tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38456837558712321852024-03-14T05:40:13.089+00:00Stephen Applebaum: Culture WebFEATURES, INTERVIEWS & ASSORTED WRITINGS FOCUSED ON FILM & ENTERTAINMENT BY FREELANCE WRITER STEPHEN APPLEBAUMCulture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.comBlogger286125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-53438464327832868122022-06-14T18:16:00.000+01:002022-06-14T18:16:20.483+01:00WELCOME . . .<div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nTtAa3uEXz0/XEWq2WzaO9I/AAAAAAAAA5M/IUua_tuepvQFYWABHPjhswnMX-Z8F2FEQCLcBGAs/s1600/20190116_125337.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1015" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nTtAa3uEXz0/XEWq2WzaO9I/AAAAAAAAA5M/IUua_tuepvQFYWABHPjhswnMX-Z8F2FEQCLcBGAs/s400/20190116_125337.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">To the website of<span style="color: red;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: red;">Stephen Applebaum (@grubstreetsteve)<span style="color: black;">:</span> </span></span></span></span>freelance journalist, author and member of the Critics' Circle, London <span style="color: red;">.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I started out as a humble staff writer on VNU Business Publications'
What Micro? magazine. After four years of working on different titles in
the publisher's stable, I decided to go freelance. I branched out into
writing about film and politics, and today am able to tackle pretty much
anything thrown at me.</span></span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I am an experienced interviewer and have shot the breeze with everyone
from Beyonce to Al Gore, Michael Moore, George Clooney, Bill Murray,
Terry Gilliam, Vidal Sassoon and Jesse Eisenberg.</span></span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My work has appeared in a wide variety of publications and different
media internationally, including the Guardian, The Independent, Time
Out, The Scotsman, The Times, the Sunday Times Culture, Vogue Australia, What's On in
Dubai, The Jewish Chronicle, The Big Issue, The Herald, Rolling Stone,
The Australian, the Sunday Times Perth, The West Australian, BBC Online,
The Listener, <span class="skimlinks-unlinked">Filmfour.com</span>, Total Film, Dazed & Confused, and Metro.</span></span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have also been reprinted in several books, including Secrets of 24:
The Unauthorized Guide to the Political and Moral Issues Behind TV's
Most Riveting Drama, The UK Film Finance Handbook 2005/06, and The Film
Finance Handbook - Global Edition.<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In 2008 I was nominated for an Australian OPSO award for a newspaper story about the film director Tamara Jenkins.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"> </span></span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">In
2012, a newspaper story I wrote for The Scotsman about Robert Rodriguez
supplied the concluding interview in the book, Robert Rodriguez:
Interviews, edited by Zachary Ingle.</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">I am the author of </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i>The Wicker Man: Conversations with Robin Hardy, Anthony Shaffer & Edward Woodward</i>, which is available here: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Wicker-Man-Conversations-Woodward-ebook/dp/B008COOH2S"><i><b>http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Wicker-Man-Conversations-Woodward-ebook/dp/B008COOH2S</b></i> </a> </span></span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">I attend the Berlin (February), Cannes (May), Venice (September),<i> </i> and London (November) film festivals every year, and I am available for coverage of th<i>o</i>se events</span>.</span></span></i></span></span><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><b><span style="color: red;"> </span></b></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><b><span style="color: red;">If you would like to commission me</span></b>, or reproduce any original features/interviews posted on this site, please <a href="mailto:stephenapplebaum64@gmail.com"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">email me</span></b></a> in the first instance to discuss a project/rates, or contact me via Twitter:<b> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">@grubstreetsteve</span></b>.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> </span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">I am available for:</span></span></i></span></span><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> </span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Writing/Editing shifts </span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Feature writing</span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Celebrity interviews</span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Real life stories </span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
</span><div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 3px; text-align: left; width: auto;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Proofing/copy-editing</span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Reporting</span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Research</span></span></i></span></span><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> </span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Visit the sidebar on right for links to some of my published work, and blog archives.</span></span></i></span></span></span></span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span><span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span>Regards, <span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i>Stephen Applebaum</i></span></span></span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times";"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i> </i></span></span></span></b></span></span><br />
<br /></div>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-75249055944987879862021-08-21T12:48:00.004+01:002021-08-21T12:57:51.244+01:00Benh Zeitlin on Wendy, his wild re-imagining of Peter Pan<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jutqghvYo-c/YSDneL1ki4I/AAAAAAAABIs/FRcBEt5enVor-4q44kuVVzV0_Koo5rgOgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Wendy-1%2Bsheet.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1386" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jutqghvYo-c/YSDneL1ki4I/AAAAAAAABIs/FRcBEt5enVor-4q44kuVVzV0_Koo5rgOgCLcBGAsYHQ/w271-h400/Wendy-1%2Bsheet.jpg" width="271" /></a></div><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b>Re-Imagining Peter Pan</b></span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="color: red; font-size: medium;"><b>Film-maker Ben
Zeitlin's debut was an Oscar-nominated success. But there was a long
wait for a follow-up.</b></span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Benh Zeitlin is one of
the most unconventional filmmakers I have ever met. Born in New York
to a Jewish father and Protestant-raised mother, both of whom are
urban folklorists, the 38-year-old was thrust into the spotlight in
2012 when his ambitious debut feature, Beasts of the Southern Wild,
became the talk of the Cannes Film Festival, before garnering four
Oscar nominations.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Until then, he had
operated in his own bubble, crafting artisanal shorts as part of a
collective of like-minded creatives called Court 13. Beasts, a
dynamic bayou fable told through the eyes of a spirited six-year-old
girl, put them on the map, and left many excitedly wondering what
they would do next. Incredibly, it has taken until now, and the
release of Wendy, a loose and passionately-realised adaptation of
Peter Pan, written by Zeitlin and his sister Eliza, to find out.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“The Oscars were like
visiting another planet,” recalls Zeitlin from his home in New
Orleans. He fell in love with the city while filming Glory at Sea,
the poetic short that opened the door for Beasts, in Louisiana, less
than a year after Hurricane Katrina. Then, “it was like a ghost
town, and really dangerous,” he told me in Cannes. He’d been
planning to return to New York. “But, right near the end, I started
to realise I was not going to go back. That I somehow had my feet
stuck, essentially.”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">No wonder the Oscars,
with their glitz and feverish media buzz, made him feel
discombobulated. “It was a world that I had only seen on
television,” he says today, “and it felt like being propelled
into a TV show. It was mind-blowing and incredibly surreal. And, you
know, amazing.”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If there was external
pressure and expectation, it wasn’t this that concerned Zeitlin and
his collaborators, so much as that the rights to their next film were
owned by Fox Searchlight (now Searchlight). Beasts had been backed by
Cinereach, a non-profit that allowed the filmmaker to work in the
same organic, intuitive, time-consuming way he’d always done. This
was unusual in an industry where “efficiency becomes kind of the
number one principle,” says Zeitlin, explaining that when they cast
a film, “we’re going to search until we find the one person who
can play this role, no matter how long that takes, and wait to shoot
the film until they’re exactly the right age. . . Obviously,
this film took took a very long time.”</span></p></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Read the full article at </span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.thejc.com/culture/film/re-imagining-peter-pan-1.519412">https://www.thejc.com/culture/film/re-imagining-peter-pan-1.519412</a></span><span><div><i><br /></i></div></span><span><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #242729; font-family: Jost, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><i>© Stephen Applebaum, 2021</i></span></div></span></ul><div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-20985449544399597432021-03-17T16:39:00.012+00:002021-03-17T17:18:33.466+00:00Ghost World At 20<p><span style="color: red; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>Ghost World turns 20 this year. I talked to director Terry Zwigoff and graphic novelist Daniel Clowes for its original release.</b></span></p><p><span style="color: red; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="color: red; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ExjvV0qlT7w/YFI0kAwSzKI/AAAAAAAABFg/0XAxKJRcZzASb3rflY5wHYJk7eLyQnZ6gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20210317_162640.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1534" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ExjvV0qlT7w/YFI0kAwSzKI/AAAAAAAABFg/0XAxKJRcZzASb3rflY5wHYJk7eLyQnZ6gCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/20210317_162640.jpg" width="480" /></a></span></div><span style="color: red; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Cmsj2j2ss_Y/YFIvEPHo4wI/AAAAAAAABFQ/1UAY1mnANY0ZjwOBq54qWksdUUkE1IozQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20210317_162643.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" data-original-height="2060" data-original-width="1554" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Cmsj2j2ss_Y/YFIvEPHo4wI/AAAAAAAABFQ/1UAY1mnANY0ZjwOBq54qWksdUUkE1IozQCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/20210317_162643.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K3u1Z6pA1L8/YFIvwnB4VXI/AAAAAAAABFY/6bnQEflEIsA21k4LJw8Vi4lBn8ptgRGbgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20210317_162653.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2060" data-original-width="1554" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K3u1Z6pA1L8/YFIvwnB4VXI/AAAAAAAABFY/6bnQEflEIsA21k4LJw8Vi4lBn8ptgRGbgCLcBGAsYHQ/w482-h640/20210317_162653.jpg" width="482" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><br /><p><span style="color: red; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: red; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-64169208404975962562021-03-07T10:52:00.000+00:002021-03-07T10:52:28.432+00:00Bryan Fogel and Omar Abdulaziz discuss The Dissident<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qMsdMnuHVLg/YESvkXhVgPI/AAAAAAAABEY/IoLLf9MOUFQ2BBZvlRmXHXDZzF4DpH6KACLcBGAsYHQ/s1467/20210307_103846.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1467" data-original-width="716" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qMsdMnuHVLg/YESvkXhVgPI/AAAAAAAABEY/IoLLf9MOUFQ2BBZvlRmXHXDZzF4DpH6KACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/20210307_103846.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KuqvcVbx4z4/YESvkOUY9GI/AAAAAAAABEU/y6xnpqxU1MouILfQ9VbJ2HcP1SN1fibdwCLcBGAsYHQ/s810/20210307_103906.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KuqvcVbx4z4/YESvkOUY9GI/AAAAAAAABEU/y6xnpqxU1MouILfQ9VbJ2HcP1SN1fibdwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/20210307_103906.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EwTMMo22CRA/YESvkXTgETI/AAAAAAAABEc/RYfW638dEYIj0vNWnljOudJYy2TjbaGjQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1149/20210307_103928.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1149" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EwTMMo22CRA/YESvkXTgETI/AAAAAAAABEc/RYfW638dEYIj0vNWnljOudJYy2TjbaGjQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/20210307_103928.jpg" /></a></div>For the full story, click here: <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/long-reads/the-dissident-documentary-jamal-khashoggi-b1810306.html?r=7957">https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/long-reads/the-dissident-documentary-jamal-khashoggi-b1810306.html?r=7957</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-89053791513974618042021-02-06T02:37:00.003+00:002021-02-06T03:09:14.542+00:00Greenland review<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="984" data-original-width="677" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bbCASa7iD9A/YB3-tWUQ84I/AAAAAAAABDI/knWksd4s8DYoPZZi52JZvNwZ3JvL7fcIQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/20210206_022627.jpg" /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bbCASa7iD9A/YB3-tWUQ84I/AAAAAAAABDI/knWksd4s8DYoPZZi52JZvNwZ3JvL7fcIQCLcBGAsYHQ/s984/20210206_022627.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bbCASa7iD9A/YB3-tWUQ84I/AAAAAAAABDI/knWksd4s8DYoPZZi52JZvNwZ3JvL7fcIQCLcBGAsYHQ/s984/20210206_022627.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bbCASa7iD9A/YB3-tWUQ84I/AAAAAAAABDI/knWksd4s8DYoPZZi52JZvNwZ3JvL7fcIQCLcBGAsYHQ/s984/20210206_022627.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></a></div><b style="background-color: white; color: red; font-family: Georgia; white-space: pre-wrap;"></b><p></p><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b>Greenland</b></span><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Delayed due to the closure of cinemas, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Greenland's</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> arrival in the middle of a pandemic makes its anxiety-inducing, apocalyptic atmosphere feel uncomfortably timely. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Butler, playing yet another everyman, is reliably solid as John Garrity, whose marital problems are put into perspective by an incoming comet that will send mankind the way of the dinosaurs in 48 hours' time. He, his wife and son are among the lucky ones selected for evacuation to a secret bunker. But, in a world filled with scared people desperate for the wristbands that show they've been chosen, getting there won't be easy.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Greenland's</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> strength lies in its intimacy in the midst of an event whose global scale is relayed via news reports. We stay close to the family as they travel through a disintegrating landscape of givers and takers, stressfully experiencing every ounce of their fear and dread. There are bursts of sfx action, but it is the film's human-sized focus, groundedness, and attention to detail that ultimately keep you gripped</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Gr</b><b style="font-style: italic;">eenland is on Amazon Prime now</b></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-2442033240360367912020-07-19T16:31:00.001+01:002020-07-19T16:31:52.930+01:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9ZE_C8NJd0c/XxRnC3YVs7I/AAAAAAAAA_k/4koAso1titE3LYHpLP5bpFWP5gpbNB1CgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/image003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="249" data-original-width="442" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9ZE_C8NJd0c/XxRnC3YVs7I/AAAAAAAAA_k/4koAso1titE3LYHpLP5bpFWP5gpbNB1CgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/image003.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b>Actor Grant Rosenmeyer talks about making Come As You Are, and the controversy surrounding the casting of able-bodied leads as disabled characters</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Grant Rosenmeyer, 29, has appeared in Wes Anderson’s classic comedy-drama <i>The Royal Tenenbaums</i>, <i>Money Monster </i>with Julia Roberts and George Clooney, the groundbreaking TV show <i>C</i><i>razy Ex-Girlfriend</i> and Larry David’s <i>Curb Your Enthusiasm</i>, among other things, but he’s never talked about anything for as long as he’s been chinwagging about his latest film, <i>Come As You Are</i>. And he’s pleasantly surprised.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As the lead and producer of the modest independent feature, which had its première at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, in February last year, he never imagined it being seen outside the United States, he admits over WhatsApp from his home in coronavirus-locked Los Angeles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“It’s just too big a dream,” explains Rosenmeyer. “You make a little movie for, like, a million bucks or so, and you don’t know what’s going to happen. You hope anybody sees it. You hope anybody likes it. So it’s definitely encouraging to see that it’s getting a life elsewhere. We’re now in 13 or 14 territories, which is kind of trippy.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Read the full story here: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">https://www.thejc.com/culture/film/grant-rosenmeyer-on-his-new-film-come-as-you-are-1.501618</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-82114478825842471822019-04-22T12:30:00.000+01:002019-04-22T12:39:52.899+01:00Matthew Shoychet Talks About His Eye-Opening Documentary, The Accountant Of Auschwitz<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Exploring the trial of
