Indie Cine » Controversy

Ebert Attacked, This Time Not By Roeper or Thyroid

dwhitney — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:05:02 +0000

Now I expect this behaviour from Kayne West – an egotistical rapper who thinks the world is his playground and also his punching bag. West was arrested today at LAX after he and a bodyguard attack TMZ photographers and smashed their cameras (Although unrelated to the story at hand, got here to watch the video of Kayne in attack mode).

But did I expect to hear that New York Post film critic Lou Lumenick would attack his physically crippled peer Roger Ebert at a screening yesterday during the Toronto International Film Festival? No, not until I read the following story in the Chicago Sun-Times. Personally, I find the incident in question, as I hope you do, completely absurd and hilarious, even despite the fact that Ebert followed up the original story (wherever it was first published) with this post on his blog, saying, “a fellow critic whacked me with a rolled-up program or a festival binder or something. It has been blown out of proportion. It is of little interest.” Read the following article and let me know what you think.

Ebert confirms fellow critic hit him at Toronto Film Festival
By Phil Rosenthal | Tribune media columnist
4:56 PM CDT, September 11, 2008
Though Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert no longer spars over movies with fellow critics on TV, it turns out the 66-year-old reviewer whose speaking voice has been lost to the effects of cancer treatment still has to defend himself from other reviewers — physically, if not verbally.
By e-mail Thursdsay, Ebert corroborated a New York Daily News report that New York Post film reviewer Lou Lumenick whacked the venerated Chicago critic with a binder during a screening last week at the Toronto Film Festival.
Lumenick reportedly was annoyed by being tapped on the shoulder by whomever was sitting behind him, so he got up, turned around and took a swing. Only afterward did Lumenick apparently realize he had hit Ebert, who had simply been trying to silently request Lumenick shift in his seat so as to not to block his view.
“[Lumenick] hit him so hard everybody could hear it,” a source told the Daily News. “Everyone freaked out and turned around.”
Lumenick did not respond to an e-mailed Tribune request for additional details.
Ebert wrote in a story posted to suntimes.com that the incident “has been blown out of proportion [and] is of little interest.” But he also noted his wife, Chaz, who did not witness what happened, was taken aback when she learned of it.
“Her reaction when she heard: ‘I’ll get a no-neck guy from the West Side to break his knees,’” he recalled. “Just rhetorical, I trust.”

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Bill Maher gets Religulous

dwhitney — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:16:52 +0000

Yes Bill Maher may be as pasty as casper, but somehow he has managed to create a long and fruitful career by inciting controversy. And while Mr. Maher is indeed a staunch frontman in the PETA army, his biggest fight has always been against religion.

Here Maher teams up with “Seinfeld” writer and “Borat” director, Larry Charles, in an effort to publicly scathe every possible world religion. Everything from Cristianity, Islam, Judaism, Satanism, Raelism, and Taoism. Take a look, and if you manage to get through it without being offended, you are either an atheist, Bill Maher, or you enjoy seeing people being ridiculed. If you thought the hordes of catholics protesting “The Last Temptation of Christ” and “Dogma” were bad, just wait till this movie comes out.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The Censorship Has Gone Overboard

dwhitney — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:43:39 +0000

In case you haven’t realized, movie marketing, and generally marketing of all products has entered a new phase. Yes the conventional trailer before a feature film is still the norm, but viral marketing campaigns including, but not limited to, websites, public displays, graffiti, live human performances, tattoos on boxers, mini internet shows, and word of mouth, is everywhere you look. So, when Kevin Smith fans anxiously and routinely check the filmsmith’s blog and related websites, where he generously doses out tidbits of his upcoming films, no one thought the wiser. Well, maybe the MPAA who apparently plays the role of godfather of all media and recently forced Smith to take down his teaser trailer for his latest “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”.

Now don’t get me wrong. The trailer in question is crude at best. And yes the MPAA does rule over all things movie related, hence the nice little green screen warning prior to trailers and feature films. The only difference in Smith’s case is that his trailer was on his own website, did not feature any footage used in the actual film, and is a pure case of good old fashioned viral marketing.

“The MPAA called and said we had to take it down.

Here’s why: Weinstein Co. (like most studios) is a signatory of the MPAA. As such, there are protocols involving trailers that we failed to follow.

As with features, all trailers get rated get rated by the MPAA. The majority of them are for general audiences (Green Band trailers), but trailers packed with adult content (like our teaser) earns you what’s called a Red Band trailer.

Well, we didn’t go through this process – simply because, we felt, that since the teaser didn’t contain any footage from the actual flick, it wasn’t technically a trailer.

Boy, was I wrong.

Turns out all promotional material for any film financed/distributed by a signatory of the MPAA has to be signed-off on by the MPAA – including internet-only materials. I never realized this, as it’d never been a problem in the past: we’ve been doing ‘net-only teasers since “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and nobody ever raised a red flag before (not even on the last flick, for which we also put up two ‘net-only teasers in advance of the rated trailer). But I guess since the teaser was so, shall we say, racy… a rating was in order. HEre is what Smith had to say on his website today:

We’re now officially submitting the teaser to the MPAA for rating. If they approve it, we’ll put it back up.”

Now this may not seem like a big deal to some. After all, Smith and his crew are professional filmmakers, and on paper did in fact break the rules. But, maybe we should reconsider the idea of censorship in the first place. This trailer was on a website for a filmmaker who is known for raunchy movies, and the movie in question has itself a raunchy title. This trailer was not distributed to other movie websites nor was it shown prior to a feature film. Anyone who navigated to the page with the trailer was clearly aware of what lay in wait for them.This is the nature of the internet. No one was deceived, and I am pretty sure that those waiting by their computers for any glimpse of this movie were quite pleased with what they saw.

I have not read the mission statement of the MPAA, nor do I want to, but I am pretty sure its main focus is to protect innocent eyes and ears from what they do not want to, and should not watch. Oh that and outing communists. So do your job MPAA. Start banning Will Ferrell movies and lay off the public’s freedom to choice what is appropriate for themselves.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.