Midweek Mouth-off: Movies abroad

Posted in Opinion by - November 14, 2012


Yeah, we know we tend to have a bias towards English-language cinema. Today though we want to know about your favourite foreign language films and filmmakers?

What impressed you so much that you’ll happily recommend it/them to others despite the subtitling that so many people hate?

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This post was written by Noelle Adams
Copywriter by day, pop culture blogger by night (and lunch breaks and weekends), Noelle has been a movie addict since her mother rather inappropriately took her to see Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom at the cinema when she was just 3. Her all-time cinema faves include the Indy trilogy, Batman Returns, Coraline, The Prestige, Gladiator and all those awesome dark fantasy flicks of the 1980s.
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  • http://twitter.com/Echo_ZA Christo Kruger

    I kinda liked Amelie, and I’m not sure if it had subtitles but Paprika (the anime) was also bloody good.

  • http://twitter.com/JChess1 Justin Hess

    City of God is probably my favourite non-English film. Regardless of the language, that is just a stunning piece of cinema. Thrilling, funny, sad and the parallels with our local problems with crime and gangs just makes more important. Brilliant.

    Walter Salles Central Station is also brilliant and is often funny (the old lady is just hilarious.)

    Also see Jeunet and Caro’s The City of Lost Children and Delicatessen. Great films

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kervyn-Cloete/610830836 Kervyn Cloete

      +1 for City of God. An amazing piece of film.

      I still need to check out Robocop reboot aka Rubbercop director Jose Padilha’s Elite Squad films. Been meaning to for months now already.

  • http://twitter.com/the_krans Lourens Corleone

    My favourites:

    El Labertino Del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth)
    El Espinazo Del Diablo (The Devil’s Backbone)

    [REC]
    [REC]2

    Angel-a
    Amelie

    I think that would make Luc Besson and Guillermo Del Toro foreign film favourites, including a few others.

    • Noelle Adams

      I’m glad someone mentioned Pan’s Labyrinth:)

  • Darryn_Bonthuys

    Honestly, I haven’t seen many, but New Kids Turbo is one foul-mouthed,mulleted Dutch favourite of mine.

  • http://twitter.com/blahsum James Francis

    Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible but incredibly intense. I’d also recommend Enter The Void, but it is long and very experimental. Both are English, but he’s a French director and his work reflects that.

    Jean-Pierre Jeunet is also great. He made the ill-fated Alien 4, but he also directed Amelie, Delicatessen and the astounding City Of Lost Children.

    If Japan is more your thing, the movie Versus is really one of a kind. It also can’t hurt to watch some of Takeshi Kitano’s work, particularly Hana-bi for Yakuza lovers and his version of Zatoichi for samurai flick fans. For weirder stuff, you can’t go wrong with Takashi Miike – Ichi The Killer and Visitor Q are highly recommended. His new samurai film, 13 Assassins, is also quite epic.

    But if you watch only one Japanese movie, may it be Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo.

    In Korea, if you enjoyed Oldboy, you must watch the other two movies in that ‘trilogy’: Lady Vengeance and Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance. The last one will bend your morals. Also from that country, The Brotherhood Of War is perhaps the most depressing war film ever made, while Attack The Gas Station is a great example of a Korean action/comedy. Arahan is a cool Korean martial arts comedy.