The Hollywood A list refers to celebrities who can nab the best table with a slight nod, attract paparazzi like mosquitoes in July and are invited to the hottest parties. While the Cannes Film Festival in France is not Hollywood, winning entries at the exalted French movie fest often score big in America.
This year, the business counterpart of the Cannes Film Festival has invented a new A list — as in “A” for anti-Semitic — by cancelling the showing of “The Anti-Semite.”Although this controversial film by French comic Dieudonne was not part of the film festival proper, it was scheduled to be screened for international distribution at the festival’s “film market.”
You may have heard of Dieudonne. He has denied the Holocaust and praised Hitler in his one-man shows (recently cancelled in Montreal). “The Anti-Semite,” a longer version of his vitriol, was produced by the Iranian Documentary and Experimental Film Center. It reportedly pokes fun at Auschwitz and features Dieudonne as a violent and alcoholic character who dresses as a Nazi officer for a fancy dress party. Enough said.
The Cannes Film Festival, perhaps more than any other cinematic venue, is very sensitive about anti-Semitism in the arts. Last year, it expelled the Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier when he expressed sympathy for Hitler.
Hollywood regularly bestows high honors to Holocaust-themed dramas (think “Schindler’s List”). But it is somewhat hesitant to condemn anti-Semitic tirades that flow from the mouths of its own A-listers (think Mel Gibson).
Hollywood should take a lesson from the Cannes Film Festival. Hate is hate. A simple “cut!” doesn’t cut it anymore.
Copyright © 2012 by the Intermountain Jewish News
