European Movie Gems
by spongeburn | created - 15 Nov 2012 | updated - 6 months ago | PublicIndie, Arthouse or Mainstream - the common feature is that these a great films.
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1. Pusher (1996)
Not Rated | 110 min | Crime, Thriller
A drug pusher grows increasingly desperate after a botched deal leaves him with a large debt to a ruthless drug lord.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Stars: Kim Bodnia, Zlatko Buric, Laura Drasbæk, Slavko Labovic
Votes: 44,345 | Gross: $0.00M
2. Pusher II (2004)
Not Rated | 100 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Tonny is released from prison - again. This time he has his mind set on changing his broken down life, but that is easier said than done.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, Leif Sylvester, Anne Sørensen, Øyvind Hagen-Traberg
Votes: 24,869
3. Pusher III (2005)
Not Rated | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Milo tries to be a family man and run his criminal organization, but a wrong drug shipment endangers everything.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Stars: Zlatko Buric, Marinela Dekic, Slavko Labovic, Ramadan Huseini
Votes: 17,965
4. Bleeder (1999)
98 min | Crime, Drama
Two stories for the price of one: Lenny works in a video shop and tries to get aquainted with the waitress Lea. Leo beats his pregnant wife, Louise, which is a VERY bad idea, as her brother, Louis, is a violent racist.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Stars: Kim Bodnia, Mads Mikkelsen, Rikke Louise Andersson, Liv Corfixen
Votes: 9,121
5. In China They Eat Dogs (1999)
Not Rated | 91 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Two brothers, one cold and ruthless, the other sensitive and reluctant, and their brutal misadventures.
Director: Lasse Spang Olsen | Stars: Kim Bodnia, Dejan Cukic, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Tomas Villum Jensen
Votes: 22,987
6. Gamle mænd i nye biler (2002)
Not Rated | 95 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Fresh out of a Danish prison, Harald bosses his old gang around, into visiting his hospitalized foster dad, who wants to see his bio son before dying. The son's in a Swedish prison. Then there's a money matter - robbing a bank.
Director: Lasse Spang Olsen | Stars: Kim Bodnia, Torkel Petersson, Tomas Villum Jensen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas
Votes: 9,651
7. Benny's Video (1992)
Not Rated | 110 min | Crime, Drama
A 14-year-old video enthusiast obsessed with violent films decides to make one of his own and show it to his parents, with tragic results.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Arno Frisch, Angela Winkler, Ulrich Mühe, Ingrid Stassner
Votes: 18,495
8. Funny Games (1997)
Not Rated | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Two violent young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic "games" with one another for their own amusement.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering
Votes: 83,593
9. Caché (2005)
R | 117 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A married couple is terrorized by a series of surveillance videotapes left on their front porch.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Maurice Bénichou, Annie Girardot
Votes: 84,928 | Gross: $3.63M
10. The White Ribbon (2009)
R | 144 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 77,440 | Gross: $2.22M
11. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Not Rated | 95 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
In the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo, Del Negro
Votes: 61,998
12. My Best Fiend (1999)
Not Rated | 95 min | Documentary, Biography
The love-hate relationship between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, the deep trust between the director and the actor, and their independently and simultaneously hatched plans to murder one another.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, Eva Mattes
Votes: 12,149 | Gross: $0.10M
13. Bagdad Cafe (1987)
PG | 95 min | Comedy, Drama
A lonely German woman ends up in the most desolate motel on Earth and decides to make it brighter.
Director: Percy Adlon | Stars: Marianne Sägebrecht, CCH Pounder, Jack Palance, Christine Kaufmann
Votes: 15,143 | Gross: $3.59M
14. Voyager (1991)
PG-13 | 117 min | Drama, Romance
April 1957: Rational engineer Faber's plane crashes in Mexico. He learns that he became a dad in 1938. He takes a ship from NYC to France and meets cute, young Sabeth. Fate?
