Oliver Stone on New Cannes Documentary ‘Lula,’ Donald Trump’s Trials and Money in Politics: ‘Corruption Is a Way of Life’
19.05.2024 - 05:41
/ variety.com
Brent Lang Executive Editor Oliver Stone is talking about “Lula,” his new documentary about Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which is premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, when the conversation turns to American politics. The conspiracy-minded director, who’s never seen a grassy knoll without glimpsing a second gunman on it, is drawing an analogy between Lula’s political travails, involving a corruption investigation that led to a 580-day prison stint, and those of Donald Trump. That’s when the film’s publicist interjects and politely tries to steer the topic back to the documentary.
But Stone waves him off and plunges ahead. “The charges on both sides of the Trump-Biden election are pretty wild — that Biden is corrupt and Trump is corrupt,” he says. “It’s a new form of warfare.
It’s called lawfare. And that’s what they’re using against Trump. And I think there’s interesting parallels here in America, as well as all over the world, you’re seeing this kind of behavior.
[Trump’s] got four trials and some of these charges, whether you for him or against him, they are minor.” Stone, who, it should be said, is no fan of Trump, argues that corruption is just a constant throughout human history. Too much was made of it when it came to Lula — Stone doesn’t buy the claims the Brazilian president was guilty of money laundering, noting that he lives “modestly” — and he believes that corruption is a charge leveled against political figures without examining the root causes of the rot. “Corruption is a way of life,” Stone says.
The website celebfans.org is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can
send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.