My Favorite Foreign Films
A small disclaimer: since I’m a Spanish minor, and sometimes just think it’s fun to listen to the language in a movie, my list has a predominance of Spanish-language films.
French
Les Diaboliques – With murders and disappearing bodies, and other creepy details that I’m sure I’ve forgotten since I saw it, this is a great old-fashioned Hitchcock-style black and white suspense movie. There was apparently some kind of remake involving Sharon Stone more recently, but I can’t vouch for that one.
German
Run Lola Run – At the start of the movie, Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend telling her that he’s in trouble and needs a large sum of money in 20 minutes. After this set-up, we see three potential outcomes depending on how Lola reacts to a dog she meets in the stairwell (if she hesitates, things go a certain way; if she jumps past the dog in her fright, she gains a few seconds, and the plot continues accordingly). It’s a fast-paced movie, and it’s interesting to see all the little differences a few seconds make.
Italian
Life is Beautiful – A man builds a happy life for himself, primarily through his sense of humor and playfulness, and then must use these attributes to save his son when they are sent to a concentration camp. I’ve heard complaints about how improbable the whole scenario of the movie is, and some people don’t like Roberto Benigni, but I still think it’s just a sweet movie. I’m fairly certain that this movie was released in the US in a dubbed version, so even if subtitles scare you away, here’s a foreign film that perhaps you won’t mind.
Portuguese
Central Station – A woman who makes a living cheating the illiterate poor suddenly finds her heart when a young boy’s mother is killed outside her workplace and she agrees to take him to his father. I particularly enjoyed the fact that while this is a movie about the clichÃ?©d idea of someone having a chance to redeem herself, everything doesn’t turn out perfect.
Russian
Burnt by the Sun – I watched this during a Russian history class my freshman year of college. I was expecting something boring since it was history class, but it was a great story about life under Stalin’s rule. The movie focuses on one man and the resulting conflict between his Stalinist ways and his ideal family life.
Little Vera – This is another movie I found out about during my Russian history class. It was an interesting movie, but I think it was more interesting to me in light of what I had learned during the class and my research paper on Russian youth during the last days of Communism. So I don’t think it would be for everyone, but if these topics interest you, then you should definitely check it out. It’s basically the story of an average Russian teenager’s life and the dreariness and hopelessness that she has to deal with (and the sex and alcohol she turns to in order to fill the void) as she faces an uncertain future.
Spanish
All About My Mother – The movie has an interesting list of characters (for instance, there’s a transgender prostitute and a pregnant nun) that you don’t find everywhere, but it’s the overall story of several women and how their lives connect in sometimes unexpected ways that did it for me.
Amores Perros- Three stories are connected through a car crash. In one, a man becomes involved with the world of dog fighting and lusts after his brother’s girl. In another story, a victim of the car crash deals with the aftermath. In the third, an aging assassin has trouble with an assignment. I liked the first story better than the others, but overall, it was still an enjoyable movie.
Open Your Eyes- This is the original Vanilla Sky. I think this film will always have a special place in my mind as one of the first foreign films that really caught my interest, but I love it regardless of all that. The basic idea is that an accident leaves a former popular pretty boy (you can decide who’s prettier – Tom Cruise or Eduardo Noriega) disfigured and unsure what to do with his life. Penelope Cruz plays the same love interest in both movies (except in the Spanish version, she’s a mime – don’t hate the movie just because it has a mime). If you’re a fan of Vanilla Sky, the story is almost identical, but the overall tone is darker.
Talk to Her – This is the most recent foreign film that I’ve seen, so I’m hesitant to put it on my best-of list, because maybe it’s just the most vivid for me. But this really was an interesting, yet disturbing at times, story about two “couples” who are connected through a nursing home/hospital. The women of these two pairings are in a coma and the men become friends. The story gives you a look at the past, present, and possible future of the main characters.
The Devil’s Backbone – While trying to refresh my mind on a detail of the movie I found out that the movie poster tagline of this film was “The living will always be more dangerous than the dead.” And that’s really the most I can say about this movie. It takes place during the Spanish Civil War at an orphanage where a ghost turns out to be the least of their problems. However, just because the ghost aspect can be downplayed doesn’t mean there aren’t enough creepy/scary/spooky moments.
Thesis – I enjoyed this movie because it kept me guessing until the end. Maybe ten minutes from the end of the movie, there was a struggle, and I wasn’t sure who I was supposed to be rooting for. I think it also raises some interesting issues about violence in the media and whether people who condemn it aren’t just as fascinated as the next person. Just one warning – the plot of the movie deals with snuff films, so if this idea disgusts you, then rent something else.
Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down- On one level, this movie is interesting because you get to see Antonio Banderas during his Spanish movie star days. However, I was most interested in the messed-up relationship between a stalker/kidnapper and his porn star victim.
Y Tu MamÃ?¡ TambiÃ?©n – I’m almost reluctant to recommend this movie, because it plays into the stereotype that all foreign films are about journeys of sexual discovery. Still, it was a good story overall, and I thought it was an interesting take on a traditional buddy picture. The one thing that I found distracting was occasional voiceovers describing the characters.
