Favorite Foreign Film(s)!*

Too many to recall. A few off the top of my head.

M
Children Of Paradise
The Lavender Hill Mob
Battleship Potemkin
Rififi
Metropolis
The 39 Steps
Gallipoli
Rashomon
Yojimbo
Spirited Away
My Neighbor Totoro
Das Boot

 

01. Le Mepris
02. Metropolis
03. Cries And Whispers
04. The Tribe
05. The Sacrifice
06. Berlin Alexanderplatz
07. Pandora's Box
08. Medea (Pasolini)
09. Marketa Lazarova
10. The Round Up (Jancso)
11. Red Desert
12. Cleo de 5 a 7
13. The Leopard
14. Come And See
15. Dogville
16. Let The Right One In
17. Ran
18. Tokyo Story
19. The Conformist
20. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
21. Last Year In Marienbad
22. Confessions
23. La Regle du Jeu
24. 8 1/2
25. Rome, Open City
26. Aguirre, Wrath Of God
27. Belle de Jour
28. La Belle et La Bete
29. Mishima - A Life In Four Chapters
30. The Tenant

 

Not a direct answer to the OP's question but the documentary series called The Story of Film has oodles of foreign films referenced and briefly discussed. A great reference for film lovers.

 

The Third Man
Das Boot
The Seventh Seal

 

I must say there is just a truckload of good taste and film knowledge in this thread!

Forced to pick just one, "Ikiru" would get the nod for me.

For anyone new to non-English language films, you pretty much couldn't go wrong picking most anything in this thread (based on the ones I've seen, which thankfully are most of them).

I don't believe I've seen Bollywood mentioned. I offer "A Wednesday".

 

I wouldn't know where to start, I went through an extravagantly pretentious phase in my late teens of only watching foreign films. I have an adoration of anything by Akira Kurosawa (especially the seemingly forgotten and vastly underrated late film Dreams), and Zhang Yimou (particularly his earlier melodramas like Raise The Red Lantern, To Live and Red Sorghum).

I'd also mention a Japanese film called The Bird People In China - stunningly beautiful with a great message, the masterful City of God as well as another Brazilian film called Central Station, and all number of early French stuff.

 

recently watched this again!

 

In spite of all the YouTube adaptations for every manner of parody, I would say the Downfall is the best foreign film I've seen in years, though I'm not really a fan of the genre.

 

At the moment, off the top of my head, Wings of Desire.

At another moment, it will no doubt be a different one.

 

I'm gonna take non-foreign to mean non American or British in which case I'll say Metropolis

 

Oh, and how could I forget one of my absolute favourite films of all - Bicycle Thieves.

 

Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis)
The Leopard (Il Gattopardo)
M. Hulot's Holiday (Les Vacances de M. Hulot)
The Harder They Come

 

Since none of my earlier four movies went beyond the '60s, I thought I'd mention two of my '70s favorites: De Sica's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis and Truffaut's The Story of Adele H.

 

Here's some foreign films (non-US) from my collection. I've tried to remove any of those already mentioned in this thread (sorry if I missed a few). In my estimation these are all great films from a variety of genres including a few documentaries.

1. 1900
2. The Act of Killing
3. Akira
4. Army of Shadows
5. The Artist
6. Au Revoir Les Enfants
7. Baraka
8. Belle Epoque
9. BenX
10. Bicycle Thieves
11. Le Grand Bleu
12. Camille Claudel
13. Chronos
14. CJ7
15. Clockwise
16. The Dish
17. Diva
18. The Draughtman's Contract
19. Good Bye Lenin
20. Ghost in the Shell
21. The Great Beauty
22. I Wish
23. Ida
24. Il Postino
25. Incendies
26. Jodhaa Akbar
27. Jules & Jim
28. Kes
29. La Femme Nikita
30. The Chorus
31. The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp
32. Like Water for Chocolate
33. Local Hero
34. Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
35. Locke
36. Lust & Caution
37. My Life as a Dog
38. Ratcatcher
39. The Red Violin
40. Restless Natives
41. Shoah
42. A Special Day
43. The Spirit of the Beehive
44. Subway
45. Tess
46. The Motorcycle Diaries
47. The Professional (Leon)
48. The Raid 1 & 2
49. Vatel
50. The White Ribbon
51. Yi Yi

 

Great thread indeed. Lots of good movies mentioned. I've seen many of them. I try to see more though, have a few Kurosawa stocked up at home.

 

Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále
(I Served the King of England)

 

Haven't seen this one mentioned yet:

Mongol


About the early life of Temüjin, who became Genghis Khan. I really enjoyed it. Normally I don't like foreign spoken films with English subtexts, but it didn't bother me at all when I saw this in theatres.

Supposedly this was the first part of a planned Trilogy (2nd movie is supposed to cover Mongolia's rise to power under Genghis Khan and the third to cover his latter days as ruler of Mongolia.) Though, the trilogy had been put on the shelf and taken off the shelf at least once already. Don't know where it stands in production now (last update I heard was from 2013.)

 

France ...400 Blows
German ...Aquirre ' The Wrath Of God
Japan .....Dersu Uzala
Italian ...Bitter Rice
Lapland..Pathfinder
Scotland...Whiskey Galore
Spanish ..Bad Education
Hong Kong..Big Boss
Indonesia.. The Raid
Brazil...Pixote
Mexican..Amores Perros
Australia ..Sirens
Russia ...Solaris

 

Life of Brian is a foreign film?

 

Dersu Uzala might have been directed by a Japanese man, but wouldn't you consider it a Russian film? Made there, financed there.

 

Well, for the sake of their delicate sensibilities I'll exclude American films, otherwise my favourite foreign film would be 'Die Hard'. However, throwing the net a little wider, you can't go wrong of a winter evening with the double-bill of 'Jean De Florette' and 'Manon De Source'. Hard work, but rewarding.

 

Nippon director ' made in Russia ' but not a Russian film per se.
Or 'Japan based ' then...'Ai No Korida

 

France: The Last Woman.
Very 'hard' part for Gerard Depardieu for a change.
Think his best acting is 'Cyrano de Bergerac'.

 

Been a few years since I viewed it'but Italy's ' Seven Beauties' staring Giancarlo Giannini director Lina Wertmuller.