No need to be forgiven as you did or said nothing wrong. Your simply voiced your opinion which is different than mine. I may well be wrong on the matter and will need time to think it over. It is okay to have different views and I think my satire is not presented well. I think I intended, actually, to make a bit of a joke at American movie watchers who typically refuse to even try something that does not have a car chase or girl is a bikini in it. Sometimes American films are ‘junk food’ if you will though not all of the time of course. I know that French cinema is influential and well made but I try to lighten up the tone of some of the reviews here. I seriously have tried to enjoy some ‘arty’ things and continue to but some leave me disappointed tough the problem may lay with my inability to access the film’s message while someone else may be able to. I made a joke about Woody Allen’s Bergmen influenced film Interiors but to be honest I lied that movie. I was the only one of my small circle who even tried it much less liked it. I know however that not all European films are ‘arty’ but I think I was making a joke that most Americans see it that way. I think I made a joke about how profound French TV commercials must be but I was not serious.

I actually do not live in the US and have lived in China for five years and it is also a struggle here to always get films with subs. Naturally the films will have Chinese subs but many European films or Asian films outside China lack an English sub option. It is interesting, I feel, how we tend to do one of two things when we live abroad for many years, we either distance ourselves more from our culture or we struggle to retain some aspects of it. Probably a little of both has happened with em but in terms of cinema I feel I lean towards the west more than Asia. And yes, it is hard to get French or Italian films here with working English subs unless it is from a good source like the Criterion Collection and so my options become more limited. I do download films and have gotten pretty good about finding subs online but sometimes the subs do not match up to the film timing even after editing with a program that adjusts timing.

It is all interesting I feel and please know that there is an element of satire involved. My God I am preparing an article on The Mesa of Lost Women, one of the worst films ever made. If I did not approach it with humor I would descend into madness. Since I know you may be out there reading Valerie I will be more careful with my remarks about French cinema in the future, I promise.

Bill

And apparently you do not like all French cinema yourself since you have some strong criticisms of Eyes Without a Face and refer to it as ‘kitch’ which may well be why it wound up here in the first place, but the film seems to have a following of not only viewers but film makers who find it to be a well made and influential film. I do not think any film by Clouzet ever inspired a horror film director to fashion a serial killer’s mask in similar likeness to a character in one of his films and to me that is a sign of true greatness.

But I doubt I will ever find a middle ground ground with anyone who ends every sentence with an exclamation mark. You even add an exclamation mark to a parenthetical statement. Geesh, chill out. They are just movies. I visited your site and see your credentials as a film student and even an actress and those are impressive but in the end film is like painting and people like what they like and there seems to be no logic to it. If anyone has read this an wants to visit Valerie’s bilingual site then please do at Silver Particulars. Perhaps you can give me some recommendations of some French films I may like then. Other than Godard. Something I can approach little by little. Maybe something suitable for this site.

In closing I did get the film Blood of the Beasts by George Franju after doing the research for my post and it is quite something to be certain. Not for the squeamish or vegetarians.