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Post by mstreepsucks on Jun 10, 2021 22:14:51 GMT
Well no because american films aren't foreign, there's normal films because: Technically here's the definition :
"A foreign language film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (defined as over 40 minutes) produced outside the United States of America with a predominantly non-English dialogue track. Animated and documentary feature films are permitted."
Are british films considered foreign? No.
"Because it is a foreign country. ... As such, the use of the term foreign film for films produced in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada or other English-speaking countries would be uncommon within other English-speaking countries. So technically no."
So therefore if made in the U.s. it wouldn't technically be foreign film.
That may be the case for you because you are, presumably (?) an American. But Americans only comprise approximately 4% of the total world population, so Feologild Oakes' comment remains valid for the other 96%. We don't know, unless someone makes a poll in foreign countries and asks people if they think american films are foreign to them. The reason why they don't necessarily think that american films are foreign to them is because it's always that the american films that they show there are always way more popular for them (in terms of u.s. blockbusters)than stuff made in their own country. Like avengers endgame for example or transformers in China.
The money they spent seeing those , just for example. Was more money than they spent on China made films of those years. I presume. Actually i looked it up.
If they thought american films were 'foreign' then they wouldn't be seen as much as they are in China for example.
I mean, if they had a foreign film in america from another country. it would almost be certain that american films would make more money. That's why we definately see foreign films as 'foreign'.
And ya i know Gb 2016 bombed there, that's an exception.
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Post by Feologild Oakes on Jun 10, 2021 22:45:07 GMT
Since American movies are foreign movies, or foreign language movies to most of the world, watching foreign movies is not really that big of a deal Well no because american films aren't foreign, there's normal films because: Technically here's the definition :
"A foreign language film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (defined as over 40 minutes) produced outside the United States of America with a predominantly non-English dialogue track. Animated and documentary feature films are permitted."
Are british films considered foreign? No.
"Because it is a foreign country. ... As such, the use of the term foreign film for films produced in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada or other English-speaking countries would be uncommon within other English-speaking countries. So technically no."
So therefore if made in the U.s. it wouldn't technically be foreign film. Unless it is david lynch maybe. He makes foreign films in his Own country.
All hail American arrogance.
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Post by london777 on Jun 10, 2021 22:55:39 GMT
That may be the case for you because you are, presumably (?) an American. But Americans only comprise approximately 4% of the total world population, so Feologild Oakes' comment remains valid for the other 96%. We don't know, unless someone makes a poll in foreign countries and asks people if they think american films are foreign to them. I mean, if they had a foreign film in america from another country. it would almost be certain that american films would make more money. That's why we definately see foreign films as 'foreign'. Popularity does not define country of origin. From the 1960s onwards the UK car industry declined sharply as people preferred to buy foreign cars. Before long Volkswagen and Renault (and later Nissan and Honda) became more popular and visible than most UK marques. but they were never referred to as anything other than "foreign".
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Post by london777 on Jun 10, 2021 23:03:00 GMT
All hail American arrogance. Now, now, F.O. Don't take the bait. In my reply, being the famously diplomatic and emollient person that I am, I deliberately ignored that aspect of his post and concentrated on the semantic issue. We are all brothers and sisters on this board.
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Post by mstreepsucks on Jun 10, 2021 23:36:33 GMT
Well no because american films aren't foreign, there's normal films because: Technically here's the definition :
"A foreign language film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (defined as over 40 minutes) produced outside the United States of America with a predominantly non-English dialogue track. Animated and documentary feature films are permitted."
Are british films considered foreign? No.
"Because it is a foreign country. ... As such, the use of the term foreign film for films produced in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada or other English-speaking countries would be uncommon within other English-speaking countries. So technically no."
So therefore if made in the U.s. it wouldn't technically be foreign film. Unless it is david lynch maybe. He makes foreign films in his Own country.
All hail American arrogance. Well, no it's not about that. It's about american exceptionalism.
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Post by Fox in the Snow on Jun 11, 2021 0:30:17 GMT
Outside of anime and older genre films (spaghetti westerns, martial arts, etc.) is dubbing even an option. I've never seen a Tarkovsky or Bergman film or anything like that with a dubbed option, not that I'd use it if it was available. I am pretty sure I have seen Bergman films dubbed. I would never choose a dubbed Bergman film because I really appreciate his actors and want to see how they performed. With dubbing half of that is gone. I agree subtitles are my preferred option, and seem to be for most people (almost to the point of insulting those who chose dubbing sometimes). I've just never seen dubbed options available for any of the many non-English language films I've seen outside of anime. I was wondering if it's a common thing with more serious/arthouse type films or a phenomenon generally reserved for anime and more genre oriented fare
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Post by morrisondylanfan on Jun 11, 2021 0:37:15 GMT
About 6 weeks ago, I decided to expand my horizons and try to watch more foreign film. Partly, this was because I noticed that so many on this forum do this and I wanted to see what I was missing. I went online and found several lists of the greatest (?) foreign films. I have watched over 100 films by now. Wow,100 movie viewings in about 6 weeks is extremely impressive! What would your ten highlights of that run be?
