Foreign Films (aka films not in English)

I thought we had a thread for films not in English but I couldnt find anything.

So what are people's favourites? I really enjoyed Battle Royale (Japan) (yes the book is better and the movie didn't completely make sense but it was well done anyway IMO) and The Eye (Korea I believe) was also interesting.

I like 'In the mood for love' by Wong Kar Wai a lot. I remember I was blown away both by the catching and great story and by the soundtrack when I first watched it in cinema.

I really love Asian movies, especially Chinese/Korean movies like Hero, In the Mood for Love, House of the Flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and so on. Also French cinema like the work of Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

I love Amelie, it's one of my favorites. Goodbye Lenin is great too, but I must admit I haven't seen the very end yet.

Lauf, Lola, lauf (Run, Lola, Run) is a movie I like very much too. It was actually the first I saw ever with this kind of flashbacks.

I've never seen that one.

Pan's Labyrinth is a great movie.

*El espinazo del Diablo
*El Orfanato
*El Laberinto del Fauno
*Der Untergang

I really love Asian movies, especially Chinese/Korean movies like Hero, In the Mood for Love, House of the Flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and so on.

I love Wong Kar-Wai. He's my most favourite director ever. If you liked In the Mood for Love, you'd love Happy Together, Fallen Angels, Chungking Express and all the other films he has made. I'd also recommend Kim Ki-Duk, he's very expressive and harsh, but in a hypnotizing way.

I'm also very fond of Aki Kaurismaki. His films are a delight, like one brilliant stroke of a paintbrush - minimalistic, yet with beuty which can wrench you out of reality into pure artistic catharsis.

I like 'In the mood for love' by Wong Kar Wai a lot. I remember I was blown away both by the catching and great story and by the soundtrack when I first watched it in cinema.

That was precisely my reaction as well. I couldn't speak when I went out of the cinema hall, and neither could my friend. We were thunderstruck.

The International Sofia Film fest starts on Thursday here in Sofia, and over 100 films from all over the world. It's always the best time of year in this otherwise unpleasant city (and the place where I saw most of the films mentioned in this post). I can't wait!!

I love Asian horror, it's much better than the horror movies made by the US, imo. My favorite is Ringu.
Battle Royale was a great movie too. I look forward to reading the book.

I also love the Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth.

I love French movies, I think their awesome. My favourites?
Amelie - who doesn't love it?
Changement d'adresse (Change of Address) - saw this one at a film festival, it was kooky and quirky!
Priceless
Mon Meilleur Ami (My Best Friend) - HILARIOUS!! My fave so far as any foreign film
La Doublure (The Valet) - first foreign film I saw since I was a kid. Got me hooked on French Movies.

Another one I love is Now Or Never: Time Is Money (Jetzt Oder Nie : Zeit Ist Geld) which is German. I was on hols and I flicked it to SBS and watched this movie. It was hilarious. Such a lovely kooky film. Brilliant!

A few of my favourites are:
La Haine - French film set during the Paris riots of the '90s, looking at the racism present in the suburbs of the city.
Taxi - French action/comedy film. It was awfully remade in the USA with Queen Latifa and Jimmy Fallon:grumble:
Das Experiment - German film based on the Stanford Prison Experiment (a psychological experiment examining how people are affected by being given power).
101 Reykjavik - Dark Iclandic comedy based around a young man who doesn't want to grow up and face responsibilities.

I was really into asian films not too long ago. Oldboy and Memories of Murder are really good. Save The Green Planet! was odd, but a good movie as well.

I saw a really good Korean film once, but i can't remember what it is called. It's about a girl and a guy who meet once and fall in love but never meet again, although unknown to them they live right next door to each other. It was good!!!

I love Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. Also, I find Japanese horror so much better than the mainstream Hollywood type horror movies that we get here. They're so much scarier. I've only seen about 10 minutes of The Ring because I was terrified :lol:

These are just the ones I've seen recently.... seeing as I'm foreign I see a lot of non English movies:

La vita e bella (Italian) started out very funny, but then when it turned out to be about a concentration camp it really was not funny. A very powerful, but emotionally difficult movie.

Der Untergang (German) was an ok movie, I thought.

Sissi trilogy (Austrian) has a sappy love story, but I LOVE the outfits and Romy - actress for Sissi - is very pretty. Never thought I'd find a character named Franz cute either (:p).

Alles is liefde (Dutch) was a cute movie - the dutch version of "Love, Actually" though I find it very much a Sinterklaas movie thus for the December months.

Amelie (French) is a hilarious movie... I tried showing it at a French Club movie but everyone thought it was too hard, however, I still love it.

