The MoFo Top 100 Foreign Language Film Countdown

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Seen: 10
Heard of: 44
My list: 7
My posts here: 12

My List:
1. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
2. City of God (2003)
3. *
4. Let the Right One In (2008)
5. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
6. Amelie (2001)
7. Shoplifters (2018)
8. Oldboy (2003)
9. *
10. *

Saw "Bicycle Thieves" for a high school film class (early '70s). Believe this was my very first foreign film. Seen it a couple times since and still holds a place in my heart.


You never forget your first!



Underground, my #18, is a trippy three-hour Yugoslavian black comedy. Besides, it won the Foreign Tournament for Harry Lime.
Geez I totally forgot about that! Good times.
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Haven't seen Bicycle Thieves.

I have two Miyazakis on my list...Spirited Away isn't one of them. Haven't seen this one either.



I just received my copy of the Criterion Collection of Ingmar Bergman's films, (30+ films). Too Late for this thread. I also have the silence of God trilogy. I wish there was some way to trade films on this site.



My first Italian neorealism, and the last of me ballot.
2. Stalker (1979)
3. Close-Up (1990)
5. A Man Escaped (1956)
11. Ikiru (1952)
12. Woman in the Dunes (1964)
16. Pather Panchali (1955)
17. The Mirror (1975)
18. M (1931)
20. Wild Strawberries (1957)
21. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
22. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
25. A Farewell to One Pointer (1929)
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I forgot the opening line.
Nearly! I was sure, for quite a while, that my #1, Bicycle Thieves, was going to top this list. There are so many different ways to judge a film, and with Bicycle Thieves it was how brilliantly it drew my emotions out and had me believing what I was witnessing was real. I don't know enough about the Italian neo-realism movement to say definitively that this was one of it's goals - but I can at least make an assumption that this is the case. Just take a look at the top 20 films on this list. The trial of Joan of Arc, the downfall of Nazi Germany, crazy dreams and massive conflicts to say the least. This is a film where a guy has his bike stolen. I would have thought it would be a massive challenge to ask people to make a half-decent film while limiting them to just that one event - but somehow this turned out to be one of the all-time classic films in the history of cinema. I'm in awe of this movie - hence my #1 vote for it here.

I'm not a big fan of anime, so I haven't seen Spirited Away, but it's been on my radar for a while now, especially having the potential of these films to be great broadened by watching Grave of the Fireflies. For some reason, every time I flick through my copy of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die the page I land on is Spirited Away. I'm not 100% sure I'll like it - but I'll definitely make a concerted effort to see it before I die.

There are four places left, and three films on my list that I would have said will definitely feature when this all started (and I still think they will,) but I have been given pause to consider the question : What if my number 1 film, which I was so sure would place at number 1, doesn't even appear at all in the top 100? That didn't happen, but with my three remaining hopefuls there will probably be one that shocks me and doesn't show. I look forward to sharing some films on my list that surprised me by not showing up at all.

Fair to say I've enjoyed this a great deal. Not to mention it contributing to my film knowledge a great deal.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Films I've seen : 33 (Target achieved! Just.)
Films that have been on my radar : 14
Films I've never even heard of : 45
Films I've heard of : 4

Films from my list : 12

#6 - My #1 - Bicycle Thieves - (1948) - Italy
#8 - My #12 - Come and See - (1985) - Soviet Union
#9 - My #15 - 8 1⁄2 - (1963) - Italy
#16 - My #7 - Downfall - (2004) - Germany
#18 - My #16 - Amélie - (2001) - France
#21 - My #20 - Oldboy - (2003) - South Korea
#25 - My #5 - Das Boot - (1981) - Germany
#43 - My #4 - Grave of the Fireflies - (1988) - Japan
#33 - My #10 - Wild Strawberries - (1957) - Sweden
#57 - My #21 - Memories of Murder - (2003) - South Korea
#70 - My #24 - Run Lola Run - (1998) - Germany
One pointer - My #25 - Audition - (1999) - Japan



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Stalker was one of the last few movies that I watched for this countdown. I don't think I really understood everything about it, but it was a very interesting movie. However I think it's just one of those movies that I respect more than I like, so it didn't make my list.

On the other hand, Bicycle Thieves was one of the first few movies that I watched for this countdown. It's a very good movie, but it's just not the type of movie that I would want to rewatch, so it didn't make my list.

I had already seen Spirited Away a couple of times before this countdown, but I never really understood the whole idea of the Spirit World. I rewatched it for this countdown hoping that I might understand it a bit more this time, but it's still just an okay movie for me.

I haven't seen Come and See.
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OPEN FLOOR.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.


A visionary film based on wartime reality was Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima, my #14. This was intended to be the latter-half of a diptych including Flags of Our Fathers, but Iwo Jima is far more artistic in its use of faded cinematography, making an American film completely in a foreign language (oh wait a sec, Gibson did that with his last two films!), trying to tell the story of an "enemy". Now, I'll be the first to say that I do not believe that Eastwood was trying to trailblaze a genre where Americans try to placate our current enemies (post 9/11), but I'll be the first to say that if it were possible to win hearts and minds by filmmaking propaganda to NOT become violent and kill, then I'll applaud Eastwood. Ken Watanabe goes Oscar-worthy in it. Remember, I've heard for years how all the negative propaganda works, so you tell me, why won't positive propaganda work towards the opposite outcome?

