Historically speaking, we aren’t referring to the numerous films made around the world. Instead, this is a direct inference of what created an international movement toward a much greater quality of films outside the “Hollywood Studio System.”
Looking at historical foreign cinema makes one understand the pure essence of filmmaking. As world cinema today is relevant to social conditions, trends and psychology, they still borrow a lot and are tremendously inspired by the past pieces of work. Some notable films have come from Iran, Korea, Japan, Europe and South America. Some examples are City Of God 2002 (Brazil), The Switch 2017 (Sweden), Battle Royale 2000 (Japan), Old Boy (South Korea) and Holy Motors 2012 ( France).
While the studio system started during 1920s and went on through the 1960s (until now), it had a world dominance due to it’s early inventions, bringing about the so-called avant gardes of cinema in the Americas. Technically, this was the first conditioning of cinema, around the world, but, not necessarily a great work of art.
That being said, this Hollywood dominance brought about a herculean shift in motion pictures — the foreign new wave cinema. Integrally, this was due to the Second World War occupancy in Europe by the Americans (the Europeans felt this conscious overthrow) that forever changed film language. It brought about a new dimension of art and nationalistic expressionism.
In essence, this gave birth to a prolific method of differential filmmaking that is strongly based on realistic storytelling, thus, showcasing the soul of European cinema, artistically. This was the birth of the foreign Nouvellevague (New Wave).
Neo Realism, an Italian film movement dealt with stories set amongst the poor and working class, with no professional actors. This in turn influenced the birth of the French Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) cinema, essentially European Art Cinema based on rejection of Hollywood. The works of directors from the Neo Realist era include Roberto Rossellini. To conclude, I’m going to cap off with an imperative winding down; I did start watching these so-called foreign films (after my Hollywood introduction) at a rather young age, and these always hold a brilliant relevance and truth. The power of these stories, handling, performance and music are etched in my mind. If a film can move you as much as a visual memory, it has clearly worked.
From crocodiles to advertising, the writer spent his early years on a crocodile farm in Chennai. He has his own film company Borealis.
