# What's your favorite foreign language film? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 21, 2018, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266 "2018-02-21T13:41:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/1 "2018-02-21T13:41:46Z")
For me, it’s **Tampopo** , a Japanese comedy about a noodle shop. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/2 "2018-02-21T14:20:24Z")
So many, many choices. The first one that pops to mind today is Truffaut’s _[Day for Night](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070460/)_. (Which isn’t really the English translation of it’s original title: _La Nuit américaine_ or _The American Night_.) Gives the inside view of the making a Truffaut film. “Making a film is like a stagecoach ride in the old west. When you start, you are hoping for a pleasant trip. By the halfway point, you just hope to survive.” ---
**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:** [February 21, 2018, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/3 "2018-02-21T14:32:49Z")
I’ve gotta go with [_Cinema Paradiso._](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095765/) Sweet movie, and it reminds me of a great time in my life. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/4 "2018-02-21T14:34:42Z")
Well, **Tampopo** is certainly up there for me, maybe in my top ten or fifteen? I love Luis Bunuel, so my choice would be the surreal and extremely comical **The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeousie** (1972), if not Jean Renoir’s WWI film **La Grande Illusion** (1937). ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/5 "2018-02-21T14:46:37Z")
My favourite is _**[Le dîner de cons (The Dinner Game)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119038/)**_, a superb French farce. It’s about a group of rich French businessmen who make a sport of inviting bores and cranks over for dinner, and about the comeuppance one of them gets. There is scarcely a more perfect comedy. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/6 "2018-02-21T14:49:36Z")
[Diabolique!](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046911/) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/7 "2018-02-21T15:03:54Z")
At the risk of ignoring the thread premise of a single favorite film (I have a hard time picking a single favorite anything) I’ll list a few. My credibility would probably be helped if I listed deadly serious movies, and there are examples I can think of (movies by Kurosawa, or Yasujirō Ozu, or Zhang Yimou, for example) but I’m much more often in a mood to rewatch the lighter movies than the heavy, serious ones, so the list is going to lean towards those. I’ll lead with Katsuhito Ishii’s [_Naisu no Mori_/_Funky Forest_](http://366weirdmovies.com/31-funky-forest-the-first-contact-naisu-no-mori-the-first-contact-2005/) just because the whole thing [is watchable on Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFVC_Ktge7Y). Also by Ishii [_The Taste of Tea_](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/movies/23tast.html), which isn’t. Other Japanese favorites include [_Night Time Picnic_](http://asianwiki.com/Night_Time_Picnic), [_Swing Girls_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_Girls), _[Summer Time Machine Blues](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Time_Machine_Blues)_, [_Bounce Ko Gals_](http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/bounce-ko-gals/), and (skipping the well-known Ghibli films) [_Tokyo Godfathers_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Godfathers) and [_Summer Wars_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Wars). Korean movies include [_Lovely Rivals_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovely_Rivals), [_My Sassy Girl_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Sassy_Girl), [_The Bow_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bow_(film)), and [_The Host_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Host_(2006_film)). [_10 Canoes_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Canoes) is my favorite movie in Yolŋu Matha (well, it is the _only_ movie I’ve seen in Yolŋu Matha.) A guilty pleasure French film is [_Wasabi_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasabi_(film)). For Dutch I’ll go with the [_Tempelriddernes skat_ trilogy](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tempelriddernes-skat-I-II-III/dp/B00N3XZHFY). (And I’ll stop rambling now.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/8 "2018-02-21T15:04:41Z")
Hm, so many choices. Up high would be _Amelie_, the most feel-good movie ever, and _Princess Mononoke_, about a genuine and apparently-irreconcilable conflict between two good factions. Or, wait, does _Fantasia_ count? The only vocals are in Latin. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/9 "2018-02-21T15:10:22Z")
**This one:** Closely followed by \*\*this one\*\*: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjksZPJOkvk) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/10 "2018-02-21T15:15:26Z")
Don’t have a lot of them on my resume, but probably was most impressed by _ **Alexander Nevsky** _, which got removed from distribution in 1939 when Hitler and Stalin were making nice (it was re-released in 1941). I think anyone who has seen the French film documentary **Night and Fog** hasn’t forgotten it. I sure haven’t. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/11 "2018-02-21T15:18:56Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > So many, many choices. I agree. Here are ones I especially like (in no particular order): _Betty Blue_ _Das Boot_ _Ran_ _Rashomon_ _Seven Samurai_ EDIT: OK, it looks like they happen to be in alphabetical order. Not intentional. . ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/12 "2018-02-21T15:23:03Z")
Peking Opera Blues [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxhhuh](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxhhuh) ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/13 "2018-02-21T15:28:46Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I agree. Here are ones I especially like (in no particular order): > > _Betty Blue_ > _Das Boot_ > _Ran_ > _Rashomon_ > _Seven Samurai_ > > EDIT: OK, it looks like they happen to be in alphabetical order. Not intentional… Picked the two (Das Boot and Rashomon) I thought of off the top of my head. Add _Metropolis_, _Burnt By The Sun_, _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_, and _The Lives of Others_. Besson’s _La Femme Nikita_ was a guilty pleasure. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/14 "2018-02-21T15:34:48Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > Picked the two (Das Boot and Rashomon) I thought of off the top of my head. Add _Metropolis_, _Burnt By The Sun_, _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_, and _The Lives of Others_. Besson’s _La Femme Nikita_ was a guilty pleasure. Hmmmmm…I was WONDERING if silent movies counted, since you just change the title cards to distribute in other languages. I would also go for **Metropolis** , plus Paul Wegener’s starkly Expressionist **Der Golem** (1920), because when the cast and crew broke for lunch, everyone talked German. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/15 "2018-02-21T15:36:39Z")
Damn…AND Dreyer’s **The Passion of Joan of Arc** (1928). My Criterion copy has the original French title cards plus subtitles in English. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/16 "2018-02-21T15:51:55Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > Besson’s _La Femme Nikita_ was a guilty pleasure. :smack: I forgot about _La Femme Nikita_. And _Delicatessen_. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/17 "2018-02-21T15:57:02Z")
_Der Himmel über Berlin_ (_Wings of Desire_) _Dom za vešanje (Time of The Gypsies)_ _La double vie de Véronique_ _Antonia_ _Babettes gæstebud_ ---
**Author:** ![jerseymule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jerseymule/32/3155_2.png) [@jerseymule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerseymule)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/18 "2018-02-21T15:57:19Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > I’ve gotta go with [_Cinema Paradiso._](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095765/) > > Sweet movie, and it reminds me of a great time in my life. _Cinema Paradiso_ was the first one I thought of. I also really like [_Let The Right One In_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139797/). ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/19 "2018-02-21T15:59:52Z")
_Breathless_ (1959) _Death in the Garden_ (1956) _Swordsman II_ (1992) ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266/20 "2018-02-21T15:59:53Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > _Der Himmel über Berlin_ (_Wings of Desire_) > _Dom za vešanje (Time of The Gypsies)_ > _La double vie de Véronique_ > _Antonia_ > _Babettes gæstebud_ Babettes Feast??? I want that playing as I lay dying because that 2 hours seemed like days. 😛 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-foreign-language-film/809266.md?page=2)