Best foreign language (non-English) films

[Dubversion]

Kaos

i adore that film. Saw it just before going to live in that part of the world and it really stayed with me

 

[Lea]

I've only seen 10 of the 100.

 

[Gromit]

I forgot to mention On Bak. Interesting peak at korea.

 

[Dubversion]

for me, as contentious and probably pointless as these lists are, they serve as prompts - for films you've not heard of I should check out, or reminders of things I didn't get round to.

Currently downloading 400 Blows, Balthazar and In The Mood For Love on the back of this list..

my favourite foreign film, by the way, is Toto The Hero.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Nang Nak
The Road Home
Xiu Xiu (The Sent Down Girl)
Blind Shaft
Beijing Bicycle
La Haine
Deja Mort
Hana Bi
Pan's Labyrinth

 

[stdPikachu]

Takeshi Kitano's Hana-bi and Dolls. Two of the most stunning works of cinema I've ever seen.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Kontrol
3 Iron
Swing Girls
Ichi the Killer
Young thugs
Bird people of china

Ah fuck there is loads. No point listing them all blindly off the top of my head.

 

[Maltin]

He named the list after Satyajit Ray but none of his films are included.
Weird.

That was the ironic point of the naming of the list:

"The name comes, of course, from the great Indian director who failed to land any of his acclaimed works on the final list of 122 nominees."

 

[Maltin]

Most shocking is the total exclusion of anything by Sergio Leone.

"We had to decide things such as whether Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns were eligible (We decided no since most people are only familiar with the English dubbed version and the American actors didn't speak in Italian.)"

 

[Maltin]

This is even worse than the 100 films you'll see on film4 before you die list!

For some reason, I doubt it.

 

[Flashman]

My Life as a Dog I like a lot, dunno if it would make a best of list though.

Obvious ones are Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources (sorry) and Cyrano De Bergerac. 8 femmes looked right up my street but I nodded off as it was on late.

 

[Louloubelle]

I'm astonished at the exclusion of 2 of the most wonderful films ever made

Atanarjuat - The Fast Runner

and

A Time for Drunken Horses


A lot of films I haven't seen in the list though, winter is my time for going to the cinema so maybe I'll do some catching up

eta

Yol should be on there to IMO

 

[CyberRose]

I just watched the "Butterfly's Tongue" the other day and gotta say it's one of the most moving films I've seen at the end. It's set immidiately before the Spanish civil war starts and is about the relationship between a little boy and his first teacher

 

[Lysistrata]

I agree with Reno, what a boring list. Pedro Almodovar would be top of mine, probably All about my mother and Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I'd also include Ay Carmela and Babette's Feast and Pan's Labyrinth.

 

[lobster]

Directors such as Luis Buñuel , Ingmar Bergman , Alexander Kluge , Juraj Jakubisko, Jan Svankmajer, Wojciech Has. Artour Aristakisian seems like a Russian Ken Loach.

A few films that nobody has mentioned that are different.

The Romanian film about a soldier who abandoned his unit before the revolution is worth watching.Hîrtia va fi albastrã

a Light hearted Japanese comedyKame wa igai to hayaku oyogu

Same goes for this South Korean comedy Saibogujiman kwenchana

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Talking of korean films I forgot to mention a very good one, Memories of Murder. Quite similar to Zodiac in some ways... Zodiac may have even been influenced by it.