Friday, August 31, 2007

Tourette's Syndrome? "The European America-bashers launch free-associative rants that would be irritating if they were not ultimately so hilarious"

The signature moment in The Anti-Americans (a hate/love relationship) comes during a series of interviews with irate French citizens blathering on about how McDonald's is oppressing their country
writes Glenn Garvin in the Miami Herald (merci à Jay).
Though, one woman adds sternly, it won't last forever: ''We threw out the Germans, we'll throw out the Americans, too.'' Asks the interviewer in astonishment: ''The French threw out the Germans?'' Well, the Frenchwoman replies airily, ''you Americans helped a little.'' How long before we see a Jean-Luc Godard film in which Charles de Gaulle saves Private Ryan?

So it goes in The Anti-Americans, a sly and maliciously funny documentary airing as part of the PBS film series America At A Crossroads on the post-9/11 world. Like victims of some weird political form of Tourette's Syndrome, the European America-bashers launch free-associative rants that would be irritating if they were not ultimately so hilarious.

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