Tag: cinema
In Sex Cases, An Accusation Is Not Proof Of Guilt

In Sex Cases, An Accusation Is Not Proof Of Guilt

The French actor Gerard Depardieu is world-known as a lusty, usually charming pursuer of the carnal. He's now being accused of crimes against women, some violent in nature. A star of French cinema, Depardieu is being defended by French President Emmanuel Macron. Other supporters are former French first lady Carla Bruni, actress Charlotte Rampling and Depardieu's former partner, actress Carole Bouquet.

An accusation is not a conviction. It is common in custody battles for one parent to falsely accuse the other of child abuse. Jilted lovers are known to smear their ex-partners for revenge. Grifters make false accusations to shake "deep pockets" down for money. And some accusers are mentally unstable.

Depardieu might be guilty of serious crimes, but isn't it early to talk about stripping away his Legion of Honor medal? Depardieu denies the charges of rape and assault and, as Macron says, he deserves a presumption of innocence until a court decides otherwise.

A group leading the war against Depardieu, called MeTooMedia, responded to Macron, "You invoked the presumption of innocence, as if innocence took precedence over presumption."

Well, doesn't it?

Look, serious allegations must be investigated. But until it's established that a crime has been committed, it's only someone's word.

Depardieu is a big fat target who makes gross sexist remarks on the record. A character of enormous appetites, Depardieu is no Cary Grant, nor ever was.

But while rape is a violent crime, publicly saying crude things about a girl on a horse is not. A company would be well in its rights to dismiss an employee who did this, but then the perp would be jobless not incarcerated.

It's not against the law to be a pig, which based on Depardieu's rap sheet of filthy remarks, he may well be. Anyone who wants to boycott his movies is free to do so. Barring him from appearing in movies, however, is another matter.

Hardly a day goes by without some news report that "So-and-so has been accused of sexual harassment." Therefore, he must step down or be blacklisted or hand someone a bag of money. And it's alarming how many allegedly smart people fail to ask whether the individual was guilty and, if so, whether the charge involved truly serious misconduct.

When Joe Biden was running for president in 2020, a random woman accused him of grabbing her privates. What followed were urgent calls for him to leave the race, not so much from Republicans but from Democrats backing one of Biden's competitors for the nomination.

"In an ideal world, the Democrats would not have nominated a candidate whose history included guerrilla-nuzzling women and a possible sexual assault," Jennifer Senior wrote in The New York Times back in 2020.

All this before taking a close look at Biden's accuser. Tara Reade had a history of knocking on the door of her landlord to ask for emotional support. She often didn't pay her rent. She also had a thing for Vladimir Putin and eventually defected to Russia. Yet on the basis of this troubled woman's unverified accusations, Biden's campaign could have fallen.

It's not just the veracity of the accusation that needs questioning; it is also the accusation itself. Biden did "nuzzle" the back of at least one woman's head. He shouldn't have not done that, but characterizing that dated fatherly gesture as a "guerrilla" attack was hysterical.

One of the biggest raps against Depardieu, according to Le Monde, is that, on a trip to North Korea, he was heard "making explicit sexual comments in the presence of a female interpreter." That was no reason for a wax museum in Paris to immediately remove his figure.

Accusations are not facts. How about waiting for facts?

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Debunked 'Big Lie' Documentary Draws Aging Trumpists To Theatres

Debunked 'Big Lie' Documentary Draws Aging Trumpists To Theatres

Washington (AFP) - A new movie that pushes dubious and widely debunked conspiracy theories to bolster Donald Trump's claim that he was robbed of a second term as president has become a surprise hit at the US box office.

Despite warnings by experts, "2000 Mules," a film by Dinesh D'Souza -- who was convicted of violating campaign finance laws before being pardoned by the former president -- has garnered more than $1.2 million at the box office since its release in late May.

With large buckets of popcorn in hand, a group of elder moviegoers crowd into a matinee screening in a cinema in a commercial district in Virginia.

Passing by theaters showing the adventures of "Doctor Strange" or the latest "Sonic the Hedgehog" movie, the senior citizens settle down in front of the documentary promising to "expose widespread, coordinated voter fraud in the 2020 election, sufficient to change the overall outcome."

'Lifeblood Of Democracy'

The film opens with footage of anonymous voters enthusiastically slipping their ballots into boxes stamped with the American flag, while D'Souza tells the audience that "elections are the lifeblood of our democracy."

But, he says as the background darkens, the 2020 election "haunts the American mind."

Like millions of Americans, including former president Trump, D'Souza voices the debunked belief that the Democrats rigged the result of the last presidential election, relying on the widespread use of mail-in ballots during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We can't move on unless we know the truth," the director says in his voiceover.

'Proof' That Proves Nothing

In an attempt to prove his theory, which has been rejected by all relevant US authorities of both parties, D'Souza shows himself, leaning on a kitchen counter and phoning a group based in Texas called True the Vote, which claims to "support election integrity." A meeting is arranged.

In a kind of hangar packed with computer servers, two members of the group claim to have proof of the existence of a well-planned operation which, "like a cartel," hired "mules" to stuff ballot boxes in a series of states that were key to Joe Biden's victory in 2020.

To validate their hypothesis, they rely on vast troves of anonymous location data from smartphone apps, which they claim show the comings and goings of these "mules" between the headquarters of various NGOs and ballot boxes.

It's a "heist" and "a crime," says the outraged D'Souza.

In the theater in Virginia, the audience is sold.

"It's like a nuclear bomb," says one man.

