WHAT?!
Not true at all. First, the US barely gets any foreign films here and most of the ones that are 'shown' here are ONLY winners at the movie festivals,
Second: European cinema is boring and bland??? You haven't seen the right movies, sir! I love European cinema because it's anything but boring. The paste os the movies may not be as quick, and the editing may not be as rapid as Hollywood, but the real good movies are so layered, with depth and complexity. Plus, there is something about watching a movie with no familiar actors that has a certain charm. It's more 'real' and more raw.
Well, I said European
suspense films aren't that great and are quite boring. But let's face it...for every good European film there are about five others that are just 2-hour wank-fests of the director sucking himself off about how great his art is. It reeks of arrogance, self-absorption, and condescension.
I see European films all the time in different languages and I can count on one hand how many I'd see again; and honestly, there isn't a single Italian film in existence that I could be forced to sit through again. We have Dario Argento, Benigni, and all the stupid fucking 70's trash films they did.
Argento tries too hard to be scary when it just ends up being cheesy. His films are preposterously stupid, giving his actors American and British names like Michael and Robert and Dylan and that sort of thing. Benigni makes beautiful cinema but it's like sitting through a douche commercial that makes you feel bad about yourself at the end, and he's also got that retarded Italian sense of humor that only fans of Jerry Lewis would find funny. Oh look, he fell down a flight of stairs. Oh look, he's waving his arms about when he's speaking. Oh look, his movies are boring as fuck.
And then you have the trash movies. The only good thing about those are all the fucking and naked chicks in them.
La Dolce Vita is basically the Italian Gone With the Wind, and they love to play that trump card because it's the only one they have. Italy hasn't put out a decent film since the 60's.
The only Italian film I can say I didn't walk out of was a recent one shot basically in my back yard. It's called "The Girl by the Lake". It's boring as shit but the cinematography is top notch and so is the acting.
Their older movies are great and very funny, like "Un Americano a Roma". It's a classic and you should do yourself a favor if you have never seen this one. Sordi was a genius. "Macarone...mi hai provocato e io ve distruggo adesso..." Classic line.
Only now for modern Italian cinema...this is the shit that we have now:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f00ADZnXaUo&feature=related[/ame]
Need I say more?
