Bruno - Austria's new envoy
2009-07-09 21:05
Vienna - Austrians could be forgiven for bristling at Bruno. After all, he boasts his fame is second only to Hitler's and says he just wants "to achieve zee Austrian dream - find a job, get a dungeon und raise a family in it".
Yet rather than recoil at British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's new spoof film about a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashionista who shamelessly invokes virtually every cliché from schnitzels to Nazis, most Viennese are taking Bruno's own advice: "Get ueber it!"
Judging from a smattering of look-alike contests and websites cheerfully hawking skintight T-shirts and short-shorts, some even seem to be embracing their inner Bruno.
"We can all learn a lot from Bruno: style, zest for life, versatility, fearlessness," Doris Knecht, a columnist for the Kurier newspaper, wrote in her blog ahead of Universal Pictures' worldwide release on Friday.
"This man is proud of his homeland, so we're proud of him," she said, proclaiming: "Austria has a new ambassador. Thanks, Bruno!"
'Cheap, crass, offensive'
Not everyone shares her enthusiasm - least of all a real ambassador: Emil Brix, Austria's top envoy to Britain.
In an interview with Austrian public broadcaster ORF aired on Thursday, Brix denounced Bruno as "completely improper and unsuitable".
He said he found Baron Cohen's flippant references to Hitler and to Josef Fritzl - convicted in March of imprisoning his daughter for 24 years in a dungeon and fathering her seven children - cheap, crass and offensive.
"Everyone should speak out against such a thing," he said, warning that it will tarnish Austria's image.
ORF panned the film in a review. "A lot of expense for a few punchlines," it said.
Most Austrians, though, seem to be taking Bruno in stride.
They're used to being taken to task for the country's past complicity with the Nazis, its flourishing far-right political fringe and the Fritzl affair, which came less than two years after a similar case involving a young woman who escaped after being held captive 8 years in an underground cell.
Taken a ribbing for Arnie
They've also taken a ribbing over Arnold Schwarzenegger, initially for his Terminator films and most recently for becoming California governor. Outsiders have made cracks about lederhosen and yodelling ever since The Sound of Music - still unseen by the vast majority of Austrians - debuted in 1965.
And some Austrians already are familiar with Bruno, a character Baron Cohen has reprised on Da Ali G Show."
Although Vienna isn't exactly in the throes of Bruno fever, movie posters depicting him in barely bum-concealing bright yellow lederhosen, a matching alpine cap and an over-the-shoulder pout adorn virtually every bus and tram stop in the Austrian capital.
Fans also have been hawking clothing and merchandise emblazoned with Bruno-isms like "Get ueber it!" "Nicht nicht!" and "Ich don't think so."
"Naturally Bruno is tasteless and always has one foot planted over the border of decency. But what else can you expect from Sacha Baron Cohen?" said Alex Rechsteiner, a philosophy student.
Luring tourists
Austrian media generally have played down suggestions that Bruno will do irreversible damage and even discourage tourists from visiting. They note that some Australians feared the same after Crocodile Dundee was released, yet if anything, that film may have lured foreigners.
Baron Cohen is used to getting flak for his work.
After the 2006 surprise smash Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, officials and ordinary people in the former Soviet republic took great offense at being mercilessly lampooned as an incestuous and boorish backwater.
In the end, it didn't seem to inflict any lasting damage: Next year, Kazakhstan will hold the chairmanship of the 56-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Openly gay
Alfons Haider, an openly gay Austrian cabaret singer and TV host who some believe helped inspire the Bruno character, has expressed admiration for Baron Cohen while repudiating what he describes as the movie's far-right and anti-Semitic undertones.
Haider is not related to Joerg Haider, the former leader of the far-right Freedom Party who was vilified for praising aspects of Hitler's labour policies and for remarks that some said smacked of anti-Semitism.
Joerg Haider was killed in a car crash last autumn, and ironically, Austria has been awash in speculation that he was secretly gay.
Not that many Austrians would care either way. Vienna is one of Europe's most gay- and lesbian-friendly capitals, and its annual Life Ball - a glittery event that draws celebrities from around the world and raises millions for HIV/Aids research - is a highlight of the social calendar.
"How could mein film be ein PR-disaster for Austria?" the daily Oesterreich quoted Baron Cohen as saying in characteristic zis-und-zat "Bruno-speak" in an interview published on Thursday. "Hitler, Fritzl, Bruno. Zat has to be ein upswing!"
- AP