MovieChat Forums > Revanche (2008) Discussion > If you enjoy all around good slow develo...

If you enjoy all around good slow developing stories and good acting, this is for you, but..

posted a year ago by TruMovieFan (2003)
1 reply | jump to latest

if you need neat and tidy films with everything clearly spelled out and tied nicely up with a bow at the end, then this is probably not for you.

I think this is one of those films defined by the country one is most familiar with. Years ago I read a claim that when something like many foreign (to the US) films are about people while US films are about the story. In many ways, I agree with this and I think this film is a good example of that especially when one reads some of the comments here.

We Americans seem to want neat and clear endings to our movies more so than others that sort of see stories in films as just a segment in a person's life and how a life doesn't necessarily end when the credits roll.

[–] capuchin (2751) 10 months ago

We Americans seem to want neat and clear endings to our movies more so than others

Yes. It's an interesting cultural difference. American audiences - especially more mainstream American audiences - tend to dislike ambiguity in their films, especially around endings. I've lost track of the number of times I've read even professional US film critics (who are more exposed to European cinema than the average filmgoer) who have remarked on certain strands not being tied up quite to their satisfaction in a European film as if it's a mistake or flaw. And then you watch the film and wonder what the hell they're talking about.

Whereas from a European perspective, most American films - even the very, very good ones - over-explain themselves and - that's something you just have to factor in. 'Here's the unnecessary exposition dump!'

US films also tend to be more heavily-plotted.

Of course, the US is very successful at exporting its films and television, so it's not as though the rest of the world can't bear its methods. It's just that, as film director Alan Parker once observed: 'They've been so successful, because they're easy. They don't really test you intellectually at all.'

This isn't true of all American films (After all, an American made 2001: A Space Odyssey. And an American made Mulholland Drive. &c). And it isn't true of all American audiences either. But it is the broad tendency.

And before anyone jumps on me for calling Americans 'dumb', I'm not. It's just a difference in what audiences expect from their films. It's about two different film traditions and the tastes formed by them.