Madame Bovary (French) was a rather dull movie which I had to see after reading the book in Dutch class. The ending was rather visual, so to put it nicely.

Pan's Labyrinth (Spanish) was also very intrigueing though there were moments when the blood-shed was prevalent. I found it very well how they were able to bring across a strong message through a fantasy film with unreal characters.

I cried at the end of La vita e bella. Giosué being happy about eventually winning that 'contest' made me unbelievable sad.

Amelie (French) is a hilarious movie... I tried showing it at a French Club movie but everyone thought it was too hard, however, I still love it.

I think this is the only foreign film that I have seen, but I really loved it. Great movie!:tu:

Reading your posts it looks like it's difficult to watch foreing films in the US, doesn't it? I'm Spanish, and here it's not odd watching at least European ones. Perhaps it's because of our custom of dubbing movies, the barrier language isn't so important.

Anyway, my favourites are:

Cyrano de Bergerac (France): A beautiful and sad love triangle between an ugly but talented man, his best friend, handsome but exceedingly shy, and the woman both love. Spoken in verse!!!!!!!

El Perro del Hortelano(Spain): Based on a play by Lope de Vega, one of the most important authors of the Spanish XVIIth century. Funny and delicious; also in verse, what will make it hard to understand to foreigners.

Soldados de Salamina (Spain): A university teacher investigates an event of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), in which a leader of one of the sides in fight escapes a massive shooting and is later saved by an anonimous enemy soldier. One of the few movies that have made me cry.

Amelie (France): Simply delicious.

Un long dimanche de fiançailles (France): During World War I, five French soldiers are sentenced to death for attempted desertion; but instead of beeing shot, they're abandone in nobody's land, between the French and German lines. The girlfriend of one of them refuses to believe he's dead, and begins investigating what really happened. The director is the same of Amelie, and Audrey Tatou plays also the main part.

Le Placard (France): The dullest, most depressing man you can imagine learns he's going to be fired from job, and spreads the rumour that he's homosexual to prevent it, foreseeing his boss will be afraid of being accused of discrimination. The snowball gets bigger and bigger... and you end up with a jaw pain because of the laughter.

Lauf, Lola, lauf (Run, Lola, Run) is a movie I like very much too. It was actually the first I saw ever with this kind of flashbacks.
Oh yeah I forgot Run, Lola, Run. Very well made film.

I saw a fantastic Czech film yersterday, it's called Empties, by the director of Kolja, if anyone's heard of it. Empties was one of the freshest things I've seen for a long time.

I also saw a very good Romanian one, California Dreamin' (Endless), with Armand Asante in the role of a NATO captain transporting NATO equipment to Serbia in 1999, who gets stuck in Romanian beaureucracy and the willfulness of a small-scale blackmarketer in a small Romanian village. A powerful film indeed.

Reading your posts it looks like it's difficult to watch foreing films in the US, doesn't it? I'm Spanish, and here it's not odd watching at least European ones. Perhaps it's because of our custom of dubbing movies, the barrier language isn't so important.

I am glad that I live in a small country, because in the Netherlands we don't dub (too expensive) but we sub. That increases the enjoyment of the movies, I personally think it's horrible what dubbing does to a movie.

Un long dimanche de fiançailles (France): During World War I, five French soldiers are sentenced to death for attempted desertion; but instead of beeing shot, they're abandone in nobody's land, between the French and German lines. The girlfriend of one of them refuses to believe he's dead, and begins investigating what really happened. The director is the same of Amelie, and Audrey Tatou plays also the main part.


I really like that movie, beautifully shot and some great actors.

That increases the enjoyment of the movies, I personally think it's horrible what dubbing does to a movie.

I agree. I would rather watch a subtitled movie than a dubbed movie.

I am glad that I live in a small country, because in the Netherlands we don't dub (too expensive) but we sub. That increases the enjoyment of the movies, I personally think it's horrible what dubbing does to a movie.



I also agree. I said it made it easier watching foreign films, not that it made it better. Actually, dubbing movies is atrocious for our foreign language skills. That's why I think DVD so great an invention...

Besides, once you've seen the original version, you hate the dubbed one. It happens to me with the HP movies, or with The Lord of the Rings: I can't watch them on TV because I'm used to watch them in English and the dubbed ones sound horrible to me. The problem is that unless you live in Madrid you can't watch original version at the cinema.

By the way
Here we see movies with subtitles, basically, but also dubbed (mostly on TV, cable has both version too)
I think dubbing here is quite good (but not all the dubbings XD) So thats great.

I like both, I don´t dislike dubbings.
For sure I prefer to watch the movie with captions first, becoz I understand the movie better.
Actually have lot of fun , LOT of fun, watching comedies and cartoons dubbed, they are the best!!

