Foreign Films

[happyfilmluvguy]

I've only seen a handful of subtitled and alternate language films, and there are so many around it's hard to count. Here's two I've enjoyed:

La Cité des Enfants Perdus - 1995 (The City Of Lost Children)-French

Mar Adentro - 2004 (The Sea Inside)-Spanish

What are your favorites? Do you watch them in their original language, in subtitles or dubbed?

 

[Senator Jack]

As tough as it is to keep up with the subtitles sometimes, I prefer it to watching a dubbed version.

If you've never seen any of Fellini's films, I'd say put Nights of Cabiria and La Dolce Vita at the top of your queue. (You can read about my obsession with the latter in the latest CS )

Around here, we've talked about 'The Bicycle Thief a lot (required film-school viewing) but you should also check out 'Umberto D' by the same director, Vittorio DeSica.

Ermanno Olmi is a relatively unknown in the States but he wrote and directed a brilliant film called Il Posto. It's about a young man who takes his first job at 'The Company'. For an hour and a half you wonder where he's going with the story and in the final thirty seconds it all comes together. If you get the dvd, make sure you watch the made-for-tv featurette that accompanies.

As for the French, some of my favorites are Breathless, The 400 Blows, Diabolique (a great thriller) and Alphaville. We've talked about Rififi enough around here, too, but I'd be remiss not to recommend it again.

Regards,

Senator Jack: A Quinn/Martin Production

 

[Quigley Brown]

I own most of the films created by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (City of Lost Children)...except Alien 3...

I've watched subtitled foreign films since early in high school when the local public tv station showed Fellini and Kurosawa films on Saturday nights. If there is any foreign film on tv that is dubbed I won't watch it.

There are two Czech new wave films from the mid-60s that I recommend: Closely Watched Trains and The Shop on Main Street...both set during WWII.

 

[Senator Jack]

Closely Watched Trains is another pic that comes together at the end. Great recommendation, QB. I'll have to check out Main Street.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I could easily spend all day answering this, but I'll confine myself to personal favorites and older (mostly pre-80s) films. If you truly love film, I'd say all of these are must-sees:

Cocteau: Beauty and the Beast, Orphee (Orpheus)

Fellini: La Strada, I Vitelloni, La Dolce Vita, 8-1/2, Satyricon, Amacord

Kurosawa: Rashoman, The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Dreams (plus Throne of Blood and Ran if you dig Shakespeare!)

Bergman: (When I was a young film buff in the late 60s, Ingmar Bergman was considered THE important foreign filmaker. His reputation seems to have fallen dramatically since then, but I still think his films are BRILLIANT, especially his amazing run from the late 50s.) Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The Virgin Spring, Cries and Whispers, The Magic Flute (even if you're not usually a fan of opera: it's gorgeous, magical, charming, and moving!), Fanny and Alexander

There are hundreds more, and great new films are being made around the world all the time - more than in Hollywood! Given a choice, ALWAYS go with subtitles - dubbing CAN be very well done, but often isn't!

 

[WH1]

One I recently purchased and have watched several times is The Battle For Algiers. It is particularly timely and the version I purchased has several special features of interest most importantly interviews, 20 years after, with several of the Colonels who ran the battle on the French side. Very enlightening.
Others I have enjoyed are Jean De Flourette and Manon of the Spring.

Also agree with Senator Jack, Breathless with Jean Paul Belmondo. He had style and serious cool.

 

[Lee Lynch]

We love foreign films, and watch themed subtitled. I feel that the original voices and language are an important part of any film, regardless of whether or not one can understand it.

Some favourites of mine:

The Ogre (Der Unhold) , Producer Volker Schlondorff , made in Germany 1996, starring John Malkovich. This movie impressed me so much that I resist the urge to run out into the street, grab anyone by the shoulders, and shout into his/her face:"PLEASE!! SEE THIS MOVIE!! YOU! MUST!!" as the police drag me away...

Amelie , Belgium, 2001, Starring Audrey Tautou. 5 stars here.

To Live, China, 1994, Zhang Yimou, Starring Gong Li, was one we saw just this last week, and I was glued all the way through. It begins in 1940's China, and carries on through the life of a family during Mao's "Cultural Revolution". 5 stars for me, and deserving of a place among my foreign favorites.

Kukushka (The Cuckoo), Estonia,2002, was great. The DVD back cover description doesn't give the actual movie justice. It makes i sound like some seedy love triangle, which it is not. It is set in WWII, and has a Finn, a Lapp, and a Russian all stuck on the same farm, and so one speaks the language of the others, so this leads to some really hilarious misunderstandings. This isn't a comedy, though, and has a serious story line.
Malena

And I liked Malena, Italy, 2000, starring Monica Belucci. It has the odd disjointed properties of being, on the one hand, a very serious, deep sad movie, and on the other hand a showcasing of Bellucci, deserving as she is.
(Not family safe, this one)

 

[Quigley Brown]

If you'd think you might want to see some contemporary Japanese films I'd recommend:

1. Maborosi
2. Warm Water Under a Red Bridge
3. The Eel

 

[Decobelle]

I don't see a lot of modern films, but I noticed the ones I do see tend to be foreign language films. Some that I have liked:

"A Very Long Engagement" (2004); "Apres Vous" (2003 - a terrific dark comedy); "A' la Folie... pas du tout" (w/ Audrey Tautou, 2002 - released in the US as He Loves Me ...He Loves me not" which sounds like a fluffy romantic comedy, but it isn't); "When The Cat's Away" (1997 - on the surface about a girl looking for her missing cat but against the backdrop of a gentifying Paris neighborhood. Also a romance, sort of along the lines of Amelie); and "3 Hommes et un Coffin" ("Three Men and a Cradle, 1985 - funny but not as goofy as the US version, "Three Men and a Baby," I thought).

