Larry Charles to direct Borat movie

Borat fails to fool New Yorkers:

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/07/11/innit_ali_g_for_real.php

i seriously can.not.wait. for this.

Imagine if he'd directed the Ali G movie! Like, credulously!

http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/2003/08/26/

where is the trailer milo?

Equal-Opportunity Offender Plays Anti-Semitism for Laughs
By SHARON WAXMAN

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 6 — Fall is traditionally when Hollywood turns to more serious films, and the Toronto International Film Festival is where they are frequently shown. But a new movie that seems certain to raise hackles and induce squirming is a raucous comedy that makes its points by seeming to embrace sexism, racism, homophobia and that most risky of social toxins: anti-Semitism.

Screening at midnight on Thursday in Toronto, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” stars the chameleonlike comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as he impersonates a Kazakh reporter touring the United States, bringing his version of Kazakh culture to real-life Americans.

In one scene Borat insists on driving to California rather than flying, “in case the Jews repeat their attack of 9/11.” As he tours the South, he becomes terrified when he learns that an elderly couple who run an inn are Jewish. When cockroaches crawl under the door of his room, he becomes convinced the innkeepers have transformed themselves into bugs, and throws money at them.

In another scene Borat returns to his home village and participates in an annual ritual, “The Running of the Jews,” complete with giant Jew puppets that the villagers beat with clubs.

This anti-anti-Semitic humor is mixed in with other outrageous behavior, including slurs against Gypsies and gays, and a nude wrestling match. But in a world in which resurgent anti-Semitism has become — sometimes literally — an explosive topic, the movie may well hit a particular nerve, especially in Europe.

The British-born Mr. Baron Cohen, who calls himself an observant Jew, has performed this same high-wire comedy act for his HBO series, “Da Ali G Show,” in which he plays three characters, including Borat, each hilariously offensive in its own right.

The title character of the show, Ali G, is a vaguely Muslim British idiot with a hip-hop persona, who was the subject of a rather tame, and unsuccessful, film in 2002, “Ali G Indahouse,” released straight to video in the United States.

With “Borat,” Mr. Baron Cohen — who shares screenplay credit with several others — decided to head straight for the most sensitive areas of politically incorrect global culture, and for the first time will be doing so for a mass audience, far beyond the sophisticated niche of HBO. The film is to be released by 20th Century Fox on Nov. 3 on more than 2,000 screens nationwide.

(Borat is not explicitly Muslim, but Kazakhstan has a large Sunni Muslim population along with a sizable contingent of Orthodox Christians.)

Mr. Baron Cohen, who is appearing in Toronto as Borat, declined to be interviewed for this article and will be conducting interviews ahead of the film only in character.

20th Century Fox also declined to comment for this article or otherwise participate. Executives at the studio said that they were concerned about overemphasizing the political aspects of the humor, or otherwise labeling the movie, which they said they hoped would have broad appeal to a young audience.

The film is experimental and highly unusual for Hollywood, in some ways reminiscent of the guerrilla humor of Andy Kaufman, who baited members of the unsuspecting public with his characters, or the buffoonery of Charlie Chaplin as a Hitler-esque tyrant in “The Great Dictator” in 1940.

Film historians said that Hollywood was usually reluctant to take on controversy in general and had particularly avoided treating anti-Semitism in the past.

“Hollywood has a history of avoiding controversial topics, and notably did so at the end of the 1930’s, with the rise of Nazism and anti-Semitism,” said Jonathan Kuntz, who teaches American film history at the University of California, Los Angeles. Studios “were afraid of offending audiences, and of limiting their popularity in the European market,” he added. “And because so many moguls were Jewish, they were afraid this would be used to attack Hollywood as anti-Nazi.”

Today too Hollywood is often reluctant openly to discuss anti-Semitism, as was evidenced by the careful debate over Mel Gibson’s 2004 blockbuster, “The Passion of the Christ.” Only when Mr. Gibson was heard making anti-Jewish slurs this summer during a drunken-driving arrest did a few Hollywood veterans speak out against him.

“Borat” was to some extent made outside the Hollywood system. Fox kept the film off its production list and created a separate company, One America, to be the nominal producer. Mr. Baron Cohen also ran into creative differences with his first director, Todd Phillips, who left the production last year, while the film shut down for five months. The veteran comedy director Larry Charles eventually completed the film.

A spokesman for Mr. Baron Cohen said that Mr. Phillips’s departure was “a mutual decision.”

During the shoot Fox ignored numerous protests from the Kazakh Embassy in Washington, whose officials were concerned about the depiction of their country as prejudiced.

Early indications are that the film will be a hit. It rocked audiences with laughter at the Cannes Film Festival, where Mr. Baron Cohen was photographed on the beach wearing a neon-green kind of thong, and won an audience award at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival in Michigan this summer.

Still, “I can almost guarantee you that not everyone will get the joke,” said Richard B. Jewell, a professor of film history at the University of Southern California. But he added: “In my opinion it’s a very healthy thing. Some of best films that have been made in the last 50 years have been black comedies.” He cited “Dr. Strangelove,” which poked fun at nuclear holocaust.

“What can be more serious?” he asked. “It makes people think about these things in ways they don’t when there are more straightforward, serious, sober films.”

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

hahahahahaha

after reading that in the times i was wondering what the kind of part could mean, now that i see the picture...

i'm amped for this, so so amped.

My sister is already going crazy for it. Wouldn't stop talking about it this past weekend (and I don't blame her).

hahahahahahahah again

rofl

http://thedailytransom.observer.com/2006/09/toronto-film-festival-borat-breakdown-total-freakout.html

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/sept06/borat089903.php

But after about an hour of chaos, it became evident that the film would have to be abandoned. As Borat, Baron Cohen told one festival organiser: ‘If you don't give these people money back, I crush you.’

...Before the fiasco, all was looking well. Up to 1,000 fans had filled the Toronto streets chanting ‘Bo-rat’ and waving Kazakh flags, while the character strode down the red carpet accompanied by a horse and cart and women dressed as peasants.

The show had long been sold out, and many rush-seat hopefuls went home unhappy, and one desperate fan trolled the line on Gerrard St., offering $80 for a single ticket - four times the regular price. There were no apparent takers.

http://www.thestar.com/images/thestar/img/060908_baron_cohen_300.jpg

You mean "Not that I'll be able to actually go to a movie theater to see it."

oh thank god.

Somehow I think his retiring Borat is part of the plan. (Letterman has never been funnier than when he'd go out on the streets of Manhattan in '82 w/ hidden camera and ask "What's in that bag? I'm Mr. Curious" and get ppl rushing away from him.)

Cohen's representatives refused to allow him or his alter ego to respond to the controversy because it's not close enough to the film's release date.

hahahahah between all these great quotes and the "anti-Borat hard-liners" phrase, somebody had fun writing this.

I definitely remember seeing this in the times and thinking wtf!? Why is their an ad from the government of Kazakhstan? I totally didn't put it together.

C+C Music Manufacturing Plant!

There was another fave music listing that cracked me up but I forget and it's not there any more.

God, worse case scenario, like if our President threatens Borat or something, he can just come out and say "OK, I lie, I am not from Khazakhstan but neighboring Turkazikmenia" or something. It'd hardly matter.

S.B.C. is one of the best-looking clowns in eons. I'm glad Ali G always kept his legs open while interviewing.

Anyway, on of the topics that appeared to be contained in the magazine was a 'Best & Worst Dressed' list. On the cover were the usual waify trollops, but also this:
http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news_img/3393/3393.jpg

Perhaps I should see what they say.

woo hoo, coming to portland!

oh yeah, and in regards to the talks with dubya thing, what's this about the kazakh oil fields being on the level of certain middle east countries?

vid of Borat's response to the Kazakh lawsuit against him

"...and cleanest prostitutes in all of Central Asia!"

http://myspace-434.vo.llnwd.net/01168/43/49/1168299434_l.jpgTHIS SCREENING IS
FREE!
YOUR PROFILE IS YOUR TICKET!

