LARRY CHARLES
Beyond
elief
‘ he controversy of people standing in front of a theatre with placards means nothing to me.’ announces Larry Charles. The Borat director and CS comedy colossus. famed for his creative input into genre-redefining TV shows Seinfeld and Curb Your lint/tasiasm. is referring to the predictable protests that greeted the premiere of his latest lilm. Religa/oas. at last autumn‘s Toronto Film liestival.
Why were they predictable? Because Religa/oas is a satirical documentary that puts faith under the spotlight — and if recent cinematic history has taught us anything. it's that a lot of people get bent out of shape when they feel their belief systems are under attack.
Need proof‘.’ Just run through the roster of
religious-themed cinema over the last few decades. ()rganised outrage tends to accompany all but the most devout onscreen representations of religion. Monty Python 's The Life of Brian (I973). was condemned as blasphemous. harmed in many countries and outlawed ~ sight unseen — by local councils across Britain (the mayor of .»\berystwyth only got round to lilting the ban earlier this year). Jean-Luc Godard‘s Hail Mary (1985). a retelling of the virgin birth. went one better. receiving a Papal denunciation for heresy. More distressingly. French Christian fundamentalists firebombed a Paris cinema to protest Martin Scorsese‘s The Last Temptation
of Christ (I987). the theological merits of
which were overshadowed by months of baby- brained speculation about the nature of a love scene between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
Then there was Kevin Smith‘s Dogma (I999). a love-letter to Catholicism (albeit a profanity-laden one). that led to death threats against the director and saw Disney kowtow to pressure from the Catholic League by offloading it to Lionsgate. Even that hulking chunk of hokum The Da l'inet' Code (2006) sparked global protests and demands for its ban from Catholic groups.
14 THE LIST 2—16 Apr 2009
Why such hysteria? Religalous provides some answers. Made in collaboration with veteran L'S stand-up Bill Maher. the film pulls the curtain back. llt'izard of Oz-style. on the flakier. shakier aspects of religion. in many cases exposing the twisted rationale - if any rationale exists — behind a strict adherence to a specific belief.
Someone should have told American comedy pioneer Larry Charles, you don't mess with God. Here, he meets Alistair Harkness to talk about his new satirical documentary Religulous, which carries on cinema’s uneasy relationship with organised religion
‘One of the things we learned while making the movie.’ nods Charles. ‘was just how much people want to talk about their religion but how little they actually know about it. We did a lot of studying so we‘d be prepared for the discussions we were anticipating. and yet we found a lot of the people who were willing to talk had never really explored the depths of their own religion and were really quite ignorant about it.‘
What‘s likely to make the film more inflammatory however. is that it actively argues against the value of organised religion. specifically targeting the tyranny of fundamentalism in all its guises. whether associated with Christianity. Judaism. Islam or some fringe cult. It‘s a funny and refreshing approach — and brave too. especially given the fate of Dutch filmmaker Theo van (iogh. murdered in 200-1 by Muslim extremists for questioning aspects of Islam with his provocative short lilrn. .S'ahmission. Re/iga/oas mentions this case and despite the risks that come with such territory. Charles knew he and Mayer couldn‘t be selective in choosing which religions to focus their humorous gaze upon.
'We‘re fairly experienced comedy minds and we felt like we had to figure out a way to lind the satire in all of it.‘ he says. “We‘re also two middle-aged white guys who don’t have a lot to lose. I want to do something that has some impact and mines humour from places that most people wouldn‘t dare to go.‘
Charles reckons such iconoclasm stems from his Jewish upbringing in Brooklyn. ‘l'm from the same neighbourhood as Woody Allen. and if you remember in his movies. he was constantly talking about the universe and the meaning of life. I had those same questions. but I never got any encouragement in the asking of them. Whether you term them metaphysical or theological. they've plagued me all my life and I've always been looking for ways to explore them in my work. Religulous was a very pure way of doing that; so there's