Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Bambi B on September 25, 2003 at 08:09:41

In Reply to: What is the name of the greatest ( subjective ) French actor ? posted by patrickU on September 24, 2003 at 11:16:18:

Patrick,

The difficulty in the task you've set is that I think it is much more difficult to appreciate subtle nuances in acting if you are not fluent in the language and know all the little cultural references and idioms.

A few years ago when I saw "Monsieur Hire" with a Parisian friend, our conversation afterwards made me realize how much more, how many more levels were communicated to her than to me and my child's-level French.

And conversely, it was interesting to me to have seen "Young Frankenstein" or in France "Frankenstein Junior" for the first time in a small cinema on the Champs-Elysee and notice that the French speakers and English speakers were laughing at different times. If I only read the French subtitles, I wondered how the French speakers found anything except the most visual humour very funny: [sound of the huge iron rings hitting the castle doors] Wilder with his face near Garr's breasts says, "What knockers!" referring to the door knockers but Garr glances at her cleavage and says "Oh, thank you doctor." But the subtitles had Wilder saying, "Excellents heurtoirs [de porte]!" so the gag was lost.

So, I think that to some degree, it is difficult to really penetrate such a complex art as acting of another culture enough to have extremely refined tastes. I have occasionally seen a little bit of movies from India (and I think they make 600-700 features per year there)- and which sometimes have three simultaneous subtitles. My friend from Hydersbad would point out the most renowned actors and how great they are, but it is a closed book to me.

But. it is the look into these other cultures that makes foreign film so fascinating and worth pursuing. At one time I wanted to learn Japanese almost only for "Seven Samurai".

Cheers,

Bambi B