I want to share something about Letters From Iwo Jima and Fires on the Plain. The former was one of my top films from 2006, but I remember reading a review which criticized it for being too sentimental and not having the in-your-face ferocity and utter bleakness of Fires on the Plain. Obviously, the two films are about what the Japanese went through during World War II, but they're trying to do different things. This critic argued that Eastwood went too far into teaching some obvious lesson about both sides in a war being basically the same, in that their primary thoughts are about home and family. I enjoyed the elegaic tone of Letters and didn't find the need for it to be Fires on the Plain II. However, if you haven't seen the earlier film, you should hunt it down. Most war films, if they're done properly, are also horror films, in a way. Fires on the Plain may qualify as one of the most horrific.



I love Allegro non troppo - it's in my top 100. It's half a satire on the animation of Fantasia and half a black-and-white live-action jab at Disney's serious attitude towards the orchestra/conductor presented as a slapstick Fellini spoof, and this part is funnier the more you appreciate Fellini. The B&W live-action section has a despotic conductor who keeps his orchestra of little old ladies and his animator prisoners until he needs them for the classical music accompaniment and the animations. This part is done as a spoof/satire of Fellini by way of the Marx Brothers. There are surrealistic touches throughout the film, including many seemingly mean, violent ones involving some of the creations of the animator (Maurizio Nichetti) and a lovely cleaning woman who's mutually attracted to him. The conductor ts a particularly hateful character but that just makes him funnier. I haven't even gotten to the idiot "narrator" or some kind of dancing gorilla thing. But, to paraphrase Shakespeare, the animation's the thing. The "cartoons" are beautiful, spectacular, funny, melancholic, sexy, witty, surrealistic and thought-provoking. I could go into more details about it, but I'll just say the combo of classical music and deeply personaI animation creates huge emotions. I especially love the Bolero Evolution sequence and the Sibelius "Valse triste"/Homeless Cat segment too, which can be seen here.


My List

1. War and Peace
2. Z
5. Downfall
6. Night and Fog
8. Pan's Labyrinth
12. Allegro non troppo (Did Not Place)
13. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
14. Letters from Iwo Jima (Did Not Place)
15. The Shop on Main Street (Did Not Place)
16. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Did Not Place)

17. The Celebration [Festen]
18. Underground (Did Not Place)
19. My Father's Glory - make sure to watch My Mother's Castle since it's Part 2 of the same film (They Both Did Not Place)
20. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Did Not Place)

21. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
22. Europa Europa - should have been Olivier, Olivier (They Both Did Not Place)
23. Love Exposure (Did Not Place)
24. Buffet Froid (Did Not Place)

25. Das Boot



I've not seen either of the last two. One, strangely, just hasn't happened whereas the other I'm in the slightest bit interested in.
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matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
Here's my list... I would have put in "Series Noire" (1979) though, but I already submitted the list below:


1. La Strada (1954)
2. The Battle of Algiers (1966)
3. Shadows in Paradise (1986)
4. Umberto D. (1952)
5. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
6. Shoeshine (1946)
7. Hunger (1966)
8. Sunflower (1970)
9. The Roof (1956)
10. His Days Are Numbered (1962)
11. Cairo Station (1958)
12. Taste of Cherry (1997)
13. Grand Illusion (1937)
14. Woman in the Dunes (1964)
15. The Cat (1971)
16. The Earth Trembles (1948)
17. Never on Sunday (1960)
18. Stroszek (1977)
19. M (1931)
20. Rashomon (1950)
21. The Seventh Seal (1957)
22. Ikiru (1952)
23. Fists in the Pocket (1965)
24. Knife in the Water (1962)
25. Adrift on the Nile (1971)



rbrayer's Avatar
Registered User
OK - so I'm way behind due to vacation and other RL stuff, so here goes:

Other than Downfall, I've seen all of #5-18. Of that list, 6 were on my list and one was an unforgivable oversight (The Passion of Joan of Arc!) I loved Stalker, but I slightly preferred Solaris and I had only 1 spot for any director other than of course Kurosawa, Fellini, and Bergman. I am amused though that Solaris came #12 on my list and the main list.

City of God and M are incredible films. Come and See is mindblowing but the most painful film I ever watched. Amelie and Pan's Labyrinth are fine - not sure they belong on the list at all let alone this high.

Aguirre was my choice for Herzog though I strongly considered Strosezk, which I find hilarious.

Spirited Away is the best Miyazaki film by any measure, but #5 is a bit crazy IMO. There are definitely more than 4 far better foreign films including my #1, 8 1/2, which I find to be a simply stunning film, the rare movie I can both greatly admire and intensely enjoy. Just fantastic Fellini. Still, glad it made the top 10.

Rashomon, well, that could easily be #1 on any list - it's just a perfect film.

Here's what my list looks like with 4 films to go with predictions for what's left:

1. 8½ (1963) (#9)
2. 90% chance
3. Ikiru (1952) (#24)
4. Wings of Desire (1987) (#32)
5. Rashomon (1950) (#13)
6. 75% chance (I really hope so)
7. 10% - very unlikely, but I would be thrilled
8. Bicycle Thieves (1948) (#6)
9. Le Samouraļ (1967) (#30)
10. 50% - don't know but definitely deserving
11. Metropolis (1927) (#31)
12. Solaris (1972) (#12)
13. Playtime (1967) (#45)
14. Fanny and Alexander (1982) (#39)
15. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) (#36)
16. The Exterminating Angel (1962) (#95)
17. Late Spring (1949) (#26)
18. Paprika (2006) (#100)
19. Spirited Away (2001) (#5)
20. 5% - love it but probably not happening
21. Pather Panchali (1955) (#47)
22. La Dolce Vita (1960) (#27)
23. Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) (#15)
24. Harakiri (1962) (#37)
25. 0% and a bit surprised it didn't make the single-pointer list.