Pg mpaa Foreign DVDs & Videos - Browse DVDs & Videos at BizRate. Compare Prices and Read Consumer Reviews

starting at

$3

product

Bollywood and Hollywood entwine for this mix of romance, singing, comedy, dancing, and melodrama, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali (DEVDAS) and produced in tandem with Sony/Columbia. The achingly beautiful Rani Mukherjee narrates and appears as Gulab, a streetcorner princess haunting the red light district in an expressionistic melange of Venice, Vegas, and Amsterdam. The irrepressibly callow musician Raj (Ranbir Kapoor) catches her eye, but Raj thinks he's in love with Sakina (Sonam Kapoor) who prefers to pine away for her absent lover, Imaan (Salman Kahn). All this longing (it's based on Dostoyevsky's WHITE NIGHTS) is stunningly captured through bizarre and elaborate backdrops, winding staircases, torrents of rain, and a color scheme heavy on the blues. Fans of Baz Luhrman's MOULIN ROUGE will want to live inside this film: there may not a whole lot of weight to all the tomfoolery, but the pain of youthful romantic idealism is part of the message. The music is always the thing with Bollywood films and SAAWARIYA packs in its share of rousing numbers. Western viewers entering the realm of Bollywood for the first time will find SAAWARIYA ("beloved" in Hindi) to be a crossover film that's ready to welcome them with open arms into a jubilant world of high-spirited song and dance, over-the-top goofiness, anguished melodrama, gyrating hips (with very sexy exposed belly buttons), and PG-rated romance.

starting at

$3

Howl's Moving Castle

Available at 14 stores

starting at

$20

product

Howl's Moving Castle

Acclaimed Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki adapts British writer Diana Wynne Jones's popular fantasy tale for this animated feature, adding his own unique and celebrated dreamlike spin. A young hat-maker named Sophie (voiced by Emily Mortimer) is turned into an old woman by the dreaded Witch of the Waste (Lauren Bacall) when she attracts the notice of Howl (Christian Bale), a young wizard whom the witch desires for herself. As the old woman, (voiced by Jean Simmons), Sophie finds refuge as a cleaning lady in Howl's magical castle, an impressively realized mishmash of anthropomorphic shafts and gears, where she meets, among other wonders, a cantankerous fire demon named Calcifer (Billy Crystal). Howl's courage inspires her to seek a cure for her curse, and vice versa, and the two work together to prevent a major war as the castle roams the countryside on its mechanical legs. There's lots of magic afoot as well, including travel through barriers of space and time, and shape-shifting, requiring full viewer attention to keep track of who, where, and when, but this how dreams really are and the film engages on that same subconscious level. As with Miyazaki's previous work (SPIRITED AWAY, KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE), the emphasis here is on creating a beautiful alternate reality, where anything can happen, and every frame is a breathtaking work of art. See it on the big screen if the chance presents itself; the elaborate intricacies and patiently realized alternate realities of Miyazaki's work makes him a true treasure.

starting at

$20

Cria Cuervos [DVD]

Available at 12 stores

starting at

$24

product

Cria Cuervos [DVD]

After doing several films with screenwriter Rafael Azcona (GARDEN OF DELIGHTS, MY COUSIN AGNELICA) Carlos Saura made CRIA! from his own script. He continued using actors in dual roles, allowing for easily shifting time frames and multiple points of view. In a dreamy opening scene, Ana (Ana Torrent), a wide-eyed child of about ten, comes down the stairs and sees a half-dressed woman run from her father's room. She quietly and without emotion goes into the room where her father lies dead on the bed and removes a half-full glass of milk. In the kitchen, as she washes out the glass, her mother (Geraldine Chaplin) enters and scolds her for being up so late. But her Mother, we learn later, died earlier, and Ana blamed her father for it and put poison in his milk. When Ana is alone her mother appears to her again, but this time she looks right in the camera and explains that she's Ana, now age 29. Some of what came before was a flashback from her adult perspective. With Chaplin playing both parts, the film shifts between the story of Ana and her mother, and Ana's life as an adult, until what actually happened the night her father died is completely revealed. CRIA! is the most complex and ambitious of the many films that Saura and Chaplin made together.

starting at

$24

Kagemusha (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ra...

