Perhaps the best start to your viewing re-education would be to understand why you call these 'Foreign Films' ;-)

What you really mean is films in languages that Americans won't/can't understand ;-)

You can't be me, I'm taken

I'm going to recommend some of my favourite Spanish directors and some of their (maybe) lesser-known movies...

• Alejandro Amenábar: especially Tesis (1996), Open you Eyes (1997) and Butterfly (1999).
  
• Julio Medem: Vacas (1992), The Red Squirrel (1993), Earth (1996), and the [very controversial] political documentary The Basque Ball.
  
• Fernando León de Aranoa: Family (1996), Barrio (1998), the documentary The Back of the World (2000) and Mondays in the Sun (2002).
  
• Daniel Calparsoro: Leap into the void (1995) and Warriors (2002).
  

Other individual films:

• El Bola (Achero Mañas, 2000)
  
• Nico and Dani (Cesc Gay, 2000)
  
• Solas (Benito Zambrano, 1999) which I reviewed here on ET.
  
• Salvador (Puig Antich) (Manuel Huerga, 2006)
  

The director Guillermo del Toro is not Spanish, but he has made a couple of films set in Spain which are very much worth seeing: The Devil's backbone (2001) and Pan's Labyrinth. While we're at it, there's [also not Spanish] Ken Loach's Land and Freedom (1995).
That should keep you busy ;-)

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."

Since you mention Kurosawa and Ran... Make sure you see at least Rashomon (1950), The Seven Samurai (1954), The Hidden Fortress (1958), Yojimbo (1961), Dersu Uzala (1975), Kagemusha (1980), and Dreams.

Another Japanese director I can't get enough of is "Beat" Takeshi Kitano, who made (among others): Sonatine (1993), Flowers of Fire (1997), Kikujiro's Summer (1999), Dolls (2002), and Zatoichi (2003).

Not Japanese but Chinese is Zhang Yimou, who years and years before The House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Hero (2002) was already stunning the west with The Red Lantern (1991), Ju Dou (1990) or Red Sorghum.

Also from China there is Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love (2000), and Yang Zhang's Shower (1999).

Talking about bathing establishments... the Italian/Turkish Hamam/Steam/The Turkish Bath (1997) by Ferzan Ozpetek.

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."

Huozhe

Also, especially for Migeru and rg: Mikan no Taikyoku

Tonari no Totoro

Nirgendwo in Afrika

And call me weepy sentimental son of a bitch, but how about Nuovo cinema Paradiso?

Some Serb fare:
-Underground
-Crna mačka, beli mačor
-Dom za vesanje
-Ko to tamo peva

Some French fare:
-Le Père Noël est une ordure
-La vérité si je mens
-Riens du tout

And in English, but who cares, because it transcends nationality: The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.

Late Fifties and Sixties - Nouvelle Vague - fairly essential for understanding European cinema of the last 50 odd years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouvelle_vague

You can't be me, I'm taken

Four Cuban films

Lista de espera, by Juan Carlos Tabío (2000)

Suite Havana, a documentary by Fernando Pérez (2003)

Fresa y chocolate, also by Tabío (1994)

Habana Blues, by the spanish director Benito Zambrano (2005)

Das Leben der Anderen is a great film, when it comes out on video or hits American movie channels/ppv, watch it. (La vie des autres in French). I hear that Michou d'Auber is really good too, but I haven't seen it yet.

I am big on comedies, and the funniest movie of all time (or at least the last ten years) is french: Dîner de cons, the funniest movie I may ever have seen. Some old classics are my wifes favorite movie of all time, Rabbi Jacob, and another really good de Funès movie (he's perhaps the best comic of our time, tied with Coluche) is La Soupe aux choux which my kids like thanks to a few choice scenes. There's also a movie with both Coluche and de Funès, L'aile ou la cuisse. Actually, any movie with either of those two you might find in the US and you'll be ok.