Oskar Gröning 70 years after his crimes</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Stephen
Applebaum speaks to the director of a new film that explores the
controversial trial of former SS guard Oskar Gröning</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The subject of the
Shoah was important to director Matthew Shoychet “as a Jew” –
but he didn’t want to make a film just for Jews. Neither did he
want to risk people saying they’d seen it all before. He asked
himself: “How do we make it unique and a modern story?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">The answer was Oskar
Gröning who, in 2015, was put on trial in Luneburg, Germany, at the
age of 93, as an accessory to the murder of 300,000 Hungarian Jews.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Shoychet’s resulting
documentary, <i>The Accountant of Auschwitz</i>, now available on DVD
and digital platforms, is a fascinating insight into the
controversial trial of the former Nazi.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w8kGWPPnWHY/XL2lKTHyQwI/AAAAAAAAA7M/BfOizW6-b9Ulnem1kkO5c3zuRsADHia8ACLcBGAs/s1600/Blueprint%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="1600" height="179" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w8kGWPPnWHY/XL2lKTHyQwI/AAAAAAAAA7M/BfOizW6-b9Ulnem1kkO5c3zuRsADHia8ACLcBGAs/s320/Blueprint%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Read the full story here:<a href="https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/exploring-the-trial-of-oskar-groning-70-years-after-his-crimes/"> https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/exploring-the-trial-of-oskar-groning-70-years-after-his-crimes/</a></div>
<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b></b></span><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-38336962045385977002019-04-22T12:16:00.000+01:002019-04-22T12:34:34.893+01:00Saturation Divers Under Pressure In The Documentary Last Breath <h1 class="headline" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.04; margin: 19px auto 18px; max-width: 968px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Last Breath: Real-life
drama of the North Sea diver who cheated death</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: red;">Stephen Applebaum</span><span style="color: red; font-style: inherit;"> tells the story of Chris Lemons, left trapped without oxygen for half an hour on the seabed, and the rescue bid mounted by his colleagues in what is diving’s most dangerous industry</span></span></h1>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3v8xsabmQhQ/XL2f0J8SkqI/AAAAAAAAA64/XJbCuJ32Vucgg80tu1V5dC0SYTh2NhcywCLcBGAs/s1600/Still%2B3%2B%2528300dpi%2529%2B%255B%2528c%2529%2BLast%2BBreath%2BLtd%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1486" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3v8xsabmQhQ/XL2f0J8SkqI/AAAAAAAAA64/XJbCuJ32Vucgg80tu1V5dC0SYTh2NhcywCLcBGAs/s320/Still%2B3%2B%2528300dpi%2529%2B%255B%2528c%2529%2BLast%2BBreath%2BLtd%255D.jpg" width="297" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small; font-weight: normal;">Last Breath (Image Courtesy of Dogwoof)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Imagine being stuck at
the bottom of the North Sea, with an emergency supply of air that is
quickly running out, and no immediate help available. Such was the
predicament that diver Chris Lemons was plunged into on 18 September
2012, when the umbilical cord that connected him to a diving bell,
providing him with gas for breathing, hot water, communications and
electricity, snapped, during routine work on a drilling structure at
the Huntington oil field, 115 miles east of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">What happened next
became a sensation inside the global diving community. People were
keen to know how Lemons’s employer, Bibby Offshore (now renamed
Rever Offshore), had dealt with the situation, so the company
commissioned a short industry film, Lifeline, from Floating
Harbour Films, in 2013, to, says the production company’s website,
“highlight the potentially extreme consequences of an incident in
the workplace”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">This has now been
developed into Last Breath, a feature-length documentary which
uses convincing reconstructions, original footage (there was a wealth
of it, captured by different devices in the water and on board the
Diving Support Vessel Bibby Topaz), and gripping interviews with
some of the key people involved, including Lemons’s team mates,
Dave Yuasa and Duncan Allcock, and dive supervisor Craig
Frederick, to create a nailbiting tale of survival against the odds.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Read the full story
here: </span></span><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/last-breath-documentary-diving-chris-lemons-north-sea-rescue-a8849036.html" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/last-breath-documentary-diving-chris-lemons-north-sea-rescue-a8849036.html</span></a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-61961667365818959702019-03-13T18:40:00.000+00:002019-03-13T18:43:26.921+00:00Rosamund Pike Is On The Frontline In A Private War<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Rosamund Pike discusses playing murdered war reporter Marie Colvin, in Matthew Heineman's feature debut, <i>A Private War</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-64970718354622012542018-07-17T21:45:00.000+01:002018-07-17T21:49:31.736+01:00Ethan Hawke Talks About First Reformed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Ethan Hawke gives the performance of his life as a priest in crisis in Paul Schrader's masterpiece, First Reformed. I met him at the Venice Film Festival in 2017.</b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="color: red;"></span><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ethan, Paul Schrader said he chose you because you look haunted from the very beginning and therefore fit the character. Do you recognise that about yourself?</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"No you never know what people see in you. I remember, years ago, a director telling me I look like I believe in God, and that there;'s some people that look like they believe in God and some people that don't. So I thought about that when Paul asked me to play this part."</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Do you believe?</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I don't think it's a simple question. I think the short answer would be yes."</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There is a lot in the film about the end of civilisation. How do you feel about having kids the way the world is today? </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I'm grateful to be alive. I don't care what shape the world's in; I'm happy my parents had me. I don't think there's a parent in the history of mankind that doesn't feel fear for their children a little bit. We fear everything. It's our great resource to make ourselves sharper. Got to protect the species. And that fear extends to a larger place right now because our technological advances have gotten to such a point that we can do real harm to each other and to our world. Other generations didn't have the possibility of deforesting South America. These are new problems. But that's what's so wonderful to be part of a movie like this, because it, hopefully, will sponsor conversations like this as it gets seen throughout the world. That's the hope of making it."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Are there parts of you in the character?</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I love my character. I am so grateful for it. Have a character that even mentions some of the ideas and thoughts and themes. Paul Schrader's not the only person that's looking to the religious community for guidance and leadership, and what to do with an ever-changing world. We've gotten very little leadership from the religious community about where to place our fears and anxiety about the environment. We have a Pope right now that's really trying to do a good job with it. He's really preaching this a lot. And if the religious community could take up the baton of the environment concern, it would have a major, major impact. And so I think it's a serious question that Paul's pitching."</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You seem to like playing characters that write stories as the film is unfolding. Why is that? Obviously you've written books. </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"You know, I think we all get cast in ways the directors see us. You know? We don't really control that. I'm always just trying to take the best part I can. I'm not looking for parts that people write anything. I wish I would be cast as a gladiator, but people don't see me that way."</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And how did you find doing the levitation scene?</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"It somehow connects to the end of the movie. The movie's asking you to - there is an essay that Paul wrote about transcendental cinema, and we're all trying to transcend our environment, right? As human beings we're having difficulty pitching ourselves against the world. There's something about it that totally doesn't make any sense and it's crazy, and at the same time it makes perfect sense to me. You know? I remember when I first read it I thought, 'Well how's that going to work?' But the movie is strange. There is now doubt that the movie is strange.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"David Lynch has this great quote where he says the only place that's left, the uncharted territory for cinema, is things that don't make literal sense. And all our brains are always trying to make literal sense of everything, even though we can't do it with our own life. Lynch has done that to great effect and I think Paul is doing that a little too."</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When did you become aware of Paul's work and what was your initial reaction?</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I saw a double feature, there was a thing called Theatre 80 in New York that doesn't exist anymore, it was kind of a cinema club, and once a year they would show Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. So I watched that as a double feature when I was about 21 or something, and I have been following. I have worked with Richard Linklater a lot and Richard talks about Paul Schrader, about his mind and his contribution to cinema. I think Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters is Rick's favourite film. So I've been aware of him for a long time now."</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Do you come to work with a lot of questions? Do you question the director a lot?</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Some of them more than others, you know? Paul, at our first read-through of it, it was clear that you were meeting somebody that this film is coming out of them and in the best sense that people like to talk about art. But it was clear that this thing had been gestating in him and it was ours just to execute. Sometimes you show up on set and the directors need a lot of help or that's part of their game plan is to you create it for them. But you really could publish this screenplay. There wasn't anybody at that first read through that didn't feel like they didn't just witness a work of art."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Were you interested in the way that the film explored how a religious text can be used to justify extreme actions?</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Well religious texts have been used to justify extreme behaviour throughout mankind. I mean part of the wonderful thing about the forefathers of America is the separation of Church and State is based on that principle alone, that any religious dogma, no matter how beatific or well meaning, can be interpreted for murderous, greedy causes. Mankind has never stopped to do that. And so that's why you need laws."</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></b>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>I think it's interesting that at a time when there is such a focus on Islamic terrorism, here we have a Christian character who is becoming radicalised.It is just not seen as much. </b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Yeah but you've had Christian terrorists throughout history, too. The script very beautifully lays in the Abolitionist movement, which were Christian terrorists. John Brown was killing slave owners and citing the words of Jesus Christ as he did so."</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But that isn't so much part of the discourse. </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Well it is. You see me teaching these other kids."</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I mean generally. Outside the film.</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Oh yeah. It's part of the discourse of the film but not of our culture. And people find that very threatening. There's a case to be made that John Brown helped start the Civil War and helped end slavery. That's a scary discourse because the idea that there is a right kind of terrorism is scary to people. And it's something I find very interesting fodder for a dialogue in a movie. But people should be thinking because they're interesting questions."</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Are you religious?</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"The cinema is the Church of my choice."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-7967642021792681662018-07-14T09:26:00.001+01:002018-07-27T16:21:14.762+01:00Path Of Blood Is A Harrowing Look Inside Al-Qaeda, Shot By Jihadis Themselves<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NryHHOdnXs0/W0m0u_ZOi-I/AAAAAAAAA0g/DJqzZvtDxS44VR7Me_XtagFsTIyhJl4RQCLcBGAs/s1600/PathofBloddposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="178" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NryHHOdnXs0/W0m0u_ZOi-I/AAAAAAAAA0g/DJqzZvtDxS44VR7Me_XtagFsTIyhJl4RQCLcBGAs/s320/PathofBloddposter.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i>Path of Blood</i>: New
documentary explores jihadi extremism, radicalisation and al-Qaeda's
target, Saudi Arabia</span></b></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Aimen Dean was
just 19 when he pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden – until the
brutal reality of mass murder led him to be flipped by the Qataris,
and return to Afghanistan as a spy for MI6</span></b></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">In the years following
9/11, documentaries such as Restrepo and Armadillo gave
us intimate and unflinching accounts of the daily lives of troops
fighting the war in Afghanistan.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Jonathan Hacker’s <i>Path
of Blood</i> now offers a similar kind of insider’s eye – only
this time we’re taken behind the scenes of al-Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula, during their bid to topple the Saudi government in 2003.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Raw, uneditorialised
footage, shot by the jihadis themselves, captures the young men at
play and in action, complicating the popular image of fanatical
“death to the West” extremists. The overall effect is harrowing
and fitfully hopeful.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">By showing how the
Saudis quashed the insurgency using tough counter-terrorism measures,
and then offered a rehabilitation programme to jihadis capable of
changing, the film offers a valuable lesson about how to address the
frightening phenomenon of radicalisation and terrorism.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Path of Blood is in cinemas now, and available on demand on iTunes on 16th July </span></i></b></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b></b><i></i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Read the full story here: <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/al-qaeda-jihadi-saudi-arabia-bin-laden-path-of-blood-a8441746.html">https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/al-qaeda-jihadi-saudi-arabia-bin-laden-path-of-blood-a8441746.html</a></span></div>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-42866776996034121482018-07-06T17:14:00.000+01:002018-07-06T18:03:43.079+01:00Paul Schrader On First Reformed<div class="western">
<a href="http://media2.firstshowing.net/firstshowing/img10/Firstreformedfullposterimagebig59901.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://media2.firstshowing.net/firstshowing/img10/Firstreformedfullposterimagebig59901.jpg" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="540" height="400" width="270" /></a><span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Raised in Michigan by a Calvinist family, Paul Schrader has often written films in which a tormented central character descends into a personal hell. </b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>In his latest film, the religious thriller <i>First Reformed</i>, which many consider to be the writer-director's late-career masterpiece, Ethan Hawke's boozy, diary-writing priest, experiences a crisis of faith which threatens to have catastrophic consequences.</b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b></b><span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="color: red;"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;">I met Schrader, whose back catalogue includes the Martin Scorsese collaborations <i>Taxi Driver</i> and <i>Raging Bulling</i>, at the Venice Film Festival in 2017.</span> </span> </b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="color: red;"></span><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>You have said something like this
is a film you have been making for a lifetime.</b></span></div>
<div class="western">
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
"No, actually only
a little more than two years. But it is the culmination of a
lifetime. Before I became a screenwriter I was a critic, and I wrote
a book on spirituality in films [<i>Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu,
Bresson, Dreyer</i>], which has just been reissued. So it was always the
kind of film I was interested in. Never thought I would actually make
one."</div>
<div class="western">
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Why not?</b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I was more interested in some
of the aggressive qualities of film: action, empathy, stuff like
that. I just never thought I would make a film like I wrote about.
