Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Understanding Hollywood..

I don't. At all.

Went to the pictures this evening. A rom-com. I hate rom-coms. I like films with lots of explosions, or sci-fi, or fantasy, or by Kurosawa or Tarkovsky, or silent movies (but not silent comedies). I almost never watch so-called chick-flicks. (Or "heart-warming family" films.) I would never have chosen to watch a rom-com. But a friend asked me, and she looked all sad-eyed and pathetic and hopeful and said "please" and I caved.

It's called Heartbreaker and it's French (sub-titled). It wasn't quite the usual style of French film. It had been ever-so-slightly lightened - for the American market probably - though it wasn't really in the American rom-com style either.

I was rather surprised - well ok, more than "rather surprised", I was totally gobsmacked to find that I enjoyed it.

It wasn't as fluffy as an American film probably would have been, and the heroine was a lot more... I don't know, stronger?? more sassy?? independent?? all of these maybe, than a typical rom-com allows. (Took me hours to work out where I'd heard of the lead actress before... **smacks forehead** of course, Joe Le Taxi)... and there were some really funny moment that are you'll only get if you watch a lot a French action/gangster films but I can thoroughly recommend Heartbreaker if you like that sort of film.

I've heard it's being remade in the USA (after all everybody knows Americans can't read subtitles /sarcasm) I hope they don't weaken her character too much.

Why does the American film & tv industry do that, btw?? Take a perfectly good, successful, intelligent film or tv programme and re-make it. And remove the sarcasm, the humour, the political incorrectness (I don't think that actually a word *g*), the sex or the swearing, in fact everything that made it successful in the first place. Or remake a brilliant film simply because it's not in English. Oh I can understand the need to do so if it's full of cultural references or styles of humour that won't work in the USA, but they'll change it even if it doesn't have that. They'll change it to make it fluffier.

I'm pretty certain America has a decent literacy rate. And I know lots of very intelligent Americans. They're quite capable of understanding the subtleties of other cultures and equally capable of reading subtitles. And I'm sure they don't always need an up-beat ending. So why do it. It's insulting (to Americans) and doesn't make economic sense.

Daft I calls it.

Ah well. Time for bed. See you next week. Goodnight and may your God/s go with you.

Ze

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