Top 10/20 non-English films of the 1960s

I might have looked at the replies too quickly, so I might have missed them, but how has no one mentioned City of God or Black Book?

2 others that I think are great though are Oldboy and House of Flying Daggers.

Aj_June

Yeah, while it's my opinion that there are not many non-English spoken movies that stand out, I suspect there are many, who speak English like myself, that likely have a similar opinion to myself unless of course they are that type who's easily pleased and likes a lot of the movies they see to a higher level which I don't see how one can do that because the vast majority of movies just ain't anything special.

but yeah, directors can be good from other places but in the end your movie needs to be engaging/interesting/entertaining in some way or another and in this regard there are not many non-English language movies that stand out in my mind as even if the director has some talent, the whole movie has to click for it to work overall. I doubt I am the only person who feels that way as I would have to assume there are many people like myself in that while you can still find a quality non-English spoken movie from time-to-time they tend to be few, if not very few, especially in comparison to English language movies.

so if I looked strictly at where directors come from regardless if the movie is English language or not, I suspect there would be more quality directors in this regard that are not from English speaking countries. but in terms of movies where the spoken language is not English, that's where there is a very limited amount that stand out for me. there is only 187 movies out of the 2,200+ total movies I have seen that 'stand out' for me personally and out of those I can't imagine there is more than 20 tops (I think it's about 10 or less if I recall correctly) that are non-English spoken language. sure, there are probably some more gems of the non-English language type out there but I suspect it won't be easy to find them. hell, just straight up... it's getting difficult to find movies from the past (as movies in the future (say 2018+) still turn up here and there) that I have not already seen that are of any real worth for me.

also, those critics tend to be disconnected with many common people in general. so I don't put too much stock in critics as they all seem to kiss up to movies mainly because they break new ground or were ahead of their time etc more than them just being a great movie straight up (especially when they list Top 100 movies of all-time etc types of lists) that they like re-watching from time-to-time as, to me, the truly good movies are ones you want to re-watch here and there as the years pass. those that fail that basic test are ultimately forgettable and I would have to assume this is the mindset of many people out there as that's basically the point in watching movies is to find ones I want to re-watch from time-to-time. sort of like a good song.

p.s. basically I am not a person who's too easily pleased with movies in general as only about 8.5% of all movies I have seen 'stand out' from the pack. even being a bit generous that figure does not go much over 10%. so basically about 1 out of every 10 movies I see 'stand out' from the pack.

mortsahlfan

Some nice movies there and good for me because I haven't seen quite a few from your list. After reading mini-plot from IMDB I want to see the following ones the most:

1) The Shop on Main Street (1965)
2) Fists in the Pocket (1965)
3) The Battle of Algiers (almost everyone has mentioned this)