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Cinema breaks ground from all parts of the globe and in this exclusive Music Mondays article we dive into why its important to dive into international films and media.
11/28/25
What do Chunking Express, Suspiria (1970), High and Low, Titane, Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, Fantastic Planet and Flow, have in common besides being films that I love? As someone who lives in America, these films represent a small sample of the massive catalog of international cinema that I have only recently started exploring. I am not writing this to pose as an expert on the subject, and in fact, it's quite the opposite. While I am very excited to dive into different historical movements in different countries and check out some of the best from this current year, like It Was Just An Accident, directed by Jafar Panahi, or The Secret Agent, directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, I am very much still a beginner in a vast world of history and incredible cinema. I am excited to write this piece and hopefully inspire the same love I’ve come to find for international film, and ultimately, the art form as a whole.
Now I’d like to start out with a disclaimer. As an American, there is a tendency for a lot of people to centralize American culture and treat others as lesser than, which is clearly an ignorant approach, but one that a lot of people may hold without realizing it. In that context, I don’t really love the “foreign film” label that most would commonly use. These are, in some cases, very different cultures and styles, but are in no way lesser and in fact, a lot of the greatest films ever made are created from those various movements and countries. However, even as an American viewer, a lot of the sensibilities of the viewing audience have been created through some of the most popular directors of all time, directly emulating their international influences. From Tarantino’s postmodern approach being directly influenced by Jean-Luc Godard’s work or Star Wars being directly inspired by Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, these cultural landmarks were created by the inspiration driven by all of these incredible directors and works of art. Lucas & Tarantino’s approaches show that even two of the more self-indulgent directors in the industry had the foresight to realize that the international film community is essential to understanding and looking forward. I say this not as a slight to those two directors, though I do have my problems with Tarantino, especially, but to say that the cultural DNA of America, like many other things, is a complex web of different cultures and people that ultimately thrives on its diversity. When looking at the overall map that is the history of cinema, excluding 75% of the picture because of a different language really limits the ability to understand the full picture.
Now that we’ve established some context, there is truly so much out there to see. French New Wave, Iranian New Wave, Italian Neorealism, Cuban Revolutionary Cinema, Korean New Wave, New Nigerian Wave, German Expressionism, and Japanese New Wave are just a few of the massive movements over the years that have shaped Cinema’s history. These movements contain multitudes of amazing films created by some of the pioneers of the cinematic language. These movements contain years and many facets, so we can’t get into them all, but the amazing website I did my research on, CineWaves, did a great job of laying things out. I’ll be linking their blog later on for anyone else curious about these various styles and how they built out what we know as cinema today, but the point being that almost a hundred years of cinema created by so many different perspectives and innovations are widely available due to the internet.
Due to the Criterion Collection, streaming services, and wide accessibility to upload videos to YouTube, these films that used to be impossible to watch have now become just as easy to watch as American films. Apps like Tubi, Kanopy, and HBO Max have extensive catalogs full of international cinema of all kinds. Specifically, Criterion Collection’s mission to restore and redistribute various films from all types of directors has really helped propel a culture that manifested Letterboxd, which has truly been the needle mover in destroying this barrier for those not into film to stumble upon new and exciting films from places all around the world. Letterboxd is a whole conversation to be had within itself, but it has been a truly fantastic thing for getting new people into film. Whether it be from a casual perspective that develops into one of passion or someone who is a bit more experienced, having greater ease in finding discussion and access to more obscure films, the app promotes conversation like few others. Especially in the younger generations, in a lot of places, this app has become a staple of social media and allowed for whole new avenues for people to find their love for cinema. I say this not to endorse this app though I am personally a user, but more to drive home the point that people’s curiosity can be harnessed and channeled into meaningful and challenging art.
I’m going to end this with some of my personal recommendations, but first, I’d like to add that I think it’s paramount in a society that seems to be continually suppressed and censored that people find their way to new ideas and perspectives, and the world of film may be the quickest way to do so. Film is one of the few ideas that truly still exist in popular culture and has a unique power in that context. By itself, it will not be responsible for changing the world, but I believe that it's one of the paths to find common ground and conversation to help create that meaningful change. I’ll be back with my end of the year lists for both film and music soon!!
Current Favorites:
In the Mood for Love, directed by Wong Kar-Wai
La Haine, directed by Mathieu Kassovitz
Parasite, directed by Bong Joon Ho
Princess Mononoke, directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Fallen Angels, directed by Wong Kar-Wai
Titane, directed by Julia Ducournau
La Chimera, directed by Alice Rorhwacher
Le Samouraï, directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
High and Low, directed by Akira Kurosawa
The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Kraft, directed by Werner Herzog
Films on my Watchlist
Yi Yi, directed by Edward Yang
Battle of Algiers, directed by Gillo Pontecorvo
Stalker, by Andrei Tarkovsky
Z, directed by Costa-Gavras
My Father’s Shadow, directed by Akinola Davies Jr.
Possession, directed by Andrzej Żuławski
Kaili Blues, directed by Bi Gan
Daisies, directed by Věra Chytilová
Close-Up, directed by Abbas Kiarostami
No Other Land, directed by Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Basel Adra
Films I’m really excited to see from this year (released or premiered on the festival circuit)
It Was Just An Accident directed by Jafar Panahi
No Other Choice directed by Park Chan-wook
The Secret Agent directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Resurrection directed by Bi Gan
Sentimental Value directed by Joachim Trier
Sirāt directed by Oliver Laxe
Alpha directed by Julia Ducourna
CineWaves Blog: cinemawavesblog.com/movements/
Written By Blank Thought: linktr.ee/b1ankthought
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