tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-241623642011-11-01T23:24:04.460-07:00Collected, uncut versions of interviews that first appeared on ViewLondon.co.uk. And various other film-related ramblings.FilmFannoreply@blogger.comBlogger761100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-30322907495239808972011-09-29T07:30:00.000-07:002011-09-29T07:31:36.793-07:00FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Totted up film count and it turns out I saw 24 films in my 8 days at #sanseb11, which is pretty good going, I think.<br />24 Sep <br /><br />RT @trim_obey Tim Robey <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />I'll take Jean Dujardin over Gene Kelly any day. And to counter all the Gosling/Hardy hetero man-love, I'm just besotted with Bérénice Bejo.<br />23 Sep <br /><br />RT @trim_obey Tim Robey <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />Well, you won't be getting an ARTIST backlash from me. One or two niggles, but it absolutely glows. (B+)<br />23 Sep <br /><br />RT @trim_obey Tim Robey <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />So Michael Fassbender was at last night's San Sebastian bash. The whole atmosphere was furtive and charged, like Hampstead Heath after dark.<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Talk about dedication to duty. Plane landed an hour ago and now I'm heading into town for a screening. #hardcore<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Very jealous of @trim_obey and Neil Smith, both of whom are watching The Artist right now. Grumble grumble missing best film of fest grumble<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Had a great flight. Spent the whole thing discussing posters and taglines for Wild Bill with one of the producers. #wildbill #sanseb11<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />@Matt_Cinephile @Phil_on_Film I don't think I could afford to do any others but I will do San Sebastian every year from now on.<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Spent small fortune but totally worth it. Saw some great films, ate some great food, had some great weather, met some great people. *sigh*<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />All checked in. So sad to be leaving. I'll definitely be back next year. Totally hooked now. #sanseb11 #Donostialaostia #festivaldepintxos<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner<br />Bear in mind, a) not counting films I saw in UK beforehand, so no Tiranosaurio; and b) I didn't get to see The Artist #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Next five would be: 6) La Voz Dormida, 7) Either Way, 8) Miss Bala, 9) The Deep Blue Sea and 10) 3.5 hour George Harrison doc. #sanseb11<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />So my San Sebastian Top Five is unchanged: 1) Arrugas, 2) Wild Bill, 3) Martha Marcy May Marlene, 4) Where Do We Go Now?, 5) Shame #sanseb11<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Quite impressed with myself. Partied till 4am, wrote 2 reviews, slept 3 hours, packed, saw 3 Musketeers at 10 then made it to airbus. #phew<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Things I liked about The Three Musketeers: Juno Temple, Mads Mikkelsen, Juno Temple, some of the fights, Juno Temple, Aramis, Juno Temple.<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />3 Musketeers *almost* enjoyably silly rather than just plain stupid but every time there's a good bit there are four or five terrible bits.<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Also, if I never see James Corden on screen again, it'll be too soon. #threemusketeers #sanseb11<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Call me old-fashioned, but I'd rather see The Three Musketeers done *properly*, thank you. It lost me at the opening scene.<br />23 Sep <br /><br />RT @trim_obey Tim Robey <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />THE THREE MUSKETEERS (D) is unbelievably silly. Not much Dumas, plenty of Dumbass. (Let me be the first to wear that joke out.)<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Airport bus has free wi-fi! Hurrah! View from bus window: twitpic.com/6p76m4<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Today's final San Sebastian film...er...The Three Musketeers. #sanseb11 #Donostia59 #swords<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Yesterday's films: Las Acacias (excellent) and Americano, which at least had Salma Hayek doing a smoking hot song / striptease combo.<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Final two reviews of the week (Soul Surfer and Mlle Chambon) done. Tomorrow: The Three Musketeers and then, reluctantly, heading home...<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />It isn't really clear from this photo but that's a Spanish G&T. In a pint glass. #ginandginandginandtonic twitpic.com/6ozo25<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Ladies, he was wearing a leather jacket and a white shirt. You're welcome. #sanseb11 #Fassbender #mancrush<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Fassbender stalking...achieved! Chatted to Liam Cunningham (next to him) but bottled out of chatting to the man himself. #fassbender<br />23 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Great last night at San Sebastian. Sitting round a restaurant table arguing about Snowtown. Stalking Fassbender later. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Ay, Salmita! #americano #sanseb11 #Donostia59 #LFF<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Las Acacias very good. Simple but effective story about a truck driver giving a woman and her baby a lift. Catch it at the LFF. #sanseb11<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />In conjunction with @trim_obey's imminent tweet, the poster for Las Acacias. #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6osc5u<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Also, when San Sebastian say "press lounge", they really mean it... twitpic.com/6oqx28<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />The scene of the crime (see earlier Twitpic). #sanseb11 #lasbotasgrandes twitpic.com/6oq0ya<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />More evidence of San Sebastian's general niceness: seats provided for superfans / stalkers. #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6opvnh<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Spot the film journalist... #sanseb11 #Donostia59 twitpic.com/6opuom<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />@PeterBradshaw1 The cordero y patata portions in the Keler tent get smaller every day. Other than that, it's business as usual...<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />@GuyLodge After San Sebastian I can never go back to mere nibbles. It's pintxos o nada.<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />So I'm going straight from all-day festival press screenings for San Sebastian into...all-day festival press screenings for the LFF.<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Also, Olivia turned out to be quite the gifted impressionist + did note-perfect impressions of Considine, Mullan, Marsan and Meryl-as-Thatch<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Lovely 40 minute interview with Olivia Colman for "Tiranosaurio". She had some great Meryl-as-Thatcher stories too. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but those two Spanish actresses were leaving Fassbender's hotel at 2am and they hadn't been in the bar...<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Loud sobs are also because The Artist screening takes place two hours after my plane leaves tomorrow. *LOUD SWEARING NOISE* #sanseb11<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Last full day at San Sebastian. *LOUD SOBBING NOISE* #sanseb11<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Tomorrow: round-tabling Olivia Coleman and hoping to fit in three more films. Gutted to be leaving on Friday. #best #festival #EVER<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Also, this happened... twitpic.com/6ohqrm<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Great night out with the Wild Bill team. Met Liam Cunningham and the lead from La Voz Dormida but missed Fassbender by a matter of minutes.<br />22 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Very disappointed with Rampart. Started well but slowed to a painful crawl and then fell apart. Shame. #sanseb11 #Donostia59 #rampart #meh<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Relaxing at the film festival... #sanseb11 #Donostia59 twitpic.com/6oc26l<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Some waves. #sanseb11 #Donostia59 #waves twitpic.com/6oc24n<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />A mango and blackberry sorbet, earlier. #sanseb11 #comeforthefilms #stayforthepintxos twitpic.com/6oc0rh<br />21 Sep <br /><br />RT @JigsawLounge Neil Young (UK) <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />#Donostia59 discovery WRINKLES (Arrugas; dir. Ignacio Ferreras) crashes into Jigsaw Lounge's 2011 top ten at no.5 jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/tens/<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />I don't have enough for a top ten yet but La Voz Dormida, the George Harrison doc and Deep Blue Sea are at 6, 7 and 8. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />San Sebastian Top 5 so far: 1) Arrugas, 2) Wild Bill, 3) Martha Marcy May Marlene, 4) Where Do We Go Now?, 5) Shame. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Seriously considering going for a dip in the sea, Bradshaw-style... #sanseb11 #Donostia59 #dontmakemecomehome<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Thrilled that everyone seems be loving Arrugas / Wrinkles. @JigsawLounge put it in his top ten of 2011 and everything. It will make mine too<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY don't want to come home. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br /> <br />Saw Bai Ling (one of the jury members) earlier. She is *tiny*. Very tempted to make bai-lingual joke but politesse prevailed. #sanseb11<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Hoping to interview Dexter Fletcher and Charlie Creed-Miles now... #wildbill #Donostia59 #sanseb11<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Wild Bill really excellent. Great cast and a fantastic lead performance from Charlie Creed-Miles. Superb soundtrack too #sanseb11 #wildbill<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Weirdly, I did, in fact, end up sitting next to Frances McDormand in Wild Bill. Didn't realise till the lights went down though... #sanseb11<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Seeing Happy End after all. Well, I say "seeing". I'm in the dress circle... #sanseb11<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Might have to give Happy End a miss. Too much misery for one day. Also, the weather. Currently trying to take pictures of waves. #sanseb11<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br /> May have to stay in seat a while. Something in eye. #lavozdormida #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Completely destroyed after La Voz Dormida (The Sleeping Voice). Longest round of applause so far too. It's on at the LFF - don't miss it.<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Today's films: La Voz Dormida, Happy End, Wild Bill and Rampart. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />21 Sep <br /><br />RT @trim_obey Tim Robey <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />Have arrived in San Sebastian, which is experiencing famine. @FilmFan1971 has apparently eaten them out of pintxos.<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Really enjoyed Either Way, a slice of bittersweet Icelandic minimalism about two guys doing roadwork in the middle of nowhere. #sanseb11<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Weird film festival coincidence: Tarzan comics make appearances in both Le Skylab and Either Way. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />21 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Finished the "Newsletter Five". Now off to see Either Way. Press screenings at midnight. It's a different world, I tell you. #sanseb11<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Is there an actress who looks a hell of a lot like Kate Beckinsale but isn't Kate Beckinsale? Because if there is, she's here. #sanseb11<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Eating delicious free seafood risotto in the press lounge. I think it has single-handedly cured my hangover. #sanseb11<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Going to miss Primos after all, thanks to forgetting to change the time on my laptop. Like an idiot.<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Annoyed that I missed Kore-eda's I Wish this morning. Stupid whiskey.<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Lovely, lovely Burn: twitpic.com/6njak1<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />I could murder a can of Burn right now.<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Joe Utichi and Dexter Fletcher in the Keler tent, earlier. #sanseb11 #Donostia59 #wildbill twitpic.com/6nv60h<br />20 Sep <br /><br />RT @PeterBradshaw1 Peter Bradshaw <br /> by FilmFan1971 <br />Heterogay hysteria for Michael Fassbender at #SanSebastian2011 has risen to new levels. He's coming here from Barcelona on his motorbike<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Probably only going to manage two films today: Primos and Either Way. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />I was interviewed (in Spanish) by a film crew earlier. God knows where that'll end up. #sanseb11<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />@Dexfletch Nice to meet you earlier. Looking forward to the interview tomorrow. Also, you forgot to tell me the Misfits story...<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Reviews of San Sebastian films (4): Abel - viewlondon.co.uk/films/abel-fil… #sanseb11 #Donostia59 #abel @DonostiakoUdala<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Reviews of San Sebastian films (3): Pina - viewlondon.co.uk/films/pina-3d-… #sanseb11 #Donostia59 #pina @DonostiakoUdala<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Reviews of San Sebastian films (2): A Separation - viewlondon.co.uk/films/a-separa… #sanseb11 #Donostia59 #aseparation @DonostiakoUdala<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Reviews of San Sebastian films (1): Tree of Life - viewlondon.co.uk/films/the-tree… #sanseb11 #Donostia59 #treeoflife @DonostiakoUdala<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Also Soul Surfer and Mademoiselle Chambon, though I may leave those till tomorrow.<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Right. Not moving from this spot till I've reviewed Drive, Page One, Tucker & Dale, Warrior and Crazy Stupid Love. *sobs*<br />20 Sep <br /><br />RT @SpodoKomodo Indy Datta <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />I think the easiest film in the world to finance at the moment would be a Fassbender/Gosling sex drama. Hands off my idea, the Man!<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />One of my favourite things about San Sebastian: walking over this bridge every day. #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6nt16w<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Feeling a bit better after these pintxos. Suppose I'd better go and review the Goslings. #goslingweek<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />@montimer I'm seeing Wild Bill tomorrow. Really looking forward to it. #wildbill #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Just spent a very pleasant couple of hours in the Keler tent hanging out with the Wild Bill team. Still hungover though.<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Inside the Keler tent. #sanseb11 #kelertent twitpic.com/6nsjyo<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />.@yo_damo and @joeutichi, hard at work in San Sebastian. #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6nsjfa<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />The Keler Tent. San Sebastian's best-kept secret. Free food and beer... twitpic.com/6nsflu<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Good work, the weather. Good work. #sanseb11 #thatsmorebloodylikeit twitpic.com/6nr2qc<br />20 Sep <br /><br />RT @NinjaWorrier Amber Wilkinson <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />@JigsawLounge @filmfan1971 @PeterBradshaw1 Going to try to get a ticket to Arrugas today... after all your praise.<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />The weather is unspeakably gorgeous today. Unfortunately I have to spend the day indoors, writing. With a hangover. #diamondshoes #tootight<br />20 Sep <br /><br />JigsawLounge Neil Young (UK) <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />my 'Hollywood Reporter' review of Ignacio Ferreras' #Donostia59 highlight, WRINKLES (Arrugas) hollywoodreporter.com/review/wrinkle…<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Hideously hung over. I blame @JigsawLounge and his blasted double whiskey "nightcap". #sanseb11 #resacademierda #noesjusto<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />@DrooPadhiar Animated drama based on best-selling Spanish graphic novel about a character with Alzheimer's going into an old people's home.<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />UK distributors! Please pick up Arrugas / Wrinkles. It really is excellent. Best film of #sanseb11 for me, so far.<br />20 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Really enjoyed Le Skylab. Multi-character coming-of-age drama by Julie Delpy. Highest compliment I can give it is it reminded me of Together<br />20 Sep <br /><br />RT @PeterBradshaw1 Peter Bradshaw <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />twitvid.com/NRKD8 - Bite-sized micro-review of the fab Arrugas at #SanSebastian2011<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />View from the Keler tent. #sanseb11 #Donistia59 twitpic.com/6njckc<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Poster for Arrugas (Wrinkles). #sanseb11 #Donostia11 #Arrugas twitpic.com/6njbtj<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />A can o' Burn. twitpic.com/6njak1<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />San Sebastian, earlier today. #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6nisbi<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Jury didn't show. Someone must have tipped them off. Hmmm. Maybe it was me? Damn you, Twitter!<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Got to Le Skylab screening early. Sitting next to reserved seats. There's a one in seven chance I'll be sitting next to Frances McDormand...<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Best news of all: I have found a place that sells Burn. Brought 10 cans back from Paris and 10 wasn't enough. May up that to 20. #canoburn<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Princess Catherine Deneuve's dresses (one like the weather, one like the moon, one like the sun) also wonderful. #sanseb11 #donkeyskin<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />.@punkyscudmonkey It's the expression on the throne cat's face that really makes it. That's just the tip of the iceberg though, weird-wise.<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Well, that was properly mental. The sight of Jean Marais on a throne made of a giant stuffed white cat will stay with me for some time.<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Despite gorgeous weather, am about to watch Jacques Demy's Donkey Skin, which is apparently a musical about incest. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />It is probably coincidence but Neil Smith has arrived and the weather is suddenly glorious. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />First reaction to Crazy Horse: get an editor, Wiseman! Painfully dull first hour but gets better. #sanseb11 #crazyhorse<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />@arrugaspelicula Excellent news! Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Already telling everyone I meet to see it...<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />According to @arrugaspelicula, they are working on a UK theatrical release. Excellent news. Website here: www.wrinklesthefilm.com<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Turns out they had a copy at the fnac stand in the press centre. #Arrugas #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6nbaj6<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />I must have some more of that tortilla de bacalao. Sooooo good. #sanseb11 #comeforthefilms #stayforthepintxos #returnthreestoneheavier<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Hmmm. Could maybe find small child and get him / her to buy ticket for me. Yeah. That'll work.<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Sad to be missing Suske en Wiske: Texas Rangers. Also, weirdly, A Cat in Paris (at the LFF) is "kids only". Adults can't even buy tickets!<br />19 Sep <br /><br />RT @PeterBradshaw1 Peter Bradshaw <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />twitvid.com/CUOHO - My grotesquely petulant outburst at #SanSebastian2011<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />@Phil_on_Film @anaavalon Miss Bala is really good. Seeing Crazy Horse today. Unless there's a film called Goodbye, Crazy Horse.<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Might head to fnac and see if I can find the Arrugas graphic novel. I love fnac. Fnac, fnac, fnac. #fnac<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Should clarify that #Arrugas is much more of a drama than a comedy-drama. May have had something in eye at end. Cloud scene also. #sanseb11<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Arrugas possibly my favourite film of the festival so far. I suppose a UK theatrical release is too much to hope for? #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Looking forward to Arrugas (Wrinkles). Not looking forward to the amount of work I have to do today. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Today's films: Arrugas, Crazy Horse, Jacques Demy's Donkey Skin and Julie Delpy's Le Skylab. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />19 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Looking forward to Arrugas tomorrow. Animated comedy-drama based on Paco Roca's Spanish National Comic Award-winning graphic novel #sanseb11<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Kursaal with blue sky background. #sanseb11 #Donostia59 twitpic.com/6n1bqj<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Half of the queue for Les Demoiselles de Rochfort. Other half stretched round to where we were standing. #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6n15ur<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Weirdest thing about The Deep Blue Sea: Tanya's mum from #EastEnders is in it. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />.@lennyqb @peterbradshaw1 Three particular winners there: the cod tortilla, the meat-filled peppers and the "gavilla". #pintxos<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Topless / half-naked actors so far: Elizabeth "Peggy" Olsen, Janet McTeer, Carice Van Houten, basically everyone in Shame. #sanseb11 #nekkid<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />This is turning into A Very Naked Festival. Completely naked actors so far: Fassbender, Mulligan, Williams, Sarah Silverman #sanseb11<br />18 Sep <br /><br />RT @PeterBradshaw1 Peter Bradshaw <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />twitvid.com/ITNSO - @FilmFan1971 and I review some pintxos #SanSebastian2011<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />The Deep Blue Sea was excellent. Powerful, intense, emotionally draining. Weisz astonishing, Hiddleston equally good. #sanseb11<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />@PeterBradshaw1 Why didn't you come to the bar opposite the Principal? I think you secretly *wanted* that McDonald's...<br />18 Sep <br /><br />RT @PeterBradshaw1 Peter Bradshaw <br /> by FilmFan1971 <br />Could there be anything more unforgivable than going to McDonalds in San Sebastian? *sobs with self-loathing* #SanSebastian2011<br />18 Sep <br /><br />RT @Phelimo Phelim O'Neill <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />That George Harrison documentary reminded me of the existence of this rather lovely and catchy song (not in the film): youtube.com/watch?v=yaA7TV…<br />18 Sep <br /><br />RT @PeterBradshaw1 Peter Bradshaw <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />twitvid.com/OKWFZ - Just saw Les Demoiselles De Rochefort at #SanSebastian2011<br />18 Sep <br /><br />RT @JamieDunnEsq Jamie Dunn <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />Loving these ramshackle little videos from @PeterBradshaw1 — lovely cameo from @FilmFan1971 too. The multi-platform future of criticism<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Looking forward to Terence Davies' reimagining of the bit where Samuel L Jackson gets bitten in half by a shark. #thedeepbluesea #sanseb11<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />The size of the audience for Take This Waltz this morning has panicked me into arriving 40 minutes early for The Deep Blue Sea. #sanseb11<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Man, I am really going to miss these pinxtos. Current favourite: the creamed cod wrapped in red pepper. #sanseb11<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />The sun is out! THE SUN IS OUT! That's more bloody like it. San Sebastian just got 20% more beatlutiful. #sanseb11<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Off to see Jacques Demy's Les Demoiselles de Rochfort, which is one of those films I always think I've seen, but haven't. #sanseb11<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />I liked Take This Waltz, though it's too long and not without problems. Notable for impressive dramatic performances from Silverman + Rogen.<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />A much better picture of Sarah Polley at the Take This Waltz press conference. #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6mt65k<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />@JigsawLounge I didn't make it in the end - was all the way across town after Shame. Walked back and went for beers and pinxtos instead.<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Sarah Polley at the press conference for Take This Waltz. #sanseb11 #takethiswaltz twitpic.com/6mt0yj<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Enormous queue for Take This Waltz. I hope Sarah Polley gets to see a picture of it somehow. #sanseb11 #takethiswaltz<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Blue sky alert! BLUE SKY ALERT! #aboutfuckingtime #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6mqwbu<br />18 Sep <br /><br />RT @yo_damo Damon Wise <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />I rather liked Albert Nobbs. It´s a bit soapy, one scene is straight out of Little Britain, but it´s like a BBC1 remake of Boys Don´t Cry<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Today's films: Albert Nobb's, Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz and LFF closer The Deep Blue Sea. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Albert Nobbs-related confession: I spent the whole film thinking Janet McTeer was Haydn Gwynne. #sanseb11 #albertnobbs<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Enjoyed Albert Nobbs. Glenn Close typically brilliant but most moving performances are by Mia Wasikowska and Janet McTeer. #sanseb11<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />View from top floor of Kursaal. #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6mqc2v<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Commitments Bingo! Angeline Ball, Maria Doyle Kennedy and Bronagh Gallagher are all in Albert Nobbs. #imeldaquirke #sanseb11<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Considering the size of this screening room (basically a concert hall), there are a *lot* of people here for the 9am Albert Nobbs. #sanseb11<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />If we are playing Screening Room Bingo I can now yell "House". I won't though, obvs. #sanseb11<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Kursaal by night. #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6mi65y<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />I would like you all to imagine this *without* the grey bits... #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6mi5uy<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />@Jason_EntFocus The weather is terrible but the films, the food and the city are all wonderful. Best. Festival. EVER.<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />@giruaro If by "it", you mean Fassbender's cock, then yes, I have. #putitawayFassbender<br />18 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Valuable lessons learned #28: Never sit behind the person doing the electronic subtitles. #sanseb11<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />That Fuck Yeah Michael Fassbender blog is going to have a proper field day with Shame... #sanseb11<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Not only that but after controlled experiment, have discovered that just to check Twitter ONCE on data roaming costs a pound. A pound!<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Trekked across town in a raincloud in order to see Shame, aka Michael Fassbender: Sex Addict. Now ridiculously early *and* soaked. #sanseb11<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Loved Martha Marcy May Marlene. Adding my voice to the "star-making turn from Elizabeth 'Peggy' Olsen" buzz. #sanseb11 #Donostia59<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />About to watch Martha Marcy May Marlene. Really looking forward to it. Cinema completely full. #sanseb11 #alsoLFF<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />The ONE TIME I leave the country and Guardian Weekend runs a Christina Hendricks shoot. *sobs*<br />17 Sep <br /><br />RT @PeterBradshaw1 Peter Bradshaw <br /> by FilmFan1971 <br />Rumours that Michael Fassbender will be at #SanSebastian2011 have caused the biggest outbreak of heterogay mancrush behaviour I've ever seen<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Honestly, San Sebastian. Is a little bit of blue sky really too much to ask for? Is it? #donostiahostia #sanseb11<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Just snagged ticket for Finisterre tonight, on recommendation of @JigsawLounge and @NinjaWorrier. Now off to attack some pintxos. #sanseb11<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Looking forward to this tomorrow, except for the fact that it's got Aaron Johnson in it. #albertnobbs #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6m72q9<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />My Good Friend Nadine Labaki, writer-director-star of "Where Do We Go Now?" #sanseb11 flic.kr/p/3EPkpt<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Story is about a community of Christian and Muslim women trying to prevent violence breaking out in their village by distracting the men.<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Nadine Labaki's Where Do We Go Now? is a worthy follow-up to Caramel. Very funny, wonderful comic ensemble. #sanseb11<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />...let's say the experimental nature of many of the pinxtos, e.g. combining 3, 4 or 5 things on one piece of bread. Like Scooby snacks.<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Everyone had told me, repeatedly, that the food was amazing but I wasn't prepared for the general pinxto system (so to speak) or the...<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Typical row of pintxos EVERYWHERE YOU GO. #sanseb11 #omnomnom twitpic.com/6m52mj<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />About to watch the new film by My Good Friend Nadine Labaki (another one that's also at the LFF). #sanseb11 4sq.com/r8ujpf<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Liked Silver Tongues this morning. Tricksy little thing. Falls into trap of con artist movies though, i.e. you know not to believe anything.<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Somebody call Saul Bass' lawyers... #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6m4z2s<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />My favourite bit: "Albert Nobbs (108)...or dinner ". #sanseb11<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Exclusive photo of @JigsawLounge's exquisitely prepared festival schedule. #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6m4xi7<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Today's films: Silver Tongues, Where Do We Go Now?, Martha Marcy May Marlene and Shame, aka Michael Fassbender: Sex Addict. #sanseb11<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Did talk to Miss Bala though. And the very lovely Pilar Lopez de Ayala. And the director of Miss Bala. #missbala #sanseb11<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Wangled my way into the area with "las bips" (VIPs) at the opening night party. Spotted Clive Owen, missed Carice Van Houten by 15 minutes.<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />.@PeterBradshaw1 @joeutichi @NinjaWorrier You all left before "las dulces"! Oy, por Dios, las dulces... #sanseb11<br />17 Sep <br /><br />RT @PeterBradshaw1 Peter Bradshaw <br /> by FilmFan1971<br />twitvid.com/TMQAB - @FilmFan1971 is very keen on the human tapas platter at #SanSebastian2011<br />17 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Miss Bala was excellent. Could have been made by Los Hermanos Dardennes, judging by all the back-of-head shots. Gripping stuff. #sanseb11<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Now seeing fourth film of the day (Miss Bala), then off to opening night party. Oh, and the food is AMAZING. #sanseb11 #pintxos<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Didn't really enjoy No Habra Paz Por Malvados (No Rest for the Wicked). Great beginning, great ending, unholy mess in the middle. #sanseb11<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />@El_Duderino81 @cameocinema You'll love it. Less humour in it than I expected but utterly involving from start to finish.<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />@ArtsAllianceM On reflection, might have passed the same person who was whistling it twice in 5 mins. But *felt* like everyone whistling it.<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />To give you an idea of how comprehensive it is, they do the Travelling Wilburys years. #georgeharrisondoc #sanseb11<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Scorsese's three and a half hour George Harrison movie was excellent. Now know more about George Harrison than ever thought possible.<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Heh. Everyone is whistling "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". #georgeharrisondoc #sanseb11<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Interval in 3.5 hour George Harrison doc. Glad I decided to watch it. Really enjoying it so far. Although have heard first 2 hours are best.<br />16 Sep <br /><br />RT @Fino76 Fininho™ <br /> by FilmFan1971@ <br />@FilmFan1971 3 1/2 Hours? My Sweet Lord.<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Tweeted earlier that Scorsese George Harrison movie was three hours long. It's not. It's THREE AND A HALF HOURS. #wholelottageorgeharrison<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Also, Ella Purnell on the right there. #sanseb11 #intruders<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Clive Owen and Carice Van Houten at press conference for Intruders. #sanseb11 twitpic.com/6ln0im<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Embarrassing few moments there where I was forced to confront the fact that I don't know how to work a Nespresso machine. #bravenewworld<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />That said, a) they should have called it "Hollowface" and b) I spotted where it was going very early on. #intruders #sanseb<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Enjoyed Intruders. Atmospheric, creepy, good performances from Clive Owen and Ella Purnell (Young Keira in Never Let Me Go). #intruders<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Lessons quickly learned #1. Roaming charges are insane (£30 went in a matter of hours) but there is free wifi almost everywhere. #sanseb<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />That Scorsese George Harrison movie is THREE HOURS LONG! Has Thelma Schoonmaker died? #sanseb<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />All accredited. Off to first film of the day: Intruders, with Clive Owen. #sanseb #yeahsanseb #shorterhashtagwin<br />16 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Hanging out with @NinjaWorrier. Already eating like there's no tomorrow. #sansebastian #needshorterhashtag #sanseb 4sq.com/nb73OC<br />15 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Clouds from plane. #clouds #tomemycloud #monkeymagic twitpic.com/6lcerx<br />15 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Was very tempted to take their laid-on car (driver's placard read "View") and claim "honest misunderstanding".<br />15 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Is anyone a fan of the band The View? They were on my plane. I sat next to their tour managers. How bad is it that I hadn't heard if them?<br />15 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />We all got moved to the extra leg-room seats at the front in the end. #boringplaneshit<br />15 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />We're alive! Ha ha! I kiss the sweet ground. (@ Aeropuerto de Bilbao (BIO) w/ 4 others) 4sq.com/pV1qFT<br />15 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />No row 13 on this flight. Six of us have been assigned seats in a row that doesn't exist. Currently standing at back of plane...<br />15 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />But fuck it, I'm hungry.<br />15 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Seems a bit silly to be eating fish and chips in a pub at Heathrow when I'm 4 hours away from "THE BEST FOOD YOU'LL EVER EAT" (TM).<br />15 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />All checked in for San Sebastian. Now have...um...an hour and 45 minutes to ki- er...to while away somehow.<br />15 Sep <br /><br />FilmFan1971 Matthew Turner <br />Today: finishing off the last of the week's reviews and, oh yes, flying to San Sebastian.<br />15 Sep<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-3032290749523980897?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-5492028991285411742011-08-06T19:57:00.001-07:002011-08-06T19:59:15.384-07:00Promoting: Up in the Air<br />Venue: The Mayfair Hotel<br />Interview type: Press conference<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V14cXZU8RoE/Tj3_SjO-7sI/AAAAAAAAAnc/HxlN1-ilKYw/s1600/london-09-vera-farmiga-anna-kendrick-1.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V14cXZU8RoE/Tj3_SjO-7sI/AAAAAAAAAnc/HxlN1-ilKYw/s320/london-09-vera-farmiga-anna-kendrick-1.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637943002698542786" /></a><br />Question (Q): It's a joyful script to listen to. It must have been a pleasure for you to read. How did you assess your character when you first read the script? Alex is a similarly free-spirited character, but of course with hidden depths that we discover later.<br /><br />Vera Farmiga (VF): Yeah. I didn't have the luxury of reading the script without knowing what happens in the end, so I had preconceived ideas. And it was challenging to play a woman who was very much like a man. And oftentimes, when a woman behaves this way, it can be interpreted as – it was difficult for me to – it was a fine line, I found to tread, to have the softness and yet to sort of take control of her sexuality and unapologetically make demands that usually you see men making in scripts. And I really liked the male perspective on heartbreak that I hadn't read before.<br /><br />Q: Obviously, unemployment features quite heavily in the film. Do you have any interesting experiences of being fired?<br /><br />VF: I worked as an air-conditioning technician for Fedders & Emerson Fine Cool Air Conditioning, as a customer service representative, who repaired air conditioners over the phone, as much as I was able to tell them whether the VTU was too large a unit for the space they were trying to cool or whatever. And I guess I was too chatty on the phone. I didn't get fired, but they did want to demote me, take me off the phones and give me more of a clerical position, but I just shortened the chat.<br /><br />Q: There were lots of real-life locations used in the film. Did that present any particular challenges?<br /><br />VF: What was most amusing for me was to see the fanaticism that George attracts. I mean, that was overwhelming and so odd. For me, no-one ever knows who I am, they always think I'm a producer on the film, but watching George having to deal with that, and him having just to simply open a door and close it and then there's a standing ovation that goes for blocks! And he's so gallant and gracious and takes his bow. But I didn't think that it impeded any of the work.<br /><br />Q: In the nude scene, was that really you? And if it was, how comfortable were you with it?<br /><br />VF: I had shot this when I had about six pounds more trunk in my badunk-adunk. I was pregnant and I did do the scene. But I think my bottom had become too large (laughs). I didn't think so – I think that's a question for Mister Reitman, because I did attempt to do the nudity. I got to certainly choose my body double and I thought Jason did a good job of selecting someone that was pretty accurate – my body double, Trish has been in many films. Perhaps on the DVD extras...<br /><br />END<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-549202899128541174?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-85124708419631600442011-08-06T19:51:00.001-07:002011-08-06T19:53:13.892-07:00Promoting: Up in the Air<br />Venue: The Mayfair Hotel, London Film Festival<br />Interview type: One-on-one<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Tb1kO_pwCfA/Tj391lVha1I/AAAAAAAAAnU/AC4lENfe2nY/s1600/anna_kendrick-interview-2-12-09-kc.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Tb1kO_pwCfA/Tj391lVha1I/AAAAAAAAAnU/AC4lENfe2nY/s320/anna_kendrick-interview-2-12-09-kc.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637941405535005522" /></a><br />Q: It's a joyful script to listen to. It must have been a pleasure for you to read. How did you assess your character when you first read the script? Your character is a bit more explained from the word go, but we do discover a bit more about her and about her background. What appealed to you about it?<br /><br />Anna Kendrick (AK): First it's that sort of rare thing, this girl who's so intelligent and complicated and her character does not revolve around a romantic storyline. And that was enough to make it fascinating in itself because it just doesn't happen, you don't read scripts like that. And I guess I'm normally so timid in real life that I get really excited by characters who get to kind of tell people off and telling off George Clooney was pretty awesome.<br /><br />Q: There's a wonderful scene where you go to pieces in the airport after receiving a text message from your boyfriend. How much of that was in the script and how much of it was you on the day?<br /><br />AK: You mean in terms of the crying? I don't really remember what was in the script exactly, other than that she just starts crying. And I knew that, like so many of the scenes that in some ways are really heartbreaking for me and for Natalie (Anna's character) and there's almost this desire to play it really heartbreaking and really unfunny, I think. I knew it was supposed to be funny but that it couldn't really be funny for me. And it was a long day of sort of trying different noises and it was kind of brutal, because I was so upset all day. And Jason would demonstrate occasionally, because he knew I was running out of juice, various squeaks and moans and wails and stuff and trying to find the right thing that was still not funny to me, but hopefully funny to other people.<br /><br />Q: There were lots of different real-life locations in this film, including several different airports. When you had the meltdown, was that in an actual airport lounge?<br /><br />AK: Well, actually, it was in a hotel lobby. It was a little uncomfortable. I guess because it was a hotel, we could sort of shut down the lobby, so there weren't that many looky-lous, but it was still just the space and the extras and even though they're part of the film, you don't really know them and it's still sort of embarrassing, but I think on that particular day it was less about other people and was just more about the space and feeling very – I wanted something to grab onto, it was a very uncomfortable day.<br /><br />Q: Your character has her views of love and life deeply challenged in this film. Did it affect your own views on those in any way? Was it hard to resist them when someone as seductive as George Clooney is trying to lure you to the lone wolf side?<br /><br />AK: I think obviously Natalie has really considered ideas about what she wants and what she expects and I don't have many of those same ideas, so I know that there are things that I want and expect from life that I won't get and refuse to accept just yet. But her views on love are not my views on love.<br /><br />Q: You've gone from playing quite a small role in Twilight, which was obviously a huge success, to playing a lead role in this film, which will obviously be a big success too and against George Clooney, which is amazing. How did you feel when you got this role?<br /><br />AK: I was sort of shocked beyond belief, because I thought Jason hated me. My audition was very strange and I think Jason was not trying to psych me out by not showing any kind of enthusiasm, but I thought he hated me and then when I got the job I was so shocked and I thought, 'Oh, he's just like that – he's just going to be a tyrant on set', but he's very, very nice. But yeah, I was very surprised and thrilled beyond words, I mean, the script is so beautiful. And I sort of didn't really think that George was doing it – for whatever reason, I just assumed that it was too good to be true, for a script to be this good and to be working with George Clooney. I just thought it was one of those things that was rumoured and then Jason told me the Italy story and I got really excited. And that was one of those moments where I was sitting at lunch with him trying to act like, 'Oh, right, of course I'm going to be in a movie with George Clooney, because I do that sort of thing'.<br /><br />END<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-8512470841963160044?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-32592545234110193582011-08-06T19:45:00.000-07:002011-08-06T19:49:11.515-07:00Promoting: Up in the Air<br />Venue: The Mayfair Hotel, London<br />Interview type: Press conference<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5II-Oe7mbBQ/Tj38719gm-I/AAAAAAAAAnM/0M7A2xOiVII/s1600/Jason_Reitman.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 188px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5II-Oe7mbBQ/Tj38719gm-I/AAAAAAAAAnM/0M7A2xOiVII/s320/Jason_Reitman.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637940413565279202" /></a><br />Question (Q): The film's based on a book, isn't it? If I read the book, would I recognise it in the film?<br /><br />Jason Reitman (JR): Yes and no. The book is about a man who fires people for a living, this man Ryan, who obsessively collects Air Miles, but if I had directed the book exactly as it was, these two lovely ladies next to me (co-stars Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick) would not be here, because their characters are not in the book.<br /><br />Q: That sounds like a considerable difference. So the book was source material but you were then able to fly with it, as it were, to take it beyond whatever's on the page?