Foreign Films - Please Recommend

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Was wondering if anyone could recommend some good foreign films for me...
My favourite foreign movies are Funny Games, Run Lola Run, Pan's Labrynth, Goodbye Lenin and Rashamon.
I'm also about to watch Brotherhood Of The Wolf and The Edukators, so I'm looking for some other films besides those.

rudie-

you should watch amile, and seven samuri if you havent yet

Owen

I can recommend 3, 2 of which are cliché, but still great. Those two are Amelie, and Cinema Paradise. The third I watched recently is a Polish film called "Edi" or Eddie. A great story, and perfectly told.

Galvasean

I was about to recommend Brotherhood of the Wolf.
Why not try Ridicule, Belleville Rendevouz (sometimes called The Triplets of Belleville), OldBoy, Ichi the Killer, Audition, the Killers, Nikita, The Bear and Quest For Fire?

Fuzzy_Dunlop

City of God is a brilliant movie if you haven't seen it

MrBaseball

Sonatine

rahim

'Brick' is absolutely amazing in my opinion.
Also agree with the 'Ichi the Killer' (extreme but a good film) and 'Oldboy' (same but great) recomendations. If you like Oldboy, try 'Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance' and the third in that trilogy 'Lady Vengeance'. Very good films.

Auvers

Heres a few I love

Delicatessen
Nikita
City Of God
Oldboy
The Dinner Game
La Haine
Leben der Anderen, Das
Yojimbo
Downfall
Manon des Sources
Cyrano de Bergerac
Hopeaa Rajan Takaa

I might remember a few more later on

johnny_ultimate

Brick = English. Still worth many watches though.
Anyway here are some of the best:

Sympathy for Mr Vengance (over Oldboy IMO) - extremely well filmed slice of 'Asia Extreme'. Wonderful stuff.
Caché (Hidden) - from the director of Funny Games. Distrubing.
Audition - see film of the week a few weeks ago
Hani Bi, Kikujiro, Dolls - all from Takeshi Kitano, one of my new favourite directors
Studio Ghibli films, if you havent already. Best animé around.
Save the Green Planet - utterly loopers.
Together - quirky Swedish drama. Good if you like the works of Wes Anderson etc...
The Devil's Backbone - Del Toro's first fantasy Spanish Civil War flick. As good as Pan's.
Paris je taime - Not sure if this is still in the cinema, but a great collection of short films. Terrific entry from Tom Tyker (dir. of Run Lola Run)
Y Tu Mama Tambien - I loved this film. Fairly explicit but wonderful road movie from the excellent Alfonso Cauron.

And some classics: the 400 Blows, The Seventh Seal, Ran, The Seven Samurai (the latter two from Kurosawa - should like these if you watched Rashomon. Actually, must get around to watching that. w00t to public domain!)

rahim

johnny_ultimate wrote:

Brick = English. Still worth many watches though.

'Brick' is an Indie American film as far as I'm aware. That's foreign to me and judging by the Location of the OP it is to him too.
Also, I'm aware that by foreign the OP probably meant films not from Hollywood as we know it. I think 'Brick' deserves a mention under these circumstances.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Thanks everyone. This is exactly the response I was hoping for. I'm gonna check out most of those films asap.

Brick isn't a foreign film. It's a great film though.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

rahim wrote:

'Brick' is an Indie American film as far as I'm aware. That's foreign to me and judging by the Location of the OP it is to him too.
Also, I'm aware that by foreign the OP probably meant films not from Hollywood as we know it. I think 'Brick' deserves a mention under these circumstances.

Ok, I'll accept that definition.

Auvers

johnny_ultimate wrote:

The Devil's Backbone - Del Toro's first fantasy Spanish Civil War flick. As good as Pan's.

Oh nice, I definitely must check this one out.

Man eating cow

Battle Royale...

excellent movie

Maccattack

Schtonk


HIGHLY recommended. A german movie based on the hitler diaries. I love that movie.

nikolaitr

Brat (Brother) Russian Criminal Film
9 Rota (9th Platoon) Recent Russian Film on the Afghan Conflict
Kolya -Film about a Russian Boy growing up in Czech Rep with his father....as far as I know there is a Czech,Russian and Irish versiion but the Czech is considered the best
All quiet on the Western Front- Its in German as far as I can remember...very poignant war film
****ing Åmål - Swedish film about two girls growing in small town and them messing around with lesbianism
Voyna(war) Russian film, bit dramatic but showing how Chechnyan war was/is
Prisoner of the Caucauses(Cavcasnya Plenik) Russian film about the relationship between a captured Russian soldier and his chechen captor


I'm pretty sure all these films can be found at imdb.com

johnny_ultimate

rahim wrote:

'Brick' is an Indie American film as far as I'm aware. That's foreign to me and judging by the Location of the OP it is to him too.
Also, I'm aware that by foreign the OP probably meant films not from Hollywood as we know it. I think 'Brick' deserves a mention under these circumstances.

