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uh, yeah, I couldn't find an actual poster
trailer (http://media.putfile.com/borat_trailer)
The Borat movie.
In short, the Ali G guy if you don't already know.
I've been reading about this for a while now. Everyone who makes a guest appearance is saying that the movie is hilarious.
Quote from: RegularKarate on June 12, 2006, 11:48:39 PM
Everyone who makes a guest appearance is saying that the movie is hilarious.
i hav no reason to expect otherwise.
garam on the other hand..
man, I wish this would be just like, 2 hours of undercover stuff, but this looks like an ordinary movie. the ali g movie sucked, but I guess borat makes a way funnier character than ali g in a fiction movie. he's got a bigger universe. I read that the "kazastahn" you see in all of borat's videos is actually romania.
its funny because they went to Kazakhstan and said that people looked nothing like Borat, so they had to go a film in Romania.
I think its the funniest character I've seen in a long time. There are tons of videos in YouTube and everytime I see them I just laugh non stop.
I couldnt open that trailer posted up there, but here it is just in case somebody else is having the problem.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Bfprrr57CBg&search=Borat
This is going to be the funniest shit ever. Also:
Quote from: pete on June 13, 2006, 12:26:52 AM
man, I wish this would be just like, 2 hours of undercover stuff, but this looks like an ordinary movie.
I think it's got a really loose plot, but it's going to be mostly like the stuff from the show. Interviews and such.
Official (...I think) website here:
http://www.borat.tv/
Comic-Con 2006: Borat Exposed
A very revealing look at the upcoming film!
A surprise guest was in attendance Friday for Fox's film presentation at Comic-Con International in San Diego. None other than Borat himself (a.k.a. Sacha Baron Cohen) made an appearance to promote his new movie Borat (or Borat: Cultural Learnings from America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan).
Cohen, who stayed in character the entire time, entered from the women's restroom and then walked through the crowded Hall H, much to the delight of the audience of thousands. After struggling to ascend the stage, "Borat" addressed the crowd from the podium. He touted his new film's success in his homeland of Kazakhstan, where it played on all seven of the country's theaters and toppled King Kong as Kazakhstan's No. 1 (the 1933 Kong, mind you).
The scenes from Borat that were shown were arguably the most shocking and controversial (and some would say hilarious) footage played at this year's Comic-Con.
The footage began with Borat unintentionally devastating a Civil War antiques shop. Then we find Borat, right out of the bath and wearing only a towel, brawling with his morbidly obese, hirsute and completely naked friend (Ken Davitian) after he catches him masturbating to magazine images of Pamela Anderson.
The brawl became a homoerotic donnybrook that spilled out into the hotel hallway, then into an elevator full of people before they enter the lobby and, finally, rumble their way into a convention hall where hundreds of onlookers reacted with what appeared to be genuine shock and awe.
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New Trailer here. (http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1463244&sdm=web&qtw=480&qth=300)
"Please you come see my film.. If it not success... I will be execute."
classic.
Cohen Blasted for 'Disgusting' Movie Manipulation
By WENN
British comic Sacha Baron Cohen has received a barrage of criticism for allegedly manipulating members of the public for his latest movie.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan sees the Ali G star tour America in the guise of his blundering Kazakhstani journalist.
However, the 34-year-old's pranks have come under fire for their misogynistic and anti-Semitic overtones and for fooling innocent members of the public into believing they were featuring in a serious cultural program.
George Matthews Marshall--who was at the brunt of one of Borat's stunts--slams the funnyman's manipulation as "disgraceful" and "disgusting."
He adds, "He intimated we might have favored slavery... we were horrified."
In other offending scenes Cohen--himself Jewish--spits out food from Jewish owners of a bed-and-breakfast fearing poison, while in another he tells black presidential candidate Alan Keyes he has a "chocolate face."
Quote from: MacGuffin on August 08, 2006, 11:38:15 AM
In other offending scenes Cohen--himself Jewish--spits out food from Jewish owners of a bed-and-breakfast fearing poison, while in another he tells black presidential candidate Alan Keyes he has a "chocolate face."
he's a comic genius.
to all the haters all i gotta say is: no more spoilers please.
I love that episode where he leads the country western bar in a sing-along of "throw the jew down the well."
I can't wait for this movie.
To toss onto the "every comedian loves this movie" pile... Brian Posehn said "Let me add to the Borat hype... I have NEVER laughed that hard at a movie. For me it had the relentless "Oh fuck, I'm laughing so hard I might shit my pants" pace that the first fifteen minutes of the South Park movie had, but the Borat movie kept that pace going for the entire thing. It will ruin comedy, because everything you used to think was funny will taste like shit after you've seen this. I can't wait to see it again. And again."
I think most of the laughs don't actually come from the writing. the writing is great, but I just think the performance is amazing. the accent, the grammar, the gestures, and the vocabulary make borat so outstanding.
Borat interview (http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1225374_1_0_,00.html)
Quote from: Ravi on August 11, 2006, 02:28:17 PM
Borat interview (http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1225374_1_0_,00.html)
superbowl story was a highlight.
"Borat" satire turns to farce at Toronto festival
It was the kind of scenario that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen himself might have scripted, although the setting would have been a fictional run-down Kazakh movie theater, and not a posh 1,000-seat auditorium on the opening night of the Toronto film festival.
The midnight screening Cohen's film, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," had been getting raucous screams of laughter before the projector suddenly cut out 20 minutes into the film, turning merriment into dismay and prompting Cohen to do some quick improvising.
"I will apology on behalf of Kazakhstan for this little mistake," Cohen told the crowd in the voice of his alter ego, Borat Sagdiyev, the satirical Kazakh journalist who is the subject of the film.
Earlier on Thursday evening, a screening of "The Journals of Knud Rasmussen" officially opened the festival, which will show 352 films from 61 countries before closing on September 16.
That film, a look at Canada's frozen north and the cultural destruction wrought on native people by European Christians, drew praise as an inventive choice to start the festival.
But it was Cohen who stole the show, wringing every last laugh from the character he developed as part of his TV hit "Da Ali G Show." The comedian has ruffled more than a few feathers this year with Borat, a naive journalist he unleashes upon unsuspecting real-life subjects unprepared for the character's overt sexism and anti-Semitism.
Cohen, who is Jewish, was threatened with a lawsuit earlier this year by Kazakh officials upset with his portrayal of the country as a nation of drunks, racists and sexists.
FRIEND OF DONKEY
He arrived on the red carpet on Thursday on a wagon pulled by four women dressed as peasants. A donkey rode in the carriage with Cohen as the crowd chanted "Borat! Borat!."
"There were two more of them," he deadpanned, when asked about the women. "But they escaped in Bulgaria."
Cohen typically unleashes Borat's slurs and inappropriate remarks while interviewing unsuspecting subjects, with the punch line provided by the subject's reaction, which is often uncomfortable agreement. He has said the segments are "dramatic demonstration of how racism feeds on dumb conformity, as much as rabid bigotry."
The opening minutes of his film had the audience in stitches as Borat leaves his home town in Kazakhstan on a quest to learn about American life.
His early scenes in the United States have a slapstick hilarity to them as he accidentally lets a chicken out of his suitcase on a crowded New York subway and then walks up to men on the street to kiss them hello. In one scene, he mistakes a hotel elevator as his room, and startles the porter by beginning to unpack his belongings in the cramped space.
After the projector malfunction, the real-life scene got even more surreal as U.S. filmmaker Michael Moore, a close friend of "Borat" director Larry Charles, rose from his seat in the audience and went up to the projection booth to try to help fix the equipment. "I used to do this for a living," Moore quipped.
Moore and Charles took light-hearted questions from the audience before Cohen came back on stage. After about an hour of waiting, the audience was told the projector would not be fixed.
Quote from: MacGuffin on September 08, 2006, 01:20:41 PM
He arrived on the red carpet on Thursday on a wagon pulled by four women dressed as peasants. A donkey rode in the carriage with Cohen
fuck copperfield's fountain of youth, sacha baron cohen has discovered the fountain of pure hilarity with this character.
Quote from: Pubrick on September 08, 2006, 01:28:09 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on September 08, 2006, 01:20:41 PM
He arrived on the red carpet on Thursday on a wagon pulled by four women dressed as peasants. A donkey rode in the carriage with Cohen
fuck copperfield's fountain of youth, sacha baron cohen has discovered the fountain of pure hilarity with this character.
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You sure?
Quote from: MacGuffin on September 09, 2006, 12:57:37 AM
Quote from: Pubrick on September 08, 2006, 01:28:09 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on September 08, 2006, 01:20:41 PM
He arrived on the red carpet on Thursday on a wagon pulled by four women dressed as peasants. A donkey rode in the carriage with Cohen
fuck copperfield's fountain of youth, sacha baron cohen has discovered the fountain of pure hilarity with this character.
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That was a funny scene that night.
Quote from: MacGuffin on September 08, 2006, 01:20:41 PMThe midnight screening Cohen's film, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," had been getting raucous screams of laughter before the projector suddenly cut out 20 minutes into the film, turning merriment into dismay and prompting Cohen to do some quick improvising.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kfOC5IRa9Q
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=404852&in_page_id=1770
Bush to hold talks on Ali G creator after diplomatic row
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Making waves: Sacha Baron Cohen's creation Kazakh tv presenter Borat
US President George Bush is to host White House talks on British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
Cohen, 35, creator of Ali G, has infuriated the Kazakhstan government with his portrayal of Borat, a bumbling Kazakh TV presenter.
And now a movie of Borat's adventures in the US has caused a diplomatic incident.
The opening scene, which shows Borat lustily kissing his sister goodbye and setting off for America in a car pulled by a horse, had audiences in stitches when it was first shown last week.
But the film, which has just premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, has prompted a swift reaction from the Kazakhstan government, which is launching a PR blitz in the States.
Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev is to fly to the US to meet President Bush in the coming weeks and on the agenda will be his country's image.
President Nazarbayev has confirmed his government will buy "educational" TV spots and print advertisements about the "real Kazakhstan" in a bid to save the country's reputation before the film is released in the US in November.
President Nazarbayev will visit the White House and the Bush family compound in Maine when he flies in for talks that will include the fictional character Borat.
But a spokesman for the Kazakhstan Embassy says it is unlikely that President Nazarbayev will find the film funny.
Roman Vassilenko said: "The Government has expressed its displeasure about Borat's representation of our country.
"Our opinion of the character has not changed.
"We understand that the film exposes the hypocrisy that exists both here in the USA and in the UK and understand that Mr Cohen has a right to freedom of speech.
"Nursultan Nazarbayev has taken Mr Bush up on an invitation to visit this country to help build our relationship with the USA.
"I cannot speak for the president himself, only for the government, but I certainly don't think President Nazarbayev and Mr Bush will share a joke about the film.
"The bottom line is we want people to know that he does not represent the true people of Kazakhstan."
The Kazakh government has previously threatened Baron-Cohen with legal action, for allowing Borat to, among other things, make fun of his homeland, demean women, slander gypsies and urge listeners to "Throw the Jew Down the Well."
Anti-Borat hard-liners have pulled the plug on borat.kz, Borat's Kazakhstan-based Website after his frequent displays of anti-Semitism and his portrayal of Kazakh culture.
Nurlan Isin, President of the Association of Kazakh IT Companies took the action after complaints.
He said: "We've done this so he can't badmouth Kazakhstan under the .kz domain name.
"He can go and do whatever he wants at other domains."
The row originally erupted in November 2005, following Borat's hosting of the MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon.
The Kazakh Foreign Ministry was furious over Cohen's bad taste representation of the nation.
'No such thing as bad publicity'
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev told a news conference: "We view Mr. Cohen's behaviour at the MTV Europe Music Awards as utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners which is completely incompatible with the ethics and civilized behaviour of Kazakhstan's people.
"We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind."
Baron Cohen responded to Ashykbayev in character by posting a video on the Official Borat website.
In the video, Borat said, "In response to Mr. Ashykbayev's comments, I'd like to state I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my Government's decision to sue this Jew.
"Since the 2003 Tuleyakiv reforms, Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world.
"Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats, and age of consent has been raised to eight years old."
His blatant outpouring then prompted the Kazakh government to hire two public relations firms to counter the claims, and ran a four-page advertisement in The New York Times.
The ad carried testimonials about the nation's democracy, education system and the power and influence enjoyed by women. News of President Nazarbayev's upcoming visit has prompted experts to study the character's impact on US culture.
Sean R. Roberts, Central Asian Affairs Fellow at Georgetown University, has been studying the phenomenon.
He said: "I have found that more Americans are aware of Kazakhstan than four years ago when I last lived in the United States.
"The increased knowledge of Kazakhstan, however, is not due to the country's economic successes or its role as a U.S. ally in the war on terror.
"Instead, most Americans who have heard of Kazakhstan have heard of it through a satire of a Kazakh journalist named Borat.
"Borat certainly does not promote an image of Kazakhstan that is in sync with that which the government and its leader would like to promote abroad.
"As the old adage goes, however, 'there is no such thing as bad publicity.'
"If that is true, Borat is bringing much more publicity to Kazakhstan."
Cohen's representatives refused to allow him or his alter ego to respond to the controversy because it's not close enough to the film's release date.
I haven't laughed as consistantly and as hard as I laughed tonight when I saw this movie.
This thing is not going to be for everyone, but jesus, the people who can get into it are going to love it.
I'm glad it's not very long because comedies that are so full of funny are hard to take for extended periods of time.
There's no deep analysis to make here, it's incredibly funny.
I really want to see it again just to find out if it can hold up... all I know is that it's going to put any other straight comedy that comes out within the next year or so to shame.
i attempted to see this last night as well. went 2 hours before doors open. the line went already around the block twice. suffice to say we did not get in, nor were we even close, but we did manage to waste 1 1/2 hours in line where i had my first experience with the odious white castle. jagshemash!
Quote from: modage on September 21, 2006, 10:03:21 AM
i attempted to see this last night as well. went 2 hours before doors open. the line went already around the block twice. suffice to say we did not get in, nor were we even close, but we did manage to waste 1 1/2 hours in line where i had my first experience with the odious white castle. jagshemash!
i was there too. when i saw the line, i just left.
i wouldnt have stayed either but i met friends who had gotten there first and wanted to stick it out. i will never again try to go to a screening at that times square theatre.
I was in line for two hours and almost didn't get in.
I've had time to let this thing sink in and I've decided not to say how funny this film really is because it's going to be overhyped as it is. See it though.. especially P (like I needed to tell you to).
Kazakhstan fights back ahead of Borat film release
Source: The Guardian
Kazakhstan: land of superstition, religious intolerance, political suppression and goats. Wrong. Kazakhstan is actually a country of metals and machinery, an outward-looking, modern nation with a stable economy that attracts foreign investors to its cosmopolitan capital.
The Kazakh government took the unusual step yesterday of publishing a four-page colour supplement in the New York Times in what appeared to be in part an attempt to head off the fallout from a satirical film due out in November. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is the latest work from Ali G creator Sacha Baron Cohen. The film lampoons the central Asian nation through Borat Sagdiyev, a Kazakh journalist who travels to the US to report on local customs.
Before leaving he introduces the audience to his sister, "number four prostitute in whole of Kazakhstan", and shows the village tradition of "the running of the Jew", a variation on Pamplona's bull running. Once in the US he releases chickens on the New York subway, mangles the Star Spangled Banner before a rodeo audience and abandons his pursuit of local tradition for a quest to meet Pamela Anderson.
Festival audiences have found the film hilarious, raising expectations that it will be a hit. But the Kazakh government is not amused. Since the Borat character first appeared it has protested and threatened legal action against the depiction of Kazakhstan as a backward haven for anti-Semites. To counter the image of its country in the film - which was shot in the US and Romania - the government has funded a $50m tribal epic called Nomad.
The Kazakh president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, was due to arrive in the US yesterday for a trip that will include a meeting with President George Bush.
White House turns away "Kazakh reporter" Borat
Borat, the fictional TV reporter from Kazakhstan, may have gotten under the skin of Kazakh officials but on Thursday he couldn't get past the gates of the White House.
Secret Service agents turned away British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, in character as the boorish, anti-Semitic journalist, when he tried to invite "Premier George Walter Bush" to a screening of his upcoming movie, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."
Also invited to the screening: O.J. Simpson, "Mel Gibsons" and other "American dignitaries."
Cohen's stunt was timed to coincide with an official visit by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is scheduled to meet with Bush on Friday.
Nazarbayev and other Kazakh officials have sought to raise the profile of the oil-rich former Soviet republic and assure the West that, contrary to Borat's claims, theirs is not a nation of drunken anti-Semites who treat their women worse than their donkeys.
Kazakhstan is expected to become one of the top 10 oil producers within a decade. A U.S. ally with troops in Iraq, the country has drawn criticism for its deteriorating civil liberties and flawed elections.
Shortly after Nazarbayev dedicated a statue in front of the Kazakh embassy, Borat denounced an official Kazakh publicity campaign running in U.S. magazines as "disgusting fabrications" orchestrated by neighboring Uzbekistan.
"If there is one more item of Uzbek propaganda claiming that we do not drink fermented horse urine, give death penalty for baking bagels, or export over 300 tonnes of human pubis per year, then we will be left with no alternative but to commence bombardment of their cities with our catapults," Borat said.
