Hello Epiphanie
I agree with you that big countries are often inward-looking and
self-consumed. Many visits, long and short, to the USA over more than a
quarter century have left me with the feeling that it’s one of the
largest islands in the world. Before anyone takes any notice of what’s
happening anywhere else, there has to be either an attack on US
interests (real or imagined) or a natural disaster. As for China, I
recall the remark, back in the 1960s, of a relative of mine who knew the
country very well. ‘The Chinese’, he said, ‘don’t understand the rest of
the world - but then they don’t need to’. I don’t think these things are
writ in stone, however. The history of Russia over the centuries has
been a constant back and forth between opening up towards Europe and
turning back in on itself. Or take the case of Brazil, a huge country
cut off from its neighbours by language as well as geography, which is
now becoming much more outward-looking with the changing geopolitics if
the region.
But can I try a different angle? I’ve noticed over many years’ viewing
of Latin American films that for all their diversity, they have
something in common when it comes to what we might call world-awareness,
and this contrasts rather starkly with the cinema of the metropolis.
Films from the USA and Europe tend to include no reference to any part
of the world that doesn’t have narrative significance; even the least
plot-driven examples of European art cinema. I guess this only reflects
the truth of everyday experience at the heart of empire…
In contrast, Latin American films are rarely without such allusions,
whether they’re plot-related or not - OK, this is a huge generalisation,
but they’re nearly always there, sometimes upfront, sometimes in the
backstory, sometimes in the aspirations of the characters to live like
people in Miami or Paris, sometimes in incidental scenes. In other
words, the old empires continue to represent the world in a reduced and
blinkered fashion. In Latin America, despite its relegation to the
periphery, there are fewer such blinkers, and a consciousness of the
global nature of the world is never far away. Or to put it another way,
a more politicised way of seeing the world.
Michael
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