Film...

Most of that is from Amelie.

Oh dear...

If they'd just put "European films have more sex in them than puritan American films", they might just have had a point. Otherwise, European films are notable only for their general bleakness, parochialism, interminablility (especially in the case of French films, which generally go on and on with no climax - pun not intentional - only to suddenly stop when they run out of money for more film), extreme unfunnyness (in the case of anything lablelled 'Hit British Comedy!') and, for most European cinema-goers, subtitles.

So much for open standards

Typical EU; push for open standards, then put up their film in Flash format. Any chance of a version in some format that users of a real OS can run?

Parochialism?!

If Rupert thinks that European films are notable for their parochialism, perhaps he ought to review the wonderfully pig-ignorant U-571(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-571_%28film%29)

If anything, American films display a startling lack of respect for, or knowledge of, anything outside their own corner of North America

"Europe has been screwing the UK for 30 years"

Well, the UK has been a pain in the ass of the European Union for just as long...At least the US have an official representant at european meetings.

I didn't make the connection at first viewing, but yes, the guy getting so*****ized in the short definetly had a british look !

Had to see it yet again to confirm if the giver was more german/french looking or if he is just another american playing with his straw-man.

(sorry for being so terribly offensive, but I got frisked by security in Heathrow end of last week and I have to get England out of my system somehow...)

Yes, parochialism...

Of course there are many, many crap US films. The one you cited is a classic of its kind, completely rewriting the history of the Second World War - although pretty much every nation that took part in it does the same to a greater or lesser extent (every Frenchman was in the French Resistance, etc.).

However, America itself is big enough to contain multitudes, and most American films are about life, not about America. European films, for the most part, seem more concerned with 'not being American films'. They know they can't compete directly, so they tend to go for the more niche audience. This in turn means that they tend to be small-scale, localised, and well, parochial.

Does this mean I believe there are no great European films? Well, there aren't ANY 'European' films I can think of, for a start. There are great French films, and great German films, and for all I know there are great Luxembourgian films.

But the language issue alone precludes there being any one film that the whole of Europe can claim as their own. Which kind of shoots the whole EU thing in the foot right away. Because the people of Europe do not 'come together' to watch European films - the French may come together to watch a French film, and the Italians come together to watch an Italian film, but that's as far as it goes.

Depressingly for the EU, what the Europeans DO come together to watch is Pirates of the Caribbean, The Incredibles, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Ocean's 11, etc.

No, hang on - there is one European film that all Europe enjoys. That each can think of as their own. That is the absolute lowest common denominator of the Common Market.

Mr Bean.

Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing

As the gentleman points out, most of this is from Amelie - the second half is basically the "orgasm scene". But what's in the first half? It would be an interesting spot-the-film thing. My guess is that the makers realised that all the couples in Amelie were caucasian and heterosexual, and wanted to be more inclusive by adding more combinations.

They should have gone the whole hog and made a ten-minute compilation of the raciest bits from the works of Bigas Luna, Tinto Brass, Just Jaeckin, punctuated with selections from Pasolini's "Salò" (for the ladies). The slogan could be "Europe - built on centuries of war, lust, sadism, perversion, and the fear of God". There's no reason to beat around the bush.

No choice

"Depressingly for the EU, what the Europeans DO come together to watch is Pirates of the Caribbean, The Incredibles, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Ocean's 11, etc."

That's because they're not given the choice. How many non-British, European films are put on general release in the UK every year? Very few.

What do you get on British TV? British programmesf, a few Aussie soaps, some good US shows and a whole load of cheap US-produced rubbish. Go to any other country in the EU and you see exactly the same pattern. Why don't we get to see the good stuff produced by our European neighbours? An excellent Danish police drama series won an Emmy a while back, but did we ever get to see it? Nope.

Title

As usual they've censored the best bits. They could have spent the money on a film telling us why cucumbers/bananas have to be straight not curved, or why their parliamentarians are allowed to flout the no smoking rules in EU buildings.

Re: So much for open standards

"Typical EU; push for open standards, then put up their film in Flash format. Any chance of a version in some format that users of a real OS can run?"

WTF? Just what is this 'real' OS you're using? DOS? Even in 2004 a report by NPD Research showed that Flash was preinstalled in over 98% of web browsers. And there's something like over 480 million Flash users...

Get a grip...

apples and oranges

It's one extreme or the other. The US makes a lot of big budget low intelligence movies to play everywhere, that often revise history or espouse mildly jingoistic world views. And Europe makes films on a national level, meaning translation & subtitling is needed and sales worldwide are low.

I think I still prefer the latter - while the US is capable of a small number of decent intelligent movies (some on rare occasion hollywood made!), the European film industries tend to throw out a lot more decent films - unless you fear subtitles, in which case you're f***ed. I'd rather watch a "The Lives Of Others" before a "Little Miss Sunshine" anyday - both excellent films, but the former has greater narrative and meaning, while the latter is a hollywood indie piece, and has the hallmarks of construction. I'm sure there is a decent indie scene in the states, but it seems more suppressed than in Europe.

And there's no harm in dumb explosive american films, as the rest of the world enjoys them for what they are, mindless fun, and often uncoscious representations of what's worrying merkins at the moment. But I find your example of Mr Bean amusing - it's crap, but for fare loess cash, itr makes tonnes of money worldwide. I can't begrudge a comedian inventing a character in a tv show that sells globally because it doesn't use language - that's just good business, and if he spins out movies, good luck to him - I certainly won't see it.

I sometimes wonder if the American trend of revising history is because it's a continent lacking in history - having ignored the aboriginal history, there seems to be a real sense of building one from nobodies like Davy Corockett, etc. Small events get wildly overplayed into part of what patriotism means to them. A sense of history might reduce this, so here's hoping it improves with time...

MikeC