This is what the difference is between Hong Kong and Chinese cinema - Chinese cinema was made for their own communities. It was for propaganda. But Hong Kong made films to entertain, and they know how to communicate with international audiences.
Shakespeare has been adapted by Akira Kurosawa. 'Dangerous Liaisons' has been adapted into a Chinese movie. 'Blood Simple', the Coen brothers movie, was adapted by Zhang Yimou.
Films are made all over the world all the time and only a thin slice of that product is Hollywood.
I am very happy to be part of European and world cinema as a British filmmaker.
I don't really watch many heist movies. Actually, I have quite eclectic tastes, but I tend to watch just foreign films. I don't know why that is. I'm not particularly deep or anything, I just like foreign movies.
The first time that I came to Cannes, I think it was in 1953, I was 18 and unknown.
I've been working with good directors - the Wachowski brothers, Spike Lee, Terry Gilliam, Mel Gibson... I love American movies, but I love European movies, too, and I want to do both.
Personally, I don't give a toss about French viewers. I make films for foreigners - it's a bit like Ken Loach, who's not very popular in England but has had a lot of success in France. Cinema is always an experience in a foreign body.
I traveled to Morocco once, and I only saw one television when I was there, but I did go into this dirt cave and I saw this kid chopping tomatoes and pita, and he had a picture on the wall of Jean-Claude Van Damme holding a gun. That connected with him on the other side of the world, so no wonder these big movies are made - they have a mass appeal.
The Cannes film festival is about big-budget films but also remarkable films made in different political regimes by film-makers with little resources.
I didn't go to classes there, but ended up at the Cinematheque, and there it opened up even wider because there I saw a variety of films from all over the world.
In a way, the truth is that I was dreaming to do a movie in the United States just because, as a filmmaker, I always loved the idea of trying to make movies in a different culture, in a different way. It's always interesting to make a movie abroad.
Cinema has become a global economy, totally international.
I went to the University of Michigan for one year, and fortunately they had a foreign-film cinema, and I discovered it, and I thought I died and went to heaven.
I'm heavily influenced by European and American cinema, but the further I get in my career, the more I find myself looking back East for inspiration.
Tokyo is wonderful for distribution of international films, a lot of Iranian films, Taiwanese films. But most of the art films are from Europe and Asia.
I've been to several international film festivals, including those in Locarno, Switzerland; Dubai; Russia; Berlin; Cannes; Bangkok; and Hong Kong.
I don't want to come and conquer American films or the American market. I just want to do movies that I care about, stories that I like.
I have Algerian, Turkish, Swedish, Spanish blood: I feel like a citizen of the world. Life and cinema don't have borders.
I write box notes for Kino International, which specializes in distributing foreign films.
There's so many films from around the world, I emphasize, that are so beautifully photographed, but they don't get the recognition.
As Claude LeLouche said, his favorite American director is Sergio Leone. Not because I would be American, but because I was dealing with subject matter that an American could have just as easily dealt with.
A lot of people in India are not that into non-Indian films or Western films.
We didn't create the culture of film. We certainly market it better than anyone in the world, but film could have happened anywhere. It's not distinctly American, as witnessed by the fact that there are film communities throughout the world that tell stories to their own cultural liking.
Do you like foreign films?” “With subtitles?” “Yes.” “I hate those types of films.” “Me too,” Cliff says. “Mostly because - “ “No happy endings.
