Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' wins Cannes festival

[TankGirl]

BBC:

Anti-Bush film tops Cannes awards

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."

BBC's video clip from Cannes here.

[miss_silver]

[JackSpratts]

longest standing ovation in cannes history. i hope he gets a distribution deal fast, but zer0share is standing by if he needs it.

- js.

[floydian slip]

wonder when it will hit the mainstream

someone pm me when you get a copy please

[Bronxie]

Originally Posted by floydian slip

someone pm me when you get a copy please

ahem... ditto

[floydian slip]

Trailer

http://www.fahrenheit911.com/trailer/

June 25th release I hear.

[TankGirl]

BBC:

Moore film breaks debut records

Michael Moore's controversial film Fahrenheit 9/11 has become the first documentary to top the US box office chart in its opening weekend.

The film, which attacks President George Bush's policy on Iraq, took $21.8m (£11.9m) in its first three days, according to studio estimates.

The film has attracted huge attention since it won the Palme d'Or award at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

British audiences will get to see the film after its UK release on 9 July.

Fahrenheit 9/11 has already beaten the box office record for a documentary, held by Moore's Bowling for Columbine.

Focusing on gun culture in the US, it took $21.6m (£11.9m) during its run in 2002. It took a further $35m (£19.2m) outside the US.

The biggest competition Fahrenheit 9/11 faced at the box office over the weekend was from the comedy White Chicks, starring Shawn and Marlon Wayans.

The movie took $19.6m (£10.7m) over the weekend period, putting it second in the box office chart.

Previous number one Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, dropped to third place, taking $18.5m (£10.1m) .

Making up the top five were Tom Hanks' The Terminal, which earned $13.9m (£7.6m), and the newly released The Notebook, which took $13m (£7.1m).

Deal

Fahrenheit 9/11 has benefited from maximum publicity after Disney refused to allow its Miramax subsidiary to release the film because of its political content.

Miramax founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein decided to buy the rights back, and strike their own deal with Lions Gate Films and IFC.

"It always helps when there's a group out there that says, 'Don't go see this movie, it's bad for you'," IFC president Jonathan Sehring said.

Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, which compiles box office statistics, compared the furore over Fahrenheit 9/11 to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which was at the centre of a storm after claims it was anti-Semitic.

"It's like how The Passion of the Christ redefined what a certain genre of movie could do at the box office, Fahrenheit 9/11 is doing the same thing," he said.

"This blows away any conceivable box office record for a documentary."

NORTH AMERICAN TOP FIVE

1. Fahrenheit 9/11
2. White Chicks
3. Dodgeball
4. The Terminal
5. The Notebook

- tg

[JackSpratts]

Theater owners in large cities and smaller towns reported sellout crowds over the weekend, with numerous theaters declaring house records.

"We sold out in Fayetteville, home of Fort Bragg," in North Carolina, Mr. Moore said on Sunday. "We sold out in Army-base towns. We set house records in some of these places. We set single-day records in a number of theaters. We got standing ovations in Greensboro, N.C.

"The biggest news to me this morning is this is a red-state movie," he said, referring to the state whose residents voted for George W. Bush in the 2000 election. "Republican states are embracing the movie, and it's sold out in Republican strongholds all over the country."

Harvey Weinstein said: "It's beyond anybody's expectations. I'd have to say the sky's the limit on this movie. Who knows what territory we're in."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/28/movies/28BOX.html?hp

[legion]

Originally Posted by floydian slip

Trailer

http://www.fahrenheit911.com/trailer/

June 25th release I hear.

I got a cam version if you want it. picture and sound quality could be better but it is do-able

[Squid]

i can hardly wait to not watch this movie.

[pisser]

Somebody needs to frag that M/F!

[Heathcliff]

16,800 sources so far on BT.

[Heathcliff]

<cough, cough>

[greedy_lars]

ya know, i liked spiderman, will def see part 2. love fifth element, and blade runner, and brazil and many other movies. but, omfg, this is more than a mere movie, more than just entertainment, this is a tone poem.

and the melody...

[theknife]

watched half of it last night....

regardless of what you think of Moore, the Bush/Bin Laden family connections raises eyebrows

[Repo]

I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 and was surprised, not by the facts but by how well done the movie was compared to what I expected although I am not exactly sure what I expected. I found it refreshing, mainly because for the first time the facts about George W. Bush were laid out for everyone to see. The truth can be ugly but like it or not the facts are the facts. The Bush family has questionable ties to the Saudis, the bin Laden family and their money machine. There have been decisions made since 9/11 that should have everyone scratching their head. Michael Moore did an incredible job in Fahrenheit 9/11; the movie moved back and forth provoking spontaneous laughter and sadness while opening the eyes of the public to something the journalists never seemed to care about, those ugly facts...

The stars of the movie, the Bush Administration are shown having their television make-up applied. It is fitting as they have been acting for the entire 3 1/2 years. Some people have fallen for their performance others are not so naive as to believe their words on face value. The symbolism of the make-up was a nice touch. Fahrenheit 9/11 had plenty of humor and sorrow. I caught myself laughing out loud as an Iraq map burnt like the map of the Ponderosa and Bush and his gang along with Tony Blair rode up like the Cartwright family...

Bush himself seemed to make the audience laugh, his bumbling and ineptness of the English language and his confused facial expressions brought chuckles to many. It was hard not to laugh at how someone that powerful can be that pathetic in his basic everyday skills...