And then a couple of years ago, I was having dinner with Pawel
Pawlikowski, who had done <i>Ida</i>, and he was talking about that film. And
then I left that dinner, I was walking, and I thought to myself,
'Time for you to write one of these movies.' Once I sort of
acknowledged that, it became easy. </span></div>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"And also it had to do with the
financial realities. It's now possible for me to make this film
financially in a way it wasn't 10 years ago, just because the budgets
have come down so much. So, you know, 20 years ago this film would
have taken 40 days. Now it took just 20 days. That's a whole
different financial reality. And it applies across the board to all
films. So the upside is it's very to make a film now; the
downside is it's almost impossible to get it seen."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>It's funny you mention Pawlikowski
because the film is reminiscent of <i>The Woman in the Fifth</i>, which also
has Ethan Hawke in, where he's also a writer and he writes the story. </b> </span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Yeah. No, the format is from
<i>Ida</i>, which is the traditional 1:33. In fact I wanted to do it in 1:33
black and white, but the financier blocked that with delivery
requirements for colour. So I made it in colour, but not
colourful."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Can you talk more about the
spirituality in this work and what it means in the state of America
today, people hiding behind religion, etc?</b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Well, ah, I mean I was raised
in the Church. I still go to church. So you don't escape that kind of
programming. But you have to be careful when you
talk about The Church, because it's not a monolithic thing, and we
tend to describe the bigoted and bombastic evangelicals as if they
were The Church. They are not. They are a very vocal part of it, but
there is a mainstream liberal humanistic Christianity as well. And
so you have to be careful not to tar Catholicism or Protestantism,
whatever, with a brush of the fanatics. Just like you have to be
careful not to tar Islam with a brush of the fanatics."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Picking that up, <i>First Reformed </i>is about radicalisation, isn't it?</b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"In a way. I mean this guy has a
sickness. A sickness Kierkegaard called 'the sickness unto
death'. Lack of hope. Despair. Angst. And this sickness has
manifestations. The cloth of the clergy is one manifestation. The
diary is another. The alcohol is another. And finally the environment [Environmentalism] is a manifestation of his soul's sickness. He grafts this cause onto
himself, in fact picks it up like a virus from another person; but if
it wasn't the environment it would be another thing."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Why did you choose the
environment?</b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Well,you know, theologians and
philosophers have beeen having discussions for four or five thousand
years and all those discussions are now in boldface because we are
actually at the point in human history where there may be some end to
those discussions. I mean you start talking about what is the purpose
of life? What is the purpose of humanity? What does it mean to be
human? What does it mean to have consciousness? You know, if you
stand on your tippy-toes and look, you can start to see the end of
that conversation. And therefore it's a very exciting time to be
alive, and a frightening one as well. So the environment takes these
classical religious and philosophical debates, and puts them in neon
flashing at you."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Do you share any of the views of
the character concerning the world?</b> </span></div>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Well I don't think we, as a
species, will outlive this century. You know, the world is going to
be fine; we're not."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>So what do we do then?</b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Oh no, we'll be evolved. There
will be a post-human species. Which we already seem in bits and
pieces already. Carbon-based intelligence is now giving way to
silicon-based intelligence, and eventually carbon-based intelligence
will be seen as a period of history on the Earth."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Will these films survive? Will
your work survive?</b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"[Laughs] Well I tell ya, our
antecedents, they're going to have one hell of a museum. A museum to
humanity [laughs]. That'll be a great museum. And hopefully movies
will have a room in there."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Speaking of conservation, this
movie is extremely cinephilic. It's full of references to your
passions. </b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Well, I mean, for me it's kind
of easy. I'm probably part of the most privileged generation in the
history of the planet. The baby boom generation. We have lived in the
cone of affluence and ease, leisure time. No one in the history of
planet Earth had it easier than we have. And we responded by fucking
it up. So the harder choice is for our children and the children
after them, which is what this one character says. What do you say to
your child when your child looks at you and says, 'You knew this was
happening and you did nothing about it'? What do you say? You say,
'Well, too bad for you. We had a good time.' So yeah, it is kind of
bleak in that way."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>How did you choose the actors?</b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Um, normally when you write a
script you don't think about actors because it makes you a lazier
writer. But I did start thinking about Ethan because when you have a
man of the cloth in this way, you like to have a haunted actor - that
way they don't have to play haunted. And Ethan has that haunted look.
So it's easier to do it with Ethan than, say, to do it with Brendan
Gleeson in Calvary, because Brendan had a very hard time looking
haunted. But Ethan looks haunted the moment you see him. So it was an
easier task and he was finally just about the right age. Three actors came to mind, one was Oscar Isaac and another was
Jake Gyllenhaal, and they were both, like, 10 years too young. Ethan
was just the right age."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Plus he reminded me, even
physically, of Gunnar Bjornstrand, in Bergman's <i>Winter Light</i>. </b> </span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Yeah, he is also reminiscent of
Monty Cliff in <i>I Confess</i>."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Was Winter Light a big referential
film, because I saw some nods to that?</b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Well if you saw some nods you
would probably be right. In fact there are quite a few nods in this
film. I should do a 3D version where the footnotes come out at you
boom, boom, boom, boom. This is from this. This is from this."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Is it difficult for you to
visualise this inner turmoil? We see a lot of different ways of doing
it in your work, in <i>Taxi Driver</i> talking to the mirror, here with the
journal. How do you work around that to be effective in making the
audience feel that turmoil?</b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I've done a number of
these films. I call them 'monocular films', because it's like looking
at life this way. You don't see any other life but your character's
life. There is no other life. And in fact if you saw another reality
other than the taxi driver's, you would break the spell. So you lock
into a kind of a person and the goal, hopefully, is to get the viewer
to start to empathise, because we do this naturally. Just like we
form constellations out of stars: the stars don't actually look like
a dog or a lion, we do that. That's how our mind works. </span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"So we form
these empathetic relationships with performers. And once you do that,
you end up identifying with someone who you realise isn't worthy of
your identification. And that's a very interesting place to put a
viewer because they're too far in to leave, and they're too invested
not to care. But they no longer believe in the rightness of the
character. So that's the kind of fascination."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>A character in the film says the
younger generation is more extreme and more polarised. Is that you
talking and why do you think this has happened? </b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Despair. I mean we now have the
first generation of people who no longer believe life will be better
than it was for their parents. It was always a premise of humanity
that things would get better. That if I work, sacrifice, I can
improve my lot. Kids today know they're not going to improve their
lot no matter how much they work. Well that's a bleak cloud to live
under and leads to all kinds of extremism, whether it be drugs, or in
behaviour, or in general apathy. I think that the opioid explosion in
the West has to be, somehow, connected to the sense of hopelessness."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Does that make you depressed?</b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Well I'm out of here. I'm in
the First Class car. I'm going to be fine. My kids are fucked."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Some of the characters in your
films have already been to where you say young people are now.
They're often in despair. They're apocalyptic, in a way. Is the
younger generation where they have been?</b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Well some of them, yeah. There's a lot
of denial going on. And denial festers. I don't know, if I were 20
years old again, 50 years ago, I'm not quite sure how I would react."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Martin Scorsese made <i>Silence</i>,
which was a film dealing with more or less the same issues. Were you
in touch with one another?</b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"No, no. I knew he was making
it. And in fact I tried to steal that script from him about 20-30
years ago. But, you know, I think he had a very big problem with that
film, because he set it in the past. Because the premise under which
that film was written, that book was written, no longer applies.
There was a premise that the missionary effort was inherently a
positive one. We used to believe that, 50 years ago. No one believes
it anymore. Now everyone thinks of missionaries as the spear-tip of
colonialism. And so the book was predicated on the premise that the
missionary effort was a positive one, and not even Marty believes
that anymore. So he ends up making a film in which <i>Kundun </i>and <i>Last
Temptation of Christ</i> have a debate, and no one wins [laughs]."</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>First Reformed opens in the UK and Ireland on July 13</i></b></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-20838900903346301852018-06-14T18:04:00.002+01:002018-06-14T18:06:51.221+01:00Interview: Ari Aster, Writer-Director Of Hereditary<span style="background-color: #4f4c4d;"></span><span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Comfort of Horror (films)</b></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LlD55st54FE/WyKfS_mDUAI/AAAAAAAAA0I/1195juL2mHs0RaRY9kGQ5GVsjxjbvvVnwCLcBGAs/s1600/AriAsterHeadshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LlD55st54FE/WyKfS_mDUAI/AAAAAAAAA0I/1195juL2mHs0RaRY9kGQ5GVsjxjbvvVnwCLcBGAs/s400/AriAsterHeadshot.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ari Aster, writer-director of Hereditary</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #005500; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><b><i><u><sub><sup><strike><br /></strike></sup></sub></u></i></b></span>
<span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: large;"><b>Ari Aster’s debut feature, Hereditary, has been hailed as a future
horror classic. Stephen Applebaum meets a self-proclaimed neurotic
hypochondriac</b></span><br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ari Aster’s film Hereditary arrives in the UK this week on a wave of critical adulation, the scale of
which few film-makers will ever experience. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What makes it so astonishing is that Aster, 31, is
just beginning his career.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When Hereditary bowed in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival in January, its
distressing mix of intense family drama and gruesome supernatural horror left critics feeling
disturbed and shaken. It was “this generation’s The Exorcist”, proclaimed one (a little
hyperbolically, to be fair), and the most frightening films in years, chimed many.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
Tellingly, the buzz hadn’t died down by June 8, the day Hereditary opened in the United States,
when it was still rated 98% fresh on film review site Rotten Tomatoes and 86% positive
(“Universal acclaim”) on Metacritic.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">Read the full interview here: <a href="https://www.thejc.com/culture/interviews/hereditary-ari-aster-sundance-film-festival-milly-shapiro-alex-wolff-toni-collette-1.465530">https://www.thejc.com/culture/interviews/hereditary-ari-aster-sundance-film-festival-milly-shapiro-alex-wolff-toni-collette-1.465530</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike><br /></strike></div>
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<u><span style="color: #000120;"></span></u><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-74500340508726543662018-06-04T11:54:00.000+01:002018-06-04T11:54:37.023+01:00Interview: John 'Derf' Backderf, Author Of My Friend Dahmer
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-style: normal;">'There
wa</span></span>s always a darkness about
him': My Friend Dahmer author John Backderf on growing up with a
serial killer</span></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2XEzFwgH7qU/WxUXWosILQI/AAAAAAAAAzg/sDmgqGWvb_IhU8Na8dtFen3_j8fQ5pGDgCLcBGAs/s1600/2016_Alain%2BSeux_DerfHeadshot1.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><br /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
<span style="color: #006000;"><br /></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2XEzFwgH7qU/WxUXWosILQI/AAAAAAAAAzk/Lo3Fbm8QbkcqbGy4wit7n75M_Es-JMknACEwYBhgL/s1600/2016_Alain%2BSeux_DerfHeadshot1.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1045" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2XEzFwgH7qU/WxUXWosILQI/AAAAAAAAAzk/Lo3Fbm8QbkcqbGy4wit7n75M_Es-JMknACEwYBhgL/s320/2016_Alain%2BSeux_DerfHeadshot1.tiff" width="209" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John 'Derf' Backderf (Alain Seux)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: georgia;">Most of us have
wondered what happened to certain kids from our school days, but few
can have had their worlds rocked quite like the comic book artist
John Backderf, when he found out what his erstwhile friend Jeffrey
Dahmer had been up to. </span></div>
<div dir="LTR" style="background: transparent;">
</div>
<div class="western" dir="LTR" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" dir="LTR" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">After they’d
graduated from high school, Dahmer vanished. “I can’t say my
friends and I were terribly concerned about it, but we did comment
on it, from time to time,” says Backderf, aka Derf, on the phone
from New York. “We knew his parents lived in town and yet we never
saw him anywhere.” </span></div>
<div dir="LTR" style="background: transparent;">
</div>
<div class="western" dir="LTR" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" dir="LTR" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">When Dahmer was
arrested in 1991, he discovered why: Dahmer had already embarked on
a murderous journey that would brutally extinguish 17 lives and make
him one of America’s most notorious and depraved serial killers.</span></div>
<div dir="LTR" style="background: transparent;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
Click here for the full story <span style="color: #006000;"><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/my-friend-dahmer-john-backderf-film-jeffrey-comic-book-interview-serial-killer-a8375866.html">https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/my-friend-dahmer-john-backderf-film-jeffrey-comic-book-interview-serial-killer-a8375866.html</a></span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-2185493506765079162018-03-02T12:10:00.000+00:002018-03-02T12:10:17.076+00:00Review: Monster Family, City AM (02/03/18)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rhA5Aj7oQqU/Wpk9sw-L2mI/AAAAAAAAAyY/i1mWH8JRD3QPY81ZnhxghuE8wIieiWFwQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Screenshot_20180302-020039%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="698" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rhA5Aj7oQqU/Wpk9sw-L2mI/AAAAAAAAAyY/i1mWH8JRD3QPY81ZnhxghuE8wIieiWFwQCEwYBhgL/s400/Screenshot_20180302-020039%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="389" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My review of Monster Family in City Am, 02/03/18</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-78116717337893940732018-02-02T14:25:00.000+00:002018-02-02T14:25:06.335+00:00Guillermo del Toro on the deeper meaning in ‘The Shape of Water’ <div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OLOh181xh8A/WnRzW8COmCI/AAAAAAAAAyA/pMRjfxM480MTdpOfIrwbxks7XI5YV3uUQCLcBGAs/s1600/57-image-for-the-shape-of-water_yvwKGch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1545" data-original-width="1600" height="309" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OLOh181xh8A/WnRzW8COmCI/AAAAAAAAAyA/pMRjfxM480MTdpOfIrwbxks7XI5YV3uUQCLcBGAs/s320/57-image-for-the-shape-of-water_yvwKGch.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<img alt="Stephen Applebaum" src="https://www.thenational.ae/image/policy:1.371:1498900114/Square%20byline%20logo.png?f=1x1&w=50&$p$f$w=7a5ec02" /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
<b></b><br />
<b></b><br />
<b></b><br />
<b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: AcuminPro-Regular, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span></b>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><b>The film tells of a
unique love story between a mute cleaning lady played by Sally
Hawkins and an Amazonian-fish man played by Doug Jones </b></span></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Guillermo del Toro is
making the biggest splash of his life with The Shape of Water. A
spin on Beauty and the Beast that could only have sprung
from the imagination of the man who made Spanish Civil War
fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth, the film has been winning
awards since taking the top prize at the Venice Film Festival
last year.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now it is the movie to
beat at the Oscars in March, with 13 nominations. The bizarre
love story between a mute cleaning lady (Sally Hawkins) and an
Amazonian fish-man (Doug Jones) is one of Del Toro’s proudest
achievements to date. He has put his next project on hold, to
bang the drum for the film around the world.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“I made the big
mistake of finishing Devil’s Backbone [a moving ghost
story set in a Spanish orphanage] and going immediately into [vampire
action-horror movie] Blade II,” he explains.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“I have the nagging
notion that I should have promoted The Devil’s Backbone more,
because it’s still one of my favourite movies and it’s still a
movie that not many people know. And I don’t want it to happen
again.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Read the full feature here: <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/film/guillermo-del-toro-on-the-deeper-meaning-in-the-shape-of-water-1.699621">https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/film/guillermo-del-toro-on-the-deeper-meaning-in-the-shape-of-water-1.699621</a></span> </div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-17369983329443884532018-01-19T14:59:00.002+00:002018-01-19T14:59:45.796+00:00Interview: Steven Spielberg: The Post<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I interviewed Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg about his new film, The Post. Read the interview here:</span></span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
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<a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjQyMjEwOTIwNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTkzNTMxNDM@._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="182" height="400" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjQyMjEwOTIwNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTkzNTMxNDM@._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_.jpg" width="271" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Steven Spielberg: the isolated Jewish boy who just wanted to be liked</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Jewish Chronicle-18 Jan
2018</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Next year he'll
celebrate 50 years as a Hollywood hotshot, this year he has two films
out. Steven Spielberg tells Stephen Applebaum how it all
started as a way of defusing antisemitism.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="https://www.thejc.com/culture/film/steven-spielberg-interview-1.456855"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> https://www.thejc.com/culture/film/steven-spielberg-interview-1.456855</span></a></div>
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</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-19432337258388509712017-11-06T13:45:00.000+00:002017-11-08T09:25:33.416+00:00Amos Gitai: West Of The Jordan River<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E7iverP8bio/WgBlFidTruI/AAAAAAAAAxo/ihF_bhy0DTYssZKf-Js2deyJnfHQA0J2wCLcBGAs/s1600/WestOfTheJordanRiver-Photo1-AmosGitai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E7iverP8bio/WgBlFidTruI/AAAAAAAAAxo/ihF_bhy0DTYssZKf-Js2deyJnfHQA0J2wCLcBGAs/s400/WestOfTheJordanRiver-Photo1-AmosGitai.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;"><b> <span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;">Amos Gitai's new documentary <i>West of the Jordan River </i></span></span></b></span></span></span><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>takes the Israeli filmmaker back to the occupied territories for the first time since his 1982 documentary,<i> Field Diary</i>. In it he talks to journalists, human rights activists, politicians, Jewish settlers and others about life today. I met Amos Gitai following the film's world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May.</b></span></span></span><br />
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>You use the same music
in this as you used in <i>Rabin, The Last Day</i>. Were the projects conceived
at the same time? Did they come from the same impulse? Are they
companion pieces?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"In some way,
yes."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Why now?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Because the
situation is very bad. We have the most right wing government ever in
Israel. I think it is doing a lot of harm to the country, but I also
feel for it [Israel] a lot. There's a very narrow-minded and cynical
point of view of what it should be, and so I think to myself, 'What
can I do, I'm just a filmmaker?' So I'm doing a film."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>You include a clip from
an interview you did with Rabin in which he says he won't let the
extremists derail the peace process.</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Finally they
succeeded."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>So the extremists are
in power now?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Yeah. Yeah."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>There is talk of
"neo-Rabinism" in the film as something that is required.
