Japan, hands down.
Before I even say it, I just want to make clear that I am NOT one of those blindly patriotic Sean Hannity types who thinks that America is “the greatest country history has ever known”, but several signs indicate that America, in fact, is cinematically my favorite country.
Although Russia, France, Iran, Japan and others have fascinating national cinemas as well, I am forced to choose America for the following reasons:
-Approximately half of the films I’ve ever seen (about 850 out of 1700 or so) are American, a far higher proportion than any other single country. Although nowadays only about a third of the films I watch are American, no other country comes close to that number (France, Russia and Germany usually make up about 15% each, so still about half of America’s frequency).
-Whenever I think of which films/directors are my favorites, Americans also often make up a slight majority.
This is likely just because it is far easier to find American films in America than, say, Kazakh, Nigerian or Egyptian films, but it doesn’t seem fair to claim another country whose films I have not had sufficient exposure to and am unable to identify nearly as many great films from them is better.
Kenji,glad to see you mentioning Armenia and Portugal(because Wales will have a difficult time becoming one’s favorite,even if i do love Greenaway and Terry Jones..)
also,i feel India should become more popular as well as Philippines,Turkey,Iran,Brazil,Egypt and Lithuania..and hopefully Greece(though i seriously doubt it even after a 1000 years :( )
damn,so many countries,i still can’t pick one,one mentioned seppuku..i’d go with that if i didn’t have the option of choosing them all…
Spain not for sure, it has several charming films but It cannot reach the peaks of Italy in 50s and 60s or USA in the 40s. I dont forget the masters of Japan that nowadays follow bringing fresh air.
France by far.
dp
….i’m thinking really hard
btw. damn you Fadorin San!!!!
France
Probably China, but closely tailed by Japan.
France
Philippe Garrel, Jean Eustche, Jean Luc Godard, Francoise Truffaut, Claire Dennis, Robert Bresson, Jean Cocteau, Jacques Rivette, Jean Vigo, etc.
United States
John Cassavetes, Jim Jarmusch, David Lynch, Andy Warhol, Kenneth Anger, Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum, Noir cinema, Robert Aldrich, etc, etc.
France
France has always been on the cutting edge and has been constantly progressing the cinema to new forms.
USA
Mexico
US of A
Japan
Portugal and Brazil
Italy
Russia
…………
USA
India
France
Italy
Japan
…………..
France, I’m just biased towards the French New-Wave
US of thee A, the Classic Hollywood, and the 70’s Anti-Hero Movement, and the God of Film-making Mr. Kubrick, and of course John Houston.
Italy, Fellini and Michelangelo thee greatest directors of the 50’s and 60’s.
Japan, Kurosawa of course, and Kobayashi.
Sweden, Thee Great Bergman, and when Tarkovsky did work in Sweden.
Germany, thee expressionist movement.
The Soviet Union, Very focused on religious themes, I like that.
Australia, I’m sorry but not a lot of good films coming out of the Colonies recently
Italy.
I’ve come from the future, the year 2046, and I’ve finally made my choice, unfortunately for reasons too graphic and horrible to describe in this forum The United States of America, Japan and France have become one nation. This new nation is called Le United States de Nippon. Many lives were lost during the last 20 years of world war, and it was hard for me to politically orchestrate this union of nations, but it has finally happened. Thank God.
USA
France
Japan
Liechtenstein
Argentina.
France, US, India (for Satyajit Ray)
There are all sorts of film I love, especially older French films, but I’ve got to say, my absolute favorite director of all time, Ritwik Ghatak, is Indian, and his movies really hit home with me, so I’m going India.
Hard to pick, but I’ve really developed a thing for Brazilian cinema as of late. But Japan probably has the finest cinematic tradition. There was that recent list of 100 greatest Japanese movies ever made, and titles like Naruse’s When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, Oshima’s Death by Hanging, Koreeda’s Maborosi, and Yoshida’s Bitter End of a Sweet Night were nowhere to be found. That is DEPTH.
Japan
Italy
Germany
France
USA
Russia
Antarctica.
yeah,i’d go with Antarctica too,you get country and continent in the same package :P
For me it’s definitely Germany. For the expressionism, the new wave and other things.
France
Denmark
France
Japan
Italy
Russia
USA
Britain
Germany
moonfleet
Amerika (mostly for the old Hollywoodians)
England (I’m surprised nobody mentioned this country)
Italy
France
Japan (for Ozu)
Sweden (for Bergman)
International (for Polanski)