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French filmmaker's tirade against America
Bertrand Tavernier calls it 'the dictatorship of ignorance'
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Arthur J Pais
An internationally renowned director from France slammed America for "the dictatorship of ignorance" and joined an award-winning filmmaker from Finland to protest the refusal of American officials in expediting the visa application of Abbas Kiarostami, the acclaimed Iranian director.
The work of the three directors were shown at the 40th New York Film Festival (NYFF).
"We are under the boot of a very dangerous dictatorship: the dictatorship of fundamentalism, globalization, the dictatorship of ignorance," complained Bertrand Tavernier, the French filmmaker whose distinguished films include Safe Conduct, Death Watch and Round Midnight. The American action against Kiarostami, who has visited the country at least seven times earlier, reminded Tavernier of "the dark years of the 50's," when writers and filmmakers suspected to be leftists and communists were not only boycotted but were also jailed.
Referring to the claim by the American consulate in Paris that no action on Kiarostami's visa application could be taken till December, Tavernier said it smacked of "inflexible arrogance".
Unlike Aki Kaurismaki, the Finnish filmmaker who boycotted the New York film event and was sorely missed at the screening of his acclaimed, humanistic film The Man Without A Past, Tavernier wanted to protest in person.
But his abscessed tooth kept him back in Paris. He sent his letter to NYFF that was read to enthusiastic applause just before the showing of the celebrated film, Safe Conduct, on Friday.
"To prevent the visit of someone who in all his films pleads for better understanding, it is not only stupid, it's insulting," Tavernier said, referring to Kiarostami whose newest film Ten, that was also screened to applause at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The American action was contemptible, Tavernier felt. "It reveals a tremendously smug ignorance, a real contempt --- contempt feeds actively on ignorance --- for an artiste as great as Kiarostami, and through Kiarostami, contempt for all film directors and for the very art of motion pictures," he said in his letter to NYFF officials.
Is it clever to fight fanaticism with ignorance, Tavernier asked.
He then quoted Victor Hugo: 'In spite of the best efforts of the government to have poets kept on leash, several poets have been reported wandering free on the street. Danger! The intelligence may be bitten.'
Tavernier recalled how an American consular official in Mexico had given a visa to Billy Wilder in 1934 even though Wilder, fleeing Germany, was travelling on forged documents. When Wilder told the visa official that he was a screenwriter and wanted to be a movie director, the official suddenly stamped the documents and handed the visa to Wilder, saying: "I hope you make good films."
Wilder went on to create many great films including Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity and Some Like It Hot.
"Between that man and the official who refused Kiarostami a visa," Tavernier's note said, "there is a yawning gulf."
"I mean, they belonged to different worlds. Between them is all the difference that opposes the world of Franklin Roosevelt and the world of George W Bush."
Tavernier's observation that "culture and film, indeed any art form, can be a shield, a weapon against all dictatorship, against all forms of ignorance," received the most applause from over 200 writers and reviewers at NYFF.
Filmmakers like Kiarostami make "films that explore society and culture," he continued. "They do their best to deepen the audience's curiosity, broadmindedness and knowledge... who try to open the world up to itself."
More from the 40th New York Film Festival
Finnish film-maker boycotts NY festival
Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without A Past is hilarious, heartfelt.
About Schmidt opens to rave reviews at the NY Film Festival