Zhang, Spielberg are Olympians
In an announcement that only serves to remind us just how freaking weird the world is, it was revealed yesterday that Zhang Yimou will direct the opening and closing ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics. And if it's not odd enough to think about the director of such masterpieces of subtlety as Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, and Not One Less masterminding the bizarre, nonsensical epics that open and close the Olympics, try this on for size: Steven Spielberg will serve as an "artistic advisor." Because, you know, Zhang's films are just missing that touch of loveliness that Spielberg brings to every project he touches.
confounding. the berg's full of surprises these days. reality shows and the olympics.. what's next? SEX TAPES?!
Quote from: Hedwig on April 17, 2006, 03:56:10 AM
what's next? SEX TAPES?!
it has to be done:
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Ang Lee joins Olympic directing team
Source: Guardian Unlimited
In something like a reversal of fortune, Ang Lee, the Taiwan-born director whose Oscar-winning gay romance Brokeback Mountain was banned in China, will be part of the team creating the opening and closing ceremony extravaganzas of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Lee, 51, has been named an arts and culture consultant to the creative team led by Chinese film-maker Zhang Yimou, joining a roster of advisers that also includes Hollywood's own Steven Spielberg and Chinese composer Wu Zuqiang.
Organisers are probably hoping that Lee, now a US resident, will bring to the table his expertise in directing the kind of balletic kung fu fight seen in his martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Brokeback Mountain, on the other hand, fell foul of Chinese censors who deemed the film "too controversial" for exhibition last year: homosexuality was considered a mental disorder in the People's Republic as recently as 2001 and is still a taboo subject. Brokeback Mountain is only available on the mainland in pirated DVD form.
Interestingly, Chinese media reporting this appointment refer to Lee as the "internationally renowned" director without referring to his nationality. China regards self-ruled Taiwan as part of "one China" and censors any reference that suggest its autonomy.
The Beijing Olympics will open on August 8 2008 and close on August 24.
Oliver Stone to shoot short film for Beijing 2008
Oliver Stone, director of "JFK" and other films that have courted controversy for their political content, will shoot a short film to promote Beijing ahead of the 2008 Olympics, organizers said on Thursday.
The five-minute film would form a "promotional video for cultural exchange between Beijing and the world" and be shown on television, in cinemas and on aircraft in China and abroad, the organizers said in a statement.
"Today, many peoples of the world can live in harmony, and China plays an important role," Stone told the Beijing News.
"China and the United States are two big countries that should have more interaction. My goal in shooting this Olympic short film also lies in this -- the need to build a harmonious international society."
The 60-year-old Oscar winner is the third director invited to capture impressions of Beijing as it prepares for the Olympics.
Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore, whose 1989 movie "Cinema Paradiso" won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and Oscar-nominated Iranian director Majid Majidi will also release short films, organizers said.
Stone toured Beijing this week to promote "World Trade Center," a movie about the September 11 2001 attacks in the U.S.
Originally set for release last month, "World Trade Center" and blockbuster "Miami Vice" were delayed after China's culture ministry declared October a month for home-made films, most of which featured patriotic and revolutionary themes.
Quote from: MacGuffin on November 02, 2006, 11:19:11 AM
The five-minute film would form a "promotional video for cultural exchange between Beijing and the world"
For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of China
Farrow warns Spielberg on helping Beijing's Olympics
US actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow blasted corporations and director Steven Spielberg Wednesday for helping China stage the 2008 Olympic Games despite Beijing's support for Sudan's government.
Farrow wrote in a Wall Street Journal column that Spielberg, a special consultant for the games, and corporate sponsors such as Coca-Cola and McDonald's should join calls for China to use its leverage over Khartoum to protect civilians in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region.
"That so many corporate sponsors want the world to look away from that atrocity during the games is bad enough," Farrow, who has traveled twice to Darfur, wrote in a piece co-signed by her son, Ronan.
