Word: hollywoodized
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...plus features achieved any kind of release in the U.S., and his only impact on Hollywood movies was that he made a star of a young Egyptian named Omar Sharif. But at film festivals, Chahine was for decades the prime, often the only, representative of an entire continent, Africa, and a world religion, Islam--though his family was Christian and his heritage Lebanese and Greek. He was both a nationalist and an internationalist, both an art-house auteur and a director of movies that were popular from Morocco to Indonesia...
...made political points--sometimes anti-U.S., often against the Egyptian hierarchy--but his didacticism was typically overwhelmed by his irrepressible urge to entertain, whether with the underclass tragedy Cairo Station (1958) or with a delirious love story like The Other (1999). Influenced by Hollywood comedy, Italian neorealism and Indian musical melodramas, he tossed everything--ideas, people, whole nations and regions--up in the air for the intoxicated viewer to try to catch...
...sides. Oliver Stone is finishing up W, a biopic of President Bush. The documentary Stealing America: Vote by Vote, already playing in some cities, argues that voting machines are hardly more accurate than Ouija boards. There are even a couple of right-wing movies, which are almost illegal in Hollywood: An American Carol, an anti--Michael Moore comedy from David Zucker of the Airplane! and Naked Gun series, and Hype: The Obama Effect, from anti-Clinton provocateur David Bossie...
...with rare exceptions, like China's stint as the heavy in the latest season of 24, Hollywood acts as if modern China doesn't exist. Where the Soviet Union was a Hollywood baddie for decades, China lurks unobserved, like dark matter in the universe. Even the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate replaced the Chinese with an evil corporation...
...Hollywood is reflecting our other institutions, which haven't quite figured out China either. Is it a rival? A partner? A repressive authoritarian state? An engine of prosperity? A sinister force that tortured Jack Bauer? Or a delightful panda that likes to gobble dumplings? We know that China matters and will matter more. But we don't exactly know how. So it floats undefined, a Middle Kingdom poised between fascination and fear. Kids collect Master Shifu Happy Meal toys at McDonald's while parents worry that they may end up flipping burgers there if their jobs go to China. Meanwhile...