Personal Top 100 Foreign Language Film Lists (1 Viewer)

[Gary Tooze]

Hey Brian,
It's funny that you say that as I had a debate on the weekend with a friend about the same thing... I, obviously think it does qualify, hence it is on my list... the Titlecards for The Passion of Joan of Arc are in French and it has English Subtitles... it does however speak the universal language of Silent Films... hmmmm. No, there is too much important dialogue involved that requires translation... It's not like a slapstic comedy that requires physical/visuals and dialogue is not important. I vote "YES" to Passion being a Foreign Film... You may have more of a case for Calagari or Nosferatu though...
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[Gary Tooze]

FROM PASCAL A
quote:
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By the way, Pascal, I don't recall ever reading your explanation for why Stalker is your favorite Tarkovsky. Just curious.
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Stalker was the second Tarkovsky film I had seen (after The Sacrifice), about two months after his death. I was, coincidentally, a dual major undergraduate student at the time (at two different universities), and was working through my own uncertainty on whether or not to leave the Humanities field.
Stalker struck me as the embodiment of the proverb in Truman Capote's (one of my favorite authors) unfinished novel, Answered Prayers: "More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones". It is Tarkovsky's only film that opens all the barriers to self knowledge (except to some extent, personal guilt in Solaris), only to reveal that, even if there are no impediments, we, as cognitive beings, still do not, and cannot, truly know ourselves. I had rambled at some length on my first Senses of Cinema Top 10 poll about how, as a scientist, I define the ideal film as a combination of precision and compassion, and Stalker is a perfect example of this union: a film that goes beyond showing the ache of longing, but also reflects the transience of searching for a definite (and definable) solution as well. I appreciated that the long takes, muted colors, and chiaroscuro lighting were not done gratuitously for the sake of being artistic, but effectively serve as visual symbols to the characters' spiritual darkness and ambivalence. As someone who has struggled in choosing between the pusuit of art or science, the dichotomy between the writer and the scientist especially hit home, since inevitably, neither discipline provided better insight into the fundamental questions of existence.
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[Gary Tooze]

FROM LEYE
Pascal, good points on Ulysses' Gaze . He tried too hard to make his point, including the scene of disassembled Lenin statue and family walk in the fog... Some of them I don't quite get it. Like the opening scene of groups of men with black umbrella. Might relate to some Greek fable. On the contrary, Underground is more sincere. Even though the director keep jiggling you with absurdity, you can easily see that he must be crying, from the first line "Once upon a time there was a country" to the last one "A war is not a war until brother kills brother".
About Tsai's trilogy, I like the middle one Vive, L'Amour the most. The title suggests it's a movie honoring love but quite cynically there is none there. They all search in vain in the urban city. I like the way Tsai challenge one's patience. He can let people eat and drink for 10 minutes without a word, as well as let the actress cry forever. Sometimes life itself is this relentless. The river is too cruel. The father did it with his son? It's not even a tragedy. It's more like a hopeless situation. Tsai seems want to overthrown the root of whole society. Rebels of the Neon God is the first of the series. It's much more vivid and a fun one. I saw the three in the sequence of Vive, River then Rebels. I found that return to innocence is always the sweetest part.
Gary, not all movies need to about passion. Not all we find in the movie are the same. You saw the very intense passion in the movie, I saw the deliberate set-up of bourgeois living style to fit middle class taste. Not that I don't want to be a member of middle class. But after great movies like "Days of Being Wild" and "Happy Together", I expect to see more. I expect to see movie cares about people, question themselves and the world they are in, as well as striking real emotion. Like fallen angel , "even hitmen have primary school classmates", I trembled when I heard the line. But here I found nothing more, just a upgrade version of Bridge of Madison County . His next one is a sci-fi "2046". It seems like after 97, Wong don't want to face anything real. He don't want to explore those faces under skyscrapers anymore. He is like retreating to his own cradle and playing with old toy. He is happy with what he had. Maybe sometimes all we want is just a sense of nostalgia.
Some off topic discussion with Gary. Chinese food in Toronto probably better than anywhere in Canada. Those listed by you I believe I have been there at least once. Some of them are not bad. But only mainstream stuff, the choice is really limited. Absolutely no way to compare to HK! In the end, food is not just taste. Food is like art, having linkage with culture. Source material, style, preparation and cooking, and most important the environment of the restaurants are all changed after being propagated. Chinese food here has been adjusted to meet local demand. Once in L.A., I found out the spice bean curd they made kinda like Mexican food. It's all understandable. The fit survive. Ang Lee knows it well. He begin to make (good quality) hollywoodized movies. But I just don't like it, I don't like those who lose themselves in search of success. Just my personal opinion.

