Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award
Winners and Nominees: 1931 – Today
Page 2: 1970 – 1989
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Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award Winners and Nominees: 1931 – Today Page 2: 1970 – 1989 |
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| Unforgivable Oversight : Some of these films are not available on DVD or VHS. For example, The Assault, Volver a Empezar, and Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, the winning films from 1989, 1982, and 1970 are completely unavailable. So are Alsino and the Condor from 1982, Cousine Cousin from 1976, and many other terrific foreign films. These are terrible omissions, when so many wretched films are readily available. Please consider asking DVD sellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble to pressure the film companies to make these celebrated films available. Also, please support this website by patronizing my sponsors. Thanks! |
1989 Camille Claudel (France) Cinema Paradiso (Italy) Jesus of Montreal (Canada) Waltzing Regitze (Denmark) What Happened to Santiago (Puerto Rico)
Nominee, Isabelle Adjani, for Camille Claudel (France) Honorary Award to Akira Kurosawa
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Cinema Paradiso: A successful film director returns to his Sicilian village for the funeral of his friend and mentor, the projectionist at a movie theater called the Cinema Paradiso. “There are films as lovely, but none lovelier than Cinema Paradiso, a folkloric salute to the medium itself, flickering with yesterday's innocence and lingering on the mind like bubbles in wine.” Rita Kempley, Washington Post Camille Claudel: A beautiful independent woman artist descends into madness. Adjani is possessed in this movie. It is not one of those leisurely costume dramas in which people in beautiful costumes move through elegant rooms. Her eyes always look haunted...feral.... Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
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1988 Hanussen (Hungary) The Music Teacher (Belgium) Pelle the Conquerer (Denmark) Salaam Bombay! (India) Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Spain)
Nominee, Max Von Sydow, for Best Actor in Pelle The Conquerer (Denmark) Winner, Best Documentary Feature, for Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (France/USA)
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Pelle the Conquerer: A Swedish boy in turn-of-the-century Denmark witnesses his aging, impoverished father’s servitude and sacrifice. “In Pelle the Conqueror, Max von Sydow is so astoundingly evocative that he makes your bones ache. This is a performance that comes from the joints and ligaments; it's conceived in marrow.” Hal Hinson, Washington Post Salaam Bombay!: A 10 year-old boy named Krishna and other street waifs struggle to survive and elude police on the streets of Bombay, India. “The children, all non-professionals, are splendid, especially Shafiq Syed, the little boy who plays Krishna, and Hansa Vithal, as the tiny, stoic daughter of a Bombay prostitute and her pimp.” Vincent Canby, New York Times |
1987 Au Revoir Les Enfants (France) Babette’s Feast (Denmark) Course Completed (Spain) The Family (Italy) Pathfinder (Norway)
Winner, Best Picture, The Last Emperor (France/Italy/UK) Nominee, Best Actor, Marcello Mastroianni, for Dark Eyes (Italy) Winner, Best Director, Bernardo Bertolucci, for The Last Emperor (Italy) Nominee, Best Director, Lass Hallstrom, for My Life as a Dog (Sweden) Winner, Best Score, Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, and Cong Su, for The Last Emperor (Japan/US/China)
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Babette’s Feast: A French refugee in 19th century Denmark prepares a special meal for her austere benefactors. “Babette's Feast is about edible art -- Art with a capital A -- a tour de force for the taste buds laid down before neither gourmets nor gourmands, but a sect of gruel-eating puritans.” Rita Kempley, Washington Post
Bertolucci’s (The Last Emperor is) heartfelt, deeply satisfying storytelling. Peter Bradshaw, The (London) Guardian
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1986 The Assault (De Aanslag) (Netherlands) Betty Blue (France) The Decline of the Western Empire (Canada) My Sweet Little Village (Czechoslovakia) “38” (Austria)
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Betty Blue: A man watches his beautiful, sexually passionate lover go insane.
“(Betty Blue is) a devastating combination of French farce and Greek tragedy.... We...are seduced, suckered and artistically terrorized by the gruesome twists of this stylish, witty and ultimately nihilistic lover's portrait. ” Rita Kempley, Washington Post “Rademakers seems unwilling to come to a strong conclusion, or even a distinct one, and that vagueness is reflected throughout (The Assault).” Janet Maslin, New York Times
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1985 Angry Harvest (W. Germany) Colonel Redl (Hungary) The Official Story (Argentina) Three Men and a Cradle (France) When Father Was Away on Business (Yugoslavia)
Nominee, Best Director (Akira Kurosawa), Cinematography, Costume Design, and Set Decoration: Ran (Japan)
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The Official Story: An wealthy woman suspects that her adopted baby daughter may have been stolen from a murdered opponent of Argentinian government’s authoritarian regime. “The Official Story is part polemic, part thriller, part tragedy. It belongs on the list with films like Z, Missing, and El Norte, which examine the human aspects of political unrest.”
