Movies and TV series. I much prefer the Swedish Wallander series to the BBC/Branagh series. I thought the Danish thriller 'The Killing' was too long, overcomplicated and overrated (it's now been 'converted by Holywood to a USA centred series) ....... BUT, the Prix d'or goes to 'Spiral' from France .. magnifique, formidable ooh la la, superbe.
Love them. I started because i'm into my horror films and found the Korean and Japanese are so much more original and interesting that the Hollywood produced dumded down crap.
Moved on from there to other genres and countries and just find them far more original.
I love my foreign films, probably 30% of all films I watch, latest was "I saw the devil" which is a Korean film, stars the guy from "Oldboy" for those of you who like your subtitles.
I saw the devil is brutal, haunting and quite brilliant.
A friend of mine made me watch Betty Blue. Didn't like it but the star was a top bird who spent most of the film in varying degrees of nudity so it had some upsides.
Only had a quick whiz through this thread, I've seen a lot of the films mentioned. Now, I saw someone mention Battle Royale, which starred Takeshi Kitano, but what about his films as director? Hana-Bi and Kikujiro have got to be way up there. Violent Cop, Sonatine and Boiling Point are also very good.
In my original post I forgot to mention "The White ribbon" another great work from Germany. If there is one film that you must get to see it's the second on my list " The Secret In Their Eyes" 2009 I think and has a great story and beautifully shot. As for my favourite " A Friend Of The Deceased" it's never shown as far as I know on tv and is not available on DVD but just VHS format. Made in 1998 and is a quirky dark film with a good humour to it. Would love to see it again. Thanks for all the film names. I might make a list to see.
Can't believe nobody has mentioned Nikita, a stunning film subsequently tarnished by a so-so american remake and then a succession of terrible TV series
Love 'Em....... mainly European Cinema but after recommendations on here may I should try further east.
My favourites are......
Kieslowski's 'Double Life of Veronique' (Irene Jacob) L'Appartement (Vincent Cassell & Monica Bellucci) Jean De Florette & Manon Des Sources Volver La Haine The Secret in their eyes
I'd never seen one until I was 18 and stuck in one night and watched One Deadly Summer (Isabelle Adjani) and my love for them started then.
No mention of 'Sophie Scholl' so far? From the people who brought you 'Downfall' and also set in Germany during the war. I showed it to some 6th Formers at school then had to go and have a bit of a cry in the toilets. A slowish start, but so powerful in the second half.
The Baader Meinhof Complex is my favourite in recent years.
(I work for a subtitling company although I manage the UK side of things for deaf and hard of hearing viewers, rather than foreign language translation).
My worst experience was in Paris where they were showing The Battle Of Britain, it was advertised with sub-titles so we thought brilliant it will be like normal for us. WRONG, it was spoken in german with french sub-titles, what a disaster.
I had to give Gomorrah a couple of goes, but glad I did. I stupidly assumed all the disparate threads of the story would tie up neatly, like in Crash and Babel. Once I got past the fact that they proabably wouldn't, I enjoyed it.
And another one: Bertolucci's The Conformist. I also recommend his Novecento (1900). The version to see is the Italian one (perhaps obviously), although I don't know if it fits comfortably in this thread, as it stars De Niro, Depardieu, Burt Lancaster and Donald Sutherland. But be warned there's bit of animal cruelty in it (to frogs and cats), and you see Depardieu's and De Niro's willies! But a real epic (it's about six hours in length).
Comments
Love them. I started because i'm into my horror films and found the Korean and Japanese are so much more original and interesting that the Hollywood produced dumded down crap.
Moved on from there to other genres and countries and just find them far more original.
I saw the devil is brutal, haunting and quite brilliant.
Dont watch it on a Sunday night.
What a movie.
My favourites are......
Kieslowski's 'Double Life of Veronique' (Irene Jacob)
L'Appartement (Vincent Cassell & Monica Bellucci)
Jean De Florette & Manon Des Sources
Volver
La Haine
The Secret in their eyes
I'd never seen one until I was 18 and stuck in one night and watched One Deadly Summer (Isabelle Adjani)
and my love for them started then.
(I work for a subtitling company although I manage the UK side of things for deaf and hard of hearing viewers, rather than foreign language translation).
Lisbon Story
Monday Morning
Trainspotting
The Night Shift Icelandic comedy that was on bbc4 recently was quite good
Speaking of forein language films - the TV series Tutti-Frutti had to have undertitles when it was broadcast in the US.
Raise the Red Lantern
Ju Dou
To Live
Excellent Chinese films from Zhang Yimou
Das Untergang
The Three Colours trilogy
Lola Rennt
The Ip Man
Raise the Red Lantern
Seven Samurai
Breathless
Battle for Algiers
Gomorrah was on telly at Christmas, about the Naples mafia, dead good
Does anyone remember a Polish film called Sex Mission?
And another one: Bertolucci's The Conformist. I also recommend his Novecento (1900). The version to see is the Italian one (perhaps obviously), although I don't know if it fits comfortably in this thread, as it stars De Niro, Depardieu, Burt Lancaster and Donald Sutherland. But be warned there's bit of animal cruelty in it (to frogs and cats), and you see Depardieu's and De Niro's willies! But a real epic (it's about six hours in length).