I second Galia on The Tripletts of Belleville, as it's the best animated film ever made, and I kick myself for forgetting it.

Also, Oldboy is indeed South Korean, Galia.

Oldboy = South Korea

Glad to see Spirited Away up there...


Now I am just waiting for someone to confirm Infernal Affairs

Its brand new right? I think it literally just opened up in the theater next to me this past Friday. What's it about? Maybe I'll go check it out.

Thanks for the match on Les Triplettes makeshift.

-Dolce

You are talking about Infernal Affairs, right?

Well the basic premise of the movie is that a cop goes undercover in the triads world of Hong Kong while a member of the triads infiltrates the police as a mole. That goes on for many years until the undercover cop gets the objective from the triads boss to find the cop who infiltrated the triads (i.e. himself, hehe) while the triads mole in the police has the objective to find the mole in the police force (himself). This, of course, gets pretty complicated for both and leads to a final showdown. The movie was released in Hong Kong in 2002. The whole tone of the movie is somewhat similar to Training Day/L.A. Confidential. It is easily the best cop drama I have seen in many years. Great movie. I recommend you to see it.

Here is more information on the movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338564/

I will confirm Infernal Affairs. It's one of the most ingenious film-making I've seen in recent years.

How true! The ending is amazing and the performances by both leads are great!

Princess Mononoke (Japan)
Battle Royale (Japan)

Dammit. Iv'e seen neither. Even my parents went to see Mononoke in the theaters, and I somehow didn't get to. I feel silly that my parents saw it years ago and fave about it and I, the film buff, haven't yet. I'm going to go hide in the corner now and lick my wounds.

*Hides in corner. Licks wounds.*

-Dolce

Torri! Didn't you say you rented La Dolce Vita for the festival? Is no one going to match me on it? *Shakes fist at the whopping 8 members that peek into Over Seas Forum.*

Man, Europe, Near East, Australia/New Zealand and the Rest of the Western Hemisphere except Mexico are getting shafted! Not that I'm not part of the problem, since I've pretty much only seen Italian and Chinese films comprehensively, but we gotta get some *miscellaneous* countries up there guys. Here's a list so far of unmatched films, and feel free to keep posting more suggestions.

Beauty and the Beast (France)
Black Cat, White Cat (Yugoslavia)
Black Orpheus (Brazil)
Breathless (France)
Brotherhood of the Wolf (France)
The Celebration (Denmark)
The City of Lost Children (France)
Cleo from 5 to 7 (France)
El Crimen del Padre Amaro (Mexico)
Cold Fever (Iceland)
Day for Night (France)
Delicatessen (France)
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (India)
The Double Life of Veronique (France)
Farewell My Concubine (China)
The Full Monty (Ireland)
Metropolis (Germany)
Miracle in Milan (Italy)
My Twentieth Century (Hungary)
The Nights of Cabiria (Italy)
Nowhere in Africa (Germany)
The Official Story (Argentina)
Once Upon a Time in the West (Italy)
Pakeezah (India)
Profondo Rosso (Italy)
Rififi (France)
Ran (Japan)
Raise the Red Lantern (China)
Rashomon (Japan)
The Red Balloon (France)
Ringu (Japan)
Run Lola Run (Germany)
The Seven Samurai (Japan)
Shangai Triad (China)
Suspiria (Italy)
The Sweet Hereafter (Canada)
Strictly Ballroom (Australia)
Tenebre (Italy)
White (France)
The White Balloon (Iran)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Spain)

-Dolce

I confirm Battle Royale. It's definitely in my TOP Ten of foreign movies.

ive seen Princess Mononoke, its pretty good!
ill second that movie!!

Dolce, in the first post, it should be "Infernal Affairs" instead of "Internal Affairs". :wink: Same for the title of the other thread.

What about, The Celebration? It wasn't apleasant movie by any means, but expertly made and left a deep impact on me about a family's ability to be in denial.

And also, Cold Fever, which is a quiet little gem from Iceland about a Japanese businessman that needs to go there because of the death of his father.

And how could I forget the Color Trilogy and Double Life. I don't think they're all worthy (meaning white) but the other three are, so

Blue
Red
The Double Life of Veronique

-Dolce

COnfirming Lagaan.

I can name a lot of other indian movies too that should belong up there but will avoid .. doubt people have heard of them...

Nominate:
Monsoon Wedding
Pakeezah (If you guys ever get the chance, watch it!!)
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaen ge

bABA will probably hurt me for saying this, but I thought Lagaan was one of the most boringest movies I've ever seen. Just plain boring. Boring, boring, boring. Makes me sleepy. Unable to stay awake.

