BEST FOREIGN CINEMA (excluding America please)

[Scorpio]

After seeing someone else post about the Dutch version of the Vanishing, which is amazing by the way, i thought i'd see which foreign films float our boats (all genres of course).......here is a pick of my favourites

City of God (Brazilian masterpiece)
Amelie
El Orfanato
Pan's Labyrinth
Memories of Murder (Korean horror, telling the story of the serial killer they never caught)
Ringu
The R Point
The Vanishing
Battleship Potemkin
Man Bites Dog (another phenomenal movie)

of course i could go on for a long time, especially if i start on my favourite martial arts movies and (lest i forget) the amazing Bruce Lee, who transformed physical and violent choreography forever

more films for the list please

[Mr Sloane]

M
Les Diaboliques
Rashomon
Pan's Labyrinth
La Vie En Rose
Tenue de soirée
The Wages of Fear
Z
Jamon Jamon
Woman on the verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Pandora's Box

This exercise showed how my knowledge of non english speaking films is sadly lacking.

[Sgt Sunshine]

Lots & lots...
Manon des Sources (French)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (Australian)
Jules et Jim (French)
La Vie en Rose (French)
Innocence (French)
Like Water for Chocolate (Mexican)
Hansel & Gretel (Korean)
Blue Eyelids(Mexican)
Amelie(French)
El Crimen del Padre Amaro
Elvira Madigan (Swedish)
Summer with Monica (Swedish)
Volver (Spanish)
Wings of Desire(German)
The Spirit of the Beehive.(Spanish)
3 colours Trilogy (Blue, White Red)(French/Polish)
Comment J'ai Tue Mon Pere.(French)
Pan's Labyrinth(Spanish)
A very long Engagement(French)
Hidden(French)
The Double Life of Veronique(French/polish)
L'Appartment(French)
L'Enfer(French)
Un Coeur en Hiver(French)
Nelly & Mr Arnaud(French)
Black Moon(French)
Au Revoir Les Enfants(French)
Lacombe Lucien(French)
Le Souffle Au Coeur(French)
Milou en Mai(French)
Exotica(Canadian)
Malena(Italian)
Cinema Paradiso(Italian)
Hiroshima Mon Amour...(French)
The Piano(New Zealand)

[batman]

Far too many to list them all, but here are a few of my favourites (in no particular order) ....

The Virgin Spring
Wages of Fear
Rififi
Godzilla
Sophie Scholl
Downfall
Bicycle Thieves
Ossessione
Le Corbeau
Les Enfants Du Paradis
Les Diaboliques
Memories of Murder
The Chaser
Ringu
Summerfield
Summer With Monika
The Crimson Rivers
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Stray Dog
GI Samourai
Audition
Army of Shadows
Breathless
Le Regle Du Jeu
The Man From Hong Kong
Boudou Saved From Drowning
M
Metropolis
Nausica and the Valley of the Winds
Howl's Moving Castle
The Vanishing
The Great Silence
Duel of the Titans

.... and many, many more.

[smudge]

Zazie Dans Le Metro
Eyes Without A Face
Les Diaboliques
Malpertuis
Tatie Danielle

A quick handful of faves there...

Smudge

[Scorpio]

Audition......a cracker "ciri ciri ciri" is a line that gives me shivers

[Moor Larkin]

I've often enjoyed Canadian and Australasian product.

My enjoyment of non-English-spoken movies is limited by the requirement to read the sub-titles. This is good for concentration of course, and may in some ways explain why the ones I have watched have often made quite an impression on me, but equally also explains why quite often I just can't be bothered. In that way any list can only be based on individual movies rather than any specific *foreign cinema*. Korean cinema is said to be cool, but then I think often it is the simple fact that the culture can be so alien to our own that makes *foreign cinema* so impressive. Our own cinema can seem boringly familiar. In some ways foreign cinema might benefit from it's isolation from the rest of us. Having said that, other than Slumdog Millionaire, who watches Bollywood ?

I was watching the French movie, District 13-Ultimatum last night and it was only the sub-titles that really held my attention....

[Sgt Sunshine]

I should also include these too....
Spirited Away (Japanese)
The Magdalene Sisters (Irish)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (German)
Sophie Scholl (German)
Flame & Citron (Danish)
Princess Mononoke (Japanese)
Angela's Ashes (Irish)
Rabbit proof Fence (Australian)
Salaam Bombay (Indian)

[Richard_in_wales]

I can just about get through German and French films without subtitles but my favourite overseas films (discounting English speaking films) would be far eastern horror.

[Scorpio]

the Host is a cracking little movie, if no-ones seen it - very original and very atmospheric

[melade]

Like earlier posts, far too many to mention but a couple I don't think have been mentioned...