Director: Volker Schlöndorff | Stars: Sam Shepard, Julie Delpy, Barbara Sukowa, Traci Lind
Votes: 3,555 | Gross: $0.52M
15. Quartier lointain (2010)
98 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A grown man wakes up to discover he is a teenager again.
Director: Sam Garbarski | Stars: Pascal Greggory, Jonathan Zaccaï, Alexandra Maria Lara, Léo Legrand
Votes: 1,856
16. Brassed Off (1996)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
The coal mine in a northern English village may be closing, which would also mean the end of the miners' brass band.
Director: Mark Herman | Stars: Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald, Ewan McGregor, Stephen Tompkinson
Votes: 20,895 | Gross: $2.56M
17. Train of Life (1998)
R | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, War
In 1941, the inhabitants of a small Jewish village in Central Europe organize a fake deportation train so that they can escape the Nazis and flee to Palestine.
Director: Radu Mihaileanu | Stars: Lionel Abelanski, Rufus, Clément Harari, Michel Muller
Votes: 9,569 | Gross: $0.15M
18. Life Is Beautiful (1997)
PG-13 | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When an open-minded Jewish waiter and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.
Director: Roberto Benigni | Stars: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Giustino Durano
Votes: 740,535 | Gross: $57.60M
19. Downfall (2004)
R | 156 min | Biography, Drama, History
Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler
Votes: 374,098 | Gross: $5.51M
20. Stalingrad (1993)
Not Rated | 134 min | Drama, War
The story follows a group of German soldiers, from their Italian R&R in the summer of 1942 to the frozen steppes of Soviet Russia and ending with the battle for Stalingrad.
Director: Joseph Vilsmaier | Stars: Dominique Horwitz, Thomas Kretschmann, Jochen Nickel, Sebastian Rudolph
Votes: 37,607 | Gross: $0.08M
21. The Lives of Others (2006)
R | 137 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 409,012 | Gross: $11.29M
22. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
R | 152 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A journalist is aided by a young female hacker in his search for the killer of a woman who has been dead for forty years.
Director: Niels Arden Oplev | Stars: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Ewa Fröling, Lena Endre
Votes: 222,993 | Gross: $10.10M
23. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009)
R | 147 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Lisbeth is recovering in a hospital and awaiting trial for three murders when she is released. Mikael must prove her innocence, but Lisbeth must be willing to share the details of her sordid experiences with the court.
Director: Daniel Alfredson | Stars: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Lena Endre, Annika Hallin
Votes: 74,394 | Gross: $5.43M
24. The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009)
R | 129 min | Action, Crime, Drama
As computer hacker Lisbeth and journalist Mikael investigate a sex-trafficking ring, Lisbeth is accused of three murders, causing her to go on the run while Mikael works to clear her name.
Director: Daniel Alfredson | Stars: Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist, Lena Endre, Peter Andersson
Votes: 98,339 | Gross: $9.08M
25. La haine (1995)
Not Rated | 98 min | Crime, Drama
24 hours in the lives of three young men in the French suburbs the day after a violent riot.
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz | Stars: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui, Abdel Ahmed Ghili
Votes: 195,201 | Gross: $0.31M
26. La Femme Nikita (1990)
R | 117 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Convicted felon Nikita isn't going to jail; she's given a new identity and trained, stylishly, as a top secret spy/assassin.
Director: Luc Besson | Stars: Anne Parillaud, Marc Duret, Patrick Fontana, Alain Lathière
Votes: 76,209 | Gross: $5.02M
27. Léon: The Professional (1994)
R | 110 min | Action, Crime, Drama
12-year-old Mathilda is reluctantly taken in by Léon, a professional assassin, after her family is murdered. An unusual relationship forms as she becomes his protégée and learns the assassin's trade.
Director: Luc Besson | Stars: Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman, Danny Aiello
Votes: 1,240,639 | Gross: $19.50M
28. Sexy Beast (2000)
R | 89 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Brutal gangster Don Logan recruits "retired" safecracker Gal for one last job, but it goes badly for both of them.
