FRANCE: DEAUVILLE FILM FESTIVAL PAYS TRIBUTE TO AMERICAN ACTOR AND COMIC ROBIN WILLIAMS

Record ID: 388586

  • Title: FRANCE: DEAUVILLE FILM FESTIVAL PAYS TRIBUTE TO AMERICAN ACTOR AND COMIC ROBIN WILLIAMS
  • Date: 19th September 1999
  • Summary: WILLIAMS WALKING ONTO STAGE TO COLLECT HIS AWARD
  • Embargoed: 4th October 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: DEAUVILLE, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVAF9SQY4KWM79627ZF6CCS10P4
  • Story Text: Master of mimicry, American actor Robin Williams, was the subject of a tribute on Tuesday (September 7) at the Deauville Film Festival.
    On hand for the French debut of his latest movie "Jakob The Liar", directed by Peter Kassovitz, Oscar-winning Williams was feted with a retrospective of selected films from his collection of work.
    In true Williams style, the zany comedian caused mayhem at a press conference held earlier in the day when he deliberately misinterpreted questions posed by journalists about "Jakob The Liar".
    A world away from his character Mrs Doubtfire, in the film of the same name, Williams' role in this tragi-comedy is that of Jakob, a poor Jewish cafe owner in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1944.
    By accident, Jakob overhears a forbidden radio news bulletin signaling Soviet military successes against German forces in the east.
    When Jakob shares his secret within the Getto which has been news-starved since 1939, hope and spirits are lifted.But when he is pressed by his friends for more information, Jakob is forced to lie.He fabricates news of German defeats, American intervention and the possible imminent end to the war.
    Unable to keep the news quiet, the Germans get wind of the illegal radio and begin a search for the resistance hero who dares to operate it, thus defying their rules.
    Shot in Poland and Hungary, the film was directed by Hungarian-born, France-based Peter Kassovitz who wrote the screenplay with Didier Decoin and Ron Hutchinson.It was adapted from the novel by Jurek Becker.
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