Favorite Foreign Top Ten Lists

[SansFin]

I would like to explore: Top Ten lists of favorite foreign movies within genre and decade.

 

My Top Ten Favorite list of comedy movies released in 1930s is:

 

Jolly Fellows (1934)

Tonari no Yae-chan (1934)

The Merry Wives (1939)

Two Merry Adventurers (1937)

The Czar Wants to Sleep (1934)

 

The Story of a Cheat (1936)

What Did the Lady Forget? (1937)

Volga - Volga (1938)

Business Under Distress (1931)

Sara Learns Manners (1937)

 

I have made concerted effort to avoid selecting only movies from: Mosfilm and: Lenfilm but only to extent of deciding which movie to select when there is a tie.

[LawrenceA]

I'm sure I haven't seen as many as you have, SansFin, but I'll give it a try. Forgive me if I don't come up with ten.

 

A Nous La Liberte (1931. France)

Boudu Saved From Drowning (1932, France)

The Roofs of Paris (1930, France)

Marius  (1931, France)

Fanny (1932, France)

Cesar (1936, France)

L'Age d'Or (1930, France)

Le Million (1931, France)

I Was Born, But... (1932, Japan)

Passing Fancy (1933, Japan)

Rules of the Game (1939, France)

[SansFin]

I feel that those are all very good movies. Several would make my: Top Twenty.

 

I do not mean for this to be administered thread and that others will contribute their own list of the decade and genre of their choice.

[GregoryPeckfan]

Favourite Top 10 Foreign Language Movies: language listed rather than country - no order but #1

 

1. The Seventh Seal (Sweedish)

2. Jules et Jim (several languages)

3. The Blue Angel (German)

4. M (German)

5. 8 1/2 (Italian)

6. Juliet of the Spirits (Italian)

7. La Strada (Italian)

8. A Little Romance (Italian)

9.Lost in Translation (part Japanese)

10. Les Diaboliques - (French)

 

 

I have The Seven Samerai recorded but I still have not seen it.

[LawrenceA]

SansFin, can we request a list from you? How about the top ten European horror films from before 1970?

[Bogie56]

You'll have to excuse me if I get some of the genres a bit wrong.

 

Under the Roofs of Paris (1930)

A Nous la Liberte (1931)

Le Million (1931)

Boudo Saved From Drowning (1932)

Quatorze Juillet (1933)

Don Quixote (1933) French version

La Kermesse Heroique (1935)

A Day In the Country (1936)

[Bogie56]

dramas of the 1930s:

 

Westfront 1918 (1930)

The Blue Angel (1930)

M (1931)

La Chienne (1931)

The Three Penny Opera (1931)

The Testament of Dr.. Mabuse (1933)

La Signora di Tutti (1934)

L'Atalante (1934)

Triumph of the Will (1935) - propaganda documentary

Toni (1935)

The Golem (1936)

The Lower Depths (1936)

A Day In the Country (1936)

Grand Illusion (1937)

Pepe le Moko (1937)

Alexander Nevsky (1938)

La Bete Humaine (1938)

Rules of the Game (1939)

[LawrenceA]

Larry's List of Really Good Samurai Flicks

 

Seven Samurai (1954)

Yojimbo (1961)

Harakiri (1962)

Sword of Doom (1966)

Sanjuro (1962)

Chushingura (1962)

Samurai Rebellion (1967)

Samurai Assassin (1965)

Kill! (1968)

Sword of the Beast (1965)

Rashomon (1950)

Throne of Blood (1957)

The Hidden Fortress (1958)

Samurai Trilogy (1954-1956)

The Twilight Samurai (2002)

The Hidden Blade (2004)

13 Assassins (2010)

Zatoichi (1962-1989)

Lone Wolf & Cub (1972-1974)

Hanzo the Razor (1972-1974)

Kagemusha (1980)

Ran (1985)

Lady Snowblood (1973-1974)

Taboo (1999)

Onibaba (1964)

[LawrenceA]

Larry's Japanese Double-Bill to Lose Your Mind To

 

 

Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (1968)

 

followed by

 

Hausa (House) (1977)

 

 

If that isn't enough, additional viewings of Tetsuo the Iron Man (1989), Watcher In the Attic (1976), Wild Zero (1999), Visitor Q (2001) and The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) may be applied until the proper level of psychosis has been achieved. 

