Best Non-English Films, 2000-2009
by rudeboy_murray | created - 07 Dec 2010 | updated - 27 Feb 2011 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Spirited Away (2001)
PG | 125 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Miyu Irino, Rumi Hiiragi
Votes: 847,406 | Gross: $10.06M
2. Bad Education (2004)
NC-17 | 106 min | Crime, Drama
An examination on the effect of Franco-era religious schooling and sexual abuse on the lives of two longtime friends.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar | Stars: Gael García Bernal, Fele Martínez, Javier Cámara, Daniel Giménez Cacho
Votes: 63,377 | Gross: $5.21M
3. The Devil's Backbone (2001)
R | 106 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
After Carlos - a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War - arrives at an ominous boys' orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover.
Director: Guillermo del Toro | Stars: Marisa Paredes, Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi, Fernando Tielve
Votes: 70,960 | Gross: $0.75M
4. The White Ribbon (2009)
R | 144 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 77,552 | Gross: $2.22M
5. The Witnesses (2007)
Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, Romance
Paris, 1984: A group of friends contend with the first outbreak of the AIDS epidemic.
Director: André Téchiné | Stars: Michel Blanc, Emmanuelle Béart, Sami Bouajila, Julie Depardieu
Votes: 2,843 | Gross: $0.08M
6. Yi Yi (2000)
Not Rated | 173 min | Drama, Romance
Each member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.
Director: Edward Yang | Stars: Nien-Jen Wu, Elaine Jin, Issei Ogata, Kelly Lee
Votes: 28,315 | Gross: $1.14M
7. City of God (2002)
R | 130 min | Crime, Drama
In the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin.
Directors: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund | Stars: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Matheus Nachtergaele, Phellipe Haagensen
Votes: 799,774 | Gross: $7.56M
8. A Christmas Tale (2008)
Not Rated | 150 min | Comedy, Drama
The troubled Vuillard family is no stranger to illness, grief, and banishment, but when their matriarch requires a bone-marrow transplant, the estranged clan reunites just in time for Christmas.
Director: Arnaud Desplechin | Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny
Votes: 7,561 | Gross: $1.06M
9. The Son (2002)
103 min | Drama, Mystery
A joinery instructor at a rehab center refuses to take a new teen as his apprentice, but then begins to follow the boy through the hallways and streets.
Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne | Stars: Olivier Gourmet, Morgan Marinne, Isabella Soupart, Nassim Hassaïni
Votes: 10,082 | Gross: $0.07M
10. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
PG-13 | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A young Chinese warrior steals a sword from a famed swordsman and then escapes into a world of romantic adventure with a mysterious man in the frontier of the nation.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang, Chang Chen
Votes: 281,441 | Gross: $128.08M
11. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)
R | 103 min | Drama, Romance
A boy is raised by a Buddhist monk in an isolated floating temple where the years pass like the seasons.
Director: Kim Ki-duk | Stars: Kim Ki-duk, Oh Yeong-su, Jong-ho Kim, Kim Young-min
Votes: 86,722 | Gross: $2.38M
12. Talk to Her (2002)
R | 112 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Two men share an odd friendship while they care for two women who are both in deep comas.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar | Stars: Rosario Flores, Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling
Votes: 117,421 | Gross: $9.36M
13. Flight of the Red Balloon (2007)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, Family
A little boy and his baby-sitter inhabit the same imaginary world: through their adventures they are followed by a strange red balloon.
Director: Hsiao-Hsien Hou | Stars: Juliette Binoche, Hippolyte Girardot, Simon Iteanu, Fang Song
Votes: 4,177 | Gross: $0.46M
14. C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)
Not Rated | 129 min | Comedy, Drama
A young French Canadian, one of five boys in a conservative family in the 1960s and 1970s, struggles to reconcile his emerging identity with his father's values.
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée | Stars: Michel Côté, Marc-André Grondin, Danielle Proulx, Émile Vallée
Votes: 34,106
15. Persepolis (2007)
PG-13 | 96 min | Animation, Biography, Drama
A precocious and outspoken Iranian girl grows up during the Islamic Revolution.