MYSPACE.COM PRESENTS
THE BLACK CARPET SCREENING
of

BORAT
Cultural Learnings of America for
Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

September 20th, 2006
25 CITIES, 6 COUNTRIES, 1 NIGHT, 1 BORAT!
Berlin, GER - Dublin, IRL - London, GB - Sydney, AUS - Toronto, CA
Atlanta, GA - Austin, TX - Boston, MA - Cleveland, OH - Chicago, IL
Dallas, TX - Denver, CO - Kansas City, MO - Los Angeles, CA
Miami, FL - Minneapolis, MN - Nashville, TN - New York, NY
Philadelphia, PA - Phoenix, AZ - Portland, OR - San Diego, CA
San Francisco, CA - Sacramento, CA - Washington DC

ALERT: BORAT HIMSELF WILL ATTEND ONE OF THE BLACK CARPET SCREENINGS!!!
That's right, the man himself will appear at one of the 25 screenings around the world to greet his dedicated fans!
Which screening? We're sworn to secrecy! You'll have to show up to find out which one!
NOT A HOAX! NOT A DREAM! NOT AN IMAGINARY STORY! BORAT WILL BE THERE!

THIS SCREENING IS
FREE!
YOUR PROFILE IS YOUR TICKET!

Bring a printout of your profile with
THE BLACK CARPET and BORAT
in your Top 8/12/24/etc for FREE admittance!

ONE PROFILE, ONE PERSON
FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE
Entry is limited so get there early to ensure success!

THEATER LOCATIONS
PLEASE NOTE: No cellphones or cameras will be allowed in the theater!
INTERNATIONAL
all times local
BERLIN,
GERMANY
CineStar SonyCenter
at the Potsdamer Platz
Potsdamer Stra§e 4
Berlin, GER
Doors: 9pm DUBLIN,
IRELAND
Cineworld Dublin
Parnell Centre
Parnell Street
Dublin, IE
Doors: 8pm LONDON,
ENGLAND
Cineworld Shaftesbury Ave
Trocadero
7-14 Coventry Street
Piccadilly Circus
London, GB
Doors: 8pm SYDNEY,
AUSTRALIA
Hoyts Cinema
Broadway Shopping Centre
Cnr Greek & Bay Street
Broadway 2007
Sydney, AU
Doors: 6pm TORONTO,
CANADA
Paramount
259 Richmond Street West
Toronto, ON M5V 3M6
Doors: 9pm

UNITED STATES
all times local
ATLANTA
Regal Hollywood 24
3265 Northeast Expressway
Chamblee, GA, 30341
Doors: 9pm DALLAS
Studio Movie Grill
4721 W. Park Blvd. #100
Plano, TX 75093
Doors: 9pm MINNEAPOLIS
AMC Southdale
400 Southdale Center
Edina, MN 55435
Doors: 9pm PORTLAND
Regal Lloyd Center
1510 NE Multnomah Blvd.
Portland, OR 97232
Doors: 9pm

AUSTIN
Alamo Draft House South Lamar
1120 S. Lamar
Austin, TX 78704
Doors: 9pm DENVER
CC Cherry Creek
3000 East First Ave.
Denver, CO 80206
Doors: 9pm NASHVILLE
Regal Green Hills
3815 Green Hills Village Dr
Nashville, TN 37215
Doors: 9pm SACRAMENTO
Century Downtown Plaza
445 Downtown Plaza
Sacramento, CA 95814
Doors: 9pm

BOSTON
Regal Fenway
210 Brookline Ave
Boston, MA 02155
Doors: 9pm KANSAS CITY
AMC Studio 30
12075 S. Strang Line Road
Kansas City, MO 66062
Doors: 9pm NEW YORK CITY
AMC Empire
234 W. 42nd. St at 8th Ave
New York City, NY 10036
Doors: 9pm SAN DIEGO
Edwards Mira Mesa 18
10733 Westview Pkwy
San Diego, CA 92126
Doors: 9pm

CLEVELAND
Richmond Town Center
631 Richmond Road
Richmond Hts, OH 44143
Doors: 9pm LOS ANGELES
AMC Century City
10250 Santa Monica Blvd
Suite 2000
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Doors: 9pm PHILADELPHIA
UA Riverview
1400 S. Columbus Blvd
Philadelphia, PA 19467
Doors: 8pm SAN FRANCISCO
AMC Metreon
101 Fourth Street
3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
Doors: 9pm

CHICAGO
AMC 600
600 N. Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60611
Doors: 9pm MIAMI
AMC Aventura
Aventura Mall
19501 Biscayne Blvd
Aventura FL 33180
Doors: 9pm PHOENIX
Harkins Arizona Mills
5000 E Arizona Mills Circle
Tempe, Arizona 85254
Doors: 9pm WASHINGTON DC
Georgetown
3111 K Street, NW
Washington DC 20007
Doors: 9pm

LOVE BORAT? LOVE MUSIC? CHECK OUT THE SOUNDTRACK!
Borat: Stereophonic Musical Listenings That Have Been Origin In Moving Film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." Avaiilable October 31st on Kuzcek Records and Downtown/Atlantic Records.

SEE YOU SOON!

1) free screenings such as these

and

2) I have brother. His name is Bilo. He once have a demon that live in his head so we open his head and place a dry fish inside to eat the demon, but the demon become angry and make Bilo a retard. He is sex crazy! All day long in his cage he look on porno!

This Bilo son Boltok

http://www.borat.tv/ms_blog/wolfboy.jpg

in other news:

http://www.avclub.com/content/files/images/Borat-hf.homepage_featured.jpg

the avclub uses borat as a teaser, but never really says much about their review of the Toronto festival

"Do not listen him. He is Uzbek impostor."

I wish I'd seen that news thing :(

hahahahah

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006/09/borat_goes_to_w.html

Hilarious.

Friday, September 29, 2006

My Speehes on Kazakhstan Embassy. Here is what I say.

Jagshemash, my name Borat Sagdiyev. I would like comment on recent advertisements on television and in media about my nation of Kazakhstan, saying that women are treated equally, and that all religions are tolerated – these are disgusting fabrications. These claims are part of a propoganda campaign against our country by evil nitwits Uzbekistan – who as we all know are a very nosey people, with a bone in the middle of their brain.

There is a man name Roman Vasilenko who is claiming to be Press Secretary of Kazakhstan. Please do not listen this man, he is Uzbek imposter, and is currently being hunted by our agents. I must further say on behalf of my government, that if Uzbekistan do not desist from funding these attacks, then we will not rule out the possibility of military intervention.

If there is one more item of Uzbek Propoganda claiming that we do NOT drink fermented horse urine, give death penalty for baking baigels, or export over 300 tonnes of human pubis per year, then we will be left with no alternative but to commence bombardment of their cities with our catapaults.

Furthermores, all claims that our glorious leader is displeased with my film, 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' is lie. Infacts main purpose of Premier Nazharbayev's visit to Washingtons is to promote this moviefilm. This why together with Ministry of Information he will be hosting a screening tomorrow evening, to which he have invitate Premiere George Walter Bush and other American dignitaries - Donald Rumsfeld, Bill Gates, OJ Simpson and Mel Gibsons.

This screening will be followed by cocktail party and a discussion of closer ties between our countries at Hooters.

Thank you, I must now return to Embassy where my government need me.
Chenquieh

US President George W. Bush(R) shakes hands with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. Bush chose not to publicly confront Nazarbayev on human rights, as the oil-rich Central Asian giant's leader visited the White House.(AFP/Mandel Ngan)

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20060929/2006_09_29t082850_450x287_us_life_borat1.jpg?x=380&y=242&sig=4tkdZE2LezGq.5YEeQKkCw--

At the white house, talking to un-amused security.

Also, i didn't know that the Baikonur Cosmodrome was in Kazakhstan.

Nazarbayev has sought to raise the profile of the oil-rich former Soviet republic and assure the West that, contrary to Borat's claims, his is not a nation of drunken anti-Semites who treat their women worse than their donkeys.

lolol

The main hobbies in Israel are dreideling and drinking the blood of gentile children.

then there's this, about the ADL raising concerns...

He ventures deep into unmediated America, spot-tests some big, surprisingly ambitious sociological theories, then wrestles a fat guy naked.

http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/borat/

it's getting the best reviews that i've ever seen for a comedy.

12 for 12 is nice & all, but it'd be a better barometer of its widespread acceptance w/ more Variety-type raves and less JoBlo.com and CliffYablonski.edu raves.

"We went out, came back in with the cameras, he wouldn't do it!"

Yeah, It's kinda hard to take the web, um, critic seriously when their quote reads:

"There are a lot of blue state folks who are offended by Cohen's portrayal of Kazakhstan as a backwards country of idiots. Hopefully, Cohen will find a way to make fun of these fun-hating cretins in his next picture"

Liberals hate comedy. These emo-terrorists want nothing more than to destroy our laughter. Never forget.

http://www.boratmovie.com/

Despite that, I love Borat and I can't wait to see the film.

