Foreign Language Films
 

I've been quite into foreign language films recently.
I was wondering whether anyone could recommend any really good foreign language films (those being foreign for me, i.e. non-English).
I can't say I've watched too many more than this list (probably about the same number again) but my current favourite list would be;

1) City of God
2) Cyrano de Bergerac
3) Bicycle Thieves
4) Hero
5) Spirited Away
6) Pan’s Labyrinth
7) Run Lola Run
8) Oldboy
9) Goodbye Lenin
10) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

cheers

I don't know if you're more into modern or classic movies but if you like recent works the last season's dramedy directed by Paolo Genovese "Perfetti Sconosciuti" (=Perfect Strangers) did well both with audience and critics and american studios already wants to make a remake of it. Also "La Grande Bellezza" (aka The Grat Beauty) by Sorrentino is worthwhile, and anything by Nanni Moretti, Ferzan Ozpetek and Roberto Benigni. I'm particularly fond of "La Leggenda del Pianista sull'Oceano" (aka The Legend of 1900) by Tornatore, with Tim Roth, so you could try "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso" of him.

If you're into classics then it's pretty mandatory to cite Fellini, Rossellini, Antonioni, De Sica, Visconti, De Santis, Zeffirelli, Pasolini, Bertolucci etc.

Wow. Where to start. I guess I prefer more modern stuff, though Bicycle Thieves is pretty old.
Thanks
PS, Could you narrow it down to just 3?

Ah ah Ok, my personal picks would be:
"La grande bellezza" (aka "The Great Beauty") by Paolo Sorrentino, I''m curious to know the opinion of an American
"La vita è bella" by Roberto Benigni (aka "Life is beautiful") and prepare a handkerchief
"Giulietta degli Spiriti" by Federico Fellini.

La belle et la bête ( long before it became a song)
Shower (Chinese)
Man bites dog (Belgium*)
In Bruges*
Ma vie an Rose*
My life as a dog. ( Swedish)
M (German*)
Metropolis*
Relato Savajes ( Argentinian)
Y tu mama tambien (Mexican)

Okay, these will be the next three on my list. I've long wanted to watch Life is Beautiful actually.
I'll give you my opinion of The Great Beauty (but you'll have to wait for your American opinion and make do with a British one).

many thanks

I've read about Man Bites Dog. I dont know whether I can watch it.

Ambience (Swedish) is coming out in 2020 it is 720 hours /30 days long. Here is the 7 hour and 20 minutes trailer

http://www.thelongestfilm.com/


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RLevgVmZ8rE

A while back I saw one with Penelope Cruz but I cannot remember the name of it. :shrug:

Cool. So you you are volunteering to watch it first before giving us a recommendation. I look forward to your review.

A British review will be a pleasure nonetheless.

Since it's a foreign language movie I think it could be one of her long time collaborations with Pedro Almodovar or one of her more recent italian movies with Castellitto, "Don't move" or "Twice born".

I looked up her filmography on Wikipedia and found it. It's called Volver.

No film has ever made me feel as much sadness as "Don't Move". I couldn't even cry like I do with most films, I felt an actual pain in my chest.

I like those.

It's based on a book by Margaret Mazzantini (just like Twice Born); all her books are deeply moving and upsetting, and are partly inspired by real life events. Twice Born left me in a pensive state for days.
I think that these movies were some of the best interpretations by Penelope Cruz. Strangely (or maybe not) this is just the kind of movie that is praised in Italy and shunned in the rest of the world. Melodrama and Realism are deeply ingrained in our artistic culture and I often see that other countries have a difficult time in relating to the extreme tales portrayed in movies like these. I had and still have a hard time too, but like my favourite teacher used to say (the one who introduced me and my classmates to these genre), life is also this and we can't close our eyes and pretend.

Was that All About My Mother?

Love Run Lola Run.

My favorites are Amelie and The Double Life of Veronique. And then there are the Truffaut films.

Amélie was delightful!

These DVD's recently arrived in the post. Just finished watching Life Is Beautiful...bang, half way through it changes big time. As soon as it finished my wife turned to me and said 'Sometimes it's really crap being a human being'. I wouldn't say I sobbed but I certainly shed some tears at the end.

Will watch La Grande Bellezza tomorrow if I get the chance.

It has that effect on everyone. I still remember when I watched it in biddle-school during the cinema extra class, even the boasters were crying. I've never wanted to see it in its entirey again. Maybe now I should try again.

Yeah, it's not a film I'd like to watch again in a hurry. I have strange feelings about it. On the one hand I want to say its a beautiful film with really beautiful cinematography. At the same time, I think I'd feel rather awkward saying that due to the subject matter. There were some really subtly disturbing moments and there are still questions in my head about it that I'm mulling over.

I think such a movie more than anything wants/has to raise questions in the viewer and if it has succeded we can say it is a good movie. I think it deserved all the praises that it got, but like you said, it's awkward that in Italy TV always air that as a Christmas movie...

Christmas? Wow. I suppose its good to reflect at that time of the year on how good (the vast majority of) our lives are comparitively speaking.
By the way, Roberto Benigni really reminds me a lot of a French actor I like called Pierre Richard.

