Top 10 foreign language films

Inspired by the Asian film thread, I thought I would try to list (in order) my top 10 favourite foreign language films. These aren't necessarily the films with the most artistic merit but are my favourites and films that I would happily watch more than once:

1. City of God
2. Three Colours Red
3. Pan's Labyrinth
4. La Haine
5. The Raid
6. Seven Samurai
7. The Lives of Others
8. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
9. Let the Right One In
10. Hana-Bi
Near misses to Downfall, Run Lola Run, Ringu, Battle Royal and Audition. I am really keen to see Once Upon a Time In Anatolia and also A Royal Affair and from what I've read about both, they could force their way onto my list.

Would be interested to see what other people have in their top 10.

Great list and great thread.......

Un Chien Andalou..........Completely surreal movie..........head shakingly good....

Das cabinet Dr Caligari......Early 20th century horror film.........worth a look..

Give em a go sometime..

Amores Perros is the best for me, Betty Blue very good, pretty much any Almodovar film. My life as a dog also fantastic, Monsoon Wedding as well though think some may be in English ?

In no particular order because that would just completely melt my brain.

1 - The Secrets in Their Eyes
2 - The Raid
3 - Rust & Bone
4 - La Haine
5 - The Lives of Others
6 - City of God
7 - Amelie
8 - Let The Right One In
9 - Incendies
10 - Pans Labyrinth

Pans Labyrinth should be in any top 10...............Amelie too!!..

Seven Samurai is the obvious classic and much imitated......

I also learned fluent French from the Emmanuelle series..

1 - Man Bites Dog
2 - Lilya 4-Ever
3 - Troll Hunter
4 - Battle Royale
5 - Christiane F
6 - Nights Of Cabiria
7 - Oldboy
8 - Baader Meinhof Complex
9 - Let The Right One In
10 - City Of God

A few others worth watching & not previously mentioned: City Of Lost Children, Bicycle Thieves, Les Diaboliques, Babette's Feast, Festen, Buda As Sharm Foru Rikht, Onibaba.

A slight foreword on Akira Kurosawa who without doubt is my favourite director ever. I've over the years seen most of his films and while "Seven Samurai" introduced me to him and is a classic his portfolio is that strong that it won't make my top 10.

1. Ikiru - The first Kurosawa entry
2. Chunking Express - Possibly Tony Leung's best film (In the mood for love being the other)
3. Taegukgi - Certainly my favourite film to depict war.
4. La Haine - My nod to France and the wonderful Vincent Cassel
5. Seventh Seal - Bergman had to make an appearance
6. Throne of Blood - Kurosawa again, kids should be shown his films in school when doing Shakespeare
7. A Bout De Souffle - Jean-Luc Godard at his best for me
8. A Bittersweet Life - Maybe not even the best film by the director but just a personal favourite of mine
9. Hard Boiled - John Woo at his best, its just a case of film overkill then overkill some more
10. The Twilight Samurai - Yamada made a film Kurosawa might have been proud to place alongside his seminal Samurai works.

Some I've missed out and others I may have included on another day. Pretty happy with the list though and to many that just didn't make it to name.

I haven't seen many of these. City of God should definitely be number one though. That film was just brilliant. Troll Hunter and Oldboy (particulary this one) I might chuck in there, both were good. I've also seen Pan's Labrynth. I don't think it is good enough to be in a top 10 though.

How about 'Downfall'? Very good, very moving. The guy playing the Fuhrer looks pretty spot on.

Can I nominate Trainspotting, superfly?

Anyone seen a French film called Sheitan? I watched it on a DVD that somehow had no English subtitles, or if it did we couldn't get them to work. Not sure what happened now. I was hungover in Ulaan Baatar* at the time. Anyway, I just got immersed in the madness of it, not knowing what was going on. Was an odd film, certainly not one for the kids.

*Mongol is another for this thread perhaps. I got about halfway through and fell asleep though. Ulaan Baatar hangover again.

You'll like Godard if you like mad French films - watched Weekend a few years back, was just insane - I think he's what inspired Monty Python.

Sheitan does look worth a watch.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Great list and great thread.......

Un Chien Andalou..........Completely surreal movie..........head shakingly good....

Das cabinet Dr Caligari......Early 20th century horror film.........worth a look..

Give em a go sometime..

I've seen Un Chien Andalou. It is very good but not sure I could take the eye-ball/razor blade thing again!

I've heard of Dr Caligari but never had the chance to watch it - will make the effort to track it down though.

Can I nominate Trainspotting, superfly?

Na ye cannae ya doss c**t!

P.S. some great films suggested above. Dass - great shout on Throne of Blood. I did consider it and certainly its just behind Seven Samurai in my list of Kurosawa films. I remember Channel 4 had a Kurosawa season about 15 years ago over Christmas. They showed Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, the Hidden Fortress and I think possibly Stray Dog.

A friend gave me a copy of "Brotherhood of the Wolf" some years ago. Recommended if you like movies of various genres - action, martial arts, monster, buddy, mystery, period drama, a bit of romance... and don't mind it being in French. Didn't recognise any of the cast other than Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci.

superflyweight wrote:Inspired by the Asian film thread, I thought I would try to list (in order) my top 10 favourite foreign language films. These aren't necessarily the films with the most artistic merit but are my favourites and films that I would happily watch more than once:

1. City of God
4. La Haine
9. Let the Right One In

Nice thread Superfly, I can only comment on the three above as they are the only ones from your list I have seen, but they are all brilliant. City of God is just one of the best films ever, it needs no more reviewing than that!

I remember being (much) younger and one of my pals had acquired a VHS copy of La Haine and we all waited for his Ma and Pa to go out before we watched it. Great film and a rite of passage for any kid of a certain generation.

