LOS ANGELES, Feb 3, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – When South Korea’s Bong Joon-ho
accepted the Golden Globe for best foreign language film for his widely
hailed “Parasite,” he urged moviegoers to “overcome the one-inch-tall barrier
of subtitles.”
“You will be introduced to so many more amazing films,” he promised,
reopening a debate that has long plagued Hollywood — can non-English films
ever break into the US mainstream?
“Parasite,” a searing black comedy about class divisions, has earned six
Oscar nominations, including for best picture and best director.
After the film captured the top prize from the Screen Actors Guild in a
shock upset, some believe it could win big at the Academy Awards, but that
would be history-making, indeed.
No non-English-language production has ever won the best picture Oscar.
For many, the subtitle barrier is more than an inch tall. It requires you
to focus on the bottom of the screen, meaning you may miss key visuals.
Others, however, say that subtitles invite increased focus on a film.
In the end, English is the lingua franca in Hollywood and in the pivotal
North American market — making it the language of the awards season as well.
Fredell Pogodin — a veteran publicist who has worked to promote hundreds
of movies, including the Oscar-winning foreign films “Roma,” “Mediterraneo”
and “Koyla” — says the obstacle is not just the language; it’s the content.
“It’s not just because there are subtitles — they’re arty here, to begin
with. They’re not mainstream,” Pogodin told AFP.
“There is a certain kind of audience for it. It’s generally more upscale,”
she noted — meaning it is tough to convince the average American moviegoer
to spend money on reading a film.
– ‘Cultural myopia’ –
“Parasite” follows one down-and-out Seoul family as they gradually insert
themselves into the lives of a wealthy clan, a process that ends in tragedy.
It has so far earned about $31 million at the US box office, and more than
$160 million worldwide, according to industry tracker Box Office Mojo.
The critical praise and Oscar buzz around the film drew spectators to
theaters, but its ticket sales are light years away from what a traditional
blockbuster rakes in.
Even indie films in English rarely are box office gold.
“The average American moviegoer goes to see between three and five movies
at the cinema a year,” said Tom Nunan, the producer of “Crash,” which won the
Oscar for best picture.
“You think they’re going to go see a Korean film? Subtitles? Forget about
it.”
Pogodin, who is now retired, says Oscar campaigns are, however, not
generally built around everyday audiences — they are constructed around
critical acclaim, and film festival hype.
But Nunan, who says he’s part of the “most elite, arthouse populace on the
west side of Los Angeles,” insists that even his friends ask if a film is in
a foreign language before they head to the cinema.
Justin Chang, a film critic for the Los Angeles Times, wrote that with his
comment at the Globes, Bong “seemed to be rebuking the cultural myopia of
Hollywood itself, which reserves special prizes each year for movies shot in
countries outside the US and in languages other than English.”
While “Parasite” is a long shot for best picture, it is the favorite to win
the prize for best foreign film, now called best international feature.
“The bestowing of these awards… is often a condescending gesture
disguised as an inclusive one,” Chang wrote.
– ‘Language is not important’ –
Pop culture generally is an English-language world: music, television,
film, marketing slogans for major brands — it’s all in English and usually
goes untranslated around the world.
To reach wider audiences, some non-anglophone producers are working in
English… even if their films and actors come from elsewhere.
That was the case for “Loving Pablo,” a 2017 film about late Colombian drug
lord Pablo Escobar starring Spanish actors Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem
and filmed in accented English.
“The rules of the market don’t allow for films with a five or six million
euro budget to be made in Spanish,” Bardem told AFP ahead of the film’s
premiere.
“In the end, the story is well told — the language is not important.”
Streaming giant Netflix sees it differently — when it launched its series
“Narcos,” also about Escobar, it was done in English and Spanish in a way
that did not dissuade its fans.
Its competitors have hopped on the bandwagon.
This month, Apple TV+ launched “Little America,” an anthology series about
immigrants — the dialogue mixes Spanish, Hindi, Arabic and English, among
other languages.
“What a glorious thing to feel like you’re immersed in another language but
still understanding what’s going on,” said Emily Gordon, who is a series
producer along with her actor husband Kumail Nanjiani.
“I just think that’s kind of magical,” she said. “I can’t always hear
what’s happening and I want to be able to read.”
Maybe Gordon can help others to jump over the one-inch barrier.