Monday, July 9, 2007

The Latest European Commission Controversy—Judge for Yourself



Apparently, some Americans, Brits, and now the Brussels press corps, are complaining that this promotional film clip for European cinema—funded by the EU—is "raunchy" and was an inappropriate use of EU taxpayers' money. (Each clip cost around 350 EUR.)

Read the story at cnn.com

Here is a snippet:

Some reporters also took a swipe at the title of the sequence, asking whether "Let's Come Together" was acceptable innuendo -- and if it was, whether the pun worked in the 27-member Union's other official languages.

A Commission spokesman insisted it had not received a single complaint in the 14 weeks since the clip first appeared on Internet site YouTube, suggesting the Brussels press corps should relax and get with the times.

"Let us for once also have a good sense of humor and let us not start the old wars of the fifties about what is sex, what is pornography and what is simply normal to watch on television," spokesman Martin Selmayr appealed Wednesday.


Well, I think the video clip is well-edited, and uh, rather "hot". Also, it's fun to try to name the various films from which the snippets were taken.
( You can check your memory at http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/media/overview/clips/list/index_en.htm )

Long live European cinema!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seems like a fantastic expenditure of EU funds, and the films that are featured look inspiring. I'd love to see more money being spent on film and art, and less on destruction and carnage. Somehow, one seems constructive and nurturing, while the other looks set to foster the decline of modern civilization. But given recent US and British moral value judgments, they look to be dead wrong on this as well!

Persephone said...

Thank you for your comments.