This is topic French Film Festival Protesters/Demonsstrators in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 03-07-2003, 09:17 AM:
 
I had initiated this post on a different subject but discussions have caused some concerns. We are presenting a French film festival March. 28, 29 & 30 for a major university. With Bush pumping for war, no matter what and anti-French sentiment somewhat higher than usual, what's the chance there will be some protesters?

[ 03-08-2003, 09:04 AM: Message edited by: Bill Enos ]
 

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Posted by Jim Alexander (Member # 226) on 03-07-2003, 10:45 AM:
 
I really can't say what would be a fair rental for the whole thing, but we also run "contract" movies. The organization is responsible for booking, shipping and paying for the movie and we get paid $200.00 (Canadian) per show to show it. This is to pay for the projectionist, electricity etc. We also run the canteen and sell pop & popcorn to pay for the other staff stc. Normally, organizations only book for one or two shows so I'm not sure how this would go for a festival. Also, our theatre is only 368 seats... so your cost are probably a little higher. Just an idea for you...
 

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Posted by Darren Crimmins (Member # 1116) on 03-12-2003, 10:02 PM:
 
Jim,

Are you responding to the post above? Bill is asking about protestors, not booking charges and overhead costs.
 

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Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 03-12-2003, 10:10 PM:
 
I am guessing that Jim is replying to a post in a thread about auditrium rentail pricing started by Joshua Lott.

Bill, I would be a bit surprised if you had a formal protest at your festival. I think it could depend, to a degree, on how and where it was promoted. A big poster with a French flag and "Viva la France" slogans may raise a few eyebrows, but I can't imagine people would actually protest. I think(hope) people have more important things to think about and/or demonstrate against. Do you have a link to a website with the titles you are showing? I'm just curious to see what you have.

If you are at all concerned, it might be worth a call to the local/campus police just to make them aware of what you are doing and your concerns. They might even be willing to drive by and keep an eye on things when they're in the neighborhood.
 

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-12-2003, 11:25 PM:
 
On a related subject, the US House of Representative dining room no longer serve French Fries and French Toast. They now serve "Freedom Fries" & Freedom Toast". I guess the Republican controlled house is just following President Bush's edict "You're with US or against us" Since France is opposed to UN action against Iraq at this time, the House just kicked the French out of the kitchen.

-Claude

[ 03-13-2003, 12:34 AM: Message edited by: Claude S. Ayakawa ]
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-13-2003, 07:30 AM:
 
Given Chirac's recent behaviour, I think the French film Le Corbeau ('The Raven') should be shown as widely as possible. Directed by a prominent French director and suspected Nazi sympathiser, the film illustrates a case of history repeating itself, IMHO. The only difference is that this time, there'll be no 'resistance' trying to stop Chirac from buying cut-price oil from Iraq in defiance of the UN sanctions, or from him selling Saddam various nasty bits of military hardware...
 

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Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 03-13-2003, 03:27 PM:
 
The VCU campus police (an official part of the Virginia State Police) is providing some off duty plain clothes cops to be in the theatre at all times and to inspect all backpacks, brief cases etc. The university has decided to play low key this year. Festival pass sales are said to be at the same rate as usual. If they are lucky it will sell out in advance and there will be no tickets on sale at the door, it came very near that last year. The official fest. web site is www.frenchfilm.vcu.edu The site has a full list of films and show times etc.
 

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Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 03-13-2003, 03:42 PM:
 
"....With Bush pumping for war..."

I think you should mean "Saddam pumping for war". Given all the escape clauses he was just offered by England, it's pretty obvious he just plain openly defiant.
The US will not be attending the Paris Air Show this year either.
Screw France!
 

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Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-13-2003, 03:51 PM:
 
What France Wants

Sample:

quote:

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France’s intentions were rendered transparent by President Chirac when, at a meeting of European nations, he responded to criticism of his nation’s stance in the Security Council with the statement that the critics should simply “shut up.” The smaller states of Europe need only look at the coalition Paris has forged with Berlin and Moscow on the issue of Iraq to worry about their future in a European Union dominated by this new triumvirate. It is clear from France’s stance at the United Nations, that if there is an imposing of agenda’s to be done, France is the one that is going to do it.

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Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 03-13-2003, 04:43 PM:
 
Well said - David.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-13-2003, 06:37 PM:
 
Bill, I think you should invite Greg to hold the opening speech at the festival.
 

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Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 03-13-2003, 07:15 PM:
 
Sorry Mike, whenever it is, I'm booked already. Besides I'm on a French Boycott

France
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-13-2003, 07:49 PM:
 
Personally I wouldn't want to be anyplace even remotely near your theatre on those days..... I'm booked too...have to go to Wheatfield Wyoming....its a good safe place to be, and I don't think they'll attack us there.....!
Mark
 

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Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 03-14-2003, 07:51 AM:
 
If opinions expressed here are even remotely similar to the general populace (and I think they are) I think we are in for some very unpleasant experiences.
 

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Posted by Aldo Baez (Member # 790) on 03-15-2003, 04:06 PM:
 
Can't our politicians find something better to do? For all those agreeing with the french fry renaming.. make sure you tell your representative to not eat their croissants in the morning, nor drink their champagne in the evening along with their caviar at the fancy dinners and fundraisers they go to.
 

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Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 03-15-2003, 04:58 PM:
 
Exactly Aldo
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-15-2003, 05:19 PM:
 
And please make sure you delete all the vocabulary that has entered the English language through French. You would have to revert to sign language, but it would be very patriotic.
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-16-2003, 11:58 AM:
 
Actually the French are doing something like that: I seem to remember a story in the paper a few weeks ago to the effect that the municipal authorities in Bordeaux had banned the use of English words in all publicly visible signage. McDonald's only managed to keep the sign on their shop because they argued that the word should be exempted on the grounds of being a proper noun.
 

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Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 03-16-2003, 04:34 PM:
 
If it weren't for the French in 1781 America's national anthem today would be "God Save the Queen".

Mickey D's in the USA proudly serves golden French fries -- and I'm stopping for an Extra Value Meal tonight on my way to see Cradle 2 the Grave.
 

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-16-2003, 10:44 PM:
 
I love wine and all of the bottles in my collection are of California vintage except for a '1985' Chateau Lafite Rothschild that my lady friend gave me for Christmas many years ago..
With the very strong anti French sentiment that is gripping our nation, I wonder how that will affect their wine industry because the US is one of their primary customers.

-Claude
 

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Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 03-17-2003, 12:27 AM:
 
Wow! I must have been living under a rock the past few days (I haven't watched a news). I received an e-mail from our retired work secretary with a petition drive to boycott all things French. I guess our country really has fallen into some hysteria over the French? Are we going to lose our allies over this Iraqi nonsense? Is France expected to fall lock-step in to whatever Bush wants? Are we going to blow up the Statue of Liberty over this? (Let's not forget this was a gift from France). The San Francisco Chronicle made GREAT reading today. They pointed out Bush's "pre-emptive self-defense" philosophy comes pretty close to that espoused by the Nazis prior to WWII.

Think how bad things will be for the world if we make the attack on Iraq with few U.S. casualties and an easy conquest. This will go to our heads. The world better not then ever disagree in the slightest with U.S. policy OR ELSE!
 

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Posted by Lionel Fouillen (Member # 1475) on 03-17-2003, 01:39 AM:
 

quote:

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Can't our politicians find something better to do? For all those agreeing with the french fry renaming.. make sure you tell your representative to not eat their croissants in the morning, nor drink their champagne in the evening

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Yeah

There is even a lady whom I forgot the name, who wants bodies of dead WW2 American soldiers to be brought back to the US and buried (again) there. So I think France should do the same (remember Lafayette and friends two centuries ago) and the Statue of Liberty should be given back to France.

I think Disney executives should also stop holding their European premieres at the Rex theatre in Paris (which they love because it's Europe's largest cinema) and Steven Spielberg, a great admirer of the late director François Truffaut (who worked on Close Encounters) should say he made a mistake, all French suck, and he should never have worked with Truffaut.

As for boycott, I think there's nothing new with that. When I visited my Californian friends in 1998, some of their friends had travelled to Paris the year before, they stayed in an American hotel, had meals at McDonald's and spent their time at Disneyland Paris

quote:

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along with their caviar at the fancy dinners and fundraisers they go to.

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... and where they spend time on France-bashing speeches, standing next to their wives dressed with expensive Hermès scarves, Vuitton bags and Chanel suits

quote:

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Leo said Actually the French are doing something like that: I seem to remember a story in the paper a few weeks ago to the effect that the municipal authorities in Bordeaux had banned the use of English words in all publicly visible signage.

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quote:

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Actually Leo this has nothing to do with the Iraq crisis. The French decided of this in the early 1990's to reduce the influence of foreign words in their language, and encouraged people to use French equivalent words.

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Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that this was a response to Iraq - the story came out long before the veto controversy blew up.

I still think this is a bit reactionary, though: there are probably as many French phrases used regularly in English-speaking countries as the French use English expressions. That having been said, the use of US English spellings in England really annoys me (except for in proper nouns, e.g. Pearl Harbor), so I suppose I can see where they're coming from.
 

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Posted by Robert Golding (Member # 746) on 03-17-2003, 03:22 AM:
 
Paul
I do believe you are living to close to those crazy hollywood liberals!
 

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Posted by Lionel Fouillen (Member # 1475) on 03-17-2003, 04:26 AM:
 
Leo,

I agree this is somewhat exagerated. As far as I'm concerned, I often use English words when the French equivalent doesn't offer the precise meaning I'm looking for. That is especially true in my IT job. We don't have this problem in Belgium where we have three national languages, hence we're used to using foreign words.

Anyway, to bring this back on topic, I wish Bill the best with his film festival. I don't think he'll get many demonstrators. If he gets them, well I expect people who feel concerned about cultural matters are smart enough to limit their protests to speeches and not violent acts...
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-17-2003, 06:28 PM:
 
Three?
 

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Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 03-17-2003, 06:39 PM:
 
French, Dutch and German.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-17-2003, 07:04 PM:
 
Dutch or in Belgium rather Flamish, yes, but German?
 

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Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 03-17-2003, 07:38 PM:
 
Apparently.

I just found a page on the Belgium government's website that 'confirms' it. I even got it in the right order, amazing.

Belgium Federal Portal - Belgium in Short
 

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Posted by Lionel Fouillen (Member # 1475) on 03-18-2003, 01:23 AM:
 
Michael,

It is indeed Dutch. More often referred to as Flemish because the region is called Flanders and the people the Flemish, but it's Dutch. The differences may limit to the accent and a few idiomatic expressions, as with "Belgian French" and "French French".

And, yes, German is one of our three national languages, being spoken in the tiny bilingual region near the German border.
 

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Posted by Jean-Michel Grin (Member # 1360) on 03-18-2003, 12:28 PM:
 
In Switzerland we have too three different languages:

-French (that I speak)
-Swiss-German (verry different of the German )
-Italian (on the south of the country)
-One more language Is Romanche (Rumantz) It's a mix of French, German an Italian.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-18-2003, 06:06 PM:
 
What about Reto-Romanian?
 

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Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 03-18-2003, 09:01 PM:
 
Michael...What about it?

P.S.: I am tired of moving.
 

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Posted by Andrew Duggan (Member # 1302) on 03-19-2003, 03:33 AM:
 
Tonight me & a friend of mine called the White House to try and see if someone would run our totally absurd "Send The Statue Of Liberty Back To France" idea past Fuhrer Bush. Sadly, we got hung up on.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-19-2003, 03:15 PM:
 
Did George actually answer the phone himself?

BTW where does the quote come from?
 

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Posted by Andrew Duggan (Member # 1302) on 03-19-2003, 04:14 PM:
 
No a very angry woman answered the phone. Although in her defense, we did call at 3am from a local bar.

The quote at the bottom of my posts? It's from the Royal Tenenbaums, from the part where Eli Cash is reading from his book.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-19-2003, 11:25 PM:
 
It was clever to call from the bar. Otherwise you might be on some secret service black list now.
I am surprised that Washington has bars open at 3am.
 

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