Cartoons in english are just boring and senseless for me, dubbing voices are so much funnier.
At least, cartoons I prefer to watch them dubbed to my lagnuage all the way, its so funny.

Well, I am happy with both choises: subtitles and dubbed movies!!!!!.
I have the chance to watch both.

Sissi trilogy (Austrian) has a sappy love story, but I LOVE the outfits and Romy - actress for Sissi - is very pretty. Never thought I'd find a character named Franz cute either (:p).

I love the Sissi trilogy! My favorite English movie I actually watched first in German. I'm also really into Asian horror movies.

I love Amelie, and Motorcycle Diaries.

Foreign movies can be a real eye-opener...but I can only watch them with subs since dubbing, I feel, is often badly done and I prefer hearing the voices of the original actors. And they're a great tool to pick up little scraps of a foreign language, too. I'm listing some of my favourites below:
French
The 400 Blows
À bout de souffle
Amélie (I think, to not like this movie, one would have to have a heart of stone)
Un long dimanche de fiançailles

Korean
The Classic
My Sassy Girl

German
Goodbye Lenin

Chinese (ie Mandarin, Cantonese and Min Nan)
Three Times
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2046
In The Mood For Love

Spanish/Mexican
Y Tu Mamá También
Pan's Labyrinth
Volver
The Motorcycle Diaries
Belle Époque
Amores Perros

Japanese
Dark Water
Ringu
Battle Royale
Shimotsuma Monogatari (aka Kamikaze Girls- this is probably my favourite movie of all time, it's hilarious)
Nana
practically anything with the name Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli attached to it.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Chocolat

JUst to mention a few gems I didn't spot when scrolling through the thread.


The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen). If you haven't see this German film, you really should. It's fantastic!

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a Must-see, I think.

If you enjoy epic movies, Mongol is the way to go - and it's actually in Mongolian! yay!!

I recently saw 'Saint-Jacques... La Mecque (2005)' which I enjoyed immensely.....


Anything by Kurosawa is of course worthwhile. My favourite is Rashomon.

And my all time favourite movie is a little known Czech gem called Musíme si pomáhat (2000) (Divided We Fall)

A friend suggested we see this in the cinema - and it took me completely unawares. I searched for the DVD for over six years.... but on several viewings I still go with my reaction that I had first time round. This movie has everything i want from a movie, and it has it in spades. :)

Lauf, Lola, lauf (Run, Lola, Run) is a movie I like very much too. It was actually the first I saw ever with this kind of flashbacks.I remember we watched it when we were in 2nd or 3rd year because the French classes got to see a French play and they had to something with those of us that did German and I really didn't think much of it. The repetition in it was really annoying, for me at least.

However, I did like Goodbye Lenin (even if my DVD keeps skipping:no:). I have to watch it with English subs because I haven't done German in so long I wouldn't be able to follow it. My friend lent me Vovler last week. I know overall it's sad but the whole idea of the mother is just very funny. Of course the copy I had didn't have English subtitles or dubbing. There was only a French option so I didn't have a sub/ dub option I had to focus on the Spanish and try not to get confused by tenses.

Our local theatre plays films every now and again and two/three weeks ago they put on the film water lilies (Naissance des Pieuvres). What. A . Wierd. Movie... seriously.

I remember we watched it when we were in 2nd or 3rd year because the French classes got to see a French play and they had to something with those of us that did German and I really didn't think much of it. The repetition in it was really annoying, for me at least.I can see why, actually. Guess I began to like these film techniques back then. :lol:

However, I did like Goodbye Lenin (even if my DVD keeps skipping:no:). I have to watch it with English subs because I haven't done German in so long I wouldn't be able to follow it. My friend lent me Vovler last week. I know overall it's sad but the whole idea of the mother is just very funny. Of course the copy I had didn't have English subtitles or dubbing. Vovler is amazing. I didn't laugh that much in ages in cinema, still it's also very sad. I almost had forgotten about it, thanks for the refresher!

Goodbye Lenin was advertised here as some kind of comical movie only. I know many of my friends came out of the cinema rather shocked, because it's quite tough by time - while there are still many comical elements, though.

I really like the French films Delicatessen and City of Lost Children, both by the directors Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Both were early 90s. Delicatessen is black humor set in some post-holocaust world, while City of Lost Children is just freaky weird.

There's a Dutch movie from the late 80s called The Vanishing (Sporloos) which is a pretty good suspense/psycho movie. Hollywood did a version which I haven't seen, but apparently it's rubbish. It's about a man whose girlfriend goes missing while they are on holiday and his obsession about what happened to her.

