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Skriven 2005-05-16 17:38:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Cannes
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http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050516/2005-05-
16T160306Z_01_N16697712_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-ARTS-CANNES-AMERICA-DC.html

American way of life attacked in films at Cannes
 
 
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May 16, 12:03 PM (ET)

 
By Erik Kirschbaum

CANNES, France (Reuters) - The dark underside of the United States has 
taken center stage in several films at Cannes this year, capped on 
Monday with a scathing attack of past and present racism in America by 
Danish director Lars von Trier.

"Manderlay," about a fictional Alabama plantation where people are 
living in 1933 as if slavery were never abolished, staggered festival-
goers with a disturbing portrayal of America that fails, even today, to 
come to terms with its racist past.

There are a number of other films that examine dark and depressing 
aspects of the United States and "American Dream" losers, filled with 
violence, drugs and alcohol abuse. They were made by directors from the 
United States, Canada and Europe.

The films, screening at the world's most important festival here, also 
feed off a lingering anti-American sentiment prevailing in Europe over 
the Iraq war. Michael Moore won the festival's top award last year for 
his film "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Von Trier, whose fear of flying has prevented him from visiting the 
United States, won thunderous cheers at the world premiere and a news 
conference, where he said he enjoyed bashing America on screen because 
it invades his life even in Denmark.

"We are all under the influence -- and it's a very bad influence -- from 
America," said the 49-year-old Dane. "In my country everything has to do 
with America. America is kind of sitting on the world.

"America has to do with 60 percent of my brain and all things I 
experience in my life, and I'm not happy about that," von Trier said. 
I'd say 60 percent of my life is American so I am in fact an 'American' 
too. But I can't go there and vote or change anything there. That is why 
I make films about America."

"Manderlay," which stars Danny Glover, Willem Dafoe and Bryce Dallas 
Howard in a bare theatrical setting, is only the latest film by von 
Trier to probe America's darkest corners -- all with anything but happy 
endings.

HASH(0x32388)

VON TRIER WAITING FOR ANTI-DANISH FILM

Other dark American films include U.S. director Gus van Sant's "Last 
Days" about rocker Kurt Cobain's drug-induced demise and suicide while 
parasite friends ignored his distress, and Canadian Atom Egoyan's "Where 
the Truth Lies" with Kevin Bacon as an over-sexed, over-drugged 
celebrity.

"The world is a very dark and sinister place," van Sant told Reuters. He 
agreed those films appeal to European audiences.

Egoyan said the United States is a rich target for directors but his 
film, despite its dark story, was not attacking America.

"The film isn't trying to condemn a culture," he said, but he added: 
"That culture is based on a tremendous sense of power of the media. It's 
a culture that looks at itself all the time."

European filmmakers have long had an awkward relationship with the 
United States. Hollywood films dominate markets with between 60 and 80 
percent of each national box office. While loudly criticising the style 
and substance of big Hollywood films, many have quietly adopted some of 
those very techniques.

At Cannes there are other films probing America's underbelly: "A History 
of Violence" is a portrayal of redneck American bloodletting, "Sin City" 
with Bruce Willis needs no further explanation, and "Don't Come 
Knocking" is about an over-the-hill Western hero's steep fall with 
alcohol and drugs.

Canadian David Cronenberg, who directed "A History of Violence," said he 
could have set his film anywhere but chose a small Midwestern town 
because it fitted the story best.

"As any artist will tell you, to be universal you have to be specific," 
Cronenberg said. "It's very deliberately put in an American setting to 
show a universal problem."

There are also films not in competition that examine the dark side of 
the United States.

"The Power of Nightmares" is a powerful British documentary about U.S. 
President George W.. Bush's use of fear and illusions to rally support 
for his war on terror.

But von Trier, whose equally bleak America story "Dogville" starring 
Nicole Kidman was also at Cannes in 2003, said he would be happy to 
watch a film slamming his home country of Denmark. 

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