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April 18, 2006
The universal language of film
Before each showing at the Landmark Theaters, they always advertise, “The language of cinema is universal,” and I typically find this a comforting thought. After all, movies are truly something that can unite all the masses, regardless of national boundaries.
However, upon recent visits to these delightful, thought-provoking theaters, I found myself turned off by the slogan, as the film following it seemed to contradict their core belief.
Joyeux Noel, France’s most recent Oscar-nominated epic, was a film that wouldn’t have worked had it been made in the United States. The tale of three armies (the Scots, the French, and the Germans) all uniting one eve in World War I to celebrate Christmas Eve is in theory a sappy and totally unbelievable tale.
However, Christian Carion’s story works magnificently. Each soaring operetta, sung by a German tenor, is a hypnotic tear-jerker, and the beautiful scenes in which the tired and downtrodden troops come out and meet and greet their enemies are startling and hopeful.
Retreating back into their trenches near the end of the film, images of soldiers of both sides realizing that they can’t fight men who they have met and befriended only foster a sense of sentimentality when realizing the futility of war.
As I said, theoretically the story should fail without inducing some well-deserved gags, but Joyeux Noel makes for a pleasant, well-paced film.
Language difference is a key factor to the film’s stateside appeal, as films like this are so routine in the United States, one knows exactly how they’ll play out. With French film, however, the camera angles are less jaunty and the budgeting is much cheaper.
Shots and reactions become the points worth watching in this movie, and although language of this film is a large draw, this film would not have gained its fuzzy warmth without the new forms the movie is taking technically.
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, is another foreign flick I caught last weekend. This German language film would have been interesting in English, French, Italian, heck, even in Pig Latin. It tale is of one woman, a German crusader in the midst of Nazi Germany, and the events that follow a dropping of political pamphlets at a college campus.
The film’s best aspect is its complete devotion to Sophie Scholl, who is expertly played by emerging starlet Julia Jentsch. The camera never leaves her, and by not focusing on the other characters, it allows the audience to remain solely in her mind; we can’t know what else is coming or what other characters are doing.
This technique also allows the audience to realize Scholl’s apprehension on trusting other prisoners, and leaves us hanging on what will happen next. We only realize the future when Scholl does, and the capable Jentsch is such an apt thespian that one doesn’t mind a one-woman show. The final shot of the film is a doozy, one that you won’t want to miss.
Is the language of film universal? Perhaps. However, if plots and cinematography is interesting and fresh, the language of film speaks for itself.
Posted by dwright at April 18, 2006 12:34 PM
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