about it makes me teary.

[mitchum]

2. "Aguirre, The Wrath of God"

[Solomon]

3. Babette's Feast

Great movie. I liked Dinner Friends alot too. Jean De Florette is very good too.

[LynneSin]

4. I love Love LOVE Il Postino

I still cry at the end of that movie every single time - but especially when I remember that the star of that movie - Masimmo Troisi, died a few days after he completd filming the movie.

Other favorite foreign movies include "Life is Beautiful" (Italy) and "Amelie" (French)

[SCDem]

60. I loved this movie too

Have it on video.... the soundtrack is so uplifting too.

And Life is Beautiful... I forgot about that one... you know the director is wonderful when he can make the audience laugh and feel good inside when the backdrop of the movie is a Nazi Concentration camp.

[LynneSin]

64. I have all 3 on DVD

and I have the sound track for Il Postino. But my favorite song is from "Life is Beautiful" - the opera that was playing was Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman "Belle Nuit" I love that song!!

[La_Serpiente]

5. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

n/t

[aldian159]

6. Good one

forgot about that one.

[K8-EEE]

14. OMG -- Like Chinese Water Torture

Hated that movie!

[oxymoron]

7. I absolutely loved Amelie

and too many others to mention.

[On the Road]

8. "Spirited Away"

[sonias]

42. I'll second that!!

I love anime and anything Hayao Miyazaki does. I loved Princess Mononoke too. I've seen just about everything he's done in film.
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/films/

What a wonderful story teller.

Sonia

[BigMcLargehuge]

9. there are SOOOO many

but my top 10 are:

M (1931: Dir, Fritz Lang)
Yojimbo (1961: Dir, Akira Kurosawa)
The Hypsnotist (2003: Masayku Ochiai)
Gojira (1954: Dir, Ishiro Honda)
Gamera 2: Advent of Legion (2001: Dir, Shosuke Kaneko)
Matanga (1963: Dir, Ishiro Honda)
Rashomon (1950: Dir, Akira Kurosawa)
Drunken Angel (1949: Dir, Ishiro Honda)
Amelie (2001: Dir, Jean Pierre Jounette)
Onmyoji (2001: Dir, Yojiro Takita)

[saltpoint]

10. Great list so far. Can I add a few?

Central Station

Pelle the Conqueror

The Navigator

Lilies

[aldian159]

16. Is central station the one made in brazil?

If so, that movie was great.

[saltpoint]

23. Hi, aldian.

Yes -- Brazil. Maybe it was about five years ago, not sure. About an older woman who acts as a sort of guide to a child looking for his father.

The actress just blew me away.

[populistmom]

11. Like Water for Chocolate from Mexico

Dark, yet mesmerizingly romantic. :loveya:

[LynneSin]

44. I love that movie, but it I always find it on TV dubbed, not subtitled

and their dubbed voices irritate the hell out of me. But the book was wonderful!!

[populistmom]

56. Never had the "pleasure" of seeing it dubbed

I can see though how it would be less than satisfying. Somethings were meant to stay in the original language. Kind of like that awful colorizing of old movies.

[Burma Jones]

54. My Wife's favorite movie, period

She married me for my cooking too. This is the greatest date flick I've seen.

[PragMantisT]

12. Jean de Florette

Whale Rider
Seven samurai
Seventh Seal
El Mariachi

[aldian159]

18. forgot about the bergman classic

thanks for the reminder.

[tishaLA]

13. Several, mostly French

"Le Samourai" starring the beautiful--but unfortunately fascist--Alain Delon.

"Les parapluies de Cherbourg" with a lovely, young Catherine Deneuve.

"Le Haine" A contemporary, edgy hip hop films about the Parisian ghettos and how an Arab, a Jew, and an African confront social injustice.

"Ma Vie en Rose" is a great queer film about a boy who dresses as a girl and ultimately falls in love with a girl who dresses as a boy. As Lacan might say, "la femme n'existe pas". Oh. And it's Belgian.

"Hiroshima, mon Amour" is part of the French new wave and it was written by Marguerite Duras, who became famous with her novels like "The Ravishing of Lol V. Stein" and "The Lover" (upon which another films--far inferior--was based.

I also like several comedies, like Chaqu'on Cherche Son Chat, which was titled "While the Cat's Away" in its American release.

Non-francophile faves include "The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie", "Salaam Bombay" and more but I've begun to bore myself. And i love the "Red" "White" and "Blue" trilogy and "Decalogue," too

On edit: Oh god I forgot about Kurasawa! Thankfully someone else coverd him.

[K8-EEE]

15. Grand Illusion

Best war movie ever!