 

[Gary Tooze]

FROM MARKUS MATHIS
Here are some (not 100) of my favorite foreign language
movies:
Preparez vos mouchoirs
That obscure object of desire
La peau douce
Deux anglaises et le continent
Belle de jour
Tristana
Diabolique
Cries and whispers
Damage
Earrings of madame de...
Letter from an unknown woman
Die Blechtrommel
Plein soleil
Markus

 

[Gary Tooze]

FROM PASCAL A
quote:
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Some of them I don't quite get it. Like the opening scene of groups of men with black umbrella. Might relate to some Greek fable.
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Leye, you're probably right about that one. I just recently bought the book, The Films of Theo Angelopoulos by Andrew Horton, and he does point out that Angelopoulos's works are steeped in, not only Greek tragedy and mythology, but are also structured like a traditional Greek drama. I haven't reached the part of the book that deals with Ulysses' Gaze yet, but hopefully, it will provide some insight.
I read a few paragraphs into the book on The Travelling Players regarding a scene when two actors are shot on stage, and the audience claps wholeheartedly, thinking that it was part of the play. Horton explains that the two people (mother and uncle) represent Clytemnestra (wife of Agamemnon) and Aegisthus (an earlier scene showed their affair discovered by the daughter), and the daughter symbolized Electra (she also has a brother named Orestes). I'm more than a little rusty on Greek tragedy, but I was still immensely impressed that this subtext even existed within the context of a "political history" film.

 

[Gary Tooze]

Thanks for your list Markus !
Now Leye...
Never being one to stray away from an argument, I would have to say that in regards to "In The Mood For Love", we will just have to agree to disagree. Your comparative knowledge seems quite adept, but I too have seen the Wong Kar-wai films that you have mentioned and found none to the standard of "In the Mood For Love", but rather a formative director with much to offer. I found this true to a lessor degree of Ashes of Time and Chun King Express... and of those perhaps the latter with Happy Together and Fallen Angels to be slightly more polished, but not to the degree of "In the Mood..." Certainly the word polished would be accurate to describe his later works with "In The Mood..." certainly capturing top honors to date. As far as Tony Leung Chiu Wai's performance, well lets leave the jury at Cannes decision to stand, although I agree with your point regarding his performance in Happy Together.
You may be interested in reading both Pascal's and my own review. Which can be accessed by http://
Okay, now the Chinese Food Fight!

Leye, I suspect that you have an advantage over me, in that I will assume you are Asian. I doubt, however, that you could have attended the few restaurants that I mentioned as two of them have been closed for over a year. My own knowledge in this field stems from my owning and operating a website called http://www.TasteToronto.com
Regards,
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[Gary Tooze]

FROM BROOK K
I don't like Chinese food so I'll stay out of that discussion, but I started putting together my list a couple of nights ago. Towards the end it will contain some movies that really aren't "list-worthy" as a way to flesh it out. I couldn't quite come up with 100 that I'd seen that I'd feel good about listing. Once I get them in some kind of ranked order I'll post here.
I just saw Fallen Angels for the first time last night. I loved the opening and the way Wong Kar-Wai shoots his scenes with such intensity. But I found it to drift a bit as it neared its conclusion. For me, Happy Together is my favorite of his work, one of the most honest and truthful films I can remember seeing, with In The Mood For Love coming in 2nd. However, I have yet to see Chunking Express.
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[Gary Tooze]

FROM PASCAL A
I posted the info on the Foreign Film Preorder thread, but since Days of Being Wild is on my list, I thought I'd mention that the Region 0 HK DVD is now out, along with As Tears Go By. Anamorphic widescreen, DD5.1, removeable/selectable subtitles... sounds like a winner!

