talemyn

Yeah . . . "magic shoes" is Forest Gump.

dyevin

he loves me, he loves me not

MrN

I would recommend this - on what to avoid.

malkmuz

visitor q! just kidding, i agree with amelie.

Pants

Why do you all suggest Amelie?

In the first post it's pointed out that the only foriegn film this chick has seen that she remembers the title of is Battle Royal. If she liked that shit then don't show her Amelie, that movie is *ussy.

Oh and if you want accessable how about Lars Von Trier? His movies are in english.

Giles

not all of them are:

"The Idiots"
"The Kingdom"

wendersfan

Regardless of their language, I'm not sure I would consider most of von Trier's films accessible. They're all a little too emotionally draining for that moniker, IMO.

Giles

I agree, accessible isn't a word I would associate Von Trier's films to be: words that do come to mind would be depressing, quirky, shocking.

bardevious

Agreed. These were the first movies that popped into my mind.




I would also add to the list:

Eat Drink Man Woman:
Directed by Ang Lee- a glorious celebration of life (no fooling!)

Amarcord:
IMO, the most accessible of Fellini's later films. Visually striking, of course, but the visuals don't (generally) overwhelm the movie, as seems to be the case with many of Fellini's later films. Unforgettable score by Nino Rota (which goes without saying).

Mano

A couple that haven't been mentioned:

Belle Epoque
Johnny Stechino(Toothpick)
Talk to her

Of those that have been mentioned and ones I really loved:

Cinema Paradiso
Amelie
Talk to her
Life is Beautiful
Run Lola Run

AfroRouge

I suggest something that doesn't have technical issues which might distract her (i.e. Fellini or any other Italian film made when they had to dub all the dialogue, so nothing looks in sync - this will drive anyone who isn't ready for it batty).

I've been thinking about this question a lot, since I have lots of friends who have no interest or patience for non-English film, but I long to share Bergman, Tarkovsky, Godard, etc. with them. I've settled on The 400 Blows as a good starting point. The story is simple and the situations obvious enough so it's easy to follow. It's also a great, great movie.

If she's turned off by anything in black and white, then yeah, Amelie, a bottle of wine and a willingness to concede defeat are probably your best bet.

DodgingCars

Doesn't that disqualify it as a foreign film as most people use that term as an abbreviation of "foreign language film?"

I don't consider Bend it Like Beckham and Lock, Stock... to be foreign films... I certainly don't consider the LOTR movies to be foreign films.

DodgingCars

To answer the question. I'm not much of a fan of many foreign films just because I'm not really into "artsy" movies, which many of them feel like. Of the ones I've seen, I've enjoyed:

Life is Beautiful
Run Lola Run
Crouching Tiger
Das Boot

(those are the ones I can remember)

wendersfan

Contrary to popular opinion, most foreign language films that become popular in the US are very mainstream in their subject matter, and film and narrative technique. This wasn't always the case, and in the 1960s movies made by guys like Bergman, Fellini, Antonioni, etc. are what associated foreign language films with "art". Nowadays that is far from the truth. I think I even have something in my .sig file about that. What could be more mainstream than a traditional 'coming of age' story like Cinema Paradiso? Or a romance like A Man and a Woman...? There are people who post on this board who wouldn't bat an eye at seeing something as arty as Adaptation or Dead Man, but would never see a mainstream film like Il Postino, simply because it's in Italian.

I haven't been keeping up with this thread in toto, but other films that maybe haven't been mentioned are With a Friend Like Harry, Mediterraneo, and the Taxing Woman films from Japan. Oh, and Shall We Dansu?. Fans of Hitchcock should check out the work of Claude Chabrol, who is slightly arty, but pretty mainstream nontheless. Oh, and I thought of another one - The Son's Room, which one the Golden Palm a couple of years back, even though it wasn't deserved.

DodgingCars

Are you sure it's because they are in Italian and not because of their (foreign films) reputation of being artsy? I don't avoid films because of the language spoken, yet I haven't seen any of the mainstream films you've mentioned simply because I would have assumed they were "artsy."

Maybe I should start watching more foreign films. I actually don't mind reading subtitles... though its a little more of a chore than watching an English-language film, so sometimes I have to be in the mood.

Drexl

Well, I guess she's one of the few who hasn't seen The Passion of the Christ yet.

Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away - if you can watch either of them with her, just be sure to distract her for a minute while you select the proper language track (so she doesn't know there's a dubbed option).

Living Dead

Another vote here for the Three Colors Trilogy. If you break them up, you might even get 3 dates out of it!

scroll2b

Well, here's my list of foreign films to watch. Forget if they're accessible, can anyone tell me if they're as good as I hear? Thanks.

Fireworks
Underground
Before the Rain
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
Lola Montes
Raise the Red Lantern
Ju Dou
Hero
Days of Being Wild
Fanny and Alexander

Rubix

how about city of lost children
also try cowboy bebop anime movie

talemyn

I'd group The City Of Lost Children in the same place that I put Delicatessen . . . great movie, but would you really call it "accessible"?