hollywood

Here is what Roger Ebert had to say about the Hollywood Studios in an artilcle he wrote about the Johnny Cash Movie: (THE RED PART)

"...Mangold had been shopping the Johnny Cash biopic around Hollywood with no luck. Even after he had Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon on board to play John and June, he was told the studios "don't want to make movies about people." William Goldman, the veteran screenwriter, had a gloomier analysis: "No one wants to make a movie that depends on you pulling it off."
They want, in other words, to make movies that don't need to be pulled off. Movies that are foolproof. Formula pictures, teenage action movies, video game adaptations, sequels..."

I found it very interesting to see Roger Ebert say that.

When I watch a Hollywood Movie, I usually can picture a bunch of corporate types sitting in a board room talking about how a scene test-marketed or how they need to put in more action or whatever else it is that will help gaurantee a better return on the investment.

The problem with that is that you lose the thing where one person has a vision of the story they want to tell and freedom to do it & you just end up with mindless crap.

For the past several years I have been watching alot of the foreign films (subtitles) that have been released here. We get them from the Libary & also the foreign section at Blockbuster.

I don't remember any of the names fo the famous Japanese or French filmakers or any of the actors either. My general thinking is that if it gets released here, There is a good chance that it did pretty well in it's home country.

I don't think any of the ones that I have seen have had probably one tenth the budget of the average Hollywood movie but they usually tell more of a story and rely on the actual art of making a film.

I never saw the American version of "Dance With Me" with Jenfier Lopez but one of the things that was a huge part of the story in the Japanese (original) version was that Ballroom Dancing didn't fit the Japanese Culture and was a violation of how men were supposed to act.

Please don't get me wrong. I am not looking down on anybody here. I still watch American Movies.

I guess a good example would be sports. The difference between professional sports and college sports before college sports became professional sports. Maybe that is not a good example.


The other thing I like about seeing movies from Poland, Iran, France, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Japan, or any of the other various Countries is that it can give you insight into the cultures of those places. I remember an Iranian Movie that is about a boy and pair of shoes. They actually got me to care about the boy and his shoes. For me, They "pulled it off"

Here are some movie sites if you want to see how a movie is rated before you watch it. You can also get ideas about movies to rent on these sites also.


www.imdb.com

http://www.metacritic.com/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/


May the Force be with you