I agree. American cinema had a lot of its roots in the 20s and the depression era 30s where it served as a diversion to the nations problems at the time. Film, I would imagine, has always served as some sort of means to lose yourself in another world or time and not necessarily remind one of their problems, but allow oneself a few hours of escape.
Probably not the best choice of worRAB, but of course not, I think I partly had my mind on that other topic on "why americans steal from us" in the tv forum and a reply to that. I used "Billy Elliott" as one reference there were parts that were not as easy to understand. One can go back to "to sir with love" and remember some "at that time" east london accents that were portrayed. Pamela Dare was easier to understand than Peg (played by Lulu) not to mention colloquialisms which vary from English speaking country to English speaking country. Anyway, that's why I quoted "da" in Billy Elliott because that's what he kept calling his father, and in the bigger picture, there were other references. Some of the other characters had stronger accents. Paul O'Grady is another example (although I love him and used to watch his show when I could). I wrote a question on RAB one time ago as I was watching tv actor David Boreanaz on his program(me) last year and it was hilarious how he had trouble understanding Paul O'Grady. It's on youtube and funny in several parts.
I'm a huge Mike Leigh fan and probably have seen all his films. There's lots of good films from all over.
