yet another anti-American thing to piss me off

[alexist]

Lars von Trier, this time. He was spouting off about the flaws of America and American society, yet he's never even visited the US!

How can he claim to have any real understanding if he hasn't visited? And how can he really think that the perception he gets from the media is an accurate reflection? Hollywood isn't America. The New York Times isn't America. How can you know what American society is like if you've never experienced it?

Comments

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

Remember: American culture, especially American low culture, is visible everywhere on this benighted mudball - which probably doesn't help the antiterrorist cause, to be honest. It's not just Hollywood and the newspapers, it's the television, and the television news, and so forth. The American masses judge the rest of the world by what they see on TV and in the cinema and in the newspapers; I'd suggest you shouldn't be too surprised when a foreigner judges America by what he sees on TV and in the cinema and in the newspapers.

What that won't show him, of course, is that American is probably no more monolithic in its cultural identity than the European Union, despite the common language etc. But a nation's media always, to some extent, reflect its national character, albeit through a distorting mirror that highlights extremity and conceals mundanities.

[arosoff.livejournal.com]

I know Hollywood type culture is ubiquitous. But how can you come up with a statement like this:

"I would love to start a 'Free America' campaign. Because we just had a 'Free Iraq' campaign," von Trier said. "I'm sure it's a beautiful country. I would love to go there. But I'm afraid to go there. I don't think I can go to America right now because I don't think it's how it should be."

I mean... it's just dumb! He's out there making movies about America, about a place he's never seen but has already judged. I've seen 2 of his films, and he doesn't strike me as so stupid as to take Hollywood movies at face value.

"about a place he's never seen..."

[rainfx.livejournal.com]

But you could argue he has seen it, through the eyes of the worlds media - accurate or not, it's what the majority of the world sees. Perhaps he's not so much making films about America per se, but about the America as portrayed by TV and Hollywood.

I wouldn't bet the rest of the world is smart enough not to take Hollywood at face value, though.

I read another quote from the Guardian (yeah, yeah) - "my perception of the US is based on a lot more information and images than the Americans had when they made the film about Hans Christian Andersen - the US is a much bigger part of my consciousness than Denmark ever was to the people who made that film. " So in many ways, he's only really doing what Hollywood has been doing all along...?