‘The Artist’ Director Pens Defiant, Sexual ‘Open Letter’ to ISIS
Michel Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning director of The Artist, took to Facebook Tuesday night to pen a defiant, sexually explicit “open letter” to ISIS in response to last week’s Paris terror attacks.
The Hollywood Reporter translated Hazanavicius’ message, penned in French, which began, “Men and Women of the Islamic State: So that’s it, it’s official, you’re waging war on us.”
Hazanavicius continued with a pointed, and intentionally coarse, commentary on values the French people hold dear:
“Here in France, what we love is life,” he wrote. “And the pleasures that go with it. For us, between being born and dying as late as possible, the main idea is to fuck, laugh, eat, play, fuck, drink, read, take a nap, fuck, talk, eat, argue, paint, fuck, take a walk, do some gardening, read, fuck, give, fuck, sleep, watch movies, scratch our balls, fart to make our friends laugh, but above all to fuck, and eventually get a nice little handjob. We are the nation of pleasure, more than one of morals. One day, we may even name a plaza after Monica Lewinsky, and that will make us laugh.”
He concluded with his own vision of the French people’s triumph over the terrorist organization: “Of course, we will not win either. People will die for nothing. Others will decide to back [French far right leader Marine] Le Pen, Assad or Putin to get rid of you, and we may lose two times over because of that. But you will not win. And those who remain will continue to fuck, to drink, to have dinner together, to remember those who have died and to fuck.”
In addition to Hazanavicius, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro took to social media in the wake of the Paris attacks. The Mexican director of Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy and Pacific Rim recounted in a series of tweets how, in 1997, his father had been kidnapped off the streets of his native Guadalajara by criminals. The elder del Toro was eventually released for a ransom of $1 million. Del Toro concluded his story by writing, “In times like this — when violence breeds violence, I think of that day and pray for wisdom and strength.”