Foreign Language Movies

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I thought that it might be useful to make a list of movies with foreign language tracks that are widely available in the US. You can find more and more dvds with Spanish and French tracks. But what about German, Russian, Japanese, etc.

I'd especially like comments about the appropriateness of the movie for different ages.

If we organize replies for different languages, it might make it even easier to comb through.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

We watched the movie Nordwand (Northface) a couple weeks ago. It is visually stunning and emotionally gripping. It is the mostly factual story of an attempt to climb the north face of the Eiger in the Swiss alps. The movie follows a pair of German climbers and a pair of Austrian climbers as they try to summit.

Most of the tension comes from what happens after one of the climbers is hurt and they then try to get back down safely. I actually spent the last half hour on the edge of my seat, watching the clock and hoping for a good resolution. Sadly, it was an attempt to summit with a tragic ending.

I thought the quality of the German in the original track was very easy to follow. Especially, the voice track was clear and not obscured beneath heavy sound effects. I will probably not show it to my kids yet, because they are beginning rock climbers and the younger one would be especially emotionally involved and might decline to ever go to the crag again.

I got the movie from Netflix. It also has English subtitles.

[anabelneri]

Here are some of the movies off my shelves that are on the kid-friendly side. I'm in the United States and all of the following were purchased from local retail stores or from Amazon.


French
My Neighbor Totoro (G)
Ponyo (G)
Finding Nemo (G)
Miracle on 34th Street (G)
Disney's Robin Hood (G)
Disney's Aladdin (G)
Disney's Mulan (G)
What's Up Doc? [w/ Barbara Streisand] (G)
Adventures of Franklin (TV show)
White Christmas (not rated but G-ish)
Harry Potter 3 (PG)
Castle in the Sky (PG)
Howl's Moving Castle (PG)
The Incredibles (PG)
Disney's Narnia: the Lion,the Witch, and the Wardrobe (PG)
Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi (PG)
The Santa Clause (PG)
The Princess Bride (PG)

Japanese
My Neighbor Totoro (G)
Ponyo (G)
Kiki's Delivery Service (G)
Castle in the Sky (PG)
Howl's Moving Castle (PG)
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (PG)

Spanish
Finding Nemo (G)
Kiki's Delivery Service (G)
Miracle on 34th Street (G)
Disney's Robin Hood (G)
Disney's Aladdin (G)
Disney's Mulan (G)
Harry Potter 1 (PG)
Harry Potter 3 (PG)
The Incredibles (PG)
Disney's Narnia: the Lion,the Witch, and the Wardrobe (PG)
The Santa Clause (PG)
The Dark Crystal (PG)
The Princess Bride (PG)

Mandarin
Disney's Mulan (G)

[MagnaSky]

Russian (with English subtitles)
The Lady with the Dog
Window to Paris
The Cranes are Flying
Ostrov (The Island)
Prisoner of the Mountains

I think these movies are more appropriate for 13 and up.

[Jamee]

Great topic! One of our favorite foreign films is the Japanese "Shall We Dance" It's what the Richard Gere film was based off on. As far as I can remember, I'd say it's ok for kids, especially if you want to discuss the cultural implications of ballroom dancing in Japan by a business man.

Another favorite is a mulit-language film, "The Red Violin" with Samuel Jackson. I believe it is a French Canadian production, but has portions in Italian, German, and Chinese in addtion to English. there are a few scenes that NOT approrpiate for children.. It follows the "life" of an Italian violin.

Those are the two that stand out to me.