Foreign language films, that is “non-English” to westerners, are generally ignored by American audiences. Many friends complain to me that “I don’t want to read subtitles”. It can be a little distracting to look away from the visual image, especially if it’s a well shot film. Unfortunately, the alternative is usually some pretty bad dubbing, by actors that sound like soap opera rejects.
However, there are so many great films not in English that I believe cinephiles are short-changing themselves if they ignore this largely untapped vault of cinema history. Not only have many of these films influenced many other filmmakers worldwide, but few American films have been able to make an equally artistic achievement, often diluting substance to be more appealing at the box office. Not receiving any assistance from governments or arts councils, western films are dependent on turning a profit. As a result, we end up with more formulaic films that executives estimate will please large audiences rather than unique artistic statements of a director’s personal vision. Foreign films seem less derivative and more unique on the whole, though made in much smaller numbers in the past, so the library of great films available on dvd may not be nearly as large. Here are my favorite 10 foreign language films.
10. Carmen (Carlos Suara, Spain, 1983)
Not the opera itself, but the flamenco dance version of Bizet’s classic opera. This, to me, is the best Spanish film I’ve seen, and my favorite dance film as well. Exciting throughout, it mirrors the story of Carmen in a dance troupe rehearsing to perform their flamenco version of Bizet’s opera. Choreography by star Antonio Gades, who worked with Suara on three dance films. In this, he’s looking for the perfect Carmen, and selects a young and inexperienced dancer, played by the gorgeous Laura del Sol, who begins to win his heart in spite of her lack of dancing skill. The scene featuring the rehearsal of a fight among rival factions in a tobacco factory, leading to a murder, is danced to pulsating perfection by about thirty female dancers, and is one of the most exciting dance sequences ever put on film.
9. Chungking Express/Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong, 1994)
Intended as one long film with three parts, but cut into two due to its length, this is Wong Kar-Wai’s crime action classic, a dazzling and hypnotic display of cinematic innovation. Wong loves to use hand-held cameras filming in city crowds, often with movement such as from a city bus. The result is sometimes blurry and streaked, often impressionistic; street crimes filmed this way show the viewer just how hard being an accurate witness can be. The second half of Chungking features infectious pop singer Faye Wong (she’s been compared to Bjork) as a diner waitress in her first film role, and she is effervescent, magnetic, and unforgettable. Usually with Wong, the film is the story, not the screenplay, as visuals take precedence over plot. These films inspired Tarentino’s Pulp Fiction, which is stylistically tame by comparison.
8. Salaam Bombay! (Mira Nair, India, 1988)
This was Mira Nair’s first feature film after making five documentaries, and it was inspired by Bombay’s street kids, whose indomitable spirit led to this film. She cast only three professional actors in this, and selected 24 actual street kids from over 150 that she had in a special six-week workshop to develop a believable cast for this film. The story is about Krishna, a young boy who delivers tea to the brothels in that district of Bombay, his friends, and the romance he develops for a young Nepalese girl they simply call Sweet Sixteen, who is brought to the brothel against her will. Largely funded by the governments of England and India, Nair used the profits from this film to build three centers for orphaned street kids, which has now grown to 17 in all over 20 years. This is one of the few works of art that has caused social changes.
7. Kolya (Jan Sverak, Czech Republic, 1996)
Oscar-winning heart warmer about an aging cellist, played by the director’s father Zdenek,who also wrote the screenplay. Formerly a concert cellist for the symphony, under Communism he is relegated to playing only funerals now, with little income as a result. A lifetime bachelor, he nonetheless agrees to marry for money, to help a Russian woman emigrate. and ends up with a terrific stepson as an unexpected bonus. Director Sverak chose young Andrei Chalimon for the title role after over 100 unsuccessful auditions, flying to Moscow to select him in person after a friend’s suggestion.
6. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, Italy, 1970)
This Italian classic is about the based on the Alberto Moravia novel about the dangers of conforming for selfish reasons, in this case with the Italian fascist government of Mussolini. Jean-Luis Trintingant’s best cinema role, as the everyman who just wants to succeed and be normal, but who ends up going to extremes at the behest of his government, feeling that if they ask a citizen to do something, then it must be morally acceptable. There are some famous shots here, such as using blowing leaves as a metaphor for death, often copied in later films. The cinematography by Vittorio Storraro is intimate and rich in dark colors, an effect he achieves by using only one color lab in Rome that he trusts. This film led to his being used by Coppola for the Godfather films, which this heavily influenced, and several Oscars for cinematography. Bertolucci later directed The Last Emperor, winner of nine Oscars, including picture and director.
5. City of God (Fernando Merielles with Katia Lund, Brazil, 2002)
Based on a true story of a photojournalist from the ghetto, this terrific crime drama has a documentary look and feel, and tells the all-too-true story of street gangs ruling with guns in Brazil’s worst slum, built for the homeless and given the ironic title. Not unnoticed, this received four Oscar nominations, including director and screenplay for Merielles, and the innovative cinematography of Cesar Charlone, which sometimes follows bullets to their destination. Visually quoted by Danny Boyle in Slumdog Millionaire, with a chicken running in front of kids down an alley which mimics the opening of City, whose film was obviously influenced by this one. Merielles hired photojournalist Katia Lund to assist in directing, as she had worked in this slum as a still photographer.
4. Jean de Florette/Manon de Sources (Claude Berri, France, 1986)
Released together but in two parts, and shown to audiences who could sit through both parts or return the next day for Manon. This French epic is that country’s most fully realized film, about small farmers in Provence and the importance of water and greed on all their lives. The first stars Gerard Depardieu, as an urbanite who inherits a small farm and decides to move his family there and attempt farming. Much of the success in that area is dependent on a reliable source of water, so this movie is about survival at its most basic. Manon continues the story with the next generation, with characters who were children in the first film. Yves Montand, at the end of his career, gives a wonderful performance as an elderly local landowner in his best film role.
3. Cinema Paradiso (Guiseppe Tornatore, Italy, 1988)
Oscar-winning heart-warming Italian romantic comedy about a kid growing up under the influence of a small town’s in Sicily’s cinema projectionist, who takes the child under his wing after his father fails to return from the war. We see how the movies shape his fantasies, influence his first romance, and give his life a purpose. Told largely in flashback as an adult just before returning to Sicily in the present day, as he grows up to be a movie director in Rome. Tornatore’s best works seem to beautobiographical in nature, and he shows us a Sicily unscathed by centuries of war, and of a simple people whose dreams are a large part of their daily lives.
2. The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1954)
Lengthy action epic about seven dishonored samurai helping a tiny village defend themselves against a gang of bandits. Even though this lengthy epic begins slowly, when the action comes we are shown not only valid military techniques for defeating a larger force, but Kurosawa films with a handheld camera in the middle of a rainstorm with thundering horses throwing mud, which seems to plunge the viewer into the middle of the battle. This b&w classic still looks modern, having influenced most action films since, and inspired the U.S. movies The Magnificent Seven and Battle Beyond the Stars.
1. Hero (Zhang Yimou, China, 2002)
Terrific action and a beautiful story, about three assassins and the King of Q’in. A local hero approaches the king with the weapons of three conspiring assassins that he’s killed to save the king. He then relates his story to the king, and you realize that this terrific screenplay has a few twists and turns. The action sequences are eye-popping, as Yimou employed a martial arts director for these. One of a swordsman in a library was used by Bose in a commercial for their cinema sound system. The top grossing film in Chinese history is the best yet for actor Jet Li and director Yimou, who directed the Olympic ceremonies in Beijing.
Lawrence José Sinclair
http://worldsbestfilms.blogspot.com
41 Comments
No Das Boot? Better than anything else on this list!
Good list; great comments. How about ‘Eat Drink Man Woman’ and ‘Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’?
