What is your favorite foreign movie?

I will say "Toto le héros" (a.k.a. "Totò the Hero") a Belgian movie from the 80's




Michel

I'm going to say The Castle, a charming little Aussie comedy. It's hilarious for Aussies because we don't really act like the family in this film does, and it's funny for non-Aussies because they all assume we do.

I also really, really liked Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu mamá también, also known as And Your Mother Too. Really excellent film.


Cheers, Chismeister.

I wouldn't call it my favourite, but it's a must see:  

GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES

Probably Das Boot. Appart from Brucee Lee movies i haven't seen many foreign movies.

This is my new favorite thread. I'm a big fan of foreign cinema.

The Vengeance Trilogy, well the two i've seen were great films. Once Upon a Time in China, Drunken Master, District 13, Foul King and basically any comedy Stephen Chow has been in.

Without going on for days about the many films I have seen and loved I will get to my favorite... Immortel (ad vitam) by Enki Bilal. Linda Hardy's performance is great for the role and eventhough it could have been so much better, as is it is still a very good film.

Only a small list.

Last Year at Marienbad - Alain Resnais
Je t'aime, je t'aime - Alain Resnais (you will probably never find this one)
The Exterminating Angel - Luis Buñuel
Mon Oncle - Jacques Tati
Picnic at Hanging Rock - Peter Weir
Seven Beauties -  Lina Wertmüller
Kwaidan - Various
The Gods Must Be Crazy - Jamie Uys
Aguirre, the Wrath of God - Werner Herzog
The Seventh Seal - Ingmar Bergman
The Devils - Ken Russell
Battleship Potemkin - Sergei M. Eisenstein (If you are interested in film history you should see this film)

I am going to have to say Ong Bak, Tony Jaa has been dubbed the best since Bruce Lee...
In his films you can see the argument in that. follow the links. Plus he does all his own stunts,
no wire work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p0wJ7epzVU


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiANsBkgqjU




Oh and 10 points for whoever can count up all the broken bones!! NIIICE!! lol.

Cool thread!

I'd say "Amelie", "Kikujiro" and "Oldboy". In fact, I might try to jazz up my new myspace page with "Kikujiro's" theme tune, it was so beautiful. Takeshi Kitano is brilliant.

I'll keep an eye on this thread to see what other movies are worth checking out.

Oldboy in America would be bashed and brutalized for the love story because in a sense it is incest but it is at its heart a love story.

The villain if you can call him that is... in my eyes anyway just as much of a victim as the hero.

As far as Tony Jaa goes. He is a great martial artist and makes me want to learn more about Tai Boxing but at the same time they overcredit him because Warrior King is not as innovative. I was left thinking and...

Where do they go? Tai Boxing doesn't have enough moves to garner a new film and he can only rehash the same moves so many times before we get tired of him.

Next move is to America to ruin Tai Boxing like Chan did for his own career. Teaming up with Chris Tucker on any level will ruin your career unless you're Sam Jackson shoving him in a trunk and killing him. That was Tuckers best role... a corpse.

Legend of Drunken Master is probably the best martial arts film I've ever seen and I have seen many of the top rated ones around the world. Drunken Boxing is probably the most comedic style of martial arts and I would love to see films like that more often.

Nice to see you again too, Kev!

I plan on seeing "Pan's Labyrinth" while it's out now. I've heard a lot of great things about this foreign flick.

A x

Nuovo cinema Paradiso

Is my favorite foreign movie. Here is a couple of plot summaries from IMDB:

A famous film director returns home to a Sicilian village for the first time after almost 30 years. He reminisces about his childhood at the Cinema Paradiso where Alfredo, the projectionist, first brought about his love of films. He is also reminded of his lost teenage love, Elena, who he had to leave before he left for Rome.

Summary written by Graeme Roy

A man receives news from his aging mother in a little town that someone he once knew has passed away. A beautiful story unfolds about the man's childhood friendship with an old man who was the projectionist at the local theater. Their bond was one that contained many highlights and tragedies, and shaped the way for a young boy to grow and move out of his rundown village to pursue a dream.

Summary written by Tam Bui

I loved this film for many reasons you guys should check it out sometime.

--Kotton

They do speak English in it, but half is English, the other half is Korean.

Sean

Quoted from Old Time Wesley Without going on for days about the many films I have seen and loved I will get to my favorite... Immortel (ad vitam) by Enki Bilal. Linda Hardy's performance is great for the role and eventhough it could have been so much better, as is it is still a very good film.

That's been showing on the movie channel lately. Looks great, think i might watch it. Kung Fu Hustle is another favorite of mine. Great directing.

Ringu 0 is probably the best of that series. Amelie was well done, and El Mariachi is admirable knowing what he had to work with. City of God was a little odd, but the characters were created well. Does A Fistful of Dollars count? Some of that film is clearly dubbed (or maybe his audio is out of sync) along with several of Sergio Leone's films.

Quoted from Alex J. Cooper That's been showing on the movie channel lately. Looks great, think i might watch it. Kung Fu Hustle is another favorite of mine. Great directing.

It looks really good which is the reason I watched it.

