I remember reading in more than one place that before the first world war,
let alone the second, there were many healthy film industries in the world,
but that the war savaged most of them, leaving the US in a position to
profit.
 
As for people wanting to see their own cinema, last week I asked my
Portuguese students to characterise Portuguese cinema for an English
student doing a semester with us.  Their response: boring, slow,
pretentious, too little attention to technical matters (eg, poor sound).
That is, not like their perception of mainstream American films.  When
you're used to one type of film (simplifying), even seeing your own issues,
in your own language, with locales in your own country are not necessarily
enough by any means.
 
 
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                 David Callahan ([log in to unmask])
Departamento de Linguas e Culturas, Universidade de Aveiro,
3810, Aveiro, Portugal.        Home phone and fax: +351-34-26854
 
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Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
http://www.tcf.ua.edu/screensite