The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Cut 5

Artemisia

Curiosa

She Will

The Tale

Eat Drink Man Woman

Watership Down

The Last Unicorn

The Hours

Cyrano

The Black Phone

Tiny Toons: How I Spent My Vacation

Princess Mononoke

Millennium Actress

Tokyo Godfathers

Balto

Mulan

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House

To the Bone

It: Chapter 1

The Big Lebowski

Belladonna of Sadness

The Swan Princess

Wolf Children

Carrie (2002)

Inside Out (Pixar)

Far From the Tree

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

In Dreams

The Cell

Gothika

Flawless

The Wild Robot

The Little Mermaid (1975)

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland

A Journey Through Fairyland

Snow White: A Tale of Terror

Into the Woods

Holes

Uptown Girls

Anastasia

An American Tale: Fievel Goes West

Casper

Thumbelina

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Kiki's Delivery Service

How to Train Your Dragon

The Piano

Copycat

Monsters University

Speak

Four Rooms

The Fourth Floor

The Devil's Backbone

Cellular

Hanging Up

Bless the Child

Valeria and Her Week of Wonders

The Baby of Macon

The Wedding Banquet

Fargo

Daytrippers

The Other Sister

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Mirai

The Deer King

Stand By Me

The Goonies

The Karate Kid

Collateral

The Fugitive

The Bone Collector

Se7en

Kiss the Girls

The Lure

The Breakfast Club

Uncle Buck

Amelie

City of Lost Children

Delicatessen

The Mummy

Pollock

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie

The Witch

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Power Rangers (2017)

Gay Purr-ee

Practical Magic

301, 302

Compulsion

Fixed (2025)

Feardotcom

Mouse Hunt

Babe

Babe: Pig in the City

All Dogs Go to Heaven

Rover Dangerfield

The Land Before Time

Thi3teen Ghosts

Jeepers Creepers

Casablanca

Some Like It Hot

Singin' in the Rain

Cats Don't Dance

Batman Returns

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Batman: Under the Red Hood

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Matilda

Roald Dahl's Matilda

101 Dalmations

Identity

Batman and Robin

The Princess Bride

The Dark Crystal

Muppet Treasure Island

Labyrinth

The Illusionist

The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales

Chicken Run

Coraline

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Sleepy Hollow

Ernest and Celestine

The Secret of NIMH

A Goofy Movie

An Extreme Goofy Movie

Black Swan

Pet Sematary

The Dark Knight

Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet

Wolf Girl (2001)

The Woman in Black

Mama

The Babadook

Brokeback Mountain

Sorority Boys

White Chicks

Adam Sandler's 8 Crazy Nights

The Chronicle of the Raven

Sister My Sister

The House Jack Built

Antichrist

Pieces of April

Mary Reilly

The Snow Queen (1957)

The Ugly Duckling (1956)

Leafie: A Hen into the Wild

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

The Prince of Egypt

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Girl, Interrupted

Moonlighting

Beetlejuice

Lady and the Tramp

The Secret Garden

Black Beauty

Agnes of God

Charlotte's Web

Too Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar!

Center Stage

Encanto

Fantasia

X2

Jumanji

The Addams' Family Values

Baby's Day Out

Three Men and a Baby

The Accused

The Silence of the Lambs

Coffee and Cigarettes

Romance & Cigarettes

The Breadwinner

The Triplets of Belleville

Pinocchio (2019)

Memories

Hocus Pocus

Chirin's Bell

The Night Listener

American Pop

The Others

Panic Room

Assault on Precinct 13

Fire Walk With Me

After Hours

Mr. Mom

Steel Magnolias

Return to Oz

The Princess and the Goblin

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

My Neighbor Totoro

Thinner

Bolt

Camp Nowhere

Carpool

The Pagemaster

Ferngully: The Last Rainforest

Jungle 2 Jungle

What Lies Beneath

Darkness Falls

Dead Again

Harriet the Spy

A Few Good Men

As Good as it Gets

Wall-E

After Sex

Forrest Gump

Eye of the Killer

The Full Monty

The Snapper

The Halloween Tree

Ed, Edd 'n Eddy's Big Picture Show

Whale Rider

Frida

Evilenko

My Best Friend is a Vampire

Let the Right One In

Searching for Bobby Fischer

Just One of the Guys

Adventures in Babysitting

Weird Science

Lolita (1997)

Whatever it Takes

Lady in the Water

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Mona Lisa Smile

Philadelphia

Gerald's Game

Clue

Connie & Carla

Malice in Wonderland

Bend it Like Beckham

Hardcore

The Princess

Lassie

Homeward Down

The Mask

Bring it On

28 Days

Perfect Blue

Babies

The Red Shoes

The Isle of Dogs

inspired by @drinkfantasy

How do you find them?

There are many ways to discover international cinema.

Browse the categories of free or premium streaming services. Whether it's Hulu/Netflix/Max or Tubi/Kanopy you will find categories like "Bollywood" "International" "API Voices" or you can sort by language/country

Browse lists, keywords or databases on letterboxd, IMDb, Wikipedia or anywhere else you can get information about films.

Ask friends, acquaintances, mutuals etc for recommendations

You can look at the list of international Oscar winning films or other film prizes and festivals (like Cannnes, Berlinale, Venice, tiff etc)

If your town has an indie cinema and/or a university there's a high chance that international films will be screened throughout the year

If this is all a little overwhelming, I'm curating several lists on letterboxd. shameless self advertisement:

Fun/Serious are entirely based on films that I have personally watched and vouch for, while Horror/Queer contain films that are still on my watchlist or that were recommended by others.

Where do you watch them?

