EU-DIGEST

Cinema: The Golden Compass - Christians Lose Their Compass: A Closer Look At Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy

Weeks before the film adaptation of the Philip Pullman book The Golden Compass was scheduled to open, Christian groups began plastering newspapers and in-boxes with dire warnings of a hidden anti-Christian agenda. Editorials began appearing in newspapers encouraging boycotts and FOX News picked up the drumbeat, dovetailing neatly as it did into their annual War Against The War On Christmas. Before the film even opened, the controversy drifted into schools and libraries, with a flurry of challenges against the books and some groups organizing boycotts against Scholastic, the books' publishing company.

The truth is that Pullman never once in the three books says that there is no God. Nor, as has been erroneously interpreted, does he portray the killing or the death of God. In the story that unfolds in the last two books, there are two fallen angels who have placed themselves in the position of God. It is specifically stated that neither of these beings is God or the Creator of the Universe. They are "false prophets" who have set themselves up as the ultimate power and wish to enslave mankind using various tools including The Magisterium. When the Catholic Church spends time and resources trying to discredit Hollywood fantasies like DaVinci Code or Golden Compass while, at the same time, evicting nuns onto the street to pay for their child abuse crimes, they reveal how dangerously out whack their priorities are.

Labels: Christianity, Cinema, Phillip Pullman, The Golden Compass

Movie - "What would Jesus buy?" Pastor Billy is Revving up Americans to drop their obsession with shopping - by Suzy Jagger

"The Movie - "What would Jesus buy?" is revving up Americans to drop their obsession with shopping. It is about the antics of Bill Talen, a screen-writer who became so concerned about the influence of global corporations such as Walt Disney, Starbucks and Wal-Mart, and America’s obsession with shopping that he created the character of the Reverend, now the subject of a new film by Morgan Spurlock. While Mr Talen’s character is fictional, his message is genuine. The film, "What Would Jesus Buy?", opened in the US last week, and follows the actor, who tries to use the comedic preacher to urge Americans to question why they spend and consider the true cost of their purchases.

While Americans’ obsession with shopping has helped build the US to be the wealthiest country in the world with an economy valued at $13.9 trillion, the other side of the coin is that Americans have run up a combined consumer debt bill of $2.4 trillion. For the first time since the Great Depression, American households have a savings rate on average of zero – they spend all they earn.

Note EU-Digest: Last year, American shoppers spent $456.2 billion in retail holiday sales, accounting for 19.59 percent of industry sales, according to statistics from the National Retail Federation. The federation is predicting that US holiday sales for 2007 will be 4 percent higher than 2006. So, if the federation is correct, holiday sales will be $474.5 billion. The growth could be the lowest increase in shopping activity since 2002, when sales only increased 1.3 percent. Those data conflict with the 22nd annual survey of holiday spending by the American Research Group, in which the average shopper says he is going to spend $859 this year, down 5 percent from the $907 spent last year."

"What would Jesus buy" should also be an excellent movie for Europeans to see. They too, are hard on the way to becoming as addicted to shopping as the Americans. Pastor Billy says in the movie: “We seek satisfaction by shopping, by buying more and more things, and seem to be more and more dissatisfied.” Isn't that the truth - all we have to do is look at how our own children have become excessively consumer oriented by wicked advertising gimmicks, and as a result more prone to crime, drugs, and obeseity "

Labels: Cinema, Consumerism, EU, Jesus, US

Woody Allen in Spain to prepare new film

US film director Woody Allen is in Barcelona to prepare the filming of his latest film, which will be his first to be shot in Spain during a career that has spanned over three decades.The 71-year-old refused to answer question from the media regarding his new movie, which will star Spanish stars Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem as well as US actress Scarlett Johansson. It will be Allen's fourth straight film to be shot outside the United States.

Labels: Cinema, EU, Woody Allen

Cannes Film Festival: Cannes Do: Shiny Happy People

"The book-making at the Cannes festival in France on the winners is heating up; everyone has an opinion. Almost the same opinion. The lead was pretty much tied between "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" (the Romanian abortion movie — sorry, but it's faster) and the Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men." Then Tuesday dawned, and Julian Schnabel queered the deal with his luminous, painterly, unsentimental "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." It's an adaptation of the book by former French Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered a massive stroke and was left completely lucid but physically frozen. He dictated the memoir by blinking his left eyelid, and this process is presented as both poetic and tedious. Bauby died 10 days after the book's publication, but Schnabel pays him even-handed homage by presenting the roguish, healthy Bauby as rather a selfish jerk who pleased neither his wife nor his mistress and thought such a trauma could not happen to him because he was too cool for it."

Labels: Cannes, Cinema

Michael Moore's Documentary "Sicko" Opens At Cannes Film Festival - Mary K. Brunskill

Michael Moore's newest film, "Sicko," debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday to a packed crowd. The film is a documentary criticizing the U.S. healthcare system, which Moore argues leaves 50 million U.S. citizens without access to medical care. Moore's argues 50 million Americans, including 9 million children, do not have insurance coverage and that those who are insured do not receive sufficient coverage.

The documentary contends that the U.S. healthcare system is more concerned in personal profit and protecting big business than it is with the health of American citizens.

Labels: Cinema

Big boost for European cinema - by Ali Jafar

2006 was a bumper year for European cinema, according to a report published by the The Council of Europe's European Audiovisual Observatory. Some 926 million cinema tickets were sold across the EU last year, a 3.6% jump on 2005, with European pics accounting for a 28% share of admissions, up from 25% the previous year.

European film production also was up by 47 features on 2005 to a total of 862 films.

Labels: Cinema, Europe, Film Production

France honors Clint Eastwood

French President Jacques Chirac inducted actor-director Clint Eastwood into the Legion of Honor this weekend. "France of course wants to pay homage ... to your place in the world of cinema," Chirac told the American on Saturday in a ceremony in the presidential Elysee Palace. "You show the complexity of America, in all its grandeur and fragility, with its enthusiastic dreams and its worried questioning." - Eastwood said he was glad to receive the "wonderful honor."

Labels: Cinema