Thanks, jackasses! Maybe we should do our own commemoration of the day Hitler marched through Paris with some anti-French rhetoric! I really like the "well if you're a democracy, the people are a legitimate target." Great...again...one side sees civilians as targets...the other sees them as collateral damage. I know that many of you don't grasp the distinction...but in light of this "film" and its timing for the anniversary of a horrific day, I would like to point it out once again. http://webcenter.newssearch.netscape.com/aolns_display.adp?key=200208210257000220325_aolns.src French Sept. 11 Picture Has Anti-U.S. Elements PARIS (Variety) - To commemorate the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, a French studio is unveiling an unusual omnibus movie called "11'09"01 September 11," which consists of 11 separate submissions from key directors in as many countries. The problem: Several of the segments are stridently anti-American. Consider the dialogue from the Egyptian submission directed by Youssef Chahine. "The U.S. and Israel are democracies, their governments are elected by their people -- thus it is legitimate to attack their people," says the character, an unnamed filmmaker. The segment goes on to talk about "the civilizations destroyed by the U.S.," and "the millions of victims" of American policy from Vietnam to Somalia. The short also depicts with sympathy a Palestinian suicide bomber and his family. Several of the other segments are fiercely critical of the United States -- a fact that could prove embarrassing, once the picture opens in French moviehouses Sept. 11 and in various international film festivals beginning with Toronto and Venice over the next few weeks. "11'09"01" has yet to find a U.S. distributor. Embattled media giant Vivendi Universal's Studio Canal production unit commissioned 11 prominent film directors to each do an 11-minute short inspired by last year's attacks, and gave them "total freedom of expression." Studio Canal said Tuesday no executive was available to comment. French press reports said the project was initated by producer Alain Brigand, who convinced recently ousted Vivendi chairman-CEO Jean-Marie Messier to back the movie. The movie's first segment, from Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf, begins with Iranian schoolchildren explaining, "The United States want to bomb us, so we must built shelters." Amid references to a possible U.S. atomic bombing of Iran, the teacher encourages the pupils to commemorate the 9/11 victims with a minute of silence, but the kids keep talking about their own local tragedies. Even the British segment of the omnibus film takes the United States to task. Directed by left-wing filmmaker Ken Loach, the segment focuses on another Sept. 11 tragedy, the 1973 coup d'etat against Chile's Marxist president Salvador Allende and the support provided to the subsequent military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet by U.S. president Richard Nixon. Meanwhile, India's Mira Nair focuses on the true story of a Pakistani-American who died helping New York firefighters at the World Trade Center. His unexplained disappearance on the date of the attack led to police and media suspicions of his possible association with terrorists -- something that wouldn't have happened if he had been named Jesus or David, his mother says in the segment. Other contributions have little or no political spin -- or in a few cases, any apparent link with 9/11 aside from their moral tone. These include contributions from France's Claude Lelouch, American Sean Penn, Burkina Faso's Idrissa Ouedraogo, Israel's Amos Gitai, Japan's Shohei Imamura, Mexico's Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Bosnia's Danis Tanovic.
Damn Frogs. The French did the same damn thing in Vietnam as we did in Chile. At least we acted to clean up our own mess in Chile. And they were responsible for, oh, about 100% more colonization than we were. I think they're still pissed about the whole Louisiana Purchase thing. Where the hell is Sir Jackie Chiles goosesteppin' ass? As for the Egyptian guy, if our people are targets since we're a democracy, I guess those Arabs won't mind us assassinating their leaders, since they aren't democracies.
No person, no community and no nation is above reproach...this is among the most insensitive things I can ever recall hearing of. Can we not even mourn our dead without criticism from our "allies?" I'm thinking there's a better time for political mudslinging.
HayesStreet, Let's not overreact; its just a French production company, not the entire country. Is anyone else getting sick of hearing crap like the Egyptian dialogue? I think the US and some of the Arab countries had better actively resolve some issues, or the relationship can only degrade further and someone's going to be in a world of hurt.
you're right...i know you're right...it just seems that everytime i look up they're firing something else at us, though.
