More 'Anti-Semitism' Bullshit
Byrnzie
Posts: 21,037
Someone should be asking whether Hollywood is racist towards Arabs - primarily the Palestinians - for the complete lack of movies that highlight their plight, compared to the annual glut of movies we are subjected to every year regarding the holocaust. But then if someone asked that question, they'd of course be branded an anti-Semite and silenced.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/nov ... tisemitism
Jean-Luc Godard's Oscar rekindles antisemitism row
An honorary award for the French director has enraged some in Hollywood who say his work reveals a lifelong hostility towards Jews
Paul Harris in New York
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 14 November 2010
It should have been a typical acting love-in of the type the beautiful and rich elite of Hollywood do so well. At a lavish dinner last night, the acclaimed French director Jean-Luc Godard was given an honorary Oscar alongside other established greats such as Francis Ford Coppola and the actor Eli Wallach.
There was the usual banquet, mutual backslapping and enough air-kissing to inflate a zeppelin – but that was where the parallels with orthodox movie award ceremonies ended. For not only did the recipient of the gong fail to show up, but he was, in absentia, the subject of fierce debate over whether or not his long commitment to highlighting the plight of Palestinians has crossed over into antisemitism. The question on many people's lips was: is Godard anti-Zionist or is he anti-Jewish?
In Hollywood there is no greater sin. The debate dominated the build-up banquet, which is held earlier than the globally televised event due in February.
It was a battle fought across the newspapers of America in angry editorials, as well as in the salons and offices of Hollywood movers and shakers. Richard Cohen, a Washington Post columnist, penned an outraged post on the Daily Beast website where he compared Godard's accolade to the award of an Oscar in 1926 to the director DW Griffith, who was accused of being a racist.
"Just as no one in the film industry could look a black person in the eye after giving an award to Griffith, so it should be just as hard to honour Godard and look history in the eye," Cohen said.
That followed on from a lengthy piece in the Jewish Journal which put the director on its cover under the headline: "Is Jean-Luc Godard an antisemite?"
The article delved deep into the French director's body of work and scores of his interviews to examine the question. The reclusive 79-year-old certainly has a long history of supporting the Palestinians, including filming Until Victory, which told the story of the Palestinian struggle against Israel. He once admitted that his grandfather had "ferociously" disliked Jews. "He was anti-Jew; whereas I am anti-Zionist, he was antisemitic," the director once said.
But some critics say Godard's work and some of his statements have crossed the line from being critical of Israel and its policies and into antisemitism. In one of his films (Here and There), the director alternates images of Adolf Hitler with Israeli leader Golda Meir. He has criticised films about the Holocaust such as Schindler's List and Shoah, though often on apparently artistic grounds.
But some other reported statements are less easy to defend, including once calling a friend a "dirty Jew" and, after being asked for back pay by a colleague, saying: "It is always the same, Jews call you when they hear a cash register opening." In a 1985 interview Godard spoke of the "image of the central European Jew" as being part of Hollywood's problem with being caught up in debt.
The Jewish Journal went so far as to send a list of these and others of Godard's supposedly antisemitic statements to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organisation behind the Oscars. The academy replied that it was aware of the allegations. "Antisemitism is of course deplorable, but the academy has not found the accusations against Godard persuasive," it said. Some Jewish groups, such as B'nai B'rith International, have condemned the decision to honour Godard.
But the biggest surprise of the controversy might just be the award itself. Godard sprang to fame at the head of the French new wave with ground-breaking works such as Breathless.
Along with other auteurs such as François Truffaut, he rebelled against conventional French cinema and later against Hollywood. They believed that a film was the director's intellectual vision and should break out of the constraints of straightforward plots and conventional cinematography.
Such attitudes never went down well with mainstream Hollywood, which regarded new wave films as impenetrable, unmarketable and difficult for audiences. None of Godard's 70 feature films has ever been nominated for an Oscar, despite his international acclaim. That attitude has largely been returned by Godard, whose decision not to attend the ceremony last night means the academy will have to ship the gold statuette to his home in Switzerland.
He once said: "I believe a film should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order." In the highly commercial and brutally cynical world of Hollywood, that sort of sentiment might be more of a reason for shock than any criticism of Israel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/nov ... tisemitism
Jean-Luc Godard's Oscar rekindles antisemitism row
An honorary award for the French director has enraged some in Hollywood who say his work reveals a lifelong hostility towards Jews
Paul Harris in New York
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 14 November 2010
It should have been a typical acting love-in of the type the beautiful and rich elite of Hollywood do so well. At a lavish dinner last night, the acclaimed French director Jean-Luc Godard was given an honorary Oscar alongside other established greats such as Francis Ford Coppola and the actor Eli Wallach.
