The Silver Screen Oasis

Most of the foreign films I've seen are from France, Italy, Sweden, Japan and South Korea. One of the best movies I saw in 2022 was Official Competition, which came from Spain.

It is very nice to see that interest remains in this topic.

I do wish I could see what I wrote in those posts lost in the: Great Glitch of '15. I was apparently quite insightful. I could surely use those as crib sheets now.

It is a sad mark of my inability to properly adapt that the knee-jerk reaction at the back of my mind is that American movies are foreign.

It might be difficult to categorize whether British movies are foreign. It would likely have to be done on a case-by-case basis because so many were made by American studios using British companies as fronts to create movies to meet quotas.

I assumed you meant non-English language films, as the "foreign film" designation generally implies. That eliminates the vast majority of American, British, Irish, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand films, although all of those, even the US, have non-English language films.

The awards circuit used the term "Foreign Film" for decades to mean non-English language movies, then some switched to the more direct "Foreign Language Films", and now many use "International Films".

jamesjazzguitar wrote: ↑January 17th, 2023, 12:17 pm I assumed this poll was really about Foreign language films

D'oh!

Masha wrote: ↑January 17th, 2023, 10:09 pm
It is a sad mark of my inability to properly adapt that the knee-jerk reaction at the back of my mind is that American movies are foreign.

Yes, the term "foreign film" is definitely relative.

English (specifically American English) is my native language, but TOP GUN is more "foreign" to me than, say, FANNY AND ALEXANDER.

French films stand out to me the most....

It seems that France is runaway winner. I must wonder if that is due to French Art Films being heavily exported to America for several decades.

Nellie LaRoy wrote: ↑February 10th, 2024, 1:53 pm

Masha wrote: ↑January 11th, 2024, 10:10 pm It seems that France is runaway winner. I must wonder if that is due to French Art Films being heavily exported to America for several decades.

Blame Truffaut. And Godard.

And Renoir, Rohmer, Varda, Chabrol, Rivette, and Melville, among others. The French standing was probably amplified more by the fact that much of the New Hollywood was inspired by French films of the 60s.