Very interesting, tipota and Frank. I'm learning a lot. I think all the factors you guys mention have some kind of role. Likely there is no single explanation, just a collection of conditions and circumstances, luck of history and accidents. I came upon my theory from a very practical point of view. I have filmmaker friends from many countries, including Germany, and I like to listen... as they say, you have two ears and only one mouth, for a reason. And I have had this experience many times - we sit around, a group of friends, and kick around ideas, inevitably "hey, guys let's do something together!". This is what starts it all. I've had this conversation - as I'm sure have all of us - many times, all over the world. I was in Berlin, in 2010. Beautiful weather, we're sitting at a cafe. So, of course, as it MUST, comes up the topic "let's do something". And I open my ears. I don't want to steer the conversation too much - I'm a guest, I'm here to learn.
And my German friends speak. What I find interesting, is the reference frame. We talk about dramas - and the dramatic situations my friends mention, are of course, from their experiences. And their experiences sound very familiar to someone who is from an Anglo-Saxon background, culturally. But I contrast that to how my friends from Italy or Israel speak - they can reference things which sound much less familiar, like the changing mores of the South... if you watch many of the films about, say, Sicily, the relationships between men and women, the culture of honor etc. - all sounds very exotic to my ears. And I can see the appeal - look at how much of American modern cinema owes to the Italian family relationships, we get big doses of "Italian". It would never work with "German", because... it's us, we already know it. So the Germans can never propose something other than "just like Americans", and of course that immediately leads to comparison with American films, and again we are down to cheap imitation. Even in drama. But there is more, I think. For example, I noticed how quickly my friends in Italy or France or Spain say things like "ooh, I know this great place, very dramatic views, great atmosphere, we can shoot there", and it can be a medieval city or a dramatic coast line, or anything. I never hear my German friends say that - and I wonder why.
So, I come to see the state of cinema in any country, through the lens of the people who are most active in it, the filmmakers. Filmmakers at a stage where the very ideas originate - because cameras, and money and so on, are really much less important. It all starts with "let's make a film!". This tells me about the film industry in that country - how the filmmakers talk about "lets make a film". The frame of reference, their experience, what they find important, exciting, interesting. You get a feeling for the heart, the content, which is so much more important than any technical thing - after all, as they say, it's the content, the story, that will excite the audience. But often, I see something else happen - the discussion very quickly comes down to the technical or political discussion about how to get funding and which resources can be accessed and so on and that goes on for hours; at some point, I speak up - and I say, hey guys, let's get back to what is really important "what" to shoot, not "how". That was my experience in Germany, many times (more precisely, 4 times, I was in Berlin, between 2005-2010, for about 6 weeks each time). It was hard to get the discussion back to "what", because a few minutes later, again the discussion went to "how". At one point, I made this proposal: "I want you to tell me quickly what you think, when you hear Eric Rohmer?" Answers. I said "take Clair's Knee, it's really about not much at all - just people talking, interacting, but it's interesting; can we do something like this here, but more modern?" I did this in Paris, and of course, we spent hours talking - people shouting and arguing if Rohmer was still relevant, and so on, but people engaged. In Berlin, it all immediately went to practical issues "it's cheap, that's good, but we can't get our actors to naturally express their personality like this, with too much pressure on them to perform naturally for so long, on the other hand we can get funding here and here because it doesn't matter where you shoot it, I know this one guy who...".
Anyhow, that's in some way what I'm doing now - I'm listening. I want to learn. Yes, I have my thoughts, and I give them to stimulate more discussion, but really, I love hearing what other people think - it is especially rewarding when someone as smart and experienced as tipota gives his view - that's when I'm really learning.
It probably all comes down to, what happens when you sit down and think "hey, what would be interesting to shoot? What would I like to see?"
And my German friends speak. What I find interesting, is the reference frame. We talk about dramas - and the dramatic situations my friends mention, are of course, from their experiences. And their experiences sound very familiar to someone who is from an Anglo-Saxon background, culturally. But I contrast that to how my friends from Italy or Israel speak - they can reference things which sound much less familiar, like the changing mores of the South... if you watch many of the films about, say, Sicily, the relationships between men and women, the culture of honor etc. - all sounds very exotic to my ears. And I can see the appeal - look at how much of American modern cinema owes to the Italian family relationships, we get big doses of "Italian". It would never work with "German", because... it's us, we already know it. So the Germans can never propose something other than "just like Americans", and of course that immediately leads to comparison with American films, and again we are down to cheap imitation. Even in drama. But there is more, I think. For example, I noticed how quickly my friends in Italy or France or Spain say things like "ooh, I know this great place, very dramatic views, great atmosphere, we can shoot there", and it can be a medieval city or a dramatic coast line, or anything. I never hear my German friends say that - and I wonder why.
So, I come to see the state of cinema in any country, through the lens of the people who are most active in it, the filmmakers. Filmmakers at a stage where the very ideas originate - because cameras, and money and so on, are really much less important. It all starts with "let's make a film!". This tells me about the film industry in that country - how the filmmakers talk about "lets make a film". The frame of reference, their experience, what they find important, exciting, interesting. You get a feeling for the heart, the content, which is so much more important than any technical thing - after all, as they say, it's the content, the story, that will excite the audience. But often, I see something else happen - the discussion very quickly comes down to the technical or political discussion about how to get funding and which resources can be accessed and so on and that goes on for hours; at some point, I speak up - and I say, hey guys, let's get back to what is really important "what" to shoot, not "how". That was my experience in Germany, many times (more precisely, 4 times, I was in Berlin, between 2005-2010, for about 6 weeks each time). It was hard to get the discussion back to "what", because a few minutes later, again the discussion went to "how". At one point, I made this proposal: "I want you to tell me quickly what you think, when you hear Eric Rohmer?" Answers. I said "take Clair's Knee, it's really about not much at all - just people talking, interacting, but it's interesting; can we do something like this here, but more modern?" I did this in Paris, and of course, we spent hours talking - people shouting and arguing if Rohmer was still relevant, and so on, but people engaged. In Berlin, it all immediately went to practical issues "it's cheap, that's good, but we can't get our actors to naturally express their personality like this, with too much pressure on them to perform naturally for so long, on the other hand we can get funding here and here because it doesn't matter where you shoot it, I know this one guy who...".
Anyhow, that's in some way what I'm doing now - I'm listening. I want to learn. Yes, I have my thoughts, and I give them to stimulate more discussion, but really, I love hearing what other people think - it is especially rewarding when someone as smart and experienced as tipota gives his view - that's when I'm really learning.
It probably all comes down to, what happens when you sit down and think "hey, what would be interesting to shoot? What would I like to see?"
