I didn’t want to just list the 12 films I sent in for inclusion that didn’t make the final list of nominees for the Foreign Language Films List without writing a bit about them and why I love them so much. My entire list is filled to the brim with Japanese, Italian and French films and that’s not just because they’re easily available. It means that I really love Japanese, Italian and French cinema. In all honesty, I didn’t expect a lot of the following films to make the final list because they’re personal favorites and some are not easily available on DVD, but that wasn’t one of the requirements. We were asked to list favorites and that’s what I did. If someone wanted me to teach a class on world cinema using my list I would have probably selected some different films.

I think the best part about creating these lists is discovering stuff out about yourself. While creating my list it I learned the following:

-The sixties is far and away my favorite film decade.
- I love Japanese crime films and the more surreal the better. At least five films in a similar vein made my list.
- I love horror/science fiction films with a Frankenstein theme. At least three films with variations of this theme made my list.
- I love films with great opening sequences. If a movie can make my jaw hit the floor within the first 10-15 minutes, it gains my instant affection. Many of the films on my list contain amazing opening sequences that grab you by the throat and never let go.
- Alain Delon is still my favorite actor. I could watch him stare out a window for 4 hours and never get bored.

So without further delay - Here is a list of 12 of my Favorite Foreign Language Films that didn’t make the final list of nominees. They’re listed in alphabetical order:

The 10th Victim a.k.a. La Decima Vittima (1965, Elio Petri)
Italian director Elio Petri won the Golden Palm at Cannes in 1971 for his film The Working Class Goes to Heaven and a Jury Prize in 1970 for his film Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, which was also nominated for an Oscar. Sadly, none of Petri’s films made the nominee list but I hoped that his stylish sixties science fiction film the The 10th Victim would. Part social satire, part dark sex comedy and all style, The 10th Victim is truly one of the sixties greatest looking films. It stars the lovely Ursula Andress and handsome Marcello Mastroianni in two of their most unforgettable roles as hunter and victim playing a televised survival game. It undoubtedly inspired many other lesser films such as The Running Man (1987) and Fukasaku’s Battle Royal (2000), but The 10th Victim is far and away one of the smartest and most adult science fiction films ever made. The fantastic cinematography by Gianni Di Venanzo and fabulous score by Piero Piccioni are tops.

- Clip from The 10th Victim

Black Lizard a.k.a. Kurotokage (1968, Kinji Fukasaku)
Kinji Fukasaku made a lot of great movies in Japan before his untimely death in 2003, but this truly surreal 1968 crime thriller is a personal favorite. It combines the best elements found in sixties era James Bond films and Film Noir with an erotic mystery that is guaranteed to leave first time viewers stunned. It’s also got a wicked streak of dark humor running through it and an avant-garde “pop art” sensibility that really appeals to me. The lovely female lead is played by the reigning queen of Japanese drag performers, Akihiro Miwa, and his real-life lover (famed Japanese author Yukio Mishima who helped write the screenplay) even makes an appearance in the film. I plan on writing a more in-depth review of Black Lizard very soon, but I will add that I’ve rarely had a better time at the movies than when I first saw this film back in the early 1990s.

Blood & Black Lace a.k.a. Sei Donne per l’assassino (1964, Mario Bava)
Selecting one Mario Bava film for my list was nearly impossible since he’s one of my favorite filmmakers, but I finally decided to include his original giallo film that managed to forge an entire genre, Blood and Black Lace. This amazing looking film really showcases everything that I love about Bava’s filmmaking and giallo films in general. It features some of Bava’s best and most brilliant color photography and impressive special effects that still make my eyes pop. Blood and Black Lace has inspired countless imitators, but this truly original piece of work remains bold and exciting some 40 years after it was first made.

