Update on "Paradise Now"

Remember our posting on "Paradise now", an anti-Semitic movie co-financed by German authorities?

Well, we have news for you...

The screenwriters of "Paradise now" have been nominated for "EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2005" at the European Film Awards 2005. 

The European Film Awards - to be celebrated in Berlin on Dec. 3, 2005 - are meant to be the European response to the Oscar. The awards' organizer is the European Film Academy - whose president is (hold your breath) Wim Wenders.

And here's what we wrote at an earlier occasion about Wim Wenders:

But I daresay that I really love Wim Winder’s threat not to travel to the USA in the event of a Bush reelection. I’m sure that that, in view of the director’s growing reputation for deadly boring movies, will – all across the country – have the impact of a multi-megaton bomb.

Well, we all know the rest of the story: even though Bush won the election, Wenders unfortunately decided not to leave the U.S.: 

Contrary to his pre-election promise to leave the U.S. in case of a Bush election win, German film director Wim Wenders now says he WILL NOT LEAVE THE U.S.!!

Wenders, who recently confessed to suffer from "brain softening" (a disease quite common among German left-wing intellectuals), wants to stay in the U.S. and "fight for a liberal country".

I guess, with Wim Wenders at the helm of the European Film Academy, "Paradise Now" has an excellent chance to win the award. After all, Wim has a hand for amazingly awful movies...   

Comments

[Pat Patterson]

Mr. Wenders has been coasting on the residual good feelings of Wings of Desire for 18 years now, almost as bad as Woody Allen and Robert Altman. At least he didn't marry Madonna after ripping off his own film to make one of her videos. Let see now, Wim Wenders, Franke Potenta, etc., hits in Europe and then failures in the US, and of course its the audiences in the the US that are to fault. Please send more like Peter Lorre, or Ernst Lubitsch or even better Marlene Dietrich, both our countries are better for their talent.

[Elmo]

I walked out on Wings the first time I saw it, in the theater. After only five minutes. A woman I was cozy with at the time, rather liked it, and thus I later gave it a second viewing (but that's all neither here nor there).

U.S. election law, while somewhat specific, is still a litte imprecise. In this day and age, perhaps not a good thing.

I don't much care for furreners taking direct involvement in U.S. elections

[Tom Penn]

Interesting that Winders won't consider going t Syria, Iran or North Korea to "fight for a liberal country".

[Simon]

Sign the online petition against the German Federal Center for Political Education's (Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung) promotion of "Paradise Now" as "especially suited for schools". The Center has issued a brochure for teachers which shares Palestinian terrorists' claims to a large extent.

Sign here: http://www.paradise-no.de/support_petition.php
"Funktion" means profession.

The petition is brought forward by the German-Israeli Association's youth wing.

[Doughnut Boy Andy]

I love the way in life that you can always twist things so that you continue to do what you actually want but somehow end up justifying it as a "morally right" thing to do. We all do, but I do notice when i do it and its not very often. Some people I think do this pretty much all the time and dont even realise. They are such morally righteous egoistic pricks that they really believe it... I think WW is perhaps a prime example.

Why I really love this particular "should I stay or should I go" example is because on a much smaller scale I hear it all the time in Berlin.

A lot of young Americans come visit the city and many stay a few years. I dont know why but its perhaps got something to do with sex drugs and rock and roll. I guess Berlin is a cool place. Well at first their major obstacle to partying is - or at least is perceived as- being American. A lot of our visitors are Democrat kids, you see, and they "know" that the world hates the US and its the US's fault. So what they say, whan asked the "Why did you come to Berlin?" question isnt the honest one of being a part time drop out, but they always say some idiotarian rubbish and it sounds just like our brain softened director.

For example: "I just had to leave the USA. You dont know what its like nowadays with police and army and the fear. I cant go back until that Bush War Criminal is gone. Believe me I live there you dont know the half of how bad its become. Its a police state."

Now after a while (usually when the cash runs out) people realise that partying all day everyday has negative effects on your health, that there are some consumer products in the USA that one really cant live without, and that there is no future really in Berlin at the moment. Well then they have to return to AmeriKKKa and Bush is still there. So they all to a man or woman say exactly a similar thing: they need to go back to spread the word and give the USA a wake up call. Some crap like that or that democracy needs them. Puke puke puke.

If Wenders market is selling to these people then i guess we have to give him credit as a salesman if nothing else. He's got that spotty teenager "moralistic liberal" BS perfect. I hear it here all the time almost word for word.

[FranzisM]

Wim Wenders is what you become if you walk into a party, eat all the spacecakes, learn what you've done, and panic.

As a result, he makes movies that aren't funny even with loads of dope. Maybe one day he'll find what he has lost.

[George M]

I just want everybody to breath easy.

A good friend of mine went to high school with Alec Baldwin. (We was called "Alex" back then). He intends to go to his 30th high school reunion in 2006.

I doubt he will be moving to France this year, especially considering the riots and all.

[Pamela]

Doughnut Boy Andy
>>So they all to a man or woman say exactly a similar thing: they need to go back to spread the word and give the USA a wake up call. Some crap like that or that democracy needs them. Puke puke puke.

Foreign policy insights by over-privleged teenagers.
Reminds me of the young man from the Netherlands I met who understood that the Common Agricultural Policy distorted economies. His solution was to eliminate all ag from the Netherlands, turn the land over to parkland where it could be enjoyed in all its bucolic glory - after all 'We can buy food anywhere'.

I think we should give them a state.

Niko, where the hell have you been?

[George M]

"His solution was to eliminate all ag from the Netherlands, turn the land over to parkland where it could be enjoyed in all its bucolic glory - after all 'We can buy food anywhere'."

Gee Pamela, I think we have found a future senator for Massachusetts!

[LouMinatti]

Franke Potenta is hot. I think her Hollywood career was starting to take off. Then she shat all over my country.

Speaking of a liberal movie star shatting on my country, I wonder what is going through Johnny Depp's mind right now? He lives in France and enjoys denigrating the US. We're intolerant, don't you know. France is much more progressive.

[LouMinatti]

Potenta? Potente.

[Ambrose Wolfinger]

A very small correction to Pat Patterson. Peter Lorre was a Hungarian (his actual name was László Löwenstein). Most Hungarians of his generation were bilingual in both Hungarian and German, so it was natural for him to begin his career in the theater in Vienna.

[Toby]

@Lou

" Franke Potenta is hot. I think her Hollywood career was starting to take off. Then she shat all over my country.".

Really ? What did she say ?

[WhatDoIKnow]

I wonder what is going through Johnny Depp's mind right now

In gossiping mood, I would say that generally speaking, not much goes through his mind at all, at any given time.

I am so happy that the main culprit for the riots seems to have been found: Interior Minister Sarkozy. The French (and the EU) can go back to sleep now.

[LC Mamapajamas]

Huh? You mean Wim Winder DIDN'T leave?

Well, damn! And here I thought we'd managed to dump another one back on Europe... (sigh)

[LouMinatti]

Toby,

Here are some of Franke Potente's comments:

http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2005/01/franka_potente_.html

[Pat Patterson]

Ambrose-thanks I should have checked and not assumed! Can I substitute Maimillian Schell instead? Oops, an Austrian. I'll keep trying.

[Don]

Lou, Jonny will be back to the US if the arsonists get close enough. Don't worry, he has muscle.