Interviews

As a first time director of a feature film, Yaron Zilberman managed to pull of the near impossible – getting Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken and Catherine Keener to appear in his film Performance. These three A-listers are joined by Mark Ivanir (Schindler’s List, The Good Shepherd), the four of them playing members of a string quartet which has been together for 25 years, and which looks like self-destructing. It’s a fascinating drama about the passion and politics of a small group of friends, and is fuelled by Beethoven’s moving Opus 131 – an unusually structured piece of music that the composer insisted be played attaca – without a break. This challenges the musicians to adjust throughout the performance as their instruments go slowly out of tune in ways they can’t possibly anticipate. [click to continue…]

Despite our proximity to the countries of South-East Asia – and the vast number of Australians who visit them – few Australian filmmakers have made places like Thailand, Vietnam or Laos the subject of Australian film stories, often because of the sheer logistical difficulty of getting cast and crew organised in remote locations. It was a challenge that didn’t stop actor – now first time director – Kieran Darcy-Smith when he shot a large segment of his new film Wish You Were Here, in Cambodia. “The entire experience was challenging in the extreme and I absolutely loved it,” he says sitting crossed-legged in an oversized chair. “I’ve never felt more alive.” [click to continue…]

Ralph Fiennes remembers exactly the first time he experienced the work of William Shakespeare. “I was taken at the age of five to a small country cinema to see Laurence Olivier’s Henry V by my parents,” he says, recalling the moment fondly with a throaty laugh. “I remember I was put in a little jacket for the event of going out to the cinema.” But it wasn’t this 1944 big-screen Technicolour version of Shakespeare that was to make an impact on the young Fiennes. “What really made Shakespeare get inside my head was when my mother told me – in her own words and in a very simplified and accessible way – the story of Hamlet when I was about eight or nine. [click to continue…]

Joe Cornish reckons – at 42 – he’s old. “I’ve left making my first feature film so long – until I’m in my dotage really. Let’s face it, I’m going to be dead pretty soon.” It’s the kind of self-deprecating humour that the well-mannered, well-spoken English comedian, writer, television-presenter (and now ageing film director) is best known for. But if he left his run at the film industry until he’s a bit long in the tooth, then he’s certainly making up for it this year. Not only is his first feature film, Attack The Block opening in Australia next week, but he was one of the screenwriters of Tintin – the Spielberg-Jackson extravaganza that is almost certain to be the biggest summer blockbuster of the year. [click to continue…]

“If I finish life with more than two quid in my pocket then I’ve made a miscalculation.” So says Guy Martin, the good looking bad boy of motor-cycle racing, and every documentary filmmaker’s dream subject: outrageous, funny, charming and dressed in leathers – a man who always has a story to tell when he isn’t busy creating them by upsetting sponsors or disappearing when there’s a press conference he’s meant to be at. No surprise then that he is the heartbeat of a new film about the world’s most dangerous bike race that takes place every year on the Isle of Man, almost certainly taking a few lives in the process. [click to continue…]

When Julie Shanahan left Australia 25 years ago to join a dance company in Germany, she thought she’d be back within a year. “I never imagined I could be even 10 years in one dance company,” she says “but I’ve now been there 25 years! And I am still only beginning to understand so much. That’s a testament to one person and her work – Pina.” [click to continue…]

Let’s face it, Morgan Spurlock made a name for himself doing strange things for thirty days at a time and documenting the results on film. Back in 2004, in his breakout documentary Super Size Me, he ate only McDonald’s food. Three times a day for thirty days. He gained eleven kilos and ended up with depression, a dodgy liver and an Academy-Award nomination. [click to continue…]

Frankly, after checking out her credentials and seeing a few online interviews, I was somewhat daunted by the prospect of talking to Julia Leigh, the Australian director of Sleeping Beauty. She seemed so utterly composed, thoughtful and deliberate in her interviews and about her thoughts on her debut feature film, which was selected to screen in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival last month. Her biography mentions her two novels – The Hunter and Disquiet – and their many accolades and prizes. She is described as “a sorceress” who “casts a spell of serene while the earth quakes underfoot”. [click to continue…]

Without question one of the most striking Australian films of recent years, Wasted On The Young confirms the visual storytelling confidence of new director Ben. C. Lucas. In his early thirties and now looking for a project in LA after the critical reception he has already received for the film, Lucas tells a very contemporary, and at times very confronting story about the disturbing power games of young people when there are no barriers on behaviour. [click to continue…]