Premium Services

Netflix

Hulu

HBO Max

Amazon Prime

Probably all the others too

Free Services

Kanopy (this is my absolute favorite, requires a library card)

Tubi

Pluto

Roku TV

Viki Rakuten (some free some premium options)

IQIYI (some free some premium options)

Arte (if you're in Europe or have a VPN)

RTVE (if you're in Spain or have a VPN)

YouTube Free with Ads

biblio+ (requires a library card)

"Free" Services

YouTube

Dailymotion

Vimeo

Ok (dot) ru

BiliBili (May require a VPN)

effed up movies (for horror films)

several other websites that show up when you google things like "film name watch for free online" as long as you're careful

How do you approach them?

There is no right or wrong way to do this. You can watch subtitled or dubbed films. You can try to google the most famous film, actor or director from a country and try to watch that first. You can try to find some mainstream romcom or any other genre you might already enjoy. You can get obsessed with a random actor or director and just go through their entire work. You can start by checking out countries you're already interested in or know something about or you pick a random one. You could even do it alphabetically if that's more fun for you. You can do one film per country or do a deep dive into one country before moving on.

MAX SCHRECK IN NOSFERATU (1922)

There is however a very similar phenomenon nobody talks about (probably because it does not involve English-speaking media, hence why people are less interested in this).

Turns out there is quite a handful of American movies "based" (cough cough) on French movies! Ranging from straight-up remakes to rip-offs "inspired by".

Recently, as I was looking at a video dissecting some American comedies that failed at the box-office, I discovered this movie:

"Dinner for Schmucks". Released in 2010. Just by looking at the movie's title and poster I already knew what it was about and could tell you all about it. No, not because I watched it - but because this is actually an American copy of one of the most famous French comedies of the 90s: "Le dîner de cons"

Jay Roach, "Dinner for Schmucks" director, denied any claim that his movie was a remake of the French one. He said it was merely "inspired" by Le dîner de cons. But it is pretty HEAVILY influenced if you ask me.

You must understand that Le dîner de cons is still to this day considered one of the great classics of French comedy. It was a movie adaptation of a theater play of the same name. The same guy did the theater play and the movie (Francis Veber), and the same guy played the titular "Schmuck" in both media: Jacques Villeret. Jacques Villeret whose role in Le dîner de cons stays his most memorable and iconic character to date. To tell you how big this movie was, when it was released in France it was the second most-watched movie of the year, right behind... Titanic.

So when you compare that to this American movie. An American movie that bombed and was deemed a failure. And when you take into account the fact none of the fans of the American movie seem to even know the existence of the French one, despite this being a movie EVERYBODY in France knows at least by name... Argh.

Now... this discovery did surprise me, but it did not surprise me THAT much. Because I was aware of something similar that had happened before.

I am a big fan of another great classic of French comedy. Le Père Noël est une ordure (Santa Claus is an asshole).

This 1982 movie (again, based on a previous theater play and reusing most of the same actors as on the stage version) is still considered to this day a classic in many ways. A classic of dark French comedy ; a classic of Christmas movies in France ; and one of the master-pieces of the comedy group Le Splendid, right behind their movies Les Bronzés. Just like with Un dîner de cons, most French people can recognize its visuals or quote you a line, even if they didn't actually see the movie. [If you ask me... I am much more of a fan of the stage play. The movie is the most famous of the two, but I saw the theater play first, and the two pieces differ mostly with their endings. The movie's ending is dark but happy/optimistic ; while the play's ending is hilarious grim and devastating. But that's mostly a question of tastes.]

Anyway, since I was a fan I bought the official companion book about the movie, and that's in there that I discovered the existence of 1994's Mixed Nuts.

An American comedy movie that was a re... Oh sorry, just like for "Dinner for Schmucks", the people behind this movie refused to say it was a "remake". They said it was merely "based on" the French movie. And just like "Dinner for Schmucks", it was a big failure.

I distinctively remember how the person who wrote for the French companion book was not kind AT ALL on this American movie. Notably they pointed out that one of the reason it failed in the USA, and nobody wanted to see it in France, was because it took this dark comedy about suicide and couple abuse and murder (it is still hilarious fun, trust me), and tried to turn it into a "politically correct" optimistic, all-family comedy a la "typical American comedy". Except the core story was designed to be about the dark side of Christmas, the hypocrisy of society (and of Christmas), and just a bunch of not-nice, not-good people getting stuck together on one Christmas night filled with blood, sex and despair (again, it is actually VERY FUN, I assure you). Something that was deemed not "palatable" enough for American audiences.

These two cases being brought up, I got curious and I went on Wikipedia to check if there were other American movies "inspired by", "remaking" or just "blatantly ripping-off" French movies. And I was NOT disappointed!

There's too many to list, but I will leave the most jarring, shocking or flabbergasting cases (at last for me, a French person) under the cut. I mean, I knew about the US vs UK tv shows battles, and I knew about the American remakes of J-Horror (The Grudge, The Ring), but I never thought they'd have done something similar with French cinema!

And you know what the worst thing is? Most of these American remakes were failures, right? And the French movies were much more successful and famous than them... Yet, most American people know only about their American movies, which failed, and don't know one piece of info about the French movies, despite them still being showed and talked to this day. This is honestly such a jarring cultural gap. [And also a confirmation that American movie industry would rather remake dozens and dozens of foreign movies rather than bother releasing them dubbed or subtitled. Crazy.] Hopefully things are changing a bit because today, due to how the Internet exists, the original French pieces are talked about much more. People know better the original Taxi movie or the Les Intouchables movie than their American remake... Still though...

Anyway here is the list of these cinematic crimes underneath the cut

SOPHIA LOREN IN MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE (1964)