Film director claims American president "succeeded in doing what Osama Bin Laden could not."
NEW YORK, NY (Sept. 15, 2008) Director Spike Lee ignited a firestorm of media coverage in the European press over the weekend with remarks stating that American President George Bush “has succeeded in doing what Osama Bin Laden could not: Destroying Wall Street.”
Lee’s remarks came in response to news over the weekend that Wall Street investment bank Lehman Bros. would be forced to declare bankruptcy, and that rival Merrill Lynch was so weak that it was forced to sell itself to Bank of America at fire sale prices.
The American government was forced to take over mortgage giant Fannie Mae the previous weekend, and subsidized a costly takeover of Wall Street giant Bear Stearns earlier this year. Earlier today, the U.S. Government asked Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase to lead a $75 billion emergency funding package for AIG to keep the embattled American insurance giant afloat.
“Through its almost pathological aversion to any form of regulation of the financial markets whatsoever – even the most mildest and rational -- the Bush Administration has allowed what was previously one of America’s safest financial investments, the American home mortgage, to be turned into a weapon of mass destruction against Wall Street,” said Lee, who been headlining the 10-day long Deauville American Film Film Festival held this past week in France.
“Anyone still searching for George Bush’s famously missing WMD need only look at the Republican administration’s reckless failure to regulate the American home mortgage industry.”
French and Italian tabloids, notorious for their liberal and leftist leanings, jumped on Lee’s remarks with several front page placements.
Lee was honored by the Deauville festival this year with a full retrospective of his work. Lee’s latest film, “Miracle at Santa Anna,” had its European premiere here. That film shows the forgotten contribution of African-American soldiers in World War II.
The festival, which ended yesterday, has over the last 34 years lent a new lease on life to the tiny town located on the Normandy coast near where hordes of US and Allied soldiers waded ashore in 1944 to free Europe from Nazi control.
"Miracle at St. Anna" features Derek Luke ("Antwone Fisher") in an R-rated war drama about four African-American soldiers who are members of the U.S. Army as part of the all-black 92nd Buffalo Soldier Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy during World War II. The soldiers find themselves alone and trapped behind enemy lines and then separated from a unit member who risks his life to save an Italian boy.
Among those in attendance at the Deauville festival were Ed Harris, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, John Malkovich, and Mamma Mia! director Phyllida Lloyd.
The jury headed by French actress Carole Bouquet was to chose from an 11-strong competition line-up of independent American films, among them "Towelhead" by Alan Ball, with Aaron Eckhart, "Smart People" by Noam Murro, with Sarah Jessica Parker and Ellen Page, and "Afterschool" by Antonio Campos, for the annual Grand Prix.
The Tom McCarty-directed immigration drama "The Visitor" was named the Grand Prix winner on on Sunday. "The Visitor" tells the story of 62-year-old Walter Vale, who lost his passion for teaching and writing. When he was sent to New York to attend a conference, he was surprised to find a young illegal immigrant couple living in his apartment.
Director/producer/writer Lance Hammer's "Ballast" took home the Prix du Jury award. Director Damien Harris' "Gardens of the Night" won the international critics' prize.
Lee is rumored to be working with Oscar-winner Helen Hunt on a remake of the "Love Boat" series for Oprah Winfrey's soon-to-be launched OWN cable network that would feature an all-black cast, and is also said to be involved in a film project based on the life of Harlem revolutionary Hubert Harrison that would also be co-produced with Winfrey and the film company she owns, Harpo Productions.
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