Experience the richness of world cinema with these classic foreign language films. From intense drama to thrilling action, each one offers an unforgettable cinematic experience that will stay with you long after watching. These iconic movies break boundaries while teaching viewers more about diverse cultures, so grab some popcorn today.
Related: 10 Best TV Movies of All Time, Ranked by Viewers
Foreign films have been inaccurately labeled as arrogant. However, these movies offer many genres, including action flicks, comedies, musicals, and thrillers. This list of best foreign movies includes those from non-English speaking countries but no silent films. This is your cinematic passport to the world’s movie scene.
10 Best Foreign Movies, Ranked on IMDb The Lives of Others (2006) – 8.4 Oldboy (2003) – 8.4 The Best of Youth (2003) – 8.5 Cinema Paradiso (1988) – 8.5 The Intouchables (2011) – 8.5 Parasite (2019) – 8.5 Harakiri (1962) – 8.6 Life Is Beautiful (1997) – 8.6 City of God (2002) – 8.6 Spirited Away (2001) – 8.6 10 The Lives of Others (2006)
IMDb: 8.4/10 396K | Popularity: 1,156 | Top 250: #58 | Metascore: 89
The Lives of Others...
Related: 10 Best TV Movies of All Time, Ranked by Viewers
Foreign films have been inaccurately labeled as arrogant. However, these movies offer many genres, including action flicks, comedies, musicals, and thrillers. This list of best foreign movies includes those from non-English speaking countries but no silent films. This is your cinematic passport to the world’s movie scene.
10 Best Foreign Movies, Ranked on IMDb The Lives of Others (2006) – 8.4 Oldboy (2003) – 8.4 The Best of Youth (2003) – 8.5 Cinema Paradiso (1988) – 8.5 The Intouchables (2011) – 8.5 Parasite (2019) – 8.5 Harakiri (1962) – 8.6 Life Is Beautiful (1997) – 8.6 City of God (2002) – 8.6 Spirited Away (2001) – 8.6 10 The Lives of Others (2006)
IMDb: 8.4/10 396K | Popularity: 1,156 | Top 250: #58 | Metascore: 89
The Lives of Others...
- 4/30/2023
- by Buddy TV
- buddytv.com
“Pasolini” is not a biopic of the late Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini (played here by Willem Dafoe). The complicated director of “The Gospel According to St. Matthew,” “Teorema” and “Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom” (a scene involving its editing opens the film) was more personality than a 90-minute movie could handle. Any filmed biography presuming to grapple with the whole of his life would beg to be, at least, a limited TV series.
This is, perhaps, one reason why director Abel Ferrara (“Bad Lieutenant”) has scripted a 24-hour ticking clock that mostly ignores chronology and backstory. It’s the final day of Pasolini’s life, presented as part historical detail and part imagined glimpse into the man’s mind, and it culminates, as it must, in his brutal murder at age 53.
Fittingly, to touch on the life of a man who was a writer, a filmmaker, a philosopher,...
This is, perhaps, one reason why director Abel Ferrara (“Bad Lieutenant”) has scripted a 24-hour ticking clock that mostly ignores chronology and backstory. It’s the final day of Pasolini’s life, presented as part historical detail and part imagined glimpse into the man’s mind, and it culminates, as it must, in his brutal murder at age 53.
Fittingly, to touch on the life of a man who was a writer, a filmmaker, a philosopher,...
- 5/10/2019
- by Dave White
- The Wrap
Abel Ferrara has come not to bury Pier Paolo Pasolini — writer, critic, activist, provocateur, communist, hedonist, out-and-proud homosexual and, last but not least, filmmaker — but to praise him. And, crucially, to commemorate the Italian director via a biopic that somehow doesn’t fall prey to the pitfalls that usually accompany hagiographic cinematic shrines. Focusing on the last 24 hours of Pasolini’s life, Ferrara’s tribute to the late Renaissance man of 20th century Rome is part hero worship, part recreation of a true-crime tragedy and completely of a piece with...
