Your Favourite Foreign Language Films

Jean de Florette and Manon are both great films I think. We have also watched Être et Avoir several times - in fact very time we have seen it listed. Have not seen The Chorus but will now look out for it.
The only one in this line we have not been able to watch was La Reine Margo - it was so utterly bloodthirsty and the plot was so difficult to follow that we abandoned it - then found many of our French class had the same experience.

Jean de Florette got so much publicity at the Oscars that I vowed never to see it, eventually it was on television and I wept all the way through it! When I was a student the big film was Un Homme et Une Femme. We all went to see it several times and bought the soundtrack LP. Lately I have loved La Vita e Bella and also enjoyed Begnoni's Cinderella. Mustn't forget all Kurosawa's great films one of my favourites (I think it was his) was called Living I think and was about an old man dying of cancer, but was much more enjoyable than it sounds.

The original version of The Ring was made in Japan and subtitled. It's much better and far more disturbing that the sanitised Hollywood remake.

The Danish film, Babette's Feast was one I found very moving and entertaining. Amélie was enjoyable - was the first time I'd seen Audrey Tatou.

Yes - Cinema Paradiso, Lives of Others - the last scene 'das ist fur mich'.Aahh. Marius et Jeanette - heartwarming . The Prophet - chilling and that really funny one about the post office worker who is moved to the north of France - priceless!

The Story of the Weeping Camel is lovely, as is Cave of the Yellow Dog. A wonderful insight into another culture.

Two lovely French films both set in schools on television recently, 'Etre et Avoir' and 'The Chorus'.

Cinema Paradiso has to be my favourite film of all time. I also agree with The Lives of Ohers and Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources.

Would also like to add Black Book and the White Ribbon plus Talk to Her and All About my Mother and the Counterfeiters.

Consequences of Love is another favourite.

Try Pans Labyrinth, City of God, Amores Perres and Il Postino.

if you belong to Lovefilm or any film club and you are fed up with some of the modern pap they churn out, try the the World Cinema Section. We hire several each week and are well rewarded. Soraya's Stoning (an Iranian film) is a recent viewing - harrowing but well worth watching.

Pan's Labyrinth. I'm hoping I've got a recording of Belleville Rendezvous somewhere; Haven't seen it..think it was Oscar nominated that year?

Oh yes, we enjoyed (if that is the word) The Lives of Others. One of our first dates in 1969 was to see Bunuel's Le Chien Andalou at Film Soc. Hmm....

Top of my list has to be 'The Lives Of Others' (Germany 2006).

Set in 1984 East Berlin, Gerd Wiesler is a member of the feared Stasi, who spends his days listening to suspected anti-regime activists. However, this insight into a world of free-thinking, free-speech, and freedom gradually begins to change the mind-set of this loyal agent of the state.

4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days (Romania 2007). A compelling story about 2 friends arranging an illegal abortion. As well as an examination of repression in society, it is also a truly moving film about friendship.

Belleville Rendezvous (France 2003) - Brilliant animation. Impossible to describe.

Jean de Florette & Manon des Sources were the first foreign language films that I recall seeing. I have enjoyed watching them several times. 'Il y a longtemps que je t'aime' is a more recent favourite.

How about Life is Beautiful? I also have a soft spot for Les Enfants du Paradis and Cinema Paradiso. Once upon a time I was so pretentious that I wrote essays (in French) about Jean Luc Godard, but not now. I am also not so sure that Luis Buñuel was quite the creative hero that I believed then.