Cohen, 35, who is Jewish, recently co-starred in the recent U.S. box office hit "Talladega Nights" and has appeared in TV comedy series "Da Ali G Show" on U.S. cable channel HBO and Britain's Channel 4.
Cohen's "Borat" comedy routine has drawn legal threats from the Kazakh government, which keeps a tight lid on criticism in its news media.
Kazakh press secretary Roman Vasilenko said he was worried that some may take the Borat routine seriously.
"He is not a Kazakh. What he represents is a country of Boratastan, a country of one," Vasilenko told Reuters.
Quote from: RegularKarate on September 21, 2006, 01:27:54 PM
I've decided not to say how funny this film really is because it's going to be overhyped as it is.
saw this last night, and feel the same way. i can see this movie being huge, but i'm afraid it will attract kids for the wrong reasons. i don't want this to become a movie assholes love.
i really don't want "me like sex, yes" to be the new "i'm rick james, bitch"
please
Caught a screening of it last night just barely (literally, we were in that position you only dream about being in but never actually experiencing, being the first of the people that AREN'T let in...but then they let in just our group so that was awesome). It's hard to do this movie justice in words when it's hardly a movie at all. Obviously the "plot" was present more as a formality than anything, and while it was funny in its own right the reason Borat was funny/terrifying to begin with was seeing how everyone else reacted to him, not as much the character itself. So the documentary parts of the movie are the best parts, obviously, while the staged sections, or the obviously staged sections at least, just felt sort of unneeded. Sometimes these sections crossed over into "real" territory which then made them more interesting (the hotel fight, anyone?). And actually that whole dynamic was pretty interesting, determining what exactly was real, and seeing real and unreal scenes collide was not only hilarious but enjoyable because everything glides together real nicely. Cohen is utterly hilarious. I'm thinking he might have to retire this character simply because there's seemingly no good way to follow this up, and the character will be a household name (I guess) by the end of the year.
The sad part is it will definitely become the new trendy kid thing, following on the heels of Napoleon Dynamite and Chuck Norris. And I will rue the day forever.
I haven't seen this movie yet, but I already think another film needs to be made. There needs to be a film that covers the media firestorm this movie has created. Consider the greater fall out: Kazakstan, as a country, is now recognizable to the Western world because of the Borat character. Their President gets a media blitz when he comes to the US to discuss the problem of Sasha Cohen with President Bush. Sasha Cohen, under the scrutiny of many and facing a potential lawsuit from Kazakstan, responds to every new situation in character. He even tries to get into the White House for the screening of his film. Not only is the news covering all this, but I'm finding Borat mentioned in the high brow political magazine I subscribe to. Only in a Daily Show political world can Borat have this much meaning.
Hell, I love it. The film looks absolutely great. Considering this media sensation is already being filmed, a film deserves to be made to join the moments of sensation to a greater work. These types of works have been made before. In the late 1930s, the very popular novel Gone With the Wind was facing the situation of being made into a movie. The country was in an uproar about who should play Scarlett O'Hara. Subsequently, a play debuted on Brodway to document the outrage. I would have love to have been able to see the play to see what context it used. It could have been very telling about American popular culture at the time. A film about the sensation of the Borat movie could be just as telling.
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on October 13, 2006, 10:49:35 PM
A film about the sensation of the Borat movie could be just as telling.
and then just as forgotten.
Taking stupid seriously
In 'Cultural Learnings,' jaw-dropping prejudice flows from our mouths into a faux-Kazakh's ear.
Source: Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times
AMERICANS who know Borat love Borat. They love him more than the government of Kazakhstan officially hates him. At an advance MySpace screening of "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" at the Century City mall, the crowd was punchy with anticipation and queue-fatigue. My friends reacted to the news that I was going like Grandpa Joe after Charlie's discovery of the Golden Ticket. Meanwhile, Kazakh officials, none of whom camped out for passes at the multiplex, have been up in arms over the outrageous buffoon who has usurped their national identity in the American media. Ironically, Kazakhstan has nothing to worry about as far as Borat is concerned. We're the ones who should be nervous.
For the uninitiated, Borat Sagdiyev is a gawky, overeager Kazakh TV reporter in a bad suit and worse mustache who travels across the United States doing light lifestyle pieces. Neither really Kazakh nor really real, he is the second-most-famous alter ego of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, whose most famous character, the pea-brained "gangsta" interviewer Ali G, has all but famoused himself into oblivion. (It's harder to book Boutros Boutros-Ghali or Newt Gingrich after their handlers finally catch on that a guy who asks Sam Donaldson "Does you remember when two journalists brought down the government over the scandal of 'Waterworld?' " can't be for real.)
Crass, anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynistic and outrageously impolitic, Borat's cluelessness about how other countries live, talk and think is rivaled only by his ability to sniff out grandiloquence and prejudice. Though they have traits in common — notably their encyclopedic ignorance and obliviousness to social norms — Borat is more likable than Ali G. For one thing, he would rather be liked than respected or admired, and his innocence makes his satire stealthy and powerful. If Ali G skewered all that is ridiculous about big media's obsession with "youth culture," from his own absurdly baroque persona to public figures so disconnected they can't spot a parody when it's right in their face, Borat goes after bigger game. The idea, ostensibly, is to extract lessons in sophistication from the most powerful country on Earth for export to a country most Americans couldn't locate on a map. But the outcome is somehow never quite what it should be. He ventures deep into unmediated America, spot-tests some big, surprisingly ambitious sociological theories, then wrestles a fat guy naked.
In the movie, which opens Nov. 3, Borat travels to New York with his producer, catches a rerun of "Baywatch" on TV, falls hopelessly in love with Pamela Anderson, and winds up making his way to California alone. I won't say much more about it other than it follows the basic format of the TV episodes, adds an emotional arc and offers a perspective on contemporary American society unlike any other. Directed by Larry Charles, the movie takes Borat on a series of cross-country adventures of the type that will be familiar to fans.
Over the last couple of seasons, regular viewers of "Da Ali G Show" have watched Borat plumb the mysteries of American house buying, dating, etiquette, wine tasting, campaigning, target shooting, country music singing and baseball, to name but a few. His encounters with average, small-town Americans, Southerners more often than not, are gems of fish-out-of-water buffoonery. Cohen has a gift for physical comedy and an inspired sense of the absurd and can turn something as mundane as accepting a stemmed wineglass into an absurdly protracted and awkward exchange.
Cohen has been compared to Peter Sellers, and like Sellers' most famously inept, terminally unaware characters, he knows how to shatter composure with frustration and lower defenses with absurdity. By pretending to exist entirely outside civilized discourse — actually, by pretending never to have heard of it — Borat slays inhibitions like cheap tequila. But what makes the awkward adventures of the fake Kazakh so startling is that though he may be fake, the nice people he so effortlessly prods into revealing their not-so-nice sides are real. As Borat travels through the country like a half-deranged, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, sex-obsessed Huell Howser, the picture that emerges is strange and strangely consistent on what defines the American national character.
Strangely taken in stride
BORAT'S interviews fall into roughly two categories. He seeks out self-consciously genteel, almost impossibly schematic "life coaches" of one kind or another — people whose job it is to tell others how to date, tell jokes, find work, etc. — and barrages them with questions, requests and opinions that, despite being completely outrageous, consistently fail to get a rise or a reaction stronger than "We don't do that here in America" or "That's not a customary thing to do in the U.S. at all." On the one hand, you have to admire his interviewees' tact and even keel. On the other, you can't believe that they don't react more strongly than they do.
He also hangs out with "normal people" who happily reveal their prejudices. Shopping for a house, in one TV episode, Borat asks a real estate agent about a windowless room with a metal door for his mentally disabled brother, whether he may bury his wife in the yard if she dies, and whether black people will move into the neighborhood. At the wine tasting, he asks if the black waiter is a slave, to which the "commander" of the Knights of the Vine society in Jackson, Miss., replies that there was "a law that was passed that they could no longer be used as slaves — which is a good thing for them." ("Oh, good for him, not so good for you!" Borat yelps, picking up an undercurrent that may not have even been evident to them.)
And he does all of it with a wide-eyed, kiss-you-on-the-cheek, "America is No. 1" insouciance that lowers everybody's guard — which must be it, because, otherwise, what's going on? Why is it that Borat can boast to a recruiter at a financial services company that he can "hold down a large woman for three hours" or patiently explain to a career counselor how his last job consisted of masturbating camels, and both men will nod patiently, never so much as cracking a smile or doing a double take, unflappably respectful of their "cultural differences" until the end.
Are they media-coached to the point of catatonia? So secure in their cultural superiority and so clueless about the world around them that they actually believe that this nice, besuited television reporter from Central Asia has never seen a toilet before? Are they dead?
This, I think, is where the genius and horror of Borat's explorations really lie: The joke is not on the U.S. or Kazakhstan or even the fake Kazakhstan of Cohen's imagination. The joke is on petrified, inward-looking nationalism of all stripes. What's funny is a jingoism so blinkered it can't see the joke in a fake Kazakh singing the fake Kazakh national anthem to the tune of the American one. (Or the irony, for that matter, in the malaprop: "I support your war of terror!")
That scene from the movie, which takes place at a rodeo, is a prime example of Cohen's almost lunatic gutsiness (according to reports, the joke nearly got him killed). The scene, of course, killed too — though it made me wonder what percentage of Borat's legions of fans see past the crazy stunts and poop humor and into the heart of Cohen's trenchant satire. Certainly, the screening I attended was packed mostly with a low-humor crowd that isn't necessarily representative of his admirers. The median age seemed to fall somewhere between first shave and learner's permit, and the scene was fittingly rowdy. (Caught up in the anticipation, a skinny kid two rows in front of me extended an impromptu, top-of-the-lungs invitation to any girl wishing to occupy the seat next to his — any girl at all. There were no takers.)
Cohen is nothing if not a master at making the medicine go down all but unperceived. Along with a modest handful of comedians (Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, not too many others) who have succeeded in delivering what is most troubling about the Bush era by reviving satire and eschewing the knowing sarcasm of the Letterman-Miller-Maher years, he has executed a perfect pancake-flip inversion on the relationship between the audience and the source of humor. The best comedy is no longer derisive or an expression of contempt; it's cathartic, a nervous release.
Wherever Borat goes, he encounters a real threat — not to him, but to his creator. Cohen was educated at Cambridge and is a practicing Jew who clearly finds more than humor in the fact that he can wander into a gun store, ask for the best weapon with which to kill a Jew, and not have the salesman bat an eye.
What Borat's many American teachers (the etiquette, dating and humor coaches; the wine experts; etc.) have in common is an unshakable belief in their manifest destiny. ("He could be Americanized in no time," says a society lady in the film, who is in for a very rude awakening that nonetheless fails to awaken her.) What his other friends — the people at the rodeos and gun ranges, gun shops and ball games — seem to share is an expansive tolerance toward xenophobia and racial bias.
In one famous episode of "Da Ali G Show" that takes place at the "Country West Dancing and Lounge" in Tucson, Borat gets onstage and easily engages a crowd in a rousing rendition of his own song, "In My Country There Is Problem," which culminates in a cheerful chorus of "throw the Jew down the well, so my country can be free." Maybe it's that "free" that incites an instinctive clapping of the hands. Maybe everyone in the bar, even the cross-eyed toothless youngster in the corner, is in on the joke. Maybe the kids at the mall get it too. Either way, Borat's "cultural learnings" may not "for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan" so much as, say, for glorious state of Arizona.
Quote from: Garam on October 20, 2006, 12:34:35 PM
I don't know about America, but in the UK, Cohen has been an asshole favourite since 1998. And though Cohen is an above average comedian, he's not at all blameless either, often doing some really lowest common denominator stuff. You should see his original UK stuff. Some of it is horrible. Over here, Borat has been quoted regularly by dickheads for around six years now.
Da Ali G Show has a small following here, but Cohen's not all over the media like I presume he is in the UK. Same situation as Gervais, apparently. In the US a small number of people feel like they've found something unique while people in the UK are sick of him.
First four minutes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-qO8Oywpas
Deleted Scenes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om7SkkN2T7c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PYTGvbPPEk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkE9-RYqkk0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6B7X8ZD9VY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRhM-fF1xFU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A1l6eaHpAY
Quote from: Garam on October 23, 2006, 03:08:59 PM
Argument with his wife and 'I get clock radio' were the highlights.
no they weren't.
i enjoyed the town rapist
so you see him speaking that language as an indication that he's expanding the character beyond what we've seen on TV, and that makes it a highlight. ok. what he said wasn't that funny though, and "i get clock radio" was hardly hilarious. when you say highlight i'm thinking the funniest/best.. "economic, social, and jew", the town rapist, the cow in the house, could all be seen as a variation on what he's done before but they're still the best. i'm not expecting him to reinvent the character.. his mannerisms, physicality, and other genius comic touches are as endearing as ever.
you know what, RK is right, it's best not to talk about how funny this is. and i just realised i should prolly stop giving you the benefit of the doubt on comedy. overexposure does not always equal Gervaification,
Cohen looks beyond Borat as film gears up for tiered US release
Source: Guardian Unlimited
With his Borat movie gearing up for release in the UK, Sacha Baron Cohen is already thinking about his next film.
According to Variety, Cohen is developing another reality-style feature, based on a new character he is creating. As that character is a closely guarded secret, no plot details are as yet available.
Cohen will co-write and co-produce the film with Jay Roach, the director of Meet the Parents and the producer of Borat. Filming is to begin next summer.
In the meantime, Hollywood appears to be hedging its bets over whether Borat will be a hit. The film's producer, 20th Century Fox, is initially rolling out the film in the US on only 800 screens, rather fewer than to be expected of a movie with the amount of internet buzz and glowing festival reviews that Borat has attracted. Some sceptics point to Snakes on a Plane, the Samuel Jackson film that had massive buzz on the net, but still earned less than expected.
However, the studio is banking on word of mouth to create excitement for wider release in ensuing weeks. Some say Borat could turn out to be a phenomenon. At the film's Los Angeles premiere last night, kids were dressed like Borat and competed to do their best impersonations, while lines of eager spectators snaked outside the cinema and around the block.
If all goes as planned, I'll be seeing this tomorrow. Is there any after-the-credits stuff?
There's definitely during-the-credit stuff. I don't remember about after the credits...but I feel like there was.
I did indeed see this last night. There's nothing that I can say that Chest and RK didn't already. It was everything I had hoped it would be.
PREDICTIONS
Pubrick will love it.
Modage will give it a B+, maybe an A- depending on his mood when he sees it.
GT will enjoy it even though he will take issue with minor details that the rest of us barely remember.
Pete will like it but will ultimately think it's overrated.
Garam will hate it, cite other British comedians/shows (that no one outside of the UK knows) that he thinks are funnier than Sacha Baron Cohen, continue arguing that SBC is just a lowbrow comic for assholes, and no one will agree with him. Maybe Losing the Horse but that's it.
Quote from: Pubrick on October 24, 2006, 09:49:54 AM
so you see him speaking that language as an indication that he's expanding the character beyond what we've seen on TV, and that makes it a highlight.
he already went to romania once for a borat tv show and chilled with vilo and his wife and the rest.
Quote from: pete on October 26, 2006, 12:57:20 PM
he already went to romania once for a borat tv show and chilled with vilo and his wife and the rest.
cool. i didn't remember that episode. makes it even less of a highlight.
just saw the movie, it was funny. but yeah, when you put a really funny main character in a comedy, there will be people who laugh at him and ignore the heart of it, which is perfectly fine, except all the people in this country with any slight resemblance to borat will get a lot of catcalls from meatheads now.
Bruno Next for Borat
Ach-ja! Sacha Baron Cohen sets follow-up.
The rumors are true. It's Bruno. Sacha Baron Cohen has picked his next project and is currently shopping the Borat follow-up to studios.
Universal Pictures, according to industry insider mag the Hollywood Reporter, has extended a $42 million offer to Baron Cohen for the movie rights to Bruno, a film based on another of the actor's alter egos, a gay Austrian fashion show presenter and "the voice of Austrian youth TV." Bruno is the last of Cohen's outrageous characters to make the jump to the big screen.
THR adds that DreamWorks, Sony, Fox and Warner. Bros. are all also interested in the project.
Bruno is expected to start shooting in the summer. The film, which Baron Cohen is co-writing with Borat collaborator Jay Roach, is still in need of a director.
The character originated on Da Ali G Show in the segment Funkyzeit mit Bruno (Funkytime with Bruno).
I don't like Bruno too much, based on what I've seen from the show. It's always the least interesting segment.
whatever, he's making a trilogy. he's earned my respect enough to wait and see what he does with it.
i liked the Ali G movie, and that was a different style than the show. Bruno will get married maybe, or he might get together with borat and ali g in a threesome that last 2 hours, who knows.
i found borat and bruno the absolute funniest part of the show. Ali G was unfunny most of the time and the movie was godawful
bruno is funny but he seems to be the least-developed character in all of the alig g show. the original format seemed to be--ali g interviews the experts and the politicians, borat interviews the "life coaches" and the upper class, and bruno interviews the fashion and art elites, but when they came to America, they just seemed to step a class down. Ali G was still talking to the same people for the most part, but borat and bruno started going out to the midwest and the south a wholelot, to interact with them goofy rightwing racists sexists. it's always funny to hear old farmers and suburbanites spouting hate speech, but it's much less satisfying than the life coaches and fashion elites. they still did some of that, but it seemed like all of that backwater south stuff coulda been covered in one episode, but instead it became a majority of the skits.
