Posted on 12/19/2009 2:01:18 PM PST by randita
I really enjoyed the responses from last week's "What Are Your Favorite Movies Made Before 1950?" thread (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2406295/posts).
So here's another movie topic - favorite foreign language films of any era. (Hey, we need a pleasant distraction from the debacle going on in DC!)
If you know the date or even decade of the film and the language, please include it.
Thank you and enjoy!
Randita, there was a marvelous film on TMC’s weekly foreign films this week:
A Danish film called “Ordet” (The Word)directed by Theodore Dryer (Vampyr). It’s from 1955, and you will appreciate it, especially if you are Christian.
FYI, every Monday morning around 2 am est Turner Movie Classics plays a foreign film. If you have DVR, or a late-nighter like me, you will enjoy them.
They showed another excellent film a few months ago, can’t remember its name and can’t find it on Google. It was a Russian film directed by a woman who died young in the 70s. It was about two escaped Soviet soldiers who travel through the snow during WWII, hijack a family, hide in a barn and are shot. If anyone knows the name, please ping me. Thanks, malkee
Some of my personal favorites include:
Au revoir les enfants (1987)
Ran (1985)
Twist and Shout (1984)
La passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928)
The Seven Samurai (1954)
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Amelie (2001)
Das Boot (1981)
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Jules and Jim (1962)
Day for Night (1973)
Quite a few more, but those are the ones that jump out immediately.
Yancy
Ayn Rand’s “We The Living” with Rossanno Brasi and Alida Valli. Italian with English subtitles.
Ah, ya beat me to it.
I always loved “Rashomon,” but it is ripe for parody. Imagine a Seinfeld where Newman, Kramer, and Jerry discuss a certain element of their life from their differing perspectives.
Bread and Chocolate was great!
Il Postino - Italian - 1994
Good one. Hauer has always been one of my favorite actors.
Like Water for Chocolate was a good movie too. I saw that with my future wife on our second date.
"Goodbye, Lenin" by Wolfgang Becker from 2003 is a lovely little film.
"Orpheus" and "Beauty and the Beast" by Jean Cocteau are exquisitely beautiful.
Quest For Fire
From India, Satyajit Ray’s great trilogy “Pather Panchali” (Song of the Little Road), “Aparajito” (The Unvanquished) and “Apur Sansar” (The World of Apu).
From Wikipedia:
The films — completed between 1955 and 1959 —were based on the novels of the Bengali author Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. The original music for the trilogy was composed by Ravi Shankar. Produced on a shoestring budget using an amateur cast and crew, the trilogy was a milestone in Indian cinema. The three films went on to win many national and international awards, including three National Film Awards and seven awards from the Cannes, Berlin and Venice Film Festivals, and are today frequently listed among the greatest films of all time.
Getting ready to add my three favorite French films but scanning to see if any have been named. H/T to you for naming the most romantic French film! (There is no more romantic 3-second scene on film than Anouk Ami washing her stuntman husband's hair. Then the moron goes to bed with her and practically burns her leg with his cigar. When you go to be with Anouk Ami, you just don't need no cigar, IMO.)
Perhaps any of the Bollywood films should be added. I’ve only seen one, and while I can’t remember the name, the film was memorable.
Babettes Feast
Set in Denmark, Danish Language. Some Dialogue in French.
I don’t watch many movies and have not for some time. I did watch “A Dogs Life,” a Swedish language movie about a boy growing up in Sweden.
Most romantic: Un homme et une femme (A Man and a Woman)
Funniest: Le dîner de cons (The Dinner Game)
Best serious film: Coup de foudre (a.k.a., Entre nous)
The Dinner Game is the funniest movie I know in any language. You can watch it with subtitles and completely forget that you are reading subtitles. French films mentioned by others about which I have a particularly high opinion: Jules and Jim, of course, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, The Return of Martin Guerre, La femme Nikita; other unmentioned favorites: Indochine, Day for Night or anything by Truffaut (a big, artsy name who made down-to-earth, enjoyable films), Place Vendôme, La cage aux folles.
I saw a bit of “A Dog’s Life.” Looked to be a great movie.
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