Dogma: When he’s not being kissed by Ben Affleck at the MTV awards,writer/director Kevin Smith is still trying to get his latest film sold to a distributor – and the conservatives are right behind him in hot pursuit. A Catholic group known as ‘America Needs Fatima’ have been posting flyers strenuously objecting to the movie (have any of them even seen it yet?) and urging people to send in complaints to Disney and the Weinstein brothers. While the cards do make one (and only one) good point – “Freedom of expression does not allow one to attack the rights of others”, their making a pretty big leap of logic to include comedic satire into that. One line it quotes from the film – “The nature of God and the Virgin Birth – those are leaps of faith. But believing a wife never humped her husband – that’s just gullibility”,is that an attack on rights? An insult or joke at the expense of ones beliefs possibly, but an all-out attack on their rights as an individual?. Anyway off my soapbox and back onto the news again and Smith, whose a devout and practicing Catholic if you didn’t know,stands behind his film in comments he gave to Newsday magazine: “When I heard [critics] calling me anti-Catholic I was so * * * and hurt,because, I thought, `Man, I’m doing your job. I’m out there talking up Christ.’ You read their literature and never does it say, `P.S., God bless you.’ It’s mean-spirited. I’ve read the Bible. Nowhere does Christ say, `Go out among the masses and kick – – – among anybody who doesn’t agree with Me”. Affleck also stands by the film telling ‘Entertainment Weekly’ that “It’s a rumination on faith and dick jokes.If you see the movie you understand the tone. It’s a fable. It’s a comic book”. Nevertheless, the ridiculous cries of censorship from right-wing parties sadly look like they’ll continue for quite some time yet, but whatever side of the fence your on over the issue, your opinion will likely be polarized by the excerpt below – the first draft of a disclaimer to air just before the start of the film. I’d like to thank ‘TVs Henry’, EW.Com and the great dudes at News Askew for their help.

“For those of you who are thinking about smiting us over this trifle of a film remember that that’s God’s job, and if the film is truly blasphemous, God himself will kill us and we’ll burn in hell. Thank you. Enjoy the show.”

Angel Ayes

The latest on the ”Dogma” controversy. Kevin Smith and Ben Affleck tell EW Online why they may burn in hell

by Jeff Jensen

”It’s been a miserable f—ing two months,” says writer/director Kevin Smith, whose low-rent yet highly entertaining ”Clerks” and ”Chasing Amy” have made him an indie icon. His latest, ”Dogma,” proves that Smith has more on his mind than sex and comic books. You can see for yourself — if someone would just let you. Fearing that potential controversy would once again put protest-target Disney under fire, Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein bought back the Catholic satire from his own studio and has begun shopping it to other distributors. To date, it remains unsold.

Hence, Smith is miserable. But he found reason for optimism last month at the Cannes Film Festival, where Miramax screened the film for press and distributors. Smith’s spin on the reaction: ”There’s going to be no outcry. Nobody’s life is in danger. Maybe some will maintain that it’s a little blasphemous, but it’s not ‘Priest,’ it’s not ‘Hail Mary,’ it’s not ‘The Last Temptation of Christ.”’

In ”Dogma,” Linda Fiorentino plays an ancestor of Christ and a lapsed Catholic who’s inexplicably tapped by an angel (Alan Rickman) to save the world from two fallen angels (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) who are conspiring to re-enter Heaven. Other stars include Chris Rock and Salma Hayek.

But is ”Dogma” controversial? Depends how you feel about playing the sacred for profane laughs. ”It’s a rumination on faith and dick jokes,” quips Affleck. ”If you see the movie you understand the tone. It’s a fable. It’s a comic book.” Still, it’s a dicey decision for Fiorentino’s descendent of Jesus (itself a thorny thought) to be employed by an abortion clinic, especially given the conceit’s origins. Explains Smith: ”It just afforded me the ability to make one cheap joke — when Jay says, ‘We’re here to pick up loose women.”’

Yet ”Dogma” also wants to be taken seriously, bouncing as it does between puerile humor and provocative theological ideas. Smith says it’s the work of a devout believer, one who attends mass every week, even though he often finds the worship uninspiring. ”I don’t have, like, a zillion problems with the church,” says the director. ”I definitely object on a lot of points but not so much that I reject the whole concept out of hand. I wanted to do something that celebrated my faith because I certainly wasn’t getting to do that in the church.”

