Favorite Foreign Language Film of All Time

[myboynoah]

Game over.

[wuapinmon]

Alright then I'll take every class you offer, sit down in front and monopolize the discussion with irrelevant stories of my experiences in the real world. I'll also drop by every time you're holding office hours and take up all of your time monologuing about my personal life.

I YIELD! I YIELD!

[OhioBlue]

Game over.

Forgive the ignorance....what movie is that? Seven Samurai? Ran?

[myboynoah]

Forgive the ignorance....what movie is that? Seven Samurai? Ran?

Yes.

The movie's theme continues in American film.

[RobinFinderson]

The problem with this category is that we end up comparing foreign language dramas with foreign language comedies and foreign language porn.

[creekster]

Yes.

The movie's theme continues in American film.

Seven Samurai was a very good film, I would agree, but this underscores why this category is a granfalloon (for you vonnegut fans) and is unlikely to provide useful direction. How do you compare 7 samurai to Jean de Florette? or Seven Samurai and the discreet charm of the bourgeouisie? Using foreign langugae as a basis for classification is artificail.

[myboynoah]

Seven Samurai was a very good film, I would agree, but this underscores why this category is a granfalloon (for you vonnegut fans) and is unlikely to provide useful direction. How do you compare 7 samurai to Jean de Florette? or Seven Samurai and the discreet charm of the bourgeouisie? Using foreign langugae as a basis for classification is artificail.

Seven Samurai - Triumph of the human spirit over evil, as well as lots of great sword fights and humorous facial antics (and none of that freaky Chinese martial arts crap)

French films - French being French. How charming. Does the human spirit ever triumph?

[wuapinmon]

Seven Samurai was a very good film, I would agree, but this underscores why this category is a granfalloon (for you vonnegut fans) and is unlikely to provide useful direction. How do you compare 7 samurai to Jean de Florette? or Seven Samurai and the discreet charm of the bourgeouisie? Using foreign langugae as a basis for classification is artificail.

There's always somebody at the MLA bitching about categorization and nomenclature. Cast a wide net....sub-categorize all you want.....just quit bitching and start telling us about films we should watch so we don't waste money on kitsch.

[OhioBlue]

Yes.

The movie's theme continues in American film.

Well if we're going to have Kurosawa films in here, and if the criteria includes "critically-acclaimed" and "highly influential" then we absolutely have to include Rashomon as well.

[creekster]

There's always somebody at the MLA bitching about categorization and nomenclature. Cast a wide net....sub-categorize all you want.....just quit bitching and start telling us about films we should watch so we don't waste money on kitsch.

Have you been reading? I have suggested several.

Oh, don't bother with pacte des loups, btw. Kitsch is what it is. It is this weird combo of martial arts (an iroquois indian tonto-like sidekick to a chevalier 'naturaliste' hero goes all bruce lee on the bad guys from time to time, all between dispensing karate-kid quality wisodm to the rascist mascaraed french nobility), horror movie (some gory killings), Frecnh talk-talk til you're blue and love story (bad boy naturaliste dons iroquois like mwar paint and kicks booty at the end, thereby saving and winning the girl). weird. Amusing, bt not always intended.

[BigPiney]

For some reason I have always really liked Delicatessian.

But my favorite foreign movie of all time is The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob. One of the funniest movies ever made.

[UtahDan]

Many of mine have been covered:

Seven Samurai
Lives of Others
Letters from Iwo Jima (favorite)
Mongol
Crouching Tiger, etc. (This one hasn't held up well for me, but it was cool and innovative at the time).

[BoylenOver]

I finally saw "Lives of Others". Very good.

I've seen so many good foreign films (thanks to your help), it's hard to pick just one.

[wuapinmon]

Alright then I'll take every class you offer, sit down in front and monopolize the discussion with irrelevant stories of my experiences in the real world. I'll also drop by every time you're holding office hours and take up all of your time monologuing about my personal life.

This is still awesome.

[Mormon Red Death]

4 days in September.

Alan Arkin is great and it captures Brazil under a dictator perfectly.