SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
For this week's movie segment, we want to take you on a cinematic journey overseas. My colleague Lauren Frayer reports.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Whether you're trying to find love...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEFORE SUNRISE")
ETHAN HAWKE: (As Jesse) Well, she was literally Botticelli angel, just telling me that everything was going to be OK.
FRAYER: ...Trying to find yourself...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LOST IN TRANSLATION")
SCARLETT JOHANSSON: (As Charlotte) Does it get easier?
BILL MURRAY: (As Bob Harris) No. Yes. It gets easier.
FRAYER: ...Or trying to reinvent who you are...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY")
MATT DAMON: (As Tom Ripley) I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody.
FRAYER: ...Americans often travel abroad, especially on the big screen, as you heard there in clips from the movies "Before Sunrise," "Lost In Translation" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley." Trips beyond our borders, whether in real life or on film, can be tantalizing. There are new experiences we may not get at home, new insights into ourselves. But there can also be cultural misunderstandings, misconceptions and prejudice. To discuss all of this, I'm joined by my NPR colleagues, fellow international correspondent Eyder Peralta and editor Tinbete Ermyas, who, in addition to being a film lover, has lived and reported in Africa. Welcome to you both.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Hey, Laura.
TINBETE ERMYAS, BYLINE: Hey, hey.
FRAYER: So I don't know if we can call this a genre, but we might have just invented one. Let's just try. What are some of the most enduring portraits of Americans abroad on the big screen? Let's start with you, Tinbete.
ERMYAS: Coming up in the '90s and in the early 2000s, there's one sort of bucket of films that I can talk about, and I will call that the sort of going abroad glow up. And in this sort of subgenre, I kind of think about two groups. The first being sort of young women, you know, sort of ingenues who are basically plucked from obscurity and transform overnight into either a royal or a celebrity. And here there's examples like "What A Girl Wants" with Amanda Bynes and Colin Firth, in which she sort of realizes overnight that she's part of the British upper crust...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WHAT A GIRL WANTS")
AMANDA BYNES: (As Daphne Reynolds) My name is Daphne Reynolds. I'm Libby's daughter. According to this, I'm your daughter, too.
ERMYAS: ..."The Princess Diaries" with Anne Hathaway, Julie Andrews.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE PRINCESS DIARIES")
JULIE ANDREWS: (As Queen Clarisse Renaldi) Eduard Christoff Philippe Gerard Renaldi was your father.
ANNE HATHAWAY: (As Mia Thermopolis) Yeah. Sure, my father was the Prince of Genovia. Uh-huh, you're joking.
ERMYAS: And what they are is kind of like reimaginings (ph), I think, of sort of a Cinderella story. You know, they're one plane ticket away from, you know, fame or some kind of fortune.
FRAYER: (Laughter).
ERMYAS: The other subset that I would say is sort of kind of middle-aged or approaching middle-aged Black women going abroad because something is thrusting them there. And here an example is, like, "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" starring Angela Bassett.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK")
TAYE DIGGS: (As Winston Shakespeare) What brings you here to Jamaica?
ANGELA BASSETT: (As Stella Payne) I needed a vacation.
ERMYAS: And another one is also from the early 2000s, Queen Latifah's film, "Last Holiday."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LAST HOLIDAY")
QUEEN LATIFAH: (As Georgia Byrd) That all sounds so good. Will he have the same specials tomorrow night?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) No. Chef Didier never creates the same menu twice.
QUEEN LATIFAH: (As Georgia Byrd) Well, I guess I better try more tonight, then.
ERMYAS: It's really sort of two sides of a very different coin. Like, on the one hand, there are these kind of young ingenues who kind of have somewhat Cinderella stories. And then this other group of films that - where there's these, like, Black women who are sort of very intentional about trying to start something new, trying to escape something that might not necessarily be detrimental to their lives, but that kind of thrusts them outside of their comfort zones.
FRAYER: And is that, like, easier abroad?
ERMYAS: I don't know. It's interesting. The thing about being abroad, I think, at its best, when it's done right, I think it can really force you to confront yourself, right? You're taken out of your comfort zone. You know, you're going to a place that's new, and all you have is yourself.
FRAYER: So Eyder, you've reported from East Africa. Now you cover Mexico and Central America. Are there films set in those regions that you think show the sort of promise or pitfalls of this genre, like any memorable story lines with wide-eyed Americans far from home?
PERALTA: I don't know. I'm sort of jealous of Tinbete's view on this because I've been thinking in the past few days and thinking really hard about good films on this genre, right? And I think it's a tried-and-true genre that boils down to Americans behaving badly. In "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid," criminals head south of the border to escape American law enforcement.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID")
TIMOTHY SCOTT: (As News Carver, reading) Butch Cassidy's Hole-in-the-Wall gang struck...
