The MoFo Top 100 Foreign Language Film Countdown

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There's going to be a movie that should have at least 18 more points than it's going to end up getting.
Always wanted to quote myself and this seemed like a nice opportunity. And there it is! I didn't include Aguirre, the Wrath of God on my ballot. Huge oversight! Oh well, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and sometimes it rains.

The Cranes are Flying is the most recent watch to show up on my ballot. Allaby recommended it for me about three months ago, watched it twice in two days and it's that rare movie that you love instantly. The only reason it isn't no. 1 is because it is such a recent watch.

Also from my ballot: Oldboy (17), Das Boot (20), Downfall (21). A little surprised Downfall is as high as it is. Not complaining just didn't think it was THAT highly regarded.

My expectations for this list have been completely blown out of the water. Still holding out for a Tinto Brass appearance.
  1. Yep
  2. Yep (The Cranes are Flying)
  3. A Virgin Spring
  4. Yep
  5. Probably a solid no
  6. I'm still thinking YES
  7. Yep
  8. Better luck playing pick up sticks with our butt cheeks than this making it.
  9. No
  10. Doubt it
  11. Maybe
  12. yeah, no
  13. Yojimbo
  14. I thought it would for sure, now not so sure
  15. Rififi
  16. Diabolique
  17. Still think this will make it (Oldboy)
  18. Porco Rosso
  19. Kinda leaning no
  20. Still possible (Das Boot)
  21. Thought it would have shown up by now (Downfall)
  22. 50-50 on this one, of course there's only a 1% chance of that
  23. To quote Shep Proudfoot - nope
  24. Dear god no!
  25. No way in hell



Another to watch. Haven’t checked out Downfall yet.

I was lukewarm on Aguirre first go around. It’s been a while now and my tastes have changed/matured…I hope. Plus I have fallen in love with a couple Herzog. Super interesting director. Will get a rewatch sooner than later.



Downfall ‘Der Untergang’ 2004 Oliver Hirschbiegel

2h 36min | Biography | Drama | History
Writer: Bernd Eichinger
Cast: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes
Downfall is German excellence, the Mercedes of War movies, my lucky #13 and the 13th film from my list to show up.

Movies Seen: 45/86

My Ballot: 13/25
25. Mongol (1-pointer)
22. The Wages of Fear (#67)
21. Fireworks (#78)
19. In The Mood For Love (#34)
17. High and Low (#41)
13. Downfall (#16)
11. Le Samouraï (#30)
7. Samurai Rebellion (#79)
6. The Battle of Algiers (#56)
5. War and Peace (#59)
4. Das Boot (#25)
3. Cinema Paradiso (#20)
2. La Haine (#53)



I would've much rather seen Day of Wrath make the cut than Joan of Arc, imo the prior is the true Dryer masterpeice.

Downfall was my #25 but that's partially since I forgot about the one pointers

Aguire is a fun watch


My List

2. La Haine
3. Knife in the Water
5. Close-Up
8. Oldboy
10. Diabolique
11. Wild Strawberries
12. Cache
14. Three Colors: Blue
15. La Dolce Vita
25. Downfall
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Another two good movies in Downfall and Aguirre, The Wrath Of God. The former would have been closest of those two to making my personal ballot had I not absentmindedly completely omitted it from my list of possibles.

Seen: 65/86 (Own: 38/84)


Faildictions ((バージョン 1.01):
14. Vivre sa vie [My Life To Live] (1962)
13. El laberinto del fauno [Pan's Labyrinth] (2006)



EDIT: Also, Herzog joins the club of the "Repeating Directors".
Probably just my juvenile brain but internally I've totally renamed this to a list of directors never to sit near at a restaurant



Probably just my juvenile brain but internally I've totally renamed this to a list of directors never to sit near at a restaurant
Well, they just keep coming back for more!
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Another two good movies in Downfall and Aguirre, The Wrath Of God. The former would have been closest of those two to making my personal ballot had I not absentmindedly completely omitted it from my list of possibles.