- 5/9/2019
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
For those in New York City, this spring is an Abel Ferrara jubilee. Tribeca Film Festival will host the world premiere of his new documentary The Projectionist, which follows Nick Nicolaou, a figure deeply embedded in the city’s exhibition history. Then, the Museum of Modern Art will host a career retrospective throughout the entire month of May, titled Abel Ferrara Unrated. Finally, Kino Lorber has announced they have picked up the director’s Pier Paolo Pasolini biopic, which premiered way back at the 2014 Venice Film Festival, for a release starting at NYC’s Metrograph on May 10 before expanding. Following the final days in the Italian director’s life, a new trailer and poster and have now debuted for the drama.
Tommaso Tocci said in our Venice review back in 2014, “Before being beaten and run over with his own car on the beach of Ostia’s Idroscalo, Pasolini was busy...
Tommaso Tocci said in our Venice review back in 2014, “Before being beaten and run over with his own car on the beach of Ostia’s Idroscalo, Pasolini was busy...
- 4/15/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Bernardo Bertolucci, whose epic “The Last Emperor” won nine Oscars and who influenced generations of filmmakers with other groundbreaking works such as “The Conformist” and “Last Tango in Paris,” in which he explored politics and sexuality through personal storytelling and audacious camera work, has died. He was 77.
His publicist, Flavia Schiavi, said Bertolucci died at his home in Rome at 7 a.m. Monday. He had been suffering from cancer.
Italy’s greatest auteur of his generation, Bertolucci managed to work both in Europe and Hollywood, though his relationship with the studios had its ups and downs. But even when he operated within the studio system, Bertolucci always managed to make films that were considered projections of his inner world.
“The Last Emperor,” an adaptation of the autobiography of China’s last imperial ruler, Pu Yi, swept the 1987 Oscars, winning every category in which it had been nominated, including best picture and best director.
His publicist, Flavia Schiavi, said Bertolucci died at his home in Rome at 7 a.m. Monday. He had been suffering from cancer.
Italy’s greatest auteur of his generation, Bertolucci managed to work both in Europe and Hollywood, though his relationship with the studios had its ups and downs. But even when he operated within the studio system, Bertolucci always managed to make films that were considered projections of his inner world.
“The Last Emperor,” an adaptation of the autobiography of China’s last imperial ruler, Pu Yi, swept the 1987 Oscars, winning every category in which it had been nominated, including best picture and best director.
- 11/26/2018
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Wim Wenders' The American Friend, shot by Robby Müller, and starring Bruno Ganz and Dennis Hopper with cameos by Nicholas Ray, Sam Fuller, Jean Eustache, Gérard Blain, and Peter Lilienthal, will screen in the tribute to Dan Talbot Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced that it will honour Dan Talbot, founder of New Yorker Films and director of the recently closed Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, with screenings of five films and a Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet short film programme in the Retrospective section of the 56th New York Film Festival.
Lincoln Plaza Cinemas closed on January 28, 2018 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Bernardo Bertolucci's Before The Revolution, starring Adriana Asti and Francesco Barilli; Jean-Luc Godard's Every Man For Himself with Jacques Dutronc, Nathalie Baye, Isabelle Huppert, and the voice of Marguerite Duras; Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Marriage Of Maria Braun, starring Hanna Schygulla; Louis Malle...
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced that it will honour Dan Talbot, founder of New Yorker Films and director of the recently closed Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, with screenings of five films and a Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet short film programme in the Retrospective section of the 56th New York Film Festival.
Lincoln Plaza Cinemas closed on January 28, 2018 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Bernardo Bertolucci's Before The Revolution, starring Adriana Asti and Francesco Barilli; Jean-Luc Godard's Every Man For Himself with Jacques Dutronc, Nathalie Baye, Isabelle Huppert, and the voice of Marguerite Duras; Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Marriage Of Maria Braun, starring Hanna Schygulla; Louis Malle...
- 8/23/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Abel Ferrara’s account of the last days of the Italian auteur, played by Willem Dafoe, is beautiful and enigmatic
“Narrative art is dead – we are in a period of mourning”; “To scandalise is a right, to be scandalised a pleasure”; “Refusal must be great, absolute, absurd…” Abel Ferrara’s infatuated tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini is littered with such gnomic bon mots, which could apply equally to either director. Like Pasolini, Ferrara has courted both outrage and admiration; he made his name with The Driller Killer, and remains most celebrated for Bad Lieutenant, a film drenched in equal parts with Catholic ideology and censor-baiting exploitation.
