Oldies but goodies.
The Lavender Hill Mob,
Black Narcisis,
The Man in the White suit,
The green man,
Georgie Girl,
The Letter,
Ponette,
Le grand Chemin,
The girl with the golden eyes,
The Samarai (sp?)
Purple Noon,
Fanny,
le Boulanger,
and so many more

I don't know if it is true, but a Spanish friend of mine (Madrid) says Almodovar "discovered" Antonio Banderas. "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down is fun and different. It's worth a look!

"In the Mood for Love" is a beautiful Chinese movie about a love story. It's filmed almost enterely in an apartment in Hong Kong. I was completely taken by the subtlety of this film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118694/

travelintoes, Banderas was in theater when he joined with Almadovar and also other directors to make over 30 films in Spain. Womon on the verge was the film that brought him success to the USA where he made The Mambo kings.

Lots of movies I agree with here (Neil OZ, I always knew you had good taste! I guess we were callow youths at the same time!). Amongst my top favourites of all time are "La Dolce Vita", "The Conformist" and "Z". 111op..."Z" might sound amusing but it sure aint! Watch it some time, it is superb ( Costa Gravas Greek movie). Cheers!

cigalechanta, when I want to watch a movie that will make me laugh I put on Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown, among others I love the scene when the bed is aflame, then smoldering.

I also get into my Fellini moods and watch 8 1/2, Juliette of the Spirits and, lately, La Dolce Vita, in that one I am hooked on the dance scene in the cavelike nightclub..."Frankie"...and of course the Trevi Fountain scene, until I watched it again I had forgotten the little kitten and Marcello going after a saucer of milk in the middle of the night.

If I want to get nostalgic I watch Il Postino, the soundtrack alone is good enough.

These are the movies I watch over and over at home.

Another good one is the DVD called My Voyage to Italy by Martin Scorsese subtitled A Look at the Movies that Influenced a Filmmaker's Passion.

Ohmigosh! When I posted this only two days ago I didn't realize how many foreign films are worth seeing and also how many Fodorites have favorites. As I said before, my own list is too long to post but then I also found many other suggestions from you guys. And to recall the Guinness classics!

Do some of you have a source for renting such films to be mailed to you? I am guessing that is so and would appreciate the info.

Yes, it is tricky to determine what really is a foreign film, especially recalling some Brit comedies and many American made ones set in a foreign place such as A Room with a View.

Not all foreign films are memorable, of course, but many I enjoy for scenery or simple story even if cinematically subpar.

ozarksbill

All-time favorite: Walkabout.

Runners-up: All About My Mother, Bossa Nova, Juliet of the Spirits, and La Strada

I have many, many favorite British films -- Brassed Off, Ladies in Lavender, The Committments and some Peter Sellers -- but so many of them are cooperative with US studios that I'm not always sure which are entirely not-US, and besides, I don't usually feel that British movies are "foreign" -- frankly, there are plenty of US-made movies that are far more foreign to my nature.

ozarkbill,
I mention here you can buy or rent at www.facets.org.
I waited a year for the price of Celine and Julie go Boating to be slashed.

Sea Urchin,a few Italian films I loved,
Amacord, Malena, Cinema Paradiso, The Tre of Wooden Clogs, Seven Beauties,
Yesterday, today and tomorrow, 81/2,
Rocco and his Brothers,
Night of the shooting stars,
Death in Venice, Fellini Satyricon,
and so many more

Thanks to all! I've fleshed out my Netflix queue quite nicely now.

What about "Elling" (2001) ?!?

"Norwegian movie about two mentally challenged friends who battle adversity and find their place in the sun. The two room together and attempt to create a life for themselves outside the confining, but protective, walls of the hospital."

Yes, it's touching but mostly it's FUNNY! I still laugh when I think of certain scenes years later...

Learned about My House in Umbria on this Fodors board--a very good film.

Another oldie-but-goodie: Marcel Camus' 1959 "Black Orpheus". I also enjoyed the raw look of Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Gospel According to Matthew".

[If other contributors can indulge me for a minute.... Peteralan, I wonder if you're venerable enough to remember what may have been Sydney's only "art house" cinema in the early '60s? The name escapes me but I think it was in Bligh Street.]

remembered few more:

<b>The Promised Land</b> - Andrzej Wajda's BEST! - 3 friends, a Pole, a Jew and a German trying to become top industrialists in 19th century Poland.
Funny, tragic, colorful. A must see!

