'Life," Oscar Wilde wrote in 1889, "imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life." This is a useful maxim for the current crop of Republican presidential candidates, even if the majority of them would view Wilde with the same bigoted disgust as his contemporaries did more than a century ago. Progress, schmogress.
- The Artist
- Production year: 2011
- Countries: France, Rest of the world
- Cert (UK): PG
- Runtime: 100 mins
- Directors: Michel Hazanavicius
- Cast: Berenice Bejo, James Cromwell, Jean Dujardin, John Goodman, Malcolm McDowell, Penelope Ann Miller
Last weekend, US TV viewers were blessed with not one but two Republican debates in the space of 13 hours. That same weekend, a film opened in Britain that contained some illuminating lessons for those partaking in this reality TV show, I'm a Republican … Get Me Out of Here! That particular movie is not, as one might expect, The Iron Lady, although that, too, does have some relevancy for the candidates.
In the same way that many Conservatives talk as though the last leader of their party was Thatcher, so today's Republican candidates seem to think that the last GOP president was Ronald Reagan, invoking the Gipper at every available opportunity – even if he was pretty much a socialist by their definition, what with his tax increases and Hollywood background – while fudging the Bushes into near invisibility. If Bush Jr is referred to at all by the candidates, it is almost invariably as "43", or "the 43rd president", like superstitious actors talking in hushed tones about "the Scottish play".
It is further proof of the special eagerness of these candidates to say anything that they think will win votes, even if that means jettisoning previous principles and a two-term president from their own party. Mitt Romney is the most notorious example of this, having flip-flopped on healthcare and abortion, but he's not the only one. Rick Santorum remained unswayed back in 2003 when gay rights campaigner Dan Savage responded to Santorum's claim that two men having sex is analogous to bestiality by turning the politician's name into a neologism for a possible after-effect of anal sex. Yet even Santorum looked a little unsure of himself last week when it was widely reported that – and sounded very much like – he said: "I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money." Santorum later insisted he did not say "black people" – he said, he claimed, after some consideration, "blah people". It was an uncharacteristically vague defence by a man whose shameless obsession with policing other people's sex lives is described in the current issue of the New Yorker as "dogged".
The film that the GOP candidates should look to has nothing to do with politics. It is The Artist, the gorgeous silent film about Hollywood's transition to talkies in the 20s. The Artist mashes together Singin' in the Rain and A Star is Born while winking at historical references, including Douglas Fairbanks and John Gilbert, two silent film stars who became casualties of the change to talking pictures. Yet despite the familiarity, The Artist never feels derivative. This is where the GOP comes in.
The Republican party faces many problems in this election – more than it should, considering it is fighting a president leading a nation in which one in five Americans did not have enough money for food in the past 12 months. It's not just that they have failed to come up with any new ideas, but they have failed to re-package the old ones and, as The Artist proves, one can get away with an old shtick only if one does it with intelligence, wit and conviction.
Everything about the GOP candidates feels hideously familiar, and not in a good way, a point made by a recent New Yorker cover in which Newt Gingrich is portrayed as a relic from the past who has somehow intruded on the present. Romney, too, carries the stench of failures past.
It's not just the people who have been seen before but the issues, too. Karl Rove has described the current GOP farrago as "the most unpredictable, rapidly shifting, and often downright inexplicable primary I've ever witnessed", but it really feels more like one of those bad dreams in which your subconscious throws up all manner of bad memories from the past. There's Romney, the John Kerry of the Republican party, waging a battle against Santorum that, as New York magazine's John Heilemann pointed out on the late-night US TV show The Colbert Report last week, smacks strongly of Bob Dole's fight against Pat Buchanan in 1996, with economic populism on one side and religious conservatism on the other.