Nothing more than that? :-/

I'm surprised that so few of you have any sympathy for the Kazachs concern

The concern seems for the most part to be coming from the government, who are a bunch of tools to start with.

xpost - It seems a decent idea to have non-poisonous views even on nations that don't depend on tourist Dollars (Iraq springs to mind :)

How does that make it worse? If a small group of people who didn't know or care that Kazakhstan existed before now have an incorrect view of it - who was harmed? They never would have patronized Kazakhstan and its industry, nor are they in a position to guide policy toward Kazakhstan. For all intents and purposes, Kazakhstan is as real to them as Hobbitland.

but i am waiting for "All your base are belong to us" or "Wazzzzup" or "I wuz fuckin' mah momma!" whatever to become the new "I'm Rick James, bitch".

xpost

maybe it's cause it was so ridiculous that you know that his attitudes were exaggerated and untrue and maybe because at some point, you realize that many of the americans he meets are keeping pace with his character's fucked up attitudes... and kind of half wondering, "are these people for real or are they actors?" and even if they are actors, you know the attitudes they're expressing are completely real... unlike the exaggeration cohen's playing.

m.

One person who is likely to regret the day he met Borat is Tennessee rodeo manager Bobby Rowe, who is cajoled by the comedian into making disparaging remarks about Muslims and homosexuals.

A phone call to Mr Rowe and an enquiry about whether he is the person in the movie elicits a slow, painful reply: "Yeah, I'm the same one."

"And so I don't do any interviews over the dadgum phone any more. This phone rings 10-12 phones a day.

Cohen must have struggled to make this guy look stupid.

http://myspace.com/borat

Features
October 24, 2006
Beat the Press
The Borat media frenzy begs the question: Will reporters ever quit rolling over for studios?
By Lewis Beale

I was talking to a 20th Century Fox publicist last week about Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, and the conversation wasn't about its alleged anti-Semitism or the way it picks on America's rubes and racists. No, I was wondering if actor/co-writer Sacha Baron Cohen was actually going to do interviews as himself rather than in character, as he's been doing for the past several months. The publicist wanted to know why I asked, and I responded that interviewing Cohen as Borat held absolutely no interest for me.

"It's shtick," I said. "And as a journalist, I'm not interested in promoting shtick. I'd really like to know why he chose Kazakhstan as Borat's home, why all the Jewish stuff is in the film and if he thinks that in many cases, the object of his satire is akin to shooting fish in a barrel."

Said flack was amazed I wasn't interested in a Borat interview; everyone else was dying to query the Kazakh buffoon. (If you don't believe me, read this. And watch a Borat "press conference" here). Which leads to my point: the toadying, craven entertainment press once again shows how it might as well be in the pay of the studios. Someone once said that the term "entertainment journalism" is an oxymoron, and these days, that's more often true than not. The competition for "stories" (I use this term loosely; it's really just a feeding frenzy for access) has become so intense that just about everyone has become a suckup.

Here's the thing: the film industry is a multi-billion dollar enterprise with a global reach. The images it puts out not only define how we see ourselves, but how others see us. Not that you'd know this from most entertainment "reporting," which is obsessed with celebrity, box-office gross and the vapid coming and goings of studio heads and power agents.

Back in the early '80s, when I broke in as a stringer for the Los Angeles Times, things were a lot different. The entertainment section ran stories about how the Mob was reaping millions from Deep Throat; the ways in which the cocaine epidemic was affecting Hollywood; and how the paranoid M.I.A. movies of the period (Rambo and all those cheesy Chuck Norris flicks) were presenting a distorted image of the Vietnam War's aftermath.

Can you imagine stories like those in any arts section in 2006? It's not just that editors and writers seem to be uninterested in real reporting (under the mistaken assumption that readers don't care), there's also the fact that slowly but surely, they've allowed the PR machine to dictate what they write, and even how it gets played.

Don't believe me? Just check out the outlets who will willingly sign legal documents stating that the piece being written, or the photo being shot, can only show up in the publication, Web site, etc. that the interview was scheduled for. In other words: You want the interview, you have to promise you won't sell it to another outlet. You want the photo, you have no resale or syndication rights. In some cases, you have to promise specific placement before you get the access you want.

I don't know of any other beat reporters -- whether they're covering sports, politics, business or what-have-you -- who are forced to sign away their rights. But on the entertainment scene, well, you want disheartening, check out any junket where the Webbies, TV stations, second-tier papers and other alleged journalists blithely troop up to the sign-in table and happily affix their John Hancocks to these documents. It's truly, utterly disgusting (don't even get me started on the sycophantic autograph-seekers, picture-takers and gift bag freebie sluts).

Luckily, I work mostly for outlets who refuse this sort of blackmail. And even though their stance has occasionally cost them stories they haven't backed down. In the last several months, I've had two run-ins of this sort: an interview with a B-level actor was cancelled when the paper I was writing for refused to guarantee a cover, and photos of a 20-year-old semi-unknown were not allowed when the same publication would not sign away their rights. Good for them; it's nice to know there are still some papers with ethical standards.

Which leads me back to Borat. Interviewing an actor in character has as much relationship to real reporting as the Oakland Raiders do to a good football team. It's blatantly crawling up the ass of the studio and giving it a big rimjob. You want to do it? Great. Have a fine time. But don't ever call yourself a reporter, my friend.

INTEGRITY

----------------

oh give me a fucking break.

What? That isn't true? Don't be naive.

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2006/10/boratG241006_228x371.jpg

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/img/galleries/borat251006/borat2G_350x271.jpg
"I have brought here with me my 11-year-old son, his wife and their new-born baby, who I am hoping to sell to singing transvestite Madonna," he said.

and their review

A little warning: There's some anti-Semitic banter (from Baron Cohen if you please) and male nude wrestling.

...earlier this week, 20th Century Fox slashed the number of theaters in which it plans to open Borat domestically to 800 from more than 2000, saying that Middle America has yet to become aware of the character. The film opens on Nov. 2 in the U.S. (and the U.K.).

Are these the same fucks that buried Idiocracy, or was those fucks at another studio?

I'll be honest with you, kingfisher, I hadn't heard of Borat until recently.

This summer, a guy in my fantasy baseball league starting posting stuff in his "Talk Smack!" balloon like "Throw the Jew down the well!" The other managers and I went wtf, and started calling him out in the comments section. He backpedaled and said it was from "Borat". Hell, his team's name was "Borat's Ballers". I didn't know what it meant.

NOW, I've heard of the guy, but I wouldn't blame the studio for not giving it a Braveheart IV kind of opening.

Obvious and Idealistic, as that sentiment may be.

Fish in a barrel and a little too self-satisfied for my taste, but kind of great nonetheless.

Me = Capt. Obv.

-- Pleasant Plains /// (pleasant.plain...), October 27th, 2006 5:38 PM. (Pleasant Plains ///)

wait, back up... you fantasize about baseball?

Anonymously fund over-the-top promotion campaign for all wierd movies I fancy.

If I ever become a Crazy Billionaire To Do List Item #360:

Purchase Hellicopters and invite friends over for "Hellacopter Races."

Sure I do. For example, in my outfield, I have a +1 Paladin in left, Miss April 1992 Cady Cantrell in center, and Creedence Clearwater Revival in right.

we all know she can't catch worth a shit, but can she bat?

Hollywood film company Universal is offering £22 million for the worldwide rights to the film Bruno, based on a flamboyant gay Austrian fashion reporter.

the facial expressions are better than the jokes

Hollywood film company Universal is offering £22 million for the worldwide rights to the film Bruno, based on a flamboyant gay Austrian fashion reporter.

-- kingfish prætor (jdsalmo...), October 28th, 2006.

fixed.

Borat beware: Accept an invitation by a top Kazakh official to find out what the country is really like and you could be in for a nasty surprise.

"I'd kill this impostor on the spot," said Eltai Muptekeyev, who makes his living in Almaty by posing for photos with a blindfolded falcon clinging to a thick leather glove on his hand.

...

Even the nation's most liberal political voice had bellicose words for Borat.

"If it happened in a country where rules are more strict than ours, there would have been a government decree to destroy Borat," said Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, leader of the opposition National Social-Democratic Party.

"Even if we set aside his (offensive) personality, he should certainly bear responsibility for his offensive words."

But some Kazakhs were starting to see the humor.

