Have you noticed that some of the recent foreign films have been better than ours lately?

Question

I recently saw Curse of the Golden Flower and it was just spectacular. It was well-acted, had excellant costumes, rich detail, and incredibly woven story, beautiful backgrounds. Pan's Labirynth also looks it will be very good. It just seems these movies are willing to be good and not just pander to what has become the norm.

That should be Labyrinth, sorry.

Answer 1

I think most foreign films are better than ours because they don't feel the need to pander to the public. Japan is especially consistent about releasing exceptional movies. This is probably due to the fact that the Japanese tend to be smarter, so filmmakers don't have to dumb down their films to make money. Japan is amazing with horror movies. We stole The Ring and The Grudge from them...their version were so much better. If you like The Ring, check out Ringu!

P.S., Pan's Labrynth was an exceptionally good movie. I would recommend seeing it.

Answer 2

Since film was actually introduced initially by a Frenchman, and the United States came after... it's safe to say that Other countries have had more experiments with film. The only reason Hollywood is as big as it is, was because there were more shooting days in California and more variety of settings (eg. desert, mountains, beach, etc.) I have not seen the film you are talking about yet but I have heard a lot about it. It just goes to show you how far film has progressed from being just a picture to actual frames being shot and displayed with sound and color now. Also, we are limited as to what we can have in our films. We are supposed to have great endings and if something wrong happens, it has to be accompanied by a right. There really isn't a freedom in films as much anymore. There are too many guidelines to follow to be as open and expressive as foreign films seem to be.