[eileen from OH]

17. An oldie - Bread & Chocolate

Also, King of Hearts and Cinema Paradiso.

eileen from OH

[aldian159]

19. King of hearts!

About the insane frenchmen! movie was great!

[TreasonousBastard]

29. Somebody else saw "Bread and Chocolate"??!!

Absolutely wonderful! When that poor slob picked himself up and walked back to Switzerland, the audience cheered.

And to go further back...

The Bicycle Thief
Small Change
Two Women
Swept Away

haven't been mentioned

[I AM SPARTACUS]

20. No Man's Land

http://www.hollywood.com/movies/detail/movie/421757

No Man's Land (2001)

Synopsis: Ciki and Nino, a Bosnian and a Serb, are soldiers stranded in No Man's Land - a trench between enemy lines during the Bosnian war. They have no one to trust, no way to escape without getting shot, and a fellow soldier is lying on the trench floor with a spring-loaded bomb set to explode beneath him if he moves. The absurdity of their situation would be comical if it didn't have such dire consequences. With the two men stuck in a bizarre predicament, a frustrated UN sergeant tries to help, despite orders to remain at his post. When a journalist waylays the sergeant while pushing for an exclusive scoop, she affects the unfolding of events and turns a news story into an international circus. With the world's press waiting for an outcome, no one willing to take action (lest they accept responsibility). Ciki and Nino try to keep their humanity amidst the insanity of war.

[TacticalPeek]

26. I liked the Blue Smurfs in that one.

And the Brit officer and his aidette.

The raw insanity of war.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

32. that's what it's like...

including the ending...

[Forkboy]

21. hard to pick one...so i wont

Stalingrad

Das Boot

Man Bites Dog

City of Lost Children

Man Facing Southeast

Leningrad Cowboys Go America

[MrsMatt]

65. City of Lost Children is

wonderful, but have you seen Delicatessen (same director)? Loved the troglodytes!

[Rowdyboy]

22. Beautiful Thing

A magnificent British coming of age gay film ..."Make Your Own Kind of Music" still sends chills down my spine!

[saltpoint]

25. Hey Rowdyboy --

-- you picked a winner with Beautiful Thing. Mama Cass's voice just got channeled into the young woman in the cast, seems like.

The scenes where the neighbor boy's father and brother were so brutal and dismissive to him was so sad it stopped me in my tracks. And Jamie's mom -- what a sweetheart.

Great film.

[Rowdyboy]

27. We are in total agreement, my friend

My partner and I watched it together, both weeping by the end. We're gay, but we usually don't react that emotionally; it was just unbelievably real. The setting, the acting, the dialog, the music...I felt Jamie and Ste's pain clearly across 30 years and very different cultures.

And the first kiss was unforgettable....made richer because it took so very long to happen. A few stories do have happy endings. Mine did...

[saltpoint]

28. and more power to you both, too.

By chance have you two seen Lilies? It's a film by a Canadian -- John Greyson.

I bet you would like it. It packs quite an emotional wallop.

[Rabrrrrrr]

33. crap

never mind -

this was a Baji on the Bus post, but obviously posted in the wrong spot, so I replayed it in its proper location.

[Rowdyboy]

34. Haven't heard of it...Thanks for the suggestion...

I've seen most every gay oriented movie since the original: "Making Love" with Michael Ontkean, Harry Hamlin and Kate Jackson in 1982... That was my first official gay "date"

[Rabrrrrrr]

37. Was "Jeffrey" a foreign film?

Holy crow, I love that movie. Just brilliant.

Patrick Stewart was awesome, and not to mention the rest of the ensemble.


And I am a straight man, so I have to say that movie opened some new perspectives to me about what is love, and what does love , true love, cause us to endure and risk in its name?

It's a great movie if one doesn't want to think about anything, and just enjoy the movie-ness of it. Bt it's also art, in that if someone DOES want to think about the social and sexual issues it raises, there's a hell of a lot of stuff to think about.

[saltpoint]

38. Hi, Rabrrr --

-- I second what you say. Picard is a good character but the one he played in Jeffrey was even better. Some great lines in there.

[Rabrrrrrr]

39. Yes! Not only really funny stuff, but also some truly poignant

"fear of death" fake-funny lines.

And also, I'll always remember, the Pink Angels (or whatever they were called) get up and dialogue. Simply hilarious, but Stewart is so excellent an actor, he was also able to bring into those hilarious lines the sadness and nihilism of the reality of AIDS and hompphobia.

[Rowdyboy]

43. Stewart also played a flawless gay character on Frazier

He's wonderfully talented. I look forward to seeing him next month as Henry II in "The Lion in Winter"

[TacticalPeek]

24. Ikiru

Usually my very favorite movie. http://imdb.com/title/tt0044741/ (Kurosawa, 1952, BW, subtitles)


I've recently been thinking that it has thematic echoes in Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation", but it may just be coincidence.

