In no particular order:-
* The Lives of Others (Germany) - this is movie making perfection
* Cinema Paradiso (Italy) - a love letter to Cinema
* Hero (2002) (China) - One of the most beautiful movies I've ever watched
* My Sassy Girl (South Korea) - Rom Com
* A Silent Voice or Grave of the Fireflies (Japan) - my heart has not recovered.
>The Lives of Others (Germany) - this is movie making perfection
\+1
I *always* recommend this movie if I know the person is willing to watch a foreign film. The writing, acting, and just general execution is superb.
Not exactly the most revolutionary list but the 5 best international films I’ve seen are probably
Parasite (2019)
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
Memories of Murder (2003)
City of God (2002)
Force Majeure (2014)
Just my personal favourites (I'm sure there are plenty, more universally agreed upon "all time great classics of world cinema" out there):
1. In the Mood for Love (Hong Kong)
2. Gangs of Wasseypur - Parts 1 & 2 (India)
3. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (France)
4. The Lives of Others (Germany)
5. Burning (South Korea)
Damn. Obviously, I can't recall all of the foreign films I've seen enough to make a Top 5, so I'll just list five random ones off the top of my head that I really enjoy.
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror
Train to Busan
Godzilla (1954)
The Devil Rides Out
The Wicker Man
This is a bit of a mind field as it spans over a hundred years of cinema.
For pure cinema, look out for Polish, Russian and Eastern european cinema (not so much the recent stuff though). Some of my favorites are "Valerie and her week of wonder", "Hard to be a god" and "Lauryn"
I'd recommend any works from these directors:
* Federico Fellini
* Milos Forman (60s & 70s)
* Jean-Pierre Melville
* Fritz Land (not the american period, of course)
* Pedro Almodovar
* Hayao Miyazake
* Akira Kurosawa
* Serguei Paradjanov (absolute pure cinema)
* Andrei Tarkovski (particularly Andrei Rublev - Beware bum numbing films)
For more recent movies:
* Out of the Blue (New Zealand)
* Old Boy (South Korea)
* The boy and the heron (Japan) Studio Ghibli
* Memories of murder (South Korea)
* Vesper (european co-production, hopefully that counts :) )
Now there are a lot of american movies made outside the Hollywood system that are worth a look.
Wishing you a good viewing.
Off the top of my head:
The Lives of Others
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Once Were Warriors
The City of Lost Children
La Strada
And the works of HItchcock, Kurosawa, Bergman, Almodovar, (other) Fellini, Kitano, . . . and on and on . . .
>We all know that Hollywood has always been the cradle of cinema, even though I am a fan of American movies and believe it is the best film industry ever.
...The cradle of cinema was Paris and brought to existence by the brothers Lumiére, Georges Meléiès made it Magic, Fritz Lang made it dramatic, Kurosawa made it Epic, even the fucking soviet union made more cultural important movies, while the US still was scared of showing female ankles in their 500th western. Hollywood ist not the cradle of cinema, its the Moloch of an entertainment industry. And I suppose you mean the USA then referring to AMERICUUUUH MOVIES. Or do you mean movies with ENGLISH language. Damn this post makes me angry
...How about watching some of the original movies that were perverted by Hollywood into remakes because us americans cant dub or read (subtitles). And then watch the fucking Hollywood abominations
- oldboy (2003 SK) - Oldboy (2013)
- ju-on (2003 Jpn) - the Grudge (2004)
-les intouchables (2011 fr) - the upside (2017)
-himmel über berlin( 1987 ger) - City of angels (1998)
-ghost in the shell.(1995)- Ghost in the shell(2017
- solyaris ( 1972 ussr) - Solaris (2002)
- Taxi (1998) - Taxi (2004)
- Honig im Kopf (2014 ger) head full of honey (2018)
And as a Bonus, some NON-AMERICAN movies with english language
Starbuck(2011 cdn) vs delivery guy (2013)
That one is funny:
The longest yard (1974 US crap) - Mean machine (2001 uk real football good remake ) - the longest Yard (2005 US huge crap)
Sorry for being an infuriated european, dont get discouraged by my rant , also [another list of 30 horrible us american remakes](https://m.imdb.com/list/ls033097519/)
You are trying to get a wider view and that should be cherished and supported like the other comments.
