30 Favorite Foreign-Language Movies
To this meme, I offer my least resistance. I was thinking of restricting myself to one movie per director, but I enjoy the work of certain directors too much to do this. The ordering below is not arbitrary, but neither can it be held to an absolute meaning.
1. "Close-Up" - Kiarostami
2. "Five" - Kiarostami
3. "Where is the Friend's House?" - Kiarostami
4. "Day of Wrath" - Dreyer
5. "Duelle" - Rivette
6. "Sacrifice" - Tarkovsky
7. "Mirror" - Tarkovsky
8. "The Passion of Joan of Arc" - Dreyer
9. "Celine and Julie Go Boating" - Rivette
10. "Au Hasard Balthasar" - Bresson
11. "Diary of a Country Priest" - Bresson
12. "Tokyo Story" - Ozu
13. "Devi" - Ray
14. "Antonio Gaudi" - Teshigahara
15. "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" - Reiniger
16. "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday" - Tati
17. "Contempt" - Godard
18. "Syndromes and a Century" - Weerasethakul
19. "Tales of Ugetsu" - Mizoguchi
20. "8 1/2" - Fellini
21. "Rules of the Game" - Renoir
22. "The Earrings of Madame de..." - Ophuls
23. "Spirited Away" - Miyazaki
24. "Dancer in the Dark" - von Trier
25. "Russian Ark" - Sokurov
26. "Viridiana" - Bunuel
27. "Volver" - Almodovar
28. "Sans Soleil" - Marker
29. "Beauty and the Beast" - Cocteau
30. "The Piano Teacher" - Haneke
Some omissions are due to ignorance - I've watched nothing by Dovzhenko, Demy, Erice, Tarr, Panahi, Iosseliani, Kitano, Lang, Murnau, Vertov, Fassbinder or the Dardenne brothers, and next to nothing by Eisenstein, Ruiz, Pasolini, Akerman or Wenders. I wanted to include something by Melies, but his films are indistinguishable in memory.
For certain others I had no room; yet other omissions are deliberate.
1. "Close-Up" - Kiarostami
2. "Five" - Kiarostami
3. "Where is the Friend's House?" - Kiarostami
4. "Day of Wrath" - Dreyer
5. "Duelle" - Rivette
6. "Sacrifice" - Tarkovsky
7. "Mirror" - Tarkovsky
8. "The Passion of Joan of Arc" - Dreyer
9. "Celine and Julie Go Boating" - Rivette
10. "Au Hasard Balthasar" - Bresson
11. "Diary of a Country Priest" - Bresson
12. "Tokyo Story" - Ozu
13. "Devi" - Ray
14. "Antonio Gaudi" - Teshigahara
15. "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" - Reiniger
16. "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday" - Tati
17. "Contempt" - Godard
18. "Syndromes and a Century" - Weerasethakul
19. "Tales of Ugetsu" - Mizoguchi
20. "8 1/2" - Fellini
21. "Rules of the Game" - Renoir
22. "The Earrings of Madame de..." - Ophuls
23. "Spirited Away" - Miyazaki
24. "Dancer in the Dark" - von Trier
25. "Russian Ark" - Sokurov
26. "Viridiana" - Bunuel
27. "Volver" - Almodovar
28. "Sans Soleil" - Marker
29. "Beauty and the Beast" - Cocteau
30. "The Piano Teacher" - Haneke
Some omissions are due to ignorance - I've watched nothing by Dovzhenko, Demy, Erice, Tarr, Panahi, Iosseliani, Kitano, Lang, Murnau, Vertov, Fassbinder or the Dardenne brothers, and next to nothing by Eisenstein, Ruiz, Pasolini, Akerman or Wenders. I wanted to include something by Melies, but his films are indistinguishable in memory.
For certain others I had no room; yet other omissions are deliberate.
posted by Cheshire Cat at 3:14 PM
7 Comments:
Oh god! I forgot Lotte Reineger! And when I'll be using her films soon for a workshop. Damn!
Glad to see Chris Marker on your list. But though von Trier is 'foreign', Dancer In The Dark is not. It's English language.
If I had to include a dogme director's work, I'd choose Vinterberg's Celebration.
Space Bar, aargh! You're right, of course. I have this bad habit of feeling compelled to correct people when they make factual mistakes; it's nice to have the tables turned...
"Celebration" wasn't bad, but I'm not sure I'd rank it so high. I'd put it in the same category as "The Seventh Seal" or "Blow Up". If I had to choose a replacement, it would probably be Kusturica's "Black Cat, White Cat".
P.S. And as for Marker, have you seen his latest film :)?
actually i wouldn't rate any of the dogme directors' work so high. but if one was being representatinsal of movemnts, etc, then it's a film that uses their agenda to the best effect.
erm. 'latest'? cheshire cat? :D no, i haven't. have you?
Yes. Worthwhile, though I'm biased, of course...
wow, have you started blogging again?? saw this list only now.
nice mix of old and new, obscure and well known. I have to see some Rivette very soon.
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