My Favorite Foreign Films

Among other strange habits that I've developed over the years, I've developed an affinity for foreign films. If it's got subtitles, sign me up! So I thought I'd try to spread the word and share a few of my favorites. So be brave and give one a try!

A small disclaimer: since I'm a Spanish minor, and sometimes just think it's fun to listen to the language in a movie, my list has a predominance of Spanish-language films.

French

Les Diaboliques - With murders and disappearing bodies, and other creepy details that I'm sure I've forgotten since I saw it, this is a great old-fashioned Hitchcock-style black and white suspense movie. There was apparently some kind of remake involving Sharon Stone more recently, but I can't vouch for that one.

German

Run Lola Run - At the start of the movie, Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend telling her that he's in trouble and needs a large sum of money in 20 minutes. After this set-up, we see three potential outcomes depending on how Lola reacts to a dog she meets in the stairwell (if she hesitates, things go a certain way; if she jumps past the dog in her fright, she gains a few seconds, and the plot continues accordingly). It's a fast-paced movie, and it's interesting to see all the little differences a few seconds make.

Italian

Life is Beautiful - A man builds a happy life for himself, primarily through his sense of humor and playfulness, and then must use these attributes to save his son when they are sent to a concentration camp. I've heard complaints about how improbable the whole scenario of the movie is, and some people don't like Roberto Benigni, but I still think it's just a sweet movie. I'm fairly certain that this movie was released in the US in a dubbed version, so even if subtitles scare you away, here's a foreign film that perhaps you won't mind.

Portuguese