<b>Knife in the Water</b> - Roman Polanski's classic.

<b>Dead Calm</b> - Australian thriller. Nicole Kidman's first exposure to US audiences. Sam Neill as her husband and Billy Zane as the psycho murderer.
Great, scary thriller and through most of the movie we only see the 3 characters.

The Gods Must Be Crazy for some light relief :)

Also..

Love HK film with Yun-Fat Chow because he is soooo engaging on screen. The last film I saw with him staring was Once A Thief. He has been in American movies as well and maybe recognised from Anna and the King. He is really yum:)

An English film I saw a long time ago &quot;Rainy Day Women&quot; I thought was brilliant.

A French movie about an inept policeman I can't recall the title of if anyone can help out! Very funny. Also a German comedy about inept robbers I cannot recall the name of either.

1900. I haved watched it beginning to end 3 times (truth)

Cinema Paradiso also, what is not to like about that film!

Another English movie that traumatised me &quot;The Dresser&quot;.

Very many. An Amercian movie I keep thinking is a foreign film was The Last Supper. Very good movie.

Here's a few more I liked:

&quot;The Full Monty&quot;
&quot;Kitchen Stories&quot; - a Swedish/Norwegian movie that sounds silly but is actually quite good
&quot;Italian for Beginners&quot;

And no one has mentioned The Girl From Paris??

I never consider UK movies as &quot;foreign&quot; so they won't make my lists!

Cassandra

The Committments is an Irish film and there have been two other very good films made from Roddy Doyle's Dublin trilogy: The Snapper and The Van. If you have seen them, I think you would like them a lot. They are among my very favorites.

Of course, I meant to say &quot;if you haven't seen them.&quot;

French comedies set me rolling in the aisles. Has anyone seen &quot;The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob?&quot; It's a hoot, with a great lesson in tolerance. Here's some info on it:

http://www.francevision.com/defunes/rabbij.htm

I find Fellini movies quite evocative. I feel like I am there with his characters.

And then there are the great Japanese films of Kirusawa, from the Seventh Samarai to Ran, which sweep me away.

Lots of great films from around the world!

NEIL, The &quot;Savoy&quot;? At interval instead of the usual &quot;candy&quot; bar, they would have French pastry and perculated coffee and we thought we were sooo sophisticated! ( I shudder to confess I think I even wore a cravat once or twice...how wanky is that!?). Also there was the Lido in George Street and the Gala in Pitt Street.Ah happy memories! I used to love the Bergman movies too . All my friemnds thought I was mad but I put it down to my Danish ancestry!Cheers.

The virgin Spring, The Seventh Seal,
Through a Mirror Darkly, Monika, bring back so many memories of Bergman's ouvre at my neighborhood where these films were shown but it's now a school (sigh)

I'll stop the thread hijack now, but thanks Peter - the Savoy it was, the place for any budding young pseud to be seen (I should know). A cravat! That would have beaten my malodorous duffel coat and cords hands down.

So from an American perspective films from the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are technically foreign but not quite foreign enough to be really foreign?

Well, Hollywood employed a lot of foreign talent even in the old days, and the business is even more trans-national now. Although &quot;Doctor Zhivago&quot; was technically an American flick it's hard not to think of it as British. Likewise I have trouble thinking of &quot;The Piano&quot; as an Australian and not New Zealand movie.

tuscanlifeedit: Of course the Commitments is Irish! What a gaffe! (Even worse, if you knew who some of my in-laws are). And I've seen Snapper - liked it well enough, but not up there with Commitments for me.

Alan Parker and Dick Clement are Irish? That'll be news to them.

I suppose that it proves that outside of Ameriaca and a few very small countries all films are mainly colaborative.

eg - Ridley and Toney scott are Engliush but you'd never know from th films. So I 'll add another &quot;foreign&quot; film - Bladerunner.

&quot;I have seen attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I have seen C-beams glitter in the darkness at the Tannhauser Gate. All these moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.&quot;

Beat THAT!

