Munster Express Online

You like funny movie? Maybe this Borat make you ha-ha much. Following a grand send-off from his Kazakh village, journalist Borat make the long journey to the US to begin work on the documentary. He is accompanied by producer, Azamat Bagatov. ‘I got involved in this project because I am very experienced in industry of film and television’ in fact during last 20 years I have personally watched 27 programs. I also got job because I am only producer in Kazakhstan.’ Travel was first class – well, sort of. ‘We fly Kazakh Airways,’ Borat recalls. ‘Azamat go in hold, with luggage, animals and Jews’ I travel first classes’ which meant that when toilet box was passed around, I was the sixth person to make my ‘dirty’? in it.’

No expense was spared to bring the film to the big-screen. ‘This documentary was most expensive film ever made for Kazakhstan,’ says the intrepid reporter. ‘It cost 48 million this equivalent to 5000 US dollar. Ministry of Information supplement budget by selling uranium to some brown men.’

Larry Charles, a creative force on the landmark series Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld, joined the project as director. ‘There is an intensity and incredible intelligence to Sacha’s performances, as well as a certain bravery. Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat was always real, believable, complex and spontaneous. I’ve never seen a performance like that.’ Borat begins his cross country odyssey in ‘New Yorks,’ where he experiences for the first time a subway car, an elevator, and a feminist group. #

Then, a revelation turned his plans upside-down. ‘Although we had initial planned to stay in New Yorks, because of a reason I cannot say, we needed to get to California.’ Unable to fly, Borat had to learn how to drive. ‘We too have cars in Kazakhstan,” he notes. ‘They now very modern some of them reach top speeds of up to 120 miles per week! Also, they better than western cars, because when engine get old you can eat it. I was interest to see if America cars were as fancypants.’

At many locations, the production’s guerilla-style, hit-and-run filmmaking attracted the interest of various law enforcement officials. In New York, a warrant was issued for Baron Cohen’s

Another time, twelve police cars surrounded the ice cream truck in which Borat makes much of his cross-country trek. The authorities hoped to find and interrogate Baron Cohen, only to discover that he had again made a narrow escape, this time in another crew vehicle. The FBI often followed the filmmakers, whom the residents of several locales suspected of being terrorists.

In the nation’s capital, the Secret Service questioned the filmmakers outside the White House, and at a Louisiana location, state troopers investigated the strange group ostensibly making a documentary. Again, Baron Cohen?s determination to stay in character’ even while facing Secret Service and state police questioning’ was impressive. ‘He never let on that this wasn’t ‘real,’ says Larry Charles. Borat learned many lessons during his journey’ some of them the hard way. ‘Along my travelings, I learn many new things about America. For example that it no longer legal to shoot at Red Indians. Once again I apologize with all my heart to the staff of the Potawotomi Casino in Kansas.’

As this reviewer is no great fan of Ali G In Da House, Borat was approached with great caution. None of it was needed. This is one of the year’s funniest movies – right up there with Spinal Tap in the ‘documentary’ stakes. a perfect face to launch a thousand quips, Baron Cohen’s attention to phonetic detail and his sublime delivery will surely have even his biggest detractor rolling in the aisles.

At the recent Cork Film Festival, this was one of the first schedule sell-outs – and a show that set the Opera House alight. No wonder. Go see.

A Good Year

Russell Crowe plays Max Skinner, a ruthless, high powered and richly rewarded trader in the city of London, who has lost sight of the true pleasures and value of life. Crowe is reunited with director Ridley Scott in a comedy about a man who has the chance to re-discover life amidst the beguiling beauty of the Luberon in the south of France where he learns that life, like good wine, should be savoured. ‘Max is a guy who is very, very good at what he does,’ says Crowe. ‘And what he does is make money. But somewhere along the way he’s lost sight of the good things, the things that really matter in life, which were taught to him by his Uncle Henry. And when Henry dies and leaves Max a vineyard at first he thinks he’ll sell it quickly and add to his fortune. That’s all it is’ just another way to make some money. But when he goes there, he begins to remember the man that loved so much and to rediscover the place where he spent the best years of his life. And slowly, his heart is reawakened.’ Uncle Henry is played by Albert Finney and the young Max by Freddie Highmore.

Filmed on location in the Luberon, a stunningly beautiful region of Provence in the south of France, and in London’s financial district, known as the Square Mile, A Good Year is as seductive as a vintage bottle of red, says Crowe. ‘There was so much expectation after something like Gladiator and of course everybody expected us to do something with buckets of blood and masses of action and all of that sort of stuff,’ says Crowe. Based on Peter Mayle’s book, Crowe was sold on A Good Year 10 minutes after talking with Scott. ‘He is one of the finest directors in the world.’

Since making A Good Year, Scott has directed Crowe in a third film, American Gangster, which also stars Denzil Washington. ‘Obviously our baptism of fire with making Gladiator is very hard to beat,’ he says. ‘You know, the woods of England, the edge of the Sahara and recreating Rome in Malta, so you our

With a pair of Oscars under his oxter, Russell Crowe is a big star – no question. However, even big stars have fracture lines. In his case, it’s comedy – or the lack of it. While Ridley Scott assembles a brochure of France that’ll have thousands more upping sticks to move to Provence, Peter Mayle’s whimsical story is often lost in having this obviously roughneck Aussie knee-deep in grape country. He never seems comfortable. That said, A Good Year works wonderfully for the current appaling Irish weather – think pastel sunsets, sexy ladies, stunning vistas and dining al fresco. A Good Year was a bad fit for Russell, but still one of the French tourist board’s greatest campaigns’.