It was after having seen a review of Lore, a film depicting Germany’s devastation in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, focusing on the children of Nazi supporters whose beliefs are challenged by their dependence on a Jewish refugee, that I broached the possibility of seeing it with a housemate one evening. However, his initial ambivalence quickly turned to an outright no, as soon as I explained that it was a non-Hollywood German language movie and would consequently be subtitled.
On asking the other four of my housemates whether they’d rather see the latest Die Hard movie, Argo or Lore, to see if this was a shared feeling, three of them chose the Hollywood option. In addition, all had never heard of Lore, and one went so far as to say that he’d rather kill himself than choose either option (but that if he had to choose, it would be Die Hard). Well at least that technically isn’t a vote for Hollywood then.
So why does there seem to be at best, apathy, to World Cinema (films from non-English speaking countries, often in a foreign language) and at worst, aversion?
For many people, going to the cinema is a form of escapism. They want to enjoy the spectacle. They want to find themselves lost in a fictional world away from a rosy reality of unemployment, a rising cost of living and one star rated local food establishments (here’s looking at you Mega Kebab).
This isn’t to say that this experience is impossible with a foreign subtitled movie, far from it in fact. La Haine (Hate) is a striking, gritty portrayal of the struggles of three friends from different ethnic backgrounds living in the banlieues of Paris. The extensive use of argot (slang) and verlan (inversion of syllables in words to create slang) alone allows an insight into a marginalized part of French culture that just could not be replicated in an English language Hollywood context.
Despite this, if we consider the top 20 films released in the UK and Ireland in 2010 according to the BFI, there is not one World cinema film in the list.
This is not surprising though after a brief comparison of Exeter’s three main cinemas (Odeon, Vue and Picturehouse). Of the three, only Picturehouse in a given week will be screening World cinema. From Thursday 7th March to the following Thursday, only one World cinema film from this year (Lore, although released at festivals in 2012) in terms of widespread release, is being screened.
Three other World cinema films from the last four years are being screened too: Amour, Eleanor’s Secret and Long Live the Family, each with one screening. This amounts to a mere seven screenings out of a total 60 of over ten films. At least they are being screened; in fact, they are over-represented if we consider the lack of screenings at other cinema chains and the total absence of World cinema in the BFI list.
A preconceived notion of World cinema as being intellectual and pretentious is culpable for this almost automatic rejection of World cinema. This is then perpetuated by a tendency of sacrificing the screening of popular mainstream World cinema films – already suffering from a lack of exposure due to inadequate distribution – in favour of art-house (independent, non-conventional and intentionally non-mainstream films) World cinema, which fit this notion. A notable exception here is Amélie, which was intended for an international audience and demonstrates the great success that World cinema, in particular popular World cinema, can have with adequate distribution.
Regardless, when faced with a choice between the next installment in a popular series with a favourite actor or a relatively unknown foreign movie, the average person is going to choose what they are comfortable with.
Nevertheless, I remain hopeful that in the future, World cinema will account for a much greater percentage of British weekly screenings and that they will feature in the yearly top 20… even if this would still have no impact on my housemates and possibly result in the end for one of them.
Benjamin Lewis
exeposedev 