- German language trailer for Blood and Black Lace

The Diabolical Doctor Z a.k.a. Miss Muerte (1966, Jess Franco)
I love a lot of Jess Franco films, but I also have my favorites and The Diabolical Doctor Z was the first film that made me a Franco fan for life. This incredible looking Spanish/French production features a terrific international cast and boasts some of Franco’s most impressive directing. It was the film that really cemented Franco’s name in the world of international cinema and it contains many of the director’s favorite themes that are perfectly executed here (it’s also co-written by Bunuel collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere). The film finds inspiration in Georges Franju’s classic Eyes Without a Face as well as old Universal monster films, but somehow Franco still manages to give the film a very original and modern feel that is all his own.

- Bad American trailer for The Diabolical Doctor Z

The Face of Another a.k.a. Tanin no Kao (1966, Hiroshi Teshigahara)
I’ve already written about Teshigahara’s film in great detail so I won’t bother saying much more, but you can find my previous thoughts about this amazing film here.

- Japanese trailer for The Face of Another

Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973, Shunya Ito)
I’ve loved the Japanese Female Prisoner Scorpion films since I first discovered them being released on DVD in the states in 2002. They’re on unusual blend of two genres (Pinky Violence and Women in Prison films) that somehow manage to take what could be considered very trashy and exploitive themes and turn them into truly great avant-garde filmmaking. Beast Stable is the third and last film in the series directed by Shunya Ito and he brings everything I love about his earlier films into this last movie in the series and turns it up to volume 10. He also manages to define his previous ideas and develop his directing style in ways that really impress me and that’s why this film is my favorite in the series. I wrote another tiny blurb about Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable earlier this year, which you can find here.

- Japanese trailer for Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable

Gonin a.k.a. Five (1995, Takashi Ishi)
The 1990s was an amazing decade for Japanese cinema and I wanted to include films made by many great directors from this period on my list such as Takeshi Kitano, Takeshi Miike, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Hirokazu Koreeda, but after I started slowly chipping away at my long list of Favorite Foreign Language films to select a mere 25 for inclusion on my list, Gonin was the one film from the decade that remained (I also assumed those other directors would make the list without my vote). Takashi Ishi has only made a few worthwhile films and Gonin is far and away his greatest achievement, but its influence on modern Japanese cinema shouldn’t be underestimated. This incredible crime film involves a gang of misfits who come together and try to rob the local yakuza, but things don’t exactly go as planned and as the film unfolds in a thunderous wave of unparalleled violence and mind-blowing action, it also takes on a dark, surreal and horrific tone that raises it far above most typical Asian crime films. Underneath Gonin’s slick and stylish exterior you’ll find the first film - in my moving going experience - that dared to openly exploit the gay subtext found in thousands of buddy action movies made in previous decades. It also contains some terrific performances by great Japanese actors such as the amazing Takeshi Kitano who is guaranteed to impress and give you nightmares as a bloodthirsty one-eyed hitman. I first saw Gonin when it debuted in the US in San Francisco and half the audience left before the film finished. The rest of us that remained sat in stunned silence until the very end. We all watched the credits roll until the darkened theater turned on the house lights and then we all looked at each other - half of us with tears in our eyes and the other half with our jaws still on the ground - fully aware that we had just experienced a stunning and groundbreaking film. It’s an experience I’ll never forget.

- The original Gonin trailer

Jean De Florette / Manon of the Spring (1986, Claude Berri)
It’s hard to explain why we enjoy some films more than others, but ever since I first sat through the entire 4-hour sweeping epic that is Claude Berri’s Jean De Florette and Manon of the Spring back in the late 1980s when I was in college studying film, I’ve been in love with these two movies. Together they make up a powerful drama of great beauty that manages to invoke the magic of cinema classics while telling a timeless story that can still deeply affect modern audiences. Has the French countryside ever looked so beautiful? These are films that I’ve come back to again and again when the world doesn’t seem right and I need a “pick me up” as well as a confirmation of humanity in all it’s loveliness and ugliness. The great French actor Yves Montand also delivers an incredibly moving performance in these films that always leaves me impressed.