<br /><br />JR: The way I use source material is, I kind of see it as a toolbox. Usually there's a story that I want to tell and I'm looking for the right words and I'll read a book, I'll read an article and suddenly it'll just be the language that I've been looking for to say something that I've needed to say or ask something that I've been meaning to ask and at that point it just becomes a toolbox of ideas that I can either follow literally or sometimes I take someone's dialogue and give it to someone else or, in this case, I really took the main character who – I liked his occupation, I liked his life philosophy and from there I built the plot around him to ask the questions that I wanted to ask.<br /><br />Q: I read that you wrote the role of Ryan with George Clooney in mind. Is that correct?<br /><br />JR: Yeah, I wrote the role with him in mind and with Vera and Anna in mind too. It's easier for me to write when I know who I'm writing for – that's often how I identify the voice of the character. I had met Vera before and seen many of her films and I knew the things that she was able to do that no other actress is capable of doing and it was because she's able to walk that very fine line of being aggressive and feminine at the same time that I was able to write Alex the way I did. It was because I saw Anna in Rocket Science and knew the kind of sparkling brilliance of her mind and how fast she is that I was able to write Natalie the way I did. And look, if you're going to make a movie about a guy who fires people for a living and you still want to like him, that actor had better be damn charming and I don't think there's a more charming actor alive than George Clooney. I was just very lucky he said yes.<br /><br />Q: What would have happened if you'd written it with him in mind and he'd said no? Do you then go to a Clooney clone? A George Cloney?<br /><br />JR: I don't think there is such a thing? I'd have probably just ended my career right there and then. The story is actually kind of funny – I'd been writing it for six years and I told his agent, 'Look, I'm about a week away or a month away from finishing it, but in the middle of that I'm going to Italy on vacation with my wife' and he said, 'Well, if you're going to be in Italy, you should just go see him!' And I said, 'That sounds like an awful idea. I don't want to go see him if he hates my screenplay' and he's like, 'No, no, no, just go, he'll love to see you'. So I said, 'Well, look, I'll send him the screenplay and if he enjoys it, then certainly, I'll drop by'. So I get to Italy and I call his agent up and I say, 'Did he like it?' and he said, 'Yeah! Go see him!' 'But did he like the screenplay?' 'Just go, look, here's the address'. So I drive there, I get to his address in Como and one of the first things he says to me is, 'So, what are you working on these days?' I said, 'There's a screenplay, it's called Up in the Air' and he said, 'Oh, I have to find that – I gotta read that' and for two days, my wife and I stayed in his home and I was just trying to prove that I was a man to George Clooney. I played basketball with him, I hadn't done that since eighth grade, I never drink, I tried drinking with George Clooney. He opened four bottles of wine between the three of us, so for an evening I – I don't know how I didn't die of alcohol poisoning and finally, about the end of the second day, he disappeared for a while and, I don't know, he walked into the room and he said, 'I just read it, it's great, I'm in'. And those are words that I feel changed my life and probably one of the greatest moments I'll ever remember from my career.<br /><br />Q: One of the fun things about the film is that it balances against the darkness of everyone getting fired and then the optimism of these people finding new jobs and kind of the cherry on top of that is the song that came in at the end of the credits. Was that dumb luck? Was that something you were looking for? How did that come about?<br /><br />JR: That was dumb luck. After Juno, I've gotten kind of used to teenagers sending me songs with the idea that it'll appear in one of my films. But I was speaking at a college in St Louis and a man in his mid-fifties came to me with the song. That was unusual. And he handed me a cassette tape. So, first off, I had to find a place to actually listen to this, but we found a car with a cassette deck and I really was ready for something ridiculous and instead on came this voice, which you know is in the credits now, and he introduced himself, explained how he had lost his job after being there for a decade, decade and a half and he was now in the middle of his life, trying to figure out the purpose of his life and he started singing this song that is not the greatest song ever written, but it's an authentic song. And I guess my feeling was that we're in the middle of one of the worst recessions on record in America and about a million people had lost their jobs in the last year, but we really have no experience of who these people are – they're just often numbers on newspapers' mastheads, percentages – and here was a guy who was able to sing, very authentically, about how he felt about it and I felt what better tribute than to end the movie with it. And I knew, halfway through listening to it that it was going to be in the credits.<br /><br />Q: One of the pleasures / sadnesses of the movie are the interviews that are conducted by Anna's character and Clooney's character, with apparently real people. How was that done? Obviously J.K. Simmons is an actor, but were some of the others genuine people who had lost their jobs?<br /><br />JR: Well, when I started writing the screenplay seven years ago, the economy in America was very different – we were basically at the tail end of an economic boom and I decided to write a corporate satire about a man who fired people for a living and I wrote comedic scenes in which people lost their jobs. And by the time it came to shoot this film, it just wasn't funny anymore and I couldn't go about shooting these scenes as written. And we were scouting in St Louis and Detroit and the idea just came to me, that we should try and use real people, so we put an ad out, in the newspaper, in the Help Wanted section, saying we're making a documentary about job loss and we're looking for people who would go on camera and talk about their experience. We had an overwhelming amount of response and we brought in a hundred people and twenty-five are in the finished film. So, outside of the people you recognise, like J.K. Simmons and Zach Galifianakis and Pamela Jones, everyone else who loses their jobs in this movie is a real person who came in and sat down at a table with an interviewer and for about ten minutes answered questions about what it's like to lose your job in an economy where really, there's nothing available and you have to consider some very dire decisions. And then after that we fired them, so 'We'd like to now fire you on camera and we'd like you to either respond the way you did the day you lost your job or, if you prefer, you can say what you wish you had said'. And this would turn into improv scenes in which they would pelt our interviewer with all sorts of questions that he did not know the answer to, about their severance, about why they lost their job instead of Jeff and, you know, it just went on and some people were really angry, some people got emotional and cried, some people were very funny. And I'm so grateful for their participation in the film, because I could have never written the type of things that they said.<br /><br />Q: You've got a history of writing strong female characters, like with Juno and then this film as well. Do you think there's a shortage of those in Hollywood right now?<br /><br />JR: Yeah, I think that's why I write them. I like to write original films and I think many of the men's stories have been told and so many of the women's stories haven't and I've fallen in love with many really smart women over the course of my life – the most recent and presumably the last one being my wife – and I enjoy it and I enjoy spending time with my wife talking about these scenes. The best thing I've ever written, I only wrote half of and it's the scene in this movie where Vera and Anna talk about what they look for in a man at each of their ages and the only way I could write that is I asked my wife to have a conversation with herself at 18 about what she looked for in a man and so everything that they say is true to her, which breaks her heart every time she watches it, but I basically laughed at her for five minutes. But no, I enjoy writing for women and I enjoy working with great actresses and I've just been very fortunate, I've made three movies now and throughout all of them, from Maria Bello on Thank You For Smoking and with Ellen and Jennifer on Juno and then not only Anna and Vera on this one but also Amy Morton and Melanie Lynskey, I've just been surrounded by great actresses that I hope I can work with more and more.<br /><br />Q: You mentioned that you started this script seven years ago and obviously you've had a couple of films come out in between that time – Thank You For Smoking and Juno. Does that mean you put this on the back-burner for a while, while you did Thank You For Smoking? How does the time-line work?<br /><br />JR: The time-line is that no-one would make Thank You For Smoking and so I started looking for something else to write and direct and I found this book, I fell in love with it and I started writing it and then out of nowhere, a millionaire – one of the creators of PayPal, who had sold PayPal to eBay for one and a half billion dollars with his partners – decided he wanted to make movies, he read my script, he got it from a friend, he called my agent and said, 'Hey, I'd love to make this movie' and he wrote a cheque for six and a half million dollars and made Thank You For Smoking, so all of a sudden, I wasn't writing Up in the Air anymore. I made Thank You For Smoking, went back to writing Up in the Air and then Juno came into my life and was just this irresistible screenplay that I knew if I didn't direct, I would regret for the rest of my life. The interesting thing was that I basically finished the screenplay after Juno and about five years in, I had basically got to the end of the script having never gone back and reread what I'd been writing and as I read from start to finish, I watched myself grow up. You know, over the course of the six years that I wrote the script, I became a professional director, I bought a home, I got married, I became a father and I watched myself in the first act be kind of a cynical guy in his 20s who was really just a satirist and then over the six years I became, I don't know, a bit more sophisticated as a writer and I also realised at least what was important in my own life and that really changed Ryan's journey as I continued to write.<br /><br />Q: There are lots of real-life locations in the film, including several different airports. Did that present any particular challenges?<br /><br />JR: Oh, it's a total pain in the ass. Shooting in airports is very difficult and we shot in four international airports. There was actually a fair amount of access and because American Airlines was our partner in this film, basically our trade was that they were our airline and they gave us access to all their check-in gates as well as their departure gates, but still, all the actors had to go through security every day, on the way to the set. And I think they would, on purpose, put George through as much security as humanly possible. I'm surprised he didn't get pat down every time he went through. And you know, we can't bring our own food in there, we have to bring in our own electricity, we have to bring in our own wire for our generators through an airport – it was really tricky.<br /><br />Q: Anna Kendrick says that she thought you hated her after her audition. Why did she think that?<br /><br />JR: Well, one, I'm a mean guy, but two... I wrote the role for Anna and Anna auditioned against thirty of the best actresses of her generation. I needed to know that she could actually do it – I basically saw her in one movie. I thought, 'Oh, she's great, but I need to see her actually read the lines.' And when she came in, I didn't want her to get psyched out by saying, 'Hey, I wrote this role for you' because then she'd probably freak out and not be comfortable, because then it would be kind of hers to lose, but since I'm a horrible actor myself, in trying not to show that I was already a huge fan of hers, I probably wasn't as nice as I could have been. It's kind of like when you meet a pretty girl but you don't want to show her that you think she's pretty, so you're trying to act as straight as possible and then you're not acting like yourself and then pretty soon you're acting like a jerk.<br /><br />Q: I just wanted to tell you how much everyone enjoyed the film. When Anna gets dumped by text and Clooney says the line “I guess it's kind of like firing someone over the internet”, the whole cinema was in stitches.<br /><br />JR: That brings up something worth mentioning and that is that this is the first film that my father (Ivan Reitman) and I have actually worked on together. I'd avoided doing that with the first two, because I wanted to make a name for myself and once I'd made a couple of films there was nothing that would make me more proud. Now, my father wrote one line in this movie and that line is “Oh, it's kind of like firing people online”. It's a MONSTER line, it gets applause every time the movie plays. If the reaction to that is a ten, the next biggest reaction to a line is a four. So, I don't know, I'm a little jealous, but it's a really proud moment for me. It's as if he's a baseball player, he can just, like show up and go, 'Oh, you want me to hit one? Sure, I'll hit one' and then he knocks it out of the park.<br /><br />Q: One of the pleasures for film fans is when well known actors turn up in tiny roles. You mentioned JK Simmons, who has a very unselfish cameo and also you had Sam Elliott in the film. How much explanation do they need?<br /><br />JR: Well, once I gave them a great role, like the ones I gave to Vera and Anna, I presume that on the next film they'll come in free and do three or four lines of dialogue each. No, I invited all of them to come in and do those roles and they've all been very gracious and have done them. I try and keep strong relationships with them so that when I ask they come back and do these roles. When I started my career, my biggest goal was I want to be a director that actors want to work with. Actors make movies, not only fiscally but they make them work and I just knew that the only way I'd ever be a successful director in the way that I want to be a film-maker would be if good actors actually wanted to work with me. And I'm slowly working my way towards that and I look at people like Sam Elliott, who would show up for a day and do that role and that makes me more proud than anything.<br /><br />Q: Could you talk about your choice of music in your films? Is that drawn out of your personal taste? What was the case with Up in the Air?<br /><br />JR: I start up an iTunes library while I'm writing the screenplay and I'm very specific about music and there are some very personal things for me. I originally thought this movie was all going to be done to Hank Williams music and then I got into the edit and realised I was wrong and I started moving into kind of folk music, but yeah, it's very personal for me.<br /><br />END<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-3259254523411019358?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-72869297931436802672011-08-06T19:38:00.000-07:002011-08-06T19:43:10.832-07:00Promoting: Le Donk & Scor-zay-see<br />Venue: Warp Office, London<br />Interview type: Round table<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NVWZgGe1UPs/Tj37Hb15z1I/AAAAAAAAAnE/uJo-6WnHgQI/s1600/Me%2Band%2BPaddy%2BConsidine%2B%2528aka%2BLe%2BDonk%2529.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NVWZgGe1UPs/Tj37Hb15z1I/AAAAAAAAAnE/uJo-6WnHgQI/s320/Me%2Band%2BPaddy%2BConsidine%2B%2528aka%2BLe%2BDonk%2529.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637938413689229138" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): Who were your influences as a kid? Did you grow up watching films? Are you a bit of a film buff?<br /><br />Paddy Considine (PC): Yeah. I'm not a film buff now, in terms of, you talk to some people about a film and they can tell you when it was directed, what film stock it was shot on, who did the catering and all that, but I was hugely influenced by films and television. When I was really young I was just totally obsessed with the escapism of Star Wars and the Superman movies, Clash of the Titans, things like that. It wasn't till I got a bit older, when I saw Rocky, that was the first film really that I watched and kind of went, 'Oh, wow'. Also, on TV there were things like Walter, Stephen Frears' film, I still remember that, the night it went out, on Channel 4, the first night of Channel 4. And then it turned into a lot of sort of drama, Alan Clarke's stuff, which was speaking a bit more about where I was at the time. And then the world opened up when it got into the Scorsese stuff and Coppola, who I think is the most astonishing film-maker living. Why he doesn't make films now, I don't know. And then the more realist territory, that kind of work. Ken Loach's Kes, for example, is my favourite British film ever made. I think when you see such naturalism in the performances, you're growing up in that kind of place, it speaks to you.<br /><br />VL: Can you talk us through how Le Donk came about? You'd made short films with the character beforehand, hadn't you?<br /><br />PC: Yeah, we did. We'd had him for a long time. I was just mimicking guys around the music scene in Burton-on-Trent, the little town we lived in. I just started mimicking these characters for mine and Shane's amusement and then after Shane started making films and I did Romeo Brass with him, we found ourselves with a lot of time on our hands, really – I was back on the dole and stuff trying to get work, so in that time we found ourselves making short films and I just put on wigs and put in teeth and would just do characters. We literally had nothing planned, we'd just grab a floppy hat and a wig and some teeth and create characters – it was liberating to do that, to go into town that day and say, 'Can we get into Burton Albion football ground?' to do some filming and that's how the short films came about. Le Donk was like that, it was just literally put the hat and wig on, let's go for a drive and see what happens. And we would go round people's houses who weren't expecting us to be there – it was a bit unfair, really, on some of them, but Le Donk would just pile in the house and away you go. And we always found it funny, but we always just thought it was just an in-joke and would only be funny to us.<br /><br />VL: When did you decide to use him in a film?<br /><br />PC: We tried to do something bigger with him before – we wrote a film with him as the main character but it didn't work. Whenever you tried to script him or anything, it was just bad, it just didn't work. He just has to sort of be alive and let this stream-of-consciousness come out of his gob and let him get on with it. But he wouldn't go away and so we got the opportunity to be at this Old Trafford gig where the Arctic Monkeys were playing and we just took him up there and made a story up and it just all fell into place. And it really was how it happened, Scor-zay-zee came on board, all the stuff about him walking around and plugging in a keyboard is true. And it was really liberating – I think I'd got a bit fed up of waiting around for other people to tell you when you can go and be creative. There's a process with making films and a certain way of doing things and with Le Donk we just thought, 'We didn't use to have to do this, we didn't use to have to have script meetings and wait for you to give us the go-ahead' so we just did it off our own backs and hoped that people liked it and if not, it was just an expensive in-joke. Well, not dead expensive, but a fifty grand in-joke.<br /><br />VL: Speaking of in-jokes, I love the gag with [co-star] Olivia Coleman's baby. You didn't just think, 'Well, let's just use a different baby?'<br /><br />PC: Oh yeah. No, it was just one of those things of like, if that's how big it is, we'll just have to get around it. And it's part of the charm. Because a lot of references have been made to things that have influenced this film, like Saxondale, and it wasn't that at all – I've only ever seen half an episode of that. I was working in Canada years ago and it was more stuff like the Trailer Park Boys and this Canadian film called FUBAR, which was also all improvised, like Le Donk. I thought that was fantastic and I showed it to Shane. So it's more from that than anything we've seen over here, although someone made a reference to Paul Calf's Video Diaries, which was fair enough – he was a bit ahead of his time in terms of how reality goes and everything.<br /><br />VL: Since you mentioned Saxondale, someone mentioned at the Edinburgh Q&A that Steve Coogan ripped Saxondale off Le Donk because he'd seen the videos. Is that true?<br /><br />PC: Well, the truth of it is, we'd shot the short films and when I did 24 Hour Party People, I gave Steve all these shorts that we'd done and he watched Romeo Brass and he watched these shorts and he really liked them. That's as much as I know about it. And then when it crops up years later as a series about a roadie in the Midlands it's like, “That's Le Donk”. I'm not kidding you – I had about a dozen calls and texts that day, who knew, going, 'Have you read this thing? It's Le Donk.” So you can call it coincidence. I think the point from us is, I don't care if Steve saw Le Donk and digested it and somewhere in his head then forgot it and came up with a great original idea – I don't care about that. I think our annoyance was that we want people to know that we did not rip off Saxondale, that's the only important thing. <br /><br />VL: What have you got coming up?<br /><br />PC: I'm doing a film called Submarine, with Richard Ayoade. We're shooting it in Wales and it's a great little character, a bit of a David Icke-style guru. It was just fun to do and with Richard, who's directing it, there wasn't a second thought about doing that film. I just really wanted to work with him.<br /><br />END<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-7286929793143680267?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-7569797744213437242011-08-06T19:35:00.001-07:002011-08-06T19:37:15.268-07:00Promoting: The Men Who Stare At Goats<br />Venue: Vue West End, London Film Festival<br />Interview type: Press conference<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AxpyGhKof8s/Tj36DtP3i1I/AAAAAAAAAm8/X3hZNSu5vRw/s1600/Spacey%2Band%2BClooney%2Bclose-up.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AxpyGhKof8s/Tj36DtP3i1I/AAAAAAAAAm8/X3hZNSu5vRw/s320/Spacey%2Band%2BClooney%2Bclose-up.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637937250130430802" /></a><br />Q: Did you approach the characters as if you were recreating a real-life person, or did you start from scratch?<br /><br />Kevin Spacey (KS): To me it was all in the script. I mean, there are times when you're playing someone who really lived and there is a responsibility about trying to make that as accurate as you can and even if it's not an impression, to embody that person, particularly if an audience happens to know who they were. But in this case, nobody knows who any of these characters were, so you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want. And also, my character was the most fictionalised of all the characters in the film, unlike the other characters.<br /><br />Q: Have you ever had any paranormal experiences?<br /><br />KS: I think working with George Clooney is about as paranormal as it gets.<br /><br />Q: Did you go home and practise some of the psychic techniques that you learnt, or were you actively encouraged to do this by the director?<br /><br />KS: I can admit I ran into a lot of walls in Puerto Rico. I never got through any of them.<br /><br />Q: You've been away from the screen for a while, focusing on the stage. I wondered if you were waiting for the right script before you take a lead role again or are you just taking a break?<br /><br />KS: I don't know – I did three movies last year, I did two movies the year before, I did two movies the year before that. I don't know what this break is you're talking about (laughter).<br /><br />Q: Well, obviously you had the voiceover in Moon and the supporting role in Men Who Stare At Goats, but I meant an actual lead.<br /><br />KS: Oh, an *actual lead*. No, I don't do those anymore. (laughter) No, I just finished two films in a row in which I'm the *actual* lead. I did a film called Casino Jack, about Jack Abramoff, who was a Washington lobbyist and a comedy I just did called Father of Invention. But I suppose I've been focused on building the theatre company over the last six seasons and things are going very well there so I had an opportunity to go out and do a couple of movies that I really enjoyed – I enjoyed the scripts and enjoyed the experiences of doing them. But my priority for the next six years will continue to be the Old Vic and I'll make films when they both suit my schedule and also to suit what interests me.<br /><br />Q: There's a documentary that's just come out, called Starsuckers, that looks at the way that newspapers run made-up or exaggerated stories about celebrities. Do you think the media's obsession with celebrity is out of control?<br /><br />KS: I don't get it. I don't understand the notion of people who might call themselves journalists, or who are in the profession of that, who would just make up stuff. I don't understand it as a function as a human being, I don't understand why that's of interest to somebody, to write something that's absolutely false in the hopes that 1800 outlets will print it. Obviously we live in a time – and maybe we always have, I don't know – where if you even bother to say, 'Oh, that story has no whit of truth to it', then they don't write that that story is false, they write that you have denied that that story was true, which is not the same thing as saying 'What we wrote was absolutely wrong'. So there's some people who choose to fight these kinds of things in the courts and there's some who choose to just go, 'You know what? It's yesterday's news, it's fish wrapping and I'm not going to worry about it'.<br /><br />END<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-756979774421343724?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-62903663297566128732011-08-06T19:31:00.000-07:002011-08-06T19:34:31.101-07:00Promoting: The Men Who Stare At Goats<br />Venue: Vue West End, London Film Festival<br />Interview type: Press conference<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--GRe_kFppkE/Tj35mvtGGnI/AAAAAAAAAm0/ZrDADJsyjxQ/s1600/Kevin%2BSpacey%2Band%2BGeorge%2BClooney.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--GRe_kFppkE/Tj35mvtGGnI/AAAAAAAAAm0/ZrDADJsyjxQ/s320/Kevin%2BSpacey%2Band%2BGeorge%2BClooney.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637936752573684338" /></a><br />Q: Were there long discussions about the tone of the movie?<br /><br />George Clooney (GC): The book, and there was a documentary done as well which was also very funny, it had such a unique tone, and I thought Peter just nailed the script. This is a script that’s been around town for a while, and all of us have been aware of it for a bit, it was named as one of the best un-made screenplays, so we were all anxious to get our hands on it, and see if there was a way we could do it, and [director Grant Heslov] had the right ideas.<br /><br />Q: What was it like working with Ewan McGregor?<br /><br />GC: After the restraining order, it was really hard to actually work with him. (laughter) It’s sort of shocking how absolutely fun and normal he is. We talk about the motor-cycle trips he takes around the world and down through Africa. He fits into this group of actors that are really fun to work with, they’re all professional, they do all their work before they show up, and so by the time you’re on the set, there isn’t a whole lot of misery. There’s the work between “Action” and “Cut” and then the rest of the time, you remember the rubber band fights, it’s fun. Actual food fights. I’m a big fun of his.<br /><br />Q: Did you approach the characters as if you were recreating a real-life person, or did you start from scratch?<br /><br />GC: It was whatever the script called for. We’ve done films before, like Good Night and Good Luck, where we had a great responsibility for accuracy, but this is one where we thought there’s something funny to be had, and we could just do it.<br /><br />Q: Why has it been so hard to make films about the Iraq war, and are we now in a stage where we can make war films that will work?<br /><br />GC: Any topical subject, if it’s Hollywood, will be a couple of years later, because you’ve got to write it, produce it and distribute it, so automatically you’re never going to be right on the cutting edge of stories. I think that we’ve been a little too close to the situation, and at times it’s such a polarising moment that it’s hard to make films that directly deal with that subject matter, since we’re in the middle of it still. We didn’t think of this as an Iraq war film, it’s a very different story completely. I’ve done an Iraq war film with Three Kings, which holds up and seems to be still relevant. I think this one is just a glancing blow at Iraq, it happens to take place there.<br /><br />Q: You can’t seem to stop working with Grant [Heslov], writing and producing. Directing you in this, what was that relationship like on set, and who’s the boss?<br /><br />GC: Grant’s the director, he was the boss. That’s the fun of it, directors are the dictatorship. I had nothing but faith in him, he’s incredibly talented and smart, so I’m lucky to be his friend for almost 30 years.<br /><br />Do you believe in the paranormal?<br /><br />GC: I’m not a big believer in much of that. Everybody goes through déjà vu and things like that, but I’m not a big believer in many of those things, I find them to be mostly coincidence.<br /><br />Q: On a similar note, did you go home and practise some of the psychic techniques that you learnt, or were you actively encouraged to do this by the director?<br /><br />GC: We kept trying. Busted a few clouds. It’s funny, there’s things that are made up in this screenplay, but the wackiest things are actually the real ones. When you read the book and you read about them literally trying to run through walls, they really did that - they believed they could. <br /><br />Q: The script had been around for a while. Was there a eureka moment which caused you to take the script on as producer?<br /><br />GC: These screenplays after they’ve been around for a while - even when they’re really good screenplays, things get attached to them and they get harder and harder to get made. There’ll suddenly be 30 producers and other people brought on, and it gets this baggage to it, that it really requires everybody being willing to come in. (So we were lucky to get) Kevin and Jeff and Ewan all being willing to come in and play ball and have fun on a film that isn’t necessarily a slam-dunk. It’s not Transformers.<br /><br />Q: How was it working with the goats?<br /><br />GC: Yesterday I was a fox (at the Fantastic Mr Fox press conference), now I’m working with goats. I tell you, this goat was a particularly nice goat. We spent a lot of time together. He wanted to go over the dying around me, so we worked on that for a while. The funny thing is, the goat was a great actor. He’d work it and really stare at the camera. If we could get Ewan to do that, it would help.<br /><br />Q: Do you think the media’s obsession with celebrity is out of control?<br /><br />GC: I’m the son of a news-man, I grew up around news. I can understand the issue which is, as papers are losing subscribers and they’re getting less and less outlets - it’s a tricky thing. You’re going to have to sell papers. The problem is, there’s so little reporting anymore. Someone will write a story and it’ll be in 1800 outlets from one person’s story. You’ll have no recourse, it’ll be false and you go, “It’s not true,” and they’ll say, “We’re not saying that, a London tabloid has said it,” and they’re re-printing and re-printing things that aren’t necessarily true. I understand why it happens, but it’s certainly an issue.<br /><br />END<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-6290366329756612873?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-90612708083214663412011-08-06T19:25:00.001-07:002011-08-06T19:28:39.137-07:00Promoting: Colin<br />Venue: The Horror Room in the Movieum, London<br />Interview type: One-on-two<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FvwJPqyt4wY/Tj33_7ykAsI/AAAAAAAAAms/SoaAvngdt1c/s1600/Marc%2Band%2BAlastair.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FvwJPqyt4wY/Tj33_7ykAsI/AAAAAAAAAms/SoaAvngdt1c/s320/Marc%2Band%2BAlastair.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637934986291315394" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): Where did the zombie point-of-view idea come from?<br /><br />Marc Price (MP): I was always a fan of zombie movies and I thought it would be great to make a zombie movie but I wanted to something that – to me, as a zombie fan – I thought I hadn't seen before. And the idea of doing a movie from the perspective of the zombie gave me so much to play about with, such as the lack of dialogue – I thought it would be interesting to use the language of film to engage an audience rather than a bunch of actors running around saying how they felt, which is how I write dialogue, because I'm just not very good. And I had Alastair very much in mind to play Colin. So it grew from there and then we looked at what locations we had available to us and other actors we wanted to work with who we knew and we based the script on that. And there were a couple of scenes that were kind of over-reaching but I felt that was important as well, because it's a challenge and it's fun.<br /><br />VL: So, Alastair, were you there right from the beginning? You knew each other before? <br /><br />Alastair Kirton (AK): Yeah, we'd worked on a couple of short films together. I think I was pretty much in Marc's mind when he first came up with the idea.<br /><br />MP: No, you were at least fourth or fifth choice (laughs).<br /><br />AK: (laughs) Thanks, man. Yeah. Dean Gaffney wasn't available. Yeah, Marc pitched the idea to me really early on. He didn't have a script, so he used wooden stirrers and sachets of sugar in a coffee shop to mark out the film and I knew he wanted me to do it when he stopped saying “And then Colin gets hit in the face with a hammer” and started saying “And then you get smacked in the face with a hammer and bundled into a car”, so I was like, “Oh, brilliant, he wants me to play a zombie. That's...terrifying.” But yes, I wanted to get involved and having worked with Marc a couple of times before, I really love the way he approaches things. Just his enthusiasm and joy at film, really. And we had a lot of the same reference points, movie-wise. So when you go into a project like that it's nice to know you're both on the same page and working towards the same goal.<br /><br />VL: So are you both big zombie fans then? What was your first zombie movie?<br /><br />MP: Dawn of the Dead was mine. We'd borrowed – of all the films – Ah'm Gonna Git You Sucka. My aunt had taped it for us and on the tape at the end it wound down and there was the end of Ghostbusters and we were like, 'Oh great, Ghostbusters' so we watched the end of Ghostbusters and then that wound down and then something else had finished and Dawn of the Dead was starting, so we missed the title but it was the shot of waking up and all the chaos in the television studios. And I just watched it, thinking 'This is fucking amazing' and then the tape ran out! And I was like 'Argh! What's this movie called?' I was about 11 then. And then, when I was 14, I think Alex Cox had it on Moviedrome and it came on and I recognised the shot straightaway and then it just blew me away. I couldn't believe all that amazing stuff was happening so early in a movie.<br /><br />VL: Which zombie movies were a big influence on the film?<br /><br />AK: Well, Day of the Dead was a big influence, in terms of Bub [a named zombie in the film]. Marc said that when he watched Day of the Dead he got really deeply emotionally concerned for that character. So Marc gave me Day of the Dead – I'd seen Dawn and a few other things, but I hadn't seen Day of the Dead – so we watched that and Bub was obviously a big influence. But then we kind of just chatted about what we thought the best way to approach it was. The idea was really to think that he didn't have much vision, he was just a creature very much caught in his own small circle of consciousness and just the way he approached things, the way he picks up objects and plays with them like a child, that was how we approached it.<br /><br />VL: Tell me about the special effects, because the effects are amazing for such a low-budget film.<br /><br />MP: In terms of make-up effects, we were really lucky to have someone like Michelle Webb. We put out a sort of casting call to make-up people and we said 'Hey, why don't you come? You're going to have to bring your own equipment because we don't have any money but you have total freedom to create any zombie you like, providing we have the ones that we need for the sequence'. And all the make-up people who came down were fantastic with that, but what Michelle Webb [make-up artist on X-Men: The Last Stand] did that was exceptional was that she'd show us how to apply these make-up effects ourselves and leave her equipment with us and say 'Okay, see you next week – good luck with the week's filming'. And then she'd come back, see what we'd done and say, 'Right, okay, you can do this now...' and she'd help us and teach us more. And where that ends up being a truly amazing thing is you've got someone like Justin Hales (who owns the production company with me, because he knows how to set them up), who's normally a very technically-minded guy, he's now an amazing make-up artist. And that's just through wanting to do something, not wanting to wait around for us to start filming. We were even leading the make-up session at Raindance with him.<br /><br />AK: I think the other thing that really helped was the fact that, being shown how to do it and you knowing how to capture things and the way to shoot things is that you just worked out the best way to cheat stuff, like the eye gouge and the face being pulled off. It's knowing what you can do with make-up.<br /><br />MP: And then how to light it and what the camera should be doing to sell it.<br /><br />VL: Did that all come from trial and error or from Michelle pointing you in the right direction?<br /><br />MP: It was more a case of what I'd read about film productions in the past. And also the setting I wanted to apply to the movie, how in the stiller moments where there isn't that human influence, the camera's fairly static or smoothly gliding along, but whenever the human is the dominant force we wanted it to have that sense of panic and franticness in the camera. And in the case of the street battle, if the camera was smoothly moving around then you'd see that none of those people are actors and none of them are capable of faking a decent fight (laughs).<br /><br />VL: How did you decide on Colin as the name of the film?<br /><br />MP: It's my dad's name. And I thought it was a gentle enough name and then we have him biting someone's face and ripping someone's arm off. <br /><br />VL: What was the biggest difficulty? I imagine there must have been times when the low budget meant you couldn't quite get something you wanted?<br /><br />AK: There was one make-up effect that we wanted to do, which was after the street battle, when Colin has a hammer lodged in his head and we tried so hard to get the damn thing to stick. We tried latex, we tried sellotape and I think the last thing we tried was four rubber bands, which were cutting off the circulation to the top of my head. And then we walked out and Marc was like, 'It's on the wrong way round', so we just lost it.<br /><br />VL: Which scene are you most proud of?<br /><br />MP: I think the street fight, what with the explosions and the very small amount of people we had there to shoot that scene and how we dealt with that, in terms of framing.<br /><br />AK: I just enjoyed the slower, more pensive bits, like the bit with the pigeon. Just the little bits, like Colin on his own and being a bit vulnerable, from a distance.<br /><br />VL: What's your next project, both of you?<br /><br />MP: We're working together again on something else. It takes place entirely on a Halifax bomber, returning from a mission over Europe. The plane's badly damaged, it's limping home and a creepy creature attacks one of the gunners. But it's not like the monster's killing everyone on the flight, it's only attacking this one guy. It's called Thunderchild, which is the name of the plane and hopefully it's an exercise in tension and it'll be an exciting ride.<br /><br />END<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-9061270808321466341?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-53834109728905682612011-08-06T19:19:00.000-07:002011-08-06T19:23:14.743-07:00Promoting: Vinyan<br />Venue: Revolver Office, Notting Hill<br />Interview type: One-on-one<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R7_nzr3Oxo8/Tj329raG5hI/AAAAAAAAAmk/Qw5KdOywroo/s1600/Rufus%2BSewell%252C%2Bflash.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R7_nzr3Oxo8/Tj329raG5hI/AAAAAAAAAmk/Qw5KdOywroo/s320/Rufus%2BSewell%252C%2Bflash.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637933848022410770" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): I thought Vinyan was extremely disturbing, and unlike anything I’ve seen for quite some time. I can't think of anything that's comparable to how disturbing it is, although obviously it's thematically similar to films like Don't Look Now, with a couple losing a child and then descending into madness. <br /><br />Rufus Sewell (RS): Absolutely, in a way there is an homage in there, it’s not accidental. I asked Fabrice (director Fabrice Du Welz) because that is a favourite film of mine. When I read the script it reminded me of so many different things that shouldn’t go together. It reminded me a little of Jacob's Ladder; I’m talking about films I really love – movies that fuck with your head. One of the frustrating things for me, which I knew, was they would have trouble marketing Vinyan. One of the reasons certain people react against this film is due to the marketing. In some areas they tried to market it as pure unadulterated horror – it’s not! I wouldn’t even call it a horror film. When I read the script, that's not what I read - I read a very painfully truthful psychological thriller that I found very moving. Put that along the side the fact that Fabrice believes he is making a ghost movie at the same time; which I think that contrast is extraordinary, in that it's a genre shifting film. To start off with, the film has a sort of John Cassavetes style to it. Very rough and hand held camera - close up, psychological drama. Which proceeds to get weirder, and weirder; and that is a very difficult thing to sell. It’s a very difficult film to even describe, in a way that doesn’t confuse people. <br /><br />VL: What was it like, working with Emmanuelle Beart?<br /><br />RS: Working with Emmanuelle was very easy, she is a very easy person to connect with. We just immediately felt like a couple. We were very relaxed and trusting of each other. I loved working with her. It was one of the easiest, automatic relationships I’ve ever had on screen. To use an American expression, we had each other's back; which is something that I never had to worry about, because it was just there. <br /><br />VL: Your character is obviously in a very dark place, psychologically. How do you prepare for something like that? <br /><br />RS: Well I don’t know if it’s about preparation really. Being a father, when I read it just hit me with a wallop. I didn’t need to sit and – you know, I had a natural reaction to the material. In terms of preparation, no it’s just the matter of being in the situation and letting it affect and infect you. I tried to just be as open and honest with each situation. The situation itself was so affecting, and oppressive you just had to struggle through it. I never had to search for it, it was there waiting for me. It’s such a powerful and horrible idea; there was no reason to be ghoulish during the preparation. It just happened that I had a natural and visceral reaction to it. <br /><br />VL: I was more thinking along the lines of the preparing for a character who loses their mind and dealing with that element? <br /><br />RS: Well, for a start, it’s always interesting, the moment you discover, as you go into the jungle that your directors’ hero is Werner Herzog (laughs). That was what was fantastic about working with Fabrice. I knew that, and loved that about him – I don't mean in any deranged way! That is what we were all excited about, the idea of going there. Fabrice arranged it in such a way that shooting was pretty much chronological. The beginning was the beginning, the middle was the middle and the end was very definitely the end. We did kind of unravel, which you know a lot of it is pretending. My relationship with Emmanuelle remained fantastic, it’s just that we spent less time giggling around the poly-styrofoam cups towards the end, because we were just exhausted. <br /><br />VL: Since you shot it chronologically, the last scene in the film being pretty horrendous, how did Emmanuelle prepare for that, and were you around for the filming? <br /><br />RS: Yes, I was around. A lot of the film had a very tight script, but a lot of things were forced because of the elements. The script really came together as we were doing it, if a scene didn’t turn out to be practical or if we had other ideas – like, there was massive rainstorm that we incorporated into the film – the incredible scene of us on the jetty, that was real rain. It just started raining, and Fabrice thought, “Fuck it, let's use this”. He an idea for a scene right then, which wound up being filmed. It was wonderful because he was so open to whatever the elements threw at us, because that is what the film is about. At the end I think they ended up with a crane shot they decided didn't work, and then it started raining and the children started going this way and this thing just happened and it was very much something they directed but it was spontaneous. I wasn’t there, but I remember talking to them all about it afterwards, and how excited they were. <br /><br />VL: Do you know if the sound design was planned from the beginning?<br /> <br />RS: Oh absolutely, it was a very, very strong part of it. The sound guy, the sound team we had to work with was there right from the beginning; it wasn't something that was tacked as an afterthought. <br /><br />VL: Had you seen Calvaire (Fabrice's previous film)? <br /><br />RS: Yes, I had. When I read the script I knew I already wanted to do it. Then I saw Calvaire, and it was doubly exciting. For a start, in this country, it’s a role I often don't become aware of until I’m in Blockbusters to be honest; they don’t send them to me. It is something that is changing though. The fact that this is a French film with a Belgian director, that's no coincidence; otherwise it wouldn't have come to me. I thought to myself, thank God finally a normal guy in extraordinary circumstances, not some twat on a horse. I was very excited about that, because I thought it was such a great script; and you know an English bloke who has that kind of cultural frustration and blocked anger which he's emotionally ill-equipped as he finds himself in this terrible bind – and I wanted to play it and I pretty much told them that and then I saw Calvaire and then I was like, 'Oh Jesus, this guy is nuts' - in the best way! He's got this extraordinary imagination. <br /><br />VL: You’d never worked with Emmanuelle before, had you even met each other? <br /><br />RS: No, never. I didn’t know what to expect, and I had seen some of her work before. It wasn’t until I went over to France for an early read-through, that we immediately hit it off – it was easy. Talking about it sounds weird, like people are expecting to see signs of it on screen. If the chemistry is there, it's all pretty straight-forward. If it's not there, it's amazingly complex to fake. But if it's there, it's amazingly work-a-day – it's just a couple and you believe them. It’s something you see on the street every day. It’s not like, “Oh my GOD, look at their chemistry!” - we were just naturally relaxed with each other, and you buy it on screen. You see couples all the time, and you don’t need to read their biography. It's something that you can work out for yourself, because you believe the basic silhouette. <br /><br />VL: What was the hardest scene to film? <br /><br />RS: The underwater scene was quite difficult, because when she fights, she really fights. I really couldn’t point out one. As we got further and further into filming, it became more and more zombiefied . <br /><br />VL: I had read a review that suggested the red shirt on the child in the video was a reference to Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. Was that a conscious thing?