Good foreign films?

Lillylilly

Hey,

My boyfriend is mad for foreign films- Curse of the Golden Flower, Apocalypto, La Heine etc.....
I want to get him a few as a present but have no idea where to start, can any of you help??

Ta,

L

Otis Driftwood

The Pusher Trilogy is awesome.

c - 13

I bought Carandiru on a whim and thought it was very good. Brazilian film.

Porkpie

City of God is supposed to be superb. Gritty Brazilian film about life in the slums. Must get around to renting it out some time myself...

I liked Betty Blue. It's one of those tragic romance type French films. Very erotic too so it should get you both in the mood

L31mr0d

You might try

Shinobi

Cheung Gong 7 hou

Huo Yuan Jia

Gwoemul

Un long dimanche de fiançailles

[rec]

I've watched all of the above and would recommend them all

Pigman II

I saw 'Burn After reading' over the weekend there. It wasn't great but it was pretty good.

Auvers

Delicatessen classic French black comedy

C'est arrivé près de chez vous (Man Bits Dog) more fantastic black comedy

Dîner de cons, Le (The Dinner Game) extremely funny with Jacques Villeret stealing the show

Oldboy needs no introduction

Battle Royale

Cyrano de Bergerac Gérard Depardieu on top form

Jean de Florette

Manon des sources

Beruthiel

Porkpie wrote: »

City of God is supposed to be superb.

It's a must see film.

La Chèvre
One of my favourite comedys.

Dobermann

Vincent Cassel and Tchéky Karyo are fantastic in this crime movie.
The very hot Monica Bellucci also stars.

Running Bing

Lots of great films been mentioned so far but tbh judging by the films you mention in the opening post the three you should get are:

The Pusher trilogy

City of God

Oldboy



Not only are they brilliant films by anybodies standards they are genuinely interesting, entertaining and accessible. I would say if he hasnt seen them yet you have to get those films.

faceman

What kind of genres does your bf like? Foreign film isnt a genre in itself!

c - 13

Babybing wrote: »

Lots of great films been mentioned so far but tbh judging by the films you mention in the opening post the three you should get are:

The Pusher trilogy

City of God

Oldboy



Not only are they brilliant films by anybodies standards they are genuinely interesting, entertaining and accessible. I would say if he hasnt seen them yet you have to get those films.

If your going to get him old boy maybe get him the entire vengeance trilogy. Theres a version of it that comes in an excellent gift box/collectors package (shop around for best price) - example

Running Bing

c - 13 wrote: »

If your going to get him old boy maybe get him the entire vengeance trilogy. Theres a version of it that comes in an excellent gift box/collectors package (shop around for best price) - example

Good point because your gonna want to see the other two after Oldboy:D

ednwireland

nikita

hollywood remade with bridget fonda and its terrible
the original in french is cracking long time since i've seen it pretty violent as well.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100263/

MagicMarker

The Fall
City of God
The Orphanage
[Rec]
Ong Bak
Oldboy

todolist

Cinema paradiso is a classic Italian film.Three colours blue is well work a look too.

JanusGeminius

36: Quai Des Orfevres
The Edge of Heaven
The Edukators
Sohpie Scholl
Taxi 1,2,3
City of God
The Lives of others
Romanzo Criminale
Eden Log
Chrysalis
9th company
NightWatch/Daywatch
Crimson gold
Kontroll

Or Just go to the cinema and see Der Baader-Meinhof Complex.

Dont be at yourself

Pan's Labyrinth - not only a great foreign film, but possibly the greatest film of the last ten years, period.

BlackMamba

Definitely Pan's Labyrinth and Cinema Paradiso. Both top class films!:D

zander74

Run Lola Run
Tell no one
Let the right one in

Otis Driftwood

The Elite Squad is stunning too.

spurious

The Lives of Others

Dancor

The Host

Bubs101

Wild Wild West, American Film at its best

bnt

I can recommend some of Takeshi Kitano's work, especially Sonatine, hana-bi (my fave), and Zatoichi. If French Drama is more your taste, try Kieslowski's Three Colours trilogy too.

Lillylilly

Excellent, thanks for all your help!
The Vengeance Trilogy has been recommended to me before so I'll definitly get that, and I know he already has City of God, as well as fifty others :S
He doesn't prefer any particular genre, which makes it harder to choose- he watches westerns, documentaries, war films, romantics, asian history etc. He also watches moderns like Juno and This is England! But he just generally avoids mainstream cinema, so I don't know where to start!
My attention span doesn't cater for films so I rarely get involved!!!

Thanks again for all your posts

faceman

Lillylilly wrote: »

Excellent, thanks for all your help!
The Vengeance Trilogy has been recommended to me before so I'll definitly get that, and I know he already has City of God, as well as fifty others :S
He doesn't prefer any particular genre, which makes it harder to choose- he watches westerns, documentaries, war films, romantics, asian history etc. He also watches moderns like Juno and This is England! But he just generally avoids mainstream cinema, so I don't know where to start!
My attention span doesn't cater for films so I rarely get involved!!!

Thanks again for all your posts

If he likes most genres, then there are some excellent recommendations on the thread.

It hasnt been mentioned on the thread so Im going to suggest "Kung Fu Hustle". Alot of fun!

Id also recommend Amelie and the Lives of Others.

