Hollywood Quality...But Overseas

       Here in America we are in a bit of a bubble and are absolutely obsessed with our own uber successful film industry, but there are others our there. We often think of all foreign films as being poor quality or beneath our level of interest, when in all actuality there many countries with wonderful production studios and excellent directors.

Two of the countries that are on the top of my “favorites list” for films, are Sweden and South Korea.  Even if you do not agree with the Hollywood film style, you cannot argue that the acting and production values are not well beyond amazing. I’ve always thought that  Asian movies have pretty corny plots and fake-looking acting, so when I saw my boyfriend suggested that we see a S. Korean film called “Old Boy” I said yes, mostly to humor him. I can say that I was pleasantly surprised with the satisfaction that I felt at the end of those two hours. I walked away having just watched a well written and well directed movie with believable acting and a fascinating plot. This movie also had a great twist ending that was completely shocking and unexpected. The actual storyline followed a path that would never be acceptable in American cinema, which is something that I enjoy about foreign films. They don’t necessarily conform to what society deems admissible; therefore they are free to explore new ideas and they can also show scenes that America’s rating system would immediately send back to the editing room.

From my experience, Swedish film is also excellent in quality and acting. Swedish movies to tend to move very slowly, but in the end there is just as much action and intrigue as a typical American film of the same genre, just a little more spread out. I feel that it maybe takes a more intellectual type to sit through one of these films, someone who actually looks for cinematic quality and doesn’t mind putting in the effort, as opposed to the viewer who is just looking for an easy thrill. In the past few decades Sweden has become much better known worldwide for its filming industry. A lot of this is due to director Ingmar Bergman, whose films are critically acclaimed and well known in America. In the recent past there have even been Swedish films showing at theaters in major U.S. cities, and not just as a special showing, but playing in a normal run alongside American movies. Let the Right One In is a vampire film, but a vampire film done right. This movie was received so well among American audiences that Hollywood decided to remake the film in English. The trilogy of Swedish movies that begin with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo have all been released in Sweden, with the only the first movie being released in theaters here thus far, a remake of this is also in the works at Hollywood while the second and third have not yet made it to the states.

While the films of  “Bollywood” and “Nollywood” may be innovative and pertinent to their cultures, the Swedish and South Korean studios offer movies that will appeal to a mass audience while staying true to their country’s standards and beliefs.

Concept: International Film Industry

Blaxploitation

          Blaxploitation was a cultural film eruption. Between 1970 and 1980, there were over 200 films released by major and independent studios which showcased black characters and themes demonstrating they had enough of "The Man." Blaxploitation films crossed all movie genre borders. There were dramas, comedies, spaghetti westerns, cops and robbers, shoot 'em ups, love stories and tons of kung fu flicks. Contrary to popular belief, the name of the genre is actually a twist on the “sexploitation” and exploitation films of the 1960’s, not a term implying that Hollywood was using or exploiting black people or entertainers.

Before 1970 blacks were really only perceived as train porters, waitresses and shoe-shine boys. All of that changed in 1971 with Melvin Van Peebles' groundbreaking film, Sweetback's Baadassss Song. Sweetback  was the first "commercially successful" black-theme film that showed a black man coming out on top over the white establishment. Today, you cannot even think about cutting edge contemporary black directors like Spike Lee, John Singleton, Bill Duke and Reginald Hudlin without paying homage to Van Peebles. And if Van Peebles is the forerunner to black theme pictures, Gordon Park's Shaft  underlined, punctuated and ushered in the genre. Shaft  screamed, "Hey everybody, blacks can be tough action heroes like Eastwood, Connery and Bronson.

Black heroes were needed in the '70s because the media was busy portraying them as revolutionaries and militants. Many believed that the downside to the Blaxploitation genre was that it promoted violence and racial stereotypes. There were films like The Mack and Superfly which romanticized drug use and guns. However, there were also tender films like The Leaning Tree and comedies like A Piece Of The Action that were also part of the same genre.