Aigul Abysheva, a third-year linguistics student at Almaty State University, said she at first was "disgusted" by Borat's jokes, especially by his "chain of importance" _ where dogs and horses are higher than women.

"But then I realized he was making fun of ignorant people, no matter where they come from," she said. "The real target of Borat's movie is a couch potato who believes that Kazakhs drink horse urine."

But Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, a Kazakh opposition leader, said it was only natural that Cohen should ridicule his country.

"Instead of fighting Borat we should look at other circumstances that have harmed our country's image," he told the zonakz.net liberal news Web site.

"If human rights and freedoms were not being violated, if Kazakhstan did not become famous for its corruption scandals around the world, then Sacha Cohen would've chosen some other country for his jokes."

"Our way of thinking is mostly European," said Tuyakbai, the opposition leader. "For 70 years we lived in a totalitarian state, and successfully transformed our society in just 15 years of independence."

His tone changed when the conversation turned to Borat.

"If I see him, I'll hit him in the face," he said.

by J. Hoberman

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is funnier than its malapropic title—the audience with whom I saw the movie wasn't laughing so much as howling—and even more difficult to parse.
Eyes wide, face fixed in an avid grin, Sacha Baron Cohen's ersatz Kazakh TV reporter, the ineffably oafish Borat Sagdiyev, goes looking for America. It's a documentary of sorts. The road trip—he's afraid to fly "in case the Jews repeated their attack of 9-11"—takes him from New York to Los Angeles (where he hopes to bag Pamela Anderson) by way of Mississippi, and well beyond the boundaries of taste.

America, the "greatest country in the world" per Borat, first appears as a subway car, where the friendly Kazakh introduces himself to passengers and, as is his custom, attempts to double-kiss the men. Predictable agitation is trumped when Borat's cheap suitcase drops open to release a live chicken.

The alert viewer may glimpse director Larry Charles among the startled commuters, but by and large, Baron Cohen's lumpen performance art—replete with all manner of public display and daredevil idiocy—is skilled at concealing its tracks. In the most spectacular example, Borat's bedroom tussle with his heavyset "Kazakh" producer (Ken Davitian), caught masturbating with a picture of Pamela, escalates into a naked chase down the hotel elevator, through the lobby, and into a banquet of the local mortgage brokers' association.

Not simply a jackass, Borat (like Baron Cohen's earlier creation Ali G) specializes in one-on-ones with unwary professionals, snared by their willingness to humor a hapless foreigner and desire to appear on (even Kazakh) TV. Stooges range from a self-identified humor consultant ("Do you ever laugh on people with retardation?" Borat wonders) to a car salesman (asked if the automobile is outfitted with a "pussy magnet") to a pair of pols, former Georgia representative Bob Barr and perennial candidate Alan Keyes. What did they know—and when did they know it? Keyes realizes something before our eyes when, after a long, faux-naive account of a Gay Pride rally, Borat says, "Are you telling me that the man who tried to put a rubber fist into my anus was a homosexual?"

How does Baron Cohen keep a straight face? If ever there was a movie that demanded a documentary devoted to its making, it's this one. (Press notes assert the filmmakers were reported as terrorists and trailed by the FBI.) That both Barr and Keyes are right-wing moralizers suggests something about the Baron Cohen agenda. It's hardly coincidental that the antique store he trashes specializes in Confederate memorabilia. Interviewing "veteran feminists" or Atlanta homies, Borat baffles them with his chauvinist stupidity. But picked up by a van of South Carolina frat boys or chatting with the owner of the Imperial Rodeo, he has alarmingly little difficulty getting them to articulate the idea of reinstituting slavery or making homosexuality a capital offense.

Baron Cohen has gleefully involved the government of Kazakhstan in a campaign against Borat—showing up at the White House on the day President Bush hosted Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev. But his target isn't really an imaginary version of Nazerbayev's nation (nor its enemies, the "evil nitwits" of Uzbekistan); it is rather the domain of the "great warlord Premier Bush," red states in particular. "I think the cultural differences are just vast," the Mississippi matron hosting Borat for dinner at her Magnolia Mansion (on Secession Drive) confides to the camera while her guest is away from the table. Those differences become unbridgeable when Borat returns with a stool sample, and then with the arrival of his indescribably inappropriate date—recruited from the back-page ads of the local alt-weekly.

The movie's set piece has Borat— wearing an American-flag shirt and looking like Saddam Hussein plugged into the wall—entertain a Virginia rodeo with his Kazakh version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Borat's introductory declaration of support for America's "war of terror" gets an ovation, his fervent wish that George Bush "drink the blood of every man, woman, and child in Iraq" a slightly less enthusiastic one. The crowd starts booing, however, when they hear him sing, "Kazakhstan is the great country in the world—all other countries are run by little girls." (Borat manages to complete this anthem; a report in The Roanoke Times suggests that Baron Cohen and his crew had to be hustled out of the place before they were lynched.)

It's almost anticlimactic when Borat wanders into a Pentecostal church and, in the presence of a Mississippi congressman and justice of the state supreme court, is baptized in the spirit. "Does Jesus like me?" he cries, his impassioned babble lost in the mass glossolalia and the strident "Kazakh" fiddle music arising on the soundtrack. To what faith does Borat subscribe? It's an interesting, never answered question. At one point, he's told to shave off his mustache so that he doesn't look Muslim—"just Eye-talian." But there's no suggestion that Borat is Muslim; his only religion seems to be anti-Semitism.

Borat is not just blatant but proselytizing; his statements precipitate the latent anti-Semitism around him. (The most outrageous example, not in the film, is the widely circulated TV bit in which Borat incites the patrons of an Arizona bar to join him in singing a Kazakh folk song, "Throw the Jew Down the Well.") Small wonder the Anti-Defamation League has expressed concern. The organization deemed it unfortunate that Borat is identified with an actual nation—as though the joke would work if Baron Cohen were passing himself off as a TV reporter from Upper Slobovia—but that's a displacement. Their real anxiety is that by satirizing anti-Semitism, Borat will legitimize it.

It's a measure of Baron Cohen's dexterity that he plants his alter ego on both sides of the Jewish Question. "Kazakhstan"— actually shot in Romania—is a nightmare Eastern Europe where peasants bunk with livestock, torment Gypsies, and stage a trad- itional "Running of the Jew," chasing giant-fanged puppets through their muddy village. But as a native of this barbaric shtetl, Borat is also a non-Christian other who—by virtue of his primitive nature—ridicules the hypocrisy of the dominant social order.

The ADL identifies Baron Cohen as an "observant" Jew. (I'm not sure what that means, but it seems less revealing than the subject of his Cambridge dissertation, namely the role of Jews in the American civil rights movement.) In any case, this comic has a distinctively Jewish sensibility. As sociologist John Murray Cuddihy notes in The Ordeal of Civility, his classic account of newly enlightened Jewish thinkers assimilated into the modern world, Marx, Freud, and Claude Lévi-Strauss were all similarly obsessed with "the raw, the coarse, the vulgar, the naked" and exposing the way in which these things were sublimated by the civil "niceness" of Western culture. So too, Borat (who might add the superstitious, the stupid, the sexist, and the xenophobic to that list).

Indeed, the man who invented Borat is a masterful improviser, brilliant comedian, courageous political satirist, and genuinely experimental film artist. Borat makes you laugh but Baron Cohen forces you to think.

introduced to U.S. audiences in the music video for Madonna’s 1998 single “Music”

They’ve given up on the idea that pop culture can be a unifying force and so praise movies that make them feel superior to others.

If Armond really believed this, he'd consider his own status as film criticism's most prominent contrarian.

Dude just watch it in a double-feature with Team America or something

What a moron.

(x-post) Offhand, I don't think he's ever passed off Spielberg hate as widespread anti-Semitism but rather anti-sensation, or something to that effect.

I want to see this, but I'm having trouble not thinking about the tv producer in Jackson who lost his job because he got duped.

I was going to say the same about Talledega Nights.

watch one Bruno Ali G skit.

No variety, terrible pacing - a few funny moments along the way, but overall just very tedious. If it had been a DVD I would have stopped it every 30 minutes to go do something else.

Not half as funny overall as Jackass, I much prefer comedy where the ridicule is internal vs. making fun of people who are otherwise unsuspecting.

OTM, even in the same SEGMENT as the "Throw the Jew Down the Well" scene, you had Borat teaching "Kazakh" folk dances to a square dance group ("walk like a homosexual", "beat the gypsy", and so on).

Why would someone centre his longass "critique" around a scene he admittedly saw only once?

