Making film at U.N. calls for diplomacy
By John Freeman The Plain Dealer, 24 April 2005 http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1114248862275150.xml Though it has its own fire department, post office, security force and, until recently, one of the last bars in New York that allowed you to smoke a cigarette, the United Nations still needs the world around it. Or at least Hollywood. That might be one lesson gleaned from the organization's unprecedented decision to allow director Sydney Pollack to shoot scenes from his new thriller "The Interpreter" inside its headquarters. "We aren't, let's put it bluntly, a film set. We have a job to do," explains Under-Secretary-General for Communications Shashi Tharoor, sitting cross-legged in his office. "But if a film wants to reflect that job and the principles on which we work, then that's something we consider very seriously." It didn't exactly go to an official Security Council vote, but just about. Pollack reportedly lobbied New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to pressure U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Annan's answer was "no." After seeing a copy of the script, however, Annan changed his mind. But even that didn't guarantee access. After Annan's nod, Tharoor had to secure approval from General Assembly President Julian Hunt of St. Lucia, in the Caribbean. Then Tharoor approached the Security Council president, who brought it before a closed-door informal session. "A few ambassadors took the floor to say they welcomed the idea," Tharoor says, "and one of them, the Spanish ambassador, said, 'I'd love to act in the movie, too.' " Film work normally would be considered an outside activity and against U.N. rules. But Annan allowed several U.N. employees to appear as extras. The most striking extra, of course, is the building itself, where filming took place at night and on weekends. Never before have we seen so much of this high-security structure, from inside the General Assembly to the modernist lobby to the hallways. Action leaps into high gear when Nicole Kidman's character overhears a whispered conversation inside the General Assembly late at night. Someone apparently wants to kill a visiting African head of state. Being an employee of the U.N., she wants to resolve it nonviolently. Or does she? Even though there has never been a credible threat of this magnitude inside the U.N., Tharoor says the organization is comfortable with this fiction. What cannot be stretched beyond the truth is the job of the interpreters. In order to make his portrayal as authentic as possible, Pollack turned to chief interpreter Brigitte Andreassier-Pearl, who points out the difference between interpretation - which is done live - and translation, which is done on the page and in a more leisurely fashion. "Sydney Pollack would come regularly, discuss, and I showed him around, answered his questions," says Andreassier-Pearl, whose scarf and habit of wearing a Swatch are incorporated into Kidman's character. Andreassier-Pearl escorted "The Interpreter" director to the General Assembly meetings, where he listened and watched simultaneous interpretation happening before him. Finally, Kidman spent a morning in the interpreters' booth in the Security Council. She wanted to put herself in the shoes of a U.N. interpreter, Andreassier-Pearl says. Although the job might seem like a tiny service performed, it is at the front lines of U.N. business. In fact, interpreters are put under oath to keep private meetings confidential. Now, thanks to Kidman and Pollack, they have a new mission: interpreting the U.N. back to the world itself. If Andreassier-Pearl is nervous about this particular task, she's not saying. "We have panels. We have Security Council meetings." Here she pauses, as if to consider all she's overheard in her career. "We are right there in the middle of the action." Freeman is a writer and book critic in New York City. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/S.QlOD/3MnJAA/Zx0JAA/uTGrlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -- This is ZESTGlobal. Post articles on international affairs to [email protected] If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTGlobal by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/join/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