[SansFin]

SansFin, can we request a list from you? How about the top ten European horror films from before 1970?

 

 

I am sorry to say that I feel the subject is so very large as to require more than one simple list. I believe that to attempt to cover six decades from a multitude of countries would be excessively superficial. To make a list even of a single decade would involve consideration of styles and basis with great variances between countries and ethnic groups. I had begun to compile a list of ten horror movies of Japan in 1960s but found it would have little meaning if I did not break it down into types of horror.

[SansFin]

You'll have to excuse me if I get some of the genres a bit wrong.

 

 

I believe there is little doubt that those are all comedies and very good ones.

[SansFin]

My Top Ten Favorite list of surreal movies released in 1960s is:

 

Daisies (1966)

When the Cat Comes (1963)

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965)

Birds, Orphans and Fools (1969)

Testament of Orpheus (1960)

 

A Story Written with Water (1965)

The Color of Pomegranates (1969)

Happy End (1967)

Young Aphrodites (1963)

Viy (1967)

 

 

This was a difficult list because 1960s were golden age of surrealism in: Czechoslovakia and it would be easy to compile a list of: Top Ten from that country only. I wished to present more diversified list and so limited number of entries from any one country.

[Princess of Tap]

I'm making no excuses with this list. Some of these films are great and some are simply entertaining, but they are simply my favorite French and Japanese language films.

 

Nothing against other languages, but I have adapted these cultures into my life and I've studied these languages.

 

1) Nora Inu/ stray dog-- Kurosawa, 1949

2)La Gloire de Mon Père/ my father's Glory--Yves Robert, 1990

3) Jean de Florette et Manon des Sources--Claude Berri, 1986

4) Shall We Dansu?--Masayuki Suo, 1996

5)La Femme d'à côté-- Truffaut, 1981

6) Drunken Angel-- Kurosawa, 1948

7) Colonel Chabert--Yves Angelo, 1994

8) Cyrano de Bergerac--Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1990

9) The High and the Low-- Kurosawa,1963

10) Tokyo Story--Ozu,1953

11) Rampo--Enoki & Okayama

12) Dragnet Girl--Ozu, 1933 ( silent)

13) Madame Bovary--Claude Chabrol, 1991

14) Day for Night-- Truffaut, 1973

15) Shoot the Piano Player-- Truffaut, 1960

[Princess of Tap]

Larry's List of Really Good Samurai Flicks

 

Seven Samurai (1954)

Yojimbo (1961)

Harakiri (1962)

Sword of Doom (1966)

Sanjuro (1962)

Chushingura (1962)

Samurai Rebellion (1967)

Samurai Assassin (1965)

Kill! (1968)

Sword of the Beast (1965)

Rashomon (1950)

Throne of Blood (1957)

The Hidden Fortress (1958)

Samurai Trilogy (1954-1956)

The Twilight Samurai (2002)

The Hidden Blade (2004)

13 Assassins (2010)

Zatoichi (1962-1989)

Lone Wolf & Cub (1972-1974)

Hanzo the Razor (1972-1974)

Kagemusha (1980)

Ran (1985)

Lady Snowblood (1973-1974)

Taboo (1999)

Onibaba (1964)

I think Kagemusha is the most beautiful color film Kurosawa ever made. I remember reading about how he directed the combat scenes like a general of an army.

[kingrat]

Kingrat's Sweet Sixteen of 1950s Foreign Films (more or less chronological):

 

Forbidden Games

Umberto D.

The Wages of Fear

The Earrings of Madame de . . .

Sawdust and Tinsel

Tokyo Story

La Strada

Rififi

Seven Samurai

Pather Panchali

A Man Escaped

The Burmese Harp

Nights of Cabiria

Il Grido

The Seventh Seal

Ashes and Diamonds

 

Another Sweet Sixteen:

 

Early Summer

Diary of a Country Priest

Ikiru

The Life of Oharu

I Vitelloni

Monsieur Ripois (Knave of Hearts)

Touchez pas au grisbi

Smiles of a Summer Night

Gervaise

La Traversee de Paris (A Pig Across Paris; Four Bags Full)

Throne of Blood

Wild Strawberries

Kanal

The Cranes Are Flying

Odd Obsession (Kagi; The Key)

The World of Apu

 

 

[GregoryPeckfan]

Re:Rafifi:

 

One wonders if we will ever get to see this in Canada.

