What have you learned about a country from its movies
Since its birth, films always function as the main media depicting the environments and people in details. Pondering the specific aspects in the filmmaker and country, we can achieve valuable and wealthy information.
The first treasure we can dig is some social problems in the country reflected by the film. Hollywood, the largest dream makers’ cradle, prefers to support some movies revealing some serious current social problems confronting in the United Stated society. Take the Oscar-winning Film in 2001, The American Beauty, as an example. That film received lots of admiration and compliments. We can learn from the film that in the most advanced economy, the normal American people’s life still have some dilemma such as marriage dissatisfaction, family cracking, and moral suspicion.
On the other hand, we can learn from a film about the country’s history. Take the best foreign film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for example, we can appreciate the Chinese ancient melodious music, exotic costumes and magic martial arts. A movie from a country with its own history and tradition that totally different from those in the western movies not only tells a romantic story but teach something beyond as well.
Finally, the country’s own culture will be revealed in their films naturally. For example, another foreign film, Life is Beautiful, made in Italy, tells a Jewish tragedy happened in the Germany concentration camp in the Second World War. Instead of using the sorrowful way to express the plot, the inspirited filmmakers use obviously humorous and romantic ways which probably are rooted in the Italian culture. Culture usually expresses itself in the film spontaneously.
All in all, we can achieve some current social context, or specific historical tradition, or culture in the films. These are the aims that directors, cinematographers, and actors have been working for, and the most important, those are factors why we go to the cinemas.