Then there's Santorum, who is not just against abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, but against contraception, because, he says: "It's a licence to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be." To be fair to Santorum, he presumably doesn't need to use contraception himself as his beloved tank top is basically a giant chastity belt. But last week he learned that his weird obsession with sex and accompanying homophobia don't always fly so well when he was booed by New Hampshire students for comparing gay marriage to polygamy. So he has since amped up the nigh-McCarthyite accusations against President Obama's alleged "socialism", describing unspecified acts of the president as "un-American", a ploy that failed to work for Michele Bachmann in 2008 or Sarah Palin, ever.
The GOP candidates may appear more extreme and hysterical, but their ideas are old, their faces familiar and their stories stale, and not even their party has any conviction in them, judging from their inability to unite behind a single candidate. And after watching them debate twice in 13 hours, it was hard not to wish they had taken another tip from The Artist: silence.
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10 January 2012 8:06PM
Listen up GOP candidates: you can only recycle the past if you do it with intelligence, wit and conviction
As that would rule out every single one of them, I think you need another plan.
10 January 2012 8:14PM
i love the Guardian todayXXXXFinally a tabloid has had it's coming Out.
Gay everywhere.....
About the Main Subject,
Too bad that miss Clinton does not run for the Opossition.She has seen it all.
10 January 2012 8:17PM
"But last week he learned that his weird obsession with sex and accompanying homophobia don't always fly so well when he was booed by New Hampshire students for comparing gay marriage to polygamy."
I'd wager Santorum thought he hit one out of the park when it rolled off his tongue- an explicitly anti-gay AND implicitly anti-Mormon comment!
You have to hand it to him, there is a part of the republican party that NO ONE understands better than Santorum. Just not the part found in New Hampshire OR at universities...
10 January 2012 8:18PM
I think what you are saying Hadley, is that all of the Republican candidates are loony. How normal intelligent people could vote for any of them is a mystery to me. They are looking to take the USA back to the dark ages. A bit like the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Margaret Thatcher used to call it Victorian values and John Major was keen on back to basics (or was it biscuits?) - mad the lot of them.
10 January 2012 8:19PM
Ew.
10 January 2012 8:20PM
While Oscar Wilde never said "if you repeat a lie long enough it becomes the truth" that is a true statement. Todays lie will be Mitt Romney was Pro-choice when he was Governor of Massachasutts and has now flip flopped to become Pro-life. In fact, when Romney ran for Governor of Massachusetts abortion was legal in Massachusetts. Romney wasa concern at the time because of his pro-life credentials. What Romney said was simply: "As Governor of Massachusetts I will not take any steps to change the current abortion law as it stands". In fact I recall some Democrats being quite miffed at Romney when he vetoed an abortiuon related law, which he rebutted by saying "I am not changing the law that existed when I became Govornor, just preventing its expansion". The whole thing ended shortly thereafter.
I do love the hypocricy of the New Hampshire students in whining about Polygamy while supporting gay marriage. Proponents of gay marriage always tell us its about who you love, but in fact its about special privileges because if you love more than one person you cannot marry them in Massachusetts based on the Goodrich holding which found marriage us an unaalienable Constitutional right, for some people, but not those who love more than onber person, or those not of an age the Progressive court accepted, or from certain blood relationms because in then marriage isn't a right, never was and thats the truth.
As bizarre as the Republican candidates are none are bizarre enough to have left America to travel to Pakistan as Barry Obama, travelling on some unknown passport and visa simply because he couldn't have travelled there as an American, and returning as Barrack Hussein Obama, refusing to say where he got his passport and visa. Now thats bizarre.
I like the Republican debates. Nice to see diversity of opinion. ot sure I'll vote for their nominee, but sure I won't vote for the incomptetent incumbent who without his teleprompter couldn't even say Dirk Nowitzki's name correctly. Some basketball fan.
10 January 2012 8:22PM
Listen up GOP candidates ...
But do they read The Guardian ? Would their handlers permit it ?
10 January 2012 8:22PM
Pro: they all seem hideously unelectable.
Con: they may of course rig the election, if they don't actually win it.
10 January 2012 8:34PM
Getting despirate Guardian.
1. The US Elections are nothing to do with a low circulation British left wing comic
2. Said Left wing comic has zero influence on the result
3. Obama is out on his arse this year..... deal with it
10 January 2012 8:39PM
No, Hadley: for once, I disagree.