[Rabrrrrrr]

30. The Road Home; Eat, Drink, Man, Woman; Tampopo

Chocolat, Babette's Feart (yes, I'm big on films about food, I'm a church guy, I'm into fellowship and communion)

Also all Miyazaki films, and Hannussen.

And "Blue", "White" and "Red".

Also Breaking Away, Beautiful Thing, and Baji On the Bus.

[AquariDem]

31. Ma Vie En Rose

Excellent portrayal of gender "dysphoria" (there's got to be a more positive term). I saw it twice and want to see it again.

[Rabrrrrrr]

35. Does anyone remember Bhaji on the Bus?

Or Baji, can't remember the spelling.

Great movie about the results of immigration on the immigrants, with the grandmother, who totally holds to Indian tradition; the mother who is between contemporary British attitudes and traditional Indian; and Bhaji (or Baji) the third generation, who feels no need to nod to the Indian traditions and who is far more British than Indian.

Simply an excellent study in what happens to a people, specifically their descendants, when they immigrate (emigrate? I can never remember the difference) to another county.

[LeftCoast]

36. Wings of Desire

Not just my favorite foreign film, but my favorite film of all time!

[SiobhanClancy]

76. I second that....

everyone should see it,if you haven't done so.

[UnAmericanJoe]

40. Conspirators of Pleasure

By the Czech director Jan Svankmajer.
If you haven't seen it. Do so immediately!

[Dogmudgeon]

41. Muriel's Wedding

It introduced Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths to an emotionally lamed and crippled world.

--bkl

[ms_splash]

58. YES! probably my favorite

A movie that would never have been made in America.

Our version would have had Julia Roberts as Muriel. Although her name would have been "Andy" or something like that. Her friend would have actually died and, in the end Julia would have found true love with the swimmer.

[VOX]

45. Bergman's "Wild Strawberries"

I find that classic film -- and intellectual's road trip -- very comforting.

[Whitacre D_WI]

46. "The Sweet Hereafter"

Hey, Canada is still foreign.


I also thought I'd give a shout out to a few left unmentioned so far:
Tricoleur (Bleu, Blanc, et Rouge)
Delicatessen
My Beautiful Laundrette (no love for British film?)
8 1/2

[dolgoruky]

47. The Match Factory Girl

Crime and Punishment (the Kaurismaki version), Lonely Woman Seeks Companion, Battleship Potemkin.

[Norbert]

48. La Strata

Anthony Quinn was superb in that film.

[RebelOne]

49. The Umbrellas of Cherburg

Even the guy I was dating at the time cried at the end.

[slack]

50. this year, there is a very good film from germany

it's called "good bye lenin".
the best film out of germany after wim wenders "himmel über berlin" or tykwers 'lola rennt'.

generally, I don't know, there're so many films. I prefer european cinema, my favorits are dogma-films, something from lars from trier (denmark). or the classics, godart, buñuel, almodóvar, gilliam or greenaway.

the question is, are there good films from america?
I only knew kevin smith (ok. I love him) and and and there have to be another guy.... my name is dori...shit I don't remember ;)

[Loonman]

51. Amelie

n/t

[PrestoChango]

72. Loved! Amelie! So! Much!

What a great film!
I have no idea why I do not own it yet.

[chenGOD]

52. What constitutes a foreign film?

What if the director is not American but the production company is? or vice-versa? Is Jean Reno in say "Ronin" considered a foreign film?

Just to be a thorn in the side of the discussion.

Anyhow, some of my favorites:

"Ran"-Akira Kurosawa
"Baby Cart" series-Kenji Misumi
"Fallen Angels"-Wong Kar Wei
"Wong Fei-Hung"-Tsui Hark
"Hero"-Zhang Yimou
"Ashes of Time"-Wong Kar Wei
"Nabbeun Namja"-Kim Ki Deuk
"Whasango"-Kim Tae Gyun
"La Haine"-Mathieu Kassovitz
"Le Grand Bleu"-Luc Besson
"Cowboy Bebop"-Shinichirô Watanabe (series, although the movie wasn't bad)
Miyazaki Hiyao-everything.
"Akira"-Katsuhiro Ôtomo


"Million Dollar Hotel"-Wim Wenders: I dunno if this qualifies as a foreign film, but I like this a whole bunch.

[Burma Jones]

53. Akira Kurosawa's films - particularly 7 Sam. and Yojimbo

I also liked the Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring films.

[cryofan]

55. The Seventh Seal by Bergman

Art film made in 1955 in Sweden, won several Oscars. Explores death and whether or not there is a god and an afterlife.

