Un List De Piper

Edward Copeland On Film is hosting a Top 25 Foreign Films List. He asked us to submit up to 25 Non-English speaking films as nominees produced before 2002. From there, we would be sent the nomination list and use that to create our final 25 Foreign Films. Some submitted 25 films, one person submitted one film, I myself submitted nine films. A while back I wrote about regrets I had about participating in the Online 100 because I didn't feel I was exactly qualified to help decide what were the best 100 films out there. It's one thing to provide your own list, but when you start to manipulate a more official list, that's when it gets troublesome. So I have submitted my nine to Edward's list and he along with others have tallied the submissions and given us 122 nominations in which to create our Top 25 Foreign Films List. This is where the train ride ends for me, my friends. I have chosen to not step in the same pile twice. Edward has been very good and given us a month to catch up on some movies, but that isn't near enough time for me to be able to pick 25 movies that are deserving and then be able to smartly rank them. But once again, looking at the list, I am inspired and excited to watch more movies. And that's what this is all about.

So about my list. It is not two things. It is not long and it is not really exciting. I'm beginning to think that including Rules Of The Game on any list is like including Citizen Kane. But I'm okay with that because it's a beautiful film and sometimes movies are so good that they should be easy answers. In Dennis' list at SLIFR, he includes La Cage aux Folles II, which is a great movie. He says he didn't expect it to make the list, but he included it anyway to create as idiosyncratic a list as possible, and thereby creating a list that would inspire those of us who worked on it as well as those who might read it. I suppose my interesting pick would have to be My Mother's Castle directed by Yves Robert. It's about as beautiful a movie as I have seen and I would recommend it to anyone. It is a touching and wonderfully written movie about a family and their retreat to their holiday cottage in Provence. Is it one of the best foreign movies ever made? It is to me.

In looking at the list some more, I was surprised to see City of God on there because it was made in 2002, but I misread the rules that stated anything after 2002 so I didn't include it although it is one of my favorites. And I was pleased that Spirited Away made this list because I do believe not only is it a wonderful film, but it makes the list more interesting, being that it is animated. And I'm surprised that La Femme Nikita wasn't included. Sure it doesn't have the drama or the depth of most of the picks, but I would argue that it is still one of the best action movies ever made. And I would argue it is better than Run Lola Run which did make the list. Anyway, here is my list. Have at it, but be gentle because it's pretty scrawny. I have put my picks in red that made Edward's nominee list.

La Dolce vita - Fellini (1960)
La Femme Nikita - Besson (1990)
My Mother's Castle - Robert (1990)
Nosferatu - Murnau (1922)
Raise The Red Lantern - Zhang (1991)
Rules Of The Game - Renoir (1939)
The Seven Samurai - Kurosawa (1954)
Spirited Away - Miyazaki (2001)
The Vanishing - Sluizer (1988)