Weekend looks at foreign films of 2010

WEEKEND is going international this week, and with the recent crop of underwhelming American films, it’s a wonder we haven’t done this earlier.

Foreign films that have picked up their share of acclaim, prestige and awards internationally since 2009 are only now making their way to the states. These are a few of the great films to be discovered.

Easily the most popular of these is the native adaptation of the international bestselling Swedish novel “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”

Director Niels Arden Oplev has made a truly modern thriller driven by the story’s inherent dark and Goth edge and the absolutely stirring performance of Noomi Rapace as the now infamous Lisbeth Salander. The depth in Rapace’s performance gives the film its sinister mystique that is simply lacking in a majority of American thrillers, and the beauty of seeing this film now is the possibility of catching both of its sequels (“The Girl Who Played with Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”) this calendar year.

But even foreign films can deliver familiar faces, and the best example stars Tilda Swinton in a multi-lingual performance casting her as a Russian mother and wife in an Italian family.

Neither language is her native tongue, and yet, Swinton gives one of the best performances of her career in the Italian film “I Am Love,” a highly stylized melodrama that is remarkably moving.

Follow that up with another Italian film, “Vincere,” a genre-bending biopic of a young Benito Mussolini and his presumed mistress Ida Dalser.

Here is a film filled with so much energy and acting prowess that I wonder why these actors can’t be cast in American movies.

Giovanna Mezzogiorno and Filippo Timi have gripping onscreen chemistry, and they drive a complex and gorgeously photographed account of Il Duce’s lesser known life story.

Believe it or not, these films received less acclaim than my next two choices, both of which performed wonderfully in their country’s respected national awards.

The first is “A Prophet,” a French prison movie that combines a remorseless crime thriller with shocking religious symbolism and meaning.

It’s the tale of a prisoner forced into a gang that controls everything and his hopeless attempt to free himself despite his miraculous rise in the gang’s ranks. The film won the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes in 2009, and it was nominated for last year’s Best Foreign Language Oscar.

However, the film lost to “The Secret in Their Eyes,” an Argentinian film that, in my mind, is the best movie of the year. It brilliantly combines the diverse genres of harsh mystery, touching love stories and introspective drama. The viewer follows a criminal investigator as he tracks down a murderer and rapist, and likewise, 25 years later as he attempts to recount it as a novel.

With impressive cinematography, strong performances and probably the best structured screenplay this year, it’s easy to see why this film has climbed to number 166 in the IMDB Top 250.

Sadly, these films might have received all the attention they are likely to get. Critics might remember these at the end of the year, but the films have made their rounds and might be out of further award contention given their original 2009 release date. That will deny this year’s Oscar season of not only some of the best films of the year, but also the best performances, writing and cinematography.

The only help for these films is for American audiences to find them, and it won’t require a trip around the world.