# What's Your Favorite Non-Anglophone Films?



## Guttersnipe (May 14, 2020)

What are your favorite films in which English is not the main language?

Here are mine:
The Seventh Seal (Swedish) 1957 
Ikiru (Japanese) 1952
Wild Strawberries (Swedish) 1957 
Trollhunter (Norwegian) 2010
Border (Swedish) 2018 
Rashomon (Japanese) 1950
The Hunt (Danish) 2012
Metropolis (German) 1927
The Brand New Testament (French-Belgian-Luxembourgish) 2015
Vampyr (French-German) 1932
13 Assassins (Japanese) 2010
Parasite (South Korean) 2019


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## tegeus-Cromis (May 14, 2020)

_Celine and Julie Go Boating _(Rivette, 1974) -- French
_Andrei Rublev _(Tarkovsky, 197something) -- Russian
_The Rules of the Game _(Renoir, 1939) -- French
_Out 1 _(Rivette, 1971) -- French
_Last Year at Marienbad _(Resnais, 1961 or so) -- French
_Playtime _(Tati, 1967) -- French
_Betty Blue _(Beineix, 1986, I think?) -- French

I could keep going, but I think they'd all be French. I do love Bergman and Kurosawa and Antonioni and Fellini, but I guess not as much as my favorite French films.


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## Mouse (May 14, 2020)

Pan's Labyrinth


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## M. Robert Gibson (May 14, 2020)

The Brand New Testament - Wikipedia [2015] - French  -  a recent entry into my list


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## CupofJoe (May 14, 2020)

Oh... I'm glad someone had Trollhunter on their list. I love that film.
Taxi [1998 - French] Silly but I love its energy
When the Cat's Away [1996 - French] Whimsical like only the French seem to be able to do
Tomboy [2011 - French] Just stunning...
Ran [1985 - Japanese] Grand scale and intimate all at once.
and
Rare Exports [2010 - Finnish (though it be spoken in Sami)] The best ever Xmas movie!


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## tegeus-Cromis (May 14, 2020)

OK, my favorite non-Anglophone, non-Francophone movies:
_Andrei Rublev _(see above)
_Spirit of the Beehive _(Erice, 1973) -- Spanish. A huge influence on _Pan's Labyrinth, _and about a thousand times better than it. 
_Fellini Casanova _(1976) -- Italian. If I have to pick one Fellini, this is the one I'd pick. 
_Persona _(Bergman, 1966) -- Swedish. 
_Seven Samurai _(Kurosawa, 1954) -- Japanese.


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## Rodders (May 14, 2020)

Access to genre foreign movies is not easy, but there are a lot of really great movies which provide a refreshing change to Hollywood. My favourites include:

Luc Besson's Taxi. (French)
Chrysalis (French)
Cargo (Swiss)
Aniara (not sure, but I think this is a Swedish movie)
Timecrimes (Spanish)
The Last Days (Spanish) My favourite movie of the last few years. Just brilliant and totally recommended.
Train to Busan (Korean) very much looking forward to seeing the sequel to this.
The Villainess (Korean and ultra violent.)

I have a few that I still need to watch. (Delicatessen and City of the Lost Children spring immediately to mind.)

I would love to see a Sci-Fi Bollywood movie. Any recommendations?

I definitely prefer subtitled movies to dubbed movies.


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## Phyrebrat (May 14, 2020)

The best Giallo I've ever seen:

_The House with the Laughing Windows_. Outstanding - available on Youtube


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## Astro Pen (May 14, 2020)

The* Three Colours* Trilogy
*Last Year in Marienbad
Mirror *and *Nostalgia
La Dolce Vita*

There are many more of course but that is todays.


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## Guttersnipe (May 14, 2020)

Phyrebrat said:


> The best Giallo I've ever seen:
> 
> _The House with the Laughing Windows_. Outstanding - available on Youtube


I love giallo films! Favorite so far is The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.


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## Danny McG (May 14, 2020)

_La Grande Illusion_


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## Foxbat (May 15, 2020)

Cinema Paradiso
City Of Lost Children
The Lives Of Others
Downfall
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Caeser Must Die


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## AlexH (May 15, 2020)

Some great films mentioned above! I haven't heard of most of the French films mentioned, so I'll check some out. Most of the French films I've mentioned are comedy.