Do you see anywhere in Israel right now where that could come from?
Are there any signs of this anywhere within Israeli society?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“Netanyahu is quite a
talented guy. He managed to mash all opposition forces. So at this
point, unfortunately, the only opposition to the current power are
these dead men. And, you know, I don't think we only have to
believe in money. Or some people believe in machine guns. I think we
also have to speak about memory, about ideas, and also memory and
ideas that move the planet, especially being a Jew. If the Jews did
not believe in ideas, they wouldn't have existed, because they were
facing much more powerful empires [in the past]. So now we seem to be
thinking that only the big jets and high-tech will protect them. But
this is a mistake. We have to speak about ideas."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>I saw a documentary
about the Mossad agent Sylvia Raphael and in that a former general
said Israel needed to always be preparing for the next war because if
she loses one, that will be the end of her. Is that something that
you recognise?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"It may be true
but what does it mean to be ready? Obviously you need military power
but also if you have the wrong policy, which brought the war that I
was involved in, the Yom Kippur War, of complete hermetic,
non-negotiable positions, it's not just the jets that will help. So
with all respect to who said this, I think that it is also the lack
of the political vision, the political courage to move forward, which
I think is a necessity, that is the problem. I think what Rabin
understood is that in order to stabilise the existence of Israel in
the region, it has to find an in-road into the Arab world."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Do you think there is
some lack of understanding of the Arab mentality? An Israeli woman in
the group that brings together women who have lost people on both
sides of the conflict - Israelis and Palestinians - talks about
this. </b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I don't like the
word mentality. I think that Rabin was different because he was not a
racist. He was a soldier, so when there was a war he knew how to
fight. But he didn't have a racist attitude to the other side, and
this is necessary. If you have the complex of supremacy or a racist,
or you think we are so smart and the other one not, you will never
make peace. It's not only a question of concessions or territory.
It's a question of attitude and what kind of Middle East you want."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>
</b></span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Do you regard policies
adopted by the present Israeli government as racist?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I think there are
a lot of racist policies, racist laws, and I think that they will
weaken Israel. They will make it more hermetic. They don't want to
teach Mahmoud Darwish [a Palestinian poet/author regarded as the
Palestinian national poet] poetry in school, and I think that is a
mistake because you're not obliged to adhere to everything he says,
but you have to know what the other side thinks. This kind of
Sovietic [sic] way of thinking about culture, about education,
intervening in the nomination of the Supreme Court by politicians,
will only weaken the institutions that Israel will need to survive in
this region. It's not such a friendly region, so you need to have
openness. You need to present a different model and not try to
integrate negative aspects of other countries of this region."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Is the way that the
Israel-Palestine conflict viewed too manichean?
</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"The narratives
are all wrong because I think that the conflict is not between a
group of angels and a group of bastards. I think both groups are
angels and bastards at the same time. And I think the portrayal of
some group as angelic will only prolong the conflict. I mean neither
is angelic, so let's not kid ourselves. Like I say in the film, when
Rabin gave the order to withdraw from the Palestinian cities was the
worst [period of] Palestinian suicide attacks in Tel Aviv, and
obviously that allowed the ultra right to delegitimise Rabin and
eventually to kill him. So there are no angels. Let's leave this
vision. Let's work for reconciliation and peace in a serious way, and
not like the current government is doing - just spinning some media
provocations. I think that this will create a lot of harm to Israel."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>You've said young
film-makers are having to sign something for the Minister of Culture.
You seem to be an independent voice who no one's managed to tame.
Have there been any attempts to put pressure on you?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Well the Minister
of Culture doesn't like everything that I am doing, which is her
right. But I don't ask everybody to agree with me. I also don't agree
with them, so it's fair enough. And I don't have the malady of some
of the showbiz colleagues that want to be loved by everybody. And
anyway, I don't love everybody myself. So I also think it's fair
enough. No, you know, I am just an architect to start with, and I am
into building bridges and against people who want to burn bridges all
the time. I think it's a complicated area, in a very bad historical
phase, and we have to keep trying to do it. And I think these very
courageous groups of human rights organisations, Israelis and
Palestinians, deserve all the homage and not all the curses that they
get from the Israel right wing. I think they're great."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>These groups are
liberal in their thinking. What do you think of BDS?</b> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I'm not for
boycotts because I think we need a dialogue. And I think the
government is applying its own boycott on all these human rights
organisations, so they're not in the perfect position to speak about
boycotts. They ask that groups like Breaking the Silence are not to
speak in schools. They instructed all the schools to never allow them
to speak to young people and for a Minister of Education never to
accept it, and for a Minister of Culture to close two galleries,
private galleries, which invited them to speak out. They restrict
financing to all these groups and closed the capacity of this group
called Rabbis for Human Rights to help the Bedouins. These are pure
acts of boycott by the government. So they're not in a good position
to speak about boycotts."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>
</b></span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>With regards to the
Bedouins, is what we see in the film, with the school, a consequence
of the Land Regulation Act?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Yes. The Land
Regulation Act is basically about trying to annex, in one way or
another, more chunks of the West Bank."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>There is a lot of
mirroring that goes on throughout the film, which reflects your
earlier contention that both sides are made up of angels and
bastards. </b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"That's why I'm
not for boycotts because we have to keep the flow of ideas and
dialogues against the ..."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>You have I think it is
three Haaretz journalists in the film.</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I think they are
great. They're, in a sense, the only independent opposition now. In a
way they are much more effective than all the parliamentary
opposition."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>I think what I liked is
that you have a spectrum of views from them in the film which isn't
reflected, quite often, in the way that people sometimes talk about
the paper. Some people even say it is an enemy of Israel.</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Yeah. Yeah."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Was it intentional to
show that there is a spectrum of opinion within the paper rather than
being just a bloc?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Sure. I think
it's very impressive that they exist."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>One of them suggests
that Israel can either be a Jewish State or a democracy. Do you think
these things are mutually exclusive, that Israel can be one but not
the other?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"You know, I'm not
making direct comments on the film because I'm not for the Michael
Moore type of cinema. Even if I may agree with him politically, I
don't like this kind of documentary which is too manipulative, even
for the 'good causes'. For me it's a kind of mistrust of your
viewers. So for me, when I see these kinds of documentaries, I start
to mistrust their argument and for me it has the opposite effect. I
don't like propaganda, even from the people I agree with. I like
freethinkers. So my films are, in a way, calling for interpretation,
not consumption."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>One of the interesting
things about the film, and one of its ironies, is that the way people
in it talk about the settlers we're expecting them to be foaming
extremists when we meet them at the end. But the two young women you
speak to effectively embody the spirit of Rabin. One was stabbed
and still wants to be able to live with Palestinians. Rabin talks
about reaching out to the enemy and that is exactly what she wants to
do.</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Exactly
[agreeing that they embody the spirit of Rabin]. So that's why I
think we have to collect contradictions. If we want, really, to bring
change, we have to speak to everybody. And we have to solicit forces
wherever we find them if we want to create this change and not pre
judge, and speak openly and refuse racist tendencies which are in
this current government. But also do the same judgement on
ourselves."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The settlers are often
regarded as a barrier to peace. Do you see them that way?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Again, I'm not
going to give you my political solution unless I'm elected with a
vast majority of the Israeli people. Then I have a very clear
programme."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Would you ever run for
office?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"No."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>You prefer the
independence of being a filmmaker?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Absolutely." </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>West of the Jordan
River will screen at the ICA on November 23rd, followed by a Q
& A with Amos Gitai</b></i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>
</b></i></span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>
</b></i></span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>For tickets go to
https://www.ica.art/whats-on/west-jordan-river-qa</b></i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-4439843052907672932017-10-19T01:58:00.000+01:002017-10-19T02:04:39.016+01:00"I really love James Bond" - John Woo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/media2.slashfilm.com/slashfilm/wp/wp-content/images/manhunt-trailer-700x350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://i0.wp.com/media2.slashfilm.com/slashfilm/wp/wp-content/images/manhunt-trailer-700x350.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;">John Woo got tired of making big budget movies and went back to his roots with the action thriller <i>Manhunt</i>. Expect doves, motorbikes, balletic gunplay and corny dialogue. I caught up with him at the Venice Film Festival following the film's premiere. </span></span></b></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>How
do you feel about being referred to as legendary by your fans?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I'm
not a legend, I'm just a filmmaker. Thank you, anyway. I like film
and I'm not trying to be humble when I say I'm still a student. I
like to learn from world cinema. I can learn so many things by
watching all kinds of movies."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>The
beginning and end of </b></span><i><b>Manhunt</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>
are steeped in nostalgia for classic cinema. Does this reflect how
you feel today?</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Yeah,
I like the old-time movies. 1960s and 1970s were the best years for
cinema. There were so many great masters and so many great movies,
and so many great creations - they give us so much inspiration. Now
movies seem a bit empty. I love European films, though. I think
they're much better than Hollywood."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>The
original </b></span><i><b>Manhunt</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>
movie from 1976 was very serious, very masculine, and you have added
a lot of humour and two female assassins.</b></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>What
was the thinking behind your version?</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Since
we couldn't get the rights to the old movie we made it from the
original novel [Hot Pursuit by Juko Nishimura]. It's got the same
storyline, but because we couldn't do anything from the old movie it
allowed us to make up some new scenes and gave us so much freedom. We
could do whatever we liked and I used it to go back to my old style.
The original movie was a little too serious; I like to make action
with more comedy."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>You
do seem to be consciously looking back to your early films here,
perhaps referencing </b></span><i><b>The
Killer</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>
and </b></span><i><b>Hard
Boiled</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>.
Did you make </b></span><i><b>Manhunt
</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>for
your fans?</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"For
the fans, and also for myself. I had made too many big-budget movies
and I got fed up. When a few of my big-budget movies became hits, I
became established as a big-budget film director, and I never liked
it. The more money you get the more pressure you have, and it takes
away the joy of making films. All you do is deal with the numbers,
with the budget, and it's no fun. Everybody kept saying about 'the
numbers, the numbers', and it wasn't about the shot any more. I hated
it. I wanted to go back to a much smaller kind of film and do
something like </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Killer</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">:
a thriller. With </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Manhunt</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
I had more creative freedom to do that."</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>So
did you fall out of love with filmmaking for a while and need to find
a way to fall back in love with it?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"Yes,
and I did it with this film. And future projects will do the same
thing. So my next project is an American production and kind of like
a </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Killer</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">-type
story. We're going to be shooting in European countries." </span></span></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>You
made </b></span><i><b>Manhunt
</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>in
Japan. Was it a good place to work?</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I
love the Japanese crews. We used 90 per cent Japanese on the film.
They are very professional. They can work 12-16 hours a day without
any complaint. They enjoy the filmmaking and also are very warm, but
sometimes it is very hard to tell what they are thinking, because
their expression doesn't change. I was so amazed about the people
there, though. When we needed a lot of extras for big scenes, people
volunteered. And they brought in their own costumes, no matter what
kind of scene. I was so moved. But I would say it's not easy to shoot
a movie in Japan because there's so many rules. It's hard to shoot
any scene on a busy street. Even a little busy street, we had to
shoot a scene in different places." </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>Manhunt</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>
feels like a John Woo greatest hits movie. There's car chases, knife
fights, fist fights, people on motorcycles, doves. Is there any
particular action scene that you especially liked doing?</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I
like the jet ski chase on the river and the two men with two guns.
