Out of curiousity, I took took a globe, looked around, and marked down all off the countries from which I have seen a movie. Then I counted up how many movies off the top of my head I had seen from those countries. So, here is the distribution of foreign films (by foreign I mean from a country where English is not the dominant language - thereby excluding British and Australian films) I have seen, and I wonder how it compares to other Textkittens.
France - 16 1/2 (probably more I can’t remember)
Japanese Anime Movies with Theatrical Release - 12
Germany - 7 1/2
India - 7
Italy - 6 1/2 (I have a sneaky suspicion I forgot a movie or two)
Japan (non-anime) - 5
Russia - 4
China (including taiwan) - 3 1/2
Poland - 2
Mexico - 1 + some Mexican television
Korea - 1
Sweeden - 1
Yugoslavia - 1
Most of these films are European, and the rest are Asian with the exception of Y Tu Mama Tambien. I hadn’t realized how many German films I had seen, but they are so wildly different from each other I don’t associate them with each other. And I did have a teacher who is fond of German films, so that probably helped.
OH, I don’t know how many foreign films I’ve seen, but quite a few!
Not in the original language mostly though, but in German. They translate all their films - which is kind of annoying when some times you just want to hear it in the original, but it also means that foreign film are more popular.
I can easily name the foreign country from which I’ve seen the most films
USA
Ok, that’s English, but Germany is a German speaking country…
I have seen many foreign language films. Among these films from France hold a prominent position. Why? Because they present a language learning opportunity and I am crazy about French. I admit that I often go just to hear the language. I am not very fond of cinematic art but I adore learning languages.
Swedish and Italian probably take the cake for me, but more Italian, probably because Sweden only really has Bergman but Italy has Fellini, De Sica, Antonioni, and others. I just really love Fellini.
I like French movies too, like Truffaut, Renoir, and I like, but I really don’t like Godard; I like Bande à part, but that’s pretty much it. The Germans are a hit or miss. I like Fritz Lang, and I like Murnau, but I haven’t seen much more. Last week I saw Good Bye Lenin was okay. I also like Kurosawa’s movies.
I’ve also seen a Dutch film, which I forgot to put to the original list.
Yes, I love Fellini too. And I like Fritz Lang, paticularly M. I didn’t like the only Murnau movie I saw, though that was from his Hollywood days so I didn’t count it as German. The other German films I’ve see are - Triumph of the Will, Olympia (part), Berlin Alexanderplatz (okay it’s really a TV series - I saw a few hours of it, and was unimpressed, and has discouraged me from seeing any more Fassbinder), The Silent Star, Europa Europa, Good Bye Lenin, and Run Lola Run.
I think all of the Italian films I’ve seen have either been Fellini or Dario Argento. Otherwise, it’s mostly Japanese Horror or anything directed by Takashi Miike. Sometimes, I pick up an occasional French film (the last would be High Tension).
For me it’s Cinema Paradiso. I saw that in the movie theater in New York City and there wasn’t a dry eye in the place at the end during the ‘kisses film’
Hmm, I have never heard of that film. Maybe I should rent it, eh?
I am really bad about picking favorites - if it’s not obvious to me (and it rarely is), I have difficulty ranking things in order of preference. However, I can list 10 foreign films which I like a lot (that does not mean these are my 10 absolute favorite foreign films - these are just films which come to mind which I like a lot). I also am not going to list a director more than once - otherwise more than one Fellini film would be on this list.
Water (Deepa Mehta) Very lush cinematography, and in my opinion about a lot more than widows. Seema Biswas and the girl who plays Chuiya give awesome performances.
Stray Dog (Kurusawa) A Japanese version of Bicycle Thief, but different ending
Satyricon (Fellini) Love it! Love it! (but I have never seen a Fellini film I didn’t like)
Y Tu Mama Tambien (Cuaron) Teenagers, sex, and the real world. The great thing is not only are all of Curaron’s films (at least those I have seen) are good, but they are good in a different way
Le Grand Illusion (Renoir) The characters in this film feel more human than in any other film I have seen.
A Wedding Banquet (Ang Lee) This actually a quasi-foreign, quasi-American film. It has much in common with Brokeback Mountain - they are both about a gay couple who have problems sticking together, but it’s a comedy, most of the characters are of Chinese descent (who speaks what language is very important to the plot), and other differences would be very spoilerific.
The 400 Blows (Truffaut) One of the first French films I ever saw, even before I starting studying French, and my favorite Truffaut
Persona (Bergman) This is a very different movie. Even though it made quite an impression on me, it has not made me want to see more Bergman. Strange.
A Short Film About Killing (Kieslowski) - I actually saw the long version of this film - definitely one of the most violent movies I have seen, if not the most violent.
The World of Apu (Satiyajit Ray) This is the only movie in the Apu trilogy I have seen, but it is like Renoir in its humanity. Clearly a director from the Renoir school.
For me it’s Japan (I own about 6 or 7 Kurosawa movies, along with Ozu’s Floating Weeds), Germany (Das Boot), and Sweden (The Seventh Seal). I’m not really a movie person, though.
