Spanish renaissance... Penelope Cruz in Volver
A request for favourite neglected gems here on the blog inevitably threw up a large number of foreign language films. Like many who posted responses, I found it easier to pick out French films than obscure Anglo movies: Olivier Assayas's Fin août, début septembre, Cyril Collard's Les Nuits Fauves, and as others nominated, Louis Malle's magnificent, bleak Le Feu Follet - a film perhaps best viewed when the dark winter nights are over. And recently, the Danish film Adam's Apples that doesn't seem to have made it to many screens beyond Sundance.
There are obvious reasons why foreign films we have seen might be so memorable. Presumably the level of critical or popular acclaim has to be that much higher in order for them to break into English-speaking cinemas or (still more daunting) the British TV schedules. But I harbour the odd doubt. Are some of my favourites really as good as I think they are - or does my limited understanding help them out?
In France I found a dubbed TV series called Code Quantum engaging and moving. Back home again, I lasted about 15 minutes of the original Quantum Leap. Footballer and sometime actor Eric Cantona enjoyed a reputation for erudition in England that is lost on the French, to whom his accent comes across like a Gallic version of Gazza's Geordie twang.
That Penelope Cruz, now acclaimed again after Volver, never really impressed in English may not be down to her own language barrier as much as our own, endowing her with more sophistication when lisping in Spanish.
Would the angst-ridden hero of Le Feu Follet still appeal in an English classic from 1963, or would he suffer from association with the clipped tones of a public information film on drinking? Were Les Nuits Fauves' hysterical lovers from New York, would their words sound a little too much like the wittering of Friends?
Hollywood remakes of foreign classics may not be as intrinsically pale as is commonly complained. As with reading a book, a subtitled movie leaves more to our own imagination in filling the gaps. Perhaps, when stories and characters are stripped of their exoticism and we are exposed to all the nuances and subtleties of familiar voices, language and mannerisms, movies have trouble remaining the beauties we once took them for.