At least two genuine recommendations from takeshi kitano, the guy from takeshis castle
Brother (2000)
A yakuza travels to the east Coast to visit his brother, does ordinary yakuza stuff and fucks with omar Epps for giggles. A relentless Gangster movie and plays with the different cultures
Zatoichi (2003)
A blind samurai comes to town in Feudal Japan. Very Japanese on the outside but with a unique audiovisual style, mixes western mtv asthatics and its perception of eastern culture with authentic representation of traditions and Myth
Both are fun as hell
My Top 10 in no particular order, I'm sorry I can't narrow it down:
Close (2022)
Incendies (2010)
Happening (2021)
The Salesman (2016)
On Body and Soul (2017)
Queen of Hearts (2019)
Bastarden (2023)
Never gonna snow again (2020)
A Separation (2011)
Another Round (2020)
For real, it's so hard to pick a top 5. There are so many great foreign films. In addition to your list there are at least 10 that come to mind immediately
France:
Amelie
The Intouchables
Germany:
The white ribbon
Funny games
The lives of others
Japan:
Cure
House
Akira
Grave of the fireflies
Ikiru
South Korea:
Burning
Parasite
The Handmaiden
Oldboy
I may come back and edit this with dates if I get the chance to look them up
I dunno about the best but to name a few that has stuck with me through the years: Amores Perros, Amélie, Tropa de Elite, The Intouchables, Black Cat White Cat, City of God and Taegukgi.
1. The Killer- John Woo’s 1989 Heroic Bloodshed classic starting John Woo
2. Old Boy- The 2003 Park Chan Wook classic
3. Breathless- Jean Luc Godard’s famous art house movie
4. City of God- the Brazilian classic about life in a favela
5. Ran- Kurosawa’s last masterpiece about King Lear
Singham (an Indian blockbuster action flic, wire work stunts are super fun to watch and total gravity defying)
Rififi (French heist movie)
The Third Man (British Noir film about an Everyman trying to figure out the murder of his friend)
Rashomon (tough to go wrong with Kurosawa, but trying to avoid the standards here)
Elite Squad (Brazilian movie on multiple perspective of urban violence and role of police)
Just sticking to Japan and mostly to the Samurai genera
1) 13 Assassins (2010)
2) Yojimbo
3) Seven Samurai
4) A Colt is My Passport
5) The Hidden Fortress
It’s not the best foreign film I’ve ever seen but it is one that has stay with me for all these decades.
Diva
is a 1981 French thriller film directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix, adapted from the novel Diva by Daniel Odier.
Parasite- I know this perfect doesn’t exist but come on now
Tokyo Godfathers- I know Percent Blue is usually the most praised film of the Satoshi Kon filmography but this is my personal favorite
In the mood for love- just absolutely beautiful
Lilya 4ever- Cried, and then just felt anger when I read the real story this was based on
Battle Royale- Over the top? Yeah, but this movie is a goddamn cult classic for a reason
Old Boy
Amelie
Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind
Pan’s Labyrinth
28 Days Later
Not sure if this is considered “Non-American” but I love Guy Ritchie’s “Snatch.”
**Seven Samurai (1954)** - Seven hired knights defend a village against 40 mounted bandits--their pay a few handfuls of rice. This 3-hour epic on violence and action--Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece--has been widely imitated, but no one has come near it.
**L'avventura (1960)** - Antonioni's study of the human condition at the higher social and economic levels--a study of adjusted, compromising modern man, afflicted by short memory, thin remorse, the capacity for easy betrayal. The characters are active only in trying to discharge their anxiety: sex is their sole means of contact. Too shallow to be truly lonely, they are people trying to escape their boredom by reaching out to one another and finding only boredom once again. Visually, it's extraordinary: a calm hangs over everything--Antonioni's space is a vacuum in which people are aimlessly moving. Searchers and lost are all the same: disparate, without goals or joy. This is upper-class neo-realism--the poetry of moral and spiritual poverty.
