By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
B&D: DePalma on the dearth of politipix
Brian DePalma muses on the lack of political films in the US of A to the Guardian’s Steve Rose in Deauville: “I’m astounded there aren’t more American political films,” he says, apropos of nothing. “I’m amazed, when you can make movies for nothing, there are not people out there making these incredibly angry anti-war movies. How come?” I nearly choke on my coffee. Brian De Palma bemoaning the demise of political film-making? That’s like a wolf crusading for sheep rights… David Thomson even compares him to Leni Riefenstahl, so morally vacant does he find De Palma’s oeuvre. In fact, De Palma did start out making politically minded counterculture films in the late 1960s and early 70s in the Manhattan streets outside – Godard-influenced, anti-Vietnam fare… So why isn’t he out there making anti-war films now? “Well … ,” De Palma says, with a sigh. “Of course, I can do it because I still have the same feelings now that I did then. But you’d have to make it for no money and you’d probably have to make it in Europe and get it independently financed. I’m just amazed you don’t see them… I’ve always had the inverse quote to Godard: film lies 24 times a second… And anybody that’s used to using moving images like a film director, when we see stuff on TV, it’s all positioning and public relations, there’s not an ounce of truth to any of it. I always look behind the image and say, ‘why are we seeing children with flies on their eyes this week?’ Those images are always out there. Like the war in Iraq. If you think Americans are ignorant, it’s because we’re not seeing anything. We’re constantly being manipulated by images. They’re lying to us all the time. We have no idea what we’re doing!” And he laughs his short, desperate laugh again. “I’ve been screaming about this stuff since the 60s, but it doesn’t seem to have had any effect.”
Can someone forward Mr. DePalma links for the works of Michael Moore and Robert Greenwald???