<br /><br />RS: What, from a Belgian director? Yeah, well that’s the internet for you, isn't it? No. <br /><br />VL: It was Sight and Sound!<br /><br />RS: Really? Well, there you go. No, there is nothing behind that. People have their jobs to do; I’ve found that people in writing can be a little disingenuous. They say things they might not necessarily believe, but there is a certain copy. <br /><br />VL: I suppose the red top also calls back to Don't Look Now again.<br /><br />RS: Absolutely. And if you're talking about that, then also Schindler's List and anything from Michael Powell to Raging Bull. Red is a really good colour! (laughs) But thematically or media-wise, these things are British flashpoints, but these are French and Belgian film-makers, and these things vary by country. <br /><br />VL: A French film-maker with a British actor, one can make the connection? <br /><br />RS: Yes, but what I mean is the person who wrote the script comes from a culture where that red top doesn’t have the same implications. <br /><br />VL: What are you doing next? <br /><br />RS: Right now I am working on a thing in Budapest called Pillars of the Earth, which is being produced by Scott Free Productions (owned by Ridley and Tony Scott). I believe it’s going to be 4 part two hour mini-series. There is money coming in from all different cultures, which means there is isn’t one conglomerate making all the artistic decisions. The director, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, who was Steven Spielberg’s First AD for a very long time. The story is based on the novel by Ken Follet, and has been really well adapted. And the cast is great, it's got Donald Sutherland, Ian McShane, Eddie Redmayne, Haley Atwell and Matthew Macfadyen – a really good cast. I play a builder named Tom. It's why I've got this big butch beard. <br /><br />VL: You're not on a horse, then? <br /><br />RS: Ha, no, not on a horse! For me, the caricature I’m not interested in playing, it's not so much about period drama, it’s the specific type of one-dimensional baddie. And in fact, if I want to play another one, I fucking will, actually. It's just as long as there is a choice involved. For me, playing a working man and a father is no different from playing anything else but difficult for me to be cast in those roles. So I'm really enjoying playing somebody who can move a fridge. <br /><br />VL: You say Vinyan is a departure for you, was that part of the appeal as well? <br /><br />RS: Yes, but you say departure, but for me it is more a departure from the kind of role I can get. The biggest departure I’ve ever made was to play a baddie actually, because the truth is I’m a comic actor. The biggest departure I’ve ever done is any job I ever do. The problem is I live in the real world where it is actually a question of convincing pen-pushers and secretaries to give me the opportunity to do what I do easiest. For me, it was a chance to do something I felt comfortable with, but not something people were comfortable in casting me in. That is why I’m so pleased to be playing a father now because a lot of the characters I’ve played are people you wouldn’t let near your children. I don’t like the word departure, because that would suggest that for me, it is; for me it's not. It's just an opportunity. <br /><br />END<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-5383410972890568261?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-26729087420865798422011-08-06T19:11:00.000-07:002011-08-06T19:18:43.904-07:00Promoting: DVD release of Tormented<br />Venue: Premier PR Office, London<br />Interview type: One-on-one<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-45yfxp0qjIY/Tj31jUjp8bI/AAAAAAAAAmc/F8s48oi085s/s1600/Georgia%2B%25282%2529.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-45yfxp0qjIY/Tj31jUjp8bI/AAAAAAAAAmc/F8s48oi085s/s320/Georgia%2B%25282%2529.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637932295700214194" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): I see you're a recent convert to Twitter. How did that happen?<br /><br />Georgia King (GK): I had absolutely no idea what it was. And I actually like the old-school Judi Dench-types who believe their private lives are their own and keep them to themselves and I feel like it's getting a bit too like, celebrities, let's know every detail about everyone and it's kind of all sort of mashing into one, so I actually didn't want to be a part of Twitter, was going to go off Facebook, you know, the whole works – I was going to start a revolution, with no followers (laughs). But Jon Wright, the director of Tormented said, 'It's really important you go on it, because it's just the way things are nowadays and actually, doing Tormented and doing all the press and doing all the DVD extras, with the flip-video cameras and things, it really is about that – people are really interested to know what the person is like. And I actually wanted to differentiate myself from the characters that I've been playing, because I think people can look at you and go, 'Oh, you're a real mean cow' or 'You must be so gentle and soft because you only ever do period dramas' – someone said that about me, which is very, very far from true. So I went on Twitter, but I literally only just discovered the 'Replies' button the other day and there were all these messages I hadn't responded to! But it's important, because I think the positive side of the public is a very good side to hold on to, because obviously, the negative is huge, to everyone, not just me. So I am slightly, reluctantly, converted.<br /><br />VL: You are all over the Tormented extras. How was it doing all the behind-the-scenes stuff?<br /><br />GK: I love doing behind-the-scenes. I have no qualms about appearing in front of a camera, it's just watching the end product! They gave us so much stuff – I was immediately so impressed, on the set, when they came in and told us about all the extras. They rigged up a fake toilet cubicle and I think a couple of people were like, 'No, I will not go in there, it's too personal', but I loved the place (laughs). It's brilliant! It's an interview, but I get to choose the questions, which is amazing and also a real privilege. It's lovely to have people invest their time and energy in very inventive ways of getting extras from us. And then, the flip-video cameras, when we're in character, which a lot of people didn't get on YouTube, originally. So they were watching me going, like, 'Oh, I hate this girl, she's so vain, she's so shallow' and I was kind of tempted to write back under some fake name like George, George Kingdom and reply, saying, 'It's not really Georgia King!' But I think people have cottoned on now, which is great. But yes, the behind-the-scenes stuff was great, we had Alex Tanner, who directed all the extras, he got so much footage and it's a shame he couldn't put more on the DVD, because he had some cracking stuff.<br /><br />VL: What's the reaction to the film been like? Have you been recognised from it?<br /><br />GK: I have been. I actually had my hair dyed very dark brown for a role, which made me look so different that no-one recognised me, although someone actually hit me on the head as they ran past and went, 'You're from Wild Child!' (laughs) and just kept running and I was like, 'Yeah! Bye, buddy!' It was a very weird moment, the other day. But now I'm back to blonde, people do give me little comments here and there. With Tormented, I think for those that got it – because it's actually very, very clever and very funny – they loved it. It's amazing – if you understand what it's saying and what it's doing, it's brilliant. It's not meant to be the scariest thing you've ever seen – I think a few people were under the impression that it was just a horror film and it's a slasher-horror, it's a comedy horror. And I'd like to think it's very unique – the cast and the look and the feel of it are unlike a lot of horror films that are made. And I think they took bold choices with their casting that paid off, like with Tuppence, who'd never made a film before. And also, I'm not the skinniest girl and I have that scene in my knickers and I've definitely got hips and a bum, I think we all learned that, watching that film (laughs). And, FYI, the camera adds at least 25 pounds, to me personally. So I'm definitely aware of not being skinny, but that's great, I think that's really important, again, that people aren't just looking for one type of girl, which is tiny, petite, very thin. I'm hoping that more normal women are being accepted in the film industry, which I think they are. And curves are good! Guys like curves! They are under-rated in the film industry. I think film stars have always looked after themselves and been very thin, but I think as a generation we're much bigger now, so the contrast between those size zero actors-slash-models and normal people is that much more extreme. And I'm not saying 'Be obese' but I do think being healthy should be the priority. <br /><br />VL: What else have you got coming up?<br /><br />GK: I'm in St Trinians 2, briefly, I just did a small role in that. And then I've got Tanner Hall, which I was downloading my lesbian bath scene from, for my showreel the other day – it's actually one of my best scenes! Also, weirdly, I was in Wild Child, but I just auditioned for another film called Wild Child too. Very strange. But Tanner Hall was my first American film, the first audition I did when I got to L.A. It's about four girls at a very old, run-down boarding school in New England and everything's very still and beautiful. And these girls are at that weird, big gear-change in their teenage years, so one's having an affair with another man, another's not sure about her sexuality and is terrified about it and the other one is so sure of her sexuality that she abuses it. And then my character, Victoria, is the new girl who goes in and destroys them all! But it's quite cool – it's got a kind of Virgin Suicides, dream-like quality to it. And it's directed by two women and if you knew them, it is absolutely a product of these two women – they're the most dream-like, ethereal creatures and I've never met two people like them. <br /><br />END<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-2672908742086579842?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-83993740218639059912011-08-06T19:04:00.000-07:002011-08-06T19:11:22.157-07:00Promoting: Sorority Row<br />Venue: The Sanctum Soho Hotel, London<br />Interview type: Press conference<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pbyzWT3PdWw/Tj3zH95VyII/AAAAAAAAAmM/Ehp11lI2C0U/s1600/rumer-willis.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pbyzWT3PdWw/Tj3zH95VyII/AAAAAAAAAmM/Ehp11lI2C0U/s320/rumer-willis.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637929626737428610" /></a><br />Question (Q): What attracted you to Sorority Row?<br /><br />Rumer Willis (RW): When I read it I was really intrigued by how unique it was. All the death scenes, the way these girls were talking to each other… It was a female-driven cast, which I thought was great because most of the time in these horror movies all you see is a couple making love in the corner, then you see the killer outside the window, the girl ends up dying two minutes later. I was excited by the female-empowerment aspect to it.<br /><br />Q: Had you seen the 1983 original film?<br /><br />RW: They didn’t want us to watch it.<br /><br />Q: You spend most of the film screaming and crying with snot hanging out your nose. Do you worry about not looking pretty on screen?<br /><br />RW: God no, I would never want the responsibility of being the prettiest girl in the room. That would be too much. But after I did House Bunny I don’t think I could look any worse. I mean, I was in a metal back brace, so after that the snot and the tears were kind of easy.<br /><br />Q: Have you encountered any total bitches like the ones in the movie?<br /><br />RW: Definitely. All through elementary school, high school, middle school – they’re everywhere. How did I cope? You just don’t surround yourself with people like that, although it’s fun to play them in movies.<br /><br />Q: You’ve had vocal training. Did that help when it came to all the screaming?<br /><br />RW: I’m sure it did. I don’t know where the screams come from. I had no idea I could scream that loud. The sound guys by the end of the movie were not so happy with me. You definitely lose your voice afterwards but I like screaming, it’s fun. But I was a little jealous Briana got to do all these stunts while I was hiding in the closet the whole time.<br /><br />Q: Did you research the great horror movies for your scream?<br /><br />RW: I watched Scream and those other ones before that. Neve Campbell has some great ones in the Scream movies. You take things like that and keep changing it up.<br /><br />Q: Have you played any pranks at parties?<br /><br />RW: No, although I hear if you put saran wrap on a toilet it’s pretty funny. I always forget on April Fool’s Day to do stuff like that.<br /><br />Q: How did you celebrate your 21st?<br /><br />RW: I got to hang out with Briana, which was awesome. We went to Las Vegas, hung out, had a great time, Elvis sang to me… It was great.<br /><br />Q: There was a lot of jamming on set, wasn’t there?<br /><br />RW: We’d get back to the hotel at around 5 o’clock in the morning when we were done shooting. There was a piano on the second floor and we rocked out, which was fun. Maybe we’ll try karaoke while we’re here in London.<br /><br />Q: What are your favourite horror movies?<br /><br />RW: It’s so hard to pick one because there are so many different horror genres. I’d like to do something where I’m the bad guy, a good psychological horror film.<br /><br />Q: Is having a famous surname a help or a hindrance?<br /><br />RW: I don’t think you can ever look at anything you’ve come into this world with as either good or bad – it’s just what you get and you can’t do anything about it. Everyone has opportunities and different doors that are open to them in different ways to whatever they want to do. The thing in the end is if you’re talented you’ll get work and if you’re not then you won’t. It doesn’t really matter who you know in the end. You could go and get an audition but if you go in there and you suck they’re not going to give you the job.<br /><br />Q: Are you parents supportive of your career choice?<br /><br />RW: They’ve always been entirely supportive and extremely great in that way. I couldn’t ask for anything better.<br /><br />Q: Did you ever consider any other careers?<br /><br />RW: For a while when I was a kid I kind of wanted to be a doctor, but I don’t know why. It sounds like so much work. But I figure one day I could play a doctor in something and get that out of the way.<br /><br />Q: Would you come back for a sequel?<br /><br />RW: Providing my character makes it to the end of the movie, I would love to be in the sequel if that happens to work out for me. To get to try other things, other genres, would be fantastic but you can’t be too picky.<br /><br />Q: What do you most enjoy about acting?<br /><br />RW: Being able to connect with people. [Laughs] I hope people aren’t going through similar events to those in Sorority Row, but if you can connect with someone and they don’t feel alone because they saw something you were in. Or you can play a part that changes someone’s entire idea about something. And it’s like getting to play dress-up all the time and you get to do all these different things – especially a film in which, say, you have to learn a new skill for. I’m not a great dancer but if I got to do a film where had to learn something completely new, I’d love to do that.<br /><br />Q: How was it filming in Pittsburgh?<br /><br />RW: We had a great time there and found some great restaurants. I’d definitely go back.<br /><br />Q: Was Ellie the character you most wanted to play?<br /><br />RW: I actually went in for Jessica and Leah Pipes, who ended up playing Jessica, went in for Ellie. I’d love to play a character like Jessica – to really go for it. But I really liked Ellie and when I saw Leah doing Jessica at the table read I realised she was perfectly cast. <br /><br />Q: Was she such a bitch in real life? <br /><br />RW: No, she’s the complete opposite. She couldn’t be sweeter.<br /><br />Q: Do you feel pressure as a young woman in Hollywood to always look fantastic and be in great shape?<br /><br />RW: I miss being able to walk to the grocery store in my PJs, but what are you gonna do? But one of the most important things that I would love to do, if hopefully it all works out and I get to continue doing this, is to set a really positive role model for young women about their body image and about eating. In the past few years this idea of perfection that has come up in Hollywood, there needs to be a shift in that – especially in the younger generations. I have two younger sisters in high school and I hear about it all the time, and I would like to give out a much better body image message.<br /><br />Q: And what would that message be?<br /><br />RW: That girls don’t need to be stick-thin where you can see your bones through your skin. It’s not a good look. You don’t need that to be beautiful or to fit in. What you are is exactly what you should be. You can’t let other people dictate how you live your life or how you look. That’s not living. That’s another reason why I love being an actress. When you stop working you forget you don’t have someone to do your hair every day. You go on set and you look like crap and an hour later you can look beautiful. I could never spend that much time on all that myself.<br /><br />Q: But isn’t everyone in the movie in incredible shape?<br /><br />RW: But they’re just normal looking girls. We didn’t go in and hire a bunch of girls who had no body. But it is a bit ridiculous when there’s a shot of them drawing the fat circles on one of the girls – that’s just so ridiculous.<br /><br />Q: How important is it to you to play strong female characters?<br /><br />RW: Obviously Hollywood is still run by men and to be able to be in a film that is full of strong, empowered females is amazing.<br /><br />Q: Are you any good at keeping secrets?<br /><br />RW: I’m OK. My own secrets I’m bad at keeping, but other people’s secrets I can keep. <br /><br />END<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-8399374021863905991?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-84810890573994970862011-08-06T18:53:00.000-07:002011-08-06T19:01:04.380-07:00<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Promoting: The First Day of the Rest of Your Life</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Venue: The Edinburgh Film Festival</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Interview type: One-on-one</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jvY-5DY0Mlw/Tj3xXKPSP8I/AAAAAAAAAmE/rdPoN8Kx9h8/s1600/Remi%2BBezancon.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jvY-5DY0Mlw/Tj3xXKPSP8I/AAAAAAAAAmE/rdPoN8Kx9h8/s320/Remi%2BBezancon.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637927688725479362" /></a>ViewLondon (VL): Where did the idea for the film come from?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Rémi Bezançon (RB): The film is about how time is spent. I wanted to pose that question and talk about time, so I thought the best way to do this would be through the depiction of a family. I was thinking about Italian family comedies and the dramas that result through the different generations in the family. The idea then was to tell this story in an original way, so I chose five different days within the family and had a large amount of time pass between these five different days, to highlight the idea of time.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Was the structure of the film something that came through the writing or something you had in mind before?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RB: That was my idea from the beginning. I deliberately left so much time between the five days to allow the audience member to fill in the gaps between them, using their own memories and reflecting on their own experiences. It's interactive, in a way. I wasn't so sure that it would work, at first. In order for it to work, the family needed to experience or live things that every day-to-day family could live, not things that were out of this world. Things that people could identify with.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: How much of the film was drawn from your own family and experiences?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RB: A little. Very, very little. For example, for the Super-8 film sequences, I was inspired by some home movies that my grandfather made with my mother when she was a girl. But there are also a few little things and some lines of dialogue. When my family saw the film, they didn't recognise any of it, which is a good thing.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Do you have a similar family unit?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RB: I have two big brothers and one little sister, so it's like I've stepped outside and am looking in at my own family. I can put myself into every different member of the family.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Can you tell me about the casting? How long was the casting process and did you know which actors you wanted from the start?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RB: Not very long. I cast the parents first and the first person that I cast was Jacques Gamblin. I chose him because he has a special air about him and I very much like him, as an actor. After that I cast Zabou Breitman as the mother. I liked her very much, because she has a huge range – she can play comedy, she can play drama and I was very much drawn to the tragi-comedy that she brings to the role. But in France, these actors aren't particularly bankable. So it was quite difficult to get the go-ahead to make the film with them, but I really wanted both of them for these roles. When I cast the children I really wanted to find a family that could hold the comedy that I wanted, so I was trying to find a family atmosphere when I was casting.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: The younger son, Marc-André Grondin was the lead in a film called C.R.A.Z.Y. Had you seen that?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RB: Yes. When I was writing the script for the film, the casting director told me to see C.R.A.Z.Y. And Marc-André Grondin was very good in C.R.A.Z.Y., so I cast him from that. And C.R.A.Z.Y. was cool too – there are a lot of similarities between C.R.A.Z.Y. and The First Day.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Where did the title come from?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RB: From American Beauty – Kevin Spacey says something similar in the film. Also there's a song with the same title, by Etienne Daho, which comes on at the end of the film.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Do you have a particular favourite scene in the film?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RB: I like the scene with the cushion at the end, when the mother lets the air out of it. That was actually the first scene that I wrote.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Did you cut out anything that you really hated to lose?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RB: I didn't really cut a lot, maybe one or two scenes I had to readjust. You often have to choose scenes like that, but I didn't cut too much.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: You mentioned Italian family comedies earlier. Are there any specific directors that have influenced you in the same way?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RB: Yes, definitely. Wes Anderson, for example – I love both The Royal Tenenbaums and The Darjeeling Limited. I also like Sam Mendes. There are a lot of influences from American cinema, but also from French cinema, particularly the films of Claude Sautet. There are so many other things. I love the six hour Italian mini-series, The Best of Youth – that was very, very good. That was a big reference for me. And the American series, Six Feet Under – that was a big reference for me too. I love it. Psychologically, that was a fantastic series.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: What's your next project?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RB: My next project is an adaptation of a book called The Happy Event, by Eliette Abécassis. It's about a pregnant lady. It's a very good book and I hope my movie will be very good too. I have finished the script and I hope to start shooting in March. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">END</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-8481089057399497086?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-23300589874673166992011-07-23T18:35:00.001-07:002011-07-23T18:38:02.894-07:00<div>Promoting: The Crimson Wing</div><div>Venue: Cineworld, Edinburgh Film Festival</div><div>Interview type: One-on-two</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dyjdDWFnY4M/Tit2_4ubbfI/AAAAAAAAAl8/Bd_DiGTQIVg/s1600/Matthew%2BAeberhard%2Band%2BLeander%2BWard.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dyjdDWFnY4M/Tit2_4ubbfI/AAAAAAAAAl8/Bd_DiGTQIVg/s320/Matthew%2BAeberhard%2Band%2BLeander%2BWard.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632726598887894514" /></a><br /><div><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">ViewLondon (VL): Can you say a little about how the film came about?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Matthew Aeberahrd (MA): Two different points of Leander and myself but both distilling around these images that were shown to us by our friend Stefan Hotrell, who was a microlite pilot and he'd been flying over Lake Natron, giving us this view down through the reflected surface of the water and you could see these wonderful colours, the reds and the greens. They're literally out of this world and they kind of blew our minds and we realised that yes, we had something different here and this was a location worthy of a big screen film.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Leander Ward (LW): And then we needed a through-line and the more we uncovered the place, the more we realised that it was significant to the flamingos – I mean, I'm sure Matt knew that already but I didn't – it was amazing to learn this fact, that it was the only lake that they bred at in East Africa. And then we got back to the UK, having finished the separate projects we were working on, and started thinking about putting some energy into this and we spent years in this little box of an office, hacking away. And then with the help of Matt's wife Mel [writer Melanie Finn] we sort of boiled it down into something much more defined that we could really go out to people with, that felt like a film.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Why flamingos?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">MA: I just think epic spectacle is the simplest way to put it. They're the ornithological equivalent of the wildebeest migration – no-one knows anything about them. In front of us at Natron in the year we were filming, we had nine hundred thousand birds breeding – that's quite a phenomenal sight.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">LW: I think also, one of the things we wanted to do was have a strong music background to the film, have the film kind of propelled by the music. The tradition of many of these films is exactly that. We just realised that these birds were incredibly musical, the way they dance and the way they fly, the rhythms that they take on. So that was an exciting aspect.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Are you at the point where neither of you ever want to see another flamingo again as long as you live?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">MA: Not on film! (laughs) I spent a year at Natron after the film, after the edit – I went back there. It's time to move on to other things now, but certainly I would always want to go back and spend time at the lake there.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Puffins next?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">MA: Puffins are pretty sweet, yeah. Could be a good Scottish angle there.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: The incredible flying shot with the reflection of the birds underneath was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. You've created a whole generation of screensaver material there. How did you get that?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">MA: That was the mirror-like surface of the lake. The water is just a level plain because it's so thick with salt. It's very dense and doesn't ruffle with the wind. That particular shot was actually taken from a hide, on a hill, looking down and then panning along, but it gives you the sense of movement because there's no reference point. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Another incredible shot was the shot that's right alongside one particular flamingo as it's flying along – how did you get that shot?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">MA: That's either taken from the hovercraft or again, from a high angle but with a long lense just focussing on a detail of that. Just to give you an idea, the previous shot was taken from hundreds of yards away, but with a very long lense.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: How does something like that happen? Do you just point the camera and hope for the best?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">MA: I think you have to work for the images. You have to move around and look for details in the landscape that you can pull out and isolate. So it's a lot of work, but yes, if you see something you think is really good then you just grab it when it's happening. But knowing what is good, that's something that comes from experience, that's the craft of it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: I gather you broke the Attenborough Code and intervened in the case of the flamingo chick with the salt shackles?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">LW: Well, we weren't the first to do that. I know that a very well-regarded wildlife film-maker called Alan Root that Matt worked for came across a lot of these anklet chicks back in the late 60s – at Magardia Lake in Kenya, a lake next to Natron – and because conditions were right, the birds would cross over from their breeding ground. But there were literally a hundred thousand of these little things with these anklets and he spent about five days, with a group of people, just hacking all these salt shackles off. It was a big, big mission. So we just did the few that we saw and it's very hard to leave something like that, you know?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">MA: I don't think it's about breaking the Attenborough Code. I think why not, you know? There are those chicks with anklets, lots of them die, the ones that we filmed we happened to just chip them off and give them a second chance. It doesn't affect anyone or anything – we're not denying an animal food. These things would just die and become mummified on the salt. I think maybe the interference element is when you interfere to deny something food, like saving a gazelle from a jackal, say, you're depriving the jackal of its meal for the day, so that's not justifiable, but in this context there's no harm either way.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">LW: It would have been worse if we'd broken off the anklets and then eaten them.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Was there anything that you cut that you really hated to lose?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">LW: I think we'd have liked more time to comfortably get everything. We did very well in the year we had, but it was pressured and there were certain things we might have wanted to develop that we couldn't.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">MA: We had enough time but we had a few toys that we didn't really make use of, because basically, the sharp end of wildlife photography is just a guy with a camera and the more you add to that, the more complicated the process is. So just getting the main story was the first thing and then we ran out of time to play around with some motion-control stuff, gyro-mounts and stuff like that.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Is there a shot you're particularly proud of? A favourite scene?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">MA: In terms of shots I'm happiest with, I like some of the shots where I filmed faces in rocks. They're not obvious, but for me it was hard to get the lighting right, go there on the right day and frame those shots in a way that worked best. They're small, little things but that's what I worked hardest at to get right, myself.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">LW: I'm happy with the wing-flick shot I took. The first time you see the birds and they make that movement with their wings – it was a real surprise when it happened and I caught that and was pleased with that.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">END</p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-2330058987467316699?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-65175550126056710942011-07-23T18:26:00.000-07:002011-07-23T18:29:44.533-07:00<div>Promoting: The September Issue</div><div>Venue: The Scotsman Hotel, Edinburgh Film Festival</div><div>Interview type: One-on-one</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-otSUqrhcnIY/Tit1DAb81OI/AAAAAAAAAl0/QB7sotzr5pc/s1600/RJ%2BCutler.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 246px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-otSUqrhcnIY/Tit1DAb81OI/AAAAAAAAAl0/QB7sotzr5pc/s320/RJ%2BCutler.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632724453474227426" /></a><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">ViewLondon (VL): How did the project come about? </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RJ Cutler (RJC): Somebody had given me an article about Anna [Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue], and I read it and thought she would make a fascinating subject for film. I met with her, and it was actually she who suggested the September Issue as a kind of structure for the shoot and I embraced that because it meant we would have access to them for close to nine months. All you need to make these movies, other then story-telling ability is access and money. Anna was offering nine months of access and that is music to a filmmaker’s ears. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: I read that you originally approached her first, and then she came back. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RJC: Yeah, I really didn’t know. The article I had read was about a big party that she (Wintour) throws every year. A costume institute gala-ball that she hosts and you know it’s such a big deal, raising over 5 million dollars in one night. The guest list is really a who’s who in the worlds of entertainment, fashion, business, media and society. They say every year; it is the party of the year. I think now looking back it would have been a terrible idea for a movie, just a terrible idea. Parties are you know, there is no pay-off to a party. Everyone goes to the party and then they come home. Who cares? The September Issue is a great idea for a structuring device. Once again, Anna was right! </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: That seems to be a reoccurring theme.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RJC: Maybe </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Obviously the most wonderful discovery in the film is the relationship between Anna and Grace [Coddington]. Can you talk about how that came about? </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RJC: Well, it’s not a discovery. I didn’t have to dig very deep. If you are at Vogue you know that if you spend any time there, that you can’t help but recognize the most fiery relationship at the magazine is between Anna and Grace. Here you have two of the most significant figures in the fashion world in the last thirty years-if not the last century. As I say it is almost impossible not to recognize that this is the key relationship. The challenge was persuading Grace to let us film with her. That was the biggest challenge, because part of the conflict in their dynamic meant that once Anna invited us in, Grace hated the idea that we were there. We were just another battlefield, and over time we were able to win her over. This was shocking to almost everyone at Vogue. Andre couldn’t believe it, Tom Floreo couldn't believe it, Patrick who is Anna’s director of communications couldn’t believe it. Anna herself couldn’t even believe it. Anna would tease Grace, refer to her as the movie star. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: And she is the movie star!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RJC: And she is the movie star, she absolutely is. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: When did you kind of realize that she was going to let you in to that extent? Because, as you said, her first words to you were “go away” and she repeated those words several times. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RJC: Yes she did, several times with increasing forcefulness. Go away was the nice thing she said to me. About four months in, I kind of couldn’t take it anymore. I was trying to figure out what the film was about. I had been shooting for four months, which is a lot of time. I couldn’t see a way to make this movie that wasn’t about their relationship. That was the movie, that was the movie. The movie tells you what it is, you don’t tell it. So much media that I see, so many documentaries that I see, somebody has decided what they want to say. Once you decide what you want to say, I am so uninterested. I couldn’t care less, don’t make a movie if you decide what you want to say ahead of time. Write it down send it off to someone and blog it…put it online. If you know what you want to say upfront don’t waste your time, don’t waste your subject's time, don’t waste everybody’s money- and for god's sake don’t waste your audiences’ time because it is boring. The whole point in making these movies is to go into these foreign lands, and they reveal themselves to you, and then you get to relate to the world. Really in a way the movie is a conduit of like what it was and what it is at Vogue in 2007 – Anna and Grace. That is what it is and there is no way around it. I couldn’t take it anymore. I went to Grace, I didn’t fall to my knees but I might as well have. I just said I can’t make this film without you, and here we are and we are good people and you are going to be happy that you gave us a chance – but you have to start by giving us a chance, and she gave us a chance. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Clearly she had a pretty great relationship with the crew and you by the end of the movie. She was joking with you all the time. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RJC: Of course, of course – but everybody does. Our relationship with Anna was wonderful by the end of the film. We are there for nine months, and all we want to do is see what they do. It’s like if someone followed you for nine months, and all they wanted to do was tell the story of what you do, and how you do it and why you do it and who you are. You’d think they were awesome, I think. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: So how did the day-to-day filming break down. You say nine months, but it’s not like it is 9-5 for nine months? </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RJC: No, it is always different and there is no way to kind of even describe it. You are in the flow of the situation. At the beginning you kind of very consciously say you are going to be there this day, and then work out when we're going to come back tomorrow. Not going to be here the next day, but will be here for two days after that. Now were going to go off to Paris with you. Next weekend we’d like to come over to your house for the day. But, that is just at the beginning. 'Oh you have that meeting, can we come?' Within a month or two I went to Anna and said: 'Now what we need to do is come and go as we will.' You do come and go as you will, because you need to be able to see anything. Second of all, you want them to miss you when you are gone. You don’t just show up everyday. Some days you don’t come in. You know you are doing well when you take a few days off, and somebody gets in touch with you, asking where have you guys been? That is what you want. You want them to want to do what you are there to do, which is to open up, which is how you get them to do it. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Speaking of opening up, were you ever worried that people would be very guarded around you because obviously if Anna sees them badmouthing her or a decision that has been made, then there'd be repercussions from that. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RJC: Yes, but not with any kind of urgency and certainly not after Grace got on board. Once Grace was on board, it was like, 'We can say anything we want because god knows Grace is saying anything she wants.' </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: You said you shot over 320 hours of footage. Clearly within that you’ve had to lose an awful lot of material. Was there anything in particular that you hated to lose?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RJC: No, I didn’t hate to lose anything because everything we took out was making the movie not as good as the movie is. There are wonderful scenes that will be on the DVD. Wonderful scenes of Andre, great scenes of the party, the ball. They are great scenes but everything I took out that really didn’t service the film that we ended up with. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Are you promising us 319 hours of deleted scenes? </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RJC: Ha ha! We’ll see, we’ll see. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: What does Anna think of the film?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RJC: You know, she thinks its my movie. She thinks if she were the director it would be a completely different movie. She thinks, 'Wow it’s awesome that everybody loves it, and good for me'. As I say, she had plenty of notes, but I had final cut. I listened to her, but I made the movie I wanted to make.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">END</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-6517555012605671094?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-21879100597660965952011-07-23T18:08:00.001-07:002011-07-23T18:10:28.848-07:00<div>Promoting: (500) Days of Summer</div><div>Venue: The Soho Hotel, London</div><div>Interview type: Round table</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tDN9SHQEjn0/Titwrr5QVVI/AAAAAAAAAls/7gheI9eo2Oc/s1600/joseph-gordon-levitt-02.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 254px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tDN9SHQEjn0/Titwrr5QVVI/AAAAAAAAAls/7gheI9eo2Oc/s320/joseph-gordon-levitt-02.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632719654776493394" /></a><br /><div><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Question (Q): Can you relate to some of the experiences of the film? How do you mend a broken heart?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Joseph Gordon-Levitt (JG-L): Of course, everybody can relate to both sides. Everyone’s been Tom, everybody’s been Summer at some point or another, to some degree or another. I certainly have. That was really our aim with this, to not just make something that’s funny or pulls at the heartstrings, so to speak, but is actually heartfelt and honest.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Have you ever been that low, though?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: I’ve been pretty sad!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Is sad British pop music big in America? Was that something you could relate to?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">J-GL: Yeah, the Clash, the Smiths, those bands are definitely a very big deal.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: How refreshing for you was it that it’s the guy who’s the romantic fantasist and the girl’s the cynic? It’s usually the other way around.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: I like that neither of the characters fit so neatly into any gender box, that both exhibit traits that would typically be assigned to either one or the other, in like our parents’ generation of love stories. I think it’s a sign of the times that we as a people, and we as a culture, are kind of becoming more ready to be individuals and have less of a need to strictly adhere to any conventions or stereotypes.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: What are your music tracks for those falling in and out of love moments?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: Well, it all depends. I’ll tell you, when we were shooting (500) Days of Summer, what I listened to a lot was [co-star Zooey Deschanel's band] She &amp; Him. Everyone loves it in the States.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: You’ve done a little dance video to that, haven’t you?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: Yes, I’m pleased to say that, because there’s a dance number in the movie and Zooey isn’t in it, which is a tragedy, because Zooey is built for dance numbers. So we made this little short film that’s out online [on Gordon-Levitt's own site, <span ><u><a href="http://www.hitrecord.org/">http://www.hitrecord.org</a></u></span> – see below], the director and Zooey and I, to one of her songs. Every morning on my way to work, I listened to She &amp; Him, and to hear her singing her songs, and her voice, with these beautiful melodies, made it very easy to play smitten and have these songs in my head.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: What’s your karaoke track?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: Oh man, I can’t tell you, that would ruin the sneak attack!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Has there been a Summer in your life?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: Of course, there’s been one in everyone’s.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: How was it working with Zooey again?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: The cool thing was Zooey and I have known each other for a long time, because we did a movie together called Manic, almost ten years ago. It was a very different movie from (500) Days of Summer, it’s one I’m really proud of actually, it’s a very heavy, dramatic movie, and we’ve stayed friends since then. The chemistry and the comfort and trust between two people playing a love story like this is key, and to have a friend that I could trust, and whose sensibilities I already understood, made it so much easier, and is a big part of why it all looks natural on screen.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Was it never awkward, being such good friends, doing those intimate screens together?