Of course, it's a French production company that's owned by the company that owns Universal Pictures and Seagrams and other such companies. I would think that a company that relies so much on America for its profits would not finance something so blantantly anti-American. But hey, it's their money, they can do what they want with it no matter how bad an idea it might be.
So, the French contribution (along with the American) has little or no political spin, but it is "damn those Frogs!" anyway? Even if it is a French production company doing it...should nobody know that these feelings exist. Should a non-skinhead never be allowed to do a film on skinheads and their anti-everything not white message? Take this for what it is - a compilation of 11 different views.
rimbaud - i don't have a problem with them airing their opinions...i guess i have a problem with them doing so in some sort of "commemorative" way to 9/11. time and place for everything...this isn't the time. why is it that we are required to show such sensitivity to the rest of the world, but they can drag us through the mud on the anniversary of such an awful day.
Max, This isn't really the rest of the world - this is 4 out of the 11 filmmakers asked to do something inspired by the events. The only surprise among the four is the British one...since he doesn't even reflect the majority view of his country...the other three probably do (although the Indian one was a bit hard to nail down). Hayes, You have been in England too long. Surprisingly, the French seemed to have let it go...the British seem a little slower, though.
Again...I don't have a problem with them airing their viewpoints. I'm not sure how you get that I think is the rest of the world. I'm just saying that there is a time and place for everything...the anniversary of this day is not that time. Again..some modicum of sensitivity on the issue would be nice.
Im cool with it. its a big world out there, with much more than 11 views. I respect everyones view, and i even empathise with them. I do however not agree with them. I would like to see this film
From: why is it that we are required to show such sensitivity to the rest of the world, but they can drag us through the mud on the anniversary of such an awful day. Sorry if I misunderstood.
ok..i see how you think that... really wasn't my point...i was just saying that we're told all the time about how we should be more sensitive...how we should understand the mentality of the plight of the suicide bomber, for example...but in "commemoration" of an attack on our civilians that killed roughly 3000, it's fine to produce some film that runs our faces through the mud? i can not imagine being so insensitive to human life and the mourning of the families left behind on that day as to do that... our church is having a guy come speak to us about Islam on Sept. 15th...sort of an informational session with a guy who has done a lot of missionary work...i'm a part of the church government (it's called the session in the presbyterian church) and we really wresteled with whether or not this was a good idea, given the timing...that any other time, it would be fine, but there might be some really touchy feelings around the time of the first anniversary of this event. we ultimately decided to do it, but with prayer and by going forward to the congregation beforehand to let them know that this is an opportunity to learn more and to build bridges with those neighbors who may have a different faith...i think it's going to be a fascinating opportunity to learn more..but i'm also aware that the timing can be an issue...how much more so for a film aimed directly at the event which seems to be communicating that we had it coming to us??
That's cool, Mad Max. IMO that's a great thing to do, because it helps send the lesson that it wasn't Islam itself that attacked us. That's really great. I'm curious. Is the man a Christian missionary, or a Muslim Missionary?
I don't worry about most of this kind of stuff too much. Usually, one of these "artists" is just doing something unexpected and outlandish to get publicity, then when someone calls them on it they run and hide behind "artistic expression." Then the "artist" makes you look like that bad guy for disagreeing with their "artistic expression." Its all for publicity, trying to get 15 minutes, and just the fact that there is a thread in this Houston Rockets website about some low-budget, foreign film shows that the "artist" has succeded in his looking for 15 minutes.
I have worked with the French for years and I find them overall arrogant and annoying. This is primarily the people in Paris and other large cities, the people in Normandy still treat the Americans with reverance as they remember that if it were not for us and Great Britain, they would all be speaking German right now. I know my view of the French only represents a certain populace, but man, for losing every single war in the last century these guys are extremely arrogant. Damn the Frogs is ok with me. DD
