Help me with Foreign (Non-English) Movie Recommendations

Now that it's official that the next countdown will be Foreign (Non-English) Movies, I need help finding movies to watch.

To be honest, I don't have much patience with subtitles, so I don't know how many movies I'll be able to watch, but I want to at least make an effort to watch enough movies to submit a good list. This means that I don't want people just throwing out a bunch of titles. That will just cause many of them to get lost in the shuffle. Please try to make an effort to recommend movies that you think might have a real chance to make my list.


This is a link to my favorite movie lists from the various countdowns that we've done here on MoFo. It should give you an idea of what movies I like.

https://www.movieforums.com/lists/custom/viewall/84622


For additional help with recommendations, here are a few guidelines:

I like romance and rom-coms.
I like musicals, but not loud, rock-music type of musicals. I like the classic musicals, like the ones from the 1960s and earlier.
I like comedy, but not raunchy comedy. Screwball comedies are okay too.
I like mysteries and suspense movies, as long as they're not too graphic.
I like sci-fi, but more the fantasy/sci-fi movies, NOT the horror/sci-fi movies. Time travel movies are good too.

I do NOT like horror movies, especially bloody, gory, disgusting movies.
I do NOT like raunchy movies, or movies about sex, rape, etc.
I do NOT like movies where children and/or animals are hurt or killed.
I usually do NOT like long movies.


Thanks in advance for your help and recommendations.

__________________
.
If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

Start with Francois Truffaut, Godard, Fellini (although some are long), Bergman. I know you’re looking for specific titles, but you can find some good stuff that avoid your dislikes from the above directors.

Maybe try The Young Girls of Rochefort. Rom-com musical from the 60's that's just delightful.

__________________
Favourite films list: https://www.movieforums.com/lists/custom/200

Try Jacques Demy.


And india masala films. No wait, they can be long ass one as i remember.

I'm sure you've seen some of these-

All About My Mother
Cappernaum
Cinema Paradiso
The Invisible Guest
The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
Smiles of a Summer Night
Samurai Rebellion
The Big City
A Seperation
The 400 Blows
Bicycle Thieves
Wolf Children
The Sea Inside
Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Children of Paradise
The Hunt
Divorce Italian Style
Good Bye, Lenin!
Umberto D
Pather Panchali
Le Jour Se Leve
Z
Pepe Le Moko
Dersu Uzala
Monsoon Wedding
Wadjda
The Intouchables
Dancer in the Dark
Adam's Apples

High and Low--a thrilling mystery/police procedural from Kurosawa. Criminals try to kidnap the child of a wealthy man, but end up grabbing the chauffeur's child instead. Will the wealthy man still pay the ransom? This is one of my favorite movies ever.

Mustang (2015)--a powerful drama/thriller about a group of sisters in Turkey whose guardians (an uncle and a grandmother, I think?) basically keep them locked up in the house. Has some light moments and also some more intense parts.

Kung Fu Hustle--an action comedy (emphasis on the comedy) about a pair of hapless guys who want to be big bad gangsters and end up in the middle of a turf war between a gang and a low-income housing project. This is one of my go-to happy movies.

Ida--a beautifully shot drama about a novice nun who, before taking her orders, goes to learn more about her family.

The Orphanage--okay, I know you said you don't like horror. But this Spanish-set ghost story is a really cool film.

Le Bonheur--I was just head over heels for this Varda film about the relationship between a man and his wife when he begins to get smitten with a co-worker. Really powerful and unsettling.

Roma--Cuaron's drama more than lived up to all of the hype. The look is gorgeous and the performances are solid. It also contains one of the more intense (in a good way!) sequences I've seen in the last year or so.

Ivan's Childhood--Tarkovsky's film follows a boy who is enmeshed in spying and other activities during WW2. I keep using "powerful" as a descriptor, but it's also the word I would use for this one! The visuals are amazing and the story is gripping.

Polytechnique--a fictionalized account of a massacre that took place in Montreal in 1989 in which a student, angry at women in general, went after several of his female classmates. While some of the film does show the actual event, much of the focus is on what came before and after, and it is a very empathetic look at the impact on all of the students, including one male student who is a witness to the events.

Bread and Tulips--a fun romance/comedy about a woman whose family leaves her behind at a rest stop on a vacation and begins to make new friends and connections after she is stranded. Very sweet.

Most of my favorite movies are dramas, so I only have a few
"Sunflower" is my favorite love-story movie. Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni have great chemistry.