"But equally disappointing is the decision of artists like director Steven Spielberg -- who quietly visited China this month as he prepares to help stage the Olympic ceremonies -- to sanitize Beijing's image," they wrote in the column titled "The Genocide Olympics."
"Is Mr. Spielberg, who in 1994 founded the Shoah Foundation to record the testimony of survivors of the Holocaust, aware that China is bankrolling Darfur's genocide?"
Farrow warned the American director and Oscar winner for the Holocaust film "Schindler's List" that he risked becoming a modern version of Nazi propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, known for her 1936 Berlin games film "Olympia."
"Does Mr. Spielberg really want to go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games?" they wrote.
"Do the various television sponsors around the world want to share in that shame? Because they will. Unless, of course, all of them add their singularly well-positioned voices to the growing calls for Chinese action to end the slaughter in Darfur."
"Imagine if such calls were to succeed in pushing the Chinese government to use its leverage over Sudan to protect civilians in Darfur," the Farrows wrote.
"The 2008 Beijing Olympics really could become an occasion for pride and celebration, a truly international honoring of the authentic spirit of 'one world' and 'one dream,'" they wrote, referring to the Games' slogan.
According to the United Nations, at least 200,00O people have died and more than two million been displaced since the conflict between rebels and government forces erupted in Darfur in February 2003.
Spielberg Torches Olympics Role
Here's one A-list directing gig Steven Spielberg has decided to pass on.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker has opted out of serving as artistic adviser for the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2008 Summer Olympics, saying he can't devote his attention to the celebration in Beijing while there is still so much suffering in Darfur.
He made the decision Tuesday after Rosemary's Baby star Mia Farrow and other human rights activists chastised him for continuing to work with the Chinese government.
The United Nations has criticized China, which is one of Sudan's biggest oil customers, for its continued support of the south African nation, which has allowed Muslim militias to wage a bloody civil war with the region's ethnic tribes that has killed at least 200,000 people and displaced millions.
And Spielberg suspected a while back that these issues could very well create a conflict. He penned a letter to China's president, Hu Jintao, in April, encouraging the leader to use his country's upcoming global spotlight to press for change in Sudan.
"In anticipation that this day might one day come, I left unsigned the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games contract presented to me nearly a year ago," the Schindler's List auteur said in a statement.
"Since that time, I have made repeated efforts to encourage the Chinese government to use its unique influence to bring safety and stability to the Darfur region of Sudan. Although some progress has been made along the way, most notably, the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1769, the situation in Darfur continues to worsen and the violence continues to accelerate.
"Sudan's government bears the bulk of the responsibility for these ongoing crimes but the international community, and particularly China, should be doing more," Spielberg continued.
"China has much to offer the world and I have no doubt that its international contributions will grow in the years ahead. With growing influence, however, also comes growing responsibilities. As China welcomes the world to Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games, I hope to be among those in attendance; and it is also my great hope that, with renewed and intensified efforts from China, there will be peace and security in Darfur at last."
Earlier Tuesday as part of a "Global Day of Action" focusing on Darfur, Farrow, a longtime human rights activist, and former Olympic swimmers Shannon Shakespeare and Nikki Dryden presented an open letter to Jintao at the Chinese Mission to the UN.
"We are all aware of the tremendous potential for China to help bring an end to the conflict in Darfur," the letter read, which was signed by a variety of celebrities, former Olympic athletes and Nobel laureates.
"How can Beijing host the Olympic Games at home and underwrite genocide?" Farrow, a UN goodwill ambassador long before Angelina Jolie made it cool, told reporters outside the Chinese Mission in New York.
"Time is running out for the people of Darfur."
According to the activist group Dream for Darfur, China has deployed noncombat troops to the region to help pave the way for a proposed 26,000-member UN-African Union peacekeeping force.
The 2008 Summer Olympic Games will take place Aug. 8-24 in Beijing.
Games organizers respond to Spielberg
China is blaming activists with "ulterior motives" for linking the Beijing Olympics to the nation's involvement in Sudan, with top officials saying they shared concerns over the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
Games organizers and the Foreign Ministry responded Thursday to Steven Spielberg rejecting a role as an artistic adviser to the Olympics.