A Chinese film called Raise the Red Lantern is interesting, and sad. It's about a woman who becomes the 4th wife of a rich guy. There's a lot of subtle intrigue and tension between the 4 wives.

Chinese Ghost Story (Chinese, obviously) is a lot of fun and based on a traditional story. It has bad special effects but I really like it. Lots of demons with long tongues...

I can see why, actually. Guess I began to like these film techniques back then. :lol:Showing your age there?
Vovler is amazing. I didn't laugh that much in ages in cinema, still it's also very sad. I almost had forgotten about it, thanks for the refresher! Always happy to help!Goodbye Lenin was advertised here as some kind of comical movie only. I know many of my friends came out of the cinema rather shocked, because it's quite tough by time - while there are still many comical elements, though.They really just advertised it as a comedy? Ok I now it was funny but... but you need to give people a bit of warning... let them know what they're signing up for

Downfall is a good German movie about the last days of Hitler's life.
City of God is a good Brazilian movies about gang warfare in the slums. Both have R ratings, but they are very good and offer a lot of insight on their respective topics.
The Curse of the Golden Flower is a Chinese movie about the Tang Dynasty with lots of cool fighting scenes. If you like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and those sorts of movies, you'll love this one.

Showing your age there?Let me think.. I watched it in cinema, so must have been around 20 then (I'm 31 now). Until then I had watched movies coming from Hollywood mostly, which can be nice, but often are very smoothly working and are kind of predictable. So it was new for me to see movies done in a different way, even so technically blatant as 'Lola rennt'. It changed somewhat of my expectations when going to cinema (or better: it started with that movie), so I still like it a lot for this as well. :)

They really just advertised it as a comedy? Ok I now it was funny but... but you need to give people a bit of warning... let them know what they're signing up forThey put all the comedy parts into the trailer and kind of gave no hint that the serious part (people knew his mum is ill, though) would play a bigger role. There are different ways to act on sick parents, this way was rather unexpected for many viewers since the trailer was full of the comic situations only.
Guess people were to expected to watch this movie then in any case. References to former Eastern Germany still work (and sell) really good around here, for particular if done in a light way.

I've seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which is probably one of the more popular foreign films. I thought it was really good and the stunts were amazing. I've also seen Battle Royale which was a bit on the gorey side but was still an entertaining watch. It has a great storyline but I'm not going to discuss it here because I'm not sure it would be considered family friendly! But yeah, definitely worth a watch if you're not too squeemish when it comes to killing scenes. And the only other foreign film I can think of that I've seen is Ten, an (I think!) Iranian film I had to watch for class. I found it immensely boring, I'm afraid; although the concept was an interesting one. It follows ten conversations a woman has during a period of time and the entire film takes place inside of a car.

My favorite film of all time is Marcel Carné's Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise), which was made in Nazi-occupied France in I think 1943. It had some popularity on the arthouse circuit back in the '70s when I was in college, but you don't see it around much anymore. It's sometimes described as "the French Gone with the Wind" - a description that I don't much care for, since I'm one of the dozen or so people on the planet who believe that GWTW is grossly overrated. But the analogy does give some sense of the scope and sweep and grandeur of the film.

The story takes place in the theatre district of pre-Revolutionary Paris; "Paradise" refers to the highest balconies that were the only seats that poor people could afford. It's a meditation on different forms of art and theatre as metaphors for different forms of selfish and selfless love, as exemplified by four men of different social classes - a mime, a dramatic actor, an aristocrat and a gangster - all in love with the same woman, named Garance. The illegitimate daughter of a washerwoman, Garance has had to spend her whole life doing whatever she needed to do to survive (she's a pickpocket when we meet her), and yet she bears herself with incredible grace and dignity and elegance. She is swept into the subculture of the theatre, and the drama swirls around her as the men compete for her attention. It's an incredibly romantic, tragic story that unfolds on many levels.

Highly recommended if you can get your hands on a copy! It is out on DVD now - available from Barnes & Noble - but not to be found at many video stores, alas. Oh, and it's very long - about as long as a Harry Potter movie! But well worth it.

What, no Bollywood lovers here? Lagaan for the absolute win. That and a few dozen others...

Bollywood fan here! I think a lot of the movies that come out are pretty cheesy and all romance-driven, but some are absolute gems. Lagaan, for instance. I loved it! And Rang De Basanti and even some drama and comedy types like Om Shanti Om. :D

Shi mian mai fu, Wo hu cang long, El Espinazo del diablo, Y tu mamá también, Mou gaan dou, and Der Untergang are all great films.

