Psycho. #15

Thus spoke Caspar Salmon.

Will real time audio translation and emerging tech gadgets make 'foreign' films that currently require subtitles for the English language markets more appealing to the mass audiences in those countries? Or do those audiences mostly not give a flying fart about films not made in their native tongue due to innate cultural prejudice, so that no measure of tech innovation will ever make more UK/US folks more open to watching an Iranian/Egyptian/Indian movie?

First off, allow me to congratulate you, if that’s the word, on your attempt to lessen the traditionally high swear count over here at Psycho with your phrase “flying fart”, instead of the far more idiomatic “flying fuck”. You tried your hardest! A flying fart sounds rather adorable, as opposed to the more sordid lure of joining the mile-high club. Bless your sweet, innocent heart. 

I think the answer has to be, as you surmise, that English language markets are doomed not to give a shit, on the whole, about films made by foreigners in their native foreign language, at least for the foreseeable future. The reasons for this are political on the whole, stemming from “western” capitalist “democracies” generally imposing a certain world order on the rest of the planet — a system with a predominantly white supremacist bent, whose weapons of propaganda include the Oscars, war films, the western literary canon, and blondeness. Every now and then some non-English language films cut through (your Parasites, your Anatomy of a Falls) for various reasons, but broadly I would wager that the market for non-English movies has taken a huge hit in the last ten to fifteen years. I would need to be a bit more of a seasoned market analyst engaged in a mammoth breakdown of box-office-across-decades figures to work out the whys and wherefores of this abandonment, but it does seem to be the case that distributors are less inclined to take a risk with a “foreign language” film at the moment. 

In case it seems I’m airily lecturing about the problem of Western imperialists, I admit to being a participant in and unwitting proponent of the system, as a film journalist in 2024. I would love to write about more films from Iran, Egypt and India, but the fact is that that work does not pay, and I have to make rent every month. Divesting from the razzle-dazzle of US-led entertainment in general will be a lifetime’s work of undoing prejudices and preconceptions. That inclination isn’t just the preserve of film, by the way. Have you ever strolled down a “world music” aisle in a record shop? Been to an exhibition of “African” painting? The question goes far, far beyond the power of emerging technologies, although I think you are probably right to feel some hope that they can help change the stakes in some way.