The MoFo Top 100 Foreign Language Film Countdown

→ in
Tools    





Come and See has a scene with a cow in it that you are not going to like. Didn't treat the kid in the film much better.

Live ammunition was used in the film - in interviews, actor Aleksey Kravchenko has described actual bullets passing some 10 centimeters above his head.

Come and See (1985) Trivia IMDb
Ugh. Add that to the list of movies I'll never watch. Thanks for letting me know.



Come and See has a scene with a cow in it that you are not going to like. Didn't treat the kid in the film much better.

Live ammunition was used in the film - in interviews, actor Aleksey Kravchenko has described actual bullets passing some 10 centimeters above his head.

Come and See (1985) Trivia IMDb



2. Stalker (1979)
My thought : For the sake of socrates death, What in hell is in my liking.
My feel : In the love of God (whoever and wherever you are, please have mercy upon us), all i understand is that I don't understand.
Me, actually : A triangle!


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)
22. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
25. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the One Pointer (1776)



Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky 1979)...my #3!


Stalker (Tarkovsky 1979)

"A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes."

My first time watching Stalker and I was impressed! Oh, the beauty of it!
I loved the opening scene that seemed to go on forever like time had been slowed down and yet my attention level was high, I was engrossed. What a thing of beauty the gold monochromatic look gave to the film. But what really blew me away was the textures. It was so richly textured, the walls, the furniture, the floor, even the deeply lined face of the Stalker was textured. That my friends is a stunning use of side lighting. BTW, I seen this on a fully restored Criterion DVD and damn did it look good.

I really liked how the film used monochrome color to represent the world of the Stalker, where he merely existed. But it's in the zone where he comes alive and so did the colors! I loved the look of the zone with the early morning soft light and mist...mist everywhere, like a soft blanket concealing the mysteries of the zone.

And such wonderful shooting locations throughout the entire film. Each location was a treat to the eyes and really made the story...So did the cinematography and lighting. The use of negative space in the compositions really imparted an emotion of poetic peace and yet there's this understated uneasiness that occurs in the zone.

It's amazing how by the actor's reactions, we believe the zone is this place with ever changing mazes, where the laws of physics don't seem to apply and danger is only a misstep away. Yet, we never seen any evidence of that...but I totally believed it, and that's thanks Tarkovsky's genius.

Stalker is about a personal experience, it's reflective, as four people go into the zone...The fourth person is the movie viewer. I really felt like I was on the journey with them. CR



I forgot the opening line.
Come and See was my #12 - a film that shocks, obviously, but also one that uses sound and vision in a masterful and inventive way. One might know about the atrocities committed during the Second World War (or, for the Russians, The Great Patriotic War) but to actually see them being carried out with the immersion that Elem Klimov manages to achieve for us is the very definition of harrowing. I also have to applaud other aspects of the film, such as makeup and acting. Flyora's change from happy kid to aged and permanently damaged shell is brought off to perfection. Being of German heritage, this was an important film for me to see, and it rocked my father to his very foundations. You can acknowledge crimes, but until you've actually seen them (or, nearly experienced them as the film makes you feel) you can't feel true contrition. When I was travelling around Russia, a couple in St Petersburg asked me if I'd seen any Russian films that stood out to me - Come and See was the obvious answer and I was curious as what they thought of it themselves. They told me Russians find it a very dark film - one they view in a very hushed way. I feel exactly the same.

Stalker is a film I only found out about a few weeks ago, while watching a documentary about films that were massively difficult to produce. It looked similar to Annihilation, and has got my curious level up to 10. The whole story behind the making of the film would make a great film in and of itself. All the disasters associated with it. I'll try to ease down on my expectations, because they're through the roof with this one and that inevitably leads to a film not being able to measure up to them.

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

Films I've seen : 32
Films that have been on my radar : 13
Films I've never even heard of : 45
Films I've heard of : 4

Films from my list : 11

#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



2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
Final 6 prediction then since my top 10 was way off:

6. Bicycle Thieves
5. Parasite
4. Seventh Seal
3. Persona
2. Seven Samurai
1. Spirited Away



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Can't stress enough how good this countdown is. Even films that in my opinion scored way too high are pretty solid films. They're just not good enough to be this high (in my opinion). But then we have so many actual masterpieces so high, that some of these popular choices are not an issue.

Looks like MoFos have pretty good taste after all. All you have to do is forbid them to include English-language films.
__________________
Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
Can't stress enough how good this countdown is. Even films that in my opinion scored way too high are pretty solid films. They're just not good enough to be this high (in my opinion). But then we have so many actual masterpieces so high, that some of these popular choices are not an issue.

Looks like MoFos have pretty good taste after all. All you have to do is forbid them to include English-language films.
Agree, it's insane how many real good ones will miss here too, as we will see when 102-110 are shown.

I probably didn't even see a foreign film before I joined here. Seen quite a bit and have a long ways to go.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
I probably didn't even see a foreign film before I joined here.
Well, I didn't even see a Pink Film before I joined here. But now I'm at 328.

Conclusion: MoFo made me watch kinky movies because I wanted to be kinky for MoFo.



Well, I didn't even see a Pink Film before I joined here. But now I'm at 328.

Conclusion: MoFo made me watch kinky movies because I wanted to be kinky for MoFo.
And I drink wine for my heart



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
For those of you wondering, I am going to stick to 2 a day. I know in some previous lists it has slowed to 1 a day for the top ten. Mostly it's a timing issue - I'm going away next week and wouldn't want to leave you all hanging for a week to find out the order of #1 and #2. This way there will be time to post some stats as well before the weekend. Also, my list, my rules.

But also today's films, #6 and #5 were a tie. I know, this high up the list! They each had 287 points and were on 18 ballots. One had one first place vote and the other had two, that's what the split came down to in the end. If you're a big fan of #6 you can think of it as being a tie for 5th if it makes you feel better

You've got about an hour if you want to get in some more top 5/ top 6 predictions. I believe predicting the top 6 in the correct order has been done before - can it be done again?



My prediction for Top 5:

Seven Samurai
Persona
Parasite
Spirited Away
Bicycle Thieves


Seventh Seal in #6?
I said what I said
__________________
Check out my podcast: The Movie Loot!



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
Can't stress enough how good this countdown is. Even films that in my opinion scored way too high are pretty solid films. They're just not good enough to be this high (in my opinion). But then we have so many actual masterpieces so high, that some of these popular choices are not an issue.

Looks like MoFos have pretty good taste after all. All you have to do is forbid them to include English-language films.



And someone actually said, "You'll be lucky to find 5 MoFos who would be interested", and I knew that wasn't true, and when I started a poll (Do You Like Foreign Movies?) the final score was 49-2.


This has been a great one... I admit I was hoping for movies I hadn't heard of from 1930-70s, but I'm sure there's gotta be some newer movies I like.






287 points, 18 lists
6. Bicycle Thieves


Director

Vittorio De Sica, 1948

Starring

Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell, Elena Altieri









287 points, 18 lists
5. Spirited Away


Director

Hayao Miyazaki, 2001

Starring

Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takashi Naito






Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Bicycle Thieves: 1st, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 5th, 5th, 5th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 13th, 14th, 16th, 16th, 20th, 21st, 24th

Spirited Away: 1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 4th, 4th, 5th, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 12th, 17th, 17th, 19th, 19th, 21st, 24th

Reply to Topic