"The Aristocrats" may be a sign of an "anti-conservative backlash"

[NYCGirl]

says its distributor...

http://www.cinematical.com/2005/08/03/aristocrats-opens-to-huge-per-screen-average/

The Aristocrats opened on just four bi-coastal screens last weekend, but managed to take in almost $61,000 on each one, and Mark Urman, of distributor THINKfilm, thinks it all might just be a sign of an anti-conservative backlash. "The exceptional critical response has given people of, shall we say, aristocratic tastes, permission to climb into the sandbox with all of us lowbrows and everybody is having a good time," he told indieWIRE. "I tend to think that many people -- more than one might have imagined -- are fed up with the political correctness and pre-emptive self-censorship that has purged our popular entertainment of some of its most tasty and juicy bits. The Aristocrats is the antithesis and the antidote to political correctness." True that. The film opens a little wider this weekend, only to explode to hundreds of screens by August 19.

[meegbear]

1. I hope it does ...

Read the review for it in Salon.com sounds like a great flick.

The Aristocrats uses a warhorse joke to give the audience a window into humor, obscenity, and the American conscience. I am not aware of another study capable of inducing such laughter. The premise is devilishly simple and almost a modern version of comedia delarte. This allows some of the best American comic minds to muse wildly about humor. A great achievement of the movie is the raw footage of a who's who of comedians. Comic greats such as George Carlin, Eric Idle, Whoopi Goldberg, Gilbert Godfrey, Jason Alexander, Robin Williams, Phyllis Diller, Drew Carey, Sarah Silverman, and many more weigh in on how comedians put their signature on jokes.

The editing and pacing of the movie insure that the audience goes no longer than two minutes without a good laugh. There is no shortage of obscenity and lewdness in the film. The Aristocrats is not a family film. However, the film proves that there is much to be gained from wading into the lake of obscenity. Packed between laughs about bodily functions and social taboos, are searing insights about improvisation, character, show business, and things which most of us would not willingly put in our mouths. The movie hits on many different levels and stands as an insightful sociological achievement garbed in laughter.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436078/

[NYCGirl]

2. The person who wrote that review for IMDB, spelled Gilbert's last name

wrong. It's "Gottfried", not "Godfrey". Gilbert IS God.



Here's from the Salon review. I LOVE the fact that Michael Medved is already foaming at the mouth about the film!

"The Aristocrats," Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette's exhilarating documentary about the genesis and continual evolution of one very dirty joke, is less about free speech than about the freedom of speech. And viewing it as a manifesto only detracts from its indelicate, yet delicately calibrated, brilliance. It doesn't matter that AMC has opted not to run the movie in its theaters: That's not censorship but a business decision. (Everyone has the constitutional right to be a numbnuts.) Nor is it particularly meaningful that conservative critic Michael Medved has sniffed derisively at the picture, like a dog who thinks it's above the smell of its own shit. The inherent offensiveness of the joke itself (more on this later) is the controversial sticking point. But the picture itself is so ebullient and celebratory that it practically beams with perverted innocence. It also moves with an acrobat's timing. (I've seen French art house movies that aren't nearly so beautifully made.) All of this is a roundabout way of saying that unlike Medved, I know art when I smell it, and "The Aristocrats" is it.

http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2005/07/29/aristocrats/index.html

[AlGore-08.com]

3. By "anti-conservative backlash" they don't mean backlash against the GOP

They mean the movie has adult humor.

"I tend to think that many people -- more than one might have imagined -- are fed up with the political correctness and pre-emptive self-censorship that has purged our popular entertainment of some of its most tasty and juicy bits. The Aristocrats is the antithesis and the antidote to political correctness."

It's got nothing to do with political conservatism, unless you think that "political correctness" (a conservative code word to bash feminism, affirmative action, and civil rights) is conservative.

Here's the plot summary from imdb:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436078/plotsummary

Plot Summary for
The Aristocrats (2005)
Comedy veterans and co-creators Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza capitalize on their insider status and invite over 100 of their closest friends--who happen to be some of the biggest names in entertainment, from George Carlin, Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Cary to Gilbert Gottfried, Bob Saget, Paul Reiser and Sarah Silverman--to reminisce, analyze, deconstruct and deliver their their own versions of world's dirtiest joke, an old burlesque, too extreme to be performed in public, called The Aristocrats.

