CANNES — Capitalism: good or bad? He doesn’t know the ultimate answer, but that doesn’t stop Oliver Stone from speculating as to what’s wrong with it.
“It seems not to be (working). We got drunk in 1987 … then the system got worse. There’s a tremendous gap between who made money and who didn’t.”
In short, the greed factor has multiplied, the helmer suggested.
Or as the main character Gordon Gekko puts it in the film, “Greed isn’t just good; it got legal.”
On the other hand, Stone put the accent in his responses on how the characters in his new movie deal with balancing their family attachments with their love of the money game.
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To wit, Gekko is just coming out of jail at the beginning of the film, a broken man, with no money and no one to greet him.
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A relaxed and forthcoming Stone was speaking Friday in Cannes to a packed room of reporters and critics after the first screening of “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.”
The audience noticeably did not applaud for the film — which was unusual for the first morning of a key movie at the fest. As one veteran attendee put it, though: “it’s American, it’s commercial — and Stone doesn’t need the added adulation.”
Several of the international reporters prefaced their questions to Stone and company with compliments on the film.
The director was flanked onstage by most of the stars from the movie, including Michael Douglas, Shia LeBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan and Frank Langella, as well as by the producers of the long-gestating sequel Ed Pressman and Eric Kopeloff.
The fim will be released in theaters by Fox in September worldwide. Stone said he had no concerns with the timing: “The (economic) news is going to still be there. We’ll be coming out during the storm.”
