Roman Polanski can't step foot in an English-speaking country without being arrested, but he still wants success in the United States. He keeps making movies in English with American stars. I guess that's why they do it. When the British made a movie based on Mr Bean, they had Mr Bean come to America for the stated reason that the American market was the hardest one to break into.
I get tired of reading subtitles, but I want dubbing. I know there are perfectly good dubbed versions of older foreign films, but you can't get them. There are Soviet movies on DVD where you can choose between dubbing and subtitling, but I haven't seen that with movies from any other country.
I just watched Polanski's Carnage. I don't know how much credit he should get for it. It was "based on the play" by Yasima Reza which I think means it was simply the play by Yasmina Reza. The translator was in the credits. It reminded me why I don't want to go to plays although I wonder how they did the vomiting scene on stage.
Two couples meet. They don't know each other. The 11-year-old son of one couple hit the son of the other couple in the face with a stick and wrecked a couple of his teeth. They're trying to be polite but they're naturally rather upset. The couples argue, then the characters argue with their own spouses. It's pretty dreary.
This thing starred Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christopher Waltz and John C Reilly. Polanski's son, Elvis, plays the violent pre-teen. Yes, Polanski named his son "Elvis".
It might make a good double feature with The Dinner--Steve Coogan and Richard Gere play brothers who, with their wives, meet for dinner to discuss the situation with their awful children. I'd watch The Dinner first. It was a better movie.
I would have suggested Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf as a second feature or Exterminating Angel, but they would just be too much.
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