While it would be pleasant if the Republicans remained silent and were merely thought fools, it is far better that they open them vociferously, and remove all doubt.
10 January 2012 8:46PM
So many questions, Zapartoo, raised by one comment! For a start, the disparaging tone in which you refer to a "British left wing comic" and proprietorial attitude over "the result" suggests that you are American, yet your use of the word "arse" hints otherwise. Second, I'm fascinated by your suggestion that a major national event has "nothing to do with" a newspaper, as though that newspaper should only cover, what, events that happen within its own office space? Then there's your seeming belief that writing about a subject suggests belief that one has "influence" over it as opposed to, I don't know, just writing about it.
But the part that really interests me is the reference to the "despirate." Is that a pirate who is in a particularly low depth of despair? I like to think so.
10 January 2012 8:46PM
The Artist is well made but is a complete compendium of cliche.
The current republican hopefuls have gone way beyond cliche and are in a different universe entirely.
10 January 2012 8:58PM
I think that I will marry my dog and claim him as a dependent on my tax return.
10 January 2012 9:07PM
Of course they cannot come up with new ideas. Of course they cannot even re-package old ones. Politics in the US is now NOTHING except fear mongering.
And unless I have simply overlooked them, I have seen no articles recording where any candidate has talked with, or even smarmily lied to, an exclusively Native American audience in this continent's Occupied Territories.
America deserves whoever steals the election; America deserves whoever wins the election.
10 January 2012 9:12PM
For shame!
She scrubs up quite well, going by your avatar.
10 January 2012 9:12PM
Uh, Obama was born Barack Hussein, wasn't he?
So I'm wondering, is there some pixie dust sprayed south of the 49th parallel? Cause I'm sitting in a city of 2 million on the other side of that line, and you don't hear this kind of crazy talk daily.
10 January 2012 9:24PM
They are hoping not to have to. I have long thought this. The Republican strategy, such as it is, formed in the heat of the economic meltdown and last election campaign, has been to foam with outrage at Obama's election and throw as much dirt at him as they can find, no matter how nasty. Stunts, dirty tricks, populism, half-baked ideas. They don't have a shred of economic credibility after the crash so why not?
If enough of it sticks, and they swing it, there was no need to come up with a coherent plan, and they've committed to nothing of substance - they have a blank cheque mandate. This is politics now!
10 January 2012 9:24PM
The Australian Sports Press (not noted for holding it in) once remarked, after a very poor performance by its Rugby Union team, that if it "wanted to see ineffective scrabbling about it would go down to the harbour & throw chips out for the seagulls." The bits & pieces I have caught of the various candidates leads me to believe that they would be better off letting the seagulls have a crack at getting into the oval office. "No, I said blah people - very distinctly." "I am pro choice life, or pro life choice, if you prefer." "I said at the beginning of the war that I voted for that it was wrong to become involved - or something." Happy days indeed.
Ms. Freeman, delightful as always. Marry me.
Sleep well in the (They didn't notice I said black, John. Do you think I could get away with saying nig - no ? Not even here, there's only us two here ? No ? Ok. Can I say faggot John ?) fire.
10 January 2012 10:15PM
That being the case, can we assume that you advocate that US media apologize for all their coverage of other nation's elections - as much of it HAS been blatant attempts to manipulate results - and should stop international coverage in general (after all, the US has really zero influence on the decisions of other sovereign nations)?
No?
Thought not. It's only opinions you don't like that are the problem, not the source nor the intent.
10 January 2012 10:18PM
Pixies aren't that evil. My best guess is that hamburgers in the US have an undeclared amount of troll meat in them.
10 January 2012 10:31PM
I think you'll find that was actually Adolf Hitler.
But it's good to see your cultural level is about the standard for a GOP astroturfer. As Orwell remarked, when conservatives become clever, it is necessary to keep an eye on the family silver.
10 January 2012 10:47PM
It's the hair.