When they are handcuffed together and have only got one hand left and
they're each holding a gun and shooting at the same time, it looks
pretty much like one man with two guns."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>How
do you work with your action choreographer? Were the scenes you
mentioned your idea?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Mostly
they're my idea. When I was younger I choreographed all the action by
myself. I could jump up on the table and dive on the ground. In the
old time, for some of the Hong Kong movies, some directors, when they
didn't know how to shoot the action, they gave the scene to the
action director to do it, and it became two different styles. I
didn't want to see that happen in my films so I controlled everything
and designed everything. Even the camera work and editing, I did it
all myself. In the meantime I still cared about my actors. The
actors I've worked with, like Chow Yun Fat and John Travolta, none of
them was a real fighter. Tom Cruise was a little better. And Nicolas
Cage. But I still care about the image, how they hold a gun, how they
fight, what they wear, and I did it all by myself because I know how
to make actors look good. I know how to create a hero. So that's why
I needed to care about everything. I even designed the action for the
female heroes."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>After
</b></span><i><b>Manhunt</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>
I would love to see a James Bond movie directed by you.</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"You
know, I really have been thinking about making one, if I have a
chance. I met the producer many, many years ago. They were interested
in me making one, but somehow I didn't. But I am still looking
for it. I really love James Bond."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>You
have a scene with doves in</b></span><i><b>
Manhunt, </b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>which</b></span><i><b>
</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>I
first saw years ago in your film </b></span><i><b>The
Killer</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>.
What first inspired you to use doves, and do they mean anything?</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"It
was by coincidence. When we were shooting the ending scene [for </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Killer</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">]
on a church set, the movie was so heroic and so romantic that I just
tried to find a way to show the true spirit of the two guys - the cop
and the killer. They both had been misunderstood by the world, so I
thought about what kind of montage shot I could use to show their
real heart. All of a sudden I said, 'Oh, let's get some white doves.
When our hero is being shot, or dying or something, I will cut in to
the white dove flying over a candle, and when the two shots are
linked together, it will let the audience feel their real hearts. It
will be beautiful.' It worked pretty well, but it wasn't easy to
shoot. We did one shot and the doves flew away. So we had to buy new
ones every day. Anyway the shot was so good, it became one of my
trademarks."</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Before
you made films, you actually wanted to become a Christian minister.
Is there a connection with the doves there, too?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Yes.
In the old time, when I was younger, I worked with a church. Every
week there was a new theme and I used to draw the poster for them,
and I usually used a white dove as a main theme."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>In
</b></span><i><b>Manhunt</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>
the hero is a lawyer. What do you know about these people?</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I
have a good lawyer friend, and of course I know the business. But for
our new story, using a lawyer meant we wouldn't get into trouble with
the politics, like if we made him a military guy. The main thing for
me in the film is the friendship. I tried to send a message that even
though we come from different cultures, and there's something unhappy
between the Japanese and Chinese, we can work together. That's why I
shot it in a humorous and fun way. I tried not to take things too
seriously. Life is too short. We should find a way to appreciate each
other, not hate each other."</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-33203821971438324182017-09-07T22:22:00.000+01:002017-09-07T22:34:43.415+01:00Mother! - The 74th Venice International Film Festival<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1lGYvioGiiM/WbGuyRGNsRI/AAAAAAAAAxQ/P54QDB5ni5szv_WTsbaOmGGG_vjErjVlgCLcBGAs/s1600/37466-Mother__-_Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1069" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1lGYvioGiiM/WbGuyRGNsRI/AAAAAAAAAxQ/P54QDB5ni5szv_WTsbaOmGGG_vjErjVlgCLcBGAs/s400/37466-Mother__-_Poster.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Mother! Press Conference</b></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Venice Film Festival</b></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>"This is my howl to the moon" - Darren Aronofsky </b></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Darren Aronofsky - DA</b></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Jennifer Lawrence - JL</b></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Javier Bardem - JB</b></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Michelle Pfeiffer - MP</span> </b></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Darren, you
have said the film poured out of you. There is an urgency to it, and a stream of consciousness quality, as we experience it through
Jennifer's character. Can you describe this urgency?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">DA:
“It was a strange experience. Most of my films take many, many years to come to life. <i>Black Swan</i> was 10 years, <i>Noah</i> was
20 years, and this film was five days. It was a strange thing, and I
think it came out of living on this planet and seeing what's
happening around us, and not being able to do anything. I just have a
lot of rage and anger and I wanted to channel it into one
emotion, into one feeling, and in five days I wrote the first version
of the script. It just sort of poured out of me. And after that I
showed it to Jennifer, and Jennifer was really excited by that idea,
and suddenly we were making a movie.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The soundscape in the film is very powerful. How did
you work with your sound designer? And how did you work on the
colours?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">DA:
“It was interesting because we started the process working with
Johann Johannsson, one of the greatest composers working today, and
both of us, as we experimented for months with music, realised that
whenever you put music into a scene, it immediately told the audience how
to feel. And the entire purpose of <i>Mother! </i>is it's a mystery where
you're surprising the audience, you don't know where it's going to
go, and we didn't want the audience to ever feel safe because
Jennifer's character is constantly trying to find out what is
happening to her. Any time you put music in the movie, it leaned
into a certain emotion. </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I've always been interested in sound design
and I worked with Craig Henighan, my sound designer on this one like I
have the last six ones or so, and it was all about bringing the
audience into Mother's point of view. Because I wanted the audience
to experience Mother and her take on this invasion that was happening
to her, because that was the point of the movie. </span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“<span style="font-weight: normal;">And
the design of the film was all about starting in a place and making
it very natural and of the Earth, because we were making this big
allegory, and then slowly as humanity invade they start to bring in
all the different types of colour and materials that are not natural
to the planet.”</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Jennifer,
you're used to playing strong women. Why did you sign up to play a
woman playing second fiddle to a man and his needs, and what was it
for you to play that?</b></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">JL:
“It was a completely different character from anything I have done
before, but it was also a completely different side of myself that I
wasn't in touch with and didn't really know yet. We did a
really rigorous rehearsal process for three months, and there was a
part of me that Darren really helped me get in touch with. It was
difficult. It was the most I've ever had to pull out of myself.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Darren,
about the house. Was it Paradise? </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">DA:
“Look, we all know it, it's an old idea, that something that
happens in Beijing affects us in New York City and it affects us in
Italy, and you can have a beautiful place like Central Park, in New
York, and then you can have Aleppo in Syria, all done by human hand,
and yet most of our immediate fights are with our neighbour over
where the fence is going to go. So I kind of wanted to take the idea
of here we are, on this one home, and to actually reduce it to a
home, and say, 'Here is our home.' Because something everyone can identify with is
somebody comes over to your home and throws a piece of garbage on
your floor, or burns a hole in your carpet with their cigarette, but
they don't understand when they throw a piece of paper out on the
street. It was very inspired by Luis Bunuel's <i>Exterminating Angel</i>; it
took the social structure and stuck them all in one room, and watched
it as it sort of unwinded (sic). So the idea was to take and sort of unfold
human history. I don't want to give you all the metaphors, but you're
well down the path. But the working title we used as a codename,
because we didn't want the name to get out, we wanted to be
secretive, was <i>Day Six</i>. So if you think about Day Six in your bibles,
then you'll kind of figure where the film starts.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Michelle,
can you talk about your character's relationship with Mother?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">MP:
“I think in a review I read today they described my character as a
“gargoyle”, which I rather liked. At first I thought, 'Ooh that's
rather insulting', and actually it's kind of good. I guess she is
somewhat of an invader but I look at it as if she's Jennifer's
guardian angel, and she shows up and awakens her in a way, and
becomes a mirror. She immediately sees that there's trouble in
Paradise. She's a little older and a little wiser. I think she's trying to
help her, in my point of view.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">JL:
“I thought it was interesting because during the entire process I
kept saying, 'I, Jennifer, would love this character. Somebody who
blows into my house.' That's the kind of the personality that I would get
along with. But as my character it was so assaulting. My character is
so private and so kind of meek that it was very assaulting.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span><br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Darren,
when you take on a new project, what do you look for to push yourself
as a filmmaker, and what advice would you give to a 20 year old
aspiring filmmaker?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">DA:
“When I was 20, I didn't know what filmmaking was. But the most
important thing for filmmaking is persistence and it's also you
offering a story that you think is important and original, because
that's all you have to offer. If you're trying to create something
for a mass audience you'll never do it. You just create the story
that you want to tell. That only you can tell.</span><b>
</b></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“<span style="font-weight: normal;">With
this project, there's never a preconcept of being controversial or
being different, or something like that. It's always about something
I feel, that comes from inside. That I go, 'Oh that's a really
exciting idea.'And I can start to visualise it and I can start to
hear it, and I can start to see the actors that can be in it, and it
sort of all starts to come to life. And it's usually that passion,
that you can't stop thinking about it, that keeps you going. And the
result ends up being something the audiences receive, but that is not
fully conceived when it all starts.”</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>One
of the metaphors in the film is the vampiric quality of the artist.
Javier, do you share that interpretation?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">JB:
“Yes. I think it's extreme, where the story goes, for us to make a
reading out of it. But, as Darren said, there are many readings and
it is up to you to choose the one that has the most meaning for you.
At the same time it is a relationship between a creator and his
creation. Call it a writing piece or a house or the Earth itself. I
think it's multilayed and that's the richness of this story.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Darren, can you talk about women coming undone by the patriarchy in <i>Mother!</i>?</span></span></b></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">DA:
“I don't know if it's the patriarchy; I think it's becoming undone by
humanity. I don't blame one gender over the other gender. I think it
is about how people are insatiable. There's this endless consumption.
As far as influences, I talked about <i>Exterminating Ange</i>l. There's
also a great children's book called <i>The Giving Tree</i>, which is a huge
influence. <i>Bluebeard</i>, the folk tale, was an influence. </span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"So
there were a lot of influences. But none of them really influenced it
– it just came out in those five days of fever dream. And then as
we tried to understand it, we ran into other influences. Like Edgar
Allen Poe, of course. But it all happened in a very unconscious,
fever dream type of way. And that, I think, as a result, is why the
film feels like a fever. Another major influence was a book called
<i>Woman and Nature</i>, it was a book of poetry in the 1970s by this
feminist writer named Susan Griffin, who basically, back in the 70s,
was making incredible connections about the environment and about
feminism, which I didn't know there are actually people out there
studying it, thinking about that. ”</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>What are your interests outside filmmaking and they have any influence on this? </b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">DA:
“I'm a pretty avid environmentalist and
I'm on the board of directors of the Sierra Club, which is the oldest
environmental group in the United States. We went to the Arctic,
which is the last piece of wilderness of the United States, to do an
expedition, and the day before we were going out we met with the
nation whose land it was, the native nation, and it turned out that
the chief's sister was this woman named Princess, who was a friend
that I met through Sundance 20 years earlier, just randomly I bumped
into her, and she told me she was working on a doctorate connecting
how aboriginal women are treated and how that's directly connected to
how the environment's treated. So that was intriguing and she sort of
led me down this path of all these different books about it. So I
think there's absolutely a connection between that and stuff I read."</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Are you also talking about life after death in the film and are you an optimist about the future of the planet? </b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">DA: “I<span style="font-weight: normal;">f you want to know my understanding of life and death, my big Venice
hit <i>The Fountain</i> [said ironically], that's all about life after
death. But am I an optimist? I'm completely an optimist about it and
that's why I work undyingly to hopefully change things. America is
schizophrenic. We go from backing the Paris climate agreement to eight months
later pulling out of the Paris climate agreement. It's tragic but in many ways
we've revealed who the enemy is. And now we can attack it.”</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Where did the stuff, the nightmares, in the film come from, and is this entertainment? </b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">DA:”Just
read the newspaper, you know? Really read the newspaper and try to
feel what's going on in the newspaper. Look, there's a lot of ways
to entertain people. I guarantee that if you ask all those people
that were engaged with the film, were they ever bored by the film?