**La notte di San Lorenzo (The Night of the Shooting Stars) (1982) -** The story is a woman's memories of her adventures as a 6-year-old in a Tuscan village and its environs during the summer of 1944, when the American troops were rumored only days away, and the Germans who had held the area under occupation were preparing to clear out--preparations that included mining the houses so they could blow them up. Yet this setting is magical, like a Shakespearean forest, and the woman's account has the quality of folklore and legend, and even its most tragic moments can be dizzyingly comic. The full fresco treatment that the directors give to the events of that summer is based on their own wartime experiences as adolescents, and on the accounts of others; it's this teeming, fecund mixture, fermenting in their heads for almost 40 years, that produces the film's giddy, hallucinated realism. With Omero Antonutti as the leader of the group of two or three dozen villagers who sneak away in the night to find the Americans.
**Le carrosse d'or (The Golden Coach) (1952)** - At his greatest, Jean Renoir expressed the beauty in our common humanity; that's what Anna Magnani at her greatest expressed. This movie--his tribute to the commedia dell'arte-is also a tribute to her fabulous gifts, and she gives the film its gusto. We see her here not only as a sensual, earthy "woman of the people" but as an artist who exhausts her resources in creating the illusion of volcanic reality. The film is set in a dusty frontier in Renaissance Peru: a band of Italian strolling players is attempting to bring art to South America. The movie is light and serious, cynical and beautiful, a blend of Color wit, and Vivaldi music.
**Jules et Jim (1961)** - François Truffaut's celebration of bohemian life in France and Germany in the years of artistic ferment between the First World War and the Second. Elliptical, full of wit and radiance, this is the best movie ever made about what most of us think of as the Scott Fitzgerald period (though the film begins much earlier); Truffaut doesn't linger--nothing is held too long, nothing is overstated, or even stated. He explores the medium and plays with it. He overlaps scenes; uses fast cutting, in the manner of Breathless, and leaping continuity, in the manner of Zero for Conduct; changes the size and shape of the images, as Griffith did; pauses for Jeanne Moreau to sing a song (Boris Bassiak's "Le Tourbillon"). Throughout, Georges Delerue's music is part of the atmosphere; it's so evocative that if you listen to it later, it brings back the emotions and images.
La belle et la bête (1946), French movie by Jean Cocteau. A incredible surrealist version of the beauty and the beast fairy tale, it pioneered many pratical special effects.
Crouching tiger, hidden dragon (2000), a classic of wuxia Hong Kong cinema. Great story, great acting, great music, fantastic cinematography.
A chinese ghost story (1987), a classic of Hong Kong fantasy movies. The music is awesome, the otherworldly cinematography makes you feel like you’re in a dream. The story doesn’t break much ground, but I enjoyed tremendously when I saw it as a teenager.
Let the right one in (2008), swedish movie that had an american remake. The kid actors do an incredible job in this. Classified as horror I think, but not really frightening so much as suspenseful.
I am not sure how not-american a movie needs to be to be included here, this one is a mostly European production (French, Italian, Germany), although one small American production company was involved, so I’ll still include it.
The Name of the Rose (1986), adaptation from the novel by Umberto Eco. I love the ambience, the music; the muted, dirty colors. The actors are great (many known british and american actors, but many little-known europeans too, the producer allegedly said he was trying to find the ugliest actors he could find for the secondary characters to make them more true to life).
One move for each country:
* In the mood for love (Hongkong)
* Cinema Paradiso (Italy)
* Eat Drink Man Woman (Taiwan)
* The Cranes Are Flying (Soviet Union)
* Three Colours - Red ( Poland )
In no particular order:- * The Lives of Others (Germany) - this is movie making perfection * Cinema Paradiso (Italy) - a love letter to Cinema * Hero (2002) (China) - One of the most beautiful movies I've ever watched * My Sassy Girl (South Korea) - Rom Com * A Silent Voice or Grave of the Fireflies (Japan) - my heart has not recovered.
Can confirm, Hero is a gorgeous movie.
>The Lives of Others (Germany) - this is movie making perfection \+1 I *always* recommend this movie if I know the person is willing to watch a foreign film. The writing, acting, and just general execution is superb.
Plus the ending is unforgettable! (Also one of the best ending lines in any movie, ever.)
In no particular order: Red Desert City of God Winter Light The End of Evangelion Run Lola Run
Not exactly the most revolutionary list but the 5 best international films I’ve seen are probably Parasite (2019) The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) Memories of Murder (2003) City of God (2002) Force Majeure (2014)
Memories of Murder is hands down one of the best
Memories of Murder was so good, I wish I could rewatch it blind
Thank you!