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">J-GL: No, it’s the opposite, it’s so much easier when it’s someone you know. It’s weird when it’s a stranger, but when you’re friends - we’ve done this before, we’re both actors.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: At one point in the film you say that ‘60s women had the right idea with style and dressing - is that something you personally believe?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: I do like fashion from the ‘60s, some of it. I think in that particular scene Tom’s being more of a curmudgeon. It reminds me of myself when I was younger actually - because I used to like to do a lot of that shit and be like, “Oh, everyone’s so stupid today, how come nobody has any taste anymore?” and I’ve sort of gotten over that notion. I actually don’t buy into the glory days thing. I think every time has its great things to it. The ‘60s were such a glorious time but it’s easy to forget that there was all sorts of bullshit too. There’s an early Frank Zappa album that’s all about mocking the ‘60s. I remember when I heard that, when I was 15, he’s just taking the piss out of Haight-Ashbury, out of hippies, out of everything. I was brought up to glorify the ‘60s, my parents grew up in them - there was probably bad stuff then also.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: What’s great now then? What's great about this era?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: Now is so exciting. Right now a lot of the best stuff you see are things that just some kid somewhere in Japan made. Like I watched this video recently by a band called Sour, they’re a Japanese trio. It’s a cool song, but they made this video with hundreds of collaborators, people who liked their music, who were all obviously very organised and co-ordinated, and made these beautiful images that really wouldn’t have been possible before the Internet allowed for that kind of organisation and communication, which allowed all these people to upload their videos to one website, so someone could download them and cut them together. This is the kind of thing that would have been nearly impossible even four years ago, and is a beautiful work of art today.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: I assume a film like this is dearer to your heart than something like G.I.JOE. Did you do G.I.Joe for the money, dare I ask?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: Actually no, to be honest, G.I.JOE’s not the best-paying job I’ve had at all. I did that movie for fun. I got the opportunity to do this cool character with this mask and crazy make-up, and costume and voice - it was a blast. I go in for diversity and an eclectic mix of creative challenges, and G.I.JOE was really fun.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Was there anything cut from (500) Days that you hated to lose?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: There used to be a sequence that was sort of the antithesis of the dance number, The Best Morning Ever - there used to be a Worst Morning Ever, which was really funny, and fun, but I think you always have to take some stuff out if it’s slowing it down or whatever. They were going to play the same music but have terrible things happening instead. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Are you a natural dancer? Did you watch any old musicals to train for it?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: I wouldn’t make any comparisons! But I do love a Gene Kelly movie, or a Fred Astaire movie. But those guys spent a lot of time practising dancing, which I haven’t, but I had fun doing it. [That sequence] took me by surprise when it actually arrived, and there I was in front of 30 choreographed dancers who were all doing the same thing as me. It was a bizarre experience. We all picture ourselves doing that; we’ve all sat and watched the making of Thriller, I certainly have and I never thought that that would be me.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: How did you avoid the pitfalls of the child star going off the rails? You went to school and disappeared for a couple of years… Was that a way of dealing with that, or were you just quite grounded anyway?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: I don’t know if I am quite grounded. But I seem to have you convinced, so we’ll leave it at that!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Are you musical too? Did you and Zooey jam together? Is there a YouTube video of you guys singing your heart out in a bar somewhere?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: There isn’t. I just made a short film that played at Sundance and it’s going to come out on a DVD compilation of short films. Spike Jonze actually has one on the same disc, which tickles me. The movie’s called Sparks and I adapted it from a short story, and I directed it, cut it and scored it. It’s really the first time I’ve been public about music that I make. But yeah, I've always loved music.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Is that a taster of things to come, directing features maybe?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: I don’t know. I don’t have a feature I’m working on now. But I do stuff all the time on this website called HitRECord.org. I put up little videos or pieces of audio or writing or photos and then invite other people to do the same, and we all sort of re-mix each others’ records and collaborate and make collages. It’s really fun.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: One critic called the film the first great cinematic romance of the Facebook generation, it sounds like you’re into all of that - how would you say the Internet has changed your life?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: One thing I love about HitRECord and getting to make stuff and putting it up online is how instantaneous it is. I love (500) Days of Summer, I loved it when we shot it a year and change ago, and I love it now, but it’s very different to be talking about and finally showing a movie to audiences that was shot so long ago, whereas online you can make something and that day, put it out and have people see it and respond to it and maybe change it and collaborate. It’s just a different kind of vibe - it’s instant and it’s resonant. It allows for a kind of resonance that’s impossible in the older kind of media. That's also why I do a Twitter page ( <span ><u><a href="https://twitter.com/hitrecordjoe">https://twitter.com/hitrecordjoe</a></u></span> ), so that I can link to HitRECord.org.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: There's a British movie currently shooting (called Love Lost) that has a live web-cam on set. Is that something you'd ever consider doing?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: That's interesting. I don’t know if I’d do that exactly. To me, a movie set is a movie set. I like the idea of doing stuff that is live like that, but I’ve never been a huge fan of behind-the-scenes stuff on movie sets. I always feel like you definitively look like a bad actor - because you’re acting to this camera, and there’s this other camera over here that’s showing the audience that you’re faking! But traditional movie-making is a very particular process, and it’s not the only way to make movies anymore. It used to be, but it’s not anymore, and that’s what’s exciting. I’d rather do something totally new. In my backpack I have what you need to make a movie, and distribute it. I have a camera and a computer, and there’s wi-fi here. It goes with me in my back pack.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Do you smash plates when you get upset? How do you vent your anger?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: Loud music. Loud is good. The drums are really good for venting.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Was there ever any studio intervention for a traditional happy ending?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: I don’t think there ever was, and I think that speaks to one of the many reasons why this movie turned out well, because the priorities were in order, the director was in charge, not a bunch of executives on a committee. Fox Searchlight who put out (500) Days of Summer also put out Slumdog Millionaire, The Wrestler, and Juno and Borat - all these great movies, and they get it. They get that if you make good movies, respectful and dignified movies, that they can meet with quite a bit of success. They're outstanding and I've never really felt that about a studio before, to be honest. I'm really impressed with them.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: There are so many wonderful scenes in (500) Days of Summer. Do you have a favourite?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: The split-screen sequence with reality and expectations – I might cite that one. It really gets at the heart of the movie. Here’s a guy who’s built up all these expectations based on this music that he likes, and movies, and what he’s heard from friends and others, rather than engaging with reality and being present, he tries to project these expectations and deify this girl.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Are you a cynic or romantic at heart?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: I think a healthy balance of both is important, but I’d probably lean more towards the romantic side these days.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: It’s such an inventive film, was all of that in the script, or was there anything that came out of improvisation or whatever?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: A lot of it really was in the script. I've got to say, this one actually looked a lot like how I expected it to look. It was really what I hoped it would look like, and what Mark the director described. He’s very savvy, technically, he’s shot so many videos, he knows how to gets what he wants. The surprise, of course, is that he’s also an extremely humanistic story-teller. He’s obsessed with story and character, and not just making it look right, which is a double-threat that’s rare in directors. You usually get one or the other, you get someone who knows how to tell a story but they don’t necessarily know about light and camera and rhythm, or you get someone who can make beautiful images but they can’t necessarily tell a great story. He does both and I think he’s going to be one of the film-makers that our time is remembered for.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: It reminded me a lot of Annie Hall. Was that one of the influences on it?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JG-L: Sure, that’s one of the greatest movies ever. More than anything, it’s honest, Annie Hall, it doesn’t feel like a bunch of punch-lines, it feels almost like a drama, except it’s hilarious, and I think that’s what we were going for with (500) Days of Summer. Not a bunch of gags, but that the humour would come from catharsis and identifying with human beings.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">END</p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-2187910059766096595?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-37252096543746401062011-07-23T17:58:00.000-07:002011-07-23T18:01:08.732-07:00<div>Promoting: Jetsam</div><div>Venue: The Soho Hotel, London</div><div>Interview type: One-on-one</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5VN8ZJBO9nw/TituitIsJaI/AAAAAAAAAlk/PI8qZ4jqOuY/s1600/Alex%2BReid%252C%2Bwith%2Bflash.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5VN8ZJBO9nw/TituitIsJaI/AAAAAAAAAlk/PI8qZ4jqOuY/s320/Alex%2BReid%252C%2Bwith%2Bflash.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632717301467588002" /></a><div><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">ViewLondon (VL): What's Jetsam about and who do you play?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Alex Reid (AR): I play someone called Grace. Basically, it's kind of ambiguous what the film's about. It's kind of about obsession and feeling lost or isolated. It's more of a theme, like that, because basically the film starts in the middle of the story and then goes back again. But I'm kind of tracking a couple because they've stolen something. I have to be careful what I say, but basically they've stolen something and it's a matter of security that I need to get back, but somewhere I kind of get lost and entangled within their relationship and become slightly obsessed with their relationship.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: What attracted you to the film and how did you get involved?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: I got involved because I met [writer-director Simon Welsford] about another project, which never came to fruition and he approached me at around Christmas time and said he wanted to make a feature film the following year and that he was going to shoot it in 14 days and would I be interested, because he wanted the central character to be female. So I said yes and he went away and wrote the script and as soon as I read it – I thought it was original and also he's so passionate about what he does and I thought it was such a challenge. And it was lovely for me too, because he let me be involved with the casting, so we went to actors that I knew.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Is that how [Descent co-star Shauna MacDonald] got involved then?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br />AR: Yes and Jamie Draven and Cal Macaninch (pron Mac-in-idge). So we all got thrown together for two weeks.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Was it difficult to play someone with either no memory or an unreliable memory? Did you do any research?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: We shot chronologically as much as we could and at the time it wasn't that difficult – it was more about having the trust in Simon to always pull me in or keep me on track, but I think probably because of the way in which we shot it and the timescale in which we shot it, everything was so immediate and I think that actually helped that. Although, every now and again I'd be like, 'I've no idea where I am. Help!'</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Do you end up taking characters home with you and find them hard to get rid of afterwards?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: Erm, yeah, I think it's a little bit both ways. I think that, as well, there's always a little bit of you within the character, you know, obviously the characters look like you, to a degree, unless you're doing something completely off the wall. But yes, as far as taking them home with you, because you're doing that every day, it probably brings out that side of you more and so, for instance, Grace was very isolated, so yeah, I didn't – I wasn't on the phone a lot, I didn't watch TV or whatever. You do find yourself sat within that mood and I think you take that home with you.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: What was the hardest scene to film?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: Probably anything to do with the elements, when we were outside. I think there's a scene where [Jamie Draven's character] and I have a face-off and it was at the top of a cliff and the wind was blowing, so technically, things like that and making it heard and getting the depth right. But we were really lucky with the elements on some occasions. We had a flash of lightning that you'd probably pay thousands of pounds for in special effects. I don't know how that happened.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: I read a review that said that it was almost as if the weather itself was directed.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: We were very lucky. And also the way [cinematographer] Zac Nicholson shot it, it was so beautiful. I couldn't believe it when I first saw it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: How does Simon compare to other directors you've worked with?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: I've been very lucky, I think. I always like working with writer-directors. I think it makes a difference, because it's their story and so it's their whole vision and you've got them on hand, whereas if the writer's not there and you want to talk about the script or the character in depth and maybe the director has their own ideas and so on. But I think I've been lucky to do that. And also, smaller budget things are probably my favourite thing to work on for that reason, although obviously I'd like to get paid more! (laughs) But Simon was great for a first-time director. He had a clear vision of what he wanted and he worked very closely with Zac – it wasn't the first time they'd worked together. So between the two of them, for a fourteen day shoot, there was very little stress, everything was dealt with, he's very approachable and there's nothing intimidating about him at all. It was a really, really lovely experience and I'd work with him again in an instant.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br />VL: Do you have a favourite scene in the film?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: I don't think I do. What I really love about watching it – and, weirdly enough, when you're shooting guerilla-style like that, through London - is when you're watching stuff on the tube or at, say Liverpool St station – because you're not supposed to do that, but, anyway, we did – and all the street scenes, we were in Paddington and it just looks really real. Because no matter how many extras and things you have in the background, you never get it looking like that. And so whenever I see anything like that, I think there's a point of following through Liverpool Street station, where it's just like, 'Yeah, that's great'. And also I remember being in a phone box in Paddington with Adam up in Burger King and we're just all trying to co-ordinate via mobile phones - 'Right, go! Now! Now!' (laughs) – and it was, you know, looking back at the time, it was fun. So to see those scenes, I think, were maybe my favourites. It was like a big spy game.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: What's your next project?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: I've done a film called One Hundred Mornings and I'm briefly in The Descent 2, which is the closing night film at FrightFest and I'm also currently shooting a drama for E4 called Misfits, which is a lot of fun. And with The Descent 2, it's just video-camera footage that they find, but we shot with Neil [Marshall]. He came in specially for the day and did all the video-camera footage, which was really nice.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">END</p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-3725209654374640106?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-5812569944980390342011-07-23T17:51:00.000-07:002011-07-23T17:54:48.675-07:00<div>Promoting: Inglourious Basterds</div><div>Venue: Claridge's Hotel</div><div>Interview type: Press conference</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-epMuiJ6ChVY/Tits220jF0I/AAAAAAAAAlc/H6VMIATmTG8/s1600/ChristophWaltz.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 220px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-epMuiJ6ChVY/Tits220jF0I/AAAAAAAAAlc/H6VMIATmTG8/s320/ChristophWaltz.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632715448641591106" /></a><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">ViewLondon (VL): Christoph, it has been said by Tarantino that the role of Hans Landa is the most important in the film, and there was some desperation that, if he couldn't find a suitable actor, he'd cancel the project. What do you think made you right for the role?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Christoph Waltz (CW): Well, every casting process ends with the part being cast. But, desperation? I don't know. When Lawrence tells me, or Quentin tells me, I'm deeply honoured, but I didn't feel any desperation. I found these very polite and civilised and accommodating gentlemen.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Often actors prefer to play villains by latching onto a small redeeming quality in the character. Is that true with your approach to Landa? How could you play such a hideous man?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">CW: Well, it's what you say, it's not what I say - because I can't play hideous, how do you play that? I leave my moral judgement in the cloakroom, and I look at it apart from my ethical preoccupations. If you'd asked Heinrich Himmler if he considered himself an evil person, I'm 100 percent certain that he would have not understood the question. Yes, coming from your point of view, I can understand what you're saying. But, from my point of view, I see it differently.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Could you see anything in him that you could respect?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">CW: Yes, of course. Apart from this very first thing, and apart from destroying beauty, there is not much that hints at any vicious, violent - he follows a different agenda, and that's part of why this movie and this part is so great, that you're being called upon to employ your moral faculties.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: How does Quentin compare as a director to other directors you've worked with?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">CW: He doesn't infringe upon your choice. He manages to actually direct in the true sense of the word. He directs you making the right choice. He creates this flow, and that's why the casting was already part of the process. The reading, the actual opening the envelope to take out the script was already the initial point of departure for the flow, and that flow hasn't stopped to this day. And he manages to keep that flow going, and all you need to do is trust. It sounds a bit cliché and even a bit esoteric. But it isn't. It's actually very hands-on. He clears away everything, you know. Michelangelo once said, sculpting is easy, everything that's not the sculpture, you chip away from the block. And that's in a way what Quentin does, and you end up finding yourself being part of the sculpture, without actually knowing how it happens. He directs, he leads, and you only have to follow, and that's the beauty of the process.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">END</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-581256994498039034?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-69339302744990732142011-07-23T17:48:00.001-07:002011-07-23T17:50:46.975-07:00<div>Promoting: Inglourious Basterds</div><div>Venue: Claridge's Hotel, London</div><div>Interview type: Press conference</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-02leg0K47BA/TitsFxv62II/AAAAAAAAAlU/kDtcqbSobgg/s1600/diane_kruger_3.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-02leg0K47BA/TitsFxv62II/AAAAAAAAAlU/kDtcqbSobgg/s320/diane_kruger_3.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632714605466409090" /></a><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Diane, when you received the script, at what point did you realise that this was not what it first seemed to be, and it was a more fictitious approach to history?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Diane Kruger (DK): Oh, I think it's pretty clear from the opening page, from 'Once Upon a Time...'. I never expected to see a World War II movie done by Quentin Tarantino that was going to be a classic, sob movie. And, the truth is, being German, as you can possibly imagine, I get offered a World War II movie once a week, which I've never wanted to do, because I never wanted to be associated, just because I was German, with that part of my country's history. And then this came along, and one of the very rare times where you read a script and go 'oh my god, he actually wrote this for me!', only it wasn't true at all. He probably didn't even know I existed at this point. But I really felt like I'd been born to play this part, and I knew it deep in my heart, that if I got the opportunity to meet with him - which took a long time and a lot of convincing - that, he couldn't hire someone else. I made sure, I just really felt like I could bring something to this character.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: In the course of a very short amount of screen-time, you are maimed in a shoot-out, tortured by Brad Pitt, and then throttled by a demented Christoph, so could you tell us about being put more through the physical mill than you have been before.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">DK: Ah, just another day at work [laughs] Well, I loved it. It's for once, you get a director that loves women for what they can do. All the parts, especially in America, that I've been getting, have been queens or this object that's been put on a pedestal. And, Quentin loves women, they're fierce, they're a lot smarter than anyone else in the movie, quite frankly, and love treating the Basterds like they're complete morons. And so, I didn't find I was being tortured by Brad, I felt like I was taking it like a man, you know. And then the scene with Christoph, was completely terrifying, because he sits here and he looks all nice and sweet, but he has a terrifying look in his eyes at times, and it really threw me off. And a little known fact is, when I actually get strangled, it's actually Quentin, so I guess he wanted to tell me something there! I asked him if I could tell this story, because I wasn't sure if he wanted to, it just says a lot about who he is as a director, I think. [laughs]. No, he's so into it, he's just, he's on set, and he lives every character. He is Landa, and he is Bridget von Hammersmark, and he is Shosanna. More than other directors I've worked with, he's right there, you know. And when I auditioned he played Brad, with the accent and everything.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: How does Quentin compare as a director to other directors you've worked with?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">DK: Well, I think one of the major differences is that I've never worked with a director who is basically a movie library. So he bombards you with movie references, and characters that he was inspired by, and then lets you make it his own. I must have seen 20 films that he wanted me to see. Women that he was inspired by. And then, you know, he loves to percolate. I actually would say that he was also the most precise director I've worked with, in terms of he's very attached to his writing, especially in English. He makes sure you say every word. Which is new for me, a lot of directors let you go on and, you know, approximate what's written. His writing is a challenge, especially in English, because it's very nuanced and very much between the lines. Every time you read it, you discover something else. And he doesn't let you get away with anything. He’s a director that sits next to cameras, no monitor, there's nobody on set that doesn't need to be on set, there's no video village, there's no safety net. He sits and stares at you, which is very unsettling at first, to me anyway, and he sits over his little headsets. And sometimes we had to break scenes because he was laughing too loud, and he takes such joy from hearing and seeing his characters come to life, that if he sees that you're there, and you're going his way, and you're that character that he wanted to create, he gives you wings, you can go so much further than you think you could.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">END</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-6933930274499073214?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-18893726571072987912011-07-23T17:38:00.000-07:002011-07-23T17:46:26.960-07:00<div>Promoting: Inglourious Basterds</div><div>Venue: Claridge's Hotel</div><div>Interview type: Press conference</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vaFz0EbKY7o/Titq4sZFBQI/AAAAAAAAAlM/DZRfyQHptQs/s1600/Quentin-Tarantino.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 206px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vaFz0EbKY7o/Titq4sZFBQI/AAAAAAAAAlM/DZRfyQHptQs/s320/Quentin-Tarantino.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632713281178502402" /></a><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">ViewLondon (VL): When you've had a project going on for 10 years, and have moved it from a novel to a miniseries to a film, what is the 'Eureka!' moment, when you realise it's got to be a movie, and it's going to go, after such a stop-start process?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Quentin Tarantino (QT): That's an really good question. One of the things about it was, when I decided to chuck the first storyline that I came up with, which was the one which was turning it into this miniseries idea, as opposed to a movie, and I came up with something that I thought would be more of a movie, which is basically the idea of the Frederick Zoller [Daniel Bruhl] film that becomes a premiere, which becomes about blowing the place up. I was still nervous that I could still make it a movie, so one of the things that I did was, I knew I didn't want it to be any longer than Pulp Fiction and the only way I could do that was to make sure that the script wasn't any longer. And that was something I had really gotten out of the habit of doing, starting from Jackie Brown through Kill Bill, I didn't censor myself at all when it came to writing - 'I'm not writing for the fuckin' production manager! I'm a writer, my shit gets published!' - you know, cut to Kill Bill Volume One and Two! [laughs] You know, I wrote a big novel, now I have to adapt it every day to the screen. So what I did was, I just had the script of Pulp Fiction just right next to me, so as I was writing my story, I'd get maybe 20 pages done, then I'd look at the Pulp Fiction script, and I'd ask so, where was I at page 42? OK, I was at this place, alright, now where am I now? And how much more story do I have to tell? It's the closest I've ever come to policing my work - but it was simply just in an effort so the thing wouldn't become elephantine. Especially since the fact that I knew I was trying to get done in time for Cannes, I knew I wouldn't have all the time in the world, I really did not have the luxury to shoot a bunch of shit I wasn't going to use - even though that happened anyway - but it wasn't going to happen with impunity. But literally, it wasn't until I got into the third act that I realised that, OK, I think this is going to work. It wasn't like I had another hour in front of me, no, I think I can actually wrap this up in a movie form.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: How Machiavellian are you about your career? Do you manage or plan what you're going to do next, based on your knowledge of other directors? Or do you just follow the stories you want to tell?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">QT: That's a very insightful question, actually. It really, truly is a kinda mix of the two - which I guess is probably what it should be. You know, whatever turns me on to write the film, write the story, is whatever turns me on to write the story. But the thing is, there is an 'Oh, I'm interested in the story, and it excites me, and I want to do it', I am thinking about my career, and I am thinking about, well - fuck the word 'career'! - I'm thinking about my filmography. That's what I'm thinking about, that's the better use, I believe that a film-maker lives or dies by their filmography, and if you muck about too much, then you've just cheapened your entire artistic standing. I admire directors that retire at a certain age, so they don't just cheapen their filmographies with four limp-dick old man movies at the end of it. That was the kinda idea behind, you know, saying [Kill Bill ad slogan] 'The Fourth Film by Quentin Tarantino', you can say that was self-aggrandising - and maybe it is to some degree or another - and I'm not counting them that way any more, but it is very realistic to say. You know, your first movie is your first movie, and there's something very special about that, and your second movie is your second movie. And the fact that Kill Bill was my first movie in six years was a big fuckin' deal! So, I was thinking like that, and I probably will tend to think in terms like that, because I am a student of cinema and I see where directors have gone wrong - at least what I think - where they have gone off the track, or gone off the road - and there isn't that excitement about their work that happened before, and, frankly, I don't want that to happen to me.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: What were the films that, while you were making it, inspired Inglourious Basterds?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">QT: Yeah, there weren't any really specific movies themselves that I drew inspiration from. It was more genres and sub-genres, or spirits of films that were inspiring to me. What was interesting to me, though, was, what was inspiring to me at the beginning became quite passe, and what I took true inspiration from was something I wouldn't have thought about - not stylistic inspiration, just inspiration. Like, for instance, when I first sat down, to write the film, I was thinking in terms of a bunch of guys on a mission genre, so the touchstones - all the films I talked about before I never even wrote the effin' thing, Where Eagles Dare, Dirty Dozen, The Devil's Brigade, Dark Of The Sun, movies like that, and I still love them, especially Dark Of The Sun, and that's why Rod Taylor's in the movie. But having said that, what I found so inspirational while I was doing the movie was watching a lot of the movies made in the 40s. People disparagingly call them American Propaganda movies, and I don't like that term, because I really like those movies - now, most of them are actually done by foreign directors, who are now living in Hollywood because they couldn't live in their own countries, because the Nazis had occupied them. And in that case you're talking about Jean Renoir with This Land Is Mine; you're talking about Fritz Lang with Man Hunt and Hangman Also Die!; you're talking about Jules Dassin with Nazi Agent and A Reunion In France; you're talking about Douglas Sirk with Hitler's Madman; and, one of my favourites, that I discovered, that I honestly hadn't heard of before, is a Russian director working out of France by the name of Leonide Moguy, who did Action In Arabia and a movie called Paris After Dark about the French Underground - and, uh, also something interesting about these movies is almost all of them star George Sanders. And the thing that was very interesting to me, was, these are movies made exactly at the time of World War II, when the Nazis weren't this theoretical, evil boogieman from the past, but was actually a threat, this was actually going on on planet Earth. And not only that, these directors, many of them had personal experience with the Nazis, and I'm sure all of them, now living in exile - I mean, can you imagine a world where Jean Renoir can't live in France? These directors actually, all of them, had people that they were concerned about back in their home countries. Yet, these movies are entertaining - they can be thrilling, they're exciting! Many of them have quite, quite amounts of humour in them. In particular, something like To Be Or Not To Be, by Ernst Lubitsch. So, the thing is, they're so literate, the dialogue in these movies is just so fantastic - and, any movie starring George Sanders is going to have great dialogue, because he's great. So, these were the movies that I got a tremendous amount of inspiration from - not that I did anything stylistically that was like them, I didn't shoot it in black and white, I didn't try to recreate them. I might be inspired by maybe their sense of set design, because that was kinda the way that I was going to go, was build sets. But, there's nothing stylistically that you could link my movie with theirs, apart from hopefully entertainment value, but those were the ones that I found myself very inspired by. Now, one other thing I would say in that regard, is, I've always been a big fan of German cinema of the 20s, but I ended up going overboard and falling - not overboard, but I fell truly in love with it - and I had the idea of doing a silent chapter, like a Pabst-style thing. Well, I got over that, I thought that was just too reflective, and I shouldn't do something like that, but I had a fun enough time exploring the idea. [laughs]</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: The last line of the movie refers to Lt. Aldo Raine's [Brad Pitt] masterpiece [carving swastikas into Nazis' foreheads] - would you consider this film to be your masterpiece?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">QT: Well, I didn't have that line until it came time to write that line. So, when I was writing that scene, that was the line that he said. So, yes, it was definitely the last line in the script - it was the last line that I wrote in the script. Not to be coy, it's not for me to say - it's not for the chicken to speak of his own soup. And, if I were to have that opinion, then that opinion would not be valid until at least three years from now, when I look back on it. But, I do believe that Aldo does believe, that where all of his engravings are concerned, this may be his finest.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">[SPOILER QUESTION]</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Hitler meets quite a grisly end in the film - when did you decide that you'd kill Hitler?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Literally, it wasn't until I was pretty much up against it - just heading into the climax of the piece. I had no intention of doing that before. This is the way I write: you're writing a scenario, and as you're writing a scenario, there are different roads available to you as you're writing that the characters could go to and in particular screenwriters would have the habit of putting up roadblocks against some of those roads because, basically, they can't afford to have their characters go down there, because they think they're writing a movie, or they're trying to sell a script or something like that. And I've never put that kind of imposition on my characters - wherever they go, I follow. Now, when it came to writing this movie, naturally, I came across some of those roadblocks. And one of them was history itself. And I was more or less prepared to honour that. Until I came up actually against it. And I go, 'no, I refuse!'. I've never done that before, and now is not the time to start. And what I mean by that is this, I just thought that my characters don't know they're part of history - history has not been written yet. They don't know that there's things that they can and can't do. There's no can and can't, there's only action and reaction. People have asked me questions like, is this movie a fairytale. Well, the first thing I wrote was 'Chapter One: Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France'. So people have then said, 'Oh, so does that mean it's a fairytale?'. Well, you know, if you want to look at it that way, then feel free to look at it that way, and I think the movie works quite well in that regard. I personally do not look at it that way. The way I look at it is this - my characters change the course of history. Now, that didn't happen, because my characters didn't exist, but if they had have existed, then everything that happens is actually quite plausible.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">[SPOILER QUESTION]</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: When did you decide to include a film critic character in your film, and did you take any pleasure in killing him off?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">QT: Not at all! I don't have any bone to pick with critics. In fact, if I wasn't a filmmaker, I'd probably be a critic - in fact, most of my bone is I'd be a better film critic than most of the film critics I read. And talk about there's never a time to kick a dog when it's down, I never thought that some of the critics I'd grown up admiring and reading would be going the way of the dodo bird. I think it's a very sad time for film criticism, what's going on for them now. But [Michael Fassbender's character] isn't just a weird flight of fancy, I vaguely based the idea on Graham Greene, who was a film critic and was also a commando in World War II. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Which parts of the film are you most proud of, having thought about and lived with these ideas for so long?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">[SPOILER ANSWER]</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">QT: I'll boil it down to the two match-heads. That would be the opening sequence, the opening chapter, that was everything I could have ever hoped it would be. And that's a three-way collaboration, because, yeah I definitely did my job when I wrote it but, it never would have been what it is without Christoph Waltz and Denis Menochet, they were just, it's impeccable. The other moment in the movie that I'm probably the most cinematically satisfied, where it's exactly the way it was in my head, and I almost can't believe that it got nailed to such a degree was the sequence in the projection booth, between Shosanna [Melanie Laurent] and Frederick, the music, the slow motion, the effect of the camera coming up and seeing this almost twisted Romeo And Juliet tableau on the floor, as the film reel continues to go on and they manage to still be alive, even though we see they're dead and they live on in film, I... - I'm sorry, I don't mean to get enraptured in my own fucking work, but [laughs]... That is the moment that I go 'Oh my god!'.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Regarding the soundtrack, how early did the song choices come to you, and how do you choose what you use in your films?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">QT: Well, music is very very important in my movies, and it kind of happens in a three way stage. In some ways, the most important stage, whether it ends up being in the movie or not, one of the most important stages is just when I come up with the idea itself - before I've even started writing - I go into my record room, I have a big vinyl collection, and I have a room set up like a used records store, and I just dive into my music, whether it be rock music, or lyric music, or my soundtrack collection. And I'm looking for the spirit of the movie, I'm looking for the beat that the movie will play with. And part of that is, I'm trying to immediately jump to the screening process, in a way, because when I find the right piece of music, with the right cinematic set piece - and it's usually big shit, the big stuff, like the opening credits or some set piece - I can actually just visualise myself sitting in a movie theatre, and watching it on a screen. And the images are provided by my imagination, and the music is right there, and I'm cranking it. And all through the writing process, I'm always going back there to reinvigorate myself, or to remind myself what it is I'm doing, and keep remembering that it's not just words on the page, because I'm a very precious writer, I can get a little caught up in that - remind myself that I am making a movie. And that process continues to go on during the shooting - and that's the second wave. And the third wave is when I'm editing, and sometimes there's a big moment or something that I've had in my mind forever. Well now it's just - ehh! - it's just not right when you put it up against the images. And so you find something else, 'oh my god that's so wonderful, I can't believe I was ever in love with that other thing!'. But what's interesting about doing it in the editing process, is it's less about the big moments, and now I'm thinking more minutiae, now it's more the smaller moments that need a little musical accompaniment, and that becomes really fun, is looking for these little small moments, and these small cues from some obscure soundtrack.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">END</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-1889372657107298791?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-63907795484252851752011-07-23T17:30:00.001-07:002011-07-23T17:34:22.852-07:00<div>Promoting: Mad, Sad &amp; Bad</div><div>Venue: 13/1 Cornwall St, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Film Festival</div><div>Interview type: One-on-one</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rLRxHBTkasU/Titn8vT5FAI/AAAAAAAAAlE/HshNEuCQOes/s1600/Nitin%2BGanatra.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rLRxHBTkasU/Titn8vT5FAI/AAAAAAAAAlE/HshNEuCQOes/s320/Nitin%2BGanatra.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632710052146648066" /></a><div><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">ViewLondon (VL): What's Mad, Sad &amp; Bad about and who do you play?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Nitin Ganatra (NG): I play Atul, who's a writer, a sitcom writer that's suffering from a dignity crisis. That's the first time I've ever said that, that's actually great, he's in dignity crisis and he's decided that – the catalyst is having a crush on his best friend's wife and trying to get into bed with her and then finding out that she's shagging his boss has left him kind of challenging his own dignity, so he wants to give up writing crappy sitcoms and go into something more noble like writing an opera.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: About cheese?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NG: About cheese. And he gets to fulfil that desire. So Mad, Bad &amp; Sad is about dysfunctional characters generally. I know [writer-director] Avie's an academic and a shrink and is very highbrow in his way of looking at things but basically it's the Three Billy Goats Gruff and they're crossing the bridge to get to the greener grass. It's a fable about people wanting their lives to be better. But it's about looking for that and discovering what that is. Heh. He's going to be so pissed off that I said that. But really, he's just ripped off Three Billy Goats Gruff (laughs). And it just happens to be centred around an Asian family because that's Avie's point of contact. A lot of these characters are based on – he's a prolific writer so a lot of them are his psyche. I mean, playing the writer in a movie where your director has written it, you just have to watch him a little bit. You start observing things about him and then you realise, 'Oh God, I am playing him'. Because he's a manipulator – Atul – I play a manipulator who's always got his own agenda and of course a writer-director has got to be a manipulator. So the whole thing, maybe because it's set around an Asian family, because it's a family and because it's dysfunctional, is what's making the whole thing quite universal. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Was the cheese song a large part of what attracted you to the script or was there something else?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NG: The cheese song is one of those things where you – I can't play guitar and I can't dance and I can't sing and yet I'm doing all of those in the film. And being asked to improvise them as well. So imagine, you learn a few chords and I was improvising this cheese song and it was getting quite rude. And I think because of copyright, Avie was actually quite clever and said, 'Actually, I don't want you to improvise, I'll give you some lyrics' and wrote them. Which is a very crafty thing to do, just in case I get some money. But improvising a cheese song is not an easy thing, especially if you can't play or sing.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Did you draw on Flight of the Conchords?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NG: (laughs) I wish I had, actually, but mine's certainly not as good as that. But yeah, it's quite a nice quirky thing. Having seen the film, I think it could have been a bigger number, the whole cheese opera – it would have been nice to have really made it an opera. Had it gone that way, I think it would have been spectacular.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Was there anything cut out that you really hated to lose?