They’ve stuck it to The Band’s Visit again! Following an unfortunate AMPAS precedent, the HFPA Golden Globe committee in charge of foreign pix has announced that this small, heartfelt Israeli comedy is ineligible for the best foreign film prize because it has too much English in it. I’ve seen The Band’s Visit and know for a fact this is an ignorant and deeply unfair way to categorize this tender, at times Chaplinesque little film. Bah humbug! to the HFPA and anyone else who doesn’t get that English is the worldwide second language for all cultures today, and that everyone speaks it when they don’t understand each other’s tongue. It doesn’t invalidate anything for characters in an Israeli or Pakinstani or Taiwanese or Hungarian film to speak English when they have no recourse. Meaningless!