I'm pretty sure what the answer would be. There's always going to be
a level of taste about how far you can go with it. But it's funny
because tonight, at 3am, it's the full moon, which is perfect because
I've been saying this is my howl to the moon. So, you know, I think it's
a very strong cocktail, and of course there are going to be people
that are not going to want that type of an experience, and that's
fine. I've been making it clear that this is a rollercoaster ride and
only come on it if you're prepared to do the loop-the-loop a few
times.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></b></i>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span>Mother! is released in the UK on September 15th</b></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span><br />
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-1147319489471195682017-08-19T20:52:00.002+01:002017-08-19T21:23:29.403+01:00Dennis Gansel - The Wave: Who Would Be a Nazi?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/6c/24/9d/6c249d0206d875d6ce4483142fe19d1f--the-wave-movies-to-watch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="567" height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/6c/24/9d/6c249d0206d875d6ce4483142fe19d1f--the-wave-movies-to-watch.jpg" width="282" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Why do people become Nazis? This was the question at the heart of German filmmaker Dennis Gansel's movie adaptation of <i>The Wave</i>. Released in the UK in 2008, it now seems more relevant than ever. The following is a feature I wrote based on my interview with Gansel. </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ron Jones made a
disturbing discovery about human nature in 1967. A popular teacher at
Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California, Jones was lecturing
students about Nazi Germany when he was asked how it was possible
for ordinary Germans, including doctors, academics, and railway
workers, to claim that they knew nothing about the the concentration
camps and the mass slaughter of Jews. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Jones, the son of a
Jewish mother and Catholic father, and the first generation of his
family not to be either a rabbi or a priest, was stumped. It was a
good question; he just didn't know the answer. So, Jones created a
classroom experiment to explore the fascist mind. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Over a number of days,
he introduced his pupils to the concepts of “Strength through
Discipline”, “Strength through Community”, “Strength through
Action” and “Strength through Pride”. To his surprise, they
readily gave up their freedom and individuality, forming themselves
into a movement called The Third Wave. Very quickly, according Jones,
what began as a simulation became all too real. Students spied on one
another, bullied dissenters, and reported people they felt were not
taking the experiment seriously enough. Meanwhile, Jones was getting
carried away with his role as leader, and losing his perspective. He
had to bring the experiment to an end. So, on day five, he organised
a “rally”, and added a final concept: “Strength through
Understanding”. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Jones informed his
students that they had been used and manipulated; that they had
“bargained their freedom for the comfort of discipline and
superiority”, and had chosen the “big lie” over their own
conviction. To show them where they were heading, he screened footage
of the Nuremberg Rally, of marching Nazis, of the death camps, of the
Nuremberg trials, of the claims of innocence and ignorance. At the
end, words appeared: "Everyone must accept the blame. No one can
claim that they didn't in some way take part."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Jones wrote about the
events at Cubberley a few years later, inspiring an award-winning
American TV movie, plays, and a best-selling youth novel, <i>The Wave</i>,
by Morton Rhue, which quickly became required reading in German
schools. This has now been adapted into a controversial thriller
by the young German film-maker, Dennis Gansel, who has been unable to
get the book out of his head since first reading it outside school,
aged 12. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“With our history
it's a perfect cautionary tale,” he says. It made him think: Could
Germany's past repeat itself, despite the ongoing education of
post-war generations about their history? And would he be a follower
or a dissenter in such an experiment?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Wave</i> (<i>Die Welle</i>)
updates the novel to the present day and relocates the action to a
modern German High School in an ordinary, unnamed town. Jones's
German counterpart (subtly played by Jurgen Vogel) now lectures on
Autocracy, not Nazism, because “a teacher who starts right out
saying, 'Today we'll be discussing fascism' is already giving away a
lot away,” says Gansel. “Calling it Autocracy sounds much more
harmless to begin with, even if the social mechanisms are basically
the same.” Unlike in the novel, however, the Holocaust is never
discussed. No one asks why people stood by as Jews were murdered. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“In Germany the
question is naïve,” explains Gansel. “I talked to Ron Jones and
he told me, 'Listen, Dennis, I was showing a film about Auschwitz to
my students and this was the first time in their life they had been
confronted with these kinds of pictures.'” Gansel, on the other
hand, saw his first film about Auschwitz when he was a seven-year-old
first grader, and it continued until he was 19 years old and did his
High School exam about the speeches of Joseph Goebbels. “So the
question is not, 'Oh my gosh, so what happened?' The question is more
or less, 'We saw so much, so are we immune?'”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Some of the pupils in
the film are blasé about the Nazis. They have heard about them so
often, they're bored. “When you go to school in Germany you hear it
over and over and over again, all the time, and suddenly you say, 'My
God, I heard so much about it, it's absolutely not possible. Not in
Germany.'” But such complacency is potentially dangerous, Gansel
suggests, because the root of the problem lies in human psychology;
the politics come in later. “That's what Ron Jones, told us,” he
says. “The mechanics of the group works so well, in a creepy kind
of a way, that it can happen anywhere.” Jones told him that during
the original experiment they came up with the name of the movement
and their salute before it had anything to do with politics. By the
second day, however, says Gansel, “they could have filled it with
any topic at all, and that's the thing about it”.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Children are especially
susceptible to group pressure. The Nazis knew this and got their
claws into them early through organisations such as the Hitler Youth.
Gansel's acclaimed 2004 film, <i>Before the Fall</i>, revealed how some
kids were groomed at elite schools called Napolas, and explored the
seductive face of Nazism. The film was a personal journey for the
film-maker: he wanted to understand his grandfather, who had taught
at an elite school for young Nazi officers. Gansel dedicated the
film to him, much to the chagrin of his own left-wing father. “He
was shocked that I would do that, because for him [his father] was
still this old right-wing guy. But I said, 'Look, Daddy, it was about
understanding his way.' So I still feel there's a lot of tension. But
for me it felt OK.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Wave</i> is essentially
a companion piece. Again, Gansel performs the risky feat of seducing
the audience along with his characters, only to then pull the rug out
from under them and us. To this end, the climax to his version of <i>The
Wave</i> is more brutal than the novel. This partly reflects the violence
he encountered at schools during his research, which had risen
radically since his youth. Also, "as a German citizen", he
felt a responsibility to say, “if you play around with fascism,
this is the way it will end. And I strongly believe it,” he says.
“I strongly believe if you start something like this, it will end
in violence. And I thought it was very important to show that to the
audience.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Wave</i> has been a
popular and critical hit in Germany, although reviewers and the
public were divided about whether history could in fact repeat
itself. Gansel is happy that people are debating the film and talking
about the processes that can pave the way for fascism. “If someone
strongly believes this wouldn't be possible, that this was just a
one-time incident, that it will never happen again, it's fine,” he
says. “I hope that's true.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Gansel himself is not
so sure. Even now, having made <i>Before the Fall </i>and <i>The Wave</i>, he still
does not know what he would have done in either his grandfather's day
or as one of Jones's students.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“When you talk about
the World War 2 era, everybody says, 'Oh, I would have been in the
resistance. I would have been Sophie Scholl.' But there was only one
Sophie Scholl and, like, 5000 people that were really against the
system. But what about the other 80 million? Honestly, after making
those two movies, it's really hard to say if I would have been in the
resistance.”</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><b>©Stephen Applebaum, 2017</b></i></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-56041636429378883402017-08-12T14:25:00.000+01:002017-08-12T14:46:27.217+01:00From The Archive: Arielle Holmes, The Star Of The Safdie Brothers' Heaven Knows What, Talks About Her Troubled Youth<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTg2ODQzNzgzN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMzkxOTY2NTE@._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="182" height="400" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTg2ODQzNzgzN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMzkxOTY2NTE@._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_.jpg" width="271" /></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 2014 I met Arielle Holmes, the then-unknown star of the Safdie brothers' uncompromising drugs drama, <i>Heaven Knows What</i>, at the Venice Film Festival. Below is a record of our candid encounter.</span></span></b></span></span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Arielle
Holmes is sitting on the terrace of a posh Venetian hotel, trying to understand how she got here.
Not long ago she was a homeless junkie, panhandling in New York's
Upper West Side. Today, she is receiving plaudits for her vivid
performance in an independent feature based on her life, </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Heaven
Knows What</span></span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
</span></span></span></span>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">I
can't wrap my head around it,” she says, her big, expressive eyes hidden behind
even bigger shades. “I was definitely in the right place at the
right time. Met the right person.</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">”</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Holmes is talking about
Josh Safdie, one half of the Safdie brothers film-making team. He
spotted her entering a subway in Manhattan's Diamond District while
researching another film and asked if she wanted to be in the movie.
It was strange, Holmes admits, but her life wasn't really going
anywhere. By day she was learning to use software for designing
jewellery. At night, she worked as a dominatrix named Siouxsie at a
club called Pandora's Box. Parks and doorways were her home. </span></span>
</div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">I
figured, what do I have to lose by giving him my number? I looked him
up. He made movies. So I thought, you know, maybe it'll work, maybe
it won't.</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">”</span></span></span></span></div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">As
they became friends, Holmes opened-up about being homeless, her drug
habit, her destructive relationship with another addict, Ilya (played
by Caleb Landry Jones in the film), and her troubled upbringing.
Safdie encouraged Holmes to write about her experiences. Her candid
recollections – soon to be published as a memoir, </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mad
Love in New York City</span></span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
- convinced him to give up the project he was working on and bring
her world to the screen. </span></span></span></span>
</div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Heaven
Knows What</span></span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
is raw and unvarnished, and so is Holmes. She's a survivor not just
of drugs and rough sleeping, but of a childhood that could have
destroyed her. Instead, she recently became a client of the powerful
ICM Partners talent agency, and has just been cast alongside Shia
LaBeouf in Andrea Arnold's first American outing, </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">American
Honey</span></span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
Not bad for someone who describes her home life growing up as
“erratic and chaotic and unstable, and really, really horrible”.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">As
a baby, Holmes was taken away from her mother, who had a “drug
problem”, and grew up, largely unwanted, with an aunt, uncle and
cousins. Aged nine, she was returned to her mother, who offered her
unlimited freedom. “She</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">
never gave me any rules,” Holmes recalls. “I had no consequences.
I could do anything I wanted so I never had any, like, boundaries for
myself. So any impulses I had, I just did them</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.”</span></span></span></span></div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
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</span>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At first, Holmes thought
this was “awesome”. “When I was 13, my mother would buy me and
my friends booze. Smoke weed with us. It was like, 'Oh, I'm so
cool.'” As she got older, though, Holmes realised that “she'd never
wanted to be a mother. She just saw me like a sister or a friend. She
became a really bad alcoholic, and totally lost her mind. She's
passed away now, but I didn't talk to her for like the last year,
maybe, that she was alive.”</span></span></div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Holmes's
tone is matter of fact. If she has any self pity, it isn't evident.
These are the details of her life she is telling me, nothing more.
Partly as a result of genetics, partly of upbringing, Holmes says she
is </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">“definitely
predisposed to it all” when it comes to drugs. And she hasn't only
used them. When she was 17, she and her boyfriend Ilya also sold
them, to make rent on an apartment in Jersey City. This came to an
end, however, when “Ilya decided to get some crack and smoked all
our money. That was it for our drug business. And then our apartment
burnt down.” Ilya was caught in the fire: “His hands got burned.
He had skin grafts. All his hair burned off,” says Holmes.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: transparent;">She
had already tried heroin by this point, but wasn't using it every
day. Now forced on to the street, she found herself around it
“literally 24/7”.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background: transparent;">“<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Everyone
was on it, and just seeing it everywhere I couldn't help but do it
and fall into it. But I knew exactly what I was getting into. There
is a beauty to it, there is a romance to that lifestyle, and I wanted
it. I knew it would bring me down eventually, but I couldn't resist
it.”</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There
was beauty to her relationship with Ilya too, she insists, although
the film focuses on the end, when he has become another destructive
habit that Holmes (or Harley, as her character is called) cannot
kick. She slashes her wrist following an argument with him, and winds
up in a psychiatric unit in New York's Bellevue hospital. This
happened, but the back story about Ilya “flipping” because Holmes
“</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">had
kissed somebody else when we were together and he got really upset
over it because of certain other things that happened, like in the
past”, is missing. “He didn't want anything to do with me and I
was just so dedicated to him,” she says. “I was willing to give
my life to prove to him that I loved him.”</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;"><br />Described
by Jones as “intense and dark”, Ilya often visited the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">Heaven
Knows What </span></span></span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">set,
though his erratic behaviour didn't always make him welcome.</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">
In April this year [2015], several months after my meeting with Holmes, he
was found dead from an overdose in Central Park. He had tried to get
clean, and failed. Holmes, on the other hand, entered rehab following
the shoot and got drug-free. She admits that she'd felt trapped by
the lifestyle, but never believed it was impossible to escape. “I
just had no idea how it was going to happen, or even if it would.”</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: transparent;">When
she was using drugs, life was a big adventure. “Everything that
happens, it's like a new thing every day,” she says. Or that's how
it seemed. Watching the film made her realise with horror that
despite “fun things happening all the time”, she was in fact
stuck.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background: transparent;">“<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
I learned a lot of good from [that life] too, like to always be
grateful for what you have, no matter how little it is. That
apartment in Jersey City, before it burned down it turned to shit. It
would flood up to the knee. There were rats. And I was saying, 'Fuck!
I would rather sleep on the street.” But then when I was on the
street for a while, I was like, 'What was I thinking?'”</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
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</span>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A version of this article appeared in The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/02/arielle-holmes-homeless-drug-addict-heaven-knows-what">https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/02/arielle-holmes-homeless-drug-addict-heaven-knows-what</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
©Stephen Applebaum, 2017</span>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-73017221990524106512017-08-06T13:15:00.000+01:002017-08-06T13:20:06.111+01:00Some Reviews At Amazon For My E-Book, The Wicker Man: Conversations <span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In my e-book, <i>The Wicker Man: Conversations with Robin Hardy, Anthony Shaffer & Edward Woodward</i>, the creators and star of <i>The Wicker Man </i>talk candidly about the ideas
behind the 1973 film, its production, and how it survived attempts to
bury it, to go on to become one of the greatest cult British films of all time.
The book includes an appreciation by Eli Roth.</span></span></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="color: red;">Buy it here</span></b>: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wicker-Man-Conversations-Anthony-Woodward-ebook/dp/B008COOH2S</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Below are some reviewss posted by readers at Amazon. </span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QOL9MZTRrOg/WYcBlBckqXI/AAAAAAAAAwU/C1qOsMO7M-clR5omuDidFk_C5P0YtcqVwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20170806_123339.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="540" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QOL9MZTRrOg/WYcBlBckqXI/AAAAAAAAAwU/C1qOsMO7M-clR5omuDidFk_C5P0YtcqVwCEwYBhgL/s640/IMG_20170806_123339.jpg" width="424" /></a></div>
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sErWgQN7kAU/WYcBrieNCGI/AAAAAAAAAwc/TATMTkH_1v0Cdu1hcodrwC9vEdooy1dqwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_uel98y.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="322" data-original-width="540" height="237" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sErWgQN7kAU/WYcBrieNCGI/AAAAAAAAAwc/TATMTkH_1v0Cdu1hcodrwC9vEdooy1dqwCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_uel98y.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-56655526576359870642017-08-03T23:03:00.000+01:002017-08-03T23:19:38.164+01:00Looking Back At The Return of Mein Kampf In Germany<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://museen.nuernberg.de/fileadmin/mdsn/images/content/Dokuzentrum/Kalender/Veranstaltungen/Vortraege/2016/buchvorstellung-mein-kampf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="344" data-original-width="474" height="290" src="https://museen.nuernberg.de/fileadmin/mdsn/images/content/Dokuzentrum/Kalender/Veranstaltungen/Vortraege/2016/buchvorstellung-mein-kampf.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<b><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Last year a heavily annotated academic edition of Hitler's antisemitic tome, <i>Mein Kampf</i>, was published amidst controversy in Germany. The book became an unexpected bestseller, mainly among academics and history buffs, and won an academic prize. </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Below is a longer version of an article that I wrote in advance of its publication, examining the contrasting opinions about the book's re-emergence in Germany, 70 years after the death of its author.</span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Many wish that Adolf
Hitler's hate-filled manifesto, Mein Kampf, would simply disappear.