Let the Right One In is one of the best 'recent' films I have seen. I loved the bleak cinematography and it has some shocking scenes. The bit when the girl leaps off the overpass onto the lady walking underneath was gruesome! I sat in our local cinema actually feeling cold as well!

I enjoyed The Orphanage recently. Has anyone seen that?

I would have to say, having recently watched City of Life and Death, that would deserve to be somewhere near a top 10. It is shocking and moving in equal measures and a very uncomfortable watch in certain parts. Stunningly good film though.

Il Gialloblu wrote:Can I nominate Trainspotting, superfly?

Very good IG.

The film is difficult enough to understand, but the book is even harder. And, I say that as the son of Scotsman!

I have a few Irvine Welsh books, including Trainspotting, Porno and If You Liked School You'll Love Work. They are all hard going to read in his Scottish writing but awesome books, all of them.

I could have got my Dad to translate them for me, but the thought of him reading to me about Renton sticking suppositories up his bum, Spud emptying his bowels in a duvet, Tommy's missing porn video or Mother Superior shooting heroin into his knob was too much to contemplate!

Skydriver - Surprised you didn't recognise Mark Dacascos (Mani) as he's been in loads of stuff, most recent being Hawaii Five-O.

Superflyweight - Problem you have with Kurosawa is his list of films is that strong its almost impossible to pick just two without leaving some wonderful stuff out. "Ikiru" had to be in there for me its just that good, outside that I suppose I wanted to make reference to his brilliant work in bringing Shakespeare to life in a way many have failed before and after. "Ran" (Possibly "The Bad Sleep Well" as it has roots in Hamlet) is the other choice and it ain't to shabby a movie either.

Films we haven't even touched on which are masterpieces in their own right include "High and Low", "Drunken Angel", "Yojimbo", "Red Beard", "Kagemusha", "Sanjuro", "Scandel" and "Rashomon". Some of these going on to effect heavily other massive films down the years.

Tino - If you enjoyed "City of Life and Death" then I'd strongly recommend "Taegukgi" as another brutal depiction of war. This time it covers the Korean war which doesn't get as much coverage in film as it should but not unexpected.

Has anyone seen "Nameless Gangster" or "Gwanghae" yet?

Dass wrote:Tino - If you enjoyed "City of Life and Death" then I'd strongly recommend "Taegukgi" as another brutal depiction of war. This time it covers the Korean war which doesn't get as much coverage in film as it should but not unexpected.

Thanks, Dass. I will try and pick a copy up from somewhere.

Tina, I think you'd like Pan's Labyrinth. Although some of it is set in a nightmarish fantasy world, it's really about the Spanish Civil War and in fact, it's the scenes set in the real world which are the most horrific.

Dass - have seen about half a dozen Kurosawa films and liked them all (including Yojimbo and Rashamon). I do need to have a look at more of his back catalogue though. I think I'll start with Ikiru.

superflyweight wrote:Tina, I think you'd like Pan's Labyrinth. Although some of it is set in a nightmarish fantasy world, it's really about the Spanish Civil War and in fact, it's the scenes set in the real world which are the most horrific.

Yeah, you're not the first person to recommend it to me, superfly. I will definitely get a copy and watch it at some point. I might even nip to the shop this weekend if I get a second.

It's Guillermo del Toro, right? I think he had some input to The Orphanage which I really enjoyed.

Incidentally, I went to see The Hobbit last night and one of the trailers beforehand was for a film called Pacific Rim, another one from del Toro. Have to say, it looks a little silly to me but I don't want to pre-judge it too much based on a 2 minute trailer.

It is Del Toro and I'm keen to see the Orphanage. I believe Del Toro was originally down to do the Hobbit - think it might have been a very different film with him at the helm.

superflyweight wrote:It is Del Toro and I'm keen to see the Orphanage. I believe Del Toro was originally down to do the Hobbit - think it might have been a very different film with him at the helm.

I think he was involved in the writing process for the Hobbit, was he not?

I think you're right, Tina.

I'm actually quite looking forward to Pacific Rim Tina :p

Maybe its just the anime/giant monster fan in me but a film paying homage to those giant monster movies and anime series about Giant Robots sounds awesome. Ridiculous but awesome.

Dass wrote:I'm actually quite looking forward to Pacific Rim Tina :p

Maybe its just the anime/giant monster fan in me but a film paying homage to those giant monster movies and anime series about Giant Robots sounds awesome. Ridiculous but awesome.

Don't get me wrong Dass, I will still go and see it to judge for myself but it just looked a bit like a computer game gone wrong (I am aware that this is possibly the least imaginative film review ever, but it is the best I can do!) and too much superhero tubthumping.

I will probably love it when I watch it though!

I will add a few to the list:

The Killer
A better Tomorrow 2
Cinema Paradiso
The Big Blue
Zombie Flesh Eaters (It has a zombie vs Shark in it so has to be awesome!)

Skydriver wrote:A friend gave me a copy of "Brotherhood of the Wolf" some years ago. Recommended if you like movies of various genres - action, martial arts, monster, buddy, mystery, period drama, a bit of romance... and don't mind it being in French. Didn't recognise any of the cast other than Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci.

I like this film, I've got it somewhere at home. Basically the Hound of the Baskervilles but in french with a bit of martial arts thrown in.

The Lives of Others is probably my favourite foreign language film. I do like action/martial arts too, so I enjoyed Infernal Affairs and the original Departed.

Bathman_in_London wrote:so I enjoyed Infernal Affairs and the original Departed.

Original Departed??.

Infernal Affairs is the original Departed Bathman.

I need to add 'A Prophet' to my list so it's eleven instead of ten. Everyone should watch it.

The Raid is brilliant, the most intense fighting films ever