I suppose one can look at it this way, but I usually consider foreign as non-American. That's just me.
But anyway... check out Brick - it's great no matter the language

egan007

Crazy

Galvasean

When people say 'foreign' I assume they mean foreign language. Otherwise practically every film worth seeing is foreign (other than the handfull of good irish films).

Hagakure_irl

Last life in the Universe. Or Ruang rak noi nid mahasan

is_that_so

A few more.
Nóz w wodzie(Knife in the Water) Original version of Dead Calm, Polanski film.
The Tin Drum
El Espíritu de la colmena( Spirit of the Beehive)
Also if you can get your hands on the Spanish mini-series of El Quijote de Miguel de Cervantes with Fernando Rey. A lot of fun.

rahim

johnny_ultimate wrote:

But anyway... check out Brick - it's great no matter the language

Agreed.

Karl Hungus

Some great films being suggested already, so I'll just throw in Das Experiment, which is from the same director as The Downfall. Definetly worth a look.

Cake Fiend

Abre los Ojos
Das Boot
Nightwatch
Juhong geulshi / The Scarlet Letter
Letters from Iwo Jima (Hollywood, but a foreign language)

Zaph

I'm surprised the Three Colours (Blue, White, Red) trilogy hasn't been mentioned yet. Excellent films.

I haven't seen it yet, but I hear Tsotsi is very good too.

calex71

been mentioned already but ill throw me weight behind "la haine" and "city of god" also 2 of my all time favorites. Irreversible was a great french movie (great maybe the wrong word considering the subject matter - not a happy movie at all) very well acted.

Someone else mentioned "nightwatch" excellcent special effects, i enjoyed the sequal more though.

Also i really liked the "death note" movies based on the anime series.

Others that come to mind ..... amores perros, anatomie, antibodies, the ordeal, battle in heaven, oh and i have to mention the infernal affairs trilogy much better than the departed (which was the american remake of it)
bittersweet life , tale of two sisters.

I started looking at my dvd collection as i'm typing so this could go on all day but has made me realise how many movies i want to watch again

Kintarō Hattori

Personal favourites of mine would be:

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Il Postino
Once Were Warriors
Audition
Run Lola Run
Amelie
Goodbye Lenin
Jean de Florette
Manon des Sources
Battle Royale
Pan's Labyrinth
The Devil's Backbone
Life Is Beautiful
Hard Boiled
Das Boot
Y Tu Mama Tambien

Wacker

Le Salarie de la Peur (I don't speak French, apologiesif that is totally wrong.) Better known as the Wages of Fear. Some seriously intense tension contained within.

biko

Together is a brilliant film!

Check out The Green Butchers

Galvasean

johnny_ultimate wrote:

But anyway... check out Brick - it's great no matter the language

*strongly disagrees* Of course this debate has been had before.

jackdaw

Hagakure_irl wrote:

Last life in the Universe. Or Ruang rak noi nid mahasan

anyone recommend good Japanese films that aren't ASIA EXTREME ?

Galvasean

jackdaw wrote:

anyone recommend good Japanese films that aren't ASIA EXTREME ?

Akira? oh wait..

Karl Hungus

jackdaw wrote:

anyone recommend good Japanese films that aren't ASIA EXTREME ?

Not sure did you mean to reply to Hagakure_irl's post, but Last Life In The Universe isn't on the Asia Extreme label.

Anyway, there was a few Japanese films mentioned already in this thread. I'd second recommendations of Takeshi Kitano's films; Kikujiro, Hana-Bi, Dolls, and so forth. He's an incredibly film-maker. Also try Yoji Yamada's Twilight Samurai and The Hidden Blade.

I can't recommend highly enough that you see the films of Akira Kurosawa, if you've not already. You might also want to check out the films of Shunji Iwai, and if you're into animated films, you probably cannot get better than Hayao Miyazaki's films.

There's a hell of a lot of Japanese films, so if you want a more specific recommendation, then you'd be best of telling us what sort of films you're mainly into.

Petey2006

In The Mood For Love
2046
Chungking Express
Princess Mononoke
The Seventh Seal
Le Samourai
The Battle of Algiers
Spoorloos (The Vanishing)
Der Untergang (Downfall)
Idi I Smotri (Come and See)
Taegukgi (Brotherhood)

Dont be at yourself

Tampopo - honestly, it's the most overlooked Asian movie.

Also, The Waterboys, if you're looking for a light-hearted comedy.

calex71

jackdaw wrote:

anyone recommend good Japanese films that aren't ASIA EXTREME ?

Korea has some of the best movies ive ever seen

treefingers

as pretty much all my favourites have been mentioned by one person or another, i'll just throw my 2cents in regarding brick. i thought it was terrible! puts me in the minority here it would seem...

johnny_ultimate

jackdaw wrote:

anyone recommend good Japanese films that aren't ASIA EXTREME ?