For suspense, "Fist in Pocket" and "M"

__________________
https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition

Amélie (2001, Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994, Ang Lee)
Music on Hold (2009, Hernán Goldfrid)
The Man Who Copied (2003, Jorge Furtado)
Good Bye, Lenin! (2003, Wolfgang Becker)
Love Me If You Dare (2003, Yann Samuell)
OSS-117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006, Michel Hazanavicius)
The Brand New Testament (2015, Jaco Van Dormael)
A Town Called Panic (2009, Stéphane Aubier & Vincent Patar)
La Havre (2011, Aki Kaurismäki)
The Man Without a Past (2002, Aki Kaurismäki)
A Somewhat Gentle Man (2010, Hans Petter Moland)
Keinohrhasen (2007, Til Schweiger)
When the Cat's Away (1996, Cédric Klapisch)
Like Water for Chocolate (1992, Alfonso Arau)
Romantics Anonymous (2010, Jean-Pierre Améris)
Shall We Kiss? (2007, Emmanuel Mouret)
Jet Lag (2002, Danièle Thompson)
Gloria (2014, Sebastián Lelio)
Hipsters (2008, Valeriy Todorovskiy)
Taxi (1998, Gérard Pirès)
Nine Queens (2000, Fabián Bielinsky)
Eldorado (2008, Bouli Lanners)
Wild Tales (2014, Damián Szifron)
Kitchen Stories (2003, Bent Hamer)
O'Horten (2007, Bent Hamer)
Terribly Happy (2008, Henrik Ruben Genz)
Incendies (2010, Denis Villeneuve)
Tell No One (2006, Guillaume Canet)
Angel-A (2005, Luc Besson)
Reykjavik-Rotterdam (2009, Óskar Jónasson)
Revanche (2008, Götz Spielmann)
The Robber (2010, Benjamin Heisenberg)

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

You might like:
Ophüls' The Earrings Of Madame De… (1953) or
Bresson's Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut [A Man Escaped] (1956)
Gbg

A Man Escaped is a great rec. So is Nine Queens.

It's been mentioned but I would also recommend The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort, both fun and colourful musicals.

Everything asian I would start with 90's hong kong since it was with which I started (john woo, johnnie to for action; Wong Kar wai for wong kar-wai stuff). There is also Taiwan with Edward yang. If you loved his long scene and static shot you can try Hou Hsiao Hsien. Then there is Japan and way too much stuff you can start by the two giants being kurosawa and ozu.

movie name
directors
important stuff


Sorry I did not read your comment before commenting myself so i'll post a better comment.

Because you don't like subtitle I really dont recommend watching Fellini's movies or most Italian stuff because due to their speed of speach you quickly start reading instead of watching the movie.

Wong Kar-Wai is an even better recommendation because for a long time he didn't even knew cantonese so much of his movies are told by the intermediate of music and eye directions/ looks. So you'll rarely have the impression of reading.
-Chungking express (WKW)
-In the mood for love (WKW)
- fallen angel
If you like those movies, Edward Yang might be interesting as well since he is a director that takes his time. So you'll not have to be in a rush to read subtitles.
- YiYi
- A brighter summer day
-terrorizers
Again if you like those movies who are slowpaced I would recommend Tsai Ming Liang. (little bit harder to find- I found mine at libraries and on criterion) After his first movie, he took a radiccal turn and made very modern movies. This means his movies became very ambiguous, had a lot of long shots, etc... But it is always quite easy to read subtitles even thought they bring very little to the story.
- Rebel of neon god
-amour

Because I'm french I don't know how it feels for an english speaker to read french subtitle but i'm from canada and speak french as a first language and even I have issues understanding french people because they talk so quicly. But a french director who uses very few words is Jean pierre Melville so I would watch :
- Le samourai
- Un flic (a cop)
- Le cercle rouge
I wouls probably try breathless because it has an english speaking actress in it but the rest of godard might be difficult to begin with.

If you liked those very slow and ambiguous heroes of melville I recommend Takeshi kitano's early work where he uses enigmatic and calm heroes to bring a melancholic touch to violent yakuza movies
- violent cop
-hanna-bi
- sonatine
If you like this mix of greety and calm stories I would recommend in a more hardcore way Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. There is again few subtitle because the hero is mute.

I will now list a bunch of foreign movies I appreciated and for which I dont recall having any trouble with subtitles
--Amores Perros
- Pixote
-touki bouki mambéty diop
-bleu blanc rouge trilogy
-Suspiria
-Playtime Jacques tati
-battle of algier
-German expressionist ( I dont know if it count because it's just silent)
-Cold war pawel pawlikowski


Once you are familiar with subtitle, because it is like anything in life, youll once get used to it, youll be able to watch european movies. Indeed, european movie uses a lot of dialogues and are very intellectual so if youll either have to read the subtitle without paying attention to the image or paying attention without fully understanding all the dialogues. So I recommand starting with the one I listed and then go with the one everyone recommend you being Fellini, Godard, etc...

