Hollywood (by and large) has replaced dialogue with visual gratification.  Foreign film (for many, many reasons - though budget / size of film industry is one) usually comes from more of a literary startpoint.  By this I mean that most of the powerful foreign films on this list are completely dialogue-driven (i.e. driven by script) and NOT simply the visual language of the image.  
Hollywood has become surface-obsessed (like our great capitalist western cultures) and this is reflected in the loss of language (and with it intelligence!).  The result? Jerk-off special effects (that move no-one, see Pearl Harbour) and the same paradigm-enforcing story told a thousand times.  Make no mistake, Matrix isn't some intelligent, new wave masterpiece.  It's just good old spunky, frail humanity defeating the machine / evil hordes. Like independence day and... and... and... everything else.  With, of course, a few intelligent exceptions.  Anyone seen 'Ivan's XTC'? That was a thought-provoking film.

So, in response to the question: look at the different value placed on dialogue (language) in Hollywood and 'foreign' films.  Look at the different value placed on the role of the image in Hollywood and foreign films.  Look at which tradition of film-making actually tells more than one story a million times.... You could even play a game: watch the first 2 minutes of a Hollywood blockbuster new release and, in a group of friends, write the story before you watch it.  If you let yourselves draw on everything you've ever seen from Hollywood up to that point, you will pretty much get it spot on.  Because it's a foregone conclusion in most cases.

Don't believe me? Ok - Try this: how many times has the slighlty maverick, ne'er do well, rogue-ish unmarried drunk sacrificed his life to defeat the alien / enemy  - buying himself absolution at the same time?  You'll find it in many, many more movies than you think.