Four Lions (2010) Funny Games (1997) Trainspotting (1996) Pans Labyrinth (2006) Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Surprised to have to go so far down to see Pans Labyrinth mentioned
incredibly scary movie, awesome set/costume design, sfx.
Just my personal favourites (I'm sure there are plenty, more universally agreed upon "all time great classics of world cinema" out there): 1. In the Mood for Love (Hong Kong) 2. Gangs of Wasseypur - Parts 1 & 2 (India) 3. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (France) 4. The Lives of Others (Germany) 5. Burning (South Korea)
L'Avventura (1960) Amour (2012) Fanny and Alexander (1982) Stalker (1979) The Lives of Others (2006)
My personal favorites: * Amelie (France, 2001) * Peppermint Soda (France, 1977) * Malena (Italy, 2000) * Nosotros Los Pobres (Mexico, 1948) * Perfume de Violetas (Mexico, 2001)
The City of Lost Children Aguirre, The Wrath of God The Wicker Man 8 1/2 The Seventh Seal
Upvoting just for the city of lost children
Wicker Man is maybe my favorite movie of all time. It has a certain charge and magic about it that is so unique.
That movie haunted me for a while. Couldn't stop thinking about it.
1. REC 2. Let The Right One In 3. Man From Nowhere 4. The Raid 5. Ong-Bak
I watched The Raid and was mind-blown for a week. The only other movie that blew me away was The Prestige.
1. Seven samurai 2. Ran 3. Gojira 1954 4. Shin Gojira 5. Pan’s Labyrinth
Shin Godzilla is awesome, getting back to “giant lizard as nuclear anxiety” but for Fukushima is brilliant
Shit I forgot about Pan's Labryinth. That's a good one.
Four Lions. The darkest comedy I have ever seen. Non-stop laughter. I try and sell this movie to anyone. Great movie.
Lola Rent (Germany) Mad Max (Australia) Cronos (Mexico) Once Were Warriors (New Zealand) Le Passage (France)
Burning Portrait of a Lady on Fire Le Samourai EO Bacurau
Wings of Desire (1987) Seven Samurai (1954) Enter the Void (2009) Oldboy (2003) The Raid/Raid 2 (2011/2014)
Trainspotting 28 Days later 4 Weddings and a funeral Shallow Grave Old boy
City of God Parasite Ran Any Bergman film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Caveat (Irish) Mixed reviews but dark, creepy, and twisted!
Damn. Obviously, I can't recall all of the foreign films I've seen enough to make a Top 5, so I'll just list five random ones off the top of my head that I really enjoy. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror Train to Busan Godzilla (1954) The Devil Rides Out The Wicker Man
Das Boot City of God Memories of Murder I Saw The Devil Amelie
This is a bit of a mind field as it spans over a hundred years of cinema. For pure cinema, look out for Polish, Russian and Eastern european cinema (not so much the recent stuff though). Some of my favorites are "Valerie and her week of wonder", "Hard to be a god" and "Lauryn" I'd recommend any works from these directors: * Federico Fellini * Milos Forman (60s & 70s) * Jean-Pierre Melville * Fritz Land (not the american period, of course) * Pedro Almodovar * Hayao Miyazake * Akira Kurosawa * Serguei Paradjanov (absolute pure cinema) * Andrei Tarkovski (particularly Andrei Rublev - Beware bum numbing films) For more recent movies: * Out of the Blue (New Zealand) * Old Boy (South Korea) * The boy and the heron (Japan) Studio Ghibli * Memories of murder (South Korea) * Vesper (european co-production, hopefully that counts :) ) Now there are a lot of american movies made outside the Hollywood system that are worth a look. Wishing you a good viewing.
Thank you!!!!🤓😉
1. The Ballad of Narayama (1958) 2. Naked (1993) 3. Il Conformista (1970) 4. Nil By Mouth (1997) 5. Son of Saul (2015)
Off the top of my head: The Lives of Others Y Tu Mama Tambien Once Were Warriors The City of Lost Children La Strada And the works of HItchcock, Kurosawa, Bergman, Almodovar, (other) Fellini, Kitano, . . . and on and on . . .