 

[Gary Tooze]

Thanks Pascal,
I just followed you and bought mine... they sound great... anamorphic too !!!
Cheers,
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[Gary Tooze]

FROM BILL McA
Great lists!
While having seen many of these films, there are too many that I haven't seen as I have 0 access to these films due to the donut & lunchbox city that I live in!
However, I can add a few favorites to the lists that I don't think were mentioned above....
Jean-Claude Lauzon's 'Leolo' & 'Un Zoo La Nuit'
Volker Schlondorff's 'The Tin Drum'
Jan Troell's 2-film epic 'The Emigrants' & 'The New Land'
Federico Fellini's 'Satyricon'
The films of Michael Haneke: '7th Continent', 'Benny's Video', '71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance', 'Funny Games' and 'Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys'.
Gasper Noe's 'Seul Conte Tous'
Alex de la Iglesia's 'Day of the Beast'
Paul Schrader's 'Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters' (American made film in Japanese)
Lars von Trier's 'The Kingdom' & 'The Idiots'
Joseph Vilsmaier's 'Brother of Sleep'
Shinya Tsukamoro's 'Tokyo Fist'
Francis Veber's 'The Dinner Game' (foreign films CAN be comedies too)
Tsai Ming-liang's 'The Hole'
Thomas Vinterberg's 'The Celebration'
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 'Cure'
Peque Gallaga's 'Scorpio Nights'
Denis Chouinard & Nicolas Wadimoff's 'Stowaways'
Sergio Leone's 'C'Era Una Volta il West'
Those are the films that immediately come to mind without making an actual list.

 

[Gary Tooze]

Hey Bill ( from Donut and lunchbox city )... I'm just down the road in Mississauga... too bad I wasn't still running my mini-foreign film festivals or you would surely be invited !!
Now onto your picks:
Volker Schlondorff's 'The Tin Drum'
I personally found this to be the most vile movie I have ever seen. I could not find any noble message or desirable qualities in it what-so-ever... as I believe Robert Crawford stated " piece of crap !". I whole-heartedly agree. It actually turned me off German Cinema for a while.
Federico Fellini's 'Satyricon' - I have strayed away from this as it was pointed out by my guru that it was pretty horrible... What did you like about it ?
I haven't heard of too many of your others. I know Pascal has "The Hole" and I have read his review
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[Gary Tooze]

FROM JAROD M
Gary, I can't imagine anyone saying that Satyricon is "pretty horrible." It might not be much more than eye candy, but Fellini was one of the masters of eye candy. Then again, I also like The Tin Drum.

 

[Gary Tooze]

FROM BILL McA
quote:
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Volker Schlondorff's 'The Tin Drum'
I personally found this to be the most vile movie I have ever seen.
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As it should be. It IS an allegory about the rise of nazism (sp?) and the damage that was done to Germany. While I don't find the film 'vile', it is an angry film which I find engrossing even after many multiple viewings. I am disappointed that Schlondorff never filmed the second half of the novel (as was his intention), as actor David Bennent ('Oscar') never grew to full height like his character.
As for Satyricon, yes it is eye candy, but a more memorably bizarre and accurate depiction of Rome B.C. I have never seen. Visually memorable, if narratively weak.
The Kingdom and The Idiots have both been released theatrically and on video here in Ontario. I initially saw The Kingdom at the Toronto film fest in 1995 and I owned the laser disc box set (since sold). The double VHS isn't hard to find in Toronto.
The Idiots was released here last summer (completely uncut, unlike the U.S. version) and is available on Alliance VHS and is even stocked by (amazingly) Blockbuster.
I saw the film at it's one and only screening here in Hamilton as part of the Toronto festival's Film Circuit program. A kind of 'travelling repertory cinema' for cities that don't show good movies (such as mine!)
I believe Mississauga also has a Film Circuit venue (not sure)
The other more recent films were seen at the Toronto fest, the odd visit to the Carlton cinemas in T.O. and the Cinemateque Ontario screening room (which I assume you know about, you have to know about that!)
P.S. I forgot to add to my list, last years brilliant Swedish film 'Songs From the Second Floor', Luis Bunuel's 'The Milky Way', Pasolini's 'Arabian Nights' and Hector Babenco's 'Pixote'

 

[Gary Tooze]

Gary, I can't imagine anyone saying that Satyricon is "pretty horrible."

