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Her er en underholdende lille anekdote fra årets Cannes Festival. "The Clash
Of the Titans"! Roger Ebert møder Claude Lanzman!

(Kilde: Roger Eberts Cannes-artikler på URL:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/eb-feature/cannes21.html)

"The poolside buffet of the Hotel Majestic always has a line of people eager
to sample its delights. After waiting a long time the other day, I finally
found myself with a plate in my hand and the buffet before me. Then a man
pushed in front of me--so roughly, he actually jostled me.

"There is a queue," I said.

"I do not use the queue!" he barked.

"It is not for you?" I asked.

"It is not for me. I pay no attention to it."

He began to pile his plate with cold shrimp. As an American, I believe the
Declaration of Independence when it says that everyone in a buffet queue has
been created equal. I was not willing to let this jerk off the hook.

"But all of these people have been waiting," I said.

"So what?" he said.

"You are more important than them?"

"Yes. Now get out of my way."

I was not in his way. He was in my way.

I stared at him, making my eyes narrow and mean. He stared at me. His eyes
were already narrow and mean. I thought for a moment he might hurl his
shrimp at me. Finally he snapped:

"Leave me alone! Leave me alone!"

We filled our plates in a tense silence. I went back to my table.

"I have just met the rudest man in the world," I said.

"Don't tell me, let me guess," said a fellow film critic, whose name is
available on request. "Is it that man over there in the white shirt?"

"Yes!" I said. "How did you know?"

"It had to be him. Do you know who that is?"

"No."

"Claude Lanzmann, the director of `Shoah.' "

"You're kidding! The nine-hour documentary about the Holocaust?"

"At the New York screening," my friend said, "I introduced him to my mother,
who is a Holocaust survivor. He brushed right past her. Didn't have a moment
to spare for her."

This story has an encouraging moral. You don't have to be a nice man to make
a good film."

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