They made Ballroom Dancing as crazy as Professional Football here in the states.

Anytime I feel a bit blue I love to watch that film.

but never really watched it again.

But 'Strictly Ballroom' you'll just fall in love with it. There is some truly genius comedic acting in it and a bit of a sad note. The woman who played the mother passed away soon after she was done filming the movie and never actually saw the premiere of the movie. She was absolutely brilliant in the movie.

Also, if I am correct, one of the mean girls from 'Muriel's Wedding' passed away soon after the film was done. Belinda Jarrett, she was platinum blonde one died about a year after the movie.

"Cosi" and "Strictly Ballroom" have the same sense of humor.

Watch it the small screen with headphones for that EXTRA sense of claustrophobia.

A movie for people who love movies. One of the best endings ever. Great soundtrack by Ennio Morricone.

'Il Postino' is so heartbreaking because the lead actor, Massimo Troisi, had a heart condition at the time of filming. But he so believed in this part that he postponed his surgery to complete the film. Unfortunately after the film he passed away. But he left behind one of the post beautiful films that to this day still makes me cry when I watch it. It rates up there with Cinema Paradiso as one of the great Italian Classics.

Amelie was just, well, "delightful" is the word that pops into my head.

The Tin Drum - Germany
The Conformist - Italy
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly _ Italy
Solaris - Russia
Rashomon - Japan
M - Germany
Seven Beauties - Italy
Ushpizin - Israel
Breaker Morant - Australia
A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven) - England


I will stop with these ten as these are all films I could not imagine never seeing again.

a couple other good Australian ones by Peter Weir are Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave.

I picked Breaker Morant over Gallipoli because I can tolerate the smaller injustice of that case over the horrific tragedy of Gallipoli. But both are very good films.

One of my all-time favorite movies. Yes, it has Mel Gibson in it but that was before he went nuts.

I love all of the films in the thread above, and (don't hate me) I also love this one:

And I think the director was a Canuck. This was also in 1980, when it had yet to become commonplace for U.S. studios to film up there for lower cost. It's a horror film called The Changeling, and it rocks!

Best of all, you can watch the entire film on YouTube for free!

The Changeling is a superior horror film. An even better film directed by Peter Medak is The Ruling Class. He also did Let Him Have It and The Krays. Quite a good director to not be a well-known name.

I've gladly taken the time to participate in your thread, Steve, 'cause I'm a film geek! Now, hows about you participate in mine? You need not include a single foreign film. (Heck, if you read my opening post, you'll see that I haven't either!)

But I've just recently (re-)watched the Dutch/French film "The Vanishing" (Spoorloos). It's a small film, but it really stuck with me and left me a bit devastated.

Watch it if you haven't seen it, but avoid the American remake at all cost!

Thought of another, and you don't have to read subtitles for this one. If you like the timeless Dickens classic, this British version is a must see / must have.

You'll like "Green For Danger"

It's a fun little whodunit that will keep you guessing until the end.

I love this movie!

Brazilian 1960 still my favotire film

and, of course, Brazil.

... at least that's my answer today. I'm also pretty fond of French "new wave" films, and various Japanee classics.

It's hard to top Fellini though.

just my 2 cents

• 'Europa Europa' - An amazing German film about a young German Jewish boy who somehow manages to escape the concentration camps during WW2 Germany by posing as a regular german. Somehow when they get close to discovering his secret he somehow manages to escape detection. The movie is funny, endearing, heartbreaking, and wonderful all the same time. It's one of Julie Deply's first roles as the Nazi youth and first love of the German Jewish boy trying to hide his identity. BTW this is also a true story.
  
• 'Like Water for Chocolate' - a wonderful movie out of Mexico about first love and an asshole of a mother who believes in tradition that the youngest daughter is never allowed to marry but instead must always stay at at home to take care of her mother. It involves passionate love integrated with cooking. The romantic male lead is also the same guy who plays the young male lead in 'Cinema Paradiso'
  
• 'Farewell my Concubine' - There are so many great films that come out of China but this has to be one of the best. About childhood friends who are raised in a troop of performers who train children to perform the classic Chinese opera 'Farewell my Concubine'. These kids training all of their childhood so that when they turn old enough they can tour doing this opera and of course it's an all male troup so that means the most femimine of the boys has to play the female lead. But it's an amazing film, great scenary, great love story with the unrequited love and since it spans over 50 years there's betrayal and a storyline that weaves itself into the history of China throughout the wars with Japan and Cultural Revolution.
  
• 'Strictly Ballroom' - One of Baz Luhman's first great films about competitive Ballroom Dancing complete with the ugly duckly to beautiful swan story. I know others would pick 'Muriels' Wedding' as the best from Australia but I still go with this film as my favorite.
  
• 'Farinelli ' - This is from Belgium. It's the true store about Farinelli the stage name of Carlo Maria Broschi, one of the last great Castrato singers back when they still did that to men in order to keep their voices that high.
  
