On Sunday night the South Korean film “Parasite” became the first movie with all-non-English dialogue to win the best picture Oscar. Everybody who respects the traditions of the cinema must be imagining their own list of great “foreign” films that were given no chance to take best picture. But the Oscars are certainly about Hollywood above all else, which makes it puzzling that “Parasite” was able to make the breakthrough. If you look at the history of American motion pictures, anyway, this seems obviously right. No one, I think, would consciously plan to fumble the best picture Oscar into the Pacific to wash up on the shore of South Korea.

Source: National Post February 10, 2020 16:18 UTC