Your Favorite Foreign Films

Cafe Society
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The Beat That My Heart Skipped and Good Bye, Lenin! are no less than life-changing.

Plot Summary for

De battre mon coeur s’est arrêté (The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005)

Twenty-eight-year-old Tom leads a life that might be termed as criminal. In doing so, he follows in the footsteps of his father, who made his money from dirty, and sometimes brutal, real estate deals. Tom is a pretty hard-boiled guy but also strangely considerate as far as his father is concerned. Somehow he appears to have arrived at a critical juncture in his life when a chance encounter prompts him to take up the piano and become a concert pianist, like his mother. He senses that this might be his final opportunity to take back his life. His piano teacher is a Chinese piano virtuoso who has recently come to live in France. She doesn’t speak a lick of French so music becomes the only language they have in common. Before long, Jacques’ bid to be a better person means that he begins to yearn for true love. But, when he finally has the chance of winning his best friend’s wife, his passion only succeeds in scaring her. And then, one day, his dubious past comes to light…

Plot Summary for

Good Bye, Lenin!

October 1989 was a bad time to fall into a coma if you lived in East Germany – and this is precisely what happens to Alex’s mother, an activist for social progress and the improvement of everyday life in socialist East Germany. Alex has a big problem on his hands when she suddenly awakens eight months later. Her heart is so weak that any shock might kill her. And what could be more shocking than the fall of the Berlin Wall and the triumph of capitalism in her beloved country? To save his mother, Alex transforms the family apartment into an island of the past, where his mother is lovingly duped into believing that nothing has changed. What begins as a little white lie gets more and more out of hand as Alex’s mother, who feels better every day, wants to watch TV and even leaves her bed one day …

Trailer links and Summaries would be curiosly generous. Though, not required. Oh, and no COD’s accepted.

I almost forgot. Go ahead and spill the bucket, too.

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As mentioned in another thread, I totally love Goodbye Lenin! A highly original, amusing, and moving film.

Since I presume British people are ‘foreign’ for the purposes of this thread, despite their being in English, I’ll give you Withnail & I, the ultimate seedy Bohemian comedy, with one of the cleverest scripts ever written.

I’ll also big up Sexy Beast which, while not the best gangster movie ever, has an astonishing performance from Ben Kingsley, as possibly the most psychotic human being ever portrayed. He should have had an Oscar for that.

In foreign tongues, I’ll give you Raise the Red Lantern, a quiet but very effective period drama from China about the fate of a fifth wife in a feudal household, starring the brilliant and sumptuously beautiful Gong Li.

The French duology (?) Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources are beautifully plotted, entertaining and moving. And Emannuelle Béart is some serious eye candy.

I also recently saw The Story of the Weeping Camel, a docu-drama from Mongolia (though made by Germans and Italians I think). Sweet, funny, touching, and revelatory about a country I really know nothing about.

Apologies for not being bothered with links. It’s late here. But I’ll definitely look up De battre mon coeur s’est arrêté on your recommendation.

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I was headed in here to mention both Goodbye, Lenin! and Raise the Red Lantern.

I also really enjoyed Das Experiment, a German film based on the Stanford Prison Experiment, only updated for the modern-day. Very good, very… disturbing, I guess, look into human nature.

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Haven’t seen “Goodbye, Lenin!”, but I’ve made a note to look into it.

I really enjoyed the French “Bon Voyage!” of 2003, and Bergman’s “Smiles of a Summer Night” is one of my all-time favorite films period.

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I have dozens of favorite foreign films (add me to those who loved Goodbye Lenin. Some that come to mind:

The #1 on my list is Cocteau’s La Belle et La Bete. The most beautiful film ever made.

Others:
Black Moon – weird and wonderful
Das Boot
M. Hulot’s Holiday – one of the best comedies ever.
Playtime – even better, if seen properly.
The Wedding Banquet
Eat Drink Man Woman
Life is Beautiful
Yojimbo – best western ever made.
The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe
Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring – two films, one story. Tragedy at its best.
Kung Fu Hustle

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City Of God

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Just a general point if you’re not into foreign movies.