There were a few parts in the movie that I thought were very significant. The Christmas eve rousting of Iraqis by the United States military set to Bing Crosby singing Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town. The soldiers handcuffed and removed an Iraqi man from this home late at night while his family cried and Bing sang, "He's making a list, Checking it twice; Gonna find out who's naughty or nice." I am sure that the military was checking which Iraqis were naughty or nice. It was funny and sad at the same time; the military was in a dangerous situation searching for insurgents but yet many that were taken from their home were innocent people, they could have been the "nice" Bing sang about while the soldiers barged into private homes following orders from the naughty...

Although most of everything shown in Fahrenheit 9/11 I already knew, there was a few moments that even surprised me; such as when Moore was filming across the street from the Saudi Arabian Embassy. The Secret Service came to see what he was doing. They were polite but the fact that the Secret Service now protects the Saudis only demonstrates the influence they have over the Bush Administration. Which brings me to the bin Ladens and the other Saudis after 9/11 being given special treatment to fly out of the country without being interviewed by the FBI. The government couldn't connect the dots before 9/11 and directly afterwards they let a planeload of Saudis including members of bin Laden's family fly out of the country. Now the government says that there was no one of interest that they would have wanted to talk to on the planes. Sure they say that now because they dropped the ball. What are they going to say, "DOH!" The bin Laden family is a large family and no matter how much they disavow him one of them may have had at the very least his address, you know to send a birthday card. Osama is still on the run; maybe he wouldn't be had the FBI held some serious interviews with the Saudis but when you are buddies with the Bushs you are of no interest to the FBI. Moore also makes the point that the bin Laden family and the Bush family have the same investments and money man so maybe Bush wanted them out of the country while 9/11 was still seared into everyone's heart. If people knew the Bush/bin laden connection directly after 9/11 there might have been calls for his resignation....

Fahrenheit 9/11 is a movie everyone should see, especially Bush supporters; they should know his ties to the Saudis and their influence over him. Bush is an unsophisticated bumpkin with a close relationship to the Saudis. This is the leader of the free world and after seeing Fahrenheit 9/11 the free world should be worried...

[miss_silver]

Bush himself seemed to make the audience laugh, his bumbling and ineptness of the English language and his confused facial expressions brought chuckles to many. It was hard not to laugh at how someone that powerful can be that pathetic in his basic everyday skills...

Just loved the way he kept saying ''Nukelar weapons'' instead of Nuclear. Also, the way he kept clutching at the book when the secret service told him what had just happened, staring in emptiness for about 7 mins while the childrens kept reading outloud the pet goat story...

He's the one who needs to be "smoked out" of his hiding place IMO

By opening his big mindless yap, he did say to Michael Moore to get a "Real Job"...Big mistake

[JackSpratts]

Arabs Riveted and Angered by 'Fahrenheit'
Neil MacFarquhar

CAIRO, Aug. 1 - When it opened last weekend in Beirut, "Fahrenheit 9/11" achieved the almost impossible: It silenced a movie audience. Although Beirut is the one capital in the region where almost all American films are shown with no censorship, screenings are somewhat more social affairs than elsewhere in the world, with people chattering on their cellphones or with their friends in the audience.

But the unheard of happened during the initial showings of the film, Michael Moore's angry documentary about President Bush. A cellphone began ringing, and the rest of the audience hissed loudly that the owner should shut it off, prompting virtually all the people in the rapt theater to whip out their phones and silence them, too.

Also unusual for an American documentary, the film is expected to receive wide play in the Arab world. It has already been in theaters for several weeks in the Persian Gulf, and censors in Syria and Egypt have approved the film, although no screenings have been scheduled in those countries.

A few critics have weighed in, arguing that Arabs should not be so gleeful about the movie's Bush bashing, given that the image of the region and its people that "Fahrenheit: 9/11" presents is not so positive.

Mamoun Fandy, an expert on Saudi Arabia based in Washington, wrote an op-ed article in Asharq Al Awsat, the Arabic newspaper in London, blasting the movie as racist and making faulty generalizations about Arabs, who, he argued, should not hail it as supporting their cause.

Kuwait barred the movie as offensive to its Saudi neighbors, and the Saudi ambassador to London, Prince Turki al-Faisal, was quoted in the London-based Arabic daily daily Al Hayat as saying the movie twisted the truth and was inadequately researched. (There are no movie theaters in Saudi Arabia, out of concern they would allow the forbidden mingling of the sexes, but the film is said to be widely circulated there via DVD.)

At the packed Beirut screenings many in the audience glued to the film said it showed them a way that America works with which they were unfamiliar. "What really struck me is how the American administration was able to manipulate the American people," said Leila Kanso, a 59-year-old social worker. "How can a government do that?"

Many said they wanted to know more about the reaction to the movie among Americans, who have bought more than $103 million in tickets.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/04/movies/04cair.html

[Kris404]

Overall, this movie was pretty good except for two glaring omissions - Britain & Israel - like they didn't have much to do with the invasion of Iraq.

[miss_silver]

Originally Posted by Kris404

Overall, this movie was pretty good except for two glaring omissions - Britain & Israel - like they didn't have much to do with the invasion of Iraq.

So true Kris404, BTW, how are you these days Pretty sure that Michael Moore will address those issues in his next movie. Guess he didn't want to over do it in this movie, he was only trying to get his MAJOR point of view out. Read his next movie is going to be about Iraq War and why did the US & Great B got swept into it.

Have a nice night Kris