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Ran: Shakespeare’s King Lear tragedy, set in medieval Japan. “(Akira Kurosawa’s) Ran is a great, glorious achievement.” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
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1984 Beyond the Walls (Israel) Camila (Argentina) Dangerous Moves (Switzerland) Double Feature (Spain) Wartime Romance (U.S.S.R.)
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Dangerous Moves: A Russian chessmaster duels an upstart Eastern European defector. “Dangerous Moves (is) sluggish... uninspired.... it won this year's Oscar as the best foreign-language film over...(the) far more complex, far more resonant Argentine film, Camila.” Vincent Canby, New York Times
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1983 Carmen (Spain) Entre Nous (France) Fanny & Alexander (Sweden) Job’s Revolt (Hungary) Le Bal (Algeria)
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Fanny and Alexander: The father of Fanny and Alexander dies, and their mother marries an austere minister. Meanwhile, Alexander is visited by his father's ghost. “Fanny and Alexander is a big, exciting, ambitious film -- more of a beginning than, as Bergman claims, the summary of his career.” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times |
1982 Alsino and the Condor (Nicaragua) Coup de Torchon (Clean Slate) (France) The Flight of the Eagle (Sweden) Private Life (U.S.S.R.) Volver a Empezar (Spain)
Nominee, Best Writing Based on Material from Another Medium, Cinematography, Sound, Editing, Sound Effects, Editing, Das Boot (W. Germany)
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Coup de Torchon: Lucien, a French police officer in 1938 French West Africa decides to clean up his town. “Mr. Tavernier recreates (Coup de Torchon's) setting and time period with great care and paints a detailed portrait of the racial tensions generated by colonialism, as well as of the moral deterioration of the colonials themselves.” Janet Maslin, New York Times |
1981 The Boat is Full (Switzerland) Man of Iron (Poland) Mephisto (Hungary) Muddy River (Japan) Three Brothers (Italy)
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Mephisto: A stage actor enjoys the admiration of Nazis in pre-WWII Germany. “The actor is played by Klaus Maria Brandauer in one of the greatest movie performances I've ever seen. The character, Henrik, is not sympathetic, and yet we identify with him because he shares so many of our own weaknesses and fears.” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
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1980 Confidence (Hungary) Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior) (Japan) The Last Metro (France) Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (U.S.S.R.) The Nest (Spain)
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Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears: Three young women come to Moscow to find jobs and husbands. “Mr. Truffaut and Mr. Kurosawa have have each made better films than the ones by which they were represented in this year's Oscar contest, but both The Last Metro and Kagemusha are superior to most films made by anybody in the last several years. In such company, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears looks like hack-work.” Vincent Canby, New York Times
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1979 The Maids of Wilko (Poland) Mama Turns a Hundred (Spain) A Simple Story (France) The Tin Drum (E. Germany) To Forget Venice (Italy)
Nominee, Best Director, Edouard Molinaro, for La Cage Aux Folles (France) Nominee, Best Writing, for La Cage Aux Folles (France)
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The Tin Drum: A German boy in the years just before WWII becomes so disillusioned with adults that he refuses to grow up. “...the emotions that (child actor David) Bennent is able to convey with his eyes alone reflects back to the brilliant, expressive acting of some of the silent era's greats. What a different movie The Tin Drum would have been had it not starred this amazing 11 year old boy.” Barry Meyer, Film Monthly
“...sometimes we're laughing at what's funny and sometimes we're just laughing at (La Cage Aux Folles's) sheer comic invention. This is a great time at the movies.” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
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1978 Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (France) The Glass Cell (W. Germany) Hungarians (Hungary) Viva Italia! (Italy) White Bim Black Ear (U.S.S.R.)
