Category: interviews

On the occasion of the theatrical re-release of Michelangelo Antonioni’s classic film, The Passenger, its owner and star lead actor Jack Nicholson reminisces about working with his mentor.
It kills me that this is all we get from a 90 minute interview, though.
Nicholson resurrects `Passenger’ [lat/chitrib via robotwisdom]
Manohla Dargis’s article still packs more punch, I think: “Antonioni’s Characters Escape Into Ambiguity and Live (Your View Here) Ever After” [nyt]

On the occasion of the UK opening of Mike Mills’ Thumbsucker, the Observer (their Observer, that is) gives the nearly aristocratic Tilda Swinton a good, hard, philosophical fawning over:

I ask Swinton what were considered virtues in her family. She thinks for a while, then says, with an ironic smile, ‘Not drawing attention to yourself. Not expressing an opinion. Stoicism. Being a good host – something that I still stand by. I’m very grateful for that genetic programming. Being able to laugh things off – also happy to have that one. Camaraderie – you know, trench warfare. I have a brother who’s a soldier and whenever I talk to him about why he’s in the army, the things he mentions are the reasons I love making films.’ Funnily enough, Jarman once noted in his diary: ‘In my own strange way I’m in love with both Keith [his companion] and Tilda, though love is perhaps not the right word. Perhaps a camaraderie, something more military. A friendship and partnership.’

Still worth a read, though.
Tilda opens up: “Pale, posh and scarily clever…” [observer.co.uk]

AB: Were you always going to adapt it [Thumbsucker]?
MM: No, not at the beginning because I hadn’t done it before but quite quickly on I thought, “Wait a second I can’t imagine directing something I didn’t write. Let me at least try.” I made a deal with Bob: “Let me try the first thirty pages.” And in that first time of adapting it, it really became clear how much cathartic mileage I was getting out of this and how I related to Justin and how much having him as a character was allowing me to say things that I wanted to say, that I needed to say. It’s like you know when you make a part of yourself that’s kinda weak into one of the characters, it emboldens you. You can be strong with it or you can fall down with it and still survive. The facts are very different and most of the details are very different but the emotional underpinnings are very similar between him and his mother and me and my mother. Then the estrangement he had with his dad is totally different, my dad is completely different but the estrangement is very familiar to me. So it became very personal, very quick.

Artworker of the week #51: Mike Mills [kultureflash.net]

Memphis’s own Brett Ratner mouths off, which, after scoring $9mm for your film that’d been passed over by every studio dawg in town, is just fine.

“What is interesting is the ‘indie blockbuster’ idea; that Hollywood’s going to buy cheaper movies and put the kind of money behind them that they would a blockbuster. What’s wrong with that?” He cracks, “Look, we didn’t make The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. [Hustle] has a commercial, mythological, hero’s-journey structure to it. I have always wanted it to be reflective of The Commitments, Footloose, Flashdance, and Rocky.”

Yes, interesting. Slate’s Christopher Kelly thinks it’s train wreck interesting, at least: “Funny, though, that this ‘vision of what’s hip and what Hollywood isn’t doing,’ as Singleton has described it, should look exactly like what Hollywood’s been doing for years.”
Rhyme Scheme [vv]
The Pimp Who Saved Hollywood [slate]

I heard different parts of Thelma Schoonmaker’s interview twice, and it was pretty great. It makes an impact when someone can be so articulate and lucid about her process; I imagine working with Scorsese will do that to you.
The Woman in Scorsese’s Edit Room [fresh air, npr.org]

I heard different parts of Thelma Schoonmaker’s interview twice, and it was pretty great. It makes an impact when someone can be so articulate and lucid about her process; I imagine working with Scorsese will do that to you.
The Woman in Scorsese’s Edit Room [fresh air, npr.org]