This handsomely oblique film focuses on the very end of Pasolini’s life, as he completes work on Salò, Or the 120 Days of Sodom and makes plans for Porno-Teo-Kolossal, the unmade magnum opus which is here reimagined by Ferrara in startling, elegiac fashion. Willem Dafoe...
“Narrative art is dead – we are in a period of mourning”; “To scandalise is a right, to be scandalised a pleasure”; “Refusal must be great, absolute, absurd…” Abel Ferrara’s infatuated tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini is littered with such gnomic bon mots, which could apply equally to either director. Like Pasolini, Ferrara has courted both outrage and admiration; he made his name with The Driller Killer, and remains most celebrated for Bad Lieutenant, a film drenched in equal parts with Catholic ideology and censor-baiting exploitation.
This handsomely oblique film focuses on the very end of Pasolini’s life, as he completes work on Salò, Or the 120 Days of Sodom and makes plans for Porno-Teo-Kolossal, the unmade magnum opus which is here reimagined by Ferrara in startling, elegiac fashion. Willem Dafoe...
- 9/13/2015
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
No Exit for Pasolini star Willem Dafoe with director Abel Ferrara: "You know concentric circles." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Abel Ferrara's Pasolini stars a divine Willem Dafoe as Pier Paolo Pasolini, with Maria de Medeiros, Riccardo Scamarcio, Adriana Asti, Valerio Mastandrea and Giada Colagrande. Developed by Maurizio Braucci from an idea by Nicola Tranquillino and Ferrara, Pasolini begins and ends on one fatal day.
Willem Dafoe as Pier Paolo Pasolini: "It's one thing to show, it's another thing to do."
Dafoe recently starred in Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man. I asked him if Lars von Trier's Antichrist and Martin Scorsese's Last Temptation Of Christ prepared him for Pasolini's final day. Ferrara told me what that means to him. Fashion, architecture, research, restaurants, apartments and the power of three, pushed our conversation into Abel Ferrara and Willem Dafoe's working relationship upon entering Pasolini's world.
Abel Ferrara's Pasolini stars a divine Willem Dafoe as Pier Paolo Pasolini, with Maria de Medeiros, Riccardo Scamarcio, Adriana Asti, Valerio Mastandrea and Giada Colagrande. Developed by Maurizio Braucci from an idea by Nicola Tranquillino and Ferrara, Pasolini begins and ends on one fatal day.
Willem Dafoe as Pier Paolo Pasolini: "It's one thing to show, it's another thing to do."
Dafoe recently starred in Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man. I asked him if Lars von Trier's Antichrist and Martin Scorsese's Last Temptation Of Christ prepared him for Pasolini's final day. Ferrara told me what that means to him. Fashion, architecture, research, restaurants, apartments and the power of three, pushed our conversation into Abel Ferrara and Willem Dafoe's working relationship upon entering Pasolini's world.
- 10/6/2014
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Gospel According to Pier: Ferrara Poetically Captures an Auteur’s Last Day on Earth
It appears that 2014 marks a resounding return for auteur Abel Ferrara, unleashing two new films comingled from actual noted events, both destined for diverse responses and uncompromising in their audacity. The first is, of course, the Strauss-Kahn film, Welcome to New York, which has already received a debilitated premiere after a botched release on the Cannes market (treated to an unwarranted, venomous response reeking of pretentious bias) and the Us distributor has come under direct fire from Ferrara for suggesting cuts—don’t listen to any of that drama and see it as soon as you’re able. The other title is Pasolini, reuniting Ferrara with Willem Dafoe to explore the last day in the life of the famed Italian auteur Pier Paolo Pasolini, who died on November 2, 1975, and whose murderer has never been found.
