Op-ed
Please check this site too:
http://babel.altavista.com
Impresive translation service. Enter up to 150 words for translation at the time
Thanks Marko. I heard about it many times, but now I believe it.
Nenad
A head’s up to everyone concerning the movie “Harrison’s Flowers” set to
open in NY and LA on March 15. I beleive that this movie has already
been shown in France. Among the stars is Andie McDowell. The movie
takes place in Vukovar and concerns an American photographer who
disappeared in the takeover, was thought dead and was seen alive by his
wife on CNN. I assume the movie to be “Croat-friendly” as I found the
text set forth below on the web site of the Croatian embassy in Paris (I
unfortumately don’t read French, so I am assuming it is a positive
article).
I saw an advertisement for this movie this morning in NY and I
understand that it will open in a larger geographic area in the US later
in the year.
Anyone know anything about it?
John Kraljic
Une Américaine a Vukovar
<< Harrison’s Flowers >> d’Elie Chouraqui
Avec ce film actuellement sur les écrans le réalisateur français Elie
Chouraqui propose le premier long métrage dont l’intrigue se déroule sur
fond de la guerre qui embrasa la Croatie en 1991, et notamment aux
environs de la ville de Vukovar conquise par l’armée et les milices
serbes apres un siege terrible qui dura trois mois. Bien qu’il s’agisse
la d’une fiction sans prétention didactique particuliere, le cinéaste y
est néanmoins parvenu a restituer les scenes de guerre avec un réalisme
saisissant. Un public averti y décelera sans doute l’imposant travail de
documentation et de reconstruction qu’aura nécessité le tournage.
A l’automne 1991, lorsque débute l’agression serbe en Croatie, Harrison
Lloyd (interprété David Strathairn), un photographe américain employé
par Newsweek, disparaît dans les environs de Vukovar, laissant derriere
lui ses deux enfants et sa femme Sarah (Andie MacDowell) qui refuse de
croire a sa mort. Elle s’envole alors pour l’Autriche, loue une voiture,
passe la frontiere et se joint a un groupe de photographes de presse qui
couvrent le conflit, dont Kyle (Adrian Brody), un ami de son mari.
Yeager Pollock (Elias Koteas), un autre collegue les ralliera bientôt.
Ensemble, passant au milieu d’exactions en tous genres, ils vont
rejoindre les ruines de la ville croate martyre, assiégée, pilonnée, et
bientôt envahie par l’armée de Belgrade et les miliciens serbes. Voila
pour le décor.
C’est sur cette trame que Chouraqui tisse son récit ou il dépeint avec
brio la difficile profession de reporter de guerre. Pour ce qui est du
choix de la guerre de Croatie, il s’explique : << J’ai, en effet, pris
l’exemple de Vukovar pour montrer la folie hystérique des hommes. (…)
En 1991, Vukovar a été la premiere ville d’Europe entierement bombardée
depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Les Serbes l’ont pilonnée pendant 80
jours. Il y a eu une obstination a raser cette ville du XVIIe siecle
pour que disparaisse de la surface de la terre le génie de
l’architecture croate. Les Serbes se sont livrés a des exécutions
sommaires, a de multiples atrocités, exterminant a la grenade, tuant les
blessés de l’hôpital. Tout ce que je montre dans le film figure dans le
rapport des Nations unies (…) >>. Et effectivement la minutie dont il a
fait preuve pour reconstituer fidelement l’atmosphere apocalyptique qui
regne dans les rues du << Stalingrad croate >> est véritablement
déconcertante.
Pour autant, Harrison’s Flowers n’en est pas moins une fiction, ce que
le réalisateur revendique a juste titre. Ceux qui s’attendaient a voir
enfin portée a l’écran l’épopée de la fameuse << bataille de Vukovar >>
resteront sur leur faim. Aucune trace de l’héroique et désormais
légendaire résistance du petit millier d’hommes écrasés sous les bombes
qui parvinrent, contre toute attente, a tenir en échec un adversaire
largement suréquipé et tres supérieur en nombre. Certes, le scénario
déja excellent n’en aurait sans doute été que meilleur. Il est pourtant
des moments ou curieusement le réalisateur exploite avec précision les
références historiques, quoique secondaires, en poussant tres loin le
réalisme. Ainsi nous fait-il revivre la prise par les Serbes du
tristement célebre hôpital de Vukovar, il est vrai, sans montrer le sort
funeste alors réservé a ses deux cents blessés, ensevelis depuis a
quelque distance de la dans le charnier d’Ovcara.