That's exactly the spirit behind it. Italians are a population of melodrama and political critique, even better if they're together. If you could see show schedules here you'd see a bunch of period dramas, hystorical dramas, tragedy and politically involved shows and the customary hip american tv series here and there.
Good god it's true. Usually he's been compared to Woody Allen but this one really looks like his reddish headed brother.

Sister Nightroad- I sat down last night ready to watch 'La Grande Bellezza'. I was a bit peed-off to find the DVD I bought only had German and French subtitles. Merda!
Had to watch Ex Machina instead which I've had sitting around for a while. Sorry Iamnotafraid (I know you recommend it highly), I thought it was pretty good, but it didn't blow me away. I didn't particularly find the ending hard to foresee which left me a bit deflated.
Will have to re-order The Great Beauty.

Once it happened the very same thing to me with a documentary that I had to watch and analyze for my Developmental Psychology class, "Promises" about children living the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I was so happy that I found a cheaper sale and then I discovered that it only had French, Arabic and Jew subtitles. I had to watch it in English, at least there was an English audio, and it wasn't easy.

Thaks for Ex Machina, I won't buy it but I'll download it this summer.

Yes, I really like that movie. I don't think it was made
to blow you away. It kind of simmers. But there are
many things going on in that movie. And I think it
takes more than one viewing to notice.

What I like best are the questions it raises concerning
A.I. - without even considering what Nathan thought
Caleb really wanted to know.

Being a Christian makes me wonder how far man will
be allowed to go. Or how far man can go before it becomes
sin. It's most fascinating.

Hi,
It didn't blow me away in so far as I didn't get to the end and think 'wow, that was a great film, I must watch this again'. It was nominated for a lot of awards and won quite a few of them so my expectations were quite high. I just didn't feel engaged with any of the characters (which is possibly deliberate as far as Caleb and Nathan are concerned), including Ava so at the end I didn't feel myself caring for any of them.
***Spoilers***
The idea 'it' may have been using Caleb was mooted by Nathan so it was always in the back of my mind something along those lines would happen at the end.

It's quite a long time since I've watched it but I remember A.I. having a much greater emotional impact on me and that did leave me questioning a lot of things afterwards. Another film I'd suggest is 'Her' starring Joaquin Pheonix.

I liked A.I.. I think it's emotional impact might have been
because he (there's one of those pronouns we use for their type,
which is a thread just waiting to be started) was a child.

Her
I really came around to liking that movie. It's funny,
fifteen or so years ago it wouldn't have worked for me.
But after witnessing people walking around with the
love of their lives - the cell phone. I can believe it. And
I liked the ending. I just wish I hadn't found out who's
voice they used for Her. I didn't want to know before I
watched it.

I'm not one of those who walks around with their
cell phones. I hate them except for emergencies.
I am the last hold out.

Goodnight Mommy. And despite the "totally terrifying" tagline, it wasn't. But it was very, very good.

I watched 'Son of Saul' last night (Best Foreign Language film, 2016 Academy Awards)

I think it would be fair to say it's not exactly a date movie.
The film focuses on the role of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz extermination camp.
It's a powerful and at times difficult film to watch.

Watched 'Let the Right One In' recently.
It's a Swedish vampire film. This is not normally my favored genre, but wow, this is a great film. I thoroughly recommend it.

http://img.moviepostershop.com/let-t...1010486633.jpg

Watched a great Italian film, Don't Move last night. It's engaging, gritty and features some brilliant performances (including Penelope Cruz). That said, though I enjoyed it I found it hard to get past the central love affair between a man and a young girl who he initially raped....really????
Excellent soundtrack.


http://content7.flixster.com/photo/1...886549_gal.jpg

I love "The Secret in their Eyes" from Argentina. I believe it won an academy award for best foreign film around 2009.
Not only is it my favorite foreign film, its one of the best movies ever. Its a masterpiece. The thrills and twists and turns just floor you.

It maybe the best vampire movie ever made.

Did you jump?

Did I jump? If I'm totally honest with you...no. I never felt it was that sort of film. Maybe once or twice towards the end. I thought it was more about the story than out and out 'make you jump scary'.

I agree for the most part. But I was talking about that
one particular scene which I won't ruin for anyone who
hasn't seen the film yet.

Same was true for the remake in that same scene as
far as the jumping goes.

I see foreign films all the time. I love Pedro Almodovar, those his last few films were disappointing to me.

Of possible interest to FM fans, Dreileben: Better Off Dead, is the first part of an experimental trilogy. The trilogy itself is fascinating but deeply flawed- each movie has a different director, with part one focusing on an incredibly beautiful man who is torn between two very different women, and he accidentally frees a suspected killer from police custody; part two is called Don't Follow Me and focuses on a policewoman tracking the suspect; and Part three is called One Minute of Darkness and focuses on the suspect himself trying to avoid capture.

When I saw this in the theater, the Fleetwood Mac song Sara was played prominently during the engagement party scene, but when I saw it on DVD, Sara had been replaced by another song I had never heard before. I wish there was a way to find out why the song was removed.