image from The Bicycle Thief

Top 25 Movies

This list of the best foreign-language (i.e. non-English) films of all time was compiled by aggregating multiple best-of lists (see resources at bottom of page) along with films’ overall status in Dave’s Movie Database and movie ratings.

1. The Bicycle Thief (Ladri di Biciclette) (1947)
2. Breathless (A Bout de Souffle) (1959)
3. The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups) (1959)
4. The Seven Samurai (Schichinin no Samurai) (1954)
5. Rashômon (1950)

6. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes) (1972)
7. The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde Inseglet) (1957)
8. The Sweet Life (La Dolce Vita) (1960)
9. 8 ½ (Otto e Mezzo) (1963)
10. Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) (2006)

11. Tokyo Story (Tôkyô Monogatari) (1953)
12. The Adventure (L’Avventura) (1960)
13. In the Mood for Love (Dut Yeung Nin Wa) (2000)
14. Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) (2001)
15. The Battle of Algiers (La Battaglia di Algeria) (1966)

16. Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain) (2001)
17. M – Eine Stadt Sucht Einen Mörder (1931)
18. Cinema Paradiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso) (1988)
19. Persona (aka “Masks”) (1966)
20. The Rules of the Game (La Règle du Jeu) (1939)

21. The Apu Trilogy: Pather Panchali (1955)
22. City of God (Cidade de Deus) (2002)
23. Grand Illusion (La Grande Illusion) (1937)
24. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo Hu Cang Long) (2000)
25. Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) (1982)

Resources:

Dave’s Movie Database: Genre Lists
BBC.com (10/30/2018). “The 100 greatest foreign-language films”
CinemaDailies.com “The Best Foreign Language Movies of All-Time”
Complex.com (12/21/2018). “56 Foreign Films to See Before You Die”
Empire magazine (June 2010). “100 Best Films of World Cinema”
Entertainment Weekly (2013). “The 10 Greatest Foreign Films”
TheGuardian.com (2007). “As chosen by you…the greatest foreign films of all time”
Lifehack.org “12 Best Foreign Movies Of All Time That Will Expand Your Worldview”
ListChallenges.com “101 Top Foreign-Language Films”
MagnoliaForever.wordpress.com (2011). “The 100 Essential Foreign Films”
Mic.com (7/20/2012). “10 Best Foreign Films of All-Time”
MovieBabbleReviews.com (5/6/2018). “Top 10 Best Foreign Films”
Movieline (July 1996). “100 Greatest Foreign Films”
Wikipedia.org (2019). “List of Academy Award winners and nominees for Best International Feature Film”
TasteOfCinema.com (11/16/2018). “The 25 Best Foreign Language Films of All Time”
Time Out (8/14/2019). “The 50 best foreign films of all time”
TownAndCountryMag.com (1/18/2019). “The 25 Best Foreign Films to Watch Right Now”

Originally posted 9/1/2019; last updated 5/25/2023.

The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups)

Released: May 4, 1959

Studio: Les Films du Carrosse

Genre: foreign

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: -- Worldwide: 0.17

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: François Truffaut

Screenwriting: François Truffaut, Marcel Moussy

Starring: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, Claire Maurier

Review:

This was the first feature film from director François Truffaut. It was also the first of his autobiographical Antoine Doinel series, which also included Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970), and Love on the Run (1979). Along with Breathless, The 400 Blows “marked the arrival of the French New Wave and its fresh, streetwise style.” ^PM

The movie was “shot on location in Paris with a casually vivid eye that is almost documentary.” ^T95 It is “one of the cinema’s most perceptive forays into childhood” ^T95 with “an amazing freshness in its (quasi-autobiographical) account” ^T95 of Antoine Doinel (Léaud), a Parisian youth.

400 Blows is “more than a sentimental coming-of-age story.” ^PM It is “a harsh, often sad tale” ^PM about “downtrodden, neglected and rebellious adolescence that is intensely moving but never mawkish.” ^T95 The movie unveils “Doinel’s bleak odyssey” ^T95 in which he’s always running away and ends up turning to a “life of small-time crime as a reaction to derelict parents.” ^LM