---

ABE FOXMAN ON BORAT

Fresh from squashing the Tony Judt speech at the Polish Legation in New York, the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman threw himself today into the controversy surrounding the faux-Moslem comedian Borat. Foxman expressed “profound misgivings” about the “propriety of having an Israeli-born Jew portray a Moslem in an insulting and defamatory manner.” Professing to speak as the “voice of painful experience,” Foxman spoke in anguished tones:

“The Jewish people know something about defamation through humor, whether it be in anti-Semitic cartoons or Shakespearean comedies. Defamation, however ‘skillful’ and ‘funny’ is no joke, just as racism is no joke.”

Foxman was especially uneasy with the portrayal being done by an Israeli-born Jew:

“I have been accused of being hypersensitive to ethnic slurs, but one needn’t be the head of the ADL to deplore the spectacle being made in Hollywood over a Jewish comedian who impersonates Moslems in a manner that depicts an entire people as imbeciles and bigots and wins applause for it.”

Nor was Foxman happy over the national media’s embrace of Borat’s brand of what Foxman labels, “defamatory and belittling stereotypes”:

“Even if CNN and Jon Stewart think it is funny, it isn’t funny when a blood libel is perpetrated against the entire people of Kazakhstan. And, wink-nudge, everyone knows the Kazaks are just a stand-in for Arabs in general.”

Foxman insists it was a “no-brainer to step forward,” despite the ADL’s usual prime focus on defamation of Jews:

“I asked myself, ‘suppose we had an Arab on national TV networks doing a hilariously funny impersonation of a Jew but in a derogatory manner, say as greedy or rude?’ I’d do my job and he wouldn’t be on TV very long. Indeed, with the JDL like it is, he might not be alive very long. I’d prefer it never come to that.”

For his part, Jon Stewart said, he wouldn’t hesitate to put such a Arab comedian on his show, but he doubted such an actor could “impersonate a preposterous Jew as effectively as Foxman does.”

— Max Scherz Unsinn

huh?

still, going to see this in about 6 hours.

pretty weak overall. but i bust a few guts just the same. naked wrestling was an all-time classic.

Considering two of the speakers were a member of Congress and a state Supreme Court justice, I'd have thought you'd be at least a little concerned over that.

Based on the anecdotal evidence pouring in to me about long lines at the box office, sold-out screenings, and fans driving more than an hour to find a theater showing the pic, I believe Borat was standing room only inside those screenings.

this was true of the late show in Portland i attended.

also, i liked that we saw trailers for both the Reno 911 movie(FINALLY) and Casino Royale(for the Sellers connection).

But the scenes at the bed and breakfast place and the one where he is fighting with his producer are as funny as things can get.

This was actually my situation, FWIW -- I'd seen a couple of bits but no more. Therefore, everything felt v. fresh.

AND SPEAKING OF THE TRAILERS. Yeah, the Reno 911 and Bond ones were cool. Everything else made me want to kill.

But the scenes at the bed and breakfast place
I thought that sequence was dull and uncomfortable. Once you've had The Running of the Jew and the Jewchick, you've pretty much mined anti-anti-Semitic humor as far as you can.

But come on, even you were laughing so hard your stomach hurt when Borat threw the money at the cochroadches.

1 BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN
Fox

837 theatres $9,050,000
$10,812 per screen.

2 THE SANTA CLAUSE 3: THE ESCAPE CLAUSE
Buena Vista

3,458 theatres $5,200,000
$1,504 per screen.

-- deej.. (clublonel...), November 3rd, 2006 12:36 PM. (deej..) (later) (link)

also: according to him, Kazakhstan is in Eastern Europe. UH.

enh, if the numbers hold up, that should change w/in two weeks, unless you don't just break down and torrent the thing.

which would be lamentable, tho, since this is a prime flick for a packed movie house.

??

also: watching frat dudes/cowboys squirm during the nude wrestling scene -- priceless

is this a joke or something? fox slashed the screens for insta-buzz and i can't imagine it going any better...

$31,511 per screen, which i assume is good.

i wish alan keyes would've said something crazy.

i knew absolutely nothing of this movie other than recognizing cohen when i saw it. i could only think of i kiss you murat at first, but got over the similarity pretty quickly.
m.

In my opinion, the whole anti-semitism thing, as funny as it was, was too heavy-handed to be an effective social commentary. Also, even if Pamela Anderson was in on the joke (which I suspect she was), the scene with her was too close to a sexual attack to make me laugh. Borat getting people to agree (or disagree) with his sexist comments can be funny, but playing a sexual attack for jokes is a bit too much. In comparison, I don't think people would've laughed if he would've started to hurl anti-semitic rants to the Jewish couple who's house he was staying in (which would've been in character). It's only funny when the joke's on the bigot/sexist.

I really liked the main story in the film, and I don't think I've laughed so hard at the cinema for ages, but I think the film was too much in between a social satire and a politically incorrect comedy to be effective as either. A totally enjoyable film, but less than the sum of it's parts.

That's the point though isn't it??

What hypocrisies do "all" Westerners share?

This is a college town, there were lots of, um, let's just say "male college students" in the theater, and you would not BELIEVE how quiet it got during the Winnebago ride.

My only real qualm with the film is that "eh-HIGH eh-FIVE-ah!" is going to become this year's "I'm Rick James, bitch!", which will be a shame, because it was very well used in this (the telegram scene was one of my favorite least-likely-to-be-remembered moments [also the bear in the ice cream truck, staged as it seemed to have been]).

The only part that the audience was audibly uncomfortable with was when Borat was showing off the pics of his son's cock.

Mahir "I Kiss You" wants to sue Borat, in November's Wired magazine:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/play.html?pg=4

Even Pamela Anderson? I kinda doubt it.

This I admit was the one thing I've been wondering most about.

Yeah, I know the article is obviously one-sided, but if it reflects reality at all, I don't get what they do to actually deserve it? Or is it just The Jerky Boys: The Film? (yes, I'm aware of what several of his other targets have done).

with the dinner party, it's not that they actually deserve it, it's more just "japery amongst the upper classes."

If she wasn't in on the joke I really wouldn't find the last scene funny at all, because the bottom line is that then you would be laughing at a man sexually attacking a woman (nevermind that the woman in question is Pamela Anderson). Yes, the set-up was supposed to make it a satirical, but I found little satire in that particular scene. You're not laughing at Borat the sexist there (at this point he's already become a sympathetic character), you're laughing at him attacking a woman, and I don't think even Pamela Anderson deserves it. As I said, Borat's schtick is only funny when the bigot or the racist or the sexist (or anyone in power) is the object of the joke. Would it have been funny if Borat's would've grabbed the tits and ass of some random women on the street? Or if he would've hurled some racist epithets to the black guys he met?

xpost

(x-post)

Oh? If you were the woman in question, how would you interpret it? Few attacks by random men towards women are not sexual in nature.

A beautiful commitment ceremony between Pamela Anderson's two dogs was rudely interrupted when Ali G. star Sacha Baron Cohen--who is engaged to Wedding Crashers actress Isla Fisher--arrived uninvited at the event.

A surprise visit from Borat Sagdiyev temporarily halted the wedding of Star and Luca Pamela Anderson's two canine companions were about to pledge their undying devotion on a sunny Malibu beach last Wednesday, August 17, when a strange sea-craft was sighted just offshore. Chihuahua Luca, golden retriever Star, and gathered friends and loved ones eyed the vessel with suspicion until Sacha Baron Cohen emerged from the surf astride an inflatable turtle, calling to mind the frothy romance of Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus."

Cohen, in character as Kazakhstani TV reporter Borat, wore shorts with a leather jacket and cap and brandished a white keytar. Once ashore, the oft-reviled comedian sprinted toward Anderson and felled her with a perfectly executed rugby tackle, causing her to drop the beloved Luca. The Stacked actress struggled to her feet and brushed sand off of her long white gown as her loyal bodyguards seized the interloper, dragged him back to the shore, and dunked him in the hungry waves. The wedding party quickly composed itself, and the ceremony continued without further incident.

This disturbance was just the latest in a string of ill-received pranks orchestrated by Da Ali G. Show's Cohen, whose fame has made it increasingly difficult for him to avoid being recognized while "working." Early this year, Cohen (as Borat) was booted from a rodeo in Salem, Virginia, after he butchered the national anthem, made disturbingly violent antiterrorist statements, and suggested that President George W. Bush drink the blood of "every man, woman, and child" killed in Iraq. Last month, "Borat" dined at a Mississippi plantation house on the pretense of learning about Southern culture, but implied that his host's family was racist and supportive of slavery.