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Post by london777 on Jun 11, 2021 3:24:39 GMT
I've just never seen dubbed options available for any of the many non-English language films I've seen outside of anime. I was wondering if it's a common thing with more serious/arthouse type films or a phenomenon generally reserved for anime and more genre oriented fare Others more knowledgable may correct or enlarge on my remark, but I have seen a few Italian "quality" films dubbed. I think this is to do with their at one time (still?) method of shooting films without recorded dialogue, then dubbing on the dialogue afterwards in various languages for different markets.
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Post by london777 on Jun 11, 2021 3:26:07 GMT
About 6 weeks ago, I decided to expand my horizons and try to watch more foreign film. Partly, this was because I noticed that so many on this forum do this and I wanted to see what I was missing. I went online and found several lists of the greatest (?) foreign films. I have watched over 100 films by now. Wow,100 movie viewings in about 6 weeks is extremely impressive! What would your ten highlights of that run be? Yay! Top Tens! We luv' em!
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Post by Fox in the Snow on Jun 11, 2021 3:27:47 GMT
I've just never seen dubbed options available for any of the many non-English language films I've seen outside of anime. I was wondering if it's a common thing with more serious/arthouse type films or a phenomenon generally reserved for anime and more genre oriented fare Others more knowledgable may correct or enlarge on my remark, but I have seen a few Italian "quality" films dubbed. I think this is to do with their at one time (still?) method of shooting films without recorded dialogue, then dubbing on the dialogue afterwards in various languages for different markets. Yes, I've heard Italy was notorious for dubbing. Like yourself though I'm wondering if it's still common practice.
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lune7000
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Post by lune7000 on Jun 11, 2021 4:27:47 GMT
About 6 weeks ago, I decided to expand my horizons and try to watch more foreign film. Partly, this was because I noticed that so many on this forum do this and I wanted to see what I was missing. I went online and found several lists of the greatest (?) foreign films. I have watched over 100 films by now. Wow,100 movie viewings in about 6 weeks is extremely impressive! What would your ten highlights of that run be? Ha! Maybe it's not so impressive with lockdowns, etc.! Or maybe a sign of mental disorder! You sure are good at making a person feel good. As far as my top movies (in no particular order) and why: 1. The Nights of Cabiria: I liked how she was cheered up by foolish, silly people in the end- life goes on! 2. Umberto D: saved by a mutt. How often life or death is a matter of inches and seconds 3. Late Spring: I felt the dad was really trying to look out for his daughter's long term future and make a difficult decision (there is a sequel?) 4. Spirited Away: great designs of characters, very original shapes 5. The Seventh Seal: life stripped to nakedness, civilization exposed as a sham- sadly this is reality 6. Cinema Paradiso: Very touching how the guy lost his soulmate but found consolation in another joy (movies). Consolation movies are very rare. 7. A Separation: fascinating- better than Sherlock Holmes, I never puzzled so much 8. The Battle of Algiers: I can't believe the cast of thousands involved in this- so powerful and relevant- thousands! 9. Bicycle thieves: very atmospheric, felt like I was there watching it live- what an ending! 10. Beauty and the Beast (46): French stick to the real story- don't mess with fairies! Only foreign film I got "lost" in (enchanted) Wonderful Music. 11. The Blue Angel: Starts slow but really hits towards the end. We don't like to admit we have had relationships like this. 12. Boudu Saved from Drowning: Boudu is one of the greatest characters of cinema IMO. Renoir's camera lovingly stays on scenes- pure voyeurism 13. Eyes without a Face: true horror without all the gimmicks (take note Hollywood) 14. The Seven Samurai: loved the characters. It seems formula until you realize it is the original recipe. I have to admit that over 80-85% of the highest rated foreign films really didn't wow me. There were some that had nice touches (La Dolce Vita) but many seemed overly analytical, self absorbed, unhappy and dull to me- maybe the top picks of film critics don't reflect what foreign film is really like. Critics everywhere tend to be unlike the masses. I couldn't find a "people's favorites" list of foreign films (I did watch Train to Busain though). After I watch 35 more films I will have watched the top 200 from internet lists. After that, I think I am done and feel glad that I at least tried. I am not going to wade through mediocre material with subtitles.
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Post by Fox in the Snow on Jun 11, 2021 9:07:09 GMT
Wow,100 movie viewings in about 6 weeks is extremely impressive! What would your ten highlights of that run be? 3. Late Spring: I felt the dad was really trying to look out for his daughter's long term future and make a difficult decision (there is a sequel?) One of my two favorite films (the other being Tokyo Twilight) by my favorite director (Ozu). There isn't an official sequel, but it is sometimes referred to as the first film in the "Noriko trilogy" along with Early Summer (1951) and Tokyo Story (1953) due to Setsuko Hara playing a character named Noriko in all three. Most of Ozu's postwar films deal with similar themes and narratives and he uses a very distinct visual style in all of them. Many also reference the names of seasons in the title.
