What's the greatest film your country has produced?
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As the OP, I think can safely say: no, it isn't. Mostly American cast, American writer/director, American producer, production company and financing, with distinctly American thematic elements (scrappy upstarts rebelling against a British-accented Empire)... and it mainly filmed its interiors in England due to proximity to the Tunisian shoot. Star Wars is most definitely an American film through and through.
As for Vertigo, Hitchcock became an American citizen three years before its release, the cast is American, and it was shot and set in San Francisco. Also an American film.
... Wait, Mojochi was nominating Bridge on the River Kwai as an American picture also? Where the heck are all our non-American BBSers? Hey Canadians, has Canada never produced a movie you're proud enough of to call your best?! Ireland? Germany? Australia? Hello?!
For me, I've got to go with the quintessentially American genre, iconic American scenery, and the mid-20th century's most distinctly American director. In Vistavision! The Searchers.
Gorgeous film. The cinematography is still striking and the equal of anything made today. I haven't seen it in years, but it looks like it's time for a rewatch.
Did SW: ANH have a mostly British cast?
American - Ford, Fisher, Hamill, Jones(Voice)
British - Baker, Daniels, Prowse, Cushing, Guiness, Mayhew, Lawson
Well, let us know what you think. I don't really expect many to agree with me choosing it as "greatest" but it would be interesting to see how others regard it.
Personally I can't object to the Godfathers, Apocalypse, Vertigo, Star Wars or Kane. Interesting that the '70s are so well represented.
Yeah. Richard Le Parmentier (Motti), Phil Brown (Owen), William Hootkins (Red 6) and maybe a couple of others were US-born. Eddie Byrne (Gen. Willard) was Irish. But predominantly British.
Whoops, I thought I'd written "mostly American main cast", my reasoning being something like:
American - Ford, Fisher, Hamill, Jones (Voice)
British - Daniels, Cushing, Guiness
So, even leaving out the non-speaking Brits in the main cast, yeah, I guess said count is kind of a wash.
But, I think the most important criteria in determining a film's nationality are, in rough order of importance, that of the writer(s), possibly including any source text writers, the director, the setting, cast, production company executives and other key designer/creatives, and filming locations. In the case of Star Wars, Lucas is very much American, and the feel Luke's Tatooine was probably heavily inspired by his growing up in the sleepy quasi-desert town of Modesto, CA, and reading American pulps and comic books. (Don't pretty much all the English speakers native to Tatooine -as in, not Old Ben" -have American accents?) And, again, apart from Guinness, Daniels, and maybe Cushing, most of the British actors were probably hired as a result of shooting interiors in England, which was a result of shooting the American-coded exteriors in Tunisia.
Add the American production company and producers, composer, lead conceptual designer, and the well-document indifference and disdain of the British production crew to the UK shoot, and the result is an objectively American film.
And I wasn't saying it wasn't an American film, just that it had a predominatly British cast. The simple fact is that many films esp. today are largely finaced by American studios as such they bceome a UK/US, NZ/US etc.. co-production. But that's just finance do we consider for example the Bond films non-British simply because they are largely financed by an American studio?
Aye, but 3chordboy did, and that was incorrect.
I'm not much interested in financing, but production companies do much more than simply paying for the movie's creation; they pretty much always a exercise degree of creative input/control. In the case of, say, Skyfall, the production company, EON, is at least nominally British, though its founders and leaders have been Canadian and American. But the director, 2/3 of the writers, and all but one of the main cast are Brits, and it is Bond. That said, calling it a US/UK production, as some sources apparently do, is in no way equal to calling it (your words) "non-British". I myself would call it mostly-to-2/3rds British, and very, very far from the best British film released in its year, to boot.
Did... did we just get our first official non-US pick?! Incredible! Huzzah! (We'll just grin and bear the fact that two of its three main players are Yanks, and the third an Italian.
)
I love The Third Man.
Hey Canadians, has Canada never produced a movie you're proud enough of to call your best?! Ireland? Germany? Australia? Hello?!
I was actually pondering that myself. Canada in general doesn't produce very many movies. But when it does, the movies tend to be more subdued efforts, most of which would never reach the eyes of the rest of the world. A lot of them end up being TV movies. It's certainly involved a lot in co-productions though. As far as directors go, our most prolific would definitely be Cronenberg. Other than that? I'm not so sure.
Greatest is so hard to quantify.
I remember watching 'The Killing Fields" in the theater and as I walked out I realized as good as it was I would never buy the VHS tape when it came out because I would NEVER watch that movie again.
I felt guilty about my choice, but when I went to the AFI's top 100 list, I discovered my choice was on their top 10.
"The Wizard of Oz"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU
Just what the Great Depression era USA needed.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU[/yt]
I remember watching 'The Killing Fields" in the theater and as I walked out I realized as good as it was I would never buy the VHS tape when it came out because I would NEVER watch that movie again.
I felt guilty about my choice, but when I went to the AFI's top 100 list, I discovered my choice was on their top 10.
"The Wizard of Oz"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU
Just what the Great Depression era USA needed.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU[/yt]
I guess the greatest Irish-made movie is My Left Foot, which won Daniel Day-Lewis an Oscar for his portrayal of a writer with cerebral palsy.
Probably my favourite, though, and a guilty pleasure, is The Snapper, with Colm Meaney giving probably the best - and no doubt funniest - performance of his career as a highly-strung father whose daughter becomes pregnant and refuses to say by whom. Very unsubtle humour, but belly-laughs aplenty.
Honourable mention to Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, shot partly here. Great story, sumptuous visuals and meticulous cinematography (of course).
Probably my favourite, though, and a guilty pleasure, is The Snapper, with Colm Meaney giving probably the best - and no doubt funniest - performance of his career as a highly-strung father whose daughter becomes pregnant and refuses to say by whom. Very unsubtle humour, but belly-laughs aplenty.
Honourable mention to Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, shot partly here. Great story, sumptuous visuals and meticulous cinematography (of course).
I actually don't have to think about that for very long: Metropolis
While there are many German films from that era that I appreciate this is my second favourite movie, closely behind La Dolce Vita (my choice if I were Italian).
While there are many German films from that era that I appreciate this is my second favourite movie, closely behind La Dolce Vita (my choice if I were Italian).
J.T.B. already beat me to The Searchers so I'm going to go with:
Forbidden Planet (1956)
This film was the genesis of modern science fiction film and television. Every space opera that came after owes it. The concept and script are spectacular, the actors nail their parts and the effects still hold up (at least to me).
Forbidden Planet (1956)
This film was the genesis of modern science fiction film and television. Every space opera that came after owes it. The concept and script are spectacular, the actors nail their parts and the effects still hold up (at least to me).
Raiders gets my vote!!
Although I guess I should say something smarter, like Citizen Cane or Casablanca.
Nah: Raiders!!!!
I think being in Berlin on holiday twice qualifies me as German, so I'd like to add Downfall. I like the tone of the movie, and Bruno Ganz's meme-birthing portrayal of Hitler is a classic.
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