- American trailer for Manon of the Spring

Pale Flower a.k.a. Kawaita Hana (1964, Masahiro Shinoda)
If you haven’t noticed by now, I really love Japanese crime films and many of my favorites ended up making my list because I couldn’t bare to leave them off. Shinoda’s brilliant Pale Flower manages to be both an erotic and highly subversive bit of filmmaking that perfectly represents the Japanese New Wave while keeping one foot firmly planted in the violent underworld of Japanese crime cinema. Shinoda takes what could be a simple yakuza tale and love story, and turns it into cinematic art. This gorgeous film showcases why he’s one of Japan’s greatest modern filmmakers. I naively assumed Shinoda’s amazing film Double Suicide would make the final list of nominees so I voted for this one instead, but I love them both a lot. In the end though, Pale Flower is a film I like to return to again and again and it’s complex themes appeal to me in many ways.

Santa Sangre (1989, Alejandro Jodorowsky)
With the recent release of the Jodorowsky DVD Box set in America this year I assumed that at least one of his films would make it onto the list of nominees. Obviously I assumed wrong. I expect that Jodorowsky’s brand of surrealism is still just a bit too extreme for most film audiences. That’s really a shame, because he’s made some fascinating films and my favorite Jodorowsky film is Santa Sangre. Santa Sangre is Jodorwsky’s darkest effort and his most fully realized film in my opinion. It is brimming with unforgettable imagery and startling storytelling techniques that recall an earlier time in European horror cinema seen through more modern eyes. Like many of the films on my list, Santa Sangre is not easy viewing, but it’s a film that constantly comes to mind when I think about Foreign Language Films that have deeply affected me and changed the way I view cinema as an art form.

- Clip from Santa Sangre

Teorema (1968, Pier Paolo Pasolini)
I’m not really sure that Pasolini’s Teorema counts 100% as a foreign language film, but I included it in my list anyway. Teorema is a film that seems to divide audiences and many critics find it incomprehensible or just plain trashy. I think it’s a bit of both and that’s why I love it so much. It also features some of Pasolini’s most impressive imagery and manages to mix eroticism with political and social issues in an extremely creative way. Terence Stamp is unforgettable here as the mysterious sexy stranger who enters into the life of a bourgeois family and changes their lives forever. It’s the film that introduced to me to Passolini’s work and it remains a favorite since I first saw it some 18 years ago.

- Clip from Teorema

Youth of the Beast - Criterion Collection a.k.a. Yaju no Seishun (1963, Seijun Suzuki)
Sejiun Suzuki’s Youth of the Beast is the final film on my list of favorites and it’s undoubtedly one of the best looking films of the bunch. I was astonished that none of Suzuki’s films made the list of nominees since his work has been available on DVD for many years and is supported by Criterion, but the Criterion crowd often likes to dismiss Suzuki. His films are still widely unseen and under-appreciated which is a shame. He’s one of Japan’s greatest living directors and he makes some of the most entertaining and beautiful looking films that I’ve ever seen. I had an extremely hard time trying to decide which Suzuki film I would select for inclusion on my list. He is the only director that I almost broke my own rule for because I couldn’t pick between the dark WWII drama Gate of Flesh (which I raved about here) and this mind-blowing crime film. Youth of the Beast was the first film that gained Suzuki a reputation in Japan for making unbelievably stylish and over-the-top crime films that left audiences reeling and confused his critics. It was also the first film that brought Suzuki and his longtime star Jo Shishido together, and the two men truly make movie magic on screen that has to be seen to be believed. Youth of the Beast was made only a year after the first James Bond film and yet in many ways it’s light years ahead of any adult action films shot during that decade and made on probably half the budget. Besides mind-blowing action sequences, jaw-dropping photography and an amazingly effective score, the film is also infused with Suzuki’s own brand of eroticism and violence, and it showcases his incredibly modern storytelling abilities that have inspired countless imitators. If you rent Suzuki’s Youth of the Beast you are guaranteed a knockout night at the movies that you’ll never forget so if you’re unfamiliar with the director’s work, do yourself a favor and discover it soon.

- Clips from Youth of the Beast

While I was compiling this list of 25 favorites I came up with over 100 films that I wanted to add to it so I plan on posting my entire list sooner or later since I regret not including many films. Lists are tricky things and limited by what we have seen. I don’t like sharing them since my list of Favorite Foreign Films could change at any given day depending on my mood and whatever new films I’m exposed to, but I can honestly say that all 25 films on this list will always be personal favorites.