Seen: 65/86 (Own: 38/84)


Faildictions ((バージョン 1.01):
14. Vivre sa vie [My Life To Live] (1962)
13. El laberinto del fauno [Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
I don't know the process of the faildictions actually but I think one of those will actually be right.



I don't know the process of the faildictions actually but I think one of those will actually be right.
Hey, no jinxing allowed - it hasn't got this far into the countdown without getting one 'wrong' yet just for you to put the kybosh on it when we're nearing the final stretch thanks very much



Forgot about Downfall. Well my predictions are shot. Anyway, had Aguirre pretty high on my list...

2. Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972)
5. Close-Up (1990)
6. Chungking Express (1994)
7. Playtime (1967)
8. La dolce vita (1960)
13. Sonatine (1993)
14. The Battle of Algiers (1966)
15. The Mirror (1975)
17. Red Desert (1964)
21. Caché (2005)
22. Pather Panchali (1955)
24. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
25. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2004)
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I might have heard of Downfall, but I don't remember.


I'm actually trying to focus on increasing my experience with directors I'm already familiar with, so I haven't even touched anything related to Werner Herzog besides the first episode of The Mandalorian.



Haven't seen Downfall.

Aguirre was #25 on my ballot. I think this is the only feature film I've seen from Herzog (not including his documentaries of course), but it hasn't aged a bit. It's a movie about an ambitious mad man which is made by an ambitious mad man. Watching hundreds of people navigate through steep and narrow cliffs in the opening and watching them actually float down a rapid river on creaky and unstable rafts is quite mesmerizing. Nothing we see in the film is cgi. All those daring stunts were actually taking place during filming. Overall, I love Herzog's style in this film as it does a terrific job at immersing you into the film in a way which few directors dare to attempt.

Updated ballot:

1.
2. Late Spring (1949, Ozu) #26
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. Andrei Rublev (1966, Tarkovsky) #23
8.
9.
10. Le Samouraï (1967, Melville) #30
11.
12. Sansho the Bailiff (1954, Mizoguchi) #50
13.
14.
15.
16. The Battle of Algiers (1966, Pontecorvo) #56
17.
18.
19. The Mirror (1975, Tarkovsky) #86
20.
21. Red Desert (1964, Antonioni) #64
22.
23. Vampyr (1932, Dreyer) #84
24.
25. Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972, Herzog) #15
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Aguirre could have easily made my list, but I chose another Herzog that probably never had any chance of making it. The unique greatness of Herzog is probably most visible on screen in Aguirre though. Never mind the narrative or thematic implications of the story he is trying to tell. It's just the daring physicality of his work which needs no academic dissection to appreciate. Herzog has a wonder about life and nature itself, and it is here he shows his almost supernatural ability to find locations to passively observe as they begin to overwhelm the actors he has pushed out onto the precipice of them. He finds a surreal beauty in the menace of living along side of and trying to survive the many incredibly weird and overwhelming dangers of this planet. And in Kinski, he found a face and personality disorder ithat could perfectly mirror this hostility in nature and glare back at the camera in defiance. Herzog is and always was willing to suffer great calamity and death (frequently going well beyond common sense or even morality) to articulate to us how he felt about the world. Allow us to truly contemplate its greatness and our smallness, and Aquirre is one of the towering experiences in almost purely visceral film. But I prefer the one with the dancing chicken.



