Films of the Week: Foreign Film

This week we will be discussing foreign films. While an award is given to one each year at the Academy Awards, the majority of Americans will go their whole lives without ever seeing a single film from a foreign country. Although America has the world's greatest film industry, American films can sometimes lack the avant-garde approaches used in other countries. It can be very enlightening to see what kind of work is being done in other places, where film is often seen more as an art form than an entertainment form. These are my Picks for the ten greatest foreign films to date.

1. Seven Samurai (Japan 1954)

2. Last Year at Marienbad (France 1961)

3. 8 1/2 (Italy 1963)

4. The Seventh Seal (Sweeden 1957)

5. Le Regle de Jeu (France 1939)

6. Rashomon (Japan 1950)

7. Chungking Express (China 1994)

8. The White Ribbon (Germany 2009)

9. I, Vitelloni (Italy 1953)

10. Ran (Japan 1985)