D’autre part, le choix délibéré du réalisateur de ne faire accéder au
véritable rang de personnage que les seuls reporters occidentaux, s’il
entretient ainsi indiscutablement une certaine distance a l’égard du
conflit, n’en facilite pas moins a posteriori une meilleure
appréhension. L’identification suggérée avec le personnage principal,
incarné avec force par Andie MacDowell, n’en est de la sorte que plus
aisée. Paradoxalement, la crudité et le réalisme époustouflant des
scenes de guerre risquent de surprendre le public occidental qui ne
garde généralement en mémoire de la guerre en << ex-Yougoslavie >> que le
siege de Sarajevo, auquel il convient d’ajouter depuis peu
l’intervention de l’OTAN au Kosovo. Mais la dureté de certaines scenes
vient ici brutalement rappeler a quel point la violence voila déja dix
ans de la campagne militaire serbe en Croatie, fut-elle moins
médiatisée, ne saurait etre réduite a un simple avant-gout du conflit
bosniaque.
Pourtant certains clichés semblent tenaces. Certains commentateurs que
le film n’a apparemment pas vraiment éclairés l’ont meme présenté comme
se déroulant en Bosnie, voire en Serbie… Ainsi a-t-on pu lire
récemment sous la plume circonspecte d’un critique de cinéma que
Chouraqui péchait par exces puisque la guerre en Croatie n’aurait, selon
lui, << jamais atteint >> l’intensité qu’elle a dans ce film. Quand on
sait que Vukovar, apres seulement que trois mois de bombardement,
demeure la ville ou les destructions ont atteint un degré inégalé dans
l’ensemble de la région, on peut en douter.
Au-dela de sa qualité esthétique indéniable, le grand mérite
d’Harrison’s Flowers est peut-etre précisément d’etre parvenu a meler
avec habileté fiction et réalisme, ou effort documentaire vient
avantageusement étoffer un scénario original librement inspiré du roman
Le Diable a l’avantage d’Isabel Ellsen. En illustrant les risques
auxquels s’exposent quotidiennement les reporters de guerre, Elie
Chouraqui choisit aussi de nous rappeler le prix exorbitant qu’a l’aube
du IIIe millénaire un peuple a du payer pour défendre, au coeur de
l’Europe, des droits aussi légitimes et fondamentaux que l’indépendance
ou la démocratie.
Le Service de presse
*****************************
Hey John!
Yes the article is more pro-Croatian, and not just because it was on the Croatian Embassy website.My high school French (and how come they don’t offer cool languages in High School) is a bit rusty, so I took the text and plugged it into the web based
translator at
http://babel.altavista.com
The text itself is still raw. I did not make any corrections or revisions to
it. Some words did not translate, but I think we can all get the idea ofd
what the article is about…
Voila!
American in Vukovar ” Harrison’ S Flowers ” of Elie Chouraqui
With this film currently on the screens the French realizer Elie Chouraqui
proposes the first full-length film whose intrigue proceeds on bottom of the war which set ablaze Croatia in 1991, and in particular around the town of Vukovar conquered by the army and the militia Serb after a terrible seat which lasted three months. Although it is a fiction without particular didactic claim, the scenario writer that point
nevertheless reached to restore the scenes of war with a seizing realism. A public informed there will undoubtedly detect imposing it work of documentation and rebuilding which will have required turning.
With the autumn 1991, when begins the Serb aggression in Croatia, Harrison Lloyd
(interpreted David Strathairn), an American photographer employed by Newsweek,
disappears in the surroundings from Vukovar, leaving behind him his two
children and his wife Sarah (Andie MacDowell) who refuses to believe in her death. It flies away then for Austria, rents a car, passes the border and joint to a group of press photographers who cover the conflict, of which Kyle (Adrian Brody), a friend of her husband. Yeager Pollock (Elias Koteas), another colleague will rejoin them soon. Together, passing in the medium of exactions in all kinds, they will join the ruins of the city Croatian martyrdom, besieged, rammed, and invaded soon by the army of Belgrade and the militiamans Serb. Here is for the decoration.
It is on this frame that Chouraqui weaves its account where it depicts with brilliance
the difficult profession to defer war. As regards the choice of the war of
Croatia, it is explained: ” I, indeed, took the example of Vukovar to show the
hysterical madness of the men (…) In 1991, Vukovar was the first town of Europe entirely bombarded since the Second World war. The Serb ones rammed it during 80 days. There was an obstinacy to shave this city of XVIIe century so that disappears from the surface of the ground engineering of Croatian architecture. The Serb ones were devoted to summary executions, with multiple atrocities, exterminating with the grenade, killing the casualties of the hospital. All that I show in film appears in the report/ratio of the United Nations (…) “. And indeed the meticulousness of which it made proof to accurately reconstitute the apocalyptic atmosphere which reigns in the streets of the ” Croatian Stalingrad ” is truly disconcerting.
