Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" takes Cannes' Palm d'Or (the big one)

>> http://movies.yahoo.com/cannes/news/apc/20040522/108525912000.html Really looking forward to seeing this one. From what I hear, it does an interesting thing with the "documentary" category-- it's a documentary not based on facts, but based on questions. I'm not a very political person, but I think Moore is a buffoon. Anyone who accuses a United States President of having terrorist connections (as his film accuses Bush) with hopes that those accusations will influence people's minds in the next election, without basing those accusations on hard and verifiable facts is a fool. How this "documentary" holds itself together is likely the best explanation of why Moore deserves Europe's highest cinematic honor. He's doing something new here, stretching the medium, basing a documentary on questions, not on facts. I'll be interested to go see the film and write an informed opinion. "THR: So part of the agenda of this film is to influence the election? Moore: Oh, sure, and (to influence events) after the election because the problems we have are still going to be with us regardless of who's in the White House... (The film is) not just about "Let's get rid of Bush." I wouldn't go see that kind of movie. My time is limited -- I don't have to go sit in a theater for two hours to know that Bush has to go. We decided not to make that kind of movie -- boring and predictable. We decided to make it about the larger issues, about where we are right now as a people after 9/11. The film spends a lot of time posing questions, not necessarily providing answers, but asking the audience to join in and try to figure out what the answer is. When we tested the film in the Midwest, people were moved in a profound way and left the theater thinking about their personal responsibility in terms of acting and behaving like a citizen in a democracy." I think it's a filmmaker's responsibility to get down to the truth of the matter where a verifiable truth can be found. To merely raise doubt and "get people thinking" is a coward's trick.