Stephen Chow is a great physical comedian. In my one review for one of his Romantic Comedies, I said that even though it was subtitled and not in English, his comedy was still funny and you can tell he has comedic timing even if you don't understand the words.

That's why I'm glad I purchased a Region Free DVD player because some of his older comedies have never been released over here. I pay a reasonable amount for foreign films too.

I still have yet to see Azumi 1 and 2, Seven Samurai, the Original Pulse and a few others. They have a four disc set of the two Azumi films plus bonus features. Seven Samurai is a box set as well.

Seven Samurai, Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction.

I found the website below, which seems to have compiled quite a good list of some of the best foreign films out there. It's helpful in case anyone, like me, wants to watch more, but doesn't necessarily know where to begin.

http://www.foreignfilms.com/

A x

Andy!!!! Are alive, kid?! Wow, welcome to the heaven!

I haven't seen a lot of foreign films, but two that come to mind are:

1) Life Is Beautiful -- my absolute favorite film, and...

2) Run Lola Run, which is just a lot of fun.

Seth

My two favourites would be “Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring” and "Amorees Peros"

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring is a Korean movie about a boy who grows up under the guidance of a monk. It follows the boy’s life as he grows physically and more importantly spiritually. There’s not a lot of dialogue, there doesn’t need to be, because it is probably the best visually told story I’ve ever seen.


Amorees Peros. I couldn’t believe it got rolled for Best Foreign Film the year it was nominated. I just loved it. It was epic, well paced and ultra realistic. It also marked the arrival of Gael García Bernal and Alejandro González Iñárritu.    

Life is Beautiful is one of my favorites, as is Amores Perros.  Powerful film.  Ichi the Killer gets bonus points for having all the gore

I think my favorite would have to be '8 and a Half' by Fellini. I like how he shows the pressure of being a successful film maker who is expected to release blockbuster after blockbuster. He wasn't scared to draw from his reall life, and in that sense, I think there is a little Fellini in every story I write.

I'd go with 'City of God' for starters then cos its my favorate film.  'Irreversible' for the brutally shocking opening.  'Casshern' despite the fact I really have no idea whats going on but the visuals are great.  'Come and See' cos it sticks in the memory' and 'Nightwatch' cos...cos I just liked it.  Thats a start but I could go on, I'm a big fan of foreign films.

The Host is a brilliant Korean monster movie. Brilliant only describes a piece of the true beauty this film is.

It is now my new favorite.

Quoted from greg Life is Beautiful is one of my favorites, as is Amores Perros.  Powerful film.  Ichi the Killer gets bonus points for having all the gore

I second Life is Beautiful. What a great movie.

Der Untergang was really good and quite creepy.

Run Lola Run was a lot of fast paced fun. I got a kick out of the three versions of the story. I also remembered the Hayao Miyazaki animated films like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke that were also quite good when I saw them. Der Untergang is on my list, and it looks like it would be really good.

I assume we're taking foreign films to mean non-anglophone films?

In that case I'd go with:

City of God
Nine Queens
Ka�ro
Onskan
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
A Tale of two sisters
Fucking �m�l (Show Me Love in English, but that's such a lame title)
Y tu mama Tambien
Der Untergang
Kundskabens Tr� (Tree of Knowledge)
Festen (The Celebration)
Amores Perros

Probably others I can't think of right now.

Another poster mentioned Battleship Potemkin, but I wouldn't recommend that to anyone unless you're really into film-theory. It's a fascinating study of technique but like "I am Cuba" and Riefenstahl movies it's not exciting in any way.

A good film theory film is Russian Ark. It was filmed all in one 90 minute, uncut shot. Talk about a quick editing process. The film is in Russian and while it occasionally runs a bit slow, it is interesting to watch since it's one long shot.

I've seen a couple foreign flicks in my international masterpieces class that I've taken a great liking to.

The first is entitled "The Saga of Gosta Berling" from 1924 and I don't know if this counts, but Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" which he shot over in Europe before he came over to the U.S., I believe.

I saw Pan's Laberynth, a totally wonderful movie but very sad. I absolutely love Amelie!!!! Not alot other movies I can think of right now, but I'm sure there are more.

I have recently gotten into watching (and buying) a lot of foreign films.  Some of my favorites so far are:

8 1/2 - Fellini
La Dulce Vita - Fellini
Seven Samarai - Kurosawa
Yojimbo - Kurosawa
Cinema Paradiso - Tornatore
Abre Los Ojos - ?
Amelie - ?
Seventh Seal - Bergman
Life is Beautiful - ?
Battleship Potemkin - Eisenstein

That's all I can think of right now off the top of my head.  Surprisingly, the two that I haven't liked were "Rashamon" by Akira Kurosawa and "M" by Fritz Lang (which is weird because I really like Peter Lorre as an actor).

-Pat

The Pusher trilogy would probably my favorite foreign movie...though they're not really foreign where I came from  

I wouldn't call it my "favorite" foreign film but one that comes to mind is a japanese film called "Death Note" that I thought was pretty clever. It stars the same lead guy that was in Battle Royale.