What proportion of your ranked movies are American?

Discuss your favorite actors, directors or screenwriters
Stewball
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Re: What proportion of your ranked movies are American?

Post by Stewball »

P u l p wrote:Why?! :shock:


Why what?

paulofilmo
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Re: What proportion of your ranked movies are American?

Post by paulofilmo »

The Machinist is an extreme example. American characters in a film ostensibly set in America, but the only country attached is Spain.

http://www.criticker.com/film/The_Machinist/

Stewball wrote:And as bizarre as those are, nothing compares to O Brother being a UK film. That's hick Mississippi in spades. American cast and crew, Jewish directors, music/humor that screams Bluegrass/South'ren hayseed, and pokes fun at Homer's Greek classic The Odyssey. If the Queen ever finds this out, they'll be crowning King Charles shortly thereafter [God rest her soul, long live the king!]. His first act would undoubtedly be to have the UK sue Criticker. O the humanity!


Brits threw a bunch of money at the Coens. That's all it means. [Ta again for the Marshall Plan.]

Image

There was a reddit thread a couple of days ago. Nice for reminiscing.

Stewball
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Re: What proportion of your ranked movies are American?

Post by Stewball »

paulofilmo wrote:The Machinist is an extreme example. American characters in a film ostensibly set in America, but the only country attached is Spain.


But that was filmed entirely in Spain, and with some of the dialogue in Spanish. IMDb at least puts it in the country category of Spain/USA, but for Criticker it's simply Spain. IMDb lists O Brother as French/UK/USA, while Criticker has it as UK/ French/USA. Is money then the only category that determines a films national identity, with cast, crew, location, story setting, language and music having nothing to do with it? And if you have to dig as deep as you did to find it, I'm not so sure how reliable it is--for the vast array of movies we're talking about. In any case, if money is the only determinant, then change the category from "country" to "origin of financing", or something.

paulofilmo
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Re: What proportion of your ranked movies are American?

Post by paulofilmo »

Good catch. Not sure why IMDb has TM listed w/USA.

Stewball wrote:In any case, if money is the only determinant, then change the category from "country" to "origin of financing", or something.


i guess i've unconsciously redefined 'country' to myself as something like, countries involved with (making) the film. It'll never be perfect, but I assume IMDb, Criticker don't care enough to lose the elegance of the single word.

Midaso
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Re: What proportion of your ranked movies are American?

Post by Midaso »

80.0% damn,I've got to get that number down. I've been trying to watch a few more foreign films,but then again I guess almost all the films I watched as a kid were American

P u l p
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Re: What proportion of your ranked movies are American?

Post by P u l p »

Stewball wrote:
P u l p wrote:Why?! :shock:


Why what?


This topic. I mean what's the point?

Stewball
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Re: What proportion of your ranked movies are American?

Post by Stewball »

P u l p wrote:
Stewball wrote:
P u l p wrote:Why?! :shock:


Why what?


This topic. I mean what's the point?


You don't think that the culture of the country(ies) of origin of movies is relevant to the art or message contained in it, for context if nothing else. Then there's the possible issue of bias by some viewers (for or against the US or English). And last but certainly not least, is the oversized influence of the big/bad/old USA too overwhelming for itself....or the world? I mean, shouldn't there be cinema-welfare/re-distribution-of-carbon credits for the startup of a film industry for Zimbabwe, say? I have an idea for the first title, Mugabe's Bleeding Heart. We can only wish. 8-)

Naturally all that is trashed due with the apparent reliance on financing to determine the national identity of a given film. Of course that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive for a better measure of a culture's identity than which country's banks finance which films.

BTB, I'm kind of amazed that you could put up a one word response, "Why?", 4 and 1/2 years after the OP without any further comment, and expect people to osmosize what your getting at after all that time.
Last edited by Stewball on Sun Aug 23, 2015 4:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Stewball
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Re: What proportion of your ranked movies are American?

Post by Stewball »

paulofilmo wrote:Good catch. Not sure why IMDb has TM listed w/USA.

Stewball wrote:In any case, if money is the only determinant, then change the category from "country" to "origin of financing", or something.


i guess i've unconsciously redefined 'country' to myself as something like, countries involved with (making) the film. It'll never be perfect, but I assume IMDb, Criticker don't care enough to lose the elegance of the single word.


What about "cultural identity" as the determinant of the "country"--which is what I would have thought it was, if I'd ever thought about it before. Or is it to be assumed that the soul of art and entertainment is determined by financing?

If the Statue of Liberty, which was a joint French and (finally) US effort, had been financed by Germany, we would, by this reasoning, be referring to it as a German Sculpture.

P u l p
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Re: What proportion of your ranked movies are American?

Post by P u l p »

Stewball wrote:
You don't think that the culture of the country(ies) of origin of movies is relevant to the art or message contained in it, for context if nothing else. Then there's the possible issue of bias by some viewers (for or against the US or English). And last but certainly not least, is the oversized influence of the big/bad/old USA too overwhelming for itself....or the world? I mean, shouldn't there be cinema-welfare/re-distribution-of-carbon credits for the startup of a film industry for Zimbabwe, say? I have an idea for the first title, Mugabe's Bleeding Heart. We can only wish. 8-)

Naturally all that is trashed due with the apparent reliance on financing to determine the national identity of a given film. Of course that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive for a better measure of a culture's identity than which country's banks finance which films.

BTB, I'm kind of amazed that you could put up a one word response, "Why?", 4 and 1/2 years after the OP without any further comment, and expect people to osmosize what your getting at after all that time.



Sorry, i know... i just saw the title and the only thing that popped into my mind was "why?", and i typed it immediately.
Sorry anyway... i dont like to type much, more like to watch :D

paulofilmo
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Re: What proportion of your ranked movies are American?

Post by paulofilmo »

Stewball wrote:What about "cultural identity" as the determinant of the "country"--which is what I would have thought it was, if I'd ever thought about it before. Or is it to be assumed that the soul of art and entertainment is determined by financing?.


As far as I know, it refers to the money rather than any kind of identity. Apparently this is the preferred method for acquiring/organising the data.

Stewball wrote:If the Statue of Liberty, which was a joint French and (finally) US effort, had been financed by Germany, we would, by this reasoning, be referring to it as a German Sculpture.


Yep! Pretty much. Perhaps there's a database out there for sculpture that does this very thing.

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