I’ve got a few friends who won’t watch foreign-language movies, because usually they deem them as too “worthy” or serious. While this sort of movie does occasionally occur (e.g. City of God, which is great, but also very serious and worthy) most of the movies I’ve seen mentioned so far in this thread are actually really entertaining, and in some cases absolutely hilarious.

If it’s the subtitles you’re worried about (please please, never watch a dubbed movie, they suck), bear in mind that if the movie is good enough, you totally forget about the subtitles within a few minutes.

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jjimm Great advice, and thanks for bringing in British film as well, I hadn’t thought of that.

One of my favorite British films-

Seperate Lies

Plot Outline: A couple’s marriage is complicated by the introduction of a third party.
I got really caught up in it and thought my own life was falling to peices for a few hours after watching up.

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I tend to think in Academy terms of Foreign Language Film -

Personal favorites -

Das Boot (A friend of mine just got a copy of the Six hour version)
The Tin Drum
The Vanishing
Hana-bi
Sonatine
Tampopo
Hard Boiled
City On Fire
Wings Of Desire
Profondo Rosso
Tenebrae
Plus I recently started wathcing Hindi films and can reccommend - Salaam Namaste and Kal Ho Naa Ho

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Roshomon

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I’ll second City of God - I’ve seen tons of films, and none are as gripping as that.

Otherwise, you can’t go wrong with Kurosawa. I see Yojimbo has been mentioned, but my favorite of his would have to be Ran. His magnum opus, if you will - at the time, the most expensive film ever shot in Japan. Every scene was also painted before hand, by Kurosawa himself, which helped the camera people when his eyes began to fail terribly. More amazing than orange juice and frito pie, sitting naked in a bean bag chair, and ten times more satisfying.

For a quirky, strange, off beat film, my favorite would have to go to Delicatessan. Still no DVD release, although I think it has been anounced, it is a great black comedy about the post-apocolypse.

Just plain different, but still great, goes to Happiness of the Katakuris, shot by none other than Takashi Miike, the snuff film guru. Zombies, claymation, hotels, sumo wrestlers, and a volcano, all wrapped around a musical.

Assuming Leogne counts, he invented spaghetti westerns, and that genre doesn’t get too much better than the Fistful of Dollar movies.

Another great Italian flick, little heard of, is Johnny Stecchino, Americanized to be Johnny Toothpick. Don’t hear too much about this great little flick in America, or atleast I don’t, although it’s said to be the greatest Itailian box office hit of its time. A great comedy, that acts like anything but.

Finally, before I duck out of this thread, I’ll offer one more great Italian film: Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Theif). That shouldn’t require too much more explanation.

(As an aside, does Kubrick count, as he is a Brit?)

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  1. Europa Europa
  2. Hsi yen (Wedding Banquet)
  3. Nuovo cinema Paradiso
  4. Au revior, les enfant
  5. Io speriamo che me la cavo (Ciao, Professore!)
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Another vote for Yojimbo and Delicatessen here. City of Lost Children, also by Jeunet and Caro, is another favourite; the plot is a bit murky, but it makes up for any problems it may have with its sheer gorgeousity.

I’ll add Kung Fu Hustle, Ghost in the Shell, and (stretching the category of film a bit) Lain.

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Two Iranian films I liked were The Circle and Baran. The latter started a little slowly and I couldn’t figure out if I was supposed to like the main character or not, but it ended with such a beautiful scene, I give it a thumbs up. I seriously was almost in tears, and movies never make me cry.

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If you’re talking about Iranian films, don’t forget Children of Heaven. Heartbreaking

And Osama (Afghan) is well worth seeking out; very sad, though; the story of just how hard it was if you were a woman under the Taliban.

Older films:
La Strada
8 1/2
El – my favorite Bunuel film, about a man’s jealous obsessions.
The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie – Bunuel at his more playful.
Battleship Potemkin – an essential for any film fan
La Grande Illusion – another essential film.
Z – the archetypal political thriller
M – Just plain great film,
Black and White In Color – antiwar film, but quite funny.

The Tenant – one of the best horror films ever, but see Rosemary’s Baby first (both by Roman Polanski). Polanski assumes you have.