*Zingaling runs and hides*

I think one of the best foreign films I've seen is Life is Beautiful. Excellent movie. Also, movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were also very good. Hero was good, but not as good as Crouching Tiger (though I did not think that right after watching Hero). Uh, I haven't seen that many foreign films.

Lagaan - Known only cause of the academy nomination. Great movie but probably mainly famous because of the nomination .. no more .. the others are more popular in south asia with the exception of monsoon wedding.

Monsoon Wedding: Its great not because it has a good story but because of good direction ... the story, if anyone's seen indian movies will know that its been done before (not exactly in the same way) but still ...

Pakeezah: Probably one of the most well known movies to come out of Indian Cinema, having a cultural impact far beyond many others. Pakeezah is an extremely extremely old movie .. prolly from the 50s. Black and white. Has one of the best songs ever written for an indian movie .. slow as hell but if you ain't see this, you are in no way entitled to talk about indian cinema as far as i'm concerned... 50 times better than the crap fest that comes out of bollywood today.

Dilwale: Another movie that had a big impact in recent times and made an even bigger star out of Shahrukh. While pakeezah is very very difficult to find, you will have no trouble finding a DVD for Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaen Ge. It was easily one of the best movies to come out in the late 90s.

Zingaling, i wont hurt you .. my main sentimental attachment to lagaan is the fact that its cricket and its an Aamer Khan movie, one of the best actors on this planet. Personally, I hate indian movies ... theyre all the same crap getting rehashed again and again .. the songs in the movies keep getting worse and cheaper, and the way i see it, indian cinema is not having a positive impact on the society ....

While Indian cinema has done a lot to make people more open minded, i always thought they went overboard .. I've always said that things need to be moderated, yet indian cinema made a sudden move to sex, alcohol and other things and made them cool. While thats no problem, they look like little kids who have been given too much of somehting and don't know what to do ... sugar in moderation is fine but swallowing a whole pack aint smart .. same thing with indian cinema .. tooooo much sex .. toooo much other stuff to a point where it comes off as extremely cheap and forced ... I've always said that indian cinema promoted free ideas less than they portrayed the objectification of women ....

but I'll end my ranting here ...

I'd like to recommend Spoorloos (The Vanishing). It's a 1988 Dutch/French horror film. It's really quite incredible, and I can't believe that I forgot it. It has, hands down, the most shocking/disturbing ending I think i've ever seen.

Here are my personal favorites:

1. METROPOLIS (1927) - One of the most influential and copied films of all time.

2. BEAUTY & THE BEAST (1946) - Enchanting, beguiling film. Highly influential and one of the most poetic films I've ever seen.

3. CHILDREN OF PARADISE (1945) - The French GONE WITH THE WIND and Terry Gilliam's favorite movie.

4. RIFIFI (1951) - Mother of all heist films.

5. LA DOLCE VITA (1959) - Of course!

6. BREATHLESS (1960) - Godard's new wave masterpiece.

7. BLOW-UP (1966) - Unique, fascinating film.

8. DAY FOR NIGHT (1975) - Film lover's treat.

9. CINEMA PARADISO (1989) - Gorgeously shot, moving film.

10. THREE COLORS TRILOGY [BLUE, WHITE, RED] (1993-95) - Best foreign language films I've ever seen IMHO.

11. AMELIE (2001) - Wildly popular charmer.

12. SPIRITED AWAY (2002) - Should've made $100M+ U.S.!!!

Totally agreed! I couldn't get it out of my mind for days!!!

Yeah furuteboy! White stays opn for a second support, but you just backed up blue, red, cinema pardiso, blow-up, la dolce vita, and I will second your Children of Paradise.
Spoorlos makes the cut too.

-Dolce

Amelie is definitely one of the best romantic comedies ever, in any language, so it belongs there.

I can't believe no one seems to have even mentioned Run Lola Run yet. I'd like to nominated it or whatever you call it.

@ Futureboy
I know everyone is always saying what an excellent Heist movie Rififi is, but I was bored out of my brains with the exception of the ingenous use of the umbrella. I found it very predictable, not a particular cinematically great movie, and sort of lacking in energy. The friend who recommended it to me said the same thing you did, made me very excited, and I have to say I was a bit let down. What did you like about it so much? Just curious.

-Dolce

See PM dolce! It's almost as good as Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service is another Miyazaki film that's fantastic. (I hope I'm not the only one who's heard of Kiki, that film is excellent.)
I need to renew my Netflix account, so many more foreign films to see..

I know I've seen many fantastic foreign films (many of which have already been matched - Amores Perros, Spirited Away, etc.), but one that sticks out in my mind at the moment:

The Barbarian Invasions.

BABA : Lagaan and Monsoon Wedding are great choices

I'd also add The Full Monty if it counts