Best German/French/Italian films

[Haycorns4Piglet]

I always try and get a foreign language DVD for my mum's stocking, but I'm struggling to find one this year! She's really very very hard to please. She doesn't like anything too upsetting, nothing scary, nothing too lovey-dovey. She's not big on comedy either, but having said that she loved Petit Nikolas! Not so much the sequel though... Well acted family films are probably the best bet. She likes animals, especially dogs, but they're not allowed to die!

She's fluent in German, pretty good at French (although would need subtitles) and a confident beginner in Italian. I've been through the lists I'm finding through Google but it's the same old suggestions! Anything a bit less well known that you've seen and thought was fantastic?

Oh I didn't read the rubric properly. Def not Christiane F or Au Revoir Les Enfants !

Italian films:

Il divo
il postino (it is a comedy but more quite sweet really - a bit more like Local Hero if you know that film than something by Will Ferrel say)
la strada
cinema paradiso

If any foreign language would do, has she seen Like Water for Chocolate? A sublime tale of love, food, and crochet.

So many greats already mentioned.

I’ll add Amélie (watched tonight with DD).
Yann Tiersen did the soundtrack to this film and Goodbye Lenin- already mentioned (my favourite German film of all and Germany’s own ‘Amélie’). Both are gorgeous films. Your heart will be two sizes bigger after watching them.

Etre et Avoir is a French documentary film about a small school - very touching

Le prénom, very funny moments for me

Can't believe nobody has mentioned La Vita è Bella! My absolutely favourite Italian film of all time.
YY to Goodbye Lenin and Les Choristes and Intouchables. All brilliant films that you don't forget...

Oops I mentioned Triangle of Sadness, forgetting it's actually in English😜

Marguerite (French) - "loosely inspired by the life of Florence Foster Jenkins. Set in the Golden Twenties, the film stars Catherine Frot as a wealthy woman who is an enthusiastic amateur singer and believes, wrongly, that she has a beautiful voice."

I loved it!

Saw it during the pandemic restrictions and it was very interesting. For me especially as two of my family taught in small schools (one or two classes for a combined infant/junior).

Does anyone know where I can get hold of the 2015 version of Heidi in the original German?! I'd really like a download rather than a DVD as my computer doesn't have a DVD drive and it'd be a lot of faffing about with my old laptop. Ideally I'd like it to have the option of German or English subtitles, and preferably the English dubbed version included too.

Populaire was good. Ticks most your boxes.