Karl Hungus

Arriving late to this thread, but I'll throw some support behind:

Hana-bi
The Lives of Others
Tell No One

Haven't seen these recommended:

A Bittersweet Life
Twilight Samurai
Paprika
The Man of the Year

RichTea

Absolut Giganten

kraggy

Amélie
The Lives of Others
Downfall
Run Lola Run
A Very Long Engagement
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Amores Perros
The Barbarian Invasions
Life is Beautiful
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
The Death of Mr Lazarescu
Tell no one
Irreversible
Priceless (Hors de Prix)

Dob74

Lillylilly wrote: »

Hey,

My boyfriend is mad for foreign films- Curse of the Golden Flower, Apocalypto, La Heine etc.....
I want to get him a few as a present but have no idea where to start, can any of you help??

Ta,

L

Black Book- Dutch film set in WW2. ****

City of God-- A Brazilian Guy Richie style flick ***

Downfall

---

WW2, in German last days of AH. ****

All are good lads films. :):)

johnny_ultimate

kraggy wrote: »

Amélie
The Lives of Others
Downfall
Run Lola Run
A Very Long Engagement
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Amores Perros
The Barbarian Invasions
Life is Beautiful
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
The Death of Mr Lazarescu
Tell no one
Irreversible
Priceless (Hors de Prix)

This! Maybe not Priceless (OK, but not really my kind of film), but most of that list is excellent.

Couple more recent standouts: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Persepolis. But I think you have more than enough to go with in the rest of the thread!

Backtothefuture

i watched the orphanage and rec the other night, both really good movies if yer into horrory/weird type movies!

Or, just get a few english films and stick on the subtitles - haha

atilladehun

Some great movies here I've seen and lots more I'll try to get my hands on soon.

I've a question though. How do you find out about these movies?

I try to keep an eye on the ifi, screen and the big cinema on parnell street.

I also try to keep an eye out for the film festivals and what popular. Although I find this a bit of a problem, the reviews are all sales pitches usually.

Finally I have a couple of movie books to leaf through and tey to pick up things from that.

I'd like a good online source though, possibly something that highlights new european or even world movies. A classic movie discussion too would be great. An email - website - podcast would be cool.

Does anyone use and recommend anything?

Karl Hungus

atilladehun wrote: »

Does anyone use and recommend anything?

http://twitchfilm.net/site/

I could name a whole load more, but specifically, this one would be the best.

Mary28

Black Cat, White Cat
The Colour of Paradise
The Apple (Sib)
Amores Perros

Hande hoche!

Goodbye Lenin

R point

9th company

Xavi6

Wolf Creek

Scared the shite outta me.

Hrududu

Grave of the Fireflies.

Nichololas

German:
The Lives of Others
The Counterfeiters
Goodbye, Lenin!
Downfall


French:
Amelie
The City of Lost Children
Heartbeat Detector


Spanish:
Rec
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Volver

Chinese:
Infernal Affairs I & II (III can be skipped, unless you really want to know how it ends)

Dr. Dodger

I've seen City of God being mentioned a good few times and rightly so, it's an amazing film. If your boyfriend liked that you might want to consider buying him City of Men. This was a television series made after City of God. Along the same lines and definitely worth checking out.

Also Amelie as others have mentioned too is brilliant. Brotherhood of the Wolf is another worth checking out!

Edit: Also it is in dubbed in English but Spirited Away has got to be one of the best 'foreign' features ever! It's so good, I wish it had come out when I was a kid ...

atilladehun

Karl Hungus wrote: »

http://twitchfilm.net/site/

I could name a whole load more, but specifically, this one would be the best.

Cheers

speedboatchase

Y Tu Mama Tambien
Spirited Away
The Lives of Others

the flananator

Suprised no one's mentioned El Mariachi or The Killer.

floydmoon1

Paris Je Taime - You should like this one aswell.Bit of a romatic one but I thought it was the good stuff.

The Counterfiters

City Of God

Ameros Perros

gaf1983

No Man's Land

Plenty of black comedy in this film about enemy soldiers stuck in the same dangerous situation during the war in Bosnia.

Of the other films mentioned, I really enjoyed La Haine, City of God and Goodbye, Lenin! Run Lola Run and The Barbarian Invasions were very entertaining too. Thought the battle scenes in A Very Long Engagement did a good job in really showing the horror of the First World War.

I recently enjoyed Persepolis (Iranian/French) which can be watched with English dubbing.

ghouldaddy07

Highly recomend Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War.

One of the best war films I have ever had the privlage of viewing.

Serenity Now!

'Waltz with Bashir' and 'Gomorrah' are two of the best films around, never mind so-called Foreign Films.

spurious

Idi i smotri (Come and See) - a Russian film about a boy caught up in WWII.
Harrowing stuff. Unforgettable.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091251/

Ed D.

My Life as a Dog
Monsieur Hire
The Vanishing
The Seven Samurai
Cinema Paradiso
Cyrano de Bergerac

Kess73

The Seven Samurai
Yojimbo
Sanjuro
Brotherhood Of The Wolf
Man bites dog
Zatoichi (original version plus the remake)
The Seventh Seal

Scoobydoobydoo

Amelie (France)
Pan's Labyrinth (Spain)
Das Boot (Germany)
l'Apartment (France)
Like Water for Chocolate (Mexico)
Delicatessan (France)
Cinema Paradiso (Italy)
All About My Mother (Spain)
Goodbye Lenin! (Germany)
Three Colours: Blue (France)