El Mariachi
Cidade de Deus
Les Choristes
La Vie En Rose
Cinema Paradiso
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Tsotsi
Pan's Labyrinth
The Counterfeiters

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen). If you haven't see this German film, you really should. It's fantastic!

I know!!! It was an amazing film. Absolutely good, though my friend had to explain a few things as I'm clueless with German.
:lol:

I really like the "Arn" movies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X0DTj-a6wE
Häxornas tid and Så som i Himmelen .

Am I the only person who never watched Der Untergang, Lauf Lola lauf, Good Bye Lenin etc, despite being German myself? :whistle:


Ok one of the best foreign movies I saw, was Lakposhtha ham parvaz mikonand
"Turtles Can Fly". First Iraqi movie to be made since the fall of Saddam Hussein. It's about children in a refugee camp in North Irak. The children in the movie were actual refugees.

Am I the only person who never watched Der Untergang, Lauf Lola lauf, Good Bye Lenin etc, despite being German myself? :whistle:

I've watched the three of them, though I'm not German.

Lauf Lola lauf: interesting, though not my kind of movie.

Untergang: disturbing; excellent, but disturbing. We sometimes forget that those monsters were people who felt, cried, laughed as any of us, and that their atrocities were not actions of alien monsters. Human beings can order the death of millions of people and at the same time be loving parents or kind bosses. It gives the creeps, if you think of it.

Good Bye Lenin: I love it; intelligent, acid and extremely funny. When the mother gets out of home and sees Lenin's statue being carried away, I almost fell off my seat of pure laughter.

I am glad that I live in a small country, because in the Netherlands we don't dub (too expensive) but we sub. That increases the enjoyment of the movies, I personally think it's horrible what dubbing does to a movie.

The dubbing of the English version of Night Watch was painful to behold even though the original writer contributed. Although the problem wasn't the dialogue but the awful voice actors they used.

On the other hand, Das Boot was fantastically dubbed.

English markets are lucky as we generally get the best foreign films (although I find Bollywood unwatchable) which sometimes leads to the impression that foreign film-makers don't make boring, crass movies. They do, they don't don't get shown.

I thought Pan's Labyrinth was a fantastic film. There were a couple moments in that film where I cringed and even closed my eyes. That isn't good when you have to read it!

I also really enjoyed Death Note I and II (it is really one story done in two movies like Deathly Hallows will be). I have seen these movies subbed and dubbed and the dubbing was pretty good.

Recently watched the Ju-on films, after seeing the Grudge 1 and 2. They're very good and creepy, it was very interesting seeing another cultures beliefs towards the supernatural (ghosts).

Most recently, I watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. A really excellent film for those who haven't seen it.

My favorite movies that arent in English are Om Shanti Om (Spelling?) and Wednesday. Both are Bollywood movies, but they are really good! There are more but I got to figure out the spellings!

I would have to say that my favourite foreign films are:
- Russian Ark (Russian)
- Amelie (French)
- Les Triplettes De Belleville (French Canadian. I know it technically isn't a foreign film for me, considering the fact that I'm from Canada, but I just thought I'd add it to my list)
- Pan's Labyrinth (Spanish)

Most recently, I watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. A really excellent film for those who haven't seen it.

I really want to see that :) the book is well written. I also really want to see La Vie en Rose.

I adore Amelie, Pan's Labyrinth & La fille sur le pont <3

My favourite 'foreign' films (I've not seen too many in recent years :( ):

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon -- Chinese (the Chinese Lord of the Rings :love: Kind of. :D)
Der Untergang (Downfall) -- German (one of the best war films I've ever seen: utterly gripping and chilling)
Pan's Labyrinth -- Spanish (awesome!)
Cyrano de Bergerac (with Gerard Depardieu) -- French (I love this)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly --French (a beautiful, beautiful film)
The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) -- German (outstanding)
A Very Long Engagement (with Audrey Tatou) -- French (gorgeous! Also made me tear up.)
Amelie (with Audrey Tatou) -- French (pretty hard not to love this!)


I thought Marion Cottillard was outstanding as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose but the film is so bleak and sad.

Pan's Labyrinth is quite good. Also Russian Ark if anybody else enjoys history. I also liked the Japanese movie 1 Litre of Tears, which came before the drama show. Another interesting Japanese film was All About Lily Chou Chou.

I recently saw Amelie and it was fantastic. It's a feel good movie with great humor.

I'm surprised that there's barely any mention of Bollywood films. A lot of them are cliche but there are still some good ones. :) I haven't watched any in ages, though. Mostly because a lot of them are trying to be like western films. :sigh: I like watching American films, but I like the uniqueness of Bollywood films that comes with the Indian culture.

Oh! I have to update my list.