Directors: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi | Stars: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Gena Rowlands, Danielle Darrieux
Votes: 100,066 | Gross: $4.45M
16. Caché (2005)
R | 117 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A married couple is terrorized by a series of surveillance videotapes left on their front porch.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Maurice Bénichou, Annie Girardot
Votes: 85,105 | Gross: $3.63M
17. Volver (I) (2006)
R | 121 min | Comedy, Drama
After her death, a mother returns to her home town in order to fix the situations she couldn't resolve during her life.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar | Stars: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo
Votes: 107,391 | Gross: $12.90M
18. Summer Hours (2008)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Family
Two brothers and a sister witness the disappearance of their childhood memories when they must relinquish the family belongings to ensure their deceased mother's succession.
Director: Olivier Assayas | Stars: Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, Jérémie Renier, Edith Scob
Votes: 8,162 | Gross: $1.64M
19. Summer Storm (2004)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A close friendship between two crew teammates is tested when one slowly discovers he's gay and attracted to the other.
Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner | Stars: Robert Stadlober, Kostja Ullmann, Miriam Morgenstern, Jürgen Tonkel
Votes: 14,491 | Gross: $0.10M
20. Beijing Bicycle (2001)
PG-13 | 113 min | Drama
A seventeen-year-old country boy working in Beijing as a courier has his bicycle stolen, and finds it with a schoolboy his age.
Director: Xiaoshuai Wang | Stars: Lin Cui, Xun Zhou, Bin Li, Yuanyuan Gao
Votes: 4,743 | Gross: $0.16M
21. Tokyo Sonata (2008)
PG-13 | 120 min | Drama
An ordinary Japanese family slowly disintegrates after its patriarch loses his job at a prominent company.
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Stars: Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyôko Koizumi, Yû Koyanagi, Kai Inowaki
Votes: 11,751 | Gross: $0.28M
22. Nobody Knows (2004)
PG-13 | 141 min | Drama
In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu | Stars: Yûya Yagira, Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura, Momoko Shimizu
Votes: 31,322 | Gross: $0.68M
23. The Class (2008)
PG-13 | 128 min | Drama
Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.
Director: Laurent Cantet | Stars: François Bégaudeau, Agame Malembo-Emene, Angélica Sancio, Arthur Fogel
Votes: 36,379 | Gross: $3.77M
24. The Child (2005)
R | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Bruno and Sonia, a young couple living off her benefit and the thefts committed by his gang, have a new source of money: their newborn son.
Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne | Stars: Jérémie Renier, Déborah François, Jérémie Segard, Fabrizio Rongione
Votes: 19,389 | Gross: $0.65M
25. Die Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel (2003)
PG | 93 min | Documentary, Drama, Family
When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.
Directors: Byambasuren Davaa, Luigi Falorni | Stars: Janchiv Ayurzana, Chimed Ohin, Amgaabazar Gonson, Zeveljamz Nyam
Votes: 6,411 | Gross: $1.74M
26. To Be and to Have (2002)
Not Rated | 104 min | Documentary, Family
A documentary portrait of a one-room school in rural France, where the students (ranging in age from 4 to 11) are educated by a single dedicated teacher.
Director: Nicolas Philibert | Stars: Georges Lopez, Alizé, Axel Thouvenin, Guillaume
Votes: 8,408 | Gross: $0.78M
27. Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
R | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
Director: Wolfgang Becker | Stars: Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, Florian Lukas
Votes: 152,512 | Gross: $4.06M
28. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
R | 118 min | Drama, Fantasy, War
In the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.
Director: Guillermo del Toro | Stars: Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú
Votes: 702,319 | Gross: $37.63M
29. Glue (2006)
Unrated | 110 min | Drama, Romance
Aimless and uncertain, a group of teenagers go through an intense coming-of-age experience in their small desert town.
Director: Alexis Dos Santos | Stars: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Nahuel Viale, Inés Efron, Verónica Llinás
Votes: 1,588
30. Blackboards (2000)
88 min | Drama, War
Itinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a ... See full summary »
Director: Samira Makhmalbaf | Stars: Said Mohamadi, Behnaz Jafari, Bahman Ghobadi, Mohamad Karim Rahmati
Votes: 2,902 | Gross: $0.00M
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