Come on Jarod, you of all people should acknowledge the variety of opinions out there. Many of us couldn’t have imagined your negatively slanted review of Dryer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc had we had not read it for ourselves. I obviously still have trouble with it as I put Passion at #1 on my list ( I won’t dredge this up again, as I am sure you have taken enough heat over it… ).
Right now in the Polls section is a thread on http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&[email protected]
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[Gary Tooze]

FROM PASCAL A
Updated my list to place Tsai Ming Liang's The River at #100 (not to be confused with Renoir's The River at #34).

 

[Gary Tooze]

FROM BROOK K
Alright here we go, I'll put directors in when I know them, but will have to finish that and the dates later:
1. Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa)
2. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa)
3. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Dreyer)
4. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman)
5. Ugetsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi)
6. Belle De Jour (Luis Bunuel)
7. The Bitter Tears of Petra Van Kant (Rainer Fassbinder)
8. Decalogue (Krystoff Kieslowski)
9. Children of Paradise
10. Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
11. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky)
12. Breathless (Jean Luc-Godard)
13. Ran (Akira Kurosawa)
14. Aguirre, The Wrath of God (Werner Herzog)
15. Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror (F.W. Murnau)
16. The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut)
17. Strike! (Sergei Eisenstein)
18. M (Fritz Lang)
19. Chloe In The Afternoon (Eric Rohmer
20. 8 1/2 (Fellini)
21. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman)
22. My Life To Live (Jean-Luc Godard)
23. Grave of the Fireflies (Takahata)
24. Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir)
25. The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)
26. Three Colors: Red (Krystoff Kieslowski)
27. Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky)
28. Even Dwarfs Started Small (Werner Herzog)
29. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
30. The Battleship Potempkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
31. To Live (Zhang Yimou)
32. Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa)
33. The Man With The Movie Camera
34. Happy Together (Wong Kar-Wai)
35. Madadayo (Akira Kurosawa)
36. Tristana (Luis Bunuel)
37. Alexander Nevsky (Sergei Eisenstein)
38. Nights of Cabiria (Fellini)
39. Repulsion (Polanski)
40. My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki)
41. Pierre Le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard)
42. The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky)
43. Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano)
44. Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog)
45. Stolen Kisses (Francois Truffaut)
46. Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki)
47. Whity (Rainer Fassbinder)
48. In The Realm Of The Senses
49. Metropolis (Fritz Lang)
50. Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa)
51. Kiki's Delivery Service (Hayao Miyazaki)
52. Ju-Dou (Zhang Yimou)
53. Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen)
54. Three Colors: Blue (Krystoff Kieslowski)
55. Nosferatu: The Vampyre (Werner Herzog)
56. High and Low (Akira Kurosawa)
57. A Better Tomorrow (John Woo)
58. Jules Et Jim (Francois Truffaut)
59. Yi-Yi (Edward Yang)
60. City of Lost Children (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
61. Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki)
62. Vampyr (Carl Dreyer)
63. Bullet In The Head (John Woo)
64. In The Mood For Love (Wong Kar-Wai)
65. La Collectioneuse (Eric Rohmer)
66. All About My Mother (Pedro Almodovar)
67. Cinema Paradiso
68. Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer)
69. Butterfly
70. Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
71. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)
72. Cobra Verde (Werner Herzog)
73. Amores Perros
74. The Girl On The Bridge
75. Claire's Knee (Eric Rohmer)
76. Raise The Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou)
77. Good Morning (Ozu)
78. The Dream Life Of Angels
79. Don't Torture A Duckling (Lucio Fulci)
80. Good Morning (Ozu)
81. My Night At Maud's (Eric Rohmer)
82. Deep Red (Dario Argento)
83. Hard Boiled (John Woo)
84. The Killer (John Woo)
85. My Life As A Dog (Lasse Halstrom)
86. The Last Metro (Francois Truffaut)
87. Alphaville (Jean Luc Godard)
88. Chunyhang
89. Not One Less (Zhang Yimou)
90. Yellow Earth (Chen Kaige)
91. Amarcord (Fellini)
92. Sonatine (Takeshi Kitano)
93. Eat, Drink, Man, Woman
94. Kolya
95. Three Colors: White (Krystoff Kieslowski)
96. Open Your Eyes (Alejandro Amenabar)
97. Drunken Angels (Akira Kurosawa)
98. October (Sergei Eisenstein)
99. Belle Epoque
100. Shoot The Piano Player (Francois Truffaut)
'
OK, I filled out my 100, but I still need to do some major reordering for it to be complete. The last 25 especially need work, since they contain lots of things that I had forgotten about and need to be moved up in the standings.

