Foreign language films can be commercial, low brow or B-movies. Furthermore, foreign language films can cross cultural boundaries, particularly when the visual spectacle and style is sufficient to overcome people's misgivings. With that being said i'm here today to bring you my top 10 favorite foreign language films of all-time. So without further ado...
10. 8 1/2
This film is hilarious and it has amazing set designs. Guido Anselmi (played by Marcello Mastroianni), a famous Italian film director, is suffering from "director's block". Stalled on his new science fiction film that includes veiled autobiographical references, he has lost interest amid artistic and marital difficulties. As Guido struggles half-heartedly to work on the film, a series of flashbacks and dreams delve into his memories and fantasies; they are frequently interwoven with reality. 8 1/2 was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design while winning 2 (Best Foreign Language Film and Best Costume Design) and it has a rating of 97% on rottentomatoes.com.
9. Z
This is a magnificent film and it will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time. In the wake of a political assassination. Zei (played by Yves Montand) is a scientist who is scheduled to give a speech against the use of the atomic bomb. On the way to the event, he is attacked outside the auditorium by a group of right-wing extremists with political ties to the government as the police stand by and do nothing to intervene. He recovers long enough to make the speech but is later clubbed again and must undergo several surgeries, then dies during one of the procedures. A newspaper reporter finds a witness to the event and a judge willing to hear the case despite government protests. The ensuing trial reveals a government conspiracy, but the results of the trial are thrown out when a new government is formed by a military coup, which results in the intolerance that outlaws long hair, the Beatles, and any peaceful protests. Z was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Pictures, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Film Editing, Best Director and Best Writing while winning 2 (Best Foreign Language Film and Best Film Editing) and it has a rating of 93% on rottentomatoes.com.
8. The Intouchables
This film is touching and very heart-warming. Based on a true story of friendship between a handicap millionaire (played by Francois Cluzet) and his street smart ex-con caretaker (played by Omar Sy), The Intouchables depicts an unlikely camaraderie rooted in honesty and humor between two individuals who, on the surface, would seem to have nothing in common. The Intouchables has a rating of 75% on rottentomatoes.com.
7. Infernal Affairs
I seriously didn't know The Departed was a remake of this film and now that I do it is a favorite of mine. Ming (played by Andy Lau) is being initiated into the criminal underworld by triad boss Sam (played by Eric Tsang), who ends his speech to his young charges by wishing them success in the police department. Ming enters the police academy, where he excels, but sees his classmate, Yan (played by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), expelled for "breaking the rules." It turns out that Yan wasn't actually drummed out of the force, but recruited by Superintendent Wong (played by Anthony Wong) as an undercover operative. Just as Ming is achieving success in the police department while secretly working for Sam, Ming is gaining Sam's trust as a triad member, while reporting to Wong. Ten years later, both men, still undercover, have grown confused about their true identities, while their bosses, Sam and Wong, wage a battle of wits against each other. Each boss learns that the other has a mole working for him, and unwittingly entrusts the mole himself to ferret out the culprit. Ming and Yan scramble to expose one another's identity in an effort to save their own skins. Infernal Affairs has a rating of 95% on rottentomatoes.com.
6. Life is Beautiful
I always talk about films that make me cry, well this is one of them. Guido (played by Roberto Benigni), who moves during the '30s from the country to a Tuscan town, where he is entranced by schoolteacher Dora (played by Nicoletta Braschi). Dora likes Guido, but she remains faithful to her pompous fiancé, so Guido has an uphill struggle. Meanwhile, anti-Semitic attitudes lead to attacks against Guido's Jewish uncle (played by Giustino Durano). Leaping ahead to five years later, during WW II, Guido and Dora are married and have a son Giosue (played by Giorgio Cantarini). After they are imprisoned in a concentration camp, Guido goes to elaborate lengths to keep his son from understanding the truth of their situation. He tells the boy that they are competing with others to win an armored tank -- so everything from food shortages to tattoos is explained as necessary for participation in the contest. Life is Beautiful was nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Score, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film editing while winning 3 (Best Original Score, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor) and it has a rating of 80% on rottentomatoes.com.