I can’t imagine how anyone would call themselves a “cinephile” if they ignore all foreign language films. Anyway here are a few of my own favorites you could put on this type of list (along with many other solid titles suggested by others):
The Leopard
Nights of Cabiria
Rules of the Game
Battle Royale
Oldboy
A Prophet
Spirit of the Beehive
Army of Shadows
Battle of Algiers
I am looking for a nice foreign movie and I see City of God mentioned pretty often. I guess I will give it a try, thanks!
Well, it is a foreign movie (British), but how about “A Clockwork Orange” directed by Stanley Kubrick
Come on… that’s not really a foreign language now is it?
Interesting. Can never imagine Hero at #1 and the omitttance of Bergman’s classics, OldBoy etc..etc. Guess you’lll never find agreement on such a list.
I’ve been copiling Top 10 lists across nations @ http://cineinternational.blogspot.com/search/label/Top%2010
I have 3 to mention that are not this list : 1). “Au Revoir Les Enfants”, directed by Louis Malle (French) ; 2) “Battleship Potemkin”, directed by Sergei Einstein (Russian), 3). The Bicycle Thief, directed by Vittorio Da Saca (Italian). Honorable Mention : “Man Bites Dog”, directed by Benoit Poelvoorde (French)
Curse of the Golden Flower. An absolutely beautiful film.
How about the 7th Seal?
Where…is..THE SEVENTH SEAL!?
Didn’t see your post there. Completely agree, such a great film.
Agree. Persona, Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries and Fanny & Alexander are all top 10 caliber!
Anyone who thinks Hero is a better movie than Seven Samurai is an idiot; in fact, Hero isn't an even remotely decent film. It was more or less a CGI extravaganza designed for Western palates that carries the despicable message that totalitarianism and killing on a massive scale is justified so long as it unites people under one ruler. If you want to see a genuinely good film by director Zhang Yimou, then you need to see To Live (1994) and, while you're at it, check out his 1991 film, Raise the Red Lantern (2001). Hero is trash. I also have to agree wholeheartedly with someone who asked where Oldboy (2003) is. There can be no proper top ten films list that does not acknowledge the cinematic brilliance of Park Chan-wook's greatest masterpiece.
No Man's Land!
The Hairdresser's Husband, Antonia's Line, The Scent of Green Papaya, Jesus de Montreal . . . All amazing, must-see cinema. Pretty much anything by Almodovar is nothing short of genius.
THE GODFATHER films were shot by GORDON WILLIS not Vittorio Storraro. I agree that Coppola was influenced by The Conformist – especially for GF2. But the DP was "The Prince of Darkness" Gordon Willis. Show the man some respect!
Where is Old Boy? In my opinion its not only one of the best foreign films but also one of the best films ever period.
I would personally include Cache by Michael Haneke. I've never seen a film in the modern era so fundamentally and powerfully play with the concept of "a film." Great list.
You guys should watch Kung-fu Hustle.
I loved that movie, but I had it on VHS so I don’t really know if it had English voice-overs or not.
You forgot La Dolce Vita and Morte a Venezia… Rocco e suoi fratelli… And for comedy, Le grand blond avec une chausssure noire and Le retour du grand blond.
Happy torrenting, everyone!
also:
Rashomon – Kurosawa (1950)
Taxi – Gérard Pirès (1998)
La Haine – Mathieu Kassovitz (1995)
One of the best movies I've seen so far is "let the right one in" . The book is so good also. It's a swedish film. The Best
I loved Amelie, A Very Long Engagement, Central Station, The Sea Inside, The Orphanage, I've Loved You For So Long, Cinema Paradiso….
What!!! No Godzilla???
How about Life is Beautiful?
Das Boot.
Hey I'vent seen most of these, but heard a lot about them. By the way, have u seen The Lives of Others ? its one of the best movies i've ever seen. Also my list would have Downfall and The Sea Inside. But then again, i've just started watching world cinema 🙂
My two favorites…
Delicatessen
Amélie
Lorne, I love those too! Especially Delicatessen.