Cohen recently lent his voice to the DreamWorks movie Madagascar, in which he played an animated lemur. He is now working on his own Borat: The Movie and a NASCAR comedy in which he'll star opposite Will Ferrell.

...gathered friends and loved ones eyed the vessel with suspicion until Sacha Baron Cohen emerged from the surf astride an inflatable turtle, calling to mind the frothy romance of Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus."

GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

i also thought the atlanta stuff was somewhat odd, especially the borat appropriating hip-hop slang thing, which was an obvious gag that felt beneath the clueless bumbling/darkest reveals shtick that made us pay attention to borat in the first place. i was also struck by how diligently cohen avoided bringing anything of race into the film (this depending on whether you view jewishness as a race or religion), especially in the frat boy scene. there was definitely some ugly shit left on the avid there.

You were at the wrong screening then. (Our audience pretty much was roffling stop to start.)

Cut/full versions of scenes. (Seeing how much was done with the editing will be a treat.)

Various press appearances for the film in character, including the Kazakh embassy crashing and showing up at the White House

Commentary track...in character. (If not that, then Baron-Cohen, Roach and Charles all sitting around bullshitting is fine too.)

I also don't see this as a 'paler' version of the TV show, the disappointment i felt was only in how much it was LIKE the tv show - still felt like the plot was very well integrated.

she was in on it eventually, but whatever, imagine you're turning tricks one night in downtown atlanta and you get this call...

by the smile on her face in the final scene i'm naively assuming that they (SBC/producers) got her in touch with a life-changing sum of money...

i laughed. the running chicken gag. the wrestling scene. the wedding sack. oh dear.

I assume each and every one of these people must've given their consent to appear in the film, right? How on earth did they agree to that? Did the producers make them sign some agreement beforehand?

i thought it was interesting that he treats all women like prostitutes except for the hooker who he gets all sweet and romantic on.

you can sign release after the event.

http://www.slate.com/id/2151865/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15175836/site/newsweek/page/2/

Yeah, but he really doesn't try to fish out the racism in people like he does with antisemitism. He never asks the southerners about black people (not even in the civil war antique store), and when the frat boys talk about "minorities running this country", he stays uncharacteristically silent. I mean, if he really wanted to expose American bigotry, you'd think racism was a more obvious target than antisemitism?

It did concern me that there were a lot of kids (10-15 yrs) at the screening I was at. Not necessarily because of the nudity or racy-ness of it all, but because of a feeling that they were misinterpretting .

I thought that the film was about backwardness (ie. apart from it being something to laugh at). Backwardness of some Central Asians, and of some Americans. The director could have found such backwardness in almost any country, but it does seem to have more of a point being filmed in the country which is the "leader of the free world". The backwardness in the USandA is less forgiveable then that of central Asia or eastern Europe.

I presume that a better (funnier?) Borat film will never be seen as I assume that many great scenes were probably excluded because of legal concerns.

This is the same as Mark Kermode's. I never trust him when it comes to comedies.

Hopefully, y'all understand that I'm not saying that this is my formula for a GREAT comedy. Its just that I've seen so many so-called comedies where a smile wasn't even cracked, so 4 oud-loud laughs is pretty good. Borat... had much more than 4.

I though Sacha was married to a nice Jewish girl, kinda disappointed to hear he's engaged to an actress (from Wedding Crashers!) now.

the gypsy bit was weirdly hilarious, and very clever, the way he acts like you have to be authoritative but also cautious with gypsies, like "I am going to look through your treasures, gypsy. IS THIS OK?"

I have to say while I can see the point of the film exposing backward views or whatever, a lot of the impact seems to be in the fact that it makes racist or anti-semitic jokes, these jokes are powerful because they are seldom allowed to be made.

Once the setting has been made "ok" for people, then you get this raucous outpouring of laughter. Some of the "FUNNIEST MOVIE EVER" type reviews kind of make me feel this a bit more intensely, like people are laughing with the relief of being able to laugh at stuff that would normally be taboo.

I suppose you hope people think about how anti-semitic, sexist etc Borat is, I mean he's obviously a cartoon character, but I'm not sure that people ponder the fact that they just laughed at anti-semitism, maybe it doesn't matter.

I guess Borat brings out the worst in some of the Americans he speaks to, but then perhaps the film also exposes European attitudes towards Eastern Europeans...

Borat (about black servant): "Is he your slave?"

Country Club Guy: "Oh no, we don't have slaves in America now. A law was passed years ago that we cannot use them for slavery. . . . which is good for them."

Borat: "Ah yes, but not so good for YOU!"

this is pretty otm, especially for the showing i saw (semi-rural, reddest state ever)

I haven't read a less than four-star review of it yet. And the majority were fives.
-- chap who would dare to welcome our new stingray masters (joe.goode...)

Just so yr not missing this:

http://www.nypress.com/19/44/film/ArmondWhite.cfm

Mahir is suing.

Maybe this is because HE IS JEWISH.

jesus christ save us from this moronic bullshit

i shall lead the way

http://scoopsnoodle.com/lix/yay.gif
http://scoopsnoodle.com/lix/yay.gif
http://scoopsnoodle.com/lix/yay.gif

I mean, c'mon!!....Its intent was to be funny AND IT WAS! How many "comedies" achieve that???

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,1931712,00.html

The Jewish b&b=staged, no?

I don't feel very troubled by most of the things that people find 'offensive', but maybe I would if I was in a minority that was mocked; maybe I even should on their behalf. What I don't like is what this shares with most comedy nowadays: a quick recourse to sexuality, obscenity and scatology in place of wit. First lines of the film: 'Hello - I Borat - I like sex! Is nice!'. Would he say that? Isn't the point, the interesting aspect of this character here, his innocence, his attempt to well-meaning to a foreign audience ...? etc. SBCohen, like many others (Gervais among them), reaches for smut like a nervous tic, when he can't do any better; and he thus brings his talent down into the general mediocre ruck of bad filthy comedy.

also stfu

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_179/howiwasduped.html

In humor or art theory, you could argue that his statement is so ridiculous that the very utterance of it proves the reverse, and therefore is an unmasking of his character’s small mindedness. Some of Borat’s most famous segments do just that, such as when the comic, who is Jewish, cajoles patrons in a country-western bar to sing “Throw the Jew down the well” to expose covert anti-Semitism. But what exactly is he trying to unmask when he ridicules women?

My art confronts fears and overcomes them with symbols of empowerment. I don’t know what motivates Borat/Cohen to use his considerable talents to deceive and manipulate: maybe it’s his way of gaining power over the childhood sting of religious animosity or the feelings of inferiority from a woman’s beating him at Scrabble. I only know that afterward, I am left feeling confused and sad.

xp

I'm not even gonna try to argue about it here because I know I'd probably end up looking like some humorless fun-hating PC police type, but really, fuck this shit, I can't wait until people stop talking about it.

Wtf, who said this... a Bronson Pinchot fan club president? I mean, I can understand the Latka/Borat thing (although I don't agree with it at all), but fucking Balki?

OH YEAH I WENT THERE

I'm saddened that I am apparently the only fan of Foghorn Leghorn/Dan Ratherisms on this board

the funniest bit, for me anyway, was actually one of the obviously staged ones: the kids discovering a bear in the ice cream truck. that's just perfectly silly and will never not be funny.

The plaintiffs -- listed as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 -- were allegedly assured the film would not be shown in the U.S. and their identities would not be revealed.

http://www.tmz.com/2006/11/09/borat-lawsuit-high-five

haha dicks

At the Kazakh Embassy in Moscow a weary operator answered "Borat?" before directing a reporter to the press office.

Nov. 10, 2006 | The devilish pranks of "Borat" have made him the powder-blue polyester breakout hit of the season. But how many of Sacha Baron Cohen's gags are real, and which ones are staged? Which of Borat's victims were legitimately goofed, and which ones just played along for giggles?

With few exceptions, the real folks featured in "Borat," the movie, have been happy to talk about their experience, and outing them has turned into a mini-media craze, with tons of news outlets trying to sniff out the stories behind the making of the film. To save you time and satisfy your curiosity, we tracked down some of Borat's victims on our own and also compiled a guide revealing which figures were in on the joke (Pamela -- say it ain't so!) and which weren't.

