Since arriving in the UK two fortnights ago, I’ve been keeping a watchful eye on film posters in the Tube, buses, and sides of buildings and have noticed one thing: Hollywood doesn’t just stay in the US. The same film posters being plastered everywhere in Seattle (where I come from) are very much a part of the urban landscape here in London. Action films, rom-com's, and dramatic films all coming from the US have made a British presence in cinema almost non-existent. Contrast that with the Metro stations in Paris, where you see an array of French film posters, but also posters for Beat Takeshi (Japanese) films. The only foreign film poster I’ve seen in London has been fittingly, The Heartbreaker a French rom-com release. Well then, why does Hollywood have such control over the UK and what must people here think of Americans based on our films?

Through our high school economics class we all learned that the law of survival of the fittest very much applies to the business world. If you can buy and sell the most at the lowest cost to you and the consumer, you virtually win all the time. The same is true with Hollywood. It has the greatest worldwide reach and produces films at a high output. This all sounds straightforward and nothing seems to be too absurd about Hollywood’s stake in the film industry however, with such dominance there is a lack of diversity because of a cookie-cutter system of creating movies. The studio system in Hollywood no longer exists, but through mergers and conglomerates, the big name studios in Hollywood have managed to keep an even firmer grip over their product, and the quality of film has suffered through the years. It is no more evident than in the Academy Awards this year, when a 3-hour video game movie with a plot eerily similar to Dances With Wolves was nominated for Picture of the Year. The point is that Hollywood wants to make the most money it can, and if that means sacrificing quality for spectacle, so be it.

Well then, how can the current state of Hollywood film overcome its current creative paralysis? Filmmaker’s must look far and beyond. Some of the best films ever made have not been created on the California coast, but in places like France, Brazil, Argentina, and Japan. When we think of some of the best American directors of the last forty years, names like Spielberg, Scorsese, Coppola, and Lucas come up. A common thread that these auteurs all share is how foreign film has shaped their filmmaking style. Lucas attests that Star Wars is mixture of the great Akira Kurosawa’s 7 Samurai and Hidden Fortress and Scorsese’s films are all shaped as a result of his exposure at a young age to Italian neo-realism films like Bicycle Thieves and Rome, Open City. Because of their exposure at an early stage to some of the greatest foreign cinema, this lot of American filmmakers was able to bring a fresh perspective to American film audiences with masterpieces of American cinema like Scorsese’s Raging Bull, Coppola’s Godfather I & 2, and Spielberg’s Schindler’s List.

The talent and technology is there today, but the direction and guidance is lacking. There must be an emphasis on the quality and flavor of cinema, not just what appeals to the masses. After all, the film Usual Suspects (US, 1995) took an eternity to green light because, “the audience won’t understand this” when after all, the audience watched, listened, and did understand. Slumdog Millionaire (UK, 2008) was a breath of fresh air to many audiences in England and the US, when in reality using complex flashbacks and shaping time and space to weave a story together is nothing new to people who saw films like City of God (Brazil, 2002), Irreversible (France, 2002), Crash (US, 2004), or Gomorra (Italy, 2008). These fascinating and riveting films are out there, but the unwillingness to put foreign films in the mainstream has cast a shadow over the English-speaking audiences’ familiarity of different film styles.

People will watch and understand if you give them a new perspective of something they can relate to. Film need not be solely action films with fictional characters submerged in plots with peaks and dips, but can be a vehicle for greater understanding for the world around us and can guide us to a greater reflection of ourselves. A country like France the birthplace of cinema, does not isolate themselves to only Francophone films, but has a history importing outside films by the ton. The result is a filmmaking culture more adept at different filmmaking techniques and styles as well as an audience that is receptive and knowledgeable of cultures beyond their own shores. I hope that with today’s widespread reach of cinema that there can be more openness to different types of film regardless of origin, after all, film is film and subtitles shouldn’t get in the way.