Foreign Films

[themostepotente]

A few weeks ago, charlotteschaos and I were discussing our love of foreign films. Here are mine in no particular order.

1.) Raise the Red Lantern (Chinese) Directed by Zhang Yimou

My love for Gong Li knows no limits.

2.) Fairwell My Concubine (Chinese) Directed by Kaige Chen

3.) Seven Samurai (Japanese) Directed by Akira Kurosawa

4.) La Femme Nikita (French) Directed by Luc Besson

5.) A Better Tomorrow (Chinese) Directed by John Woo

Before JW got all shitty and Hollywood :P

6.) Pan's Labyrinth (Spanish) Directed by Guillermo del Toro

7.) Ichi the Killer (Japanese) Directed by Takashi Miike

All kinds of fucked up.

8.) Au Revoir, Les Enfants (French) Directed by Louis Malles

9.) Le Pacte des Loups (French) Directed by Christophe Gans

10.) Delicatessan (French) Directed by Marc Caro

Ponds, this movie is right up your twisted alley. *G*

Okay, so I know I'm missing A LOT. Ang Lee's stuff is definitely good. And there's House of Flying Daggers and CTHD and yeah... *sighs*

So what foreign movies does everyone else love? Feel free to suggest movies and bash my tastes. What the hell, y'know? *G*

--P

Comments

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh. I went through a huge French movies phase when I was, well, studying French. I love Cousin, Cousine and La Nuit de Varennes especially. Cousin, Cousine was remade in English as Cousins, which I never got around to seeing, though I wanted to. La Nuit de Varennes is fascinating, the story of the botched escape of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to the border, but told from the POV of a carriage of people following them: one of Marie Antoinette's Austrian ladies in waiting, her own maid, and her hairdresser; Tom Paine(!); Casanova(!!), and a few others I can't remember properly (I think there was a wealthy bourgeois and his wife).

A recent Brazilian movie I like quite a lot is The Man Who Copied, about a guy who works as a copy machine operator and spends his free time drawing cartoons and spying on the girl he's too shy to actually ever talk to. He decides to buy something at her shop to have an excuse to talk to her, can't afford anything, realizes he has access to a copy machine, you do the math. It kind of swings wildly from romantic comedy to caper flick, but it's a lot of fun.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

I've seen none of these, but I have to admit the last movie you've mentioned has plot bunnied me something terrible. LOL!

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Have you seen The City of Lost Children? It's great, and judging from the movies you list here, I bet you'd really like it. Ron Perlman speaks lovely French!

[natt.livejournal.com]

I love it. It is one of the most wonderful films I've seen... A lot of the actors and the same director as in Delicatessen...

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

I barely see any movies anymore. I have some favorites from back in high school and college, when I was a movie fiend. i finally got my own copy of the film Diva, which I totally loved when it came out in 1981. I also remember loving Fanny and Alexander, the one "happy" Bergman film, also came out in the 1980s.

There was a period when we were trying to watch all of the Kristof Kieslowski films, especially the Three Colors series. Those are amazing, really mysterious and beautiful. That whole insider/outsider thing that I love in HP underpins those movies. We also watched some of his Decalogue series, which are set in Poland instead of in Paris.

I don't believe in bashing other people's taste in films. i am of the "more is more" aesthetic school. i don't like it when the point of taste is to omit things--I think the point of taste is to include things.

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

(Unless of course we are talking about something really, really bad and then all bets are off.)

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

I don't know a lot of obscure stuff that would be news to other people. Everything by Kurosawa - though I haven't seen any of his non-Samurai stuff. :) I love "Throne of Blood" in particular. I need to see some mid-century Japanese stuff that ISN'T Kurosawa for once.

Let's see...just about any spaghetti Western, though of course Sergio Leone is the best. Corbucci is fun too. Have seen lots of good Australian flicks over the years. Only one I can think of that people might not have seen is "Angel at My Table" (early Campion).

Italians: I like Pasolini. His Decameron and Canterbury Tales films are made of awesome (I saw those when I was reading that shit). Need to see more of him.

Umm...what else. I like the obvious stuff, like Bergman. Used to like Kieslowski more than I do now.

Oh! I saw this great French film a couple years ago: "With a Friend Like Harry" (French title was "Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien"). Holy shit that was an awesome movie. In fact, you should go out and rent it right now.