As for all those casting doubt towards Joan of Arc, clearly they need to learn the power of repetition. How else to properly articulate the brutality of an inquisition, and how it can pummel the soul of one abandoned individual. It is a bludgeon. By saying one thing over and over again, it says more than virtually any other movie I can think of. And this is not even getting into how astonishing a feat of editing and composition and camerawork it is. I'd argue it is the elemental force that is at the core of most modern filmmaking. Its greatness and importance can never be over estimated. It (along with 2001) are the only two films I can think of where anything less than a 10/10 feels like cinematic heresy.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Downfall is my #5. While the Battle of Berlin rages outside and the German Army and people are being slaughtered by the Russians, Hitler (Bruno Ganz) and his women, children and close advisors stay "safe" in the bunker while Der Fuhrer plots to maintain some viable position as a world leader. Downfall is fascinating on several levels. As a straight-up war movie, it delivers action, suspense and history in equal measure. As a look at Hitler's dementia and thought processes, it goes into more depth than probably any other film. It also hits home at the depiction of Hitler as a kind of "family man" and some of the hardest-hitting scenes involve what happens to the children in the bunker. Watching these scenes, I couldn't help but think of the various cults down through the years which ended in tragedy. Bruno Ganz fully personifies Hitler; his performance seems more to resemble a possession than simple acting.

My original thoughts were that Aguirre had an incredible opening shot with awesome music but then it seemed to slow to a snail's pace. Kinski was a madman, but not one I wanted to share much time with. But after several rewatches, I find the South American adventure rich in atmosphere, often surrealistic, subtly funny and Kinski is always fascinating exactly because he is so unpredictable. He's just as wild as the young Brando, albeit without the sex appeal. No wonder he and Herzog loved each other so much and wanted to kill each other.

My List

1. War and Peace
2. Z
5. Downfall
6. Night and Fog
13. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
17. The Celebration [Festen]
21. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
25. Das Boot
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2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
My list thus far

1. Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
2. Will Make it
3. Missed and that's a crime
4. Tokyo Story (1953)
5. Will make it
6. The Cranes are Flying (1957)
7. Won't make it
8. The Virgin Spring (1960)
9. Late Spring (1949)
10. Surprising miss
11. Should have made it
12. Porco Rosso (1992)
13. Thought it had a chance at the beginning
14. Le Samouraï (1967)
15. The Vanishing (1988)
16. La dolce vita (1960)
17. Diabolique (1955)
18. Shoplifters (2018)
19. Can't believe this missed
20. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
21. Crazy miss too
22. No shot ever
23. No shot ever
24. Contempt (1963)
25. Wasn't a 1 pointer, but never had a shot



It (along with 2001) are the only two films I can think of where anything less than a 10/10 feels like cinematic heresy.

Gonna stop you there with 2001 because I was bored by the scenes that focus on humans until HAL came along. The felt like basic plotlines for the average everyday life of a 50's sitcom family. I know the movie had a message about humanity losing itself, but the message needed as much exploration as the space itself.



Gonna stop you there with 2001 because I was bored by the scenes that focus on humans until HAL came along. The felt like basic plotlines for the average everyday life of a 50's sitcom family. I know the movie had a message about humanity losing itself, but the message needed as much exploration as the space itself.

Boredom is a permissible response. Of a heretic!


2001 is a movie that I have already talked about to death here, and since my words are not nearly as convincing as the movie itself, I won't bother trying to convert the unconverted again. My point was mostly about considering the greatness of these two movies on a scale outside of our own personal experience with them. Very few movies strive for grand gestures, articulate them with complete originality, change the course of cinema and yet, for all of the endless analysis of them, remain somewhat inscrutable in the power they hold. They are virtually peerless, whether or not some people might find them boring or even hate them. They are too big for the occassional indifferent experience to bring them down. They are, for lack of a better word, monoliths.


As much as I meant what I said though, my claim wasn't meant to be taken completely literally. Of course both movies are still target for any criticisms someone wants to lob at them (even though, personally, I've never read a single good negative critique of either film). But even allowing any and all kinds of criticism, whether or not I agree with it, I will admit that it being like a 50's family sitcom is one I haven't heard before. Other than a five minute scene of a man talking to his daughter on a TV phone, I don't believe there is even any reference to family in the rest of the movie.