It's the hair...........
What does the New Yorker know about hair...It's not a publication you'll find gracing the magazine table of any salon...any salon, you could call a salon, and not one of those places they cut dog hair, from dogs.
What does the New Yorker know about hair. What does the New Yorker know about printing anything someone might want to read.
The hair.
A gem of advice that my aunt Alice gave me. That has stood by me all these years "if a guy's hair is funny, there's something funny about that guy"
10 January 2012 11:14PM
*Rick Santorum remained unswayed back in 2003 when gay rights campaigner Dan Savage responded to Santorum's claim that two men having sex is analogous to bestiality by turning the politician's name into a neologism for a possible after-effect of anal sex.
No, this is exactly what Santorum said (not what Savage likes us to believe he said) :
In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That’s not to pick on homosexuality. It’s not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality.
Savage unable to have a rational debate about marriage and unable to stomach the idea that anyone should dare to criticise the idea of 'gay' 'marriage' or homosexuality, then set up a vile website to vent his hatred and intolerance for Santorum.He is a hate monger not a 'campaigner' .
Ironic and hypocritical that Savage claims to be against so-called 'homophobic' 'bullying' and yet on US national tv( Bill Maher show) claimed he would like to rape Santorum - how vile and debased can Savage be?Why has Savage been fawned over by the 'liberal' media and given a platform to vent his hatred?
Savage said : “I wish the Republicans were all ****ing dead.”
“Carl Romanelli should be dragged behind pickup truck until there’s nothing left but the rope.”
Santorum's only crime it seems is his catholicism. Savage the anti-bully 'campaigner' has more in common with the Ku Klux Klan.
10 January 2012 11:20PM
I
Who was whining about polygamy, other than Rick Santorum? Is it mentioned in any candidate's platform?
Congratulations, that's the most incoherent ramble I've heard since Katie Couric interviewed Sarah Palin. I honestly don't know what you are trying to say in that particular paragraph, but it's curious how you start off talking about gays and then suddenly mention polygamists as if they're the same thing.
A
I don't know about "bizarre." " Bullshit" is I think the word you need. The story about Americans not being allowed to travel to Pakistan in 1981 is untrue. The New York Times did a travel piece about it in 1981, for crying out loud. Also: Barack Hussein Obama was so named at birth. In Hawaii. In the US. His oh-so-frightening names are the same as his Kenyan father's. Which is why he's always had them. The birther argument is OVER.
Re: Dirk Nowitzki: So what? What a lame point to make.
10 January 2012 11:21PM
*While Oscar Wilde never said "if you repeat a lie long enough it becomes the truth" that is a true statement. ----I think you'll find that was actually Adolf Hitler.
I thought it was attributed to Lenin, although William James said something similar : 'There's nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it.'
.....then again maybe it was Dan Savage who distorted and misappropriated Santorum's 2003 interview about marriage .
10 January 2012 11:52PM
Good work, Hadley. One can hope that the Reagan conservatism, which Rosalyn Carter said allowed people to be comfortable with their prejudices again, has run its course. I find hope in the campaign of Elizabeth Warren ("you didn't build the roads that allow your businesses to be successful") and would like to see progressives become strident again about how government can work for the public good and not apologize or accommodate means-spirited selfishness trying to cloak itself with the mantel of liberty.
11 January 2012 12:09AM
Nice summary.
Enjoyed reading this.
11 January 2012 12:31AM
Then again, probably not....
11 January 2012 12:56AM
President Obama was adopted into the Crow Nation(by the Black Eagle family) in 2008, I believe.
Occupied Territories? That's a term never used on the Rez. The crusade is yours, and yours only.
11 January 2012 1:05AM
I can't imagine why any republican candidate would not want to follow Ms Freeman's advice and just shut up.
11 January 2012 1:43AM
The difference between The Artist and the Republican Party is that even though silent, The Artist has a lot to say of value.
