Should TCM Air More Foreign Films?

[Nathan Dodge]

Seeing as Turner Classic Movies is *the* best place on TV to see classic, uncut movies and seeing as there aren't any channels dedicated to foreign and/or art films, since IFC is crap and chock full of commercials and Sundance sticks to mostly contemporary indie stuff, would anyone besides me like it if TCM dedicated more time to classic foreign films by the likes of Kurosawa, Bergman, and Fellini (to name but a few)? There are only so many airings of the usual English-language fare that the classic film maven can watch and I think a widening of the classic film niche would make TCM all the better.

Thoughts?

 

[C-dot]

I voted no - Not because I don't like or appreciate foreign films, but because I love TCM for its focus on Hollywood. Hollywood films are a very distinct style, besides the fact they are infamous worldwide.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I say yes ... sort of. If it's economically feasible, TCM should launch another cable channel dedicated solely to vintage foreign films.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I wouldn't mind seeing *vintage* vintage foreign films. The post-50s/new wave film-school canon stuff is not especially difficult to see, is widely released on home video, etc etc etc. But where are the prewar British "quota quickies," where are the Weimar German musicals, where are the French silents? That's the stuff I want to see.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I agree with Lizzie. Think Jean Gabin, Josephine Baker, Mistinguett and even the Lumiere brothers.

 

[Tomasso]

Start a new channel but don't mess with TCM.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Start a new channel but don't mess with TCM.

+1.

 

[Feraud]

Showing classic foreign cinema on TCM is a great idea.

 

[Lily Powers]

God bless TCM and my TiVo. IMHO, there is no better station for enjoying classic films and being turned on to classic films I have never even heard of before. It's where I learned to enjoy the silents.

If TCM wants to offer classic foreign films, they could devote one day a month, have a special program screening (like they do with certain stars or themes) or plop them in the wee morning hours. There will be people who watch.

 

[SGT Rocket]

I say yes ... sort of. If it's economically feasible, TCM should launch another cable channel dedicated solely to vintage foreign films.

I said "yes" because, though it wasn't an option, I think TCM should/could launch a foreign film cable channel.

 

[Wally_Hood]

It is Turner Classic Movies, we just are comfortable with the Classic Movie part refering to American movies.
I don't mind if classic foreign movies are shown, but not at the expense of seeing our own domestic films.
A channel such as Turner Classic Non-English Language Movies would be fine, but would the market support it?

 

[Nathan Dodge]

I said "yes" because, though it wasn't an option, I think TCM should/could launch a foreign film cable channel.

I don't mind if classic foreign movies are shown, but not at the expense of seeing our own domestic films.
A channel such as Turner Classic Non-English Language Movies would be fine, but would the market support it?

I like this idea best, even if I don't agree with the parochial attitude regarding TCM, even though it was launched and made its reputation as a Hollywood-oriented channel. TCM has introduced me to dozens of American movies--as did the late and lamented American Movie Classics--and TCM would no doubt do the same for international films, but seeing as a separate channel ("Turner Classic International") isn't in the works, I'd be more than happy with, say, a Wednesday night showcase of foreign film.

How sad that in an age of so many channels, that so much sameness still dominates TV.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I also think TCM should show more foreign classics, perhaps as a one-night a week thing, or maybe a once-monthly festival.

In some ways, the great films of Renoir, Cocteau, Fellini, De Sica, Bergman, Kurosawa, Powell & Pressburger, etc., are actually not as easy to see now as they were when I was a budding film buff in the 60s and 70s. Sure, back then they only appeared on PBS and local channels, often late on weekend nights (and at revival houses, of course), but because there weren't hundreds of channels to keep track of, I managed to see an awful lot of them while still a teen. Even with DVDs and streaming media, many of these films are pretty obscure these days. TCM highlighting (and promoting) them would be great.

 

[Aristaeus]

I was under the impression that TCM allready air's classic foreign films. I recall suffering through a few. The British stuff is allright but anything else would be a NO.

 

[Tomasso]

A channel such as Turner Classic Non-English Language Movies would be fine, but would the market support it?

I doubt it. Generally speaking, Americans hate subtitles.

 

[TCMfan25]

More British 1930's films!!!!! Even though they feature many, there was recently a Laurence Olivier marathon...

I don't think I would enjoy films from Asia, or even non English speaking europe.

I think the British and American Film industries were the best of the time.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Gee, I'm surprised to see so little interest in classic foreign films.

Hollywood movies are great, but they don't exist in a vacuum: You wouldn't have film noir or horror movies without German expressionism. You wouldn't gritty dramas about ordinary folks shot on location without the Italian neorealists. You wouldn't have the great American filmmakers of the seventies without the French new wave of the fifties/sixties. You wouldn't have any of Clint Eastwood's westerns (and very likely, his subsequent career as masterful director) without Kurosawa. You wouldn't have endless references to and parodies of The Seventh Seal without The Seventh Seal...

There are many great, wonderful, and yes, dare I say Essential films with subtitles! (Robert Osborne and Alec Baldwin would undoubtedly agree!)

 

[Tomasso]

I would prefer a well dubbed foreign film to one using subtitles.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Well, English dubbing is better than not seeing these films at all... but unfortunately, it's often not very well done.

And even when dubbing is well done, it's frequently hard to get accurate translations in approximately the same timeframe of any given line. I recently did an experiment with some of my Criterion Ingmar Bergman DVDs, which have both an English dub track and subtitles, comparing sections of them. There were many subtle points in the subtitles that didn't come across in the dubbing, simply because there wasn't enough time to put all that English dialog in while the characters were speaking the Swedish dialog. Oh, the most essential info was there, but it was far more baldly stated, and the finer points of what was being said was sometimes lost.

But hey, if you can't hack subtitles, seeing stuff dubbed will do... film is primarily visual, after all.

 

[Yeps]

I can't stand dubbed films. I would rather watch it in the original language without subtitles than dubbed (I do that occasionally.) I don't have cable, so I don't really care about TCM