It may not be a category that gets an enormous amount of attention, however the Oscar (and even the nominations) for best foreign language film, has introduced the public to many fine movies: Ida (Poland), The secrets in their eyes (Argentina), The Lives of others (Germany) etc.
And Miyazaki’s career had a great international boost thanks to winning the Best Animation Oscar for Spirited Away. Sometimes the Academy really can choose the right film.
In the world of television there has been a sea change as regards viewers’ willingness to watch subtitled series: The Bridge, Spiral, The Killing etc.
Is the same true as regards feature films?
Over on the Film that No one Dislikes Threadasaurus, more than a few foreign language films have been mentioned. I liked this comment from KDH, who waxes lyrical about Betty Blue:
“Beatrice Dalle was never lovelier. … At the time it felt like a zeitgeist movie, one of the last foreign language movies to do some real box office in English language territories, one that sold a lot of posters, but has now slipped (unfairly) from public consciousness.”
What I would like to know is: can a foreign language movie do good box office in 2017?
Have the goalposts been moved since The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty?
Incidentally I do hope that this year’s foreign language Oscar goes to Toni Erdmann. A German film which is a wonderful portrait of the difficult relationship between an eccentric father and his high flying, careerist daughter. It manages to be both side-splittingly funny and deeply moving.
I don’t mind subtitles but wouldn’t choose to watch subtitles at the cinema although it seems more acceptable to me at home. Having said that, the only film I’ve seen in both dubbed and subtitled versions is Spirited Away and I probably enjoyed the subtitled film more. Somehow the (usually) American dubbed actors don’t seem quite right. The two standout foreign language films that spring to mind are The Black Book and The Lives of Others. Both are such fantastic movies that the subtitles don’t detract from the narrative at all.
Dubbing is an invention of the devil and I diskard it utterly. Except when porn films are dubbed into German.
Trainspotting 2 wisnae tae bad.
I remember seeing the trailer for Trainspotting at a cinema in Mansfield. A small girl behind me asked her Dad if they were “speaking in Foreign”.
Thats understandable.
I was working in the USA when Braveheart was released. English language with sub-titles. For a predominate Australian lead actor.
That’s unbelievable.
The first Mad Max film was dubbed for its USA screening.
Franco Rosso’s “Babylon” (1980) was subtitled when shown in the US, I believe.
A great film for Aswad fans!
I agree. Subtitles can be very irritating, especially when you understand what is being said. But poor dubbing is even worse. I’m so glad we had the Japanese voices, for example, when I saw The Boy and the Beast, even though I understood nothing.
Here’s a little Betty Blue nostalgia. Beatrice Dalle was really quite something!
Poor dubbing ruined a lot of the West German films I used to watch. Still, I wasn’t exactly watching for the dialogue.
‘Good day. A plumber you did call to your housing? – phew, hot it is in your indoors, and I am now experiencing downfall of my clothings’.
“Please to be more hardly doing it”
Yoda was in these films? eeww
Nice DS.
I’m totally happy watching sub-titled films at the cinema, and (probably obviously) you usually get a quieter, more attentive audience, which is a bonus.
To my knowledge, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” remains the biggest-grossing non-English film of all time, but I think the right film, well-marketed could still find a mass audience. The trouble is that “Foreign” tends to be equated with “Art-house”, so there’s always going to be a fairly low ceiling to crash into…
… and it’s worth mentioning that we only get to see the best-of-the-best of foreign/non-English movies & TV; there are plenty of equivalents of “Sex Lives Of The Potato Men” that thankfully never escape beyond their home borders.
I’m a bit ambivalent about this whole foreign language film category. My view is that films such as Cinema Paradiso and The Lives of Others (admittedly in my top ten) should have won the best film, but are they only ever entered in the best foreign film category ? It seems like a consolation prize but then perhaps without this we might never have seen them here.
I don’t mind subtitles, but not with French and Italian films because they put me off. I watched The Wind also rises with subtitles because didn’t like the dubbing and liked to hear the Japanese voices, saw Porco Rosso recently and the voices were great.
I once saw The Commitments at a cinema in Japan and, as far as I recall, they more or less gave up subtitling after the 100th bollix.
Also: each country may only submit one film. Two of the very best films I saw last year were a The Handmaiden and Train To Busan, both straight outta South Korea, but the Korean film bods put forward The Age Of Shadows (not seen it) which failed to make the shortlist..
Yes, The Handmaiden was absolutely superb – the best South Korean film I’ve ever seen (but then I’ve only seen two).
