My BFF Wrap-Up: My Ranking

Starting in June 2016, I watched and reviewed every winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, or in short, Best Foreign Film (BFF), in reverse chronological order from the 2015 entry to the awards inception in 1947 (watching the 2016 winner at the end).  Part of the experiment was to see how many of these I would be able to find.  In most cases, I was able to borrow the DVD of each film from the Cuyahoga County Library system (a consistently top rated system in Northeast Ohio), and as things went further back in time, that meant using the inter-library systems CCL employs, SearchOhio and OhioLINK.  I did have to watch a couple on the dusty old VCR.  On two or three occasions when I couldn’t find the movie through the CCL system, I was able to get DVDs from the Cleveland Public Library.  Once I paid $2 to watch a movie on Amazon, and that was the grand total of money I spent on this project.  I did find a couple rare films online, having exhausted every other possibility.  Only once was I not able to find a film at all, at least with English subtitles, and that was 1950’s The Walls of Malapaga.  I watched it only in French with Portuguese subtitles, and decided to review it anyway.

My reviews were intended for people who don’t normally watch foreign films, a group that included me not all that long ago.  I found a lot of the movies worth watching, not just ones you might see at an art house, but movies I am convinced would have been mainstream American favorites had they been in English.  I also sat through a lot of tedious, self-admiring crap that got awards for having the right political or social view to the voters of the Academy.  But enough about The Sea Inside.  My goal was to make the reviews be entertaining, especially when the movie wasn't, and to give American viewer something they could relate to.

The list here is my amateurish attempt to rank what is perhaps the unrankable.  There are a variety of genres and so many different cultures represented here that it is almost unfair to compare them against each other.  But I did anyway, and the films are listed below from best to worst.  Click any movie title to read the review.  You can follow me on Twitter at @hawley5150.   

Enjoy!

1989, Cinema Paradiso, Italy

2006, The Lives of Others, Germany

1951, Rashomon, Japan

1998, Life Is Beautiful, Italy

1957, La Strada, Italy

1949, The Bicycle Thief, Italy

2011, A Separation, Iran

1975, Dersu Uzala, Soviet Union

1967, Closely Watched Trains, Czechoslovakia

1947, Shoeshine, Italy

1964, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Italy

1963, 8½, Italy

2009, The Secret in Their Eyes, Argentina

1972, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, France

1983, Fanny and Alexander, Sweden

1962, Sundays and Cybele, France

1965, The Shop on Main Street, Czechoslovakia

1986, The Assault, The Netherlands

2000, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Taiwan

1987, Babette's Feast, France

1960, The Virgin Spring, Sweden

2002 Nowhere in Africa, Germany

1958, My Uncle, France

1971, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Italy

1968, War and Peace, Soviet Union

1957, Nights of Cabiria, Italy

2007, The Counterfeiters, Austria

1974, Amarcord, Italy

1952, Forbidden Games, France

 
1961, Through a Glass Darkly, Sweden

2014, Ida, Poland

2016, The Salesman, Iran

1948, Monsieur Vincent, France

2008, Departures, Japan

2015, Son of Saul, Hungary

1970, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Italy

1985, The Official Story, Argentina

1969, Z, Algeria

1966, A Man and a Woman, France

1973, Day for Night, France

1990, Journey of Hope, Switzerland

1980, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, Soviet Union

1982, Begin the Beguine, Spain

1993, Belle Époque, Spain

1959, Black Orpheus, France

1992, Indochine, France

1988, Pelle the Conqueror, Denmark

2005, Tsotsi, South Africa

1977, Madame Rosa, France

1981, Mephisto, Hungary

1954, Gate of Hell, Japan

2010, In a Better World, Denmark

1955, Samurai, The Legend of Musashi, Japan

2001, No Man's Land, Bosnia and Herzegovina

1976, Black and White and in Color, Ivory Coast

1979, The Tin Drum, West Germany

1996, Kolya, Czech Republic

1994,  Burnt by the Sun, Russia

1978, Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, France

2012, Amour, France

2013, The Great Beauty, Italy

1997, Character, Netherlands

2014, The Sea Inside, Spain

1995, Antonia's Line, Netherlands

2003, The Barbarian Invasions, Canada

1991, Mediterraneo, Italy

1984, Dangerous Moves, France

1999, All About My Mother, Spain

1950, The Walls of Malapaga, France/Italy (not ranked)

FINE!