Director: Jonathan Glazer | Stars: Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman
Votes: 68,630 | Gross: $6.95M
29. Short Sharp Shock (1998)
99 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Gabriel (Mehmet Kurtulus) gets out of jail and is determined to put his criminal past behind him. Yet with his two friends Bobby (Aleksandar Jovanovic) and Costa (Adam Bousdoukos) drawn to crime, will he be dragged back in?
Director: Fatih Akin | Stars: Mehmet Kurtulus, Aleksandar Jovanovic, Adam Bousdoukos, Regula Grauwiller
Votes: 5,350
30. Head-On (2004)
R | 121 min | Drama, Romance
With the intention to break free from the strict familial restrictions, a suicidal young woman sets up a marriage of convenience with a forty-year-old addict, an act that will lead to an outburst of envious love.
Director: Fatih Akin | Stars: Birol Ünel, Sibel Kekilli, Güven Kiraç, Zarah Jane McKenzie
Votes: 57,533
31. The Celebration (1998)
R | 105 min | Drama
At Helge's 60th birthday party, some unpleasant family truths are revealed.
Director: Thomas Vinterberg | Stars: Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Paprika Steen
Votes: 93,479 | Gross: $1.65M
32. The Big Feast (1973)
NC-17 | 130 min | Comedy, Drama
A group of men go to a villa in the French countryside where they resolve to eat themselves to death.
Director: Marco Ferreri | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, Ugo Tognazzi
Votes: 14,625
33. Man Bites Dog (1992)
NC-17 | 95 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A film crew follows a ruthless thief and heartless killer as he goes about his daily routine. But complications set in when the film crew lose their objectivity and begin lending a hand.
Directors: Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, Benoît Poelvoorde | Stars: Benoît Poelvoorde, Jacqueline Poelvoorde-Pappaert, Nelly Pappaert, Hector Pappaert
Votes: 43,606 | Gross: $0.21M
34. Devotion (2003)
92 min | Drama, Thriller, Mystery
In total despair, Anja is about to throw herself from a bridge. At that very moment, Henry drives past in his car. Thinking she's a prostitute, he invites her home with him. She pretends to... See full summary »
Director: Igor Zaritzky | Stars: Annett Renneberg, Simon Böer, Tomek Piotrowski, Sophia Littkopf
Votes: 627
35. Irina Palm (2007)
R | 103 min | Comedy, Drama
Middle-aged Maggie must find a way to get enough money for her grandson's lifesaving medical treatment and lift the dwindling hopes of her only son Tom and his wife Sarah. Desperation leads the respectable widow to work in a sex club.
Director: Sam Garbarski | Stars: Marianne Faithfull, Predrag 'Miki' Manojlovic, Kevin Bishop, Siobhan Hewlett
Votes: 7,750 | Gross: $0.04M
36. Timecrimes (2007)
R | 92 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A man accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour. Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences.
Director: Nacho Vigalondo | Stars: Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernández, Bárbara Goenaga, Nacho Vigalondo
Votes: 68,567 | Gross: $0.04M
37. This Is England (2006)
Not Rated | 101 min | Crime, Drama
A young boy becomes friends with a gang of skinheads. Friends soon become like family, and relationships will be pushed to the very limit.
Director: Shane Meadows | Stars: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley, Andrew Shim
Votes: 128,458 | Gross: $0.33M
38. Brassed Off (1996)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
The coal mine in a northern English village may be closing, which would also mean the end of the miners' brass band.
Director: Mark Herman | Stars: Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald, Ewan McGregor, Stephen Tompkinson
Votes: 20,895 | Gross: $2.56M
39. Let the Right One In (2008)
R | 114 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.
Director: Tomas Alfredson | Stars: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl
Votes: 226,301 | Gross: $2.12M
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