Lately there has been a resurgence of  Blaxploitation fever in local art house theaters and touring film festivals. Some modern movies also display characteristics of the genre such as Quentin Tarantino chose to do in Jackie Brown -  a film starring Pam Grier that pays homage to the Blaxploitation movement.

References

http://blaxploitation.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaxploitation

http://www.blaxploitationpride.org/

http://www.jahsonic.com/Blaxploitation.html

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070350/

Hollywood on a Witch Hunt

The Red Scare and the ensuing Hollywood Blacklist, and Hollywood Ten decisions are a very embarrassing example of the American attitude. Our country’s government and highly regarded religious leaders were destroying these people’s lives in the name of “preventing” communism, but only succeeded in practicing the very things that they were preaching against. The U.S was appalled when we watched Hitler go on a rampage, rooting out Jews and killing them, but is the witch hunt that happened in our own country not as bad just because we didn’t kill anyone? This is still an example of targeting a specific person or group that did not fit a certain mold, or agree to conform to specific ideals. What a surprise that once again, money is the root of the problem, and that the people behind the money could sway public opinion. Just because these people had ideas that did not conform to what may have been socially or morally acceptable, this was an opportunity to oust them once and for all. It is really sad that this was blown so out of proportion, to the point of causing suicides and exilation.

Visual or Psychological Thriller...

The horror genre has been around since the very beginning of filmmaking. As you can imagine, the major plots are getting a bit worn out after ninety-plus years of usage. If you see enough horror movies, you can begin foresee the next scene. It becomes a repetitive sequence of recycled scare tactics. This is especially common in visual horror movies, whereas psychological thrillers still possess some interesting plots, especially the ones with the twist endings. People love to be scared because it gives them a thrill that everyday life lacks. You can watch these movies and be totally enraptured by the monsters, devils, and zombies for 2 hours, emerging from the theater covered in bits of greasy yellow popcorn but completely unharmed.

Movies like Saw and the Halloween series were good for maybe the first one or two, but do we really need twelve of each? Movies like these can be pumped out a million times a year and still get an audience, which shows our society’s unending interest in this genre. Unfortunately, good psychological thrillers take a little more thought to create, and are thus, are few and far between. In my opinion Alfred Hitchcock will forever be the king of psychological thrillers. He is by far my favorite filmmaker of all times. Dial “M” for Murder, Rear Window, and of course Psycho, are all phenomenal examples of the perfect way to create suspense. A modern director that I think did a great job (up until The Last Airbender, haha) at creating interesting and thought provoking suspense movies, is M. Night Shyamalan. You could be scared all the through a movie and have the protagonist turn out to not actually be scary at all, or vise versa. Although I really do enjoy a good cheap scare every now and then, if I had to choose between the two I would go with the more thought provoking, psych thriller option.  A new sub genre than I came across in this past year made me realize, do I really have to choose? I’ll use these movies as examples, but please don’t judge me. I don’t think that they are the pinnacle of perfection, but I do like the idea. The first one I saw was a Spanish filmed called “REC”, like the record button on a video camera. If I had to total up the “scary action” in the film, it might total ten or fifteen minutes, but the movie was done so well that the whole audience was on the edge of their seats for the entirety of the film. You did not even see the protagonist, or have any idea of what it might be until the last 20 minutes of the movie. You might think that this sounds like a gyp, but I know that I came out the theater totally satisfied. There is also a REC 2, but I didn’t think it was as scary because you already knew what you were going to see. The other film that I thought pulled this tactic off nicely, was Paranormal Activity. Even though I don’t think that this film executed its “scares” as well as they did in REC , I did admire the director for the amount of time in the movie during which absolutely nothing took place, while still keeping the rapt attention of the viewer.  Both of these movies were filmed in the Blair Witch style, where either the lead character is filming, or the film is taken from a security tape.

I really admire the way that both of these films do not give you much to go on throughout the viewing, keep you holding your breath, and then wait until very near the ending to reveal what is really happening. So for me, this style of film nicely solves the question of Visual vs. Psychological Horror.

Concept: Visual vs. Psych Thriller