Why has Italian cinema lost its appeal abroad?
theparisreview.org
theparisreview.org
If your capital isn't allocated fairly results will be pretty bad.
And I wouldn't call the Hollywood situation of giving multi-million dollar budgets to BS like Transformers and spare change to far better movies a "fair allocation" either when it comes to artistic merit.
When it comes to art, allocation of capital and "efficient markets" just means more popular works get more money -- it doesn't say anything about their quality, which is part of what the article is about.
(Expecting accusations of 'elitism', I'm not talking about esoteric, self-congratulatory arthouse films either. The Godfellas for example, a mighty good movie, is anything but that, or Pulp Fiction (or, at their era, The Searchers, Vertigo etc.).
To be fair, the title asks about its appeal, not artistic merit. Transformers is a shitty film, but it certainly has appeal.
As one personal example of someone I know in the industry who left... an Italian who left was not even getting paid for the subtitle translation work she was doing. For something like six months.
Globalisation seems to be more of a "culprit": once upon a time, a country's local cultural production had a semi-captive audience (there was less foreign content and less of it moved from the original country to others, leaving more room for local production) and a much easier time competing (lower budgets, lower technological finesse and lower economies of scale all around).
Today, there's more high-production-quality quickly-available content than ever, between more people being able to consume anglo content directly and home-grown sub scenes, international mostly-anglo content is easier than ever to access for individuals, and going the other way it's much harder for local content to break international markets because the accessibility is much lower the other way around, which means it's harder for local content to recoup the same production budgets.
Paris is an even worse place for artists to live and work. Make things affordable for artists, and artists won't leave. Society is much better when you have artists amongst your midst.
When a media baron runs the country (like in Italy), it can't be good for the films being produced.
Germany has a license fee twice as much as in Italy. (much Germany cinema is beyond terrible but). The UK also has a higher tv fee.
How does this explain the success of Scandinavian crime dramas such as The Killing, The Bridge, Wallander? These have enjoyed much success in the UK and are always shown with subtitles.
So success for foreign language drama is certainly possible in English speaking markets, and without dubbing either.
Despite?
> Despite?
Yes?
But since 2000 Italian cinema is the most exciting in Europe again. They are the only ones who successfully experiment in new visual aesthetic with the new available camera technology. It's not only Paolo Sorrentini (Camera: Luca Bigazzi) * L'uomo in più (2001) * Le conseguenze dell'amore (2004) * L'amico di famiglia (2006) * Il Divo (2008) and then his famous ones, but also Zapruder Filmmakersgroup (Nadia Ranocchi, David Zamagni, Camera: Monaldo Moretti) with "All Inclusive 3D" (2010), Luca Guadagnino, Salvatore Maira, Michelangelo Frammartino and in the last years many more. Compare it e.g. to the current decline of the french movies.
The directors with which the decline of the Italian cinema started were Gianno Amelio, Guiseppe Tornatore, Roberto Benigni, Gabriele Salvatores, Franco Zeffirelli and Silvio Soldini. They should rest in piece.
Personally, I feel most movie awards are BS, but I do not understand why GP believes these authors are the cause of the "italian cinema decline" in the context of abroad appeal, given they are have actually been rather more successful at it then others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Montalbano_%28TV_ser...
You will like these if you enjoy quieter productions that depend on subtleties. And if you enjoy works that are both artistic (think about the state of the filmed street-scapes) and that seek to imbue local flavor.
Also, depending on where you get them from, the subtitles may not accurately convey some of the language and subtleties.
P.S. RAI subsequently launched a "prequel" series, The Young Montalbano. I haven't seen it in a while. It's ok, I guess, but I prefer the original.
Caos Calmo (Quiet Chaos) was fantastic though.
I'm a bit of a fair-weather fan of Italian cinema insomuch that I usually enjoy what I am able to find online that gets translated. My partner is close to fluency in Italian and loves watching Italian film to test her understanding, but we find ourselves constantly struggling to locate any reliable source for Italian film, legally or otherwise acquired. The most famous pieces of Italian cinema are certainly obtainable, but exploring the rest just seems to be a fools errand.
I'm not sure whether the Italian studios don't want to take the time, if Publishers world-wide don't see the return on investment for spreading Italian film, or what is stopping access, but there can be no interest if there's no chance in getting at the film.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0604335/ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0815204/
Io Sono Li is also a good, rather recent film. For documentaries, try Videocracy and Women Bodies (aka Il Corpo Delle Donne), the latter of which is on Youtube. BBC did a series called Italy Unpacked where two guys travel around Italy experiencing its cuisine. Italy, Love it or Leave it is on my list of documentaries to see but I have yet to find it available somewhere. As for TV, try Gomorra La Serie and/or Inspector Montalbano.
I don't know, maybe hardcore movie fans find something in it, but this demographic is thin these days. For me as a common viewer, every single Italian movie I've seen in the last years was much better. And I'm talking random stuff from festivals.
The only thing that kept me wondering thru the film is - where do those people get that kind of money to make their life style possible? Now, if he made a film explaining THAT, I would be first to watch. Otherwise, characters are ageing impostors, but first of all boring.
It make a clear picture of the decay of Rome, it make you see what people thing, what are their values, why the behave the way the do... Everything is completely clear.
I'd be interested in a list of good Italian films since the year 2000. (That's just an arbitrary cut off.)
Especially if they have ahem YIFY try before you buy samples.
We're at a funny time where we sort of remember the time when we weren't all splayed out on the internet in front of each other, and we can still pine for a return to that... We have given up some important things that are worth trying to get back.
But unfortunately for these people, I think we're only seeing the beginning. And we'll be horrified at what the next generation will share publicly and demand space for in the public discourse. The Internet wants to see everything and it is only getting stronger. It's "eye" will grow 1000x every thirty years for the next century.
The swaggering unselfconscious architype she misses is going to increasingly read as tone-deaf until we reach the next civil rights plateau. Minimally we'll need free basic medical care and housing for all humans.
At that point I think he swagger could come back in full blast--nothing wrong with a little self-aggrandizement if everyone is fed and people are enjoying watching.