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NG: Yeah, there was lots of stuff, mainly to do with me (laughs). There was a scene – it's only because it sticks with me slightly because there were some plot devices that were set up. I don't play squash either, but there was a whole squash court scene with Tony Gardner, who I think is the gem of the film. I think he's impeccable in his timing and I really enjoyed working with him. Anyway, we did a whole squash court scene where we set up stuff like 'You should meet the wife, Roxy' and Atul goes, 'Oh, I don't think so' and it's kind of like, 'Well what's your problem?' and stuff like that. So for me there's a kind of editorial, a plot line thing and as an actor, you play that plot line and then you find that then I don't get it, why I'm suddenly behaving like that.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Do you have a favourite scene in the film?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NG: I love watching Tony and what he does on screen. The way he sets up – the funniest moment is during the burial, where he talks about the make-up and what he does. And his timing, it's very underplayed but so typically English. That gave me a big laugh and I think I enjoyed working with Ayesha (Dharker) a lot. There's a scene with Ayesher and I where we were really just bouncing off each other. Actors, we all have to kind of negotiate each other's egos all the time and everyone's different methods. And everyone's got different ways of approaching their work. Some people can take up a lot of time on set and then produce something that doesn't really warrant taking that much time. If it means taking an hour talking about how to walk across the room, you just kind of go [makes a face]. I'm of the school that you don't waste people's time on the day, you do your homework. And also you get some actors that give to a scene, some actors take away from a scene, they suck the life out of you, whereas Ayesha, there was a scene with Ayesha and I where she comes round and I describe what happens in this opera and the timing was working beautifully and Ayesha was catching that ball and throwing it back and we could overlap and we could play – but still keeping to the script, you know – and that, to me, is one of those moments when you do a job where you kind of go, 'I remember that', I remember that giving, in a film, where you really are bouncing off each other and that's one of my most memorable moments of the whole shoot, other than Tony.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: You were briefly in Shifty. Do you have any other film projects coming up, EastEnders schedule permitting? </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NG: Well, Shifty was before I was on EastEnders, so after that, I joined EastEnders and then did Mad, Sad &amp; Bad and then I did a show called Mumbai Calling, which is on at the moment. But no, I'm writing now. I've got another couple of projects that I've pitched and treatments that I'm writing so fingers crossed.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">END</p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-6390779548425285175?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-43080182997582131152011-07-23T17:21:00.000-07:002011-07-23T17:28:30.093-07:00<div>Promoting: Mad, Sad &amp; Bad</div><div>Venue: 13/1 Cornwall St, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Film Festival</div><div>Interview type: One-on-one</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fCz0Zkq-kxo/TitmomilA1I/AAAAAAAAAk8/nRKeENPUHuA/s1600/andrea-riseborough-4849.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 314px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fCz0Zkq-kxo/TitmomilA1I/AAAAAAAAAk8/nRKeENPUHuA/s320/andrea-riseborough-4849.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632708606683317074" /></a><br /><div><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">ViewLondon (VL): What's the film about and who do you play?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Andrea Riseborough (AR): I play a manic depressive, Shoreditch-type clay sculptor. I'm not sure that's a very good description but Julia is a very fragile, very loving, very naturally artistic soul who happens to be in a relationship with a guy who – they're like yin and yang and I think when you watch the film you think 'How did these two get together?' and one of the things that attracted me to the project was that very fact, because so rarely is it depicted on film how extraordinary couples can be.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Were there any other elements that attracted you to the film and how did you get involved?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: Firstly what I was saying before about their relationship being so unique. But I suppose what attracted me to it initially was just reading it and then closing it and thinking 'That is a lovely film'. You know, like, it's incredibly uplifting. It's quite an extraordinary thing because I don't really know where to – what I like about it is that you can't really pigeon-hole it. It's this real independent film but it's like super-uplifting. And it's also really accessible – in a brilliant way, it's accessible to a big audience, but you also can't pin it down.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Was the part written for you?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: No, no, no. It was already written and then I think [writer-director] Avie was just really open to finding out who this Julia would be and then I went and met him, we talked about it, we did a bit of work and he offered me the part. And she really grew, or rather, we excavated what he'd already laid down, just as much as possible, to see exactly where all of that came from. And I really liked the fact that Avie wasn't scared to take Julia to this other place. We met so well, I think, in terms of how we perceived Julia. After, we went through a series of improvisations which we did through psychoanalysis, because he's a psychiatrist, so he put us all in therapy as our characters, which was brilliant and then we had group sessions and couple guidance sessions.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: What was Avie like as a director?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: My relationship with Avie throughout the shoot – and beforehand, in pre-production, when we were improvising – was such a great one. I felt thoroughly supported by him and challenged, you know. Because he has a very good way of noting you, you know, giving you notes, because he's a psychiatrist. So he kind of just cuts to the bone.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Were there any scenes that were cut that you hated to lose?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: When you make a film, there are always so many scenes that you do and then they might not get in. Originally, my character ended up with Zubin's character. Or there was a spark, some kind of strange spark, like this repulsion, but ... So there were scenes that we shot, but they didn't work. It works much better this way. But Zubin and I found it hard to let go of this, because we were like, 'But that's what happens!' It's like when you say goodbye to a character - and you don't generally get much time to do it at all because you're straight into the fray with the next thing – and you have to be very good at letting someone very close to your heart just completely go. And you leave them in a certain place and then I saw Zubin somewhere and he was like, 'You know we don't get together in the end?' and we were both like, 'Oh my God!'. Even though we'd finished the film - and actually, in terms of the film, all we want is what's best for the film and we completely trust Avie – it was a strange thing to find out because you just think that that's what's happened to that character and you kind of play out their post-film fantasy in your mind a bit. So we had to reassess our post-film fantasy, but that's fine.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Speaking of the post-film fantasy, how attached do you get to your characters generally?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: Like I said, I think you have to really be good at putting them down. I would never say disposing of them, because I think that would be too harsh. And impossible, because so much of yourself is in them – you are essentially your own tool. But there are certain times where I've wanted to have some sort of like mass exorcism, where we all burn them on something like, I don't know, Hampstead Heath, and all the possessions they had and all the thoughts they had. But other times you can learn so much from them. I know it's strange, because I'm talking about them like they're real, but they're so real to you. Some of my characters have introduced me to different things that I never thought that I would like. I've found sympathy or empathy in things that before were completely alien to me.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Like Thatcher? [Andrea played Margaret Thatcher in The Long Road to Finchley]</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: (laughs) Or I've made a journey to somewhere else in my mind that I would just never have got the chance to go on had I not been an actor. Because it's very specific, particularly being an actor, that you read something and then you become so – it's such second nature to you, to go there, emotionally, to completely surround yourself with it and your mind instantly makes a picture, you know?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Did you take pottery classes and stuff for preparation?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: Oh, my flatmate was just at her wit's end – there was clay everywhere. There was clay in the tea, there was clay on the kitchen table, there was clay in the living room. She'd be taking a book out of the library and she'd be like, 'There's clay in the book', I'm like, 'I'm really sorry!' And then I made this little succession of little creatures, clay creatures, that I then proceeded to -when I needed some anger or whatever- these lovingly crafted creatures that I'd then smash up on set with a mallet. But also, with Julia, a lot of music was very helpful, especially the Velvet Underground. And Tracey Emin's Strange Land was a really, really useful book. It changed so many things in my life, that book. It really helped me with the character.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: What's your next project?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">AR: My next project that I'm doing currently, doesn't have an official name. It's called We Want Sex but it's also called Dagenham Girls. It's me, Sally Hawkins, Miranda Richardson, Bob Hoskins, Rosamund Pike, John Sessions and Danny Mays. And it's about the 1968 petitions for equal pay at the Ford Dagenham factory.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">END</p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-4308018299758213115?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-15635468793330149232011-07-23T17:14:00.000-07:002011-07-23T17:19:07.718-07:00Promoting: Last Chance Harvey<div>Venue: BAFTA, Piccadilly</div><div>Interview type: One-on-one</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IrBDD_TixFo/TitkrSMKleI/AAAAAAAAAk0/gfCSWzZP4Ck/s1600/joelhopkins1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 148px; height: 225px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IrBDD_TixFo/TitkrSMKleI/AAAAAAAAAk0/gfCSWzZP4Ck/s320/joelhopkins1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632706453736953314" /></a><div><br /></div><div><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">ViewLondon: It's been six years since your wonderful debut feature, Jump Tomorrow. What have you been doing in the meantime?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Joel Hopkins (JH): I've been trying to get films made, really. Jump Tomorrow did quite well in terms of getting me out there and if anything it did too well in that I got quite a lot of attention and was sent scripts and didn't know what I wanted to do. And then a couple of projects I was attached to, the financing didn't come together, so just in development on projects that didn't quite happen and before you know it, six years have gone by! But I also write, so my bread and butter is that – I've been doing an adaptation of a children's book (The Big Bazoohley, by Peter Carey) for someone and also script work, drafts and rewrites. But all the while, on two levels, one, trying to present myself as a director on someone else's script and two, just trying to write my own thing. And then finally it sort of gelled.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: What's Last Chance Harvey about?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JH: Well, the pat answer is that it's never too late to find love. It's a character driven piece and it's these two characters who are very different in some ways but they both, for whatever reason, are at a particular place in their lives where they're kind of stuck and they can't connect with people. And they accidentally collide one weekend and unwittingly provide what the other person needs, in a way.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Where did the idea for the film come from?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JH: It's character driven, so it's basically about finding the characters. When you're creating these things it's very unromantic, the way you construct it. I had an “in” with Emma – I went up for the job of directing Nanny McPhee, which I didn't get, I came second, apparently. But Emma saw Jump Tomorrow and really liked it, so she took a meeting with me and said, you know, 'I'd love us to work together' and I sort of went away thinking, you know, that doesn't happen every day, I should do something with that. So I literally sat down and thought, okay, Emma Thompson, a character that she could play, boom. So I came up with the Kate character and then, okay, love story. And initially, I'd been working on another script with a Japanese character in it, so I thought, 'Okay, I'll just take him from that script and use him here', but it very quickly became about not being able to understand each other and it was a different sort of movie. And I'd been living in America for 12 years, so the whole American thing was a big part of my life and I thought, no, what am I doing, he should be an American. And then suddenly, with the shared language but these lovely nuances, these differences we have, you could have fun with that, so that was the next big key to the puzzle.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: At what point did Dustin Hoffman get involved?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JH: Pretty early on. I wrote a ten-page treatment and what I'm very proud of is that the structure of the film from the ten-page treatment is there in the final film. I write treatments that are quite sophisticated. I'm not one of these writers who can start writing and then see where it goes, you know? I have to know exactly what happens, because when I do get stuck on a scene, like I said, I can just write through it, hop over it onto the scene that I'm excited about writing, but I can keep going. Anyway, I wrote a ten-page treatment that I sent to Emma and I think I was hoping that she was going to turn around and say “Joel, I love it, let's write it together”, but she didn't, she said, “This sounds really interesting, I can't wait to read the first draft.” So I then went away and a couple of years went past for whatever reason, other projects, blah blah blah and then I finally saw Emma and Dustin in Stranger Than Fiction and I emailed Emma the next day saying “Remember me, I've still got that project” and she was like, “Yes, of course”, but I knew from the tone of her email, like, okay, I've got to deliver something this time. Anyway, in that email, I said, “What about Dustin for Harvey?” and she said “Brilliant idea, I know him” and so I then wrote the first draft and I sent it to Emma and she sent it on to Dustin so they got on board pretty immediately. So from the actual idea there was a big sort of gap but then when I actually wrote the first draft it all happened quite quickly.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Did you cut anything out that you hated to lose?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JH: Yes. We had a more elongated third act that I had to cut down, basically, the classic sort of 'Okay, let's wrap this up' note. And there were a couple of lovely scenes there that added detail that I would have loved to have kept but in the bigger picture they didn't work.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Do you have a next project lined up?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JH: I don't yet, no. I'm reading scripts as a director and then I'm writing something but it's in the very early stages.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: How did you come to use [musicians] Kitty, Daisy and Lewis?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JH: Oh, my music supervisor turned me on to them and they're fantastic. And they drive around in this family hearse they've got with their gear in the back and everything. They're wonderful.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: What's Tunde Adebimpe [star of Jump Tomorrow] up to? </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JH: Well, on the acting front, he was recently the groom in Rachel Getting Married. But his music career has really taken off - he's in this band called TV On The Radio and they're on their third album, they're huge in the States. David Bowie did backing vocals on one of their songs, he loves them. And I went to a gig here in London and I thought I'd better go and support my friend Tunde, you know, his little band sort of thing and I got there and it was packed to the rafters and they were all shouting “TUNDE! TUNDE!” and I got really possessive and was like, “You don't know him like I do!”</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Dustin and Emma have really great chemistry. Were you surprised at how strong the chemistry was between them?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JH: No, I mean, I got an inkling of it in Stranger Than Fiction, I thought they had a nice feel together. I always felt, you know they're obviously physically very different and that for me was part of the attraction but also, in terms of their type, like when they do comedy, I always feel there's a slight tinge of sadness in their comedy and when they do serious stuff or pathos, I always feel there's a bit of playfulness in there, so for me they share this duality or whatever. On paper you think they're very different but actually, if you imagine the marquee, you think, 'Oh yeah, Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, that's interesting' and that's been the response I've had when pitching it to people.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: It's quite unusual to see a romantic comedy about middle-aged people. Was that part of the appeal of making it?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JH: I think so. I mean, as I said, the genesis or whatever was very mundane, I've got a connection with Emma, let's find something for Emma and Emma is the age she is. But I never sat down and thought, 'Okay, I want to do the romantic comedy for older people' sort of thing. I mean, to be honest, as a writer, older people are so much more interesting to write and they're also a lot easier to write. They've got literally more baggage, they've seen more, they've put up more defences. If the story's about two people coming together and peeling back those layers then older people are just more interesting. I keep getting sent scripts right now, because I've made a romance, I'm getting sent a load of romantic comedy scripts from L.A. and they're all about 20-something girls who are panicking, they're not married yet and they're having this sort of crisis and there's all these people in their late 20s having mid-life crises and I just can't bring myself to sort of worry and care about them. I mean, you know, come on, you're in your late 20s, relax!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Film reviewers often complain about London continuity errors, such as characters walking over Embankment bridge and then there's a cut to them walking towards Embankment bridge on the South Bank. There's a lot of this in your film, so would you like this opportunity to defend that?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JL: (laughs) Well, I'm not making this film just for Londoners and that's the least of my offences in this movie. The one I'm going to get called on and the one I'll defend – the montage of them walking where they start off in Paddington and they end up on the South Bank, I did have a shot where they get on the tube and they come up at Piccadilly Circus, so that was the rationale in my head – they get off at Piccadilly, walk through Trafalgar Square, go down to Embankment and cross over. But I'm not doing my job on other levels if people are complaining about that. I'm asking people to go on a bit of a journey and if they are sitting there going, 'They're going the wrong way!' then something else is not working. The film is riddled with things like that and I'm sure it will distract some people and I'll lose them.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Have you seen any films recently that have inspired you in any way?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JH: I have to say, the last film I saw was Anvil, the documentary. I saw it on the plane and it had me in absolute tears, I was completely moved by it. So I would say Anvil.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Have you considered making documentaries?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JH: I'd love to, yeah. I made one at college as a second year project, we had to make a documentary. There's nothing more emotional than the truth, in a way.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: A documentary about Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, may I suggest?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JH: (laughs) There you go. Maybe. They're such an extraordinary group.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">END</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p></div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-1563546879333014923?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-50278371806002388922011-05-03T07:31:00.001-07:002011-05-03T07:38:52.786-07:00<div>Promoting: F</div><div>Venue: My house</div><div>Interview type: One-on-one (phone)</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U0k2OFYOoxE/TcAR87ov3vI/AAAAAAAAAjE/eOX5_wlIWKw/s1600/RoxanneMcKee8-1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 212px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U0k2OFYOoxE/TcAR87ov3vI/AAAAAAAAAjE/eOX5_wlIWKw/s320/RoxanneMcKee8-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602497674947321586" /></a><br /><div><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">ViewLondon (VL): What attracted you to F and how did you get involved?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Roxanne McKee (RM): Well, I like horror films – I always have done. I've been keen on them since I was little – I actually used to love, like, all the Freddie films. I don't know – there's something about them, sitting on the edge of your seat and having a shock and feeling the adrenaline rush that's exciting, so to be a part of something like that, I thought would be fun. And it was, it was really interesting to get involved and have all the prosthetics applied. And yeah, it was just nice and it was just a small cameo role so I wasn't ... what's the word? It wasn't going to impinge on my time or anything like that. And it was just – yeah, it was lovely to be a part of it. And I thought it was a good script and that was it. And there were great actors involved as well, like David Scofield and Ruth Gemmell, you know – it's a privilege to be a part of anything like that.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Had you been looking for something like that?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RM: No, I hadn't specifically been looking for horror. I had made a concerted effort to try and look for stuff that was just different when I came out of Hollyoaks, just because that was my reason for leaving Hollyoaks. Because I had a fantastic time there but I wanted to try new things and open up the path a bit for me and see what else was out there and play different sorts of characters. So when this came along it was just something interesting and different.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: How did the experience of working on F compare to working on Hollyoaks and other stuff you've worked on?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RM: It's - I mean it's totally different, because when you work on a soap you can do up to like twelve scenes a day, whereas when you work on a film you do like one scene. People don't realise how hard soap work is, so you've really got to give credit where credit's due – soap actors are learning twelve, thirteen, fourteen scenes of an evening and then going in the next day and doing them and then that carries on each day. Whereas with a film you work, say, over a two week period and you might be in three days. You know and obviously for me, with this, I wasn't – you know, it's a cameo role so I'm only in it a small amount, so the filming schedule's a lot lighter. But the nice thing and the thing that's similar is the meeting different crews and making friends with different people and, yeah, establishing friendships. The other thing is, with a soap you establish friendships and then you keep your friendships because you're there a couple of years. But when you're doing jobs sporadically, it's not quite the same – you establish these friendships and then you kind of don't necessarily see people so much again. You maybe see the actors but not always the crew or maybe you go on another job and they're there, which has happened with me recently, which was nice. But obviously you don't have that long-term friendship in quite the same way.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: You play the character in the gym, is that right? That prosthetic that you had to wear was pretty hideous. What was that like?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RM: Yeah, it was crazy. It was amazing. That was so enjoyable, because it was so different to anything I've ever had – I mean, I've had bruises applied (laughs) and arm bandages and things like that but never a full-on ripped-off jaw. So I had a whole head-cast applied and that was weird, sitting underneath that and not being able to breathe properly. It was amazing – it was an exciting, really exciting experience and I still have the jaw. But the bloody annoying thing was that when we were all finished up for the night after we'd filmed that scene, it took them a good few hours to remove everything off of me, because I had cuts all over my body, you know, this fake skin that had been applied. I mean it looked amazing – even for me to look at it, I was like, “Jesus!”</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: It looked really nasty in the film, I agree.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RM: Yeah, well, you know that scene where I die at the end? I couldn't breathe. So I'm crying – because you have to keep your mouth closed, because otherwise you'd see my mouth. And then obviously that wouldn't work, for the fact that the bottom half of the jaw is hanging right down. So I had to keep my mouth closed and then cry and so I couldn't breathe! So I'm not breathing in that last scene. I don't think I've told anyone that yet. I'm not actually breathing. (laughs) So if everyone could really feel for me, that would be great!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: I was going to ask what was the hardest scene to film, but I assume that was?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RM: Yeah, the not breathing. And then also when I was crawling along the floor it was really bloody painful, because that was a – you know one of those sticky floors that you can polish? I call it a sticky floor – you know what I mean though. Sort of that shiny floor that you can polish. And I'm crawling along with obviously shorts on – so I've got bare legs and the blood is sticky and sweet, as well, actually – not that I was eating it, but it was obviously in my mouth. So when you're crawling along, you're sticking to the floor and your skin is almost ripping along the floor. So as I'm moving along, that genuinely is painful.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Obviously, the scenes you did are one thing but do you have a favourite scene in the film otherwise?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RM: I do love Finlay Robertson – I just think he's hilarious. I think they all are – they were such a nice bunch of people. I was quite excited when I saw David Scofield and Ruth Gemmell as well, I knew. Let me think. I like the scene where Finlay is on the front desk and he won't let Eliza use the phone – or he lets her use the phone and then he's a bit weird and pervy with her. I find that really funny. I just find all his facial expressions really funny. So any scene with him. NOT the scene where the guy is in the wheelie bin and on fire – that's horrific! That's absolutely horrendous. What else do I like? There's another one with David Scofield that I thought was really good. Oh and I liked the one – you know the other one, the Scottish actor? I worked with him on Lip Service – I didn't actually work directly with him but he was on something else that I did. And I liked the scene with him walking through and shouting. Again, that comic element appeals to me.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: I thought it was really interesting that none of the deaths actually happen onscreen.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RM: It was an important part of the film as well. I think that was Johannes's intention. I don't know, actually – I think at the beginning, maybe he wanted that to happen and then he kind of realised, maybe when he was editing it, that it didn't need to happen.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: So did they film more of a death scene with you that didn't get used?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RM: No, they didn't. I think there was more – no, I remember Johannes saying that there was more – he didn't want to show the deaths but there was more violence. But certainly not with mine – I mean, with the jaw thing, I don't think you needed any violence. You could see the result. But I think there were more gratuitous moments than were shown, originally, but he chose to keep them out when he edited it because he felt it wasn't necessary and I don't think it was necessary. I mean it was good the way it was – he did a really good job.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: How long were you on the film for?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RM: Not very long. It was filmed over night shoots so – I don't know – you film over – you're booked for a certain period of time, say a couple of weeks and then you go in the odd couple of days over those weeks but I don't strictly know how many times I went. A few times, you know, whatever it takes to film a couple of scenes – it's not a huge amount of time.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: You don't really interact with anyone else in the cast, do you?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RM: No, I don't. No. Just Ruth and David. Ruth, to me, is one of those faces – she's a jobbing actress and she's somebody that pops up in lots of things and I think she's great. She was really, really nice as well – they all were. A lovely, lovely bunch of actors.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: What are you working on at the moment?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RM: I'm working on an HBO drama called Game of Thrones. I'm Doria, the kind of ex-courtesan hand-maiden – actually still kind of working as a courtesan, but you know.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: There's a lot of excitement around that. Is that the George R. R. Martin thing? </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RM: Yes, it is and I've met him and he's lovely. And it's so exciting. It's so exciting to be a part of such a huge project. And the sets – oh my God, you've got to watch it. It's incredible. It's out of this world. It's amazing, so watch it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Have you got anything else coming up?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RM: So...no, because that's what I've been contracted to so I will hopefully have other things coming up. Maybe it would be nice to film something in hotter climates next year - that would be good. So I'll keep my fingers crossed and if you could say a little prayer for me, that would be great.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Well, we'll put it in the interview and see if anyone has any Sahara Desert-based projects or something.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RM: Maybe the desert would be a bit too warm, but Morocco, maybe?</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">END</p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-5027837180600238892?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-89814304219951706252011-05-03T06:41:00.000-07:002011-05-03T06:56:59.003-07:00<div>Promoting: Catfish</div><div>Venue: The Mayfair Hotel</div><div>Interview type: Round table (but only two of us on round table)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tq-TwmUZaAQ/TcAG9MGvDDI/AAAAAAAAAi8/BlCyu-gj28A/s1600/Henry%2BJoost%2Band%2BNev%2BSchulman.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tq-TwmUZaAQ/TcAG9MGvDDI/AAAAAAAAAi8/BlCyu-gj28A/s320/Henry%2BJoost%2Band%2BNev%2BSchulman.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602485584740158514" /></a><br /><div><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">ViewLondon (VL): If we accept the story at face value (and I assume we can), then what was it that made you think there was a story in the paintings by the little girl? I assume you'd seen My Kid Could Paint That?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Henry Joost (HJ): Uh, yeah. Actually, we hadn't seen it, but we knew of it at that point. It was really Rel [co-director Ariel Schulman], Nev's brother, who started filming and had the instinct to do that. I mean, I think it's a lot of reasons – one is that we're kind of full-time documentarians, like there's no moment in our lives when it's not appropriate to film each other and that's kind of the agreement that we have. So if anything interesting happens, it's okay and expected that one of us will film it. The other thing is that Rel always wanted to make a film about Nev, because he's just like a story-generator, you know, he's like a magnet for people and experiences and he has this way of living that we wish we could live that way sometimes. So I think he had this instinct that was like, 'Oh, this is probably going to turn into something because it's Nev', you know? So in the beginning, we thought, 'Oh, Rel's making a short film about Nev meeting this painter online and it'll be like a cute, short film'. And that was about it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Nev Schulman (NS): Yeah, I mean, to his credit, it was pretty unusual. I mean, how often does a little girl from halfway across the country send you fan art? That was strange and interesting, so he thought, 'Why not film it for a little bit?' Whatever happened, it was obviously like - </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">HJ: Something's going on.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NS: Plus, I was also really excited about it. That's what I was talking about.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: So is the self-documentation still going on?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NS: Oh yeah. We filmed ourselves on the BBC this morning. We were on the breakfast show and then they kept us and we were on, like, just the news, I guess. But it was fun, because we filmed that stuff [shows off tiny camera with footage of from-the-sofa BBC interview].</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: So how many hours of footage of yourselves have you accrued at this point?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">HJ: Oh, God. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NS: How many hours? Oh, my God. There's probably more of me.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: What do you do with the footage?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">HJ: Most of the time we don't even watch it. We keep it – we're all organised about it and we have it by year, by month on hard drives. Sometimes we thematically organise things.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NS: I also try to put, like, key words on things when I'm out with my camera.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: I see from YouTube that the story was picked up by the news networks in the States. What kind of impact has that had on the film?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">HJ: Well, the biggest thing that we did was the news show 20:20 and that was a full hour about the movie and totally was full of spoilers for people who hadn't seen it. I think it had different reactions – one was that people who had already seen the film who just, like, couldn't believe it and were so interested in hearing Angela interviewed and stuff like that and there was lots of stuff that wasn't in the film that we gave them, that they used. And then other people were disappointed because they were like, 'What? How could you tell me the whole story in this TV programme?' </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Do you think the controversy generated over whether or not it is a documentary has helped you or hindered you?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">HJ: I don't know. It's more people talking about the film, which is probably good. I don't really like being lumped into like a fake documentary category, just because it's not, that's not what it is. It's not Paranormal Activity or Blair Witch. And I don't know if that turns people off or turns people on, really.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NS: We like the idea of people seeing the film and being sort of raw and not expecting anything. But the whole kind of 'Don't find out anything about the movie! Is it a thriller? Is it a horror?' - that was more sort of the built-up ad campaign in the States, which, you know, has goods and bads. Certainly the good is that people are maybe expecting something completely opposite from what you get so you're kind of left even more surprised in a weird way.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: The film has lots of different elements at times, like, mystery, thriller, comedy and so on. Was that a stylistic choice?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">HJ: That's just real life, I think. Real life doesn't follow genres, you know? I don't really feel like we had control over the tone of the film but the tone changed for us personally as we were through the experience. Like, in the beginning it was fun, then it got mysterious and actually got very scary in real life and then it kind of became profound and the jokes stopped.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: What was the approach to filming, especially with things like the phone calls? Are you just always there or does Nev say, 'Okay, I'm going to be making a phone call in five minutes – get the camera ready'?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NS: Yeah, sort of. Rel had basically said to me, 'If you're going to call Megan or if you're going to open a package - if I'm not there, call me and give me like 20 minutes to come or if I'm there, then let me know and I'll just turn on my camera. And you know, I didn't always do that, of course, because I talked to Megan almost every night. And then he would just get really close, because the speaker phone on the phone was not great. And then we actually figured out that if I used my cellphone with headphones, I could put one headphone in my ear and the other headphone on the microphone hole on the camera and that was the best way to record the conversation. So that was sort of a breakthrough.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: But presumably Megan didn't know she was being recorded, so did you ever question the ethics of that?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NS: I think we never thought about that because the storyline had not evolved and there was no intention. We weren't making a film – Rel was just keeping track of this story as it unfolded, because he thought maybe, eventually, it would turn into something worthwhile, but no-one ever considered that this is where it would lead. He joked that he was going to be making a montage - a short film to show at our wedding, you know? In which case, she wouldn't mind that he was filming, it would be charming.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">HJ: Or like we would surprise them one day with the film and Nev would meet Abby in real life and that would be the end of the film.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NS: Right. And I'd actually talked to them about us sending a camera to them, during this, so that they could be filming on their end. But yeah, we never expected it to go the way it went.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">VL: Obviously you shot tonnes of footage, so when it came to the editing, what did you cut out that you hated to lose?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">HJ: Oh, there's a lot. There's a lot of stuff. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">NS: One of the frustrating things during the editing for me was that it certainly made me look like a total dope, in a way. And that I just sort of willy-nilly, blindly went into this thing and never stopped to think, like, 'Hmmm...maybe?' Which is not true. There were little things along the way where all of us said, like, 'Huh. It's good music, but...you know...okay' or 'The painting is really good, but...' but something would always come up, like Abby sold a painting and they sent me half of the sale price as like a thank you for all of my support. So I was like, 'They sent me money, so I guess they're not trying to scam me or anything like that'. So all along the way, if there was a question that I had or a concern, there was always either an answer or an overwhelming amount of new information that would distract me. And those things I wish we could have put in but when they tried that early on, as soon as you introduce a sense of curiosity or scepticism, immediately the viewers just assume like, 'Oh, I know where this is going', whereas if you just focus on the love story and you leave that stuff out, it allows you to kind of focus more on the love story and not on the feeling that something isn't right.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">HJ: It was also just too complicated. It's one of those things where all of that information is much more interesting after you've seen the film, because in the beginning you don't really know why you should care about that stuff. But I think we're going to have some great DVD bonus features.</p><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-8981430421995170625?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-17181431999706706012011-05-03T06:23:00.000-07:002011-05-03T06:34:47.517-07:00Promoting: Adventureland<div>Venue: The Apex International Hotel, Edinburgh</div><div>Interview type: Round table (with Gail Tolley and Amber Wilkinson)</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8ROrEW6qbqo/TcAC0B65LrI/AAAAAAAAAi0/1pKArpfKisE/s1600/Jesse%2BEisenberg.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8ROrEW6qbqo/TcAC0B65LrI/AAAAAAAAAi0/1pKArpfKisE/s320/Jesse%2BEisenberg.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602481029340802738" /></a><br /><div><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Question: Although this is quite familiar ground in terms of subject matter, it felt really fresh to me and I wondered if you enjoyed it and if that was something that attracted you to the script?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Jesse Eisenberg (JE): Yes, the most appealing thing was how the characters were so authentically drawn. Because this could easily turn into a genre picture - like a broad comedy or a coming-of-age story - and it wasn't that. All the characters were depicted respectfully, even the smallest of parts seemed somehow three-dimensional.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: You were four or five at the time when the film was set, in 1987, so did you have to go away and look up the period?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: We did a lot of improvisation in the movie so I wanted to make sure that if I had to say something that referred to anything specific in the period that I didn't get any of the names wrong. So it was mainly practical research for that, as opposed to any kind of big sociological trends because that was less important and, because it is not that different from when we filmed it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Can you say a little about how the improvisation worked?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: I'm not sure how much actually stayed in, but we did so much because... at the time I thought: "It's because I'm so brilliant and he wants all my lines to be in", but in retrospect I think he probably cut everything we made up out and just let us improvise to create a naturalistic tone, so it didn't feel like we were just making, like, these three jokes in one scene and then going on to the next scene. Some stuff stayed in but, ultimately, I think his script probably won out. But I think the idea was just to create a naturalistic comedy - not having to hit jokes on the head. Every time there was a joke I said: "This is a little cheesy." He'd say: "I know, throw it away, just mumble it." So any time there was a joke I'd just mumble it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: There's some great performances in the film. I wonder if you could tell me a little about working with Kristen and Ryan Reynolds?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: Well, Kristen, I was so shocked when we started working because she was 17 at the time and I didn't know how a 17-year-old girl would be able to play such a character that seems so dark and mature and jaded and cynical but also warm. She was just, like naturally so perfect for it. And Ryan Reynolds - they condensed his schedule into two weeks - so it was two weeks every day with him and it was great. He's also a very funny guy, in terms of improvisation, he also likes doing that. He's great for the part, too, because you want to hate that character but, again, what you were saying about all the characters being three-dimensional, it's hard to hate that actor - he's so charming and seems like a genial guy, so it makes that character more authentic.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: The director said it was partially based on his own rubbishy summer job, so, inevitably, we have to ask you what was your most rubbish summer job and did you draw on any of those experiences for this?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: I've never been able to describe anything I've done as 'rubbish' because we don't use this word, but I've done a million shitty summer jobs, er, I mean jobs, but most of them were acting in awful things. The only thing really similar was when I was 15, I acted in this thing and then I got too old for it so they had us do the lighting for it and stuff. And we all hated doing the play but it was a really good bonding experience because we hate what we were working on so we had to find something redeemable, so we ended up enjoying each other's company that much more.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: You've talked about the improvisation being cut out a lot, was there anything cut out that you really hated to lose?