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lune7000
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Post by lune7000 on Jun 11, 2021 17:58:56 GMT
3. Late Spring: I felt the dad was really trying to look out for his daughter's long term future and make a difficult decision (there is a sequel?) One of my two favorite films (the other being Tokyo Twilight) by my favorite director (Ozu). There isn't an official sequel, but it is sometimes referred to as the first film in the "Noriko trilogy" along with Early Summer (1951) and Tokyo Story (1953) due to Setsuko Hara playing a character named Noriko in all three. Most of Ozu's postwar films deal with similar themes and narratives and he uses a very distinct visual style in all of them. Many also reference the names of seasons in the title. My fault, I saw a movie titled Early Summer on the internet and thought it followed Late Spring due to the seasons
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Post by london777 on Jun 11, 2021 18:11:55 GMT
And later he gave us: 1965 Autumn Afternoon 1961 The End of Summer 1960 Late Autumn 1956 Early Spring I am in the rookie phase of Ozumania so I still get them confused.
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Post by mstreepsucks on Jun 11, 2021 21:46:06 GMT
We don't know, unless someone makes a poll in foreign countries and asks people if they think american films are foreign to them. I mean, if they had a foreign film in america from another country. it would almost be certain that american films would make more money. That's why we definately see foreign films as 'foreign'. Popularity does not define country of origin. From the 1960s onwards the UK car industry declined sharply as people preferred to buy foreign cars. Before long Volkswagen and Renault (and later Nissan and Honda) became more popular and visible than most UK marques. but they were never referred to as anything other than "foreign". Well ya they would definately say those cars are foreign. But if they had american cars instead. They would simply refer to those as american cars and not foreign ones.
Just like when other countries show american made films. They probably just call them american and not foreign ones.
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Post by louise on Jul 6, 2021 9:50:20 GMT
Why not start slowly-some Jacques Tati or Pierre Etaix? Both filmmakers made works which depended largely on visual comedy, without a lot of dialogue. thanks for the tip- I really don't know where to start Mr Hulot’s Holiday is the most admired Jacques Tati film I think, though my personal favourite is Trafic. But none of them require you to read subtitles, there is some dialogue but it really is not important. or a compromise would be Le Grand Vadrouille - a film set in occupied France in Ww2. Some French people help three British airmen to escape, so there is dialogue in both French and English.
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Post by london777 on Jul 18, 2021 1:13:07 GMT
I have just checked the 680 films in my collection which I rate at 6.5 or above. (I am a very parsimonious rater).
195 of them were subtitled (about 27%). I would not want to miss out on over a quarter of my favourite films because I eschewed subtitles.
Of course this does not mean that I believe nearly three-quarters of the worlds best films are in English. Because I only speak and read English with any fluency, I am only exposed to reviews and announcements in English, so many of the best foreign movies I get to hear about belatedly or not at all.
Also, this is from a list of physical media I own. Because of my very limited means (dinner today, or a John Huston DVD?) I am biased towards English-language purchases because they are predominantly cheaper and more convenient to source.
Had I unlimited resources, I would be investing in many of the East European and Far Eastern goodies which manfromplanetx and other knowledgable posters have revealed to us, in which case the ratio might be nearer 50/50. The need to use subtitles would be no deterrent.
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Post by louise on Jul 23, 2021 14:05:56 GMT
Although I don’t watch a lot of foreign language films, when I do I don’t generally have trouble with subtitles One exception was a French comedy I saw a few years ago which was basically a one joke film - the joke being that people from the south of France can’t understand the accent of people in the north, and vice Versa. This was impossible to convey adequately with subtitles.
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Post by timshelboy on Jul 23, 2021 20:03:39 GMT
I was lucky enough to have grown up as a teenager in the 70s UK where we had 3 TV channels all of which regularly showed "Foreign" movies - mostly European (French, Italian, maybe Dutch, German, Spanish) but some wider. We got whole seasons of Louis Malle, Chabrol, Truffaut, Fellini, etc on BBC2 Saturday night!, and BBC1 would weigh in occasionally. ITV tended to show dubbed movies (Delon actioners and the like) but they were still "Foreign". So it has always been part of my viewing , and subtitles never been an issue. Maybe try something with less dialogue....? Maybe MATA HARI from 1965, which has some wonderful dialogue free set pieces. Or develop a taste for giallo thrillers where plot coherence is no one's priority!
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lune7000
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Post by lune7000 on Jul 23, 2021 22:05:46 GMT
Recently I saw a film called Early Summer (1951) about a girl pressured to marry. The "single" girls often got in verbal sparring matched with the married women about which lifestyle was better. I do not know Japanese, but these girls kept ending their sentences with a very annoying sound that infuriated the married women and it was easy to understand that this sound was unnecessary and intentional. It drove me nuts after a while.
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