Japanese:
Infernal Affairs
Spirited Away
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Departures
One Cut of the Dead
Wolf Children

Korean
3-Iron
Parasite
The Handmaiden 
The Good the Bad the Weird
Battle Ground 625

French:
Les Visiteurs
A Cat in Paris
Incendies (also Arabic)
The First Day of the Rest of Your Life
The City of Lost Children
A Man Escaped
The Closet

Swedish:
Show Me Love

Thai:
Chocolate

Cantonese/Mandarin:
Kung Fu Hustle
Shaolin Soccer
From Beijing with Love

German:
Victoria (though a lot is in English)
Balloon 

Danish:
The Guilty

Norwegian:
Kon-Tiki

Spanish:
Blancanieves
Tell No One
Timecrimes

Italian:
Life Is Beautiful

Swedish:
Everlasting Moments

Turkish:
Mustang

Persian:
A Separation
Persepolis

Georgian:
Tangerines (also Russian)

Hindi:
The Lunchbox
3 Idiots

Urdu and others:
The Kite Runner

Lao:
The Rocket

Sorry there. Sometimes I can't help getting carried away when it comes to lists. I like making lists of things I like, though I've never made a list about lists. Maybe I should make a list of my favourite lists.


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## CupofJoe (May 15, 2020)

How could I have forgotten Show Me Love?!?! I nearly got thrown out of an HMV asking if they had a copy and using its original title.


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## hitmouse (May 15, 2020)

Tampopo
Seven Samurai
Cinema Paradiso
La Dolce Vita
Jules et Jim
Au Bout de Souffle
Mon Oncle
Manon les Sources
Delicatessen
Amelie
Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown ( most Almodovar tbh)
Separado
Shaolin Soccer & Kung Fu Hustle
Pather Panchali


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## The Big Peat (May 15, 2020)

Oldboy.


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## tegeus-Cromis (May 15, 2020)

AlexH said:


> Some great films mentioned above! I haven't heard of most of the French films mentioned, so I'll check some out. Most of the French films I've mentioned are comedy.
> 
> Japanese:
> Infernal Affairs
> ...


I think _Persepolis _is originally in French.


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## Danny McG (May 15, 2020)

AlexH said:


> Maybe I should make a list of my favourite lists.


Yeah, go for it!


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## Vince W (May 15, 2020)

Tampopo
Astérix et Obélix contre César
Astérix et Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre
Amélie
Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez series.


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## M. Robert Gibson (May 15, 2020)

Not that it's got a lot of non-Anglophonics in but how could I have forgotten _Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot_, known to us Anglophones _Monsieur Hulot's Holiday._


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## paranoid marvin (May 16, 2020)

Das Boot. Even though there is an English version, it has to be watched in German with subtitles

Downfall; mesmerising performance by Bruno.


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## Extollager (May 16, 2020)

Three Russian movies:

The Return
The Island (my favorite of the bunch)
Russian Ark









						The Return (2003 film) - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org
				












						The Island (2006 film) - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org
				












						Russian Ark - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org


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## hitmouse (May 16, 2020)

Vince W said:


> Tampopo
> Astérix et Obélix contre César
> Astérix et Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre
> Amélie
> Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez series.


Tampopo is pretty much the perfect film in my book. Has everything: humour, manners, pathos, tragedy, silly bits, a quest, a mysterious hero in a cowboy hat, a clever and zingy script, and a great ending. A serious film that does not take itself seriously. Probably my favourite film of all time.


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## Rodders (May 16, 2020)

Das Boot! I totally forgot about that. Superb movie. 

Any foreign language science fiction recommendations?


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## hitmouse (May 16, 2020)

Rodders said:


> Das Boot! I totally forgot about that. Superb movie.
> 
> Any foreign language science fiction recommendations?


Accion Mutante is a really silly but great fun Spanish SF.


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## Narkalui (May 17, 2020)

Amelie
Wages Of Fear (not to be confused with Fear of Wages)
Nightwatch and Daywatch
The Devil's Backbone

Plus loads of others already mentioned


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## Boaz (May 18, 2020)

_Eat Drink Man Woman_ (1994) Mandarin
Taiwan's greatest chef has lost his senses of taste and smell. Sooo, now what?  Food, family, romance, responsibility, repression, secrets, and rebirth.

_La Belle et le Bete_ (1946) French
Grace, compassion, acceptance, forgiveness, and rebirth. Released a year after WW2, it's a deep well of analogies.  It's worth a view just for the special effects and lighting.  Yes, it is worth a view just for the special effects and lighting in a black and white film.

_The General_ (1926) Silent film with english title cards
There's music, so it's not quite silent.  We are sometimes so used to the overacting of Kurt Russell, Jim Carrey, William Shatner, et al. (and I love those guys) that Keaton's performance could be shrugged off. If you pay attention to his subtle facial movements and how his breathing can affect his demeanor, then you'll find a phenomenal performance.

_Bang Bang!_ (2014) Hindi
I think it's Hindi... I cannot be more specific regarding Indian dialects. _ Bang Bang!_ is an official Bollywood remake of Hollywood's Knight and Day (Cruise and Diaz).  So K&D was bad... and BB does not really improve the plot and it's two and a half hours long, BUT it is a fun fantasy/romcom that keeps jumping the shark. Plus... singing and dancing!

