Recommend some Foreign Faves

Not much. I'm sure the intention was to contrast the good-n-bad of both worlds [EDIT: actually - thinking about it, i think it was more about contrast - and the impinging of new "materialistic" ways as opposed to old-school trade]. The village, with its gossip (and lazy, unmotivated husband ), the potentials in using the truck, the competition of trading her goods, the temptation and attraction of the TV store with the giant one she'd set her heart on. The problem is it was onat 4 in the morning or something, and i'm not sure i made it to the end. All the good foreign stuff gets stuck on at those hours in britland (i'mhappy they show them at all tho ) - one problem of being in an english-speaking country is that you get far less foreign/non-english films. (at watchable hours anyway )

Oh well, it's not like i sleep much anyway - and it's a holiday tomorrow (and i forgot to remind my students - whoops. Ahh, some of them are dead lazy anyway - they could do with a day with time ontheir hands in london)

Oh yeah, for some reason i think someone in the film was nicknamed "the pig" - or there was a pig that became involved in the story perhaps. There was definitely strife between neighbours in the village etc - and a breakdown scene with the truck. Forgotten what evolved from these elements tho

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Hero is quite good, on pars with Crouching Tiger I think. Can't say I enjoyed Jet's Shaolin series much but I was a fan of his Wong Fei Hung saga. What are your takes on some of the more recent big budget Hong Kong releases, such as The Duel, A Man Called Hero and the more recent Legend of Zu Mountain?

In all honesty, I have ceised to closely follow the HK movie industry. The reasons are that my favourite directors and actors (Woo, Chan, Chow Yun-Fat) moved out to Hollywood, and that the films started to slowly recycle themselves, coming out as repetitive. Even in the halcyon days of Hong Kong cinema local filmmakers had difficulties blending breakneck speed scenes with the less pacy fillers (a number of Chan films from the 80s turn out that way, half great action and half dullsville), and that problem persists to date. Man Kit Poon's Shanghai Grand is probably the most recent HK product I saw and it left me duly unimpressed (I reviewed it here), and I'm also wondering how is the new mainland Chinese goverment influencing the once virile, fresh HK cinematic output.

I'm more focused on Korea and Japan nowadays.

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Norway: Elling, a movie about two (for lack of a better word) retards getting reinstated into society. It's a great movie and you really feel good after seing it. An overall warm movie.

Read in another thread you're Swedish, which reminded me to mention ****ing Amal and Seventh Seal.

I don't think anyone can argue with you that the Seventh Seal is a good movie. Perhaps they don't think its entertaining but good none the less.

****ing Åmål is going by the name Show Me Love outside of Scandinavia. But i'de rather recommend Together and Lilja 4-Ever before mentioning Show me love. They are both better movies and all three was made by Lukas Moodysson. Together is amazing, but you might have to be scandinavian to understand all the jokes.

Alot of "foreign" (to me most movies i see is foreign heh) movies have already been mentioned so I won't repeat their names. But i'de like to recommend Gadjo Dilo. It's a French movie about a man trying to find a gypsy singer his late father liked. Very good imo. Another movie i enjoyed that also takes place among gypsies is Black Cat, White Cat.

A Danish film that i enjoyed was Flickering Lights. Its a humerous story about a few criminals trying to break out from their criminal lifes and become adapted citizens.

Im having a hard time getting my brain to work with me here. My favourite scandinavian movies haven't been mentioned but ill recommend a last one before I do something else and wait for the others to pop into my mind. A summers tale. Another warm Drama/Comedy. Kjell Bergqvist is absolutely amazing as an Undertaker/farmer.

It was distributed in Serbia under the title ****ing Amal and the Dutch TV screened it without title change as well.

I also suggest Run Lola Run awesome movie and produced very well

I would highly suggest the films of Wong Kar Wai. I quickly scanned the previous posts, and I don't recollect seeing his name.

