At Christmas I got a copy of A Prophet (Un Prophete), a French prison movie, which I heartily recommend to everybody. I watched it twice and I’ve only ever watched the first two Godfathers twice, it’s that good. I since acquired a bunch of French/foreign movies, some of which are outstanding.
Deaath Instinct/Public Enemy Number One are two French gangster movies based on the life of celebrity criminal Jacques Mesrine. Another two films you have to see. The actor playing the main character is unbelievably good.
City of God, a Brazilian drugs/crime movie. Another unbelievably good film. Won an Oscar.
Banlieue 13 and Banlieue 13 : Ultimatum. A bit Hollywoodish but good action movies.
The Intouchables. Amazing movie about a Senegalese immigrant looking after a wealthy invalid. I think this won an Oscar too. It won the French version.
Die Falscher. German movie about Jewish counterfeiters making British pounds and US dollars during WW2 in a concentration camp. Stunning movie.
The Baader Meinhoff complex. German movie about the Red bArmy Faction, peace be upon them.
The Crimson Rivers. Great French thriller.
The Lives of Others. Another stunnign Oscar winning film that you have to see about Stasi surveillance of an artistic couple, all set against the glamorous background of 1980s East Germany. Another Oscar winner.
And Downfall, the movie that launched a million Hitler parodies on Youtube.
I’d be delighted to hear about great movies that you’ve seen but I haven’t. Thanks in advance.
Cronos - Non Spoilers- The summary in the tv guide made it sound like a very cheesy b movie. Instead, it’s a great film that asks what it means to be human, whether you’d want to live forever, and at what price.
I liked the original Pygmalion with Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller from 1938.
Allegro Non Troppo from 1976 is an Italian answer to Disney’s Fantasia. It’s a collection of animated shorts set to music. The one about the abandoned cat will tear your heart out.
There’s an Afghanistani film called Osama about a girl who masquerades as a boy to get a job. It’s a devastating portrait of life under the Taliban, and it’s got a creepy old man in a bathtub too.
If you can stomach it, there’s an anthology of short films called September 11. It’s eleven films, each eleven minutes long made by moviemakers from around the world in reaction to September 11th. I say if you can stomach it, because there are a couple of pieces that were really in questionable taste. I’m thinking in particular about the Chilean exile piece, which was made by Ken Loach of England. However, the other films offer thoughtful interpretations of what non-Americans thought about that horrible day.
Going back a bit, I liked Russia’s Battleship Potemkin from 1925 quite a bit as well.
If you liked A Prophet, you should see the other movies made by the director, Jacques Audiard, one of my absolute favorite directors. The Beat that My Heart Skipped and Read My Lips are both crime dramas available on DVD, and his newest movie, Rust and Bone, is currently in theaters. Other relatively recent foreign titles:
A Separation (Iran): Won last year’s foreign-language Oscar. The story of a couple whose marital separation leads to a tragic turn of events. (I don’t want to give away more than that.)
The Class (France): A year in a French middle school, focusing on a class that has a number of immigrants and “problem” students.
Black Book (Netherlands): A woman in the Dutch Resistance infiltrates the local Nazi circle by seducing a commander.
Mostly Martha (Germany): A workaholic chef takes in her orphaned niece. Remade in the U.S. as the far inferior No Reservations.
Volver (Spain): An eccentric family, including one woman whose mother has come back from the dead. Really, you can’t go wrong with anything by Pedro Almodovar, although his later films are more accessible than his earlier ones.
35 Shots of Rum (France): A widower has to cope with his grown daughter getting ready to strike out on her own.
There are so many more that I love, but that’s probably enough for now. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
Doesn’t have to be relatively recent. I watched a 1980s Jean-Paul Belmondo film and a 1960s Alain Delon film recently and they were both watchable although not worth recommending. Currently downloading Le Trou as recommended and that’s from 1960.
I’ve got Read My Lips in my viewing queue. Watched The Beat That My Heart Skipped and didn’t think much of it.
I also watched La Haine after it was recommended to me which featured the guy from the Mesrine films and spent two and a half hours of my life waiting for something to happen.
I’m in the same situation as An Gadai there aren’t a lot of films made in my country.
Here are some more suggestions. Boy a New Zealand comedy. Old Boy- Korean action. Silmido another Korean movie based on a remarkable incident from the 70s