The film director withdrew on Tuesday on the grounds that China wasn't doing enough to pressure Sudan over the conflict in its western region of Darfur.
China is believed to have influence over the Islamic regime because it buys two-thirds of the country's oil exports while selling it weapons and defending it in the United Nations.
In their first response to Spielberg's announcement, Games organizers said his decision would not affect planning for the opening and closing ceremonies, adding: "We express our regret over his recent personal statement."
"The Chinese government has made unremitting efforts to resolve the Darfur issue, an obvious fact to the international community which holds unprejudiced opinions on this issue," the organizers, known as BOCOG, said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.
"Linking the Darfur issue to the Olympic Games will not help to resolve this issue and is not in line with the Olympic Spirit that separates sports from politics," BOCOG said.
China is on the defensive against critics using the Games to spotlight the communist regime's curbs on human rights, press freedoms, and religion.
"It is understandable if some people do not understand the Chinese government policy on Darfur," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. "But I am afraid that some people may have ulterior motives, and this we cannot accept."
Liu said China was working with the United Nations to resolve the Darfur crisis.
"China is also concerned about the humanitarian crisis there, but we have been playing a positive and constructive role in promoting peace in Darfur," he said.
Liu said China supported a hybrid African Union and United Nations force to patrol Darfur.
"This did not come easily and our efforts have been applauded by the international community," Liu said.
Liu said 140 Chinese engineers helped prepare the hybrid force and Chinese companies in Sudan had helped dig wells and build small-scale power plants in Darfur.
"On the issue of Darfur, empty rhetoric will not help," Liu said. "What is more important is to do more things to help with the peace process there and alleviate the humanitarian crisis."
Fighting between government-backed militia and rebels in Darfur has killed more than 200,000 people and left an estimated 2.5 million displaced since 2003.
Begins tonight.
Quote from: MacGuffin on August 08, 2008, 05:54:43 PM
Begins tonight.
Its weird cause it already started yesterday, although the ceremony wasnt until today. Argentina won first game yesterday against Ivory Coast!
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I'm surprised at how much of this I've been watching. Some of these athletes and performances are so beautiful. I've been disappointed with China, and I think that much of the world is not impressed with the Chinese government (to put it mildly), but what these athletes do is completely independent of that. I don't really keep track of the scores or medals... I pretty much just admire the spirit and ogle at the bodies.
Sucks that much of it isn't live, though.
I saw the redeem team yesterday in the morning and later that night the AWESOME 400-free relay, Mac please tell me you did see it, to quote a headline "Jason Lezak churned like an unstoppable nuclear submarine, redlining to complete an impossible mission." But it wasn't, I couldn't believe what I just saw.
Quote from: Fernando on August 11, 2008, 09:33:20 AM
I saw the redeem team yesterday in the morning and later that night the AWESOME 400-free relay, Mac please tell me you did see it, to quote a headline "Jason Lezak churned like an unstoppable nuclear submarine, redlining to complete an impossible mission." But it wasn't, I couldn't believe what I just saw.
My God, that was an awesome performance. I got chills. The stunned looks on the French swimmers faces was priceless.
That was amazing. We don't get it live on the west coast, but I didn't know what was going to happen. I can just imagine that everyone watching in America was on their feet and cheering in the final meters of that race!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26139005/
Part of Olympic display altered in broadcast
Some aerial footage of fireworks digitally created months in advance
updated 12:16 p.m. CT, Mon., Aug. 11, 2008
Part of the elaborate Olympics fireworks show broadcast to the world in the opening ceremony was altered, done digitally in 3-D computer graphics, according to several news reports.
While the dramatic display actually happened as portrayed on television, members of the Beijing Olympic Committee said it was necessary to replace live video with computer-generated imagery because the city's hazy, smoggy skies made it too difficult to see, according to The Beijing Times, which first reported the story.