Quote from: pete on August 08, 2006, 07:46:27 PM
I think most of the laughs don't actually come from the writing. the writing is great, but I just think the performance is amazing. the accent, the grammar, the gestures, and the vocabulary make borat so outstanding.
yeah, he only loses the character a little in the fight scene, and i don't blame him there.
The Running of the Jew was my favourite moment. It's a funny film and therefore does it's job.
I was thinking all the way through the movie how much of it was real and how much was staged/organised?
I heard this is only openning in 800-1000 screens at the most... why are Studios so fucking clueless?
They give bullshit films like Flicka 3000 screens and they tank. Then, they promote the shit out of this movie for a year (which became already a hit for people who didnt even know Borat) and now they do a limit bullshit release on the same weekend that they give Santa Clause 3 and Flushed Away more than 3000 screens.
Same as they gave last weekend Flags of our Fathers less than 2000 screens and they complained how it made less money than Prestige and Departed, and those had like 500 screens more. Makes no sense...
The reason they took it down to 800 theaters is because of Snake on a Plane's performance. That movie did surprisingly bad, like $15 mil on opening weekend if I recall. Considering the hype machine was very similar for that one (large internet sensation surrounding it), which failed to generate ticket sales, whatever studio coming out with Borat just decided to put away the large opening in hopes good ticket sales on the 800 screens it is opening on and word of mouth will prompt a wider release. Makes sense really; I can imagine it's mostly going to be the same people that went out to SoaP that'll see this movie. Hopefully it will perform better, though.
With the difference that Snakes on a Plane had ONLY a cool title and people knew that. The reviews (the few that got out) were horrible. Borat so far has had only but praise from the media, festivals, and everybody that came in contact with it. I think it will do great... but in this country full with retards you never know. After all, Saw 3 was the 5th biggest October openning ever with almost 35 million.
Quote from: kal on October 29, 2006, 06:05:06 PM
I think it will do great... but in this country full with retards you never know. After all, Saw 3 was the 5th biggest October openning ever with almost 35 million.
this is both hilarious and depressing.
Uni wins 'Bruno' auction for $42.5 mil
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Universal Pictures has won the intense bidding war for "Bruno," Sacha Baron Cohen's follow-up movie to "Borat."
Sources said that Universal is paying $42.5 million, beating out such other contenders as DreamWorks, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Pictures for the worldwide rights to the film. The price includes the production budget of the film, rumored to be in the $20 million-$25 million range. Also included is a significant backend component, believed to be the 15% range.
The price has raised eyebrows in Hollywood because Baron Cohen's much-hyped "Borat" has yet to open. Despite much advance praise for "Borat," distributor Fox scaled back its Friday opening to about 800 theaters because it is concerned that the movie wasn't registering high enough in audience-awareness tracking.
With "Bruno," Baron Cohen is calling upon another of his comic alter egos, Bruno, a gay fashionista from Austria who fancies himself as "the voice of Austrian youth TV" and who sashayed from New York Fashion Week to Miami nightclubs in his previous appearance on HBO's "Da Ali G Show,"on which Baron Cohen also first introduced Borat to American audiences.
As in the case of "Borat," Jay Roach would produce with Baron Cohen. No director is on board, though it has been reported that Baron Cohen wants to shoot the movie during the summer.
Quote from: MacGuffin on October 30, 2006, 01:14:56 AM
No director is on board, though it has been reported that Baron Cohen wants to shoot the movie during the summer.
so the sun might direct it.. :yabbse-huh:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.timeinc.net%2Ftime%2Fdaily%2F2006%2F0611%2Famborat_1106.jpg&hash=215dd17784cbf5f757ba063d49a49f1678f904c5)
Borat Make Funny Joke On Idiot Americans! High-Five!
Sacha Baron Cohen is either horrible or hysterical. You choose
By JOEL STEIN; Time Magazine
The giant mustache, the mesh underwear, the car dragged by mules, the wine made of fermented horse urine--sure, it seems as if comedian Sacha Baron Cohen is mocking Kazakhstan. He is not. He's mocking you. After all, you're the idiot who doesn't know where Kazakhstan is or if it's the kind of place where, as Borat claims, there's a "Running of the Jews." And more important, you're the idiot who believes so much in cultural relativism that you'll nod politely when a guy tells you that in his country they keep developmentally disabled people in cages. Or, worse yet, you're the person who tells him it's not a bad idea.
That's Baron Cohen's awesome trick: preying on the fear, fascination and, most of all, patronization of the other--the foreigner, the rapper, the gay guy. For the trick to work, we have to believe that other countries are so inferior, it's plausible that their citizens would wash their faces in the toilet. He's been exploiting this by videotaping the reaction of unsuspecting people to his characters' horrifying behavior since 1998, when he started on England's short-lived The 11 o'Clock Show, and later on HBO's Da Ali G Show. His characters--aspiring rapper Ali G, gay Austrian fashionista Brüno and Borat Sagdiyev, the U.S.-loving Kazakh--get away with astonishing rudeness because people are too weirded out by youth culture, flaming gay guys and foreigners to question them. When one of his guises gets too famous to sucker people into being interviewed, he molds himself into another one. He could be any outsider society avoids by giving a pass--a religious freak, a veteran, an old man. "Ali G played on people's ability to think that young people are so different from them they wouldn't recognize absolute stupidity and the fact that they were being made fun of," says Andrew Newman, a writer and producer on The 11 o'Clock Show. "And now Borat does the same thing but with countries they haven't heard much about."
In his new unscripted film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Baron Cohen takes his interactions with real people and strings them into a plot: a mockumentary about American culture gets sidetracked by a cross-country quest to meet and "make sexy time" with Pamela Anderson. Along the way, the hidden cameras capture a Southern dinner party's dismay with Borat's bathroom habits, and the guests' reaction on the arrival of his date--a black hooker. All the marks are unaware they're being fooled, which is hard to believe, especially when a gun dealer responds to the question "What kind of a gun would you recommend to kill a Jew?" with a nonchalant "I'd recommend a 9-mm or a Glock automatic." (Baron Cohen is Jewish.) The detailed legal releases, which it seems no one ever reads, were presented to people as if they were permission forms for being interviewed by a Kazakh TV show.
There hasn't been a comedy this edgy in a long time. And there certainly hasn't been one that the comedy élite is this excited by. After seeing an early screening, Curb Your Enthusiasm creator Larry David jokingly asked Borat director Larry Charles, a friend, to put his name on the movie. Even though many people have not heard of the film--Fox last week reduced the number of screens the movie would be shown on from more than 2,000 to 800 for this weekend's opening--it's being discussed on college campuses everywhere. Which is impressive, since a big part of the marketing campaign has been conducted inadvertently by the government of Kazakhstan. It first threatened legal action against Baron Cohen, then took out a somewhat unsuccessful four-page tourism ad in the New York Times ("The country is home to the world's largest population of wolves"), and finally gave up and invited the comic to visit. Baron Cohen is considering the offer as the ultimate opportunity to conflate his made-up character with reality. "I would absolutely love to go," says Borat director Charles. "Even if we got shot down on the tarmac, it would be a good way to go. That's pretty good bonus material for the DVD."
Charles and his tiny crew were just about that fearless during the making of the film. Baron Cohen was more so. For the two-month shoot, he was in character from early in the morning until night. The crew shot so much footage that Charles is trying to sell the unused parts to HBO as a series. Even when the cops came--which the director says happened at least 50 times--Baron Cohen never dropped character. It's an impressive, perhaps insane, performance: Johnny Knoxville with a sense of humor, Andy Kaufman with a desire to please, Peter Sellers set loose on the public instead of David Niven. "It's like Marlon Brando's performance in On the Waterfront," says Charles. "Before that, everything was stylized, the John Barrymore school. After that, you couldn't act in the old style anymore. I believe that Sacha's performance does the same thing."
At a time when the major TV networks can't figure out what makes people laugh, Baron Cohen, 35, is the leader of a brand of aggressive, cheaply shot street comedy that stretches from the lowbrow Jackass to the more intellectual Stephen Colbert. It's the honesty of real reactions, mixed with the personal risk, that makes kids giggle in discomfort. Picking Kazakhstan, a real country, is part of that Andy Kaufmanesque confrontation, as is Baron Cohen's insistence on doing interviews as Borat. "There's something funny about it being a genuine place," says fellow British comedian David Baddiel, who went to the same private high school and Cambridge a few years before Baron Cohen. "That's what makes Sacha's comedy modern, because if that had been an older comedian, Borat would have been from Stupidlandia or something."
By not even winking at his ruse, Baron Cohen is able to get his interviewees to show their inner selves, and it often isn't pretty. By making misogynistic, racist statements in the friendliest way and asking people to high-five over them, he gets folks to say things they wouldn't if they knew the film was going to be shown in their own country. "Political correctness has led to a more civil society because people with racist attitudes have taken them underground," says Borat producer Jay Roach, who directed Austin Powers and Meet the Parents. "It's a fascinating social experiment to observe this character walking amongst us, revealing this."
Clueless, desperate-to-fit-in, optimistic foreigners are a classic comedy trope--the Clouseaus, Cousin Balkis, Morks, Two Wild and Crazy Guys--because they spotlight the ridiculousness that we accept. When he's at a rodeo, driving the crowd into a frenzy with anti-Iraqi, pro-war cheers, Borat demonstrates how much aggression is intertwined with patriotism. And his attempts to be American pinpoint exactly how the world sees us: garish, violent, nouveau riche, a land of Donald Trumps and 50 Cents.
If Borat does well, it could change comedy in two ways. First, if high-grossing movies can be made with just a video camera and a few guys in a van, the studios might find real competition from every fool with a digital camera and access to YouTube. Second, it might limn the generational divide in the way music used to. Because any normal person over 35 is going to find Borat horrifying. What exactly is funny about being invited to nice people's homes and handing them your feces?
But Charles doesn't look at it like that. "I never felt like we tricked anyone in a cruel way. We gave people a chance to be themselves," he says. Some come out well, and others don't. The difference is that if you're over 35, you think you have the right to keep your regrettable moments private. If you're under 35, you realize that everything is public now. Even if your racist rant were for a show in Kazakhstan, it would be on the Internet anyway. Never trust anyone under 35. Especially if he has a video camera.
hidden cameras?
Quote from: MacGuffin on October 30, 2006, 10:25:52 AM
Borat and Beck on Letterman tonight.
he was funny but as usual he just rehashed the material we've seen in the trailers. i think he is aware that if he uses all the best lines it'll ruin the movie.
some differences between letterman and conan appearances:he didn't do any jew jokes on letterman, possibly because of shaffer, but he made up for it by ironically claiming shaffer was a huge star in kazakhstan.
he made one jew joke on conan, in response to conan's question about the anti-semitism in the film. which itself became an anti-semitic joke. it was alrite.
on letterman he described his sister's "vazhïn" as being "loose like sleeve of wizard" - which is hilarious.
on conan he described his wife's as hanging loose like the mouth of a tired dog - which is also brilliant.
borat's walk-on during beck's performance
was as effective as
the whole song he played on conan.
he was funnier on letterman overall. dave played the straight man and just asked questions that allowed borat to be himself.
conan was almost asking questions to cohen directly. there was too much awareness of his character, too many ppl were in on the joke.
winner: The Hunt for Red Pubis (not really but the title was too cool not to post)
Borat book could be too hot to handle
Source: NY Daily News
Pssst. Correspondent Borat Sagdiyev has too-sexy photos of his Kazakh countrywomen to show public Americans in book. But New York publishing czars worry supermarket won't let in barenaked ladies.
Translation: Comic Sacha Baron Cohen, whose movie, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," opens Friday, wants to write a book based on his pants-wettingly offensive character. But publishers fear that Wal-Mart and other chains won't sell it.
The trouble is the "100 compromising Polaroids" that Cohen wants to include. We hear that Cohen has hired models to pose as Kazakh women in various states of undress. Some of the photos are said to be quite explicit - which isn't surprising considering that "Borat" told David Letterman this week that one of his "hobbies is ... to take photograph of ladies while they make toilet."
British publisher Boxtree snapped up the book for the U.K., where the book Cohen wrote as his character Ali G was a best seller.
But the Ali G book didn't do so hot in the States, partly because it also features some pictures not suitable for family shoppers.
Cohen's Trident Media agent, Daniel Strone, didn't return calls. However, Kazakhstan Embassy spokesman Roman Vassilenko did have a few things to say about Cohen's proposed salacious depiction of its female citizens.
"Kazakhstan is a moral country, and women have always played an important part in society," Vassilenko told us. "The only true thing about Kazakhstan in the movie is its geographic location."
Gauhar Abdygalieva, a Kazakh student at George Washington University concurred. "I would say this kind of portrayal is absolutely inadmissible," she said. "He comes up with really bad-looking women [who] have nothing to do with real Kazakhstan women."
But Cohen's satire may prove a boon to the former Soviet republic. Sayat Tours, "a leading Kazakh tour operator," is inviting Americans aboard its "Kazakhstan vs. Boratistan" package.
Sayat's press release beckons us to visit "high-fashion boutiques, as well as trying kumyss, the deliciously tasting Kazakh traditional drink made from fermented horse milk."
Mmmm. You'll want a Polaroid of that.
I dont know if the excitement to see this was too high or what, but I'm dissapointed at how the movie turned out.
It's not that the funniest parts are in the trailer, because the movie itself IS FUNNY most of the time. There are some great scenes and situations that I was dying. But I feel like most of the good Borat jokes and many of the great Borat moments from the TV show were not there (or even close). Like the Guide to Football, Guide to Dating, and some others that make me shit myself after laughing for an hour. Also, in some parts it tries to tie the story together as a story, and others it doesnt make sense. They should have done one or the other.
I hated, really hated, the iPod commercial at the end. It was cheap and it shows how Apple is everywhere. This was supposed to be different, but they fucked it up with that little thing.
Anyways, this was funny but not as funny as I expected it to be. Maybe it was me, that I was too over-excited about this and expecting too much, but it did not blow my mind. I felt like at the end of Matrix Reloaded.
Quote from: kal on November 03, 2006, 06:23:59 PM
It's not that the funniest parts are in the trailer, because the movie itself IS FUNNY most of the time. There are some great scenes and situations that I was dying. But I feel like most of the good Borat jokes and many of the great Borat moments from the TV show were not there (or even close). Like the Guide to Football, Guide to Dating, and some others that make me shit myself after laughing for an hour.
You're saying he should have rehashed funny moments from the series? :yabbse-huh:
I think he means that the funniest parts of the movie don't match the funniest moments from the show.
I've saw some of Da Ali G Show a long time back, so I don't remember much from it. I haven't laughed this hard at a movie in a while. Kal's complaint about them trying to make a story out of it at parts makes sense, since those scenes don't quite feel right. Even so, there's very little of that, and they never forget to make the film funny. Sometimes I couldn't hear the movie, there was so much laughter.
Movie made 9 million dollars openning day on 837 theatres... all I can is WOW!
Over 10k average, it will give them a huge average for the weekend (over 20k), which is a big deal for ANY movie, comparable to Spider-Man and Star Wars.
QuoteI hated, really hated, the iPod commercial at the end. It was cheap and it shows how Apple is everywhere. This was supposed to be different, but they fucked it up with that little thing.
What the hell are you talking about? Apple
is everywhere... that's sort of the joke. I don't understand people getting so upset over these so-called "product placements" in a movie. Who cares?
this is the funniest movie i can remember seeing in a long time. we saw this at a 1pm show and it was packed. when we came out of the theatre the people i was with said they didnt know how to feel about it. we couldnt believe what we had just seen, and i think thats the best way you can leave a movie. not only was this the most consistently i've laughed at a movie, maybe ever, but it really seemed like it was breaking the form. it was something i've never seen before in a film, and must be what people felt like coming out of Spinal Tap. amazing.
Borat Has "Very Nice!" Opening Day
Source: ShowBIZ Data
According to ShowBIZ Data, Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan has grossed an estimated $8.9 million in its opening day.
That may not seem like a lot, but it's quite impressive considering 20th Century Fox's controversial decision to limit the opening to just 837 theatres, where it averaged over $10.5 thousand per site. It also surpassed the two new family comedies, Tim Allen's The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause and DreamWorks' Flushed Away, to take the top spot on Friday, even though both of those movies were playing in well over 2,000 more theatres than "Borat."
Despite Fox's reasons for the reduced opening, the highly-praised comedy which has received almost unanimous critical acclaim (96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes!) looks likely to surpass Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 as the highest opening movie in less than 1,000 theatres. Moore's controversial doc made $8.5 million its opening day in 868 theatres to win its weekend with $23.9 million, but realistically, "Borat" may be more frontloaded to opening day due to the high anticipation.
