Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "A Very Long Entanglement" ... er, "Engagement" is in hot water again.
After being hauled before the French courts over its eligibility for Gallic funding -- a fierce legal spat that is still raging -- the
Audrey Tautou starrer is now facing a lawsuit from Corsican authorities.
The brouhaha is over an offending scene in the movie in which a frontline soldier -- a slimeball who secretly pees in other soldiers' helmets -- pleads to the Germans "Don't shoot me, I'm Corsican."
Despite Jeunet's protests that the line is a harmless joke, the Mediterranean island's regional government claims it defames some 12,000 Corsicans who gave their lives for France in the WWI.
"The council has decided to take legal action," a spokesman confirmed Jan. 6.
Corsican umbrage over French actions is nothing new. The two peoples have had a stormy relationship for centuries, ever since Gaul annexed the island in 1768.
It is administratively a region of France, but separatist violence and a long tradition of lawlessness continue to give the place an air of the Wild West, as portrayed in another recent French film, the comedy "The Corsican Investigation."
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