 

[Lee Lynch]

If you'd think you might want to see some contemporary Japanese films I'd recommend:

1. Maborosi
2. Warm Water Under a Red Bridge
3. The Eel

Most definitely, and thanks for the recommend!

I just hadn't gotten to mentioning Kurosawa yet...

 

[Martinis at 8]

I have most of Gong Li's movies. To Live and Raise the Red Lantern are my favorites.

Cheers,

M8

 

[mikepara]

One I recently purchased and have watched several times is The Battle For Algiers.
Others I have enjoyed are Jean De Flourette and Manon of the Spring.

.

WH1, 3 fine films there :eusa_clap

heres another 3 you must watch:
Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993)
aka "Three Colours: Blue" - Canada (English title), UK
Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994)
aka "Three Colours: Red" - Canada (English title), UK
Trzy kolory: Bialy (1994)
aka "Three Colours: White" - Canada (English title), UK

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108394/

 

[herringbonekid]

as well as the Bergman films already mentioned by Doctor Strange i'd add The Silence, Persona and A Summer Interlude.

also:

by Jacques Tati: Mr. Hulot's Holiday, Mon Oncle, Playtime.

by Andrei Tarkovsky: Stalker, The Sacrifice.

by Jean Pierre Melville: Le Samourai.

by Bernardo Bertollucci: The Conformist.



too many more to mention.

 

[RetroModelSari]

To me every american movie is a foreign one lol

Some oher foreign ones:

Kops (Sweden) - It´s so fun to watch. It´s about policemen that work in a extremely quiet town in Sweden where nothing happens. So their station is in danger to be shut down, but they try to avoid this by doing their own faked crimes.

Amelie (France) what a charming movie!!!

 

[Steve]

Ying Xiong (Hero in the US) is one of my favorites, and perhaps the best film to ever come out of Hong Kong cinema. The visuals are breathtaking.

 

[RetroModelSari]

Oh yes!!! I saw "Hero" with my boyfriend yesterday and it´s so great... and sad!

 

[WH1]

WH1, 3 fine films there :eusa_clap

heres another 3 you must watch:
Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993)
aka "Three Colours: Blue" - Canada (English title), UK
Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994)
aka "Three Colours: Red" - Canada (English title), UK
Trzy kolory: Bialy (1994)
aka "Three Colours: White" - Canada (English title), UK

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108394/

thanks for the recommendations, I like Juliette Binoche great actress and beautiful to boot. Enjoyed the Horseman on the roof and Chocolat.

 

[HadleyH]

Most of the films I watch are silents from the 1920s and talkies from the 30s.
Having said that, my second big passion are French New Wave films (late 50s and early 60s). I own several videos of these and I enjoy them enormously. I won't name them all but among my favorites are:

Jean-Luc Godard -"A Woman Is A Woman"
Alain Resnais -"Last Year At Marienbad"
Claude Chabrol - "Les Bonnes Femmes"

I have to say that my favorite director of this style is Godard, the most eccentric and possibly the most gifted representative of the French New Wave (and also one of the founding fathers of this genre). "Breathless", "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" "Band of Outsiders" etc...all directed by him.

 

[Sefton]

There are many,but I'll try to keep this list brief. Tokyo Story by the great Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu. It's the story of an elderly couple who leave their rural town to visit their children in big cityTokyo who are too selfish to spend any meaningful time with them. They send them to a seaside resort,ignore them and generally act horribly to these very kind and incredibly patient parents. A moving film (bring Kleenex tissues) and beautifully filmed. Many think Tokyo Story is Ozu's masterpiece. It's one of my all time favorite movies. Another great Ozu film is Late Spring.

From Kurosawa I pick: Ikiru. Keep those tissues handy because this one is another sad story. Brilliantly acted by the wonderful Takashi Shimura, one of Japan's finest film actors giving his best performance here.

From France: Renoir's Grand Illusion. I think this is the best film about men in war. Period. Funny,exciting and moving in many ways. There are many subtle things happening in this film so it's a good one to watch more than once.

From Italy: La Strada and Nights of Cabiria. These are my favorite Fellini films. Giuletta Massina is great in both. Richard Basehart shows that he had a lot more to offer than he usually was allowed to show when he worked in Hollywood.

Although I agree with the other posts that it's best to watch these films subtitled you might want to also watch La Strada a second time with the dubbing. Anthony Quinn and Richard Basehart speak their own lines in the dubbed version. When you watch the film in Italian of course they are (well) dubbed into that language.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

What do you think is different about a foreign film, in terms of style, texture, direction, and cast, as apposed to an American film? This goes the same for those here in other countries. What's different about the films produced in your country, in terms of style, texture, direction, and cast, as apposed to the ones in ours?