It appears that 2014 marks a resounding return for auteur Abel Ferrara, unleashing two new films comingled from actual noted events, both destined for diverse responses and uncompromising in their audacity. The first is, of course, the Strauss-Kahn film, Welcome to New York, which has already received a debilitated premiere after a botched release on the Cannes market (treated to an unwarranted, venomous response reeking of pretentious bias) and the Us distributor has come under direct fire from Ferrara for suggesting cuts—don’t listen to any of that drama and see it as soon as you’re able. The other title is Pasolini, reuniting Ferrara with Willem Dafoe to explore the last day in the life of the famed Italian auteur Pier Paolo Pasolini, who died on November 2, 1975, and whose murderer has never been found.
- 9/17/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The 71st Venice Film Festival announced its lineup this morning, highlighted by films from American directors, including David Gordon Green, Barry Levinson, Peter Bogdanovich, Lisa Cholodenko, Andrew Niccol, and James Franco. As had been previously announced, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, starring Michael Keaton and many others, will be the opening film when the festival begins on Aug. 27.
Click below for the entire list of 55 films playing in Venice.
Competition
The Cut, directed by Fatih Akin
Starring Tahar Rahim, Akin Gazi, Simon Abkarian, George Georgiou
A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence, directed by Roy Andersson
Starring Holger Andersson,...
Click below for the entire list of 55 films playing in Venice.
Competition
The Cut, directed by Fatih Akin
Starring Tahar Rahim, Akin Gazi, Simon Abkarian, George Georgiou
A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence, directed by Roy Andersson
Starring Holger Andersson,...
- 7/24/2014
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
Unforgivable
Directed by André Téchiné
Written by André Téchiné and Mehdi Ben Attia
France, 2011
There have certainly been worse cases of writer’s block, but the main character in the new French film Unforgivable really lets his spin out of control. Unforgivable, from co-writer and director André Téchiné, tells an almost Hitchcockian story of how paranoia can drive people to ridiculous lengths. Téchiné’s unique decision to let the script itself not be so single-minded is both a breath of fresh air and a bit of a detriment to the film’s overall impact.
André Dussolier plays Francis, a bestselling crime novelist who just can’t find the inspiration to push him forward in the writing process. Unable to focus in his homeland of France, Francis decides to move to Venice to re-commit to his latest work of fiction. While finding a place to stay, he becomes enamored with his real estate agent,...
Directed by André Téchiné
Written by André Téchiné and Mehdi Ben Attia
France, 2011
There have certainly been worse cases of writer’s block, but the main character in the new French film Unforgivable really lets his spin out of control. Unforgivable, from co-writer and director André Téchiné, tells an almost Hitchcockian story of how paranoia can drive people to ridiculous lengths. Téchiné’s unique decision to let the script itself not be so single-minded is both a breath of fresh air and a bit of a detriment to the film’s overall impact.
André Dussolier plays Francis, a bestselling crime novelist who just can’t find the inspiration to push him forward in the writing process. Unable to focus in his homeland of France, Francis decides to move to Venice to re-commit to his latest work of fiction. While finding a place to stay, he becomes enamored with his real estate agent,...
- 9/28/2012
- by Josh Spiegel
- SoundOnSight
Francis (Andre Dussolier) is an author of crime fiction who relocates to Venice in order to work on his next novel. He meets a younger woman, a real estate agent named Judith (Carole Bouquet), with whom he becomes instantly infatuated. Eventually, Judith gives in to Francis' advances; then, they marry and decide to live in a secluded house on Torcello Island. Unfortunately, Francis is unable to write whenever he is in love; and the writer's block redirects his overactive imagination towards obsessing about Judith's day-to-day activities. All the while, Francis' daughter (Mélanie Thierry) disappears with a bourgeois drug trafficker (Andrea Pergolesi). Francis hires a retired private detective (Adriana Asti) to track down his daughter and an ex-convict (Mauro Conte) to tail Judith.
- 8/10/2012
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
Famed author author, playwright and commentator Gore Vidal passed away today at the age of 86. The sharp-tongued author, known for novels such as "Burr" and "Breckinridge" and plays like "The Best Man," was a cultural giant during the 1960s and 1970s, habitually appearing on television to verbally spar with foes like Norman Mailer and William Buckley.
