Refine search

The best 21st century foreign films nobody's seen because they're all too busy watching Amelie and City of God (20 titles)

by: A customer from Sutton Coldfield

Ultra stylish romance

Reconstruction on DVD (2003)
Starring: Maria Bonnevie, Helle Fagralid, Nicolas Bro
Director: Christoffer Boe
Certificate:
Danish psychological drama. Alex (Nikolaj Kaas) is a photographer who meets Aimee (Maria Bonnevie) while out wandering the streets of Copenhagen. With an instant attraction between them, they spend an intense night together before Alex goes back to his wife Simone (also played by Maria Bonnevie). ..read more »
- Rate this
- 50
- from 1425 members

Gem of a slow-burner with love in 3 different eras.

Three Times on DVD (2005)
Starring: Qi Shu, Chang Chen, Gong Li
Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Certificate:
'Millennium Mambo' director Hou Hsiao-hsien explores the ever-repeating pattern of love in this romantic trilogy. The three separate love stories are set in three different times: 1911, 1966 and 2005 - but feature the same two actors in the leading roles. In 'Episode 1 - A Time for Love', Chen (..read more »
- Rate this
- 50
- from 950 members

Ebbing, lyrical portrait of lonliness and loss.

Tony Takitani on DVD (2004)
Starring: Issei Ogata, Rie Miyazawa, Shinohara Takahumi
Director: Jun Ichikawa
Certificate:
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
When technical illustrator Tony Takitani asks his wife to resist her all-consuming obsession for designer clothes, the consequences are tragic.
- Rate this
- 60
- from 1658 members

Period drama Samurai-style.

The Hidden Blade on DVD (2004)
Starring: Hidetaka Yoshioka, Masatoshi Nagase, Takako Matsu
Director: Yoji Yamada
Certificate:
Japanese period samurai drama. Munezo Katagiri (Masatoshi Nagase) is a samurai in 19th century Japan who finds himself torn between the love he feels for a lowly farm girl, and his fidelity to a dying tradition. Unable to marry the girl because of their differing social status, Munezo's conflict ..read more »
- Rate this
- 70
- from 1213 members

Kieslowski for Dummies, but it's so polished and clever.

Hell on DVD (2005)
Starring: Emmanuelle Beart, Karin Viard, Marie Gillain
Director: Danis Tanovic
Certificate:
In Paris in the 1980s, a man, fresh from his release from prison, is rejected by his wife. After a violent confrontation he throws himself from his apartment window, witnessed by his three young daughters. In present day Paris, the sisters, now grown up, live their own lives. The family bonds ..read more »
- Rate this
- 60
- from 2703 members

Brooding, romantic, gorgeous tale of regret.

2046 on DVD (2004)
Starring: Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang
Director: Wong Kar-wai, Wong Kar-Wai, Kar-Wai Wong
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
Offbeat and sumptuously filmed sci-fi romance directed by Kar Wai Wong. A struggling pulp fiction writer, Chow (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), gets so caught up in the Kubrick-style sci-fi novel he is writing that fantasy and reality start to merge. Meanwhile, Chow indulges his passion with a series of ..read more »
- Rate this
- 60
- from 13,141 members

Devastatingly powerful film on how war effects innocents.

Innocent Voices (2004)
Starring: Xuna Primus, Leonor Varela, Carlos Padilla
Director: Luis Mandoki
Certificate:
Harrowing drama based on true events. In the 1980s, El Salvador is in the middle of a desperate civil war. Chava (Carlos Padilla) is a young boy who finds himself having to take care of his mother after his father abandons them. As the government forces and the communist rebels battle for supremacy,..read more »
- Rate this
- 80
- from 1301 members
Currently unavailable

Bergman, more Autumn Sonata than Scenes From a Marriage.

Saraband on DVD (2003)
Starring: Borje Ahlstedt, Erland Josephson, Gunnel Fred
Director: Ingmar Bergman, Ingmar Bergman
Certificate:
Marianne and Johan meet again after 30 years without contact, when Marianne suddenly feels a need to see her ex-husband again. She decides to visit Johan at his old summerhouse in the western province of Dalarna. And so, one beautiful autumn day, there she is, beside his reclining chair, waking him ..read more »
- Rate this
- 60
- from 1297 members

Sweet samurai love-story, perfect in its own little way.

Twilight Samurai (2004)
Starring: Min Tanaka, Keiko Kishi, Tetsuro Tanba
Director: Yoji Yamada
Certificate:
Veteran filmmaker Yoji Yamada -- who is perhaps most famous for cranking out most of the 48 films of the Tora-san series -- directs this good-natured drama set in the waning years of the Edo period (1600-1867). Seibei (Hiroyuki Sanada) is a low-level samurai struggling to get by on stipend of 50 ..read more »
- Rate this
- 70
- from 5172 members
Currently unavailable

This moving story has to be seen to be believed.

The Story Of The Weeping Camel (2004)
Starring: Chimed Ohin, Janchiv Ayurzana, Amgaabazar Gonson
Director: Byambasuren Davaa, Luigi Falorni
Certificate:
Documentary intercut with tender narrative drama set in the Gobi desert in Mongolia. When a camel gives birth to a rare white camel colt, the difficult and protracted delivery leads to problems: the mother rejects her baby and refuses him her milk or bodily warmth. This turn of events spells ..read more »
- Rate this
- 70
- from 5396 members
Currently unavailable