"People should start to question the very foundation of their beliefs." Director Larry Charles discusses why he wanted to make the documentary, Religulous, and Bill Maher shares with AMC News why humor is key to the film.
Known for his gritty crime dramas, James Gray's latest offering, Two Lovers, is anything but. Set in Brooklyn, the film follows a heartbroken young man (Joaquin Phoenix) who returns home after a suicide attempt only to discover two new love interests, one of whom is as troubled as he. Gray talks about the film's roots in 19th century Russian literature and his views on the nature of love.
Q: Two Lovers is a big departure for you.
A: At a certain point, you have to change it up a little bit. And I had, frankly, gotten sick of the macho element in the stories. It was inspired in a weird way by Gwyneth [Paltrow], because right after I had made The Yards, we were talking about working together and she said, "But we can't do that because you only make movies with guys shooting each other and yelling curses." And I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, she's right." By that time I was already writing We Own the Night, so I finished that movie and said, "No more."
Q: You've been adamant in pointing out this is not a romantic comedy. Why is that important?
A: There are very few American films -- very few films, period -- that tackle romance with a seriousness of purpose. I think it has to do with the fact that being in love is an altogether preposterous state of affairs. When you are in love, you do and say insane things, and there's no place for logic. Comedy is a perfect vehicle for that, because comedy is about the real extremes of human behavior. And so it was the ultimate challenge to me to make the film, which, by the way, does have a lot of comedic elements in it, but nonetheless take a serious approach to the subject.
Q: The film actually has roots in Russian literature: Dostoyevsky's White Nights. What about that story inspired you?
A: I used that as a springboard; it's inspired by it very loosely. The main character of the Dostoyevsky novella is someone that in 19th century Russia would have been just, you know, weird, and today would be greeted with a whole host of psychoanalytic terms: Manic depression, bipolar disorder. So if Dostoyevsky were writing today, he would be having to treat his characters with a whole host of pharmaceuticals. Joaquin and I talked very seriously about updating the Dostoyevsky conception: A slightly manic person would be a metaphor for how we behave when we are in love.
Q: Do you worry that by diagnosing the main character as psychologically unsound, his actions will be attributed to the psychosis, not love?
Continue reading "Cannes Film Festival - Two Lovers Director James Gray on Crazy Love" »
Richard Schickel has authored over 30 books and directed over 30 documentaries about the movies; he's also Time magazine's senior film critic. His five-hour retrospective on Warner Bros., You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story, is now screening at Cannes. Schickel spoke with AMCtv.com about his lifelong love affair with the studio.
Q: An accompanying book is also being released simultaneously. How do the two relate?
A: It's a huge book -- over 500 pages. Like us, they have access to the Warner Bros. archive, which is a huge advantage. You have the full run of every movie the studio ever produced and all the stills that have accumulated there, so it allows you to do something with enormous scope, both on television and in the book. I say we're producing an oxymoron: It's an epic clip show. You have 85 years of history and you've got the business history of it, the family history of it, the history of the movies themselves.
Q: Clint Eastwood narrates the documentary. How did he get involved?
It's hard to say what will shock Cannes audiences more: Jennifer Lynch's return from a 15-year hiatus in filmmaking, or her uncanny, lacerating new thriller Surveillance, starring Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond, which screens tonight. She's a little curious to find this out herself. Lynch spoke to AMCtv.com about her hopes and reservations, and her family's legacy in film.
Q: What kind of pressure do you feel from Cannes?
A: Having come out of 15 years of a totally different life, the whole thing is exhilarating and terrifying. I feel like I'm about to enter an enormous library -- it's really only 26 letters jumbled up in different ways, and all these stories are alive in there. That's where it feels like I'm headed, to this cinematic library where we're all using the same 26 letters to tell our stories; I just hope the way I've arranged them works for people.
Q: Is what we see in the trailer reflective of the film you've made?
A: It concerns me a little bit that the big reaction I get is, "Wow, that looks scary," because I made what I hope is a frightening film, but it's more psychologically scary, than it is Saw 5. So hopefully it won't be billed as anything but a thriller and will stay away from the horror market, because if people go in expecting a horror film, they may find themselves disappointed.
Q: In what ways do you think Surveillance is going to surprise people?
J. Michael Straczynski has penned superhero comics, created a critically acclaimed SciFi series (Babylon 5) and written for Murder She Wrote. Now his brainchild, Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie, is in competition for the top prize at Cannes. Straczynski spoke with AMCtv.com about his detective work in writing the script, the film's political relevance, and how it feels to have a fan in Clint Eastwood.
Q: There are really two stories going on in the movie: A mother's search for her child, and a corrupt police system covering it up.