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Get Out Your Handerchiefs (Préparez vos Mouchoirs): A man tries to help his depressed wife by getting her a lover. “(Get Out Your Handkerchiefs) lags a bit toward the middle and gets plain old bizarre near the end, but it's a quite good and totally unique movie experience. ” Christopher Null, filmcritic.com
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1977 Iphegenia (Greece) Madame Rosa (France) Operation Thunderbolt (Israel) A Special Day (Italy) That Obscure Object of Desire (Spain)
Nominee, Best Actor, Marcello Mastroianni, for A Special Day (Italy)
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Madame Rosa: An aging Jewish prostitute befriends an 14-year old Arab orphan. “...warmhearted...” Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever “Bunel work (That Obscure Object of Desire) triumphantly funny and wise.” Headline of New York Times review
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1976 Black and White in Color (Ivory Coast) Cousin, Cousine (France) Jacob the Liar (E. Germany) Nights and Days (Poland) Seven Beauties (Italy)
Nominee, Best Actor, Giancarlo Gianinni, for Seven Beauties (Italy) Nominee, Marie-Christine Barrault, Best Actress, for Cousin Cousine (France) Nominee, Liv Ullman, Best Actress, for Face to Face (Sweden) Nominee, Ingmar Bergman, Best Director, for Face to Face (Sweden) Nominee, Lina Wertmuller, Best Director, for Seven Beauties (Italy)
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Black and White in Color: Comedy about French colonials in West Africa who decide to attack Germans nearby. “Amusing but lightweight satiric film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud...” Charles Matthews, Oscar A–Z
Seven Beauties: A petty criminal during WWII encounters all sorts of trouble defending the honor of his seven non-beautiful sisters. “(Seven Beauties') virtuoso style, demonstrating once again Miss Wertmuller's mastery of filmmaking, is used to tell us a story that's very opaque, despairing, and bottomless.” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
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1975 Dersu Uzala (U.S.S.R.) Land of Promise (Poland) Letters From Marusia (Mexico) Sandakan No. 8 (Japan) Scent of a Woman (Italy)
Nominee, Isabelle Adjani, Best Actress, for The Story of Adele H. (France) Nominee, Federico Fellini, Best Director, for Amarcord (Italy)
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Dersu Uzala: A Russian explorer befriends a Siberian hunter. “When Akira Kurosawa, the gifted Japanese director, takes the unusual step of making a movie ... with the Soviet film industry, and when the first half is delicate and haunting and the second half is numb and ponderous, it is hard not to jump to conclusions about who did what.” Richard Eder, New York Times The Story of Adele H.: Victor Hugo’s daughter falls in obsessively in love with a British lieutenant. Based on a true story. “Adele H. then, must have seemed the ideal Truffaut heroine when he happened across her diaries. And he has made one of his best films about her.” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
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1974 Amarcord (Italy) Catsplay (Hungary) The Deluge (Poland) Lacombe, Lucien (France) The Truce (Argentina)
Nominee, Valentina Cortese, Best Supporting Actress, for Day For Night (France) Nominee, Francois Truffaut, Best Director, for Day For Night (France)
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Amarcord: Fellini's affectionate, bawdy memoir of the odd characters that populated his town of Rimini, Italy, in the 1930s. “If ever there was a movie made entirely out of nostalgia and joy, by a filmmaker at the heedless height of his powers, that movies is Federico Fellini's Amarcord. ” Roger Ebert, The Great Movies II |
1973 Day For Night (France) The House on Chelouche Street (Israel) L’Invitation (Switzerland) The Pedestrian (W. Germany) Turkish Delight (Netherlands)
Nominee, Best Picture, for Cries and Whispers (Sweden) Nominee, Ingmar Bergman, Best Director, for Cries and Whispers (Sweden)
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Day For Night (La Nuit Américain) : Truffaut's comedy about filmmaking, in which personal lives interfere and interweave with the making of a movie. “Day for Night is truly a wonderful film. It's fun in all the little things it reveals about moviemaking as well as in the characters we meet.” Montreal Film Journal “Cries and Whispers envelops us in a tomb of dread, pain, and hate...” Roger Ebert, The Great Movies II |
1972 The Dawns Here Are Quiet (U.S.S.R.) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (France) I Love You Rosa (Israel) My Dearest Senorita (Spain) The New Land (Sweden)
Nominee, Best Picture, for The Immigrants (Sweden) Nominee, Liv Ullman, Best Actress, for The Immigrants (Sweden) Nominee, Jan Troell, Best Director, for The Immigrants (Sweden)
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The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie: Guests at a dinner party are repeatedly interrupted by strange events. “The joke in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is the way Bunuel interrupts the meals with the secrets that lurk beneath the surface of his decaying European aristocracy; witlessness, adultery, drug dealing, cheating, military coups, perversion, and the paralysis of boredom.” Roger Ebert, The Great Movies II |
1971 Dodes’Ka-Den (Japan) The Emigrants (Sweden) The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Italy) The Policeman (Israel) Tchaikovsky (U.S.S.R.)
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The Garden of the Finzi-Continis: A Jewish community in Italy disintegrates under Italian fascism. “(Finzi-Continis is) a hauntingly beautiful movie, brilliantly conceived and tenderly realized.” Newsweek |
1970 First Love (Switzerland) Hoa-Binh (France) Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto) (Italy) Paix Sur Les Champs (Belgium) Tristana (Spain)
Nominee, Federico Fellini, Best Director, for Fellini Satyricon (Italy)
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Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion: A fascist chief of homicide murders his mistress then plants clues implicating him in the crime. “Mr. Petri quite consciously makes movies about ideas, he has, in his Investigation, made a movie in which the ideas, and the man who seethes with them, have the shock and impact of the most fundamental kind of melodrama.” Vincent Canby, New York Times “Fellini Satyricon is a masterpiece... and films that dare everything cannot please everybody.” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times |
This site is not affliliated with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. My sources included: Joseph Osborn's 75 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards, Roger Ebert's The Great Movies and The Great Movies II, Pauline Kael's 5001 Nights At The Movies, The Movie Review Query Engine (www.mrqe.com), and the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) . contact: sitbluesit@comcast.net © 2007 Dan Sato
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