Monday, December 17, 2012

The Best Foreign Films of 2012

The Best Foreign Films of 2012

It's list making season again!

This time around, I've decided to skip the long preamble and let the list speak for itself.

Bonjour Tristesse's Top 10 Foreign Films of 2012:



Finally, here are some other foreign titles that premiered internationally in 2012 that I haven't seen, but hope to catch up with in the coming months:
  • After Lucia (Después de Lucía) by Michel Franco
  • The Almost Man (Mer eller mindre mann) by Martin Lund
  • Betrayal (Izmena) by Kirill Serebrennikov
  • Blancanieves by Pablo Berger
  • Camille Rewinds (Camille redouble) by Noémie Lvovsky
  • The Delay (La Demora) by Rodrigo Plá
  • Fill the Void (Lemale et ha'halal) by Rama Burshtein
  • The Girl From Nowhere (La fille de nulle part) by Jean-Claude Brisseau
  • House with a Turret (Dom s bashenkoy) by Eva Neymann
  • In the Fog (V tumane) by Sergei Loznitsa
  • The Last Step (Peleh akhar) by Ali Mosaffa
  • The Last Supper (Wáng Dè Shèng Yàn) by Lu Chuan
  • Outrage Beyond (Autoreiji: Beyondo) by Takeshi Kitano
  • Paradise: Faith (Paradies: Glaube) by Ulrich Seidel
  • Post Tenebras Lux by Carlos Reygadas
  • Vanishing Waves (Aurora) by Kristina Buozyte

So, what do you think of my choices this year? How many have you seen? Which deserving films did I miss? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

40 comments:

Murtaza Ali said...

Thanks Bonjour... was desperately on the lookout for a list like this one. Now, I think I have enough for the entire season :-)

Mike Scott said...

Great list.


Although Himizu rubbed me up the wrong way, I have Barbara and Laurence Anyways in my overall top 10 for the year.


Tabu and Holy Motors feature pretty highly too. Seeing a couple of the others in the coming weeks.



Keep up the great work! Looking forward to 2013...

pturner1010 said...

I've only seen The Hunt and Amour out if all these. The Hunt is probably my second favourite film of the year. Desperate to see Holy Motors and Berberian Sound Studio. Will have to check out Himizu too I think. Interesting list! Lots for me to look out for!

David Zou said...

Magnificent list,BT,thanks! I'm extremely curious about Berberian Sound Studio ,Tabu and Beyond the hills now.

Michaël Parent said...

Very original list! I love it and I want to see every film on it!

Margaret said...

Lovely list! I'm looking forward to seeing Hunt and Holy Motors.

Lisa Thatcher said...

I have just spent an incredibly intense but thrilling THRILLING weekend in a cinema philosophy workshop and the buzz was around Holy Motors. I'm not a fan of "lists" ... But any list with that film as #1 is worth it.

Eric said...

Nice work here, BT. Can't say I have seen any of these, but at least I know what to look out for in the coming months.

d_4 said...

Gah, I haven't even seen a single one of the honorable mentions, and I'm -just- half way through last years list. I DO thank you for putting this up though, I get to bookmark and check up on it every few months. It helps.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Murtaza, looking forward to your reactions.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thank you Mike. Glad to see we've got a lot of overlap. Will you be making a list?

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Which was your first?

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks David. I would love to hear your thoughts on those titles when you finally catch up with them.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Michaël. I think most lists this year will have a lot of originality, there really isn't any universally loved favorite quite like A Separation last year.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thank you Margaret! I'm especially curious to hear what you have to say about Holy Motors.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

That workshop sounds fascinating. I hope you're going to blog about it. and honestly I'm really not a fan of lists either, but they are popular reads, and some of these titles really deserve the added exposure.

Stevee said...

Casually bookmarking this list so I can reference it later when I have the opportunity to catch up with these films. I especially want to see Holy Motors!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Eric. I just saw your 2011 list, and it seems we agreed on several titles. I think chances are good that a few of these will end up on your next list...