I have a bunch of Bunuel sitting on my desk that I need to watch. Oh, and "Blow-Up" (Antonioni). I am basically in a remedial film-viewing period right now. My big love is Hitchcock and 40's-50's Hollywood American films, though.

Gosh, I could keep going. I'm having trouble remembering what was foreign and what wasn't! :)

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'll do a post next on favorite older movies. Like nothing after 1965.

Yay for Hitchcock! I love North by Northwest.

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

Europa Europa for sure. It's a fantastic movie about a Jewish boy who hides as a Nazi during the Holocaust.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

I've heard that was good. Something for my 'to see' list.

Incidentally, totally unrelated, the name of that movie sparks memories of Thomas Dolby's Europa and the Pirate Twins :P

[spessartine.livejournal.com]

Ngh, you have some great ones there. I love Asian cinema so much, though Ichi the Killer makes my nipples hurt. :p Farewell my Concubine makes me cry every damn time.

Hero is my favourite film of all time. It is, in a word, fucking mindblowing. The Last Emperor is another amazingly beautiful Chinese film. I' mless keen on House of Flying Daggers, because I really don't think Zhang Ziyi can carry a film like that, though it has the best fight scene at the end of it in the snow.

Bright Future is a modern Japanese film that I adored. It's very slashy, but actually it's just a good film without that. Another modern Japanese masterpiece is Dolls - very original, and quietly poignant.

A Tale of Two Sisters is a really wonderfully shot Korean film you might like - I need to see it again, but it has this amazing William Morris/Korean design aesthetic to it that I love. I have quite a few Korean films and still feel like I don't really get them, so that's the only one I'd really like to recommend.

I have yet to see Pan's Labyrinth! This isn't on.

[spessartine.livejournal.com]

OH OH and the Russian version of Solaris. Fucking amazing!

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Diva. Jean-Jacques Benieix. Why, yes, I AM a child of the 80s.

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

I only know this film because I saw it easily three times in French class. I know a lot of people who were introduced to it this way, actually. That film, and MC Solar. :)

[mortifyd.livejournal.com]

The Castle - an Australian classic
Once Were Warriors - New Zealand
Osama - Afghani I think? Set in Agshanistan at any rate
Lagaan - Bollywood - just freaking gorgeous and amazing

I have some in hand I haven't watched yet - I love foreign films.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

I love foreign films, too. And after I'd comprised this list I realised I'd forgotten 'Das Boot.'

Any other good Bollywood suggestions?

[sigune.livejournal.com]

My new love is Wong Kar Wai. I have just seen In the Mood for Love and, ah, loved it, and now I'm dying to see 2046 which seems to be a kind of sequel.

Of the Korean director Kim Ki Duk I loved Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and ... Spring and Bin Jip. They have a very special atmosphere and Kim likes to combine extreme violence with moments of perfect zen - very powerful stuff.

I haven't seen a lot of Zhang Yimou films, especially not his older work ("Raise the Red Lantern", "Yu Dou") that everyone keeps telling me is much better than his more recent films; but the one that I like best so far is Not One Less, about a fourteen-year-old girl who substitutes for a village schoolteacher in late 1990s China - the date is one to keep in mind while watching, because it takes some believing. Much more glamorous (and beeeauuutiful) is Shanghai Triad, with Gong Li ;).

A French film I'd recommend to everyone is Comte d'automne by Eric Rohmer. The (love) story is very simple and the characters are ordinary human beings, but the result is a film that is warm without being overly sweet. It's what my sister calls a "French Conversation Movie" ;).

From Nikita Michalkov: Soleil Trompeur and Urga. The latter has a really lame ending, but I love the rest so much that it's still one of my favourites despite that flaw. Soleil Trompeur suffers no such flaw, but is rather harsh(er) in its look at humankind.