We watch loads. I wonder if the rise of ‘second screening’ makes it harder for people to stick with subtitles at home – as you don’t have the words unless you’re looking at the screen.
Gregory’s Girl was redubbed for the American market with less ferociously Glasgow accents.
Very good point MM about foreign being associated with art house. That could be as much the fault of the distributors as the audience. They don’t believe a wider audience can be reached.
Sometimes a known US or UK actor will be cast to increase the appeal. Like this new movie The Wall.
Please tell me that’s a remake of the Pink Floyd opus miserabilis from 1982.
I saw the excellent-though-miserable Spanish film Lovers of the Arctic Circle at the cinema with English subtitles which were about a foot high and easy to read.
For the DVD release they scanned the UK cine print, and those subtitles are now too small to read on my telly.
Sorry to disappoint you Arthur. The Great Wall is Matt Damon as a European mercenary fighting extra-terrestialls on the Great Wall of China.
The detail and historical accuracy is very impressive by all accounts
Years ago on holiday in Greece I watched Carmen sung in French, luckily it was subtitled, unfortunately for me subtitled in Greek. Couldn’t understand either, still it was a good night out sat on the roof of the cinema watching the film as bats flew in front of the screen, and ice cream was served from a large chest freezer.
I saw Star Trek dubbed into Turkish once. That was a riot.
Nothing compares to seeing a Roger Moore Bond film dubbed into Italian.
The total disparity between Rog’s minimalistic, rather wooden acting (the occasional raised eyebrow) and the vitality, speed and excitement of the Italian language is priceless.
Given some recent posts on here, the most helpful subtitles are those on Althea & Donna videos..
I love that record to death. But when I look at the lyrics, it is clear to me that few who bought it , myself included, had the feintest clue what they were singing about.
“Gimme likkle bass, make me wine up me waist.”
Thanks KFD. A quick check in my Sight & Sound magazine indicates only one foreign language film broke the million pound mark in the UK in 2016 – Almodovar’s rather excellent Julietta (£1.3m). Number 2 (Victoria) took less than half that.
I’m quite spoiled where I live – 10 minutes walk away from a really good art house cinema (QFT) which shows lots of foreign language fare, but it’s disappointing that, in the days of the multiplex, mainstream cinemas seem reluctant to turn over just one of their screens to anything a bit different, in my neck of the woods at least. They seem to just wait until they’re clumsily remade in the US (see The Secret In Their Eyes, Oldboy, Let Me In, and others – or rather, don’t see them).
I’m probably over-romanticising, as they were before my time, but oh for the days of “Un Homme Et Une Femme” and “Elvira Madigan”…
Looking forward to “Toni Erdmann” incidentally.
I am spoilt rotten where I live, KDH. Five minutes walk from home we have the Reflexen cinema which is run by volunteers, so tickets are cheap.
Great programme for the public. Kids films on Sundays. A film club which shows the more esoteric stuff.
http://reflexen.nu/program/
Urban Swedes are probably more open to “foreign films”. There aren’t that many Swedish films and sub-titles at the cinema and on the telly are the daily norm, even in the news broadcasts.
And they show a lot of UK and US shows too.
Many younger Swedes are so competent in Swedish that the subtitles are more a safety net rather than a necessity.
We get a lot of foreign films in Brisbane. There’s a chain called Palace Cinemas, who are in all the capital cities, and they have frequent festivals – French, Italian, Spanish, er, British, and best of all, Asia/Pacific, which gives you anywhere from Iran to USA via Russia, S Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Japan, etc etc.. We saw a terrific Lao/Oz film called The Rocket a while back.
Of course the panic and confusion that sets in when you see the latest programme and realise you want to see 20 films over the next fortnight is something else.
I’m a sucker for a good foreign language film. Subtitle concentration is one of the few things that stops me fidgeting and multitwatting around, which aids relaxation and immersion.
It is a bit insulting that they’re all lumped into a catch-all category by Hollywood, but then it is the film ‘industry’ and these things just don’t perform in vast swathes of the market. Maybe that adds to the specialness of coming across a good non-Hollywood film.
I’m always interested in people’s suggestions. I find I’m both out of date on recent good foreign films as well as ignorant as to many must-sees: I only watched Jules et Jim the other night and saw my first Tati film over Christmas.
I find I’m far more catholic in my foreign film watching and will happily watch a miserable film about favela drug violence or a stupid rom-com about men looking after a baby, when the equivalent Hollywood treatment will leave me cold.
A few days after I saw Xavier Dolan’s powerful drama Mommy, a friend asked me whether I had understood any of the French Quebecois dialogue without using the subtitles.
