Recommend some foreign movies and TV series - with caveats

Cafe Society
,
1

I’m interested in watching movies and TV from other cultures, and would like some recommendations. Here’s the two guidelines.

  1. Anything goes as far as genre. Drama, comedy, mystery, horror, action, it’s all up for consideration.

  2. A few countries are out of the running from the start. United States (since I’m an American), Canada, Mexico, Japan, UK, Australia, and New Zealand (because from a TV and movie standpoint they don’t really feel foreign enough). Any other place is up for consideration.

I’d prefer more recent stuff, but feel free to recommend some good classics as well.

Ok. There’s a third guideline as well, mostly for practical purposes.

  1. It should be available on one of the major streaming sites.
2

Borgen is on Netflix.

It’s a compelling and entertaining series about a female prime minister in Denmark.

3

At least the first season is on YouTube.

4

The Internet Archive.

5

Two recommendations:

  1. Kleo
    https://www.netflix.com/title/81216677

Think The Count of Monte Cristo, except the protagonist is an East German assassin betrayed by her superiors, and it happens mostly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It’s smart, bloody, stylish, and very funny.

  1. Lupin
    https://www.netflix.com/title/80994082

Think The Count of Monte Cristo, except the protagonist is a master thief whose father was betrayed and murdered, and he’s now out for revenge. It’s much less bloody, and okay, it’s not so much Monte Cristo except for the “revenge” part, but it’s a tremendously fun show organized around a series of heists and cons and narrow escapes.

6

I’ll second Kleo. It’s very German. There will likely be many points at which you have no idea what’s happening or why, and it’s not always eventually explained.

Bigbug: on Netflix. Movie from the same director as Delicatessen and City of Lost Children. Not as good as either of those movies, but still has that quirky style of his.

A couple of Korean shows on Netflix:

Squid Game: I’m certain you’ve heard of this. Also very Korean. It’s got that exaggerated Korean over-acting style that I find mildly annoying, but it’s still worth watching.

Physical 100: kind of the reality-TV version of Squid Game. A physical challenge show featuring Korean celebrities. Probably more interesting if you actually know who these people are, but not necessary to enjoy the show. There are a lot of “getting to know the contestants” segments that can be fast-forwarded. The first episode is almost entirely just everyone walking into a room and meeting, for example.

7

I liked the German Dark on Netflix. It’s a sci-fi show. The first two seasons are great. The third season wraps up the story, but is not nearly as strong.

The creators of Dark followed it with 1899, also on Netflix. It is not nearly as clever or interesting.

8

Huh. I don’t remember that happening, although I agree that it’s super German. It may be that, as I mostly watched it while folding laundry, I didn’t pay enough attention to get confused.

City of Lost Children is one of my all-time favorite movies. Bigbug left me pretty flat–it was didactic, and unsubtle and derivative in a way that CoLC wasn’t.

9

What I came in to recommend. Lots of political intrigue. The lead speaks several languages fluently.

A Czech film called The Painted Bird. A gripping and brutal story about a young boy trying to make his way across Eastern Europe during war time. For a synopsis, see the Wiki entry.

10

It’s been a while since I watched it, so I don’t remember anything specific that was like that, but I just remember having that feeling while watching it.

11

I just enjoyed the series Drops of God on Apple TV+. It’s in English, Japanese and French. You never know which language some of the characters will use at any given time. A silly and convoluted premise, but still sweet and well acted.

12

French films worth checking out, imo. Not positive all of these are available on major streaming sites, but most should be:

La Tête d’un Homme (1933) - Inspector Maigret matches wits with a psycho.

Pépé le Moko (1937) – Trapped – but free - in the Casbah, crook Jean Gabin dreams of the ocean while falling for a pretty girl.

Un Carnet de Bal (1937) – A widow checks the haps of her dance partners (played by an all-star French cast) from an event held long-ago.

Hôtel du Nord (1938) – Romance and intrigue surround hotel guests.

Le Main du Diable (1943) – A cursed talisman changes hands.