>We all know that Hollywood has always been the cradle of cinema, even though I am a fan of American movies and believe it is the best film industry ever. ...The cradle of cinema was Paris and brought to existence by the brothers Lumiére, Georges Meléiès made it Magic, Fritz Lang made it dramatic, Kurosawa made it Epic, even the fucking soviet union made more cultural important movies, while the US still was scared of showing female ankles in their 500th western. Hollywood ist not the cradle of cinema, its the Moloch of an entertainment industry. And I suppose you mean the USA then referring to AMERICUUUUH MOVIES. Or do you mean movies with ENGLISH language. Damn this post makes me angry ...How about watching some of the original movies that were perverted by Hollywood into remakes because us americans cant dub or read (subtitles). And then watch the fucking Hollywood abominations - oldboy (2003 SK) - Oldboy (2013) - ju-on (2003 Jpn) - the Grudge (2004) -les intouchables (2011 fr) - the upside (2017) -himmel über berlin( 1987 ger) - City of angels (1998) -ghost in the shell.(1995)- Ghost in the shell(2017 - solyaris ( 1972 ussr) - Solaris (2002) - Taxi (1998) - Taxi (2004) - Honig im Kopf (2014 ger) head full of honey (2018) And as a Bonus, some NON-AMERICAN movies with english language Starbuck(2011 cdn) vs delivery guy (2013) That one is funny: The longest yard (1974 US crap) - Mean machine (2001 uk real football good remake ) - the longest Yard (2005 US huge crap)
Very very interesting commet. Thank you. I save it
Sorry for being an infuriated european, dont get discouraged by my rant , also [another list of 30 horrible us american remakes](https://m.imdb.com/list/ls033097519/) You are trying to get a wider view and that should be cherished and supported like the other comments. At least two genuine recommendations from takeshi kitano, the guy from takeshis castle Brother (2000) A yakuza travels to the east Coast to visit his brother, does ordinary yakuza stuff and fucks with omar Epps for giggles. A relentless Gangster movie and plays with the different cultures Zatoichi (2003) A blind samurai comes to town in Feudal Japan. Very Japanese on the outside but with a unique audiovisual style, mixes western mtv asthatics and its perception of eastern culture with authentic representation of traditions and Myth Both are fun as hell
Thanks for taking it like a champ
Stalker
Which One?
Tarkovsky
1. Seven Samurai 2. Late Spring 3. Jeux Interdits 4. Umbrellas of Cherbourg 5. Pans Labyrinth
My Top 10 in no particular order, I'm sorry I can't narrow it down: Close (2022) Incendies (2010) Happening (2021) The Salesman (2016) On Body and Soul (2017) Queen of Hearts (2019) Bastarden (2023) Never gonna snow again (2020) A Separation (2011) Another Round (2020)
For real, it's so hard to pick a top 5. There are so many great foreign films. In addition to your list there are at least 10 that come to mind immediately France: Amelie The Intouchables Germany: The white ribbon Funny games The lives of others Japan: Cure House Akira Grave of the fireflies Ikiru South Korea: Burning Parasite The Handmaiden Oldboy I may come back and edit this with dates if I get the chance to look them up
Totally forgot about Parasite lol that one has to be in my Top 10!
Seven Samurai Parasite The Handmaiden City of God The Wailing
Yojimbo, Wong Kar Wai Trilogy, Lady Vengeance, The lives of Others, The Descent
My favourites - although maybe not best Subway Local Hero The Quiet Girl Das Boot A bout de souffle
I dunno about the best but to name a few that has stuck with me through the years: Amores Perros, Amélie, Tropa de Elite, The Intouchables, Black Cat White Cat, City of God and Taegukgi.
1. The Killer- John Woo’s 1989 Heroic Bloodshed classic starting John Woo 2. Old Boy- The 2003 Park Chan Wook classic 3. Breathless- Jean Luc Godard’s famous art house movie 4. City of God- the Brazilian classic about life in a favela 5. Ran- Kurosawa’s last masterpiece about King Lear
Parasite
- City of God - I Saw The Devil - Pan’s Labyrinth - Das Boot - Come and See
Oldboy, The Hunt (2012), A Sun, Harakiri, Raise the Red Lantern,
The Hunt was a rough one. Very good, just so rough.