5. Amélie
This is one of the funnier foreign language films that I have ever seen. Amelie (played by Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who had a decidedly unusual childhood; misdiagnosed with an unusual heart condition, Amelie didn't attend school with other children, but spent most of her time in her room, where she developed a keen imagination and an active fantasy life. Her mother Amandine (played by Lorella Cravotta) died in a freak accident when Amelie was eight, and her father Raphael (played by Rufus) had limited contact with her, since his presence seemed to throw her heart into high gear. Despite all this, Amelie has grown into a healthy and beautiful young woman who works in a cafe and has a whimsical, romantic nature. When Princess Diana dies in a car wreck in the summer of 1997, Amelie is reminded that life can be fleeting and she decides it's time for her to intervene in the lives of those around her, hoping to bring a bit of happiness to her neighbors and the regulars at the cafe. Amelie starts by bringing together two lonely people -- Georgette (played by Isabelle Nanty), a tobacconist with a severe case of hypochondria, and Joseph (played by Dominique Pinon), an especially ill-tempered customer. When Amelie finds a box of old toys in her apartment, she returns them to their former owner, Mr. Bretodeau (played by Maurice Benichou), sending him on a reverie of childhood. Amelie befriends Dufayel (played by Serge Merlin), an elderly artist living nearby whose bones are so brittle, thanks to a rare disease, that everything in his flat must be padded for his protection. And Amelie decides someone has to step into the life of Nino (played by Mathieu Kassovitz), a lonely adult video store clerk and part-time carnival spook-show ghost who collects pictures left behind at photo booths around Paris. Amelie was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Sound, Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film and it has a rating of 88% on rottentomatoes.com.
4. Downfall
Yes one of the film's scenes is parodied a lot, but if you actually sit down and watch the film you will be amazed.T he last ten days of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime are seen through the eyes of a young woman in his employ in this historical drama from Germany. Traudl Junge (played by Alexandra Maria Lara) was 22 years old when, in the fall of 1942, she was hired to be personal secretary to Adolf Hitler (played by Bruno Ganz). In April of 1945, Junge was still working for Hitler as forces were bearing down on Germany and the leader retreated to a secret bunker in Berlin for what would prove to be the last ten days of his life, as well as that of the Third Reich. As Hitler's mistress Eva Braun (played by Juliane Köhler) attempts to throw a cheerful birthday party for her man, Hitler's closest associates, including Heinrich Himmler (played by Ulrich Noethen), Joseph Goebbels (played by Ulrich Matthes), and Albert Speer (played by Heino Ferch), urge him to flee the city with only Goebbels maintaining any illusions that the Third Reich has any hope of survival. Hitler refuses to leave Berlin, and he spends his final days ranting and raving to Junge, blaming all around him as he tries to understand where his leadership went wrong. Meanwhile, Goebbels and his wife round up their six children and bring them to the bunker as Berlin begins to topple, determined to take their lives rather than face the Allies after Germany's certain defeat. Downfall was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and it has a rating of 91% on rottentomatoes.com.
3. Oldboy
All I can say is that the remake of this film didn't do this film any justice. Oh Dae-su (played by Choi Min-sik) is a husband and father whose reputation for womanizing is well known. One day, for reasons he doesn't understand, Oh Dae-su finds himself locked up in a prison cell, with no idea of what his crime was or whom his jailers may be. With a small television as his only link to the outside world and a daily ration of fried dumplings as his only sustenance, Oh Dae-su struggles to keep his mind and body intact, but when he learns through a news report that his wife has been killed, he begins a long and difficult project of digging an escape tunnel with a pair of chopsticks. Before he can finish -- and after 15 years behind bars -- Oh Dae-su is released, with as little explanation as when he was locked up, and he's soon given a wad of money and a cellular phone by a bum on the street. Emotionally stunted but physically strong after 15 years in jail, Oh Dae-su struggles to unravel the secret of who is responsible for locking him up, what happened to his wife and daughter, and how to best get revenge against his captors. Oldboy has a rating of 80% on rottentomatoes.com.