Committee members also said they were concerned that the helicopter pilot who would have flown overhead to film the fireworks would have been "at risk by making him try to follow the firework route," according to a quote from a committee member reported in a Daily Telegraph story.
NBC broadcasters Matt Lauer and Bob Costas made mention of the alteration as it aired.
"You're looking at a cinematic device employed by Zhang Yimou here," Lauer said. "This is actually almost animation. A footstep a second, 29 in all, to signify the 29 Olympiads."
Costas responded, "We said earlier that aspects of this Opening Ceremony are almost like cinema in real time. Well this is quite literally cinematic."
It took planners almost a year to create the 55-second sequence which appeared to be more than two dozen footprints amidst fireworks in the sky, said Gao Xiaolong, head of the visual effects team for the ceremony, in the Daily Telegraph story.
Even those at the city's new Bird's Nest National Stadium, where the Olympics are being held, viewed the computer-generated footage from their seats as they watched on the stadium's giant television screens, said Britain's Sky News in a story.
"Stunned viewers thought they were watching the string of fireworks filmed from above by a helicopter," said SkyNews.com. "But in reality they were watching a 3-D graphics sequence that took almost a year to produce."
There were some real fireworks going on outside the stadium. But the footprint display was "inserted into the coverage electronically at exactly the right moment," the Daily Telegraph said.
"Meticulous efforts were made to ensure the sequence was as unnoticeable as possible," the newspaper reported Xiaolong as saying. "They sought advice from the Beijing meteorological office as to how to recreate the hazy effects of Beijing's smog at night, and inserted a slight camera shake effect to simulate the idea that it was filmed from a helicopter."
"Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks," Xiaolong said in comments that appeared in the Daily Telegraph. "But most of the audience thought it was filmed live — so that was mission accomplished."
Because the only organization in control of all Olympics footage is Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, the feed went out to everyone broadcasting the event, including NBC, which has exclusive rights in the United States to show the games. NBC's online coverage is being delivered by the MSN Network, NBCOlympics.com on MSN. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
During Friday night's opening ceremony, the network averaged 34.2 million viewers, making it the biggest television event since the Super Bowl, according to the Associated Press.
The network has been criticized itself for the 12-hour tape delay in showing the opening ceremonies, which it did because of the time difference between China and the United States, driving some viewers to other Web sites around the world to see the event live.
I've been watching alot of Women's Gymnastics. Not because I'm a pervert, because I'm not.
I have a hard time believing some of these Chinese women are over the age of 16. They look about 10 years old. Also, last night, Alicia Sacramone completely choked.
Michael Phelps is so dreamy.
Quote from: Stefen on August 13, 2008, 10:37:48 AM
I've been watching alot of Women's Gymnastics. Not because I'm a pervert, because I'm not.
I have a hard time believing some of these Chinese women are over the age of 16. They look about 10 years old. Also, last night, Alicia Sacramone completely choked.
Michael Phelps is so dreamy.
Pervert.
Hooray Nastia!
She and Shawn Johnson were both stunning to watch. Johnson seems very reliable, with very tight execution, but Nastia is such a beautiful dancer, and I'm happy she won the gold.
if you would've told me two weeks ago that i'd be sitting in a bar watching the 'lmpics and cheering along with the whole bar while a girl in pink won a gymnastics contest i'd say you're full of shit and you're probably gay.
But....
U.S.A! U.S.A!
I wanted to tell you that two weeks ago, but I was afraid you were gonna say I was full of shit and probably gay. I guess I was right.
Get a room.
Trash talk backfires at the Beijing Olympics
BEIJING - Yelena Isinbayeva got the Olympic gold and a world record; American Jenn Stuczynski got the silver and a lesson in humility.
And we now have a new rivalry that should make woman's pole vaulting fun to watch for many more years to come.
Big poles and big mouths don't go together. Stuczynski knows that now. Pole vaulting isn't basketball or boxing. It's far too graceful of a sport for the kind of trash-talk she doled out before the Beijing Games.