 

[Gary Tooze]

Great list Brook,
You and I have many of the same films... you reminded me that I may put "Run Lola Run" somewhere on mine. I guess it deserves to knock out my #100 - Godzilla flic...
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[Gary Tooze]

Okay,
Have added Run Lola, Run to my list at #100, replacing the classic Godzilla flic, Destroy All Monsters.
Brook, have backed up your list to the website.
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[Gary Tooze]

FROM DOUG D
Okay, it's not nicely annotated like everybody else's (I only put in directors where I knew there would be ambiguities - trying to get this done quickly), and I'm sure there's some things I'm forgetting. And I could probably reorder it endlessly - the first 34 have probably all been, at least for a day, my favorite film ever at one point or another.
Enough apologies.
1. Wild Strawberries
2. Ikiru
3. Decalogue
4. Yi Yi
5. Aguirre, The Wrath of God
6. Rules of The Game
7. Wings of Desire
8. Three Colors: Blue
9. After Life
10. Yojimbo
11. Z
12. Orpheus
13. The Celebration
14. Earth (Dovzhenko)
15. Woman in the Dunes
16. The Grand Illusion
17. La Dolce Vita
18. Aparajito
19. Man With the Movie Camera
20. The Seven Samurai
21. Fitzcarraldo
22. A Man Escaped
23. Pather Panchali
24. The Passion of Joan Of Arc
25. Cyclo
26. Diary of a Country Priest
27. Sanjuro
28. Fireworks
29. Ran
30. Three Colors: Red
31. Pickpocket
32. Wages of Fear
33. Delicatessen
34. The Bicycle Thief
35. Nosferatu (Herzog)
36. Hiroshima, Mon Amour
37. The City of Lost Children
38. Nosferatu (Murnau)
39. The Kingdom I + II
40. The World of Apu
41. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
42. Insomnia
43. Pierrot Le Fou
44. Underground
45. Le Samourai
46. Manon des Sources
47. Jean de Florette
48. The Terrorist
49. Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left For The East?
50. Close-Up
51. Andrei Rublev
52. In The Mood For Love
53. Persona
54. Chungking Express
55. La Belle Et La Bete
56. Ugetsu
57. Fallen Angels
58. Amores Perros
59. The Eel
60. Beau Travail
61. 8 1/2
62. L'Atalante
63. Hard Boiled
64. The Testament of Orpheus
65. When the Rain Lifts
66. Grave of the Fireflies
67. Rififi
68. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
69. Mauvais Sang
70. La Jetee
71. Vive L'Amour
72. The Color of Paradise
73. The 400 Blows
74. Gabbeh
75. Antonio Gaudi
76. Last Year In Marienbad
77. Sonatine
78. Girl on The Bridge
79. Black Cat, White Cat
80. Tokyo Fist
81. Knife In The Water
82. Man Facing Southeast
83. Diabolique
84. Ariel
85. Branded to Kill
86. The Flowers of Shanghai
87. Like Water For Chocolate
88. High and Low
89. The River (Renoir)
90. A Time For Drunken Horses
91. Jalsaghar
92. Kwaidan
93. Leningrad Cowboys Go America
94. The Idiots
95. Santo Luzbel
96. Ashes of Time
97. The Hole
98. Throne of Blood
99. Tokyo Story
100. Gadjo Dilo
(*edited to place Black Cat, White Cat at 79)

 

[Gary Tooze]

Great List Doug,
I will have fun researching it in the next few days....
On my own personal list , I have done some shuffling ( thanks Stephen R ) and added Chushingura at #38. I found it to be quite the epic, although perhaps not as subtle as Mizoguchi's "47 Ronin"... but the lavish costumes and Toshirô Mifune made it more than worthwhile. I will try to formulate some sort of review on it soon...
Cheers,
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