Movie Forums Top Foreign Language Films Countdown - Preliminary Thread

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Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
@Thursday Next,






According to the Trivia page on IMDB for Polytechnique, the movie was "Filmed simultaneously in English and French.".





And according to the Trivia page for Kon-Tiki (2012), "Large parts of the film were filmed in two versions at the same time, one in Norwegian, the other in English, in order to secure international funding.".

If it's not a problem, I'll just watch the English versions, but I just want to make sure that these facts don't change your answer because these movies were NOT dubbed. Both movies were filmed in English, at the same time as a foreign language.

That is an interesting and unusual case! I think if they were filmed and released as foreign language movies, they are eligible. If people choose to watch the English versions and then vote for them, that is up to them.



Eligibility questions;

Jean de Florette & Manon Des Sources as one entry on a ballot?


Arctic?
''Arctic is a 2018 Icelandic survival drama film directed by Joe Penna and written by Penna and Ryan Morrison. The film is an international co-production between Iceland and the United States, and stars Mads Mikkelsen..''
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_(film)



Eligibility questions;

Jean de Florette & Manon Des Sources as one entry on a ballot?


Arctic?
''Arctic is a 2018 Icelandic survival drama film directed by Joe Penna and written by Penna and Ryan Morrison. The film is an international co-production between Iceland and the United States, and stars Mads Mikkelsen..''
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_(film)

I'd also be interested in the answer to the question about Jean de Florretta



The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
I think the good, the bad and the ugly and any Leone western should count as foreign. They were made by italians, in spain with german money. The fact that they used one or two stars from America shouldn't be that important. And they dubbed them in italian, spanish and english. But I might be alone on this.



I'd have no problem with them being included.



I think the good, the bad and the ugly and any Leone western should count as foreign. They were made by italians, in spain with german money. The fact that they used one or two stars from America shouldn't be that important. And they dubbed them in italian, spanish and english. But I might be alone on this.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was my #1 film of the 60s, but I won't be including it on this list even if it became eligible, and I don't think it should be, if we're compiling a list of "foreign language" films. The three main leads are all speaking their own lines in English. And it's the same situation with Once Upon a Time, which is the only other Leone western that could get enough votes to matter.
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Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources count as two separate films.

I really don't think The Good the Bad and the Ugly should be eligible for the reasons Kaplan has outlined above.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
So who's voting for Passion of the Christ?
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Okay I'm in. List submitted! This is a great idea for a countdown. Thanks for running it, Thursday.

And thanks Yoda for the new, very cool list-submission tool. It makes it almost too easy.
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I've also submitted my list
Maybe I've sent it too early, but I don't intend changing my list I've sent .
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Bump! Still plenty of time to cram. I'll be doing a lot of that over the next few weeks.

Anyone wanna suggest a moderately accessible Shortest of Short Lists for myself and others to prioritize?



I'd say cram in some unwatched material from:

Fritz Lang
Kieslowski
Tarkovsky
Wong Kar Wai
Truffaut
Malle
Ozu
Mizugochi
Ceylan
Maybe a bit of Italian classic cinema from Rosselini / de Sica / Fellini
Kurosawa
Other French new wave like Varda / Goddard
Some Iranian like Kiarostami and Makmalbhaf
Pawel Pawlikowski



Bump! Still plenty of time to cram. I'll be doing a lot of that over the next few weeks.

Anyone wanna suggest a moderately accessible Shortest of Short Lists for myself and others to prioritize?
How short, 50 titles? I made a top 100 list in random order here on mofo a while back, I can change it to public if you like.



2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
Bump! Still plenty of time to cram. I'll be doing a lot of that over the next few weeks.

Anyone wanna suggest a moderately accessible Shortest of Short Lists for myself and others to prioritize?
Letter Never Sent
Sansho the Bailiff
Cranes are Flying



Of my top 100 favorites, I think the majority are foreign language. And they are mostly entertaining and accessible films. I think an issue many english speakers have in getting into non-english language movies is that most non-english movies that critics and film buffs are into tend to be "challenging" movies like Kiarostami's. Instead, there exist foreign language movies that are the entertainment equivalent to Spielberg's, Cameron's and George Lucas' films.

Bump! Still plenty of time to cram. I'll be doing a lot of that over the next few weeks.

Anyone wanna suggest a moderately accessible Shortest of Short Lists for myself and others to prioritize?
Everybody should watch Ghibli films as they are very accessible, family-friendly and entertaining.



Bump! Still plenty of time to cram. I'll be doing a lot of that over the next few weeks.

Anyone wanna suggest a moderately accessible Shortest of Short Lists for myself and others to prioritize?



From BBC Culture



100. Landscape in the Mist (Theo Angelopoulos, 1988)
99. Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, 1958)
98. In the Heat of the Sun (Jiang Wen, 1994)
97. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)
96. Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, 1985)
95. Floating Clouds (Mikio Naruse, 1955)
94. Where Is the Friend's Home? (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987)
93. Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou, 1991)
X92. Scenes from a Marriage (Ingmar Bergman, 1973)
91. Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955)
90. Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)
89. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
88. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1939)
X87. The Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957)
86. La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)
85. Umberto D (Vittorio de Sica, 1952)
84. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel, 1972)
X83. La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954)
X82. Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
81. Celine and Julie go Boating (Jacques Rivette, 1974)
80. The Young and the Damned (Luis Buñuel, 1950)
79. Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
78. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)
77. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
76. Y Tu Mamá También (Alfonso Cuarón, 2001)
X75. Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967)
74. Pierrot Le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
73. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
72. Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
71. Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai, 1997)
70. L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)
69. Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012)
68. Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
67. The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel, 1962)
66. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1973)
X65. Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955)
64. Three Colours: Blue (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993)
63. Spring in a Small Town (Fei Mu, 1948)
62. Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambéty, 1973)
61. Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
X60. Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
59. Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985)
58. The Earrings of Madame de… (Max Ophüls, 1953)
57. Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
56. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)
55. Jules and Jim (François Truffaut, 1962)
54. Eat Drink Man Woman (Ang Lee, 1994)
53. Late Spring (Yasujirô Ozu, 1949)
52. Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)
51. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)
50. L’Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
49. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
48. Viridiana (Luis Buñuel, 1961)
47. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)
46. Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, 1945)
45. L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
44. Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)
43. Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)
42. City of God (Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund, 2002)
41. To Live (Zhang Yimou, 1994)
40. Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)
39. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)
38. A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, 1991)
37. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
36. La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)
35. The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963)
X34. Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987)
33. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)
32. All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999)
X31. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)
X30. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
29. Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, 2003)
28. Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)
27. The Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice, 1973)
X26. Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988)
25. Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)
X24. Battleship Potemkin (Sergei M Eisenstein, 1925)
23. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
X22. Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)
21. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)
20. The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974)
19. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
18. A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1989)
17. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972)
X16. Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
15. Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
14. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
X13. M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
12. Farewell My Concubine (Chen Kaige, 1993)
X11. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
X10. La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960)
9. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
8. The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)
X7. 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963)
X6. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
X5. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)
4. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
3. Tokyo Story (Yasujirô Ozu, 1953)
X2. Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica, 1948)
1. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)