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World Language Feature Films - Where to Begin?
They are featured at film festivals around the world and honored at the Academy Awards every year - Best Foreign Language Films. Perhaps you have seen one or two subtitled films and are thinking about exploring this vast category of cinema, but where to begin? The list below, featuring classic films and renowned directors, is a good place to start.
Chinese (Mandarin)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
directed by Ang Lee
2000
In 19th-century China, two master warriors are faced with their greatest challenge when the treasured Green Destiny sword is stolen. A young aristocrat prepares for an arranged marriage, but soon reveals her superior fighting talents and her deeply romantic past. As each warrior battles for justice, they come face to face with their worst enemy and the inescapable, enduring power of love.
Raise the Red Lantern
directed by Yimou Zhang
1991
In 1920s China, women had few options. So following the death of her father, Songlian, a beautiful nineteen-year-old college student agrees to marry a wealthy nobleman. She is to be wife number four at his estate, where daily life revolves around an ancient family custom: the master raises a red lantern outside the house of the wife with whom he desires to spend the night.
French
Breathless
directed by Jean-Luc Godard
1960
A small-time hood kills a police officer and tries to leave France, but his American girlfriend betrays him to the police, leading to a deadly conclusion. A cult favorite, Breathless is one of the first films of the French New Wave.
Jules and Jim
directed by François Truffaut
1962
Considered Truffaut's greatest film, this is a story of friendship between two artists and their mutual love for the same woman.
German
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
directed by Werner Herzog
1972
A band of Spanish conquistadors, led by Pizarro, go up the Amazon in search of gold. As the soldiers battle starvation, Indians, the forces of nature and each other, Don Lope de Aguirre (the self-styled "Wrath of God") is consumed by visions of conquering all of South America and leads a revolt, but Aguirre's megalomania turns the expedition into a death trip.
Wings of Desire
directed by Wim Wenders
1987
A romantic fantasy about an angel who wishes he were mortal and is willing to fall from the sky if it means a chance to fall in love. Set in modern day Berlin, the film follows angel Damiel's path from heavenly flight to earthly delight in a manner that's comical, touching and entertaining.
Italian
The Bicycle Thief
directed by Vittorio De Sica
1948
In post-WWII poverty-stricken Rome, a man struggles to earn a living for himself and his family. When his bicycle and main means of transport is stolen, with his young son in tow, he attempts to find the thief. Routinely voted one of the greatest films of all time, The Bicycle Thief is revered as one of the foundation stones of Italian neorealism.
8 1/2
directed by Federico Fellini
1963
Fellini's acclaimed semi-autobiographical film about a famous film director who loses his inspiration in the midst of making a film, and wanders through his life and fantasies.
Japanese
Seven Samurai
directed by Akira Kurosawa
1954
The story of a sixteenth century village whose desperate inhabitants hire the eponymous warriors to protect them from invading bandits.
Tokyo Story
directed by Yasujiro Ozu
1953
An elderly couple journey to Tokyo, where they are greeted less than enthusiastically by their adult children, until death quiets the conflicts.
Russian
Battleship Potemkin
directed by Sergei Eisenstein
1925
Re-creates the 1905 mutiny on the battleship "Prince Potemkin." It focuses on a mutiny by the battleship's crew and the subsequent massacre of civilians, reflecting the spirit of the times.
Andrei Rublev
directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
1966
Charts the life of the great icon painter through a turbulent period of 15th century Russian history, a period marked by endless fighting between rival Princes and by Tatar invasions.
Spanish
All About My Mother
directed by Pedro Almodóvar
1999
A woman must come to terms with the death of her 17-year-old son and her past when she seeks out her son's father.
The Exterminating Angel
directed by Luis Buñuel
1962
After a lavish dinner party in a stately mansion, the guests believe themselves unable to leave the premises. As the days pass, the elaborate façades of their social positions collapse and they are forced to live like animals.
Swedish
The Seventh Seal
directed by Ingmar Bergman
1957
Set in the 14th century, a knight returning home from the Crusades encounters Death who challenges him to a chess game. In the balance hang the lives of the knight and a group of traveling players.
My Life As a Dog
directed by Lasse Hallström
1985
Ingemar is a working-class 12-year old boy who is sent to live with his uncle after his mother falls ill. There, he takes refuge from his troubles with the help of the town's warmhearted eccentrics. A bittersweet evocation of the struggles and joys of childhood and the pains of coming-of-age.
Last updated:
December 12, 2011