However, with the book about to enter the public domain in Germany in
2016, the country is again having to confront one of the most charged
remnants of its Nazi past.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></div>
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</span></span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="docs-internal-guid-e9f367ec-aa04-3534-da1d-fec7eeb88abf1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="docs-internal-guid-e9f367ec-aa04-3534-da1d-fec7eeb88abf2"></a>
Since 1945, the state of Bavaria, which took over Hitler's estate
after the US occupation, has been able to prevent publication of the
tome as the copyright holder. But that control will cease when the
copyright expires, 70 years after the author's death, on December
31st. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="docs-internal-guid-e9f367ec-aa04-3534-da1d-fec7eeb88abf3"></a>
The idea of anyone being able to publish their own German-language
edition of Hitler's brutal text actually in Germany has, inevitably,
provoked heated debate over how the situation should be handled, and
whether it is appropriate, safe or moral for the dictator's
self-mythologising and virulently anti-Semitic screed to go on sale
in the cradle of the Third Reich. Dr. Charlotte Knobloch, President
of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, is in no doubt
about what the book represents, or what should happen to it. </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“Mein Kampf is the
most evil anti-Semitic pamphlet ever published, and its repercussions
were catastrophic,” she tells me by email. “It was the handbook
for THE crime of the Nazis: the cold-blooded extermination of
European Jews. This book needs to be locked away permanently.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Knobloch acknowledges
that the book's availability on the internet – including to
Germans, who can download it from servers abroad; while anyone
claiming academic research interest can buy a copy legally from an
antiquarian bookshop – means that total suppression is not an
option. Even so, she believes that making it widely available in
print would be a step too far. </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“It should not be
published in Germany, the country on whose behalf this unprecedented
crime was committed. Mein Kampf was and is Pandora's Box – once
opened it's impossible to re-close it, and the the evil escaping it
will be impossible to trap again.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Concerned about the
potential impact of raw copies flooding the market after the December
deadline, the Bavarian government gave 500,000 euros to Munich's
highly respected Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ), in 2012,
to help fund a critical edition that will attempt, Dr. Christian
Hartmann, the historian leading the project, has said, to “defuse”
Mein Kampf. </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The good intentions of
the state were not enough to satisfy everyone, and Bavaria's premier,
Horst Seehofer, found himself under pressure to rethink its
participation. Following a trip to Israel with Knobloch, he announced
that he was withdrawing funding. More outcry followed, this time from
supporters of the work. Seehofer responded by withholding the
government's seal of approval, but left its money to be funneled it
into other IfZ research projects and replaced with funds from the
institute's regular budget. IfZ will now publish the book
independently. </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Asked why the
government had changed its position, Hartmann says by email: “I
think the state actors should answer this question by themselves. In
fact, they didn't inform us on their motives when they changed their
course. The state government later justified the withdrawal by
stating that they didn't want to serve as 'political publisher' of a
new edition of Mein Kampf." Knobloch refers me to a
December 11, 2013, story from the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung, in which Seehofer pointed out the difficulty of putting the
government's seal on Mein Kampf after calling for a ban on Germany's
far-right NPD party. </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Neil Gregor, a
professor at the University of Southampton and the author of How to
Read Hitler, as well as other books on the Nazi era, identifies two
main fears fueling the debate about re-publishing Mein Kampf: “The
first is the obvious fear that the book will become an inspiration
for the far Right once again. The second is that republication
will send the wrong symbolic message about contemporary Germany’s
relationship to the Nazi past: that it may give the impression that
the German state sees this as distant history, part of Germany’s
deep past, and no longer an issue in any meaningful contemporary
way.”</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Since neo-Nazis have
long had access to Mein Kampf, he believes that the first fear,
whilst not unfounded, has been “overstated”. Hartmann, likewise,
says he “wouldn't overrate the danger of Mein Kampf; the book is,
in many ways, the product of a very specific historical situation and
many references are not understood any more. Nevertheless, the brutal
anti-Semitism in Mein Kampf demands a decisive answer.” </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hartmann, who is a
member of the German-Israelite Society, says their edition will
analyse this aspect of Hitler's ideology “very, very thoroughly”.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As for what kind of
message permitting republication would convey, Gregor says “one
might argue . . . that it is a symbolic gesture, too - a gesture of
faith in the strength of German democracy, an affirmation that [Mein
Kampf] is part of a historical past to which Germany will not
return.”</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The expiration of
Bavaria's copyright will not remove all the barriers for would-be
publishers of Mein Kampf. “Out of respect for the
feelings of Holocaust survivors and their families,” says Ludwig
Unger, the press speaker for the Bavarian Ministry of Education and
Science, “the State Government will utilise the existing legal
framework to prevent the inappropriate dissemination of Mein Kampf
after the 31.12.2015.” Simply reproducing the original text will
qualify as Volksverhetzung, or “incitement of popular hatred”,
explains Knobloch. “Hence one doesn't have to fear a mass
publication in Germany.” What this means for the IfZ annotated
edition, however, “remains partially unclear”, she says. </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hartmann calls the
situation “confusing”. “But nevertheless, it can be taken for
granted that an annotated edition that critically contrasts Hitler's
propaganda and half-truths with historical facts is far apart from
being anything like Volksverhetzung." </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He believes that the
decision to impose a block during the 50s, 60s and 70s, when many
more people who lived through the Third Reich were alive, was “good
and clever”. Today, though, the prohibition “seems to be an
anachronism”, he suggests. “In a world without taboos, this
ongoing ban could cause the wrong curiosity.”</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The IfZ has already
published an annotated collection of Hitler's speeches, containing
many of the ideas promulgated in Mein Kampf, but the latter has
accrued an almost mystical power in the decades since the war. Their
edition, therefore, sets out to deconstruct and contextualise
Hitler's words, using around 3,500 annotations and a detailed
introduction. The scholars trace the sources – some of them newly
discovered - that Hitler drew on for the development of his ideology,
says Hartmann, and illustrate how the Nazi leader was the product of
his time and place. “This shows, again, that Hitler was by far not
the only person to be responsible for the crimes of National
Socialism.”</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Importantly, they
underscore how Hitler shouldn't be taken at face value by exposing
his many lies and false claims, as well as some of the many
contradictions between his words and deeds. For example, Hitler
reproaches the Weimar Republic for not doing enough for veterans of
World War One. Hartmann says they show that German welfare
legislation for the veterans was “exemplary”, in fact, while
reminding readers that between four and five thousand traumatised
veterans were murdered with gas as part of the Third Reich's
euthanasia programme.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“We comment with a
density and intensity that hasn't existed before regarding Mein
Kampf,” he says. “The comments are designed to offer something
new even to scientific specialists, but in a way that can be read and
understood by a broad public . . . What we say is that we encircle
Hitler's book like in a battle.”</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Around 12 million
copies of Mein Kampf were distributed, with all newlyweds receiving
it as a wedding gift from the Nazi state from 1936. There is some
dispute over whether many people actually read it – Hartmann
believes it was often set aside quickly, “simply because it is very
theoretical, very badly written and endlessly boring” – but
should those who did have been able to see what Hitler intended for
the Jews? Is the book a blueprint for the Holocaust? </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“Only partially,”
says Hartmann. “What is becoming evident is the fact that Hitler
was a brutal and fanatical anti-Semite. But the scientific research,
meanwhile, shows that it is still a long and sometimes meandering way
to Auschwitz.”</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<b><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span></i></b>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">©Stephen Applebaum,
2017</span></span></i></b></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-e9f367ec-aa04-3534-da1d-fec7eeb88abf" style="font-weight: normal;"></b></span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845683755871232185.post-71432029265374719762017-07-13T14:15:00.001+01:002021-03-18T12:22:41.941+00:00From The Vault: Wonder Woman Director Patty Jenkins On Her Directorial Debut, Monster<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ROAuB6ThL.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="349" height="400" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ROAuB6ThL.jpg" width="277" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Patty Jenkins' one cinema feature prior to <i>Wonder Woman</i> was <i>Monster</i>, in which Charlize Theron gave an Oscar-winning performance as real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos. I spoke to Jenkins before the film's 2004 UK release. </b></span></span>
</span><br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>You
must be proud not only of the fact that Charlize won the Oscar but
also that you stuck to your guns and championed her over bigger name
actresses who wanted to play Aileen Wuornos?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">I
definitely am. Also, it’s been such a strange journey. Ever since I
saw her performance, this never seemed out of the realm of
possibility as far as being deserved. But it did seem like the kind
of thing we would never actually get. I’m so proud of her and the
industry, who despite the money we’ve taken and the amount of time
we’ve been out, actually saw it and gave her an award like this.
I’m amazed.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">How
hungry do you think Charlize was for a role like this? At the Berlin
Film Festival in February, it appeared that this was the kind of
opportunity she had been waiting for a long time.</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">I
think that’s true, although I don’t think you would have known
that. She didn’t actually initiate this at all; I went after her.
She’s a tough girl, and she just looked at me and said, ‘Why me?
What are you after?’ So I think she was looking for something to
shake it up but never quite knew how to go about doing that, because
they don’t let her try for those roles.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Do
you think her blonde bombshell looks have pigeonholed her in some
people’s minds?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">I
have such a new perspective on this whole phenomenon now, because
there’s been so much talk about her uglying herself up. But we can
say the same thing about Russell Crowe, who got a lot of attention
for playing someone who was mildly retarded [in A Beautiful Mind], or
Robert De Niro doing Raging Bull. The more common roles that don’t
display talent are those of attractive leading people, and that’s
always going to be what’s the most popular thing in Hollywood,
because people want to see heroes. But, generally, most of those
actors get attention when they play something outside of that. So
it’s not just women like Charlize who do this; men have also done
these character roles.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Did
you talk to Charlize about her violent upbringing in connection with
this role (her mother shot dead her alcoholic father when Charlize
was 15), and did you get the feeling that it helped her to empathise
with Aileen Wuornos, who also had a violent childhood?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">It
wasn’t discussed as literally having a relationship to the film,
but it was discussed as we got to know each other. I think we both
knew ahead of time what that meant, and that that was there. What
was interesting to me is that I also experienced some tough stuff as
a child. I grew up in Cambodia during the Vietnam war when I was very
young, my father was a fighter pilot, and my mother tells me that I
saw a lot more than I remember. I’m always trying to assure my
mother of this, but I actually am glad that I came into this world
knowing that there is this sliding scale of comfort and suffering
going on.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Any
number of things can teach you that, but it gives you an
understanding and empathy for people’s circumstances. I’m sure
Charlize also has that, and I think that is what I sensed from a
distance. She grew up in South Africa and it was very tough. In
addition to the things that happened in her own personal life, that
absolutely shaped her ability to empathise with the situations that
people live their lives in, in a way that a lot of American actresses
who have never lived outside the U.S. can‘t.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">You’ve
mentioned before that you watched people experiencing very hard times
as you were growing up. Could you tell me a little bit more about the
context of your upbringing?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">I
lived all over the world when I was very young, and then continued to
go south every summer. I ended up in Kansas for a very long time. I
never was quite an outsider, but I think because I travelled so much,
I always ended up with the outsiders in Junior and High school. A lot
of them were people who were from other places, or people who had
horrible abuse going on in their life.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Anyway,
I found myself in the heart of the mid-West when the hardcore scene
was appearing. Some of the kids, like my Polish best friend, had
roots outside America, and that was the difference between them and
everyone else. But some of the other kids were being beaten to death.
I watched kids that I became close with, from the time I was 13 years
old, go down a really, really dark path, including one of them
getting a gun and killing everybody in a family. There was a lot of
alcoholism. A lot of heroin addicts. It was just a really eye-opening
experience to know those kids, who were very young and beautiful, and
watch what happened to their lives. No matter how hard they tried to
fight against it, they couldn’t escape it.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">That,
of course, is what we see Aileen trying to do in Monster when she
attempts to gain legitimate employment. Is that something you brought
to the film or was that in her letters?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Both.
She didn’t talk about that so much in her letters but it’s
documented in Florida. She, in her own defence, brought it up several
times when they tried to make out that she just wanted kill people
for the money. It was on record in Florida that she had tried
everything from work in a factory to the military -- she was deaf in
one ear from having being beaten so badly as a child, though, so they
wouldn’t take her. It was just pathetic. There were also the things
she really thought she was going to be able to pull off, like the
pressure-cleaning thing, which got greatly reduced in the film. What
was always such a heart-breaking angle into her, for me, was that she
had a pressure-cleaning unit for cleaning carpets and it had been
stolen from her by a boyfriend. So her great dream was to do these
things to get enough money to buy a pressure-cleaning unit again so
that she could be self employed. The idea that that was her romantic
idea of being a straight citizen was always heartbreaking to me.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">To
go back to what you said about your friends for a moment, the way you
described their tragedies seems to be reflected in the way you and
Charlize clearly empathised with Aileen.</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">It’s
funny because all those pieces only come together in retrospect,
because there has been so much talk of how this film came together,
you know? Charlize and I were driving around, and she told me a story
about seeing a guy in a car, like, burning to death, and someone
pulled out a gun and shot him in the head, when she was five years
old. That life is very educational, and no matter how much we move
on, it still informs us. So the more I think about it, the more I
think, ’Of course we came together.’ Whatever it was that’s
subliminal and we were seeing in each other, there is a huge
difference between us and other people.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">That
is why every single one of my friends is European, strangely. Like my
best friend is Polish -- she speaks perfect English and she grew up
here -- and my other best friend is French -- even though she speaks
perfect English she moved here from France when she was little. I
think that there’s a huge difference in people who have been so
sheltered that they don’t know there are other ways of life. Deep
down inside, there’s a context that’s completely different.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Someone
I was talking to recently said he never trusts anybody who hasn’t
experienced or witnessed hardship in their life.</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">I
can trust them, but I don’t expect the same things from them. I
don’t believe in the school of hard knocks but, you know, I’m so
glad that was the context I came from. I feel very, very sad for
people who don’t know that kind of darkness is out there and go
through it for the first time when they are an adult. I’d much
rather have it the way that Charlize and I do, where you’re able to
play in this world and yet know exactly how things are and what can
happen to you. I’d rather children knew that somehow.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">I
was recently talking to a Hollywood actor who said he was shocked
when he came to England and saw the news from Iraq, because the
things he saw were much more graphic and uncensored than in America.</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">That
pisses me off. But not only does it disgust me that we don’t keep
tabs on what we’re involved in, anyway. I was in France and the
news was on, and although I don’t speak French I knew everything
that was going on in the world every day, because it’s so present
around you. That really does bother me here [in America]. I have been
in vehement arguments with people who argue how we have to hide porno
shops from children because it’s so offensive. I don’t believe in
censoring the world for children in this, like, overly American,
saccharine sort of way, because you’re not doing them any favours.
