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US films at Cannes go Bush-whacking

by Marc Burleigh
Yahoo News
May 21, 2006

CANNES, France (AFP) - US directors are using this year's Cannes Film Festival to pummel President George W. Bush, showing movies that take the US leader to task for everything ranging from sexual repression, Iraq, corporate collusion and climate change.

Sunday saw one of the most egregious attacks in the form of "Southland Tales" by Richard Kelly, the director behind 2001's cult movie "Donnie Darko".


www.southlandtales.com

In his new film, a satire set in a dystopian future Los Angeles, broad parallels are drawn between fascist pre-WWII Germany and the United States under a Bush government that holds onto power well into 2008.

A star-heavy cast moves the story along as it takes scattershot aim at a range of targets, particularly the war in Iraq, Big Brother-style spying on US citizens, the US dependence on energy and the fusion between celebrity and politics.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson plays a big-name actor tied to a political family who tries to unravel a plot involving him travelling into the future and back and trying to stop Armageddon. And any resemblance to a certain California governor who starred in "The Terminator" is coincidental.


www.rottentomatoes.com/m/southland_tales/

Also spotted is "Buffy" star Sarah Michelle Gellar, putting in a delightful turn as a marketing-savvy porn star, and pop singer Justin Timberlake who treats the sometimes befuddled audience to a music clip underlining the damage the US military has taken in Iraq.

"The film is meant to be a tapestry of ideas all related to the biggest issues we're facing right now," Kelly told a media conference.

Although it depicts "the very sad situation that we find ourselves as a country," he stressed. "I love our country and I'm a very patriotic person and the movie is meant to be a patriotic piece to say 'Let's solve these problems'."

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Southland Tales is a 2006 motion picture, written and directed by Richard Kelly. A science-fiction thriller interweaving an ensemble cast including The Rock, Kevin Smith a.k.a. Silent Bob, Seann William Scott (in two roles) and Sarah Michelle Gellar, the film is a portrait of Los Angeles and a comment on the military-industrial newstainment complex. It began filming on August 15, 2005, on a budget of around US$15 million.



Kelly stated that the film's biggest influences are Pulp Fiction, Brazil and Dr. Strangelove. He also calls it a "strange hybrid of the sensibilities of Andy Warhol and Philip K. Dick".

This futuristic film evokes the city of Los Angeles, fallen victim to a nuclear attack in 2008, a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions which precipitates America into war. In order to be able to respond to the fuel scarcity, the company USIDent designs a generator of inexhaustible energy which operates thanks to ocean currents. In this city on the brink of chaos, we follow the criss-crossed destinies of Boxer Santaros, action film actor stricken with amnesia; Krysta Now, ex porno star in the midst of reconverting; and twin brothers Roland and Ronald Taverner, whose destinies becomes confused with that of all mankind.

The film has become highly anticipated in many circles, particularly due to the cult success of Kelly's last 2001 independent film release Donnie Darko. Kevin Smith, who has a cult following of his own, is also part of the ensemble cast.

Original music for the film will be provided by Moby.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southland_Tales

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"Southland Tales" covered some of the same ground as another, edgier US film, "Shortbus", which is filled provocatively with scenes of real sex in what director John Cameron Mitchell said was "a call to arms" against the Bush administration.

Both films had scenes where renditions of the US national anthem were played as a way for the left-wing directors to reclaim the flag from America's ruling right.

Only "Shortbus" did it in a memorable way that surely has to be a first on celluloid: bellowed into the anus of a man during a three-way gay sex romp (how Bush Jr/Sr prefers singing to their kidnapped sex slave "Jeff Gannon" aka www.JohnnyGosch.com ).

But for all the fairly predictable shows of support the films are getting during their screenings, there is also a feeling that the blows are landing wide -- ineffective against a president who has already survived the onslaught behind the Cannes 2003 winner, "Fahrenheit 9/11".

http://news.yahoo.com

See also:

Austrian Govt spends taxdollars on public billboards showing the nude German Queen of England tailhooking a nude Georgie Bush Jr:
geocities.com/piratenewsctv/bush-queen-porn-25peaces.jpg
geocities.com/piratenewsctv/bush-queen-porn-25peaces3.jpg

Govt Resolutions Supporting Impeachment - List of Those Passed and Introduced:
www.impeachpac.org/resolutions-list


www.piratenews.org/video-archives.html

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Abbie Bernstein:

Do you believe a government can be shamed into or out of what it's doing by the actions of individuals?

Joss Whedon:

The idea was to say that people can make a difference, they can show the wrongs that are being done. They can speak out against them and make people aware of them. They can even create giant scandals. Sometimes they can topple governments. The point is that the truth is always more important than the power structure, and whether you make a dent or not, the fact that you succeeded in trying is a victory.

-Serenity - The Official Visual Companion

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Pretty cool of her to take a role in this movie, considering her hubby is a Republican.

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Originally posted by DallasFirefly:
Pretty cool of her to take a role in this movie, considering her hubby is a Republican.

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Originally posted by chrisisall:

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Originally posted by DallasFirefly:
Pretty cool of her to take a role in this movie, considering her hubby is a Republican.

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Just a small reminder, there are good Republicans, just like there are bad Democrats.

The Conservative Liberal Chrisisall

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Originally posted by copilot:
But I've meet more Republicans who think he's doing a fabulious job and really is the working hand of god on earth.

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