I love watching foreign films, as those who follow my blog know, but it has me wondering whether Hollywood movies are so mainstream that even in other countries they are just movies.
I mean in Paris, is someone all “Hey I’m going to see a foreign film this weekend?”
“Really, what?”
“The new Star Wars movie.”
If Hollywood movies are just movies in other countries what about our Indie movies, are those considered foreign films?
It seems a bit conceited to think that American movies are just movies all over the world. Other countries have huge thriving movie industries and make some really wonderful films.
So if you know the answer please let me know, ‘cause it really has me baffled.
Great. Now I need to know the answer to this.
Mmm… It depends in Mexico if it’s a big budget Hollywood flick or an artsy indie film (the Oscar loving artsy Hollywood flicks with very strong politically correct inclusiveness would be included in the second part).
People here think the big comic book hero type flicks as just blockbuster movies. Mexican filmmakers are too cash struck to be able to finance massive special effects (I think Matando Cabos was one of the first to include a high budget car crash into a soccer stadium and they only secured sufficient $ to film the scene once). Because of the difficulty to secure cash, mexican movies are more dramas or comedies that almost always happen in downtown Mexico City. People like me that live in the Jersey Shore outskirts of the city need not apply. They never make movies that happen in my part of town. ~_~
Mexico has made some nice animated films. The arrival of flash animation reduced costs to make it economically possible for animators to make 90 minute films. The child friendly adventure films of Ricardo Arnaiz are popular enough that they keep on launching sequels in the theaters albeit plotwise I’m not too Gung-ho about them. I personally liked the film “Una pelicula de huevos” (a mixture of mexican slang which could either mean “A really awesome film” or “A movie about eggs”). After 10 years they launched a sequel of that film in 3D. The animation is quite good, around as good as many Dreamworks films although the story kinda fell short to me.
Mexicans consider their cinema in two groups: Golden age mexican cinema (pretty much clumps anything before 1990 even if it’s a really awful low budget 70’s flick) and New mexican cinema. For the most part they consider blockbuster Hollywood movies just movies.
How interesting! I knew nothing about the Mexican Film industry, thank you for taking the time to tell me about it. I have added the movies you talked about to my Netflix queue I can’t wait to check them out!