I am a fervent movie viewer and I enjoy watching almost all types of movies but my favourite kind is foreign romantic period films. Most Foreign films are not in English so unless you know that language you need to turn on the English subtitle option. Below, I have listed a number of very well structured foreign films which are not only confined to the romantic genre. If you are an ardent foreign movie fanatic like me, you should already know that the language is no barrier here. If a movie is good, after watching it you would not even be able to recall whether it was in English or not as you get so engrossed with the good storyline and cinematography that it stops mattering.

Mad love (Juana la Loca) (2001)

Director: Vicente Aranda

Language: Spanish

Genre: Drama; History; Romance

Lead Actor: Pilar Lopez de Ayala

Queen margot (1994)

Director:Patrice Chereau

Language: French; Italian

Genre: Drama; History; Romance

Lead actor: Isabelle Adjani; Vincent Perez

In the mood for love (2000)

Director: Kar Wai Wong

Language: Cantonese; Shanghaines; French

Genre: Drama; Romance

Lead Actor: Maggie Cheung; Tony Leung Chiu Wai

La belle Noiseuse (1991)

Director: Jacques Rivette

Language: French; English

Genre: Drama; Art

Lead Actor: Emmanuelle Béart; Michel Piccoli

Malena (2000)

Director: Gieseppe Tornatore

Language: Italian; Sicilian; English; Latin

Genre: Comedy; Drama; War; Romance

Lead actor: Monica Bellucci; Giuseppe Sulfaro

Irreversible

Director: Gaspar Noe

Language: French; Spanish; Italian; English

Genre: Crime; Drama; Mystery

Lead actor: Monica Bellucci; Vincent Cassel

The unbearable lightness of being

Director: Philip Kaufman

Language: English

Genre: Drama; Romance

Lead Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis; Juliette Binoche; Lina Olin

L’Appartement

Director: Gilles Mimouni

Language: French; English; Japanese

Genre: Romance; Drama; Mystery

Lead Actor: Monica Bellucci; Vincent Cassel; Romane Bohringer

Lolita (1997) – based on Vladimir Nabokov’s novel

Director: Adrian Lyne

Language: English

Genre: Drama; Romance

Lead Actor: Jeremy Irons; Melanie Griffith; Dominique Swain

Perfume (2006)

Director: Tom Tykwer

Language: English

Genre: Drama; Thriller; Crime

Lead Actor: Ben Whishaw

Stealing beauty (1996)

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

Language: Englsih; French; Spanish; Italian; German

Genre: Romance; Drama

Lead Actor: Jeremy Irons; Liv Tyler

Dangerous beauty (1998)

Director: Marshall Herskovitz

Language: English

Genre: Drama; Historical Romance

Lead Actor: Catherine McCormack; Rufus Sewell;

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Language: Spanish

Genre: Fantasy; Drama; Mystery

Lead Actor: Ivana Baquero; Sergi López

Volver (2006)

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Language: Spanish

Genre: Comedy; Crime; Drama

Lead Actor: Penélope Cruz