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SINGAPORE: Michael Moore is in Italy. His film is premiering at the Venice Film Festival, the oldest film festival in the world. It's a glamourous affair. You know that because George freakin' Clooney's here. But Moore isn't having a good time kicking back, drinking Prosecco, taking in the sights.
In fact, the winner of a Cannes Palme d'Or (for Farenheit 9/11) and a Best Documentary Oscar (for Bowling For Columbine) nervously looks back, and with a laugh, awkwardly tells staff not to stand behind him. You see, Moore needs 24-hour security because of threats. And he's sick of it.
"Why should I have to live like that?" he would later tell TODAY. "I make movies, for goodness sake. It's completely nutty."
"It's dangerous to those in power, what I am doing," he said of his politically charged films. "I have gone outside the wall of the Left, and I speak to a mass audience of middle America. And that's frightening to them."
And yet, here he is again with another film. Capitalism: A Love Story rolls up its sleeves and deals with the financial crisis, criticising the current economic order in the United States.
It looks at Wall Street's "casino mentality", the influence of rich corporations in Washington, for-profit prisons. It also asks if Jesus would be a capitalist. (The answer is "no".)
It is not a film that will earn him any new friends in high places. So why does he do it?
Because he's an optimist, he said.
It turns out, Moore isn't just a persistently contentious liberal political commentator with a camera. He's also a nice guy, warmly agreeing to take a photo with this reporter - despite the paranoia.
"I would love to (visit)," he said of our little isle, smiling. "But would I get arrested at the airport?"
Are you a film-maker or a documentarian?
I am a film-maker. I am attempting to engage you in what we call "entertainment". I am participating in a business, an art form that is essentially an attempt to get you to laugh or to cry or to think...
I set out to make a movie first and foremost, not to issue a political statement or a manifesto. If I wanted to do that, I should have run for office or joined an organisation.
Are you a character in your films? How much of what we see of you is the real deal?
I am not that much different. I am that guy in the movie. I am not mugging for the camera. I don't know if I can actually act, or pretend to be something I'm not.
I've sometimes read from critics that say: "You know he does that 'aw-shucks' thing." And I think to myself, they don't understand that I am from the Midwest! We do act like that!
When they say: "Oh, he knows a lot more than that, he's just acting like some dumb guy from the sticks" - well, I am not a dumb guy from the sticks, but I am also not a highly educated individual.
I dropped out of college after a year or so... I am a guy who did a movie about capitalism, and I have never read anything by Karl Marx. I should be embarrassed to say something like that, you know?
When you work on your films, do you just fly by the seat of your pants? Or do you plan things?
I don't have much of a script. I just go and see what happens. No plan whatsoever. But what I find true is the humour in the film ... I was voted the class comic, class clown in high school.
Ah, a comedian!
That's the Irish in me. We have a very dark view of the world, and a lot of anger. I think some of our best satirists, comedians and humorists have actually been very angry people. Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Groucho Marx and Charlie Chaplin. They were very upset with the social condition and with what they saw was going on, and tried to use humour as a weapon.
Some might say I'm doing this comedy, this schtick, this stunt, and somehow making the issue less serious, but actually it is humour, ridicule, satire that is powerful, potent and, when used with a mass audience, it is extremely effective, politically...
It's a lesson I learned in high school - that girls would rather be around a guy who is funny and can make them laugh than some guy who belongs in a hair commercial.
Do you think people perceive you as dangerous?
It's dangerous to those in power, what I am doing. That's why they spend a lot of effort trying to discredit me and attack me. There have now been over a dozen documentaries made attacking me, over a dozen books written attacking me, and there are a number of websites as well...
It's frightening to them that I have found a way to bring Left politics to a mass audience. And the mass audience doesn't feel threatened by the Left politics that I am presenting.
Are you tired of fighting?
I am tired. In fact, I wasn't kidding when I mentioned that one of the titles I considered for this movie was "Mike's Last Movie". (Laughs) I am tired of beating my head against the wall. I am tired of the abuse that I have to take, and I am tired of the fact that security has to be in this room and outside the door. Why should I have to live like that?
Is it all worthwhile?
I don't know. I think it is. Look, I am an optimist, I believe things will change. I have seen things change. I have been shocked. I never thought Mandela would ever get out of prison, and instead he becomes President of South Africa. I never thought I'd see the Berlin Wall come down, and then I was there the night it came down. And if I told you three years ago a black guy was going to be the President of the United States, you'd look at me like I was nuts.
Anything is possible.
Capitalism: A Love Story opens in cinemas on Thursday.
- TODAY/yb
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