Best Foreign Language film?

*Simone*

I find subtitled movies are usually the best! Perhaps that's because we'd only get the good one's released over here. But one's that stick out in my mind as being excellent are;

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
I've Loved You So Long
Amelie
The Orphanage
The Lives of Others

I mean of course they're all from different countries so it's quite general to say 'foreign language' films, but I just find whenever I see a subtitled movie I'm rarely disappointed! Anyone else find this?

marko91

Battle Royale:)

Holsten

Der Untergang - German.

La Haine - French.

Two off the top of my head.

Green Hornet

Das Boot

The Counterfeiter

Dante

Evil (Ondskan) - Swedish

Saibh

Cinema Paradiso

*Simone*

Another one I just thought of;

The Wave (Die Welle) - German film.

I can't remember if it was based on a true story or just a book, but it was really good. About a teacher's experiment to re-create a Nazi-style dictatorship that went horribly wrong. Really good film.

The Pontiac

Mar adentro http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369702/
Pan's Labyrinth http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457430/
City of God http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317248/
Cinema Paradiso http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095765/
Lust Caution http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808357/

+ most of op's selection

jester77

El laberinto del fauno
Y tu mamá también

c0rk3r

Some relatively new ones

4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile (4months, 3weeks 2days) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1032846/
tropa de elite (elite squad) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0861739/
Waltz with Bashir http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185616/
Okuribito http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1069238/

sillyputty

My faves are:

La Haine
Goodbye Lenin
Amelie
Y Tu Mamá También
City of God
La Vie En Rose
Cache

cbreeze

M. Hulot's Holiday

deadhead13

marko91 wrote: »

Battle Royale:)

That is one messed up movie.:D

*Simone*

deadhead13 wrote: »

That is one mess up movie.:D

I'm intrigued...

Frankie Lee

The only foreign language films I have are City of God and The Motorcycle Diaries.

Max Cohen

City of God (t'was on lastnite)
Apocalypto

ynotdu

the hit:mad: movie the bird cage starring Robin Williams is sh1te compared to its original masterpiece(this is were the excuse my French bit comes in lol)

Le cauge aux falle(somebody with a grasp of french please check and correct spelling:))

I guarantee if you can get hold of this French movie you will piss yourself laughing all the way through:)

Dublin_Andy

has to be Guillermo del Toro s modern classic, Pans Labyrnth

nacho libre

most of the ones mentioned already and these:

M
Ladri di biciclette
Amores Perros
Breathless
Cinema Paradiso
Nikita
Le Samourai
Jean de Florette
Life is Beautiful
Diarios de motocicleta
Eduart
Malèna
Mr 73
Le salaire de la peur

bnt

*Simone* wrote: »

I'm intrigued...

Yep, Battle Royale is one messed-up movie. If you're going to go Japanese, I can also recommend Shichinin no Samurai (Seven Samurai) and most films Kitano Takeshi made, from Hana-Bi to Zatoichi.

994

Is teanga iasachta é an Béarla.

I'll say City of God, the Seventh Seal, Volver, M

Arcee

Run Lola Run (or Lola Rennt) was a great German film from 1998. It's kind of old but is a classic. Probably one of the first foreign language movies I saw. Loved it!

DadaKopf

For me, the best is Caché (Hidden) directed by Michael Haneke. It's simply a modern cinematic masterpiece. His Time of the Wolf is also up there.

While I like Pan's Labryrinth very much, it's not nearly the best 'foreign film' ever made (are foreign films also English-language films when they're watched in foreign contries?).

Other ones up there for me might include: Heimat I (a German TV series but really a very long film); The Battle of Algiers; Dekalog; Fitzcarraldo; Come and See (incredible Russian film about Ukranian partisans in WWII); In the Mood for Love.

I dunno, loads of stuff!

*Simone*

Anyone ever see Gozu? Now THAT is a messed up film. I think it's Japanese or something like that. All I'll say is, there's a very disturbing scene involving a spatula...

humanji

+1 to that. The original is brilliant. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the remake, but the original was just done so much better.

I'm also a huge fan of Delicatessen. It's brilliantly imaginative and incredibly clever, but also a very simple film.

I wouldn't say that I always love foreign language films, but I'd say the odds on them being better are fairly high as the mainstream English lanugage films are usually products of the US movie industry and so are usually formulaic money spinners. And the more independent movies don't get the same publicity, so nobody hears about them.

But the foreign films usually have the backing of their countries film industry, but aren't forced to comply to a set style. So we get some brilliantly creative movies (that the US film industry later rips off ).

purple_hatstand

Almodovar
Haneke (just watched the original 'Funny Games':eek:)
Kieslowski (check out 'Blind Chance')

Been discovering some older european directors as well over the last coupa years and some of the stuff these guys made is just incredible:

Bergman
Truffaut
Godard
Bunuel
Fellini

..........the list is loooooong and IMO, this stuff knocks most of Hollywood's output into touch.

That_Guy

Festen... It's also a brilliant example of a dogme film.

Decuc500

Chunking Express. Wong Kar Wai's masterpiece.

