Favourite Foreign Language Films

Not sure if this has been done before and am far too lazy to actually scroll down the screen and look for myself but on the off chance it has not been done before thought I would ask people for their favourite foreign language films (before some smart arse says Die Hard because it is American or some such) My top five to get the ball rolling off the top of my head are:

1 City of God
2 La Haine
3 Oldboy
4 The Seven Samurai
5 Mesrine (Part 1)

Not seen many.

The Secret In Their Eyes and Oldboy are the only two that I have really liked.

You've got to watch City of God Stella, is genuinely awesome. Brutal film but genuinely fascinating.

Will do, cheers Rowley.

Rowley wrote:
1 City of God
2 La Haine
3 Oldboy
4 The Seven Samurai
5 Mesrine (Part 1)

I wouldn't argue with your number one, Jeffrey. Stunningly good film. La Haine is also exceptional.

I watched Oldboy for the 3rd time about a month ago and still can't see what the fuss is. Not particularly interesting, well acted or well filmed in my opinion but I think that is more to do with me as everyone else seems to love it. I have given it three goes now so that is it.

I would replace La Haine with City of Life and Death (watch it if you haven't already, fantastic film and incredibly moving) and move LH to number 3. Never seen 4 & 5 so can't really comment on them.

I really liked The Orphanage and Pans Labyrinth (thanks to superfly for making me watch it) Both by Guillermo del Toro so they can be 4 & 5 for me.

Schinders List? great film.

Stella wrote:Schinders List? great film.

Aye, that it is.

Good shout.

Pans Labrinth is a good shout Tina totally forgot about that, not normally my cup of tea but really enjoyed it when I watched it. There are three films in the same trilogy as Oldboy, if you didn't enjoy oldboy you really would dislike the others but Sympathy for Mr Vengence is the best of the other two.

Has anyone seen 13 assassins?

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:Has anyone seen 13 assassins?

Is that your life story onetwo, because if it is I am watching it tonight. Haven't seen it being serious, has anyone seen ichi the killer. If not would seriously recommend you do not watch it straight after eating.

Not my life story jeff but close.

Old boy is great and was re made hollywood style as was the Departed which was a remake of the fantastic City of Fire.

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:Not my life story jeff but close.

Old boy is great and was re made hollywood style as was the Departed which was a remake of the fantastic City of Fire.

Got to be a pedantic film geek here one two but The departed was a remake of Infernal Affairs, which is an excellent film. Am gutted I did not put any John Woo on my list though. Love the Killer and Hard Boiled.

Rowley wrote:

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:Not my life story jeff but close.

Old boy is great and was re made hollywood style as was the Departed which was a remake of the fantastic City of Fire.

Got to be a pedantic film geek here one two but The departed was a remake of Infernal Affairs, which is an excellent film. Am gutted I did not put any John Woo on my list though. Love the Killer and Hard Boiled.

Sorry you are right.

A better tommorrow from John Woo is another gem.

Haven't seen it for years but I was studying French at A level, part of which was classic French Cinema - we watch a 1950 film called Orphee (directed by Jean Cocteau), effectively a more modern interretation of Orpheus in the Underworld.

Even as a 17-year old I was absolutley captivated by it. Had an old VHS copy of it which sadly got wiped in about 1997. This thread has reminded me of it & I need to get it on DVD so I can watch it again.

man bites dog
lilya 4-ever
troll hunter (I think it was in foreign)
battle royale
christiane f
nights of cabiria
oldboy
let the right one in
spirited away
baader meinhof complex

@mr bounce, thanks for the tip on orphee, have added it to the lovefilm list. If you like French cinema you might want to try the following if you haven't already: city of lost children, les diaboliques, band a parte, 400 blows

City of God is great, as was La Haine and Pan's Labyrinth. Really enjoy The Baader Meinhof Complex, though I find the subject matter particularly interesting. Another guilty pleasure is Amelie. Watched that a few years ago but found it to be a really good watch despite my initial skepticism.

