The best 100 foreign-language films, according to a BBC poll of critics
As usual, I disagree.
Here’s who they polled:
The 209 critics who took part are from 43 different countries and speak a total of 41 languages – a range that sets our poll apart from any other.
The result: 100 films from 67 different directors, from 24 countries, and in 19 languages.
Most of the films on the list are acknowledged, tried-and-true, film masterpieces of the type beloved by critics but not necessarily by me. For example, number one is “Seven Samuri,” which (as with many although hardly all of the films) I’ve actually seen. But I found it a big snooze. Why do critics like it (and why did it inspire the making of “The Magnificent Seven”)? Because:
It introduced a culture that was foreign yet intriguing, and accessible to audiences weaned on Hollywood westerns. In later years, Kurosawa tended to downplay his enthusiasm for the films of John Ford, but his achievement was to combine the conventions of the western with a radical new fusion of Japanese genres: the chambara (swordplay film) and the jidaigeki (period drama)…
After all this meticulous scene-setting, the film’s final hour-and-a-half unfurls in an escalating series of skirmishes. The climactic battle, drenched by torrential rain, is a miracle of brilliantly choreographed chaos: combatants running hither and thither through the mud, galloping horses, spears, arrows and the occasional bullet, all filmed with multiple cameras, which insert the audience into the thick of the action. We always know who’s who, where everyone is, what they’re doing and – thanks to an infographic-style banner – exactly how many bandits there are left to kill at any given moment. There are casualties among the samurai, too, and, because we have come to know them, every death hits hard.
It’s not that I don’t sometimes like action films with all-male casts. I love “The Great Escape,” for example, one of my all-time favorites. But not this one.
On the other hand, number 4, “Rashomon,” intrigued me even as a child, when I first saw it. And nuumber 31, “The Lives of Others,” is one of the best movies ever made, IMHO, not just one of the best foreign-language movies. It should be way higher up on the list.
I’ve seen exactly one-third of these movies, by the way, so that’s not a bad sampling. But I haven’t loved most of the ones I’ve seen (“Amelie” was a favorite, however), although I’ve liked quite a few and admired quite a few as well. And I detested “Aguirre, the Wrath of God.”
On a list of my making, not only would “The Lives of Others” be much higher, but it would include the following highly idiosyncratic favorites of mine (some of them, notably the first, not so PC anymore):
Black Orpheus
Ballad of a Soldier
Two Women
Marriage Italian Style
Run Boy Run
The White Balloon (an Iranian film; the little girl looked eerily like me as a child and reminded me somewhat of myself as well)
Mandabi
The Emigrants; The New Land
I imagine there are more, but that’s what comes to mind at the moment. I tried to put the links up to the subtitled versions. Dubbed is convenient, but usually abominable. Don’t succumb to the temptation.
my favorites “battle of algiers.” cheney wouldn;t let bush see movie when pentagon reviewed it before going into iraq. “is paris burning?” good watch too!
I loved The Seven Samurai though its certainly a slow movie.
Another Kurosawa film Yojimbo was remade as Fistful of Dollars (without permission. Kurosawa even sued.) When my mother was away my dad and I watched both movies in three days which was interesting.
I recommend “Two Women” (with Sophia Loren) very highly.
I also love “Umbrellas of Cherbourg” (Catherine Deneuve).
Not a big one for the foreign movies unless they are with the sub titles. Dubbed is horrible imho. First really good one I watched was on the boat when we watched Das Boot at > 400 ft below the pacific. Was a huge like and was watched more then once just so we could compare that boat to our Los Angeles class.
I did like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Seen six and part of a seventh. Enjoyed two (Amelie and Raise the Red Lantern).
Jean de Florette
Babette’s Feast
Amelie is one of my favorite movies of all time! And that’s coming from a Star Wars guy! I got strong armed into going to a little arthouse type cinema with a young lady I was dating at the time it was released. She was trying expand my horizons.
It worked, somewhat. I fell in love with the movie but not the young lady.*
I also never understood The Seven Samurai love. I’ve watched it three times and… I just don’t get it. But I love The Magnificent Seven. Go figure..
I’ve seen about 1/4, maybe a bit less. Definitely some there I’d like to see. It’s a better list than I expected from the BBC.
I’ve seen a number of Jules Dassin films, but not Rififi. I had to look it up because Dassin is a Connecticut boy, born to Russian Jews. The French producers had planned the novel adaptation to be located in N. Africa but thought it might be too controversial because of Algerian conflicts. So they brought in Dassin, who was a Hollywood blacklister then, and told him they wanted some American characters; but he wanted French characters.
