Foreign language films

[Clarence15]

Having seemed to have exhausted a lot of British/American films I've recently started watching some foreign language films and have seen some brilliant French, german, Swedish and Chinese films.

Can anyone recommend any?

What genre?

Goodbye Lenin

Hero, crouching tiger hidden dragon, house of flying daggers for cinamatography,
Water
Anything by volver's director
3 colours trilogy
I'm about to watch max manus

Um, I'm only just getting into it all too so you have probably seen the same ones as me!

Volver's director is Almodovar. I recommend "All about my mother".

The Orphange, Devils Backbone & REC/REC 2 are great Spanish horror films, Pans Labyrinth is a great fantasy.
another vote for Goodbye Lenin (German comedy, hard to get on dvd as it was deleted a few years back, best off renting).
Taxi 1 & 2 are decent french comedies (they made a 3 &4 but I've not seen them).
Ip Man, Fearless & the Stephen Chow films are great Chinese films (the first 2 are martial arts, Stephen Chow is a comedy director).
Infernal Affairs is a awesome Chinese drama film (they remade it in the USA a few years back)..Tony Leung is a fantastic actor (Hard Boiled, Dumplings, In the Mood for Love, 2046 etc), if he's in a film it's normally great. If you're going to 'explore' another countries cinema I'd recommend Chinese films.
Italian films; Life is Beautiful is a great place to start.
Generalising a bit but Japan & South Korea are good for horror,(if you like slow burning tense horror) dramas & mental WTF am I watching films (I'm a cyborg but it's ok, Ichi the killer) are their best, I'd recommend most of the Studio Ghibli films (spirted away, my neighbour totoro etc, they're animated kids films but really worth watching).

Best tip for finding decent films is Amazon, type in a film you've loved & most of the recommendations are normally really good/worth seeing!

Just thought I'd add, there are LOADS of decent American/British films out there which most people have never seen/heard of.
If you post what sort of things you like, I'm sure I could recommend some!

DialM-thanks, his name escaped me and and I could t bring myself to google something I should know! All about my mother is amazing. His women are amazing characters.

Thank you for this thread! I'm strting a list.

Whale Rider (NZ) was a lovely peaceful film

Brilliant thanks for all those. I do also like obscure English/American films so any other recommendations would be great. I like things like This is England and Dead Mans Shoes, American History X, Donnie Darko. My all time favourite film ever is True Romance, but I also like old stuff like the Godfather and Scarface. Oh and anything by John Hughes

I'll check out the foreign films above and add them to my Lovefilm.

Leben der andere. English title - Other People's Lives. Brilliant film about Stasi activities in Berlin. Amazing and uplifting last line.

Der Untergang. Don't know the English title but this film is a brilliant portrayal of the last days in the fuhrer bunker. It is very hard to watch - especially the Goebels bit.

Diva. Wonderfully weird French film about an American opera singer who does not want to record her voice, a post boy who is obsessed with her and some hard line crooks.

La fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain.

(wanders off to shelf to look for more)

hermajestie - don't you mean 'the lives of others' - and yes, it is a cracker indeed.

I recently watched Incendies, it was amazing. I don't want to go into too much detail, but the story was was incredible. You must watch it.

Biutiful with Javier -Penelopes husband was amazing also.

Indochine - Catherine de Neuve. Amazing film. Had me sobbing.

The Story of Qui Ju. A Chinese film about a woman trying to get justice for her husband having been kicked in the balls by the village mayor.

To Live. Another Chinese film following the lives of a family through the war and cultural revolution. A tear jerker.

Conquita - yep, that's the one. It is truly brilliant.

I've just got hold of Die Welle. Very interested to see what it is like.

An English film I saw recently and loved was, "death at a funeral." Hysterical.

I love world cinema, but my mind's gone completely blank...

Thirding the recommendations for Goodbye Lenin! It is a wonderful, wonderful film.

If you like crime films:

Romanzo Criminale
22 Bullets
Un Prophet
Nine Queens (The Argentinian original not the American remake)

Let the Right One In

Anything with Daniel Bruhl in.

Any Pedro Almadovar

Run Lola Run, The Princess and the Warrior, Black Cat/ White Cat, Raise the Red Lantern

If you like martial arts, Thai films are amazing: Ong Bak, Warrior King, Chocolate (astounding!).

There are sooo many!