As for bashing your tastes ;)... Um - Le Pacte des Loups?! O_o
I guess I will never understand what you and one of my best friends see in that movie. It's on my "worst I have ever seen" list XD. I'm obviously missing something! *g*

[cnary-crem-dght.livejournal.com]

oh my gosh yes! I tripple rec In the mood for love and 2045. Sooooooo amazing and visually stunning. (I can't believe I forgot those, so glad you posted about them!)

oo I've heard of Kim Ki Duk, but have yet to see his movies. They sound v. interesting! Korean cinema <3 <3

[ex-trolleys.livejournal.com]

TEAM GONG LI. That's a pretty kickass list. Au Revoir, Les Enfants made me baaawwl, omg. I also have to say I prefer Ang Lee's pre-big budget era films like Eat Drink Man Woman and The Wedding Banquet.

If you like vintage John Woo, then I highly recommend Le Samouraï which Woo cites as a major influence and also happens to be one of my favorite movies ever. Alain Delon as eye candy doesn't hurt, either... In fact, any '60s Delon film is worth watching and not just because he's a hot piece of meat :D

For films under the "sdfjksldf??!!" genre I suggest Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (both Korean). Think Tarantino 10x more fucked up. :P I liked the latter much more than the former but the consensus seems to be the opposite. *shrug*

[ex-trolleys.livejournal.com]

Oh and the purists will burn me for saying this but Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle are the AWESOMEST MARTIAL ARTS FILMS EVER.

Stephen Chow > world

[cnary-crem-dght.livejournal.com]

oh man. I love Korean film. Especially Im Kwon Taek films like Ticket and The Generals Son. The sad thing is they're not really sold in english. I only got to see them courtesy of MOMA though, so not a lot of non korean people know of his films. T_T He's a huge director from S.Korea though.

One of my favorite chinese films is the Emperor and the Assassin, but that's because I love assassin stories Oh Beijing Bicycle is a fun movie, it really has you feeling for the main character.

I also films from south america and mexico like City of God and Amores Perros. <3 I think some of today's most innovative directors are coming out of spanish speaking nations.

=)

[spessartine.livejournal.com]

Oh The Emperor and the Assassin! Yes! I can't believe I forgot that one, it's great.

[letmypidgeonsgo.livejournal.com]

::sigh:: i'm sure my parents are quite disappointed in me for not showing any evidence whatsoever of being their child in yet another arena (hell, my dad used to run the foreign film screenings at the library!), but i've just never gotten into them

a big exception, however, would be lola rennt - i love that movie

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Aww, that's okay. Foreign films are an acquired taste. I have to be in the right frame of mind (and wide awake :P) for a subtitled movie.

[ook.livejournal.com]

Federico Fellini, La Dolce Vita and Roma (Italy)
Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black (France)
Michael Powell, Black Narcissus and Peeping Tom (UK)
Jean Luc Godard, Weekend (France)
Akira Kurosawa, Seven Samurai and High and Low (Japan)
Henri-Georges Clouzot, Diabolique (France)
Jacques Tati, Mon Oncle, Mr. Hulot and Playtime (France)
Peter Weir, Picnic at Hanging Rock (Australia)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Marriage of Maria Braun (Germany)
Werner Herzog, Aguirre, Wrath of God (Germany)
Alain Resnais, Hiroshima Mon Amour (France)
Ingmar Bergman, Fanny and Alexander (Sweden)

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

There was nary a doubt in my mind that you wouldn't compile an impressive list, Ook. I keep hearing good things about Werner Herzog. That's definitely going on my list!

[perverse-idyll.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, oodles of love for Farewell, My Concubine and Seven Samurai. I'd say, for my part, to take Kurosawa and Bergman as givens, though I did end up detesting Bergman's Shame. I've never seen a Kurosawa I disliked. Other films I love to varying degrees, some touched with greatness and some not:

1. Les Enfants du Paradis (French, no kidding) Directed by Jacques Prevert

2. Celine and Julie Go Boating (French) Directed by Jacques Rivette

3. King of Masks (Chinese) Directed by Tian-Ming Wu

4. Daisies (Czech) Directed by Vera Chytilová

5. My Twentieth Century (Hungarian) Directed by Ildikó Enyedi

6. Antonia's aka Antonia's Line (Dutch) Directed by Marleen Gorris

7. Various Fellini films, almost all black & white, such as La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, 8 1/2

8. Zazie dans le Metro (French) Directed by Louis Malle

9. Onibaba (Japanese) Directed by Kaneto Shindô

10. Black Orpheus (Brazilian) Directed by Marcel Camus, which reminds me of another:

11. Orphée (French) Directed by Jean Cocteau (actually I could list multiple Cocteau films)

12. The Rules of the Game (French) Directed by Jean Renoir

I'm sure I must be forgetting some obvious favorites. And I'm astonished that this list is so heavily weighted toward the French. But that's only because I refrained from listing all those Bergman and Kurosawa flicks.