• 'Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring' - This is one of these most beautiful films ever made and it's out of Korea. It's about this Monk who lives in one of the most beautiful settings you'll ever see. Seriously, I want that house. And it's about his young protege about about the cycle of life. The storyline is simple but you watch it for just how beautiful this film was made.
  

...or Du Rififi Chez les Hommes - French noir caper film.

including all movies.

Of course, as one married to a German and living in Germany, and who visited the former East Germany when it was that (even got interrogated a couple of times), it really hit home.

This, boys and girls, is how you make a serial killer film

Australian. Best lead actor I've ever seen.

Brotherhood of the Wolf was great.

I have a few, but most of mine would trend towards animation or Japanese.

Such as:

Grave of the Fireflies
Seven Samura

And the like.

The definitive thriller, a performance from Peter Lorre for the ages, a worm's-eye view of the Berlin underworld...just amazing.

I've seen more than any other Kurosawa film. He has many excellent films.

This was turned into a famous western in the US starring Yul Bryner, and I'm forgetting the name of it.

Kurosawa also made"Rashomon" which is still talked about in terms of the subjectivity of eyewitness testimony and perception. Different perceptions of the same crime.

I think.

This is actually the original Japanese title of this movie. It has to be changed when released in the US because the American western with the same title had already been released.

"The Hidden Fortress."

I haven't seen this, but I've seen "Ran" and a half dozen of his much earlier films.

My additional nominations are:
Born to Fight
Ong Bak II
Pans Labyrinth
The boy in striped pajamas (it's English right?)

Has Lu Lu, what more needs to be said?

Run, Lola, Run
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

We seem to have similar tastes, so I think you'd really love this:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118694/

And Children of Paradise has the best cast of characters ever. It's a bit OTT and gritty and beautiful all at once.

Last edited Sat Dec 6, 2014, 03:29 PM - Edit history (1)

starring Erich von Stroheim and directed by Pierre Renoir I think belongs on a list of the ten best films in history. It's one of the greatest anti-war films ever made. Because of its depiction of French-German friendship and Gentile-Jew friendship, the Nazis confiscated the film when they invaded France and destroyed the negative. Fortunately, the Russians saved a copy. Roger Ebert was a big fan of the film and wrote an extensive review. The film is at the origin of the tunnel sequence in The Great Escape and also the Marseillaise scene in Casablanca. La Grande Illusion was the first foreign film to get nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a "Best Picture" Oscar. Along with Fellini's 8 1/2, its screenplay is the only foreign film screenplay to be considered on the 101 greatest screenplays list of all time by the Writer's Guild of America, West (WGA), the Hollywood writer's union.

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-grand-illusion-1937

In an interview of Orson Welles by Dick Cavett on his talk show, he asked Welles what 5 films Welles would choose to save for posterity on Noah's Ark. Welles said there would be only two films, La Grand Illusion and "something else" (meaning he considered it far and away the greatest film of all time).

Won the Goya, is in the running this year for the Oscar.

...misunderstanding all you see..."

My pick for the greatest film ever made:

A boy in Nazi Germany, trying to conceal that he is Jewish, joins the Hitler Youth.

If you like drug cartel violence

Werner Herzog

Two Germans and a Swede

Das Leben Der Anderen (The Lives of Others)
Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum)
Ådalen '31

Ådalen '31 is about an event in the Swedish town of Ådalen in 1931 that changed the course of Swedish history.

Gut wrenching and heart breaking

It's a Japanese film from the '50s. Absolutely exquisite from start to finish, and deeply haunting. I also think it's a very accessible film that would be enjoyed by almost anyone. My husband had no intention of watching it when I popped in the disc but was soon transfixed. I need to see it again soon!

are both visually stunning, touching but not cloying or sweet and very very well written.
I also love some old David Lean (British), especially Hobson's Choice. And very old British Hitchcock, The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes.

Those are the first two that come to mind, anyway.

My Life as a Dog, Let the Right on In and Mr. Hulot's Holiday. (There's so many more I want to list, maybe later.)

Zulu, Bridge on the River Kwai, I'm Alright Jack, Billy Liar, The Long Good Friday, Monty Python and The Holy Grail or Life of Brian, A Clockwork Orange, The Lady Vanishes, The Ladykillers, The Dambusters, Withnail and I, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Kes, Gandhi, The Third Man...etc.

A James Bond fan might make a case for From Russia With Love.

But, I think the grand-daddy of them all, has to be Lean's masterpiece, Lawrence of Arabia.

I've seen it at least a dozen times on TV and will again next time it is shown.

Amazing visuals, heartwreching and one of the few foreign films I actually own.

"Strictly Ballroom" is also great.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Made a big impression on me when I first saw it as a freshman.

in Swedish, with sub-titles.
she was remarkable....

From right here in Canada.

Mother -- Korea 2010
Halima's Path -- Croatia 2012
Poetry -- Korea 2010
A Royal Affair -- Denmark 2012

I see a lot of foreign films and could name dozens worth watching. But, just off the top of my head, the movies above were among my favorites.