[Kamika]

57. The pillow book

It's great and ronan kietling is a hunk

[SCDem]

59. Les Miserables - French Version with Gerard Depardeu

or however you spell his name. I just love the story line of Les Miserables and would watch on stage, in a movie theatre, on video or re-read the book. But the French version with Gerard playing Jean Valjean is just a wonderful movie.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

79. There's another Les Miserables

which has nothing to do with the Victor Hugo novel, except that it concerns an illiterate truckdriver who befriends a Jewish family during the Nazi occupation of France. At one point, they start reading the novel to him. Anyway, it's one of those wonderful, original movies that never got the release it deserved.

[Spider Jerusalem]

61. "Lola Rennt" ("Run Lola Run")

one of the best films of the past five years or so, in my opinion.

Also: Almost anything by Kurosawa, "Wings of Desire", "Ichi the Killer".

[SCDem]

62. great soundtrack too!

i used to work out to that soundtrack.... high intensity!

[bigwillq]

69. "Lola" Awesome movie

awesome soundtrack. Also love "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Life is Beautiful", haven't seen too many foreign films

[GumboYaYa]

63. For me it is "The Bicycle Thief."

The scene where he has to choose whether to steal the bike is one of the most moving scenes in all of cinema IMO.

I also love "The Tim Drum," but the book is better than the movie.

[bif]

66. Amaracord-Fellini

I just love that movie. Especially the subtitledd version.

[TacticalPeek]

67. All the way to here and no Satyajit Ray, no Jean-Luc Godard? Well!

On some days my fav is The World of Apu (Apur Sansar), Ray, 1959.


On other days, Contempt (Le Mépris), Godard, 1964.

Just the idea should entice you: Godard directing Jack Palance, Brigitte Bardot and FRITZ LANG in lurid color on Capri.

(The dubbed version is worthless; subtitles required, unless you speak lebenty-leben languages.)

[blindpig]

68. Roma & Satyricon, Fellini

can't find that stuff here in the boonies

[La Lioness Priyanka]

70. fire

[gula]

71. There are so many

Amélie (France)
Lily festival (Japan)
Satin Rouge (Algeria/france)
Piazza delle cinque lune (Italy)
Les dieux sont tombés sur leur têtes
Bread & Chocolate
etc.
etc.
etc.
Also anything with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire (Hey, it is foreign to ME)

[TheMightyFavog]

73. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

That whole "Man With No Name" trilogy was brilliant! Leone knew how to shoot a good movie! Theyu don't make 'em like that anymore!

[Bonhomme Richard]

74. The Commitments..............I'm Irish

Yeah, I know I don't have any class or culture.
But hey, for an irish guy that is culture

75. Godard, Fellini, Wenders, Eustache, Tarkovsky

Any film they got close to.

that about covers it.

:evilgrin:

[Duncan Grant]

77. "Dreams" - Akira Kurosawa (google for images)

[Papa]

78. Mediterraneo

My favorite foreign film. It's Italian and is about some Italian soldiers that get cut off from their command during WWII. They wind up on some small Greek Island and try and make the best of it. It's a comedy and a great movie.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

80. So many to list

that I"m leaving out the English-language ones.

France: Jean de Florette, Manon of the Spring, Shoot the Piano Player, The 400 Blows, The Return of Martin Guere (the movie on which the inferior Summersby was based), Au Revoir Les Enfants, Les Miserables (the one that's not the Victor Hugo novel)

Germany: The Nasty Girl, Emil and the Detectives

Italy: La Strada, La Dolce Vita, Ciao Professore,

Netherlands:The Vanishing (the original, not the inferior Hollywood remake with the cop-out ending)

Belgium: Toto the Hero

Norway: Hamsun, The Other Side of Sunday

Sweden: My Life as a Dog, Wild Strawberries, Smiles of a Summer Night

Russia: Boris Godunov, The Cranes are Flying, Station for Two, A Muslim, The Thief

Israel: Yana's Friends

Iran: The Circle

India: Pather Panchali, Aparajito, The World of Apu

China: Not One Less, To Live, Suzhou River, Yellow Earth, The Blue Kite

Hong Kong: Peking Opera Blues

Korea: Peppermint Candy

Japan: Seven Samurai, Stray Dog, High and Low, Tampopo, The Crazy Family,
Supermarket Woman, Shall We Dance, The Happiness of the Katakuris, Spirited Away, Home Village, Village of Dreams, I Was Born But..., No Regrets for Our Youth, Ikiru,
Black Rain (not the cop drama--this is about survivors of the atom bomb).

Mexico: Like Water for Chocolate, Violet Perfume

Brazil: Central Station, Black Orpheus

Argentina: The Official Story