5) Hamam: The Turkish Bath (Steam) A joint Italian / Turkish production. Strange blend of sadness, beauty & eroticism as it follows the life changing events of a man leaving his upper middle class existence in Milan to sell an inherited Hamam in Istanbul. 4) Funny Games
*German / Austrian. There’s an identical American clone being released in a few months. There’s nothing ‘funny’ about this film. Without a doubt, it’s the most disturbing piece of work I’ve ever seen. The first time I saw it, I came away feeling unpredictably rancid. Its sadism forces the viewer to re-assess their own judgment, fears and optimism. * 3) Nueve Reinas (Nine Queens)
*Argentinian. If you like a great con, this film’s plot is as good or better than The Sting * 2) Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run) German. I think this is the first R-Rated film I allowed (and encouraged) my 10 & 12 year olds to watch. Take it from someone who’s never strapped a watch on their wrist in their entire lives: this is just a great story. Think a multiple choice, less surreal version of An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge.
**1) Central do Brasil (Central Station)
***Brazilian. A film that truly captures the goodness, decency and humanity I pray we all have inside of us. The kind of film that forces us all to look inside ourselves.
*
It is a story of passion, obsession, a titanic battle of wills, and of all things, lawyering in turn of the century Netherlands. The story is told via the protagonist’s flashbacks, and I get the shivers just thinking about it. I have seen it several times, and it never gets old.
Great recommendations! Thanks everyone. Quite a few of these films are probably not suitable for my daughter, particularly the violent ones, but I’ve got a very good start here for me.
On the list so far (in no particular order):
Cinema Paridiso
Valentin
Pan’s Labyrinth
Life is Beautiful
Hero
House of the Flying Daggers
Run Lola Run
My Life as a Dog
Man Bites Dog (I have hesitation on this one)
Betty Blue
Karakter
Hamam
Black Orpheus
French Twist
Central Station
The Red Violin
A Very Long Engagement
Come and See
Girl on the Bridge
…
I’m still reviewing the recommendations, so keep them coming!
I second Cinema Paradiso and Y Tu Mama Tambien (perhaps not for your daughter though).
Also, Mama, There’s a Man in your Bed (originally known as Romuald et Juliette). May be a slight bit sophisticated, but it’s a fun movie, it’s racy title notwithstanding.
If your looking for some light relief after all the angst ridden melodramas, you could do a lot worse than Les Visiteurs, which is very, very silly and very very funny at the same time. If you want the comedy, but can’t take too many subtitles, there’s always the films of Jacques Tati, my favourite being Mon Oncle.
I’ve been looking through Netflix to find some movies to add to my queue that were good enough that I want to rent them again, and I came across these:
Ballada o soldate (Ballad of a Soldier) - A Soviet film from 1959, this is a war movie without much war to speak of. It’s about a soldier trying to get leave to go home and fix his mother’s roof and the people he meets along the way.
Trois Couleurs: Bleu, Trois Couleurs: Blanc, et Trois Couleurs: Rouge (Three Colors: Blue, White, and Red) - A marvelous trilogy about life in France. Check IMDB for a better description that I can manage, as it’s been a while since I’ve seen these.
War and Peace - The Soviets could make incredible things happen with sheer manpower. This film had 120,000 extras! Only recommended if you’re patient, though; it’s seven hours long.
Maria Full of Grace - A Colombian girl tries a stint as a drug mule. For whatever reason, the description didn’t make me expect a movie this good; I was pleasantly surprised.
Bacheha-Ye aseman (Children of Heaven) - A very sweet film about a little Iranian boy, his sister, and a pair of shoes.
Osama - An Afghan girl tries to pass as a boy in this grim portrait of Taliban-era Afghanistan. This was the first movie shot in the country after the fall of the Taliban. (According to IMDB, if you enjoy this film, you may also enjoy “Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead.” Oooooookay. :rolleyes: )
Three Seasons - An American in modern-day Vietnam tries to find a daughter he fathered during the war. The stark contrast of gritty Ho Chi Minh City and the beautiful countryside is amazing.
A word of caution. Pan’s Labyrinth may be my top choice for movie of the decade, and certainly the best effort ever to put magic realism on the big screen. It’s quite emotional for me, since I used to know people who faught on the losing side in the Spanish civil war.
But it’s also a movie that’s extremely brutal and very graphic in its violent parts, not for the sake of gore and splatter, but shown to… well, I’m getting into spoiler territory here, so I’ll leave it at that. Just don’t let your daughter watch it.
An aside, and it’s not meant to be snarky, even if I have a feeling it will seem like that.
I understand what you mean by ‘foreign films’, a bit art house, somewhat challeging, not resembling the Hollywood standard. To us ‘foreigners’ it seems like all we do is watch Fellini and Bergman, hang around cafés and talk about Proust, Sartre and plan our next Absinthe binge, while wearing berets, and thinking about buying a Picasso print.