But even after our sleuthing, some mysteries remain -- like where the heck did that naked wrestling match take place? No one seems to know. If you have a clue -- or any great additional information -- please send it to us. This is a work in progress, so be sure to check back in. We think you'll find it very niiice.

The Scene: Borat goes to the rodeo
Where: Salem Civic Center, Salem, Va.

Borat arrives at the rodeo, with plans to sing the national anthem. The rodeo's producer, Bobby Rowe, helpfully advises Borat to shave his mustache, so as not to be mistaken for a Muslim. When Borat tries to kiss him on the cheek, Rowe tells him never to do that, that people might get the wrong impression that he's gay. After Borat declares, "We hang homosexuals in my country!" Rowe smirkingly responds: "That's what we're trying to do here."

Before launching into the anthem, Borat shrieks, "We support your war of terror" -- to thunderous applause. The crowd's enthusiasm tapers off as Borat voices his wish that "George W. Bush will drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq" and turns into all-out booing once Borat begins to sing the Kazakh national anthem -- during which point a horse, apparently spooked by the crowd, freaks out and falls to the ground with his flag-waving rider.

What happened: The event caused quite a stir. John Saunders, the Salem Civic Center's assistant director, told the Roanoke Times that if Borat and crew hadn't high-tailed it out of the arena, "There would have been a riot. They would have been killed."

Rowe told Salon that he'd agreed to let Borat sing, believing the story that Borat was a Kazakh journalist traveling across the country. Rowe says he requested a sample track, but was sent a blank CD. And what about those anti-gay comments? Rowe, who says he hasn't seen the film, didn't disavow them, but instead offered a curious rationale: "As long as [homosexuals] don't mess with me and get me involved, if that's their choice, just have at it. Just don't come in my household and try to demand, as they're doing now, all sorts of things. All this marriage and this mess. If you want to go live together, go live together, but don't drag everyone else into it. It's, like, before you could just pump your gas, but the thieves ruined it for everyone. Now everyone has to go pay for their gas first. Homosexuals, they want their rights for marriage and all this stuff, and they want respectability. If you want to live that life, live that life, but don't involve the whole rest of the country."

Is Rowe concerned about how he comes off in the film? "I'm not really worried about it," he says. "It can't be so bad that I can't survive. No one's coming and trying to eat me."

The Scene: Borat almost stays at a bed-and-breakfast
Where: Though the film suggests the bed-and-breakfast is somewhere between Atlanta and Dallas, it's actually in Newton, Mass.

Borat arrives at a bed-and-breakfast only to realize that, to his horror, the kindly owners are ... Jewish. Scared into playing nice, Borat hesitantly takes a bite out of a pastrami and rye sandwich they bring to his bedroom -- then spits it out the minute they turn away. Later that night, convinced that the shape-shifting couple has transformed into a menacing pair of insects, he throws money at them and runs screaming, with his producer Azamat, into the night.

What happened: Mariam and Joseph Behar, the proprietors of the kosher bed-and-breakfast, tell Salon that they rented out three rooms to what they thought was a Kazakh documentarian and his film crew. The location had been scouted and photographed, with the Behars' knowledge, prior to the taping. Speaking on the telephone, Joseph, with Mariam chatting in the background, says they saw the film and thought it "was not anti-Semitic at all. It was outstanding. I think [Sacha Baron Cohen] is a genius."

Though Borat never broke character, and no one in the production let the Behars in on the joke, Joseph found Borat to be "very lovely and very polite, very attractive."

Joseph says that he first started to have doubts about Borat's authenticity when Borat told him he was going to be married in Malibu. "I know what kind of people live in Malibu," Joseph said, "and I didn't think someone in Malibu would marry this kind of man." Mariam also overheard Borat using Hebrew words (Borat's Kazakh is a mix of gibberish Hebrew and various Eastern European languages).

The producers did ask the Behars to bring food to Borat's room -- something not usually done for guests -- though they did not say what kind of food to bring.

The Scene: Borat has an etiquette lesson
Where: Birmingham, Ala.

Borat visits etiquette instructor Kathie Martin for advice on appropriate dinner party behavior. Most memorably, Borat regales Martin with Polaroids of his very, very naked, teenage son, which Martin, with preternatural poise, suggests he not show to his fellow dinner party attendees.

What happened: Martin was told by producers that a Kazakh documentarian would like to have a lesson before beginning his travels, so as not to embarrass himself. Martin saw the film on Saturday and told us she found that "certain parts were funny, certain parts were not." She told Newsweek, "I would've liked my 15 minutes of fame in this life to have been for something more worthwhile than an R-rated movie."

Her first meeting with Borat was canceled after the crew came to Martin's house and encountered technical difficulties -- but not before Martin had prepared a five-course meal for her guest.

As for the naked pictures, Martin, polite as always, remarked, "It helped that I was not wearing my glasses."

The Scene: Borat eats with a Southern dining society
Where: The dinner took place at the Magnolia Springs Manor in Helena, Ala. The Southern plantation home was built in 1875 and currently functions as an event hall.

Among many transgressions that night, Borat insults the wife of Mountain Brook Presbyterian Church pastor Cary Speaker; after remarking on how popular two of the women would be in Kazakhstan, Borat gestures at Speaker's wife and says, "not so much." Oh, he also brings a bag of his own excrement to the table after using the bathroom, mistakes a retired fellow diner for being retarded, and invites a "prostitute" over for company.

What happened: The Birmingham News reports that Borat's dining companions weren't that upset with how they appeared in the film. "All things considered, we got out of this pretty clean," said the retired Mike Jared.

"I don't think he made a fool of us," said Cindy Streit, the Birmingham etiquette coach who arranged the dinner.

Speaker, who abruptly left the party after the alleged prostitute arrived, says his attitude is "Hey, he fooled us; it's funny. Watching this, I'm sure it's funny [to some people]. It was just not funny that night."

He adds that his two college-age sons found his appearance "hysterical."

The Scene: Borat goes for humor lessons
Where: Although the film makes it appear as if Borat's humor lessons took place in New York, he visited with humor coach Pat Haggerty, who lives and works in Washington, D.C.

Haggerty instructs Borat to not make jokes about the "retard" brother Borat keeps in a cage, and that perhaps it's not the best idea to tell people about having sex with his mother-in-law. Borat also proves himself to be a quick study when it comes to the subtle timing of the "not" joke -- not!

What he said: Haggerty told the BBC News that about halfway through their session he realized "this guy can't be real." Aware that he was being made to play the straight man, Haggerty continued with the lesson because "they paid me my money and they deserve an hour of my time." According to the same story, the public speaking coach is hoping his appearance in the film will give his career a boost. "The only downside is if I appear to be a fool."

The Scene: Borat talks to the Veteran Feminists of America
Where: New York

Borat sits down with three members of the Veteran Feminists of America, informs them that women have smaller brains than men do, and inquires about "Baywatch." He also cajoles one to "listen, pussycat, smile a bit," without much luck. (To view some of the scene, go here.)

What happened: Linda Stein, Grace Welch and Carole De Saram were told by producers that they would be appearing in a documentary to help women in Third World countries. Stein says she has mixed feelings about the incident. She finagled her way into an advance screening of the film and found some parts of the film funny, but thinks "the joke appeals more to men than women."

Welch, a yoga instructor, found the whole incident funny. "What he does, he does very well, so I don't feel anger," she told the British Observer. "I was inclined very much to laugh at the event." As a result of the encounter she did go see "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," thinking it was "Borat." "I had to soldier on to watch that," she said. "I don't usually go to those kinds of pictures."

Cohen's Borat act was thoroughly convincing. Though Stein threw him out of the interview twice, she readily admits that "at no point during the whole event, as angry as I may have gotten, did it ever occur to me this was a comedian acting." The producer was able to sweet-talk the women into speaking with Borat again after the first heave-ho (the second time around, Borat asked the women to take off their tops). "Please," Stein says the producer begged, "he's from a third-world country, help him. He doesn't know any better." The producer then admonished Borat in a stage whisper, "You can't talk to American women this way."

When Stein told Borat that women in America can do anything men can, be president, secretary of state ("Oh, like that chocolate lady?" Borat replied) or even a reporter, Borat argued, "No. I can lift a chair!" At which point he stood up and lifted a chair. Not to be outdone, Stein lifted a chair as well. "I can lift two chairs," Borat countered, lifting two chairs. Stein did the same. And she now takes exception to the omission of this scene from the film. "He didn't choose the segments that really make the point that women are equal and strong. He didn't make the point with sexism that perhaps he did with anti-Semitism and homophobia."