With $5.3 and $4.8 million respectively, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause and Flushed Away are likely to make up the difference over the weekend where family films do most of their business, but Cohen's comedy should still win the weekend regardless. On top of that, "Borat" is scheduled to expand into over 2,200 theatres next weekend, giving it a strong chance at 2 weeks at the top.
Quote from: clerkguy23 on November 04, 2006, 07:34:41 PM
QuoteI hated, really hated, the iPod commercial at the end. It was cheap and it shows how Apple is everywhere. This was supposed to be different, but they fucked it up with that little thing.
What the hell are you talking about? Apple is everywhere... that's sort of the joke. I don't understand people getting so upset over these so-called "product placements" in a movie. Who cares?
No problem with product placement. But there is subtle ways of doing it so that its not on your face like that. I thought it was too much.
Aernt you the dude who's always talking about box office receipts? Yet some badass product placement is gonna make you puke? You're a goddamn lawyer, Kal, Prosecute some white dudes, you fucking iMac using iLife bozo. Eat a white tiger you capitalist!
ELEEEEVATION!!!!! WOO, WOO HOOOOO.
..yeah
This movie was beyond funny. There isn't even a category for how hilarious Borat is. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard during a movie that my face hurt as I left the theater. Please go see this, and see it soon. It's made 10x funnier by large crowds. I feel bad for whoever was watching 'The Departed' next door.
:lol:
Quote from: Garam on November 05, 2006, 09:03:01 AM
Now, here's a list of British comedians that are better than SBC that nobody else has heard of...
Armando Iannucci, Chris Morris, Peter Cook, Nigel Planer, Simon Munnery, Jerry Sadowitz, Ade Edmondson, Chris Langham, Stewart Lee, Adam Buxton, Victor-Lewis Smith, Rik Mayall, Peter Baynham, Stephen Fry, Paul Whitehouse, Michael Palin, Vic Reeves...
This thread is about the movie Borat, but thanks for the info.
Oh I get it. Had to search for the post, but I see the reference. Apologies.
Quote from: Garam on November 05, 2006, 09:03:01 AM
Now, here's a list of British comedians that are better than SBC that nobody else has heard of...
Disappointing. I've actually heard of most of those guys.
I still get partial credit.
it is a really funny film. the staged scenes were still pretty funny. the only negative was that a lot of the best gags were ruined for me ahead of time. i can only imagine how much funnier it was for people in the audience who knew nothing about it.
(spoiler)
during the wrestling scene people in my theater started walking out. hilarious.
Sacha Baron Cohen has balls.
And I enjoyed the film.
In that order.
*SPOILER WARNING*
Was Pamela Anderson In On The Joke? A 'Borat' Investigation
Behind-the-scenes details on unwanted police attention, actors and that abduction.
Source: MTV
LOS ANGELES — Over the weekend, millions of moviegoers were introduced to a new kind of comedy, courtesy of an inept reporter from Kazakhstan and the confused, foot-in-mouth Americans who found his cameras pointed in their direction. On the way out of the theater, many of them most likely cleared their hoarse-from-laughter throats and then asked: Who was in on the joke?
What follows is a spoiler-heavy dissection of the behind-the-scenes details that translated into "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." Because, although you may have figured out by now that you'll never be able to attend the Running of the Jew, some of the other phony moments in the flick might be a bit more surprising.
Getting anyone involved with "Borat" to discuss the film's production is like trying to get a magician to give away his secrets — especially since star Sacha Baron Cohen has done every interview for the film in character. The studio's official press notes, however, reveal a few tidbits: "Peter Baynham, Anthony Hines and Dan Mazer were drafted to write an outline for the film," the notes explain. "There was no script. The movie is an experiment — a new form of filmmaking for an age in which reality and entertainment have become increasingly intertwined. Real events with real people push the film's fictional story, and when scenes played out in unexpected ways, Baron Cohen and his colleagues had to rewrite the outline."
Executive producer Monica Levinson further explained the irreverent shoot with the following statement: "All we had was an eight-person crew, including Sacha, a sound person, camera people, [director] Larry Charles and a production assistant. We all traveled around in a van, followed by a pickup truck that carried the equipment."
These are fascinating explanations, but neither is completely true. "I'm very pleased to be affiliated with it," grinned Luenell Campbell, a veteran comedian who is very much acting when she pops up as the African-American hooker Borat takes to a proper Southern dinner. "Borat and I go back a long way. We knew each other before Kazakhstan."
Slightly less surprising is the inauthentic presence of Borat's rotund producer Azamat Bagatov, who in reality is 53-year-old Ken Davitian — a veteran of dozens of movies and TV shows including "ER," "S.W.A.T." and "Gilmore Girls."
With convincing, obscure character actors like Davitian and Campbell (who had small roles in "The Rock" and "So I Married an Axe Murderer") assisting Baron Cohen during his interviews, director Larry Charles is understandably careful while answering questions about just how genuine the reality-show-like movie really is. "Almost everybody in it are real people," Charles insisted. "They didn't follow any script."
Which brings us to the biggest question of all: How on earth did Sacha Baron Cohen manage to walk up to one of the most desirable female stars in the world, put a giant sack over her head and not get beaten to a bloody pulp and/or shot by her bodyguards?
"I love Sacha, he's such a nice guy," said a smiling Pamela Anderson — who might just give the best performance of her career in the film while playing herself.
"All I can say was that she was extremely good-humored about what happen to her," Charles said of the shocking scene in which Borat tries to abduct Anderson after he's fallen in love with her. "She ultimately, ultimately, had no problem."
"I think it's a huge compliment," Anderson said of Borat's obsession with her. "It was great." Asked how she got involved with the film, the former "Baywatch" star turned away for a moment to think, then replied, "I can't really say. I'm sworn to secrecy."
In real life, the legally questionable activities of Baron Cohen and his colleagues often attracted the attention of local authorities. A warrant was issued for the actor's arrest in New York, and Baron Cohen was advised by police to leave the state when he tried to secure a room in a fancy hotel while his underwear was hanging out of his pants. Through it all, the actor remained in character as Borat — even when the Secret Service detained him outside the White House.
Levinson, meanwhile, was arrested along with production manager/ first assistant director Dale Stern when they took a phone, alarm clock and comforter from a New York hotel (the studio claims it going to use the items as props and then return them). While New York's Finest questioned the pair, Stern even went so far as to eat a list of crew names and phone numbers to protect them from legal action. Both spent the night in a New York jail.
It's hard to imagine that the Anderson abduction went down without the actress' knowledge — no media outlets reported the ruckus — but what is quite likely is that Baron Cohen and Anderson arranged the ruse together, and then hired unknowing guards to react to the events.
"His whole movie was a mind-blowing experience," was all Anderson would say when asked if the guards were real. "It's breaking new ground. He's the new Monty Python." The actress added that she trusts her cameo won't encourage other love-struck fans to try to throw potato sacks over her head. "I hope not," she grinned.
For now, what we do know is that Anderson said she hopes to work with Baron Cohen again someday, Davitian is putting the finishing touches on a crime drama called "South of Pico," and Campbell is currently on tour — and swearing up and down that she has no actual hooking experience. "Ooh, naughty-naughty," she smiled, and then began sounding like Pamela Anderson. "I can't tell you about any of the inner workings. I'm sworn to secrecy. I can just say I hope you enjoy the film as much as we enjoyed making it."
i watched this at the block in orange over the weekend, and that scene was in fact filmed at the block in orange. theyre running around in the parking lot that we were just circling trying to find parking... kinda cool.
Quote from: pozer on November 06, 2006, 12:55:45 PM
i watched this at the block in orange over the weekend, and that scene was in fact filmed at the block in orange. theyre running around in the parking lot that we were just circling trying to find parking... kinda cool.
Ha, wow. I didn't recognize it, but that is cool.
That was my favorite scene. My GOD.
people behind us we're saying 'that's right here at the block.' we were like, 'holy crap, indeed it is.' went in to the virgin mega store there last night and we overheard peeps talkin' about it being filmed there with employees behind the counter. and they were also saying it was indeed staged (of course).
I agree this was a very funny movie. I agree that this will be the next Napoleon Dynamite. I think some idiot kid is going to get arrested trying do some of the things in the movie.
*** SPOILERS ***
best:
-trying to turn the ice-cream truck down the wrong way of a one-way street in D.C.
-everything with the bear
-throwing money at the cockroaches/shape-shifting Jews
-extracting gypsy tears
not-so-funny:
-Pamela Anderson abduction
-naked wrestling
-the "hooker" who was clearly an actor
Are we all too grown up and cool to enjoy the naked wrestling scene or something because what the fuck.
Quote from: I Love a Magician on November 06, 2006, 06:33:22 PM
Are we all too grown up and cool to enjoy the naked wrestling scene or something because what the fuck.
no, it just wasn't funny.
Quote from: for petes sake on November 06, 2006, 05:24:20 PM
*** SPOILERS ***
not-so-funny:
-Pamela Anderson abduction
-naked wrestling
-the "hooker" who was clearly an actor
Wrong
Dead Wrong
They were never at any point expecting anyone to think she wasn't an actor.
Quote from: for petes sake on November 06, 2006, 07:05:14 PM
Quote from: I Love a Magician on November 06, 2006, 06:33:22 PM
Are we all too grown up and cool to enjoy the naked wrestling scene or something because what the fuck.
no, it just wasn't funny.
for petes sake
Yeah, finding Borat funny but not the naked fight is like saying you like Dr. Strangelove but that phone call to Russia was just stupid. It's possible to feel that way but it just doesn't make sense.
it's like saying showgirls was good but that scene with elizabeth berkley using ice to play with her nipple wasn't HOT.
Quote from: RegularKarate on November 06, 2006, 10:49:30 PM
Quote from: for petes sake on November 06, 2006, 05:24:20 PM
*** SPOILERS ***
not-so-funny:
-Pamela Anderson abduction
-naked wrestling
-the "hooker" who was clearly an actor
Wrong
Dead Wrong
They were never at any point expecting anyone to think she wasn't an actor.
Both these scenes were purely included for brainless shock value. While this instance was certainly the most extreme example of it, the whole "let's get the hairy, fat guy naked" scene just isn't funny to me when it's scripted. Having both of them run around in the hotel and through the convention there was funny because you could see real people's reactions to what was happening and it didn't feel so tired and cliche.
The Pamela sack scene also felt staged. Knowing Baron Cohen's modus operandi, to have the climax not be unscripted felt awkward and lame.
And with regards to the filmmakers' intention to have the Hooker come across as being an actress, you know that for a fact, huh? I'm pretty sure that up until the ending you're supposed to have no idea.
It's a simple matter of these things feeling like they were staged and therefore not being funny.
Quote from: pete on November 07, 2006, 11:05:36 AM
it's like saying showgirls was good but that scene with elizabeth berkley using ice to play with her nipple wasn't HOT.
it's like saying Baron Cohen's scripted moments aren't as good as his unscripted ones.
admin edit: use edit/modify to make two replies in one post.
I agree with you in general, that the unscipted scenes with the "plot" were the weakest scenes, but the naked wrestling was fucking hilarious. It spilling out into the convention was pure gold.
Quote from: for petes sake on November 07, 2006, 08:06:04 PM
Quote from: pete on November 07, 2006, 11:05:36 AM
it's like saying showgirls was good but that scene with elizabeth berkley using ice to play with her nipple wasn't HOT.
it's like saying Baron Cohen's scripted moments aren't as good as his unscripted ones.
what?
SPOILERS
Quote from: for petes sake on November 07, 2006, 08:02:24 PM
Both these scenes were purely included for brainless shock value. While this instance was certainly the most extreme example of it, the whole "let's get the hairy, fat guy naked" scene just isn't funny to me when it's scripted. Having both of them run around in the hotel and through the convention there was funny because you could see real people's reactions to what was happening and it didn't feel so tired and cliche.
Here's the thing though: The movie needed about three or four unscripted moments to carry the plot (as stupid as it sounds, it wouldn't have done as well without at least SOME kind of plot) and the hotel scene was the most brilliantly funny scene they could have scripted. Shock value? sure, but the fact that he was naked was just the start... it was the fight itself that was so funny... i
Quote from: for petes sake on November 07, 2006, 08:02:24 PM
And with regards to the filmmakers' intention to have the Hooker come across as being an actress, you know that for a fact, huh? I'm pretty sure that up until the ending you're supposed to have no idea.
It was pretty evident that she was an actress. The conversation, the fact that she took the night off... none of this was even remotely believable... I think it's possible that she wasn't a real actress, that they hired a real prostitute to give those lines, but the situation doesn't seem at all like they were trying to convince anyone that it was real.
in my eyes, the best two scenes are :
borat vs the rodeo
the frat boys
those two are an example of what sacha baron does best, portraying ignorance.
what i like about the film, and the reason i will defend it in any further conversation, is that it wouldn't exist if people, especially those in favor of a 'global economy' and wild capitalism, knew more about global interaction and duh, other countries and cultures . that's his license to do all the crazy stuff. my dad has a friend from the portuguese navy who told a US marine, when he asked about his country, that portugal was a small country between texas and mexico. the marine bought it. to me , this movie damages the image of USA wayy more than Kazakhstan's. that was just the pretext, it could've been greenland, portugal, hell even mexico. i feel like i'm stating the obvious but borat succeeds in showing how we've failed as decent human beings in the western world, miserably.
edit: shit, i just rewrote the article on page 3. that is my last attempt on writing anything serious .
whatever, this film is great success high five etc etc.
Quote from: for petes sake on November 07, 2006, 08:02:24 PM
And with regards to the filmmakers' intention to have the Hooker come across as being an actress, you know that for a fact, huh? I'm pretty sure that up until the ending you're supposed to have no idea.
What difference does it make if she was an actress? All that matters in that scene is the reaction of the people at the dinner table who really think that Borat invited a hooker over.
for pete's sake is going to HATE jurassic park when he watches the behind the scene.
Just watched Borat on Stern. I fucking hate Howard Stern. He kept asking about Hitler and if Kazakhstan helped kill the Jews and all that shit and you can tell that Cohen's getting irritated with it. Really pisses me off when I watch a Borat interview and the interviewer tried to be in on the act and be all smarmy and shit.
the part where stern said "did your country go around and help the nazis to kill all the jews?" was pretty sad. shows how feeble and empty his idea of humour is. and you can see a little tiny piece of stern understands it's the dumbest possible thing to say immediately after he says it in his body language. he would either ask hideous questions or repeat/explain what borat had just said.
Quote from: RegularKarate on November 07, 2006, 10:24:48 PM
SPOILERS
Here's the thing though: The movie needed about three or four unscripted moments to carry the plot (as stupid as it sounds, it wouldn't have done as well without at least SOME kind of plot) and the hotel scene was the most brilliantly funny scene they could have scripted. Shock value? sure, but the fact that he was naked was just the start... it was the fight itself that was so funny... i
SPOILERSI agree with you about the necessity of having scripted scenes to carry the film forward. Most of the time they worked for me...the running of the Jews part gave me a cramp in my side from laughing so hard. However, the wrestling scene just didn't because it felt like that type of thing I'd seen before in a hundred other idiotic frat-boy movies (maybe less extreme, but the same idea). It came off as stale and tired especially when compared with everything else in the film. I guess this is just a matter on personal preference.
Quote from: RegularKarate on November 07, 2006, 10:24:48 PM
It was pretty evident that she was an actress. The conversation, the fact that she took the night off... none of this was even remotely believable... I think it's possible that she wasn't a real actress, that they hired a real prostitute to give those lines, but the situation doesn't seem at all like they were trying to convince anyone that it was real.
For me it wasn't. When she entered the house I remember cringing with anticpation at her introduction to the owners. Of course when she started walking around and introducing herself to everyone I knew that she was an actor, but it still felt like a let-down considering the fireworks that could have flown if she had been a real hooker put in that situation. Also, considering the ridiculous shit they got people to everywhere else in the movie, getting a real hooker to knock on the door of a southern mansion didn't seem out of the question.
Quote from: picolas on November 08, 2006, 05:25:25 AM
the part where stern said "did your country go around and help the nazis to kill all the jews?" was pretty sad. shows how feeble and empty his idea of humour is. and you can see a little tiny piece of stern understands it's the dumbest possible thing to say immediately after he says it in his body language. he would either ask hideous questions or repeat/explain what borat had just said.
I did not see this, but take in consideration that both Stern and Cohen are JEWISH. So maybe there was something else behind it.
Quote from: kal on November 08, 2006, 06:25:53 PM
Quote from: picolas on November 08, 2006, 05:25:25 AM
the part where stern said "did your country go around and help the nazis to kill all the jews?" was pretty sad. shows how feeble and empty his idea of humour is. and you can see a little tiny piece of stern understands it's the dumbest possible thing to say immediately after he says it in his body language. he would either ask hideous questions or repeat/explain what borat had just said.
I did not see this, but take in consideration that both Stern and Cohen are JEWISH. So maybe there was something else behind it.
i bet you picolas already knew stern and cohen are JEWISH. pretty much everyone in the universe knows they are JEWISH.