The Tit And The Moon
Bombon El Perro
Tony Manero
Old Boy
The Phantom of Liberty

[Moor Larkin]

The Tit And The Moon

That one translates quite well....

Prior to sound raising it's ugly voice I suppose there was no such thing as foreign film........

BFI Screenonline: Cottage on Dartmoor, A (1929)
Cast:
Hans Schlettow (Harry Stevens);
Uno Henning (Joe Ward);
Norah Baring (Sally)

[Heinrich]

Way too many to list.
I recently saw Katalin Varga and it was very different.
Katalin Varga (Hilda Peter) has been married for nearly eleven years when her husband abruptly throws her out of the house after learning he's not the biological father of their son Orbán (Norbert Tankó). The grim truth is that Katalin became pregnant after a long and brutal rape, and in order to win back her husband, she has to find the men who attacked her. With Orbán in tow, Katalin returns to the Carpathian countryside which was once her home and she hasn't seen since the assault.
Although the Director is English (Peter Strickland), the movie was made in Transylvania with an Hungarian-speaking cast.

[Film Man]

Three that are always forgotten...The North Face (now on Blu Ray)...Four Minutes... & Happy New Year (Lelouch)...track 'em down on DVD, you will be amazed!
Film Man.

[cassidy]

Les Diaboliques
Bycycle \thieves
Wages of Fear
Seven Samourai
M.Hulot's Holiday
Mon Oncle
I also used to like the Fernandel films.

[alan french]

Hi,
Oddly enough, I have noticed, that in cinema history, many films are in a sense international. Irrespective of their country of origin.

Snippets or even complete productions I have seen have quite often impressed me.

In the silent days of cinema, for example, there were stencil processes where monochrome films were given colour treatment. Individually by hand. Thus making them superb works of art. Films like the Italian THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII. A film About, or, called CASANOVA. And of course not forgetting the highly imaginative output in France of Georges Melies be they black and white or stencil tinted. These films show dedication, and love for the craft of film making, long before Hollywood.

My country's own film output was also helped out by a foreigner. The great Alexander Korda. Many legendary Hollywood legends were from Europe. I gather, some early sound films had different versions made in equally different languages, so that they could be seen internationally.

The term Bollywood has also been created; illustrating that there is a flourishing cinema in Asia. And of course, how about Australia and New Zealand. Some of their excellent productions have caught the attention of the international community viewing television and cinema.

Like music, film making can be an international enjoyment. It can be, if given the right treatment, a genre that can reach out to us all. It always has done. I hope it will always do so.

Alan French

[cassidy]

You're right about cinema in Asia and the term Bollywood. I wonder if films made down under will come under the term "Aullywood"

Hi,
Oddly enough, I have noticed, that in cinema history, many films are in a sense international. Irrespective of their country of origin.

Snippets or even complete productions I have seen have quite often impressed me.

In the silent days of cinema, for example, there were stencil processes where monochrome films were given colour treatment. Individually by hand. Thus making them superb works of art. Films like the Italian THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII. A film About, or, called CASANOVA. And of course not forgetting the highly imaginative output in France of Georges Melies be they black and white or stencil tinted. These films show dedication, and love for the craft of film making, long before Hollywood.

My country's own film output was also helped out by a foreigner. The great Alexander Korda. Many legendary Hollywood legends were from Europe. I gather, some early sound films had different versions made in equally different languages, so that they could be seen internationally.

The term Bollywood has also been created; illustrating that there is a flourishing cinema in Asia. And of course, how about Australia and New Zealand. Some of their excellent productions have caught the attention of the international community viewing television and cinema.

Like music, film making can be an international enjoyment. It can be, if given the right treatment, a genre that can reach out to us all. It always has done. I hope it will always do so.

Alan French

[Steve Crook]

BEST FOREIGN CINEMA (excluding America please)
All cinema is foreign cinema to people living in other countries

Steve

[Scorpio]

BEST FOREIGN CINEMA (excluding America please)
All cinema is foreign cinema to people living in other countries

Steve

extremely true

but, that said, we are not on a Scandanavian Movie Forum or a Honduran Movie forum.........so, with that (and a pinch of salt) in mind we can assume i meant foreign as an outside of the UK influence

but you knew that anyway, you sarcie sod

ha ha

we will get on well you and I Steve................keep up the sarcasm mate, i like it

regards, chris

[Scorpio]

You're right about cinema in Asia and the term Bollywood. I wonder if films made down under will come under the term "Aullywood"

there have been some great films from Oz

Rogue and Wolf Creek are 2 good'uns, as is the excellent Loved Ones and All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (i think its Australian)