I Watched a Norwegian film called Trollhunter recently, wasn't too bad until you see the first troll. Looks like the BFG with three heads. An action film I found a decent watch was District 13. The plot is pretty basic, the dubbed version I seen it in was poor, but the action scenes were really well put together and filmed. Never going to win any Oscars but well worth the watch.

Agree with Tino on Oldboy, I had heard so much about it and after watching was left with a 'is that it' feeling. Another disappointment was Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Just couldn't see what all the fuss was about.

A friend recommended The Crimson Rivers starring Reno and Cassel recently, but that was garbage. The subject matter was interesting enough, but the ending is so obvious and poorly thought out. Avoid at all costs.

6oldenbhoy wrote:I Watched a Norwegian film called Trollhunter recently, wasn't too bad until you see the first troll. Looks like the BFG with three heads.

That's what the charm of Trollhunter was for me, they didn't go for overly-elborately scary monsters, the trolls were trolls from fairytales both in the way they looked and the superstitions about them.

Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. I watched it anticipating to dislike it due to the camcorder style of filming. That probably clouded my judgement on it, I detested Blair Witch and couldn't wait for Cloverfield to end. Maybe I'll watch it again.

Have you seen Headhunters? It's a Jo Nesbo novel turned into a film. I've heard it's decent so will try to give it a watch this weekend.

Cheers, Headunters on the lovefilm list now.

re Blair Witch & Cloverfield, thought they were both good films but the overactive-I'm-right-here-in-the-middle-of-the-action does get annoying, just a bit overdone as though they're catering for the least bright member of the audience.

Watch Brotherhood - excellent film I recommended a while back on the asian films thread. Brotherhood Tae Guk Gi

The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)

The Idiots (Lars von Trier)

Ten (Abbas Kiarostami)

Irreversible (Gaspar Noé)

Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki)

Belleville Rendezvous (Sylvain Chome)

Aguirre, Wrath of God (Herzog)

Even Dwarves Started Small (Herzog)

Weekend (Godard)

Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer)

TheMackemMawler wrote:Weekend (Godard)

Weekend is insane. The scene with Emily Bronte is one of my favourites of any film. I'm pretty sure Monty Python got their inspiration from Godard.

Brassed off.............

The accents were hard enough but some of the jargon ..

nice film though.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Brassed off.............

The accents were hard enough but some of the jargon ..

nice film though.

Truss i'll clear out the spare bedroom at Casa Rowley, a week in Rotherham will have you speaking the lingo like a native.

I Aye I'll pack my stuff!!

Downfall about the last few days in Hitler's bunker is a brilliant film. Not exactly laugh a minute but very interesting and the bloke who plays Hitler does a brilliant job.

Has anyone seen a 1980's film called DIVA?

Its a French thriller based in Paris.

Tsk, Jeff. If only you'd scrolled down further to my article. Any regulars I on here will be sick of me mentioning Indonesian film, The Raid but I am insisting that everyone see it. Far and away the best action film of the last 25 years.

The Bothersome Man (Norwegian: Den brysomme mannen) is a favourite of mine.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808185/

Also Takeshi Kitano's Kikujiro

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0199683/

City of God is my favourite, at the end when it shows the real interview footage you know how close the film was. A close second would be das experiment, a absolutely gripping thriller. It's was remade with forest Whittaker and adrien brody recently and although that version is horrific it doesn't tarnish the original.

The worst I watched (but with real sex scenes)

Baise-moi

I've seen a few rubbish films with real sex scenes too.

Rowley wrote:You've got to watch City of God Stella, is genuinely awesome. Brutal film but genuinely fascinating.

It's on order.

Stella wrote:

Rowley wrote:You've got to watch City of God Stella, is genuinely awesome. Brutal film but genuinely fascinating.

It's on order.

Get City of Life and Death on order as well, Stella. You won't regret it.

