Fahrenheit 9/11 wins the Palme d'Or at Cannes

[MIKE BURN]

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BBC/London, Saturday, 22 May, 2004, 19:27 GMT 20:27 UK



Director Michael Moore's controversial anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 has won the prestigious Palme d'Or best film award at the Cannes festival.



It was the first documentary to win the top prize since Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World in 1956.



The film received a 15-minute standing ovation when it was screened on Monday.



Fahrenheit 9/11 explores the Iraq war and alleges connections between President George W Bush and top Saudi families, including the Bin Ladens.



The documentary uses Moore's customary satirical style to accuse Mr Bush of stealing the presidential election in 2000, ignoring terrorism warnings before 11 September 2001 and fuelling fears of more attacks to secure Americans' support for the war in Iraq.



'Overwhelmed'



"What have you done? I'm completely overwhelmed by this," Moore said in his acceptance speech.



"I want to make sure if I do nothing else for the rest of this year that those who died in Iraq have not died in vain."



Thanking the jury headed by cult director Quentin Tarantino, he added: "You will ensure that the American people will see this movie...You have put a huge light on this."



Fahrenheit 9/11 was competing against 18 other films for the Palme d'Or.

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[bbchris]

Wooooooooooohooooooooooooo! Really looking forward to seeing this movie!!!

|Blah Blah|Thinking Out Loud|Jane Eliz||Talk Soup |

[DreamTone7]

Interesting how they chose to focus on laying blame and not on the heroic efforts of the NY police and fire departments...meanwhile leaving the terrorists who did it completely out of the equation...without which it would have never happened.



Then again, this was in Europe...and movies do seem to be directed at giving people what they want to see and be true, rather than an impartial view of what really happened. So I'm not surprised. Now if they showed the full story instead of simply gratuitous jibes at Bush and Co, I would have been pleasantly surprised.

[Galmin]

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Then again, this was in Europe

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I am pretty sure MM will be nominated for another Oscar.

[DreamTone7]

Not for this thing he won't. Many a good director shanks it every now and then...I guess MM's turn was up.

[HKRockChick]

www.abc.net.au/news/newsi...115017.htm



Last Update: Tuesday, May 25, 2004. 7:22am (AEST)



Bush popularity at all-time low



Battered by the Iraq war, US President George W Bush's public approval rating has hit an all-time low in his presidency, according to a new CBS poll released today.



Forty-one per cent of the American public approve of the job Mr Bush is doing as President, while 52 per cent disapprove.



Two weeks ago, 44 per cent approved and a year ago the figure was two-thirds.



Sixty-one per cent of the 1,113 people asked disapproved of the way Mr Bush is handling the situation in Iraq, while just 34 per cent approve.



nderline">The poll also said 65 per cent of Americans now feel the country is heading in the wrong direction, matching the highest number in CBS news polls, which began asking the question in the mid-1980s. Only 30 per cent said the United States was headed in the right direction.



In April 2003, 56 per cent of Americans felt the country was headed in the right direction.



The last time the percentage that said the country was on the wrong track was as high was in November 1994 ahead of elections in which the Republicans swept into control of both houses of Congress for the first time in decades.



Mr Bush faces a presidential election on November 2, the same day as elections for Congress.



Iraq and the economy are the two top issues for voters in this election, the poll. said. A total of 25 per cent mentioned the economy and jobs and 26 per cent said Iraq.



--AFP

[NRKofOver]

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meanwhile leaving the terrorists who did it completely out of the equation

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Although I haven't seen this movie, I think that the terrorist equation is part of the point. I'll let you know after I see it, but ultimately I think MM is trying to make connections between bad government and bad economic decisions (sometimes by corporations or individuals) that help create situations that are less than desirable.



Everyone knows that the US govt armed, trained, and militarily supported the Taliban and we have known for a long time that the Taliban has supported terrorists. I hope that whatever's in this movie can't be that far removed from this type of connection.

My music for the disenchanted masses

[DreamTone7]

It's all about choice...one choses to focus on either the negative or positive according to the intended audience. That film was designed to win at Cannes.



I, however, do think that the Saudi Royals played a much larger part in this whole thing than has yet been brought to light...but we shall see.

[Rev9Volts]

mike moore mixes truth with fiction and spouts it as truth only france is mad at usa no wonder it won...



















"Not for entertainment"





By Linda Chavez





Remember when movies aimed to entertain? You could take the whole family, from grandma to the kids, and escape the quotidian for the silver screen, watching bigger-than-life heroes engage in daring and admirable deeds. Or you could share a few G-rated laughs without worrying about offensive double-entendres or scatological references.

No more. Now, if Hollywood isn't drenching its audience in blood or titillating it with naked bodies, it is propagandizing us with left-wing paranoia or pushing a radical social agenda. Michael Moore's new film "Fahrenheit 9-11," which won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival last week, is a good example. The film claims to be a documentary, but it doesn't document anything but Michael Moore's dementia.



Mr. Moore spins a tale of perfidy involving Osama bin Laden, Saudi princes, President George Herbert Walker Bush and President George W. Bush, among other villains and evildoers.

