Finally, Breaking Dawn Director Weighs in on Anti-Mitt Romney 'Documentary'

Today in the NY Times, David Carr has an intriguing look at the notorious 28-minute "documentary" When Mitt Romney Came to Town, a piece of presidential-campaign propaganda so slick and evocative that it brings to mind the work of contemporary Hollywood pros. Perhaps most notably, Carr writes, the film implicates Romney in a kind of "vampire capitalism" -- which calls for some perspective from the Oscar-winning director of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Bill Condon. Naturally.

It's precisely the cheeky antidote the piece needs to counteract the sniffling stridency of Michael Moore ("Those in power will appropriate the counterculture to their own ends," he tells Carr), but it's also a concisely nifty illumination of how choices behind the camera affect perceptions of those in front of it:

“From a technical perspective, they were very effective of taking the imagery of [the 1984 Ronald Reagan spot] Morning in America and gradually turning it into an episode of America’s Most Wanted,” Mr. Condon said. “In the film, Romney literally blocks out the sun and the weather seems to turn. You are always looking down at Romney, while they shoot the people who lost their jobs from below. And there is a literal money shot, where Romney is posing with money, that looks like it was captured from a surveillance video.”

“The title in particular is very good,” he said. “It sets it up right away that this is the mainstream versus Wall Street. The populism of that message took me by surprise and represents a calculation that the white working class, who are everywhere in this movie, are a big part of the Republican electorate.”

Indeed. Now if only it were factual! Can't have it all, I suppose. Check the film out below, FWIW...

· Hollywood Techniques at Play in Politics [NYT]