Known as a celebrity figure with a personality that rivaled Truman Capote, Vidal also worked on a number of screenplays, one of which became a cult classic --"Caligula." It was originally produced in 1979, but major disagreements between Vidal and the producer, Bob Guccione, led the former to distance himself from the project. But in 2005, artist and filmmaker Francesco Vezzoli sought to return the legacy of "Caligula" to its rightful owner, creating a a short film, titled "Trailer for the Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula." In the faux-trailer, several Hollywood stars (including original "Caligula...
Known as a celebrity figure with a personality that rivaled Truman Capote, Vidal also worked on a number of screenplays, one of which became a cult classic --"Caligula." It was originally produced in 1979, but major disagreements between Vidal and the producer, Bob Guccione, led the former to distance himself from the project. But in 2005, artist and filmmaker Francesco Vezzoli sought to return the legacy of "Caligula" to its rightful owner, creating a a short film, titled "Trailer for the Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula." In the faux-trailer, several Hollywood stars (including original "Caligula...
- 8/1/2012
- by Katherine Brooks
- Huffington Post
Title: Unforgivable (Impardonnables) Strand Releasing Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten Director: André Téchiné Writers: André Téchiné, Mehdi Ben Attia, from Philippe Djian’s novel Cast: André Dussolier, Carole Bouquet, Mauro Conte, Adriana Asti, Mélanie Thierry, Andrea Pergolesi Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 6/12/12 Opens: June 29, 2012 You don’t need a degree in psychology or history to realize that the past is always with us. You can’t escape its impact. Its memory will leave with feeling of guilt but also haunting regressions of past loves: familial, platonic and romantic. If you’re a filmmaker, whether in the seat of the director or the writer, you need the skill to bring an [ Read More ]...
- 6/13/2012
- by Brian Corder
- ShockYa
Chicago – One of the annual gems of the Chicago movie scene is the Siskel Film Center’s unmissable European Union Film Festival. It provides local movie buffs with the opportunity to sample some of the finest achievements in world cinema. For many of the festival selections, their EU appearance will function as their sole screening in the Windy City.
This year’s edition, running from March 2nd through the 29th, includes high profile films from world renowned filmmakers like Andrea Arnold (“Wuthering Heights”), Bruce Dumont (“Hors Satan”), Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon (“The Fairy”), Abdellatif Kechiche (“Black Venus”) and John Landis (“Burke & Hare”). Moviegoers will have the opportunity to see the latest work from some of the world’s most acclaimed and beloved actors, including Léa Seydoux (“Belle Épine”), Tahir Rahim (“Free Men”), Colm Meaney (“Parked”), Noomi Rapace (“Beyond”), Andy Serkis (“Burke & Hare”), Isabella Rossellini (“Late Bloomers”) and Ewan McGregor...
This year’s edition, running from March 2nd through the 29th, includes high profile films from world renowned filmmakers like Andrea Arnold (“Wuthering Heights”), Bruce Dumont (“Hors Satan”), Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon (“The Fairy”), Abdellatif Kechiche (“Black Venus”) and John Landis (“Burke & Hare”). Moviegoers will have the opportunity to see the latest work from some of the world’s most acclaimed and beloved actors, including Léa Seydoux (“Belle Épine”), Tahir Rahim (“Free Men”), Colm Meaney (“Parked”), Noomi Rapace (“Beyond”), Andy Serkis (“Burke & Hare”), Isabella Rossellini (“Late Bloomers”) and Ewan McGregor...
- 2/15/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Impardonnables (English title: Unforgivable)
Directed by André Téchiné
Written by André Téchiné and Mehdi Ben Attia
France, 2011
French director and screenwriter André Téchiné has had a long and illustrious career, earning critical acclaim for a great variety of films. His works date as far back as 1969, the year he released his debut, Aline s’en va. Among the common threads which tie in his works are the complicated interactions and strained relationships between his characters, who are continuously confronted with emotional challenges they would much rather not deal with. The wealth they sometimes possess is belittled in the face of various interpersonal hardships. Another is that he adapts almost exclusively original scripts, oftentimes playing a major role in the writing process. For Impardonnables, his latest feature film, the inspiration differs, for it is based on a novel of the same name from Philippe Dijan. Dealing with a vastly different screenwriting process,...
