National Identity in Global Cinema: How Movies Explain the World

What makes an Italian film Italian, a French film French? Are Hollywood films really American? This study reveals how centralization, common language and narrative convention express the cultural heritages within the national cinemas of nine countries (China, Finland, France, India, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Ukraine, and the United States). The goal is to bring critical theory and artistic expression back into equilibrium with a method that demonstrates how popular cinema truly can explain the world, one country at a time.