From: frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney)
Subject: Re: The Vanishing
Date: 23 Jul 92 15:14:20 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Windows/DOS Users Ed Group

In article <1992Jul22.164232.5989@cs.ucla.edu> reiher@ficus.cs.ucla.edu (Peter Reiher) writes:
[deletion]
>
>The view in Hollywood is that Americans will not go to see films that do
>not feature American stars.  (Or foreigners who have become "American"
>stars by appearing in lots of American films, like Arnold Schwarzenegger.)
>There may be some truth to this view.  A fine film like "One False Move",
>which is in English, that gets dozens of tremendous reviews is likely to make 
>far less money than a potboiler like "Unlawful Entry".  There are really only 
>two reasons why - one is that "Unlawful Entry" has "name stars", the other is 
>the vast difference in the amount of money spent promoting the two films.  The 
>Hollywood position is that the first reason is the predominating one.
>I have some doubts.  I'd like to see some studio or releasing organization
>take a foreign language film with a strong chance at popularity, dub it
>well (I prefer subtitles, but the vast bulk of the American public won't
>go to subtitled films), and spend a lot of money opening it wide and
>promoting it.  This kind of strategy has worked in the past.  Joseph E. Levine
>made millions this way off "Hercules", in the early 1960's, without even
>bothering to give it a good dubbing job.  I think, for instance, that
>"Peking Opera Blues", or "The Killer", or "A Better Tomorrow", could
>easily make $20-$40 million, given good dubbing and a proper advertising
>campaign.
>
>But the bulk of the quality foreign language films indeed would not
>be popular successes in the U.S., even with this strategy.  They don't
>feature lots of action and violence, nor comedy of the belly-laugh
>variety, nor spiffy special effects, and those are the elements that
>tend to make for big successes in American films.  They tend to feature
>small, interesting stories about unusual people, and those sorts of
>films don't tend to make lots of money in the U.S., whatever language
>they are in.
>

I would be interested to know, and maybe you're just the
person to tell me, how well foreign art films, so-called, so
in their home markets. Did THE VANISHING makes tons of
guilders and francs, for example? Are films that are
considered to be niche-market films here popular hits back
home and immediate environs? I know that's way too broad a
question, but here are some foreign titles that I've
reviewed since last December -- which of these were popular
successes abroad:

PROSPERO'S BOOKS (U.K.)
HIGH HEELS (Spain)
MADAME BOVARY (France)
RHAPSODY IN AUGUST (Japan)
LET HIM HAVE IT (U.K.)
HEAR MY SONG (Ireland/U.K.)
EUROPA, EUROPA (Germany)
THE ARCHITECTURE OF DOOM (Sweden, but in German)
OVERSEAS (France)
WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD (U.K.?)
EDWARD II (U.K.)
PROOF (Australia)
THE PLAYBOYS (Ireland)
MEDITERRANEO (Italy)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (Germany)
LOVERS (Spain)
ON EARTH AS ON HEAVEN (Belgium)
THE ADJUSTER (Canada)
A WOMAN'S TALE (Australia)
SPOTSWOOD (Australia)

I sometimes ask overseas readers to write me about how a
film was received at home. In the case of PROOF, which I
think is the best film I've seen this year, one person wrote
me from Oz that it enjoyed an unusual success there, as
"no one hates Australian movies more than Australians -- we
never watch them if we can help it -- but PROOF had a
sizeable publicity machine, a mainstream release (after its
art cinema run) and did well, from what I hear. The season
was long enough for me to see it twice, six months apart.
The critical reception was excellent."

I hear how the very American films some of us despair the
most of, the high-budget, f/x-heavy, action film a la Arnie,
are exactly the ones that dominate at least some foreign
markets as well. What this says about American cultural
dominance and what it says about popular tastes everywhere I
wouldn't know, but I'd love to hear from someone who does.

-- 
Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
	"Only the mediocre can always be at their best." -- Mencken
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