I deal with kids who grew up this way all the time and they’re
destroyed. And a lot of those kids go on to make the darkest, most
abusive movies, because they’ve just discovered it and they feel a
need to inflict it upon everybody else. The whole thing is very
depressing.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">I’d
like to know when Mel Gibson discovered the darkness.</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">[Laughs]
Well that’s actually been another thing. I’ve had an encounter
with a couple of really serious, dark filmmakers who said, ’You and
Charlize just lightened it up so much [in Monster].’ Finally it got
around to the point where I said, ’Look, have you guys ever
experienced any tragedy in your life?’ and none of them had.
They’re super-abusive, dark filmmakers, and Charlize and I,
meanwhile, tried to find a way to bring humanity to the dark moments.
I remember thinking to myself, ’You guys don’t know what it’s
really like, but it’s just normal life.’”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">You
very clearly show the first murder in Monster as a reaction to rape.
However, if you had followed her life to its end, would you have been
so unequivocal, given that she retracts her self-defence story at one
point in Nick Broomfield’s documentary, Aileen: Life and Death of a
Serial Killer?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Well,
I do believe that’s exactly how that murder went, as does Nick. In
my opinion it was important to see that murder in order to understand
the context of the rest of the murders. But there was so much abuse
in her life, you could have pretty much told the end of her life and
had it more informed by any number of abusive and horrible things
that happened to her when she was younger. But I think when someone
kills seven people it is important to understand that there was a
trigger.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">John
Tanner, the Florida attorney who prosecuted Aileen, went on ABC’s
20/20 recently and said Monster was a lie.</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">I
think it’s so funny those guys would say that, because those guys
are some of the least impressive prosecution and defence I have ever
seen. I mean it’s funny because there is a lot of talk in Florida
about the fact I never spoke with them. Well, first of all,
everything that they were involved in is on public record and there’s
nothing to talk to them about. I didn’t do anything about the
trial. But on top of it, the trial was such a circus and so badly
run, I have zero respect for those guys. They failed to bring out at
her first trial that he [Richard Mallory] was a convicted rapist who
had served time for attempted murder. That’s a pretty pertinent
piece of information to leave out of a trial, you know? Also, he had
a very old, beat-up car, so she was not going to kill a guy with no
money and a bad car just out of nowhere. There had to be some
trigger.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">You’ve
talked before about the responsibility you felt towards the victim’s
relatives so it must hurt that some of them have also attacked the
film?</b></div>
<div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“The
thing that I think they are most upset about is the fact I never
spoke to them. You know, I had to make a decision in my own heart
about what was the right thing to do. In this case I had done a lot
of work to protect them by trying to hide who the victims were, in
which order they were, and to never show, other than in the first
murder, that any of them deserved it. It was anywhere from a john who
was kind of sleazy to a complete innocent, and that’s the truth.
The thing is I don’t think it’s appropriate to go speak to their
families and then not represent them in any way. Do I believe that
it’s worthwhile and important to make stories about people like
Aileen even though there are victims? I do, and we do it all the
time. Although my father was in Vietnam, that doesn’t mean I think
you shouldn’t tell stories about Vietnam, just because there are
real people involved. I sort of knew that it would be very hard for
them, and it was always the thing that I felt badly about. But in the
depths of my soul I know I did the best work I could to not hurt
them.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">One
of the things they seem to find hard to accept is that these guys
were johns.</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">See,
that’s what I mean. That’s why I never spoke to them, because I
know that there was that. And the truth is all but one of them was
found with rubbers on and their clothing off. I understand that it’s
very easy to have that kind of denial. But I don’t think they even
need to have that kind of denial. It’s not a sin that deserves
murder to see a prostitute. But it’s a hard way to lose your
husband. Anyway, that’s why I decided to just keep a distance from
all of that. It would also have only hurt them more if I had made
them feel that they were going to be represented in the film, when I
was telling Aileen‘s story.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Did
you speak to anyone who knew Aileen while researching the film, other
than her best friend, Dawn Botkins?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“The
entire community that lived around Aileen and all of her friends,
with the exception of her girlfriend [Tyria Moore; Selby Wall in the
film], were involved in the film. So all the bikers, the people who
owned The Last Resort, all of the neighbours. . . Yeah, we were sort
of living in that community of people that knew her at the time the
film takes place.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">And
how did they react to seeing Charlize as Aileen? I found it quite
creepy; she was practically channelling Aileen.</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">It
was creepy for me when she started to do it, too, because I had that
feeling several times. I knew that she was hard working and she had
done a lot of research, but nonetheless I was looking at her and
really thinking, ’How does she know this much? I don’t quite
understand.’ I had watched Aileen, obviously, very closely, and
what I saw had no remnants of Charlize when she was on set.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“The
best example is the biker bar, The Last Resort, where we shot. We had
gone there many times and of course they were big sceptics. Then we
became friends with them and they just started giving Charlize a hard
time. You know, ’Okay, you’re going to have to be this or that.’
The day she walked on the set, their faces just went white. I was so
busy, I didn’t get a chance to talk to them for a long time. But
many of them, including Al [Bulling] who runs the place and
Cannonball, who was one of her close friends, just said in very
whispered tones, ‘I thought that was Aileen when she came in the
room.’ Charlize is almost a foot taller than Aileen, so it’s
really stunning. They all just stood there against the wall, stunned,
watching her act.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">How
did you feel, personally, being in those environments and knowing
that these were places where she’d hung out?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">It
was really odd. On this movie there was such a constant intersection
between life and art, and between consequence and filmmaking. It was
always so on my mind that I not only had to tell Aileen’s story
correctly, but also that there were victims and these were real
peoples’ lives that had been lost. It was unbelievable. Talk about
a levelling factor. Everybody really gave everything they had to try
to do this with kindness and love.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">If
I understood you right in Berlin, you seemed to be saying that you
initially started out wanting to do a straight serial killer film. Is
that correct?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">I
was never really going to do that. I was going to try and do a
character film, through the funding for a serial killer film. I was
going to try to make this film, but I just realised pretty early on
how naïve I was being about it. If you have people onboard who
absolutely don’t care what you write then that’s actually a
benefit, because I could write a character film and no one would
care, as long as I came up with the material. But when it comes to
making it, the more I realised they’re never going to give me the
money for another can of film for the important part that I need.
They’re going to do the most commercial thing, and then they’re
going to pull the plug. So I had to walk away from it. But
absolutely, I think in this industry you’re constantly looking for
an intersection of art and commerce. I’m not an idealistic person
who thinks that they should make $50 million movies that can never
make their money back. It’s like you’ve got to know you can make
a profit back for people to feel confident working with that kind of
money. So I always kind of benefited from the fact that it was about
a lesbian serial killer, just in the fact that I could say to my
financiers that even if it didn’t work, then they could sell it on
this, so let’s keep on.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Was
there anything that surprised you or that was unexpected when you got
access to Aileen’s letters?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Not
really, but only because I knew so much already -- I had been talking
to Dawn for months at that point and she had hinted at so many things
in the letters. Well, okay, the one thing that was stunning was how
intelligent she was, and it really came through clearly as you
watched the letters progress. You know, right from when she got in
prison and she hadn’t been writing an awful lot to being a
beautiful writer, and then a really eloquent writer. She was writing
these really gorgeous three-page letters about memories, and you
could just watch this person’s mind adapt to this new thing. It was
really, really interesting.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">There
is quite a poetic quality to some of the voice over in the film.</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Yeah,
that came from her. Somebody I did an interview with, and I really
liked this, said the weirdest thing about her is she’s like a real
stand-up guy, someone that doesn’t stab their friend in the back
and will always be straight. But at the same time, she is willing to
kill people. She would never deny her love for Tyria Moore, and
continued to feel that way until the day she died. In the letters,
right before she was executed, wanting Tyria to be at her funeral,
wanting to send messages to Tyria. It’s amazing. She had all this
horrible bitterness and anger, but never would it interfere with her
trying to have love and a life.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">There
is an irony in the voice over at the beginning of the film where she
says she wants to be a movie star, because, in a way, she has
accomplished that by proxy. The other irony is that Charlize has
achieved everything she wanted.</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">They
have very similar, in the deepest, deepest level, structural
reactions, which is interesting. Charlize and Aileen are people who
are incredibly strong, incredibly easy to incite if you try to hurt
anyone in their inner circle, but really vulnerable and romantic.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">What
were you doing when Aileen was executed on October 9, 2002?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">It
was probably the most surreal day of my life. It was Godawful.
Charlize and I went through it together. She had joined the film
three weeks or so before, and we didn’t think that Aileen would be
executed, because Jeb Bush was doing it for the publicity. We had
kept the movie really quiet; I had been working on it for six months,
and communicating with Aileen. Then, as this came along, I was
writing her letters and she was writing me letters, and I was on the
phone with Dawn trying to get the clothing she wanted to be executed
in. It all got very, very unbelievable, you know? I was writing this
person a last letter and saying ’God’s speed. This is no longer
about my film. I promise you I will do my best with everything.’</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">The
day she was executed they announced our film on the front page of the
trades, and in a very cold way that news spread really quickly. There
was not a whole lot of sympathy for Aileen at that point, so people
were saying things like, ’Not two seconds cold in the grave and
that ugly bitch is getting played by Charlize Theron.’ It was
incredibly hurtful. And also incredibly bizarre. Until then it had
been very private, I’m a completely unknown director, and
simultaneously my phone goes crazy with people saying, ’Oh my God,
Patty. Congratulations. You have Charlize Theron?’ It was very,
very weird. I just checked out and tried to walk through it. The fact
that she was the one who wanted to be executed was the thing that
made that my behaviour. I knew that so I just had to deal with it.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">How
did it make the trades at that point?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Who
knows? But somebody leaked it. I was on the phone begging them not to
print it, and they said, ’We are printing it.’ So we knew it was
coming out.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">How
did Dawn respond to the film? She attended the US premiere, didn‘t
she?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Yeah.
We had become so close that I actually had to sort of calm her down,
because she was, like, ’I really want to like it.’ I went: ’Dawn,
listen, it’s OK if you’re uncomfortable about things; it’s very
difficult to watch a film about someone you’re close with when it’s
not them on the screen.’ So she was loving and supportive on the
night, but also confused and trying to process how she was feeling.
She also had a relationship with Aileen where they didn’t talk
about the murders very much, so that’s not her area of expertise.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">She
has since been unbelievably supportive. She wrote me a letter very
shortly after from herself and Aileen, saying, ‘Thank you for what
you have done.’ It meant a lot.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span>“Dawn‘s
been the one banging this drum by herself for a long time, saying,
‘Yes, she killed seven people. But she had this horrible life.’
All of a sudden there are a lot of people seeing this film and
expressing that, and I think that she is really pleased about that.
So she has been amazing. She called the night of Oscars and told
Charlize she was there in spirit. </span></span>
</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">"The
little thing no one knows, but which is a great piece of information,
is that one of the things I could never get in the script was the
fact that Aileen never had a birthday her whole life. She was born on
a leap year. So there was this issue where she had never had a
birthday cake, she never had anything. Well, this year they moved the
Oscars and they were on her birthday. That was her birthday. So just
over a year after she was executed, they played Aileen, in a story,
at the Oscars, and she won. It’s incredibly bizarre. And the
opening speech of the night was Tim Robbins saying something like,
‘If you’re somebody who has been damaged or abused, please seek
help. It’s sometimes the strongest thing you can do to stop the
cycle of violence.’ It was really powerful for me that that was in
the tone of the message that was being sent that night.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Was
that your best memory of the night?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">It’s
weird because it becomes so not about the film by that point. I knew
that but it’s all kinds of different things. Everybody is so tense
and exhausted. Four out of five people lose, so it’s really funny
if you can imagine all these people competing with each other and
then celebrating all night; even the winners and the losers are like
sitting side-by-side, slumped in a chair.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">My
best memory is the moment Charlize won. It was so odd that we had
suddenly become the favourite, because three months earlier everybody
said that we were unreleasable. But no matter what people put in
their book a long time ago, I really believed that enough people had
seen it to nominate her, but not enough people had seen it to vote.
So I just couldn’t believe it had happened when they announced her
name. I was wearing a diamond necklace that was loaned to me and I
exploded my arms around my producer, the first person who ever took a
chance on me and made this happen, and it went flying off my neck. It
was a really expensive necklace. It was really exciting.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">What
has this done for you?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">A
ton of stuff. There are all kinds of people who want to work with me
and are giving me scripts and whatever. But I think the most powerful
thing is that a lot of my own idols, just because of the tone of the
films that I’m working in, a lot of my own idols have reached out
to me in the most unbelievably touching way. Dustin Hoffman came and
raised a toast to us and the kind of work we‘re doing. I talked to
Warren Beatty for like an hour last night, and he said that people
have been wanting to work in this genre a long time. I had actually
run into him several times and said, ’Have you seen it Warren? Have
you seen it Warren? Have you seen it Warren?’ and he had never seen
it. Then he was, like, ’My God, I was just sort of blowing it off.
. .’ and he loved it. That’s what means the most to me. The most
touching thing was the reaction of those people.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Have
you anything in mind for your next project?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Yeah,
I have two things that I am writing and they’re very different
tones, so I am trying to figure out what one I’m going to do first.
But I’m also reading a ton of scripts.”</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Are
these pieces you have in mind also character pieces?</b></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
</span><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Yeah,
that’s all I think I will do. One of the things I have read is a
comedy but, again, I grew up in that era when Warren was working with
Hal Ashby, and although there was a lot of great genre work, it was
always character driven. So it could be a great comedy or slapstick
or whatever, but it’s still character driven. So that’s sort of
my interest. And that’s why the response of those actors to the
film affected me so emotionally. I just thought I was going to cry
after talking to Warren Beatty. He blew my mind.”</span></div><div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
<br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b> ©Stephen Applebaum, 2017</b></i></span></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Read more star interviews and features at http://stephenapplebaum.blogspot.com/</div>Culture webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458341477804795985noreply@blogger.com1