Forty Foreign Films (1960-1987)

A little over a month ago Kimberly from Cinebeats was kind enough to ask me to contribute a list of my favorite foreign films for an online poll. I was intrigued but unfortunately she asked right as I was going on vacation and I missed the deadline for submission. I tried to get it together but time and my slightly mystified reaction at the poll's rules stopped me from doing it.
After seeing Kimberly's final list, and Neil's from The Bleeding Tree, I decided to go ahead and get one together for Moon In The Gutter. Since this doesn't count for anything I decided to create my own rules which are:

1. The films only range from the period 1960 to 1987. (Basically the first date is just to make it easier on myself as there are too many pre 1960 favorites to consider. The second date is because I typically think that at least twenty years should go by before films are put on any sort of best of list.)

2. Only one film per director. (This made it more difficult but otherwise it would have been mostly made up of French New Wave and Italian filmmakers and I wanted to highlight as many countries and directors as I could.)

3. This is a list of personal favorites. (Mainly what I mean by that is that I am not attempting to compile a list of the best or most important foreign films. These are the best and most important to me, and it allowed me to include worthy directors like Jess Franco and Jean Rollin over some of the more typically recognized masters.)

4. Films shot in a foreign language. (This is tricky, especially with the Italian films. Basically I just included this to leave off any obviously shot in English films from Britain, Canada, Australia etc...as it would have made the list near impossible for me.)

So, here is my list in chronological order. I hope it is of some interest.

1. EYES WITHOUT A FACE (France, Georges Franju, 1960)

2. LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (France, Alain Resnais, 1961)

3. KNIFE IN THE WATER (Poland, Roman Polanski, 1962)

4. RED DESERT (Italy, Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964)

5. KILL BABY KILL (Italy, Mario Bava, 1966)

6. A MAN AND A WOMAN (France, Claude Lelouch, 1966)

7. TOBY DAMMIT (Italy, Federico Fellini, 1968)

8. THE GREAT SILENCE (Italy, SErgio Corbucci, 1968)

9. A GENTLE WOMAN (France, Robert Bresson, 1969)

10. PIGSTY (Italy, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969)

11. MY NIGHT AT MAUDS (France, Eric Rohmer, 1969)

12. LES BICHES (France, Claude Chabrol, 1969)

13. THE RED CIRCLE (France, Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970)

14. THE CONFORMIST (Italy, Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)

15. EDEN AND AFTER (France, Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1970)

16. TWO ENGLISH GIRLS (France, Francois Truffaut, 1971)

17. FRUSTRATION (France, Jose Benazeraf, 1971)

18. SOLARIS (Russia, Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)

19. All THE COLORS OF THE DARK (Italy, Sergio Martino, 1972)

20. THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE (France, Jean Eustache, 1973)

21. FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION: BEAST STABLE (Japan, Shunya Ito, 1973)

22. VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD (Spain, Jess Franco, 1973)

23. THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (Mexico, Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973)

24. THRILLER, A CRUEL PICTURE (Sweden, Bo Arne Vibenius, 1974)

25. CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (France, Jacques Rivette, 1974)

26. EMMANUELLE 2 (France, Francis Giacobetti, 1975)

27. THE LAST WOMAN (Italy, Marco Ferreri, 1976)

28. SUSPIRIA (Italy, Dario Argento, 1977)

29. STROSZEK (Germany, Werner Herzog, 1977)

30. FASCINATION (France, Jean Rollin, 1979)

31. CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (Italy, Ruggero Deodato, 1980)

32. SLOW MOTION (France, Jean-Luc Godard, 1980)

33. THE BEYOND (Italy, Lucio Fulci, 1981)

34. DR. JEKYLL AND HIS WOMEN (Poland, Walerian Borowczyk, 1981)

35. POSSESSION (Poland, Andrej Zulawski, 1981)

36. FANNY AND ALEXANDER (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman, 1982)

37. THE EYES THE MOUTH (Italy, Marco Bellocchio, 1982)

38. ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (Italy, Sergio Leone, 1984)

39. BAD BLOOD (France, Leos Carax, 1986)

40. BETTY BLUE (France, Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1986)


For all its failings and even though I will think of many I should have included after hitting the post button, I am glad to have a list that includes Jess Franco and Jacques Rivette, plus Jean Rollin and Ingmar Bergman. If nothing else I hope that the list shows that I love all kinds of cinema and for me there isn't such a thing as low brow and high brow. Great art is great art no matter its origins, or the particular route it takes to get to the truth it is seeking. These films are all masterpieces in my eyes, and they were all delivered by truly great masters.