🚀 go-pugleaf

On Fri, 9 Oct 1998, Luistxo Fernandez wrote:

Let me first respond by apologizing for my flagrant sarcasm.  I
understand that a film made in Basque, regardless of its ideology,
is inherently more Basque than one done in Spanish even if the
Spanish film presents an authentic view of the Basque people.  I would
only argue that we not slight the Basques who, on account of totalitarian
adversity, are now monolingual Castilian-speakers.  I believe that these
Basques would recognize the Basqueness of a film even if that film were
done in Castilian.  After all, though they themselves only speak
Castilian, they yet consider themselves to be Basque.  Looking not only at
the obvious aspect of the language of a film, I also believe that a
genuine part of Basque cinema (not just Basque-language cinema) may well
have been done in Castilian though I cannot give an example.  Perhaps
someone knows of such a film.  Please do not understand that I intend to
disparage the importance of Euskera to Basque identity.  I do not intend
this. I only wish to address the Basqueness of many of the alaveses and
the navarros.  Are not these monolingual Castilian-speakers Basque?
Forgive my ignorance.


On Fri, 9 Oct 1998, Luistxo Fernandez wrote:

> A) Ever heard about the Oscars? Well, there is a prize for the best movie
> in a language other than english. Australian films fight for the "Best
> film" award. Canadian films in English also. Quebecois films in French fall
> into the other category.
>
> B) In India, there are clear and obvious "language cinemas". There are
> Kannada films with Kannada directors and Kannada audiences, and Tamil films
> with Tamil actors and Tamil audiences who loudly enjoy the Tamil songs of
> every movie... If a Tamil director rises to fame and begins filming Hindi
> language films for a wider audience, his work is no longer Tamil cinema.
>
> Now, an additional example. A modern director that is gaining some fame:
> Atom Egoyan. Born in Egypt, into the Armenian diaspora. Makes
> english-language films in Canada, therefore eligible for all Oscar awards
> except the "foreign" one.
> Are his films Armenian cinema? They are as Armenian as Alex de la Iglesia's
> films are Basque.
>
> The examples about the "Russian" quality of Dr. Zhivago and others
> previously given by Mikel Morris were also clear enough to be understood in
> the University of Reno.
>
> I hope that, if he wishes, Mr. Copeland can say something about these
> "global" examples, without making more disgusting comments about the
> "purism" of the speakers of an endangered language, my mother tongue.
>
> Luistxo
>