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Austria fears Bruno's financial backlash
Sascha Baron Cohen as "Bruno"
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Steve Chiotakis: The Austrian media is up in arms over comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's latest movie. Bruno" follows the adventures of a fictitious gay Austrian fashionista traveling to the United States. Critics say the film damages Austria's image and could cause economic harm. Kazakhstan was equally outraged over its portrayal in Cohen's first movie, "Borat." From the European Desk in London, here's Stephen Beard:
Bruno: Ah so, I'm Bruno! I'm at Milan Fashion Veek.
Stephen Beard: Baron Cohen has been sashaying around Europe -- in character -- plugging the movie and dispensing fashion tips:
Bruno: Gordon Brown, I mean that guy needs a total makeover. He needs a fake tan -- he just needs to come out. Come on Gordon -- click those heels and say hello!
But Bruno is not going down well in the land of his supposed birth. The Austrian media are not amused:
Lisa Trompisch: Some of Sacha Baron Cohen's statements are not so funny for us. They are not acceptable:
Lisa Trompisch is with the daily newspaper Heute in Vienna. She says Bruno goes beyond a joke, describing Mein Kampf as a "fashion bible," and Adolf Hitler as "Austria's black sheep" -- portraying the country as Nazi and homophobic:
Trompisch: I think it's not funny. And I think today we are living in an open-minded, modern Austria and should reject those statements.
Austria's state broadcaster, ORF, has even suggested that Bruno could damage the economy, deterring tourists and investors.
Robert Jones of the brand consultant Wolf Olins concedes the movie could do some harm:
Robert Jones: There will be a board meeting somewhere in the world that's considering whether to build a factory in Austria or form an alliance with an Austrian business. And at the backs of those minds -- unspoken -- will be the thought: "Austria equals Bruno. Let's go somewhere else."
But he warns Austria should not follow Kazakhstan's example and try to sue Cohen. That'll only boost the movie. The best advice for Austria and for all the people duped into taking part may be to sit back and try to see the funny side of Bruno:
Woman: How did you find your son?
Bruno: I swapped him.
Woman: You swapped the baby?! For what?!
Bruno: For an iPod.
All: What!!!
In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.
Ok, hi there
first of all, has anyone who has written a comment here, ever been to austria, or is austrian, or knows any austrian people??
yes?? you might disagree with most of the things some people here are writing about austrians or austria.
no?? maybe you should go visit and talk to people before you judge them. ("a country trying to deny it's nazi past"...ARE YOU SERIOUS?????)...
maybe i should make this clear before i continue,
I AM AN AUSTRIAN, i'm damn proud of it and i am neither a nazi or some other backwards individual that needs to use an article about some comedy film or any other reason as platform to be spiteful.
it's a film review, for crissakes!!!!
99% of the austrian people are more than aware of this awful chapter in their history, we will never forget or deny any of it. but since i;m not stereotyping: idiots and people that will never get wise are everywhere, in austria, in the US, on the moon and in the movies!!!
Austrians wishing to deny their Nazi past have far more than Bruno to worry about. Even today, the northern section of the Bergkristall tunnel system, a vast underground factory built in 1944/45 by slave labor to protect Messerschmitt 262 jet production (also exploiting slave labor...Hungarian Jews, Slovenians, Italians, French POWs from all over Europe) is being filled with sand to allow a housing development to be built in the fields and meadows above it. For decades, concentration camp survivors and US liberators from the 11th Armored and 26th Infantry Divisions have worked with the local commemoration group (the Gusen Memorial Committee) to pressure the Austrian Federal Department of Cultural Heritage (Bundesdenkmalamt) to open the tunnels to the public. But instead of owning up to their Nazi past, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, ultimately responsible for such decisions, is once more allowing the remnants of the Holocaust to be turned into middle class housing. The local committee has written letters to the Municipalities of St. Georgen an der Gusen and Luftenberg, but a letter-writing campaign by eighty year old survivors and a committee of local school teachers and Catholic parishioners is unlikely to impact the powerful combination of greed and the desire to bury a shameful and murderous past. If you want to join the protest movement, please write letters or e-mails to Minister Dr. Maria Fekter, ministerbuero@bmi.gv.at. Austrian Federal Ministry of Interior Affairs, Herrengasse 7-11, A-1010 Wien/ Vienna. For more information, please see www.gusen.org and http://ecc.pima.edu/~gusen.