I’ve been interested in seeing Alan Cooke’s film The Mind of Mr. Soames (1970) for many years mainly because it’s an Amicus production with a great cast that includes Terence Stamp, Robert Vaughn, Nigel Davenport, Christian Roberts, Donal Donnelly and Vickery Turner. The film also features cinematography by the talented Billy Williams. I’ve seen just about every film that Amicus produced during the ’60s and ’70s and many of them are personal favorites so I assumed I would probably really enjoy The Mind of Mr. Soames as well. The film didn’t exactly live up to my high expectations, but it had plenty of interesting moments and explored many fascinating ideas. The cast was truly exceptional and composer Michael Dress’s score is very good, but unfortunately Alan Cooke’s direction is rather dull and uninspired at times.

The Mind of Mr. Soames is based on a bestselling 1961 novel of the same name written by the British science fiction author Charles Eric Maine (pen name for David McIlwain). It tells the story of a thirty-year-old man named John Soames (Terence Stamp) who suffered a mild brain injury during birth that has kept him in a deep sleep his entire life. As the film opens Dr. Bergen (Robert Vaughn) is traveling to London to meet Dr. Maitland (Nigel Davenport) and perform a revolutionary type of brain surgery that will awaken Soames from his lifelong slumber, but he’s surprised by what he finds at the hospital when he arrives there.

Dr. Maitland (Nigel Davenport) has turned the entire hospital into a sort of set for a reality television program that plans to broadcast the operation and follow John Soames recovery. The ongoing interviews between the doctors and the television crew are conducted by a failed medical student and budding reporter named Thomas Fleming (Christian Roberts) who seems eager to exploit the situation as much as possible for his own gain.

When Soames awakens in a childlike state he is put under the care of the rather severe Dr. Maitland and his more sensitive assistant Joe (Donal Donnelly). Dr. Maitland is determined to accelerate Soames’ developmental process and he subjects him to countless tests and educational classes that leave no room for downtime or meaningful human interactions. Thankfully Dr. Bergen and Joe occasionally step in and try to offer Soames their friendship and understanding, but their acts of kindness seems strangely at odds with the cold and clinical environment Soames is trapped in.

One of the most fascinating things about the film is the way it explores early ideas about reality television. As John Soames slowly develops into an adult he is continually filmed by a television crew that watches his every move. Back in 1961 when The Mind of Mr. Soames was first written, reality television was a somewhat impossible idea and very few people besides smart science fiction writers could have imagined what television would be like today. So much of what is shown in The Mind of Mr. Soames has become commonplace now that it might be easy for some viewers to overlook the film’s somewhat groundbreaking take on modern media.

Mr. Soames (Terence Stamp) rests after the operation

It’s possible that the British documentary series Seven Up! (1964) was a minor inspiration for director Alan Cooke when he decided to turn The Mind of Mr. Soames into a film, but that’s debatable. Before making The Mind of Mr. Soames the director had previously worked in television and his previous experience both hinders and adds to the film in my opinion. Cooke’s directing is very static at times and I sometimes wondered if I was watching a television production instead of a feature film, but he does a wonderful job of portraying the subtle effects that an unblinking camera can have when it’s pointed on an unwilling subject. Cooke clearly understood the power as well as the limits of television and his knowledge of the medium is occasionally used to great effect in The Mind of Mr. Soames.

As the film progresses John Soames becomes more and more disenchanted with the claustrophobic environment he’s trapped in and he longs to escape the hospital as well as the cameras. In some of the films best moments Terence Stamp beautifully portrays Soames as someone who longs to be outside among nature and naively imagines the freedom that it offers. When Soames finally gets to explore the world outside the confines of the hospital walls, the film takes on an unearthly beauty that makes you wish the director had chosen to spend more time there instead of spending so much time inside the sterile hospital.