Available at 12 stores

starting at

$18

product

Kagemusha (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray Disc]

In this dazzling epic from Akira Kurosawa, a petty thief named Kagemusha (Tatsuya Nakadai) gets saved from a death sentence because he resembles the warlord Shingen Takeda (also Nakadai). The warlord has been fighting two other leaders for control of 16th-century Japan and impersonators often take his place during battles to put him out of harm's way. Because of Kagemusha's strong physical similarities to the warlord, he's a perfect choice for a "shadow warrior." However, the arrangement suddenly changes when Shingen gets fatally wounded while watching a battle. Adhering to Shingen's final wish, the warlord's men keep the death a secret, and Kagemusha struggles to transform himself from a criminal into a leader. KAGEMUSHA marked a welcome return for the legendary director, who had not made a movie since 1974. Nakadai, a supporting player in earlier Kurosawa films, expertly portrays the leading role(s), almost always filled in the past by Toshirô Mifune. KAGEMUSHA also features the final screen appearance of longtime Kurosawa actor, Takashi Shimura. In order to help the film get an international release, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas served as executive producers.

starting at

$18

Dreams [DVD]

Available at 15 stores

starting at

$6

product

Dreams [DVD]

Akira Kurosawa's DREAMS consists of eight short films based on actual dreams of the director. The first sequence, "Sunshine Through the Rain," features a young boy sneaking off into the forest on a rainy day to watch a procession of enchanted foxes. In "The Peach Orchard," a slightly older boy witnesses tree spirits performing a delicate dance. Weary travelers in "The Blizzard" face the elemental wrath of a snow enchantress, while "The Tunnel" finds a military officer haunted by the ghosts of his dead regiment. In "Crows," an art aficionado literally walks into the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh (played by Martin Scorsese). "Mount Fuji in Red" and "The Weeping Demon" are both fantastical cautionary tales about the hazards of nuclear power. Finally the gentle "Village of the Watermills" brings the film to a quiet, pastoral end. A highly personal project, DREAMS evinces its labor-of-love atmosphere in every sequence. As with all Kurosawa productions, each short film is meticulously designed and beautifully photographed. While many of the middle sequences are eerie and surreal, the first two films and the finale ("Sunshine Through the Rain," "The Peach Orchard," and "Village of the Watermills") are gorgeously lush and serene.

starting at

$6

Shaolin Soccer [DVD]

Available at 14 stores

starting at

$4

product

Shaolin Soccer [DVD]

Hong Kong satirist Stephen Chow wrote, directed, and stars in this hilarious spoof of sports and kung fu movie cliches. Chow plays "Mighty Steel Leg" Sing, who can kick soda cans through walls, and is a natural soccer star in the eyes of crippled coach Fung (Patrick Se Yin), who is looking to challenge his arch rival Hung, the captain of the aptly named Evil Team. Recruiting Sing and his goofy brothers who all have names like Steel Head, Hook Kick Leg, and Weight Vest (with qualities to match), Hung's team soon rises through the ranks via their supernatural Kung Fu soccer skills. There's also a love interest in the form of a shy girl (Vicki Zhao Wei) who uses martial arts magic in making steamed bread. MATRIX-style digital effects elevate the actor's martial arts skills to ludicrous heights, giving the clichéd story such a giddy, high-octane boost it soars into a comic class by itself. Soccer balls ripple through the air like slo-mo bullets, smashing through walls, and flying thousands of feet in the air. A box office smash in the East, SHAOLIN SOCCER should prove irresistible to open-minded Westerners looking for a laugh-out-loud experience.

starting at

$4

The Story of Adele H. (World Films) [DVD...