Panique (1946) – Unsavory types involved in a murder and its aftermath.

Wages of Fear (1953) – Classic trucks-with-nitro-over-bumpy-roads drama.

Diabolique (1955) – Classic suspense, murder and twists.

Bob le Flambeur (1956) – Gambler Bob gambles on a heist.

Any Number Can Win (1963) – Jean Gabin and Alain Delon team up and against one another in the course of a casino heist.

Up to His Ears (1965) – Rich, but bored playboy Jean-Paul Belmondo hires a hitman to kill him, then meets Ursula Andress and changes his mind. Based on a Jules Verne story.

The Battle of Algiers (1966) – Classic army vs. guerillas.

Le Magnifique (1973) – James Bond spoof with Belmondo and Jacqueline Bisset.

Coup de Torchon (1981) – Meek cop turns brutal. Based on a Jim Thompson novel, so don’t expect sympathetic characters.

One Deadly Summer (1983) – Isabelle Adjani’s disturbed behavior masks an elaborate revenge plan.

Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) - Beast murders in an 18th century French town prompt an investigation led by the King’s Naturalist and his kung fu-fighting Native American pal.

Micmacs (2009) – From IMDB: “A man and his friends come up with an intricate and original plan to destroy two big weapons manufacturers.” Lesser Jeunet, but still entertaining.

Japanese movies don’t feel “foreign enough?” This is not my experience at all.

13

From South Korea: “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”. About an autistic lawyer.

14

The Head of Joaquin Murrieta (2023 Amazon Prime) may seem out of consideration because the characters are Mexican and American (and Chinese and Native American) but it’s very much a product of South America and specifically Colombia. (It’s the same team responsible for Narcos) . It’s the kind of morally ambiguous but empathetic characterizations that are culturally jarring to an American viewer (even one familiar with Spaghetti Westerns) but also a lot of fun. I’m surprised how little attention this series has gotten; it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page.

15

I should really take another swing at that. I watched the first five or so episodes and really enjoyed them, but then made the mistake of stepping away for a few weeks. When I came back to it, it was hard to figure out/remember the timeline pieces, as you could imagine.

16

Troll Hunter

17

Call my agent (Netflix, original Dix Pour Cent): a French series about a casting agent bureau. Funny, gives an exaggerated peek in the workings of the film industry. Every episode circles around one or more actual movie stars (exaggerated, again) who are played by themselves in cameo. Most are French, but some Americans show up as well. Note: it is French, so there are some digs at American stereotypes.

18

Watch Kleo to get yourself warmed up for the great trilogy of East-West German espionage TV. Check out:

Deutschland 83 (just called Deutschland on release)

Deutschland 86

Deutschland 89

Great fun, and tense action, and closely plotted to weave around real Cold War events - and could stand up very well as a documentary on East German office furniture if you turned the volume down.

19

This has been remade a couple of times (in India and the UK, that I know about) but frankly the French version is the best from what I’ve seen of the others.

Random comment: Thibault de Montalembert looks, sounds and acts a lot like Roger Allam, so naturally when they cast the British version they went for… Jack Davenport? Yes, that makes sense… (Fun fact: Montalembert also does a lot of French dubs for Hugh Grant roles.)

I will add:

Au Service de la France/A Very Secret Service, a dramedy about a French spy agency in 1960/61. Lots of gags about Francophone Africa, the Cold War and Eastern bloc, and (in season 2) Quebec. I watched it on (UK) Netflix a while ago; not sure if it is still available.

And is Servant of the People still on (US) Netflix? I managed to watch most of S1 last time I was stateside and it’s very funny, although recent events have added a certain tinge to watching Zelenskyy playing president.

ETA: On the foreign film side - you’ve seen RRR, right? It’s freaking insane.

20

I’m gonna break the second rule, but I think there’s a good reason, and it’s arguably not breaking the rule: Reservation Dogs. Depending on how you count things, it’s either set in the United States or in the Muskogee Nation, in Oklahoma. But as a suburban White American, I definitely found it to be a show from another culture.