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Is Darren Aronofsky’s Noah an environmentalist?
By Mick Krever, CNN
Is the Noah portrayed in Darren Aronofsky’s new film about Genesis’ great flood an “environmental wacko”?
To listen to the fringe critics, the answer is yes. But Aronofsky – whose film has swept the box office in its first days of release – says he stayed true to the Bible.
“It's in Genesis,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an interview that aired Tuesday. “Noah is saving the animals; he's not out there saving innocent babies, he's saving the animals, he's saving creation.”
“It was very clear to us that there was an environmental message. To pull that message out of it, we think, would have been more of an editing job than just sort of representing what's there.”
Was Noah an environmentalist?
Director Darren Aronofsky tells CNN's Christiane Amanpour there was a clear "environmental message" in Genesis.
Make a film about the Bible, expect controversy.
Make a film about the Bible after a lifetime of directing bleak films about death, drug addicts, and crazed obsessives – expect lots of controversy.
In his perhaps surprising turn to the Bible – he says Noah has been a “patron saint” for him since he wrote a Noah-themed poem at age 13 – Aronofsky has steered well clear of the childhood tales of happy animals living on a ship in harmony.
His flood is dark and deadly, shot in tones of grey and black.
But if there’s a surprise for Aronofosky, it’s how much the biblical epic has been welcomed.
Former Egypt official touts reconciliation, puts onus on Brotherhood
By Mick Krever, CNN
Egypt must reconcile and stamp out violence, Former Egyptian Finance Minister Samir Radwan told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday, while putting the onus for that reconciliation on the once-again-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
“The first challenge is the political stability of the country,” he said. “This is a very daunting task because certainly the Muslim Brotherhood, who lost the power, are not willing to come to terms with that loss. And they continue to raise a big fight, using – resorting to violence.”
The man who spearheaded the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsy was the very leader Morsy had appointed to lead the military: Field Marshall Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
El-Sisi has now resigned from the military and declared his candidacy for president; elections are set for May 26.
He was pictured on Monday riding around Cairo on a bicycle, having traded his uniform for a more populist track suit.
“He has opened the door for an inclusive society,” Radwan said.
Many, of course, disagree with that statement – chiefly members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Last week, in one fell swoop, an Egyptian court sentenced 528 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death on charges related to violent riots last August.
An ironclad celebration of freedom
Christiane Amanpour tells the story of the Eiffel Tower, which celebrates 125 years on Monday.
Click above to watch.http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2014/03/31/amanpour-eiffel-tower-statue-of-liberty.cnn.html
Crimean minority Tatar leader warns of possible bloodshed
By Mick Krever, CNN
The leader of Crimea’s Muslim minority, the Tatars, warned on Monday of possible bloodshed in Crimea and southern Ukraine.
“Our largest, biggest concern is about the possibility of clashes, of large scale bloodshed in Crimea,” Mustafa Dzhemilev, who is a member of Ukraine’s parliament, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview.
The Ukrainian military will fight, despite an imbalance in power, if the Russian military goes further into Ukraine, Dzhemilev said.
“No matter how weak we are in military in comparison to Russia…we’ll start fire.”
Tatar leader warns of possible bloodshed
Ukrainian Member of Parliament Mustafa Dzhemilev warns of possible future bloodshed in Crimea and Ukraine.
“We’ll open fire if [the Russian] Army will move further. And it’s hardly within Russia’s interests or President Putin’s interests, but we can’t exclude anything.”
“But all this will result in bloodshed.”
Angelina Jolie puts spotlight on Syrian refugees as U.N. Refugees chief warns Lebanon could collapse under burden
By Mick Krever, CNN
Lebanon could collapse under the weight of the massive influx of Syrian refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres warned in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that aired Thursday.
Without economic and financial support, and an increased effort to share the burden of Syrian refugees, “Lebanon [does] not [have] the possibility to go on with the present situation,” Guterres said.
Angelina Jolie, a special envoy for the UNHCR, is highlighting the plight of Syrian refugees.
She recently visited with a family living in a Lebanese refugee camp, speaking with a young child, Hala, and her five siblings.
Hala saw her mother killed under their collapsed home, and their father is missing and presumed dead.
Watch Jolie speak with Hala and her siblings.
“Twenty-five percent of the Lebanese population today is Syrian,” Guterres said. “We have more Syrian students in Lebanese public schools than Lebanese students.”
U.N. Refugee chief on looming crisis
CNN's Christiane Amanpour speaks with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.
