Foreign Film & Documentary Recommendations?

[CapnHook]

Posted: 10/29/06 at 9:16pm

Especially French films with English subtitles...

Here's what I've seen:

Foreign Films:
-Amelie
-Ma Vie En Rose
-Life is Beautiful
-The Chorus

Documentaries:
-Super Size Me
-Bowling For Columbine
-Whatever his Pres Bush-dissing doc was called...
-Wordplay
-Loose Change
-Who Killed The Electric Car?
-Jesus Camp
-An Inconvenient Truth

Updated On: 2/12/07 at 09:16 PM

[i*heart*fame]

Posted: 10/29/06 at 9:41pm

Le Placard is one of the funniest movies I've seen. I also enjoyed L'Auberge Espanol and Les Choristes.

[Carl Magnum]

Posted: 10/29/06 at 9:45pm

The Seventh Seal. Anything Italian.


Oh and Run Lola Run!

[MistressoftheHouse]

Posted: 10/29/06 at 9:47pm

I second L'Auberge Espagnole and will throw in Le Dîner de Cons.

[almostxfamous]

Posted: 10/29/06 at 11:24pm

Les Choristes is easily one of the best films I have seen, foreign or not. The talent in that movie is absolutely fantastic. The arrangements of the gorgeous music is astounding. I absolutely adore it.
Updated On: 10/29/06 at 11:24 PM

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 10/29/06 at 11:27pm

A Very Long Engagement is achingly beautiful

Grey Gardens

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 8:40am

La Cage Aux Falls

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 9:07am

CapnHook---These are the ones that I think will blow you away:

Cocteau's Beauty & the Beast

Nights of Cabiria and La Strada (both for the incomparable Giulietta Mesina, and the first is the source for Sweet Charity)

Oh, and "8 1/2" (the source for "Nine")

Babette's Feast

Black Orpheus

The Seven Samurai and Rashomon (also Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, if you want to see the inspiration for the plot of Star Wars)

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (and it's already a musical)

Smiles of a Summer Night (charming, funny, and the source for "A Little Night Music")

Two of my personal favorites from Truffaut: The Wild Child and Small Change

Z



Documentaries:

The Civil War
New York (both for TV)
Paris is Burning
Crumb
Bowling for Columbine
Into the Arms of Strangers

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 12:06pm

Foreign -

City of God - Stunning.
Osama - Sad
The Devils Backbone - Scary

Documentary -

Keep the River on Your Right
Fast Cheap and Out of Control
Born Into Brothels

[lildogs]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 12:52pm

Since you haven't seen alot of foreign films, I'd recommend:

Europa, Europa
Run Lola Run
Diabolique (original with Vera Cluzot)
If you're gay, I'd recommend The Iron Ladies and Yossi and Jagger

Docs:
The Fog Of War
Grey Gardens (YOU MUST SEE THIS)
The Celluloid Closet
Murderball
Spellbound

EYES ON THE PRIZE is a miniseries doc from PBS and it's absolutely amazing.

Farenheit 9/11 is the Bush-bashing doc to whic you refer.


MANY of the other films mentioned are also great...best12's might be a little high-brow for a novice, but they are well worth it, esp. Babette's Feast and Seven Samurai. Tishiro Mifune is one the best actors EVAH.

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 1:10pm

Foreign:
The Beat that my Heart Skipped - (French)
Pauline et Paulette - (Belgium)
Nights of Cabiria - (Italian) - is film that inspired Sweet Charity.


Docs:

Follow my Voice - The Music of Hedwig
All Aboard
The Lady in Question is Charles Busch

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 1:18pm

Ran
Fanny and Alexander

[wexy]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 2:16pm

Jean de Florette
Manon of the Spring.
Red
White
Blue

[blueroses]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 2:45pm

Cinema Paradiso
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down
Il Postino

[Anakela]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 3:30pm

My favorite docs currently in theatres:
Jesus Camp
Shut up and Sing
Deliver Us From Evil

Fav docs available on dvd:
Murderball (totally should have beat March of the Penguins for the Oscar)
Some Kind of Monster
Mad Hot Ballroom
When the Levees Broke (coming soon to dvd)

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 11/1/06 at 1:48pm

The Vanishing
Nosferatu
Day for Night
Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)
Santa Sangre
The Double Life of Veronique
La Dolce Vita
L'Aventura
Black Sabbath
Suspiria


Visions of Light
Searching for Debra Winger (not as in depth as it could be, but featuring interviews with a lot of wonderful actresses)
A Decade Under the Influence
From the Journals of Jean Seberg

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 11/1/06 at 2:11pm

Broadway: The Golen Age

[avab802]

Posted: 11/1/06 at 2:18pm

Y Tu Mama Tambien
Rabbit Proof Fence (It's Australian, so it is in English, but it's a great true story.)

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/1/06 at 2:41pm

Foreign:
Les Enfants du Paradise (the quintessential French film)
Delicatessin
Run Lola Run
The Wedding Banquet
Eat Drink Man Woman
Amarcord
Talk to Her
All About My Mother
Bad Education
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Raise the Red Lantern
Kagemusha
Europa Europa
Farewell My Concubine
Blue
Red
Les Choristes
Antonia's Line
Belle Epoque
Kolya
Character
The Tale of Two Sisters
Rashomon
Au Revoir Les Enfants
For a Lost Soldier
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Central Station
The Sea Inside

Documentaries:
Hands on a Hard Body
Paris is Burning
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Spellbound
One Day in September
March of the Penguins
Winged Migration
Born Into Brothels
Paper Clips
Mad Hot Ballroom
Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt
Shoah

Updated On: 11/1/06 at 02:41 PM

[bschneid76]

Posted: 11/1/06 at 5:08pm

Some excellent French Films:
Belle De Jour
The Discreet Charm of the Borgeious
Diabolique is excellent
and Eyes Without a Face

[matthius202]

Posted: 11/1/06 at 5:37pm

Foreign Film: Nowhere in Africa...amazing.

Posted: 11/1/06 at 7:01pm

I'd second Rashomon (Japanese)-- everyone should see it.

And I'm suprised no one mentioned "The Thin Blue Line" by Erol Morris, a brilliant documentary about a police investigation.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 10:32am

And how could I forget Tampopo and Monsoon Wedding? Two wonderful films!

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 10:45am

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 11/8/06 at 12:32pm

Two Women
8 femmes
La Ceremonie
The Girl on the Bridge