Quote from: Hedwig on November 08, 2006, 07:02:57 PMi bet you picolas already knew stern and cohen are JEWISH. pretty much everyone in the universe knows they are JEWISH.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fletterman.iscool.com%2Fbugfrontloop.gif&hash=a8be1692b83369954ca36ca4543331e8bb015aa5)
WHAAAAA?!
i know they're jewish. it doesn't make what stern said funny in any way. i'm not saying the question was offensive. i'm saying it sucked at being funny.
sacha baron cohen for best actor.
they had a pretty good interview with sasha baron cohen not in character a while ago. that was pretty cool. I don't think stern is good at dealing with someone putting him on, he always freaks out when some politician patronizes him, he likes being the one in control and making the jokes. I mean most of these borat interviews involve the interviewers playing along and feeding him punchlines. stern can't handle that with as much class as your conan or letterman.
Quote from: Hedwig on November 08, 2006, 07:02:57 PM
Quote from: kal on November 08, 2006, 06:25:53 PM
Quote from: picolas on November 08, 2006, 05:25:25 AM
the part where stern said "did your country go around and help the nazis to kill all the jews?" was pretty sad. shows how feeble and empty his idea of humour is. and you can see a little tiny piece of stern understands it's the dumbest possible thing to say immediately after he says it in his body language. he would either ask hideous questions or repeat/explain what borat had just said.
I did not see this, but take in consideration that both Stern and Cohen are JEWISH. So maybe there was something else behind it.
i bet you picolas already knew stern and cohen are JEWISH. pretty much everyone in the universe knows they are JEWISH.
as I said, I didnt see it so I have no idea what was it about... just mentioning that.
Russia may block release of 'Borat'
A government agency said it would refuse to grant permission for Sacha Baron Cohen's controversial comedy "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" to be shown in theaters in neighboring Russia, its distributor here said Thursday.
The Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography said the film could offend some viewers and contained material that "might seem disparaging in relation to certain ethnic groups and religions," according to Vadim Ivanov, theatrical sales director at Twentieth Century Fox C.I.S.
Ivanov said he hoped the agency would relent and that the film will premiere in Russia as scheduled on Nov. 30. "Borat" was the top movie in the United States in its debut last weekend, pulling in $26.5 million.
The agency informed the company in a letter that it would not grant the permission required to show the film in theaters, but later said the decision was not official, Ivanov noted. "This story is not over," he said.
Ivanov said he was unaware of an instance in which Russian authorities have banned a non-pornographic movie. Officials at the government agency did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
The raucous, satiric "Borat" pokes fun at Americans through the guise of Cohen's Kazakh TV journalist character he originated on TV in his "Da Ali G Show." The spoof documentary follows Cohen's Borat on a cross-country trip to report back to his homeland on American culture.
The character suggests Kazakhs drink horse urine, view prostitution, rape and incest as respectable, and are openly anti-Semitic.
Russia has close political ties with Kazakhstan, whose officials — and citizens — have seethed at the depiction of their country.
The move comes as Kremlin critics accuse President Vladimir Putin's government of restricting freedoms and tightening control over society. Amid a growing wave of extreme nationalism and hate crimes, it appears to reflect efforts by Russian authorities — long accused of turning a blind eye — to show that they are cracking down on intolerance.
'Borat' tries on a suit
2 sue over depiction in Cohen laffer
Source: Variety
"Borat" has sparked its first lawsuit from its unsuspecting stars.
Two U. of South Carolina frat boys who make sexist and racist comments in the pic sued 20th Century Fox and the "Borat" producers on Thursday, claiming they were drunk at the time they signed a release to appear in the film.
They also claim the producers assured them that the movie they'd appear in would never be shown in the U.S.
Plaintiffs seek unspecified damages and demand that Fox to pull "Borat" from theaters.
Never identified by name in "Borat," the pair did not give their names in the lawsuit for fear of further public humiliation. But their attorney, Oliver Taillieu, said the main issue is fraud.
"If you watch the movie, one of then can barely keep his eyes open," he said. "It's pretty obvious to me that these guys did not know what they were getting into."
A rep for Fox, whose lawyers are still reviewing the suit, commented, "The lawsuit has no merit."
According to the lawsuit, the "Borat" crew first found the plaintiffs at their frat house, looking to select people for the film. The three who were chosen were then taken to a bar "to loosen up" over drinks. "After a while of heavy drinking by the plaintiffs," they were presented a consent agreement "to sign in order to be able to use plaintiffs in 'a documentary-style film' which as defendants described would only be shown in Europe and would never be shown in the United States."
Taillieu said he had not seen the forms his clients signed as they turned over the only copies to the "Borat" production staff when they shot the scene.
In the finished film, one of the fraternity boys complains about how "minorities have all the power." They also insult women while consoling Borat after he discovers that the object of his affection, Pamela Anderson, has appeared in a sex video.
"The depiction created by the defendants were offensive and objectionable to plaintiffs and to a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities in that it made plaintiffs the objects of ridicule, humiliation (and) loss of reputation."
Asked if his clients would have been satisfied had "Borat" screened only in Europe, as their suit claims they believed when they signed the releases, Taillieu replied, "I mean they would have had a problem with how they were depicted, but none of their friends would have seen it, none of their future employers would have seen it. The damage is in the setup."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kazakh comedy blitz triples Fox pleasure
Studio expands 'Borat' to 2,566 engagements
Fox expands 'Borat' to 2,566 engagements this weekend.
Fox is getting a do-over of sorts this weekend on its left-field hit "Borat."
After dramatically slashing the number of prints on the pic for its opening frame, Fox still wound up at No. 1. Now the studio will expand the R-rated pic to 2,566 engagements to try and mop up any B.O. bucks it missed by cutting its print count.
Studio, meanwhile, sends its "A Good Year" into a frame filled with arty pics, which include an expansion of "Babel" and the lit comedy "Stranger Than Fiction."
With "Borat" the frontrunner for the frame, Fox feels that, with word of mouth swelling, pic will play as well outside the primo urban centers where it raked in huge per-playdate numbers last frame. With "Borat" taking in over $3 million on Monday and Tuesday, pic should easily fend off any competish to land at No. 1 again.
"Borat" will also likely prevail on the foreign front after a socko international launch of $18.6 million at only 993 playdates in 17 markets last weekend, with U.K. auds accounting for nearly two-thirds of that total.
Fox, meanwhile, will be shooting for more urbane auds with Ridley Scott's "A Good Year," the story of a London trader who opts out of the fast lane for life at an inherited chateau.
Pic, starring Russell Crowe and going into 2,066, is tracking slightly better with females over 25. But it's one of a handful of pics heading into the fall fray this frame that will try to tempt upscale auds.
Paramount Vantage has "Babel," the starry ensemble pic that will move from 35 to 1,251 playdates.
Pic, which has taken in $5.2 million in two limited release frames, will roll out in fewer engagements than "Year" and Sony's "Stranger" but may be able to draw more interest with a cast that includes Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal.
Sony will bow "Stranger," starring Will Farrell as a man who finds his fate dictated by a novelist, on 2,264.
Studio previously handled a similarly arty litpic, "Adaptation," which it bowed in limited release in 2002. But Sony sees "Stranger" as having broader appeal.
"This film is far more accessible to a wider audience," Sony distribution prexy Rory Bruer said. "It's still smart and fresh, but in every screening, audiences have embraced the film."
MGM rolls out the gritty cop drama "Harsh Times" in 956 precincts. Pic played Sundance this year.
Limited-release sector, rife with fall awards hopefuls already, gets even more crowded this frame with platform bows of MGM's "Copying Beethoven," Roadside Attractions' "Come Early Morning," Picturehouse's "Fur" and ThinkFilm's "F*ck" all joining the specialty scene.
Also overseas, Fox's long-running hit "The Devil Wears Prada" will continue to draw well. As of Wednesday, international grosses had surpassed $154 million, and the worldwide total was nearing $280 million.
Fox is going day-and-date with "A Good Year" in Germany, Russia, Taiwan and Turkey. Russell Crowe drama has performed mildly in the U.K. but took second in Spain last weekend with $1.2 million.
Sony is expanding "Open Season," which already has $54.5 million overseas and $136 million worldwide, into Germany, Spain and Scandinavia. UIP's making a major push this weekend for sci-fi thriller "Children of Men," launching in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. "Men," which won't open Stateside until Christmas, has cumed $18 million in 10 markets, with half of that in the U.K.
Other launches include "Babel" in Mexico, "The Departed" in Brazil and Denmark, "Flags of Our Fathers" in Greece and Italy, "The Prestige" in the U.K. and "You, Me and Dupree" in France and Italy. "Dupree" has topped $48 million overseas for UIP and $123 million worldwide.
Borat on Leno (Part 1):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt-w-5t9Mso
Borat on Leno (Part 2):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOqVqHVXiq8
Borat on Leno w/ Martha Stewart (Part 3):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZfAUxQyIKQ
Quote from: MacGuffin on November 10, 2006, 12:45:01 AM
"The depiction created by the defendants were offensive and objectionable to plaintiffs and to a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities in that it made plaintiffs the objects of ridicule, humiliation (and) loss of reputation."
Asked if his clients would have been satisfied had "Borat" screened only in Europe, as their suit claims they believed when they signed the releases, Taillieu replied, "I mean they would have had a problem with how they were depicted, but none of their friends would have seen it, none of their future employers would have seen it. The damage is in the setup."
I bet they're insufferable even when sober.
Quote from: MacGuffin on November 10, 2006, 12:46:59 PM
Borat on Leno (Part 1):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt-w-5t9Mso
Borat on Leno (Part 2):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOqVqHVXiq8
Borat on Leno w/ Martha Stewart (Part 3):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZfAUxQyIKQ
FUCKING GOOTUBE... they removed them because of copyright issues... they fucked up YouTube
I thought they've always done it.
By far the funniest movie I have ever seen.
Like some people have said, some scenes weren't that great, but they were few and far between. And in the end, they were necessary because I was laughing so much I needed some time to rest myself. The film is in your face with humor and yet also subtle with other parts. I saw it twice today and noticed more things on my second viewing. The gut instinct of laughing til I burst held up but the movie is beyond offensive. The ending with Pamela Anderson, I felt, crossed a line. But I think that was the point anyways. God, why analyze this? It was fucking beauty.
I saw 40 Year Old Virgin 6 times in theaters. That movie was half the comic genius as this one. Thus I see this one 7 times! (at least)
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on November 12, 2006, 09:44:48 PM
I saw 40 Year Old Virgin 6 times in theaters. That movie was half the comic genius as this one. Thus I see this one 7 times! (at least)
By my calculation, I think you have to see it 12 times.
I have seen all of Sacha Baron Cohen's work prior to "Borat" and went into the movie expecting to laugh, but not be blown away. After all, it's been two years or so since we last saw any new material. Factor in the media blitz (I watched or heard him doing practically the same material several times over on: Leno, Letterman, Conan, Stern, Opie & Anthony, Adam Carolla Show) and "more Borat" was the last thing I thought I needed. To any fans of SBC who might have the same mindset that I had and are on the fence about seeing "Borat" in the theater please take my advice and see this film ASAP. I was laughing harder than anyone in the theater, almost to the point of embarrassment.
***SPOILER******SPOILER******SPOILER***
Remember the scene when Borat pulled over in the bad neighborhood and tried to make friends with those thuggish youths, and later tried to book a room in the hotel speaking in his newly learned urban vernacular? Did anyone else hear that scene as Borat channeling Ali G? I thought of it as a nice treat to hear what was essentially Borat's Ali G impression. Maybe he'll start doing a new combo character Ali B?
***SPOILER******SPOILER******SPOILER***
Quote from: xerxes on November 13, 2006, 01:30:07 AM
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on November 12, 2006, 09:44:48 PM
I saw 40 Year Old Virgin 6 times in theaters. That movie was half the comic genius as this one. Thus I see this one 7 times! (at least)
By my calculation, I think you have to see it 12 times.
Oh, leave him alone! It's the first movie he liked in forever!
Quote from: Garam on November 12, 2006, 07:46:08 PM
I've been thinking about this film, and though I found it pretty funny, it really needed more attention to detail. It's completely unbelievable as a documentary, unlike Spinal Tap or Bad News. It constantly changes gears between mockumentary and straightforward comedy, leaving a bit of a nasty taste in the mouth.
I'll give you that the characters are more believable in Spinal Tap than Borat but does Borat really need to be 100% believable as a documentary? The bookends in Kazakhstan and the "I must find Pam Anderson" subplot feel more like Wayne's World than something like Spinal Tap but, with the exception of those, it is almost entirely more believable.
It blurs the lines between mockumentary,
documentary, and straightforward comedy. Proof of that is found in all the articles "exposing" what's real and what's not. The laughability of the lawsuits adds to the fun, spilling the movie into the real world in some strange way and further blurring those lines. Maybe it leaves a bit of a nasty taste in your mouth but the end result is that you still found it funny. Personally, I think that's what made it so great. I lament the fact that Cohen kind of closed the book on this and no one will be able to do it as effectively.
Quote from: Garam on November 12, 2006, 07:46:08 PM
Showing frat boys to be brash morons and rednecks to be racist xenophobes is like shooting fish in a barrel.
If you've ever seen Jim Breuer or Larry the Cable Guy, you'd know it's not so easy to make it
funny.
Apparently, just cause GT likes Borat, doesn't mean everyone else does:
Is niiice.... NOT (http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=D477C361-28D0-4B61-9ACB-4C6EE61CD12E&t=c2160&f=06/64&p=hotvideo_celebrity>1=8717)
Now Romanians Say 'Borat' Misled Them
The name of this remote Romanian village means "mud," and that's exactly what angry locals are throwing at comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
Cohen used Glod's Gypsies as stand-ins for Kazakhs in his runaway hit movie, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." Now offended villagers are threatening to sue the film's producers for paying them a pittance to put farm animals in their homes and perform other crude antics.
Residents and local officials in the hardscrabble hamlet 85 miles northwest of Bucharest said Tuesday they were horrified and humiliated to learn their abject poverty and simple ways were ridiculed for a movie now raking in millions at box offices worldwide.
"We thought they came here to help us not mock us," said Dana Luca, 40, sweeping a manure-stained street lined with shabby homes of crumbling brick and corrugated iron sheeting.
"We haven't got anything here. We haven't got running water. We can't even bathe," she said. "We are poor people, but we are still people."
Nicolae Staicu, leader of the 1,670 Gypsies, or Roma, who eke out a living in one of the most impoverished corners of Romania, said he and other officials would meet with a public ombudsman on Wednesday to map out a legal strategy against Cohen and "Borat" distributor 20th Century Fox.
Staicu accused the producers of paying locals just $3.30-$5.50, misleading the village into thinking the movie would be a documentary, refusing to sign proper filming contracts and enticing easily exploited peasants into performing crass acts.
Only five villagers have jobs at a nearby sanatorium and a stone quarry, Staicu said. The rest weave baskets, grow apples, pears and plums, gather mushrooms in the dense Carpathian Mountain forests rising above the town, or raise a few scrawny chickens.
With no gas heating or indoor plumbing, most keep warm with wood stoves and drink from wells. Horse-drawn carts far outnumber automobiles on unpaved, badly potholed roads, and mangy stray dogs growl and snap at strangers. Acrid fires smolder in trash piles on the outskirts of the village, and children their clothing worn and torn play in yards littered with stumps, scrap metal and other bric-a-brac.
"These people are poor and they were tricked by people more intelligent than us," he said. "They took one of our 75-year-old ladies, put huge silicone breasts on her and said she was 47. Another man they filmed to look like the poorest person in the world, and one of our men who is missing an arm had a plastic sex toy taped to his stump."
"We are suing because they were not truthful," added Staicu, who said he saw parts of "Borat" and was disgusted.
"They did not film reality," he said. "We've really had enough of this."
Neither Cohen's agent in London nor 20th Century Fox's offices in Los Angeles immediately returned phone messages Tuesday from The Associated Press.
The mood in Glod, meanwhile, was tense and volatile, with crowds of angry, shouting villagers repeatedly gathering around reporters.
One man was seen slapping his sister, who had appeared in the film, and slamming the gate to his ramshackle home shut to keep her from being interviewed. At another point, a resident threatened news photographers with a stick, and another pelted their car with rocks.
People in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, where the mustachioed Cohen's character hails from as a TV journalist on an adventure across America, also have decried how they are depicted in the film, whose opening scenes were shot in Glod.
Two members of a fraternity at a South Carolina university who appear making drunken, insulting comments about women and minorities also are suing 20th Century Fox and three production companies, claiming the crew liquored them up in a bar before filming and told them the movie would not be shown in the United States.
Not everyone in Glod is upset. Sorina Luca, 25, excitedly described how she was given $3.30 to bring a pig into her home and let the producers put a toy rifle into the hands of her 5-year-old daughter for one scene.
"I really liked it," she said. "We are poor and miserable. Nothing ever happens here."
But a 23-year-old woman who gave her name only as Irina said she felt bewildered and dismayed that Glod's poverty was reduced to a parody.
The smash success of "Borat," she said, just rubbed salt in Glod's collective wounds.
The film remained the No. 1 weekend draw at U.S. movie theaters for a second week, grossing $28.3 million, according to the latest figures released Monday.