In my opinion, he is among the top ten auteurs living at the moment. Check out "Chungking express" and "Happy Together". I also enjoyed Fellini's "La Strada" and Truffaut's "400 Blows", which is the first and best film of the french "New Wave" (though I have not seen "Hiroshima Mon Amour" yet.)

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"I know a man who was born with his heart on the outside. Every man's worst fear, he also had heavy hands. he couldn't touch his lovers face, he couldn't hold a baby." - Buck 65

Comme un poisson hors de l'eau
Like a Fish Out of Water (1999)

Le boulet
Dead Weight (2002)

Yamakasi - Les samouraï des temps modernes (2001)

Wasabi (2001)

Les Rivières pourpres
Crimson rivers (2000)

La haine
Hate (1995)


waiting to see
La mentale (2002)
Les Rivières pourpres 2 - Les anges de l'apocalypse (2003)

While I found La Haine excellent, I haven't enjoyed Yamakasi. In my opinion, Besson's career is on the downward spiral, and won't rise until he gives up his passion of producing and creating MTV-like action films such as Transporter or Kiss of the Dragon.

You saw Le Boulet ? Have you also seen Le Velo du Ghislain Lambert ?

I haven't seen Le Velo du Ghislain Lambert.

Don't bury Besson just yet, he made the Fifth element...

transporter was a great concept but the photography lacked big time

Transporter is a poster child of all what's wrong with action films today. All flash, no substance, and ******* music every second of the film. It's like a big, 90 minutes long music video.

All those new MTV-actioners are totally soulless as well. They're churning them out like factory products using a proven formula.

Try and get Le Velo, a tragicomedy which reflects on life of a guy who always wanted to become a big shot pro cyclist. Benoit Poelvoorde, from Le Boulet and C'est Arrivé Près de Chez Vous, is in the title role.

Having read this thread I went back and watched the Musashi Miyamoto Trilogy. I forgot how much I loved these films. The Trilogy (Musashi Miyamoto, Duel at Ichijoji Temple and Duel and Ganryu Island) are directed by Hiroshi Inagaki who produces his first foray into colour. It tells the story of a farmer (Toshiro Kifune) who goes to war to seek fame and fortune. He returns dishonoured and seeks out to gain this back. Eventually he realises that there is more to the mere butchering of people and refines himself physically and mentally on the path of a true samurai. I highly recommend it to anyone.

I just watched Fernando Meirelles CITY OF GOD 9/10- Oh my god this is one hard film and brilliant. Paints a very vivid portrait of the Rio De Janiro''s slum underbelly, is beautifully shot with inspired camera choices. The script is raw and works perfectly to evoke realism at every turn. The narrative structure is wonderful much like Amores Perros and the acting all round is completly believable. Believe the critics, This film is must see entertainment that will stay with you.

On a side note it reminded me of a fabulous Barbet Schroder film OUR LADY OF THE ASSASINS which also tells a similar tale, so if you dig COG check out this one too.

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havent seen city of god, sounds pretty good though. is it new? where'd you see it - video or theater?

dont know about how on the mark this is, but your discription reminded me of a movie i saw about a year ago and totally loved - then somehow forgot about until this moment. ever see 'salaam bombay'? it's a french film i think, from 1988 and it's about a group of kids just struggling to survive the slums of bombay. very brutal and emotional but somehow it didnt seem like a tear jerker to me. one of the better and more sobering movies of its kind, i really liked it.

My Fav. foreign films are

No Man's Land - Bosnia - good war movie

Amelie - France - great funny movie

Princess Mononoke - my favorite anime ever.

Rabbit Proof Fence - Australia - very, very good and informative movie

City of Lost Children - France - I love weird movies like this.

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and The Dish - Australia - very funny movie starring Sam Neil about the broadcasting of the moon landing by an Australian satellite dish. I was laughing so hard when the young Australian band thought that the American anthem was the theme from Hawaii 5-0.

have you ever seen anything by jan svankmajer? if you like weird foreign movies, you might check out his takes on faust and alice in wonderland.

'faust' [1994] is a personal favorite of mine.

To you maybe. To me, it's bland and more subjective than anything.