Genre: Foreign Movies

Writing on cinema from beyond the English-speaking world — the films, traditions, and voices that tell their stories in other tongues.

  • Cinema Paradiso (1988) Cover

    Cinema Paradiso (1988)

    Tornatore's 1988 Italian drama. A boy grows up in a small-town movie theater. The director's cut adds an hour and changes the film. The shorter cut is the one to watch.
    Drama • Foreign Movies
    May 17, '26
  • The Conformist (1970) Cover

    The Conformist (1970)

    Bertolucci's 1970 political thriller. Trintignant as a man trying to become normal under fascism. Storaro's cinematography reshaped what color film could do.
    Foreign Movies • Thriller
    May 17, '26
  • La Dolce Vita (1960) Cover

    La Dolce Vita (1960)

    Fellini's 1960 Rome decadence drama. Three hours of Marcello Mastroianni drifting through high society. Gave English the word 'paparazzi.'
    Drama • Foreign Movies
    May 17, '26
  • 8½ (1963) Cover

    8½ (1963)

    Fellini's 1963 self-portrait. Mastroianni as a director who can't make his next film. Five Oscars. The film film school built itself around in Europe.
    Drama • Foreign Movies
    May 17, '26
  • Mesrine (2008) Cover

    Mesrine (2008)

    Richet's 2008 two-part French gangster epic. Vincent Cassel as Jacques Mesrine. Killer Instinct and Public Enemy Number One. Four hours total, earned.
    Foreign Movies • Gangster
    May 17, '26
  • A Prophet (2009) Cover

    A Prophet (2009)

    Audiard's 2009 French prison film. Tahar Rahim as Malik. Six-year rise inside the system. Pairs with the Shawshank/Bronson prison cluster.
    Foreign Movies • Prison
    May 17, '26
  • Le Samouraï (1967) Cover

    Le Samouraï (1967)

    Melville's 1967 French crime film. Alain Delon as the hitman in trench coat and fedora. The visual template every quiet-assassin film has copied since.
    Foreign Movies • Thriller
    May 17, '26
  • The 400 Blows (1959) Cover

    The 400 Blows (1959)

    Truffaut's 1959 French New Wave foundation. Jean-Pierre Léaud as Antoine Doinel. Semi-autobiographical. Closing freeze frame defined modern cinema endings.
    Drama • Foreign Movies
    May 17, '26
  • Breathless (1960) Cover

    Breathless (1960)

    Godard's 1960 French New Wave debut. Belmondo and Seberg in Paris. The jump cuts that broke continuity editing for the rest of cinema.
    Crime • Foreign Movies
    May 17, '26
  • A Touch of Sin (2013) Cover

    A Touch of Sin (2013)

    Jia Zhangke's 2013 Chinese anthology. Four stories of modern violence in industrial China. Won Best Screenplay at Cannes.
    Drama • Foreign Movies
    May 17, '26
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