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What are the essential non-English movies to watch

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Maybe not essential, but a good movie nonetheless.
 
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Existential crusader searches for the meaning of life and God in plague-ridden Europe while playing a game of chess with Death
 
I'm Italian so I'll focus on that.
Off the top of my head:

- La Strada
- Le notti di Cabiria (the bitter sweet story of a happy-go-lucky prostitute, and how reality repeatedly crushes her)
- 8 1/2
- Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (a high ranking police officer commits a violent crime, and explores just how much he can get away with due to his rank)
- La Grande Guerra
- C'eravamo tanto amati
- L'armata Brancaleone (a decade before Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the original medieval comedy masterpiece)
- Suspiria
- Ladri di Biciclette
- Lo Chiamavano Jeeg Robot (a pulp superhero movie set in modern day Rome, with a villain that puts Marvel's bad guys to shame)

As a bonus, a Japanese movie I watched recently and absolutely adored: Woman in the Dunes
dunes4.jpg
 

gabbo

Member
Red Cliff
Suspiria
City of Lost Children
Battle Royale
Man Bites Dog
Stalker
Come and See
Brotherhood of the Wolf
 

Carn82

Member
That's a very broad range offcourse. What are you interested in genrewise?

Pretty recent stuff like Amour, Das Weisse Band, un prophete, incendies, toni erdman, The handmaiden, The Broken Circle Breakdown, Son of Saul, Bullshead, ... are pretty good starting places.

Great choices! But a lot of heavy stuff, I'll add Amelie and La Grande Bellezza. Intouchables is also worthwhile. I also love
Y Tu Mamá También. Delicatessen is also a great dark comedy. Wild Tales was also great, an Argentinian movie with six short, funny but also dark stories about revenge. Back to the heavy stuff, Jachten (The Hunt) was very impressive.
 

jon_i634

Banned
Some of my personal favorite non-English directors:

Alejandro Jodorowsky
Abbas Kiarostami
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Andrei Tarkovsky
Ingmar Bergman

Lots of quality work among them.
 
YES
El Topo and Holy Mountain+++++

I'd also add Santa Sangre to that list, gorgeous film (and extremely fucked up).

I'm a fan of Godard and Fellini, 8 1/2 blew my mind first time I saw it. For Godard the popular pick is Breathless (which is fantastic), but Alphaville is some shit, great neo-noir dystopian flick.

I need to bone up on my Japanese palette, only bigguns I've seen being Ran and Seven Samurai. Want to explore Ozu's work in particular, any specific recommends for him?
 
Fellini's Satyricon is a really interesting and strange movie. Essentially a man's journey through Rome during the first century AD. It's more of a series of vignettes so you get a nice variety of unique themes and situations. The Rome in the movie is definitely not 100% historically accurate and it has a surreal quality throughout.
 

Nafai1123

Banned
Lot's of great suggestions in here. I would like to also add Trollhunter from Norway. May look like a b-rated horror flick, but it's actually really good.
 
I really want to watch A Woman in the Dunes but having discovered Kobo Abe just last year I'd like to read his material first then see the film.
 
Fellini's Satyricon is a really interesting and strange movie. Essentially a man's journey through Rome during the first century AD. It's more of a series of vignettes so you get a nice variety of unique themes and situations.

I really enjoyed this one, used to be on Netflix, might still be. The photography is gorgeous, many scenes capture that sort of light seen in Rembrandt paintings. The architecture of the sets is somewhat Cubist, gives off a pretty unique atmosphere amidst the backdrop of ancient Rome.
 

Hypron

Member
One of my favourite French movies:

la-haine-poster.gif


I'll also agree with the Jacques Audiard recommendation. His movies are great (and De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté is such a cool-sounding title).
 
^Still need to watch La Haine, keep hearing good things about that on here, and love me some Cassel.

Another I'd recommend is Dogtooth. All kinds of messed up with themes of social programming, obediance to "authority", and just generally surreal as hell. Very well made. That director's more recent film was The Lobster, the one with Colin Farrell.

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Borgman is another in a similar vein, more hypnosis and pseudo mystic aspects going on. Need to give it a rewatch, not a hand holder this one.

 

glow

Banned
400 Blows (French) and City of God (Portuguese) are absolute must-see films.

This thread is a little too generous with the Asian movie recommendations. I'm seeing a lot of good ones but they're far from essential viewing.
 

Tempy

don't ask me for codes
Great suggestions. Here's a couple I liked:

Delicatessen - French dark comedy set in a post-apocalyptic world where the local butcher serves some special meat.


