Movie Maven

Apologies for getting this to you a bit late, but I think it's an intriguing article, which appeared in last Sunday's New York Times. The U.S. market barrier for foreign films, according to Anthony Kaufmann, has grown wider and more forbidding, partly due to the success of lower budget domestic films like Brokeback Mountain, and documentaries like The Aristocrats.

In a time when domestic blockbusters are having a hard time making ends meet, is it really all that surprising that foreign films aren't doing well in the U.S.? It's a sad fact that Americans can only handle a little "good" film making in between their trips to Hostel and The Ringer, and will only see it if the movie has established domestic stars and a whole lot of publicity to back it up. There are few true film-lovers out there now, people who go to the movies to see something new and unusual, who are not afraid of being challenged by what they're viewing. Marie Theresa Guirgis, head of Wellspring Media discussed the lack of cinema literacy:

"I feel as if there's almost no auteur draw anymore,'' Ms. Guirgis said. ''As opposed to 20 years ago, you were marketing the movies around the film-maker -- Fassbinder's new film, Godard's new film. We still do it, but the honest truth is that the film-make matters increasingly little today.''

But perhaps an even sadder fact is that a foreign film has to be an action foreign film to get any publicity or play in the multi-plexes. An Asian film? Well, it better be a high-flyin', seizure-inducin', butt-whoopin' Asian film, a la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. And don't make it too talky, or else I'll have to read the subtitles. And no one wants that.