He blames the Bushes for creating Osama and, by extension, for killing 3,000 people in America on September 11, 2001, not to mention thousands of Afghans and Iraqis, and hundreds of U.S. soldiers in two wars. Mr. Moore isn't interested in entertaining us, much less depicting the truth. He wants to defeat President Bush in November, plain and simple.

His propaganda fest won plaudits at Cannes, but I doubt it will draw droves into the local multiplex if and when it finds an American distributor.

"The Day After Tomorrow," which opens on May 28, is director Roland Emmerich's $200-million gift to Al Gore Democrats. The film depicts ice storms freezing Paris, tidal waves destroying Manhattan and tornadoes ripping apart Los Angeles, all on the same day.

And why has Mother Nature turned so malevolent? Because we benighted Americans failed to heed warnings of enviro-visionaries like the Mr. Gore, who once wrote the internal combustion engine posed a threat "more deadly than that of any military enemy we are ever again likely to confront."

Mr. Emmerich says climate change is the only problem "big enough to force all countries of the world to stop fighting and work together to save the planet." Yeah, right. Maybe al Qaeda and Hamas can be persuaded to use only carbon-neutral components in their suicide bombs.

The biggest disaster Mr. Emmerich's film portends, however, is likely to be at the box office. Who wants to pay from $7.50 to $12 to be propagandized for two hours, even with special effects and Dolby surround sound?

And it's not just political agendas Hollywood pushes. Even ostensibly innocuous films like the blockbuster cartoon "Shrek 2" sneak in a message here and there. When I took my granddaughter to see the film over the weekend, I was amazed to see a foppish Prince Charming go off into the sunset with a transvestite "ugly sister" when Princess Fiona chose the ogre Shrek over him at the conclusion of the film.

Larry King's unmistakable gravelly baritone made the character's cross-dressing obvious to the adults in the audience. Sure the gag went over the heads of most of the kids in the theater, but it wasn't particularly funny and seemed aimed only at adding a "gay" theme to a children's film.

No wonder an increasing number of Americans never go to the movies these days. The Gallup Organization reports nearly one third of Americans haven't stepped foot in a movie theater in the previous 12 months, and even those who did go to the movies saw fewer films in 2003 than the previous year.

Samuel Goldwyn, one of the giants of the movie industry, is reported to have said, "If you want to send a message, call Western Union." But too many producers, directors and actors these days fail to heed his advice.

Hollywood will start filling theaters once again when it stops churning out agitprop and starts producing entertainment.



Linda Chavez is a nationally syndicated columnist.

[Galmin]

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mike moore mixes truth with fiction and spouts it as truth only france is mad at usa no wonder it won...

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Jury:

Quentin TARANTINO, US

Benoît POELVOORDE, Belgium

Edwidge DANTICAT, US

Emmanuelle BEART, FR

Jerry SCHATZBERG, US

Kathleen TURNER, US

Peter VON BAGH, FI

Tilda SWINTON, UK

Tsui HARK, HK



A jury of nine and a whooping one of them is French, making the French representing 11% of the jury. Small wonder Moore won.











Linda Chavez want to see Disneyflicks. She is free to watch them.

[DreamTone7]

Think a little about it. Since we already know that Hollywood pushes the Democratic agenda and Bush is a Republican, it all makes sense. Small wonder Moore won indeed. But I agree with Chavez...the people who really lose are those who buy into it all. I liked Shrek...but I don't think I'll bother with Shrek II. That's two to one, Galmin...you lose!

[Rev9Volts]

[Rev9Volts]

You see out dear Reverend 9 Volts here assumed that since the Cannes film festival takes place in Cannes, France, the Jury would consist of a bunch of French people (and since "france is mad at usa" the movie would win. Too much FOX news? ). I merely listed the members of the jury and executed a mathematical study to show him the reality.







i knew who was on the jury i know the europeans are mad at usa cause they don't keep selling weapon's etc to saddam. my wife is from there. jeebus look at the usa judges they are an embarrassment.















Since it seems 'we' already know that Hollywood pushes the Democratic agenda (what was those meetings with Hollywood staff and the Bush admin about? Feeding the enemy fodder to take the sitting admin down with future films?), does that mean that Mr Moore actually has a pretty good chance to get nominated for another Oscar, in spite of your statement above that he will not be?



hollywood will probably nominate him again just to tweek bush if he is still in office.









About Linda Chavez: if she had not understood it until now; Farenheit 9/11 probably is not the kind of film she'd like. I could have told her that before she went with the family to see something she thought would be the second coming of "Sound Of Music".













She doubt Farenheit 9/11 will make any money in the US, "if and when it finds an American distributor". She foresees a box office disaster for Roland Emmerich's new film. Then again she mistakes al Qaeda for a government of a country, so I wouldn't make any bets guided by her, uh 'clairvoyance'.

[DreamTone7]

At least in America, such a film would be defined as "in bad taste". It doesn't stand a chance.

[Rev9Volts]

no doubt. still hollywood is so weird the might nominate it just for tweeking bush...