Directed by André Téchiné
Written by André Téchiné and Mehdi Ben Attia
France, 2011
French director and screenwriter André Téchiné has had a long and illustrious career, earning critical acclaim for a great variety of films. His works date as far back as 1969, the year he released his debut, Aline s’en va. Among the common threads which tie in his works are the complicated interactions and strained relationships between his characters, who are continuously confronted with emotional challenges they would much rather not deal with. The wealth they sometimes possess is belittled in the face of various interpersonal hardships. Another is that he adapts almost exclusively original scripts, oftentimes playing a major role in the writing process. For Impardonnables, his latest feature film, the inspiration differs, for it is based on a novel of the same name from Philippe Dijan. Dealing with a vastly different screenwriting process,...
- 2/8/2012
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
Armadillo (15)
(Janus Metz, 2010, Den) 105 mins
After last year's Restrepo, another fine documentary from the Afghanistan front line, bringing us closer than we'd like to a war we'd rather not think about. Again we track a tour of duty with its mix of boredom, adrenaline and futility, but the key differences here are that they're Danish soldiers (who seem a lot less uptight about access) and the camerawork is better than in most fictional war movies. As a result, we're brought right into the soldiers' lives, and pitched into the heart of battle when things really heat up.
Cold Fish (18)
(Sion Sono, 2010, Jap) Makoto Ashikawa, Denden, Mitsuru Fukikoshi. 146 mins
Not your average serial killer, this one's sociable, presentable and a big fish in the fishkeeping world – even if there's a grisly explanation for his success. As we follow a meek colleague drawn into his demented orbit, proceedings get uglier and messier,...
(Janus Metz, 2010, Den) 105 mins
After last year's Restrepo, another fine documentary from the Afghanistan front line, bringing us closer than we'd like to a war we'd rather not think about. Again we track a tour of duty with its mix of boredom, adrenaline and futility, but the key differences here are that they're Danish soldiers (who seem a lot less uptight about access) and the camerawork is better than in most fictional war movies. As a result, we're brought right into the soldiers' lives, and pitched into the heart of battle when things really heat up.
Cold Fish (18)
(Sion Sono, 2010, Jap) Makoto Ashikawa, Denden, Mitsuru Fukikoshi. 146 mins
Not your average serial killer, this one's sociable, presentable and a big fish in the fishkeeping world – even if there's a grisly explanation for his success. As we follow a meek colleague drawn into his demented orbit, proceedings get uglier and messier,...
- 4/8/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Bernardo Bertolucci's brilliant early film about political and emotional tensions in mid-60s Italy is still just as powerful as when it was first released, writes Peter Bradshaw
Bernardo Bertolucci's 1964 film was made when he was just 22 years old. With its freewheeling approach, its passion, its talkiness and cinephilia, it is unmistakably influenced by the French new wave. Yet it has a very Italian and distinctively patrician concern with Catholicism and Marxism. The title is taken from a remark from Talleyrand about life being sweet before the revolution; the sentiment is here applied with irony. Fabrizio (Francesco Barilli) is a well-to-do young man, troubled by the ethical demands of communism, and in angry revolt against his stultifying family. He begins a secret affair with his elegant, mercurial aunt Gina (Adriana Asti), a transgression that clarifies and intensifies his general discontent. Is this a pre-revolutionary mood? Or is this the revolution itself,...
Bernardo Bertolucci's 1964 film was made when he was just 22 years old. With its freewheeling approach, its passion, its talkiness and cinephilia, it is unmistakably influenced by the French new wave. Yet it has a very Italian and distinctively patrician concern with Catholicism and Marxism. The title is taken from a remark from Talleyrand about life being sweet before the revolution; the sentiment is here applied with irony. Fabrizio (Francesco Barilli) is a well-to-do young man, troubled by the ethical demands of communism, and in angry revolt against his stultifying family. He begins a secret affair with his elegant, mercurial aunt Gina (Adriana Asti), a transgression that clarifies and intensifies his general discontent. Is this a pre-revolutionary mood? Or is this the revolution itself,...
- 4/7/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
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