Top: Terence Stamp as Mr. Soames Bottom: James Dean (1955) in a similar shot

In one beautiful scene Stamp’s character lays down in the grass and stares wistfully at some flowers which are just beginning to blossom. The scene recalls the wonderful moment in Elia Kazan’s East of Eden (1955) when James Dean laid on the ground and willed the crops to grow. As I mentioned before in my previous piece about Terence Stamp, East of Eden is one of the actor’s favorite films and it was James Dean’s amazing performance as Cal that inspired Terence Stamp to become an actor. I have no idea if The Mind of Mr. Soames mimicked that important scene from East of Eden intentionally or if it was taken straight out of the book, but I can’t help wondering if Terence Stamp himself suggested it since the moment seems so clearly inspired by the film that encouraged him to start acting.

The Mind of Mr. Soames has an interesting, but somewhat unsatisfying ending. I liked the fact that the film didn’t offer any easy answers to John Soames complicated predicament but it somehow felt unfinished. Viewers are left to wonder what will finally become of this infantile character trapped in a man’s body and ruled by an adult world. I have no problem with inconclusive endings, but the movie seemed like it had more to say and never got the opportunity to say it.

Another complaint I have about the film is the lack of time given to the interesting cast of characters such as the kind and sensitive Joe who is played wonderfully by Donal Donnelly (The Knack …and How to Get It) and the pushy reporter Thomas who’s played by the edgy Christian Roberts (To Sir, with Love, Twisted Nerve, etc.) and his girlfriend Naomi who’s played by the cute Vickery Turner. Vickery Turner had lots of small roles in great British films and she was a popular stage actress in Britain during the sixties. When The Mind of Mr. Soames was released she was mostly known in the US as the wife of American actor Warren Oates who she met on the set of the 1969 comedy Crooks and Coronets a year earlier. The two were only married for five years and during that time Turner didn’t seem to do much acting. She’s terribly wasted in The Mind of Mr. Soames which is a shame. I think if her role had been fleshed out a bit more it would have given the film another interesting angle to explore.

Vickery Turner and Christian Roberts in The Mind of Mr. Soames

The Mind of Mr. Soames is hard to see in the US now, but it was originally distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film is definitely worthy of an offical DVD release and I’d love to see a nice widescreen presentation of the film with audio commentary from the main actors who are all still alive, except for Vickery Turner who passed away last year. Even though the movie suffers from some lackluster direction at times and poor editing, the actors raise the production to unexpected heights and Terence Stamp is especially noteworthy as the childlike John Soames.

If you’d like to see more still shots from the film please visit my Mind of Mr. Soames Gallery at Flickr.

One of my favorite actors is the handsome, talented and all-around extraordinary Terence Stamp who is celebrating his 68th birthday today. Stamp got interested in acting at the tender age of four after seeing Gary Cooper in Beau Geste (1939), but he didn’t decide to seriously pursue acting until he was seventeen years old. On New Years Eve in 1956 Stamp went to a screening of Elia Kazan’s East of Eden (1955) which starred James Dean and the film completely overwhelmed him. Terence Stamp related to Dean in a way that he hadn’t with other performers and soon after Stamp decided to enroll at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in London to study acting.

In the early sixties Stamp started appearing in various stage productions where he met fellow actor Michael Caine. The two young men with working class backgrounds shared a lot in common and they quickly became friends and roommates. After landing the starring role in Peter Ustinov’s critically acclaimed film adaptation of the Herman Melville novel Billy Budd (1962), Terence Stamp was suddenly hailed as one of Britain’s brightest new stars. The role of Billy Budd won Stamp a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer and also landed him an Oscar nomination.

Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar in The Collector (1965)

Soon after Terence Stamp and Michael Caine became familiar faces in swinging London and they were regularly seen together at Peter Cook’s popular Soho nightclub The Establishment. The two handsome actors entertained many lovely British actresses and models at the flat they shared and together they earned a reputation for being extremely popular with the ladies. One of these ladies was the lovely actress Julie Christie who Stamp was said to be romantically involved with for a brief time. Their relationship was memorialized in The Kinks song Waterloo Sunset which contains the lines; “Terry meets Julie, Waterloo Station every Friday night.”

