Rhythms

My preference for American films and filmmakers is probably evident, even at this point. I love film and don't usually decide whether a movie is good or not based on the director's nationality, however there are certain "rhythms" to movies from parts of the world and this is what I want to write about in this post.

I preface the rest of my comments by saying that I’m speaking of films of an artistic nature, given that over 2,000 movies are made in the US each year.  Certainly, part of the explanation for this preference is that I’ve lived my life between North and South America (about 50/50 now).  I’m also just one more individual in the mass influenced by the aggressive, world-wide expansion of the American entertainment industry (film, television, music, Internet videos) which impacts film preferences by acclimatizing us to certain rhythms and narrative styles.  I’ve also already mentioned how my earliest movie exposure came from my father’s infatuation with Hollywood.

Of course I’ve rebelled along the way. A younger me would take a bus to the telephone workers union in downtown Lima, Peru, to see their film club screenings of Battleship Potemkin, October or Alexander Nevsky; with my fellow film buddy, now husband, we would drive long distances to pick up reels of precious films to show at our university film club, most particularly movies from great Italian masters like De Sicca, Visconti, Pasolini, Scola. And I’ve enjoyed such fascinating discussions over coffee or a gin tonic about the films by Buñuel, Bergman, Antonioni, Fellini, Bertolucci, Wertmuller, Cavani. More recently: von Trier, Herzog, Mungui, the Dardennes, Haneke and others.

I recognize and honor these, and many of my favorites pieces of film art come from these “foreign language” directors (I believe I’m lumping the UK directors with the Americans). However, I also confess that I am used to the rhythms and pace of American films. A movie lasts two or so hours, therefor part of the art of filmmaking is making each second count, not waste a scene or a shot. Even long, almost motionless, slow camera shots (like the snow scenes in Fargo or shots of the exterior of the house in Caché) should serve a purpose in the overall piece. American filmmakers are very atuned to this "impatience" from their audience. No judgement whether it's good or bad, it's just my preference.

Part of the narrative style of these American films is their straightforwardness in the story telling and also their simplicity and naturalness, especially in modern American filmmakers, something that I greatly prefer to the affected or pretentious style that a lot of foreign films suffer from (though this affectation is also present in some American filmmakers, like Woody Allen or Quentin Tarantino). I parallel this American style in movies to modern American literature. It’s a little like reading a Marilynne Robinson novel, where the ordinary, quotidian becomes explosive and leave us reeling in the depth of our feelings, wondering where they came from.

Film is such a fluid art, in any case. It is influenced by the other arts and by technology, so it is ever changing. I love this about this art form. It challenges us to keep an open mind (eye, ear, heart). It infuses us with new rhythms all the time. So maybe the list and my preferences will change as this blog develops, if it does. I’m just happy that I can look into my memory and realize the wealth of rhythms that I’ve already made mine