Standard fluff stuff for fun, and this isn't PC because these guys are friends of Sarko the starmanic, but L'Enquête Corse which was on tv last week here was pretty good, though Petillon's bd it was made from was better. Clavier and Reno are a decent team, and also in Les Visiteurs which I'm not sure but also might still be the top grossing film in French history. The movie it beat out, another movie with de Funès and Bourvil (another great comic), La Grande Vadrouille. Actually, any movie made by Gerard Oury and you're pretty good.

The best hockey movie of all time isn't Slap Shot, it's Les Boys. Another good recent Canadian movie is Bon Cop Bad Cop which just came out in video, or also, a couple of years back, La Grande séduction is really good too.

Since you mentioned Goodbye Lenin, which I also liked, and if you did too, there's Tout le monde n'a pas eu la chance d'avoir des parents communistes of Josiane Balasko. It's a cute film, nothing super exceptional but along the same lines. Actually, anything with Josiane Balasko and you're probably going to be ok.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

Hi, Ronald,

I would suggest to add four major European film-makers to your list (pick any of their movies):

Federico Fellini

Wim Wenders

Alain Resnais

Bernardo Bertolucci

Enjoy...

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

I've increased my "movie IQ" by a factor of 100 by using netflix. Here are my non-American favorites. I've included imdb.com links:

Sex and Lucia
Trois couleurs: Bleu
Trois couleurs: Rouge
Trzy kolory: Bialy
Fire
Remember Me, My Love
Irreversible [caution - an extremely dark movie]
Amores Perros
Talk to Her
All About My Mother
Downfall
Run Lola Run
The BRD Trilogy: The Marriage of Maria Braun
Nico and Dani
The Other Side of the Bed [this one isn't good as much as a pop-movie made in Spain which makes it interesting in its own right]
Broken Wings
Don't Tell

you are the media you consume.

And no collection is complete without the work of the master: Jacques Tati. 'Jour de fête', 'Mr Hulot's Holiday' and 'Mon Uncle' are classic observations of humanity. 'Playtime' and 'Trafic', though more demanding (especially the former), show an artist's visonary thinking about the future - they are often described as lampoons of modern society, but Francois Truffaut's comment "a film that comes from another planet, where they make films differently" is more to the point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Tati

You can't be me, I'm taken

Det Sjunde inseglet

Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.

Adding to the Wong Kar-Wai list: Chungking Express.

Also from Hong Kong-- this does involve ghosts, but it's a comedy/spoof with very little actual horror-- My Left Eye Sees Ghosts. Also Chinese Odyssey 2002, and The Private Eyes. These last three might not be considered up there with Ran, but they're fun nonetheless.

So I wanted to see if anyone has some suggestions for the best foreign films to watch on any category except horror.

What have you got against horror? An Italian horror film is on my top ten list: Dario Argento's Suspiria.

Also, why are you bothering with Blockbuster Movies (some kind of rental scheme, I take it). That is so twentieth century. Most movies worth watching are out of copyright, by any reasonable definition. So why not simply get your movies using BitTorrent, which gives you access to more foreign movies than Blockbuster ever will?

A bomb, H bomb, Minuteman / The names get more attractive / The decisions are made by NATO / The press call it British opinion -- The Three Johns

Some suggestions of my own in no particular order.

I guess it's on me to advertise Hungarian films, so:

• Kontroll (2003) is a film mixing a lot of genres (from action to mystery, teen horror to comedy, social realism to gothic), and its anti-heroes are ticket controllers on a nameless Central European subway system.
  
• A tanú = The Witness (1969) is a grotesque comedy about a simple man 's 'adventures' in the Stalinist propaganda machine of the fities, a very good film (IMDB rating 9.1) that didn't got fame as it was banned for a decade.
  
• Az ötödik pecsét = The Fifth Seal (1976) follows five men during the last days of WWII, who first talk about morals and power while hiding in a cellar, then have to make cruel choices in practice when the local fascists seize them. (I don'zt expect many copies of this underrated masterpiece in the USA, though.)
  
