Quote Originally Posted by Оля actually meant to
...umm, to be quite honest, umm, I think all non-Russian actors and non-Russian films, umm, well SUCK.
Well, actually, to be honest, I don't think so. I really like and even love some foreign films. As for Alan Rickman and "Die Hard", I don't think his acting in that film is something special. First of all, I meant his role in "The Perfume".
But! Okay, to make things a bit clearer. What is the main thing in Russian cinema (which actually comes from Russian theatre): as Stanislavsky said, "жизнь человеческого духа" (don't know how this classical phrase sounds in English; my attempt is, "the human soul's life"). No any screenplay, costumes, landscape views, soundtracks, or any other thing that could help if actors play badly. Human is THE MAIN. That's all. How, tell me please, can special effects be more important than the human soul's life? They can't.
The western cinema... is just different. The main thing is a plot. Action. Special effects, maybe. If the worst comes to the worst, a popcorn. It doesn't mean that all Western cinema SUCK. It's just that when I watch a good Western / American film, I... get pleasure of another kind. I enjoy the plot (like in "Catch Me If You Can"), or a geniusly created atmosphere (like in "Vertigo") and good acting (yes, it does happen in those films, too ). But, then again, they very rarely touch my soul deeply , make me cry. The one I can recall right now is "The Pianist" (a war film, again...). Also, there are a lot of American movies which I find senseless (it's not just "I find", really; it's just alien to us Russians, mostly, at least; well, let's rather say "to Russian art", it's fairer). There are a lot of "horror movies" which only make a viewer to feel horror, and nothing more. I've just watched one of such, "White Single Female". A lot of murders. I pity no one. It's not because I am hard-hearted, it's just because the director's goal was other. Just to frighten. What should I learn from this film? I learned nothing. Probably someone tells me, "You should learn that there are crazy people in the world one should be careful with". Sorry, but for me, it's not the art's goal (and cinema, for me, should be [close to] art). And the film I mentioned is not the worst movie of that kind at all. There are much worse ones.
I also can say that movies of that sort can only provoke fear, disgust, ...well, also prudence in life, maybe. They really can only "upset" a viewer and nothing more. But those war dramas I've spoken so much already before, even if they "upset", they provoke catharsis and compassion. That's what I want to feel having watched a movie. Not disgust or fear. Don't give me special effects, leave them for kids, or for cartoons. Give me true feelings, make me better, so that I could watch a movie and say "I must become kinder", "I want to love people", or ask myself, "What am I living for?", or something. So, what I mean - I, too, like Rockzmom, don't want to watch movies that just upset me, show me some loathsome picture and nothing more.

As for movies about "crazy people", I want to tell you something. In МХАТ (Moscow Art Theatre School), students have to make exercises called "etudes" (to show, to play someone/something, to show a short dumb scene from its/his/her life where some event happens). First, it should be a thing (a ball, a table, a photocamera, whatever). Then an animal. Then a human. But every its/his/her action should be "inwardly reasonable". That is, if you are a cupboard, you can't just be swinging your doors hither and thither, without any reason, just so. You should have some inward reason. For instance, "I'm swinging my doors because I want more dishes to stay into me, so I want to tell people in this way to put more dishes into me, meaning come on guys, here, bring the plates in here, quickly". But bad students usually, showing some "swinging cupboard" say: "It's swinging its doors because it's crazy". So, what I mean. I mean that in all those movies where acts some crazy-person-who-murders-everyone-just-because-he's-crazy, the director tells us viewers, "There is no inward reason. He just is crazy. He just was unhappy in childhood. Watch this movie, there is a lot of blood, you'll like it". No, sorry, your etude is bad. I want to pity someone, even if you don't show me blood.