The 100 Greatest Foreign-Language (Non English) Films
These 100 films belong to 24 countries, 19 languages and 67 directors. 27 of the films included in the list are in French, 12 in Mandarin (Chinese) and 11 each in Italian and Japanese.
Although 94 of the film critics are women, only four of the films in the top 100 are directed by women.
A quarter of the list consists of East Asian films. The film that topped the list was Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film Seven Samurai.
However, the interesting thing is that although critics from all over the world included this film in their lists, not a single Kurosawa film was included in the list of six Japanese critics.
The list shows once again that borders or language are no obstacle to enjoying a good movie. Although a film from a country naturally reflects the history and identity of that country, cinema has a universal language.
Here is the list of the 100 greatest foreign-language films of world cinema…
1. Seven Samurai (Seven Samuari - Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
2. Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica, 1948)
3. Tokyo Story (Tokyo Story - Yasujirô Ozu, 1953)
4. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
5. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)
6. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
7. 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963)
8. The 400 Blows – (François Truffaut, 1959)
9. Time for Love (In the Mood for Love - Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
10. La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960)
11. Vagrant Lovers (Breathless - Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
12. Farewell My Concubine (Chen Kaige, 1993)
13. M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
14. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
15. Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
16. Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
17. Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Aguirre, the Wrath of God - Werner Herzog, 1972)
18. A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1989)
19. Algerian War of Independence (The Battle of Algiers - Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
20. The Mirror – (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974)
21. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)
22. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)
23. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
24. Battleship Potemkin (Battleship Potemkin - Sergei M Eisenstein, 1925)
25. Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)
26. Paradise Cinema (Cinema Paradiso - Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988)
27. The Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice, 1973)
28. Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)
29. Old Boy (Oldboy - Park Chan-wook, 2003)
30. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
31. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)
32. All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999)
33. Playtime (Playtime - Jacques Tati, 1967)
34. Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987)
35. The Leopard (The Leopard - Luchino Visconti, 1963)
36. Prisoners of War (La Grande Illusion - Jean Renoir, 1937)
37. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
38. A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, 1991)
39. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)
40. Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)
41. To Live (Zhang Yimou, 1994)
42. God City (City of God - Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund, 2002)
43. Good Job (Beau Travail - Claire Denis, 1999)
44. Cléo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)
45. L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
46. Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, 1945)
47. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)
48. Viridiana (Luis Buñuel, 1961)
49. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
50. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
51. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)
52. Random Balthazar (Au Hasard Balthazar - Robert Bresson, 1966)
53. Late Spring (Yasujirô Ozu, 1949)
54. Eat Drink Man Woman (Ang Lee, 1994)
55. Jules and Jim (François Truffaut, 1962)
56. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)
57. Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
58. The Earrings of Madame de… (Max Ophüls, 1953)
59. Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985)
60. Le Mepris / Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
61. Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
62. Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambéty, 1973)
63. Spring in a Small Town (Fei Mu, 1948)
64. Three Colours: Blue (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993)
65. Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955)
66. Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1973)
67. The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel, 1962)
68. Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
69. Love (Amour - Michael Haneke, 2012)
70. The Setting Sun (L'Eclisse - Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)
71. Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai, 1997)
72. Living (Ikiru - Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
73. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
74. Crazy Pierro (Pierrot Le Fou - Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
75. Day Beauty (Belle de Jour - Luis Buñuel, 1967)
76. And your mother! (Y Tu Mamá También - Alfonso Cuarón, 2001)
77. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
78. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)
79. Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
80. Los Olvidados / The Young and the Damned (Luis Buñuel, 1950)
81. Celine and Julie go Boating (Jacques Rivette, 1974)
82. Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
83. Endless Streets (La Strada - Federico Fellini, 1954)
84. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel, 1972)
85. Umberto D (Vittorio de Sica, 1952)
86. La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)
87. The Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957)
88. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1939)
89. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
90. Hiroshima My Love (Alain Resnais, 1959)
91. Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955)
92. Scenes from a Marriage (Ingmar Bergman, 1973)
93. Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou, 1991)
94. Where is My Friend's House? (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987)
95. Ukigumo / Floating Clouds (Mikio Naruse, 1955)
96. Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, 1985)
97. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)
98. In the Heat of the Sun (Jiang Wen, 1994)
99. Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, 1958)
100. Misty Landscapes (Theo Angelopoulos, 1988)
How many of the films have you seen? Let me know your best choice on comments…