Tino... CoLaD. That acronym is HORRIBLE! But I found it on DVD. Some guy with a little wooden cart full of discs, on the corner of my street. He had it. Got it for 50p. I'll give it a watch and report back in the other thread.

Il Gialloblu wrote:Tino... CoLaD. That acronym is HORRIBLE! But I found it on DVD. Some guy with a little wooden cart full of discs, on the corner of my street. He had it. Got it for 50p. I'll give it a watch and report back in the other thread.

Good man, Gia. I am pretty sure you'll enjoy (not sure that is the right word) it although as I think we have discussed before, your good lady would find it particularly hard to watch.

Can't believe you got it for 50p. Lucky git.

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:

Il Gialloblu wrote:Tino... CoLaD. That acronym is HORRIBLE! But I found it on DVD. Some guy with a little wooden cart full of discs, on the corner of my street. He had it. Got it for 50p. I'll give it a watch and report back in the other thread.

Good man, Gia. I am pretty sure you'll enjoy (not sure that is the right word) it although as I think we have discussed before, your good lady would find it particularly hard to watch.

Can't believe you got it for 50p. Lucky git.

I don't consider that sort of thing lucky anymore mate. Just life really! I need to get Photoshop installed soon. Should be about a fiver. TopHat would go mental. The missus actually wants to watch the film now. Nanjing! Nanjing! as it's known here. I reckon it'd be good anyway, to feel real Chinese anger as I'm watching it! Speaking of the good lady, I got her reading a highly simplified, dual language Muhammad Ali biography. The other night, she asked me why he had a fight called 'Rambo in the Jungle'!

Il Gialloblu wrote:
'Rambo in the Jungle'!

That is brilliant! I am going to call it that from now on.

Bullhead

Tell No One

The Secret in Their Eyes

A Prophet

Rust and Bone

The Man From Nowhere

I Saw The Devil

La Haine

Three Colours Blue

Nikita

1) The marriage of Maria Braun

2) Deutschland Bleiche mutter

3) Never on a Sunday

4) The Umberellas of Cherberg

5) Kagemusha

City Of God

I found it absorbing, even after the hype on here.

Has anyone mentioned Das Boot?
Although, to be fair, the TV series was even better than the film.

Il Gialloblu wrote:Tino... CoLaD. That acronym is HORRIBLE! But I found it on DVD. Some guy with a little wooden cart full of discs, on the corner of my street. He had it. Got it for 50p. I'll give it a watch and report back in the other thread.

Well?

Battle Royale (should NEVER have made the sequel)
Old Boy
The Killer
Switchblade Romance
L'Interior
Downfall
Irreversible
Mongol (no, it's about Ghengis Khan as opoosed to being a very un-PC exploitation film)

Anyone watch "A Serbian Film"? Basically, p*rn masquerading as art and tries to be shocking for the sake of it.

"The Human Centipede" is another poor film...in fact, one might say it (Drum roll) has no legs!

Jean de Florette and the sequel Manon Des Sources.

The Rules of the Game
The Seven Samurai

DAVE667 wrote:Battle Royale (should NEVER have made the sequel)
Old Boy
The Killer
Switchblade Romance
L'Interior
Downfall
Irreversible
Mongol (no, it's about Ghengis Khan as opoosed to being a very un-PC exploitation film)

Anyone watch "A Serbian Film"? Basically, p*rn masquerading as art and tries to be shocking for the sake of it.

"The Human Centipede" is another poor film...in fact, one might say it (Drum roll) has no legs!

Is that the one about the girl from the country who goes into the city, sleeps around... accidently murders some sicko client then gets protected by some bloke who has a childhood crush on her - whilst the mafia are chasing her for money?

Persepolis
The original Let the Right One In
Hero
Amelie

I watched Record which was ok. District 13 was good too. Amazing fight scenes.

Life Is Beautiful

Contreversial to some (not me). A funny and moving film, which gives a different take on life in a concentration camp, from a man an his son's perspective.

Highly recommend this, and you may even have tear in your eye, if you're like me.