Borat: Cultural Learnings of America (Larry Charles, 2006)

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Antoine Doinel
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#1 Post by Antoine Doinel » Fri Aug 04, 2006 11:50 pm


Roger_Thornhill
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#2 Post by Roger_Thornhill » Sat Aug 05, 2006 12:22 am

I'm really looking forward to this and from what I've read it's incredibly funny. I can't reply without leaving a couple of my favorite Borat quotes:

"I'd like to make romance inside you, no force."

"I like you, do you like me?"

I actually have a Kazak friend who was studying in the States for several years. She thought Borat was a riot even if Cohen is sort of belittling her nation. She took comfort in the fact that Borat is often used to expose the bigotry and racism of Westerners that many try to keep hidden.

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dx23
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#3 Post by dx23 » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:44 pm


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chaddoli
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#4 Post by chaddoli » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:54 pm

I saw this two nights ago in Traverse City, MI with Charles in attendance. This is one of the funniest films I've seen in my life.

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justeleblanc
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#5 Post by justeleblanc » Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:15 pm

chaddoli wrote:I saw this two nights ago in Traverse City, MI with Charles in attendance. This is one of the funniest films I've seen in my life.
SUCCESS!!

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Ste
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#6 Post by Ste » Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:55 am

It gives me a lovely, warm fuzzy feeling inside to know that America has taken Sacha B. Cohen to its heart.

Now if I can only get you to appreciate John Shuttleworth, my work here will be done.

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Antoine Doinel
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#7 Post by Antoine Doinel » Wed Aug 30, 2006 1:15 pm

[quote]Borat Must Be Making Happy: Kazakh Leader's Visit to U.S. on Front Page of 'Wash Post'

By E&P Staff

Published: August 29, 2006 4:00 PM ET updated 5:00 PM ET

NEW YORK It was on the front page of The Washington Post, and bylined by a well-known and respected name, Peter Baker, but one still had to wonder: Did Borat have anything to do with this?

The Baker story today profiles an upcoming visit to this country by the president of Kazakhstan, an accused thief and "autocrat" who, nevertheless, will soon be receiving a warm welcome both at the White House and the Bush compound at Kennebunkport. With this fresh publicity, he may now be the second most famous Kazakh in America, though still trailing far behind Borat Sagdiyev, the comic creation of Sacha Baron Cohen of "Ali G" fame.

The long-awaited "Borat" movie -- with the title character in the role of foreign journalist traveling the U.S. -- is coming out this fall, so normally one might suspect that the Kazakh leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has timed his visit to help boost the movie debut of a favorite son. However, the Kazakh government has blasted Cohen in the past, and threatened legal action, for allowing Borat to, among other things, make fun of his homeland, demean women, slander gypsies and (in a famous song) urge listeners to "Throw the Jew Down the Well."

Borat at first claimed to “fully support my government's decision to sue this Jew.â€

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#8 Post by Antoine Doinel » Wed Aug 30, 2006 1:19 pm


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Zumpano
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#9 Post by Zumpano » Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:07 am

So, W. has time to hold White House meetings on the international incident which is Borat.
Bush to hold talks on Ali G creator after diplomatic row

US President George Bush is to host White House talks on British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen, 35, creator of Ali G, has infuriated the Kazakhstan government with his portrayal of Borat, a bumbling Kazakh TV presenter.

And now a movie of Borat's adventures in the US has caused a diplomatic incident. The opening scene, which shows Borat lustily kissing his sister goodbye and setting off for America in a car pulled by a horse, had audiences in stitches when it was first shown last week. But the film, which has just premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, has prompted a swift reaction from the Kazakhstan government, which is launching a PR blitz in the States.

Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev is to fly to the US to meet President Bush in the coming weeks and on the agenda will be his country's image. President Nazarbayev has confirmed his government will buy "educational" TV spots and print advertisements about the "real Kazakhstan" in a bid to save the country's reputation before the film is released in the US in November.

President Nazarbayev will visit the White House and the Bush family compound in Maine when he flies in for talks that will include the fictional character Borat. But a spokesman for the Kazakhstan Embassy says it is unlikely that President Nazarbayev will find the film funny. Roman Vassilenko said: "The Government has expressed its displeasure about Borat's representation of our country.

"Our opinion of the character has not changed. We understand that the film exposes the hypocrisy that exists both here in the USA and in the UK and understand that Mr Cohen has a right to freedom of speech. Nursultan Nazarbayev has taken Mr Bush up on an invitation to visit this country to help build our relationship with the USA. I cannot speak for the president himself, only for the government, but I certainly don't think President Nazarbayev and Mr Bush will share a joke about the film. The bottom line is we want people to know that he does not represent the true people of Kazakhstan."

The Kazakh government has previously threatened Baron-Cohen with legal action, for allowing Borat to, among other things, make fun of his homeland, demean women, slander gypsies and urge listeners to "Throw the Jew Down the Well." Anti-Borat hard-liners have pulled the plug on borat.kz, Borat's Kazakhstan-based Website after his frequent displays of anti-Semitism and his portrayal of Kazakh culture.

Nurlan Isin, President of the Association of Kazakh IT Companies took the action after complaints. He said: "We've done this so he can't badmouth Kazakhstan under the .kz domain name. He can go and do whatever he wants at other domains."

The row originally erupted in November 2005, following Borat's hosting of the MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon. The Kazakh Foreign Ministry was furious over Cohen's bad taste representation of the nation.