GBG, we have similar taste in movies, especially the 'don't like stuff'. So I've went through my old Foreign Language list and found films that I really think are right up your alley, I'd rate all of these or better

Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati 1958) A comedy! that I think is right up your alley.

Twenty-Four Eyes (Keisuke Kino****a 1954) A very beautiful and compelling human drama about a young teacher and her love for her job and her students.

Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau 1946) An interesting French film on the classic tale.

Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy 1967) I believe you've already seen it, maybe watch it again!

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy 1964) In my top 10! A must see for anyone who loves heartbreaking romance films and musicals.

Entre Nos (Paola Mendoza,Gloria La Morte 2009) Uplifting true story of an immigrant woman who has to struggle to raise her kids. Not R rated or violent.

Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky 1971)...
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky 1979) Two classic Russian sci-fis!

The Cranes Are Flying (Mikhail Kalatozov 1957)...
Ballad of a Soldier (Grigory Chukhray 1959) Two beautiful filmed, dramas about soldiers in WWII Russia. More about the people and emotions, than actual fighting.

Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou 1991) Beautiful looking Chinese film about women who are part of a royal household during the imperial period.

Le Trou (Jacques Becker 1960) A prison break film where you can match logic and wits with the prisoners who come up with all sorts of ingenious methods to avoid detection as they tunnel their way out of their cell.

Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen 1981) 4 hours but worth it!

Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray 1955) Story of a poor boy growing up in rural India.

Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki 2001) I'm sure you've seen this one.

Good Bye, Lenin! (Wolfgang Becker 2003) Fun drama about an East German family. It's light and entertaining.

Contratiempo (The Invisible Guest) (Oriol Paulo 2016) Crime Mystery, not violent but about a cover up of a road accident.

In the Mood For Love (Wong Kar-Wai 2000) Romantic, forbidden love drama set in Hong Kong circa 1960.

Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet 2001) ...Another must see comedy.

Day For Night (François Truffaut 1973) Fun, almost screwball comedy about a director making a film with all kinds of obstacles.

Late Spring (Yasujirô Ozu, 1949) *Beautiful film about an adult daughter who loves her elderly father and doesn't want to leave her childhood home to get married. I think you'd really like this!

The Naked Island (1960) I loved this! slow humanistic study of a family living on a remote Japanese island with no water. Almost no dialogue is spoke, so no subs to read...Note the island is barren, but the people do have clothes on

I would second the recommendations of In the Mood for Love and YiYi (although it is long)

@gbgoodies I do not recommend you watch Sympathy for Mr Vengeance because of the torture I really do not think it would be your kind of film.

Pixote has some very violent and graphic scenes. I don't think it would be to your liking.
Wild Tales (2014, Damián Szifron)
I doubt GBG would like this. It's pretty violent and there's this scene
Which appeared to be very real and extremely gross.

We took the time to recommend you foreign films. Maybe take a little time to post your thoughts on those films in this thread?

And I must add for movies recommended for you but you should avoid are Violent Cop, Suspiria, and the great Amores Perros. Good tries though.

I still don't know if Suspiria would even count as a foreign language film. Regardless of that, I agree that it's probably not for gbg.

__________________

Unfortunately,
covers about 90% of the foreign films I've seen so I'm not going to be much help but I can second a few of the movie that have been mentioned:

The Orphanage - It's a ghost story horror if I remember correctly. I don't remember anything too violent, more suspenseful and kind of scary.
Le Trou is very good so is Rififi. They're kind of similar. If you like one of them I can't imagine you wouldn't like the other.
Kung Fu Hustle is like a Looney Tunes movie. Really. It's a live action cartoon and it's a lot of fun.
Hanna Bi is a good. If you haven't seen a Takashi Kitano I'd recommend Hanna Bi over Sonatine, which is also very good but very different.

And a couple great ones I haven't seen mentioned:
Rashomon. Anything by Kurosawa is going to be good but why not start off with a short one to see how you like it.
Timecrimes is a good sci-fi time travel movie.
I loved The Triplets of Bellville. It's an animated movie. I don't think there's any talking so you don't have to worry about subtitles.
Les Diaboliques is good. I think it's classified as horror but it's barely horror. More suspense.
Hero The Jet Li film. A lot of high flying swordplay and looks fantastic
Shoot the Piano Player and Viridiana I've had bad luck recommending these. Both are pretty short and I think they're great but not everyone thinks so.

The North Face is a mountaineering movie, based on true events, about scaling the North Face of the Eiger in the 30's. Kind of a personal fav (love movies about mountain climbing) but it is pretty good.