One of the funniest things about ”Dogma” is its pre-credit disclaimer. Weinstein had to twist Smith’s arm to add one — the director felt he was being asked to apologize for his movie. But Smith warmed to the idea when Weinstein told him he could write anything he wanted. Still, even the disclaimer was subjected to censorship. ”In the first draft there was a line that said ‘For those of you who are thinking about smiting us over this trifle of a film remember that that’s God’s job, and if the film is truly blasphemous, God himself will kill us and we’ll burn in hell. Thank you. Enjoy the show.’ Harvey didn’t like it. ‘Don’t bring up smiting,’ he said. ‘You’ll give people ideas.”’

ON MOVIES / This Defender Of the Faith Won’t Clam Up

John Anderson

IMAGINE NEWTON and his apple. Proust and his Madeleine. Kane and his
Rosebud. Now, imagine naked picnics and clam chowder.

It was spring. We were fortunate enough to be in Paris, inside the
Musee d’Orsay and confronted by Edouard Manet’s “Luncheon on the
Grass” – a painting that caused near riots in 1863 because its
elements include two fully dressed men and a female companion who’s
dining toute nude.

In a museum full of wonderful art, this was a highlight. But
testifying to the ultimate roundness of things, our beloved companions
(not coincidentally female) provided the defining – and definingly
’90s – critique of one of the pivotal works of the impressionist
movement: “Why is the woman the only one naked?”

Forget the fact that Manet was demolishing artistic assumptions
about subject, composition and perception. Never mind that it’s that
woman in the picture – the one with the challenging stare and the
“who-cares” nudity – who possesses all the power of the painting.
Never mind that it remains an alarming, revolutionary work nearly 140
years after Manet made it. The politicization of seeing was rearing its
ugly head.

Chapter Two. It was summer. We were fortunate enough to be on
Montauk Highway, confronted by a bowl of Manhattan chowder and a
quandary: No clams. Not a bivalve in the bowl. I peered. I spooned. I
swirled. I considered cheesecloth. I considered chemical analysis. But
all my succulent mollusks apparently had been given the Memorial Day
Weekend off.

But what of it? Does a clam really make a clam chowder? If the
broth is potent and well-intentioned – if the essence of clam, in
other words, is possessed by the soup – do we have a moral legitimacy
in demanding actual clam in our chowder?

You’re darn right we do. Clamlessness may not be evil, of course. But
it doesn’t constitute chowderhood, either.

The report was labeled “HEAVENLY BODIES: Angel Delight”

Over short clip of Ben and Matt at the Airport:

Reporter: The Sizz has got this exclusive glimpse of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in their first collaboration since “Good Will Hunting” won them that Golden trophy.

Ben interviewed in Cannes

Ben: Well you know we won the Oscar and then like the next day we were at some drizzly freeway off ramp in Pittsburgh and I thought ‘well it fades quickly’.

Over clip of Brad walking off screen at the Airport with the kissing couple (Chris behind does a double take at the kiss), then back to Ben and Matt.

Reporter: The new film is “Dogma” and these heavenly bodies play a couple of angels, but Ben told the Sizz it was hard to have a flutter.

Ben at Cannes (kind of mimes what he describes):

Ben: The funny thing about it is it took about six guys to move the wings, and I’d like do something where I stand up and I’d expect the wings to go with me, but Frank was down there, and the gears, and they wouldn’t sort of go.

Clip from “Thank U” video

Reporter: And God is in this too, usually played by and old man with a white beard, but played here by Alanis Morrisette – isn’t that ironic, don’t you think? But Ben swears she didn’t act the big G.

Ben at Cannes:

Ben: You expect these rock star women to be, you know, panicked about their image and all that but she was ready to go for it.

Barry Norman: Some controversy attended Kevin Smiths “Dogma”, an irreverant religious comedy which had upset the Roman Catholic Church and thus panicked the Disney organization which promptly handed over distribution to Miramax.

BN: ” Now you’ve come down here with Dogma and there was controversy about it. Now was it Disney that objected to the religious content, or was it the church, or is Disney the church, or what?”

