Favorite Foreign Film(s)!*

I recommend Diva to people that usually avoid subtitled movies and it is usually a hit with them. Also, it is one of the few soundtracks I own.

 

it fits near the top because it is AWESOME

 

That is a list i can get behind. many of my faves

 

The Hunt is amazing. saw it at our local film fest with no info except Mads was in it and wow!

 

WOW! someone else has seen Last Cab to Darwin? wife and i love that film

 

Loved the Host. could not sit through Snowpiercer

 

While 99.9% of the "best" foreign masterpieces have been mentioned, most more than once, I'll try to add to the discussion with some in my collection that my wife and I love. I am fully aware some of these may not traditionally qualify as foreign films Sorry.
Bridge On The River Kwai
Chocolat
Black Book
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest Of Spies
OSS 117: Lost In Rio
Kitchen Stories
Rabbit Proof Fence
4 Weddings & A Funeral
Shakespeare In Love
A Room With A View
My Left Foot
Shine
Hard Boiled
A Better Tomorrow
Slumdog Millionaire
The Crying Game
Educating Rita
Sense and Sensibility
Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert
Joyeux Noel
The Dish
Whale Rider
The Dark Horse
Heavenly Creatures
Topsy Turvy

 

The Conformist
Nights of Caberia
The Lives Of Others
Children Of Men (British?)
The Winslow Boy (again, British?)

 

First post of the new year on this thread. Happy new year guys!

Recently watched the 2011 Korean flick Silenced (aka The Crucible) starring Gong Yoo. Incredible film yet one of the hardest to sit through.
All I knew about the film going in was the brief IMDB summary which mentioned that the film was based on a real case of sexual assault at a school for the hearing-impaired. Having seen other films about the subject (like 2015's Spotlight for instance) as well as countless documentaries and news reports, I thought I knew what I was in for. I couldn't have been more wrong. Certain scenes from this movie made my stomach churn and I had to look away, something that I don't think I've ever done before. I couldn't believe that the actors actually agreed to film certain scenes but I'm glad they did. This film to me played more like a horror flick, showing that the real monsters live right under our noses, holding positions of power and pretending to be men of god which committing acts of unspeakable evil behind closed doors.

I'm so glad I watched it although it'll be a while before I'm ready to go through that again, certain scenes will be ingrained in my mind for a long time to come

 

Great list! Here are a few more Korean films that I highly recommend:
Memories of Murder (2003) - One of the greatest serial killer films ever made. Right up there with Se7en and any others.
Silenced (aka The Crucible) (2011) - Brilliant film based on a real case of sexual abuse at a school for the hearing-impaired.
The Chaser (2008) - I'd rate this as one of the greatest action thrillers I've ever seen.
The Wailing (2016) - Incredible horror flick from the guy that made The Chaser

 

Watching the series again over the next month. It really is amazing to observe the repeated blundering of mankind - almost always in the name of "progress", or worse, getting back to "proper values".

 

C.R.A.Z.Y.
Murmur of the Heart
Amelie
Good Bye Lenin!
Au Revoir Les Enfants
Dogtooth
Winter in Wartime
The Best of Youth
La Vie En Rose
The Lives of Others
Dreng
Les Geants
Mommy
Fanny and Alexander
Run Lola Run
Pulsar
Lilya 4-Ever
Land of Mine
Zappa
North Sea Texas
Simple Simon
Homevideo
Turn Me On, Goddammit!
Cinema Paradiso
Centre of My World
The Bicycle Thief
West Coast
Downfall
Wetlands
Hedwig and the Angry Inch

 

Aguirre, The Wrath Of God
400 Blows
Seven Samurai
Ida
Battle of Algiers
Belle du Jour
La Strada
The Bicycle Thieves
Come and See
The Lives of Others
Jean de Florette/Manon Des Sources
The Wages Of Fear
Les Diaboliques

 

The Counterfeiters
Sanjuro/Yojimbo
Lebanon
Whale Rider
Pan's Labyrinth

 

IL Postino

 

Not sure this one counts, as it was made by a U.S. production company, directed by an American, and based on an off-broadway musical by an American writer.

