Foreign for whom? Overrated by whom?

I think most of Hollywood movies are overrated, and that since Hollywood exists. They're foreign to me...

I had to look up the original title of "Blue Is The Warmest Colour" (which is La Vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2). I don't know if it's overrated since I'm not really interested in ratings, but I do agree that this film was a bit hyped. I personally think that the first 45 minutes are wonderful, but unfortunately, the following two hours the film becomes too demonstrative to convince me.

Regarding Cinema Paradiso, I very much liked that film, but it is rather conventional. I was a projectionist when this film came out, so that adds something to the appreciation of it. It is a good, entertaining and moving film, but not a masterpiece, IMHO.

  

I think you know that I couldn't agree more with you on this subject, Friede..

The official language here is English, so foreign would be non-English.

Sorry, but that doesn't make any sense to me. Yes, the official language is English here, but only for communication's sake because most people do at least speak some English. However, for non-native speakers English is a foreign language and movies in English will feel foreign for them.

I grew up bilingually, so I can partially live with your idea. But sorry, movies in German are not foreign movies for me.

I'm sorry I just laughed with Friede's comment above and walked away, but it had been a long day.

That's certainly a top three overrated to me as well. Sentimental, cutesy crap.

...soo we got the Americans, the Brits, the Scots, the Irish, the Aussies + about 7.5 billion foreigners in the world? Here's two average Joe's watching a "foreign movie":)

I hope my comments above didn't imply this is what I think if you don't 'get' a film or director? I'm certainly not academically elitist about it and if Kiarostami isn't your thing, just move on to someone else (whatever you do, DON'T try his film 'Shirin'!)

FWIW (and it's worth very little), I don't get much out of the films of your fellow countryman Aki Kaurismaki, but I put that down to my own deficiency and not his...

I never believed that elitism -- people like what they like, and it doesn't make someone better/worse because they don't like a movie one is "supposed" to like (I hate the word "supposed to" when it comes to love of any art). I loved "Taste of Cherry" (more than "Close-Up") and was actually re-telling the story the old man told the main character.

Ironically, Aki Kaurismaki is the most recent director I like the most, especially all those movies with Matti Pellonpaa

No problem! I didn't make implications of anyone's comments, just approached this topic with my own point of view, respecting other views.

Glad that my countryman Aki Kaurismäki was brought into the table. I personally think he's overrated, and I'm always frustrated when people talk about "Kaurismäki" (without saying the first name, that is), forgetting that his brother Mika Kaurismäki is a director, too, and I generally prefer Mika's films.

I did see Cinema Paradiso and felt it might be overrated.

I saw a really excellent German film at a college that showed non English language films but I don't remember the name of it. It's probably more underrated than overrated though.

This is such a sad topic in my experience, after seeing the things I saw at the Portland International Film Festival, and their complete disregard for someone like me trying HARD to get attention to films other than the English, American and a couple of French and Italian films! The rest, all had (at the very most) half an audience, and the oddball films from Africa (for example) usually had about 20 people in the audience ... screw the quality and what the film was about or meant ... the crappy comedy from France was enjoyed by more people!

It was one of the saddest things I ever saw, and it has gotten only worse since folks on the Internet (and here!!!) think that only the top stuff is good, and the rest not only does not rate, and no one bothers listening to it because it is boring ... it doesn't have any redeeming factors like the typical format of almost every sub-genre listed on PA.

I have favorites, and they are not in one country at all ... a French film, an Italian film, a Spanish film, an English film, a German film, one Australian film, one or two films from South America, a Canadian film, a Kurdish film ... and not a whole lot of American films, because so few of them have stood up to the quality

of the "foreign film" and instead went for "action" and some "glamour" to make sure it could sell enough to double its cost so everyone could go home happier than before!

To me, the worst in America is that the arts are not taught in high school, since its demise by Ronald Reagan and the following Republicans who discovered that "art" was usually a liberal thing, and they did not want to present liberals with any money ... one of the first to lose a lot of support was PBS. And to this day, I sincerely doubt that any "republican" would even consider it all again!

The other issue is that the big names in directing in America, are there for the fame, not the film itself. And despite their help and support for some foreign films (Tarantino and Scorcese helped a lot of film makers at one time), today, almost all directors used in America are nobodies that are merely copying the same thing American TV has been doing for 70 years, and creating a lot of meaningless things ... which have to sell ... regardless, and this often means that the producer is not going to allow a director a whole lot of freedom, and we don't have enough names telling the studio to screw itself ... and the big names that went on to create their own studios, guess what? They did the same thing as the studio!

I don't have an answer ... but a lot of American film is a sad history of shooting and design ... from a literary point of view it is totally senseless and completely stupid ... but audiences will take their action from it!

Cold day in hell we will find another El Topo ... as one drastic example!

Hi,

This film is important for the many of us that got to see things cut up senseless as in the film, by "authorities" that were determining what they did not want the public to see or know about. And the church, was one of the worst in this aspect ... and they never learned from the Deep Throat affair to keep their mouths shut! And instead got a film to make millions and give videos a leg up!

MortSahlFan wrote:   ... -Blue Is The Warmest Colour

I have not seen or found this anywhere to watch, and this is an issue with a lot of foreign films not showing up in places where one can see them later. As I mentioned on a couple of other posts, and about the incredible majority of films that will never hit video or DVD ... they end up in the dumpster, and never seen by many folks, even though they should. I would happily have seen this but in the past 10 years, making it to Portland for the Portland International Film Festival is a massively difficult chore for an older person, and standing online for a half hour for a seat is very uncomfortable. And thus, the film suffers, and I have reviewed quite a large number of films I saw at the PIFF, and they won't even give me a discount of 1% because they are run by the same high folks that run Portland's arts and decide which groups will even try to walk in the carpets in a couple of their halls!

It was a box office hit and some liked it but from I've read it was crap.

It's a well enough made movie and all that but I just don't get what all the praise is about.

...and how do I know it's a foreign film? Because the Acadamy said so.

Foreign is a relative term. 

Hi,

Might want to reword that ... the films that have so much advertising that it makes the public think that it is good! Not another Gop Tun! pllllllllssssssseeeee!

I've never thought of American movies as being "foreign", as 90% of the movies I watch are from the good old USA. 

If I go with non-English language films, then my exposure to world cinema is limited.  However, going by the current hullabaloo over that particular Indian film, I am inclined to name RRR.  It's not bad for what it's worth but it's disappointing that it continues to be pure over the top visuals that are associated with Indian cinema as if no Indian director ever made a good film with authentic and grounded characters.  I get that some of the hype is just eyeball-hungry youtubers promoting anything Indian to get views from a 1 billion plus country but even so, it's pretty gruesome.