PAUL NEWMAN: (As Butch Cassidy) Butch Cassidy's Hole-in-the-Wall gang - that's me.
PERALTA: Or, you know, in a really bad '80s film, "The Mosquito Coast," Harrison Ford plays an inventor who leaves the U.S. for the simpleness of Central America, and he brings along air conditioning with him and ice, as you would to this remote jungley (ph) place. And he's frustrated, and at one point, he screams, I've brought ice and civilization, and that's why I'm here.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE MOSQUITO COAST")
HARRISON FORD: (As Allie Fox, shouting) I brought civilization. That's why I'm here. That's why I came.
PERALTA: And to me, like, that line in that story in that movie, like, it represents all that is bad with this genre.
FRAYER: I've brought civilization.
PERALTA: Yeah.
FRAYER: Wow. Wow.
PERALTA: But it's always - it's also like - I guess I hadn't really thought of, like, all these movies about discovery because I feel like Americans go to Europe to lead beautiful, wonderful experiences. And when they come to Latin America, it's always, like, in these sepia tones. It's always in these dusty towns. It's always, you know, they're running away from American law, and they come to south of the border to find more flexible places where they can be bad.
FRAYER: I also admire Tinbete's optimism, but I also agree with your assessment. I mean, Harrison Ford, great actor, but, like, the places I've lived, South Asia and the Middle East, like, are still digging out from some of the stereotypes that the "Indiana Jones" franchise put them under, you know, snake charmers, holy men and the like.
ERMYAS: I want to be very clear - I got plenty of shade for the genre, OK? Let's be clear.
(LAUGHTER)
ERMYAS: The first one being that - one film that does come to mind is Robert Redford and Meryl Streep in "Out Of Africa." Robert Redford plays an American who is there, I believe, on a hunting trip.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "OUT OF AFRICA")
MERYL STREEP: (As Karen) When you go away, don't always go on safari, do you?
ROBERT REDFORD: (As Denys) No.
STREEP: (As Karen) Just want to be away.
ERMYAS: You know, one of the things, like, in preparing for this conversation is that there's just the dearth of kind of Americans engaging in any way in Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. And I think that speaks to something larger, right? I mean, you can sort of point to films that are in an imagined Africa, like the "Black Panther," you know, franchise, but those are imagined lands, right? I mean, for as great and empowering as they may be, they're not - it's not real. And to the film's credit, I mean, "Out Of Africa" has beautiful scenes. I mean, I'm thinking about the stunning scene where Robert Redford flies Meryl Streep over these vast valleys and peaks. I mean, it's absolutely gorgeous. But I mean, also the reality has to be said - I mean, it's Africa without Africans.
FRAYER: Right. It's a beautiful backdrop for Western protagonists to do whatever they're - I mean, I struggled to think of a movie about Americans set in the Middle East that's not a war movie, that the Middle East is not just a backdrop of conflict for heroic Westerners doing their thing. I mean, can you guys think of any films that are - that show not stereotypical, like, real interest in the people and the locale? I want to know your go-to films for being swept abroad, regardless of the setting. Tell me.
PERALTA: I just have one - "Roma" by Alfonso Cuaron.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ROMA")
DANIELA DEMESA: (As Sofi, speaking Spanish).
YALITZA APARICIO: (As Cleo, speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: And it's this black-and-white film about a family dealing with family things. And it's set in a neighborhood called Roma here in Mexico City. And again, my bar is really low. There are no Americans in that film, I think, or - that play any role. And it captures the beauty and everyday life of this neighborhood. That's, you know, middle - upper-middle class, and it just has these just beautiful buildings in this neighborhood. And like, these houses are just spectacular, and the people who live here are - like, they're artists, and they're regular people trying to make a living. And the film focuses on one woman who works in one of these houses. And I feel like that movie captures that little, tiny bit of life that you wouldn't necessarily get from a Hollywood film.
FRAYER: That sounds lovely. And Tinbete, what's your go-to film?
ERMYAS: My go-to film is 1993's "Sankofa" by Haile Gerima.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SANKOFA")
KOFI GHANABA: (As Sankofa) Rise up, lingering spirit of the dead. Rise up and possess your bird of passage.
ERMYAS: It's about a Black woman who goes to Ghana and through a series of events is transported back in time to slavery. And in the film, what's really interesting about it is she kind of meets a cast of characters of slaves who are from all over the world - so some who are just recently coming from Africa, some from the Caribbean - and kind of learns about the ways that they resisted slavery and kind of just made it through their days as a community. And it's really, really powerful.
FRAYER: That was NPR editor Tinbete Ermyas and international correspondent Eyder Peralta. Thanks for joining me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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