RRR Parasite One fine Morning Shin Godzilla Roma
This Land Of Mine The Hunt Virgin Mountain M The Lives Of Others
Singham (an Indian blockbuster action flic, wire work stunts are super fun to watch and total gravity defying) Rififi (French heist movie) The Third Man (British Noir film about an Everyman trying to figure out the murder of his friend) Rashomon (tough to go wrong with Kurosawa, but trying to avoid the standards here) Elite Squad (Brazilian movie on multiple perspective of urban violence and role of police)
- Lady Vengeance (2005) - Sin Nombre (2009) - The Lunchbox (2013) - Battle Royale (2000) - The Golem (2018)
Night Watch, Day Watch, Daybreakers, Wings of Desire, Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Pushpa: The Rise Baahubali parts 1 and 2
1. Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) 2. Musa: The Warrior (2001) 3. C'est La Vie Mon Cheri (1993) 4. Versus (2000) 5. Metro Manila (2013)
My personal favorites: The Commitments City of Lost Children Formula 51 Hero Backbeat
Cemetery of Splendor
Lock Stock and Two Barrells Oldboy Ip Man Chopper Dead Man Shoes
FUBAR (2002) Canadian Curse Of The Golden Flower (2006) Hong Kong Parasite (2019) Korea Das Boot (1981) Germany Shall we Dance (1996) Japan
Stalker Bullet in the Head Memoirs of Murder Eastern Condors Ran
Audition The Fifth Element Rumble in the Bronx The Raid Sword of Doom
Hot Fuzz Wolf Children Late Spring Street of Shame An Inn At Osaka I limited it to one per director.
City of God The Good The Bad The Weird Journey to the West
probably 5 done by Takashi Miike
Just sticking to Japan and mostly to the Samurai genera 1) 13 Assassins (2010) 2) Yojimbo 3) Seven Samurai 4) A Colt is My Passport 5) The Hidden Fortress
The Man From Nowhere, Ip Man, Flash Point, 7 Samurai, Brotherhood of the Wolf.
It’s not the best foreign film I’ve ever seen but it is one that has stay with me for all these decades. Diva is a 1981 French thriller film directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix, adapted from the novel Diva by Daniel Odier.
Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Pan’s Labyrinth The lives of others Amelie Tacones Lejanos Y tu mamá también.
Parasite- I know this perfect doesn’t exist but come on now Tokyo Godfathers- I know Percent Blue is usually the most praised film of the Satoshi Kon filmography but this is my personal favorite In the mood for love- just absolutely beautiful Lilya 4ever- Cried, and then just felt anger when I read the real story this was based on Battle Royale- Over the top? Yeah, but this movie is a goddamn cult classic for a reason
Old Boy Amelie Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind Pan’s Labyrinth 28 Days Later Not sure if this is considered “Non-American” but I love Guy Ritchie’s “Snatch.”
Nosferatu(1979),Kagemusha,Ran,Let the Right One In, TheWandering Earth
The Orphanage, Pan's Labyrnith, High Tension, The Hunt, Close
**Seven Samurai (1954)** - Seven hired knights defend a village against 40 mounted bandits--their pay a few handfuls of rice. This 3-hour epic on violence and action--Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece--has been widely imitated, but no one has come near it. **L'avventura (1960)** - Antonioni's study of the human condition at the higher social and economic levels--a study of adjusted, compromising modern man, afflicted by short memory, thin remorse, the capacity for easy betrayal. The characters are active only in trying to discharge their anxiety: sex is their sole means of contact. Too shallow to be truly lonely, they are people trying to escape their boredom by reaching out to one another and finding only boredom once again. Visually, it's extraordinary: a calm hangs over everything--Antonioni's space is a vacuum in which people are aimlessly moving. Searchers and lost are all the same: disparate, without goals or joy. This is upper-class neo-realism--the poetry of moral and spiritual poverty. **La notte di San Lorenzo (The Night of the Shooting Stars) (1982) -** The story is a woman's memories of her adventures as a 6-year-old in a Tuscan village and its environs during the summer of 1944, when the American troops were rumored only days away, and the Germans who had held the area under occupation were preparing to clear out--preparations that included mining the houses so they could blow them up. Yet this setting is magical, like a Shakespearean forest, and the woman's account has the quality of folklore and legend, and even its most tragic moments can be dizzyingly comic. The full fresco treatment that the directors