11 January 2012 2:38AM
Its not difficult to nail down the Republican posters is it? Mr Tennessee and Mr Zapatoo seem to fit the mould perfectly. Ill informed, irrational, prone to delusional thought processes... and damn funny I gotta say. You just wrote that stuff to amuse us all - right?
11 January 2012 3:40AM
Here's what happened: A 17-year-old student asked Mr. Santorum why gay people should be denied the same marriage rights enjoyed by straight people in light of the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution.
Mr. Santorum responded by asking the student whether she thought people should be allowed to enter into multiple marriages. He never answered the student's question despite being pushed to do so by the audience. Then he was booed after making disparaging remarks about his listeners' intelligence.
11 January 2012 3:54AM
Oh what a nice Mr Santorum!
11 January 2012 4:45AM
I think orange cats would do better than seagulls myself.
11 January 2012 4:48AM
Mitt Romney kills kittens. Check it out at cat-lady.org
11 January 2012 5:07AM
Romney has something of the TV infomercial(teleshopping) about him . Hair restorer , tooth whitening gel ? Can't quite place him , but he's one of those people that you're sure you've seen him before somewhere.
11 January 2012 6:17AM
Ouch! Nailed it. Thanks.
11 January 2012 6:46AM
Have you got some sort of suppressed "I married my same-sex as me and each other twin underage siblings who are also sado-masochistic dead dogs of a different race and religion" fantasy? Come on now, let it out before you are discovered in some bus station lavatory living it out.
11 January 2012 6:51AM
you have it so wrong...they are not that stupid. Their REAL candidate is Obama!
11 January 2012 7:10AM
Fine as long as one of them does n't get elected.
11 January 2012 7:40AM
It was Goebbels. And he wasn't owning up to being a frequent liar, of course, he was claiming that the British establishment was in the habit of repeating lies until they're believed.
Careful, now.
11 January 2012 7:43AM
And then you provide a quote demonstrating that he said what Dan Savage told us he said.
Curious.
11 January 2012 8:18AM
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11 January 2012 8:55AM
Hopefully this the end pf the Republicans. You need another party left of Obama. We need another party left of Labour.. Right-thinkers are the problem.
11 January 2012 9:54AM
I love reading about American politics.
It's almost as entertaining as Steve Bell and Martin Rowson cartoons.
What happened to Sarah Palin, though? I miss her.
Those Alaskan politicians are great, don't you think?
"Corrupt Bastards Club", isn't it? Makes our Westminster politicians look rather angelic.
11 January 2012 10:37AM
Me too. I placed $50 on Palin as the next president in 2010.
With an Australian I met in Telluride.
Bugger, she's never going to let me hear the last of it ...
11 January 2012 10:45AM
The GOP could learn more than silence from The Artist
I love Prince as much as anybody, but I fail to see what he can teach the Republicans.
11 January 2012 10:51AM
@TennesseeTuxedo
Your contribution is satire, please tell me it is so. It is damn funny to say the least. You might of over-egged the second paragraph. More gibberish than good satire sending up a ridiculous right-wing extremist equating gay marriage with polygamy and incest. However the "Barry Obama" idea based on the Manchurian Candidate plot is comedy genius.
However I am not sure you should really be encouraging us to mock people who genuinely believe in stuff like this as they are far to easy a target given their simplistic child-like approach to political debate and clue-less understanding of the big wide world.
11 January 2012 10:59AM
Very nice article.
It is a lot of fun watching these insane people, and it is pleasant to reflect on the fact that their insanity and squabbling all makes it (hopefully) unlikely that any of them will actually become president. However, although candidates of this kind are good in the short term if you support the other side, they must be bad in the long term. The more more right-wing nutcases the Republicans wheel out, the more politics will be dragged in that direction even if they don't win. Think of the 2005 general election here, where Michael Howard decided to make being nasty to asylum seekers one of his core policies, and the election quickly turned into a competition to see which party could out-nasty the other on the subject.
Anyway, my more immediate concern is: why does the Guardian keep referring to the Republicans as "the GOP"? Isn't this a term of endearment and respect which they've long ago lost any claim to?