Foreign movies

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Anyone a fan of foreign cinema?

Personally the only foreign cinema I've seen has been Japanese so far (Battle Royale and some anime films) but I am planning on watching either Pan's Labyrinth or Amelie soon.

I really wanna watch Seven Samurai...but 3 1/2 hours?

'Seven Samurai' is excellent. If you're going to be getting into certain fields of foreign cinema, you'll have to put aside the Americanized mindset that the average time for a movie is 90-120 minutes. Heck, Bollywood films are usually a minimum of 3 1/2 hours.

I don't typically target any particular country for their films. My main exception is Italian films, specifically '70s and '80s horror and giallo (slashers), because they truly have their own unique style which I adore. Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and Mario Bava are some of my favorite directors. They're the only country I intentionally focus on, though occasionally I'll look to Hong Kong for their action films and South Korea for their horror/thriller/cult films (Park Chan-wook is another one of my favorites). France had a period last decade where they were making some really good horror movies, and Germany had a legendary run of amazing silent horror in the '10s/'20s followed by a weird period of super-gory shot-on-VHS underground horror in the '80s/'90s. Anything else I just watch because I want to see the movie itself and the country doesn't matter to me.

Japanese cinema and anime is an acquired taste; I like the occasional film like 'Akira' or the films of Takashi Miike, but for the most part it doesn't grab me. 'Pan's Labyrinth' is good, but I like del Toro's 'The Devil's Backbone' a lot more. 'Amelie' is awesome, as is 'Delicatessen' and 'The City of Lost Children' by the same directors. I'd highly recommend all of them if you like either.

From my perspective, American films are foreign films. Ah ah ah. Ok, I'm just messing around with words here.

For me, I don't consider films foreign, for me every film made are considered the same, I don't care where they come from, that being France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Japan (of course), Russia, Iran or even North Korea (yes, North Korea makes films and not bad ones either).
Each country has contributed a lots in cinema. For example Japan, and not only for it's Samurai films but also for inventing new genres of movies, for it's gangster films, Italy the re-invented the Westerns and grated the western Mythology, some of the greatest westerns of all time are Italian like "The good the bad and the ugly", "Once upon a time in the west" and many more (over 300 westerns where made in Italy), and they also created in the 70's some of the best horror films with Suspiria, Prodondo Rosso or even controversial ones like Cannibal Holocaust. Then you have the French with their own sensibility who made some great films like Leon The Professional, Amélie, Quest for fire. Germany that was a pioneer in the old days with Metropolis, and in the 70's with the Werner Herzog films or Fassbender films, and recently they made a great vampire film named "We are the night". Russia, during the soviet union had the most visually gourgeous films ever like Nostalgia, Solaris or Stalker, and today Russian is making some very good action films and have a few years ago made their first superhero film named "Black lightning".
Has for Japan, don't be afraid of how long The Seven Samurai's is, you won't see the time past. More modern and in color cool Samurai films I recommend are the Zatoichi series, the new Zatoichi by Takeshi Kitnao, the classic Lone Wolf and Cub movie series are also cool.

So my advice, is to never be afraid of subtitles, that is part of the beauty, hearing another language, and people who refuse to read subtitles shouldn't be allowed to be considered film lovers, and refusing to see a film because of subtitles is an insult to the art of film.

BTW, here is a trailer for a North Korean Kaiju movie.

A Couple of My Favorites:
Fitzcarraldo (German)
Nosferatu The Vampyre (German)
The Gospel According To St. Matthew (Italian)
Yojimbo (Japanese)
Woyzeck (German)
Ivan The Terrible (Russian)
Troll Hunter (Norwegian)
Leningrad Cowboys Go America (Finnish)
Shoah (French) Amazing Movie, But 9 Hours Long!

Not In Any Particular Order:
Oldboy {2003 version}
Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance
Sympathy For Lady Vengeance
Seven Samurai
In The Mood For Love
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Rashomon
La Dolce Vita
Metropolis
M
All About My Mother
Talk To Her
Das Boot
Run Lola Run
No Man's Land
A Separation
Night Watch
Pan's Labrynith
The Lunchbox
Amelie

I originally turned to Japanese, Korean, and Thai horror titles as a break from the American norms, but my interest has started to grow from there. A couple favorites are Gozu and I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay.

Crap, I forgot , Aguirre The Wrath of God, Nosferatu, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Pan's Labyrinth is a breathtaking movie. I absolutely love it.

I quite like The Three Mothers trilogy. Argento's Phenomena was interesting too. Jennifer Connelly is cute and she has power over insects. I should watch more Argento and foreign horror.

Argento is brilliant. 'Deep Red' and 'Suspiria' alone are enough to rank him among the all-time best Italian directors, but the quality of his work sharply declined by the 1990s and he's put out a lot of crap since then which kind of breaks my heart. But 'Tenebre', 'Opera', 'Inferno' and 'The Bird with the Crystal Plumage' are all genre classics worth checking out.

I'm not a big film fan because I have a short attention span so I usually struggle to sit through them.

I study French so I watch some French films though to help improve my language skills but also cultural knowledge. I actually don't like Amelie at all I must admit. Some of my favourite French films are La Haine, La Vie En Rose, Les Intouchables, Persepolis, and Potiche.

Some foreign films I've enjoyed:
Irreversible
Dogtooth
Jean De Florette
Manon of the Spring
Pan's Labyrinth
Ichi the Killer
Takashi Miike films
Marathon
Men Behind the Sun
many, many others.

I would like to see more foreign films, because I am getting tired of Hollywood ones.

I thought Les Visiteurs (French) and The Day of The Beast (Spanish) were very entertaining.

As far as classics are concerned, I liked The Seventh Seal and the Three Colors Trilogy.

It must be that you simply didn't see the good anime for your tastes. The diversty of anime is far greater that what most peoples (Even anime fans.) give it credit for. Seek some good adaptations of classic tearful romantic children literature? Then watch the good old anime of World Masterpiece Theater or they "imitations". Want thought provoking speculative fiction series? Then watch Dennou Coil, Dot Hack Sign, The Kino Journey(Kino no tabi) or From the New World (Shin sekai yori). Want some quality high fantasy? Then watch Princess Mononoke or Seirei No Moribito. Want to see adventure? Then watch Future Boy Conan, The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Nadia and the secret of Blue Water, The Treasure Island or Castle in the sky. Want to see a serie with giant surfing robots with a Peace and Love message that somehow work VERY well? Then watch Eureka Seven.

It's only a snipit, there is many more. Overall there is more diversity in anime that in today Hollywood or US television series.

My favourite film is a Swedish film called "let the right one in". But yeah, I have watched some Japanese films that have been pretty decent. I tend to prefer those with real actors over anime and all of that...

I've seen a few of the titles on your list; I'm aware of its eclecticism, but it simply boils down to the fact that I'm not into Anime all that much. I gave it a fair shot and still check out the occasional Japanese film (anime or otherwise) if the movie itself interests me, but Japanese cinema as a whole has its own sensibilities and aesthetics which doesn't grab my attention as much as other countries', such as Hong Kong or South Korea.

I often view that mix of foreign, and independent films (many of the "indie films) are made in the US that have received favorable ratings. Reading the subtitles adds to viewer experience.

It's refreshing to "get away" from the "fast paced" major Hollywood productions; yet just to be balanced, I've enjoyed some of those Hollywood movies that have received excellent reviews.

I'm originally from suburban Los Angeles, and I sometimes find it a neat experience to watch independent-films made in the Los Angeles Region.

It would be neat to see a foreign-film made in Los Angeles film that offers "much needed novel" perspectives reflecting lives both inside, and outside the entertainment industries!