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: Yes, my favourite scene... this movie takes place during the Iran-Contra scandal and there was all this funny stuff and he cut it out. I liked it because my character was interested in the politics of the day and I was trying to talk to the other people at the park in the parking lot one night, and everybody was standing around drinking, I said: "Did you guys see this, I can't believe this stuff." Talking about being fed up with Iran-Contra because it was a huge scandal in the States and they're just like "Okay". I loved that scene because it was a perfect indication of that culture clash and now it's cut. So I was upset. But... all the kissing scenes are in. That's good.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: In the past you've worked with veteran actors. You're the lead here, how does that responsibility feel?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: It feels good. But you feel the pressure but at the same time it was good because it just felt like we were all playing real characters, it didn't feel like: "I'm supposed to be a leading person therefore it must be A, B and C." It just felt like, play this character normally and it will come out well. I hope it comes out okay, I've seen the movie but I hope that plays okay, it's not like a typical movie, I think, where people are expecting certain things that maybe the movie is not offering them. I didn't feel the same pressure that I would feel if like... like, Ryan Reynolds just came out in a movie called The Proposal, that was a romantic comedy, I didn't see it but if it was like that kind of movie then I'd feel more pressure, because it's romantic comedy and it's very clear what you have to be. But this was not very clear, so I didn't mind.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: The character that you're playing is a little bit younger than you are and it's all about first love. Did you find yourself tapping into those things, was it harder to act 'younger' than yourself than older?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: In some ways I felt the character was more mature and experienced than I was. Because I've never had a real job like this for an extended period of time. He's also trying to reconcile being naive in the world and being educated and being really smart and having these goals for himself - lofty goals of going to grad school and travelling to Europe and being a travel essayist. But I feel like personally, like, I want to do like these great things but then you're, like, doing a silly movie or auditioning for some stupid movie. So I feel that conflict all the time, but I think everybody feels that way. Like I want to be a novelist and yet I have to go to the set and do this stupid thing today. But everybody has that, the difference between what you feel you deserve to be doing and the thing that you're actually required to do, or hired to do.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: You mentioned a favourite scene that was cut, do you have a favourite scene that's in the film?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: I only saw it once, and I tried to look away because I'm embarrassed to watch myself, but the scenes I like the most are the quiet, talking scenes with Kristen because those felt like the most sincere parts of the movie to me, when I was filming it, at least.This feels like the heart of the movie, this sweet relationship. They're not the funniest scenes but they felt like the most enjoyable for me.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: I thought the scenes with the other actress were just as sweet?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: Margarita Levieva? She's also great because that character could have also been, and in someways is, the hot girl at the park. But on the other hand she has her own thoughts and her own goals and they're not typical of that kind of character. So even a character like that that could so easily have been this stereotypical thing becomes a fleshed out character.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Where do you place this film in relation to others? Do you see it as being more part of the American independent scene or do you see it as being more like Superbad and those sorts of movies?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: I saw the movie as an independent movie - and that's how it was made. It was not made for a lot of money. The only difference was it was made with a distribution company - Miramax was going to put it out. But in terms of the way it was made, shot and cast it was all independent. They didn't have to cast famous people, we didn't have a lot of time to shoot it, we didn't get paid any money. It was made like an independent movie. The best part was they didn't look over the director's shoulder. I would never have been cast in the main part if this was at a major studio, so he got to make the movie that he wanted to make because the Superbad movie was so popular. So I see it as an independent movie, it was done like that.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: You talked about your favourite scenes – what about your least favourite scenes? You seemed to get drowned every ten minutes. You're in the swimming pool in one scene and get covered in water in another. How long were you shooting that for?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: Oh yeah, that was the worst thing. We filmed, like in November, end of November, beginning of December, even, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and they made fake rain. And when you make fake rain in movies, you have to make the drops bigger, because little drops, like real rain, don't show up on camera. And it was so freezing, it was torture. And then we had to reshoot it because it didn't come out good or something, it didn't look like New York City or whatever. But, yeah, it was terrible. I don't know why it has to rain at the end of every movie, because it's so hard to do that. I've been in many movies where it's rained and it's just torture. They try to put on scuba gear underneath but it doesn't work.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Had you seen [director Greg Mottola]'s other films? Had you seen The Daytrippers?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: Yeah, I saw that a long time ago, because I knew this actor in it, Campbell Scott, so I rented the stuff he was in. And I really loved that movie and then when I read the script I didn't know anything about Superbad, because it was before that. I felt like, 'Oh, this is great and it's from that great director' and then when Superbad came out, I understood why they would let him make this movie, because that movie was so popular, they trusted him more.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: So was that part of the appeal of taking the role, was to work with Greg?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: No, I just liked the script, I mean, yeah, that was like an added thing, but I never really think about that because I don't really fully understand what directors do, so I can't – I mean, I do, but like everybody does it differently, so it's like, you know, if they've made a movie that's successful, doesn't always mean they'll make something that's good again. But I think he's proven he has like a really nice handle on it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: So it's script first for you, then?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: Yes, absolutely, yes. Also, the best director can't make a movie good. I mean, I've read scripts that, like, my agent is saying, 'So-and-so, like, the greatest director is going to make this', and I'm like, 'But it's terrible' and then it always comes out terrible. And that happens all the time, I mean, good directors make bad things. I mean, not that my opinion is always what happens, but I always agree with my opinion later down the road, like, when the movie comes out, even if people like it. Well, it doesn't matter, but yes, if the script's not there, usually it's hard to make anything good out of it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Just to follow on from that, have you ever been really wrong and gone, 'Oh, I wish I'd made that movie after all'?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: No, even with movies that are successful, I still feel like, 'Yeah, I hate it'. I know Greg too, he got offered some movies that turned into, like, huge movies and I'm like, 'Oh, don't you regret it?' and he's like, 'No, I still think it's terrible'. I mean, the only thing is, like, I've not done movies that have become very successful and then it would be easier to make the movies that you want to make, because you're a bigger name. But then if you did something stupid, you wouldn't want to be in that, so, anyway...</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Apparently Greg used to be an actor. Does that come through with his approach to film-making?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: I think he was an actor in a Woody Allen movie, because his wife was Woody Allen's assistant. I think Woody Allen needed to have somebody play a movie director, so I think he asked him, but I don't think he acted. He's like an extremely shy guy, so I don't think he would ever act. But he was the most sensitive director I've ever met, like, to actors. As I said, he was letting us improvise and I think that, in retrospect, that was just to make us comfortable, I don't think it was for new ideas. And so I think, yeah, he was really sensitive and I've met directors who were actors and sometimes it's like they really do want to be actors so that kind of colours it like they're a little bitter, so I've seen that side too, so I don't think it necessarily makes them more sensitive. But he also once told me he thinks acting's such an emotionally difficult job and it is – you have to be in like an emotional state for fourteen hours a day, even if it's a light scene, you're still emoting, somehow. And so he always expressed a sensitivity to that and it comes through in the movie, all the characters are seen to be dealt with sensitively, even if they're doing something bad.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: The film was at Sundance and Edinburgh. How's it been to take the film on the festival circuit rather than go straight into release?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: I prefer that. Like, I did a Sony movie that's coming out in October and it's like a big movie and we're already doing publicity for it and I don't really like that. I mean, not that I want to go get lauded at film festivals, but I like that movies have to prove themselves at film festivals and then when the movie finally does come out, it's already kind of over some hurdle, whereas like a bigger movie, there's so much money and resources behind it that the movie's quality is somehow secondary, so when they put the movie out, it's almost regardless of its own merit.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: And how do you find the interaction with the people at festivals, going to the screenings, doing the Q &amp; As and so on?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: Yeah, it's okay. I mean, I don't really like talking about myself, even though that's what I'm doing now, but you do it because you're supposed to promote the movie. So I could live without it, quite frankly, I'd prefer to just be acting somewhere, doing something else or whatever. But, yeah, it's nice. It makes you want to do good movies though, because if you have to talk about it so much, you know, you hesitate before you do something bad.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Having said all that about choosing roles based on the script first, are there actually any directors you'd particularly like to work with?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: No. No, because, erm, no, because I feel like if somebody's really great, I don't want to be in their movie, because then I'll just feel like I'll screw it up. I don't want to screw up somebody's movie.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: Why would you think you'd screw it up?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: I don't know, I hate myself in movies, I feel like I've ruined all the things I've done, but I still like doing it, so I don't know... I don't know, I feel conflicted, but like, I don't know, if there's somebody like Steven Spielberg, I wouldn't want to screw up a Steven Spielberg movie. I mean, not that I want to screw up Greg's movie either, but he chose me, I didn't pursue it like, you know, actors pursue Steven Spielberg or something, so I felt like it's his fault if it's bad.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: I was just thinking you'd be perfect as the lead in a Woody Allen movie, as the kind of Woody Allen substitute character.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: I love Woody Allen, he's the greatest. As I was saying, Greg's wife was Woody Allen's assistant and Woody Allen saw the movie and sent Greg an email, saying how much he liked it. He said, “I imagine the box office receipts will be in inverse proportion to its quality”. (laughs) That's very funny.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: So, hypothetically, if Woody Allen had a script he said was perfect for you...?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: Yeah, I guess so. No-one ever says no to him, I guess, right?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: How does it feel when you get a plaudit from someone you respect like that?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: Yeah, it was great. I was shocked, like, I can't imagine Woody Allen sitting there watching another movie, just watching something and paying attention to it. But, yeah, it's like a great honour.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: What's your next project?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: I'm supposed to do a few movies but the one that I think is most likely to happen is called Midnight Sun and it's about these two young guys at Columbia who got recruited to work on the Manhattan Project, the atomic bomb, in New Mexico. And it's a true story, it's like this incredible, very tense story. And there's an English girl in it, playing my wife – Felicity Jones. So it's like the three of us are the main characters, going to New Mexico and starting to work on this project. It's really an interesting movie and the Pentagon is letting us film at Los Alamos. It's written and directed by Chris Eigeman, from Metropolitan.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Q: It'll be nice to see you play someone who's married too, after so many coming-of-age movies.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">JE: Yes, I've finally tied the knot.</p><div><br /></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-1718143199970670601?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-47155794019551847102011-03-11T03:43:00.000-08:002011-03-11T03:44:59.757-08:00<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Tweets from The Clock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">@TimeOutFilm I did 13 uninterrupted hours - 7.20pm till 8.20am, then dozed, watched mid-day then left at 12.15am. Amazing. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 15:28:02 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone in reply to TimeOutFilm</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Only 4% phone battery left so signing off now but basically hoping to snooze a bit, catch the high noon shoot-outs then head home. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 08:26:53 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">"THOSE AREN'T PILLOWS!" at 8.22am! #helluvagame #helluvagame #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 08:23:22 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">At this point even Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut has gone to bed. In fact, he went hours ago... #theclock #zzzzzzz</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 08:20:51 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Hopefully, at some point in the future, Christian Marclay's The Clock will be available on a 24 hour loop on YouTube. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 08:13:33 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Nic Cage movie count just went up by one again but I couldn't place the hair. Might have been Next. #theclock #cagecount4</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 08:11:43 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">ENOUGH WITH THE ALARM CLOCKS! #theclock #seriouslyitsbeennearlytwohoursofalarmclocks</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 08:03:10 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Back to the Future opening at 7.55am. Lots of breakfast scenes in general now. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 07:56:04 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Apologies to those of you waking up to wall-to-wall FilmFan spam in your Twitter feeds this morning... #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 07:49:53 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Only 10% of phone battery left... #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 07:44:54 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">If you're in London today, I strongly recommend you catch some of Christian Marclay's The Clock at the Hayward Gallery. Entry = free. Pls RT</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 07:44:02 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Things I never thought I'd see at 7.39am: Hugh Grant and Julianne Moore in a clip from 9 Months. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 07:41:24 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">There's no way I can do another 12 hours though... #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 07:33:15 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">7.30am. I've now been watching The Clock for 12 hours straight. Still not bored. Still not slept. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 07:31:56 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Great shaving scenes montage at 7.23am. #theclock #christianmarclay</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 07:24:50 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Really getting a bit fed up of alarm clocks now... #theclock #christianmarclay</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 07:20:49 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">In 20 minutes I will have been watching The Clock for 12 hours straight. No sleep. #theclock #hardcore #woo</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 07:11:21 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">It's essentially a 24 hour long montage of film clips but each clip corresponds to the actual minute so film is also a functioning clock.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 07:08:25 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">7am weirdly dominated by cuckoo clocks and automated machinery. And shower scenes. #theclock #christianmarclay</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 07:04:24 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">At this point, I'm starting to resent the people on screen who are still asleep... #theclock #elevenandahalfhoursandcounting</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 06:45:50 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Turner and Hooch at 6.11am! Yay! #theclock #turnerandlooch (@cassamlooch)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 06:13:21 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">6am is also lots of people being woken up by their alarm clocks but they're a bit happier about it than they were at 5am. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 06:06:39 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Nic Cage movie count just went up by one too: Bring Out The Dead. #theclock #cagecount3 #cage</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 06:05:06 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">It's Groundhog Day! #theclock #groundhogday</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 06:02:02 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Something really horrible involving a space-age metronome happens at 5.44am. You might want to look away. #theclock #ewww</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 05:47:40 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Coens count just went up by one. The Big Lebowski at 5.42am. #theclock #lebowski #coenscount4</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 05:44:20 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Ah. More Vertigo dream sequence (with music this time and much more of it) at 5.38am. #theclock #vertigo</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 05:42:06 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Charlie Sheen at 5.22am! #charliesheen #charles #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 05:24:39 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Still, I think that's my cue to investigate the all-night cafe... #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 05:22:29 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Vertigo dream sequence (parts of it, anyway - it was weirdly edited with something else and missing the music) at 5.18am! #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 05:21:29 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">This is giving a whole new meaning to the idea of watching the sun come up... #theclock #christianmarclay #gettingabittirednowactually</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 05:14:56 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">5am is mostly people being woken up by their alarm clocks and not liking it very much. #theclock #christianmarclay</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 05:04:55 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">I think we're down to about 30 now. The sleepers next to me in the back row gave up and went home. #theclock #hardcore</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 04:49:50 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Still here... #theclock #christianmarclay (@ Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre) http://4sq.com/gFL6ie</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 04:40:17 (GMT Standard Time) via foursquare from Southbank Centre, Lambeth </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Another recurring "all-nighter": Emilio Estevez in Stakeout. #theclock #emilioestevez #stakeout</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 04:25:50 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Popular 4-5am activities include: bank-robbing, safe-cracking, breaking &amp; entering, drilling, being in prison. #theclock #christianmarclay</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 04:24:06 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Might be an emu, actually. #theclock #notanostrich</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 04:09:16 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Ostrich in bedroom at 4.02am! #theclock #ostrich</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 04:08:05 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Drop Dead Fred! Again! #theclock #christianmarclay</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Another recurring "all-nighter" character: John Cusack in 1408. #theclock #christianmarclay #cusack #343am</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 03:44:13 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Nic Cage movie count so far: 2. Moonstruck and Leaving Las Vegas. #theclock #christianmarclay #cagecount</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 03:40:42 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">“@Despirito: @FilmFan1971 http://t.co/5ObPfKf” // Thanks! [Twilight Zone episode identified]</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 03:34:52 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Lots of creepy dream sequences / nightmares between 3 and 4am. But where's the one from Vertigo? #theclock #christianmarclay</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 03:33:41 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">@EthanRunt Yes. Lots of people being kept awake by *neighbours* having sex though. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 03:32:03 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone in reply to EthanRunt</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Heh. Kevin Spacey's Mena Suvari / rose petals fantasy sequence at 3.26am. #theclock #christianmarclay #americanbeauty #spectacular</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 03:30:17 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RT @existence50 Check this video out -- Christian Marclay mini documentary http://t.co/gZ9w2Dc via @youtube</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sat Mar 05 2011 15:57:55 (GMT Standard Time) via Tweet Button</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Retweeted by you</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Whatever it is, he's obsessed with it because he thinks he'll die if he lets it run down. Anyone? #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 03:16:06 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Can someone please tell me the name of the movie with the old man who's obsessed with the clock? Could be a Twilight Zone episode? #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 03:13:47 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">In contrast to 2am, 3am mostly people trying to sleep, being woken up and saying, "It's 3am - go back to sleep!"</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 03:11:06 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Drop Dead Fred! #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 03:09:20 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">E.g. Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut, Griffin Dunne in After Hours, Steve Martin and John Candy in Planes, Trains &amp; Automobiles etc. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 02:59:46 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Another thing I like is the continual reappearances of characters from those films where everything happens in one night. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 02:57:03 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">The sound editing on The Clock is extraordinary. I love the way the sound often spills over from one scene to the next. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 02:53:27 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">That shit will wake you up, believe me... #theclock #christianmarclay #dali</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 02:38:30 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">The Dali dream sequence from Hitchcock's Spellbound is used at 2.33am, more or less in its entirety. #theclock #christianmarclay #genius</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 02:37:19 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">There's about 50 of us here altogether. Some of them are asleep though. Phones on screen keep ringing and waking them up. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 02:30:09 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Hmmm. If I go home before noon, I'll miss all the gunfights. Might have to rethink... #theclock #christianmarclay #highnoon</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 02:22:49 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Or sleeping. Lots of sleeping. Lots of sex too. Except for Will Ferrell in Melinda &amp; Melinda. No 2am sex for Ferrell. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 02:11:01 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">2am largely dominated by people saying, "For God's sake, IT'S TWO O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING!" I know how they feel. #theclock #christianmarclay</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 02:08:49 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Coens Count: 3. Hudsucker, Miller's, Fink. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 01:56:43 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Ooh, the Titanic is in trouble! #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 01:55:34 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">The three guys next to me all have costs over their heads and are trying to sleep. Lightweights. #theclock #15hourstogo</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 01:51:13 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">When I said Valentine's Day earlier I meant He's Just Not That Into You. #theclock #CORRECTION</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 01:35:21 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">In all honesty, I don't think I'll make it through the full 24 hrs. But I feel I should at least do 12 hrs and stay up for Groundhog Day.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 01:16:07 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Things I Have Learned From Watching The Clock. 3) Vincent Price is pretty much up to no good 24/7. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 01:07:14 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Things I Have Learned From Watching The Clock. 2) James Bond has several very nice watches and never wears the same one twice. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 01:06:14 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Things I Have Learned From Watching The Clock. 1) There is no pleasing Joan Crawford, no matter what time it is. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sun Mar 06 2011 01:04:47 (GMT Standard Time) via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">I hadn't realised there were TV clips in it too. Spotted so far: Matlock, MacGyver, The X-Files, 24 and The Prisoner. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">12:54 AM Mar 6th via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Some very odd films included in #theclock. Like that awful Danny Dyer / Maggie Grace movie and Valentine's Day. #christianmarclay</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">12:51 AM Mar 6th via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">@Phil_on_Film @jigsawlounge I am still here and haven't slept yet! Toilet nearby. Regretting not bringing food... #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">12:40 AM Mar 6th via Twitter for iPhone in reply to Phil_on_Film</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Yay! Hudsucker! #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">11:54 PM Mar 5th via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">First NYE party scene: 11.45pm. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">11:46 PM Mar 5th via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Really looking forward to the montage of midnight scenes... #theclock #christianmarclay #genius</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">11:37 PM Mar 5th via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">RT @MarvMarsh @FilmFan1971 Tell them that if they do it again they'll find out what time it is alright: FilmFan time.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">11:34 PM Mar 5th via web in reply to FilmFan1971</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Uh oh. We've got some overlaughers in... #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">11:34 PM Mar 5th via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Most popular time to get murdered: 11.07pm. #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">11:09 PM Mar 5th via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">It rains a lot at 10.35pm in the movies... #theclock</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">10:43 PM Mar 5th via Twitter for iPhone</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Tweeting from the now empty back row of Christian Marclay's The Clock so no-one can see screen. It's amazing so far. Well worth seeing.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">9:39 PM Mar 5th via Twitter for iPhone</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-4715579401955184710?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-53895926009373432412010-10-23T05:30:00.000-07:002011-10-25T15:13:20.913-07:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><span >Bit of a long story and to be fair, he was a) pissed and b) trying to crack on to my friend and I hadn't spotted him when I came over to say hello to her. Conversation basically went:<br /><br />Me: "So what are you in?" (meaning 'What are you doing at this LFF party?')<br /><br />Idris: "I'm in lots of things. I'm in - "<br /><br />Me: "No, no - I know who you are. Are you in anything at the LFF?"<br /><br />Idris: "No. I was in this Raindance film" (which my friend worked on) "but they didn't want it for the LFF".<br /><br />Me: (trying to change the subject as I hadn't seen his film) "What are you in next?"<br /><br />Idris: "Well, I'm doing Luther and I'm in (pause) Ghost Rider 2, with Nic Cage."<br /><br />His face and mine pretty much said the same thing, i.e. "Oh." He looked like he was embarrassed by it. I told him I'd liked the first one, he said it was shit. My face went all 'I don't know what to say' again.<br /><br />Idris: "I know. Why do we do this to ourselves, you and me? (sarcastically) "Hey, Idris, wow! You're in a movie with Nic Cage! Nic Cage is a fucking legend, man!"<br /><br />Me: "Hey, don't look at it like that. Nic Cage should be going 'Hey, wow! I'm in a movie with Stringer fucking Bell!"<br /><br />Idris (face like thunder): "My name's Idris Elba. Fuck you. NO. Fuck you..."<br /><br />And then he walked off. Brilliant. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><span ><br /></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-5389592600937343241?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-81207394223049367802010-09-26T12:42:00.001-07:002010-09-26T12:55:15.239-07:00Promoting: Rudo & Cursi<br />Venue: The Caledonian Hotel, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Film Festival<br />Interview type: One-on-one (one-on-two)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-kuaqS5CI/AAAAAAAAAik/fM0CR9BEGEU/s1600/Gael+Garcia+Bernal+and+Diego+Luna+2.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-kuaqS5CI/AAAAAAAAAik/fM0CR9BEGEU/s320/Gael+Garcia+Bernal+and+Diego+Luna+2.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521312785517175842" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): What's the film about, first of all?<br /><br />Diego Luna (DL): The film is about these two brothers that come from a little town in Mexico, called Tlachatlan, that is in the Pacific Coast. And one wants to be a football player, he's a goal-keeper, my character, who is nick-named Rudo or “Tough”. And Gael's character, who's nick-named Cursi, which means “Corny” or “Cheesy”, he wants to be a singer. And it's the journey of these two guys and the story of their relationship and the love between these two brothers and how life changes for them. It's a really fun film to watch.<br /><br />VL: What attracted you to the project?<br /><br />Gael Garcia Bernal (GGB): The prospect of working with Diego again was very exciting and also working with the people who introduced us to cinema (director Carlos Cuaron and producer Alphonso Cuaron). Alphonso and Carlos are responsible for us being able to do what we like. We worked with them and they included us on Y Tu Mama Tambien, in a way that we felt part of the project, more than we had ever felt before. And they're still our very good friends. And the story was great too, the idea of playing football players. So I guess little by little everything started to add up and every reason to be in the film was the correct one.<br /><br />DL: Also, you know Carlos wrote Y Tu Mama Tambien and he was always there for us, so in a way it made a lot of sense to be part of his first film [as director] and to be there as he was when we started. <br /><br />VL: Was it easy to get back into the groove of the four of you working together again?<br /><br />DL: Yeah. It was really easy, in fact, because it was a necessity. We so wanted to act together again and to work with the two brothers. We also really wanted to shoot in Mexico again. We'd shot a lot of amazing things out of Mexico, but the idea of returning to shoot in your own country with the same team that you'd enjoyed working with so many years ago was pretty hard to resist.<br /><br />VL: The film is quite broad in places. Were you worried about slipping into caricature with the characters?<br /><br />GGB: Yes, definitely. We constantly wanted to have a good barometer that allowed us to stop falling into that and that's what the director is for. I like those movies in general, there's nothing wrong with them, but then it would have been like a Ben Stiller or Jack Black movie, where the caricature is intentionally ridiculous and it's like a commentary on the comedy, where you have to be in on the joke. We wanted to do something where the characters existed for real and they're not conscious of the joke. So that was very difficult, but it's a great challenge for actors to be able to do that.<br /><br />VL: The film's also about sibling rivalry. Is there any rivalry between the two of you?<br /><br />DL: No rivalry, no. There is kind of a legal competition, you know? Sometimes, either when we play football or, when we were younger, if there was a cute girl at a party, probably we would compete for her, a little bit. But normally what we do is we complement each other really well and I think that's a lesson that comes from acting and shooting film, where it's not a race you achieve yourself. You have to be around people who want the same thing and are aiming for the same goal and there's room for everyone. So I think it's because there's no rivalry between us that our characters can be so much in competition and we can talk about it. And we also used a lot of our experiences with the Cuaron brothers – these guys compete a lot, so we looked at them and took from them. Because we're not brothers, we're friends, so we choose to be friends every day. You know, you don't have to have breakfast at the same table every day – you either call each other or not.<br /><br />VL: Are you both football fans?<br /><br />GGB: We're both football fans and we like good football a lot. And I think we're going through a stage in our lives where football has become very important, intellectually as well. It's really become a very strong intellectual necessity, football – more than the physical activity, because we hardly ever get time to play. And if you're not fit, football can be one of the most dangerous sports that exists. For me especially, I can say that every time I play football without having played for a while, I get hurt, big-time. But intellectually, it's part of our discussions and we like talking about the problems in football as if they were incredibly important. So it definitely plays a big part on our consciousness, to metaphorise about life, with football.<br /><br />VL: Which of you is the better player?<br /><br />DL: Okay, you got to the point.<br /><br />GGB: Yeah, this is where the competition starts. <br /><br />DL: I have to say that we're not allowed to answer that, because we've always played in the same team and it's not about who scores, it's about the team.<br /><br />GGB: I've got to say that at the moment I'm really terrible and even Diego can beat me right now.<br /><br />DL: “Even” Diego! Ha ha!<br /><br />VL: Do you have a favourite scene in the film?<br /><br />DL: My favourite scene is Gael's music video. When he sings, it's unbelievable. It's amazing. That's a real piece of art.<br /><br />GGB: I like the first penalty kick scene a lot. It's really well written and full of...something. Nitty gritty?<br /><br />VL: Were you always going to play the characters that way round, with Diego as Rudo and Gael as Cursi?<br /><br />DL: Yes, but the smart thing Carlos did was he went for the opposite to our characters in Y Tu Mama Tambien. Not because one is rough and the other is corny, but also the opposite in reality – Gael is a year older than I am, so giving me the role of the older brother would definitely change the dynamics of our relationship. And that also allowed us to really come up with these characters that are so different from us.<br /><br />VL: How does Carlos' directing style compare to other directors you've both worked with?<br /><br />GGB: Well, it was his first feature and yet he was incredibly experienced – in a way, it didn't feel like it was his first film. But one thing he has is that he's a very good writer. So the parts that come from being a writer differentiated him from other more visual directors.<br /><br />DL: He knew exactly what he wanted to do and he also surrounded himself with interesting and talented collaborators so he always had someone interesting to talk to. And even though he knew the kind of film he wanted to do, he allowed everyone to say what they were thinking. And in the beginning I was scared because I thought he'd just be manipulated by all these talented people, but no, he was strong enough to say no when he wanted to say no and to stay firm on that. And that takes a lot of maturity that normally a first-time director wouldn't have. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-kty3buoI/AAAAAAAAAic/FnqzRDfwMMk/s1600/Gael+Garcia+Bernal+and+Diego+Luna.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-kty3buoI/AAAAAAAAAic/FnqzRDfwMMk/s320/Gael+Garcia+Bernal+and+Diego+Luna.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521312774834862722" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-8120739422304936780?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-17217876139500174392010-09-26T12:11:00.000-07:002010-09-26T12:40:57.457-07:00Promoting: Rudo & Cursi<br />Venue: The Caledonian Hotel, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Film Festival<br />Interview type: One-on-one<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-f-5XtBwI/AAAAAAAAAiE/j_vCMioYSR4/s1600/Carlos+Cuaron.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-f-5XtBwI/AAAAAAAAAiE/j_vCMioYSR4/s320/Carlos+Cuaron.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521307571080464130" /></a><br />Interview with Carlos Cuaron (writer-director of Rudo & Cursi)<br />Venue: The Caledonian Hotel, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Film Festival<br />Interview type: One-on-one<br /><br />ViewLondon: What's the film about, first of all?<br /><br />Carlos Cuaron (CC): It's a sibling rivalry story between two brothers who work in a banana plantation in the Pacific coast in Mexico. The older brother, Rudo, played by Diego Luna, has the dream of becoming a football player. And his younger brother, Cursi, played by Gael Garcia Bernal has the dream of becoming a singer. So it's a rivalry story between these two guys in the context of football in Mexico.<br /><br />VL: Where did the story come from?<br /><br />CC: Well, my original idea was that I wanted to make a mockumentary about a footballer who came from a humble background and made it big and when he was at the peak of his success, he mysteriously disappeared. So I told this concept to Diego and Gael separately, during the Y Tu Mama Tambien publicity tour and they both said, “I want to be that guy”. So I was honoured, obviously, but I had the problem of having two actors and only one character. So I realised that what I really wanted to do was to work with both of them again, so I created a brother with his own conflicts with the other one that I already had and that's how it all started.<br /><br />VL: Did the actors play the parts that you wrote for them?<br /><br />CC: When I brought the original idea to them - when it was going to be a sibling rivalry story and not a mockumentary at all - Gael's original reaction was to say that he should play Rudo and Diego said, 'Yeah, yeah and I should play Cursi'. But I told them that I didn't want to repeat myself, that I wanted to do something original and to do that I needed to start from scratch and I needed to cast them against their natural types. They immediately got it and started to throw in ideas, because they are great, creative, imaginative actors.<br /><br />VL: Was it easy to get back into the swing of working together again?<br /><br />CC: Oh yeah, it was automatic. Because we wanted to work together again. During the publicity tour for Y Tu Mama Tambien, we would just make up stories and we were thinking that they would both be acting and Alphonso would be directing and I'd be writing or maybe that I would direct whatever I wrote. And so it was automatic – when I got the idea and told them they said yes and when I told Alphonso [Cuaron, Carlos' brother and producer] he said, 'Okay, man, whenever the script is ready I'm going to help you set up this movie'.<br /><br />VL: Do you have plans for the four of you to work together again in the future?<br /><br />CC: Yeah, why not? Though my intuition says that it's not going to be soon. And probably the director is going to be Jonas, Alphonso's son, the writer-director, and that probably Alphonso and I are going to help him produce it. But I would very gladly work with both of them again or separately.<br /><br />VL: Do you have a favourite scene in the film?<br /><br />CC: I like the first penalty kick in the small village. I like the way it's written, but I also think that we all did a great job in that scene. Diego, Gael and Guillermo Francella are just amazing in that scene. I also think the photography in that scene is beautiful. <br /><br />VL: It's interesting that there's hardly any football action in the film – it all happens with audience reactions and so on. How did that come about?<br /><br />CC: Well, the problem was that while I was writing the script, I felt that football was getting in the way of the drama, of the rivalry between these two guys. And I didn't know how to deal with it because it was the background, the context. And then one day I saw Michael Haneke's Funny Games, which is probably the most violent film I've ever seen in my life and yet all the violence is offscreen. And when I finished watching that movie, I said, 'That's what I've got to do'. That's where I got the idea. So we actually understand what is happening on the field in the stadium from the human emotion, from the people's reactions on the stands and the sports-casters narrating the game. We only go down on the pitch in the climactic parts of the rivalry between these two guys, so it's not important if it's a yellow card or a disallowed goal or anything – what is important is what's happening between the two of them. <br /><br />VL: What's your next project?<br /><br />CC: I don't know yet.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-f-dTbcqI/AAAAAAAAAh8/r5iDDfa5dCI/s1600/Carlos+Cuaron,+flash.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-f-dTbcqI/AAAAAAAAAh8/r5iDDfa5dCI/s320/Carlos+Cuaron,+flash.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521307563546342050" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Interview-based anecdote: This was actually quite frustrating. I'd been booked in to do the same interviews twice - once on camera for MovieBeat and once for print only for ViewLondon. The problem was, it seemed ridiculous to all of us that I was basically asking them the same questions twice, with the result that Alphonso Cuaron bailed on the second interview and Diego and Gael spent the second pissing about more than they did in the first. Ah well.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-f-2zPGuI/AAAAAAAAAiM/UwYcAs1wY_0/s1600/Alphonso,+Carlos,+Gael,+Diego.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-f-2zPGuI/AAAAAAAAAiM/UwYcAs1wY_0/s320/Alphonso,+Carlos,+Gael,+Diego.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521307570390637282" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-f_THuHTI/AAAAAAAAAiU/bSr5gC7n22A/s1600/Alphonso+Cuaron,+Carlos+Cuaron,+Gael+Garcia+Bernal+and+Diego+Luna.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-f_THuHTI/AAAAAAAAAiU/bSr5gC7n22A/s320/Alphonso+Cuaron,+Carlos+Cuaron,+Gael+Garcia+Bernal+and+Diego+Luna.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521307577992748338" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-1721787613950017439?