Best Foreign Films Winners 1991-2015 Ranked

Best Foreign Film (BFF) winners (2015-1991) ranked

Worst to First

Since I started My BFF Project in June 2016, I’ve reviewed 26 winners of the Oscar for Best Film in a Foreign Language.  Just because they won the Oscar doesn’t mean they were good, at not least to me.  And just because the movie isn't good doesn't mean my review isn't.  Hopefully.  Here I rank them, including a word or two from each review.  Click the titles to read the full reviews.

I found all but one of these movies using my Cuyahoga County Library Card (that’s the county that includes Cleveland, Ohio).   Most of them can be watched using IMDb or Amazon, or possibly Netflix or On Demand for the more recent films.  A new review every Tuesday!

Enjoy!

26.  From Spain, 1999 Winner, All About My Mother--. . .  "I give it a full thumbs-down."

25.  From Italy, 1991 Winner, Mediterraneo--"Skip this movie and go have yourself a banana split."

24. From Canada, 2003 Winner, The Barbarian Invasions—"Zzzzzzzzzzzzz."

 

23.  From Spain, 2004 Winner, The Sea Inside--"Do I recommend it?  Nein! Nein! Nein! Nein! Nein!"

22.  From France, 2012 Winner, Amour--"I wouldn't say this movie is the opposite of love, but I give it a solid: 'Meh.'"

21.  From France, 1992 Winner, Indochine--"Unfortunately, in the end, what little I got out of it wasn’t worth it.  Just like Vietnam."

  

20.  From the Netherlands, 1997 Winner, Character--"As an art film, it works.  As a work of entertainment, it’s not worth the effort."

19.  From Italy, 2013 Winner, The Great Beauty--"I give it three of five meatballs, or whatever they use to rate movies in Rome."

18.  From Denmark, 2010 Winner, In a Better World--"To me, not a great Danish film."
 

17.  From the Netherlands, 1995 Winner, Antonia's Line--"Women will like it more than men, and that’s . . . okay."

 

16.  From Bosnia, 2001 Winner, No Man's Land--"Worth a look if you like war movies, especially the anti-war kind."

15.  From Spain, 1993 Winner, Belle Époque--"Light in tone and visually satisfying . . . .Why not check it out?"

14.  From South Africa, 2005 Winner, Tsotsi--"One of those films I will never watch a second time, but certainly worth a good one-time screening."

13.  From The Czech Republic, 1996 Winner, Kolya--"Maybe you won’t be thinking about it for any length of time when you are done and maybe you wouldn’t put it into any kind of Top Ten lists.  But definitely an entertaining story."

 

12. From Russia, 1994 Winner, Burnt by the Sun--"Worth seeing, if not an outstanding movie."

 

11.  From Switzerland, 1990 Winner, Journey of Hope--"This cost me $2 on Amazon to watch it and it was worth every penny."

10.  From Hungary, 2015 Winner, Son of Saul--"I wouldn’t recommend this one for a first date, unless you are hoping there won’t be a second one.  That said, this a significant work of historical record."

 

9.  From Taiwan, 2000 Winner, Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon--"A very fun movie to watch, especially on the big screen (as I did when it came out), even if when you walk away you have no idea what happened."

8.  From Germany, 2007 Winner, The Counterfeiters--"As a non-war war movie, this one hits the mark.  The real kind."

7.  From Argentina, 2009 Winner, The Secret inTheir Eyes--Fun to watch, like a good cop show.

 

6.  From Japan, 2008 Winner, Departures--"A film with comedy that isn’t over the top and has drama at the right tone.  Believe me, you are dying to see it."

5. From Poland, 2014 Winner, Ida--"I’ll give it a 16-going-on-17 out of 20."

 

4. From Germany, 2002 Winner, Nowhere in Africa--"8 out of 10 . . . "

3.  From Iran, 2011 Winner, A Separation--You will relate.  This one is a treasure.

2.     From Germany, 2006 Winner, The Lives of Others--"I don’t know if this was the best movie I ever saw . . . but it is one of the best foreign ones I’ve ever seen."

1. 
   From Italy . . . 1998 Winner, Life IsBeautiful--"I bet if someone had walked in on me watching this movie, they would have asked me what I was smiling about."