Available at 13 stores

starting at

$6

product

The Story of Adele H. (World Films) [DVD]

A drama of a young woman, the daughter of author Victor Hugo, who is obsessed with a soldier who does not return her love. Academy Award Nominations: Best Actress--Isabelle Adjani.

starting at

$6

The Lost Honor of Katherina Blum [DVD]

Available at 13 stores

starting at

$11

product

The Lost Honor of Katherina Blum [DVD]

A night spent with a suspected terrorist is the catalyst for a smear campaign against the otherwise unimportant life of Katharina Blum (Angelina Winkler). Katharina's life is thrown in the balance as both police and the news media strip her of all her dignity and sanity in this shocking German attack on power abuse and yellow journalism. Directed by Volker Schlondorff and Margarethe von Trotta, the 1975 film is based on an equally menacing novel by Heinrich Boll.

starting at

$11

Autumn Sonata (Criterion Collection) [DV...

Available at 15 stores

starting at

$14

product

Autumn Sonata (Criterion Collection) [DVD]

In this drama written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, Eva, the meek, seemingly complacent wife of a parson, invites her mother, Charlotte, a world famous pianist, to come for a visit, hoping for a reconciliation after a long period of estrangement and virtually no interaction. Instead, long-repressed feelings of rage toward her mother for repeatedly abandoning her as a child begin to surface and finally culminate in a cathartic confrontation between the two women. Liv Ullmann and Ingrid Bergman (in her final movie role) give excellent and emotionally charged performances as Eva and Charlotte.

starting at

$14

Together [DVD]

Available at 8 stores

starting at

$3

product

Together [DVD]

Director-writer-producer-star Chen Kaige, well known for his visually sumptuous tales of historical China (FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE) directs this sweet-natured coming of age tale set in modern day Beijing. An impoverished cook, Liu Chen (Liu Peiqui), gives up his provincial life to move his 13-year-old violin virtuoso son, Xiaochun (Tang Yun), to Beijing so that he can audition for a prestigious music school. Once in the crowded industrial city Liu is bewildered by the big money and corruption and Xiaochun is forced to learn about the perils of the real world and the high stress of competitive classical music training from Professor Tiang (Wang Zhiwen), a cynical and eccentric music teacher. While Liu struggles as a lowly food delivery man, Xiaochun blossoms as a musician, but also as a modern day teenager, full of confusion and desire. His desire is provoked by their neighbor, Lili (Chen Hong--Chen Kaige's wife), a high-class call girl whose love of money and power masks a pure heart that tenderly cares for the young boy. With dreams of his son's potential, Liu hires a second teacher, Professor Yu (played by Chen Kaige), who is a slick and ruthless starmaker. Finally, Xiaochun must decide whether his dreams are the same as his father's, in this moving tale set to an eloquent classical music soundtrack.

starting at

$3

Time Out [DVD]

Available at 8 stores

starting at

$5

product

Time Out [DVD]

Vincent (Aurelien Recoing) spends a lot of time in his car. He sleeps in his car sometimes, parked in highway truck stops where buses full of school children pass through during the daytime, and at night stragglers lost en route stop to drink and tell their stories. Having been fired from his job over a month ago, he is a man running from the truth. Unable to admit his unemployed status to his family, he goes to great lengths to convince his wife and three young children that he spends busy days hard at work. He makes phone calls home talking of meetings and appointments, then returns home complaining of fatigue from being overworked. In fact, he drives around a lot, meanders in and out of office buildings, picks up pieces of information and pages through vague research that does not seem to be part of any cohesive goal or plan. The menacing part of it all is that the closer we get to Vincent, the more he seems to convince himself, and us, that he's telling the truth. And the resulting psychological trickery is positively creepy. This French mystery from director Laurent Cantet (HUMAN RESOURCES) carries an eerie chill that seems inexplicable. While the story seems simple enough, Vincent's lies and the way that he manipulates people--especially his family--are expertly conveyed with cold, steady camerawork and a beguiling performance from Recoing.

starting at

$5

Baran [DVD]

Available at 11 stores

starting at

$7

product

Baran [DVD]