I did a double take. I’d been so engrossed in the story that I had completely forgotten it wasn’t in English. Which of course is exactly how it should be.
It’s mentioned in this article about the decline of cinema box office for foerign language films.
http://www.independent.co.uk/radar/the-great-foreign-film-flop
The crash of HMV certainly has not helped.
But some local films, such as AW fave Hunt for the Wilderpeople, The king’s Choice (Norway), Quo Vado (Italy) and The Mermaid (China) have realy given Holywood a run for its money in their own countries.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-2016-foreign-language-hits-year-959176
The Norwegian one sounds well worth seeing.
This Chinese comedy looks …..interesting. Humour does not always travel well.
The Watershed is a powerhouse for non-mainstream film in Bristol which I know Kid Dynamite, to name but one, is a fan of. Here is what its director, Mark Cosgrove, has to say about foreign language films in the UK in 2017.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/2016/feb/11/brits-appetite-subtitled-foreign-films-world-cinema
Some genres travel far more easily than others.
Kung fu and action – Crouching aardvark, hidden possum being the classic example.
Horror – the undead speak a universal language and slatter fans seem very catholic in their taste for gore.
Erotica – My first Danish film was not by Lars Von Trier. Ole Softoft, star of Danish Dentist on the job, was a household name when I was in the 6th form.
But what about comedy? That must surely be where most gets lost in translation?
Swedish comedy, which rarely has any jokes or snappy one liners, usually leaves me cold.
But Kaurismäki from Finland makes me laugh, even though I don’t understand a word.
Any examples of a foreign language comedy that has travelled well?
“Gentle” comedy translates reasonably well I think K – Cinema Paradiso and Amélie spring to mind. Quirky, local humour can also work well – Tati’s Mon Oncle retains its impish charm. Beyond that, wasn’t Leningrad Cowboys Go America supposed to be funny?
I’m quite fond of the works of Roy Andersson – they’re not rolling in the aisles funny, but they do fit that “gentle” comedy description. The Danish film “Klown” had it’s moments. “Le Dîner De Cons” I seem to remember was quite amusing. And the OSS117 movies were OK.
I agree and like your examples. Gentle comedy is a good description. Comedy based on situation or character rather than quotable one-liners.
The Leningrad Cowboys are a very funny live band but I’ve never seen the film. It’s probably not his greatest achievement.
Another comedy form that has worked well since the days of silent films is slapstick. (It’s amazing how funny the likes of Keaton still are.) Jackie Cham pre-Hollywood perhaps is one of the best modern examples of this
Slapstick yes. Not much seemed to cross the Channel with any degree of success, if I recall. Didn’t Harry Enfield once parody the genre with an “I demand to see your boobies” sketch?
Leningrad Cowboys Go America is such a great title. And the haircuts were magnificent. Shame if it turned out not to be very funny.
It is fascinating to see how many foreign language films have been remade by Hollywood. I suppose it is the ultimate praise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English-language_films_with_previous_foreign-language_film_versions#Norwegian
We al know about the Magnificent Seven but I had no idea that Argentinian film Nine Queens which I really want to see had been remade as Criminal. Or that Escape to Victory is a remake of a Hungarian film Two Half Times in Hell from 1962!
Spike Lee has done a remake of Oldboy. It bombed. Spanish zombie film (REC) was remade as quarantine.
For my own interest, I am making a list of some of the most interesting remakes. I list the original and then the remake.
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls062877640/
Interesting list KFD. I didn’t know Some Like It Hot was a remake. I don’t know if ‘Da Grande’ (1987) counts. It “inspired” Tom Hanks’ vehicle ‘Big’. And Guy Richie’s appalling ‘Swept Away’ was a remake of slightly-less-appalling ‘Travolti Da Un Insolito Destino Nell’Azzurro Mare D’Agosto’.
Good list. A Fistful Of Dollars is also a remake of Yojmbo, and to a certain extent, Miller’s Crossing.
However, you could argue that Yojimbo is itself a remake — of an even earlier film, Roadhouse Night, as they’re both based on Dashiell Hammett’s book, Red Harvest. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Harvest
Thanks Gary. You are a mine of useful info. I added those to my list.
As you say. sometimes a film “inspires” another rather than being a remake. But I suspect that is often done to avoid paying royalties. Usually the remake is only a moderate success but Big was…huge.
There is also the phenomenon of a director remaking their own film in English like Haneke’s Funny Games. Or the same novel being used as the source for two different films, as with Wender’s The American Friend and Cavani’s Ripley’s Game. Both of which are very good.