We get all sorts of fan mail on behalf of famous folk whose films we've covered. Recently yours truly received an e from a 13-year-old "big fan of the 80s" (my God, I'm old) who mistook me for director Richard Kelly because, erm, I reviewed Donnie Darko? This Jonathon even gave out his home address, for what purpose remains a mystery. First, to Jonathon: you silly bloody goose. The Internet is full of pedophiles--never ever ever never e-mail a complete stranger directions to your place of residence! Second, when you click the chrome mail-slot icon on a given review, you are sending a message to a critic, not a filmmaker. Third, as I mentioned in a recent edition of the FFC newsletter, we do not personally know any (for all intents and purposes) celebrities, and that includes those we've interviewed--and even if we did, tragic Shane West fans, you must understand we couldn't give out their contact information, nor would we feel so inclined as to forward onto them that they "look better without a goatee" and the like. Very sorry, ladies and germs, though in answer to two oft-asked questions: yes, West and Jena Malone were both very pleasant company. -Bill

SEE?

i love your movie it is so good i love shane west he is a great actor he is realy cute i have always been wanting to be a actress i realy like it i have watch it 14 teen times i love it i have the sound track so thank's for makeing it     i am using my dad's name iam a girl     bye

IN THE MINORITY

Minority Report - Rotten Tomatoes - 57 Postive - 2 Negative

WOW Walter!! Does that mean you're, like, ECLECTIC?

Pathetic.

Minority Report is quite simply a masterpiece. But I guess its 'cool' to be in the (1.7%) 'minority,' eh? Heh heh.
J

HOORAY FOR "BOLLYWOOD"

Hi Travis, Nisha Pahuja here, the director of Bollywood Bound. Just read your review of the film and am a bit perturbed. It's a strange feeling to read what people think of your work--sometimes it fills you with elation and other times with dismay, yours was kind of in between. Though I do appreciate what you say about the wealth of interesting information regarding their marginalization both here and in India, the phrase "cutesy editorializing" which I take to mean the use of film clips, I find kind of shocking.

South Asians of my generation grew up loving these films, as did and do I. Those who have seen Bollywood Bound, have always responded with a great deal of joy to the film clips because they are a cultural reference point, an inside joke (which is not mocking but celebratory) and an admission of a shared history which for so long has been hidden.

I would not have responded to this review if I didn't feel so strongly about your charge that my use of clips both mocks the films and the people who aspire to make it in the industry--the intention was quite the opposite--so much so that I purposely revealed the history of Vikram and his family slowly throughout the film so that I could play with what I assumed would be the audience's perception of Bollywood and those who try to make it in that industry. I wanted them to become involved in the story so that they, like Neeru who is going to India from Surrey, begin to see that what they had imagined was different from the reality they discovered.
Cheers,
Nisha

On rereading my capsule for Bollywood Bound through the prism of your e-mail, I decided I may be guilty of being a ruthless in presenting my criticisms. It was a tad imperious to write off your methods that way, especially in light of my praise of the film's main thrust. It's not my intention to cause filmmakers pain (though sometimes it's inevitable), and given the tenor of your message I can't honestly believe that you intended to belittle your subjects.

Nevertheless, considering the tone of the particular clips you used, and the moments in which they were contrasted with the interviews, I would still argue that a certain amount of gravity was missing. Often you defused some heartfelt admission or cogent appraisal with clips that didn't really complement what had just been said. This seemed to resemble a common strain of po-mo irony, leading me to the conclusion that you weren't taking the film's subject(s) seriously enough, hence my harsh assessment. Had the contrasts not been so jarring and the clips flowed more with the interviews, I might have reached a different conclusion. So I apologize for being overzealous, but in all honesty, I don't know how else I could have interpreted the film. I'm afraid I must stand by the phrase "cutesy editorializing," because that's exactly how I feel about what I saw. -Travis

EIGHT LEGS A WEEK

Thanks for mentioning my sequence [in Eight Legged Freaks]: I did the cat and spider fight CG. We had a blast making this film. Dean really contributed a bunch of time and direction as well.
David Rand

FRENCH KISS-OFF

Dear Walter, In your recent review of My Wife is an Actress, you wrote this: "The Jewish subplot is not so much farcical as sour in light of recent revelations about the anti-Semitism of the French following the flap around Woody Allen's comments at Cannes and the unfortunate results of the country's presidential election, and the picture's scenes of strife tend toward the strident rather than the intended screwball. In other words, My Wife is an Actress is the deadliest of comedies, one that reveals itself early and often as too infatuated with its topic and too confident by far in its ability to touch a collective audience."