The theories pushed in the movie have been seriously questioned by multiple disinformation experts.

They say that a delivery man, a taxi driver, or a postman working in the neighborhood could easily have been mistaken for people making such nefarious trips.

But for Trump and his supporters, this is the ultimate proof of the fraud they have been decrying for a year and a half.

"They rigged and stole the 2020 election, we cannot be okay with this, we cannot simply move on," says D'Souza as the film ends.

And as the first notes of the American national anthem play, he issues a call to action: "The America we love needs us now more than ever."

Movie Review: ‘Grandma’ Is Terrific Showcase For Tomlin

Movie Review: ‘Grandma’ Is Terrific Showcase For Tomlin

By Colin Covert, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (TNS)

Don’t let that comforting title fool you. Grandma is no sugary-sweet smoothie for viewers of a certain AARP age. It would hit that target audience like a hurled brick. Instead, it hands Lily Tomlin the first leading role she has played since the ’80s, reveling in every drop of the sharp-tongued sarcasm this consummate comedic actor conveys like no one else.

Bland it is not. The word Grandma has barely faded from the opening visual when Tomlin’s irascible Elle Reid shows she’s no fountain of senior citizen wisdom and warm hugs. A retired Los Angeles college professor who embodies the activist feminism of the ’60s, she likes her privacy, even when she gets a surprise visit from her 18-year-old granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner).

Sage and her dope-head boyfriend have been bumbling in the sack. The high school girl’s pregnancy tester has revealed she’s with child. She knows that her mom, Elle’s all-controlling Type A daughter Judy (Marcia Gay Harden), a product of the career-women mindset of the ’80s, won’t give Sage the $600 she needs that very afternoon to end her condition. When Elle learns of Sage’s situation, does she soothe her with cuddles? No, she growls condescendingly that it’s “nothing to dance a jig about.”

On the other hand, it’s not the sort of thing a self-confident specialist in feminist poetry sees as the taboo end of the world. If Elle’s daughter won’t help her own kid, she will. Sure, she doesn’t have a dollar to spare out of her miniature pension, but where there’s a will, there are five or 10 ways. Maybe the women’s bookstore nearby would give her a premium price for her first edition of Betty Freidan’s “The Feminine Mystique,” which is, she must inform Sage, a pioneering feminist bestseller, not a character from Marvel’s X-Men.

Climbing into a rattletrap Dodge she inherited from her late lesbian partner, combative Elle takes her offspring’s offspring on a day-long pilgrimage around Los Angeles. Their trip is part adventure, part women’s history lesson and part treasure hunt, each segment stuffed with sharp character insights and barbed humor. In a trim 82 minutes, writer-director Paul Weitz (“About A Boy”) has created an edgy, sophisticated comedy that fits his star like a designer gown.

And he has brought in a marvelous supporting cast. There are superb contributions by Judy Geer (as an ex-girlfriend glum because Elle dropped her after just four months), Sam Elliot (as Elle’s only male lover, still regretting their identical split-up after she misled him decades ago to give her the gestation she wanted) and Nat Wolff (as Sage’s baby daddy, who Elle lambastes with a hockey stick). In each new turn of the plot, Elle reveals herself as an equal opportunity misanthrope, as ready to attack women or men, strangers or relations.

And yet it’s hard to direct the character’s sneers back at her. Tomlin’s wisecracking firebrand has an admirable streak of self-criticism. Elle begins every argument with a faint smile that says “this is going to be fun.” She sums up her own bridge-burning history by declaring, “Yeah, well, I’m a horrible person” in the same tough as nails tone as she uses against everyone else.

An awful person played by a terrific actress with pure pizazz, in a film worthy of her gifts.

GRANDMA
3.5 out of 4stars

(c)2015 Star Tribune (Minneapolis). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

‘Noah’ Stays Dry To Top U.S. Cinema Box Office

‘Noah’ Stays Dry To Top U.S. Cinema Box Office

Los Angeles (AFP) – “Noah,” the big screen adaptation of the biblical tale starring Russell Crowe in the lead role, topped the North American Box Office at the weekend, estimates showed Sunday.

The action drama, which reunites Crow with Jennifer Connelly whom he starred alongside in “A Beautiful Mind” in 2001, earned $44 million, easily holding off last week’s top earner “Divergent,” which took second spot with $26.5 million.

“Muppets Most Wanted,” Kermit and Co’s latest outing, was a distant third with $11.4 million in takings. It was ahead of “Mr Peabody and Sherman,” based on characters from the 1960s television cartoon “Rocky and Bullwinkle,” which earned $9.5 million in its third weekend in theaters.

In fifth place ($9.1 million) was the religiously themed “God’s Not Dead,” which tells the story of a college freshman who debates his atheist philosophy professor.

The film was ahead of Wes Anderson’s quirky “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which earned $8.8 million in sixth spot.

In a quiet week for new releases, the only other debut movie, “Sabotage,” an action flick headed by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sam Worthington, took a disappointing seventh place with $5.3 million in ticket sales.

The rest of the pack included car-chase action movie “Need for Speed,” which fell from sixth to eighth spot earning $4.3 million, followed by ancient Greece fantasy-action movie “300: Rise of an Empire” — the gory prequel to the 2007 hit “300” — which took $4.3 million in sales.

Rounding out the top 10 with $4.1 million was “Non-Stop,” Liam Neeson’s latest action effort, as an air marshal faced with a ransom demand on a long-haul flight.

AFP Photo/Jemal Countess