What movie turned you on to foreign films?

#1

What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 12:58pm

No, watching THE RED BALLOON in elementary school doesn't count.

The re-release of the director's cut of BETTY BLUE reminded me that, yes, the quintessential tragic-romantic boinkfest featuring the incomparable Beatrice Dalle and the geeky-hot Jean Hughes Anglade was the one that did the trick for me in my teens. Even before DIVA, which is by the same director. Wow.

What's yours?

---

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

#2

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 1:03pm

My all time favorite foreign film is The Chorus (Les Choristes). My cousin gave it to me for either my birthday or Christmas and it was my first legit foreign film that I watched on my own. Love it. Such a moving story, not to mention, the music is spectacular. I would recommend this to ANYONE!

#3

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 1:04pm

I was very into Francois Traffault and Lina Wertmuller as a teenager..."Small Change," "The 400 Blows," "Swept Away" and "Seven Beauties."

#4

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 1:04pm

Still waiting for one.

---

"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson

#5

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 1:05pm

The Seventh Seal

---

Those Blocked: SueStorm. N2N Nate. Good riddence to stupid! Rad-Z, shill begone!

#6

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 1:07pm

I adore Life Is Beautiful, Pan's Labyrinth, and La Vie En Rose.

I still need to see a lot more though.

#7

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 1:08pm

I don't remember but it must have been something Fellini. Probably 8 1/2.

#8

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 1:10pm

Fanny and Alexander and Tin Drum.

---

"Carson has combined his passion for helping children with his love for one of Cincinnati's favorite past times - cornhole - to create a unique and exciting event perfect for a corporate outing, entertaining clients or family fun."

"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS

#9

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 1:19pm

Kagemusha. I think I was about 13 or 14 and I was engrossed in the film from start to finish.

---

"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

#10

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 1:26pm

Growing up in Central America, Spanish-dubbed versions of American movies, I guess, were my first exposure to "foreign films." But my first non-English, non-Hollywood movie was EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN. It was also my introduction to Ang Lee, one of my favorite directors.

---

Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia

#11

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 1:30pm

The first one may have been Le Chien Andalou, but since then, the most outstanding foreign films for me are anything Fellini, Fassbinder, Herzog.

---

<-----I'M TOTES ROLLING MY EYES

#12

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 1:38pm

Europa, Europa.

Although that's not my favorite, it was the one that made me interested in foreign films.

Now, I'm all about Fellini, Herzog (except Fitzcaraldo which I never "got") Kurosawa, and Antonioni.

---

....but the world goes 'round

#13

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 1:53pm

¡Átame!)(Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!)

---

"I'm a one-eyed Mormon Democrat from conservative Arizona, and you can't have a higher handicap than that." ~The ever-great and fabulous Morris K. Udall.

#14

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 2:08pm

Fritz Lang's M, which I actually saw for the first time on PBS on a Sunday afternoon in Columbus Georgia when I was about ten.

Borstal, is the new 3 hour BETTY BLUE really an improvement over the original version released here? It wasn't exactly my cup of tea then, but tales of amour fou don't usually do it for me anyway...

---

"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/

Updated On: 6/12/09 at 02:08 PM

#15

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 3:03pm

I think it was "Diabolique". I love that film.

---

"Love the Art in Yourself. Not Yourself in the Art." -- Stanislavski

#16

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 3:07pm

King of Hearts, La Cage aux Folles, Nosferatu, every Godzilla film, Ran, Like Water for Chocolate, Eat Drink Man Woman, 8 1/2

#17

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 3:38pm

The Wedding Banquet was my first exposure to Ang Lee, but it was Eat Drink Man Woman that made me fall in love with him. With the exception of his "WTF?" The Hulk film, I can watch anythin by Ang Lee repeatedly. Sense and Sensibility probably in the top 5 of my most-watched film list. I never get tired of it.

---

"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

#18

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 3:42pm

Cinema Paradiso. I get choked up just thinking about it.

#19

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 3:53pm

Cinema Paradiso is one of the best movies ever!

---

"Love the Art in Yourself. Not Yourself in the Art." -- Stanislavski

#20

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 4:13pm

Amélie

However Pedro Almodóvar is my favorite foreign filmmaker.

#21

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 4:16pm

As one who could have turned into a massive weeaboo if I hadn't been derailed by theatre, it's bound to be something Japanese. I think Perfect Blue was the first proper anime movie I saw, and it still stands up as an awesome film today, so we'll go with that.

---

Notes from the Earlham Street Gutter

#22

re: What movie turned you on to foreign films?

Posted: 6/12/09 at 9:48pm

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

A tween when I saw it, I thought it was a fairy tale and a warning on premarital sex- FREAKING weird!
(Oh and I loved it for the weird beauty it has)