"They made us put a cow in our living room, and they made it defecate and urinate in the house. Everyone's angry because they didn't pay them the way they should have," she said.
"They're making a lot of money but they've made us a laughing stock."
SPOILERS!Quote from: MacGuffin on November 14, 2006, 01:18:18 PM
"These people are poor and they were tricked by people more intelligent than us," he said. "They took one of our 75-year-old ladies, put huge silicone breasts on her and said she was 47. Another man they filmed to look like the poorest person in the world, and one of our men who is missing an arm had a plastic sex toy taped to his stump."
yep, thats comedy.
if the poor gypsies weren't in on the joke, then yeah, that is something seriously wrong and hypocritical on the filmmaker's part, and they do deserved to be paid better--and whoever jr. economist wants to jump in and tell me "well, $3.30 is A LOT for the lazy gypsies" please go fuck a horse for minimum wage. however, I really hope this lawsuit doesn't give those frat guys any more validiity to their cause. making fun of poverty is a sin, and making fun of privilege is a responsibility.
'Borat' Might Become A Repeat Offender With Second Flick
Producer Jay Roach says sequel is already being discussed.
Source: MTV
Just when you thought it was safe to help that pleasant but vaguely lost-looking tourist asking about your strange American customs ... he's back. Well, not back quite yet. But Borat, the most famous pseudo-Kazakhstani in the world, may indeed one day return to movie screens, its producer told MTV News exclusively.
"Borat" debuted November 3 and, in its opening weekend, scooped up a jaw-dropping $26.4 million on only 837 screens (a fraction of a typical wide release). And ever since that happened, you can bet that 20th Century Fox, the studio behind the surprise hit, has been salivating for more. Now, according to "Borat" producer Jay Roach, there is hope. "We've talked a lot about [a sequel]. We have talked about ideas to try different stuff," he said cryptically.
What those ideas are, Roach and the hard-to-crack "Borat" creator, Sacha Baron Cohen, are keeping to themselves. But it also seems likely that the creators simply have not yet devised a natural progression for the character. The key stumbling block for Borat, if he were to continue wreaking havoc on the big screen, is how does he maintain his anonymity? It would seem the game is over if people recognize Borat from a mile away.
Clearly it was much easier for the mustachioed Kazakhstani to catch innocent bystanders unaware when he wasn't the star of the #1 movie in America. Roach admitted it's a tall order from here on out for the once low-profile character but claimed there might be a plan up the filmmakers' sleeves. "It's definitely more difficult now, and I don't know if it's even possible to go out into the world, but we have ideas. We're sneaky, clever people," he laughed.
One aspect of a further Borat adventure is certain: it would once again take the lead character on a journey and not through a "Jackass"-like series of disconnected sketches. Roach said, "It would still be with as much of a long-form story and structure as we can come up with. It would be a story-based thing that has a whole three-act structure."
But where can another Borat story take him? Whether he would explore different parts of America ("Borat in Vegas," anyone?) or foreign territories remains unclear. And wouldn't Americans recognize the character this time around, after he's become so seemingly ubiquitous? "There are always insulated worlds where Borat can go either on this continent or others," Roach said.
Baron Cohen's opportunities are not limited to further "Borat" films. Immediately prior to his film's staggering opening, Universal Pictures made a very public play for the future endeavors of the actor, inking a $42.5 million deal to release a film about Brüno, another character made famous on HBO's "Da Ali G Show." Brüno, like Borat, is an improvised character by the British actor, one whose inappropriate comments and behavior bring out the worst in the company he keeps. A flamboyant fashion reporter from Austria, Brüno clearly will push buttons as Borat has, albeit in a different crowd.
Roach, who will also be the producer of the Brüno movie, told MTV, "The thing I like about Brüno is the world he travels in. It's the world of fashion and pop culture and it has all the various characters of that world — from outrageous diva fashion designers to Paris Hiltons." It is a far cry from the rodeo shows and frat boys Borat visited with, but Roach believed there will once again be ample opportunity for mockery. "The party scene and the life in that fashion fast lane sounds like a really great world for us to go into."
Still unknown is whether "Borat" director Larry Charles would return for a potential spinoff. Roach insists talk of a director is premature and admitted he would consider the opportunity himself.
But before any new films are put in the can, the next place you will likely see Baron Cohen is in the comfort of your own home — on the "Borat" DVD. And if producer Roach is to be believed, it could be as jam-packed as any "Lord of the Rings" special edition.
Roach revealed that tons of material was left on the cutting-room floor before the flick hit the theaters. "There was a five-hour cut that I laughed all the way through," he said. Shooting down reports that the material may find its way to HBO, Roach said, "There's no current plan other than to include some of it on the DVD."
So what have audiences been denied thanks to the brutal editing process? Roach cited a favorite montage of his that had Borat running out of money and looking for work, as well as a scene of him going through an immigration-orientation class alongside actual immigrants. "They were just trying to figure out their own way through the American culture and then they have this guy confusing them, and the American teacher is trying to point out that what he's saying is not correct. It's great," Roach enthused.
Quote from: MacGuffin on November 15, 2006, 01:10:47 AM
Roach insists talk of a director is premature and admitted he would consider the opportunity himself.
Oh, god... he's going to turn it into "Meet the Sagdiyevs". Just you wait.
Its like a $24-million-an-episode Tom Green show
I wish Borat could cure world hunger. If only he could take the profits from his multi-million dollar movie to save a small country from poverty. Madonna could set an example by buying Africa.
Woman in 'Borat' Seeks Investigation
The owner of an etiquette business who was handed a plastic bag supposedly containing feces in the hit movie "Borat" says she was told the filming would be used for a documentary in Belarus.
Cindy Streit said she filed a complaint Thursday with California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, requesting an investigation into possible violations of the California Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Streit said that a representative from a Los Angeles-based company called Springland Films contacted her Birmingham, Ala.-based company, Etiquette Training Services, about arranging an etiquette session for an "international guest from Belarus Television."
Attempts to find a contact for Springland were not successful. The company had no phone listing and Streit's lawyers declined to provide copies of the contracts allegedly signed.
The attorney general's office had not received a copy of the complaint, spokesman Nathan Barankin said late Thursday.
Streit said she arranged in Alabama both a sit-down session with Borat, played by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, and a dinner party with some of her friends. Clips of both appear in the movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit of Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."
Though awkward at times, the dinner went well until Borat asked to use the bathroom, Streit said.
"I had taught him to excuse himself. He did that correctly and went upstairs," Streit told The Associated Press. "The next thing that happened is that he came down the stairs holding this plastic bag with whatever was in it."
"My horror was that he had brought a bag of feces to my dinner table," she said.
Springland put in writing that the second of two scheduled sessions "will be filmed as part of a documentary for Belarus Television and for those purposes only," said Gloria Allred, Streit's lawyer.
Streit, 59, said she requested an investigation by the attorney general instead of filing a lawsuit in hopes of setting a precedent that will make movie studios think twice before using other ordinary citizens for "reality movies." However, she said she wouldn't rule out a lawsuit.
Streit's demand follows complaints by others shown in the film, including a lawsuit filed by two fraternity members from a South Carolina university who appear in the film drunk.
my god, pretty soon the whole cast of the film is going to sue borat. he is going to get away the same way he got away all the previous times right?
No, I think I might sue him now.
Quote from: squints on November 15, 2006, 11:41:41 PM
Its like a $24-million-an-episode Tom Green show
this is exactly what i have been thinking. a friend forwarded me an article saying the funniest men in the business were saying it was the funniest movie ever made, and i couldn't help but think the premise is more or less the Tom Green show. granted, i have not seen it, maybe it really is hilarioius. i'm just not too interested.
Quote from: bigideas on November 17, 2006, 09:20:10 PM
this is exactly what i have been thinking. a friend forwarded me an article saying the funniest men in the business were saying it was the funniest movie ever made, and i couldn't help but think the premise is more or less the Tom Green show. granted, i have not seen it, maybe it really is hilarioius. i'm just not too interested.
Someone who had never heard of Borat before might consider it the funniest movie ever, but otherwise that's a massive exaggeration. It is great, though, and you should see it. Or at least kill some time watching how Tom Green spends
his time these days. www.tomgreen.com (http://www.tomgreen.com)
Fox returns fire in fratboy 'Borat' spat
Studio, producers file opposition in response to lawsuit
Source: Variety
"Borat" is fighting back.
20th Century Fox and the producers of the Sacha Baron Cohen mockumentary have filed an opposition to a request for a preliminary injunction sought by fraternity brothers who want to shut down "Borat."
At least as it exists with them in it.
The opposition, filed Monday in the West Los Angeles courthouse of the California Superior Court, comes in response to a lawsuit filed by two members of a U. of South Carolina fraternity who claim they were drunk when they signed the consent form to appear in "Borat."
The frat boys are not the only ones upset over the pic, which has grossed over $90 million at the domestic B.O. Last week, Cindy Streit, who appears in the movie's Southern dinner-party scene, requested an investigation into how her consent was obtained. And Romanian villagers are filing lawsuits asking for more than $30 million in damages for being portrayed as boorish and backward in the film.
Several declarations are included in Fox's filing, one by Todd Lewis Schulman, a field producer on "Borat" who was responsible for booking the frat boys and issuing the consent release. In his statement, Schulman says, "We made it clear that we would be providing alcoholic beverages to the participants and therefore that anyone participating had to be over 21 years old." (One of the claims made by the fraternity brothers was that one participant was underage.)
Schulman continues: "I told them that we would pay them $200 each and they were going to be provided with as many alcoholic beverages as they cared to drink... They appeared to be very enthusiastic about that prospect."
Schulman then says that before filming, he accompanied the men to a restaurant where the men signed consent forms and then drank $100 worth of alcohol. "As soon as we arrived at the restaurant, I had each of them fill out and sign the so-called Standard Consent Agreement," Schulman says. "I made sure that they signed the Consent Agreement before they began consuming alcohol."
Included in the filing is a copy of the consent agreements, all signed by the participants.
The agreements show that each participant was paid $200 to appear in the film and that "the Participant agrees that any rights that the Participant may have in the Film or the Participant's contribution to the Film are hereby assigned to the Producer, and that the Producer shall be exclusively entitled to use, or to assign or license to others the right to use, the Film and any recorded material that includes the Participant without restriction in any media throughout the universe in perpetuity and without liability to the Participant."
In a statement by Chelsea Barnard, a field department coordinator on "Borat," Barnard says that Schulman called her from the restaurant to come pick up the release forms. "When I arrived, Todd handed me the signed release forms," she says. "Someone at the table made a comment indicating that they were on their second round of drinks. None of the participants appeared to me to be intoxicated."
The consent releases have been the main focus of complaints against "Borat." Yet legal experts say that if releases were in fact signed, the cases will be hard to prove.
"If there are signed releases, and if the releases are complete, then it will be a very big hurdle for anyone to overcome on the basis that they were defrauded," said entertainment attorney Alan Grodin. "And it will be an even bigger hurdle to prove that they were damaged."
I've already seen Borat T-Shirts. This is all starting to remind me of the Napoleon Dynamite craze.
In a few months, none of us will like Borat.
I doubt it. Napolean Dynamite didn't have BALLS!
I'm the president of the film club at my university and the distributor gave us five borat swimsuits for us to give away on contests. Those things are hilarious. And people want them! We have ping pong rackets as well.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6723074
Borat, Exposed! No, Not in That Way.
Source: Cinematical
When you watch Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (dang, and here I thought I was all done with having to type that title), it looks and feels unscripted. In fact, when the film screened at Toronto, director Larry Charles said during an impromptu Q&A that it was all unscripted. Well, shocking but true -- it's not. In fact, Borat's antics (and success) owe much to three other Brit writers (now imported to LA) who spent hours debating crucial decisions like whether the Borat should carry his feces to the dinner table in a clear or opaque bag.
Written By, the magazine of the WGA West, has a great interview up with comedy scribes Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer, and Anthony "Ant" Hines, who, along with Sacha Baron Cohen, form the core of the Borat writing team. The writers agreed to let Written By "out" them as having scripted the seemingly unscripted moments in the film, and what they have to say about the process of creating Borat is fascinating -- especially the degree to which they map out every possible reaction to each bit, with different plans depending on how it goes.
There are juicy tidbits in there about what was really supposed to happen when the Black prostitute showed up at the dinner party (she and Borat were supposed to have loud sex in the bathroom and then get thrown out, but the white folks jumped the gun by freaking out over a Black woman coming in their house and kicked them out early) and who saved the rodeo tapes from a mob of pissed-off rednecks by putting them down his underwear.
http://www.wga.org/writtenby/writtenbysub.aspx?id=2274
So it's not real and the lawsuits are all part of the joke?
Quote from: MacGuffin on January 09, 2007, 12:25:49 PM
Borat, Exposed! No, Not in That Way.
Source: Cinematical
When you watch Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (dang, and here I thought I was all done with having to type that title), it looks and feels unscripted. In fact, when the film screened at Toronto, director Larry Charles said during an impromptu Q&A that it was all unscripted. Well, shocking but true -- it's not. In fact, Borat's antics (and success) owe much to three other Brit writers (now imported to LA) who spent hours debating crucial decisions like whether the Borat should carry his feces to the dinner table in a clear or opaque bag.
Written By, the magazine of the WGA West, has a great interview up with comedy scribes Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer, and Anthony "Ant" Hines, who, along with Sacha Baron Cohen, form the core of the Borat writing team. The writers agreed to let Written By "out" them as having scripted the seemingly unscripted moments in the film, and what they have to say about the process of creating Borat is fascinating -- especially the degree to which they map out every possible reaction to each bit, with different plans depending on how it goes.
There are juicy tidbits in there about what was really supposed to happen when the Black prostitute showed up at the dinner party (she and Borat were supposed to have loud sex in the bathroom and then get thrown out, but the white folks jumped the gun by freaking out over a Black woman coming in their house and kicked them out early) and who saved the rodeo tapes from a mob of pissed-off rednecks by putting them down his underwear.
http://www.wga.org/writtenby/writtenbysub.aspx?id=2274
Quote from: Walrus on January 09, 2007, 12:57:13 PM
So it's not real and the lawsuits are all part of the joke?
i don't think you understood. of course his character is scripted (that's not even news), the reactions are not.
Police, camera, action
As Sacha Baron Cohen finally becomes himself again, he tells Patrick Goldstein about the thrills, spills - and smells - of being Borat
Source: The Guardian
OK, so I have to admit, it was a little disconcerting to see Sacha Baron Cohen without his Borat moustache. When the lanky comedian showed up for his first newspaper interview as himself since the inception of Borat-mania last autumn, Baron Cohen looked a little smaller than life, especially compared with the outsize character who caused such a sensation in Borat, the hit that managed to be something for all people, whether you laughed at Borat's outlandish behavior - or the people who indulged it.
Sipping hot lemon tea at a coffee shop in Santa Monica, California, Baron Cohen had the air of a man who had shed a layer of skin that had been worn to a frazzle. With a thatch of unruly black hair and a three-day beard, wearing a rumpled corduroy jacket, the 35-year-old comic could pass for a young film professor at UCLA without attracting a second glance. His thick Kazakh accent was gone, replaced by a sober British purr.
Most comics drop the act when the movie finishes. But for months last autumn, wherever he went, Cohen arrived in full Borat drag, taking the Toronto Film Festival by storm, holding a news conference outside the Kazakh embassy in Washington and, while accepting a magazine award, praising Mel Gibson, saying, "It is you, not me, who should receive this GQ award for anti-Jew warrior of the year."
It was brilliant marketing, with news organisations happily turning their reporters into straight men for a series of madcap interviews. In a way, Baron Cohen's still at it. His publicist first called with the idea of Baron Cohen doing an interview - as himself - the day after he scored a Golden Globe nomination (he duly won the award for best actor in a musical or comedy on Monday). Coincidence? I think not.
Still, the burden of being Borat took its toll, especially during months of filming when, to keep up the charade, he was Borat from dawn to dusk.
"It was exhausting," he recalls, slumped in the booth, fighting off a nagging cold. "I had to be that way all day and all night, because even if the tiniest detail had gone awry, it could've made them suspicious. I mean, even if I went to the bathroom, I had to make sure I went to the bathroom as Borat." He allows a tiny sliver of a smile. "There would definitely be potpourri in the toilet, so you'd know Borat had been there."
In an era when entertainers have to apologise for any sort of intemperate remark, Cohen cleverly created a comic character that provided him free passage for all sorts of outrageous behaviour, be it lewd remarks about women, mocking of worshippers at a Pentecostal church or a visit to a gun shop where he asked the proprietor, "What is best gun to defend against Jew?"
Having perfected this sly shtick in television on Da Ali G Show, and its predecessor, The Eleven O'Clock Show, where he posed as a gold-chain-encrusted hip-hop dunce, torturing a variety of government officials with wildly inappropriate questions, Cohen has become a master provocateur. Borat seems uniquely suited to our time, even if the character has deep comedy roots. If you wanted to see a nice Jewish boy assume an ethnic identity as a way to passing himself off as a cartoonish insult artist and womaniser, you could watch Chico Marx in any Marx Brothers comedy.
