Languages and Movies

A couple of weeks ago, BBC released a list of the 100 greatest films in a foreign language (or in a language different than English). The BBC culture section polled more than 200 experts to create this list.

When we read this list, we find out that the most popular language among them was French, with 27 films. Then we have 12 films in Mandarin and 11 in Japanese and Italian. There were 7 films in Spanish.

The first place was for the Japanese film七人の侍 or Seven Samurai (directed by Akira Kurosawa); the Italian film Ladri di biciclette or Bicycle Thieves (directed by Vittorio de Sica) had the second place and the third place was for the Japanese film Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu). 

This list might bring some different interpretations, from the one complaining about the superiority of Hollywood, those who complain that an English speaking institution is going to qualify the films produced in different languages, and those who might see the trends of the movies during the history. The truth is that movies have been a way to show how to use a language in different situations.

During my life, I have been learning how to speak in different languages. But something that my different teachers have in common is that they all recommended me to find good movies in their language. Movies are an easy way to be exposed to real speech and how native people speak. You can pause a movie and add subtitles. I watch movies in different languages in my free time.

It is considered that films started with Lumière brothers. The first films were black and white and without any recorded sound. The United States was from the beginning the country that produced the largest number of films, even before the industry settled in Hollywood, CA. Originally, the center of the industry was in New Jersey in the East coast, but problems derived with patents pushed independent producers to look for new places to develop their industry without restrictions and thus Hollywood became the centre of the industry.  

But the USA was not the only country that produced films from the beginning of the 20^th century. France is considered the birthplace of the film industry and also produced remarkable films that were exported to other countries, USA included. There were some films produced in Italy, Japan, the UK, and Canada. There are many reasons that explain the overwhelming success of Hollywood such as the biggest audience in the US, the immigrant population in the US that found in the silent films an opportunity for entertainment, no matter if they were fluent speakers of English or not. The 2 world wars also affected the film industry of Europe and Japan.  

After 1927, recorded sounds were used in the films. Technology introduced other advancements that were introduced to improve the quality of films. Languages gained prominence in the film industry. It is logical to think that filmmakers used the language of the country. A film made in the US had dialogues in English and films made in France had dialogues in French.

English has been the predominant language in the film industry. But when we talk about the best films that are not in English, the most used languages have been French, Spanish and Italian. Films in languages like Japanese, Swedish, Russian and German have been also among the most popular in the history of the films, due to the rich tradition of their respective film industries. However, it is interesting to see that languages with more speakers like Mandarin and Hindi have not been present in the major events until very recent times. Films in Persian and Arabic are now gaining more popularity.  

If we take a look at the Academy Awards for Best foreign language films, we can see that this important category is lead by films in Italian and French. Spanish comes in third place, thanks to 3 countries who have submitted films that won in their respective year, and a total of 9 countries who have nominated films. 

But if we take a look on other awards like Cannes, Venice, Berlin and San Sebastian, English is still the language that leads. French and Italian are then the most awarded languages in those film festivals.   

Today, the panorama of the film industry has changed. The US is not anymore the largest producer of films in the world. According to numbers provided by UNESCO  currently, the largest producer by far is India. Nigeria is now the second largest producer. English is still and by far the most used language in this industry. What is more common now is to see films in English created and played by professionals who are not native speakers of this language.

At the time that films portray the world that surrounds us, multilingualism is present. Globalization has brought an approach to cultures. Cities are increasingly cosmopolitan and this phenomenon is also reflected in the cinema. If a person appears to be outside of their country of origin, this cultural difference and linguistic diversity need to be reflected. It is for this reason that the film resorts to the use of different languages. 

Movies have been used as a reason to create new languages as well. There is a list of conlangs which owe their existence to a movie or a TV series. The best examples are Klingon: it is used in the series Star Trek. In my article about conlangs, I have a description of this language. High Valyrian: this language was created by David J. Peterson to be used in the TV series Game of Thrones.  Dothraki, it was also created by D, J Peterson, but to be used in the novel series A Song of Ice and fire. Na’vi is a language created by Paul Frommer for the film Avatar.

