USA: 'The Secret in Their Eyes' director Juan Jose Campanella says he wishes American audiences were more receptive to foreign films

Record ID: 345618

  • Title: USA: 'The Secret in Their Eyes' director Juan Jose Campanella says he wishes American audiences were more receptive to foreign films
  • Date: 1st April 2010
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MARCH 30, 2010) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) JUAN JOSE CAMPANELLA, DIRECTOR, SAYING: "I actually think, a lot of people have mentioned the possibility that they would like to do it, but I don't know how they think to adapt it to the American context. I think the themes are universal."
  • Embargoed: 16th April 2010 13:00
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  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVAAND2YJ1B8P2FTO8X2ZJNXC4PN
  • Story Text: The critics love it, but American audiences are another matter.
    Argentinean film 'The Secret in their Eyes' is going from strength to strength after winning this year's Academy Award for best film in a foreign language.
    While director Juan Jose Campanella is still basking in his Oscar success, he admits he's somewhat frustrated by U.S. audiences who seem reluctant to accept foreign films.
    "It's unfortunate that in America people are, in general, the general audiences are very resistant to subtitles, to foreign language films, or even to different kind of accents, even English accents. It doesn't only happen with foreign languages," Campanella says.
    His film, 'The Secret In their Eyes' tells the story of a retired prosecutor who sets out to write a book after he is haunted by a 25 year old rape and murder case.
    Campanella says he's been approached by several people about about making an American version of the gripping crime thriller, but says he wouldn't be creatively involved.
    "I actually think, a lot of people have mentioned the possibility that they would like to do it, but I don't know how they think to adapt it to the American context. I think the themes are universal," Campanella says.
    Campanella, who is also known for directing numerous episodes of the hit American television series 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit', says 'The Secret In Their Eyes' is much more than a film about a murder. The secret to the film is that the murder isn't even the crux of the plot.
    "The murder is actually the trigger to a lot of things that ensue, a domino effect of events. You know, the character, the main character in the movie is a court officer who has nothing to do with the murder and it affects him not just as a case, it affects his personal life in a huge way, to the point that 25 years later, he wants to go and revisit that case," says Campanella.
    The director employs a unique cinematic style throughout the film, with the characters' faces often partly obscured by various objects, or another character.
    "The idea was to try to make you as an audience feel like as if you're sitting in a corner of the room and you see what you can. Sometimes there's a lamp in the way and you try to sort of stretch your neck to try to see behind it. That was one thing that I felt that it makes you have the feeling of eavesdropping into the scene. And then the other way is to, the other reason is that I really wanted to isolate the eyes. Something happens to somebody's face when you are not looking at anything but the eyes," Campanella explains.
    The film, 'The Secret In Their Eyes' opens in North America on April 16.
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