Scanning everybody else's posts and busily taking notes . . .

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Just when I think you can't possibly get any cooler, you go and name Jean Cocteau. Les Enfants Terribles?

[perverse-idyll.livejournal.com]

Oh, and one I left off because it was U.S.-financed and the director's American, but it's a Cuban's story, damn it:

Before Night Falls - Directed by Julian Schnabel.

Javier Bardem's performance is a wonder to behold.

[ex-trolleys.livejournal.com]

YES. *seconds, thirds and fourths that rec* Bardem was robbed of his Oscar that year. While I'm not a fan of Julian Schnabel as a painter, he is amazing behind the camera.

[venivincere]

Anything and everything by Atom Egoyan. That guy's a genius. :-)

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Suggest a movie by him to me?

[tarotemp.livejournal.com]

Firstly, GIP!

Secondly, I nominate Battle Royale, Temptress Moon, Emperor and the Assasin, Farinelli and The Host.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

You have an Ichi the Killer icon! Yay!

[perverse-idyll.livejournal.com]

Fuck. Sorry to keep spamming your journal, but my heart leaps up in protest. How could I forget Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy? I ADORE those movies, especially the first one. I actually went AWOL from work one day so I could sit in a theater for six hours and watch them back to back. It was my one chance to see all three on the big screen.

Also, duh, Jules and Jim, by Truffaut.

As you may have gathered by now, I tend toward slow films. No much action on this list.

I'll shut up now.

[loupgarou1750.livejournal.com]

I did the same thing. I just added Satyajit Ray to the "anything by" note at the end, but Pather Panchali is one of the best films ever.

[ariadneelda.livejournal.com]

I'll second Spess that Hero is an awesome film. It's a shame I haven't seen anything else by Zhang Yimou. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is also a big favourite of mine.

A French film I love is Queen Margot by Patrice Chereau. La Haine by Mathieu Kassovitz is another one I like. Oh, and of course I love Le Pacte des Loups, too.

Santa Sangre by Alejandro Jodorowsky (Mexican, I think) - I saw that many years ago and I'll never, ever, forget it. A very artistic movie and quite disturbing but really impressive.

I remember loving Underground and Time of the Gypsies, both by Emir Kusturica (Serbian). He used to be very popular here. His themes were social with a bit, or maybe a lot, of surrealism thrown in. They are great movies if you like that sort of thing. My tastes have changed somewhat in the last decade, though, and I'm more into historical/fantasy films now. I need to catch up with a few Chinese and Japanese productions.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Everything Zhang Yimou puts out rocks. RtRL is my fave, but Ju Dou, To Live, and Red Sorghum are also wonderful.

Are there any cool foreign vamp flicks out there?

[loupgarou1750.livejournal.com]

I don't approve of taste bashing. OK, that's entirely untrue. :-D But I won't bash your taste because it appears to be excellent.

Several of my top 10 all time favorite movies are "foreign". Some of my faves that you didn't list (not necessarily in order):

1. Tampopo (Japanese 1985) Juzo Itami
2. Babettes gæstebud/Babette's Feast (Danish1987) Gabriel Axel
3. Mitt liv som hund/My Life As a Dog (Swedish 1985) Lasse Hallström
4. Les Enfants du Paradis/Children of Paradise (French 1945) Marcel Carné
5. Yin shi nan nu/Eat Drink Man Woman (Taiwanese 1994) Ang Lee
6. L'Argent de Poche/Small Change (French 1976) François Truffaut
7. Persona (Swedish 1966) Ingmar Bergman
8. Pather Panchali (Bengali 1955) Satyajit Ray
9. Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco (Brazilian 1981) Hector Babenco
10. Cría cuervos (Spanish 1976) Carlos Saura
11. Really, anything by Pedro Almodóvar, Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman. Satyajit Ray
12. Cousin Cousine, La Grande Illusion, Noirs et blancs en couleur (Black and White in Color), Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum), Entre Nous, Z, Cinema Paradiso, Ju Dou, The Scent of Green Papaya, Antonia's Line. OK, clearly I've gotten carried away. I'll stop now.

