Subtitled Films Gaining in Fight for Share of Big-Screen Spotlight

Here’s a paradox: If no one goes to see foreign films anymore, why are some of them posting record attendance figures?

Predictions of the foreign-language film’s demise in the U.S. seem to alternate with reports of record-breaking grosses for subtitled films. Each time there’s a lull in the quality and quantity of imported films, it suddenly turns around again and a major hit like the current bittersweet Italian fable “Life Is Beautiful” revives the audience’s appetite.

Buffeted on the one hand by big studio movies and on the other by American and British or Australian-made independent films, subtitled movies have had a harder time securing release in the U.S.--and available screens--despite the occasional hit.

Yet, while fewer American distributors now buy and release foreign films, such recent entries as “Like Water for Chocolate” (1992), “Il Postino” (1995), “Shall We Dance” (1996), “Belle Epoque” (1992) and “Eat Drink Man Woman” (1994) have taken in more at the box office than in the heyday of foreign-language film popularity back in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

For the most part the foreign films that struck a chord with American audiences are “feel-good” movies, heavy on sentiment and romance. Some of the bigger titles in recent years have involved a relationship between an older adult and a child--”Kolya” (1996), “Central Station” (1998), “Cinema Paradiso” (1989), “Life Is Beautiful”--which makes sense, say distributors, since the audiences who attend these films are often old enough to have grandchildren and emotionally respond to the subject matter.

Today the $1-million gross mark is considered the plateau for success on a foreign title, according to Michael Barker, a principal in Sony Pictures Classics. The company’s current highly acclaimed Brazilian film “Central Station” is expected to achieve that level. The 1997 Belgian drama “Ma Vie en Rose” passed $2 million while the Russian drama “The Thief” and the Danish family saga “The Celebration,” both released in 1998, have also topped $1 million.

But Bingham Ray, head of October Films, which released “The Celebration,” notes that “most foreign movies wind up stalling in the mid-six figures.” The few foreign films that work can stay in theaters for a year or more. But most are economic washouts. Complicating matters is the fact that foreign film distributors are usually playing without the safety net of video and cable.

“It’s a theatrical-[release] driven business and the price of marketing all movies has increased dramatically,” Ray says. “There’s no video and little cable insurance because subtitled films on TV are difficult. People don’t want to read their movies.”

None of this bothers Miramax’s co-chairman Harvey Weinstein. “We’re definitely on an upswing,” he says of Miramax’s foreign-film releases.

Weinstein is one of the few distributors who is willing to spend money to buy television ads to promote foreign movies. He has even pushed theater owners--particularly outside of large metropolitan areas--to accept his foreign films by not making Miramax’s big American hits like “Good Will Hunting” and “Pulp Fiction” available unless the theater owner agrees to book one of his subtitled films as well.

Miramax has released virtually all the “blockbuster” foreign titles in recent years, breaking the all-time record with Italy’s “Il Postino,” which took in about $22 million in 1995, just ahead of the Mexican romance “Like Water for Chocolate,” the previous record-holder.

But as Mark McGwire can tell you, records are made to be broken. “Life Is Beautiful,” which has already grossed more than $11 million (and has never played in more than 225 theaters at any one time) is on track to surpass “Il Postino” by the middle of next year, according to Miramax. Possible Oscar attention could give the film the same propulsion that “Il Postino”--a ’95 best picture nominee--experienced. (“Life” will get wider release in January and February.)

Existing Audience’s Loyalty Can Be Fierce

Still, the basic problem remains that the demographic for foreign films has gotten older. It’s the same upscale, urban audience that frequented these movies as college students and young adults 20 years ago, says Ruth Vitale and David Dinnerstein, who recently began a specialty film label at Paramount Pictures.

“We haven’t been able to cultivate a younger audience yet,” Dinnerstein says.

The existing audience’s loyalty can be fierce, however, as evidenced by the recent screening of the late Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski’s 10-part “The Decalogue” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The demanding series, shown over a three-week period, offered three performances of each hourlong film and sold out almost immediately, with scalpers lining the museum’s Wilshire Boulevard entrance before every performance.

The past year has seen something of a resurgence in foreign movies, particularly in the last quarter, Dinnerstein says. And they haven’t all been heart-tuggers like “Central Station” and “Life Is Beautiful.” The astringent “Celebration” is doing strong business and Strand’s Turkish production “Steam” is performing well on a more moderate basis.

Still, it’s harder and harder to succeed with the kind of high-minded foreign films that were popular back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Dinnerstein says. In the current climate demanding movies from the likes of Roberto Rossellini, Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni would have a hard time even securing a distributor, much less in finding an audience.

Movies by noted foreign directors such as Bertrand Tavernier, Ettore Scola and Paolo and Vittorio Taviani have gone begging for a distributor and at best may pop up for a week’s limited release in a few major cities.

Paramount’s first foreign title will be “Powder Keg,” a controversial and dramatically direct film about the continuing conflict in the former Yugoslavia. It won the Jury prize at the Venice Film Festival and is an official Oscar entry this year. October’s Ray has high hopes for his upcoming Danish release, Lars von Trier’s (“Breaking the Waves”) sexually adventurous “The Idiots,” which caused an uproar at the last Cannes Film Festival because of its explicitness.

Foreign films are sold the old-fashioned way, through grass-roots efforts appealing to various ethnic constituencies. For example, there were screenings for Jewish groups for “Life Is Beautiful,” part of which is set in a Nazi concentration camp, screenings for Japanese Americans for “Shall We Dance” and for Chinese Americans for “Farewell My Concubine” (1993).

American Independent Films Making Mark

Keeping even the better performers in theaters is a major struggle. Foreign films need word of mouth to grow and prosper in an era when movies come and go. Often they cannot catch on because “the audience would rather take a chance on an American independent film like ‘Happiness’ than a foreign film,” Vitale says.

And frankly, Ray says, the subject matter of foreign films has been usurped by the American independents. The sexual frankness and aesthetic daring of foreign movies gave them an edge back in the ‘60s and ‘70s compared to American fare. But over the past decade, starting with breakout American independent hits like “sex, lies and videotape” (1989), low-budget American movies (as well as British and Australian ones) have been as daring--and sometimes even more so--than foreign films, both in terms of content and style. These are the films that are likely to cross over into theaters in upscale suburban areas, some of which are hesitant to book anything but the most popular foreign titles.

The promotion of subtitled films has also suffered since the media devotes less time to the aesthetics of movies and more to the business, emphasizing big-budget, high-profile films. Years ago the press and critics in major newspapers and magazines felt a responsibility to cover a wide variety of high-quality foreign-language films, Barker says. “These days there’s pressure from editors and even from readers to cover mainstream or American independent movies.”

Many major magazines and most television critics don’t even review most foreign films, Barker says. Even the films that are reviewed get less space. This, he says, sends a clear message to readers--not important, don’t bother.

It’s no coincidence that the success of LACMA’s Kieslowski series was preceded by an appreciation from The Times’ film critic Kenneth Turan as well as from other Los Angeles scribes. And the business for “Central Station” and “Life Is Beautiful” was bolstered by coverage of their stars and directors in major city outlets.

Despite the problems with new releases, classic foreign-language films from the past seem to be working better than ever. When Miramax reissued Luis Bunuel’s “Belle de Jour” in 1995, it grossed $4 million, more than in its initial 1967 run. Other revivals that have caught on in recent years have included reissues of Federico Fellini’s “Nights of Cabiria” and Jacques Demy’s “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.”

“We continue to fight the good fight,” says Ray, with a mixture of optimism tempered by a large splash of reality.