Non-American movie recommendations

[Onyx Oblivion]

Kung Fu Hustle might be a bit too slapstick for you, but it's mostly a parody of Kung Fu movies. It's very good, and one of my favourite foreign live-action films.

Already own it, and while it did have a good bit of slapstick it wasn't as ridiculous or pointless as what I've seen in other movies.

Kung Pow: Enter the Fist was waaaaay funnier. To me. Not foreign, though.

 

[PunkyMcGee]

Scott Pilgrim! (it's Canadian)
seriously though OSI-117 (that's what i think it's called not 100%) it's a french spy movie in the style of the Airplane

Both of these are excellent. There's OSS 117: Cairo, nest of spies, and OSS 117: Lost in Rio, which are both great.

I'd suggest Paint it Saffron, My Name is Khan, Kites, and Asoka, if that's what you were thinking of by "non-american" movies. All very good. Hero and Oldboy are also pretty good, just from a glance at my DVD library.

there's a second one? i need to get my hands on lost in rio.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Cube is an indie foreign film popular in nerd circles. It's a psychological/suspense horror, "Kafkaesque" gets thrown around a lot in describing it. Let the Right One In will also undoubtedly be mentioned as well.

Cube was filmed in Toronto Ontario. Not too foreign for myself.

Some other Canadian Films I recommend are Fido, a 50's style Zombie comedy, and Strange Brew.
Strange Brew is what happens when you take Hamlet and put it in the context of a Beer Company Conspiracy.

 

[Novokane]

anything from Cronenberg except his two latest films (they're not so good)
(it's canadian)

 

[GrimTuesday]

Waking Ned (Waking Ned Divine in America) is a wonderful movie.

I also enjoyed Redcliff, a movie about one of the many Chinese civil wars.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

Scott Pilgrim! (it's Canadian)

seriously though OSS-117 it's a french spy movie in the style of the Airplane

EDITED (for spelling): thanks for the correction, Blue_vision!

directed by Americans?

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Waking Ned (Waking Ned Divine in America) is a wonderful movie.

I also enjoyed Redcliff, a movie about one of the many Chinese civil wars.

I love Waking Ned Divine. Naked Geriatrics on motorcycles.

Scott Pilgrim! (it's Canadian)

seriously though OSS-117 it's a french spy movie in the style of the Airplane

EDITED (for spelling): thanks for the correction, Blue_vision!

directed by Americans?

Scott Pilgrim was directed by Edgar Wright, who is English.

 

[Link_to_Future]

Pans Labyrinth. It's beautiful, imaginative, and all in Spanish. Overall a great choice for a foreign film if you like dark fantasy.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Australian film... it'll be a short list
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Mad Max
Two Hands
Animal Kingdom
The Proposition
The Castle
Romper Stomper

What about:

Death in Brunswick
Wolf Creek (doubly scary if you remember John Jarratt presenting the kid's show Play School)
Bad Boy Bubby (Australia's premier 'WTF???' film)
Running From The Guns
The Odd Angry Shot (best Vietnam War movie EVER)
Robbery Under Arms
The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith
Nirvana Street Murder
Gallipoli
The Light Horsemen
The Year My Voice Broke
He Died With A Felafel In His Hand
Stone (mid-70s biker movie)
The Cars That Ate Paris
Yonglu Boy

and so on and so on

 

[Tandrews]

I would reccommend:
Oldboy- Obvious choice but still quite enjoyable south korean action film
Daywatch/Nightwatch- Russian fantasy film about werewolves/magicians/vampires in modern day moscow. The books are better but the films do a good job.
Redcliff- About one of the chinese civil wars. I normally really don't like these sort of films but this one won me over.
Heartless- British film about a young man doing a deal with the devil in London and having to face the results.
City of God- About the street gangs in brazil. Brilliant cinematography
Spirited away- Best anime film I have ever seen. About a girl trapped in a nagical world and has to rescue her parents
Akira- Second best anime film i've ever seen. About a military experiment gone wrong
The host- Interesting giant monster film set in south korea.

Thats all i can think of at the moment

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Stuff by Akira Kurosawa but especially:

Ran -A Japanese retelling of King Lear. It's just awesome. He does a lot of Shakespeare re-imagined in Japan stuff. He also has a film about Hamlet.

and The Seven Samurai -A story about seven samurai recruited by a village to protect them from bandits. It was later remade into The Magnificent Seven.

Others

Let the Right One In -A Swedish film about a young boy and his relationship with a vampire stuck as a 12 year old girl. Also a book.

Persepolis -An animated biography about a girl growing up in Iran before, during, and after the revolution. Also a comic.

Goodbye Lenin -German film set before and after the reunification of Germany. A guy keeps his frail mother under the delusion that East Germany still exists.

Molière -A French film about the eponymous playwright. It has a disgusted Molière leave theatre and go into the country where he comes up with his ideas for his plays.

Franklyn -A very interesting British film about four different people with nothing in common intersecting. It's hard to talk about without giving anything away.

 

[Wiiiiiiilliam]

Normally Canadian movies suck but, I will recommend the movie "Suck".

It's about an indie rock band who become vampires. It's not really about vampires(real vampires or twilight vampires) it's about music.

 

[ninja51]

Oldboy. One of the best movies ever made

 

[DirgeNovak]

The Decline of the American Empire and its sequel The Barbarian Invasions are very good. (Denys Arcand, Québec) Decline might be a bit hard to find in the US, but the sequel will probably be easier to find since it won the Foreign language Oscar.

 

[AlohaJo]

Run Lola Run. It's a very good German film, I highly recommend it. And Snatch, as it is one of my all time favourite movies ever.

 

[A Weary Exile]

Flame and Citron. It's about resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Denmark, very suspenseful and it has some cool action as well as great acting. I highly recommend it.

 

[Hazard12]

Run Lola Run. It's a very good German film, I highly recommend it. And Snatch, as it is one of my all time favourite movies ever.

Both seconded.

This Is Not A Love Song.

It's a fairly obscure, low budget English inde film. And it's damn good. It's hard to find online, but you can get a DVD from amazon, and it's worth it.

 

[Nouw]

I hear Oldboy is a fantastic movie. Korean-made which also reminds me of a horror movie called 'The Host.' (Actually called 'Monster' in Korean but don't let the cheesy name fool you.)

Oldboy. One of the best movies ever made

Damn it ninja'd!

 

[Blue Horn]

It's been said before but I'll say it again, "Oldboy". Just a terrific movie. And "A Tale of Two Sisters", Which was recently remade into "The Uninvited", I believe.