To finish my article, I must say that I am not an expert in movies. I cannot recommend a film unless I watched it and I liked it. Most of the films I read about in my research were unknown by me before reading this list. I found appropriate to add a list of films recommended for students of different languages to improve their knowledge and their skills while they master the use of them. Here is my selection based on several pages I have read in the Internet (I watched already some of them):   

The best movies for students of French language are: Amélie (directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet) [This film is the BBC´s list], La gloire de mon père (Yves Robert), Intouchables (Olivier Nakache / Éric Toledano), Les choristes (Christophe Barratier), Kirikou et la sorcière (Michel Ocelot).

If you are interested in Canadian films in French, there is a good selection. Most of the lists I checked, they recommend films like Mon oncle Antoine (Claude Jutra), Les ordres (Michel Brault), Les bons débarras (Francis Mankiewicz). Those 3 films have been classified among the top ten films from Canada. For French students, we can recommend also Monsieur Lazhar (Philippe Falardeau).

Movies recommended for students of Italian language: Nuovo cinema paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore), La dolce vita (Federico Fellini). Both films appear in the BBC list. Both films have also some dialogues in different languages. Another very popular film recommended is La vita è Bella (Roberto Benigni).    

Movies recommended for students of Spanish: El laberinto del Fauno (Guillermo del Toro) co produced in Spain and Mexico; Todo sobre mi Madre (Pedro Almodóvar) from Spain, Both films appear in the BBC list; Amores Perros (Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu) from Mexico; Hable con ella (Pedro Almodóvar) from Spain; Mar Adentro (Alejandro Amenábar) from Spain.  

Movies recommended for students of German: Das leben der anderen (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck); Aguirre, der zorn Gottes (Werner Herzog); Both films appear in the BBC list. Good Bye Lenin! (Wolfgang Becker); Nirgendwo in Afrika (Caroline Link).

Some movies recommended for students of Russian: Брат (Brother), directed by Aleksei Balabanov; Москва слезам не верит (Moscow does not believe in tears), directed by Vladimir Menshov. This film won the Academy award in 1980. Левиафан (Leviathan), directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev; Солярис (Solaris), directed by Andrey Tarkovsky. This last film appears in the BBC list.

Some movies recommended for students of Mandarin: 大红灯笼高高挂 (Dà hóng dēnlong gāogāo guà)  Raise the red lantern, directed by Zhang Yimou; 卧虎藏龙  (Wò hŭ cáng long) Crouching Tiger hidden dragon, directed by Ang Lee; 饮食男女 (Yĭn shí nán nü)  Eat drink man woman, also directed by Ang Lee; These films here mentioned appear in the BBC list.  蓝风筝 (Láng Fēngzheng)  The Blue kite, directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang;  归来 (Guī lái) Coming home, directed by Zhang Yimou;  

Some movies recommended for students of Esperanto: Inkubo (Incubus), directed by Leslie Stevens and produced in the USA. Angoroj (Agonies), directed by Jaques-Louis Mahé and produced in France. Gerda Malaperis! (Gerda disappeared!), directed by Joe Bazilio Costa and produced in Brazil.  

Finally, my recommendations for Language nerds:

-Pontypool This Canadian film was directed by Bruce McDonald. It has dialogues in English and French and with a mystery that only a linguistic can resolve.

-Lost In Translation: Directed by Sofia Coppola, this film has dialogues in English and Japanese while the story develops in Tokyo.

-Passion of Christ: This film directed by Mel Gibson uses mostly Aramaic language, with some dialogues in Latin and Hebrew. Scripts were mostly translated by R. F. William Fulco. It is interesting that they did not use Koine Greek as there are no sources that show how it was spoken in that region.

-Stargate: this film directed by Roland Emmerich uses several languages such as English, Swedish, Arabic, Norwegian and Egyptian, where the interpretation of a set of hieroglyphs is part of the story.