Independent and Foreign Films?

[papaSmurf]

I am a huge movie dork in general, but most anything indie or indecipherable tends to occupy a special, particularly nerdy spot in my heart. Unfortunately, my friends are not quite so fond of them, leaving me with no one to talk to about the contents of my (frighteningly long) Netflix queue.

Anyone else watch these movies? The last two I really enjoyed were "The Double Life of Veronique" and "Antonia's Line". What about you?

[JayDontCareEh]

Man, I so need to get down on this Netflix thing, I've never even heard of either of those films. I checked them out on imdb quick, though, and they do sound interesting.

Myself, I'm on a huge Gothic horror kick right now. In particular the works of Mario Bava, the godfather of Italian horror.

"Whip and the Body" being my favorite of the bunch.

[hopena]

Anyone else watch these movies? The last two I really enjoyed were "The Double Life of Veronique" and "Antonia's Line". What about you?

I watched Antonia's Line last year - good movie.

[bezoomny]

I really like Fredrico Fellini, Carl Theodore Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman, Luis Bunuel, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jean Cocteau, Fritz Lang, Michael Antonioni, Louis Malle and pretty much all the Nouvelle Vague.

Favorite director is probably Jean Cocteau. Favorite foreign film would be his version of Beauty and the Beast. Second favorite would be La Strada.

[sherrylee]

"A Home At The End of the World" and does "Life Is Beautiful" count? That movie makes me cry every time!

[kikachuck]

Originally Posted by bezoomny

I really like Fredrico Fellini, Carl Theodore Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman, Luis Bunuel, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jean Cocteau, Fritz Lang, Michael Antonioni, Louis Malle and pretty much all the Nouvelle Vague.

Favorite director is probably Jean Cocteau. Favorite foreign film would be his version of Beauty and the Beast. Second favorite would be La Strada.

I've seen some Malle. I really liked Au revoir, les enfants... Atlantic City, not so much.

[Canadian Brotha]

I prefer independent & foreign films as well, whenever I see a Canadian film I make a point of recording it or at least remembering the name so I can find it later. I've actually made a list of all the ones I've seen. For foreign films I think I've watched more French films than anything else & they never fail to please in my experience. As for regular movie searching I always check the movie channels as well as regular TV channels for titles I've never heard of in particular to find things not super hyped. They aren't always independent but still a lot of films go under the radar that do well in film festivals

[Some Russian Guy]

"begotten"

[Lumiere]

My favourite "foreign" filmmakers would be Robert Bresson (most of all), Fellini, Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Truffaut, Godard, Pasolini, Satyajit Ray, Yasujiro Ozu, Kurosawa, Bertolucci, Bergman, Rosselini. Probably others.

Most "independant" films I see these days are made by an arm of the big studios. They're studio films masquerading as independant, it seems.

[Breakfast0fChampions]

I love foreign films, particularly Japanese films. These are some (mostly Japanese) that I've seen and enjoyed:

Treeless Mountain
The Taste of Tea
Samurai Fiction
Seven Samurai
The Twilight Samurai
After Life
The Great Happiness Space
Last Life in the Universe
Gemini
Throne of Blood
The Hidden Blade
Ichi the Killer
Oldboy
The Green Butchers

[tutliputli]

I'm guessing you've already seen Amelie, but other great films by the same director are Delicatessen, A Very Long Engagement and The City of Lost Children.

I'd also recommend The Edukators and The Dreamers.

I adore Audrey Tautou. Happenstance, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, and Priceless were good ones with her in.

Tony Takitani is a Japanese film based on a Haruki Murakami short story. I really liked that one but maybe that's just because I love Murakami so much. I'll add to this if I can think of any more.

[Amelia]

One foreign film I saw years ago and want to see again is "Fanny and Alexander" by Ingmar Bergman. It has memorable scenes of 19th century Christmases in Sweden, so it's getting to the time of year when it would be good to watch!

[Canadian Brotha]

This thread inspired me to organize my films seen lists. I've not got them all but I'm positive I've got nearly all the foreign & Canadian films I've seen listed. Here are the links to the lists:

Foreign Films

Canadian Films

Here are a few independent films/lesser known film titles I know as well:
- Bella
- Owning Mahoney
- Harrison's Flowers
- Sideways

[JayDontCareEh]

Wow, I feel ashamed. I haven't seen any of those Canadian movies. ^^

Edit: I didn't see the list at the bottom. I've seen "Owning Mahowny", it's a great movie, Philip Seymour Hoffman is awesome.

[bezoomny]

My university library has nearly the entire Criterion Collection. I really highly recommend this company, they're slightly more expensive but the quality is so very worth it. I have a Bergman boxset (The Seventh Seal, Smiles of a Summer Night, Wild Strawberries and The Virgin Spring), Brazil, Withnail & I and La Belle et la Bete from them. If you can find them at your library, that's really ideal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...n_DVD_releases

[Miss Meggie]

Just fell in love with "Driving Lessons," a British independent film.
Also love "Amalie."

[Keith]

I really like the comedies of Jaques Tati their older but pretty damn funny especially his first two as Mr Hulot kind of a Mr. Bean character or actually vice versa. I also really like Fritz Lang and on another note Das boot is an awesome foreign film.