# Best foreign language movies you've watched **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [December 15, 2021, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121 "2021-12-15T21:23:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/41 "2021-12-16T13:55:07Z")
I forgot about Schultze Gets the Blues! Lovely film. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/42 "2021-12-16T13:59:24Z")
I found Babette’s Feast to be eye-rollingly heavy-handed stereotyping. Plus I hate food porn. About as much as I hate gratuitous sex and violence in films. One of those films that ‘everyone’ loves but I really did not. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/43 "2021-12-16T14:06:55Z")
I can’t rank films, and I’ve seen so many foreign language films. But wanted to mention _Les Enfants du Paradis_. Marcel Carne. Although the memory of it is entangled in my memories of living in late 1970’s North Beach in San Francisco with some very strange wonderful people in my early 20’s. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/44 "2021-12-16T14:10:37Z")
> [@Smid](#): > > [Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130827/) - German film in three repeating timeloops of a day in a life a woman running to save her boyfriend. I have actually never seen this. I’m going to add it to my watching queue. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/45 "2021-12-16T14:11:52Z")
> [@Skunkdog](#): > > **Lady Vengeance** the third film in Park Chan-wook’s Revenge Trilogy. It’s a great movie and came up yesterday on my facebook list I made of “movies you missed”. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/46 "2021-12-16T14:14:24Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > Zhang Yimou (China) Oh, you can go wrong with some of his movies. Shadow is terrible in my opinion and Curse of the Golden Flower also was terrible. I would, however, really recommend Hero and House of Flying Daggers. I enjoyed his probably somewhat panned Great Wall movie as well. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/47 "2021-12-16T14:32:28Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I would, however, really recommend Hero and House of Flying Daggers. Both are absolutely beautiful but are not much on story; I think _Hero_ has maybe fifteen minutes of actual plot and lots and lots of gorgeous scenery and actions scenes. ---
**Author:** ![Uniqueorn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uniqueorn/32/2807_2.png) [@Uniqueorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniqueorn)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/48 "2021-12-16T14:41:10Z")
Really enjoyed [The Cup](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0201840/), a Bhutanese (I think) movie about a Buddhist monastery getting caught up in World Cup fever. Another more recent one was [Les Emotifs Anonymes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantics_Anonymous), about social anxiety and chocolate. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/49 "2021-12-16T15:23:58Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > > [@Smid](#): > > > > [Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130827/) - German film in three repeating timeloops of a day in a life a woman running to save her boyfriend. > > I have actually never seen this. I’m going to add it to my watching queue. The director (_Tom Twyker_) directed another film with _[Franke Potente](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franka_Potente)_ (a vastly underrated and underused actress), [**The Princess and the Warrior**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_and_the_Warrior). It is in no any way related to the subject matter or genre of **Lola Rennt** , but the film, and Potente’s performance, will stick with you. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/50 "2021-12-16T15:32:00Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > The director ( _Tom Twyker_ ) directed another film with _[Franke Potente](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franka_Potente)_ (a vastly underrated and underused actress), [**The Princess and the Warrior**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_and_the_Warrior). It is in no any way related to the subject matter or genre of **Lola Rennt** , but the film, and Potente’s performance, will stick with you. Wow, one added to my list, not seen this, and indeed, not much from Twyker entered my radar since RLR. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/51 "2021-12-16T15:43:33Z")
Tykwer, not Twyker. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/52 "2021-12-16T15:49:24Z")
_ **Der Himmel über Berlin** _ (Wings of Desire) - German - Angels as invisible watchers in Wall-era Berlin. With Peter Falk as himself… _ **Dom za vešanje** _ (Time of the Gypsies) - Serbian - Magic realist coming-of-age story about a Romani boy with powers who gets drawn into crime _ **Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen** _ (Even Dwarfs Started Small) - German - A description can’t really do it justice. It’s a much lesser known Herzog movie, but I love it. _ **Angst essen Seele auf** _ (Fear Eats the Soul) - German - Romance between a dowdy old German woman and a Moroccan immigrant _ **Antonia** _ (Antonia’s Line) - Dutch - A woman builds a feminist family of unlikely souls in a rural town ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/53 "2021-12-16T16:10:55Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Tykwer, not Twyker. Oops! 😳 And I was just on his wki page, looking to see if he and Potente had done a third film together. It never occurred to me to actually look closely at his name! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/54 "2021-12-16T16:37:16Z")
Bittersweet. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/55 "2021-12-16T17:28:01Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > The director ( _Tom Twyker_ ) directed another film with _[Franke Potente](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franka_Potente)_ (a vastly underrated and underused actress), [**The Princess and the Warrior**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_and_the_Warrior). It is in no any way related to the subject matter or genre of **Lola Rennt** , but the film, and Potente’s performance, will stick with you. Ah, I actually saw Cloud Atlas. I’ll check them out. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/56 "2021-12-16T17:43:54Z")
A few of my favorites that come to mind: Stalker (Soviet Union, 1979) Amarcord (Italy, 1973) Persona (Sweden, 1966) The Wages of Fear (France, 1953) Last Year at Marienbad (France, 1961) Alphaville (France, 1965) ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/57 "2021-12-16T19:03:44Z")
How could I forget _Jean de Florette_ and _Manon des Sources_? Yes, I love those movies, too. (Anyone who has romantic ideas about the delight of farming for a living should be sat down and made to watch _Jean de Florette_.) Here’s another I forgot: _[I Vitelloni](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046521/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)_, a Fellini film about a group of young middle-class men in a small seaside town who have no direction in life. One of them decides that he doesn’t want to settle for rotting away, and leaves for Rome and a career. It’s based on Fellini’s own life. And “Vitelloni” means veal calves. In Italy at the time, cattle tended to be bred for dairy and cheese, so a lot of calves are born and the males sold off to the butchers for veal, otherwise they’re useless livestock hanging around and draining resources. Fellini compares the aimless young village men to these male veal calves. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/58 "2021-12-16T23:02:28Z")
Recently - [Parasite](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/). Creatively dark, rather gory in parts, but I think it deserved its Oscars Earlier - [How I ended this summer](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588875/). Russian film about two men isolated in an Arctic research station (also rather dark - apparently that’s how I like my foreign language films) ---
**Author:** ![Skunkdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@Skunkdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skunkdog)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/59 "2021-12-16T23:08:13Z")
A few more that came to mind: **City of God** a gritty, brutal, beautiful film set in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. **The Host** a very funny monster movie written and directed by Bong Joon-Ho. **The Memory of a Killer** an elderly hitman dealing with Alzheimer’s. **The Counterfeiters** a group of Jewish concentration camp prisoners forced to counterfeit foreign currency in Nazi Germany. **Headhunters** a businessman supplements his income with art theft. An early role for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. **The Story of the Weeping Camel** Mongolian documentary about two nomadic boys on a quest to help a newborn albino camel. I’m glad someone mentioned Bob Le Flambeur. Never cared for Truffaut but I’ll watch anything by Melville. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121/60 "2021-12-16T23:28:15Z")
**Cinema Paradiso** A love letter to movies. **Il Postino** A nice little movie about a postman who learns to love poetry and woo his sweetheart. Now that I think more on it, it may have some Cyrano in it. I’ll add a vote for **Run Lola Run.** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-movies-youve-watched/956121.md?page=4)