There was the usual banquet, mutual backslapping and enough air-kissing to inflate a zeppelin – but that was where the parallels with orthodox movie award ceremonies ended. For not only did the recipient of the gong fail to show up, but he was, in absentia, the subject of fierce debate over whether or not his long commitment to highlighting the plight of Palestinians has crossed over into antisemitism. The question on many people's lips was: is Godard anti-Zionist or is he anti-Jewish?
In Hollywood there is no greater sin. The debate dominated the build-up banquet, which is held earlier than the globally televised event due in February.
It was a battle fought across the newspapers of America in angry editorials, as well as in the salons and offices of Hollywood movers and shakers. Richard Cohen, a Washington Post columnist, penned an outraged post on the Daily Beast website where he compared Godard's accolade to the award of an Oscar in 1926 to the director DW Griffith, who was accused of being a racist.
"Just as no one in the film industry could look a black person in the eye after giving an award to Griffith, so it should be just as hard to honour Godard and look history in the eye," Cohen said.
That followed on from a lengthy piece in the Jewish Journal which put the director on its cover under the headline: "Is Jean-Luc Godard an antisemite?"
The article delved deep into the French director's body of work and scores of his interviews to examine the question. The reclusive 79-year-old certainly has a long history of supporting the Palestinians, including filming Until Victory, which told the story of the Palestinian struggle against Israel. He once admitted that his grandfather had "ferociously" disliked Jews. "He was anti-Jew; whereas I am anti-Zionist, he was antisemitic," the director once said.
But some critics say Godard's work and some of his statements have crossed the line from being critical of Israel and its policies and into antisemitism. In one of his films (Here and There), the director alternates images of Adolf Hitler with Israeli leader Golda Meir. He has criticised films about the Holocaust such as Schindler's List and Shoah, though often on apparently artistic grounds.
But some other reported statements are less easy to defend, including once calling a friend a "dirty Jew" and, after being asked for back pay by a colleague, saying: "It is always the same, Jews call you when they hear a cash register opening." In a 1985 interview Godard spoke of the "image of the central European Jew" as being part of Hollywood's problem with being caught up in debt.
The Jewish Journal went so far as to send a list of these and others of Godard's supposedly antisemitic statements to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organisation behind the Oscars. The academy replied that it was aware of the allegations. "Antisemitism is of course deplorable, but the academy has not found the accusations against Godard persuasive," it said. Some Jewish groups, such as B'nai B'rith International, have condemned the decision to honour Godard.
But the biggest surprise of the controversy might just be the award itself. Godard sprang to fame at the head of the French new wave with ground-breaking works such as Breathless.
Along with other auteurs such as François Truffaut, he rebelled against conventional French cinema and later against Hollywood. They believed that a film was the director's intellectual vision and should break out of the constraints of straightforward plots and conventional cinematography.
Such attitudes never went down well with mainstream Hollywood, which regarded new wave films as impenetrable, unmarketable and difficult for audiences. None of Godard's 70 feature films has ever been nominated for an Oscar, despite his international acclaim. That attitude has largely been returned by Godard, whose decision not to attend the ceremony last night means the academy will have to ship the gold statuette to his home in Switzerland.
He once said: "I believe a film should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order." In the highly commercial and brutally cynical world of Hollywood, that sort of sentiment might be more of a reason for shock than any criticism of Israel.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
'Mr. Godard, 79, has inspired directors as diverse as Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Quentin Tarantino with his technique, sophistication and exuberant use of pop culture in 70 feature films....
Researchers at the academy’s Margaret Herrick Library turned up no sign that any aspect of a Godard film had ever been so much as nominated for an Oscar, despite awards and festival recognition abroad.'
I wonder why that is? One of the most famous Directors in the world who has created some of the most iconic and original films of all time completely ignored by Hollywood.
I wonder if it has anythng to do with the fact that he's expressed support for the Palestinians? :think:
Godard's films, like most french cinema, are way too sophisticated for Hollywood. French cinema is 'proper' art - hollywood films aren't (in general).
And yes, all this him being anti-semitic is bullshit.
...some other reported statements are less easy to defend, including once calling a friend a "dirty Jew" and, after being asked for back pay by a colleague, saying: "It is always the same, Jews call you when they hear a cash register opening."
Why anyone might think such comments could possibly be offensive to Jews is beyond me. :roll:
They may be offensive to Jews, but whether he actually said them or not they don't make him an anti-Semite. I've used racist remarks myself in the past - as I expect almost everyone has - but I don't consider myself a racist.
2) Maybe he's not an anti-semite. Maybe he is. I don't know. But there's certainly evidence that could cause a rational person to think that he might be.
what or who were they so afraid of?
no cookies for guessing.
i want a cookie!!!
i suspect the bad light theyd be standing in.
wheres my cookie?????????????????
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say