From Iranian director Majid Majidi (CHILDREN OF HEAVEN), BARAN is the story of Lateef, a 17-year-old boy who lives in Teheran and works in the kitchen on a construction site. Hotheaded and always ready for a fight, Lateef resents his boss Memar for holding his wages to send to his father at the end of the year. When Rahmat, a young Afghan boy, replaces Lateef, Lateef's new job is lugging heavy bags of cement up the stairs. Hungry for revenge, Lateef sets out to make Rahmat's life miserable. One day, while spying on Rahmat, Lateef realizes that the boy is actually a girl hiding her gender so she can work to support her family. Lateef falls in love and decides to help her with what little money he has. In the process, he blossoms and changes from a sullen teenager into a generous young man. BARAN is a wonderfully romantic tale about sacrifice and devotion. But underneath this simplistic fable is a political film about 1.5 million Afghani refugees suffering in Iran, and Majidi shows a remarkable talent in making BARAN seem like a romantic love story. BARAN belongs with the best Neorealist films as an example of filmmaking that stares boldly at the pertinacity of the human spirit.

starting at

$7

Forbidden Games [DVD]

Available at 12 stores

starting at

$10

product

Forbidden Games [DVD]

A young orphaned French girl is taken in by a peasant family during WWII. Becoming fast friends with the young son, the two children begin playing games imitating the tragedies of war around them. Academy Award Nominations: Best Motion Picture Story.

starting at

$10

Mr. Klein [DVD]

Available at 9 stores

starting at

$11

product

Mr. Klein [DVD]

Alain Delon stars as the eponymous protagonist in Joseph Losey's first French film, MR. KLEIN. Living a posh life amid the chaos and turmoil of Nazi-occupied Paris, Mr. Klein makes his living buying art at cutthroat rates from desperate Jews fleeing the country. When a Jewish newspaper is mistakenly addressed to him, Klein learns of the existence of another, Jewish Mr. Klein. Klein reports the irregularity to the police, only to find himself further implicated in intrigue and danger. Embarking on a desperate search for his namesake, Klein visits his apartment and intercepts a secret invitation, bringing him into contact with the other Klein's world--and lover (played by Jeanne Moreau). Sinking into a paranoid fervor, Klein becomes a detective, searching for any evidence of the other Klein's whereabouts. As the Nazis close in and his double continues to elude him, the very name Mr. Klein, echoing sinisterly throughout the film, becomes a talisman of fear and panicked guilt. The secret societies and poisoned atmosphere of Vichy France come to life as Mr. Klein's Kafkaesque nightmare leads him unwittingly into a startled appreciation of the plight of the persecuted. Losey's restrained direction matched with Delon's emotive presence combine to create a powerful psychological and moral thriller.

starting at

$11

Three Brothers (Subtitled English) [DVD]

Available at 10 stores

starting at

$11

product

Three Brothers (Subtitled English) [DVD]

Three brothers are summoned home by the news that their mother has died. Upon their return they realize they must come to terms with death and the course of their own lives. Loosely based on the novel The Third Sun by A. Platonov. Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Film.

starting at

$11

Life and Nothing But [DVD]

Available at 8 stores

starting at

$13

product

Life and Nothing But [DVD]

Two women of differing backgrounds are looking for the missing men they love in the aftermath of World War I. Along the way they encounter two French officers, one detailed to identify the dead and the other assigned to choose a body to be honored as France's unknown soldier.

starting at

$13

...And God Created Woman (Criterion Coll...

Available at 9 stores

starting at

$17

product

...And God Created Woman (Criterion Collection) [DVD]

In Roger Vadim's directorial debut, his then-wife, Brigitte Bardot, plays Juliette, a sumptuous orphan beauty who sparks an incendiary and erotically charged love triangle between herself and three men who desire her. Spending her days barefoot and barely working in the town tabac, Juliette loves to listen to the jukebox at the local bar and saunter past the men in town; all the while, she has eyes only for local thug Antoine. Millionaire Eric Carradine desires Juliette as much as he desires Antoine's family's oceanfront property. After being coldly spurned by Antoine, Juliette is rescued from a return to the orphanage when Antoine's timid younger brother, Michel (Jean-Louis Trintignant), proposes marriage, at the suggestion of Carradine. As the unlikely couple works hard at achieving a semblance of happiness, the dark forces that dwell inside Juliette's restless spirit force her closer and closer to Antoine. Vadim lets Bardot revel in the CinemaScope and Technicolor beauty of the film, and the simmering mambo-infused soundtrack traces the plot's erotic undercurrents as they drive all the characters toward an inevitable climax of erotic and violent explosion, personal revelation, and a New Wave definition of love and romance.