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Half is pretty impressive. I'm happy if people read this and end up watching even just one.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I hope you get to do that soon! Thanks for the visit Stevee!

Diana said...

I usually don't watch a lot of foreign films, but I have seen Rust and Bone and Amour, among others. I am very happy and totally agree with the first two places- happy to see Romania on the list :)

Steven S said...

I cannot disagree with your number one choice. It was an amazing experience and for a change, the actual matched the hype and lavish praise from reviews. A nice strong list overall there, some new stuff for me to check out too.

Alex Withrow said...

Excellent list, loved your top 2 choices. Two truly great films right there. Love that Rust and Bone made the Honorable Mentions cut!

365 moviesandsongs365 said...

I was expecting Holy Motors to be no 1! I've been reading positive things about Tabu & B Sound Studio, on you site too, so curious to give those a watch once both hit dvd soon, and maybe include them on my own upcoming 2012 list. Have you seen Ship of Theseus (2012)? it features on a few year-end top 10 lists in sight & sound mag, though 4.7 on IMDB has me confused...Fom what I can read, it's a flawed, ambitious Indian independent film. The trailer for it looks interesting.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Glad you agree with those choices. I think whenever Mungiu, Muntean, Porumboiu, or Puiu, make a new film, it has a good chance of making my favorites list.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Yeah, films almost never live up to their critical hype, and I was afraid that might happen with Holy Motors, but it held up and then some. Thanks for the comment Steven, I hope you discover something you like.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Alex. I still have my reservations about some of Audiard's storytelling methods, but I recently watched R&B again, and the performances, as well as the technical film-craft are just so amazing to watch, that I think it deserves a place here.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Yeah, there won't be any real surprises in the list if you are a regular reader. Actually I haven't even heard of Ship of Theseus... haven't had time yet to scour through the S&S lists, but it sounds intriguing. I'll add it to my list of films to watch out for. 4.7 is pretty low, but I trust IMDb's scores even less than I trust the daily horoscope.

Rorschach Redemption said...

I am terribly glad I decided to check my old blog feed. I have been very disappointed with my usual Hollywood fair. I have a lot to work through here; thanks for the concise reports!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Welcome back Rorschach. It's been awhile, but it's good to see you around here again, I trust you are doing well, and I hope you find something of interest here.

filmnohito said...

Two from Japan and one from the UK. Awesome. Himizu and Key of Life are both brilliant.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

and I've still yet to see Kitano's latest and both of Miike's new films too.

Andy Buckle said...

Terrific list. BSS, The Hunt and Holy Motors (#1) also made my end-of-year list. I am really looking forward to catching Laurence Anyways, Barbara and Beyond The Hills, three I unfortunately missed throughout the year.

blahblahblahtoby said...

Really puts me to shame, but then I'm not even sure where I might see these movies in Perth. I did however watch 76 Hollywood movies from 2012. Dumb. I'm very happy to see Amour not in your top 10 however.

Quirky BookandFilmBuff said...

Thanks for this terrific post. I am off to add some of these titles to my list.

http://eclecticbooksandmovies.blogspot.com

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks for stopping by Andy. Hopefully you'll get to catch up with those titles soon. I'd like to hear your opinions on them.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Well, hopefully some of these will play at your local film fest. Yeah I didn't fall for Amour as much as most. It's a very good film, but at this point in time I'm not even sure if it would even crack my Haneke top 10.

Iffsy said...

My top 2 is exactly the same as yours :) I absolutely loved Holy motors and Beyond the hills!

Mette said...

Can't wait to see all of these movies! The Hunt has been on my mind since Cannes... and I'm so ashamed I didn't watch Barbara because I thought it looked dull. Anyway, interesting you don't have any Oscar nominations here - but then again, I'm quite disappointed by them this year (haven't seen any of the foreign ones yet though).

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Excellent! What's the rest of your top 10?

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