Some German films you may or may not wish to consider (My wife was a big Art House film fan in Germany)
Fritz Lang: Metropolis (silent sci fi movie with German text so not sure it fits your bill!)
If you like dark and disturbing stuff try Michael Hanniker....<br />e.g.<br />Funny Games<br />Cache<br />Bennys Video
Good eastern German drama<br />Das Leben des anderen
Das Himmel ueber Berlin by Wim Wenders<br /><br />Kaspar Hauser
Das Boot
Non German films to consider?
Un Chien Andalou (The Andalusian Dog) Bunuel<br />Jamon Jamon
Look for films in Finnish by Aki Kaurismäki
A couple more
Die Blechtrommel
Black Cat White Cat (if you can find the original Eastern European version!)
The Leningrad Cowboys Go America (see Ari Kaurismäki above)
Memories of a Murder
Was going to suggest that.
Time Crimes (Spanish) - as title, quite low budget, slow burner, but very good. Trailer gives it away.
The Platform
Cell 211
Some French faves of mine
Titane
Raw (already mentioned, but is fab)
Blue is The Warmest Colour
Italian:
Suburra
Japanese:
Shoplifters
Who am I? - german, computer whizz, subversive hacker group, world stage.
Another Bigas Lunas - "the Tit and the Moon", title mildly mis-translated from the Spanish to protect our English prudishness.
Belle de Jour
Bicycle Thieves
City of God
Blue Collar (American English)
Shooters (Scouse English and it's on YT)
Came to recommend Time Crimes but sirromj already did. I picked it totally at random on netflix and thoroughly enjoyed it.
La vaquilla
Spanish civil war film about one side trying to steal the other side's bull.
Better than it sounds!
The Guilty (Danish - Den skyldige) (not the Jake Gyllenhall version)
One-man show, claustrophobically confined to a single location – a drab office where deskbound cop Asger (Jakob Cedergren) responds to an emergency call.
Kamera o Tomeru na! (One cut of the dead). Low budget Japanese meta zombie comedy cult classic. Needs watching to end, as IMO it gets better after first part.
First haf of Lion (all great but, only first half not in English).
Fellini's Otto e Mezzo (8 1/2) ? Iconic 60's Italian style.
Revenge, Austrian film.
Return of Martin Guerre, French, based on true story. School leaver French will see you through.
Wer früher stirb ist länger Tod, Bavarian Film. Nice scenery.
El secreto de sus ojos - Spamish
Dersu Uzala.
The only Kurosawa film which wasn't in Japanese.
It's evocative of a different time, hauntingly beautiful, slow but perfectly pitched.
Languages are Russian, Chinese and a
sino-russian pidgin amalgam.
Another by Kurosawa - Ran.
El Mariachi
Le Dîner de Cons
Parasite
Cinema Paradiso
Wild Tales - 6 Short Argentinian films
La piel que habito (The skin I live in) by Almodovar.
In spanish- stating the obvious.
Foreign film without language - Battleship Potemkin.
Memories of murder (Korean)
Kurosawa as mentioned earlier, but particularly Throne of Blood - the best Macbeth film ever.
I think someone mentioned ‘Crouching Tiger…’, House of Flying Daggers is also good. The story is a bit meh, but it looks amazing (and it has Zhang Ziyi in it, which makes any film worth watching).
Cyrano de Bergerac
Breathless
Jules et Jim
Loads of Shaw brothers films (if you like that kind of thing).
Life is Beautiful
Already mentioned:
City of God
Pans Labyrinth
I liked:
Holy Motors (French)
The Raid (Korean)
Not watched yet:
Rojo (Argentinian)
The Innocents (Norwegian)
I thought the Swedish version of the girl with the dragon tattoo was way better than the Hollywood attempt but from what I remember that wasn't hard.
The Story of the Weeping Camel
Best of Youth
+1 for The Lives of Others
Time of the gypsies.
The Educators (Die Fetten Jahre sind Forbei)
Le Prénom
Heavy Trip ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7220754/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) - Finnish comedy in a way that is incredibly well done. I think it would have become a completely different film if it had been made in any other country. Anyway, well worth a watch.
Les Bronzes Font Du Ski ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078907/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) - Late '70 French comedy.
Att Angöra en Brygga ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058926/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk) - 60's Swedish comedy. Why not?
Time of the gypsies.
Respect to you - this is a masterpiece - Probably saw it 20 times when i was young.
^^^
That one's not my favourite, but came here to say all Amodovar, just work your way through. Lots of fun stuff alongside the heavier.
Otherwise where do you start with the Euro auteurs? Fasbinder? Godard? Fellini? Etc.
The Lives of Others. A truly wonderful, tragic piece of filmmaking.
I'll second that. Also, really good interiors.
A last one as no one's mentioned Malle: "Auvoir les enfants" has stuck in my memory. An easy watch. Doomed boyhood friendship in a wartime boarding school. Good woods.
Jean De Florette for the simple reason it was the first film that introduced me to French. And Emmanuelle Béart.
Oh yes. Fond memories of being shown Jean de Florette and Manon des Source in French lessons at school as an end of term treat aged ~14!
+1 for the Lives of Others. Been a while since I watched that.
Goodbye Lenin (German) about the fall of the Berlin wall. Light hearted and very funny.
The Intouchables (French). Since been remade but the French version in so much better.
Together (Swedish) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Together_(2000_film)
Untouchable (French)
Taxi (French)
Les Petits Mouchoirs (French)
Plenty to work through here...
Forgot about Alice in Borderland, that was good.
Also City of Lost Children (French) by the same director as Amélie and Delicatessen. Weird but good.
I recently found out there's a book of Pan's Labyrinth, basically the story of the film but with added dark fairy tales. By Guillermo Del Toro and Cornelia Funke. Must get hold of this...
Another vote for 'Blue is the Warmest Colour'. An exhausting watch but well worth a watch IMO.
Some fabulous suggestions on this thread..!!
Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (Welcome to the Sticks)
La Famille Bélier upon which the Oscar winning American remake CODA was based.
TLDR has anyone mentioned Riders of Justice on All4?
Mads Mikkelsen is excellent as usual
Some Scandi favourites:
The entire catalogue of Ingmar Bergman, especially Summer with Monika
Pelle the Conqueror
My life as a dog
Sacrifice
Previous (2022) Oscar winner "Drive My Car" (Japanese) was on Film4 recently. I've tried it in instalments, but finding it quite difficult to bother watching to the end! Lovely Saab 900 Turbo, but not much else going on 🙂
Ong Bak 2. 1&3 are ok too.
Watch with subs, not dubbed as it ruins the vibe!
The Story of the Weeping Camel
Excellent film.
Also remembered these.
Salmer fra køkkenet (Kitchen Stories) - Norwegian
Rams - Icelandic
Also whilst considering Iceland, not a film but a series, is Næturvaktin (Night Shift), a bizarre comedy set in a petrol station.
