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Oh, fun! Legolas Send a noteboard - 26/09/2009 03:38:27 PM
Do you enjoy watching foreign movies? Animated or live-action?

Well, considering that American and British movies are just as "foreign" to me as French or Italian or Asian ones, yes. Funnily enough, I very rarely watch movies that *aren't* foreign, as Belgium doesn't make that many movies and even then I tend not to see them.

But for the sake of the survey I'll define foreign as non-English-spoken. In which case, yes, though I don't really consider it a different genre... makes more sense to compare a French comedy to an American one than a French comedy to a French horror movie, just because the latter two are both "foreign", you know? And mostly live-action.
What are your all time favorites?

This is gonna be long. :P I'll go by language/country/region:

French (France, Canada or Belgium):
La Reine Margot (Queen Margot)
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (Amelie)
La Promesse
Le Déclin de l'Empire Américain (The Decline of the American Empire)
Persepolis

Spanish and Latin-American:
Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes, remade as Vanilla Sky)
Hable Con Ella (Talk To Her)
Amores Perros
Cidade de Deus (City of God, Brazilian, among the best in this whole list)
El Labyrinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth)

Italian:
La Meglio Gioventu

German:
Gegen die Wand (Head-On, part Turkish)
Goodbye Lenin
Das Boot

Japanese:
Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke)

Scandinavian:
Festen (Danish)
Vi pa Saltkrokan (Swedish, actually a TV series and not a movie)

Middle East:
Imarat Yacoubian (The Yacoubian Building, Egypt)
Waltzing with Bashir (Israel)


Of course, there's a bunch that I would probably include in here if I had actually seen them, such as Das Leben des Anderen, Rosetta, Auf die anderen Seite, and so on.
Which cultures (nations) films do you find yourself most interested in?

None in particular, I guess, but in some nations (French-language countries in particular) I'm more familiar with the actors and directors and may be interested in a movie because of that.
Do you prefer dubs over original language, in live-action and/or animated?

Original language is of course always better, but for animated it's not a disaster to watch the movie dubbed, with exceptions - sure, Persepolis' original version was unrealistic in terms of language already, with the Iranian characters all speaking French, but watching it dubbed by Americans is rather jarring. :P
How did you find yourself becoming interested in foreign films, (i.e. Audrey Tautou obsession, Asian horror obsession, general interest in foreign culture)?

Some of them get as much attention or more here than most American movies, so those don't require any particular way of finding out about them. Others through various ways, sometimes indeed the actors or directors involved.
What 'hyped' foreign film has let you down upon viewing it (if any)?

The Chinese historical martial arts movies - Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, House of Flying Daggers - were not really bad and entertaining enough to watch, but disappointed me because of rather weak plots. Other East-Asian movies like 2046, Samaritan Girl,... were disappointing to me as well, evidently I'm just not a fan of Chinese and Korean cinema.
How do you feel about remakes, are there any that have been pulled off successfully?

There are some that aren't necessarily bad - Vanilla Sky was a decent movie, partially because of Penelope Cruz reprising her own original role. I imagine many people don't even know that one *is* a remake. But it's getting ridiculous, the way some remakes are started almost before the original is even released, like now with that new Swedish horror movie, or the American remakes of Japanese horror movies like The Ring and The Grudge.


Edit to add in a few I'd forgotten and saw others mention... I could probably keep editing.
This message last edited by Legolas on 26/09/2009 at 03:40:18 PM
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Foreign movies! - 26/09/2009 06:56:14 AM 603 Views
Re: Foreign movies! - 26/09/2009 07:11:24 AM 400 Views
Re: Foreign movies! - 26/09/2009 01:44:50 PM 454 Views
Goodbye, Lenin! - 26/09/2009 03:14:48 PM 344 Views
Puts on pretentious black turtleneck and answers your art questions - 26/09/2009 03:34:04 PM 446 Views
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Movies! - 26/09/2009 03:38:12 PM 415 Views
Oh, fun! - 26/09/2009 03:38:27 PM 538 Views
British Comedies are about as Foreign as I get. *NM* - 26/09/2009 03:44:42 PM 177 Views
Movies where English is not the primary language. - 26/09/2009 04:00:35 PM 392 Views
Thumbs up on Fucking Amal - 27/09/2009 11:14:21 AM 397 Views
Re: Foreign movies! - 26/09/2009 05:18:37 PM 349 Views
Awesome question - 26/09/2009 07:45:51 PM 457 Views
You mean Infernal Affairs, right? *NM* - 26/09/2009 08:46:44 PM 167 Views
Yeah, that is it. *NM* - 27/09/2009 06:39:19 AM 168 Views
District 9 is South African. - 26/09/2009 09:46:00 PM 376 Views
And here I thought it was New Zeleand, but set in South Africa. My bad. - 27/09/2009 06:40:07 AM 455 Views
Nope. - 27/09/2009 09:38:03 AM 384 Views
Nice, someone that agrees with me - 27/09/2009 05:17:24 PM 362 Views
Re: Nice, someone that agrees with me - 29/09/2009 11:52:40 AM 338 Views
Right - 26/09/2009 09:33:19 PM 357 Views
I am gonne use jh's definition too - 26/09/2009 10:34:00 PM 367 Views
You suck. - 28/09/2009 09:07:27 PM 349 Views
I love foreign movies - 27/09/2009 03:32:21 AM 472 Views
Ignore...I could swear I hit "EDIT" *NM* - 27/09/2009 03:35:47 AM 397 Views
Did you ever watch the Czech movie Kolya ... - 27/09/2009 05:46:38 PM 353 Views
Oh, I have that one. - 28/09/2009 01:26:35 AM 361 Views
O'kay - 27/09/2009 04:46:28 AM 490 Views
not sure if I should be ashamed or not - 27/09/2009 05:47:50 PM 359 Views
I'd say The Ring was a good remake - 27/09/2009 11:20:33 AM 340 Views
Lost Highway was better than its remake, Mulholland Drive *NM* - 28/09/2009 04:26:08 AM 165 Views
Oh really ? And how many lesbian love scenes envolving Naomi Watts are included in Lost Highway ? *NM* - 28/09/2009 11:23:14 AM 183 Views
So then I wasn't wrong in thinking... - 28/09/2009 12:09:15 PM 366 Views
If that is your only criterion of measurement... - 28/09/2009 04:03:39 PM 365 Views
Er.. that's an overly serious response - 29/09/2009 12:32:27 PM 338 Views
Well...I wasn't sure you were joking - 29/09/2009 03:29:02 PM 324 Views
Re: Foreign movies! - 28/09/2009 05:53:53 PM 361 Views
You obviously haven't tried - 28/09/2009 06:29:15 PM 358 Views
Scarily different? - 28/09/2009 06:41:09 PM 353 Views
Different. - 28/09/2009 08:53:31 PM 326 Views
Finsk fjernsynsteater - 29/09/2009 11:51:17 AM 406 Views
- 29/09/2009 08:09:01 PM 355 Views
Re: Foreign movies! - 29/09/2009 11:47:28 AM 371 Views
You need to watch Indochine and Amelie. And Run Lola Run. - 29/09/2009 03:04:15 PM 414 Views
Amelie is on the list. - 29/09/2009 03:35:19 PM 477 Views
Better late than never. - 29/09/2009 03:02:04 PM 352 Views

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