'No such thing as bad publicity'

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev told a news conference: "We view Mr. Cohen's behaviour at the MTV Europe Music Awards as utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners which is completely incompatible with the ethics and civilized behaviour of Kazakhstan's people. "We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind."

Baron Cohen responded to Ashykbayev in character by posting a video on the Official Borat website. In the video, Borat said, "In response to Mr. Ashykbayev's comments, I'd like to state I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my Government's decision to sue this Jew.

"Since the 2003 Tuleyakiv reforms, Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world. Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats, and age of consent has been raised to eight years old."

His blatant outpouring then prompted the Kazakh government to hire two public relations firms to counter the claims, and ran a four-page advertisement in The New York Times. The ad carried testimonials about the nation's democracy, education system and the power and influence enjoyed by women. News of President Nazarbayev's upcoming visit has prompted experts to study the character's impact on US culture.

Sean R. Roberts, Central Asian Affairs Fellow at Georgetown University, has been studying the phenomenon. He said: "I have found that more Americans are aware of Kazakhstan than four years ago when I last lived in the United States. The increased knowledge of Kazakhstan, however, is not due to the country's economic successes or its role as a U.S. ally in the war on terror. Instead, most Americans who have heard of Kazakhstan have heard of it through a satire of a Kazakh journalist named Borat. Borat certainly does not promote an image of Kazakhstan that is in sync with that which the government and its leader would like to promote abroad.

As the old adage goes, however, 'there is no such thing as bad publicity.' If that is true, Borat is bringing much more publicity to Kazakhstan." Cohen's representatives refused to allow him or his alter ego to respond to the controversy because it's not close enough to the film's release date.

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Matt
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#10 Post by Matt » Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:54 am

Geez, now if only Borat was from Darfur...

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dx23
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#11 Post by dx23 » Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:50 pm

All these goverment meetings for a fictional character?!? And they expect Cohen to go to the meeting as himself? He is going to show up on his Borat persona and wreck havoc on W's ass.

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Polybius
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#12 Post by Polybius » Thu Sep 14, 2006 12:04 am

Bush didn't even know what Friends was in 2000 (admittedly, I envied him, after a fashion...) How confused is he going to be by this?

Are there Vegas odds on Cohen getting sent to Guantanamo?

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#13 Post by Cinesimilitude » Thu Sep 14, 2006 12:21 am

Cohen knows his rights, he's going to milk this for all the publicity he can.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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#14 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Thu Sep 14, 2006 12:49 am

Yes, I'm sure the summit will be all about Borat and not WTO membership or the presidency of the OSCE or military cooperation or the exploitation of Kazakhstan's huge oil and gas reserves. That's the problem with being the Daily Mail: it's a constant struggle to find new ways to debase your reputation even further.

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Polybius
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#15 Post by Polybius » Thu Sep 14, 2006 5:33 am

When you're dealing with a childish, irrational dictator, (not to mention the guy from Kazakhstan...thank you, I'll be here all week) all of that lovely logic and sobriety might not apply. Apparently, Nazarbayev is quite worked up about this. I've seen that reported in reputable news outlets.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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#16 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Thu Sep 14, 2006 6:12 am

Yes, the government did a PR blitz last year during the MTV Europe Music Awards controversy and they're running another one to coincide with the film. That's all covered in the article and it's been reported by any number of sources. That doesn't change the fact the Mail is outright lying when they say "Bush is to host White House talks on British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen" and their own damn article doesn't provide a shred of evidence that Cohen is even on the agenda, much less the central focus of the visit. But the Internet being the glorious thing that it is, there are now approximately ten billion blogs and regurgitated news sites uncritically passing this along as fact and I don't think this forum belongs in that particular echo chamber.

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#17 Post by kinjitsu » Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:56 pm


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Gordon
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#18 Post by Gordon » Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:50 pm

Kazakhs eat boiled horse and boiled sheep heads.

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#19 Post by kinjitsu » Thu Sep 28, 2006 5:57 pm


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#20 Post by mikeohhh » Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:52 am


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#21 Post by mikeohhh » Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:04 am

Not really Borat-related, but Kazakhstan misspells "bank" on its currency

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#22 Post by Cinesimilitude » Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:12 am

how in the hell do you misspell Bank, when you are a bank? Doesn't currency get proofread like 1000 times or something? or is the subtitle on the article of the difference between russian and kazakh the reason it appears to be misspelled? I'm sure Borat.tv will have something up about this eventually.

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Gordon
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#23 Post by Gordon » Thu Oct 19, 2006 10:11 am

It's крен you dummies! #-o

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#24 Post by Antoine Doinel » Wed Oct 25, 2006 4:55 pm

No Joke: 'Borat' Is Make Unglorious Slash

Apparently coming to the conclusion that middle-America will not "get" Borat (official title: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan), 20th Century Fox has cut in half the number of theaters that had been booked to show it, the studio confirmed Tuesday. Fox distribution chief Bruce Snyder told today's (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times that despite enormous pre-release publicity and marketing, the studio's research had concluded that the movie was "soft in awareness." The Times noted that industry analysts could not recall a similar action by a studio taking place just two weeks before a film's opening. Fox indicated that it hopes that by opening Borat in 800 theaters, the resulting word of mouth will propel it into a stronger position the following week when it will be expanded to 2,200 screens.

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#25 Post by Cinesimilitude » Wed Oct 25, 2006 4:56 pm

If we dont get Borat in red deer, Im going to cry all the way to the nearest theater playing it.

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