Previous list:
*El espinazo del Diablo
*El Orfanato
*El Laberinto del Fauno
*Der Untergang

*El espinazo del diablo (aka Backbone´s Spine, I think, not sure) One of the best horror films.
*El Orfanato (aka The Orphanague, I think)
*El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan´s Labyrinth, of course)
*Der Untergang (Downfall, obviously)


*La lengua de las mariposas
*Sohie Scholl (another German film, great film)
*Stauffenberg (aka Operation Valkyrie) Another great German film, can´t wait for the English version, looks just awesome and a bit more complete than the German (and it has Kenneth Branagh for the better).
*Diarios en Motocicleta One of the very few S American films I can say it´s a kind of decent and a real portrayal.

Can´t wait to see Edith Piaf´s film, it´s in my must-see list.

Jean de Florette
Manon des Sources
Raise the Red Lantern
Chocolat (not the film of the Joanne Harris novel, an 80s film about a French girl growing up in Africa)
Kieszlowski's Three Colours trilogy
Il Postino
La Reine Margot

I'm sure there's loads of others I've forgotten. As you can see, I haven't been to the cinema in a long, long while!

I watched Friedliche Zeiten (Peaceful Times) yesterday and although I am no fan of German movies, was this one quite good. It's about a family who has to cope with the mother who can't deal with living in the West after they fled from East Germany.

I saw a fantastic Czech film yersterday, it's called Empties, by the director of Kolja, if anyone's heard of it. Empties was one of the freshest things I've seen for a long time.
I like this film a lot too. It's called "Vratné láhve" in Czech and it's very popular here in the Czech Republic. :)

And my all time favourite movie is a little known Czech gem called Musíme si pomáhat (2000) (Divided We Fall)

A friend suggested we see this in the cinema - and it took me completely unawares. I searched for the DVD for over six years.... but on several viewings I still go with my reaction that I had first time round. This movie has everything i want from a movie, and it has it in spades. :)
That's also one of my favorite Czech films. The plot is so strong (I hope it's the right expression in English). You can't get it out of your head for quite some time after watching it.

From the most recent Czech films I reallz recommend a film called "Karamazovi" (IMDb link (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1080716/)). It's a very interesting film, a rather unusual. I absolutely love it.:tu:

As for other foreign films I like, I recently saw a Finnish film called "Jouluntarina" (I hope I remember the name right), which means "Christmas story" in English. It's a very nice poetic movie.:)

I really enjoyed Der Untergang, Trois Couleurs trilogy, Mongol (about Genghis Khan, fantastic film), Cinema Paradiso, Mon Pere, ce Héros. Those are the non-English language films that stand out in my memory at the moment. Subtitles don't bother me in a film at all, better subtitled than badly dubbed, imo. Often, dubbing is not done well and that is off-putting.

I'm surprised that there's barely any mention of Bollywood films. A lot of them are cliche but there are still some good ones. :) I haven't watched any in ages, though. Mostly because a lot of them are trying to be like western films. :sigh: I like watching American films, but I like the uniqueness of Bollywood films that comes with the Indian culture.
Yep, a lot of them are cliches. But there are so many great films too:) And the music and soundtrack for the films are absolutely outstanding. A.R.Rahman for instance has composed so much better music than in Slumdog Millionaire in so many Hindi/Tamil films. Not that Slumdog is bad, but there are so many films for which A.R.Rahman's music has been exceptional:)

I love Swades, Taare Zameen Par, Dil Se, Bombay, Lagaan, Rang De Basanti, Aamir, A Wednesday and Rock On:D I'm looking forward to seeing Delhi-6 too. The music for the film ( by A.R.Rahman again:p) is brilliant:tu:

I like the Hong Kong actioners of a few years ago, e.g. Infernal Affairs, and the films of John Woo (he went to pot when he went to Hollywood!). I also enjoy wuxia films (martial arts films for people too snobby to watch martial arts films), such as Hero and Crouching Tiger.

I love some of Kurosawa's works. I admire the literary adaptations, without loving them.

Солярис (Solyaris) is a pretty good film, though a bit drawn out.

Cidade de Deus

:love: !!! One of my Top 3 ALL TIME MOST FAVOURITE!!

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen). If you haven't see this German film, you really should. It's fantastic!

Oh yes!! :tu: :agree:

I like the Hong Kong actioners of a few years ago, e.g. Infernal Affairs

I agree wholeheartedly with that too.

I'm surprised that there's barely any mention of Bollywood films. A lot of them are cliche but there are still some good ones. :) I haven't watched any in ages, though. Mostly because a lot of them are trying to be like western films. :sigh: I like watching American films, but I like the uniqueness of Bollywood films that comes with the Indian culture.

