The MoFo Top 100 Foreign Language Film Countdown

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Wow, many of us thought Parasite would show up on the last countdown, and I ended up being the only person to vote for it. I never would have thought it would show up higher on this countdown than it was on my own list, as I had it at #6. It is far and away my favorite movie from the past decade, in any language, I did not vote for The Seventh Seal, but for the next Bergman film.

My List:
1. M (#11)
2. The 400 Blows (#35)
3. Woman in the Dunes (#22)
4. Playtime (#45)
5. Bicycle Thieves (#6)
6. Parasite (#3)
7. Three Colours: Red (#54)
8. Solaris (#12)
9. High and Low (#41)
10. Let the Right One In (#40)
12. The Wages of Fear (#67)
14. Diabolique (#69)
16. Pan's Labyrinth (#10)
20. Cinema Paradiso (#20)
21. The Cranes are Flying (#28)
23. A Man Escaped (#60)
24. Le Trou (#81)
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Tell No One, my #9, is a tense French movie-movie, which plays out as both a compelling mystery and an action-thriller, tells the story of Dr. Alexandre Beck (François Cluzet) whose wife is murdered. Although the doctor is a prime suspect, he's cleared and the death is attributed to a serial killer although things never really did add up. Eight years later, at just about the time that two bodies are found near the crime scene, Beck receives an e-mail which seems to be from his wife. Eventually, Beck is forced to take it on the lam, but he's aided by several unusual compatriots in trying to prove his innocence and find out if his wife is still alive.

I remember watching Tell No One twice and being struck both times by how great the movie was, but it's been a while and I'd sort of forgotten about it.


I loved Letters from Iwo Jima. In my mind it's Eastwood's last great film. It was a real shock, the point of view and the quality of the film, to be honest.



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
The Seventh Seal was my #15. A medieval folktale that manages to be both starkly nightmarish and comically absurdist, all while meditating on what a higher power truly means (whether it be God or Death or the gift of visions bestowed upon a fool) in a world like this. Naturally, this is my jam.

Parasite is definitely good and I've seen it a few times now, but I never thought to vote for it. Not to get all matt72852 on everyone but I have just checked my ballot again and was intrigued by how 2001's Spirited Away was the most recent film on it so I have to wonder how much of that choosing of (relatively) old titles was a deliberate choice (much like how Sight and Sound has a 10-year probation period before a film can be eligible for their all-timer poll) or just how my preferences would've fallen anyway. I'm sure other users had much older films as their "newest" picks, though.
My newest film was 2019... fully embracing the recency bias! It wasn't Parasite though.



The trick is not minding
My newest film was 2019... fully embracing the recency bias! It wasn't Parasite though.
My guess is Portrait of a Lady on Fire was your most recent film on the ballot



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Bicycle Thieves is a film I didn't like when I watched it back in 2013. It took me only three years to 180 and pronounce it a masterpiece on a rewatch in 2016. It's a humanistic masterpiece of neo-realism, a film on an intensive battle between survival and morality.



Spirited Away is a wonderful anime, but I prefer Totoro. That being said, it's a masterpiece and these two along with Ponyo are my Miyazaki's Trinity. I need to rewatch it, but I'd love to watch it with somebody. Rewatching this kind of film alone won't give me much. :-)



The Seventh Seal is one of Bergman's best, but that doesn't say much because, as I've already said at least twice, Bergman has a lot of best films. It's a danse macabre of a morality play filled with symbolism and metaphors. Even Death doesn't know what comes after death, so how can we? It's only natural big questions are left with no answer.



Parasite is a very unfortunate film because even though it's great, it's still overrated into the echelons of overhype. It's easy to see why it's so revered, but its high ratings all around the internet still shock me every time. All that being said, I'm not some grumpy hater and I love this film, although I'm quite sure the 2012 me would dislike it. Parasite is a jjapaguri-eating anti-Shoplifters, and Bong's best since Mother but it's still more of a great black comedy on the level of Giants and Toys (this one is a satire, though, but similar feel and quality IMO) than an all-time art masterpiece of the likes of Tarkovsky, Tarr (who wasn't on the list!!!), or Angelopoulos (never expected him to be).

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My newest film was 2019... fully embracing the recency bias! It wasn't Parasite though.
Me, too. I wonder if we voted for the same movie?

Edit: Actually Wyld's guess is probably correct for your pick.