The French nation is the only one in western Europe where Jews have fully achieved integration in all levels. In 1936, France had a Jewish Prime Minister when American Ivy League schools were restricted (at that very moment, France was heavily rearming against the Nazis while Anglo-American diplomacy in Europe was pushing for apeasement, just as America maintained full diplomatic relations with the Nazis during 18 months after the fall of France, ending only when Hitler declared war to America).

All of France is facing today's national challenge of the full integration of milions of Frenchmen from Muslim descent. Pressure from the anti-immigrant right has been strong yet contrary to many neighboring European states, the extremists have been fully barred from entrance into any government and France still has one of Europe's most liberal immigration and naturalization policies.

During six troubled months Jews have paid a heavy price of some kind of collective madness which seized some Muslim youths who had been watching too much of the news about the middle East. Yet this looked in fact like NYC in the 1970's, when African Americans and Jews clashed violently over public schooling, city planning, and jobs in the city administration, not at all like the State-backed anti-semitism that unelected Nazi-backed dictatorial Vichy lead 60 years ago (and not with much success since France had the highes rate of Jewish survival in Western Europe, and the largest population). During the recent events, French Jews have been supported by a shocked nation. Thanks to the implementation of strict security measures, no incident has been recorded for the past 3 months. Sadly, the attacks by youth of Muslim origin helped Le Pen maskerade himself as protector of the Jews and this accounted in no small part to his score during the first round of the Presidential elections. Since you seem to care very much about French politics, I hope these comments have been helpful.
Amicalement,
Benjamin

Despite all that, I was most interested to hear Mr. Attal--the French Jew I interviewed for a piece accompanying my My Wife is an Actress review--state in no uncertain terms that France was, in fact, extremely anti-semitic. I would offer to you that familiarity breeds contempt and your statistics as to the integration of the Jewish community in France may actually be a more compelling argument for the existence of rising tensions and the popularity of public expressions of the same. Several years ago a certain David Duke was elected to a position of political prominence in our state of Louisiana. He was a former grand wizard of the KKK. Did the high percentage and integration of the African-American in that state indicate a lack of racism in Louisiana at the time of Mr. Duke's election--or did it increase the racial tensions of the area to the point that it manifested in an embarrassing election result? I would argue the latter--and France, with a presidential election that caused the world to cock an eyebrow, has some explaining to do. A collective: "I have a friend who is Jewish" just won't do. This is not to say that the U.S. is on the verge of reinstating slavery (as the article ripostes in a case of bad logic and shameless rhetoric), any more than I mean to suggest that the anti-semitism in France will lead to another Vichy government, happily shipping off their Jewish population at the request of their foreign masters. That the U.S. is a racist country on the other hand is a matter of course. Continued denial of the problem only fuels the problem to flashpoint. You seem to have done your research on the issue though, I confess to what end I'm mystified. Empiracal and anecdotal evidence both suggest that the French culture is undergoing a difficult period (manifested in the particular unpleasantness of the new French cinema), and that this difficult period is mostly as a result of growing distrust of an "immigrant" culture including, primarily, the Jews. Were France truly as egalitarian as their actions of one, sometimes two, centuries ago suggest, then surely the good French people would not have elected a man running on a virulently anti-semitic platform to their highest leadership position. To set the record straight on a tangentially related note: I actually have no interest whatsoever in French politics. I am, after all, an American. Thanks again for your detailed email, good luck to you. -Walter

(Please note that this exchange has been abridged due to issues of copyright with a Washington Post op-ed piece.)

DELIVERANCE