A: Yes. The system was corrupt. It was considered to be massively powerful and unstoppable, but it fell before one woman asking the most simple, straight-forward question a mother can ask: Where is my child? She wasn't out to make a political statement; she wasn't out to bring down the mayor or chief of police or police captain -- she just wanted the truth. The more they went to extremes to cover up the truth, the more that house of cards began to fall. And those who had been suppressed for a long time began to rise up behind her. There wasn't an agenda, it was just a clean cause to really start chipping away at the core of the police corruption.
Q: How did you become inspired to write Changeling?
A: For a number of years prior to getting into television, I had been a reporter. And even though I had left journalism some years before, a source of mine at City Hall said "There's something here you should see." I zoomed down there, and read the transcript of the City Council welfare hearings in the case of Christine Collins. When I realized what the story was, I thought, "This can't actually have happened" So I spent a year researching and digging up old county courthouse records, city calls records and criminal records and finally pieced the whole thing together. I sat on it for a long time, and then one day, the structure just sort of cracked in my head, and I wrote down the draft that I eventually sold in about 11 days.
Q: You inserted newspaper clippings from the story into the physical copies of the script. Why?
Paraiso Travel is the story of a young Colombian couple who brave the dangers of crossing illegally into the United States to find a better life, only to discover the truth about where they're going -- and each other. Director Simon Brand, a native Colombian, discusses the realities of illegal immigration and the human condition with amctv.com.
Q: What inspired you to do this movie?
A: I read the book about six or seven years ago when it came out, and I thought it was a great book. I came to the US about 15 years ago, and I identified with the main character -- not because of the way he came in, I didn't go that route -- but the culture shock and the love story really attracted me. I stayed in the US because of a girl, so it was a great story to tell. At the same time, it dealt with a very hot topic, the whole immigration issue. Most of the movies I've seen, they're always very vague about what really goes on.
Q: Why do you think most films shy away from the horrors of illegal crossings?
A: I think it is ignorance in a way. People in the US talk about immigration all the time, and they talk about closing the borders and building a wall, but they really don't realize that most people are just trying to find a better life. I wasn't trying to make a political statement, I was just trying to see it from the human standpoint. Going from the south of Mexico to the border is actually extremely dangerous. People lose their limbs; they have to deal with gangs -- it's just one thing after another.
Continue reading "Tribeca Film Festival - Interview with Paraiso Travel Director Simon Brand" »
On the verge of the premiere of Idiots and Angels at Tribeca, Oscar-nominated animator Bill Plympton talks about embarking in a new direction and cutting a deal with Tom Waits.
Q: What was your inspiration for Idiots and Angels?
A: All I can recollect is that I was in France about three years ago, walking down the street with a guy. He asked me what my next film was. I said, "Some a--hole guy who grows wings and he doesn't like it because the wings make him do good things." All that night I started doing sketches and plotting ideas and doing character designs.
Continue reading "Q&A: Bill Plympton on Idiots and Angels: "Guerilla-style filmmaking"" »
Chazz Palminteri was born to be a gangster -- or at least to play one in the movies. He got his big break when his idol Robert De Niro stumbled upon his quasi-autobiographical play A Bronx Tale and turned it into his directorial debut. Barely a year after that flick made him an overnight success, Palminteri was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Woody Allen's mob comedy Bullets Over Broadway. Straight or side-splitting, Palminteri's performances are always pitch-perfect. He recently spoke with Shootout about his five favorites.
Palminteri's Favorite Palminteri Pictures
• A Bronx Tale
• Bullets Over Broadway
• Analyze This
• Hurlyburly
• The Usual Suspects
Palminteri credits others for his success: De Niro was "a great director who would not compromise and dealt with subject matter truthfully," Woody gave him "a chance to show my comic timing," and Hurlyburly's Anthony Drazan was "a great director who had vision." And as career "gangster," he clearly owes a debt to the genre's classic films.
Continue reading "Chazz Palminteri Favors Gangster Roles and Cagney as a Gangster" »
The book that's never been written: how producer Robert Evans tricked, lured and cajoled Francis Ford Coppola into directing The Cotton Club to save the film from financial ruin.
She may play the ever-dutiful wife of to the most socially inept human being on HBO, but Cheryl Hines' enthusiasm these days is anything but curbed. Perhaps that's because in recent years the actress has broken out as one of Hollywood's newest leading ladies. Aside from her work with Seinfeld genius Larry David, Hines has paired with Robin Williams in RV and Keri Russell in the wonderfully sassy Waitress. From the looks of things, the perpetually gleeful actress is just getting warmed up. Recently, she spoke with Shootout about her three personal career favorites in film...
Continue reading "Auto Focus: Cheryl Hines Not Only Loves Psycho, She Re-enacts It" »
The Spirit Award nominations were announced this morning. Rachel Getting Married, Ballast and Frozen River lead with six nominations each.
Tonight, George Lucas will present Jackson with this year's honors.
This fascinating political procedural about the late gay activist could earn an Oscar nod for Sean Penn.