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-25458370061511513362010-09-26T11:57:00.000-07:002010-09-26T12:07:25.298-07:00Promoting: The Hurt Locker and Easier With Practice<br />Venue: Delegate Centre, Edinburgh Film Festival<br />Interview type: One-on-one<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-ZcXHJulI/AAAAAAAAAh0/8Lm8kNoPRO4/s1600/Brian+Geraghty+CU.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 239px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-ZcXHJulI/AAAAAAAAAh0/8Lm8kNoPRO4/s320/Brian+Geraghty+CU.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521300380698917458" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): What's the film about and who do you play?<br /><br />Brian Geraghty (BG): The film's about three guys who are doing a job and they happen to be in a war. I play Specialist Owen Eldridge, who's kind of like a regular young guy, going through extraordinary circumstances in war.<br /><br />VL: Can you explain the title?<br /><br />BG: It's called The Hurt Locker, which is like the ultimate place of pain. It's not explained in the film, but I think it's a literary reference from somewhere. It's basically like, we'd joke and say, “Ah, I'm in the hurt locker” after a rough day of working, you know, being out in the sun.<br /><br />VL: What attracted you to the part and how did you get involved in the film?<br /><br />BG: I went to [director Kathryn Bigelow]'s house and just had an audition with [co-star Jeremy Renner], who was already cast, and we read and whatever. It didn't go great, I didn't think, but they'd liked me and thought I was right for it. And then I really read the script and I was like, 'I gotta do this, it's an amazing role'. It's an action film but it is at war and there's only really three central characters. It was very attractive.<br /><br />VL: You said you didn't think the audition went very well. Had they seen you in Jarhead?<br /><br />BG: I think they might have seen some things. I don't know if that was a help or, you know, was a problem or whatever, but I think they thought I approached work with integrity.<br /><br />VL: What was it like working with Kathryn?<br /><br />BG: I mean, she's just incredible, you know, to see her vision. I had no idea it was going to be that intense. She's doing a thousand things at once, talking to us, making us feel comfortable. Never sleeps, she looks beautiful all the time.<br /><br />VL: How did her directing style compare to other directors you've worked with?<br /><br />BG: For this particular movie, it was very different because she kind of just let us go. We had two to four cameras going the whole time so it was kind of like, 'Don't worry about the cameras, just do your thing and we'll find you', so it was kind of like a documentary style. It was freeing, for us, as actors.<br /><br />VL: But you had to stick to the script, presumably?<br /><br />BG: Yeah, we stuck to the script. I mean, there was a moment here or there that came out that's in the film but we stuck to the script. They were great words, so...<br /><br />VL: So she didn't exactly encourage improvisation but she didn't mind...?<br /><br />BG: Well, spontaneity, not just taking something and putting it in there to improvise. It comes out of the moment of what we're doing and little moments would happen but it wasn't like she would do multiple takes and encourage us to do something different each time, no. The scenes were well put together and crafted.<br /><br />VL: The film has a fantastic cast. What was it like working with Jeremy Renner?<br /><br />BG: I was a big fan of his. I love Dahmer – he's incredible in that. He's the nicest, greatest guy. And Anthony Mackie, who I know – we did We Are Marshall, we played best friends – so it was really, just easy.<br /><br />VL: Did Kathryn see something in you and Anthony already knowing each other?<br /><br />BG: I don't know, again. I mean, yeah, they kind of took that into consideration but you know, we're actors, we can act like we're best friends. I think it was more about finding the right people in her mind.<br /><br />VL: Without giving too much away, there are some big-name cameos in the film. Was that a deliberate thing? Did Kathryn go after those actors deliberately?<br /><br />BG: I think for the initial one, she set it up that way. And it's kind of genius, because it's like, 'Wow, the lead actor just died – no-one's safe'. But her and Ralph [Fiennes] obviously are friends from when they made Strange Days so she was like, 'Can you come out and play?' And David Morse, she wanted someone commanding and he was terrific.<br /><br />VL: It seems to be a received wisdom, rightly or wrongly, that people don't go and see Iraq movies. Was that a concern for the film?<br /><br />BG: Yeah, I think it always was. They've positioned it differently, because I think it's not an Iraq war movie – that's the backdrop. It's really an action movie about three guys and this one guy and how he's dealing with his job.<br /><br />VL: How did that affect the film getting made in the first place?<br /><br />BG: I think it was a smaller budget than usual but it was really about trusting Kathryn. I mean, she had all the power – I can't get any money for a movie. But to not have to cast big stars – not that Jeremy's not on his way – but to not have big movie stars that are going to put people in seats, that's a tough aim for that size movie.<br /><br />VL: What was the shoot like? Was it tough shooting in the desert?<br /><br />BG: Well, it was as tough as making a fun movie and one of the best jobs you've ever had in your life can be, but yeah it was very hot and strenuous but ultimately it was pretty incredible. We were in Amman, Jordan and we shot for three months.<br /><br />VL: What was the hardest scene to film?<br /><br />BG: The U.N. building for me, because I had a lot of running to do and it was continuous takes. But it was fun, it was more like doing a play with action. And the sniper scene was hot and sandy, but I think that was one of the most beautiful scenes in the film.<br /><br />VL: What research did you do?<br /><br />BG: I trained with the E.O.D (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) down in Fort Irwin and we basically just learned about the bomb suit, how to put it on, blasting caps, the bombs, 155s, all of that. And then we did weapons training and had to simulate how we'd go into a building and so on. And we had advisors out there to help us too, plus we talked to people who actually did the job and got some personal insight from them.<br /><br />VL: Did they cut anything out that you hated to lose?<br /><br />BG: It's been so long, we shot it about two years ago, but I don't think so, no.<br /><br />VL: Do you have a favourite scene in the film?<br /><br />BG: The sniper scene is my favourite, for sure. I think it's just beautiful, I love all the characters going through real moments and the guys coming in. It was such a fun thing, it could be its own little movie in a way.<br /><br />VL: What's your next project?<br /><br />BG: I'm supposed to start this movie called Open House, it's kind of a horror, thriller, genre film where I play a sociopathic killer. So I'm trying to work that out. And I'm also in this movie called Easier With Practice, which is sort of a phone-sex road-trip movie – that's how we're selling it. It's a completely different character from The Hurt Locker for me. It's been exciting – it's at Edinburgh and people are liking it and it also just won the Grand Jury prize at CineVegas.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-2545837006151151336?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-44417403264271816292010-09-26T11:48:00.000-07:002010-09-26T11:56:06.283-07:00Promoting: Drag Me To Hell<br />Venue: The Soho Hotel<br />Interview type (one-on-two, with Alison Lohman - see below)<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Note: This interview was conducted on behalf of FilmStar Magazine (now sadly deceased), where a version of it first appeared</span>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-WqNZ8RJI/AAAAAAAAAhs/JY736pQmuEE/s1600/Justin+Long+and+Alison+Lohman.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-WqNZ8RJI/AAAAAAAAAhs/JY736pQmuEE/s320/Justin+Long+and+Alison+Lohman.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521297320076657810" /></a><br />Filmstar: Justin, this is your first horror film since the Jeepers Creepers movies. How did it feel to come back to horror after so many comedy roles?<br /><br />Justin Long (JL): I love the genre, so I'm glad to be a part of another horror movie but it didn't feel like doing a horror movie, certainly not like my experience on Jeepers Creepers. My part is much more of a passive role – it was more like doing a romantic movie for me, so it didn't feel like doing a horror movie. But then I did one after this, where I was much more of an active participant in the horror. I'd forgotten how exhausting it is, just how physically demanding it is. And also seeing [co-star Alison Lohman] go through that, it reminded me a lot of that experience, to maintain that level of fear throughout a couple of months and long takes and several takes, it just gets to be really physically exhausting.<br /><br />But I do love the genre and I had wanted to do more horror movies after Jeepers Creepers. It wasn't for lack of trying, I was always throwing my name in the hat and I auditioned for all the Halloween 12 and Freddy versus Jason versus Alien versus Predator. But then it got to the point where I was starting to be able to be more selective of roles and the truth is that those parts in those movies are a lot more stock and not as interesting as other roles so I just stopped trying out.<br /><br />Filmstar: What was it like working with Sam Raimi?<br /><br />JL: He's incredibly giving as a director. He's very patient and incredibly kind and he's funny, he's very funny. He's by far my favourite director I've ever worked with, more for how he treats people and how he conducts himself than for his body of work, which everyone knows is great. So you'd think there would be some element of him that would be tyrannical or officious but he's anything but, he's just so collaborative and warm and a really kind guy, a really great guy.<br /><br />Filmstar: How does he approach the more effects-heavy scenes?<br /><br />JL: Off-camera, I think it was really important, because a lot of [acting] is like impulsive and natural and you can't deconstruct it and get heady about it and so Sam would give Alison a lot to respond to. I mean maybe not as much as you'd like ideally, because there's a lot of stuff you just can't do because of the green screen and post stuff, so Sam would be there getting really passionate off-camera, doing the sounds for, like, the Lamia [the film's evil spirit] chasing you up the stairs, anything that you had to be reacting to, he'd be like [puts on monster voice], “And I'm WALKING UP THE STAIRS and I'm BANGING ON THE DOOR” and he got very into it, really passionate, like he was a part of the movie. Much more directly than most directors are.<br /><br />Filmstar: What are your thoughts on horror generally? Were you a fan?<br /><br />JL: I realise I'm not as big a fan as other people. I think it might belie how I really feel to say I'm a big fan, like it might be disrespectful to actual big fans. But I really enjoy horror movies. I don't know how big of a fan I am anymore, but I do love them.<br /><br />Filmstar: Have you seen Night of the Demon? <br /><br />JL: No, but I know that was a heavy influence for this movie and I'm really curious to see it. And now I'm glad that I redefined how big of a horror fan I am, before you asked that question.<br /><br />Filmstar: Did you feel left out of the gory special effects scenes?<br /><br />JL: Oh, absolutely, yes. I mean, at the time there was an element of relief, because Alison was working so hard and I got to go home early and I got my sleep. I even got to shoot another film – I had so much time off that I shot another movie in the middle of this movie. But of course, you just want to play. You feel like a kid and Sam was acting like a kid with the purity and the love of it and I just wanted to get in there and get my hands dirty. And certainly watching, of course, you want to do the fun horror movie stuff. But it was so nice just to be a part of it and to be involved.<br /><br />Filmstar: What's your next project?<br /><br />JL: I'm doing a movie this summer called Going The Distance, it's a romantic comedy about two people who are trying to figure out a long-distance relationship. It's a pretty simple, straightforward story, but hopefully done in a kind of raw, much more real kind of like Apatow-ian way. I hate using that, but it applies.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-4441740326427181629?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-75804165744693975342010-09-26T11:38:00.000-07:002010-09-26T11:45:43.545-07:00Promoting: Drag Me To Hell<br />Venue: The Soho Hotel<br />Interview type: One-on-two (with Justin Long - see above)<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Note: A version of this interview appeared in FilmStar Magazine (now deceased), as the interview was conducted for FilmStar, not for ViewLondon.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-UcYf5e5I/AAAAAAAAAhk/dvHxTt-hOuI/s1600/Justin+Long+and+Alison+Lohman.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-UcYf5e5I/AAAAAAAAAhk/dvHxTt-hOuI/s320/Justin+Long+and+Alison+Lohman.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521294883513006994" /></a><br />Filmstar: What was it like working with Sam Raimi?<br /><br />Alison Lohman (AL): Great. Sam is a director I've always wanted to work with, so it was really great to work with him.<br /><br />Filmstar: You've worked with Tim Burton, Ridley Scott and Atom Egoyan. How does Sam compare to other directors you've worked with?<br /><br />AL: It's hard to generalise all the other directors in one category, but I just feel that Sam stands out because he's just so incredibly patient. He's such a gentleman. And he also gets really passionate about each detail of every scene, but not in an analytical way, in a sort of fun-loving, child-like, curious way, not in an intellectualised, in-your-head way. Because I don't think that you're productive when it's too intellectual, especially for an actor, you know, they have to be free with their body and that's mostly where the emotion's coming from.<br /><br />Filmstar: How demanding were the various scenes you had to go through?<br /><br />AL: Oh, incredibly demanding, yes. Oh my gosh. Much more so than I ever thought.<br /><br />Filmstar: There's a scene in the film which I believe is known as the “gumming” scene (the old lady clamps her toothless jaw over Alison's face). How was it filming that?<br /><br />AL: That one was interesting because, you know, it's only two sentences on the page and it takes a whole day to shoot. When you're reading it you just kind of read over it and you don't really think of it as anything, you're just more focussed on the dialogue in heavier scenes. But actually, it's those smaller scenes that are heavier in horror films, for me.<br /><br />Filmstar: What was the balance between CGI and more traditional effects?<br /><br />AL: On this film, it wasn't so much CGI – I had all the props that I needed to make it feel real. And, you know, Sam would play the monster. And the fly that goes in and out of my nose.<br /><br />Filmstar: How did he play the fly?<br /><br />AL: Well, he had like a fishing pole and a piece of tape attached to it and he would dangle it. And he got way too much enjoyment out of it, he would do take after take after take.<br /><br />Filmstar: Were you a fan of horror films beforehand?<br /><br />AL: I didn't especially like horror films but I have an appreciation for them now.<br /><br />Filmstar: What's your approach to acting generally? Do you do lots of research?<br /><br />AL: I do, I try and do as much as I can and then just try give up the rest and just kind of leave it to trusting your instincts. Wherever you can find inspiration, you know, even if it's just one scene in a movie.<br /><br />Filmstar: Did you spend any time in a bank for Drag Me To Hell?<br /><br />AL: I did, actually. I did. I met with a loan officer and talked with her a few times, tried to get as much information to try and make sure it was all valid and legit.<br /><br />Filmstar: Did you watch any horror movies in preparation?<br /><br />AL: I did. I watched as many horror movies as I could and I really enjoyed one called Let's Scare Jessica To Death (1971). There's one scene where you just die watching it, she's coming out of a lake and there's this monster and it's like even more real than real life. It's just hard to explain, the way her reaction was. <br /><br />Filmstar: What attracts you to a script, usually?<br /><br />AL: Everything. Not so much the story, but the director, actors who are involved and my character. And the story too, but it depends, I don't really try to find a particular story, if you know what I mean.<br /><br />Filmstar: What was it that attracted you to Drag Me To Hell?<br /><br />AL: Working with Sam Raimi and Justin Long and also just being really inspired by Sam.<br /><br />Filmstar: What's your next project?<br /><br />AL: I'm in a film called Gamer. It stars Gerard Butler and Amber Valletta, it's a really great cast. The story is humans playing humans on a global scale, through video games. It's actually kind of hard to explain the whole movie, but it's wild. I play this girl Trace, who's part of the resistance, who tries to get Gerard Butler back to his family. But after that, I don't have a next project – I'm on holiday, a big long break.<br /><br />Filmstar: Are Gamer and Drag Me To Hell part of a conscious decision to move into more mainstream movies?<br /><br />AL: No, not at all, not at all. I've never had any desire to do action films or horror films, so it's just interesting that they kind of came up at this time. I mean, I don't mind doing them – I loved working on them.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-7580416574469397534?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-24937146197731644272010-09-26T11:22:00.000-07:002010-09-26T11:35:13.706-07:00Promoting: Synecdoche, New York<br />Venue: The Mayfair Hotel<br />Interview type: Round table<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-Q17WoGVI/AAAAAAAAAhc/g0DSzm1Ifw0/s1600/Cannes%2B2008%2BSynecdoche%2BNew%2BYork%2BPhotocall%2BIntbInm-rYvl.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-Q17WoGVI/AAAAAAAAAhc/g0DSzm1Ifw0/s320/Cannes%2B2008%2BSynecdoche%2BNew%2BYork%2BPhotocall%2BIntbInm-rYvl.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521290924319578450" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): The film has as its main themes mortality and existential angst – are these anxieties which were specific to you at the time of writing it or is it just something that interests you?<br /><br />Charlie Kaufman (CK): I think that mortality is a concern of everybody, isn’t it, on some level? Or am I just imagining that? But yes, it is. I don’t want to single myself out and say it’s a concern of mine, but it is a concern of mine, yes. I tend to write about the things I’m thinking about at the time. Perhaps I was arriving at an age where it was becoming more of a middle-aged experience where you’re dealing with your body changing and also watching people you know dying. Not to be dramatic about it, [but] as you get older, you’re surrounded by more of it, at least that's my experience. So I thought I'd write about it.<br /><br />VL: How was your experience of directing your first feature? Do you have plans to direct again?<br /><br />CK: I enjoyed it, I mean, mostly. It was a lot of work and it was hard but not overwhelming and I will do it again if anyone lets me do it again. It's not entirely up to me, but I would choose to do it again if I can.<br /><br />VL: Following on from that, you've directed two plays in the past and this film is about a theatre director who is, ultimately, seeking direction. How much of the film stems from self-analysis of being a director?<br /><br />CK: You know, it's interesting that when I start a project -and it happened in this case too- I sort of know what the character's going to be but I don't necessarily know what his or her job is. So I have to choose a job and in this case, I knew that the couple were both going to be artists of some sort, because it was important that his work not be respected by his wife. So I had to think what kind of artist he would be and I'd used a few different careers before and I couldn't use them, so I thought about a theatre director, not really realising where it was going to lead. But it did lead into a lot of things that were interesting to me. And I think that's how I work, I allow something to sort of, like, be explored. So I didn't set out to make any big pronouncements about myself or about being a theatre director, is what I'm saying.<br /><br />VL: You’ve said that a big part of directing is about being a grown-up…<br /><br />CK: (laughs) I did say that. Where did you read that? I haven’t said that recently.<br /><br />VL: That was on YouTube. I wondered, therefore, do you feel that writing is actually removed from being a grown-up?<br /><br />CK: Yeah, what I meant when I said that is, as a writer on other movies, I’m a shy person who gets really awkward around actors. I could go off and sulk on the set if I wanted to. It just became clear very quickly that, as a director, I couldn’t do that. I have to be the person whose mood is constant. I have to take care of the problems of the actors who tend to need to go off and sulk. I have to solve those problems, so I felt like it was similar to being a father, which I am, of a young child. You are constantly deciding which of your terrors you should/could reveal. You have to feel safe; the child has to feel safe. And that’s what a director has to provide for the cast. So, I guess that’s what I meant by that. It’s a good exercise for me to do that, because it’s a discipline. There were times, especially late in the day, when I really didn’t want to be the grown-up, but I was.<br /><br />VL: Is it hard to be a shy director?<br /><br />CK: No. I don't think it's hard. I think maybe the thing I've decided is that you use the thing that you are. If you're an honest person, then you use your personality, like you would in any endeavour. I mean, I need to be able to talk to people but I don't need to be mean to people or lord it over people like some directors do -and maybe very effectively- but it's not what I do and I don't have to do it.<br /><br />VL: Now that you've directed -and I know that you've been unhappy with the direction of at least one of your screenplays in the past- do you feel you'll ever be able to give one of your scripts to another director again?<br /><br />CK: You know, mostly I've been pretty happy. I was unhappy mostly with the George Clooney movie [Confessions of a Dangerous Mind], just basically because he cut me out of the process of making it and he changed my script and stuff. I'm very happy working with Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry and I would do it again. I think if I was going to write something that someone else was going to direct again, I would probably go to one of those two guys, because I know who they are and I know what I'm going to get by working with them. But right now, I'd prefer to try to do it again myself. So that's what I'll do next, if I can.<br /><br />VL: Did you always envisage Philip Seymour Hoffman as Cayden or was it something that came to you later on?<br /><br />CK: No, I didn't. I don't write with actors in mind, at all. For me, it's not an effective way to create a character, because I start to think about what I've seen the actor do and then I'm not really creating a character anymore, I'm writing a role for Philip Seymour Hoffman, so that, added to the fact that I wasn't going to be the director of this movie when I was writing it, makes the answer a resounding no. But as soon I was going to be the director, Philip was the first person I thought of and went to. He was my choice.<br /><br />VL: Was that because of seeing him in other films or had you worked together before?<br /><br />CK: No, I'd met him briefly but we hadn't worked together before. Yeah, I remember seeing him in Boogie Nights. That's the first time I was aware of seeing him. It's a very small part but every time he was on screen, that was all I wanted to watch. To me that's always a good quality in an actor. He was great to work with.<br /><br />VL: Can you say a little about the casting process for everyone else, especially as you have different actors playing the same characters. Particularly in the case of Samantha Morton and Emily Watson?<br /><br />CK: Well, I cast Samantha – she was my first choice for Hazel. And when I was looking to cast [the character who would play Hazel], Emily is also one of my favourite actors, so, you know. But I think that there's a quality that they both share, or at least, they share the same space in my head. So I went after her to see if she would do it and subsequently found out that they're often confused, by many people. And Sam told me that she was hired by a director, who, at the table reading for the movie that they were doing, he told her how much he liked her in Breaking the Waves. But that's why I cast them. And I cast Tom Noonan to play the Phil Hoffman part because I love Tom Noonan and I thought the idea that Cayden would cast somebody who was so physically wrong for himself because he was trying to look past the physicality and he's trying to be brutally honest and this person, even though he looked nothing like him, he was going to cast him and it ends up being, for me, visually fun.<br /><br />VL: Oliver Stone was once overheard telling his lead actor that he had to keep it simple because the audience wouldn’t understand. In that respect, I was just wondering what acting notes you gave Philip Seymour Hoffman in this.<br /><br />CK: I didn’t really give notes on this. The way that Phil and I worked together is that we did a lot of rehearsal beforehand, which consisted mostly of talking. We went through the script and rehearsed it, but mostly it was talking about the character, talking about issues of ageing and children and illness and all these things, so that we could come to an understanding. And once we came to an understanding, he was Caden as far as I was concerned. So working with Phil was kind of like - I don’t want to say it was easy, but he was definitely a self-starter and he’s definitely self-critical and he is definitely completely committed. The biggest thing I tried to do with Phil, as much as I could, was not make him do too many takes. Sometimes it’s so excruciating what he’s going through, I just don’t have the heart to ask him to do it again. And he’s told me that he thinks that the difference between stage acting and film acting is that film acting happens in the first take and it’s not repeatable; it’s got to be fresh. And stage acting is something you have to figure out how to make fresh each time. It’s a different process and knowing that’s what he thought, I tried to be very prepared – not only technically, but so that we understood each other by talking through things.<br /><br />VL: There’s a perception of you as a cerebral screenwriter and a lot of the critics commented on the fact that this film is quite an uncommercial film. Do you think, firstly, that that’s fair and, secondly, do you think that commercial considerations ever come into play when you’re coming up with a new idea?<br /><br />CK: I try not to think about commercial considerations, which basically means trying to figure out what people will like. I think that’s the way you have to do it. I feel that if I’m not going to do something honest to myself, then I might as well be selling potato chips because that’s what you’re doing. On the other hand, though, if no one goes to see my movies then I won’t be making them anymore. It’s tricky, especially with this one, because it opened in the United States and it really didn’t do much business. Someone said to me, ‘What I love about you is that you really did a big fuck you to the system; you said, I’m going to make a movie that no-one’s going to go and see’. And I said ‘No I didn’t. I would never do that.’ I’m a nice guy. I would never take somebody’s money thinking that no one’s going to see it. I guess there’s always a chance of that, but I wouldn’t ever set out to do that. It put me into a weird situation, because the other movies I’ve done haven’t been giant box office successes, but they’ve been commercially viable so I could keep doing them. I felt okay about keeping on doing them. But now I’m thinking, you know a movie costs this amount of money, and if there’s only 40 people watching – and those 40 people are really important to me, by the way – then maybe I shouldn’t be making movies. I should be writing books or something that doesn’t cost so much money up front. So it’s put me in a bit of a pickle. We’ll see.<br /><br />VL: Did you have to cut out anything from the film that you really hated to lose?<br /><br />CK: Yeah, there were a few things. There were a lot of things. There were things that I loved, there were moments that I loved, but the movie didn't support them. It's a weird thing, you have to find it out when you're editing. It's like, 'Okay, we have to move here' and it's very hard to get to that moment where you're willing to do it. But there were moments and scenes; there were long sequences with some of the actors that I loved. And I feel bad about it – I protected them as long as I could. I feel bad about it for the actors because it's like, 'Oh, no, this is their big scene'. And then there was like a whole little sort of story with Samantha Morton's character where she finds a dog that's been run over by a car and it's completely flattened in the middle but it's not dead and it looks like it's going to die but it doesn't die and she keeps the dog for the next 40 years, she calls him Squishy. And we couldn't keep it – we had to let it go. You can see a little remnant of him behind her at the box office at one point.<br /><br />VL: Might some of those scenes end up on the DVD?<br /><br />CK: No. I feel sort of strongly -maybe wrongly- but strongly that this is the movie that we made and that other stuff, as much as I like it, it's not the movie and I don't know what purpose it serves to put it out there.<br /><br />VL: When I’ve seen your films, I’ve listened to other cinema-goers’ comments and it’s often, “I’m not sure if it’s a work of genius or not.” I’m just wondering why someone would be confused as to whether it’s great. Do you think it’s the surreal nature that might play negatively to people?<br /><br />CK: Um...I have no idea. I don’t know why people think what they think. Maybe with this movie I’ve seen it more, but I’ve seen it with other things that I’ve written. I think people are really, really afraid of being conned. There’s a thing that I’ve read about; maybe because I get so much attention and people think it’s justified, they talk about me like the Emperor’s New Clothes. I think that if you thought that through, as a human being, that criticism, the idea that I would spend five years of my life trying to trick people…why wouldn’t I spend five years of my life trying to do something that interests me? What type of person would do that? I can understand them thinking that about a movie that aims to go out and make 200 million dollars because then there’s a motivation. That isn’t to say my movies are good; I’m just saying that my motivation is not to con people. People are so afraid of being conned and, I think, kind of rightfully, because so many people are being conned all the time.<br /><br />Seven: What do you mean by conned?<br /><br />Kaufman: You know, like movies do. Not that this movie is equivalent to that because it’s a different type of movie, but we’re constantly being sold things and movies are things we’re being sold. Get people into a theatre any way you can, with crap. Or, in my case, get people into the movie because ‘you have to see it because it’s an event and it’s an important cinema milestone’, and, you know, it’s not. They’re like, ‘fuck you; that’s not what this is; I’m not going to believe that.’<br /><br />It’s almost meaningless anyway to me, to decide whether it’s a work of genius or not. If you don’t like the movie, you don’t like the movie; it’s fine. If you do like the movie, you do like the movie. I’m not suggesting my movies are smarter than anybody else’s. I’m not suggesting anything. I’m just trying to do work that interests me and I guess I have a hope that I can continue to do that and support my family while doing that. It’s a fairly honest thing I’m doing.<br /><br />But I tell you something. Quite frankly, I have had a much more uniformly good reaction over here than in the United States for anything that I’ve done, so I don’t feel that over here. I’m sure it exists, but people have been very nice to me.<br /><br />VL: What’s your next project?<br /><br />CK: I’m writing something that I hope to direct. It’s kind of too early for me to talk about; it’s going to be a comedy of some sort. I spend a lot of time not writing. I walk a lot; I think a lot. The thing I’m working on now, I haven’t written a single page of script yet, but I have 60 pages of notes. I just don’t feel like I know what I’m doing with it yet. I just need to figure out this world. I don’t outline in a conventional way. I get to point where I don’t know where I’m going with it, so then I get stuck and then it takes maybe a few weeks for me to find something in it and I get back into it. I think that’s why it’s taken me so long to write these scripts. This one, for instance, has taken me two and a half years. It’s way too long; I’ve got to work out how to do it differently. If I’ve learned anything from Synecdoche, New York, it’s that I don’t have a lot of time left (laughs).<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-2493714619773164427?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-70410345603578252352010-09-26T11:05:00.002-07:002010-09-26T11:12:16.669-07:00Promoting: Cheri<br />Venue: Premier PR offices, Berwick St<br />Interview type: One-on-one<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-Mu_wqO6I/AAAAAAAAAg8/S72qqk14llM/s1600/screeningRoom_StephenFrears.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 258px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-Mu_wqO6I/AAAAAAAAAg8/S72qqk14llM/s320/screeningRoom_StephenFrears.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521286407196916642" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): How did the film come about?<br /><br />Stephen Frears (SF): I read Christopher [Hampton]'s script.<br /><br />VL: As simple as that?<br /><br />SF: Well, kind of. We share an agent and I said, 'Perhaps I should read it' and then said, 'Well, this is rather good'.<br /><br />VL: At what point did Michelle Pfeiffer come on board?<br /><br />SF: Well, people started talking about Michelle and eventually I rang her up and said, 'You'd better read this'. She got it on the Friday and accepted on the Monday.<br /><br />VL: So what was it like working with Christopher and Michelle again, 20 years after you all worked on Dangerous Liaisons?<br /><br />SF: You know, these are clever people. It's just always a pleasure. People are clever.<br /><br />VL: I don't know if you've read the press notes for the film, but the press notes have you giving a very sort of glowing comment on why Michelle was so great for this part.<br /><br />SF: What did I say?<br /><br />VL: You said, “Pfeiffer upsets you. She was upsetting in Dangerous Liaisons – I knew that as soon as I met her – and she's upsetting in this. She's unnerving, as though being that beautiful contains its own tragic quality”. Is that something you said? And if so, could you say a version of it for me?<br /><br />SF: Well, that sounds good. Well, I could see that – well, you know what it's like. Talented footballers contain their own tragedy, don't they – it's somehow being separated from other people. Yes, no, it's a wise thing to say. Go on, you can take the quote from the press notes.<br /><br />VL: Obviously the film isn't technically a sequel to Dangerous Liaisons, but did it ever feel like one, in that you were working with the same people?<br /><br />SF: Well, only that Christopher had written it and Michelle was standing there. John Malkovich isn't in it.<br /><br />VL: No. Did you try and get him in it?<br /><br />SF: John? (laughs) No. There's a limit to the trouble I can cause.<br /><br />VL: How did you come to cast Rupert Friend?<br /><br />SF: Well, we couldn't find an American boy. One of the things I knew about Michelle was that she could play a European woman. I know concede that that was sort of inside knowledge I had. And we tried to find an American boy for, you know, reasons of consistency and the American boys just couldn't make sense of this character. So we came back to England and Rupert auditioned better than anybody else. And didn't apologise for it all, didn't have any self-pity in him. He just was...a spoilt brat. And was dazzling-looking. And upsetting – again, he sort of moved you. You know, when it starts to come out about how dreadful his childhood was.<br /><br />VL: Had you seen him in anything else before that?<br /><br />SF: No.<br /><br />VL: Because I think he's a very good actor.<br /><br />SF: Yes, he's a lovely fellow.<br /><br />VL: How did you come to cast Felicity Jones?<br /><br />SF: My casting director brought her in. The truth is, everybody knows who's good and coming up and she was on that list.<br /><br />VL: Who else is on that list?<br /><br />SF: I'm not telling you. Talent is easy, it's rightness that's difficult. They just say, 'The next person who comes in is talented'. Right, fine. Whether the person is right or not is the more interesting question.<br /><br />VL: And Kathy Bates?<br /><br />SF: Kathy someone suggested and I said, 'Oh, that's a wonderful idea'. She's...she should be on Mount Rushmore. She's fantastic.<br /><br />VL: You mentioned the list of talented people. I noticed that Toby Kebell has a small part in the film.<br /><br />SF: Oh, he's wonderful. He came to see me and I said, 'Oh, you look fantastic. I'm going to write you a part.' We wrote him in, really.<br /><br />VL: I was going to say, he has such a small part in it that I was sorry he didn't have more to do.<br /><br />SF: I'm sorry he didn't reappear. He's a smashing chap. He's very, very good.<br /><br />VL: Did you have to cut out anything that you hated to lose?<br /><br />SF: I think I had to cut stuff out that Christopher hated to lose, but not that I hated to lose, no. There was one scene cut, but if I think about it, I'd been gunning for it since the film was in script form. I said, 'Why is there two scenes here when you only need one?' You know, and it didn't have enough narrative in. I think he was rather upset. What you're trying to do is assess within the scene, well, is there enough narrative to keep it going, as well as all the diversions and entertainments.<br /><br />VL: What was it about the script that appealed to you?<br /><br />SF: Well, it's hard to answer. I mean, I liked the script. It made me laugh and then, at the right moment, it made me sad. That was all I needed really.<br /><br />VL: Is that really all you look for?<br /><br />SF: I like the writing very much. The writing is very, very important.<br /><br />VL: And Christopher, obviously, with Dangerous Liaisons and so on – would you pretty much make anything Christopher wrote?<br /><br />SF: Nope.<br /><br />VL: So what does he have to do to make it past your approval threshold?<br /><br />SF: Well, I have to like it. It's as simple as that.<br /><br />VL: What's your next project?<br /><br />SF: Dunno. I've got two films. There are two films at the moment, which has never happened before in my life. And it's causing havoc. You'd think that having two films would make life a lot easier but actually it makes life a lot harder.<br /><br />VL: So they're at similar stages, are they?<br /><br />SF: Ish. <br /><br />VL: So it's whichever one gets out of the gate first, so to speak?<br /><br />SF: They're very complicated things to make, films. And you have to get a lot of balls in the right holes, or whatever you call it. And if you get something wrong right over there, it affects you over here and it drives you crazy.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-7041034560357825235?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-6980483224704871152010-09-26T10:12:00.000-07:002010-09-26T11:01:41.218-07:00Promoting: Tormented<br />Venue: The Soho Hotel<br />Interview type: One-on-one (actually one-on-three and one-on-two)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-JllEWLUI/AAAAAAAAAg0/zrdX8uSpAiM/s1600/3476555954_9b7ce05ace_o.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-JllEWLUI/AAAAAAAAAg0/zrdX8uSpAiM/s320/3476555954_9b7ce05ace_o.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521282946878025026" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-JlPRaddI/AAAAAAAAAgs/QOnqDeGHIKA/s1600/3475746293_f234412941_o.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-JlPRaddI/AAAAAAAAAgs/QOnqDeGHIKA/s320/3475746293_f234412941_o.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521282941027251666" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): What's the story of the film and who do you play?<br /><br />Tom Hopper (TH): I play a character called Marcus. The film starts off at a funeral of a character who killed himself. And we play the characters in the in-crowd and we have a big party and stuff and basically people start getting killed or injured and something is doing it to them. So it's basically how all these people start getting killed off in very grusome lovely ways.<br /><br />Alex Pettyfer (AP): I play Bradley, who's kind of a manipulative psychopath and the story's basically about revenge.<br /><br />April Pearson (APn): I play Tasha. She's a bit of a cow, in fact, a complete cow. She's got her two cronies, Kalilah and Sophie, and she's got no remorse, she bullies everyone. She'd stab her friends in the back if she could, she'd probably stab her boyfriend in the back.<br /><br />Georgia King (GK): I play Sophie. She's one of the in-crowd and she's a total bitch. She's the sidekick of April's character and she follows the in-crowd. She's horrifically mean, she's air-heady, she's slutty, she goes out with the main football guy and she laughs a lot, when she shouldn't.<br /><br />Calvin Dean (CD): I play Darren Mullet, who's a bit of a loner, a bit of a geek. He gets bullied a lot and through this he commits suicide and comes back as a zombie-ghost-creature thing and takes his revenge over the in-crowd kids.<br /><br />VL: I was going to ask you about that, because the press notes say Darren's a “zombie-ghost-thing”. How did you see him?<br /><br />CD: Do they really say that? Zombie-ghost-thing? I see him mainly as a zombie, although he can sort of make himself appear or disappear with different people.<br /><br />GK: And I think their conscience starts to maybe creep up on them, so he's part of that too. So it's like, is that imagination or is it not and I think sometimes he is a ghost because he appears and disappears and only certain people see him. And he's referred to like Banquo's ghost in Macbeth. But then he's also a zombie in that he's very much real and does sit on people and kill them and swing shovels and so on.<br /><br />VL: Alex, you're obviously cast against type, since you normally play good-looking hero types. Was it important to you to move away from that?<br /><br />AP: I just wanted to take the role because it scared me, man. And if I was honest, yeah, I hadn't played anything like this and I kind of am breaking away from that, but I think any actor at one point or another has a choice to break away and if they do or don't, it's really up to them. And I think, you know, breaking away and showing that you're versatile kind of shows you as an actor and going into this role and not knowing what to do was my biggest challenge and my biggest fear and pulling it off was – well, I don't know if I pulled it off, but trying to pull it off was hard.<br /><br />VL: The press notes say that you originally read for one of the other parts, but you decided you'd rather play Bradley.<br /><br />AP: Yeah, that's right. I was originally going to play Alexis (the good-looking hero type).<br /><br />VL: How did you get involved in the film and who was already on board when you came on?<br /><br />TH: When I came on board, April was already on board, as Tasha and Alex was set to do Bradley. But I got a call about this character called Marcus in a teen horror and I thought 'Okay, cool' and I read the script and thought it was my kind of thing. I did think I was a little bit too out of the age bracket, because I'm 24, but, you know. So, yeah, I went to this meeting with Jon [Wright], the director and Manny, the casting director, had a meeting, had a read-through and then we did some workshops. In fact, in our group, apart from Tuppence and Dimitri, that was pretty much the group that got picked.<br /><br />VL: So you did workshops before everyone was properly cast?<br /><br />TH: Yeah, just to see how we all sort of gelled together and what relationship we had. I mean, me and Alex got on really well straight away, so that was really important. And I thought – I don't know if Alex thought this or not – but I thought 'If I get the part, I hope Alex gets Bradley.'<br /><br />AP: Yeah, I wanted someone else to play Marcus.<br /><br />TH: (laughs) I knew it! I set myself up for that.<br /><br />VL: Again, the press notes say that you're a bit of a horror fan. Is that true?<br /><br />AP: No, they got that wrong. I'm a bit of a wimp, actually. When I watch horror, I'm watching from behind my hands, like this (mimes). But I loved making Tormented and I like making horror movies. And I would definitely make another one.<br /><br />CD: I wasn't a horror fan before, but I bought around 40 horror DVDs and watched them in preparation and I'm a total convert now.<br /><br />VL: Was there anything that stood out for you in the films you watched?<br /><br />CD: I did take quite a lot from the original Halloween, actually. Just the stillness that you get from Michael Myers, which I hope I got a bit into Darren, because I think that works quite well and is really creepy.<br /><br />VL: Did you see anything in the film that was similar to your own school experiences, in terms of bullying?<br /><br />GK: Absolutely. I think every school has those crowds, be it like a grammar school or private school or whatever kind of school, you will get groups and you will get bullying and you will get power-play and gossiping and manipulation and what-not. So I think it's pretty relevant to everyone, actually.<br /><br />VL: Was it weird filming your death scenes?<br /><br />GK: Yeah, it's weird watching yourself die. Mine's a very open death so you see me stop, like...yeah, it's weird.<br /><br />AP: Yeah, I had my head chopped off, so that was weird. But even then, I had to lie on the ground as if my head was cut off and they cut my body off in post, even though I did have a prosthetic head made. So that was really odd, to imagine that your head is still working when it's detached from your body. I actually really enjoyed filming my death scene.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-JkjQuy8I/AAAAAAAAAgk/thhCxV-t0Nk/s1600/3475747453_d23d1ab96b.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-JkjQuy8I/AAAAAAAAAgk/thhCxV-t0Nk/s320/3475747453_d23d1ab96b.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521282929213230018" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-Jkg1QQCI/AAAAAAAAAgc/PxpJozowSmY/s1600/3476555620_a70eb46199.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ-Jkg1QQCI/AAAAAAAAAgc/PxpJozowSmY/s320/3476555620_a70eb46199.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521282928561111074" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-698048322470487115?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-67889545737743257922010-09-26T09:54:00.000-07:002010-09-26T10:09:15.087-07:00Promoting: Sounds Like Teen Spirit (sort of)<br />Venue: The Rhythm Factory (following gig for East End Film Festival Closing Night screening of Sounds Like Teen Spirit)<br />Interview type: One-on-four<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ98wmRtvdI/AAAAAAAAAfs/VT1NCS_sjy4/s1600/3489787789_a59b90e2aa_o.