Berlinale Diary 1.5: A Quick One Between Screenings

When you see many films in the course of just a few days, it's only natural that you begin to notice commonalities between them. For example, I've seen at least four films that feature women being hit by cars or trucks on a busy street/highway. Odd, to say the least, but purely coincidental. However, one element I've noticed in several films is some form of explicit anti-Americanism. Rarely is it an integral part of the plot -- it's usually just an utterance like, "I hate America/Americans/American products/etc." Normally this doesn't bother me -- Bush & Co. have gone to great lengths to irritate just about everybody on the planet, so perhaps it's to be expected that this frustration manifests itself even in an otherwise non-political film (i.e., La Môme.) That said, I just got out of a film that perhaps overdoes it a bit. Not a bad film at all, but one where the 30-something lead character (a Canadian actor playing a German, no less) justifies his relationship with a 12 year-old girl because of the horrible experiences he had while living in the States. Something along the lines of how "everybody there thinks only of money or themselves," and how this pre-teen Lolita is more real/exciting/challenging than any woman he had a relationship with while over there. Um.....yeah.....huh? 18 films so far, and a lot more to go. . .

Comments

[Christian]

Hum, what film was it (that with the anti-american lolita complex)? Sounds like "Sommer '04" to me.

[D. Strauss]

The Germans love it when Americans are anti-American. Thank god we are! But not as anti-American as the Germans are anti-German.

Several Berlin friends have told me that Prinzessinnenbad is the film to catch, though I fear it may be more Berlin School fake social realism...

[Mark H]

It's a shame really, but I do sometimes wonder if some films use the anti-american stance, as a sort of short-cut for saying they are liberal, trendy and perhaps even cool? something along those lines. While I think there's plenty of issues around the anti-american slant, i do think it's used in the same way a comedian might use an expletive: short hand to get a laugh without having to try too hard. Let's have less american bashing and more thoughtful reasoning about the real issues in films, please? signed: Not An American

[Bradley Gardner]

An English friend of mine put it best, when he said "anti-americanism is a lazy prejudice."

I've been wanting to see "I served the King of England," which I hear is playing there. Hope you catch it.

[HarryTuttle]

Sommer '04. That's where I heard something like that, Christian. I couldn't place it. The tough globe trotter guy who whines about his traumatic experience in the USA... because he couldn't get laid. It was weird.
There is anti-americanism in La Mome? Well it depicts a post war mindset anyway, not today's (not that it's necessarily different today...)

[Cassavetes (Bo Harwood) music]

Hi, I've been told you may have an MP3 of some Bo Harwood music from one of his films. Any chance I could get hold of some?

[James Blandford]

I saw the film in question, Summer '04, but here's the thing. This guy's anti-Americanism was supposed to be utterly neurotic and the film was poking fun at it, at least in my opinion. You might recall that the wife who eventually runs off with him rebukes him, saying "well I spent a year in America and got to know a lot of really nice people. Sounds like you have a personal problem that goes beyond America." So I can't really count this as a film pushing an anti-American perspective. In fact, I think it's sugggested that the couple GOES to America, among other places, during the film's coda.

J

[dougjnn]

Talk about trying to use a political stance to excuse or render insignificant in comparison, outrageous behavior – your America bashing molester of 12 year old girls is truly archetypal. I hope it was used as critique as one commenter suggests – but either way it’s an exaggerated (but not implausible) version of a real phenomenon.

[Josh in Berlin]

US movies are full of stereotypes as well.

Even this: German 9/11 Victim Defamed in "United 93" Movie
http://atlanticreview.org/archives/396-German-911-Victim.html

Anti-Americanism is a big problem in Europe. The Atlantic Review, a blog on transatlantic affairs, writes a lot about Anti-Americanism. We expose examples of blatent Anti-Americanism like in this post: "Conservative Parliamentarian Implies that the US is Exterminating Other Cultures"
http://atlanticreview.org/archives/553-Exterminating.html

We also discuss Markovits new book in "How Widespread is Anti-Americanism?"
http://atlanticreview.org/archives/563-Widespread.html

The latest posts on Anti-Americanism are here:
http://atlanticreview.org/plugin/tag/Anti-Americanism

[Filmbrain]

James --

I didn't pick up on the poking fun factor. I agree that the film isn't, on the whole, pushing an anti-American agenda, however I think his rationale isn't really challenged (even considering Martina Gedeck's comment.)

I actually enjoyed the film quite a bit, though it is fairly trashy.

Harry --

There are a few lines tossed out in La Mome that, while probably faithful to Piaf's opinion, come off more as digs than anything else.

[Cine File]

Here's a piece of news for some clueless Yanks.

Most of the world doesn't like any Americans - whether they are racist Republicans or decadent Democrats.

We really don't differentiate the two political parties. Bill Clinton bombed Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. Hillary Clinton voted for the war in Iraq.

Anti-Americanism is a healthy phenomenon, Bush nor no Bush.

[Heh]

Clueless Cine File,

You're mistaking jihad-friendly Islamists and Euro-centric elites for "most of the world." In case you haven't heard, America has a massive immigration problem. Too many people want to get in.

There's a good reason for that, and not understanding that is why anti-Americanists are as clueless as a windowless room with the lights out is dark. It's why they spend a great deal of time expressing disdain for America, while implying affinity for people like Milosevic, Hussein, and Mullah Omar.

[dougjnn]

It’s really very simple. If one country gets too overwhelmingly dominant, people in other countries are naturally drawn to opposing and critiquing it, particularly when there’s not much danger of putting themselves in any real danger by excessively provoking that giant. They know America’s too civilized for that, at least against Euros etc. (although they often won’t admit it).

It’s the inevitable consequence of the fall of the Soviet Empire. There was about a decade delay but it started happening some before that, even though Clinton was much more congenial to the generally at least quasi socialist leaning Euros (Eastern Europe somewhat excepted, where we remain much more popular than further west).

Americans wonder, “what are we doing that’s so terrible to the vast majority of them? Aren’t we more beneficent than the vast majority of hegemon’s in history? Aren’t things safer now for THEM that we made the Soviet Union spend on it’s military into empire collapse? Wouldn’t things rapidly become far worse without a Pax Americana?”

Well you see most people don’t think like that. Aside from the fact that most probably don’t really know enough history standing behind those propositions or anyway in a way sufficiently free of Leftist bias and cant to evaluate them reasonably, that’s not where the emotional pull lies. They sure don’t WANT to think like that. People don’t like to be grateful to strong others unless they feel their future is deeply at risk without them.

Since there’s not a sufficient other treat which the US is helping them ward off to really scare them, they’re strongly inclined to oppose our dominance. Especially the young and the left who incline to anti-establishment opposition everywhere. This is done by finding innumerable faults with what we do, and yes they absolutely do feel inclined to apply strikingly double standards wherever convenient.

Many in the US think the Muslim terrorist threat is sufficient that our Euro and other allies should rally solidly with us to combat it. Well they do to some extent. At governmental levels. But the populace majorly doesn’t WANT to believe it’s very great. They WANT to believe that the big Establishment Kahuna is the bigger threat, or could be if they don’t make lots of noise. And anyway they want to blame America and it’s Jews with their heedless support for Israel intrasingence on Palestine for stirring the whole hornets nest up to begin with. Not having very many big sticks any longer, the Euros deeply want to believe that setting a good leaning over backwards sort of example will solve that and most other problems.

A more liberal US administration would lessen this somewhat (particularly initially), but not to any great degree after a time, unless and until the Euros feel sufficiently threatened by another force. (Japan currently does feel threatened by China and thus is less viscerally anti-American. As well they’re less moralistic on external political issues.)