I think Luis Buñuel is interesting, but it looks like his entire catalog is there. He usually spoils the “suspension of disbelief” for me, so I don’t think he is that great.
I like Fellini, and the pros all love 8-1/2 which is a high-concept film, but I really liked “La Dolce Vita” the one time I saw it. It’s an early and seductive look at the decadence of modern celebrity culture; and it tries for something deeper too I think.
I saw Umberto D., but have only seen clips of the super famous Bicycle Thieves. Boy, Vittorio De Sica must have spent most of his life near a camera. He acted in 161 films, when he wasn’t busy directing 35 films.
I must see Neo’s fave De Sica films. How can you not be mesmerized by a young Sophia Loren?
I’ve been wanting to see Kurosawa’s “Stray Dog,” not on the list. A detective loses his loaded revolver and spends the film tracking down the gun and where each bullet has gone.
TommyJay:
My favorite Fellini film by far is “Amarcord.”
Saw 25 on the list, and a lot of snoozers.
Loved Crouching Tiger, Raise the Red Lantern, Grande Illusion, Amelie, City of God, Umbrellas of Cherbourg…
Hated Battle of Algiers — could it have been any more political?
Humor and Horror genres get a short shift: Tale of Two Sisters (Korea), Sigaw (Philippines), and Ghost Bride are excellent. Women on the Verge is the best Pedro Almodavar.
Oops! Ghost Bride is a Philippines movie, not from China! Still a very good film.
Still wrong!!
The film is The Maid from Singapore. Duh.
The Conformist (Bertolucci)
Diary of a Country Priest (Bresson)
Andrei Roublev (Tarkovsky)
Messidor (Alain Tanner)
Masculin Feminin (Godard)
Cyclo (Vietnamese)
Veronika Voss (Fassbender)
Closely Watched Trains (Czech)
Fellini Satyricon (Fellini)
Band of Outsiders (Godard)
Stolen Kisses (Truffaut)
Solaris (Tarkovsky)
Pickpocket (Bresson)
Dog Days (Seidl)
The Child (Dardenne brothers)
So many others. Dogtooth (Greece), Import/Export (Seidl), Fallen Angels (HK), Stalker (Tarkovsky), City of God (Brazil).
Great films.
Neo:
We both know the name of the next great American film!
I just remembered another one I really liked, “Before the Rain.”
Neo,
Amarcord is my second favorite Fellini. It didn’t make the list. I loved the spectacle of Satyricon when I was a kid, though I’ve discovered that my tastes as a juvenile were in fact sometimes juvenile. But if Miklos likes it, maybe I’ll try it again.
I liked La Strada, and it has some nice artistry, but a Fellini film has to be a little weird, and it wasn’t.
About Kurosawa, a very interesting exposition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doaQC-S8de8
(The whole channel is top-notch, by the way)
I have a great fondness for the German comedy “Good Bye Lenin!”
I’ve also seen about a third of the films on the list, but have also seen many, many others that are not (some of which should be). The list seemed to include too many recent and too many critic in-crowd selections. It was putting me off until I saw a Yasujiro Ozu film near the top at number three.
Neo: Kurosawa’s Macbeth story done to Kibuki:
THRONE OF BLOOD
Take a look and, I solemnly promise, you will NEVER forget Lady Macbeth. No #MeToo snowflake, that girl!!!
Brian on October 31, 2018 at 7:25 pm at 7:25 pm said:
Jean de Florette
Babette’s Feast
* * *
Haven’t seen the first, but totally loved the Feast.
Agreed that “Black Orpheus” and “Amarcord” should have been included in this list as should the haunting Werner Herzog films, “The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser,” as well as his 1979 remake of “Nosferatu.” Glad they included “Children of Paradise.”
While there is good chance a more recent viewing would lead to a different appraisal, I also note a couple of other missing classics: “Beauty and the Beast” and “Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
Interesting list.
If they’re including one Miyazaki film, why “Spirited Away” and not “The Princess Mononoke”?
I would have liked to see Besson’s “La Feme Nikita” on the list. Also, what about Stephen Chow? No “Kung Fu Hustle”?
Interesting that this comes from the BBC–because many of my favorite films (The Third Man, The Red Shoes, I Know Where I’m Going, The Tales of Hoffman) are British because while they are omitted here from the “foreign” category they are also not included with the “best of Hollywood.”
You are so right about “The Lives of Others.”
Eww