Foreign Films

danslevent

Lately, I have really gotten into my foreign films. I love the sound of a different language and subtitles don't really bother, plus you can learn about another culture in a passive/fun way.

My favourite German film is; Goodbye Lenin directed by Wolfgang Becker. It is such an interesting insight into the divide in Berlin and the eventual liberation. Really loved it, one of the most unique films I have seen.

The French film I really enjoyed was ' A very long engagement", but anything with Audrey Tautou is good! Of course, I loved Amelie and the Coco Chanel drama biography.

Over the weekend I am going to watch Bicycling with Moliere. Hope it is good

So fellow film fanatics, which foreign film has tickled your fancy?

Kobe

Some of my favourite are "a separation" (Iranian), "a beautiful life" (Italian), "love letter" (Japanese), "internal affair" (Hong Kong), and much more.

danslevent

I didn't find 'a beautiful life' that great, maybe because it is so atmospheric and picturesque rather than story line based. I watched it when I was super tired and a tiny bit tipsy though so I am willing to give it another chance! It is a favourite movie of a friend of mine.

daUbiq

danslevent wrote: »

I didn't find 'a beautiful life' that great, maybe because it is so atmospheric and picturesque rather than story line based. I watched it when I was super tired and a tiny bit tipsy though so I am willing to give it another chance! It is a favourite movie of a friend of mine.

Really, rather than story based? It's essentially a tragic comedy - lots of story in it.

danslevent

daUbiq wrote: »

Really, rather than story based? It's essentially a tragic comedy - lots of story in it.

Heh! Oops! I was thinking of this for some reason

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2358891/

e_e

danslevent wrote: »

So fellow film fanatics, which foreign film has tickled your fancy?

Such a big question. Even if I list 5 films by country I'd feel I wasn't even scratching the surface.

What type of films do you like and from what region have you enjoyed films before?

pheasant tail

Netflix is excellent for foreign films. Id really recommend films such as the secret in their eyes, Downfall, Four months three weeks and two days. There's soo many!!

Roquentin

winter light by bergman

hfallada

German Films are really good. Die Welle, Das leben der Andern, Das Boot, Auf der andern Seit(on the Other side) are all really good. German films need to say, what an English speaking film is too cautious to say and they are far more raw.

Roquentin

hundreds of foreign films to choose from

french, italian, asian. check out the killer by john woo

Goldstein

English speaking fims are "foreign" to the majority of the world so we're the real foreigners. World cinema is unimaginably vast, delightfully diverse and unfettered by preconceived committee produced waffle. Dive in, anything recommended by English speaking audiences will be in most cases vastly more interesting and stimulating than the majority of what the average english speaking cinema goer / movie renter is exposed to.

11 wide ranging ones off the top of my head to start you off:
The Lives of Others
La Haine
Timecrimes
Let the Right One In
Caché
Un prophète
Trollhunter
13 Tzameti
I Saw the Devil
Intacto
Storm

The Strawman Argument

Yep, bunching everything in together as foreign is a bit of a bad way to approach it. A film can be in another language and be otherwise highly similar to releases from the US. Perhaps try out a few things from a few different areas, lots of countries have tendencies toward different genres and approaches, that way you can find a sort of entry point through the most immediately appealing aesthetics. There'd be no real need to dive into the outright classics either (e.g. for Japan I'd probably recommend Koreeda to someone before Ozu, that kind of thing. Liking Koreeda could then lead itself naturally toward Ozu, that kind of thing.).


I'd say the ones you've listed there are ones with a fairly high level of appeal to western(western? English-speaking, anyways) audiences. So I'm gonna list a few that are generally fairly popular, I think some of them are great and others I'm not so keen on (*cough*LifeIsBeautiful*cough*) but sure it'd be worth checking the names to see which tickle your fancy cos they're all pretty easy watches imo:
Cinema Paradiso - Italy - 1989 (you've probably already seen this one? If not, check out the shorter version)
Let the Right One In - Sweden - 2008
Life is Beautiful - Italy - 1997
La Haine - France - 1995
Pan's Labyrinth - Spain - 2006
City of God - Brazil - 2002
Das Boot - Germany - 1985
Y Tu Mama Tambien - Mexico - 2001
Jean De Florette - France - 1985
Hero - China (I think?) - 2003
Wings of Desire - Germany - 1989
The Killer - Hong Kong - 1989
In the Mood for Love - Hong Kong - 2000
Volver - Spain - 2006
A Separation - Iran - 2010
Downfall - Germany - 2004
Oldboy - South Korea - 2003
The Lives of Others - Germany - 2006


I added the years and countries afterwards there, would be stunned if they're all correct, but the should be in the general vicinity of correct

Miss Lizzie Jones

danslevent wrote: »

The French film I really enjoyed was ' A very long engagement", but anything with Audrey Tautou is good! Of course, I loved Amelie and the Coco Chanel drama biography.

So fellow film fanatics, which foreign film has tickled your fancy?

My favourite is Amelie.

danslevent

The Strawman Argument wrote: »

Yep, bunching everything in together as foreign is a bit of a bad way to approach it. A film can be in another language and be otherwise highly similar to releases from the US. Perhaps try out a few things from a few different areas, lots of countries have tendencies toward different genres and approaches, that way you can find a sort of entry point through the most immediately appealing aesthetics. There'd be no real need to dive into the outright classics either (e.g. for Japan I'd probably recommend Koreeda to someone before Ozu, that kind of thing. Liking Koreeda could then lead itself naturally toward Ozu, that kind of thing.).


I'd say the ones you've listed there are ones with a fairly high level of appeal to western(western? English-speaking, anyways) audiences. So I'm gonna list a few that are generally fairly popular, I think some of them are great and others I'm not so keen on (*cough*LifeIsBeautiful*cough*) but sure it'd be worth checking the names to see which tickle your fancy cos they're all pretty easy watches imo:
Cinema Paradiso - Italy - 1989 (you've probably already seen this one? If not, check out the shorter version)
Let the Right One In - Sweden - 2008
Life is Beautiful - Italy - 1997
La Haine - France - 1995
Pan's Labyrinth - Spain - 2006
City of God - Brazil - 2002
Das Boot - Germany - 1985
Y Tu Mama Tambien - Mexico - 2001
Jean De Florette - France - 1985
Hero - China (I think?) - 2003
Wings of Desire - Germany - 1989
The Killer - Hong Kong - 1989
In the Mood for Love - Hong Kong - 2000
Volver - Spain - 2006
A Separation - Iran - 2010
Downfall - Germany - 2004
Oldboy - South Korea - 2003
The Lives of Others - Germany - 2006


I added the years and countries afterwards there, would be stunned if they're all correct, but the should be in the general vicinity of correct

Thank you!

Yeah, I felt a little ignorant writing an umbrella term of "foreign films' (don't you automatically hear foreign in a thick Irish accent, foredn) since they're all different genres, just holding true to only one aspect; not being in English.

Will definitely check a lot of these out, busy weekend ahead :P