Amid all the partying Stamp continued to act and after making Billy Budd he starred in William Wyler’s brilliant adaptation of John Fowles novel The Collector (1965). His role as the rather sad and disturbed Freddie Clegg in The Collector was a huge departure from the sensitive and sweet character of Billy Budd that Stamp had previously played and it gave him the chance to really show off his impressive acting abilities. The Collector was nominated for many awards and Stamp won Best Actor for his performance at Cannes in 1966. He also continued to act on stage and appeared in the popular London stage production of Bill Naughton’s play Alfie. Stamp was offered the starring role in the film version of Alfie (1966) as well but he decided to turn it down and suggested that his roommate and friend Michael Caine take the role instead. Caine did, and his performance as Alfie won him a lot of well-earned critical attention. Together Stamp and Caine became two of London’s most recognized celebrities.

While making the The Collector Terence Stamp met and fell deeply in love with the beautiful British model and occasional actress Jean Shrimpton. Sometime afterward Stamp decided to move out of the place he shared with Michael Caine and into his own flat at The Albany which was an exclusive gentlemen’s apartment in the heart of London that had previously been home to historic figures such as the poet Lord Byron. I had the chance to briefly visit The Albany when I was in London seven years ago and it’s an incredibly lovely old building that sits across the street from the wonderful Hatchards Bookshop.

During this time Stamp was offered the starring role in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup (1966), but Antonioni decided to replace Stamp at the last minute with actor David Hemmings. This incident supposedly devastated Stamp and many critics have written about how it seemed to throw a wrench into his career, but I would disagree with that. Stamp would appear in many great films throughout the sixties including Jospeh Losey’s terrific pop art spy spoof Modesty Blaise (1966), John Schlesinger’s beautiful adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel Far From the Madding Crowd (1967), Ken Loach’s gritty kitchen sink drama Poor Cow (1967), the interesting western Blue (1968), Fellini’s amazing segment of the horror and fantasy anthology Spirits of the Dead (a.k.a. Histoires Extraordinaires, 1968) and Pasolini’s fascinating and brilliant Teorema (1968). Many of the films he appeared in met with mixed critical reviews but his performances were often singled out as being consistently good. The starring role in Antonioni’s Blowup would have been a nice addition to Terence Stamp’s filmography, but his excellent and varied career as an actor is just as impressive without it.

As the sixties came to a close, Stamp’s relationship with Jean Shrimpton supposedly fell apart when he found out she was having an affair with another man. This discovery was said to have destroyed Stamp and much like the British actor James Fox who I wrote about earlier this year, Stamp decided to take a break from acting and devote himself to spiritual studies. Before his self-imposed sabbatical, Stamp appeared in a couple of worthwhile films in the early seventies including the British science fiction film The Mind of Mr. Soames (1970) and Nello Risi’s Una Stagione all’inferno (1970) where he appeared as the French poet Arthur Rimbaud alongside Jean-Claude Brialy as Paul Verlaine. I’ve recently had the chance to view The Mind of Mr. Soames so you can expect a review from me very soon, but I still haven’t been able to track down a copy Una Stagione all’inferno and I would love to see that film. Hopefully it will become available sooner or later.

Jean Shrimpton and Terence Stamp with his horse Modesty in 1965.
Jean gave Modesty to Terence for his birthday after he got the role
in the film Modesty Blaise.

For the next decade Terence Stamp would spend most of his time traveling the world and living in such varied places as Spain, Japan and India where he studied the teachings of spiritual leaders such as Krishnamurti and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. He occasionally took roles in interesting films like Hu-Man (1975), Divina Creatura (1975), Striptease (1976) and Black-Out (1977) but his popular roles in Richard Donner’s Superman - The Movie (1978) and Peter Brook’s Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979) really brought Terence Stamp back into the spotlight.

