:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 5.23.2004 ::
Cannes Jury Emerges from 'Love Fest' to Defend Picks
By Blake Murdoch
A Reuters report
CANNES (Hollywood Reporter) - For the first time in the history of the Cannes Film Festival, the jury on Sunday met the international press to explain why and how it chose this year's winners, including Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11."
"It was a love fest, but that doesn't necessarily mean we agreed all the time; it was more of a respect fest," jury president Quentin Tarantino told the jam-packed conference.
Noting there were hours of passionate debate held every few days, he added: "This was my dream of what could possibly happen (on a jury)."
As for the decision to award the Palme d'Or to "Fahrenheit 9/11," Moore's broadside at the Bush administration, jury members said it was a unanimous choice based purely on its strength as a film, not a political statement.
Tarantino said it's what goes "through the projector" that mattered, not politics, as far as the jury was concerned.
Describing Moore as a Cheshire cat throughout the film, he said: "All that matters is the reels of film. In this case we all agreed it was the best film, not because of all this politics crap."
He criticized a journalist who asked him to explain the cinematographic merits of "Fahrenheit 9/11."
"I think you're coming from a narrow view of what it requires to be a good film. I think you're talking about pretty pictures and a movie doesn't have to be about pretty pictures," he said.
ALSO
Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' Has Hollywood Buzzing
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The White House calls the film "outrageously false," but Hollywood is hot for "Fahrenheit 9/11," documentary filmmaker Michael Moore's caustic broadside at President Bush.
A day after the film won the top Palme d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival in France, industry observers on Sunday predicted the controversial movie would be a box office hit, even if some early reviews have hardly been favorable.
"I think it will be hugely successful," said D.A. Pennebaker, veteran documentary director whose films include the Oscar-nominated 1992 election campaign saga "The War Room." "It's going to get a lot of publicity."
In "Fahrenheit 9/11," Moore takes aim at Bush's handling of Iraq and the war on terror and traces links between the Bush family and prominent Saudis including the family of Osama bin Laden. It was greeted with a rapturous standing ovation at its Cannes world premiere, but not everyone was impressed.
Dan Barlett, the White House communications director, was quoted by the New York Times last week as saying of the film "it is so outrageously false, it's not even worth comment."
posted by me
:: 10:22:00 PM [+] ::
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