Ingmar Bergman:
Smiles of a Summer Night
Cries and Whispers
Shame (his science fiction film)
Let’s Not Talk About All These Women – his slapstick comedy, strange as that sounds.

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Two films have already been mentioned, Goodbye, Lenin! and Au Revoir Les Enfants, about a boy at a French boarding school during WWII who befriends a Jewish boy hiding out at the school under an assumed name.

Another film I’d have to recommend is the French animated feature The Triplets of Belleville, though I’m not sure if it counts as foreign language, since there’s about one sentence of dialogue in the whole movie. It’s about a grandmother, who struggles to keep her orphaned grandson happy until she buys him a tricycle. Several years later he becomes a cyclist, but is kidnapped by the mafia during the Tour de France and taken to the giant city of Belleville (based on New York). So she crosses the Atlantic in a paddle boat with her faithful dog, and enlists the help of the Triplets of Belleville, a trio of washed-up 30s singing sensations… it’s very much worthwhile :slight_smile:

I would also recommend Zhang Yimou’s communist era angst-fest movies, though yeah, they are pretty heavy. If you want something more recent I’d go with Hero and not the over-hyped and honestly not that good House of Flying Daggers.

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My top 5:

**Cinema Paradiso

Europa, Europa

Au Revoir, Les Enfants

Amelie

Ran**
I’m deaf, so I always use closed captions. As a result, subtitled foreign films have never bothered me, for the subtitles is almost like having closed captions.

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A couple by Henri-Georges Cluzot:

Diaboliques (1955) - An unbelievably suspenseful thriller. Best not to watch this one alone!

Le Salaire de la peur (1953) (The Wages of Fear) - Once again, a thriller. Sequences will have you on the edge of your chair.

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A few relatively recent ones;

Ong Bak is a good film purely in action terms because you wince at prety much every hit.

Battle Royale, which I suppose can be described as a gore film with an actual plot, although it’s much more than that.

Hero, which has so many layers of understanding i’m sure a lot escapes me. Sometimes you get actors portraying different parts in the same film; Hero has five actors playing five characters many times over.

Main Hoon Na is great - uses all the Bollywood traditions while poking gentle fun at them at the same time, all while encompassing pretty much every film genre short of horror.

And of course, Seven Samurai.

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Roy Andersson’s Sånger från andra våningen. (“Songs from the Second Floor.”)

Images from Caesar Vallejo literalized and placed in a mundane context. A beautiful, absurd apocalypse. I prefer not to describe this to people when I show it to them – better to just put it in their hands and say “look at this.”

It reminds me a tiny bit of one of my other favourite films:

Andrei Tarkovsky’s Zerkalo. (“The Mirror.”)

Probably only because of the poetry recitation (which in this case is Tarkovsky’s father’s.) I can’t speak to the quality of the poetry, but the reading is beautiful, and the film… the film is Tarkovsky. I know a lot of people like Stalker, (or even Solaris!) better, but for me, Zerkalo is the very best Tarkovsky film. It’s so freaking beautiful.

For a more straightforward movie, I recommend Kådisbellan (“The Slingshot.”)

This is a great movie – a coming-of-age story, broadly comic and sometimes quite sad. It features the late, great Ernst-Hugo Järegård in a prominent role.

It’s set in Sweden in the late thirties. The protagonist is poor, naive boy with good Socialist parents. Järegård is his mortal enemy, a completely brutal fascist bastard of a grade school teacher. I don’t want to give too much away about it, but a big source of dramatic tension comes from the circumstance that his working-class neighborhood depends on his parents as a source of (then illegal) contraceptive devices – he’s not clear on exactly what they’re for, but he’s a resourceful young man. :smiley:

Also worth a mention: Confessions d’un Barjo.

This adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Confessions of a Crap Artist is, so far, the only adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s work that closely resembles its source. In spite of being a French-language film, it feels much more in the spirit of the original than anything else yet released. It’s also a work of realism, without any real science fiction elements. This doesn’t keep it from being as weird as hell – and extremely funny.

It also has a hell of a title song. :smiley: