Film Public figures in the arts and political comment or opinion

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No politic here!, for the Wim.

As big a push towards Cinema as cultural vacuity as any superhero slopfest. We really can't have nice things.

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dumbo said:


No politic here!, for the Wim.

As big a push towards Cinema as cultural vacuity as any superhero slopfest. We really can't have nice things.

HA9ijmga8AEAENx
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Extreme cowardice but also not surprising

'I'll boycott boycotts," said Wim Wenders at a press conference at the Sam Spiegel Film School in Jerusalem Monday.

The iconoclastic master director, who is visiting Israel as part of the celebration of the school's 20th anniversary, had just been asked about his reaction to calls from fellow filmmakers for a boycott of Israeli movies.

Wenders, who has made such modern classics as Wings of Desire (1988), Paris, Texas (1984) and The American Friend (1977), to name just a few, tends to go his own way. "I've seen a lot of Israeli movies I've liked over the last few years," he said. "I can't think of a reason to boycott them." And that was that, as far as the director was concerned; but when reporters pressed him for his thoughts on cultural boycotts, he said, "Cultural boycotts - in general they don't work. Boycotts often achieve the opposite.

Take Cuba - boycotting Cuba really secured Castro's rule for the next 20 years." Cuba is a country Wenders knows a bit about, since he directed the enormously successful documentary Buena Vista Social Club 10 years ago, about a group of nearly forgotten, aging musicians in Castro's Cuba, who were brought together for a triumphant concert tour.

No one could have foreseen either the success of these concerts or the appeal of the film, but Wenders just went ahead and did it - ignoring the boycott. When it comes to promoting cultural freedom, this wasn't the only time Wenders did more than talk a good game. When introducing the German-born filmmaker, Sam Spiegel's founder and director, Renen Schorr, spoke of how Wenders was instrumental in seeing that Israeli films were permitted to vie for awards from the European Film Academy.

Since they became eligible in 2004, Israeli films have garnered multiple nominations from the European Film Academy and won several prizes, notably Sasson Gabai's Best Actor prize for The Band's Visit. Asked how he felt about Israel, Wenders said, "It's hard even to talk about Israel as if it's one thing.

It has different facets. There's a lot going on here I don't agree with, especially in politics... But journalists and filmmakers I've met here, friends I've made, have given me a feeling for the place. It's an impossible place; an impossible political situation. I wish the gridlock it's in could be helped.

I have too many friends here not to be concerned. It's one of the most complex places in the world, especially this city." WENDERS CLEARLY has an especially intense feeling toward Israeli films and filmmakers. "I heard a rumor Israeli cinema was said to be mediocre, but my impression is very different," he said. "I've seen some really remarkable films coming out of Israel... I'm friends with Ari Folman [director of Waltz with Bashir] and there are some extremely creative films being made here. It's good to have to fight difficulties.

Whenever it gets easy, creative juices don't flow as much." Wenders cited Waltz with Bashir as one of the most impressive films he had seen in recent years. He also noted that the Israeli film Ajami was nominated for a European Film Academy Award for Discovery of the Year and called it "a fantastic first film." Discussing the state of the movie industry in general, Wenders criticized the product coming out of Hollywood, but noted that he'd seen "a lot of great movies" from young filmmakers working on digital video for very little money.

"The problem is getting past the narrow gate of distribution," he said, speculating that his internationally acclaimed Wings of Desire would have been "just a minor success" had it been released today. In addition to Monday's press conference, Wenders is presenting his latest film, Palermo Shooting, at a screening at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque tonight.

The Jerusalem and Tel Aviv Cinematheques are also featuring a retrospective of his work throughout the month. Asked about a line in his latest film, Palermo Shooting, in which a character says you should take the world seriously, but shouldn't take yourself too seriously, Wenders said, "That's good advice. Directors often have very inflated egos - it's a dangerous job, but somebody has to do it." That said, he headed off to another auditorium, for one in a series of meetings with Israeli film students.

https://www.jpost.com/arts-and-culture/boycott-the-boycotts/article-160576
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The live feed for the Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, which is primarily financed by the German federal government, was cut when journalist Tilo Jung asked about the festival’s “selective solidarity” with Iran and Ukraine, and lack of solidarity with Palestinians. Jury president and Oscar-nominated director Wim Wenders replied: “We have to stay out of politics.”

That contrasts with what Wenders said last year. In 2024, he praised the festival’s political identity: “The Berlinale has traditionally always been the most political of the major festivals, it doesn’t stay out of things now, and it won’t in the future either… I like the Berlinale because it always speaks up and says something.”
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Same film festival btw

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Seems they’ve been told to all say the same thing.



Michelle Yeoh declined to speak about U.S. politics during a press conference at Berlin Film Festival, instead shifting the focus to cinema.“I don’t think I am in the position to really talk about the political situation in the U.S., and also I cannot presume to say I understand how it is," she said. "So, best not to talk about something I don’t know about. I think I want to concentrate on what is important for us, which is cinema.”
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Total vindication on my hatred of both Prefect Days and Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Utter dross.
 
Maybe I'm being too generous, but there seems to be at least 7 people in that jury (plus more people behind the scenes). To take a common, political stance they would all more or less have to agree right? But of course, Wenders could just have said;"I personally have solidarity with Palestine, but I can't speak for the festival or the jury". Since he didn't do this it means that he doesn't or isn't allowed to be on the jury if he goes public with it, which is a bad look either way.

Personally, I'm in favor of famous people being allowed to stay out of politics. But if you're out, you're out. You can't dip your toe into politics and then instantly retreat when things get tough. And Wenders does not seem like an apolitical person, so that opens him up for scrutiny.
 
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Scandi Red said:
I think the word "political" has changed meaning to them. A film can be political without tackling geopolitics (or American bipartisanship).
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True although he was asked about films fighting against fascism. Should have at least given a better answer considering he stared in maybe the greatest satire against fascism.

Rooney in Paris said:
I remember reading on this forum a few years ago a word I'd never heard before, which was "milquetoast".

It's perfectly applicable for his shit response.
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Yep it’s a good description. Harris tried his very best to say nothing .
Swedish_Plumber said:
That guys a freak. His Amy winehouse cake should tell you all you need to know about the guy.
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Oh didn’t know about this. Yeah that’s insane.
 
On the positive side -



Arundhati Roy’s full statement below:

‘In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones,’ a whimsical film that I wrote 38 years ago, was selected to be screened under the Classics section at the Berlinale 2026. There was something sweet and wonderful about this for me.

Although I have been profoundly disturbed by the positions taken by the German government and various German cultural institutions on Palestine, I have always received political solidarity when I have spoken to German audiences about my views on the genocide in Gaza. This is what made it possible for me to think of attending the screening of Annie at the Berlinale.

This morning, like millions of people across the world, I heard the unconscionable statements made by members of the jury of the Berlin film festival when they were asked to comment about the genocide in Gaza. To hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping. It is a way of shutting down a conversation about a crime against humanity even as it unfolds before us in real time – when artists, writers and film makers should be doing everything in their power to stop it.

Let me say this clearly: what has happened in Gaza, what continues to happen, is a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel. It is supported and funded by the governments of the United States and Germany, as well as several other countries in Europe, which makes them complicit in the crime.

If the greatest film makers and artists of our time cannot stand up and say so, they should know that history will judge them. I am shocked and disgusted.

With deep regret, I must say that I will not be attending the Berlinale.

Arundhati Roy
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Sweet Square said:
Seems they’ve been told to all say the same thing.

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Thinking about this some more and maybe it’s unfair on Michelle Yeoh as she is from Malaysian and lives in Switzerland with her husband Jean Todt.

What could she possibly have to say about modern American politics…….
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Crazy the way people are prepared to tank their reputations in this way. At least they've managed to streisand effect themselves.

The best way I heard someone put it was that Gaza was the easiest moral question of most of our lifetime and yet so many people failed it, and so spectacularly. The fecking easiest.

 
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Sweet Square said:
More dog shite from this festival



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Just feck off. Her, not you.
Scandi Red said:
At first glance I thought that she was the woman from Jurassic Park. Thankfully she isn't.
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I once called Laura Dern "the lady from Jurassic Park" on here and it gave R.N7 a stroke. We've not seen him around here since then.
 
“Some kind of consciousness for the market” is truly one of the most dystopian things anyone has ever said.
 
Haha. They could have done the decent thing and addressed the very simple question with an ounce of integrity and humanity. Nobody asked them to join Hamas.

Anybody of any value should have an immediate response to genocide and apartheid.

"This clearly hasn't worked". I think it has worked spectacularly at tanking the reputations of those willing to cover for genocide.
 


German critic there not beating the allegations. And that is why these questions are impotant, because otherwise these brutes will shamelessly continue to culture and sports wash the worst atrocities.
 
One has to ask why answering a question on Gaza is so complex and complicated for these actors/actresses/filmmakers but if anyone told them to comment on ICE I'm sure they wouldn't spare a second to go on a monologue about how they are horrendous.
 
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