And though nothing can top the incomparable Ali G Show sketch in which Borat gets a crowd to sing along to Throw the Jew Down the Well in a redneck bar, it owes a debt to the work of Randy Newman, who would gleefully encourage similar singalongs to Short People ("They got little hands, little eyes, they walk around telling great big lies") as if he were endorsing the song's unsettling sentiment. Cohen's breakthrough is that he presents his comedy in a realistic setting - with recognisable people, people who might live next door, as foils. It gives his bits a barbed authenticity that is often as troubling as it is funny.
"Throw the Jew Down the Well was only interesting because the people in the bar started to sing along," he explains. Some of the people Baron Cohen and his director, Larry Charles, filmed say their actions were taken out of context, a charge Cohen vehemently denies. "If you saw all of our footage with the gun shop owner, for example, we had a whole conversation about the right gun to use to shoot a Jew's horns off his head."
None the less, a number of people in the movie have complained or filed suit, claiming they were hoodwinked. Cohen isn't exactly sympathetic. "This wasn't Candid Camera," he says. "There were two large cameras in the room. I don't buy the argument that, 'Oh, I wouldn't have acted so racist or anti-semitic if I'd known this film was being shown in America.' That's no excuse."
Borat was produced by Jay Roach (the director of "Meet the Parents"), who likens Cohen's comedy technique to the work of a gifted magician. "You know it's a contrivance and that you're going to be fooled, but then there's this extra layer of reality that takes you past the amazement factor and to a place where you're not even sure it's a trick any more," he explains. "Sacha's a real student of comedy, so he's incredibly thorough."
Born into a middle-class family in London, Cohen had early dreams of being a basketball player or a breakdancer. He spent a year on a kibbutz as a teenager and was a member of Habonim, a Socialist-Zionist youth movement that, he jokes, "basically meant that we shared our sweets". He was ambivalent about becoming a performer. "I think I was embarrassed to admit to my friends or myself that I wanted to be a comic - it was sort of like admitting you wanted to be a model."
At Cambridge he read history, spending a summer in the US researching a dissertation on the prominent role Jews played in the American civil-rights movement titled The Black-Jewish Allies: A Case of Mistaking Identity. As the title suggests, he was already fascinated by the notion that irony and identity play a big role in cultural differences.
"I was writing this at the time of the Crown Heights riots when the Jewish community was obsessed with black anti-semitism," he explains. "And I argued that this obsession came out of Jews feeling betrayed by their old blood brothers from the civil-rights movement. But while it was perceived in the Jewish community that Jews were disproportionately involved in civil rights, my conclusion was black Americans didn't see Jews as being more involved than any white Americans.
"The Jewish kids were all there in the South, but because they were there as part of church organisations like the [Southern Christian Leadership Council], they weren't seen as Jews but as white liberals. So there was this deep irony that the Jewish establishment took martyrs like Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner" - two civil-rights workers from New York who went to Mississippi to register black voters and were killed by the Ku Klux Klan - "and used them as symbols of a Jewish-black alliance when, in fact, they didn't really see themselves as Jews at all." Cohen pauses, drolly adding: "The dissertation is a lot funnier than I depicted it."
Not long after graduating from Cambridge, Cohen found himself drawn to the hip-hop scene in London, where he became a fan of the DJ Tim Westwood. "I'm sure he helped inspire Ali G," he says. "I'd thought he was black, because he sounded like a New York gangsta, but he was actually a tall, skinny, white guy who was the son of a bishop."
Soon Cohen was creating Ali G-style sketches for TV - he first appeared on the Paramout Comedy Channel, with two-minute segments in the guise of Bruno, the gay, Austrian fashion reporter. Borat followed soon after. A stickler for authenticity, during filming for the movie he never washed his grey Borat suit and never wore deodorant: "The smell is an added thing for people to believe that I'm from a country where hygiene wasn't a necessity."
By his count, people called police 37 times during filming, not counting the time Secret Service men showed up when he was outside the White House "figuring we must be al-Qaida, since why else would two guys be driving around the White House in an ice cream truck".
His closest escape came in Louisiana, when a woman whose family had once been plantation owners was insulted by a question he asked her and instructed her husband to call the police.
"We had 30 seconds to make our getaway in an ice cream truck whose top speed was 50mph," he says. I asked Cohen what he said to insult her. He furrows his brow for a moment. "I'm not sure," he finally responds. "But I think I might have been trying to sell her some Kazakhi slaves."
BACK TO BORAT?
Source: CHUD
Did you like Borat? Well, Rupert Murdoch is promising you more, according to the Financial Times. The Supreme Evil Leader of News Corp and owner of 20th Century Fox says that Sacha Baron Cohen will be returning to Fox after doing Bruno for Universal.
This seems odd, as most people have assumed that Borat has become too big a cultural phenomenon to allow him to fool people anymore. That said, never underestimate the basic ignorance of the American people. I am sure Cohen and friends can find pockets of rural America where alternating current is still a myth.
Murdoch, speaking at a press conference in New York, said that Cohen would come back after doing gay Austrian fashion guy movie Bruno, which Fox declined to bid on after the comedian wouldn't even show them the script (yes, these movies have scripted elements). Is this true, or is Murdoch just the world's richest fanboy? After all, he tells the Financial Times that he saw Borat three times. He said he "laughed like hell." And Murdoch would know how hell laughs. He runs it.
Murdoch's 'Borat 2' news raises eyebrows
Source" Hollywood Reporter
In the second time in as many days, Rupert Murdoch seems to be jumping the gun on announcing news within News Corp.'s operations.
The chairman and CEO of the media conglomerate said Thursday at Media Summit New York, an event produced by Digital Hollywood and presented by McGraw-Hill, that Sacha Baron Cohen has signaled that he will do a "Borat" sequel with Fox.
"He will do a sequel," Murdoch said in an onstage interview. "He will first do something else ... then he wants to come back and do a 'Borat 2.' "
That doesn't appear to be quite accurate. While it is true that Baron Cohen is going off to do "something else," specifially the "Bruno" picture that Universal recently locked up for a reported $42 million. According to Twentieth Century Fox -- the producers behind the first "Borat" that has generated more than $128 million in domestic grosses -- the company has had preliminary discussions with the British comedian, but nothing is even close to a real project.
"We're eager to work with Sacha again, and we've had casual discussions about a sequel, which we'd love to do, but at this point it remains too preliminary to discuss," said Chris Petrikin, senior vp, corporate communications at Fox.
On Wednesday, Murdoch told analysts and journalists following New Corp.'s second-quarter earnings call, that an announcement to the timing of the launch of the Fox Business Channel would be in the next week. News Corp. president and COO Peter Chernin had to step into the call, suggesting the announcement would be "soon" but declined to be more specific.
What does remain clear is Murdoch's enthusiasm for Baron Cohen's humor.
The Australian media mogul called "Borat," "a pretty clever picture" that "subtly made Americans laugh at themselves." The media mogul also said he saw it three times. He shared with the audience that after a screening in the News Corp. building with friends and colleagues, "we laughed like hell," then went for dinner and laughed more.
Murdoch does remain a bit more skeptical about the prospects for a sequel. Films like that "don't necessarily repeat themselves easily," he said.
We'll have to wait and see if "Borat" repeats itself at all.
Quote from: MacGuffin on February 08, 2007, 09:44:54 PM
What does remain clear is Murdoch's enthusiasm for Baron Cohen's humor profit-generating abilities.
anyone watching this on dvd is in for a very nice packaging surprise. without having put it in my player it's the winner for best dvd release at next year's xixaxies in my mind.
I see this getting a double-dip in a few months.
the commercials for this are TERRIBLE. actually the commercials for any movie coming to dvd make everything look awful. but these are especially offensive because they have a fake Borat announcer.
One thing is certain on Tuesday, the DVD market will be taken over by Kazakhs as the long-awaited Borat makes its debut. But, it looks like the DVD consumer will be getting more (or less) than they bargained for.
Underneath the standard O-ring packaging, the look and feel of the artwork on the sleeve of the DVD will appear as though it is a pirated product. The entire artwork is in Kazakh and the only english on the entire sleeve is in the billing block on the back of the package.
Pics (http://salzers.myvideostore.com/content/news/index.html?client=salzers&id=2236)
Quote from: MacGuffin on February 08, 2007, 09:44:54 PM
We'll have to wait and see if "Borat" repeats itself at all.
Hahah
Quote from: Ravi on March 07, 2007, 01:08:52 AM
One thing is certain on Tuesday, the DVD market will be taken over by Kazakhs as the long-awaited Borat makes its debut. But, it looks like the DVD consumer will be getting more (or less) than they bargained for.
Underneath the standard O-ring packaging, the look and feel of the artwork on the sleeve of the DVD will appear as though it is a pirated product. The entire artwork is in Kazakh and the only english on the entire sleeve is in the billing block on the back of the package.
Pics (http://salzers.myvideostore.com/content/news/index.html?client=salzers&id=2236)
I am SO glad I didn't read this until after I bought my own copy.
mine has regular sleeve artwork.
Kazakhs high-five 'Borat' DVD
Hollywood Reporter
LONDON -- Kazakhs are rushing to order Sacha Baron-Cohen's Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan on DVD from Amazon.co.uk, the online giant said Friday.
Borat topped the order list from consumers in the former Soviet republic this week, according to Amazon head of media Rakhi Parekh.
"With the controversy the film caused around the world, it seems residents of Kazakhstan are now desperate to see what all the fuss is about -- so much so that they are willing to pay the 505 Kazakhstani Tenge ($4) charge to have the DVD delivered from the U.K.," Parekh said.
Kazakhs also appear to have developed a healthy interest in capitalism and the U.S., according to the Top 10 product orders from Amazon.co.uk. The top-selling book is "Leading at a Higher Level: Blanchard on How to Be a High Performing Leader." Other titles on investment strategies and offshore tax planning suggest that locals are looking to add to the country's current list of six registered millionaires.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fsuicidegirls.com%2Fmedia%2Fauthors%2F2253%2Farticle.jpg&hash=ce6f4bf1b8c2cf1a8d3bfa56e94c8bf38b3b2647)
When the Borat movie was released last year you couldn't even count the number of publicity appearances that Sacha Baron Cohen made as Borat. Those appearances, along with creating a hysterical and powerful movie, turned Borat into a monstrous hit and a cultural phenomenon that crossed all lines of gender, race and politics. Much of the attention for the film was given, and rightly so, to Cohen but for most movies the director is always an essential element. Borat's director is Larry Charles previously best known for his writer/producer work on Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage. Charles also directed another mop topped Jew named Bob Dylan in Masked and Anonymous. I got a chance to talk with Charles about creating the movie, the politics behind the scenes and how he got those people to say such outrageous things.
Daniel Robert Epstein: What are you up to today?
Larry Charles: I was supposed to edit today, actually. I took on a Kanye West pilot for HBO and I was supposed to edit today but the editor's not ready for me so I put that off. So I'm writing a treatment for a new movie that I was going to work on today and I'm supposed to review some footage for this Bill Maher documentary [called A Spiritual Journey] that I shot.
DRE:You are a busy man.
LC:I am very busy.
DRE:How is the Kanye West pilot?
LC:I think it's going to be really great. It's going to really surprise people. They have this very limited view of what the show will be. They think it's going to be like a reality show so they're really underestimating what we did. When they see it, they'll be really shocked.
DRE:People think it is going to be Kanye ranking on George W. Bush the whole show.
LC:Right, ranking on George Bush or acting like Flava Flav or whatever cliché that they have of every other young black man on TV. It's going to be hopefully dissected, deconstructed and reconstructed into something that they've never saw before.
DRE:Is it plot driven?
LC:It's hard to describe. Let me put it to you this way, when I made the Bob Dylan movie [Masked and Anonymous], I wanted to make a Bob Dylan movie that was like a Bob Dylan song. One with a lot of layers, that had a lot of poetry, that had a lot of surrealism and was ambiguous and hard to figure out, like a puzzle. So I wanted to make a show that was like Kanye's music. There's seriousness and humor at the same time. It's very dark. It's very language-oriented. It draws on a lot of different musical influences.
DRE:Is it a heightened Kanye, like Larry David on Curb [Your Enthusiasm]?
LC:Yes, people have a very limited image of who Kanye is and this will shatter, or at least expand that image and play with that image and mock that image all at the same time.
DRE:It must be a lot of fun.
LC:It's been a lot of fun. We did it on a very small budget very quickly but I also wanted that urgency to it. I had a good game plan and I think we accomplished our goal.
DRE:As for Borat, I read that they originally started with another director, so how did you get involved?
LC:They shot about two weeks with another director and it was a mess. Everyone was very unhappy so they shut the movie down. Now usually when they do that, it's pretty much the end of the movie, they write it off as an insurance thing or something. But for some reason, the people at Fox had a feeling that this could still be something. So they went out in search of somebody and my name had come up initially and then my name came up again. I sat down with Sacha [Baron Cohen] and the writers and we talked about what I would do differently and how I would change things and what I could bring to it and when I agreed to cut my hair, they said okay [laughs].
DRE:[laughs] It's hard to fool people with you looking the way you normally do.
LC:That's right. I couldn't pass as a normal person. I look like some type of Gandalf reject or something. So I cut my hair and put on a blazer and khakis and looked like a community college professor or something.
DRE:That's really funny.
LC:That was the thing they were most afraid to ask me actually. Creatively we were totally in sync and then Sacha finally said, "Can I ask you one more thing?" and I said, "Sure, whatever" and he said, "Would you ever possibly consider cutting your hair?" I said, "Of course. Come on, let's go shave my head. Whatever you need." He was very surprised I wasn't attached to it.
DRE:I didn't know that you came to direct the film in such a professional way, I figured you knew Sacha and he just asked you to do it.
LC:Well, I did know Sacha a little bit beforehand. We had met a couple of times previously and we expressed admiration for each other's work or whatever. But Sacha is not the person who does favors. He's very serious about the work and he wanted to marry the right person to the thing, especially since it fell apart the first time. He wanted to find somebody who would actually work. I don't know if he talked with anyone else or not. Once we talked, it seemed like it all fell together.
DRE:From what I had heard, [the first director of Borat] Todd Phillips kept getting scared when they were shooting and turning off the camera. I don't know if that's true or not.
LC:I don't know if that's true either. I was not there. I never really heard stories like that.
DRE:Did they know that you were a guy who would do anything for the joke or the idea and that's why you guys connected?
LC:They knew I had a fearlessness in my aesthetic. Once they met me, they saw I was somebody who was not going to be afraid to walk into the line of fire. That I was willing to lead the troops into battle. I think that combination of things was what Sacha was looking for.
DRE:When Sacha was Borat, were you always there with the cameraman or with the camera?
LC:Yes, always.
DRE:From what I could tell you're not an actor, so how did you play this guy leading around this Kazakhstani guy?
LC:Well actually I am a great actor. Part of being a great actor is being real and I was able to really convey the sincerity and genuineness of what we were doing to people and almost create a state for people where they were comfortable with the idea. Then once that was set up, anything could happen within that constructed reality. We constructed a reality where this man from Kazakhstan just got here and you can't make any assumptions about what he knows. He's never been in a hotel, he's never been on an elevator. In the middle of it sometimes, people would come out of the trance a little bit and say, "Is this real? Is this real?" and I would say, "Yes, it's totally real." But what I wouldn't say that it wasn't necessarily the reality that they thought it was, but it is real. I had to be able to convey that with sincerity. I never considered what we were doing as fooling anybody. What I felt we were doing was tapping into people's ego and vanity. The only people who agreed to do the movie were people who felt that they belonged in a movie, deserved to be in a movie, they had something to contribute to a movie, that they would look good in a movie. You can't make people do anything they don't want to. If you go to see a hypnotist in a nightclub and he has people getting up and dancing like a chicken, afterwards if you talk to those people, they'll tell you, "I never felt like I had to dance like a chicken. I wanted to dance like a chicken." It's a similar psychological effect as the movie. People are eager to please, to look good on camera, to come off well on camera, to cooperate and sometimes they had a superior attitude towards him. Sometimes they were very patient towards him but whatever they truly were would emerge on film eventually.
DRE:I got the DVD and watched the extras and one of the deleted scenes is Borat with the woman at the dog pound. I respect that woman so much because she said, "I don't like you. You're not going to eat my dogs. Goodbye."
LC:Right, she has her line in the sand. A lot of scenes in the movie come to that point. Even scenes that are in the movie, usually come to that point where some line is crossed and the police are called. But yeah that woman at the dog pound had that line in the sand. Some people have the line in the sand before you get through the whole scene, some people have the line in the sand before you do the scene, some people never have a line in the sand. The luck part of the movie is, who's going to wind up participating and who's not.
DRE:Does Borat draw the line in the sand or is it the people themselves that put the line there?
LC:We don't put any line in the sand at all. We want people to take it as far as humanly possible. If you don't want to come along for this ride, you are going to be forced, on camera, to draw your line in the sand. People under those conditions will pick that up. For instance, as the scene would unravel, we would be told by the person, "Okay, I want you to stop" and we'd go, "It's okay, we think it's going great. Don't worry." Then ten minutes would go by and they would say, "No, I really want you to stop or I'm going to call the police." We would say "No, come on, everything's fine. You don't have to call the police." "No, that's it, I want to call the police." "All right if you have to call the police...." "I'm telling you, I'm going to call the police." We would get an extra half hour of filming while that person was psychologically preparing themselves to call the police. Then when they would call the police, we would be on some dirt road in the middle of South Carolina where the police are an hour away. So even once they were unhappy and thinking about calling for help, usually I could still roll like a hour and a half of film before we had to confront the police. So the line in the sand is not something people are comfortable with. They don't want to have to draw that line in the sand. So they put it off and they put it off and in the meantime, you're still filming.