My Neighbour Totoro
A film so beautifully innocent it takes away from the extreme natures of others.
But those Tartan films contain many of the finest Asian films of recent years. I have to second Chunking Express (not extreme at all) too - excellent film.

adonis

some good ones in ugc at the moment - all french --

tell no one
la vie en rose
moliere...

also indigenes or days of glory (in english) is class

JoeSchmoe

The man without a past, quirky Finnish movie with a Black sense of humour

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311519/

adonis

oh another one...isnt really foreign but it might as well be - anything by david lynch...

1huge1

'The lives of others' was very impressive

original title in German: Das Leben der Anderen

shatners basoon

Yeah it was very good alright, its probably not out on dvd yet though. If you liked that you should watch coppollo's The Conversation with Gene Hackman, one of my favourite films ever.

One that im not sure wheter its been mentioned that got rereleased this/last year is I am Cuba - masterpiece in film making. http://imdb.com/title/tt0058604/

If you're not put off by slow films (watch kitano's hana bi (previously recommended) to see!) then spring, summer, autumn, winter... and spring is well worth a look. http://imdb.com/title/tt0374546/

if you like the asian stuff also check out Public Enemy (decent twist on the dirty harryesque vigilate cop) http://imdb.com/title/tt0306909/
and especially memoirs of a murder http://imdb.com/title/tt0353969/ by the same guy that did the host - Joon-ho Bong.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

SpitfireIV

1huge1 wrote:

'The lives of others' was very impressive

original title in German: Das Leben der Anderen

Agreed!! Das Leben der Anderen was excellent I thought, really loved the movie, the soundtrack and the main character Wiesler, he played some part!!

Placebo

calex71 wrote:

Korea has some of the best movies ive ever seen

no they dont, name atleast 10. Theyre full of their pop bull block buster girl/boy love releases. they have an odd good one


anyway brick is awful i thought.
as mentioned before,
Delicatessen
City of God
The whole mr venegence/oldboy/miss vengence series
Casshern [maybe]


for japenese/chinese/korean , i apparently have two threads asking the same
2005
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=277320&referrerid=&highlight=japenese

2006
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054904841&highlight=japenese

Karl Hungus

Placebo wrote:

no they dont, name atleast 10. Theyre full of their pop bull block buster girl/boy love releases. they have an odd good one

That's a ridiculous statement, the poster is saying that Korea has some of the best movies he's ever seen.

Certainly, Korean films aren't above fault, and there's been quite a few formulaic horror films churned out by their movie industry, but on the whole, I'd have to agree that some of the best movies from recent years have come from Korea, and I'll name more than just 10.

(Some of these are fairly obvious ones, so bear with me)
Oldboy
Lady Vengeance
Sympathy For Mr Vengeance
Joint Security Area
The Host
Memories Of Murder
Save The Green Planet
A Tale Of Two Sisters
Brotherhood
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring (That's 10 there)
3-Iron
A Bittersweet Life
Crying Fist
The Quiet Family
Welcome To Dongmakgol
Public Enemy
Chihwaseon
Failan
The Isle
The Warrior

I'm sure there's loads there I'm missing, but never mind.

Placebo

personally i think theve released more junk than masterpieces recently. I mean sure you can call 3-Iron a master piece but i found it ridiculously boring, il probably say the same for S,S,A,W,S. From my personal experience everytime i read up on http://www.koreanfilm.org, anything the cinema recently has to offer is bland, i mean i certainly did not like the Host. If that was an english film it would have been classes as rubbish.
in contrast movies associated with japan seem to be a bit more attractive. Obviously there are the select few korean ones that are great but i just meant in general theres heaps on crap that i sat through recently

Karl Hungus

Placebo wrote:

personally i think theve released more junk than masterpieces recently. I mean sure you can call 3-Iron a master piece but i found it ridiculously boring, il probably say the same for S,S,A,W,S. From my personal experience everytime i read up on http://www.koreanfilm.org, anything the cinema recently has to offer is bland, i mean i certainly did not like the Host. If that was an english film it would have been classes as rubbish.
in contrast movies associated with japan seem to be a bit more attractive. Obviously there are the select few korean ones that are great but i just meant in general theres heaps on crap that i sat through recently

I was with you up untill this part:

Placebo wrote:

If that was an english film it would have been classes as rubbish.

You thought 3-Iron and SSAWS were boring? Fair enough, I'd hardly say they were films for everyone, and if you didn't enjoy them, then fair enough. Same goes for The Host. But this absolute rubbish about "If it were in english..." really grinds my gears. Face it, we never hear anyone saying "Oh, you only liked Hot Fuzz because it was English" and with good reason, because it's a ****ing ridiculous thing to say.

Placebo

i just dont know why people particularly like the host tbh. I just feel that some people like it for the sole reason of it being a foreign film.

Capt'n Midnight

I don't think these have been posted so

Nói albinói
¡Vampiros en La Habana!
Mr Vampire
Sophie's World
Metropolis
Münchhausen (the 1943 version made in Germany)
The Butterfly Murders