Foreign Films vs. American

[criterionmaster]

Okay, well me and beed were having some discussion on another forum but I decided to bring it here. It is the ol' debate of American vs. foreign and which is better.

Someone said America doesn't pay attention to enough foreign films, then I said:

I don't pay attention to new films that come out at all, whereas all I care about are older films, a lot of times foreign (with some exceptions), and I live in America. Plus with how dumbed down most people in the US are they probably wouldn't even understand the films, nor would they make it through them just because they have subtitles. I just think people don't give them a chance, for some ridiculously stupid reason(s). There are so many instances where they crush american films, I can't believe some people will never experience some of the things I have.

beed:

Try as you might to say otherwise, America is still the king of cinema. I watch all forms of cinema from every country and I have seen many great foreign films. But like it or not, think about the 30-50's. Very few films made back then were actually bad films. Most are at least decent and there are tons of films from those decades that are masterpieces. Other countries, such as France, may have caught up slightly in the 60-80's, but America still produced a good number of masterpieces during those decades as well. Though many American films made nowadays are awful, there still is a decent amount of great film being produced in America today.

What I'm trying to say, is though I agree that people should pay more attention to foreign cinema, American cinema is still kick ass and in total, better than cinema from other countries.

[PTAhole]

Films are films. I don't care what country they come from.

[blackmoses]

ptahole said:

Films are films. I don't care what country they come from.

Same with me.

[captainofbeef]

Yea, I don't care either. I was just pointing out that American films as a whole are better than any other countries.

[criterionmaster]

You guys don't understand the argument. Are you saying that films from the US tend to be better than other countries films, whether they are all films they are still different? They come from completely different places, and have completely different aspects to them to like. And no one said anything about people watching foreign films in the US either, which was one of the things brought up in my post.

Also to beed, maybe there were more good films back in the day from America, but there were still good films from outside of America. I think that films from foreign countries tend to be overall better; they have better qualities to them, US a lot of times are scared with the material and censor work, and forget to tell stories and instead insert explosions. There are great films from both but I tend to lean more towards foreign films overall. Hell, my top ten favorite directors consists of mostly foreign directors.

[PTAhole]

Well, in that case, America makes more films than any other country, so the ratio of good to bad films may be the same, but America will probably have more good films by the end of the day. Doesn't mean they're better in general, though.

[captainofbeef]

Not really, I mean, there was about one a great film a year outside America in the early days. American films makers sometimes made two great films a year. Things don't have to be controversial to be great films. O yeah, and just TONS of films from the 30's to the 50's have explosions in them. C'mon now.

[lordofdance]

Well, in that case, America makes more films than any other country, so the ratio of good to bad films may be the same, but America will probably have more good films by the end of the day.

Actually, India makes the most movies per year currently.

Overall, I think foreign films are more intelligent and daring than American films. The French New Wave directors were influenced by American directors of the time, but then the French in turn influenced the American directors of the 70's, which was a very fertile time for American film. The French New Wave and American film in the 70's are both considered landmarks in film history. But the French New Wave was also influenced by the Italians. American film's greatest period owes alot to the French and the Italians. Many of the most respected American filmmakers come from the 70's period.

Now, film noir is considered a landmark in film history as well, and is American. But noir was influenced by German Expressionism, which is also an important movement.

[sai]

It's a question of ratios.
Look at it this way. There is a filtering process in place with foreign cinema, in English speaking countries we see only a tiny fraction of what is produced in... for example France, Germany, Spain, China, India each year. What we do get tends to be the cream of the crop so it appears that foreign films are, overall, better.
This is, I feel, also why the cinema of the past seems to shine. It's not merely the warm glow of nostalgia, it's that (most of) the crap has been forgotten over the years.

For my money though, right now, the country producing the best cinema in the world is South Korea. Since 1998 there's been a deluge of great films of all genre's and of spectacular acting and directing talent, a new wave which shows no signs of abating.