[perverse-idyll.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, Babette's Feast! Small Change. The Tin Drum. *nodnod* I almost listed Pixote myself, but it's so frickin' painful. And Cría! I saw that when I was very young and loved it, but I have no idea what I'd think of it now. Obviously must rent and re-watch with adult eyes. Also Spirit of the Beehive, another film with Ana Torrent in it. Cinema Pardiso was a contender for my list, too, but I was disappointed by the third section. It dispelled some of the wonder because the actor chosen to play the grown-up Salvatore was too detached for me.

*scribbles more notes*

[kate-tur.livejournal.com]

House of flying daggers
Les Choristes (France)
La vita e bella (Italy)
Maroa (Venezuela?)
Todo sobre mi madre (Spain)

And these are not foreign to me, but they count as foreign to you, and I love them and would reccomend them to the end of the world:

La estrategia del caracol (Colombia)
Al final del espectro (Colombia)
La esquina (Colombia)

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Thank you for the recs. My 'to see' list is growing in leaps and bounds.

[maya231.livejournal.com]

Most of my favorites are already listed, so I'm trying to think of those that haven't been mentioned that I've also liked:

Maria Full of Grace
Beyond Silence
When Night is Falling
Broken Wings
Shall we Dance
Amélie
Belle Epoque
Wings of Desire
The Princess and the Warrior

[maya231.livejournal.com]

Two more:

Read My Lips
The Story of the Weeping Camel

[aragon-san.livejournal.com]

Watched all of yours aside from Ichi - Miike is a touch too gory for me.
My Gong Li-favorite: Story of Qiu Ju where the ordinary and heavily pregnant heroine goes in 90ies-China on an odyssee to seek justice from the Chinese bureaucracy for a kick in the nuts her husband suffered from a local Party-bigwig. As easy and safe as building the Great Wall all by yourself...

Very HK-dominated my list unsurprisingly:

Possible SPOLERS ahoy - though if someone feels spoiled by movies available for several years in all cases.... get a grip! ^_^ I didn't mention endings aside from "A Better Tomorrow" but since you listed that one already I feel safe doing so. Also there's a shocking amount of non-Happy Ends in my list *wonders*

1) A Better Tomorrow, Hong Kong, by John Woo
The only movie that makes me bawl - because what could be more tragic and wonderful then Chow Yun Fat shaking off humiliations and crippleness to take a heroic last stand and be gunned down by 500 bullets in slow motion while brothers Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung reconcile only to still have both lifes ruined at the end (at least they're loving family again!)? *sigh*

2) A Chinese Ghost Story, Hong Kong, by Tsui Hark
One of the best fantasy flicks of all times imo. The visuals are to die for. Leslie Cheung was never more charming, shy and adorable, the story is funny, romantic, angsty, tragic and over the top - and they don't cop out for a completely illogical happy end as Hollywood would have done. Also Wu Ma's Cantonese ghost-banishing-rap has been seared into my brain forever! A terrible fate.... but unavoidable as everyone who watched agrees ^_^

3) 7 Samurai, Japan, by Akira Kurosawa
This man directed so many groundbreaking master pieces but this one tops all others in my regard.

4) City on Fire, Hong Kong, by Ringo Lam
I prefer him to woo even. He was also cleverer than Woo and escaped earlier from Hollywood-disasters and JCvanDamme *gags* The master of Heroic Bloodshed with a realistic down to earth touch and heroes and villains from the non-glamorous side of life. I adore Prison on Fire and Full Alert equally but this is the first hit. Also homoerotic manly friendship and betrayal with Chow Yun Fat and Danny Lee in a genius casting role-reversal playing cat and mouse - yay! And he discovered my personal obsession, Hong Kong's movie-villain-deluxe Roy Cheung Yiu Yeung, for this one *drools*

5) As Tears Go By, Hong Kong, by Wong Kar Wai
Happy Together, Chungking Express etc. are wonderful but this is my favorite. Andy Lau has never been more beautiful, sexy and rebellious, Maggie Cheung is fantastic and the story gorgeous and bittersweet - and you still can show it to violence-obsessed boyfriends due to Triad-action ^_^