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
This film is marvelous and visually stunning. In the early 19th century, martial arts master Li Mu Bai (played by Chow Yun-Fat) is about to retire and enter a life of meditation, though he quietly longs to avenge the death of his master, who was killed by Jade Fox (played by Cheng Pei-pei). He gives his sword, a fabled 400-year-old weapon known as Green Destiny, to his friend, fellow martial arts wizard and secret love Yu Shu Lien (played by Michelle Yeoh), so that she may deliver it to Sir Te (played by Sihung Lung). Upon arrival in Peking, Yu happens upon Jen (played by Zhang Ziyi), a vivacious, willful politician's daughter. That night, a mysterious masked thief swipes Green Destiny, with Yu in hot pursuit -- resulting in the first of several martial arts action set pieces during the film. Li arrives in Beijing and eventually discovers that Jen is not only the masked thief but is also in cahoots with the evil Jade. In spite of this, Li sees great talent in Jen as a fighter and offers to school her in the finer points of martial arts and selflessness, an offer that Jen promptly rebukes. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Cinematography while winning 4 (Best Foreign Language Film, Art Direction, Best Film Editing and Best Cinematography) and it has a rating of 97% on rottentomatoes.com.
1. The Hunt
I was blown away by this film and it was in my top 15 films of the year last year. Lucas (played by Mads Mikkelsen), a former school teacher who has been forced to start over having overcome a tough divorce and the loss of his job. Just as things are starting to go his way, his life is shattered when an untruthful remark throws his small community into a collective state of hysteria. As the lie spreads, Lucas is forced to fight a lonely fight for his life and dignity. The Hunt was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and it has a rating of 93% on rottentomatoes.com.
So ladies and gentlemen what are some of your favorite Foreign Language Films and what do you think of my list? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.
Jonah Sparks
10. 8 1/2
This film is hilarious and it has amazing set designs. Guido Anselmi (played by Marcello Mastroianni), a famous Italian film director, is suffering from "director's block". Stalled on his new science fiction film that includes veiled autobiographical references, he has lost interest amid artistic and marital difficulties. As Guido struggles half-heartedly to work on the film, a series of flashbacks and dreams delve into his memories and fantasies; they are frequently interwoven with reality. 8 1/2 was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design while winning 2 (Best Foreign Language Film and Best Costume Design) and it has a rating of 97% on rottentomatoes.com.
9. Z
This is a magnificent film and it will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time. In the wake of a political assassination. Zei (played by Yves Montand) is a scientist who is scheduled to give a speech against the use of the atomic bomb. On the way to the event, he is attacked outside the auditorium by a group of right-wing extremists with political ties to the government as the police stand by and do nothing to intervene. He recovers long enough to make the speech but is later clubbed again and must undergo several surgeries, then dies during one of the procedures. A newspaper reporter finds a witness to the event and a judge willing to hear the case despite government protests. The ensuing trial reveals a government conspiracy, but the results of the trial are thrown out when a new government is formed by a military coup, which results in the intolerance that outlaws long hair, the Beatles, and any peaceful protests. Z was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Pictures, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Film Editing, Best Director and Best Writing while winning 2 (Best Foreign Language Film and Best Film Editing) and it has a rating of 93% on rottentomatoes.com.
8. The Intouchables
This film is touching and very heart-warming. Based on a true story of friendship between a handicap millionaire (played by Francois Cluzet) and his street smart ex-con caretaker (played by Omar Sy), The Intouchables depicts an unlikely camaraderie rooted in honesty and humor between two individuals who, on the surface, would seem to have nothing in common. The Intouchables has a rating of 75% on rottentomatoes.com.