Let the night air cool you off
I voted for neither Persona nor Seven Samurai, though I could have and felt just the same about my list. Here is what I did vote for:

1. Ikiru (1952)
2. Stalker (1979)
3. Night and Fog (1956)
4. The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
5. Yojimbo (1961)
6. Amarcord (1973)
7. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
8. Suspiria (1977)
9. Solaris (1972)
10. The Cranes are Flying (1957)
11. Rashomon (1950)
12. War and Peace (1966)
13. Tale of Tales (1979)
14. Un Chien Andalou (1929)
15. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
16. Late Spring (1949)
17. Pather Panchali (1955)
18. Hanagatami (2017)
19. Shoplifters (2018)
20. The House Is Black (1963)
21. La Jetée (1962)
22. Tears of the Black Tiger (2000)
23. In the Realm of the Senses (1976)
24. Divorce Italian Style (1961)
25. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1992)

I threw my list together sort of hastily to keep myself from overthinking it, but I don't like the way it turned out. The only way I would have liked it is if I somehow could have crammed 100 films into 25 spaces, so I won't bellyache over it too much.



I think The Seventh Seal would've been high on my list even though I've not seen it for 20+ years. I remember seeing it for the first time in class and thought it was mesmerising.

Clearly I've not seen Parasite.
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Parasite making #3 is unexpected, had it at #20. I think it's a tremendously well made film from both an artistic and technical point of view. Didn't vote for them but both Seventh Seal and Virgin Spring are stand out art house films and Max von Sydow is an amazing actor.

Movies Seen: 60/98
My Ballot: 16/25
25. Mongol (1-pointer)
23. Come and See(#8)
22. The Wages of Fear (#67)
21. Fireworks (#78)
20. Parasite (#3)
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)
1. City of God (#14)



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
My guess is Portrait of a Lady on Fire was your most recent film on the ballot
I think my avatar probably gave that away...

Me, too. I wonder if we voted for the same movie?

Edit: Actually Wyld's guess is probably correct for your pick.
No, I haven't seen the one you voted for, but it's on my to-watch list.



I haven't seen Parasite yet, it looks good though.

I did recently watch The Seventh Seal and said this about it...

The Seventh Seal (1957)

Excerpt from a MovieForums review 1/24/15
This is my first Bergman and I’m worried. If this considered his best film, then will I hate his others? I’ll give him another chance with Virgin Spring and Winter Light but if I don’t like those, then Swedish cinema isn’t my cup of tea...Friendly Mushroom

That's where I stand with Bergman too, except that I've now seen five of his films and haven't warmed up to any of them yet. All of the Berman films I've watched do seem like works of art. But like some somber painting hanging in a museum that's surrounded by other paintings that literally explode with a vibrance...Berman's films never stir anything inside me. To me his films seem cloistered and cold even when they are about levity & lightness, such as Smiles of a Summer Night.

My experience watching The Seventh Seal was no different than the other Berman films I've watched. I was impressed with his skill and yet it left me cold...My two word review would be: Masterfully austere.



You've probably heard this elsewhere, but try to know as little about it as possible when you watch it.
Thanks...The only thing I know is people really like it. Beyond that I don't watch trailers or read reviews until after I seen the movie. Actually I never watch trailers.



matt72582's Avatar
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"The Seventh Seal" - 10/10... I loved it from the moment I found it at Goodwill.


I gave "Parasite" a 7/10 because it is a new movie, and I didn't turn it off. It wouldn't make my Top 100 list of foreign movies, though.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Have not seen The Seventh Seal but like every Bergman I've seen it'll come around on the HoF/Personal Rec circuit.



Bicycle Thieves aka Ladri di biciclette (1948)

How do you confirm an already, rightfully so, praised film?

Going in, I didn't wanna be cryin. I didn't want to be sad. I was happy being happy. I did not want to watch something that would do any o' that. But I knew I needed to knock out some films, and this one called out the loudest to me. So, I sucked it up, knowing I was about to see something pretty extraordinary and heartfelt. With clenched shoulders, dreading the final shoe drop, the unfortunate ending, I watched Bicycle Thieves.

The shoe slipped and tumbled adrift as Antonio and his boy, Bruno, disappear into the congestion of people.
Quite the poetic, elegant end scene. Later discovering it was an homage to Director Vittorio De Sica's favorite filmmaker, Charles Chaplin, and a familiar ending to many of his The Tramp films. The poetry within that irony catapulting my appreciation.

Releasing the prior tension to discover happiness for having seen this film. The story's sadness is more of a beautifully told poem than one of a more heart-rendering one.
I smiled.
Because this wonderful film would not be, for me, a hard watch so that I may return and re-experience this.
I delved into the technical trivia since I knew zero of this film beyond the praise-drenched warning of no, this sh#t does not have a happy ending.
When I watched Rome, Open City, that did not have a happy ending, but, very similar to this, it had Life! Vibrant. Passionate.
And like ROC, I loved that Life. Because it even permeates misfortune as De Sica masterfully does here. My respect for that mastery was heightened when I read how EVERYONE was, basically, right off the street.
Especially when an annoyed De Sica at the overcrowding of people while shooting some initial scenes and saw this youngster in the crowd --


What ensued was an absolute highlight when this child was on screen for an absolutely excellent film.