 

To some extent the distinction of what makes a film "foreign" is arbitrary. Take an example like Lawrence of Arabia. English director, male lead was Irish, most of the rest of the cast were English except for a few with an Arab background. Shot mostly in Jordan, Spain and some interior shots in England, no locations in the US. But the film was produced for an American company, and it did have an American in Anthony Quinn in the... oh wait! Quinn was born in Mexico.

Yet few would consider Lawrence to be a "foreign" film.

I think many consider that to be a foreign film it must be primarily in a language other than English. I think that's why most do not reflexively consider films from Great Britain to be "foreign". But that is not always the case, either.

But, if the idea is films in a language other than English, and mostly from the classic period, my favorites in rough order are:

Persona
L'Eclisse
The Seventh Seal
Wild Strawberries
L'Avventura
The Passion
La Dolce Vita
La Notte
Winter Light
8&1/2
Shoot the Piano Player
The Silence
Jules and Jim
Red Desert
Hour of the Wolf
The Nights of Cabiria
Scenes from a Marriage
Repulsion
Elevator to the Gallows
Through a Glass Darkly
Belle de Jour
Breathless
Shame
Diary of a Chambermaid
Summer with Monica
Two Women
Alphaville
Summer Interlude
Juliette of the Spirits
Cries and Whispers
Mississippi Mermaid
Autumn Sonata
The Bride Wore Black
Z
The Last Metro
A Woman is a Woman
Virgin Spring
The War is Over
Il Grido
Two English Girls
State of Siege

I'm sure I left some things out, but that's a great list.

The Soft Skin

 

I posted French and German movies in separate topics on this forum...

here are some Russian/Soviet movies I liked....

Text (2019) - nice drama, dark portrayal of modern Russia (director Klim Shipenko)
Podbrosy (Jumpman) (2018) - another dark portrayal of modern Russian society and corruption (director Ivan I. Tverdovskiy)

from older movies..

Ballad of a Soldier (Ballada o soldate) (1959) - nice Soviet war-themed movie, good actors, and the ending is very touching.
The Ascent (Voskhozhdeniye) (1977) - World War II movie, this one was on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) not too long ago
Come and See (Idi i smotri) (1985) - another good Soviet World War II movie, this one was on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) recently

 

I like both, especially the former.. When I mentioned "The Ascent" in one of the "Last Movies You've Watched" threads, the son of Larisa Shepitko publicly commented. Pretty cool! He was surprised an American liked non-American movies

 

add some more...

Viy (1967) - nice Soviet folk horror based on Nikolai Gogol story, stars very young and beautiful Natalya Varley......Varley was also in Kidnapping Caucasian Style (1967), a classic Soviet comedy
Hodejegerne (Headhunters) 2011 - good Norwegian action thriller
Under sandet (Land of Mine) 2015 - Danish WWII drama, I found it pretty suspenseful and interesting
Kraftidioten (In Order of Disappearance) 2014 - crime drama with Stellan Skarsgard
Jagten (The Hunt) 2012 - nice drama with Mads Mikkelsen
Tom of Finland (2017) - nice biography of Touko Valio Laaksonen, creator of gay macho man image, I was not familiar with his story
Oldboy (2003) - nice South Korean flick with a twisted ending

 

I like quite a few, but the three I share with friends and family are

Amelie
Life Is Beautiful
Ip Man

 

Secrets & Lies

 

Favourite would be the secret in their eyes. This should have won not only best foreign movie oscar but best movie Oscar as well
It's a magnificent movie. One of the finest this century.
I always shed a tear when finally the penny drops at the end

 

Goyokin and The Wolves both by Hideo Gosha. Hopefully Criterion or Arrow will pick up more films from this great director.

 

yes, I like that movie Kolya (1996), good Czech drama about a little Russian boy in Czechoslovakia, it's an Oscar winner for best foreign language film.
also movie Vor (The Thief) (1997) - nice Russian coming of age drama