AWARDS GO TO BEST POLITICAL FILMS OF 2011
Thanks to voting by the members of the Political Film Society, the best films in each of four categories have been decided. Framed award certificates, as usual, will be sent to the directors of each winning film:
| Category | Film | Director |
| Democracy | The Lady | Luc Besson |
| Exposé | Silenced (Do-ga-ni) | Dong Hyeuk Hwang |
| Human Rights | The Help | Tate Taylor |
| Peace | 5 Days of War | Renny Harlin |
MADONNA DIRECTS A FRAUDULENT W./E.
Madonna clearly wants filmviewers to understand that Mrs. Wallis Simpson “gave up a lot” in marrying King Edward VIII. After all, the cliché about Edward’s abdication is that he “gave up the throne for the woman he loved.” But did Madonna have to misportray the entire affair? W./E. is a very strange film, in which Edward (played by James D’Arcy) and Mrs. Simpson (played by Andrea Riseborough) act and talk but never think. That is, we do not know what’s in their minds. Evidently, he is infatuated by her, a married American woman, and she pretends not to be interested in a more permanent relationship with him, testing him over and over again, yet he remains a party animal under her control. For those confused about why he abdicated, the film does provide some information. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin (played by Geoffrey Palmer) threatens to resign if Edward remains king and marries Mrs. Simpson, and the Queen Mother (played by Judy Parfitt) is very much opposed. Later, while in exile in France, Edward tries in vain to return to England, so we are supposed to feel sorry for him. Possibly because the story is so boring, domestic violence occurs more than once, and there is a subplot in which a unhappily married Wally Winthrop (played by Abbie Cornish), interested in an auction of the personal effects of Mrs. Simpson during 1998, falls in love with Evgeni, a hotel security guard (played by Oscar Isaac), and she later goes to Europe to read letters by Mrs. Simpson that were not auctioned. But the real story possibly would have made a better film. Edward, who had the mentality of a teenager, enjoyed a history of affairs with married women. Mrs. Simpson was scheming all along to become queen. But as head of the Church of England, he would be violating the religious belief that one should not divorce and remarry while one’s former spouse is still alive. Both met Hitler and admired how the Nazi leader revived the German economy, whereas W./E. tries to dismiss their sympathies as “mere rumors.” Hitler hoped that Edward would not abdicate so that he could make a deal with England. When World War II began in 1939, accordingly, Edward was dispatched from France to the Bahamas, where he could do the least harm. At least in death they both returned to be buried in England. As for the letters, they were addressed to Mr. Simpson, whom she evidently never stopped loving. Whereas director Madonna wants filmviewers to believe that the paparazzi unjustly hyped their affair as a “scandal,” W./E. is scandalously anti-introspective and naïve. As for her political leanings, Madonna thanks Leni Riefenstahl in the end credits! MH