[LawrenceA]

Kingrat, you have a few I haven't seen:

 

Il Grido

Early Summer

The Life of Oharu

Monsieur Ripois

Touchez pas au Grisbi

Gervaise

A Pig Across Paris

Odd Obsession 

[kingrat]

Kingrat, you have a few I haven't seen:

 

Il Grido

Early Summer

The Life of Oharu

Monsieur Ripois

Touchez pas au Grisbi

Gervaise

A Pig Across Paris

Odd Obsession 

I believe that A PIG ACROSS PARIS (LA TRAVERSEE DE PARIS) is scheduled in the next couple of months on TCM. There's a restoration and, I think, new subtitles (badly needed; when I can spot mistakes in French, we're in real trouble).

 

TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI has turned up two or three times on TCM. MONSIEUR RIPOIS, GERVAISE, and ODD OBSESSION were seen on VHS. EARLY SUMMER can probably be found in one of the Criterion Ozu sets; I think I saw it on TCM, but am not sure. THE LIFE OF OHARU was also seen on TCM, I think. I'm not sure if TCM has ever shown IL GRIDO; I saw this many years ago.

 

Knowing your tastes a little, Lawrence, I'm pretty sure you will like TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI, with an aging Jean Gabin as an aging crook going after one more score. This one improved on second viewing, once I realized that it was as much about the way of life as it was a thriller.

[Bogie56]

Re:Rafifi:

 

One wonders if we will ever get to see this in Canada.

 

Try your library system.  In Toronto you can search on line and reserve a film and it will be delivered from any branch to yours for pickup.

[SansFin]

My Top Ten Favorite list of fantasy movies released in: 1940s is:

 

Vasilisa the Beautiful (1940)

Linnaisten vihreä kamari (1945)

Alena (1947)

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1943)

Les jeux sont faits (1947)

 

Volshebnoye zerno (1941)

Nijiotoko (1949)

Sylvie et le fantôme (1946)

Kashchey bessmertnyy (1945)

Kaze no Matasaburô (1940)

[Princess of Tap]

Running across Les jeux sont faits by Sartre, I was trying to figure out why I've never read it. Looking it up, it was an original screenplay that he wrote for a movie directed by Delannoy. It has an uncomfortable similarity to Huis Clos of 1944.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing it.

[SansFin]

My Top Ten Favorite list of mystery movies released in: 1950s is:

 

Hoppsan! (1955)

Diabolique (1955)

The Man in the Moonlight Mask (1958)

Nochnoy patrul (1957)

Strange Deception (1951)

 

Voice Without a Shadow (1958)

Pastor Jarman kommer hjem (1958)

Girl with Hyacinths (1950)

The White Cat (1950)

Kaitei kara kita onna (1959)

[SansFin]

My Top Ten Favorite list of crime drama movies released in: 1930s is:

 

Stürme der Leidenschaft (1932)

Le Jour se Leve (1939)

M (1931)

Port of Shadows (1938)

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)

 

The Serpent's Fang (1935)

Dragnet Girl (1933)

Pépé le Moko (1937)

Anna (1936)

La Bête Humaine (1938)

 

This was a difficult list as this was splendid decade for: German crime drama movies just as: 1960s was decade for: Czech surreal movies. I attempted again to provide good overview of movies by limiting selection from one country.

[Princess of Tap]

I love Dragnet Girl - - are they showing it on TCM? I saw it at a film festival in Paris. I was halfway into it before I realized it was a silent movie.LOL

 

For all the people who think Ozu only made family dramas, they ought to see that one. It could have easily been a 1933 Warner Brothers gangster movie.

[SansFin]

I love Dragnet Girl - - are they showing it on TCM? I saw it at a film festival in Paris. I was halfway into it before I realized it was a silent movie.LOL

 

 

I am sorry to say that I doubt that: TCM will ever schedule it. My sole complaint concerning: TCM scheduling is their lack of enthusiasm for: foreign language movies. They do seem to schedule only those which gained world popularity.

 

I do not know specifically if: Dragnet Girl (1933) was meant to have: benshi. It was common practice for movies during silent era but some later silent movies were not meant to have one. I am sorry to say that I do not know how to research if this movie was meant to have one.