Kuchh Ho Na Ho almost made me cry :blush:


Added to my earlier mentions: Dolls by Takeshi Kitano and Nobody Knows by Hirokazu Koreeda. The latter is mind-blowing. If you can, watch it.

I loved Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Hero; House of Flying Daggers; and Seven Swords. The imagery in them was just amazing and I loved all the action. Sometimes its nice to take a break from realism as long as its done in an artistic fashion.

I have to watch Red Cliff Part 1 & 2 when I finish university.

Children of Heaven (Bacheha-Ye aseman, Iranian) - SUCH a beautiful movie, and the acting was wonderful.
The Color of Paradise (Rang-e khoda, Iranian) - Beautiful. One of my all-time favorite movies. It's impossible to watch it and not cry.
Osama (Afghanistan) - Definitely worth watching, but bring tissues. Easily the most heartbreaking movie I've ever seen.
the ending was the worst for me, when the guy tells her to choose a lock. It was awful, the only choice she was ever given in her own life, and it was how to be imprisoned :( And the scene where they hung her in the well and she's just crying for her mother broke my heart :sad:
Life is Beautiful (La Vita E Bella, Italian) - Also bring tissues for this one. Beautiful and heartbreaking. I start crying the second that Dora boards the train, and I don't stop sobbing until the end. the scene where Guido is holding Giosue while he tries to find their way back to their beds and sees the pile of bodies gives me chills. And then when he knows he's marching to his death, but he puts on the silly march to make Giosue smile, a perfect example of the selfless love that he had for his family
Dear Frankie (Scottish) - Also one of my all-time favorites. :love:

I love Amelie, it's one of my favorites. Goodbye Lenin is great too, but I must admit I haven't seen the very end yet.

Audrey Tatou was in a movie called "A Very Long Engagement" (English title). It's a great war/love/mystery movie.

"Bread and Tulips"
"Raise the Red Lantern"
Kurasawa's "Dreams"
"Pan's Labrynth"
"House of Flying Daggers"

Bread and Tulips was my favourite movie for quite some long time. I love it for many reasons, one of them the complete kindness of Fernando (Bruno Ganz). It's a neat hommage to the ones, who yet need to find their life or have lost it somewhere on the way.

I liked Downfall. i believe it was in German....great movie :D

Most of my favourite movies are not English, but that makes sense to me because the majority of movies made globally are not English.

Just from last year, most of my favourite's were foreign: Waltz With Bashir, The Edge of Heaven, Let the Right One In and A Christmas Tale are just a few.

Kuchh Ho Na Ho almost made me cry :blush:

I tend to not like modern-day Bollywood movies very much because the acting is so bad and try as I might I can't get past the fact that the heroines are often very little more than skimpily-dressed eye candy, but there are good movies among the trash.

Lagaan was excellent, as was Chak De India! (both movies are fairly atypical of Bollywood, the former is a historical drama about a bunch of villagers playing cricket to get a tax exemption- that's the short summary- and the latter is about a women's hockey team). Another thing I really appreciated about Chak de India!, despite how corny it was in places, was the fact that it at least showed people from various regions of India, instead of just relying on stereotypes. I also recommend Maachis, which is set in 1980s Punjab and is about a bunch of young people who get involved with terrorism after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Jab We Met is a nice romantic comedy, at least for the first half...but my favourite is a 1980s movie called Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. It's based on Blow-Up, and it's one of the best movies I've ever seen. And there are a pile of really awesome movies from the 1960s and 70s which are worth a look- one of my favourites as a child was Amar Akbar Anthony.
Oh, and Luck By Chance, which was a recent release, was also pretty decent. And funny, because it's about Bollywood itself.

There are also a whole lot of really good films in Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam out there, Indian cinema isn't just confined to Bollywood (Bollywood often remakes the Tamil/Telugu/Malayalam originals with bigger budgets and less impact, IMO). I strongly recommend the work of Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, and maybe Mani Ratnam too (especially Bombay, which is about the 1993 communal riots in Bombay).



Added to my earlier mentions: Dolls by Takeshi Kitano and Nobody Knows by Hirokazu Koreeda. The latter is mind-blowing. If you can, watch it.

Oh, Dolls! It really was something...one of my favourites though, is Shimotsuma Monogatari aka Kamikaze Girls. It's absolutely fantastic, and will make you laugh till you cry.