Spirited Away

Aogaeru: Welcome the rich man, he's hard for you to miss. His butt keeps getting bigger, so there's plenty there to kiss!

While I try to watch films in their original language I came across this dubbed version which I was rather happy about. Since Chihiro was voiced by Daveigh Chase who had done Lilo in Lilo and Stitch was ideal for voicing her. Along with Susan Pleshette doing both Yubaba and Zeniba.

I have yet to see all of Hayao Miyazaki's films and while I've always loved the artwork in them, I do kinda meander off, attention wise. Not with this one. I vaguely remember seeing this in a movie theater that specialized in arthouse films when this came out. So, this was very much like a first time view and I enjoyed Chihiro's character from the first moment I saw her glumly looking out the car window as they passed her new school and she stuck her tongue out at it. And enjoyed her throughout. Some of that was bias since I absolutely love Lilo, making me easily love Chihiro before I came to care about her on her own merit.


This is a film about loneliness, consumption, and the attempt to fill one's emptiness by consumption. All of which is beautifully expressed using the usual fantastical cosmos that Miyazaki is so skilled at rendering. Something I always seem to get more caught up in than the "meaning" and heart lessons that Miyazaki teaches within his films. Which seem to register after the film is complete and my heart informs my brain what my eyes have been experiencing and the whys within the beautiful imagery.

So, yes, very much enjoyed that.
An most likely my final one out of my list at #9, Parasite



Parasite

Moon-gwang: What are you, a family of charlatans?

If you haven't seen this --- DO NOT f@ckin read this!!

Seeing just how well it worked for othrs, I did the exact same thing and went into this completely blind. Having no idea what the story was or which genre(s) it was made in.
And I am so happy I did!

I was pretty surprised with how much I laughed during this dark comedy. In fact,
WARNING: "to anyone who has seen this:" spoilers below
was one of the loudest laughs when the wife nonchalantly kicks the housekeeper down the stairs?
It was for me.


I'm a fan of Director Bong Joon Ho and an even bigger fan of the father played by Kang-ho Song since I first saw him playing The Weird in The Good, The Bad & The Weird and here we get a wonderful blend of genres that Ho has done extraordinary work in, creating something funny, dark and as we proceed deeper within, disturbing. But what a ride it is!

Since I do not want to spoil anything for those who haven't seen it so that they can have the same exciting experience, it's going to be rather tricky to write any kind of actual review.
Make that d@mn near impossible. So, again, if you haven't seen this -- seriously, stop f@ckin reading this, already!

I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed both the Kim and Park families, with the daughter of the Kim family having such an agile mindset in getting things accomplished. And how proud her parents were about it made me laugh.
When I saw how quickly the Kims were able to establish themselves so early in the moive I was incredibly intrigued to see how things would go sideways. And when they did and just how far it goes, my mouth and eyes were the size of saucers for the second half of the film.

There are a number of nods to Alfred Hitchcock in this film of dark comedy within a dramatic tale that unfolds into a thriller. If Hitchcock was alive I'm pretty d@mn sure he'd absolutely love this film.
Bong Joon Ho's cinematography is gorgeous and a beautiful aid to the dialogue and actions of the characters throughout this film.



Movies Seen: 52 of 98 (53.06%)
1. Severely doubt it
2. Amélie (2001) #18
3. Shoplifters (2018) #72
4. Rome, Open City (1945) #93
5. Rififi (1955) #76
6. Army of Shadows (1969) #90
7. The Cranes are Flying (1957) #28
8. Yojimbo (1961) #42
9. Parasite (2019) #3
10. Not gonna happen[/color]
11. Harakiri (1962) #37
12. Le Samouraï (1967) #30
13. Samurai Rebellion (1967) #79
14. Rashomon (1950) #13
15. Pan's Labyrinth #91
16. Sincerely doubt it, but who knows
17. The 400 Blows (1959) #35
18. Hell no
19. Paprika (2006) #100
20. La dolce vita (1960) #27
21. High and Low (1963) #41
22. Late Spring (1949) #26
23. Oldboy (2003) #21
24. Wild Strawberries (1957) #33
25. In This Corner of the World (2016) One Pointer

Rectification List
1. Grave of the Fireflies (1988) #43
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My list so far:


MOFO ranking My ranking
3 Persona 13

11 M 1
9 8 !/2 6
32 Wings of Desire 7
97 Nights of Cabria 8
20 Cinema Paradiso 9
10 Pan's Labyrinth 11
44 Lastrada 12

4 The Seventh Seal 14
3 Parasite 17


2 to go. Not bad considering the fact that I had only seen 16 of the films listed so far.