Capitalism: A love story

[Peter Presland]

Michael Moore isn't everyone's cup of tea. I still have difficulty distinguishing his 'at face value' and 'tongue in cheek' utterances - assuming you can take anything he says at face value that is. For example his apparent adulation of all things Obama is disconcerting at best. But then maybe that's just part of the attraction.

That said, I've found nuggets in all of his stuff. The obsequious fawning nature of Bush Senior's relationship with the House of Saudi and its context as presented in 'Fahrenheit 911' was a revelation. His knack of confronting authority figures with a disarming - even ridiculous - humour that wrong-foots them and often shines a brilliant flash of light into very dark places, is priceless - IMHO anyway.

So, I am looking forward to the immanent release of his latest offering 'Capitalism: A love story'

There's a review, trailer and interview with Moore here.

[Myra Bronstein]

Oh hell, he's my cuppa tea Peter. I think he's one of the most astute and principled and courageous and intelligent and entertaining and caring men who ever graced the planet.

Here's the column from his website:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikein...p?id=14378

"September 5th, 2009 11:20 pm
Michael Moore Slams Bailout of Wall Street, Wants 'Money Back'
By Farah Nayeri

Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Michael Moore launched his movie "Capitalism: A Love Story" at the Venice Film Festival today, staging an all-out attack on the free-market system and on the U.S. government bailout of financial institutions.

"Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil," Moore, an American director and satirist, says in his two-hour documentary, one of 24 films vying for the top Venice prize. "You have to eliminate it and replace it with something that's good for all people, and that something is called democracy."

The movie covers a wide range of issues -- from home foreclosures to the bankruptcy of General Motors -- and has a lengthy section on the past year's global financial meltdown, starting with the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and bailout of companies including American International Group Inc.

Lehman's failure and U.S. taxpayers' $700 billion rescue of the financial system are providing material for film and television dramatizations. "The Last Days of Lehman Brothers," a BBC Two drama, airs on Sept. 9 in the U.K.

In "Capitalism: A Love Story," Moore and his crew are seen entering the AIG building to "make a citizens' arrest" of the board of directors. They're escorted out by security. Moore also goes up to bank buildings, saying that he wants to get "money back" for the American people.

Elsewhere, Moore suggests that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. influenced the administration of President George W. Bush because Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was previously Goldman's chief executive officer.

'Goldman People'

Representative Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat from Ohio's 9th District, says in the Moore movie that "all the people in charge" at the U.S. Treasury during the George W. Bush administration were from Goldman Sachs.

Contacted by e-mail before the movie's Venice screening, Lucas van Praag, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs, didn't immediately respond to a message seeking reaction to the references to Goldman in the trailer.
Moore spoke at a Venice news conference hours before his movie screened.

"There's culpability amongst all groups," he said, "whether it's the U.S., corporations, government, and the American people buying into a rigged system."

"I hope that people will start to wake up a bit and see that they are participating in something that's causing them a lot of harm," added Moore, wearing a buttoned red polo shirt.

Moore's movie is on limited release in the U.S. on Sept. 23. It opens in movie theaters across the U.S. on Oct. 2.

"By spending just a few million dollars to buy Congress, Wall Street was given billions," Moore says in the movie trailer."

[Myra Bronstein]

'The Big Enchilada'; "I made this movie as if it was going to be the last movie I was allowed to make."

– Michael Moore | 'Capitalism: A Love Story'; "It's got it all — lust, passion, romance and 14,000 jobs being eliminated every day."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/index.php

[Myra Bronstein]

Again, the man is astute.

"August 16th, 2009 1:23 pm
Capitalism: A Love Story
Entertainment Weekly
"It's a crime story," Michael Moore says of his latest documentary. "But it's also a war story about class warfare. And a vampire movie, with the upper 1 percent feeding off the rest of us. And, of course, it's also a love story. Only it's about an abusive relationship." Yes, that's right, the lightning-rod filmmaker whose previous movies have tackled such hot-button issues as gun control (Bowling for Columbine), terrorism (Fahrenheit 9/11), and the health-care crisis (Sicko) will be taking on the entire free-market economy in his archly titled new film, Capitalism: A Love Story. Moore started shooting about six months before the economy melted down last fall — talk about a lucky break! — but sees the film as a culmination of his life's work. "It's not about an individual, like [former GM CEO] Roger Smith, or a corporation, or even an issue, like health care," he says. "This is the big enchilada. This is about the thing that dominates all our lives — the economy. I made this movie as if it was going to be the last movie I was allowed to make." Oh, and by the way, Moore adds, "it's a comedy." – Benjamin Suetkey"

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikein...p?id=14326