In real life, foreign movies include romcoms, splatter, cop movies, buddy movies, crime stories, war movies. I’m sure you know this, but it comes off as a bit condescending when the whole movie industry outside the U.S. is reduced to the five artsy-fartsy movies the Academy choose to highlight once a year.
Probably not suitable for a young child, but a great war movie is Nobi from Japan. It follows a Japanese soldier in the Phillipines in the final days of WWII. Extremely bleak, but very powerful.
Charlie Tan, I didn’t take your comments as snark at all. I know what you mean. I do enjoy a variety of films, but I look for films that are not so formulaic as many American blockbusters. Amelie appeals to my imaginative, whimsical tastes. A good example is the scene in the diner when she melts into a puddle of water.
Run Lola Run looks appealing because the story is told in a non-linear style. Historical pieces, even fictional accounts set in historical periods or situations, send me far away from my usual, ho-hum existence. The point is foreign films need not be artsy-fartsy to appeal to me, though I do enjoy artsy-fartsy sometimes.
My view is that film is art and works when it’s treated as such by the filmmakers. I don’t care much for movies that are made for the sole purpose of making money, i.e. unnecessary (and usually bad) sequels, teen drinking/sophmoric humor movies, and same-old-horror flicks. I’m sure there’s a share of foreign movies that also fall into those traps as well, but they are probably harder to find in the US as they wouldn’t make it this far.
I’m not sure I’ve expressed myself well. Hopefully, you know what I’m getting at.
Oh, and thank you for the warning about Pan’s Labyrinth. I’ll be sure to watch it after daughter goes to bed. Not all the films on my list do I intend to watch with her, but hopefully I can find a few others to share with her something I enjoy doing.
This is very true. I could recommend/not recommend a couple hundred “foreign” romantic comedies, gangster flicks, heist flicks, horror, teen, melodrama, kung fu, and just plain stupid fluff. But the OP is so broad one does not really know where to begin.
There’s a TON of “foreign” movies that will never come within range of the Academy, never hit U.S. theaters, and, truthfully, never be more than just a Saturday afternoon popcorn diversion. And there are those that maybe 1 U.S. person in 1000 will have come across that are absolute gems.
Speaking of gems, here’s one for you:
Comrades, Almost a Love Story (scroll down on the link for my review). Your kid probably won’t get anything out of it, but if you want a tremendously moving film, give it a try.
Sorry, I know my OP was all over the place, but I think you got it, anyway. I was hoping to get recommendations of films that people considered “gems,” just like what you gave me. I’m on a very limited entertainment budget, so I’d like to spend it renting good movies, not ones that make me sigh with disappointment. Genres may be varied, however; as I’ve mentioned, I have a wide variety of tastes.
Why foreign films? Probably just to expand my horizons a bit. It’s plainly obvious that the US has not cornered the market on decent filmmaking.
ETA: Yes, English language foreign films can be included. I saw Priscilla and thought it was hilarious! Well done, Aussies!
No need to apologize at all. I do know where you are coming from. It’s taking all my willpower not to take over the thread with 50 recommendations. I love talking movies and making recommendations (either for or against) – especially Hong Kong and Korean cinema (and, to a slightly lesser extent, Japanese).
Once you watch a few and get an interest in any particular direction, I’ll make a few more suggestions.
Here’s a hip, quirky, gangster/heist film that’s a lot of fun. Not kid-friendly, though.
“The Lives of Others” (one of my favorites)
“Joyeux Noel”
“The Sea inside” - for those Javier Bardem fans. The man was freakin’ robbed of an academy award.
“Les invasions Barbares” (this one isn’t foreign for me, it’s Canadian, but it does have subtitles. “Jesus of Montreal” is also pretty decent)
“Y tu mamá también” (for those Alfonso Cuaron fans)
“Amores Perros” (from the guy who directed Babel and 21 Grams)
“Volver” (Penelope Cruz is smokin’ hot in this one, also a damn fine actress)
Okay. First, thanks for the link to that awesome website! I registered and that’s where my list is going to go. I’ll have to spend some time updating what I’ve seen and own, but I added you as a friend because I can already see that your reviews are going to be very helpful! It’s pretty obvious who’s a film junky, here.
Secondly, I’m bookmarking this so I can come back to it over time, because I can’t possibly watch all these movies at once, so I welcome as many recommendations as you can manage. But really, I’m looking initially for the cream of the crop. If you were stranded on a desert island with a DVD player and five foreign films, what would they be? Remember, you’ll have to watch them over and over again, because, well, stranded could entail a lengthy stay. So, they should be your favorites.
