egafd.com

This post relates to a line of inquiry I will put to you at the end.

What do you think of foreign cinema versus a lot of mainstream production-line, films-by-numbers stuff we get today?

A lot of people go to the flicks for the audio-visual experience, others complain of subtitling that they 'like to watch films and read books, but don't like doing both at once'.

A lot of subtitled films have given me immense pleasure, some being very powerful; recent examples are 'Run Lola Run', 'Battle Royale' and French farces are superb, a cracker being 'Le diner des cons' (the idiot's dinner). However, I saw a Bardot effort recently, which was crap.

I'm trying to trace a French film I saw a couple of years back, where I missed the end. It involved a married couple, the guy having an affair behind the wife's back- a proper bounder. She retaliates by having a lesbian affair to wind him up and, of course, the jealousy, insecurity and general mentalness of a jilted Frenchman comes out (not expressed as per Zizou). Good patter and a good story. Can anyone identify it??

It's all down to distribution. There's probably as much dross in foreign cinema as there is in the mainstream, it's just that the best of it tends to get promoted more. The trick is not to think one is art and the other mere commerce, but see it as different shades on the same spectrum, if you like. Hollywood knows as much about cinema as anywhere else.

This french film you're looking for? Sounds like every other french film ever made.

I don't think it's really a choice of one or the other, I consume both. What I will say, though, is film is a visual medium and I sometimes miss the nuances in an actors performance or detail in the shot while I'm reading the subtitles. But that always make the second viewing as enjoyable as the first.

On subtitles or dubbed question, subtitles are ten gazillion times more preferable to dubbing. Dubbing is the most heinous crime in the history of cinema.

I thought dubbing in the UK of foreign movies was the worst ever until I watched some Polish pay TV. On their main movie channels - no joke - in Poland they dub by having one guy translate to Polish what's being said over the top of the original soundtrack. The same one guy does all parts ... male, female, kids, the lot of every movie.

I could've asked were lots of Gitanes smoked, or did it feature Alain Delon in a raincoat looking glum.

The comment was meant as a joke, Mr Zevon. Sorry for the confusion.