Michael Moore had plenty to say, and we couldn’t fit it all into my cover story in today’s edition of TODAY (pg42). So here’s my full interview with the man himself.
Location: The glitzy and glamorous 66th Venice Film Festival
Venue: The uber expensive and lush Hotel Des Bain
Purpose: To interview Michael Moore on Capitalism: A Love Story
Mission: To find out if Capitalism is indeed “evil”. And to shrug off the elephant in the room- The irony of millionaire movie businessmen and entertainers preaching against capitalism, but all while, promoting the movie in a hotel as opulent as this. Hmm…
Movie Poster courtesy of Golden Village
All that said and done… it has to be said. Whatever your beef is, at least the man has gotten us debating and discussing, and relentlessly raising important issues. He’s trying, albeit giving you an unabashedly one sided point-of-view but still he’s trying. And that in my book, is better than not at all.
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TODAY: So your favourite subject George Bush Jr is finally out of office and we have Barack Obama in his place. Do you have the new president’s back? Or on speed dial at least?
Michael Moore: We (The US) had a president that nearly destroyed the country, let alone the world. I mean for the last 8 months, our new president is trying to fix the damage the last man did. I mean I’m grateful for him that he wants to job. Who would want to try and do that? Undo what Bush did? I campaigned and supported our new president. But I want Obama to know that I and others are paying attention. We know who gave him his campaign funds-as presented in my film-and we want to see who he’s going to be beholden to. Is it going to be the people or Wall Street? I guess we’ll find out. And the jury is out. It’s a little too early to make that decision.
You’ve been to Cannes and won the Palme d’Or ( for Fahrenheit 9/11 ) and now you’re in Venice vying for the Golden Lion. How do you see yourself? A filmmaker or a doumentarian?
I am a filmmaker. I am attempting to engage you in what we call “ entertainment”. I am participating in a business. An art-form that is essentially an attempt to get you laugh or to cry or to think. All art is and literature is trying to do that… to evoke something in you.
I set to make a movie first and foremost, not to issue a political statement or a manifesto. If I wanted to do that, I should have run for office or go join an organization. I chose to be a filmmaker. And I am going to first and foremost honour the art of cinema and try and produce a film and a story with interesting characters that has a beginning a middle and an end.
So are you a character in your films? How real are you in your films?
I am not that much different. I am that guy in the movie.I am not mugging for the camera. I don’t know if I can actually act, or pretend to be something that I’m not. I’ve sometimes read from critics that say, “ You know he does that ‘aw-shucks’ thing.” And I think to myself, they don’t understand that I am from the Midwest! Yeah, we do act like that! In that certain “aw shucks” way. I only have a high school education so when they say, “Oh, he knows a lot more than that, and he’s just acting like some dumb guy from the sticks.” Well, I am not a dumb guy from the sticks, but I am also not a highly educated individual. I dropped out a college after a year or so…andI am a guy who did a movie about capitalism and I have never read anything by Karl Marx. And I should be embarrassed to say something like that, you know?
With your films, do you just fly by the seat of pants? Go along to see what comes? Or do you plans things?
I don’t have much of a script. I just go and see what happens. No plan whatsoever. But what I find true is the humour in the film. It’s also men. Because, I was voted the class comic, class clown in high school.
AHA! A comedian!
That’s just the Irish in me. We have a very dark view of the world, and a lot of anger. And I think some our best satirists, comedians, and humourists have actually been very angry people. Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Groucho Marx and Charlie Chaplin. They were very upset with the social condition and really upset with what they saw was going on. And tried to use their humour as a weapon. And so, some might say he’s ( Moore) doing this comedy, this schtick, this stunt , and somehow making the issue less serious, but actually, it is humour, ridicule, satire that is powerful , potent and when used with a mass audience, it is extremely effective politically. And I am shocked that not more people on the left ( side of politics) don’t do that, Don’t find their inner sense of humour and go with it. It’s like if you’re trying to win people over. It’s a lesson I learnt in high school.That girls rather be around a guy who is funny and can make them laugh than some guys who belong in some hair commercial.
Ok enough about the Irish. What do you think about Americans?
I mean we were just talking over breakfast that 80% of America don’t have a passport. They never leave the country! They don’t have a f**king clue what’s going on outside their little world! And that is a dangerous thing. When you are the number one and only superpower and the majority of your citizens don’t know where or can’t even find Iraq on the map… then you shouldn’t be allowed to invade a country unless you know where it is. Rule number one right?(laughs)That’s crazy! But that’s not always going to be that way. Our days of empire will soon be over. China and other emerging superpowers will rise up and be the next superpower.
Do you think people perceive you as dangerous?
It’s dangerous to those in power, what I am doing. That’s why they spend a lot of effort trying to discredit me and attack me. There has been now over a dozen documentaries made attacking me; ver a dozen books written attacking me and there are a number of websites as well… What makes me dangerous to the power structure is that I have crossed over. I have gone outside the wall of the left, and I speak to a mass audience of Middle America. And that’s frightening to them that I have found a way to bring left politics to a mass audience. And the mass audience doesn’t feel threatened by the left politics that I am presenting.
Do you see yourself as a people’s filmmaker?
I think the people see me as their filmmaker (laughs) I mean, sometime I would like a little some peace and quiet. I’m a human being you know. I just wish the other side would engage me on the issues. Go after me as fiercely as possible on the politics and issues and the things I’m raising. Let’s have that debate. If you don’t think every American should be covered with health insurance, let’s have that debate. And now they are telling me the chat shows in America they are lining up for me, they won’t have me on unless there is somebody from the other side. They can’t get anybody from the other side to go on the show. Because it’s indefensible! How do you go on to defend that the one percent should have just as much as the other 95%? How do you defend that? They can’t debate on that! So what they gotta (sic) to do? They have to go after me on the made up stuff or smearing stuff.
Are you tired of it all? What makes you keep on fighting?
I am tired. In fact, I wasn’t kidding when I mentioned that one of my titles I considered for this movie was calling it “Mike’s last movie” (laughs). I am tried of beating my head against the wall. I am tired of the abuse that I have to take and I am tried of the fact that security has to be in this room and outside the door. Why should I have to live like that? I mean, I make movies for goodness sake. It’s completely nutty. I live in what’s supposed to be a free country, where I can say what I want to say. So yeah, I am really tired of it.
Is it all worthwhile?
I don’t know. I think it is! Look, I am an optimist, I really believe things will change. I have seen things changed. I have been shocked. I never thought Mandela would ever out of prison and instead he becomes president of south Africa. I never thought I’d see the berlin wall come down and then I was there the night it came down. And if I told you three years ago a black guy was going to be the president of the united states, you’d look at me like I was nuts. Now for me, all bets are off. Anything is possible. Possible that this economic system that we have can go by the way, and we can come up with something good, more humane. More democratic and more ethical than the way we’re operating right now.
Hope you enjoyed in reading what Moore had to say.
Do go and watch Capitalism: A Love Story ( in cinemas from Nov 5 onwards)At least you’ll have dinner conversation that is far more BOOMZ…:)
Let me know what you guys think of the film! Till then, always remember to Snap, Crackle and PopCorn!
XOXO,
Your Flick Chick
G
Tags: Capitalism, Capitalism: A Love Story, Flick Chick, Interview, Michael Moore, Michael Moore Interview, Rated G, TODAY Newspaper, Venice Film Festival 2009
) And had to, of course, ask that all-important question. No, not how many cheeseburgers does one have to eat to get that size (just kidding lah!) But will the liberal leftist ever come to our little red dot one day?
