Thisbe

On Why I Like Foreign Films

December 6, 2009 at 6:08 am (Uncategorized)

Image creates desire. You will what you imagine. — JC Gallimore

When I watch a movie, I want to have a sensuous experience. I want to taste what the onscreen characters taste, smell what they smell, and feel what they feel. I also want the visual cues to clue me in to what is happening, instead of being beaten over the head with unnecessary dialogue. Sadly, (most) stateside movies do not have this effect on me.

I find that many American films lack visual lushness. By visual lushness, I mean voluptuous shots of scenery, objects, and people that make them seem tangible.

While there are plenty of movies that capture the magnificence of things that are already deemed magnificent, not many movies take everyday items, like a spool of cloth or a telephone, and turn them into something rich, something beautiful.

Thankfully, I found my heart’s desire in foreign films.

Watch this clip and you’ll see what I mean.

I can really feel the wood banister when Su Li-Zhen runs her slender fingers over it.

I have also included a clip from the celebrated Chinese film, Ju Dou, a cinematic achievement that is so delightfully luxurious. This film is decidedly light in dialogue, but much is shown through the use of color and symbolism.

My quest for finding movies that engage all my senses usually take me back to one place: the foreign film aisle or the foreign film selection on Netflix. I constantly find that films from other parts of the world make great use of cinematography and lighting.

It is no wonder that foreign films are often shown at “arthouse” theaters. Foreign directors seem to have a clear artistic vision. Nothing is coincidence. Red dye, chopped purple onions, hazy sunlight—every detail is carefully planned and of consequence to the story. This attention to detail heightens my experience as a viewer.

Fiction writers are often instructed to show more than tell. This golden rule should also be applied to movies. It is one thing when a character says, “I can’t live without her” and something else when you know he can’t live without her from the look in his eyes and the way he smokes his cigarette. The beauty of the cinema is that so much can be revealed or expressed through the visuals. So why not play with lighting and color? Why not use different camera angles to convey the significance of an object or illuminate a particular aspect of the film?

Far too often, US films about romance lose their potency because there is more telling than showing. In thinking about how I would have redone The Notebook, I would have omitted some parts of James Garner’s narration. For instance, for the scene when he and Allie first met at the fair, he reads from the notebook, “They had nothing in common, but after seeing Allie that night, something inside Noah snapped.”

Perhaps Cassavetes and the screenwriters were being faithful to the novel, but successfully adapting a novel to the big screen involves careful consideration of how to make the story resonate. This scene would be more effective if the narration stopped at, “We met at a country fair…” Then the camera could pan back and forth between Noah’s admiring glances and Allie’s radiant face.

In contrast to the overt expressions of love in many Hollywood films, foreign films, such as In the Mood for Love, are much more subtle. You know that the two main characters love each other, but it is not because they say so.

Why is it so important that watching a movie be a sensory experience? I think it’s partly just who I am. When I read, I like lush prose. Similarly, when I go to the movies or enjoy a movie at home, I want it to appeal all my senses. While this is a personal preference, I also believe that my favorite types of movies, movies about star-crossed lovers, benefit from this visual style. What better way to communicate desire or any other kind of emotion than through gorgeous images?

How is showing, not telling applicable to these films? A major aspect of most star-crossed romances is that one or both of the lovers must suppress his or her true feelings. As the film characters must restrain from expressing themselves, the filmmakers must exercise restraint in their portrayals of passionate, but forbidden or troubled love stories.

Because they exhibit these qualities, foreign films speak to the dark romantic in me.