The Scene: Borat learns to drive
Where: Baltimore County, Md.

After deciding that he must travel cross-country to meet Pamela Anderson, Borat decides to take driving lessons. Patiently teaching the easily distracted Kazakh is Michael Psenicksa, a driving instructor with 32 years of experience and the owner of his own driving school. During the harrowing car ride, Psenicksa tells Borat that in America, women must give consent for "sexy time."

"That's good, huh?" says the instructor.

"That's not good for me," Borat replies.

What happened: In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, Psenicksa said his encounter with Borat began in May 2005, when he received a phone call from someone saying his production company was filming a documentary about foreigners learning how to drive. He realized he'd been the victim of a gag after he told his son-in-law about the experience, who said it sounded like a gag from "Da Ali G Show." When Psenicksa saw the show, he recognized his student.

While he thought the movie was funny, Psenicksa says he was upset that other drivers were put at risk during the prank. "I'm not happy about that to this day."

The Scene: Borat buys a car
The Scene: Gaithersburg, Md.

Borat arrives at a dealership looking to buy a vehicle for somewhere in the range of $600 to $650. Borat asks the salesman, the aptly named Jim Sell, for a "pussy magnet," at which point he's shown a Hummer. After Borat learns that no such actual magnet exists, and that the Hummer is out of his price range, we appear to see Sell arrange for Borat to buy a used ice cream truck.

What happened: "I was approached by a man named Todd Lewis, who said he was a producer for a documentary," says Sell. "They wanted to film him negotiating with me over the price of a vehicle."

When Borat arrived, "they kept him away from most people in the dealership. I had no idea who he was. I just thought he didn't know anything about this country."

Sell knew something fishy was going on when Borat "gave me a pin and said it was a gift from his country. On one side was a flag, on the other side was a KKK sign."

"Luckily, I handled myself OK," says Sell. "I just feel bad I wasted three hours of my time for 150 bucks. And I had nothing to do with selling him an ice cream truck."

The Scene: Borat appears on a small Southern ABC affiliate
Where: Jackson, Miss.

Borat wreaks havoc at Jackson's WAPT, standing up every time he spoke, forcing the camera crew to scramble to avoid waist-level shots; offering up his sister to the silver-haired newscaster conducting the interview; interrupting the weatherman during a report by wandering on to the set.

What happened: A story in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger quotes station general manager Stuart Kellogg as saying, "We were gotten. Our folks researched the production company, which has its own Web site and sounds legitimate. They did their homework, but not well enough. It seemed plausible that he was who he said he was," Kellogg said. "Who knows what an accent from Kazakhstan sounds like?"

The story also reports that Borat's visit led the station to upgrading its policy on researching guests and on building security.

Another story reports that Dharma Arthur, the woman responsible for booking Borat on the show, says she lost her livelihood because of the incident. "I spiraled into depression, and before I could recover, I was released from my contract early. It took me three months to find another job, and now I'm thousands of dollars in debt and struggling to keep my house out of foreclosure. The upsetting thing is that a man who leaves so much harm in his path is lauded as a comic genius."

The Scene: Borat meets a prostitute
Where: Helena, Ala.

Borat invites Luenell, a prostitute whose number he found in the back of a newspaper, to the Magnolia Mansion Dining Society, whose members promptly ask them to leave. Borat and Luenell go on to enjoy a night of mechanical bull riding at a local bar. Later, after Borat concludes that things aren't going to work out with Pamela Anderson, he realizes Luenell is the woman for him, marries her, and takes her back to Kazakhstan, where she feeds his whole town with her breast milk.

What happened: Sadly, Luenell Campbell is not a Borat-style "Pretty Woman" but a 37-year-old comedian and actress who has appeared in "So I Married an Axe Murderer" and "The Rock," and is currently on a comedy tour. She's coy about her participation in the film, telling MTV, "I can't tell you about any of the inner workings. I'm sworn to secrecy ... Borat and I go back a long way. We knew each other in Kazakhstan."

The Scene: Borat wrecks an antique store
Where: Adolph Rose Antiques in Vicksburg, Miss.

After being convinced that the shop owners are not trying to trick him by selling "old things," Borat destroys a good chunk of the store's merchandise via a series of pratfalls. Borat's offer to help pay for the broken antiques with a bag of pubic hair is, unsurprisingly, turned down.

What happened: Store owner Larry Walker tells us that he was called out of the blue by a producer asking permission to come to his store, in order to film "a Belarussian documentary about life in the South."

"I had a funny feeling at first," Walker continues. "But some woman called and seemed nice and convincing, and she sent me stuff on some official-looking letterhead. Then when Borat came, all hell broke loose."

Walker, who found that he'd been duped only after a friend saw Borat on the "Today" show, estimates that $500 worth of merchandise was broken during the filming, which lasted about three hours. Still, he says he harbors no ill-will about being featured in the film (the damaged antiques were all paid for, even though the film implies otherwise). "It's a very funny movie. You have to laugh at it now. But at the time, we were just glad to get rid of him."

The Scene: Borat takes a road trip with three frat boys
Where: The film implies that it takes place on a stretch in the Southwest. In fact, it was in South Carolina.

Borat gets picked up on the side of the road by three members of the Chi Psi fraternity. David, Justin and Anthony fulfill just about every frat-boy stereotype possible, saying they wished they had slaves, explaining that minorities have all the power, disabusing Borat of the notion that Pamela Anderson is a virgin, and devolving into general drunken boorishness.

What happened: The University of South Carolina chapter of Chi Psi has been expectedly tight-lipped about the incident, which doesn't portray the boys in a particularly positive light. Chapter president Todd Bailey told a Web site that he's not eager to see the film: "Personally, I have no desire to see it, but I have to be aware of what's in the movie."

David Corcoran, the most outspoken of the three, spoke with FHM about the experience. "This guy said they were filming a Kazakh reporter who wanted to hang out with frat guys," Corcoran said. "They met 10 of us and I guess chose the three who wouldn't recognize Borat." The producers paid for the three men to drink at a bar, and then had them get in the RV and "pick Borat up ... as if he was hitchhiking." Once in the RV, he says, Borat showed them naked pictures of his sister and confessed to beating women.

The Scene: Borat tries to kidnap Pamela Anderson
Where: Los Angeles

A lovelorn Borat finally meets the object of his desire at a Virgin Megastore and attempts to kidnap her by throwing a bag over her head. After she escapes, he then chases the barefoot Anderson into the parking lot, where he is thrown to the ground by two security guards.

What happened: Anderson tells MTV that she has been sworn to secrecy about her involvement with the project, but says, "I love Sacha. He's such a nice guy ... He's the new Monty Python."

Despite her silence, it seems more than likely that Anderson was in on the joke. In August 2005, when the film was still shooting, there were suspicious reports of a Malibu beach commitment ceremony between Anderson's two dogs that was interrupted by Borat, who "emerged from the surf astride an inflatable turtle." Borat, the story claimed, "sprinted toward Anderson and felled her with a perfectly executed rugby tackle ... [she] struggled to her feet and brushed sand off of her long white gown as her loyal bodyguards seized the interloper, dragged him back to the shore, and dunked him in the hungry waves." That sounds like an alternative ending that might have just been too implausible to make the final cut. But we're sure it'll wind up in the DVD.

-- By David Marchese and Will

good ol' borat; he can elicit such comments without even being in the room.

ha, i hope the DVD has plenty of cut footage.

also, i can't believe the lady had to "soldier" thru Talladega Nights. What, didn't she like the "baby jesus" scenes or Gary Cole?

Though Borat never broke character, and no one in the production let the Behars in on the joke, Joseph found Borat to be "very lovely and very polite, very attractive."

aw

does pamela anderson think monty python is about a guy named 'monty python'?

no joke, there's a reference to Bronson Pinchot on the front page of my blog RIGHT NOW

That is tragically lame.

-- Alex in SF (clobberthesauru...), November 10th, 2006.

how's that jaw-dropping? it's awful, sure, and sad, but that's pretty much what like half of america thinks!

Half of America makes my jaw-drop then with its awfulness.

1) No, I concede whatever might have been at stake here.
2) "Finally"?

No, that was pretty hilarious

xp The first Jackass movie had plenty of those in the TV trailers.

Half of America makes my jaw-drop then with its awfulness.

-- Alex in SF (clobberthesauru...), November 10th, 2006.

fair enough!

just, where i live, i'm surrounded by this kind of thinking, so it's not shocking at all to me, just depressing...