Jaymole

Trying to be objective as you can, how would you rank countries in regards to their contribution to World Cinema throughout history. Please list at least your top 10.

FYI:I am NOT asking what your favorite countries are for film.

The top 2 should be a given, and the third was also pretty easy for me, but after that it got much, much harder, especially after 5.

I ended up with

1 - America
2 - France
3 - Japan
4 - Italy
5 - Germany
6 - UK
7 - Russia
8 - Hong Kong
9 - India
10 - Spain

I am interested in seeing what others think.

Giles

1. France
2. Hong Kong
3. Italy
4. Japan
5. America
6. UK
7. Spain
8. Russia
9. Germany
10. Iran/Middle East

Ash Ketchum

That's a very good list. I might tweak the order just a bit, but only after thinking about it a great deal, which I'm not prepared to do just now. But it's important to remember, as you do, just how much Germany and Russia (the Soviet Union) contributed in the early years of cinema. Would we have had film noir without German expressionism? Would we have THE WILD BUNCH and other great action films without Eisenstein's montage approach to editing? As for France, would we have so much great humanist cinema without Renoir? Or so much of the best American independent cinema without the French New Wave?

If I had to pick the five greatest filmmakers ever, I can tell you that my choices would be two from Hollywood, two from Japan, and one from France.

wendersfan

IMO the top two are clearly the U.S. and France, but after that it's tough. I'll have to think about it some more.

Jaymole

Do you honestly believe that America is the 5th most important contributor to cinema history or is this a list of your favorites?

toddly6666

1 - America
2 - France
3 - Italy
4 - UK (especially David Lean)
5 - Germany
6 - Japan
7 - Spain
8 - Hong Kong
9 - India
10 - Russia

toddly6666

Jaymole, I bet you are an anti-Hollywood movie kind of guy?

foofighters7

I'm certainly not one to put the U.S. number one because its the USA but its hard to argue against it being #1. I think that basically every other well known director from every other country would say the same thing.

1. U.S.
2. France
3. Italy
4. Japan
5. Germany
6.USSR/Russia
7. Sweden
8. UK
9. Spain
10. India (which is a tough one because on the whole I do not think that, even though they produce the most films per year, they contribute that much to film. I think they are a bit closed off for the most part)

Jaymole

I agree about India and I had originally left them off the list but I decided to include them seeing that they have the biggest film Industry in the world.

candyrocket786

No love for Korea?

Solid Snake

Top two for sure...are USA and France. I'd love to put Japan as high as those two but...Japan's lost it for the most part. Korea is really getting stronger. I for the most part cannot stand India, they have a lot of crappy films in comparison to the great films they have. Not too mention they're lack of respecting copyright. That's not all their films for sure..but someone's got to fix their system.

toddly6666

Oops. My comment was for Giles, not jaymole

The Bus

Not in order.

USA
France
Germany
Italy
UK
Russia
Japan

Not sure of the others.

Blu Man

United States of America. Everybody else is competing for second.

Supermallet

I agree with the countries the OP chose for this list except for one, and for the others I'd order them this way:

1 - America
2 - France
3 - Germany
4 - Russia
5 - Japan
6 - Italy
7 - UK
8 - Hong Kong
9 - Spain
10 - Mexico

I put Germany as the third highest not just because of German expressionism, but because of all the German directors who ended up coming to Hollywood, such as Billy Wilder. Russia I put fourth highest because of their advanced use of montage that filtered its way across the world.

Giles

I'm currently NOT impressed with what America is putting out and calling 'cinema'

TheySentYou

America's contributions in the silent film era is pretty much responsible for the launching of film history and global cross-pollenation of genres from countries influencing cinema in other countries. So, Giles, America being #1 is kind of a given I'd say, even though our contributions to mainstream film nowadays are a little diluted it seems.

NoirFan

I agree with your ranking and the reasons behind it, though I'd put Italy ahead of Japan, due to the influence of Italian Neo-Realism on world cinema. That's not to slight the huge importance of Kurosawa (nor to minimize the brilliance of Ozu, Naruse, et al), just my opinion that collectively Italy's output is of more significance than Japan's.

printerati

I initially had the same reaction, but the majority of S. Korea's well-respected contributions have come within the past 10-15 years. From a historical perspective, I couldn't put them in the top 10 yet.

Ash Ketchum

The OP asked us to "rank countries in regards to their contribution to World Cinema throughout history."
Just because "Japan's lost it for the most part" doesn't negate the enormous contributions of Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Naruse, Kobayashi, Imamura, Oshima, Fukasaku, Miyazaki, etc., etc., etc.
What part of "throughout history" was not clear to you?

Macross7

What exactly has France contributed? I'd say UK for #2

TheySentYou

I think the most obvious French contribution is the French New Wave of cinema from Godard and some Truffaut.

NoirFan

Is this a serious question?

Macross7

Why wouldn't it be? Did France invent movie technology? If not, what have they contributed?

Solid Snake

I'd like you to see American films in the 60s and a little in the 70s, speically talking about inspiration from the French New Wave. Bonnie and Clyde for sure was French New Wave inspired. I'd say Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid too. It let directors know that they don't have to be stilted by the tried and true form. You want to do handheld in a dialogue heavy scene? Do it. etc etc. I mean hell...Pulp Fiction is inspired by the French New Wave specifically. It's inspired. I'm not a big Modern French film fan, considering so few that I've seen, but New Wave and older sure as hell was great.

My UK knowledge is rather weak besides knowing of it's great ole Brit Crime films....ah...Get Carter...a classic.

Ash Ketchum- I meant in Ranking. Not in lacking of contribution. I love me some Kurosawa don't doubt me on that. I love him so much that I have every Criterion release of a film of his. (Wartime Kurosawa is really interesting to watch....you really see him hone his skills during this little era of his..plus a younger and still fresh behind the ears Mifune added with some Shimura). I know the other directors have done as well but in Ranking as a country they're not as high as I'd like.