It could be a language barrier thing too for someone like Denis whose first language isn't English (well yeah, French cinema exists too but I think he was talking in the context of international cinema connecting across borders). It's not a coincidence though that the most universally popular foreign language films like Parasite and Studio Ghibli tend to be VERY visual language heavy. Also why songs and music in different languages end up being much more popular than movies and shows that are in different languages, generally speaking.