ABSTRACT
We have been concentrating so far on American film, in part because—with the exception of India—it is the dominant cinema worldwide and because it is the cinema we are most familiar with. But there is a larger pattern: filmgoers around the world like American film and American filmgoers are reluctant to see films with subtitles. Despite these obstacles, a strong national cinema exists in many countries, sometimes with government or other external support, and it is important to note its presence and its history. We need also to take note of the influence of foreign film on American filmmaking. We have already seen some of this influence in our discussion of German Expressionism in Chapter 3. Expressionism’s dark, tortured mise-en-scène influenced (among others) Citizen Kane (1941) and in turn the formal structures of film noir in the 1940s and after.
