What's your top 3 favorite foreign films?
- I recently revisited the French original "La Femme Nikita" which is so raw and powerful when compared to the American remake with Bridget Fonda called "Point of No Return", although not completely without merit- it is hard to believe it is the same movie. It was later made into a watered down tv-series. When watching the original, sometimes I didn't even read the subtitles cause I totally "got it" just by watching the interactions between the main actors.
- Another favorite is "Volver" with Penelope Cruz. The story sounds completely bizarre and ridiculous and would totally fail if they tried an American remake, but it has so many lovely scenes with Penelope in it singing and really connecting with her daughter and mother. A true "chick flick" Spanish style. She really is an actress with a lot of depth, I just don't think the English films she has made do her credit.
- A really fun Japanese movie is "Kamikaze Girls" a hilarious contrast between an unlikely friendship bond between a "Yankee" tough Japanese girl and a prissy "Lolita" fashion princess. It is very entertaining and completely bizarre.
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M$4 Answers
3. Breaking the Waves
A paralyzed man asks his loving wife to sleep with other men and to tell him the details. Won the Cannes Grand Prix in 1996.
2. Life is Beautiful
A Jewish Italian dad uses his imagination to shelter his family from the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. Won 3 Oscars and the Cannes Grand Prix in 1996.
1. Katyń
Almost exactly 70 years before the Polish presidential plane crash, over 20,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia were summarily executed. Until 1990 when Gorbachev divulged that Stalin ordered the massacre, all fingers were pointed at Germany.
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M$
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212712/
As second choice I'd say Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, one of the best film ever by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211915/
My 3rd pick will be an Italian film called Romanzo Criminale (2005)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418110/
Three different genre
Last pick as gift for you :
Cidade de Deus, city of god in English
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317248/
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M$
2. Run Lola Run (Tykwer, 1998, Germany) -- If you're a fan of time being a third character, watch this.
3. The Bridge (Garabedian, 2003, Czech) -- A short film, INCREDIBLE. Watch it. No, seriously. Watch it - it's all on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F876Jg-cnmk&feature=related
These are all the English titles.
I'm a Film Studies major, so I've seen A LOT of foreign films.
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M$
La Femme Nikita - As above - truly a great film for it's raw approach.
32deg. le matin (1986) - Known as 'Betty Blue' in English, the full 3 hour version is at in turns silly, sexy, hilarious and tragic, the trimmed 90minute version misses most of the plot and characters.
Ironically, both the above French films star Jean-Hugues Anglade.
Lung fu fong wan ("City on Fire"- 1987) - the inspirational source of Tatantino's 'Reservoir Dogs' - done with style and wit in Hong Kong, starring Chow Yun Fat.
Yojimbo (1961) - a bit cliched to choose a Kurosawa film, but it's so beautifully done, both in historical tone and humour, and another film which inspired foreign remakes.
If I were to give a nod to a few other 'Asian' films: "Old Boy" by Korean director Chan Wook Park, "Hanabi" - Kitano 'Beat' Takeshi and perhaps even "The Returner" as films that don't seem to get listed enough. The last one is more of a made for TV movie but got a massive cinema release here in ~2002.
Of course if you're looking for an insane action scene filmed in a hospital you should be looking for "Hard Boiled", again with Chow Yun Fat, but that goes without saying.
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M$
And thanks for the generous tip!