7. Infernal Affairs
I seriously didn't know The Departed was a remake of this film and now that I do it is a favorite of mine. Ming (played by Andy Lau) is being initiated into the criminal underworld by triad boss Sam (played by Eric Tsang), who ends his speech to his young charges by wishing them success in the police department. Ming enters the police academy, where he excels, but sees his classmate, Yan (played by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), expelled for "breaking the rules." It turns out that Yan wasn't actually drummed out of the force, but recruited by Superintendent Wong (played by Anthony Wong) as an undercover operative. Just as Ming is achieving success in the police department while secretly working for Sam, Ming is gaining Sam's trust as a triad member, while reporting to Wong. Ten years later, both men, still undercover, have grown confused about their true identities, while their bosses, Sam and Wong, wage a battle of wits against each other. Each boss learns that the other has a mole working for him, and unwittingly entrusts the mole himself to ferret out the culprit. Ming and Yan scramble to expose one another's identity in an effort to save their own skins. Infernal Affairs has a rating of 95% on rottentomatoes.com.
6. Life is Beautiful
I always talk about films that make me cry, well this is one of them. Guido (played by Roberto Benigni), who moves during the '30s from the country to a Tuscan town, where he is entranced by schoolteacher Dora (played by Nicoletta Braschi). Dora likes Guido, but she remains faithful to her pompous fiancé, so Guido has an uphill struggle. Meanwhile, anti-Semitic attitudes lead to attacks against Guido's Jewish uncle (played by Giustino Durano). Leaping ahead to five years later, during WW II, Guido and Dora are married and have a son Giosue (played by Giorgio Cantarini). After they are imprisoned in a concentration camp, Guido goes to elaborate lengths to keep his son from understanding the truth of their situation. He tells the boy that they are competing with others to win an armored tank -- so everything from food shortages to tattoos is explained as necessary for participation in the contest. Life is Beautiful was nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Score, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film editing while winning 3 (Best Original Score, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor) and it has a rating of 80% on rottentomatoes.com.
5. Amélie
This is one of the funnier foreign language films that I have ever seen. Amelie (played by Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who had a decidedly unusual childhood; misdiagnosed with an unusual heart condition, Amelie didn't attend school with other children, but spent most of her time in her room, where she developed a keen imagination and an active fantasy life. Her mother Amandine (played by Lorella Cravotta) died in a freak accident when Amelie was eight, and her father Raphael (played by Rufus) had limited contact with her, since his presence seemed to throw her heart into high gear. Despite all this, Amelie has grown into a healthy and beautiful young woman who works in a cafe and has a whimsical, romantic nature. When Princess Diana dies in a car wreck in the summer of 1997, Amelie is reminded that life can be fleeting and she decides it's time for her to intervene in the lives of those around her, hoping to bring a bit of happiness to her neighbors and the regulars at the cafe. Amelie starts by bringing together two lonely people -- Georgette (played by Isabelle Nanty), a tobacconist with a severe case of hypochondria, and Joseph (played by Dominique Pinon), an especially ill-tempered customer. When Amelie finds a box of old toys in her apartment, she returns them to their former owner, Mr. Bretodeau (played by Maurice Benichou), sending him on a reverie of childhood. Amelie befriends Dufayel (played by Serge Merlin), an elderly artist living nearby whose bones are so brittle, thanks to a rare disease, that everything in his flat must be padded for his protection. And Amelie decides someone has to step into the life of Nino (played by Mathieu Kassovitz), a lonely adult video store clerk and part-time carnival spook-show ghost who collects pictures left behind at photo booths around Paris. Amelie was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Sound, Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film and it has a rating of 88% on rottentomatoes.com.