Sherman Sam interviews the artist Hiroshi Sugimoto about his London show at Gagosian. Sugimoto’s latest works, originally shown at the Fondation Cartier, are photographs of early 20th-century mathematical and mechanical study models from the collection of Tokyo University.
Sugimoto provides some more background on the models, which were also photographed by Man Ray and studied–in their day, in the 1910’s and 20’s–by Duchamp, Brancusi, and others.
By happy coincidence, the same series are on view at Sonnabend until June 11.
Artworker of the Week: Hiroshi Sugimoto [kultureflash]
previously: On Math & Art in France

Typing the first thing that comes into my mind:
Isabella Rossellini: [gulp] hi
Ryan Gosling: unexpectedly wry
David Benioff: composed (but watch out, the dude killed off Agamemnon)
Will Ferrell’s brother: his biggest fan, (but with the unenviable job of being nice to his richer, little brother for life)
Maggie Gyllenhaal: good sport, Harvard Law material
Maggie Lyko: one of the greatest women in America, who happens to have left for Mexico.
Marc Forster: Sick. [flu-sick, not gross-sick. Both he and Ferrell are getting Theraflu-high on stage]
Meeting Marc Forster: genial. [nice, easy-going, surprisingly not wearing clogs. Says, “I know,” when I introduce myself. Politely doesn’t mention the restraining order.]
My oblique Monster’s Ball oral sex scene reference in my speech: too oblique. Only Forster and the writer get it. Embarassingly, only Forster says it was funny.
Jamie Niven’s inadvertent and unacknowledged oral sex sight gag when the tech guy got down on his knees behind the podium to fix the mic during his speech: hi-larious, that man is grace under pressure personified.
Sean Combs: left the P. Diddy at home.
Best description of Everything Comes Together: The Dead Baby Movie.
Will Ferrell: makes even repressed movies about dead babies, racist executioners, and manipulative closet cases funny.
MoMA atrium: nice place, whaddya pay?
Mini cheeseburger hors d’oeuvres: Get back here!
Bresaola hors d’oeuvres: pre-touched meat
Champagne with straws: generously provided
Diet Coke at the pre-event champagne-only reception: cruelly absent

They’re Nos 1 & 2 on my list of “People I never imagined would live in New Jersey, ever.” And yet, they do.
[via Liz Hoggard’s interview with Bjork: “We miss you in London! Do you miss us? Hmm? Cuz we sure miss you.” in the Observer (UK)]
Related: Bjork released a 2-disc DVD version of Medulla, with more acapella than ever and a making of documentary by Spike Jonze. It’s only available in the rest of the world outside the US, the UK and Iceland. Wait, is that a trick question? Where else is there?

They’re Nos 1 & 2 on my list of “People I never imagined would live in New Jersey, ever.” And yet, they do.
[via Liz Hoggard’s interview with Bjork: “We miss you in London! Do you miss us? Hmm? Cuz we sure miss you.” in the Observer (UK)]
Related: Bjork released a 2-disc DVD version of Medulla, with more acapella than ever and a making of documentary by Spike Jonze. It’s only available in the rest of the world outside the US, the UK and Iceland. Wait, is that a trick question? Where else is there?

I have to confess [or maybe I don’t; just take a look back over the last couple weeks’ posts], I’ve barely had a film-related thought or activity in far too long.
It’s to the point where I’m actually afraid to visit greencine.com, where I’ll be forced to acknowledge how much cinema is going on around me that I’m disconnected from.
Then I read an intervew like Brad Bird’s at ReadyMade, and it really charges my batteries.
Brad Bird, How did you get that f*&%ing awesome job? [readymademag.com, via scrubbles]
previously: Mike Mills, How did you get your f*&%ing awesome job?

While the entire New York film world was focused on my Reel Roundtable screening of greg.org-as-videoblog January 10th, the Museum of Modern Art, in a moment of magnanimosity, hosted a discussion with the obscure director Quentin Tarantino and one of his muses, the equally unknown Uma Thurman. It was the inauguration of their new series, “Great Collaborations.” Here’s hoping them all the best success, and that they’ll eventually be able to rope in some recognizable names.
Any-who, since I’m pretty sure nobody was there, WPS1 is offering the first chance to hear Uma and Quentin talk about their work together.
Great Collaborations: Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman [WPS1.org