- Title: Damien Chazelle dodges flag question at TIFF
- Date: 10th September 2018
- Summary: TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA (SEPTEMBER 10, 2018) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ACTOR RYAN GOSLING VARIOUS OF DIRECTOR DAMIEN CHAZELLE (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR, DAMIEN CHAZELLE, SAYING: (Reporter: People say you didn't put the flag in the homage. Is that the most important thing?) "Well you know there are many important things about the moon landing. What was most important to us
- Embargoed: 25th September 2018 00:14
- Keywords: First Man Neil Armstrong moon Damien Chazelle Ryan Gosling Toronto film festival TIFF
- Location: TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA; UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS
- City: TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA; UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS
- Country: Canada
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA0028X1PLXP
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Damien Chazelle, the director of new film 'First Man' about Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 Moon landing, avoided answering a question directly about omitting the planting of the American flag in the film.
The film is not due for release until October, but reports of the missing flag-planting scene were seized on by some in the United States. Republican Senator Marco Rubio called the omission "total lunacy."
"The American people paid for that mission, on rockets built by Americans, with American technology & carrying American astronauts," Rubio added on Twitter.
When he was asked about whether it was important that the flag scene wasn't there, Chazelle answered "Well you know there are many important things about the moon landing. What was most important to us was to tell the untold story and try to look at things that people hadn't seen before, moments Neil spent on his own on the moon surface and then try and tell the whole journey, the whole 8 years that led up to his landing on the moon so that was the most important thing for us."
And, when asked again whether the flag scene was important, the 'La La Land' director replied "No, it's certainly an important element of it but for us it was trying to get inside Neil's head and tell the untold story."
The film follows Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) from 1961 as the United States trails the Soviet Union in the space race, through to the 1969 Moon landing - with many personal and professional crises on the way.
Claire Foy plays Armstrong's wife Jane in the film and spoke about the film not just being for American audiences. She said at the premiere "It was a huge event. It wasn't just something that was viewed in one country, it was a universal thing so everybody has an approach to it but my feeling about the movie is it's about a man and it's about his personality, his character, what he went through in his life and how it all combines in this seminal moment in history, really."
'First Man' goes on release in US cinemas on October 12. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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