Top 10: Movies from around the world

Have movies come to mean large vats of sugared and carbonated drinks on our side, loud explosions on screen, split second editing, plot arcs that leave us incredulous (Vampire Lincoln anyone?!). In making movies for a global audience, Hollywood might have pursued the lowest common denominator of entertainment for us.  But it is also possible to get to the highest common factor with a global audience, and still not lose any iota of entertainment value.  A funny thing does happen when you watch a movie that caters to the highest common factor - you are so enthralled, that you might forget to sip from that vat of sugared and carbonated drink by your side!

I thought of my favorite movies from around the world, ones that have stood the test of time with audiences and critics alike.  These ones are not only fresh in my memory like I just saw them, but feel fresh and reveal new layers every time I watch them again.

I hope you enjoy this list of my Top 10 movies from around the world, and will add your selections and comments from your experiences.

10.  France - Breathless

This movie unleashed Jean Paul Belmondo as a global star and the French New Wave cinema in the 1960s with Jean Luc Goddard at the helm.  Terrific style.  Two lovely people in a great city.

The fact that Belmondo's character, a petty criminal, fancies himself as a French Humphrey Bogart gives this movie an international seasoning.

For this reason, this No.10 pick of mine will mirror my No. 1 pick, as you will see.

Honorable Mention From France:  Belle de Jour



9.  South Africa - The Gods Must Be Crazy

I saw this movie as a kid in rapturous awe.  The animals.  The Kalahari people.  The clash with Jet Age Johannesburg.  Clumsy romance.  This for me as a kid, was everything going to the movies meant.  Recently, I watched this movie again, this time with our son who was 11 at that time.

I was half watching him, while enjoying the movie.  He was laughing so much, that my wife wanted to know what was going on.

This time, watching this movie doubled my satisfaction!

Honorable Mention:  Hotel Rwanda


8.  Australia - Mad Max

Dystopia is a major theme that keeps repeating and evolving in books and movies.  There is no better movie that captured the zeitgeist than the one that introduced Mel Gibson to world wide audiences.  Now, here is a movie that has its share of explosions, revenge killings and fast cars.  But this one gets under our skin.  It is very much within our grasp to destroy the world we live in.  And then what?












7.  Germany - Run Lola Run

In golf, us fellas have it easy.  We have mulligans.  If you hack a shot, your buddies are willing to forgive you one drive off the tee in a round.  A do over.  President Clinton has this reputation amongst golfers as having been the do-over-in-chief in golfing while in office.

In life, do overs are not possible.  Second acts maybe.  But not do overs.  Run Lola Run from Germany explores this conundrum beautifully.  Franka Potente (who later starred in the first Bourne movie) does a brilliant turn as a desperate girlfriend who has very little time to save her boyfriends life (and hence Lola runs..).

Honorable mention from Germany:  Other People's Lives

6.  Hong Kong - Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Having grown up with Bruce Lee action flicks and the exquisite fight choreography of Jackie Chan, I am used to great action sequences from Hong Kong (and hackneyed dialogue).  But I was not prepared for a sublime mix of fight choreography, brilliant photography, and yes exquisite dialogue from a Hong Kong action movie.  But there it was - this movie took the world by storm, and garnered itself an Oscar.

Honorable Mention from Hong Kong:  Enter the Dragon


5.  India - Pather Panchali

Happiness comes to a child naturally.  Regardless of context, status, wealth, children will find a way to be happy and express their happiness.  But life does have a way of catching up with all of us.  This universal theme could not have been captured more beautifully than in Pather Panchali that introduced Satyajit Ray to the world cinema stage.  And indeed the entire trilogy is an epic saga.


Honorable Mention:  Sholay



4.  Japan - Ran

Akira Kurosawa was the grand master of film making.  The number of films that have been inspiration for other movie makers are as many as the movies he has made!  One example is The Hidden Fortress which inspired Star Wars.  The other is Seven Samurai that was remade as the Magnificent Seven starring Yul Brynner.

The movie Ran is a big budget movie making meets Shakespeare (King Lear) set in feudal Japan showcased by the master himself.

Lose yourself in it!

Honorable mention from Japan:  Roshomon


3.  Brazil - City of God

This was the one movie, where I sat totally dumbfounded.  I let the credits roll.  The cleaners were sweeping up the popcorn, and I was still contemplating what I saw.  And what I wished I did not see!  I left the theatre after I was chased away.

Lord of the flies in the slums of Rio.

Drugs + Guns + Kids = I don't need to tell you!


2.  Italy - Nights of Cabiria

Cabiria, played by Giulietta Masina in Federico Fellini’s movie, Nights of Cabiria, is a woman of ‘low character,’ in a story set in post WWII Italy.  Cabiria by the end of the movie falls into an abyss with no hope of recovery.

But as this final shot in the movie shows, Cabiria is smiling through her tears.  It occurs to me that her smile is neither of defiance nor of optimism; it is one of spiritedness.

That, at least for me represents the essence of Jeffersonian and Epicurean aspirations for happiness. 

1.  USA - Casablanca

When your world is torn asunder, you look for hope.  But the route to the promised land is not easy.  There are the bad, the corrupt and the cons.  But what does give hope its everlasting strength, amidst despair?  It is love and sacrifice.  As popcorn romance an answer as that sounds, in the end, that is what makes movies work.  And none does it as well as Humphrey Bogart did in Casablanca. His character Rick escapes from Paris in pain.  The veneer of apathy he wears in the bar he owns.  And the noble sacrifice at the end, once it is his to make.

The last scene with Louis ('round up the usual suspects') and Rick walking off into the fog filled night to join the French resistance - the beginning of a beautiful friendship indeed!