I think I saw my first foreign films in high school French class. We screened Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (1946) as well as Claude Berri's Jean de Florette and its sequel, Manon of the Spring (1986). Those films mesmerized me.
As an adult, I've tried to keep up with the acclaimed foreign films that I've heard about from Siskel, Ebert, and Roeper. I've discovered Amelie, Hero, Run Lola Run, Monsoon Wedding, the early films of Ang Lee and the sublimely colorful world of Pedro Almodovar.
Today I watched The Lives of Others, the 2006 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film, directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. The film takes place in 1984 East Berlin and follows the lives of a playwright, his actress girlfriend, and the Stasi agent (secret policeman) assigned to monitor their lives and work. It's a quiet thriller and heartbreaking character piece; I highly recommend it.
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