The 1970s was an exciting decade for cinema. This decade was when many filmmakers in America took on international cinema sensibilities, with names like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and William Friedkin owing much of their careers to the international film directors who influenced them.

With that said, there was still a solid line of films coming out from countries all over the world, with some of the best directors of the last 20 years still making movies and young foreign language filmmakers joining their ranks. Here is a look at 10 of the best international movies from the 1970s for anyone wanting to explore the history of foreign language films.

THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (1973)

Spirit of the Beehive is a movie for film lovers about how the art of cinema can affect a person’s life. Watching this international film from 1973, and it is clear the impact that watching James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) had on Spanish filmmaker Victor Erice.

The main character in Spirit of the Beehive is a young girl, six-year-old Ana, a shy girl who sneaks into a movie screening and sees the story of the misunderstood monster, morphing into reality in her family’s post-Civil War society.

DAY FOR NIGHT (1973)

After making his name with The 400 Blows in the ’50s and Jules and Jim in the ’60s, François Truffaut made one of his more personal films in the ’70s with Day For Night. The film takes place in the world of filmmaking with a melodramatic storyline telling the various stories of the actors, the director, and crew members throughout the film’s shoot.

The movie is quite deep, which is no surprise considering Truffaut directed it. The theme is whether the films are more important than the people making them. The French movie resonated well, winning Truffaut the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1974.

AMARCORD (1973)

Released in 1973, Amarcord was an Italian comedy-drama directed by Federico Fellini. Much like his masterpiece from the ’60s, 8 1/2, Amarcord was another slightly autobiographical film by the Italian auteur. Unlike that previous film, which was about a filmmaker at a crossroads in his career, this one went back further.

Amarcord told the story of a boy growing up in Fascist Italy in the ’30s. Fellini was able to give his commentary on the state of Italy during Mussolini’s reign by making everything comical and absurd. The film won Fellini the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1975.

THE CONFORMIST (1970)

Bernardo Bertolucci directed The Conformist in 1970, an Italian movie based on the 1951 novel of the same name. The film tackles the issues of fascism in Italy in the ’30s in a political drama, and the title reveals the theme of conforming to society’s standards.

This film was one of Bertolucci’s most accessible movies for mainstream movie audiences. This film is just as beautiful and breathtaking as anything the auteur directed, showing a filmmaker at the height of his career.

THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (1972)

Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel started directing on films in the silent era, with Un Chien Andalou (1929) a groundbreaking work of art that influenced David Lynch decades later. Over 40 years later, Buñuel was still making movies and released The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie in 1972 at the age of 89.

Buñuel won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for this film about a group of upper-middle-class people, their social gatherings, and the dreams of several of them. The film exposes the greed, entitlement, and hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie.

CRIES AND WHISPERS (1972)

In 1972, Swedish film auteur Ingmar Bergman released his film Cries and Whispers. By the time the ’70s rolled around, Bergman had a long list of international movies such as The Seventh Seal and The Virgin Spring that proved he was one of cinema’s most talented directors and one that created masterpieces, time and time again.

Crimes and Whispers tells the story of three sisters and their servant who deal with the news that one of the sisters has developed terminal cancer. The movie earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and Best Director and won for Best Cinematography.

LE CERCLE ROUGE (1970)

Jean-Pierre Melville is considered the father of the French New Wave of cinema and was carrying on into the ’70s when he continued to direct gangster films using his unique filmmaking styles. In 1970, Melville released the film Le Cercle Rouge, re-teaming with his star from Le Samurai, Alain Delon.

The film focuses on a prisoner named Corey (Delon) released early for good behavior who learns of an easy score at a jewelry store in Paris and sets out on his life of crime once again.

SOLARIS (1972)

Out of all the films on this list, the one many people will struggle to get into is Solaris. Despite that, it is a remarkable piece of ’70s cinema that deserves a look by anyone wanting to discover the best international movies of the decade.

Andrei Tarkovsky directs the film about a skeleton crew of three scientists aboard a space station orbiting the planet of Solaris suffering from emotional problems. When a psychiatrist arrives to evaluate what is happening, he realizes it might be worse than anyone expected.

AGUIRRE: THE WRATH OF GOD (1972)

Werner Herzog is one of the most eclectic filmmakers in international movie history, and his movie Aguirre: The Warth of God is a perfect example. Released in 1972, this epic historical drama is about a Spanish soldier leading an expedition to South America to find the city of gold, El Dorado.

This film was the first of five movies that Herzog collaborated on with Klaus Kinski, one of cinema’s strangest pairings. It built up a massive international cult fan base and ended up as a beloved art house film for years. Francis Ford Coppola admitted that he was influenced by Aguirre when he made Apocalypse, Now.

STALKER (1979)

Released in 1979, Stalker is a Russian international movie directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. This movie is a science fiction film written by Boris Strugatsky and Arkady Sturgasty based on their novel Roadside Picnic. The titular stalker is a person who takes two clients to a mysterious room that grants a person’s wishes.

The plot centers more around the three men and their moral and theoretical conflicts than the actual science fiction motif. The film is rated 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at Cannes, an award Tarkovsky won three times.