• Mephisto (1981) you are much more likely to find this one in the USA, it even got the Oscar. It is about an actor in twenties-to-forties Germany who makes a Faustian deal with the new rulers (e.g. the Nazis) for art's sake.
  
• Taking Sides (2001), similar theme by the same director: it is about famous conductor Furtwängler (played by Stellan Skarsgård) being netted by the post-WWII de-Nazification campaign (personified by a US officer played by Harvey Keitel).

Next some additional French films:

• Les Aventuriers = The Adventurers (1967) tells the story of three bohemian friends who find a treasure, and then get in trouble. Very powerful, good acting.
  
• L'Emmerdeur is the superior original of Buddy, Buddy (there were many US remakes of superior French originals), about a professional assassin get in trouble with a suicidal hotewl room neighbour.
  
• Nikita (1990) and Léon/The Professional (1994) are two dark action films by French cult director Luc Besson, about a drug addict killer forced to become secret service assassin and a mafia killer adopting a girl orphaned by corrupt DIA agents in NY, respectively. Make sure that you get the original ("directors' cut") version of the latter, which was found too scandalous for US general release.
  
• Taxi (1998) was the first in a wave of dozens of cheap action-comedies scriped by the same Luc Besson, and the only one not crappy. It follows the exploits of a tuned-up taxi driver ignoring all laws and a stupid policeman whom he has to help catch some bank robbers.

Do you know Ang Lee? His newer stuff made in the USA is not bad, but watch Yin shi nan nu = Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)! A heartwarming story about a widowed cook and his three marriage-age girls.

• Bin-jip/3-Iron is a South Korean movie about an odd couple breaking into empty houses to live in them, with an unexpected twist at half. Second best film of 2004 IMO.

• Dare mo shiranai = Nobody Knows (2004) is a shattering and shatteringly well-acted movie about four children abandoned by their mother and trying to live on on their own, based on a true story. Best film of 2004 IMO.

The films you may know as "Clint Eastwood Westerns" are known as Sergio Leone Westerns in Europe, for their director. He is also the man who could have made The Godfather even better than Scorsese -- in fact it was offered to him, but he refused as he was already working on the script of his final masterpiece, Once Upon a Time in America, also a mafia saga (starring Robert de Niro). Make sure that you get the original cut, which is almost four hours long(!), because the US release (cut down to 139 minutes and scenes re-ordered) lost so much it doesn't even make sense.

* De Vliegende Hollander = The Flying Dutchman (1995) is a unique Dutch film playing in the dark era of the Dutch civil war. It follows the odyssey of a mentally deficient man in search for his ship captain father, but I think the story takes second place behind the imagery.

I could go on all night, but I'll stop here.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Professione: Reporter, and anything else by Michelangelo Antonioni, like Deserto roso or L'avventura. I can't believe no one has mentioned any of Antonioni's movies, which were paradigmatic of European art movies in the 1960s.

Le Mépris. Among other things, this movie mocks Hollywood and portrays very starkly the clash between American and European culture.

Anything by Claude Chabrol: the Nouvelle Vague has been mentioned, but Chabrol deserves special mention, since he continues to make movies long after that movement has ended.

Get  Carter. One of the greatest gangster movies of all time. Brutal as opposed to violent. Get Carter before Carter gets you.

Anything by Werner Herzog. I can't believe no one has mentioned him.

The same goes for Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Céline et Julie vont en bateau. Utterly unique magical art film.

Anything by Andrei Tarkovsky.

A bomb, H bomb, Minuteman / The names get more attractive / The decisions are made by NATO / The press call it British opinion -- The Three Johns

Two more suggestions:

• Zemlya = Earth (1930) is a Soviet propaganda film for collective farming, but at the same time, art and a good film. Even funny, especially the opening sequence.

• Kukushka (2002) is a crazy and moving Finnish-Russian film, about a Finn, a Russian, and a Saami widow who get to rely on each other in the last weeks of WWII. (The three main figures speak three different languages, and only we know how they mis-guess what others said.)

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}