I love Swades, Taare Zameen Par, Dil Se, Bombay, Lagaan, Rang De Basanti, Aamir, A Wednesday and Rock On:D I'm looking forward to seeing Delhi-6 too. The music for the film ( by A.R.Rahman again:p) is brilliant:tu:

I'm going to appoint you as my movie buddy! :tu:
They're really good movies (Laagan being one of my favourite from the list) and usually I tend to skip most songs in other films (unless they're catchy or I've heard them before) but for most of the movies you mentioned, I'm a fan of the songs!

You should check out my youtube histrory of the songs I've searched for. :err:


Kuchh Ho Na Ho almost made me cry Aww :lol:
But it's typical of Bollywood movies to have fluffy happy endings.
Very original. You rarely get the occasional thinky-twist right at the end. Rare thing. :D

Lagaan was excellent, as was Chak De India! (both movies are fairly atypical of Bollywood, the former is a historical drama about a bunch of villagers playing cricket to get a tax exemption- that's the short summary- and the latter is about a women's hockey team). Another thing I really appreciated about Chak de India!, despite how corny it was in places, was the fact that it at least showed people from various regions of India, instead of just relying on stereotypes.
Agreed :agree: I'm not watching too many Hindi films of late since they've had nothing much to offer. Cliches all over again.

Taare Zameen Par was brilliant, so was Aamir. But I hate Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na...that film got on my nerves. Swades and Rang de Basanti are two films I enjoy, always.

Let me pick some of my favourite Tamil films:

Anbe Sivam- It just doesn't get any better than this. Great story, moving performances.
Nayagan- Included by The Time magazine on its list of 'All Time 100 Best Films', this is another class act. Riveting story and an award winning performance by Kamal Haasan.
Anjali- One of the best ever Tamil films about children
Kannathil Mutthamittaal- Beautifully weaving the story of the Sri Lankan Tamils into the life of a child. Another award winning film.
Roja( which incidentally is A.R.Rahman's debut film), Indira and Bombay are brilliant and very well acclaimed films :tu:

Mani Ratnam is an awesome director, no doubt :tu:

None of the recent tamil films have captivated me though :no:

And thanks Green_Arrow :lol:

I remember watching Anjali when I was just a kid myself...and Roja was a lovely film, though I don't like Mani Ratnam's Hindi movies so much.

And Maqbool and Omkara, which are Hindi adaptations of Macbeth and Othello respectively, are absolutely fantastic.

I've also heard very good things about Little Zizou, and it sounds promising (I once met one of the guys who acted in the film on the street in Delhi, many years back. But I don't think he'd remember that, it was really dark and he looked quite out of it).

I remember watching Anjali when I was just a kid myself...and Roja was a lovely film, though I don't like Mani Ratnam's Hindi movies so much.

And Maqbool and Omkara, which are Hindi adaptations of Macbeth and Othello respectively, are absolutely fantastic.
I agree. I think Mani Ratnam's Tamil films are better than his Hindi films :agree:

I haven't seen Maqbool but Omkara is truly fantastic :tu: I know 'Hey Ram' is a very controversial film, but I find it intriguing.

A couple of months ago I rented La Vita E Bella with Roberto Benigni. I liked it, though it was sad at the end. I think that's the only foreign film I've seen outside of school. As an undergrad I saw El Norte (I think that's the title), which is a Spanish film.

A couple of months ago I rented La Vita E Bella with Roberto Benigni. I liked it, though it was sad at the end. I actually had tears in my eyes at the end. At the very end when the (how describe without spoiling?) 'little actor' is over-happy. Woah, sad.

On a serious note this movie entertained me greatly, but also made me think like no other Nazi movie before, which are mostly closer to historical facts, but less fairy-like. Is it allowed to make a KZ appear as a game area? Yay, for sure it is (for instance under the circumstances provided), but it took me some time to figure that out and feel comfortable with the idea. Then... the movie is both serious for thinking about the collective past and everyone's future as also simply wonderful.

Some of my favorites are:
The Seven Samurai
Amelie (I notice a lot of people have said this)
Spirited Away (I watch it in japanese with english subtitles, it's actually better that way)

I really like Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children. The animation was just breath taking and the characters looked realistic but not too realistic. It has a nice story although it's only understandable if you played the game. And I love the quote "I will... never be a memory."

Other than that, I like the Asterix movies. My favorites are The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, Asterix and Cleopatra and Asterix and the Vikings. There are also four German movies I like:
Der Schuh des Manitu
(T)Raumschiff Surprise
Sieben Zwerge - Männer allein im Wald
Sieben Zwerge - Der Wald ist nicht genug

Der Schuh des Manitu (T)Raumschiff Surprise
Michael "Bully" Herbig is clearly the best around. I love his gay spoofs so much! :rotfl:

I wonder if "Wicky" will be as successful.

Everyone here should see La Dolce Vita (Fellini, '60) if they haven't. :)