List Your Favorite Foreign (non-American) Films Here! (page 2)

greendawn

I really liked the French film Jean de Florette made in 1986 starring Gerard Departieu (an adaptation of the novel by Marcel Pagniol) and its sequel Manon des sources that brought Emmanuelle Beart to stardom.

GentlyFeral

Elsewhere recommends The Pillow Book:

Uch, I hated that movie - for the same reason I hated The Piano, which was much better done. I get so effing tired of Still Life with Neuroses.Not that I want to watch The Adventures of Dick and Jane Whitebread all the time, but the requisite unhappy ending just tends to demonize alternate lifestyles. Really p!sses me off. I can't stand CSI for the same reason.

chrissy recommends Amelie:

Yeah! See, now, this is the moral opposite of the two films I just mentioned. Amelie is weird as hell, but she's a good person on her own terms, and life rewards her for it.

Like me.

greendawn recommends film Jean de Florette and Manon des sources:

Oh man, these are major favorites of mine. I love love love these two. Speaking of Gerard Depardieu, what about La Retour de Martin Guerre? One of the coolest mistaken-identity stories in history.

Now for a sampling of my own foreign favorites:

The Cuckoo – Two prisoners of war – on opposing sides of World War II – escape their captors in the bleak and beautiful wilds of Finland. They are taken in by a ~~Lapp~~ Sami woman.None of them have any languages in common. Each tries to communicate with the others using only his native language. Somehow they make a life together for a while, and it's cool as all get out.
Grave of the Fireflies – an anime tear-jerker. Beautiful to look at.
Chicken Run
The Commitments – one of those "let's put on a show!" movies about a group of young, unemployed Irishmen. But the "show" is a blues band. The music is good. They do not win a Grammy.
Playtime, Mon Oncle, Les Vacances de M. Hulot (all by the indescribable Jacques Tati)
Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away – both by Hayao Miyazaki. Looking forward to Howl's Moving Castle this weekend!
Tampopo – a thoughtful Japanese comedy about ... food!Sweet, innocent (well, ok, there are a couple of very brief skin shots), and quite bizarre.
The Triplets of Belleville – another edgy cartoon feature – hilarious!
And while we're at it, more weird fantastical French comedies:Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children.
Tokyo Godfathers – Now, I don't actually like anime, unless it's edgy, relatively easy to follow, well-animated, and laced with "Golden Rule" stuff – like this.
The Wild Child – Well, reading The Jungle Book at an impressionable age – and repeatedly! – set me up for this one.

Man, I love me some Netflix.

gently feral

Jourles

Lock, Stock... & Snatch - UK

Waking Ned Devine - UK

I'm sure I'll remember a few other foreign films later.

DanTheMan

Osama

City of God

Dirty Pretty Things

Goodbye Lenin

SixofNine

I'll just say that I second Chrissy's taste in French and Mexican movies. Good choices! I agree with you on City of God too; it was the best film that year, imo.

I recommend a Bernardo Bertolucci film, "Besieged".

“Please love me," the man begs. "What can I do to make you love me?"

The woman stares. "Get my husband out of jail."

"In the opening sequence of Bernardo Bertolucci's latest opus, Besieged, a band of African military police abduct a schoolteacher from his classroom. As he is taken away, his wife watches in horror. She opens her mouth and makes no noise, as if sound could express what she feels. " (actually there is a little more to this scene than just that, and it's one of the most powerful scenes I've ever seen filmed)

Insomniac

Danny Boy. It's an Irish flick starring Stephen Rea. He's a musician who witnesses a murder, and sets out to solve it. But it's way cooler than that; if you can find it, see it.

Run, Lola, Run. (German) I saw this in Films class at school, loved it so much I bought it. A very interesting story, with three different "what if" conclusions. The actress who played Lola (Franka Potente) was phenomenal- I couldn't take my eyes off her face through the whole movie.

Monty Python's Holy Grail and Meaning of Life. (British) Not very highbrow, I know, but these movies make me laugh so durned hard, every single time.

Diva. This one's from France, made in 1982. I won't even try to describe the plot, as I couldn't possibly do it justice. But the cinematography rocked, and the soundtrack had some surprises. Worth every frame of film.

Life is Beautiful. This one is Italian, and it's actually better to watch it in Italian and read the subtitles- the dubbed English version loses something, IMO. The ending always makes me cry, which I hate to do, but this movie is just that beautiful.

EvilForce

Beautiful Thing

Le Femme Nikita

Soledad

oh my where do I begin....there are so many foreign films which I love I know I'm going to miss a few. And not just films either!

Amelie--my all time favorite

City of God--what an amazing movie

Motocycle Diaries--I just saw this two days ago and loved it

Like Water for Chocolate----the Mexican "Gone with the Wind" IMO

Amores Perros

All about my mother (and all of Almodovar movies for that matter)

Belle Epoque

Saturday night and Sunday morning--just how I like my British movies!

The Crime of Padre Amaro

Monsoon Wedding

Farewell my Concubine

Shower (Chinese)

Lagaan--a must see Indian classic!

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge--fluffy but great Indian film

Carandiru--another great Brazilian film

Bombay

Devdas----the dance sequence with Paro and Chakramurthy is fantastic

Divided We Fall----- a Czech film about WWII---tear jerker

Fire---nearly banned in India!

Saudade do Futuro--a Brazilian documentary--great!

The Terrorist--a Tamil film that still haunts me to this day

Shaolin soccer---hilarious!

Broken Wings----the only down to earth and non-politcal Israeli film I've ever seen

Central Station----heartwarming film from Brazil

Maria Full of Grace

Il Monstruo----sh&t in your pants funny!

Mission Kashmir---very dramatized Indo-Pak relations movie

I know I'll think of more later on!

littlerockguy

The Pianist

Preston

20, off the top of my head....

Aguirre, the wrath of god

L' Atalante

O Lucky Man!

Brief Encounter

Andrei Rublev

Kwaidan

Fanny and Alexander

The Seventh Seal

Tampopo

Yojimbo

The Passion of Joan of Arc

Sansho the Baliff

Nostalghia

Ivan's Childhood

Celine and Julie go Boating

The Conformist

Come and See

Persona

Seven Beauties

Akira

List Your Favorite Foreign (non-American) Films Here!

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