by Jack Morris
Being a film fan is a difficult job at the best of times. To the people around you, you are supposed to be an all knowing oracle of the history of film from Birth of a Nation right the way through up to present day. You are the person they sneakily text under a table when they are stuck on a question at a local pub quiz and heaven help you if they don’t like the film you have suggested.
Being a film fan is a difficult job at the best of times. To the people around you, you are supposed to be an all knowing oracle of the history of film from Birth of a Nation right the way through up to present day. You are the person they sneakily text under a table when they are stuck on a question at a local pub quiz and heaven help you if they don’t like the film you have suggested.
A few years ago, I merely mentioned in passing to a friend that they should watch the brilliant movie, La Haine. When asked what it was about, I stupidly opened with “It’s a black and white French movie”. Their face instantly glossed over. Their response was, and it is one that I have come to accept as a given from a majority of people was, “I’m not watching anything with subtitles!” They were willing to accept that they were going to watch a black and white movie, even in this day and age; but they just couldn’t get their head around the fact the movie I had raved about was not in English. I’m sure this a problem that many film fans have faced over the years, and I think people need to calm the hell down and accept that they are missing out on truly incredible movies, just because they aren’t willing to watch a foreign language film.
A film is a film at the end of the day and it really shouldn’t matter what country the film comes from as to whether you will enjoy it. What should matter is the overall film itself. You shouldn’t be put off by a film, simply because you have “to read it as well as watch it”.
Sometimes it feels like I am banging my head against a brick wall trying to convert people to the world of foreign cinema. I hasten to add though, that even though I love non-English films, not everything I my cup of tea. Put any New French Wave film on and I instantly turn off. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion when it comes to film and I just can’t get away with that genre.
A film is a film at the end of the day and it really shouldn’t matter what country the film comes from as to whether you will enjoy it. What should matter is the overall film itself. You shouldn’t be put off by a film, simply because you have “to read it as well as watch it”.
Sometimes it feels like I am banging my head against a brick wall trying to convert people to the world of foreign cinema. I hasten to add though, that even though I love non-English films, not everything I my cup of tea. Put any New French Wave film on and I instantly turn off. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion when it comes to film and I just can’t get away with that genre.
Anyway, back to my original point. Quite a few people I know have seen the film Quarantine, which is a rather lack lustre zombie based found footage horror film, yet many of them don’t even know that it is a remake of a Spanish film called [REC]. Now, in my opinion, [REC] is an incredible horror film and deserves to be watched by any self-respecting horror fan, but some of friends won’t even entertain the idea of watching it because it isn’t in English. So they are forever stuck with the sub-par Quarantine in their viewing history, when they could and should have the original and far superior [REC] on their watch list.
So whilst many are happy and content with Fast and Furious and Grown Ups, they could be enjoying City of God, Amelie, or Audition. There is nothing to be scared of when it comes to foreign films and there is whole world of enjoyment to be found in them. People need to just drop the stigma that is attached to films with subtitles and embrace them; because when English speaking film makers realise how good they are in their native tongue and buy the rights so they can remake them, you’ll be able to sit back and say “It wasn’t as good as the original!”
So whilst many are happy and content with Fast and Furious and Grown Ups, they could be enjoying City of God, Amelie, or Audition. There is nothing to be scared of when it comes to foreign films and there is whole world of enjoyment to be found in them. People need to just drop the stigma that is attached to films with subtitles and embrace them; because when English speaking film makers realise how good they are in their native tongue and buy the rights so they can remake them, you’ll be able to sit back and say “It wasn’t as good as the original!”
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