[aragon-san.livejournal.com]

6) Postman Blues, Japan, by Sabu (Hiroyuki Tanaka) - actor in Ichi btw
One of the modern Japanese movies you can still watch if not able to stomach people getting chopsticks rammed into eyes and various orifices, chopped off limbs and drawn out ultra-violence - even if the Yakuza IS involved here too. Master of the clever grotesque and random things happening to random people leading to weird results. Sabu's stories are always worth watching but damn difficult to describe. But running or chasing is always involved: here on bicycles. This is a good one for beginners ^_^

7) Cold Fever, Iceland, by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
Japanese Yuppie reluctantly goes to visit place where his parents died years ago to do a Shinto-ceremony to honour their souls as his grandfather demands - instead of golfing in Hawaii as he'd planned. Unfortunately they died in an accident in the middle of nowhere in Iceland... Fantastic road movie: hilarious culture clashes, spiritual, haunting and the Icelandic landscapes are breathtakingly beautiful!

8) Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, France, by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
I was initially leary: all the hype, Audrey Tautou's excessive cuteness but this deserves every single award and nomination. If you don't feel just a bit more light-hearted after seeing this one you're likely dead already. Warmhearted, funny, eccentric (yay for nerds, daydreamers and losers), full of surprises and unusual ideas. Any film that combines world-traveling garden gnomes, suicidal goldfish, Josef Stalin advocating people's right to stay messed up daydreamers without a life, beggars denying donations because they won't work on Sundays - and make it work! - should be watched ^_^

9) Gegen die Wand (international title: Head-On), Germany, by Fatih Akin
I take "foreign" as non-Hollywood here as it is not foreign for ME but as I was simply blown away watching it - despite not being a fan of my own country's movies in general! - I list it. Won tons of European awards. Title is program: "against the wall" is the translation, happens literally and metaphorically too. Two 2nd generation German Turks, meeting in a hospital after respective failed suicide attempts, agree to a sham marriage: one to get away from her extremely traditional family to live her own life, sex with whomever she chooses included; the other a manic-depressive alcoholic antisocial, reluctantly agreeing for shared rent and her cleaning/cooking. The "roomies with separate lives"-concept of course doesn't work for long, both find tentative joy - and that is when the real trouble begins.... It could have easily been whiny angst with such unpleasant themes and messed up heroes but somehow the movie manages to still be grimly funny and achingly sweet in parts.

10) Infernal Affairs, Hong Kong, by Andrew Lau Wai Keung
Alright, I don't begrudge Scorsese an Oscar - but not for The Departed! *grr* A classical case of Hollywood without ideas - again - and stealing original ideas and plots from elsewhere. This is the fantastic original: with plots within plots, great cast, gorgeous camera work and toe-curling thrill because you really don't know how it all ends - and for whom. From happy end for all the main cast (though morally questionable due to their positions) to tragedy for everyone involved everything is possible. I've rarely been waiting so breathless for the solution!

And there's Ang Lee and Johnny To and Kitano Takeshi and tons of British movies I don't remember right now... And I didn't list any anime movies (Mononoke-Hime, Sen to Chihiro) and those gorgeous Scandinavian thrillers (Wallander and Ørnen) and-

[svartalfur.livejournal.com]

"Hero" is one of my absolute favorites too.

Other favorites are "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled" by John Woo (I love his American movies too, especially face/off, but there's nothing like the beautiful imagery of "The Killer".

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Face/Off wasn't too bad, but I absolutely loathed Hard Target with Jean Claude Van Damme.

[lyras.livejournal.com]

I love La Femme Nikita and Au Revoir, Les Enfants. Unbelievably, I've never got around to seeing Delicatessen.

I'm a huge fan of Lukas Moodysson, who has directed such diverse Swedish films as Show Me Love (angsty comedy with two teenage girls exploring their feelings for one another against a backdrop of smalltown morals), Together (another angsty comedy set in a 1970s commune) and Lilja 4 Ever (jawbreakingly upsetting film about the child sex trade). I also have a thing for the Dogme films such as Festen and Italian for Beginners.

And no list of foreign films would be complete for me without Cinema Paradiso and Il Postino, both of which own my heart and very nearly my soul.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

You seem to have a penchant for Italian films. Have you ever seen A Beautiful Life?