Non-english movies.

[Kid Charlemagne]

Check out Le Hussard Sur Le Toit (The Horseman on the Roof), starring Olivier Martinez and Juliette Binoche. It's set in the 19th century, in the midst of a cholera plague, and its a great adventure movie, it was one of the most big-budget French films at the time (1995).

 

[Hypersmurf]

Say - has anyone seen the French live-action Asterix films, with Depardieu as Obelix?

And are they any good?

(About the time Xena was wrapping up, I was thinking that PRP could have made a killer Asterix live-action TV series, with Michael Hurst as Asterix. We already had dozens of Roman costumes and period props and weapons, and the stunt team had the campy action flavour down cold after... what, eight or so years of Hercules and Xena telefeatures and series...

God, that would have been cool.)

-Hyp.

 

[Krieg]

Ogniem i Mieczem. (With Fire and Sword). This was a good one, too. First one I saw that wasn't a kid's one, and it also stars Izabella Scorupco, from GoldenEye.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I've always been fascinated with the Polish Hussaria.

I stumbled across a site mentioning this film a few years back but had been unable to remember the title until you mentioned it!!

Sweet!

(Now I just have to get ahold of a copy. lol)

 

[TiQuinn]

Two of my favorites, and must-see movies, IMO:

Das Boot - "The Boat"

It is 1942 and the German submarine fleet is heavily engaged in the so called "Battle of the Atlantic" to harass and destroy English shipping. With better escorts of the Destroyer Class, however, German U-Boats have begun to take heavy losses. "Das Boot" is the story of one such U-Boat crew, with the film examining how these submariners maintained their professionalism as soldiers, attempted to accomplish impossible missions, while all the time attempting to understand and obey the ideology of the government under which they served.

Rashômon

In ancient Japan, a woman is raped and her husband killed. The film gives us four viewpoints of the incident - one for each defendant - each revealing a little more detail. Which version, if any, is the real truth about what happened?

 

[Mister Underhill]

"Das Boot" -- great movie. They released an even longer cut of this film (presumably Wolfgang Petersen's director's cut) fairly recently.

"Ofelas" (aka "Pathfinder") is a great little Norwegian film. The story is set in 10th century Lappland. When invading Tchude barbarians murder his family, a boy flees to a nearby village -- with the Tchudes in hot pursuit.

 

[Steve Jung]

Spoorloos, a Dutch film, is very good. It's really creepy. I heard it's better than the American version, The Vanishing.

 

[Atridis]

French: I'll second City of Lost Children, La Femme Nikita, and Brotherhood of the Wolf. Here in Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts hosts an annual French film festival (sorry, I forget when).

German: Das Boot, already mentioned, and Stalingrad are great for us WWII/history nerds. Someone already mentioned Run, Lola, Run; Franka Potente was also in Anatomie and The Princess and the Warrior, the latter of which was directed by Tom Tyker (who did Lola). Tykwer also did a movie in...

Italian: Heaven, starring Giovanni Ribisi and Cate Blanchett. Cate Blanchett rules in any language.

Norwegian: The original Insomnia was pretty good.

Korean: I just saw Shiri recently. I wasn't blown away, but it had it's moments, and I'm sure it could generate some ideas for Spycraft. There's a cool-looking Korean sci-fi movie that I want to see. I think the trailer was on the Shiri dvd. If anyone can find the name of it, I'd be grateful (it seems silly to rent the dvd again, just to see one of the trailers).

Japanese: Kurosawa was already mentioned, so just add my name to that list. You can find Ringu in most video stores, and The Eye is coming soon, I think.

Spanish: Pedro Almodovar's movies have been on screens here for years. I recently saw Hable con Ella.

Chinese/Hong Kong: There's usually one HK film festival around here every year. Jackie Chan and John Woo have already been mentioned. Also look for The Heroic Trio and anything by Wong Kar Wai (Fallen Angels and In the Mood For Love are my favorites).

Chinese: You mentioned Hero; Zhang Yimou's earlier movies, with Gong Li, have been available in this country for years.

 

[Hopping Vampire]

Ichi the Killer by Takahasi Miike. Extremely mature subject matter, but still a good film none the less. Also Gohatto by Takeshi Kitano, possibly one of his best.
a korean film called H, a good crime thiller similar to 7. Time and Tide,a HK action film, you can get in Video Stores here. and Guns and Talks.

 

[KChagga]

Here's 2 Japanese flick I can't believe haven't been mentioned yet.

Battle Royal - Its basically The Running Man with high school kids.

Versus - Its a zombie movie with style and cool factor, if that makes any sense. You can easily find this one if you look around.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Another one to add:

The Vanishing - the original Dutch version. Please avoid the Amercan re-make at all costs, even though it had the same director.