This is a good list also.. for some reason, Ray's Apu Trilogy is not available on dvd, that's been frustrating. Strawberries is one of the more pleasant Bergman films – he too often concentrates on personal angst and his films never reach any conclusion, sometimes ending in the middle of a crisis. I found Children of Paradise to be long and un-involving for me, plus I shy away from any films with French mimes!
Ozu, Renoir, Fellini – all terrific, one can enjoy any of their films. For Fellini most prefer 8 1/2, I like La Dolce Vita, about some jaded and decadent film personalities. Rohmer and Traffaut (and Godard) all bore me to the point of wanting to just get up and leave! I think I have an anti-French cinema bug.
Kinoshita is a new name for me, I'll definitely check that out.
Probably the most entertaining foreign films I left off were Run Lola Run, Diva, and La Film Nikita (two French action films!). These are a little lighter in theme, but all exciting crime films. Diva has another classic chase sequence, with the film's star on a motor scooter being chased by everyone who wants his secret recording of a shy opera star who won't record. Nikita is a Bond-ish assassin film, not at all like the sexy TV-series that was loosely based on it.
I was recently dazzled by Ugetsu, by Mizoguchi, a spooky, atmospheric ghost story during a time of civil war in Japan.
Thanks for all the other suggestions!
Hi Jose-interesting list. I'm an old timer and have seen thousands of foreign films which I absolutely adore. A recent one I saw and was bowled over by was Suzanne Bier's "After the Wedding." All her films are intense, highly emotional, tragic and worth seeing. Here are some of my all-time favorites:
Wild Strawberries-Bergman
The Apu Trilogy-Ray
Ikiru-Kurosawa
Children of Paradise-Carne
The Tokyo Story-(and everything by Ozu)
Grand Illusion-Renoir
Pauline at the Beach-Rohmer
Four Hundred Blows-Truffaut
La Strada-Fellini
Twenty Four Eyes-Kinoshita
This gives me something to expand on as I am a bit behind the times in regards to films, I just don't seem to have the time to relax and enjoy, thanks for the list !
oops – I did include Chungking, with the sequel! Wong Kar-Wai is mesmerizing visually.
the one I missed is The Lives of Others, the Oscar-winning German film about surveillance of citizens, similar to Coppola's The Conversation
Also check out the excellent Czech film Zelary, filmed over 18 months in the mtns of Yugoslavia, about the underground in WW2..
..jose (list author)
I agree with most of these suggestions.. the last films I eliminated were Run Lola Run, Crouching Tiger (I liked Hero a little more), Eat Drink Man Woman, L'avventura, Goodbye Lenin, No Man's Land, Gospel According to St Matthew, Nowhere in Africa, Chungking Express.. I love Asian films now
At my site I have a foreign film list of about 50 faves.. There are really about 25 that could all be top 10 with no argument!
Thanks for all the comments! Re Netflix: Excellent foreign catalog available!
My all time favorite foreign film is Godard's Breathless, followed closely by Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World and the Hairdresser's Husband (not sure of director). Run Lola Run, too- I think all of the films I just named are better than your #4 which I found kind of long and boring. I'm kind of surprised that Kieslowski's Red, White and Blue films didn't make this list even though personally not sure if I would place them on here…
booooo! where is no man's land?
four words; "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
Hi, Gwen. I totally agree. Netflix has really opened my eyes to some foreign films I would have never watched before. Not a big risk since it doesn't cost any extra money to give something a try. Usually better than our standard Hollywood fare that caters to the idea everything must make 10x the amount of money put into it.
I confess I have not seen most of these on your list. I am on my Netflix account as we speak! I have had the chance to see the number one and two though. I actually joined Netflix to get the chance to watch the Seven Samurai, it blew me away. A very good movie and a very good choice to put on your list. Hero is a great movie as well. I liked it. A really good list. Thank you for giving me some movies to watch. I am sure I will enjoy them!
What about The 400 Blows? Have you seen it?