Favourite Foreign (non-English Language and Non-Anime) Films

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I am not counting any English-Language films even when produced by foreign/small countries like Scotland - perhaps that would make an interesting separate thread. I have also decided to exclude anime as it's too broad a genre.

Here, I'm just asking for lists of your favourite foreign films;

I've mostly used English titles because the foreign titles are probably too confusing;

(oh and I edited this to link them all to IMDB).

Absolute Favourites

Pan's Labyrinth
Nosferatu
Metropolis
Life is Beautiful
Apocalypto - does this qualify?
Betty Blue
Evil
City of Lost Children
The Devil's Backbone
Night Watch

Pretty Good too
Vampyr
M
Christiane F.
Amelie
Delicatessen
Downfall
Dark Water
The Grudge
Hero
High Tension
Lilya-4-Ever
The Piano Teacher
Three Colors Trilogy - Blue
Three Colors Trilogy - Red
Three Colors Trilogy - White
Twin Sisters
The Passion (does this qualify?)
The Audition

'Life is Beautiful' and 'Apocolypto'. I'll consider it qualified.

It would be nice to include IMDB links as well

Dutch origin:
Betrayal and small heroes in the war:
Blackbook (Zwartboek)

War movie:
The assault (De aanslag)

Children movie, used to like this one when I was smaller, not that good though:
The pocket knife (Het zakmes)

Unfortunately the best dutch movies are war movies and some children movies, the rest is terrible.


Frisian origin:
The fishing net (De Fuke)

Seven Samurai > all

Akira Kurosawa invented the action adventure genre. He invented the modern hero as described in film. It is hailed as one of the most influential films of all time.

Ong Bak - Thailand
Old Boy - South Korea
Nightwatch - Russia
The Storm Riders - Hong Kong
Brother - Japan
Hana-Bi - Japan
Sonatine - Japan
These 3 Japanese movies have Takeshi Kitano in I liked Takeshis castle and watched Battle Royale so wanted to see more and I liked all 3 of these and watched more Japanese movies.

I watch lots of martial arts movies so not going to list all of them

Ivan the Terrible Parts 1 and 2.

All Japanese

Ichi the killer
Tokyo Zombi
Battle Royale
The Bird People in China

(I love takeshi miike movies)

I haven't seen many...I liked Metropolis, Pan's Labyrinth, and The Hidden Fortress.

I haven't seen many non-English films, but most of those I have seen were good:

Pan's Labyrinth
Hero
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Life is Beautiful
Apocalypto

I haven't seen any foreign films, but I'd like to see Mediterraneo (Italian) and Endurance (Ethiopian, the story of runner Haile Gebrselassie).

The original French version of La Cage aux Folles:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN8Mp3FXiUg[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NJ5nb2Ipa8&feature=related[/youtube]


Elvis and James (a hilarious Filipino movie)

some clips:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEfMnjrN1bo[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzn65YrJ174[/youtube]

Main Hoon Na (a Bollywood movie)

some clips:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjCZuIBLufA[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VelYd4hcDfk[/youtube]

French
-Weekend: Will always be my favorite french film, possibly from all of continental Europe. The only other Godard films I've seen are...
-Hail Mary: Either so subtle I didn't get it, or just plain boring.
-Alphaville: A neat Orwellian/Film Noir/Sci-fi satire...I think. I recall that one like a fever dream.

Spanish (I think)
-El Topo: Favorite western of me who hates westerns.

Japanese
Uzumaki: If they could have just played "The Spiralling Shape" by They Might Be Giants over the end credits, it woulda been perfect.
7 Samurai was good too. Just be prepared to split it between 2 evenings if necessary. I'm not well versed in Kurosawa.

German
Metropolis: I still haven't seen the remaster from the vault a few years ago, but I must stick up for the cut Giorgio Moroder did in the '80s. Everyone b*****s him out for doing a pop-music/synth score, forgetting that the original score was lost and therefore HAD to be replaced, he was the only person to actually set ANY original music to it (I've watched a public domain version with random music from Carmen slapped on at the least appropriate places - *BARF*), that score is actually kind of appropriate for the first true science fiction film, and he actually bothered to restore it and briefly GET IT BACK INTO THEATRES!"
So buy the bootleg if you havta' (After you buy the legit version, of course...), but pay Moroder respect for keeping Lang in the public eye.
The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari: The first horror film was also the first German-Expressionist film (the category into which Metropolis also falls)
M: Does anyone else think certain parts of Death Note were subtly inspired by this movie?

Italian
IMO, the OP's criteria sort of stumble here, since most Italian movies are shot under the assumption that they'll be dubbed into every language, including italian, with actors from all different countries speaking their respective languages during filming. Therefore, out of all my favorite Argento and Fulci films, only The Beyond arbitrarily fits the bill, since Rolling Thunder's release happened to include italian audio with subs as an option. They're untrustworthy DUBtitles too, which defeats the whole point.
However, I must mention Deep Red, the Anchor Bay release for which randomly alternates between english and italian w/sub, since english audio was lost for all the scenes cut for American theatrical release. Sadly, there's no all italian w/sub option, so it's really jarring, and sad, since that's my all time favorite murder mystery, favorite romantic comedy, and was the bloodiest movie ever made back in '74. Hope they do a full-sub release someday, but considering the generic tripe most American horror fans scarf down today, I'm not holding my breath.

[quote]Metropolis: I still haven't seen the remaster from the vault a few years ago, but I must stick up for the cut Giorgio Moroder did in the '80s. Everyone b*****s him out for doing a pop-music/synth score, forgetting that the original score was lost and therefore HAD to be replaced[quote]

Actually I was unaware of that at the time but ...

I loved the Moroder cut because I loved (and still love) most of the artists and songs he used.

I think I forgot to add Joyeux Noel to my list.

Gawd, I can't think of any non-English movies!

I like foreign films.

Some good ones I recently watched:
Elling - a Norwegian film about 2 mentally challenged people leaving the hospital and making their own way in life. I found it inspiring to me.
Shower - a nice Chinese film about the difference of old community style of living compared to the new modern life.
The Happiness of the Katakuris - Probably one of the most bizarre horror/comedy films ever made, complete with muscial numbers. A good one by Takashi Miike.

I haven't seen many foreign films, but I do love them.

I've seen:

Life is Beautiful
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Apocalypto
The Red Violin (does this count)
Nowhere In Africa
Der Rosenstrasse
Eat, Drink, Man, Woman

I know there are a couple more that I'm forgetting.