[NYCGirl]

5. The thing I think is the most important is the "pre-emptive

self-censorship", the kind of thing that lost Bill Maher his job on ABC, the kind of thing that Rumsfeld was referring to when he said we have to "watch what we say."

[AlGore-08.com]

7. No, I work in the industry

"Pre-emptive self-censorship" means "I'm writing a remake of Bambi for Disney, and they won't let me include a rape scene or a mass murder! Ohhhhhhhh, the pain!"

[NYCGirl]

9. I used to be in show business (I'm working in advertising now), and

I long for the days when everything WASN'T dumbed down or cleaned up to reach the largest audience.

[AlGore-08.com]

11. I agree with the dumbed down bit, but when wasn't everything cleaned up?

Are you talking about that four year period between the end of the production code and the implementation of the MPAA ratings system?

[NYCGirl]

13. Well, I love pre-code films

(the ones you referred to), but there was a period in the 60s and 70s, when they actually made films for adults; not "adult films" as in porn, but films that were made for grown-ups. Then Reagan and Meese put the brakes on it.

[RandomKoolzip]

17. Reagan and Meese didn't put the brakes on it; Speilberg and Lucas did.

[AlGore-08.com]

18. Yeah, but they weren't adult just because everybody cussed for 2 hours

I think though that the problem has less to do with self-censorship than it has to do with the creative executives who decide what to distribute (and occasionally create). The market keeps shrinking and the costs keep escalating, so that they get more and more financially conservative in their decisions - - or the ones who take artistic risks go bankrupt.

[NYCGirl]

19. Once in a while a film will break through and make money...

but Hollywood is addicted to the blockbuster.

[AlGore-08.com]

20. I think we're saying the same thing

IMNSHO, the difference between the time period you're referring to and the current one is that back then, the studios were still trying to figure out how to keep from going bankrupt in the face of TV. Making films that were more "adult" in theme was one experiment, but cable TV provided a more cost effective way to do that. Now that they have developed the current model - - of controlling all the major means of distribution, and stretching out the exploitation of a title for three to five years (from theatrical release to home video to pay per view to pay tv to basic cable to free tv). IMNSHO, they're not going to "think outside the box" until/unless another major shift occurs in media which they cannot, at least initially control. An extremely unlikely scenario, since they all seemed to have learned their lesson about how to control and exploit new markets (ala cable)...

[Strawman]

4. Open next Friday in Detroit

at the Main in Royal Oak. Can't wait.

[attaturk]

6. Speaking of the Aristocrats

Here's a TRULY offensive version...

http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2005/07/aristocrats.html

[Patiod]

10. I liked that version - but found the family offensive.... nt

[NYCGirl]

8. Here's a version of the joke as told by the South Park characters:

BIG, BIG WARNING....If you're at work, TURN DOWN YOUR SPEAKERS or WEAR HEADPHONES. This is very offensive.

I'm not sure if this is the exact version shown in the film, but the South Park guys are in "The Aristocrats"

http://www.funny.co.uk/news/art_77-2334-The-Worlds-Filthiest-Joke-on-Film.html

[TheMightyFavog]

12. Am I the only one who read the title and saw "Aristocats"

I was thinking, "How the fuck could an 35 year old Disney animated flick featuring the voice talents of Eva Gabor and Phil Harris be the sign of an anti conservative backlash?"

[NYCGirl]

14. Saw the director of "The AristoCRATS", Paul Provenza, on a talk show

and he said he couldn't wait until both films are next to each other on the DVD shelves!

[eyepaddle]

15. That was I thought when Morning Sedition had

Penn Jillette on to talk about "The Aristocrats" I was thinking--an animated movie about cats? Huh!?! :shrug:

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

16. My wife did...

She said, "The Disney film?"
I said, "Umm. No."

At first I wasn't going to go see it, but I think I've changed my mind. The website for the film includes a claim something like: If you've even heard of Pat Robertson, bring a defibrilator.

So maybe I'll give it a chance.