"I hope we do some damage," she had said, "and, you know, kick some Russian butt."
Big mistake.
Isinbayeva is Russian but she understands English just fine. The greatest women's pole vaulter of all time heard Stuczynski's challenge loud and clear.
"I am not deaf," she said. "It made me really angry."
Their head-to-head clash turned Monday night at the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing into a showdown, with long poles instead of Don King.
First, some Cliffs Notes for those who didn't tune into this saga, with its slightly musty Cold War whiff, in the run-up to the Olympics.
_Stuczynski: Tall, wholesome American, natural athlete; took up pole vaulting late, had a gift for it, quickly became second-best woman's vaulter of all time, behind the Russian.
_Isinbayeva: Lithe former gymnast who switched to pole vault when she grew too tall as a teen, hasn't looked back since. In a class of her own.
Like any good fight, the public announcer introduced the combatants first. Isinbayeva was presented last and got the crowd's biggest roar. No mistaking who the Bird's Nest was rooting for.
Isinbayeva is a bit like those supermodels who supposedly don't get out of bed for anything less than a very lucrative photo shoot. Only when the bar has reached dizzying heights that most other vaulters can't clear does Isinbayeva deign to take her first jump.
She's just that good.
Monday night, her first jump was 4 meters 70 (15 feet, 5 inches). She soared right over. Seven of the 11 other vaulters had already dropped out by that point.
And so up the bar went, and up again. It's that exquisite turning of the screw that makes pole vaulting so addictive to watch. Who'll crack first?
Women's pole vault has only been an Olympic sport since the Sydney Games in 2000. It was an instant crowd pleaser. Almost single-handedly thanks to Isinbayeva, the sport has grown by leaps and bounds since then. Stacy Dragila's winning height in Sydney was 4.60 (15-1), which Stuczynski and Isinbayeva now sail over that in their sleep.
On Monday night, the last two hangers on dropped out with the bar at 4.80 (15-9), leaving Isi and Stu to fight it out for the gold alone.
The Russian won by KO. She cleared 4.85 (15-11). Stuczynski vaulted no higher than 4.80. Game over.
Almost.
With the whole stadium now eating out of her hand, Isinbayeva wasn't going to stop there. The crowd had only seen her jump twice _ that was all it had taken for her to defend her Olympic crown.
She wanted to give them more ... and perhaps rub that American nose just a little deeper in the dirt.
It was showtime. Isinbayeva-time. And that meant a world record.
First, she broke the Olympic record _ her own, from Athens four years ago _ as an appetizer.
Then, the bar went to a height it's never been before, 5.05 (16-6 3/4).
She got it on the last of her three tries. She was celebrating even before she had fallen back to earth. She screamed. Clutched her face. Screamed some more. Did a forward somersault. Grabbed a Russian flag from someone in the crowd and set off on a lap of honor.
And that whole time, Stuczynski was made to wait, sitting on a row of plastic chairs, until Isinbayeva had cleared the magic height. It was the 24th time that the Russian had set a world record; she generally likes to eke them out one centimeter at a time.
Afterward, Stuczynski didn't want to talk about her pre-game trash-talk, brushing off a question with an abrupt "OK, next."
It was her first Olympics and her first medal, "I couldn't ask for anything more," she said.
Beaten but not cowed, she said she expects to catch Isinbayeva eventually.
"It's just experience. She's been in the Olympics before, she's been in world championships, she's jumped a decade longer than me, so it's just a matter of time," she said.
Isinbayeva tried not to be smug. She had done what she had set out to do: let her vaulting do the talking.
"I just wanted to prove who is the best at the Olympic Games."
But she couldn't resist one last little dig
"She must respect me and ... know her position," she said.
"Now she knows it."
Quote from: MacGuffin on August 19, 2008, 10:28:06 AM
Big poles and big mouths don't go together.
My dirty mind thought that was funny.
lol
Anyone notice how Michael Phelps has dumb face? Alot like Eli Manning.