_Bajrangi Bhaijaan_ (2015) Hindi
The story is reminiscent of _Les Miserables_... just replace the Paris Uprising of 1832 with Hindu-Muslim tensions and replace Jean Valjean with Forrest Gump.  Self worth, mercy, and humanity are the themes. It blatantly tugs at your heartstrings, but so what?  Also, the reporter at the train station is absolutely hilarious.

_Life is Beautiful_ (1997) Italian
Tragedy in comic form.  Hope, commitment, and legacy.

_The Killer_ (1989) Cantonese
Like the previous two films in this list, this movie also asks the question "How far will you go to save someone?"  When it was released, Americans really had never seen gun fu before.  This film highly influenced Luc Besson's _Leon_.

_Hard Boiled_ (1992) Cantonese
Chow Yun Fat (Dirty Harry) squares off against Tony Leung (a combination of Billy Costigan in _The Departed_ and Mr. Orange in _Resevoir Dogs)_.  I can imagine that the Wachowskis loved this film.  But unlike _The Matrix_, all the action is live.  We all know that multiple cuts allow for live action bullet ballet whereas CG allows for impossibly long extended actions... and yet there is a two and a half minute take in _Hard Boiled_ that is fantastic.  Imagine the hallway scene in _Old Boy_ done in the style of the opening scene of _A Touch of Evil_ and you'll know what I'm talking about.  One of the problems with a foreign language action film is that there's always that temptation to stop reading and listen in English in order to see the action.

_The Seven Samurai _(1954) Japanese
Loss.  Enduring the unendurable. What is man?  What is society?  Where is justice?

_Fist of Fury_ aka _The Chinese Connection_ (1972) Cantonese
I can sum up this movie in two words... Bruce Lee.  But you knew I'd keep typing anyway....  Pride, patriotism, duty.

_The Flowers of War_ (2011) Mandarin, Japanese, English
This movie is not for the faint of heart... and like _Platoon, American Beauty,_ and _The Wrestler_, I may never watch it again because it is so depressing. It's _Leaving Las Vegas_ meets _300_ sans beefcake.

_My Way_ (2011) Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, German, English
The epic, enthralling, improbable (and unconfirmed) story of how U.S. soldiers captured a Korean soldier on D-Day.


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## Rodders (May 18, 2020)

I tried to watch The Wandering Earth, but I found it too silly to be believable.

Nightwatch and Daywatch are on my list as I did enjoy the books. Was the original Solaris Russian, too?


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## AlexH (May 18, 2020)

Rodders said:


> Das Boot! I totally forgot about that. Superb movie.
> 
> Any foreign language science fiction recommendations?


You seem to have seen those I'd mention. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, though it probably would be classed as more of a fantasy, is a great film.

Have you seen Alphaville, the 1960s film? I could be wrong but think it might be getting a remake. I haven't seen the original yet.

I watched The Wandering Earth to the end. It was interesting in the sense of what Chinese filmmakers could achieve if they manage to pull everything off, but ultimately boring because the characters weren't engaging and I failed to suspend my disbelief.


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## Rodders (May 18, 2020)

What are your thoughts on dubbing vs. subtitles? 

Paranoid, I haven't seen Downfall yet, but I am led to believe that it's very good. 

I didn't think too much of Host (a Korean monster movie).


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## AlexH (May 18, 2020)

Rodders said:


> What are your thoughts on dubbing vs. subtitles?
> 
> Paranoid, I haven't seen Downfall yet, but I am led to believe that it's very good.
> 
> I didn't think too much of Host (a Korean monster movie).


Given the option, I always choose subtitles. I've seen Spirited Away both dubbed and subtitled, and that feels much better subtitled. I don't think the Americans did a great job of the dub, especially with Chihiro, who they seemed to turn into a bratty kid. Infernal Affairs is another I've seen both. I don't remember the dub being too bad, but I watched it subtitled first.


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## Rodders (May 30, 2020)

Has anyone seen The Platform? It looks really interesting IMO.


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## svalbard (May 30, 2020)

Foxbat said:


> Cinema Paradiso
> City Of Lost Children
> The Lives Of Others
> Downfall
> ...



You robbed my list


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## JimC (Jun 11, 2020)

Millennium Series (extended edition).
Nine hours of Noomi Rapace as Lisbet Salander.
Subtitled in English.


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## Guttersnipe (Jan 24, 2021)

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thai) 2010


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## Vladd67 (Jan 24, 2021)

With Das Boot forget the movie, the original series is on blue ray. 
others include
Yojimbo
Hard Boiled
God of Gamblers
A Better Tomorrow 
The Seventh Seal
Cyrano de Bergerac.


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