March
16
SXSW: Bruno Hits A Nerve
Universal staged a double-header Sunday night, first screening 22 minutes of Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno to two raucous SXSW/Fantastic Fest screenings at the Alamo Drafthouse on Lamar in Austin. Then the studio debuted Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell at the Paramount. They scored a promo bullseye on both. UPDATE: The buzz spread instantly via twitter. Here's Indiewire's wrap.
Cohen introduced the Bruno footage via video, sitting at his editing bay, pumping up his British accent. Bruno is an Austrian fashion reporter who leaves Milan fashion week to move to America to become "the biggest Austrian celebrity since Hitler." To generate publicity, Bruno tries to bring peace to the Middle East. He adopts a black baby, Madonna-style. In the footage, the fey Austrian-accented Bruno auditions a series of (real) parents. One after another agrees without flinching to let him do terrible, dangerous things to their children--from extreme dieting and liposuction to letting them pose as Jesus on the cross--just to land the acting gig. Bruno takes his baby on a talk show with a majority of African Americans in the audience. It doesn't take much to outrage them. It's hilarious.
Bruno takes a turn playing a raging heterosexual who stages a wrestling contest: this time a redneck audience is gob-smacked when a gay man climbs into the pen with "Straight Dave." The crowd at the Alamo roared. Cohen plays with real people, testing to see how they will respond to his triggers. He is "pushing the limits," as Bruno puts it. "If you want to see any more of my film," Cohen says at the end of the video,"you can buy a fucking ticket."
Universal opens Bruno July 10.
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Nice article!
But I don't think this film will have nearly as much impact as BORAT. The "Gay thing" just isn't shocking anymore. We won and that's that! :-)
If you want some shocking laughs try this Bestiality-Rights flick: http://www.comingsoon.cz
It's the funniest and scariest I've ever seen!
I say (I've actually read this somewhere) "Zoos are the new gays!" :-)))))))
Posted by: LillyPut | March 18, 2009 at 10:26 AM