KEVIN SMITH: “Thankfully it was all and nothing. It was a group, a splinter group called the Catholic League which is a self appointed group that goes around, , they’re kind of media watchdogs , and they look for the portrayal of the Catholic Church in different media and take umbrence when they feel it’s worthy of taking umbrence, When they feel like they are being attacked. They hadn’t even seen this movie, they hadn’t seen a frame of this movie, they didn’t know about it and they started hearing rumblings of it and they decided that it was anti catholic.”

SALMA HAYEK: “I think they are professional “Fusser makers” because they see something and it might be worth the possibility that it is worth a fuss, and then they just go for it…”

ALAN RICKMAN: “Well I suppose that as soon as there’s anything that brings up the word “religion”, the deafening sounds of high horses being climbed upon, you know, being dusted off in the cupboard where they’ve been since the Last Temptation of Christ or whatever else was the last time that people rampaged……”

KEVIN: “It’s irreverent whilst still being very reverent at the same time. There is a very irreverent sense of humour but there is a very reverent message to it. There is a very reverent undertone.There’s a lot of adolescent humour in it, but then at the same time, wait 2minutes and were gonna start busting some theology on you and talking about philosophies regarding ones faith, and so it runs all these different kinda gamut’s up and down and takes you on a little journey.”

BEN AFFLECK: “Its just a kind of rumination on the strictest tenants of religion, and trying to reconcile those with the strangeness and moral uncertainties and ambiguities of everyday modern life.”

A Lovely Theory about God

Alanis’ spiritual evolution had a weird sequence: She believed in God, then lost her faith, then she found God again. And she found God in the wildest of places. She’s even playing God, to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s fallen angels, in Kevin Smith’s new movie, Dogma.

…

In Light of what we’ve just been talking about, how was it playing God in Dogma?

Alanis: It was great! I mean, it’s hilarious, the thought of me playing God in a movie.

How does on play God?

Alanis: We play ourselves, because God is us. I didn’t really need to do any homework or anything. It was an intuitive thing.

KEVIN – “At the heart of it all It’s a reverant film, you know, it’s like it’s often at times irreverent but at the end of it all it’s a reverent film.”

BEN – “The humor of what Kevin has written is legitimate and humorous in the way that is real and accessible.”

SALMA – “It’s absurd and ridiculous and smart and entertaining and funny.”

LINDA – “It’s a fantasy and you can make it what you want at any given time.”

Bethany and Bartleby talking on the train.

Bethany attempting to convince Jay and Silent Bob to join her on her quest.

And Serendipity talking about having a “Zillion ideas”…

Smith: “I didn’t set out to make a controversial movie.” (photo: Henny Garfunkel)

IN LIMBO: DOGMA DELIBERATED AT CANNES

By Amy Taubin

Disappointed Star Wars devotees take note: Kevin Smith’s Dogma is the real Phantom Menace, as inspired, goofy, subversive, and thought-provoking a pop-culture vision of the battle between good and evil as has been presented on the movie screen. Dogma follows the further adventures of Jay and Silent Bob, the movie-buff stoners from Clerks and Chasing Amy, as they become enmeshed in a struggle between angels and demons and try to prevent the apocalypse from starting in New Jersey.

With Smith, producer Scott Mosier, and stars Ben Affleck, Alan Rickman, and Linda Fiorentino in attendance, Dogma screened out of competition at the tail end of the Cannes Film Festival and made it seem like there was something new to be found under the intermittent Mediterranean sun. It also made it seem as if the dream of American independent film— the fusion of personal vision and popular culture— might survive the millennium. At various moments reminiscent of Star Wars, ’60s Batman comics, and the Bible, Dogma has a script as hilarious as The Rocky Horror Picture Show (it demands to be memorized and chanted back at the screen).

After the first press screening, Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein held an informal press conference in the middle of the street outside the theater. He is in a bit of a bind here, having bought the film from his own company for $14 million when Disney got nervous, fearing the wrath of the Catholic right. What Disney doesn’t understand is that what Dogma could have done for Disney is what American Graffiti did for Universal. The only way for Weinstein not to alienate such a talent is to release his movie in 1500 theaters ASAP.

“I didn’t set out to make a controversial movie, and I don’t think I did,” says Smith, a practicing Catholic who attends Mass every Sunday. “How can any church take a stand against a movie with a rubber poop-monster? The movie doesn’t fuck with any of the key characters. Christ isn’t even in the movie.” Stay tuned for imminent developments.