Dublin_Andy

what about that film Samurai Commando?

mle1324

new police story is not a bad forign language film.
only watched it because it was on the sky movies

BroomBurner

humanji wrote: »

I'm also a huge fan of Delicatessen. It's brilliantly imaginative and incredibly clever, but also a very simple film.

Delicatessen is an excellent film.

Other favourites are Jean de Flourette (and Manon des Sources) and Pan's Labrynth.

Gadfly

La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful)

That_Guy

Infernal Affairs
Tale Of Two Sisters
Goodbye Lenin

eagle eye

I have a huge love for Indochine.

Speedy007

Life is Beautiful is one of my favourite films of all time.

City of God is probably my second favourite.

Heinrich

Les bronzés font du ski

artielange

bnt wrote: »

Yep, Battle Royale is one messed-up movie. If you're going to go Japanese, I can also recommend Shichinin no Samurai (Seven Samurai) and most films Kitano Takeshi made, from Hana-Bi to Zatoichi.

+1

artielange

bnt wrote: »

Yep, Battle Royale is one messed-up movie. If you're going to go Japanese, I can also recommend Shichinin no Samurai (Seven Samurai) and most films Kitano Takeshi made, from Hana-Bi to Zatoichi.

+1

snubbleste

eagle eye wrote: »

I have a huge love for Indochine.

Me too!
I enjoy re-watching it from time to time

Others include Festen and the wacky stuff that Pedro Almovadar spouts out

hotspur147

i thought the german film "downfall" about the last days of hitler was brilliant.
special mention for "ong bak" the best martial arts film for ages

greendom

BroomBurner wrote: »

Delicatessen is an excellent film.

Other favourites are Jean de Flourette (and Manon des Sources) .

I was going to quote those 2 classics - most of Almodovar's output is worth watching too.

Valmont

Old Boy is definitely my favourite foreign language film with City of God a distant second. I'm also a fan of anything involving Takeshi Kitano, (e.g. Battle Royale and Zaitoichi)

*Simone*

hotspur147 wrote: »

i thought the german film "downfall" about the last days of hitler was brilliant.

Meh, I thought that movie was a bit predictable

deathstarkiller

I don't know about the best but I just watched a french police thriller called MR 73. Well worth checking out. I also advise not to read up on the plot before watching. It's best to go into this movie just knowing it's a police thriller and leaving it at that. Knowing the plot could ruin it.

nacho libre

deathstarkiller wrote: »

I don't know about the best but I just watched a french police thriller called MR 73. Well worth checking out. I also advise not to read up on the plot before watching. It's best to go into this movie just knowing it's a police thriller and leaving it at that. Knowing the plot could ruin it.

Yes. It's a good film.

Tomohawk

Come and See (Idi i smotri) 1985

Aidric

I thought The Lives of Others was an outstanding movie, as was Amores Perros.

SpitfireIV

*Simone* wrote: »

....whenever I see a subtitled movie I'm rarely disappointed! Anyone else find this?

Ditto! When i see subtitles on a movie I immediately want to watch it, dont know why but I guess I link subtitles with quality!

Well, that was until I seen an Italian movie recently on RTE called 'Heaven', it had Cate Blanchett in it, my god, it was a load of none sense!! Seriously, it had all the makings of a good movie, and could have been great, but christ, it was just too much for me. The only reason I stayed watching it was for the frequent Arvo Part pieces that were played throughout the movie.

Just looking at my meager collection of DVD's here and about three quarters of them are foreign, such as:


French
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Tell No One
La Vie En Rose
La Chambre des Officers
La Haine
Days of Glory
A Very Long Engagement
L'Homme du Train
Brotherhood of the Wolf


German
Das Leben der Anderen
Sophie Scholl
Stalingrad
Das Experiment
The Counterfeiters
Der Untergang
Goodbye, Lenin!
Lola Rennt
Das Boot

Dutch
Black Book

Italian
Cinema Paradiso

Spanish
Mar Adentro

Norweigan
Noi Albinoi


Russian
The Return
Come and See (dont own it but have seen it)
Franz + Polina (again, dont own it, but have seen it)

Chinese
Assembly

If I were forced to pick my top five out of that I'd have to go with Das Leben der Anderen as number one, without a doubht! Its my all time fav movie tus far. The Return is an amazing Russian movie, extremely well made and really gets under your skin (you can see my review for that in the review section). Cinema Paradiso follows in third place, I fecking love that movie, ever since we were first shown it back in secondary school, and the Ennio Moricone soundtrack........ah, doesnt get better! Fourth would have to be La Chambre des Officers (the officers ward), just a lovely movie and features some Arvo Part pieces. Fifth goes to Der Untergang, utterly riveting movie and I believe pretty historically correct, it really draws you in and gives you all the details.

Just to add, all the movies above I found great and would recommend, there are none of them that I'd be parting with or regret buying!

Many, many great films mentioned but I'll just add a coupla oldies I love:

Belle de jour
A nous la liberté
La grande illusion
La belle et la bête

And a personal favourite:

Le mari de la coiffeuse

Tomohawk

Tomohawk wrote: »

Come and See (Idi i smotri) 1985

My husband tells me this film is fantastic and I really want to see it ... just a question of getting in the right mood