Summary

TAPE: EF02/0419 IN_TIME: 21:02:26 DURATION: 12:36 SOURCES: APTN/United Artists RESTRICTIONS: No re-use/re-sale of film clips without clearance DATELINE: Cannes 17/5/02 SHOTLIST 1.Clip - "Bowling for Columbine" 2.Sot - Michael Moore - On American system versus Canadian 3.Cutaway 4.Sot - Michael Moore - on reducing numbers of handguns 5.Clip - "Bowling for Columbine" - hand gun clip 6.Sot - Michael Moore - on Bush using 9/11 to get tax cuts 7.Clip - "Bowling for columbine" 8.Sot - Michael Moore 9.Clip - "Bowling for Columbine" 10.Sot - Michael Moore 11.Clip - "Bowling for Columbine" 12.Sot - Michael Moore 13.Clip - "Bowling for Columbine" "All or Nothing" steps 14.B-Roll David Thewlis 15.B-Roll French actress in shoulder pads 16.B-roll Sting and Trudie Styler 17.B-Roll Julie Delpy 18.B-Roll Jerry Hall 19.B-Roll Cast of "All or Nothing", including Timothy Spall & Mike Liegh 20.B-Roll "all or Nothing actress" 21.B-Roll "All or nothing actors" 22.B-Roll Cast pose for photos 23.Pan across cast 24.GV Cannes steps 25.Clip " All or Nothing" MOORE TAKES A POP AT BUSH, JOURNALISTS, AND GUN CONTROL American film-maker MICHAEL MOORE today (17May02) launched a scathing criticism of President Bush's reaction to 9/11, labeled journalists lazy and said it will take more than gun control laws to stop violence in America. Moore was speaking at the Cannes Film festival (17MAY02) where his documentary "Bowling For Columbine" is in the official competition, much to the director's surprise. He said he was "Blown away" by being included in the prestigious competition - he sent the tape in hoping for a midnight screening at best. Instead Moore's film, which explores why there are more than 11,000 gun related deaths a year in the USA, has rocked the festival And Moore added further fuel to the controversy fire during his press conference. He said the Bush administration was using fear generated by the September the 11th terrorist atrocity in New York to push through tax relief for the rich and allow corporations to drill for oil in Akaska. The satirist called the move "amoral and abhorrent". Moore went on to slam journalists, particularly US ones, for being "lazy" and failing to do research or tackle any "hard" issues. . "Bowling for Columbine" is Moore's fifth movie since his 1989 debut, "Roger and Me." It's also the first documentary to compete in the Cannes Film Festival's main competition in 46 years. Wearing his trademark baseball cap and sagging jeans, Moore crossed the United States, filming 200 hours of footage to try to figure out what makes America so obsessed with guns. Some of the interviews are uncomfortably funny: the laughs come because people's responses are so absurd. Other interviews are almost unbearably sad, like when Moore talks to a soccer dad wearing a photo of his son, who died in the 1999 Columbine massacre. As the film evolved, Moore was surprised by the directions it took. He tried for two years to get an interview with Heston, president of the National Rifle Association and the actor who played Moses in "The Ten Commandments." Almost ready to give up, Moore bought a map of stars' homes in California and drove to Heston's house. "I just rang the buzzer and out of that little box came the voice of Moses," Moore told journalists in Cannes on Friday. He got the interview. The title of "Bowling for Columbine" refers to a detail about the lives of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who opened fire in their Colorado high school, killing 13 people before turning their guns on themselves. The morning of the attack, they went bowling. After the shooting, the media asked what had gone wrong in their lives. Was it violent movies? Was it the music they listened to? (Harris and Klebold were fans of rocker Marilyn Manson - who incidentally gives one of Moore's most intelligent, lucid and well-spoken interviews.) Some blamed Manson for inspiring the killings. So why not blame bowling, Moore asks. In one chilling sequence, Moore shows footage from Columbine's surveillance cameras and plays 911 tapes from panicked, breathless callers inside the school. Columbine is a focal point, but the movie's not only about the school. It jumps around to other shootings and other tragedies, from the Oklahoma City bombing to the killing of a 6-year-old girl from Flint, Michigan - shot by another 6-year-old who brought a gun to school. "Bowling for Columbine" is also about race, and about collective fear in the aftermath of Sept. 11. There are images from World War II, a shot of President George W. Bush issuing a warning about terrorism, and a hilarious cartoon about U.S. history that's narrated by a talking bullet. The movie also let Moore confront his own childhood. Moore grew up with guns and has been a lifelong NRA member. In the end, maybe the problem isn't so much the guns themselves, Moore says. In part, he blames the government and local news reporters - who he calls "the laziest people I've ever seen," - for cultivating the fears that make Americans resort to buying guns to protect themselves. The film's strongest point is the interviews. Moore has a talent for always pushing further and further to convince people to tell a little bit more. He interviews one young man who was kicked out of his Michigan high school. Why? Moore asks. First the man admits he was on a list of potentially dangerous students. Then he admits he had a copy of the "Anarchist's Cookbook." Eventually, almost boastfully, he admits that he once used the book's tips to whip up a few gallons of napalm. As in many of the interviews in "Bowling for Columbine," you get a sense that he just wanted to talk to someone. And Moore was there to listen. LEIGH's RETURN TO THE PALAIS Cannes favourite Mike Leigh returned to the Palais tonight for the screening of his latest competition movie "All Or Nothing." The British director has been a regular visitor to Cannes and won a Palme D'Or for his Secrets and Lies in 1996. His latest work stars regular collaborator Timothy Spall in what has already been acclaimed as his finest performance, in this typically dark and funny Leigh tale of downtrodden urban Brits looking for meaning and direction. As well as Spall and Leigh, others attending the screening included actresses Julie Delpy and Jerry Hall, plus Sting and his producer wife Trudie Styler.