4. Downfall
Yes one of the film's scenes is parodied a lot, but if you actually sit down and watch the film you will be amazed.T he last ten days of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime are seen through the eyes of a young woman in his employ in this historical drama from Germany. Traudl Junge (played by Alexandra Maria Lara) was 22 years old when, in the fall of 1942, she was hired to be personal secretary to Adolf Hitler (played by Bruno Ganz). In April of 1945, Junge was still working for Hitler as forces were bearing down on Germany and the leader retreated to a secret bunker in Berlin for what would prove to be the last ten days of his life, as well as that of the Third Reich. As Hitler's mistress Eva Braun (played by Juliane Köhler) attempts to throw a cheerful birthday party for her man, Hitler's closest associates, including Heinrich Himmler (played by Ulrich Noethen), Joseph Goebbels (played by Ulrich Matthes), and Albert Speer (played by Heino Ferch), urge him to flee the city with only Goebbels maintaining any illusions that the Third Reich has any hope of survival. Hitler refuses to leave Berlin, and he spends his final days ranting and raving to Junge, blaming all around him as he tries to understand where his leadership went wrong. Meanwhile, Goebbels and his wife round up their six children and bring them to the bunker as Berlin begins to topple, determined to take their lives rather than face the Allies after Germany's certain defeat. Downfall was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and it has a rating of 91% on rottentomatoes.com.
3. Oldboy
All I can say is that the remake of this film didn't do this film any justice. Oh Dae-su (played by Choi Min-sik) is a husband and father whose reputation for womanizing is well known. One day, for reasons he doesn't understand, Oh Dae-su finds himself locked up in a prison cell, with no idea of what his crime was or whom his jailers may be. With a small television as his only link to the outside world and a daily ration of fried dumplings as his only sustenance, Oh Dae-su struggles to keep his mind and body intact, but when he learns through a news report that his wife has been killed, he begins a long and difficult project of digging an escape tunnel with a pair of chopsticks. Before he can finish -- and after 15 years behind bars -- Oh Dae-su is released, with as little explanation as when he was locked up, and he's soon given a wad of money and a cellular phone by a bum on the street. Emotionally stunted but physically strong after 15 years in jail, Oh Dae-su struggles to unravel the secret of who is responsible for locking him up, what happened to his wife and daughter, and how to best get revenge against his captors. Oldboy has a rating of 80% on rottentomatoes.com.
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
This film is marvelous and visually stunning. In the early 19th century, martial arts master Li Mu Bai (played by Chow Yun-Fat) is about to retire and enter a life of meditation, though he quietly longs to avenge the death of his master, who was killed by Jade Fox (played by Cheng Pei-pei). He gives his sword, a fabled 400-year-old weapon known as Green Destiny, to his friend, fellow martial arts wizard and secret love Yu Shu Lien (played by Michelle Yeoh), so that she may deliver it to Sir Te (played by Sihung Lung). Upon arrival in Peking, Yu happens upon Jen (played by Zhang Ziyi), a vivacious, willful politician's daughter. That night, a mysterious masked thief swipes Green Destiny, with Yu in hot pursuit -- resulting in the first of several martial arts action set pieces during the film. Li arrives in Beijing and eventually discovers that Jen is not only the masked thief but is also in cahoots with the evil Jade. In spite of this, Li sees great talent in Jen as a fighter and offers to school her in the finer points of martial arts and selflessness, an offer that Jen promptly rebukes. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Cinematography while winning 4 (Best Foreign Language Film, Art Direction, Best Film Editing and Best Cinematography) and it has a rating of 97% on rottentomatoes.com.
1. The Hunt
I was blown away by this film and it was in my top 15 films of the year last year. Lucas (played by Mads Mikkelsen), a former school teacher who has been forced to start over having overcome a tough divorce and the loss of his job. Just as things are starting to go his way, his life is shattered when an untruthful remark throws his small community into a collective state of hysteria. As the lie spreads, Lucas is forced to fight a lonely fight for his life and dignity. The Hunt was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and it has a rating of 93% on rottentomatoes.com.
So ladies and gentlemen what are some of your favorite Foreign Language Films and what do you think of my list? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.
Jonah Sparks
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