The European Union opened its own channel on YouTube, mainly to make educational clips accessible for the general public. To boost the channel, and to celebrate the success of the European cinema, they released a series of short movies.
One of them is called “Film Lovers will Love This!”, the clip ends with the slogan “Let’s come together”. Usually EU promotional material goes by rather unnoticed, but not this time. Sex is still an excellent way to get your message out, or at least to get attention, good or bad.
The clip is basically a compilation of erotic scenes from successful European films supported by Media ( Media is the EU support program for the film industry) and is part of a collection that shows strong emotions in European movies. The clips were shown for the first time at the Berlin Film festival in February 2007 and were brought online on YouTube earlier this month. Since its release on Youtube it’s on the news everywhere, it receives 20.000 hit’s a day, and conservative politicians are going berserk, especially in the UK and Poland. The polish conservative league is especially shocked by the fact that there’s a lovemaking gay couple in the clip, not the first sign of homophobia from this countries leadership.
When I look at “Film Lovers will Love This!” I wonder what all the fuss is about. There’s nothing explicitly shown, there’s really more nudity on an average MTV clip. It’s suggestive, I agree, and the sounds the lovemaking couple make are edgy, so what? The scenes themselves are created by some of the best European film directors we have, and it’s not like the film is shown on television during daytime. It’s on the internet, a place where everything goes, and people choose to watch it. I know that most criticism is directed towards the usage of European funds for the clip, and that it’s a promotional activity from the European Union ( well from Media, but that’s part of the EU organization ) and therefore should reflect “good taste”. Well, good taste is in the eye of the beholder, were not all conservatives, nor can the polish morality be labeled typical European. There is something we call artistic freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of expression ( did I just use the word freedom three times? ) and we think of homosexuality as a normal, welcome to modern Europe!
You can argue about the clip, if it reaches its goals, if it’s good or not, but please keep things clean. To abuse it for your own political agenda is a sign of bad taste. Anyway, for those who did not watch it yet, hardly imaginable for European citizens, enjoy!