For the past thirty years Terence Stamp has continued to act in some good, and not so good films. I think some of his best performances in recent years can be found in The Hit (1985), The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994) and The Limey (1999). Hopefully Stamp will be offered more challenging roles in the future that make full use of his versatility and incredible skills an an actor. Even at age 68 Stamp continues to look terrific and Esquire magazine recently voted him Britain’s best dressed man.

If you’d like to learn more about Terence Stamp I recommend visiting the fan site:
- Terence Stamp : Meetings With A Remarkable Man

Like many people I would love to be in France this weekend, but I’ll have to settle for celebrating Cannes 60th Anniversary in the privacy of my own home. In true armchair traveler fashion I thought I’d share some tips on how you can throw your own 1960s-1970s style Cannes Festival at home for yourself and a few film loving friends.

Jean Shrimpton and Terence Stamp at Cannes (1965)

It’s impossible to have your own Cannes style Film Festival without some films, so here are a few suggestions for Double Features that are easily available on DVD. All the films listed were awarded and celebrated at Cannes during 1960-1979.

By Themes:
Swinging London
The Knack… and How to Get It (1965) - Winner of the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) in 1965
Blow Up (1966) - Winner of the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) in 1967

Madness and Horror
The Collector (1965) - Winner Best Actor Terence Stamp & Best Actress Samantha Eggar in 1965
Images (1972) - Winner Best Actress Susannah York in 1972

American Paranoia
The Conversation (1974) - Winner of the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) in 1974
Taxi Driver (1976) - Winner of the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) in 1976

Two by Luchino Visconti
The Leopard (1963) - Winner of the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) in 1963
Death in Venice (1971) - Winner of 25th Anniversary Prize in 1971

By Country:
France
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) - Winner of the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) in 1964
Violette (1978) - Winner Best Actress Isabelle Huppert in 1978

Italy
La Dolce Vita (1960) - Winner of the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) in 1960
Two Women (1960) - Winner Best Actress Sophia Loren in 1961

Japan
Harakiri (1962) - Winner of Jury Special Prize in 1963
Kwaidan (1964) - Winner of Jury Special Prize in 1965

Germany
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) - Winner of Jury Special Prize in 1975
The Tin Drum (1979) - Winner of the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) in 1979

Naturally you should have some beverages on hand for your private Film Festival. More adventurous film enthusiasts can always pick up a bottle of French Champagne or give the In the Spirits Cannes Cocktail Page a look. They offer lots of interesting cocktail recipes inspired by Cannes such as the tasty Palme d’Or featured below:

If you don’t drink alcohol don’t despair. Just substitute the Vodka for sparkling bottled water and you’ll have yourself an alcohol free Palme d’Or.

You might also want to feed yourself or your guests, so I suggest giving the delicious cuisine of the French Riviera a try. You can find some good regional recipes at the French Riviera Magazine site for appetizers as well as main courses and desserts. Many of them are easy to put together for anyone who’s nervous about trying their hand at French cooking.

With good movies, good drinks and good food you can enjoy a little bit of the Cannes spirit right at home no matter where you are.

François Truffaut and Orson Welles try to enjoy a meal together
surrounded by the paparazzi at Cannes (1966)

David Zuzelo who runs the terrific blog Tomb it May Concern started what he refers to as The Eurotrash Pinnacle Project. It’s an effort to bring together a list of favorite Eurotrash films from every genre imaginable including eurohorror, giallo, eurospy and spaghetti westerns. I recently contributed my own list of Top 10 Eurotrash films with an additional 10 titles tacked on the end for good measure, since selecting only 10 was an impossible task.

In my brief commentary for the first 10 films I listed, I used the word “sexy” a lot, which isn’t too surprising since sex often plays an important part in Eurotrash films and some of my favorite actors (Klaus Kinski, Alain Delon, Terence Stamp, Helmut Berger and John Phillip Law) often show up looking very sexy in the movies I mentioned.

You can find my list of favorite Eurotrash films now posted over at Tomb it May Concern. Be sure to click on the label link “Eurotrash Film Pinnacle Project” at the bottom of the entry because it will take you to the the rest of the great movie lists contributed by others.