Man Bites Dog (C'est arrivé près de chez vous) - Belgian black comedy mockumentary where a film crew follows a serial killer, and slowly get involved in the crimes themselves.


Leolo - French Canadian, coming of age tale about a young boy, raised in a dysfunctional family, copes by fantasizing way too much (this includes thinking his mother was inseminated by a tomato).

 
I really enjoyed this one, used to be on Netflix, might still be. The photography is gorgeous, many scenes capture that sort of light seen in Rembrandt paintings. The architecture of the sets is somewhat Cubist, gives off a pretty unique atmosphere amidst the backdrop of ancient Rome.
Kind of want to get the Bluray now that I think of it. I was amazed at a VHS of it I saw 20 years ago and I bet it would look really nice remastered. I most remember that massive red light district in the beginning. That place was pretty far-out and a spectacle that kept with me.
 

Carn82

Member
Lot's of great suggestions in here. I would like to also add Trollhunter from Norway. May look like a b-rated horror flick, but it's actually really good.

Trolljagern is great, I really enjoyed that. Also, Låt den rätte komma In (Let The Right One In) is also fantastic.
 

PudieRSC

Member
I've kind of fallen off on watching foreign stuff, but ...


* Oldboy
* In the Mood For Love
* Hero
* Let the Right One In
*City of God

From there just find directors you like and dig into their catalog.
 
I'm Italian so I'll focus on that.
Off the top of my head:

- La Strada
- Le notti di Cabiria (the bitter sweet story of a happy-go-lucky prostitute, and how reality repeatedly crushes her)
- 8 1/2
- Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (a high ranking police officer commits a violent crime, and explores just how much he can get away with due to his rank)
- La Grande Guerra
- C'eravamo tanto amati
- L'armata Brancaleone (a decade before Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the original medieval comedy masterpiece)
- Suspiria
- Ladri di Biciclette
- Lo Chiamavano Jeeg Robot (a pulp superhero movie set in modern day Rome, with a villain that puts Marvel's bad guys to shame)

As a bonus, a Japanese movie I watched recently and absolutely adored: Woman in the Dunes
dunes4.jpg

^

+

Uomini contro
Il conformista
I pugni in tasca
La classe operaia va in paradiso
Roma città aperta
 
If you want a list of essential foreign films to get into world cinema, here's a strong range of different countries and decades. Watch this stuff, then you can move on and explore. Enjoy the journey - working my way through film history has been one of the greatest pleasures of my life.

The Bicycle Thief - Italian, 1948
Rashomon - Japanese, 1950
The Seventh Seal - Swedish, 1957
Breathless - French, 1962
Closely Observed Trains - Czech, 1967
El Topo - Mexico, 1970
Aguirre, The Wrath of God - German, 1972
The Spirit of the Beehive - Spain, 1973
Chungking Express - Hong Kong, 1994
A Taste of Cherry - Iran, 1997
 
Harakiri
The Decalogue
Seven Samurai
Pierrot le Fou
Late Spring
Ikiru
The Young Girls of Rochefort
Memories of Murder
Monsieur Hulot's Holiday
Rashomon
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
The Legend of Drunken Master
Werckmeister Harmonies
Sword of Doom
The Double Life of Veronique
A Man Escaped
Stalker
Hiroshima Mon Amour
High and Low
A Separation
Playtime
Love Exposure
Kung Fu Hustle
Police Story
Mustang

ZjMlWO5.jpg

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
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The Double Life of Veronique
 
Sholay (1975) is an essential Hindi movie and a fun action adventure. If you are into spaghetti westerns it has a similar vibe as those. I remember digging the songs as well.
 
Japanese movies

Ran
Throne of Blood
Rashomon
Ikiru
High and Low
Tokyo Story
Departures
After Life
Like father, like son
Poetry

Italian movies

Umberto D.
Una Giornata Particolare

French movies

l'Appartement
Garde a vue
Etre et avoir
Ne le dis a personne
Rififi
Le trou
Les diaboliques
Le silence de la mer
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc

German movies

Metropolis
Das Leben der Anderen
Das Cabinet des dr. Caligari

Scandinavian movies

Let the right one in
Insomnia
Headhunters
Smultronstallet

Spanish language

El orfanato
El secreto de sus ojos

Arthouse movies

The story of the weeping camel
Koyaanisqatsi

Anime

Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke
Ghost in the Shell

I could make the list a lot longer but these are my essential titles. But the preference of movies is very personal so try every movie Gaf suggests because Gaf has good taste.
 
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