French Flock to 'Fahrenheit'; Critics Balk

[Khephra]

PARIS -- France's passion for cinema and its collective antipathy for President Bush made Wednesday's opening of "Fahrenheit 9/11" a headline event that quickly proved a boon at the box office. But even Michael Moore could not escape that critical Gallic eye.

The movie that won the highest award at May's Cannes Film Festival wracked up "extraordinary" ticket sales for its first afternoon showings in Paris, according to the MK2 movie chain.

Elevating the movie to an event, the left-leaning newspaper Liberation left the laudatory commentary to its nationally known executive editor. "Michael Moore is a television show unto himself," Serge July wrote, praising the director as the "American Falstaff of documentaries."

The cover of the Communist daily L'Humanite's portrayed Moore dressed up like the Statue of Liberty, wearing a smile and a baseball cap.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/news/wire/sns-ap-europe-fahrenheit-911,0,3463442.story?coll=sns-ap-entertainment-headlines

The "balk"ing comes later on in the article. I would have pasted that section, but I liked the image of Moore as the Statue of Liberty a bit more.

;-)