“Lebanon has serious problems with electricity and water, and largely because of this huge increase in population; the health system is totally overburdened, and the security implications of the Syrian crisis to Lebanon are absolutely dramatic.”
“Nobody can afford the collapse of Lebanon in the present moment.”
Web extra: Coping with the burden of Syrian refugees
In this web extra, CNN's Christiane Amanpour speaks with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres about the burden of Syrian refugees on surrounding countries.
"Countries must show effective financial and economic solidarity with the host countries, but they also need to open their [own] borders," Guterres said.
Click above to watch.
40 years later, Angela Lansbury returns to the London stage – at 88
By Mick Krever, CNN
Performing in a play in London’s famed West End is achievement enough for most actors – doing it at 88 is something else altogether.
That’s exactly what Angela Lansbury – most famous for a 12-year run as a mystery writer and amateur detective in the TV series “Murder, She Wrote” – has done with her role in Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit.”
It’s her first time on a London stage in 40 years, and the play has opened to rave reviews.
“It is lovely, isn't it? It's lovely,” Lansbury told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour at the Gielgud Theatre. “I'm thrilled to death.”
How does she find the energy, at 88, for the grueling schedule live theater requires?
“That's the $24,000 question – truthfully, I don't know.”
Lansbury has had a storied career, starting in the Hollywood studio system of the mid-20th century.
At the time of her first big “break,” she told Amanpour, she had been working in a department store, making 18 dollars an hour.
“I was … making change as a cashier, and all kinds of little menial jobs of that sort,” she said. “I had been a drama student in Britain before I ever went to America. So I was prepared. I was ready to be an actress. And I wanted to get a part, either in a play or a movie or anything, just to exercise my talent.”
She was signed to the production company MGM; in the system of the time, the Hollywood studios exercised tremendous control over the actors under contract, especially women.
Venezuela faces ‘rocky future’ without dialogue, warns OAS chief
By Mick Krever, CNN
Venezuela faces a “rocky future” unless all parties can agree to dialogue, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, José Miguel Insulza, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday.
“The only way in which the deep economic and political crisis that is happening can be solved is either they get along, and they try to settle things through a dialogue, or the possibility of having some foreign mediation,” Insulza said.
The stand-off between Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition is heading for a perfect storm, with worrying signs that the worst protests in a decade could eventually lead to total economic collapse.
In an interview with Amanpour in Caracas earlier this month, President Maduro said that Venezuela did not need outside mediation.
“I think what we need is cooperation,” Maduro said. “We are not in despair. Venezuelans have a long history, so we are able to listen to each other, to talk to each other.”
But the two sides aren't talking to each other, and now more than three dozen people are dead – most recently a 28-year-old woman shot in the head after her bus was stopped at an opposition barricade.
The OAS itself has come under criticism for its inability to intercede in the crisis.
The Great Escape that still inspires
By Lucky Gold
Russia's land grab in Crimea has heightened tensions throughout Eastern Europe, rekindling memories of World War II, when Stalin's Red Army carved up countries like Poland, and devoured them with its Axis partner, Nazi Germany.
Now imagine a world where one bright memory from that same dark time still quickens the blood in the cause of freedom.
Survivors gathered and flowers were laid to remember 70 years ago, when some 76 allied prisoners slipped out of their prisoner of war camp with forged documents and improvised civilian clothing – hoping to make it to freedom.
It was called the great escape, and it was famously depicted in the Hollywood blockbuster of 1963, starring Steve McQueen.
It showed how hundreds of prisoners of war planned and executed the daring breakout.
West should have put boots on the ground in Libya, says former prime minister
By Mick Krever, CNN
Western countries exercised “bad judgement” in failing to put troops on the ground during the Libyan revolution, Former Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an interview that aired Tuesday.
“There was bad judgement on [the] part of the West for not putting too many troops on the ground,” Zeidan said through an interpreter.
Amanpour clarified whether he believed that, in retrospect, he wished that the West had “put boots on the ground, forces to maintain security.”
“Any means to have security will be accepted in Libya,” he said. If Libya wants stability, “we should have forces that are part of the United Nations, regional or Middle Eastern troops, or countries that have relations or connections in Libya – and if this takes place under the international community, under the United Nations, it will be accepted.”
Three years after Moammar Gadhafi was forced from office and killed, control of Libya is largely in the grip of militias.
Zeidan himself was forced from office by a parliamentary vote earlier this month and fled the country.
He insists that he is still the prime minister.
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