starting at

$17

The Sacrifice [DVD]

Available at 10 stores

starting at

$24

product

The Sacrifice [DVD]

Set in Sweden, Andrei Tarkovsky's last film follows the travails of wealthy patriarch Alexander (Erland Josephson), a former actor and critic who lives in a remote home on the edge of the Baltic Sea. One year on his birthday, a sudden television announcement interrupts the celebration with news of a nuclear holocaust. His family and guests suffer through violent fits of hysteria and emotional turmoil in the ensuing days, but the previously troubled Alexander finds a clearness of mind when he makes a pact with God--offering himself as a sacrifice in order to redeem the fallen earth for his cherished son. Supremely poetic, THE SACRIFICE is filled with achingly beautiful images, expertly shot by Ingmar Bergman's trusted cinematographer Sven Nykvist. As Alexander goes from self-contented ease to crippling animal fear and existential anguish and finally to spiritual abandon, the troubled journey is illustrated with a haunting succession of images, tableaus, objects, dreams, and gestures--all sewn together in a seamlessly elliptical vision. As in all of Tarkovsky's haunting and mystical films, the characters are forced to come to terms with their own physical and spiritual existence, with redemption coming through faith--in this case, Alexander's faith in his love for his young son.

starting at

$24

Caramel [DVD]

Available at 10 stores

starting at

$10

product

Caramel [DVD]

Warm and sweet, this Lebanese film lives up to its titular substance without ever being too sugary. Actress Nadine Labaki cowrote and directed CARAMEL, an ensemble comedy set in and around a Beirut beauty salon. Labaki also stars as Layale, a beautician torn by her secret affair with a married man who beckons her with his car horn. Her coworker Nisrine (Yasmine Al Masri) is about to get married, but she withholds a secret from her fiancé and hides her modern looks from his family. Meanwhile, shampooist Rima (Joanna Moukarzel) lusts after a female customer and her lush locks. Client and aging actress Jamal (Gisele Aouad) makes frequent visits to the salon to measure up to her much younger competition, but her efforts don't seem to be helping her career. In contrast, Rose (Siham Haddad) seems to have given up the fight against her advancing years, but the appearance of a new suitor may change things, even though she devotes most of her time to the care of her older sister (Aziza Semaan). In her directorial debut, Labaki displays both beauty and brains. Few women in cinema history have looked as stunning onscreen as Labaki does here, but she doesn't let her looks carry her. It's a sensitive performance that stands out among the others in the film, but she never overshadows her costars, who are all excellent in their acting debuts. More like the French film VENUS BEAUTY INSTITUTE than the American comedy BEAUTY SHOP, CARAMEL is a mature film that still manages to be a lot of fun. There's certainly romance here, but the film centers more on the relationships and bonds between the six women at its heart.

starting at

$10

Il Postino (Special Edition) [DVD]

Available at 15 stores

starting at

$7

product

Il Postino (Special Edition) [DVD]

A young postman's world is brightened as he begins delivering letters to poet Pablo Neruda, exiled on an island off the coast of Italy. At first hoping friendship with the poet will improve his reputation with a local barmaid, he ultimately develops a genuine, touching relationship with the laureate. This was the late Massimo Troisi's final film appearance. Academy Award Nominations: 5, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor--Massimo Troisi. Academy Awards: Best Original Dramatic Score.

starting at

$7

Pg mpaa in Foreign DVDs & Videos

you're in Foreign DVDs & Videos, see other matches in:

Price

Stores

More

What Shoppers are Buying

Stores Selling Foreign DVDs & Videos

Popular Searches in Foreign DVDs & Videos