VARIOUS: 'United 93' opens in Europe after a positive reception in the United States.

Record ID: 336128

  • Title: VARIOUS: 'United 93' opens in Europe after a positive reception in the United States.
  • Date: 1st June 2006
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 25, 2006) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR PAUL GREENGRASS SAYING: "We live in a 24-hour news, intense response cycle. We live in the age of the internet. We live in a world of global communication. We seek answers now, we are not prepared to wait. News and events travel fast, in a more responsive world and that drives cinema of course, as it d
  • Embargoed: 16th June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Reuters ID: LVA8R7U9J1OX07IUWTKBWEIHDFHH
  • Story Text: 'Director Paul Greengrass brought 'United 93,' the first Hollywood movie dealing with the events of September 11, to Europe.
    Screening outside competition at the Cannes Film Festival, the film brought back grim memories just days after a sneak preview of Oliver Stone's 'World Trade Center' was shown at the festival.
    'United 93' was released in the United States in late April, and will open in cinemas throughout the world over the summer.
    The film opened under much scrutiny in the United States, with one Manhattan cinema going as far as pulling the trailer.
    Its tough subject matter made it difficult to forecast how the film would be received by filmgoers. However, opening at number two in the box office and taking in some 11.6 million U.S. dollars its opening weekend, proved to Greengrass he had got the timing right.
    "It was very striking to me that this whole 'isn't it too soon' debate, discussion or cry, disappeared the moment the film came out. It was greeted very very positively because I think the audiences came to the film and saw it for what it is: a responsible, powerful expiration of what 9/11 meant," Greengrass told Reuters in Cannes.
    United 93" is a dramatization of the events surrounding the flight that crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back against the hijackers.
    Budgeted at just 15 million U.S. dollars, and filmed with a cast of relative unknowns away from the U.S. media spotlight in Britain, the Universal Pictures release was directed by English filmmaker Paul Greengrass, who shot the 2004 Matt Damon hit "The Bourne Supremacy." After premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, the film drew rave reviews from critics.
    Actor Khalid Abdalla, who plays one of the hijackers put the film's success down to its accuracy and true recount of the events on 9/11.
    "The response that I've had...you prepare for this role by being as truthful to what we know about the details about him, by individualising him, by not making him what he claimed to be, and what these 19 hijackers claimed to be, a representative of, you know, of a vast number of people. 1.2 billion Muslims across the world. The only way you counter that is by individualising and the response I've had be it from family members or people I've talked to or my own family, has been immensely positive and supportive because at the end of the day, what we all tried to do is be responsible for the truth," he said.
    Also attending the Cannes screening were some of the family members of the United 93 passengers. For Elsa Gronlund, whose sister Linda Gronlund died onboard the hijacked plane, the film served two purposes.
    "I think it does a really wonderful job of showing what happened that day, not only on the plane but what was going on, on the ground at that time as well, the chaos that was going on. But it does honour our loved ones, I believe, in the fact that it does not sensationalise it, it doesn't politicise it. It just shows what happened that day," she said.
    With screenings of Stone's 9/11 film, 'United 93' and a preview of Irvin Winkler's 'Home of the Brave', film-makers in Cannes were showing a more direct approach to recent events. Greengrass put this down to a change in the society, saying that unlike after the Vietnam War, the world wanted answers right away.
    "We live in a 24-hour news, intense response cycle. We live in the age of the internet. We live in a world of global communication. We seek answers now, we are not prepared to wait. News and events travel fast, in a more responsive world and that drives cinema of course, as it drives your business," he said.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register