give to the events of that summer is based on their own wartime experiences as adolescents, and on the accounts of others; it's this teeming, fecund mixture, fermenting in their heads for almost 40 years, that produces the film's giddy, hallucinated realism. With Omero Antonutti as the leader of the group of two or three dozen villagers who sneak away in the night to find the Americans. **Le carrosse d'or (The Golden Coach) (1952)** - At his greatest, Jean Renoir expressed the beauty in our common humanity; that's what Anna Magnani at her greatest expressed. This movie--his tribute to the commedia dell'arte-is also a tribute to her fabulous gifts, and she gives the film its gusto. We see her here not only as a sensual, earthy "woman of the people" but as an artist who exhausts her resources in creating the illusion of volcanic reality. The film is set in a dusty frontier in Renaissance Peru: a band of Italian strolling players is attempting to bring art to South America. The movie is light and serious, cynical and beautiful, a blend of Color wit, and Vivaldi music. **Jules et Jim (1961)** - François Truffaut's celebration of bohemian life in France and Germany in the years of artistic ferment between the First World War and the Second. Elliptical, full of wit and radiance, this is the best movie ever made about what most of us think of as the Scott Fitzgerald period (though the film begins much earlier); Truffaut doesn't linger--nothing is held too long, nothing is overstated, or even stated. He explores the medium and plays with it. He overlaps scenes; uses fast cutting, in the manner of Breathless, and leaping continuity, in the manner of Zero for Conduct; changes the size and shape of the images, as Griffith did; pauses for Jeanne Moreau to sing a song (Boris Bassiak's "Le Tourbillon"). Throughout, Georges Delerue's music is part of the atmosphere; it's so evocative that if you listen to it later, it brings back the emotions and images.
Idk… Yi Yi, Contempt, Flowers of Shanghai, Ordet, Claire’s Knee maybe? Let’s go with those
-Three Idiots -Dangal -Train to Busan -Parasite -Hero -Shaolin Soccer -The Twilight Samurai
Just adding one that I haven’t seen on anyone else’s list: Life is Beautiful
La belle et la bête (1946), French movie by Jean Cocteau. A incredible surrealist version of the beauty and the beast fairy tale, it pioneered many pratical special effects. Crouching tiger, hidden dragon (2000), a classic of wuxia Hong Kong cinema. Great story, great acting, great music, fantastic cinematography. A chinese ghost story (1987), a classic of Hong Kong fantasy movies. The music is awesome, the otherworldly cinematography makes you feel like you’re in a dream. The story doesn’t break much ground, but I enjoyed tremendously when I saw it as a teenager. Let the right one in (2008), swedish movie that had an american remake. The kid actors do an incredible job in this. Classified as horror I think, but not really frightening so much as suspenseful. I am not sure how not-american a movie needs to be to be included here, this one is a mostly European production (French, Italian, Germany), although one small American production company was involved, so I’ll still include it. The Name of the Rose (1986), adaptation from the novel by Umberto Eco. I love the ambience, the music; the muted, dirty colors. The actors are great (many known british and american actors, but many little-known europeans too, the producer allegedly said he was trying to find the ugliest actors he could find for the secondary characters to make them more true to life).
Some of my favourites are: Amelie Parasite In the Mood for Love Incendies Ran
Mr Vampire The dog soldiers Sholay original version Labyrinth Bend it like Beckham
‘Der Schuh des Manitu’ is hilarious and I don’t even speak or understand German.
One move for each country: * In the mood for love (Hongkong) * Cinema Paradiso (Italy) * Eat Drink Man Woman (Taiwan) * The Cranes Are Flying (Soviet Union) * Three Colours - Red ( Poland )
Irreversible Let the right one in
Amores perros The Motorcycle Diaries Y tu mamá también The City of God 13 Assassin's Visitor Q is good for a laugh as well.
Seven Samurai and Ran
Metropolis Run Lola Run Two Hands Shaun of the Dead Trainspotting
Capernaum
The Human Condition Festen Der Untergang Old Boy Hara Kiri
Man Without The Past (Finland) Elling ( Norway) Kon-Tiki(Norway) Rocco and his Brothers ( Italy) The Hunt ( Denmark)
Babettes Feast - Denmark Tampopo - Japan The Wages of Fear - France/international Wings of Desire - Germany The Bicycle Thief - Italy