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ98wmRtvdI/AAAAAAAAAfs/VT1NCS_sjy4/s320/3489787789_a59b90e2aa_o.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521268842529930706" /></a>Trust (l-r): Eva Storme, Mirek Coutigny, Matthieu Renier and Laurens Platteeuw<br /><br />ViewLondon (VL): How did the gig go?<br /><br />Mirek: It was great! It was our best gig ever.<br /><br />Matthieu: The crowd were amazing!<br /><br />Eva: It was also the first time we played our own songs in a concert.<br /><br />VL: The film says that you've recorded an album. Is that true?<br /><br />Mirek: Yes, I think it's finished now.<br /><br />VL: How did you form the band?<br /><br />Mirek: Well, me and Matthieu and Eva were all in the same class at school, so we started it in school and then Laurens just sort of invited himself into the band.<br /><br />Laurens: It's true.<br /><br />VL: How many times have you seen the film now?<br /><br />Eva: This was the second time, for all of us.<br /><br />VL: Did it make you cry?<br /><br />Eva: Yes!<br /><br />VL: Did you cry more or less the second time?<br /><br />Matthieu: More, I think.<br /><br />Mirek: I was crying with laughter, because Laurens is so brilliantly stupid in it.<br /><br />VL: Do you have a favourite part of the film?<br /><br />Matthieu: I think all the scenes with Laurens are so funny – they're all my favourites.<br /><br />VL: I gather you're all big Spinal Tap fans?<br /><br />Laurens: Me, Mirek and Matthieu are – we love it. Eva hasn't seen it.<br /><br />Eva: I've seen some of it. I don't like it as much as you do.<br /><br />VL: Are you still in touch with Giorgos, Mariam and Marina?<br /><br />Laurens: Yes. We stay in touch via MSN chat. They are all doing well and they're very happy the film is coming out.<br /><br />Eva: We are still in touch with Bab, too.<br /><br />VL: Eva, the film makes quite a lot of your search for “a cute boy”. Did you find one?<br /><br />Eva: Yes, I did! He's here somewhere.<br /><br />VL: The film was made two years ago. Why don't any of you look any older?<br /><br />Eva: I don't know. It's strange. I think we are just lucky.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6orAQxOd9w">Video of Trust performing at The Rhythm Factory</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-6788954573774325792?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-21209394112242949472010-09-26T09:38:00.000-07:002010-09-26T09:53:10.107-07:00Promoting: Sounds Like Teen Spirit<br />Venue: Home<br />Interview type: One-on-one (phone)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ958lmWSGI/AAAAAAAAAfc/SNf98HRX1tI/s1600/3489787541_c351b277a9_o.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 239px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TJ958lmWSGI/AAAAAAAAAfc/SNf98HRX1tI/s320/3489787541_c351b277a9_o.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521265749971585122" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): How did the film come about?<br /><br />Jamie Johnson (JJ): Basically, I was watching the adult contest the year that Finnish latex monster band Lordi won and when they won I thought, 'Wow, this is beyond pantomime and would make a brilliant subject for a feature doc', so I pitched it to BBC Films and they liked it but they already had four Eurovision projects in development. So then I said, 'Well how about the Junior one?' and they said 'Hmmm...' so I started researching it and then I was just kind of like, 'Why has nobody made this film yet?' So that's kind of how it started.<br /><br />VL: So how did you find the different kids after that?<br /><br />JJ: Basically I flew round with a camera and a sound recordist and we went to all the countries that we could – I think I went to about seventeen – all the countries that were having the heats, as it were. And then we'd sort of film with the kids before the national final and then interview the winner and then try and sort of go to the house of the winner to see what their home situation was like the following day. So that was the sort of casting process to see who we might then follow to the Rotterdam final.<br /><br />VL: So how did you narrow it down from seventeen to four?<br /><br />JJ: Well, I know this probably isn't the most stringent method of selecting them, but I just basically chose my favourites out of all seventeen countries. I just chose the ones I sort of wanted to hang out with, so that was basically how they were selected. We didn't pick them based on who we thought might win or anything like that.<br /><br />VL: I was curious as to whether you'd seen [US Spelling Bee documentary] Spellbound?<br /><br />JJ: Yes, I have very much seen Spellbound.<br /><br />VL: Did you talk to the directors at all?<br /><br />JJ: No, I didn't, actually and I would have liked to. I think it would have been probably helpful if I had. There was another film called Taxidermy: Stuff the World, by a British director, about the World Taxidermy Championships. And I'd sort of seen both of those and I watched both of them quite carefully. Because I was just shitting my pants, basically -excuse my language- before I went out to each country of the kids that we'd chosen, because I was like, 'Oh my God, I don't have much time with them and what if we don't get anything that's any good?' And you know, in Spellbound, what would they have needed to do? So I kind of broke it down and did almost like a shopping list based on, you know, they went to this kid's house and they did an interview in their bedroom and they did them at school and blah blah blah. So I tried to work it out and just cover bases like that. And then I sort of threw all of that stuff away slightly, when I got out there and just realised you can't really control anything, actually.<br /><br />VL: So was there much that was cut out of the film or did you pick the kids you wanted and trust that you'd get everything from them?<br /><br />JJ: Yeah. Even saying it now, it does seem mental, but that's kind of what we did. We didn't follow any additional characters and then drop them or anything like that. Because I know in Spellbound they did that – the DVD has three extra spellers on it that didn't make it into the final film.<br /><br />VL: How difficult was it to get permission to film backstage at Eurovision?<br /><br />JJ: We had to fly to Holland. I'd managed to wangle filming at the previous year's contest, which I shot as a sort of trailer. I did a little three minute trailer and a sort of 27 minute taster from that, so we took that as a 'This is how we're going to treat the subject' and it had the war stuff in it and it had the humour and the tone, so we had to present it to all of the Eurovision Steering Committee, which is 36 heads of each country's TV and they all sat down and ummed and ahhed and then said, 'Yeah, alright then'. So we did have Access All Areas but at the same time, the Dutch crew in Rotterdam had spent probably millions on the show, at the end of it and they didn't want us getting in the way, so they were quite tight in terms of us getting on stage and where we could put cameras and so on. So it was quite difficult and there were a couple of hairy moments where we thought we weren't going to be able to film on stage during the votes. And I knew that that was a key thing, that was our key scene that it all builds up towards in some ways. But luckily, our producer, Liz Carlson just got super-charming on them and managed to turn things around. <br /><br />VL: Did you know that Bab was going to be presenting the Belgian points or was that a happy surprise?<br /><br />JJ: We only heard about a week before and at that point we didn't really know what our edit was going to be, but I had a rough outline that had her as the character we'd start with, so when we heard she was going to be presenting it was like, 'Oh, actually, this might all tie in quite nicely now...' But it was great to see her face like pop up, forty foot high. <br /><br />VL: Are you still in touch with the kids?<br /><br />JJ: Yeah, I'm in touch with all of them apart from Mariam, just because she doesn't speak English and doesn't write English well enough to email either. But I hear about her through a couple of Georgian friends that we met while we were making the film. But yeah, all the others, we email and Facebook each other and so on. We have the odd Skype conversation. And Bab's doing well – I email her dad and he lets me know when she's got a new release coming out or whatever.<br /><br />VL: So what are they all up to?<br /><br />JJ: They're all mainly just being kids still. I think Bab has some kind of mini record deal, Trust are recording an album on their own, just using Mirek's computer in his loft, which is pretty cool. Marina is still doing Bon-Bon but she's just being a teenager, she's just kind of buying booze to go to parties and causing trouble and probably driving her mum mad. She's alright though – her mum's got a new boyfriend and Marina likes him, so that's good. And Mariam's doing well – there was an opportunity for her to move to [Georgia's capital] Tblisi and for some reason they didn't take it, but I'm not entirely clear on what happened. <br /><br />VL: Have they all seen the film?<br /><br />JJ: They've all seen it apart from Mariam, which is kind of disappointing. Opportunities kept coming up that didn't quite happen, like, for Toronto, they wanted to fly her over for the premiere and she couldn't come because it was straight after the conflict. So we're still hoping we can get her over for something but if it doesn't happen soon we're just going to send her a copy. But I know she's seen the trailer and clips and has heard all about it. I feel bad now, I'll have to send her a copy.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-2120939411224294947?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-73820065588968618682010-09-11T19:24:00.000-07:002010-09-26T09:38:06.144-07:00Promoting: Shifty<br />Venue: Metrodome offices<br />Interview type: One-on-one<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TIw6jcyNnyI/AAAAAAAAAfU/S5ed2j7qb8Q/s1600/Daniel+Mays.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TIw6jcyNnyI/AAAAAAAAAfU/S5ed2j7qb8Q/s320/Daniel+Mays.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515848024318648098" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): What's the film about and who do you play?<br /><br />Daniel Mays (DM): The film is ultimately about friendship and I play Chris, who returns to Essex, his old stamping ground to meet up with his best friend, Shifty, the lead character, played by a brilliant actor, Riz Ahmed. My character's been away in Manchester for four years, trying to rebuild his life and start again. And he returns to Essex, he meets up with Shifty to basically discover his old mate has kind of fallen ever deeper into the murky world of crack cocaine dealing – he's become the most prolific dealer in the area. And the story charts 24 hours of them reconnecting with each other. Chris shadows his mate and then you get introduced to all the various clients and customers within the area. And due to the sort of unpredictable life that Shifty's leading, things quickly spiral out of control. I think ultimately, it becomes what we've described as a battle for Shifty's soul. And Shifty has to sort of face up to this, you know, he has to face some home truths and some stark choices of this dangerous future that he's heading towards. But then equally, alongside of that, Chris has to basically face up to the demons of why he left in the first place. So I mean, you know, it's ultimately a kind of buddy movie – it's about friendship, but for me, there's a lot of deeper issues about wasted potential and the wrong choices that we make in life. And for my character especially, it's about seeking that redemption in some way and having closure on the terrible incident that he's haunted by, four years previously.<br /><br />VL: What attracted you to the part and at what point did you get involved?<br /><br />DM: My agent phoned me and she basically said, 'It's good news and bad news.' She went, 'The good news is you've been offered the lead in a new British film, which is fantastic'. I was, like, 'Great', I said, 'What's the bad news?', she said, 'Well, you're not going to get paid, it's going to be shot in three weeks'. So I said, 'What's the budget?' and she went, 'A hundred grand', so I was like [draws in breath]. I always look at the stuff that comes my way though and when I read it, you know, I come from Essex, I grew up in Buckhurst Hill in Essex and my godfather lives there too, so obviously I knew that area and when I read the script it was a combination of the sort of brilliance of the script, plus – I knew it was based on [director] Eran's own experiences - but it was clear that thte way he'd written these characters, they were just incredibly defined, they were believable people to me; I sort of recognised a lot of the characters in the script. And it did, it offered up an amazing acting opportunity, actually, to take on a lead part and to kind of flesh this guy out and bring him to life and it was the prospect of playing someone who on the surface of things is a really sympathetic character - he's likeable, he's friendly, he's funny, he's kind of like your average Joe and yet, the challenge behind it was how does the guilt affect this person's life? Because he makes out that he's got the life of Riley in Manchester – he's got a mortgage, he's in recruitment and yet when you strip away the surface of things he's kind of in meltdown, he can't hold down a relationship, I imagined that he couldn't sleep at night. And I just thought it really tapped into somebody I hadn't really played before.<br /><br />But yeah, it was the potential of the script but also it was meeting them as people. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to get involved with something so low budget if I didn't feel confident in the people that were making it. And Eran sat down and he told me his dreams about his first feature, he told me about the Microbudget Scheme, which I thought was really impressive and Ben Pugh and Rory were great producers, their professionalism was outstanding. I mean, any film, regardless of budget, if it's run badly, can be a horrendous experience, but they were at the top of their game, as was everyone on the crew. So I think it was a combination of the script, the prospect of playing the character and the opportunities that threw up and of course them as people – it was sort of too good to turn down.<br /><br />VL: So were you cast first or was Riz already aboard when you came on?<br /><br />DM: Well, Eran had made a music video with Riz – he does his MC-ing and has his whole music career as well – I think they made The 9-11 Blues together and I think Riz was always ... I think we were both his first choices, actually, so yeah, he got what he wanted, you know?<br /><br />VL: What was it like, working with Riz?<br /><br />DM: It was great working with him. First and foremost, I think he's a phenomenal actor. He brings a lot of quality to the table and I really enjoyed working with him – I got on with him as a person and I think that because we both got on really well, that that has kind of coloured the sort of performances that we've given in the film. It's that thing of like, you know, you've got to try and have chemistry with someone, you can't force that, do you know what I mean? You've either got chemistry or you haven't, you know. And he just underplayed it really well. I think he's got a really great career ahead of him.<br /><br />VL: Did you know each other beforehand at all?<br /><br />DM: No, I just met him on day one, in the first meeting. <br /><br />VL: Was there a rehearsal period?<br /><br />DM: We had the opportunity to do like a week and a half of rehearsal. In actual fact, we were involved in a lot of the casting process as well, like we read with Jay Simpson, who played Trevor and we had sort of creative input on the early stages of the film. And that's the great thing about this whole experience, actually - that you wouldn't get on a big budget film, like some of the stuff that I've done – is that you had a really collaborative effort on this and you're kind of involved in the whole process of, you know, if you're not happy with a line or whatever. We really rehearsed it like we were in a play in that first week, because it was imperative that we knew exactly what we had to do, we couldn't make shit up on the day, you couldn't pick two days up at the end of filming, we were doing sort of eight to ten pages a day. So it was clear to me that we needed to be fully prepared and we did that in that first week. And that was great for us, to build the relationships up in the characters and the backstory and the history, but also to sort of really get on as people as well.<br /><br />VL: Can you say a little more about Eran Creevy's directorial style?<br /><br />DM: I think the great quality that Eran has – I mean this is his first feature, you know. And I loved working for him and he has that great ingredient that good directors should have, that, you know, that you want to work for them. And I was really aware that this was his baby, this was his first film and he'd written the script and this had been like three or four years in the making. So I think once you agree to make something, you've got to give everything to your director and try and do the best job you possibly can. But the great thing about his qualities as a director is he's got such an insatiable appetite for it and a bounding sort of energy. You know, he energises you on set. I know the subject matter of the film is quite dark and, you know, not depressing, but – I mean, the subject matter could be seen as depressing – but we had great banter on set and that was great, you had a bit of a spring in your step every time you went to work every day.<br /><br />VL: So how did Eran, as a first time director, compare with other directors you've worked with?<br /><br />DM: Well, of course, he hasn't got that luxury of having a wealth of experience to draw on. I mean I did feel, to a certain extent, I mean, I was the most experienced sort of guy in the room, you know. He had no real experience of working with actors and I've been fortunate enough to go through two films with Mike Leigh and work with Joe Wright and they're real sort of actor's directors, particularly Mike, you know, you kind of spend six months on your character. So I felt that I had a lot of experience to bring to the table and I worked a lot with him, building the scenes into beats. I've done a lot of theatre as well and that background in theatre helped with really breaking down the characters and breaking down the scenes and working on the relationships. But it's all there, I mean, that was part of the appeal of doing the job in the first place, was the fact that the script was sensational and the quality in the script is in the writing, but it's the stuff that happens underneath it, it's the subtext, it's the stuff that happens in between the silences. <br /><br />VL: Do you have a favourite scene in the film?<br /><br />DM:I love so many parts of the film but I think what I really enjoyed when I first sat down and watched it – because I didn't go to the cutting room, I sat down and watched it when it was all completed – was those early scenes where it's awkward, they haven't seen each other in four years, Shifty could easily slam the door in Chris's face and tell him to fuck off or whatever and as an audience, you don't know what's going on. And then you find out why their relationship is fractured in the first place. So there's this great thing of like the elephant in the room that no-one's talking about and it's that thing that gives it all those different layers that you won't normally get in some – you know, there are so many British films in this genre that are just people shooting guns at each other and it all ends in someone dying and whatever. I've mentioned Mike Leigh, but for me it had a lot of sensitivity, like he has in his films or a Ken Loach or a Shane Meadows. You know, it was the stuff going on in between the lines that as an actor I really connected to and sort of helped Eran through it. But, I mean, you know, he's an instinctively great director, I think.<br /><br />VL: Was anything cut out that you hated to lose?<br /><br />DM: No. Everything that was shot was put in the film – I can't think of anything that was cut. Oh, no, the only thing that we dropped, there's a bit where the music's playing too loud and Shifty breaks in and Chris remains outside on the balcony and there was just going to be a moment where – and actually, when I say it now, it sounds like something out of Little Britain – but he was going to see a really young single mum, pushing a pram. But in actual fact, it does sound a bit contrived that, now, you know, I don't think you miss it. But that's testament to [producer] Ben Pugh, his professionalism in running the whole show was great.<br /><br />VL: Did the microbudget cause any concerns at all? <br /><br />DM: I must admit I was quite apprehensive. I was slightly worried when I rocked up on day one because everything was stripped to its bare bones. And in actual fact, the first scene was the scene where I throw his mobile into that lake and I remember looking on the wall and there was this sign saying 'No Swimming, Do Not Enter, Toxic Sewage' or something like that and I threw this thing in and because we had no money, we only had like two phones. And so Eric, the production designer went 'No worries' and he took his shoes and socks off and his jeans and rolled them up and went wading through all this shit and I was like, 'Is this what it's going to be like?' I was kind of like 'Oh shit', you know? But he did a great job. Oh, and in another scene I really loved, the scene with the cats, we wanted to use real cats but the budget didn't stretch to real cats so they were all stuffed.<br /><br />VL: What's your next project?<br /><br />DM: I've wrapped on the Tintin film with Steven Spielberg, but it's so top secret that I can't say anything about that - I can't even tell you who I'm playing. But that's not out till 2011 or so. In the meantime, I'm in an episode of Jimmy McGovern's The Street, which is going to be on in October, I'm a big fan of that show, great writing again. And Hippy Hippy Shake, for Working Title, that's going to be released, and I'm also doing a tiny part in the next Nanny McPhee film, which again is something really different. But what I'm most excited about, I'm doing a film called Huge, which is written by the comedian Ben Miller (of Armstrong & Miller fame) and he's going to direct, it's his first feature – it's all about two aspiring stand-up comedians, a double-act and I'm acting with a tremendous actor called Johnny Harris, who was the pimp in London to Brighton. He's a great actor, so it's all about that, trying to make it on the circuit.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-7382006558896861868?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-18386583893530368652010-09-11T19:07:00.000-07:002010-09-11T19:10:42.110-07:00Promoting: Good<br />Venue: The Sanderson Hotel<br />Interview type: One-on-one (actually one-on-two with Jason Isaacs)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TIw2RYO-awI/AAAAAAAAAe8/I94Ixem7Qyg/s1600/jodie+whittaker.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 237px; height: 213px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TIw2RYO-awI/AAAAAAAAAe8/I94Ixem7Qyg/s320/jodie+whittaker.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515843315812952834" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): Who do you play in the film?<br /><br />Jodie Whittaker (JW): My character's Anne Hartman, who starts out as a student to John Halder (played by Viggo Mortensen) and over the course of the film it turns into an affair and then they start to see each other and then they end up being married with a child. It's one of those parts that you don't really want to think that you're very similar to, but in fact I'm incredibly similar to her in the sense that, you know, you make choices all the time without consequence because you think of your own benefit. And that's how everyone is and so that's the thing, that no-one in the film is the obvious villain but history will tell a different thing.<br /><br />VL: What stage did you come on board?<br /><br />JW: Well, I came in right at the end, because obviously, the first few times they'd tried to get it made, I wasn't even an actor, so I wasn't involved at all. And then I was actually doing Venus at the time and a lot of the crew had come from Good, at the time when they thought it was going to go and then it fell through. So I initially heard about it being made into a film, but I'd already seen it as a play. I saw a third year RADA production of it when I was at drama school and it was incredible. It's difficult to describe, but if someone's going to tell you, 'I want you to come and see this play' and you're like (sarcastic) 'Yeah, it sounds great' but then you actually watch it and it's phenomenal and powerful. So I had that going for me, because when I had the audition I didn't need any explanation with the part or what it was about or why people would want to make it. So I was just lucky because the producer came to see me in a play and I managed to woo her and trick her into thinking I was good enough to play the part (laughs).<br /><br />VL: What was it like working with Viggo Mortensen?<br /><br />JW: Oh, it was great. It's incredibly intimidating to know you're about to meet Viggo Mortensen and when we met, it was to rehearse. And you hear these terrible stories about people in Hollywood who won't rehearse, they won't meet anyone and then they'll come on set, [shoot their scene], and then just leave, you know, before you've even turned around to do you. And he was there, really eager to meet everybody and we had a good day of rehearsal, which was so exciting. And then every nerve went, because he's just such a fantastic guy. He kind of – you just want to be his mate, because he's so lovely.<br /><br />VL: How much research did you do?<br /><br />JW: I was really interested in the youth of the 1930s. Like, it was interesting finding what would be like pop music, because, you know, she's 20 years old in a really exciting period for Germany, as far as an Aryan young girl was concerned. Because we all know what happened and we can all look back on it and go, 'Okay, the holocaust was a result of this fundamental regime', but if you're in it, you don't see that and my character never went to a camp and never saw firsthand the atrocities that were being carried out. So I read as much as I could to do with women who thought Hitler was the way forward. And they're really honest accounts and they're really brutal self-analysis as well, because you've got to admit that you were totally wrong and what you contributed to. But how could they have known that? So it was really interesting, because you touch on stuff that you missed out in school, because at school you just concentrate on the specifics of WWII.<br /><br />VL: What's your next project?<br /><br />JW: I'm in a film called Perrier's Bounty that I think is coming out around September time. It's a Dublin gangster farce with Brendan Gleeson and Jim Broadbent. It's amazing, it's proper funny. Anything with Jim Broadbent in – I've literally never corpsed so much in my entire life. He's an absolute genius.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-1838658389353036865?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-86324746933667154492010-09-11T19:01:00.000-07:002010-09-11T19:04:18.952-07:00Promoting: Good<br />Venue: The Sanderson HOtel<br />Interview type: One-on-one (actually one-on-two, with Jodie Whittaker)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TIw05Rz0EOI/AAAAAAAAAe0/Fap8SjQkT-8/s1600/jason+isaacs.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 174px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TIw05Rz0EOI/AAAAAAAAAe0/Fap8SjQkT-8/s320/jason+isaacs.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515841802259927266" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): What's the film about and who do you play?<br /><br />Jason Isaacs (JI): It's about a man called John Halder, who Viggo Mortensen plays, who is a perfectly ordinary individual in the 1930s, in Germany. His best friend is Maurice, a psychiatrist, who I play, whose Jewish. John's a very good, decent, righteous individual, who's horrified by the party that's come to power, as all decent, righteous individuals were. So it's about John Halder, who's a good man – which is why it's called Good – and his relationships with his wife, his best friend and his new lover and how difficult it is in the face of feeling so powerless, to do the right thing. It's an ethical thriller in many ways and the hope is that if we've told the story right then you'll see yourself in all of the characters and all of the choices you'll recognise from your daily life.<br /><br />VL: How did you get involved with the film? What stage did you come on board?<br /><br />JI: Well, I was on from when it was just an idea. The producer – the real producer, Miriam Segal - asked me to lunch about eight years ago and said, 'I've got the rights to this play, it's the best play I've ever seen, do you want to get involved?' and I said, 'No, you ought to be ashamed of yourself, it's an apology for Nazism, how dare you? And as a Jewish woman particularly, you should run in the other direction'. And she said, 'Why are you being such an idiot? Have you seen it or read it?' and I said, 'Course I have' and I was lying, I'd neither seen it nor read it. So she gave me the play, I took it home, I phoned up and I said, 'I'm really sorry, I was wrong. I am an idiot and how can I help?' So then it was a very, very long process of her trying to raise the money to make a film that is so morally challenging and with such contemporary resonance that it was disturbing.<br /><br />VL: How so?<br /><br />JI: Well, during the course of the time we were raising the money, we watched, you know, the Geneva Convention being thrown aside, we watched the right to silence done away with, we watched people detained without trial, we watched extraordinary rendition. And a war was started, a pre-emptive war, based on lies told to the public. So all this stuff happened while we were raising the money but then the whole thing collapsed for a couple of years because of funding. And then, finally, when we had all the money, the second incarnation of this film, and then I wasn't available because I was doing a TV series. And the producer said, 'Well, we're not making it without you'. And I managed to get Viggo, through a friend of a friend, to read the script and say he would do it and he also said, 'I'm not doing it without Jason', having met me, and so I managed to get a break from the TV series, twice, for ten days at a time and come and make it. So it's been a long, long, long, long road.<br /><br />VL: What was it like, working with Viggo?<br /><br />JI: Well, first of all we had to play best friends and we didn't really know each other. Well, we didn't know each other at all, we had a mutual friend. And when the film was finally up and running, I couldn't be there for rehearsals, so he flew himself out, at his own expense, to come and hang out with me and my wife and children in Rhode Island for a few days and get to know me and build a shared history of the characters and of us. Which was the first sign of what kind of generous actor he would turn out to be. He likes to explore human nature, which is why he's an actor and a painter and a photographer and a poet and a writer and a publisher and a musician and all these things. So he's really interested in the human condition and there's no part of him that engages in that status game that so many stars do. He wants there to be a level playing field – he did away with his trailer when he got there, it was too big, he wanted one the same size as everyone else. He did away with an assistant that the film provided for him. And you know all that when you start working – you're working with a collaborator, you're working with a dance partner who wants to dance with you and it was a real joy. And surprisingly so – I hadn't expected that of him. I always thought that on screen he radiated this fundamental decency, which is why we had always wanted him to play this part, but it was a joy to find out that he did the same thing off screen as well. Oh, and he brings chocolate, proper, haute cuisine chocolate to the set, to hand out to everybody.<br /><br />VL: How much research did you do?<br /><br />JI: I think we all did different things, depending on who we were playing and what we were doing. And so I thought I was familiar with the period but actually, in order to bring this to life, it was really important for me -and I know for Viggo - to read only contemporary accounts, nothing with the wisdom of hindsight, so we read a lot of diaries, we found contemporary footage and archive stuff, listened to contemporary music and so on. And once you wipe away all the stuff you know with the benefit of hindsight and try and place yourself specifically in Germany in the 1930s, it's a rather magical time, the country is blossoming and exciting and if you put it in historical context and find out about the depression it was just emerging from, you can see why everything was so seductive and also why people felt so powerless when there was really only one party and the Reichstag burned down and stuff. So I did a lot of reading diaries and a lot of clearing stuff away from my head as much as putting things in there.<br /><br />VL: What are your next projects?<br /><br />JI: Well, I was filming Green Zone for a lot of last year, which will be coming out at the end of the year and I've got some Harry Potters coming up. And also, [co-star Jodie Whittaker] and I are possibly about to start a film together called The Great Ghost Rescue. And I'm hoping to do a play in the West End – Bergman's Scenes From A Marriage.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-8632474693366715449?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-69094083600928189762010-09-11T18:47:00.000-07:002010-09-11T18:56:36.893-07:00Promoting: I Can't Think Straight<br />Venue: Organic Marketing offices<br />Interview type: One-on-one<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TIwy3wFdNuI/AAAAAAAAAek/Q7OmUcXp0ho/s1600/Nina+Wadia,+CU.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 239px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TIwy3wFdNuI/AAAAAAAAAek/Q7OmUcXp0ho/s320/Nina+Wadia,+CU.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515839577003996898" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): What's the film about?<br /><br />Nina Wadia (NW): The film is a romantic comedy, with two women, one from the Middle East and one from India. A lot of it happens in London, a lot of it happens in the Middle East and it's just literally a love story at the end of the day.<br /><br />VL: How did you get involved in the film?<br /><br />NW: Shamim Sharif, who wrote and directed it, and Hanam Kattan, her partner, who's the producer, approached me to play a little cameo, which ended up being a little bit bigger, as the house-keeper of the Jordanian mistress.<br /><br />VL: So were Shamim and Hanam people that you knew already?<br /><br />NW: No, no. I'd never met them before and I think this was Shamim's first directing project and it was based on her novel. And I actually went and auditioned for it. The house-keeper doesn't have many lines but she does have to spit a lot. But luckily I went to those classes in drama school and did manage to get the right consistency of spit to land the part (laughs).<br /><br />VL: So you had a spit audition?<br /><br />NW: Yes, I did. And I actually spat in it, which they found amusing and I think that's what did it for them.<br /><br />VL: Were you responsible for your character's “sub-plot” or was it already in the script?<br /><br />NW: Yes, a little bit. It was kind of collaborative. They had a few little things, like, because I'm quite short and the actress playing the Jordanian woman was very tall, there was a moment where we thought, well, I have to light her cigarette and I can't actually reach her. So we had to put a stool down and I climbed up on it and they kept it in the film. So it was quite nice to have such a receptive director.<br /><br />VL: In both this film and in EastEnders, you display a real talent for sort of withering, sarcastic and very funny put-downs. Is that something that comes naturally? And if it isn't, this is your chance to blame it on the scriptwriters.<br /><br />NW: I blame everything on the scriptwriters! I'm actually a very nice person and not sarcastic at all in real life (laughs).<br /><br />VL: Is that true?<br /><br />NW: No, not at all. I think as I've gotten older I've gotten a bit more blunt in real life and I think that helps in the playing of other roles. I don't suffer fools gladly, so...<br /><br />VL: As an EastEnders fan, I was amused and delighted to see you sharing the screen with the guy that played Mr Ferrera, but I suppose this was filmed before you got the part in EastEnders?<br /><br />NW: Yes, it was. And I didn't use to watch EastEnders before I got the role, so it was only in hindsight, when we met at one of the pre-press things that I realises that that's who it was. And all everyone kept saying to me was “Did you like his Elvis outfit?” and I had no idea what they were talking about and then it dawned on me what they were saying.<br /><br />VL: Have you seen Shamim Sharif's second film?<br /><br />NW: The World Unseen? Yes. I think they're both being released at the same time. They have the same two actresses and as far as I know, similar topics, except that The World Unseen is set during Apartheid time in South Africa. Both are slightly semi-autobiographical. It's a bit heavier, drama-wise than I Can't Think Straight, which is a romantic comedy, at the end of the day.<br /><br />VL: But you're not in that one?<br /><br />NW: No, I'm not in that one and I've told her off for that! So she says that any movie she makes from now on, she's going to make sure there's a spitting house-keeper in it.<br /><br />VL: Do you have any more films coming up?<br /><br />NW: Do you know, I would love to, and in fact a couple of Bollywood films came my way as well, because I'd just done a Bollywood film before EastEnders came my way, called Namaste London. But unfortunately, when you sign with EastEnders, you're not really allowed to do any work for other channels or film work, though they might be relaxing that shortly. So if it does come my way, absolutely. I was kind of gutted I had to turn down a couple of Bollywood projects that had come my way but then I've got EastEnders to balance it out, so I can't complain. But I miss Light Entertainment, I miss doing comedy work, purely, you know? That's why I keep Zainab a bit light – I make sure that she has a sense of humour or at least plays a sense of humour.<br /><br />VL: You mentioned comedy. Do you have any particular career influences?<br /><br />NW: Well, my growing up was bizarre – I was born in India, but I'm actually of Iranian heritage. Grew up there till I was about nine, then went to Hong Kong for the rest of the time, which was where I first saw, you know, TV from the UK and from the States. And one of the first comedy shows I ever saw was Blackadder. And I found that struck a chord with me and I thought, 'Okay, now that's my sense of humour'. So for me, that whole generation of comedians, all the Not The Nine O'Clock News people, they really inspired me, so that's kind of the path I wanted to take. But I found that at drama school, my teachers would say, 'Well don't restrict yourself to that because there is the ability to do drama'. So I then went down the theatre and Shakespeare route for a while, which I loved, but it wasn't satisfying enough, so I was very lucky when Goodness Gracious Me came along and it was exactly at the right time for me and my career to be picked out for that.<br /><br />VL: I guess your early love of Blackadder explains your propensity for sarcastic put-downs?<br /><br />NW: Absolutely, yes.<br /><br />VL: Prior to the Masoods, EastEnders had a fairly bad track records for Asian families, thinking of the Ferreras in particular. What kind of feedback have you had for the Masoods?<br /><br />NW: Touch wood, possibly the best I could ever have asked for. Mostly because when I get stopped in the street, it's not for any other reason than people going, 'Oh, you made me laugh last night'. And actually, that makes my day, because I love that within a huge soap like this, people get what we're trying to do with the Masoods. We want to make them real, but we want to make it about the characters, we don't want to make it about the religion. Because that was a huge issue when I was asked to play the part, they said, 'Would you be nervous taking on a British Muslim woman?' and I thought, 'Actually, no, because at the end of the day, I want people to like Zainab Masood for who she is – or hate her for who she is, I don't mind – but I wanted it to be about the character. I wanted it to be character based and character led. Because if you think about it, when they cast white actors, they don't go, 'Well, you'll be Christian and you'll be playing that', you know? So I liked that they went with that, I liked that they said, 'Okay, well let's really invent this woman then, let's make her three-dimensional' and my brief was, let's create someone that people will love to hate. And I hope I've done that!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TIwzIsy6TrI/AAAAAAAAAes/yz12n6yLjQ8/s1600/Nina+Wadia,+with+flash,+CU.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TIwzIsy6TrI/AAAAAAAAAes/yz12n6yLjQ8/s200/Nina+Wadia,+with+flash,+CU.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515839868178681522" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-6909408360092818976?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24162364.post-45683881607730626032010-09-11T18:40:00.000-07:002010-09-11T18:44:55.471-07:00Interview with Morjana Alaoui and Mylène Jampanoï (for Martyrs)<br />Venue: The Charlotte Street Hotel<br />Interview type: One-on-one (well, one-on-two)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TIwwPvA9ZzI/AAAAAAAAAeE/WvQ4rwuPJoE/s1600/Morjana+Alaoui+and+Myl%C3%A8ne+Jampano%C3%AF+(4).JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TIwwPvA9ZzI/AAAAAAAAAeE/WvQ4rwuPJoE/s320/Morjana+Alaoui+and+Myl%C3%A8ne+Jampano%C3%AF+(4).JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515836690498676530" /></a><br />ViewLondon (VL): How did you both get involved in the film?<br /><br />Mylène Jampanoï (MJ): For me it was just a traditional casting through my agent. First the director gave me the script and I read it. It was interesting and a different story, a different script. And when I met the director I knew that we should do something together. From the beginning, I believed in him, I wanted to be confident and trust in him.<br /><br />Morjana Alaoui (MA): For me it was different, because there was another actress who was supposed to do the role, but at the last minute she got afraid because she had a son, she didn't want him to see such violent images, so she changed her mind. So Pascal was back looking for an actress and he saw my first movie, so we had lunch. And then this was quite strange because I didn't do any screen tests or anything, he just said it was going to be me.<br /><br />VL: It's an extremely intense, emotionally draining film. How did you prepare for the scenes?<br /><br />MA: You know it's a very hard question because we did a lot of preparation but how are you going to prepare, you know, screaming or – so we were really focussed and we worked a lot. It was a chaotic shoot. And the make-up and everything, all this helped me be in my character and I couldn't cheat on any emotions, Pascal wouldn't allow us to cheat, so just on set, they were just coming up.<br /><br />VL: Can you say a little about Pascal's directing style?<br /><br />MA: Pascal had two different ways of directing.<br /><br />MJ: It was not easy. We weren't fighting, but we didn't speak so much, so I was a little bit lost on the set and I didn't know what I would do. I don't have a lot of experience as an actress, so I counted on him a lot, but we didn't find so much of a connection. So I was on a horror movie and I was totally lost, really alone and in another country, so it was really difficult for me. And I spent a lot of energy off the set and I realise now that if I make another horror movie, I will do the opposite. I wasted a lot of energy on unimportant things, you know? But yes, it was a good experience, Pascal is a good director. But a lot of confusion for me.<br /><br />VL: Did you find that that actually worked for your character?<br /><br />MJ: Yes, you know, unconsciously, we do some things and realise later and I think that my attitude was close to the character that I wanted to show. You know, she was conflicted and I was a bit like that myself and maybe a little bit autistic. Yeah, it was interesting.<br /><br />VL: You said two different styles?<br /><br />MA: Yeah, for me, I think as my character is more responsible and she's here to really take care of Lucie and so on, Pascal had a smoother relationship with me, not trying to, like, push on some neurotic buttons because I had to play the opposite. But it's true that sometimes I felt, like Mylène, very very lonely, I mean, what experience did I have? I had done one film and here I was, screaming and crying and being the saddest I ever was in my life and in front of a camera, so sometimes you need a director to say, 'Yeah, it's good, no, it's not good, let's do this this way' and Pascal really let me be this responsible individual actress, just like my character.<br /><br />VL: You mentioned the make-up – how long did it take to get it all right?<br /><br />MA: It took a lot of time. We used to wake up at like 3am to start shooting at 7am, so it was quite intense, as well. But I had never realised there was such a different world, so it was very interesting.<br /><br />VL: And Pascal told me that you allowed them to actually cut off your hair in the film?<br /><br />MA: Yeah. And have my head shaved. It was cool because I always wanted to see what it looked like, but afterwards – it was two years ago, so I've been struggling to get my hair back. I'm happier this way.<br /><br />VL: What was the hardest scene to film?<br /><br />MJ: Everything was difficult, every day. To keep the same emotion every day was difficult. To be connected with the character was difficult. But when I kill the mother and I torture her, every day I was hitting her, so it's never easy. Every day, the movie was difficult.<br /><br />VL: What are your next projects?<br /><br />MA: I just finished a German movie called The Room, with Nikolai Kinski.<br /><br />MJ: I'm shooting the Serge Gainsbourg movie, a biopic about Serge Gainsbourg and I play his last wife. And after that, I'm doing a movie with a French director, his name is Xavier Gens, he made Frontiers. It's not a horror movie though. I play a journalist, but it's a nice one. And maybe a comedy, but we don't have enough money for that yet.<br /><br />VL: Do you have any films or directors that have particularly influenced you or that you especially want to work with?<br /><br />MJ: I like Festen and the films of the Dardennes Brothers. Realistic movies, you know? As an actress, I'm dying to play this kind of character. I would love to work with the Dardennes Brothers.<br /><br />MA: I love melodramas. I'd love to be in that kind of genre. That's the kind of film I like to watch the most.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TIwwbawiaeI/AAAAAAAAAeM/CJHQHj319TY/s1600/Morjana+Alaoui+and+Myl%C3%A8ne+Jampano%C3%AF.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gHebPvjbFpY/TIwwbawiaeI/AAAAAAAAAeM/CJHQHj319TY/s200/Morjana+Alaoui+and+Myl%C3%A8ne+Jampano%C3%AF.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515836891219519970" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24162364-4568388160773062603?l=films-etc.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>FilmFannoreply@blogger.com