For as much, Harrison’ S Flowers is not less one fiction, which the realizer
asserts rightly. Those which expected to see finally carried to the screen épopée of famous ” the battle of Vukovar ” will remain on their hunger. No trace of heroic and from now on legendary resistance of the small thousand of men crushed under the bombs which arrived, counters any waiting, to hold in failure a largely over-equipped adversary and very superior in a number. Admittedly, the already excellent scenario would undoubtedly have been only better. It is however moments when curiously the realizer exploits with precision them historical references, though secondary, while pushing very far realism. Thus revives us it the catch by the Serb ones
of sadly admittedly celebrates hospital of Vukovar without showing the
disastrous fate then reserved for its two hundreds wounded, buried since at some distance from there in the mass grave of Ovcara.références histories, though secondaries, while pushing very far realism. Thus revives us it the catch by the Serb ones of sadly admittedly celebrates hospital of Vukovar without showing the disastrous fate then reserved for its two hundreds wounded, buried since at some distance from there in the mass grave of Ovcara.
In addition, the choice deliberated on the realizer to make reach the true row of
character only only the reporters Western, if it thus indisputably maintains
a certain distance with regard to the conflict, does not facilitate of it less a
posteriori a better apprehension. The identification suggested with the principal character, incarné with force by Andie MacDowell, of it is kind only easier. Paradoxically, the crudeness and the époustouflant realism of the scenes of war are likely to surprise the Western public which generally keeps in memory of the war in ” ex-Yugoslavia ” only the head office of Sarajevo, to which it is appropriate to add recently the intervention of NATO in Kosovo. But the hardness of certain scenes comes here brutally to recall to which point violence here are already ten years of the Serb military countryside in Croatia, it was médiatisée, could not be reduced to a simple first impression of the Bosnian conflict.
However certain stereotypes seem tough. Certain commentators that the film
apparently did not really light it even presented like being held in Bosnia, even in
Serbia… Thus one could read recently under the circumspect feather of a critic of cinema that Chouraqui sinned by excess since the war in Croatia would not have, according to him, ” ever reached ” the intensity which it has in this film. When it is known that Vukovar, after only that three months of bombardment, remain the city where the destruction reached an unequalled degree in the whole of the area, one can doubt it.
Beyond its undeniable aesthetic quality, the great merit of Harrison’ S Flowers is perhaps precisely to have arrived has to mix with skill fiction and realism, where
documentary effort advantageously comes to pack an original scenario freely inspired of the novel the Devil has the advantage of Isabel Ellsen. By illustrating the risks to which are exposed daily the reporters war, Elie Chouraqui as chooses to recall us the exorbitant price as at the dawn of thousand-year-old IIIe people had to pay to defend, to the heart of Europe, the as legitimate and fundamental rights as independence or the democracy.
Press Service
********************
procitala sam komentar sa stranica veleposlanstva u francuskoj.
zakljucak je da je taj film << Harrison’s Flowers >> d’Elie Chouraqui
podsjetio na cijenu koja je placena – “u srcu europe” – za stjecanje
“temeljnih i legitimnih prava kao sto su neovisnost i demokracija”.
komentator smatra film fikcijom, koja se ipak nije mogla izvesti bez
zahtjevnih uvida u dokumentaciju i rekonstrukciju (bliske) proslosti.
spominje neke nepotrebne detalje iz povjesti koji za nas nisu relevantni
a istaknuti su, ne znam na sto misli. ipak smatra da je to dobar prikaz
“lude ljudske histerije”, apokalipse “hrvatskog staljingrada”. (gdje je
jasno da se radi o Beogradskoj/srbskoj miliciji etc.)
pomalo zamjera sto je film ostao na fikciji, sto se nije priblizio
realnosti u smislu prikazivanja hrabroga otpora male skupine ljudi
protiv daleko superiornijeg neprijatelja u brojnosti i opremi. nema
dakle “famozne vukovarske bitke” — “sigurno je da bi iovako izvanredan
scenarij bio s time samo bolji” – dakle scenarij je ipak pozitivno
komentiran. to potvrdjuje i zakljucak.
ivana arapovic
montreal
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