What is World Cinema?
You might get blank stares if you preach the virtues of World Cinema. You can be a film enthusiast, whose passion in movies will infect anyone (and probably everyone). You have a film career ahead of you.
World Cinema is anything but American Cinema. Some moviegoers would call it Hollywood with an air of disgust in their faces. It's a matter of taste, but World Cinema must be differentiated from the auteur. This kind of filmmaker wouldn't appeal to a wide range of viewers. Watching their movies would be a challenging experience, but critics wouldn't run out of words to heap praises on it. But it could be a different tune with the audience.
If you want a different kind of viewing experience, then you might be confounded with a variety of choices in World Cinema. Here is a starting list:
Jean Renoir. His films have something of the sunny generosity, and villains would be rare. It seemed like a Disney motion picture, right? You're dead wrong, as there's an air of fatalism. This would be one of the disturbing features of his comedy, "Boudu Saved from Drowning". It was a not-so-subtle attack on bourgeois values, but Hollywood find a way to remake it (and turned it wholesome). The Frenchman would be amused.
Roman Polanski. Meryl Streep didn't hide her contempt for Donald Trump, yet she applauded Roman Polanski. And public opinion leaned on his imprisonment. Polanski, who hailed from Poland, had a traumatic childhood during the Second World War. But he somehow channeled it into his passion. "Knife on the Water", "Cul-de-sac", and "Repulsion" were illustrations of personalized thrillers, which Alfred Hitchcock made it into his own. But Polanski did better. His talent was his lifesaver.
Fritz Lang. The German filmmaker's works featured psychopaths, prostitutes, and arch-criminals. It would startle everyone, especially how their world looked organized and flashy at times. Believe it or not, there would be an anti-Nazi propaganda in some scenes. (Hitler asked Lang to direct his Nazi propaganda films. The "Metropolis" director not only turned down his offer, but he fled Europe and settled in America.) Silent film cinema, which once captured the audience's imagination, would be a must for film buffs. Lang's works should be first in the list.
David Lean. Some critics dismissed the British filmmaker, calling him a technical whiz without a vision. It would be farther from the truth. His Quaker parents forbid him from watching movies when he was a lad, which prompted him to turn his interest into a career. His introspective characters would be placed in the expansive landscape, which could escape the notice of some viewers. It should hint of the character's inner workings, which wouldn't be an easy thing to do.
Werner Herzog. "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" was about a conquistador's search for the lost city of gold while "Fitzcarraldo" was about a man who wanted to bring opera music to an Amazon community in Peru. The German filmmaker liked to go to extremes, so it didn't come as a surprise that his characters were seen as madmen. Then again, they may be visionaries. Watch his films and decide for yourself.