DRE:As you very well know, experienced film directors and TV producers have little tricks they have to get actors to do what they want. Sometimes their trick is just yelling at them. Since you've done so much work did those tricks come into play when you were trying to get people to react to Borat?
LC:I usually didn't need to do anything to get people to react to Borat. Sacha was able to do that part himself. What I did was prepare them to react to Borat and then if they over-reacted to Borat, to talk them off the ledge and get them back into the scene. If they got upset and wanted to pull off the microphone, that's when I would step in to calm them down, assure them everything was going well and that the interview is really great. So that was part of my job on the movie.
DRE:[Borat co-writer/producer] Dan Mazer had a show last year called Dog Bites Man, which also combined improv with a story. One of the actors on that show was Zach Galifianakis. I interviewed Zach and he said there were times when he just couldn't take it. He would start crying during scenes. What do you have to have in order to do what Sacha and you guys did?
LC:First of all, Sacha is a visionary. He's trying to accomplish something in the bigger picture. Such as, in order for Communism to succeed or for Communism to fall, or for Democracy to succeed or fall, small people are going to be stepped on along the way unfortunately. That's how history works. Sacha has a global vision of his work, which I share. So on that level, if you are in the way of our artistic pursuit, then you may be run over. But by the same token, I believe that no one was forced to do anything in the movie. Everything that's in the movie, people chose to do by their volition. If you film long enough, peoples' true sentiments, their true personality, their true feelings, their true political stances, will eventually emerge. I used to showrun on sitcoms and in the first couple of meetings with the staff of writers I found that all of them wanted to come off a certain way within the meeting. This one wants to be the silent one, this one wants to be the funny one, this one wants to be the cool one. After a couple of weeks in a room together, your real personality will start to emerge, whatever that might be. The same thing happens in these scenes. People at first want to be polite or they want to be witty or they want to be erudite. But eventually whatever they really are comes out.
DRE:Borat works on at least two levels. On one level it's a very intelligent comedy with all these overtones. On the other hand, it could be a dirtier version of a movie that Lorne Michaels might produce or something like that.
LC:There's a great comic tradition of the very intellectual and yet vulgar comedy going back to [François] Rabelais, Lenny Bruce or Jonathan Swift. Thomas Pynchon is like that today. There's tremendous humor on all different levels, puns, subtle humor, behavioral humor, character humor, conceptual humor, satire, broad satire, physical humor, political humor. All of those things can coexist and there is a comic tradition of it.
DRE:It's interesting because all those guys you mentioned were, in their time, loved by nearly everyone but now they are loved by a portion of the population that feels a bit elitist. But Borat seems to cross through all those lines. Is that because it's a movie?
LC:Borat tapped into some type of zeitgeist of the moment and had this incredible populous success. Borat stands alone in the sense that it's not really a studio movie in a traditional sense and it's not really an independent movie in the traditional sense. It was a phenomenon that transcended itself. It wasn't just a movie anymore. People quote it. People do impressions of Borat. There are all these different levels permeating the consciousness of the culture through the movie. The movie is a very open-ended movie also. There's the theatrical version, but there's also many, many possible versions of the movie also. So the whole definition of what is a movie is thrown into question by this. The fact that it had this popular success brings a lot more people into the tent. But I think that where intellectuals were initially very supportive of it, the more popular it got, the more the intellectual people started to back away from it and started all the backlash about the process and all that stuff. I think that's the nature of mass appeal. Had it stayed a small movie and made $18 million, it probably would be lauded as the most important film of the decade. But because of this popularity, it was shunted into a different category. That's very prejudicial but there's nothing I can do about that.
DRE:One of the stars of The 40 Year Old Virgin, Seth Rogen, gave me the best definition of improv I ever heard. He said, "My friends say stuff that's funnier than anything I've ever heard in a movie, so why don't we just put my friends in there?"
LC:[laughs] But he has a lot of funny friends, of course. I don't know if that would be true if you went down to the gas station and just turned on the camera. But in our case, sometimes it was.
DRE:But what do you think of that definition?
LC:I think the key is the way Larry David has pioneered it and Sacha does this too, that is to create really funny concepts. There's more writing involved in great improv than people give credit for. In both the case of Sacha and Larry David, there are tremendous amounts of writing and thinking and conceptualizing before the improv is done. So you have a great idea and a great arc and a great structure for that improv so all people have to do is be natural under those conditions and you'll have great scene. So to me it's not so much about the quip or the wisecrack or the funny joke, it's about a funny situation and then having everybody act totally honestly in that situation. That will get gold every time.
DRE:On some messageboard Patton Oswalt wrote that there was a writer's room on Borat.
LC:Not when I was there. I think during the initial phase of it, Patton and some of those people came in and tried to help out. Frankly, I don't know what contributions they made. The lines between the screenplay, the direction and the acting all got blurred. There are contributions from a lot of people, and of course, massive contributions from people who didn't even realize they were in the movie. So what is a screenplay under those conditions? But people did make contributions to it that I wasn't aware of until later on when they all wanted to grab credit for the screenplay.
DRE:Well for example, the scene where Borat goes for a driving lesson, you Sacha and everyone else knows that Borat is going to be driving. So did people come up with things for Borat to say beforehand?
LC:Yes, there was some stuff. You might start the day with a document that has a version of the scene but he's just getting that the morning that we're about to shoot. So it's not like he could memorize that. Also the other person has to cooperate on some level and that's going to take the scene to a whole other place, so you have to be open for that. But what you do have is a starting point and a structure. We knew that Borat would ask a few of these funny questions and get some funny answers, but we had to have this person fire him or give him the dog or whatever it was in order to move the story forward. The idea was that you would start with a structure and something to accomplish in that scene and you had to accomplish that thing in the scene before you could move on to the next scene. If we didn't accomplish it, we had to go someplace else and do it again.
DRE:There was an article in The New York Times a couple months ago about Sarah Silverman. One of the things the article said was that since Sarah is white and liberal and much of her audience is white and liberal, she is just preaching to the choir and that she does safe humor in the veil of dangerous humor. Did that idea ever cross anyone's minds when making Borat?
LC:Well when people write articles, they will take stances and they're going to find angles and hooks to write articles about. I don't agree with that about Sarah at all. I think Sarah is one of the most courageous comedians and voices and I've worked with her a lot. She, like Sacha and Larry, has a very unique and original voice. I don't think she's trying to preach to the choir, I think she may be limited in the only thing she could reach because she couldn't get a show on before. I'm happy to see that her one-woman show was made into a movie. I'm happy to see she's got a TV series, which is very distinctive and original. So I don't agree with that assessment to begin with. As far as preaching to the choir, for myself or the people I work with, and I would include Sarah in this, I think it's a much more instinctive process than it is given credit for. There's not as much calculation and contrivance in thinking about what effect this will have, we're just following our instincts because there's no right or wrong. So you hope you make more good decisions than bad and hope that the X factor works in your favor. The X factor is the part that people don't want to admit about this because of the egos involved. You always hope you are lucky. With Borat we tried really hard to make a good movie, we were committed to making a good movie, but everybody who goes out to make a movie, tries to make a great movie. In this case, for some reason, every decision that we made happened to work out. It's like you hit that first domino and all the dominoes fell the right way. If one domino falls the wrong way, you know everything can get fucked up. People don't like the movie, they don't like the ending, they don't come to the theater, it doesn't get released in enough theaters, whatever it is, there are a million decisions that have to go right for a movie to have success like Borat. In this case it did. I can't take credit for that. I accept that there is an X factor that I have no control over.
DRE:You had a great quote when you talked about directing Masked and Anonymous. You said that your main direction to Bob Dylan was "Just be." That seems to be a line that has been working for you for a very long time.
LC:It's just like being in a relationship. Your relationship is doomed if you want the other person to change. The key to the relationship is accepting what the other person is. With Larry David and Sacha and Bob Dylan, I want them. I'm accepting them for who they are and I want the best version of them now to come out now on film. That's my goal as a director with good actors like that. I'm not asking them to abandon who they are. I'm asking them to deepen and expand who they are.
DRE:How did you come to that idea?
LC:There are a lot of factors that led to that. I'm allergic to a certain level of contrivance. I'm looking for something that's honest and that strips away a lot of things. I'm also a big fan of [John] Cassavetes and [Robert] Altman and [Roberto] Rossellini and [Pier Paolo] Pasolini. I like that sense of documentary reality that you get in a lot of those movies. I think you get a deeper, more dimensional portrait when you work with an actor that way, rather than try to push them into a hole that they don't feel comfortable in.
DRE:I've talked to a lot of great comedy people over the years and I find when I ask them the question "Does anything offend you?" They tell me what offends and it usually has to do with something personal to them like "It is because my kid has a disease so I don't like jokes about kids" or "My grandparents are dead or old" or something. So if something affects you personally, can you still make jokes about it?
LC:Yes, I can because I can be offended and hurt by many different things. But I feel that there is an angle to approach any subject to make it funny. I think that both Larry David and Sacha have made their careers doing that. They can take any subject and find the angle or the hook to make it funny for anybody, to make it palpable on some level, whether it's masturbation or the Holocaust. There's a way to laugh at it without exploiting it in some way. So I can be offended by it but still feel that the idea is more important than my feelings. On Borat and even on Curb to some degree, I will examine everyday both philosophically and metaphysically how far I am willing to go, what my line in the sand is, how I feel about it, how I can proceed and do the best job I can under those conditions. I spend a lot of time examining my behavior and examining what I'm doing, so I can justify for myself what I'm doing and feel okay about it. To feel like there's some greater good that I'm working on. Whether it's offending another person or offending myself, if I feel there's some greater good, then I can push forward with it.
DRE:You worked on Seinfeld for many years and the famous tagline it has was "a show about nothing," which was never true. It is a show about everything. But Borat seemed to combine the idea of a show about everything with real world stuff. Do you see Borat as a culmination of the work you've been doing over the years?
LC:I guess I feel all the stuff I've done over these past few years is connected. I see connections in terms of subject matter, themes and work process even. That's another very important point of this; I work to create an environment in which everyone is invested in the end product. We're on this journey together and I can't offer you money but I can offer this life-changing experience if you hop on the ship and take a ride with us. Like the Merry Pranksters, we're going to go around the country, make trouble and film it. So that part of it is very connected to me and I'm always looking for that type of experience.
Borat's Glorious Guide to the U.S. and A.
Nice! Finally, a travel guide that will tell you where the number-four prostitute in Kazakhstan lives.
Random House imprint Flying Dolphin Press announced Wednesday that it has inked a deal with Sacha Baron Cohen's alter ego, Borat Sagdyev, to produce a book containing advice for Westerners planning to visit the bogus journalist's native country as well as handy tips for Kazakhs heading to the U.S. and A.
The illustrated hardcover tome will have two titles, each containing at least several real words: Borat: Touristic Guidings To Minor Nation of U.S. and A. and Borat: Touristic Guidings To Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
"There is one and only Borat and we are honored to have him join our pantheon of international writers," Flying Dolphin publisher Suzanne Herz said in a statement.
Perhaps print will make the best medium for Borat's comeback, now that the blockbuster Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan has made his one of the most recognizable mustachioed faces since Magnum P.I.
While there was talk of a sequel at one point, it was always unclear just how the running gag that Borat's hi-jinks rely on would play out once his film, which was made for about $18 million and grossed more than $260 million worldwide, hit U.S. theaters.
It's true, audiences never forget a memorable face—especially when that face has been shoved between a fat guy's legs during a nude wrestling sequence.
Instead, yet another of Cohen's creations from his Emmy-nominated HBO series Da Ali G Show, the flamboyant fashion reporter Brüno, will supposedly be making his big-screen debut sometime in the next year or so, with Universal Pictures snapping up the rights to the character last October for a reported $42.5 million.
Since winning a Golden Globe for his Borat performance and stealing the show with his graphic acceptance speech, Cohen has been busy filming Tim Burton's adaptation of Sweeney Todd opposite Johnny Depp's Demon Barber of Fleet Street and reprising his vocal role as Julien, king of the lemurs, in Madagascar 2.
"Borat" Sued Yet Again
New Yorker claims street scene caused public ridicule, humiliation
Source: The Smoking Gun
A New York businessman who is seen being chased down Fifth Avenue by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in the film "Borat," is suing over his unwitting bit role in the hit comedy, claiming that his civil rights have been violated. Jeffrey Lemerond, 31, claims in a U.S. District Court complaint that the film depicts him "fleeing in apparent terror" from Borat, the phony Kazakh reporter portrayed by Cohen. In his June 1 lawsuit, Lemerond notes that he was screaming "go away" at Cohen, who was seeking a hug from the rattled stranger. While Lemerond used the alias "John Doe" when filing the federal lawsuit, he listed his real name in a nearly identical state court lawsuit that was filed--and then immediately withdrawn--in January. Unlike the federal action, which only names Twentieth Century Fox, the movie's distributor, as a defendant, the aborted New York State Supreme Court action listed Cohen, director Larry Charles, and producer Jay Roach as defendants. Lemerond alleges that Twentieth Century Fox unjustly enriched itself through the unauthorized use of his image. He also claims to have suffered "public ridicule, degradation, and humiliation" as a result of his brief appearance in the film. Footage of Cohen chasing Lemerond was first seen in the movie's trailer, though Lemerond's face had been pixelated from view. However, the film company did not "scramble Plaintiff's face in the film itself." Lemerond's complaint does not specify monetary damages, though it does note that "Borat" has grossed in excess of $320 million in movie ticket and DVD sales. Lemerond, a Dartmouth College graduate, has previously worked as a financial analyst The Carlyle Group and J.P. Morgan & Co.
Another unwitting "Borat" cast member files lawsuit
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The creators of the hit film "Borat" were sued again on Tuesday, this time by a driving instructor seen in the comedy admonishing the fake Kazakh reporter for yelling insults at other drivers.
Michael Psenicska was duped into participating in the film after it was described to him as a "documentary about the integration of foreign people into the American way of life," he said in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.
The suit named British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays the title role, One America Productions and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., a unit of News Corp. It also named Todd Lewis, a representative of One America who is listed in other lawsuits as Todd Lewis Schulman.
Psenicska said he was paid $500 in cash to give Borat a driving lesson. He described the experience as "surreal," saying Cohen drove erratically down residential streets, drank alcohol and yelled to a female pedestrian he would pay her $10 for "sexy time."
The lawsuit seeks $400,000 in actual damages and additional punitive damages for misleading Psenicska and for emotional harm he continues to suffer. Psenicska said if he had known the true nature of the film, he never would have participated.
The comedy has grossed $270 million plus more than $60 million in DVD sales, the lawsuit said.
A spokesman for Twentieth Century Fox was not available for comment but the company has responded to previous lawsuits involving "Borat" by saying free-speech law protects films and literary works that are "matters of interest to the public."
"Borat" has been sued at least four times already.
In June, a man seen in the film running away from Borat down the streets of New York City sued Twentieth Century Fox in federal court in Manhattan.
In February, a judge threw out a lawsuit brought in Los Angeles Superior Court by two college fraternity members shown guzzling alcohol and making racist remarks. They claimed the scenes tarnished their reputations.
Last year, two residents of a Romanian village sued Twentieth Century Fox for $30 million, claiming the film wrongly depicted them as rapists, abortionists, prostitutes and thieves. Scenes depicting Borat in Kazakhstan were filmed in Romania.
A South Carolina man also sued over a deleted scene.
I bought a ticket to see a documentary about Borat and his culture, but was horrified to find out that it was in fact -- a satire!
Who do I sue?
Report: Baron Cohen offing Borat, Ali G
Borat is dead. Sacha Baron Cohen tells The Daily Telegraph that he's retiring the clueless Kazakh journalist, as well as his alter ego, aspiring rapper Ali G.
"When I was being Ali G and Borat I was in character sometimes 14 hours a day and I came to love them, so admitting I am never going to play them again is quite a sad thing," the 36-year-old actor-comedian says in the British newspaper's Friday edition.
"It is like saying goodbye to a loved one. It is hard, and the problem with success, although it's fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I `get' with Borat again, so it's a kind of self-defeating form, really."
Baron Cohen brought Borat Sagdiyev — an anti-Semitic buffoon in search of Pamela Anderson — to the masses last year with his smash comedy, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." He first introduced the character on "Da Ali G Show," which was carried in the U.S. on HBO.
"It's much easier for me to be in character and it's a lot more fun," he says. "If I'd done the entire promotional campaign for (the `Borat' movie) as myself it wouldn't have developed in the same way."
Baron Cohen — not Borat — can be seen as a singing barber in Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd," co-starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.
His spokesman, Matt Labov, did not immediately return phone and e-mail messages by The Associated Press seeking comment on the "deaths" of Borat and Ali G.