I would also add that despite the evidence of the above post my first language is English - I just can't type.

Great thread. Is &quot;Ladies in Lavender&quot; available on DVD?

My only contribution: &quot;Au Revoir, Les Enfants&quot; by Louis Mall. Breathtaking photography. Touching story. J.

AAFrequentFlyer, Dead Calm- one of my favorites- extremely well done-what tension!

I hope you can come to the GTG in Chicago Dec. 10. Our group looks like it will be excellent.

Well! The list goes on...and thanks for input by so many about good foreign films. Interesting question re: Brit,
Australian, Canadian, Irish etc. movies
...how &quot;foreign&quot; does a film need to be? Because it is in English doesn't mean it is less foreign, does it?

I must add a few more foreign films I've enjoyed that may have not been mentioned (I think):
Smilla's Sense of Snow
Whale Rider
Man Without a Past
Stone Reader
Osama
The Station Agent
The Fast Runner
Character
Central Station
Monsoon Wedding
The Shipping News
Spellbound
The Road Home
Barbarian Invasion
Close to Eden
(I think these are all foreign)

Coming up for viewing at a local small theatre or university: Kolya, Ladies in Lavender, Red Lights, Notre Musique.

Ozarksbill
[email protected]

Me again. If I'm trying to pick up a couple of films for someone who absolutely adored &quot;Bread and Tulips&quot; but wasn't enchanted with &quot;Amalie&quot;, can anyone sort of point me to my best bets? Thanks. J.

Among my favorites:

My life as a dog.

Cinema Paradiso.

Strictly Ballroom.

Ozarksbill, the problem is that not all the contributors to this thread are Americans. So for some of us, Hollywood flicks are technically &quot;foreign films&quot; but British, or Australian, may not be.

When I think &quot;foreign&quot; I tend to think anything subtitled. Scottish TV shows, and some films set in the north of England, perhaps should be subtitled, but even so I don't think of them as &quot;foreign&quot; either. Some American films depict lives more alien to mine that many European movies, but again the word &quot;foreign&quot; doesn't spring to mind.

The fact that so many English and Australian actors these days can believably play Americans (example, Toni Collette in &quot;In Her Shoes&quot; or Anthony LaPaglia in his TV roles), and so many Americans can handle English characters, illustrates how important a shared language can be.

We really liked &quot;National Lampoons European Vacation Trip'. It is a comedy. No wander they closed the Stonehinges!!

jmw44, &quot;Enchanted April&quot;has a similar plot to &quot;Bread &amp; Tulips&quot;- but it is English women running away to Italy for a month vacation during the 1920's- actually trying to take a vacation from &quot;marriage&quot; and the mundane- and being unappreciated.

&quot;Christ Stopped at Eboli&quot; might work as well, its a study in small town Southern Italian authority in work and family structures, much more than a study of war.

And then watch &quot;Cinema Paradiso&quot; as a follow up view of the movies and fun in the same type of Italian village during the similar era.

Also &quot;A Very Long Engagement&quot; might work. It's the story of a French woman who refuses to believe her engaged beau and love of her life had been killed in WWI.

Gee, I'm amazed this one has been overlooked (especially in light of the past week's events):

<b><i>Paris br&ucirc;le-t-il?</i></b> (1966)

How obtuse of me! My apologies to Neil OZ and others...I do know that some Fodor people aren't Americans and therefore have a different perspective on what is foreign. Honestly, not all Americans are ego-centric I hope.

We have tended toward non-Hollywoodish indy and foreign films but there are some excellent American ones, of course.

Just back from seeing &quot;Ladies in Lavender&quot; with good old Maggie and Judy.
Nice quiet entertainment. Tomorrow night: &quot;Kolya.&quot;

Ozarksbill

I just asked on another thread, but does anyone recommend Modigliani? with Andy Garcia?
:)

I thought it was terrible. They had all the stuff that was not true like the art contest, and they had him die after being beaten up. He died of his excesses and TB. Jeanne was buried with him in the movie. In real life it was ten years later. The actors who played all his artist cronies et al were so bad.

I forgot --

Secret of Roan Inish. (The kids almost needed subtitles but they liked it.)

And another gentler Chinese movie, &quot;The Long Road Home.&quot; Really wonderful.